Khow suey

 I've grown up being told that this was a burmese dish that somehow got wildly popular in India in the 70s/80s. I'm not sure there is anyone in Burma that would recognize this dish but I love it. I recently came across another recipe called Khow soi that purports to being a coconut curry/noodle soup from Burma by way of Thailand, so the truth, as they say, is out there.

Ingredients

Soup: 

• 1 kg chicken (I used chicken thighs, bone-in or boneless, cut into smaller pieces)
• 2 chopped onions
• 2 Tbsp Ginger-Garlic paste
• 6 Tbsp Chickpea flour/ besan
• 5 bowls water
• 1/2 - 1 cup desiccated or fresh/ frozen shredded coconut

Toppings:

• 6 eggs
• Limes
• Fried onions
• Fried Garlic
• Cashewnuts
• Salli/ Laccha

Carbs:

• Egg noodles
• Rice Noodles
• Rice

Method

1. Boil Eggs to hard, cool peel. Slice and fry onions and garlic separately to brown. Drain on paper towels. Quarter limes. 
2. Heat a table spoon of oil until shimmering hot, then add the onions and fry for about 5 minutes
3. Lower the heat to medium-low, add ginger-garlic paste and fry until fragrant.
4. Throw in salt, red chilli powder and saute for maybe 10 seconds, then add in the chicken and fry until the chicken has a bit of surface.
5. Add in the besan and then fry until fragrant (the smell changes, thats what you're looking for)
6. Add in the water and then boil until the chicken is cooked
7. Add in the coconut and boil for another 5 minutes. At this point, when we've used frozen fresh coconut before, we noticed the shreds were really long and would have been hard to eat, so we pulled out the chicken and used an immersion blender to make the soup smooth.
8. Boil the noodles/cook rice etc as needed
9. Assemble bowls: put noodles/rice in the bottom of a bowl and ladle on lots and lots of soup. Add on toppings, halved boiled egg and lots of lime (this is v. important, v. v. It really needs lime)

Notes

1. This recipe scales really well. Mum's rule of thumb is that you add a Tbsp of besan for every bowl of khow suey you want and about a bowl of water. At this volume as written, since the chicken and other ingredients increase the volume by around a bowl, I only used 5 bowls of water.

Slow cooker Sichuan pork shoulder noodle soup

I saw this recipe and it looked awesome, so I just made it in the slow cooker. My recipe is adapted for my pantry and the slow cooker.
I used boston butt in mine (it was on sale), but I suspect it would work with other fattier, tougher cuts of pork as well.
It was very tasty and very spicy. If you're going to try this recipe and sichuanese food isn't your fave, I would cut wa-ay down on the chilli paste. My apartment smells like a chinese restaurant and it makes me really happy right now. Specially since its really cold and really grey and this is exactly what I would have wanted to go out for!
We cook a lot of chinese food so we already had toban jiang in the fridge, but its actually pretty commonly available at stores in the ethnic/asian section. If you have sambal olek that works really well too as a substitute, though I personally think sambal is a little spicier. We did not have black vinegar so I googled a substitute and balsamic+some other vinegar+sugar seems to do the trick. I also added a tablespoon of brown sugar instead of one of the tablespoons of white sugar. I have no idea if that helped. I first cooked it for 4 hours and the pork was very done, but not falling apart, so we let it go for another 45 minutes.
If I make this again, I would also dry roast and crush a few sichuan peppers and sprinkle them on the soup after it cooks.

Ingredients

2lbs pork shoulder-cut into 1" pieces
12 cloves garlic, chopped
3" fresh ginger piece, peeled and chopped
4 Tbsp Toban jiang
1/3 cup red vinegar+balsamic vinegar (or chinkiang)
4 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp soy sauce
3 Tbsp cornstarch
4 scallions

Method

1) Add a little oil to a pan and on high heat fry off the pork pieces. I waited till they were browned (5-6 minutes). Don't crowd the pan. I actually removed about a fourth of the pieces after they were seared and dumped them into the slow cooker and proceeded with the rest.
2) Toss in the ginger, garlic and chilli paste and toss the pork around to coat. Cook for about a minute, still at high heat.
3) Add in the soy sauce, vinegar and sugar and stir them around for 3-4 minutes until the sugar dissolves.
4) Add everything to the slow cooker along with 8 cups of water.
5) Cook on high for 4-6 hours.
6) Take out about half the liquid and boil it on the stove and add cornstarch dissolved in water until it thickens. Add it back to the rest of the soup.
6) Serve with noodles and chopped scallions.
7) If you prefer to remove some of the fat, let the soup cool either in the slow cooker or in the fridge and then skim off the fat from the top.

Bittman's Vichyssoise

We got this Vichyssoise recipe from the Times. It's super simple, and really tasty.

