More Ramen this time at Shoryu Ramen

Like everyone else in London, I’m enjoying the latest trend of Ramen noodle soup and even more with all the new ramen shops opening up left right and centre now.

What We Ate Last Night : Sopa de Guineo

Colombian cuisine is not very good in general. It has its low points, but it also has its high points, which are its soups. Sopa de Guineo is one of my favourite Colombian soups. I have only ever had it in Colombia, mainly because we’ve never seen Guineos in London before. Even with the amount of Colombians that live here in London, they were just never to be had.

Well until last week, when Lina was feeling a tad homesick, and she was in need of something Colombian, apart from her Arepas.

So whilst shopping in Pueblito Paisa in Seven Sisters she finds a few bunches of Guineos. I’m still amazed she only brought 3 and not all of them.

Sopa de Guineo brings back memories of cool Sunday afternoons up in the mountains on Lina’s uncles farm outside of Medellin. The crispness of the air, with the heat of the sun, somehow makes this soup a whole lot better.

You will need

3 Guineo’s

2 small potatoes, diced

1 onion, finely diced

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1 litre of chicken stock

1 tsp of cumin powder

1 bunch of coriander, chopped

Salt n pepper

1. Sweat onion and garlic.
2. Add potato and add the cumin powder. Stir
3. Peel and cut up the gunieo. Add to the pan. Do this at the alst minute, as they go brown very quickly.
4. Add the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 20 – 30 minutes.
5. Once the guineo and potatoes are cooked. Remove a few and keep to add back later.
6. Blitz the soup to how you like it. You can even pass it through a sieve if you like. Add the reserved pieces of guineo and potato.
7. Season with salt and pepper.
8. Add most of the coriander and serve. Sprinkle over some more coriander and enjoy a taste of Colombia.

I did over blitz the soup, so it was crema de guineo, which since it was a cool evening it turned out pretty good. Again with most things in life, leave it for a day and it just gets better. 

Ajiaco Santafereño

Ajiaco Santafereño to give its full name is the national dish of Colombia, unless of course you are from Medellin, where it would be Bandeja Paisa. No question. Ajiaco is an odd soup. Then again most soups in Colombia are pretty bizarre, but they all taste pretty damn good. It really falls into being a light stew rather than a soup, as the broth and contents are pretty light, but in Colombia they call it a soup, and it is theirs to call what they wish.

In Medellin I have only ever had this at family gatherings, so I always liken it to a celebration food rather than an everyday meal, whereas bandeja paisa or mondongo are easily available from restaurants all over and outside of Medellin. Ajiaco is a special treat worthy of a special occasion.

Lina opted to make this for our Xmas eve dinner we were having with some homesick friends. Some Colombian, some not. It is actually a very easy dish to make for large groups, as it is pretty quick and easy to prepare and execute. 

There are however two key ingredients you must use to get a pretty authentic Ajiaco. They are guascas and papa criolla. Both are now readily available in any good Colombian or Latin American retailer. I.e. any shop near to Seven Sisters and that pink monstrosity in Elephant and Castle. Or as we recently found out some shops on Blackstock Road near to Finsbury Park as well.

The papa criolla are needed as when they cook they dissolve and give the soup its traditional yellow colour. Guasca is needed for the taste.

You can do most of this well in advance and a day of mixing those flavours together will do it no harm at all.

Ingredients for 4 (kind of)

1 Chicken breast

4 chicken thighs

Several pounds of as many different types of potatoes as you can get

2 ears of corn, cut in half

2 handfuls of guascas

Chicken stock or water

To serve with

Capers

Double cream or crème fraîche

Cooked rice

A banana each

Slices of avocado if you are so inclined. I am not.

Method

1. Get a frying pan pretty hot and add some oil. Add the chicken thighs and crisp up the skin. Pop in the oven to finish cooking. This is better this way, as most people put the thighs in the soup to cook and the skin goes soggy. Not nice. Keep warm.
2. Bring the water or stock up to a simmer. Add the chicken breast and a handful of the guascas. Simmer till the breast is cooked.
3. Remove chicken breast. Set aside. Once cooled, shred.
4. Add the potatoes and corn to the pot. Bring back to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes, or until the corn and potatoes are cooked.
5. Remove some of the potatoes and mash with a fork. Add back to the pot to thicken. Add the rest of the guascas.
6. Add the shredded chicken breast back to the pot to warm through. Season.
7. Place one chicken thigh, ½ an ear of corn, and several good ladles of the soup into bowls.

