I’ve been wanting to sous vide salmon ever since I got my hands on my Anova Culinary precision cooker. I love salmon and just the thought has me drooling.
What I’ve learnt though in reading a few recipes about sous vide salmon is that it’s not as simple as just bunging a salmon fillet in a bag, vacuum sealing it and then plonking it into a warm bath. If I do just that, the salmon will emerge with an unsightly white membrane over the flesh. While the membrane isn’t dangerous or have a bad taste, it doesn’t look that appealing.
The answer is brining. Brining is basically preserving or seasoning food with salt water. So to brine my salmon I just immersed my salmon fillet in salt water and left it in the refrigerator for half an hour before sealing it and giving it a warm bath.
I bought all the ingredients for this meal from Coles this morning.
I recently made a super green pea and ham soup and I had two servings leftover. Tonight, I wanted to share with you how I enhanced leftover pea and ham soup.
This recipe is about two things, flavour and crunch. I wanted to enhance my leftover soup to be crispy and crackly.
Course:
Main Course
Cuisine:
Australian
Servings: 1
Calories: 1000kcal
Author: Gary Lum
Ingredients
500mLLeftover pea and ham soup
500gPork belly rasher
Instructions
Arrange the pork belly rasher rind side up in a small nonstick frying pan and put it into a hot 200 °C/400 °F oven for 60 minutes. You could sit it in some white quinoa if you wanted to, so you end up with some nutty fatty goodness to also add to your soup.
As the pork is close to finishing its time in the oven reheat the leftover soup in a microwave oven. I blast the soup for 3 minutes, stir it up and then blast again for 1 minute.
Plate up by adding the pork crackling side up to the bottom of a bowl. If you like you can also add a dollop of sour cream plus ¼ of a teaspoon of chilli flakes for a spicy kick.
Poor in the soup around the pork.
Garnish with spring onions and chives if you have them available.
Shoot a photograph and then eat the soup.
Wash the dishes and then write the recipe up.
Write a blog post and hope your friends on social media share the recipe and make you famous.
Recipe Notes
This is enough soup for 1 large serving. If you’re a small eater you could share it with someone else but who the hell would share pork and soup if you didn’t have to
[social_warfare]
Frequently asked questions
Will this make me fart?
I reckon not as much as freshly made. The rendered fat from the pork may have an inhibitory effect, but what would I know.
Can I make this soup vegetarian?
No, you cannot make pork enhanced leftover pea and ham soup vegetarian. I’m sorry but it’s just not possible. You can have pea soup and toast but when you add the crackling and the ham it’s hard to make that vegetarian.
Can I eat this for lunch?
There won’t be any left. Trust me.
Can I eat this soup cold the next day?
No, it would be disgusting eating cold roast pork and chewing crackling that’s gone cold.
Social media
Please follow me on my food-based social media on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. What I’d love you to do is share this post on Twitter and Facebook and anywhere else you’d like, even Google+
Asparagus soup is one of those delicious yet uncommon soups [although I’ve made it once before]. I never had it as a kid even though Mum would regularly use asparagus in salads and as a vegetable to accompany meat dishes. We’d always comment about the smell of our urine later in the night and it’s something that still stimulates an olfactory memory.
This is a quick and simple recipe that I made up in my head based on the notion that any vegetable can be converted to a soup if you boil it, process it and add cream.
Course:
Main Course
Cuisine:
Australian
Servings: 2
Calories: 500kcal
Author: Gary Lum
Ingredients
500gramsAsparagus(fresh and cut into 2 centimetre segments)
¼pieceOnion(white or brown)
100gramsJalapeño Spam(diced)
1piecePotato(medium and diced into small cubes)
½cupSour cream(full cream preferred)
1pieceRed chilli(diced)
1pieceJalapeño pepper(diced)
2teaspoonsChilli flakes(dried)
1teaspoonGarlic powder
Instructions
In a saucepan sauté the onions and Spam until the onions are soft and turning colour.
Add in the asparagus and potato along with the chilli flakes and garlic powder and then add sufficient boiling water from a kettle to leave about a centimetre of asparagus and potato showing above the surface of the water. You don’t want the soup too watery. You can then toss in the finely diced red chilli and Jalapeño pepper. Bring the soup to the boil and then simmer for 20 minutes and then check that the potato and asparagus are soft.
Process the soup with a stick blender until it is smooth.
Place some sour cream into a serving bowl, as much as you desire and then pour over the soup.
Serve with some toast if you like.
You can garnish it with something contrasting in colour. I would suggest some red chilli and a grind of cracked pepper.
Recipe Notes
If you don’t like sour cream you could use normal pouring cream or thickened cream. If you wanted to avoid cream altogether that would work too.
[social_warfare]
What if I don’t like Spam?
Bacon pieces would be a suitable substitute
What if I’m vegetarian or vegan?
Leave out the meat
Can I freeze some for later?
Yes
Is this safe for children?
Yes, if they like spices. If not, don’t add the chilli flakes and cut back on the fresh spices
Will this soup make my pee smell funny?
If your pee normally takes on a strange odour after eating asparagus then it probably will after eating this soup too.
Can I make a bigger batch for a family?
Sure, just increase the amounts proportionally. You may need to simmer the asparagus longer and it may take longer to process the soup.
Let me know
If you make this recipe please let me know. How do you feel about Spam in soup?
Social media
Please follow me on my food-based social media on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. What I’d love you to do is share this post on Twitter and Facebook and anywhere else you’d like, even Google+
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