I usually go out every Sunday afternoon but the rain just gets in the way and so I ended up having time to blog and surf for Noche Buena recipes. This would be my first ever Christmas in New Zealand and this early, my friends and I have already made plans. It’s gonna be potluck and I haven’t really made up my mind on what to bring especially for the main dish. And just as I was searching for ideas I happen to find this announcement for Festive Food Fair 2007. Isn’t that swell?

I plan to prepare chicken sopas for the potluck and for this event I’d like to share its recipe. Sopas literally means soup and chicken sopas is a hearty soup made of elbow (or macaroni) pasta, shredded chicken, vegetables and milk. Yup, I know elbow pasta is Italian but this dish is definitely Filipino. A pasta soup concocted to suit Pinoy taste and definitely popular amongst us especially during rainy season or, if lucky, even during slightly cold weather during this time of the year back homeas we crave warm soupy comfort.

Ingredients:
Chicken (preferably breast and neck)
Diced onions
Crushed garlic
1 small bowl of elbow pasta
Diced carrots
Diced potatoes
Spring onion, cut into small ringlets
Shredded cabbage
Hard-boiled eggs
1 cup of evaporated milk
Salt and pepper
Patis (fish sauce)

Add chicken in a pot of boiling water. Bring to boil. Add salt and pepper and simmer until cooked. Remove chicken, de-bone and set aside. Return the bones to the pot. Add onions, potatoes and a tablespoon of diced carrots, and continue simmering for flavorful chicken broth.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large saucepan. Throw in garlic and saute until golden brown. Scoop out 2 or more tablespoons of fried garlic and set aside. Add shredded chicken into the saucepan, sprinkle with patis and stir-fry until slightly browned. Transfer more than half of the cooked shredded chicken in a bowl and set aside.

Throw in onions into the saucepan and continue cooking for about 2 minutes. Discarding the chicken bones, pour in the chicken broth from the other pot. Add more water if necessary to have enough liquid for soup as well as to cook pasta. Add elbow pasta when the soup boils and simmer until al dente. Throw in the rest of the diced carrots and shredded cabbage and cook for another 3 minutes. Slowly add milk while stirring to avoid curdling. Adjust the taste with patis or salt. Cook for another minute then serve hot topped with shredded chicken, fried garlic, ringlets of spring onion and sliced hard-boiled eggs. Mix the yolk with your portion of soup and enjoy!

Iska

I am not a professional cook. My only claim to having a culinary background is a short stint as my dad’s teen ‘sous chef’ in his carinderia ages ago. Dad ran small eateries since I was a young kid - serving standard ‘turo-turo’ food ranging from the likes of menudo, adobo, pritong isda, dinuguan, binagoongan, bopis, munggo, pinakbet and giniling to merienda fares like goto, ginataan, pancit bihon, halu-halo and saging con yelo.

My father, a farmer in his hometown before working his way to becoming an accountant, definitely influenced my cooking in a lot of ways than I thought. My siblings and I were raised in a backyard full of fruit trees and vegetable garden. We spent weekends and the summer breaks running around with ducks, chickens, goats and pigs. I had wonderful memories of gathering eggs, butchering chickens, selling vegetables and the sweet aroma of preserved fruits. But my love for art led me to a degree in Architecture. Just few months after getting my license, I went abroad and lived independently at age 23. Definitely no maid, no cook, and a totally different food culture. Along the way I met lots of friends and spent what seemed a lifetime learning new tricks and recipes.

Now living in Auckland, I am a work-from-home mum who juggles time between work, fun and family - in pursuit of work-life balance. No matter how busy I am, I love the idea of cooking for my family. My blog chronicles home cooking greatly influenced by life outside my home country from Southeast Asia to Beijing and Auckland. And most of the time, being busy also means easy (sometimes quick), affordable meals.