Wonton Soup

One of the easiest, CHEAPEST and tastiest comfort foods you can make.

This will make more than enough for one meal for 6 people. It's another one of those recipes where you can put whatever you like in the mix, so you can use a smaller amount of meat and bulk it out with veges! I have left chilli out of this recipe so that it is a bit more kid friendly, but if you love chilli like I do, you can add it to the pork (sauce or chopped fresh) and also to the soup as you serve it.

250g pork or chicken mince
1 bunch coriander
2cm knob of ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch bok choy
1 small onion
soy sauce
1 packet wonton wrappers (in the fridge with the fresh pasta and noodles at the supermarket)
2 cartons chicken stock
1 Spring Onion
any other veges you have around, eg carrots, zucchini, squash

Finely chop the stems and roots of the coriander, the ginger, garlic and onion. If you have a small food processor, you could whizz it in that as well to make it finer and smoother.

Add to the mince along with a tablespoon of soy sauce and mix it through with your hands until everything is thoroughly mixed. You can also add some finely chopped bok choy stalks to the mince as well, or chopped water chestnuts for a great crunch.

Now, clear as much space as you have on your bench. Separate the wonton wrappers and lay as many as will fit out on your bench.
Take a teaspoon and place a small teaspoon full of the pork mixture into the middle of each wonton wrapper. When they are all done, you need to do them up!

With a bowl of water nearby, dip your fingers in it and go through the wrappers and wet the sides around the pork mixture.
Take the first one, bring opposite diagonal corners together, then squash the other corners in, and use the moisture to seal them up. Repeat with the rest!

To cook the soup, Put a pot on the stove on a moderate heat, and pour in the stock. Roughly cut up the rest of the bok choy and place in the stock, along with any other veges you want to throw in. Place the wontons in the stock (6 is enough for a meal for 1 person). They are cooked when they float to the surface.

To serve: Spoon equal amounts of wontons and veges into bowls, and cover with the stock. Top with the coriander leaves and chopped spring onion stalks.
Serve with soy sauce to allow people to adjust saltiness to their taste. ENJOY!

Wontons that you don't use can be frozen as well. If you have left over meat, freeze it and use it another time. Or you could make meatballs or asian style burgers.

Vege Lasagne

This is one of my most popular dishes I have made at the different kitchens I have worked in. It is very hearty and its as delicious as a meat version.
I like to make a combination of slices of veges and using them in the sauce as well, making a sort of vegetable bolognese.

This is as an example, but you could interchange the veges used to change the flavours a bit.

For the bolognese sauce:
1 Brown onion
1 Tin of crushed tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1 Zucchini
1/4 pumpkin
1 carrot
1 Dessertspoon of dried Mixed Herbs

Finely dice the onion and crush the garlic. Heat about 2 Tablespoons of Oil in a saucepan and cook the onion and garlic over a medium low heat until onion starts to go clear. Add the tin of tomatoes and refill the tin with water, and add that as well. Also add the dried mixed herbs.
For the rest of the veges, you have 2 choices. You can grate them all up or dice them finely. If you grate them, you will have a smoother end product, if you dice them, you will have a slightly chunkier sauce. Entirely up to you!

Cook the sauce on a simmer (a few bubbles in the sauce) until the pumpkin is cooked.


For the rest:
1 packet of Lasagne Sheets
1 Eggplant
1 Sweet Potato
2 Zucchini
2 tubs of Ricotta Cheese (500g)
1 cup of Cream
Grated Tasty Cheese (or your other favourite melting cheese)
Oil
Salt, pepper
Mixed Herbs


Thinly slice the eggplant, peeled sweet potato and zucchini
Toss through oil with salt, pepper and mixed herbs to lightly coat.
If you have a char grill, or a bbq, cook the sweet potato, eggplant and zucchini slices until they are soft. The Sweet potato will probably need to be transferred to a tray in the oven at about 180C to finish cooking.
If you don't have something to grill them on, you could cook them under a grill or in the oven until they are soft.

To Assemble:

Mix the ricotta and cream together to get a smooth sauce consistency. You may need to add some hot water to get it to loosen up and thin down.
Spoon a thin layer of your tomato sauce on the base of your lasagne dish. Lay out lasagne sheets to cover (you might need to break some to fill in spaces). Then place a layer of your cooked sliced veges, a layer of ricotta mix and a layer of tomato sauce. Keep going in this manner until you have 4 layers. The top layer should be just ricotta on the top, and then cover with tasty or other cheese.

Cook until a knife will go through easily - approximately 35 - 40 minutes at 180C.

This is enough for about 8 serves of lasagne.

PASTA!

Pasta is one of my favourite things to cook. It is so cheap and easy, and you can do pretty much anything you want to it!
Last night I made a really tasty sauce. Its so easy to make these kind of things up - just get the cheapest veges on special, Home brand pasta sauce- if you look up or down at Woolies or Coles you will find these under the Dolmio and other expensive brands for sometimes a quarter of the price. Essentially the same product! Same goes for pasta - at the moment, home brand pasta (Smart buy at Coles) costs 70c for a bag! So you can realistically cook a meal for 4 or 5 people (or more) for $5, in about 15 minutes!

The pasta sauces like Dolmio etc are usually a basic Napoli sauce - that is tomato, onion, garlic, and herbs.

First thing you need to do is put some water on to boil for the pasta. While that is happening, get your veges going - you can use anything you like, bear in mind that the smaller you cut things, the quicker they will cook. Heat up some oil in another pan, and add your veges of choice hardest to softest. Once they have been going for a couple of minutes, add the softer veges, and then your pasta sauce. Let that cook away until your pasta is ready. Drain the pasta and put the pasta in with the sauce, mix it and serve!

Good veges to add to tomato pasta sauce:

Capsicum
Eggplant
Zucchini
Onion
Garlic
Carrot
Squash
Pumpkin
Spinach
Silverbeet
Mushrooms (cook in a little oil or butter first)
Sweet Potato
Asparagus
Broccoli
Corn Kernels


I also like to add legumes, like tinned chickpeas, 5 bean mix. You can get these for about $1 a tin at Woolies and Coles.