Serve the rice, banana, capers and cream separately, you can then add or not add as you wish to your soup. I like to add a bit at a time so I have the soup with bits of cream and capers but not all the time. When you order Ajiaco in a restaurant in Colombia, the cream and capers are added on top just before service.

Don’t ask me why the banana with a soup. I don’t know. But it does work. I prefer to eat mine separately, but some people mix it in with the soup.

Slices of avocado are generally eaten with most Colombian meals, not only soups. I am not keen on this green mushy mess, but if you want to then this is up to you.

Enjoy this wonderful warming and hearty soup in these dark cold days. 

Crushed Tuscan Bean Soup

With this cold weather settling in for the long term. I really have to start forgetting about those light summer dishes and concentrate on hearty soups and stews to warm the bones and soul in the coming months.

I am a lover of pulses in a major way. T’was probably the reason I could of eaten Colombian frijoles on a daily basis, and very nearly did.

I cannot remember where I got this recipe form, maybe from some Italian cookbook or a restaurant somewhere. Who knows. I’ve never written this one down, so that is why I think maybe someone told it to me.

Anyhows this is my ideal soup, it’s thick and best served warm. Not hot, but warm. Too much heat will kill of the wonderful taste of the beans, and warm it is comforting.

The recipe is quite simple. 

Dried Cannellini beans (soaked for at least 10 hours). No exact measurements but you know how much you normally eat

A small bunch of sage

2 garlic cloves

Large handful of parsley leaves

Salt n pepper

Virgin olive oil

Extra virgin olive oil

1. Cook the beans with the sage until soft. Skim the scum off the surface as it simmers away
2. Drain the beans, but save the cooking liquor
3. Crush the garlic into a purée with salt. Finely chop the parsley
4. Heat a pan and add a generous amount of olive oil. Add the garlic. When you can smell it and it has changed colour a little. Add the parsley and stir together
5. Add the beans and mix well
6. After a few minutes add some of the cooking liquor. Remember this is a thick soup not a thin one. So err on the side of caution. Cook for a few minutes
7. Once the beans start to break up a bit and release their milky goodness, you can begin to crush them with a ladle or in my case a potato masher. Not to hard as you don’t want a purée
8. Turn off the heat and season generously with salt and pepper. Pour in some of the virgin olive oil
9. Ladle into bowls and pour on some of the extra virgin olive oil to give the soup some pepperyness
10.  Serve with some toasted sourdough bread. Enjoy

Tibetan Thukpa

Thukpa is Tibetan noodle soup. Very similar to other noodle soups, that you may find in other parts of Asia. But this is from Tibet, and when you are up in the mountains over 3000 metres, this becomes the best noodle soup ever.

What makes a truly great noodle soup is the stock base. Nearly all the thukpas I have eaten have had an amazing base to them. Not quite up to the standard of Hanoi’s infamous Pho. But it comes a pretty damn good second place.

Sometimes you get fresh noodles, other times it is those pre made egg noodles. Sometimes, and god forbid you even get maggi noodles. Although saying that, eating a hot bowl of maggi noodles at over 4000 metres when your feet and body are soooo cold. All thoughts of how crap they are go out the window.

You always get a small selection of vegetables inside your thukpa, this depends on where you are and on what season, but normally it is either bok choi or cabbage.

The meat is very dependant on where you are also. Chicken or beef are the norm, although in Nepal they use buffalo a lot. We found one place in Arunachal Pradesh, just down form the Se La Pass on the way towards Tawang that was selling Yak Thukpa. A new one for me.

A very flavorsome meat, but not the best in the world. Very chewy, but that maybe just the bad cut we were given. Who knows. But the yak momos were not that good either. A nice animal to look at, but not so good to eat.

I remember almost living on Thukpa on my first trip through northern India and Nepal. It is such a filling and warming meal that gives you some stamina to brave those dark, cold winters nights up in the mountains. Plus for me it is a soup full of good memories, some of the best times I had travelling have been in Ladakh and Nepal.

So on this short trip through the Himalayas I ate as much thukpa as I could. Unfortunately it was not enough, as my schedule did not allow me more than a few days in Nepal, and about the same in Arunachal Pradesh. But it was good whilst it lasted.