I have so much that I intend to post, and it’s becoming such a nightmare to organize! Just when I though I had a whole Hong Kong trip to post about, today turned out to be an incredible day of events!
I shall cut the queue and put up a foodie post today for those who come for the food photos (wink at you).

A little unused to the minus 0 temperature, I felt the NEED for something hot and comforting. Went over the to supermarket to stock up on groceries, and bought enough to make a lovely country style beef+vegetable stew, with big shell pasta.

The soup was cooked in an unorthodox way, but it worked, and that’s what’s most important in cooking. (It works.)

Because I’m such a dumb ass noob at recreating recipes, and the fact that I mostly cook by feel, most of the exact quantities of the recipe have been omitted.

I used:

Onion x 1
Tomatoes x 3
Celery stalks x 3
Carrots (smallish) x 4
Cloves of Garlic x 6 (not bulbs)
Broccoli x 1
Beef Thigh x 1
Big Shell Pasta x 1 Serving
Salt
Sugar
Black Pepper
Oil

Serves 4-5

There are 3 separate parts of preparation for this meal. 1, the Tomato broth, 2, Pre-frying the ingredients, 3, Cooking the soup, and also cooking the pasta.

In this order,

Crush 3 cloves of garlic. Chop the 3 tomatoes in the quarters. Toss garlic into a pan/small pot of warmed oil for 10-15 secs, before tossing the tomatoes in. Add about 1 tsp of salt, black pepper. Stir fry for about 2-3 minutes. Add water until tomatoes has been covered completely, add 1 tbsp of sugar, cover with lid and let it simmer over low flame for 10-15 minutes.

Peel & chop carrots into bite size pieces. Crush 3 cloves of garlic. Slice Onion into rings. Cut broccoli into it’s individual stalks and separate the huge stem. Chop celery stalks into 3 inch pieces. Chop up beef into bite chunks. Heat 3-4 cups of water in a pot. Heat a nice amount of oil in a pan, toss in garlic, 10-15 secs later, toss in onions, carrots, celery and brocolli stem. Add salt, black pepper, stir fry for 3-5 minutes. Transfer all contents of the pan into the pot of water. Using same pan, add a little more oil, toss in broccoli and beef once oil is heated. Stir fry until beef appears cooked on all sides (about 3-5 minutes as well) and transfer everything into the soup pot.

By now, tomato pot should be done. Run the contents through a food processor so it becomes a nice flavorful tomato saucey soup. Pour it into the soup pot, add more water to the pot if ingredients are not completely covered with liquid. Add some ketchup, bring to boil with high flame, then simmer over low flame for 30-45 minutes. Add more salt to taste.

For the meal, cook pasta according to cooking time on package minus 2 minutes with salted water. Drain water, add a few ladles of the soup to the pasta and let it simmer/cook for another 2 minutes. Place pasta on bowl/dish, and pour soup over it. Sprinkle with cheese if you like. Eat.