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The focus for this week is simple comfort food. I reckon that if food could give you a hug then these recipes surely would.
Malaysian ABC Soup
Whenever I drink this soup I’m immediately transported back to my childhood in Malaysia. I have always wondered why the soup is named ABC soup. One explanation is the soup is high in nutritional benefits such as vitamin A, B and C. The other reasoning is that it is as simple to prepare as – well ABC. Therefore, even newbie cooks haven’t got an excuse to delay attempting this recipe!
(This recipe serves 2)
Ingredients
400g chicken pieces (ideally with bones for more flavour)
1 large carrot, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 thickly sliced medium onion
2 medium potatoes cut into 1-inch cubes
1 quartered medium tomato
1 teaspoon crushed peppercorn
1 litre of water
Salt to taste
Method
- Fill a pot with 1 litre of water, add the chicken pieces and boil on a medium heat.
- Once the water starts to boil remove all impurities that are on the surface.
- Next turn the heat to low and add the carrots, onions, peppercorn and tomato segments.
- Boil the soup for about 1½ hours.
- Then add the potato cubes into the soup and boil for a further 30 minutes.
- Add salt to taste.
- Lastly savour your ABC soup and imagine basking in Malaysian sunshine!
The Duffin
It was during a recent trek to Starbucks that I discovered the Duffin. The name itself was enough to intrigue me: a portmanteau of donut and muffin! I was hooked after my first bite – after I finished the last morsel of Duffin-y deliciousness I wanted to immediately bake them myself.
Ingredients
300 grams self-raising flour
85 grams caster sugar, plus 65g extra to coat
80 millilitres vegetable oil
1 large egg
175 millilitres buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 teaspoon strawberry jam
100 grams unsalted butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
a pinch of salt
Method
- Grease a 6-hole muffin tin and preheat the oven to 180 °C.
- In a bowl sieve the flour and then add a pinch of salt with 85g caster sugar.
- In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, egg, vanilla extract and vegetable oil.
- Add the two bowl’s ingredients together until they combine.
- Place a spoonful of the mix into each muffin hole making sure to indent the centre of each one.
- Fill each indent with 1/2 teaspoon of strawberry jam.
- Top the jam with the remaining Duffin mix and bake for 20 minutes.
- After the Duffins finish baking, remove them from the oven and leave the tray on a rack to cool down.
- Melt the butter while the Duffins cool.
- Meanwhile combine the extra 65g caster sugar and ground cinnamon in a bowl.
- Once the Duffins have cooled, brush each with melted butter and then roll them in the cinnamon sugar.