Ingredients

• 2 tbs butter
• 3 potatoes
• 3 leeks
• 4 cups of stock
• 1/2 cup of cream
• chives

Method

1. Peel and cube potatoes. Trim and chop leeks.
2. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large pot.
3. Add potatoes and leeks. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring, until softened.
4. Add 4 cups stock. Boil, cover, lower the heat and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.
5. Purée, then let cool.
6. Stir in 1/2 cup or more cream before serving.
7. Garnish: Chopped chives.

Svensk fisksoppa

This one is from this link.

Ingredients

• 350 grams/13 ounces baby potatoes, chopped
• 200 grams/ 7 oz salmon, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 200 grams/7 oz  meaty white fish, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 1/2 leek, sliced thinly
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped finely
• 250 ml fish stock (1 cup)
• 200 ml cream (1/2 plus 1/3 cup)
• 250 ml white wine (1 cup)
• 150 ml water (1/2 cup–adding more if necessary)
• 100 ml creme fraiche or sour cream (1/2 cup)
• 2 tbsp fresh tarragon, chopped (original recipe calls for thyme, but I never seem to have any stocked)
• 2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 gram or 2 pinches of saffron
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. In salted water, boil cubed potatoes until fork tender.  Drain and set aside.
2. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat butter on medium-high.
3. Add sliced leeks, and chopped onions and garlic.  Cook until onions are translucent–approximately 5-6 minutes.
4. Add tomato paste and stir to incorporate evenly.
5. Add fresh herbs (tarragon or thyme and basil)
6. Add all your liquids (stock, wine, cream and creme fraiche) and saffron.  Bring to a simmer.
7. Remove from heat and blend in a mixer until smooth.
8. Return the mixture to your saucepan and medium-high heat.
9. At this point, taste your base and season with salt and pepper accordingly.
10. Add fish pieces  to the soup.
11. Your fish should only take about 5 minutes to cook throughly.
12. Add potatoes, mix thoroughly.
13. Season one last time to taste.
14. Serve with fresh herbs and a healthy dollop of aioli.

Hearty gulash

This one we created from the combination of a number of recipes we found online. It's really good with dark bread. We had it with buttered pumpernickel.
Ingredients

• 1 ½ onions
• 1 ½ lbs beef chuck
• 2 carrots
• ¾ lbs potatoes
• 1 parsnip
• 1 leek
• 1 bell pepper
• caraway seeds
• 1 can crushed tomatoes
• 3 cups of water
• buttermilk
• sour cream
• parsley
• hungarian paprika
• salt
• pepper

Method

1. Chop onion. Fry it in pressure cooker with the caraway seeds. Then chop the meat. Fry it in cooker.
2. Add all the other chopped ingredients. Add the tomatoes, paprika, salt and pepper, the add the water.
3. Put on the lid and pressure cook for 12-15 minutes.
4. Add appropriate amounts buttermilk and sour cream, and some chopped parsley.
5. Eat with bread. Yum.

Tom Kha Pladuk

There are two staple soups in Thai cuisine: tom yam is a hot spicy clear soup with elements of sweet and sour flavors added. Tom kha is a milder soup with coconut milk and galangal (kha) dominating rather than the fiery prik (chili) of the tom yam. Because it is milder tom khas are often made with chicken or pork, but most common in Thailand are varieties using seafood (especially shrimp, squid, or fish such as red snapper or catfish) or vegetables (especially medleys of mushrooms, tom kha hed). The catfish can be "crisped" by quickly, and briefly, deep frying it in very hot oil, but this variation is based on simply poaching the fish in the soup.

In Thailand the fish is cleaned and then poached whole (with the head), then removed from the soup and cut into bite sized pieces which are returned to the soup for serving. The method here is a little simpler, in that it doesn't involve handling the hot fish.

Thais eat the galangal, which is cut into thin matchstick pieces. However it has been noticed that many Americans prefer to discard the galangal and so it may be wiser to leave the galangal in thin slices. Similarly the lemongrass is eaten, but you may prefer to cut it into 2" lengths, and crush them with a mallet. These may then be discarded by the diner.

Ingredients

• 1 catfish (about half a pound prepared weight)
• 2 cups fish stock
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon galangal, julienned
• 1 tablespoon lemongrass, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon coriander/cilantro leaves
• 1 tablespoon Thai chile peppers, thinly sliced
• 4 tablespoons fish sauce
• 4 tablespoons lime juice

Method

Bring the stock to a simmer. Add the galangal, lemongrass, coriander, chilis, fish sauce and lime juice, and bring back to the simmer. Clean the fish and cut it into 1" steaks, then divide them, removing the bones. Add the fish to the soup, and the coconut milk and bring back to a very gentle simmer, and poach the fish for 3-4 minutes (until just cooked).