click on image to see more photos of Chicken Noodle Soup (Asian Style)

It’s been a while since I’ve managed to get it together in time to participate in the crossblog event, IMBB. But the recent acquisition of a camera along with Amy’s (Cooking With Amy) topic Use Your Noodle were all the inspiration I needed for me to join the party AND get there on time.

At first I was thinking that we should make Nigella Lawson’s fabulous Tagliatelle with Chicken from the Venetian Ghetto*. (I do love that dish!!) But then I thought of all that wonderful stock we had lurking in the freezer. The stock made from the bones of last week’s roasted chicken with chocolate chili gravy. And how cold and windy it is (even though it is remarkably warm and snowless for January). And how life-giving soup is.

Yes, soup was the answer. So we made Chicken Noodle Soup (Asian Style). And it was fabulous!

We sat in the kitchen while T was chopping vegetables and putting the pasta dough through our hand-crank machine and I read aloud part of Mangoes & Curry Leaves by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. The book is quite wonderful and evocative of both our visits to India. Of course, it is much more of a memory jolt for T, because he spent so much time studying and travelling in India. There are lovely narratives interspersed between excellent looking recipes – we have barely started the book and already I have noted several that we must try. But wait! Don’t let me sidetrack! This is supposed to be all about noodles and soup from a different part of Asia….

T had made the pasta dough in the morning, wrapped it tightly in plastic and set it aside to finish just before dinner. We really love the semolina flour we’re using. It’s a little coarser than the semolina flour we used to get in Italy town – we get the new semolina flour in Indiatown – it makes the best pasta! About an hour before we were going to eat, T put the pasta dough through the hand crank machine a few times to get it started. We find this is good – it lets the dough rest between stretchings. The dough ends up being incredibly silky and resilient.

As the noodles were cooking, the chicken stock (with added minced ginger, sliced mushrooms and salt) simmered gently in another pot.

In the past, we have put the cooked noodles into the bowls and poured the soup overtop. This time, T put the cooked noodles into the hot soup pot and tossed them to separate them with broth. Then he added chopped bok choy and just a little grated carrot. My thinking on the carrot addition was double. We had run out of carrots (how can anyone run out of carrots??) when I made the stock so I thought we should add just a hint of carrot flavour to the soup. And I also thought that it would add a nice touch of colour to the photographs. (Was I right or was I right?) The vegetables were stirred around just to heat through. I love that about this soup. So much of it can be prepared in advance. The actual preparation time just before serving is negligible.

And into the bowls it went with a final drizzle of toasted sesame oil and garnish of chopped green chillies. We happily slurped up the hot elixir and noodles with the howling wind outside as background music. Winter isn’t so bad….

edit 4 April 2008:
*The recipe for Tagliatelle with Chicken from the Venetian Ghetto used to be housed on www.stylenetwork.com along with other recipes from “Nigella Bites”. Sadly, neither Lawson’s show nor this fabulous recipe is in stylenetwork’s archives any longer. However, you may be able to see it by plugging http://www.stylenetwork.com/Shows/Nigella/Recipes/tagliatelle.html into the Wayback Machine search window of the Internet Archive. (The recipe is also in How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food by Nigella Lawson.)