Two Opposites!

A little dinky title there... Anyways, it started with the weather being unforgivingly hot & humid these days. The pour that lasted this morning had since dried up. No visible evidence that it rained at all! Evenso... I on the other hand had been wrapped in my thick wollen coat at work. Yeh... aircon was blastering all its might. Didn't go out during lunch either. Who wants to! Eeek.. too hot to play out there! Thus, staying in was the choice for the week, I presumed : (

It affected my cookings too. They were mellowed and shallowed... Seemed like all I wanted to have was something light and easy. Soup seemed like the ultimate option in mind. Oh, not the creamy variations though. Non-creamy ones which you can slurp it down naked... heeehaaaa'!

Coincidentally, both my soups for two different days were like 'ying & yang'. One's black and the other's clear. One's meaty and the other's vegetarian. Both were perfect with white rice or on it's own. Here I reveal the "Ayam Masak Kicap - Chicken In Black Sweet Sauce" and "Sop Sayur Campur - Mixed Vege Soup". Ultra easy and super fast. Oh not forgetting low... low... low in calorie too! Used zit oil for both. Best to leave them overnight coz the taste just'll get more intensed and infused together. And hell overules!

Ayam Masak Kicap

Ingredients for Ayam Masak Kicap
1/2 cup sweet black sauce - kicap manis
5 pieces chickens
carrot - sliced
hardboiled eggs (opt)
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 onion - pounded
2 garlic - pounded
1cm young ginger - pounded
salt to taste
3cm cinnamon stick
3 cloves
1 star anise
3 cardamom pods
water
Method
Mix pounded ingredients with sweet black sauce and pour into pan on a small fire. Let the mixture sizzle and add in oyster sauce and water (up to you fr thickness of soup). Add in chicken, carrots and let it boil away. Add in salt to taste and all the spices. Lastly add in the hardboiled eggs and give a good stir. Once chicken's cooked, all's set!

Sop Syur Campur

Ingredients for Sop Sayur Campur
dried beancurd skin
dried black fungus
dried vermicille
potatoes - diced
carrots - diced
2 dried bay leaves
1.5 cunes Knorr Ikan Bilis (dried anchovies)
several dried prawns
shitake mushrooms
salt to taste
white pepper
3 eggs - poached
3 cups water
Method
Boil water and add in potatoes. Halfway through add in carrots, beancurd skin, black fungus, dried prawns and Knorr ikan bilis cubes. Let the mixture boil or till all ingredients soften. Salt to taste. Add in bay leaves, shitake mushrooms and vermicille. Poached eggs and ready to slurp... Great when you have a full bowl and scoop in rice. More soup than rice. Delish...