Canberra

Pumpkin soup made easy

Posted by Gary

Pumpkin soup is a fantastic way to warm up on a cool or cold Autumn night. It was a perfect meal on Easter Sunday on a cool Canberra night.

Jump to Recipe

Pumpkin soup tonight #yummylummy

A post shared by Yummy Lummy Gary Lum Food Blog (@yummylummyblog) on

[social_warfare]

Easter Sunday spicy pumpkin soup Gary Lum Pumpkin soup made easy
Easter Sunday spicy pumpkin soup

[social_warfare]

Easter Sunday spicy pumpkin soup Gary Lum Pumpkin soup made easy
Print
Pumpkin soup
Prep Time
10 mins
Cook Time
40 mins
Total Time
50 mins
 

Pumpkin soup is a favourite of many. I added some red chillies, jalapeño pepper and chilli flakes to make this soup a bit spicy along with a good nob of ginger to add a slight Asian feel. 

Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Australian
Servings: 3
Calories: 500 kcal
Author: Gary Lum
Ingredients
  • 1/2 piece Kent pumpkin It can be any kind really
  • 2 pieces Potatoes Any kind will do
  • 1/2 piece White onion diced
  • 100 grams Bacon diced
  • 1 nob Ginger fresh, cut and crushed
  • 1 teaspoon Chilli flakes
  • 1 teaspoon Curry powder
  • 1 teaspoon Garlic powder
  • 1 piece Red chilli diced
  • 1 piece Jalapeño pepper diced
  • 1/2 bunch Parsley chopped
  • 1/2 cup Cream
Instructions

  1. In a large saucepan sauté the onion and bacon until softened

  2. Add the ginger and stir until it's soft

  3. Tip in the pumpkin and potato pieces

  4. Pour in boiling water halfway up the level of the top piece of visible pumpkin or potato to avoid the soup being too thin

  5. To the soup add the garlic powder, curry powder and chilli flakes

  6. Bring the soup to the boil and simmer with a lid on for 30 minutes

  7. Process the soup with a stick blender

  8. Add the chopped red chilli and jalapeño pepper

  9. Pour in the cream and stir

  10. You could fold in some parsley but I just blended it in

  11. Then you plate it up in a bowl and garnish with more parsley

  12. Shoot a photograph and drink the soup

  13. Edit the footage from two cameras and keep swearing about the slow upload speeds in Belconnen

  14. Post the blog post hoping people will read it and share it on social media

Recipe Notes

One of the nicest pumpkin soups I've made. If you try it please let me know. 

If you try this pumpkin soup please let me know how it went.

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+

Bacon and chicken spicy congee with quinoa

Posted by Gary

Bacon and chicken spicy congee with quinoa! Have you heard of such a dish? This recipe uses a pressure cooker and is quick and easy.

[maxbutton id=”3″ url=”#recipe” ] [maxbutton id=”4″ url=”#FAQ” ] 

Chicken and bacon spicy congee with quinoa Gary Lum
Chicken and bacon spicy congee with quinoa

[social_warfare]

The ultimate comfort food

I think of congee as the ultimate comfort food. It’s also relatively cheap if you use a few cheap cuts of meat and it’s filling.

Recipe

Chicken and bacon spicy congee with quinoa Gary Lum
Print
Bacon and chicken spicy congee with quinoa
Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
30 mins
Total Time
35 mins
 

I broke a tooth last night gnawing some meat off a beef short rib. I need soft food. This congee is a perfect soft food. It's also a perfect comfort food. 

Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Australian
Servings: 3
Calories: 800 kcal
Author: Gary Lum
Ingredients
  • 1 cup Arborio rice
  • 1 cup White quinoa
  • 200 grams Chicken thigh fillets
  • 2 rashers Streaky bacon broken up
  • 1 litre Tap water
  • 1 packet French onion soup mix Sodium reduced
  • 1/2 head Cabbage sliced
  • 1 piece Star anise
  • 1 splash Soy sauce
Instructions

  1. In the vessel of a pressure cooker add the rice, quinoa and water and then stir

  2. Add the chicken and bacon and stir through

  3. Add the packet of French onion soup and stir through

  4. Add the cabbage and stir through

  5. Add the star anise on top

  6. Close the pressure cooker chamber and set to cook for 30 minutes

  7. Release the pressure once cooked and remove the lid

  8. Stir the congee and break up the chicken meat while stirring

  9. Aliquot into containers for lunch at work

  10. Serve the remainder into a shallow bowl, add the soy sauce and garnish with parsley

  11. Shoot a photograph

  12. Eat the meal

  13. Clean the dishes

  14. Start to feel quite full after the huge size of the bowl of congee eaten and feel a bit thirsty too

  15. Hope that readers like this recipe and share it on social media

Recipe Notes

If you like congee, I think you'll like this recipe. It's easy to put together and cooking in a pressure cooker makes it dead easy 

[social_warfare]

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should you cook congee in a pressure cooker?

