I made a few little tweaks to the recipe. I started the broth a little earlier and let it simmer for a while. I really wanted to make sure the flavors of the ginger and chili pepper was infused (I also added some garlic). The kitchen smelled fantastic when I finally got everything cooking. I couldn't find snow peas or baby carrots (which I don't really care for anyways) so I got totally lazy and bought a frozen bag of "Asian Vegetable Medly" (snap peas, mushrooms, onions and sundry). I also used thin pasta instead of rice sticks. In addition, I decided to use cilantro instead of spinach. This is totally a matter of taste. I love cilantro and the flavor it brings, but I know some people who really don't like it. So, that's totally up to you. Final product?
This soup was really, really (really) good. You could definitely taste the heat of the chili and the five-spice powder (which I've never used before) was such a wonderful aromatic and added so much to the dish. On a side note, I paid $7 for a container of this so I need to find something else to do with it. I think this is going to be a great second day meal as the flavors usually intensify after a day or two (as with most soups and stews). One thing, I totally forgot to add the chopped seeds and nuts at the end. I toasted them and everything. So, even more for my leftovers. All in all this was a delicious start to the cookbook. Can't wait to see what Clussy chooses for next week:)
UPDATE by Claud:
So, since I didn't take any pics of my recipe making for this one, I figured I'd just update what Jems already had in place.
My take on it in a nutshell is that it was freaking awesome and easy to make actually. Only thing I did wrong (actually, there were a few snafoos but this one is the biggest) was to dump in 10 oz of noodles into the soup instead of just the 4 it called for, so then I had to add in extra chicken broth but at that point, it diluted it of the other seasonings/condiments which were measured out for half as much broth (like the lemon juice, ginger and chili pepper) so it wasn't as good as it could have been, which is saying a lot because it truly was delicious. Another note, I *did* remember to sprinkle the plated dishes w/the toasted seeds/nuts and they were kind of the highlight for me. I LOVE texture in that regard so to give me some crunch in a soup and for it to be filled w/this toasted nutty taste was heaven for me. Winner winner, chicken soup dinner.
NEXT!
UPDATE by Claud:
So, since I didn't take any pics of my recipe making for this one, I figured I'd just update what Jems already had in place.
My take on it in a nutshell is that it was freaking awesome and easy to make actually. Only thing I did wrong (actually, there were a few snafoos but this one is the biggest) was to dump in 10 oz of noodles into the soup instead of just the 4 it called for, so then I had to add in extra chicken broth but at that point, it diluted it of the other seasonings/condiments which were measured out for half as much broth (like the lemon juice, ginger and chili pepper) so it wasn't as good as it could have been, which is saying a lot because it truly was delicious. Another note, I *did* remember to sprinkle the plated dishes w/the toasted seeds/nuts and they were kind of the highlight for me. I LOVE texture in that regard so to give me some crunch in a soup and for it to be filled w/this toasted nutty taste was heaven for me. Winner winner, chicken soup dinner.
NEXT!
