Chicken and Corn soup

Ingredients:

• 1.5L water (approximately)
  
• 4 chicken thigh fillets
• 400g tinned corn kernels
• small tin creamed corn
• salt
  

Alternatives:

1. Can use 2 breast fillets instead
   
2. 1 egg white
   
3. cornflour for thickening

Method:

Put water, salt and the chicken in saucepan on medium to high heat. Bring to boil and when the chicken is cooked pull out and using two forks, shred the chicken and place back into the water. Add the corn.

If using the egg white, whisk and then add to the soup.
If using cornflour, take some soup out and mix the cornflour into it and then add to the soup


Personal notes:

I like my chicken and corn soup quite salty, but I leave it to top salting so everyone can salt as much or little as they like.

The awesome Chilli con carne a la Gus

What you need

• A couple of onions, chopped
  
• Some garlic cloves, chopped or bashed
  
• 500g extra lean premium organic beef mince
  
• A spoon or so of cumin
  
• Some chilli flakes or powder or whatever form you want
  
• A tiny tin of tomato paste
  
• A small tin of red kidney beans (ie Edgell)
  
• A small tin of mixed kidney beans
  
• A tin of tomatoes (chopped or whole, just bash em up when you add them if you have whole tomatoes)
  
• A cup of rice (white is nice, but brown also works)
  

What you do

Put the cup of rice with 2 cups of water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. As soon as it starts boiling, turn it down to the lowest heat setting, put the lid on, and let it cook until the water fully reduces (apparently this is the "absorption" method). It's basically finished just before the rice at the bottom of the pan starts to burn.

Chop your onions and garlic and get your other ingredients ready.

In a large frying pan, splash some olive oil and cook the onions over medium-high heat for a minute or two. Throw in the garlic, then the meat (chop up the mince if it's stuck together too much). Put the cumin and chilli in, and cook for a couple of minutes until the meat is mostly brown. Also, add a pinch of salt and pepper.

Add the tomato paste. Drain the water from the tins of kidney beans. Add the tinned tomato and kidney beans to the frying pan.

Let it simmer for a few minutes, and you're done.

What you can eat with it

Pickled pickles, natural (tart) yoghurt and sweet chilli sauce all go very well with this dish. Also as a side you can serve sliced tomatoes topped with salt and vinegar (white or balsamic both work).

As extras, you could also grate a carrot into the meat dish as it's cooking.

What can go wrong

• Too much cumin. Generally you would not need more than one heaped dessert spoon.
  
• Too much tomato paste. No more than one tiny tin (like the homebrand tins), even better is using half a tin.
  
• Too much chilli. Ouch.
  

Garlic Prawn and Bacon Pasta

Ingredients:

• 8 cloves of garlic, finely diced
  
• 1 onion, finely diced (optional)
  
• 8 rashers of bacon, diced
  
• 400g prawns (preferably green)
  
• a knob of butter
• lug of oil
  
• Pasta
  

Method:

1. Heat butter and oil in a saucepan (however much you want)
2. Add garlic and onion
3. Add bacon
4. Cook until the onion is soft
5. Add prawns and cook until pink
6. Cook your pasta according to the packet instructions- I recommend spaghetti or penne
7. Drain pasta and serve with sauce
   

Serves about 4. Takes about 20-30 minutes (prep & cooking)

Alternatives:

1. Add chilli oil or some fresh chillies
2. Add a can of tomato if you prefer tomato-based sauces
3. Add cream for a creamy base
   

Personal notes:
This is a home-made recipe based off a dish at Leichhardt's Bar Italia, so ingredients are estimates and can be juggled around depending on how garlicky or bacony you want it. I like to get the short-cut rindless bacon because it is easier to cut. Alternatively, bacon bits are even easier. I usually always add some chilli just to give it a bit of zing.