I’ve been asked this a few times. I don’t have a mathematical formula. What I know is that for a full chicken, Mum used to cook it for anywhere between 45 and 60 minutes. I figured for 200 grams of chicken thigh meat and some bacon, 30 minutes would be fine. In fact, I think next time I will try 20 minutes to see if there is any difference.

Do you have to use a pressure cooker?

No, not at all. In fact, I like making congee in a slow cooker too. It’s basically the same recipe except you put it in a slow cooker for 6 hours.

What other meat can you use?

Almost any meat you like although I’m not sure how fish would go. Vegetarians can use tofu if they like.

Do you have a slow cooker variation?

Yes, I do. Slow cooker pork quinoa congee.

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+

[maxbutton id=”1″ ]

Gary Lum QR Code

Easter beef short ribs and breaking a tooth

Posted by Gary

Easter beef short ribs and breaking a tooth

 

Good Friday slowly roasted short beef ribs with cabbage and broccoli Easter beef short ribs Gary Lum
Good Friday slowly roasted short beef ribs with cabbage and broccoli

Beef short ribs apparently aren’t a thing on Good Friday. I’m not really sure why beef is taboo and why everyone goes for seafood. I mean I love seafood but it’s so expensive.

Continue reading →

Bacon macaroni and cheese

Posted by Gary

Bacon macaroni and cheese is surely a thing just like smoked trout or smoked salmon mac and cheese must be a thing.

Jump to Recipe

Super hot and spicy home smoked and cured bacon macaroni and cheese Gary Lum
Super hot and spicy home smoked and cured bacon macaroni cheese

[social_warfare]

Super hot and spicy home smoked and cured bacon macaroni and cheese Gary Lum
Print
Bacon macaroni and cheese
Prep Time
10 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
Total Time
30 mins
 
Bacon macaroni and cheese is surely a thing just like smoked trout or smoked salmon mac and cheese must be a thing.
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Australian
Servings: 1
Calories: 1000 kcal
Author: Gary Lum
Ingredients
  • 200 grams Macaroni (cheap supermarket stuff)
  • 200 grams Bacon (diced and cooked in a bench top oven to release flavour)
  • ½ cup Coon cheese (grated)
  • ½ cup Parmesan (grated)
  • 3 tablespoons Flour (plain)
  • 2 tablespoons Butter (salted)
  • 1 dessert spoon Chilli flakes
  • 1 piece Red chilli (diced)
  • ¼ cup Parsley
  • ¼ cup Panko breadcrumbs
  • 1 tablespoon Pumpkin seeds
  • 1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
  • ¼ piece White onion (small and diced)
  • 1 cup Full cream milk
Instructions
  1. Remove the home smoked and cured piece of gift bacon from the vacuum packaging
  2. Dice the bacon into large cubes
  3. Cook the bacon on an oven tray at 200 °C/400 °F for 12 minutes in a small bench top oven
  4. While the bacon is cooking cook the macaroni 1 to 2 minutes short of the recommended time on the packaging, the macaroni will continue to cook when it’s coated in cheesy goodness
  5. Allow the bacon to rest in its rendered fat so the flavours are retained
  6. Drain the macaroni and mix with the cooked bacon and the rendered bacon fat so the macaroni absorbs bacon flavours
  7. In a saucepan melt the butter and add the onion until the butter foams
  8. Whisk in the flour and make a roux
  9. Add the milk to make a sauce
  10. Remove the saucepan from the heat source
  11. Fold in half the cheeses with the pumpkin and sunflower seeds
  12. Add the macaroni and bacon and stir through slowly
  13. Mix in the chilli flakes and red chilli
  14. Pour into a Pyrex dish
  15. Mix the panko breadcrumbs with the rest of the grated cheeses
  16. Top with the rest of the cheeses and panko breadcrumbs
  17. Place into a hot oven (200 °C/400 °F) for 15 to 20 minutes being careful not to burn the top
  18. Serve in a shallow bowl
  19. Garnish with a sprig of parsley
    Super hot and spicy home smoked and cured bacon macaroni and cheese Gary Lum
  20. If you want to give the pretence that you have a healthy lifestyle feel free to add vegetables like kale and spinach or silverbeet but if you do you need to realise you’re lying to yourself and really you’re a comfort food whore.
  21. Unlike me, if you can digest and metabolise alcohol you could have a large glass or two of wine or a pot of beer with this.
  22. Don’t forget when you’re finished don’t pass out on the couch, the sooner you get the saucepan and bowl in some water the easier it will be to clean off the cheesy goodness.
  23. While you’re cleaning off that cheesy goodness, just imagine how it all looks churning in your stomach, being mechanically processed and chemically digested as it passes through your duodenum, having bile added like dishwashing detergent.
  24. I could go on but you get the picture. Hopefully after a morning coffee, what’s left will start its extracorporeal journey to a waste treatment facility near you.
  25. If you’ve liked the way I’ve finished this recipe, I’d love it if you commented and please share this via social media especially Facebook and Twitter. I’m really wanting this sort of recipe to take off so that more people can appreciate my talent for combining food with some basic anatomy and physiology.
  26. Please follow me on my food-based social media on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Recipe Notes

