07.12.08: Fusion broth with fruity salad

Just the ticket for a sniffly Sunday: He pulled together the fusion broth with dry-grilled chicken, rice noodles, and Chinese greens. Salad of tomato, watercress, pear, pomegranate and avo looked on.

HE SAYS: The broth was a little on the spicy side (I think some stray shreds of chili got in the pot as it was cookin'). Good thing it had loads of ginger which made it still fragrant and light. I especially enjoyed the addition of the baby corn, which added a crunchy element to each mouthful. The salad was a shweet affair, maybe too shweet. An experiment with salad fixin' combinations gone too far, perhaps?

SHE SAYS: The chicken was perfecto, but the broth was way too spicy for a fragile throat - I normally prize this dish for its mild nourishment. Still pretty good and I did spoon up my fair share. Could be I was just in a sickie mood all-round, but the salad seemed a bit damp with too many ingredients (not a fan of pear and tomato mixin').

25.11.08: Fusion broth with grilled chicken

She whipped up this fragrant winter warmer of a dish: Jamie Oliver's fusion broth with dry-grilled chicken plus ginger, Chinese greens (pak choi), and rice noodles. A spinach salad of pear, radish and chopped beetroot waited in the wings.

HE SAYS: This dish was lovely and warm in my tummy on this cold night. You can't go wrong with juicy grilled chicken swimming in a nice and savoury, salty broth. Add in some red pepper for some heated distraction and lime for a zesty, piquant overtone and I'm a happy camper. The pear and radish in the salad did their usual magic too.

SHE SAYS: Def. one of the most delicious healthy dishes we do - can't believe it's been hiding away in the Naked Chef book all these years (about 8?). Brothy and tangy and everything He said. The main risk is adding too much soy sauce at the end, and I was afraid I did, as the soup turned an ominous shade of brown, but the first tentative taste reassured me it was just shy of overload. (Note to self - less than 1/4 cup, more like a Tbsp.) Salad was sweet and crunchy as par, but not attracting me whole lot tonite.

27.09.08: Leftover soup and open-faced bagels

After being generously plied with an excellent pork-roast lunch by friends in the afternoon, we had little energy or appetite for full-on evening dining, so splitting the one bowl of leftover fusion broth and topping up with an avo-tomato bagel half seemed just the ticket. He added another bagel half with Marmite and a slice of mature cheddar just to be sure late-nite hunger pangs would not interrupt a dreamy sleep.

HE SAYS: With ma belly half full this assortment of tastes managed to fill in the blanks of dinner with opposing flavas and textures. It was nice to have a second helping of the great soup from earlier this week and the avo and marmite bagel combo helped tip the balance of washing up vs. taste and satisfaction strongly in the latter's camp.

SHE SAYS: Just enough, and nourishing. I think I've said this before, but this soup is not the kind of thing that improves with a nite or two in the fridge - the flavours and consistency are too delicate to develop much. Still good, and with the highly-prized quality of being a heat-n-eat option. Plus, avocado on toast with a bit of salt has been my idea of perfect food since 1993 - and the addition of some rich cherry toms only gilds the lily.

25.09.08: Fusion broth with grilled chicken

She cooked up the fancy chicken noodle soup from The Naked Chef, complete with bok choi, rice noodles (and some bean thread ones, too, since the rice noodle supply was low), dry-grilled chicken breasts, and copious ginger slices - remembering, this time, the final dash of lime juice. Nigella's wasab lime dressing stood by to pep up a mildly indulgent salad of radish, mixed olives, avo, and leaves.

HE SAYS: The ginger in this nice hot and fragrant soup certainly helped clear my sinuses while the fantastic grilled chicken hit the spot. The bean thread noodles were just as tasty as their rice counterparts and the added lime managed to add a fresh tanginess to the bowl. The wasabi dressing delivered its usual punch to the salad, poured over the delish radishes and olive mix.

SHE SAYS: Dry-grilling skinless chicken breasts is, I now believe, the only way to cook them. The bbq-fire aroma alone is worth it. This time I turned down the heat after browning both sides, added a small amount of water (whoa, steam!), and covered it to cook the chicken thru instead of high-heating them into near-petrification. Miscalculated the amount of soy sauce I added to each bowl at the end, overwhelming the light and faintly tangy broth with briny intensity, but it wasn't quite ruined, and leftovers will remain nicely balanced. Salad was moreish with the double-whammy of olives and avo, plus the wasabi coating - no one can say we don't get our good monounsaturated fats!

02.09.08: Asian fusion broth with rice noodles and grilled chicken

She is really patting herself on the back for finding this one: Jamie Oliver's fusion broth with dry-grilled chicken plus ginger, Chinese greens (bok choi), and rice noodles. Salad of pear, radish, and spinach, watercress etc. welcomed a celebrity cheese tonite: herbed feta from Spitalfields on Sunday, seasoned with a brined chili.

And check out those grill marks!

SHE SAYS: I knew we'd be having a few decadent meals this week and chose this as a lighter in-between. But the virtuous brothy bowl turned out to be a full-bodied flavour attraction that I would gladly make regularly in the colder months. (Serendipitously, it's quite cold out there tonite.) simply boiling ginger and garlic with top-notch boullion, and drizzling just a little light soy sauce over, made this so slurpworthy, and dry-frying the chicken added big, outdoorsy grilled taste - not easy to achieve on a tiny, indoor stove. The market feta lived up to expectations as salad star, more creamy than crumbly, with subtle, pleasingly metallic chili notes.

HE SAYS: Like a Thai noodle soup, this bowl of wonderfulness hit the spots that needed it most: rich savoury broth, generous chunks of grilled smokey meatness, unfussy plain noodles to surround the flavas and a chili, ginger and garlic kick to grab your attention. This was another summer winter warmer and I savoured every last bit, going back for seconds and thirds. The feta couldn't be better(ed) in the salad and we ate every last delish little bit of it.