On a final note, I’d really like to thank my work friend Mark for giving me this piece of bacon.

[social_warfare]

Super hot and spicy home smoked and cured bacon macaroni and cheese Gary Lum
Super hot and spicy home smoked and cured bacon macaroni cheese

If you’ve liked the way I’ve finished this recipe, I’d love it if you commented and please share this via social media especially Facebook and Twitter (there are handy sharing icons in this post). I’m really wanting this sort of recipe to take off so that more people can appreciate my talent for combining food with some basic anatomy and physiology.

On a final note, I’d really like to thank my work friend Mark for giving me this piece of bacon.

If you want to see more examples of workplace generosity please head over to another blog where I have shared three consecutive days of amazing workplace generosity.

This isn’t the first mac and cheese on Yummy Lummy, I put it in a Taco one Saturday.

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+

For vegan friends, here’s a vegan version from the Noob Chef.

How do you make cauliflower soup taste sensational?

Posted by Gary

Cauliflower soup is one of my favourite dishes because it tastes great and is easy to make. Winter is approaching and weekend soup is definitely a thing.

Jump to Recipe

[social_warfare]

Sensationally tasting cauliflower soup made with chillies, curry powder and blue cheese Gary Lum
Sensationally tasting cauliflower soup made with chillies, curry powder and blue cheese
Sensationally tasting cauliflower soup made with chillies, curry powder and blue cheese Gary Lum
Print
How do you make cauliflower soup taste sensational?
Prep Time
10 mins
Cook Time
40 mins
Total Time
50 mins
 
This recipe will have you wanting another bowl, even after you feel full.
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Australian
Servings: 3
Calories: 500 kcal
Author: Gary Lum
Ingredients
  • 1 piece cauliflower remove leaves and breakdown florets
  • 100 grams bacon pieces bought from a delicatessen
  • 1 piece potato cut into cubes
  • 1 tablespoon curry powder Clive of India
  • 2 glugs olive oil
  • ½ piece white onion diced
  • 1 piece stock cube chicken
  • 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
  • ¼ cup cream
  • ¼ cup cheese grated
  • ¼ cup parsley chopped
  • 1 litre boiling water from a kettle
Instructions

  1. Add the olive oil to a saucepan

  2. Sauté the bacon pieces and diced onion
  3. Add the potato and cauliflower
  4. Add sufficient boiling water to cover the potato and cauliflower
  5. Add the stock cube and curry power
  6. Bring the water to the boil and turn down to a simmer
  7. Simmer until the cauliflower and potato are tender (at least 30 minutes)
  8. Remove the saucepan from the heat source
  9. Use a stick blender to process the soup

  10. Add the cream

  11. Add the grated cheese, chilli flakes and cream and then stir through

  12. Prior to serving to recipients (me) add the chopped parsley

  13. Serve in a bowl
Recipe Notes

As winter approaches this is a soup to be made again and again. If you choose, this goes nicely with a piece of bread or a roll or just on its own.

[social_warfare]

As much as I love pumpkin soup, I really enjoy this cauliflower soup.

I’ve previously posted recipes for cauliflower soup, one had celeriac and spam while the other had Pialligo Farm bacon with Gorgonzola cheese.

Check me out on social media

Please like 👍 me on my Facebook page Yummy Lummy, please follow on Twitter @Yummy_Lummy, and please follow me on Instagram @YummyLummyBlog

Thank you