This recipe is adapted from one shown by TV chef Geoff Janz. It is the best soup that I have ever tasted, and thanks to Helen for the recipe.
You will need:
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 2 teaspoons of grated fresh ginger
- 2 tablespoons of Madras curry paste
- 1 large carrot, chopped
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 cup red lentils, rinsed
- 2 medium potatoes, chopped
- 1.25 litres (5 cups) chicken stock
- 2 single chicken breasts, chopped
- 3/4 cup (180ml) coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriandar leaves
Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onions, garlic, ginger and curry paste - cook stirring until the onions are soft. Add carrot, cinnamon stick, lentils, potatoes and stock. Simmer covered for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Discard cinnamon.
Remove half the mixture into a separate bowl and blend using a food processor or processing wand. Return the blended mixture to the pan. Add all remaining ingredients and simmer, uncovered, until the chicken is cooked but tender. Serves 6.
This soup is suitable for freezing prior to adding the coconut milk.
As promised - the Faux Pho recipe 
You will need:
- 4 cups water
- Chicken stock powder to taste
- handful shallots
- Finely chopped onion
- Five spice powder, cumin and cinnamon to taste
- Pho (flat rice noodles)
- 400gm thinly sliced beef
- two handfuls of fresh basil
Throw chicken stock powder into hot water - taste carefully to check if you need to add more. Add shallots and onion. Add five spice powder, cumin and cinnamon to taste. Cook over slow heat until the onion starts to soften. Add half a packet of pho (flat rice noodles) and a handful of holy basil. When the noodles are nearly cooked, add beef. Add more basil to serve and consume while it is still warm.
This is definately not as good as a proper stock made by boiling beef bones for hours and hours. But it is good enough for a lazy slightly hung over brunch.
This recipe is adapted from one originally posted on Facibus Reviews.
This isn’t strictly speaking faux cuisine, as it is not faking anything (unless you wanted to use it as a Kari Ramen recipe? It might work!).
What it is though is easy. It’s Saturday morning, Helen is at work, I’m bored and hungry. Here it is! You will need:
- Two spring onions, chopped
- Teaspoon olive oil
- Tablespoon curry paste
- Baby Bok Choi, chopped
- Two cups hot water
- Teaspoon chicken stock powder
- Tin (185gm) tuna (I use chunks in springwater or in brine, use the oily one if you prefer)
- Tin (420gm) creamed corn
- 1 cake of instant ramen noodles
Lightly fry the spring onions in olive oil. Add curry paste (I used Patak’s Vindaloo this morning, extra hot!) and stir constantly for 30 seconds to a minute. Add baby bok choi. When the bok choi is wilty (not long), add hot water and chicken stock powder. After a minute add tuna and creamed corn, stir in, then add noodles. Read emails and check blog stats for a couple of minutes. Serve.As in all my recipes, your mileage may vary. If serving this to a wider audience I would probably use a milder curry paste, and maybe add an egg toward the end. Or not.
Note: this recipe is derived from one originally posted on Facibus Reviews.
Laksa (a curry noodle soup) is a favourite of a lot of techy folks here in Canberra. There are two main types of laksa that I’ve been able to identify through research over the years:
- Laksa Lemak: contains curry paste, coconut milk and laksa plant (AKA Vietnamese Mint) as well as some kind of meat and/or vegetables, and
- Penang Laksa: basically Laksa Lemak without the coconut milk, usually contains fish.
I’ve eaten both sorts here in Australia as well as in Malaysia and Thailand. Being on a health kick currently, Helen and I prefer the Penang Laksa - contains more good stuff (the fish) and less fattening stuff (the coconut milk).
Real Penang Laksa involves a whole (sans guts) fish - usually mackerel - being boiled into a state of disintegration then further pounded/shredded into a paste (bones sometimes included - they go soft if cooked for long enough).
Here is my slack version. You will need:
- a small handful of spring onions or one whole onion (either way, chop finely)
- curry paste (something mild like Massuman works well - please do not use more than a tablespoon until you’ve tasted it)
- teaspoon of oil (peanut/olive/canola/whatever you have)
- a couple of small tins of sardines, drained
- Asian greens, like Sam Bok or Bok Choi, chopped
- a cup of water
- some kind of soup noodles - like Ramen, Soba or Hokkien (whichever you prefer), not more than 100gm when cooked (rehydrate/cook noodles per packet instructions prior to use)
- half a handful of basil leaves
In a saucepan, brown the spring onions/onion in oil and curry paste. Throw in the sardines, then add Asian greens and stir gently for a minute or so. Add water, cooked noodles, some basil, and serve.
This is a great recipe for experimentation - you can add any vegetables you might think are nice in this kind of curry soup, or use different curry pastes, different herbs, a heap of pepper, fresh fish (watch for bones!), you name it. Experimentation and sloth are at the heart of the true faux cuisine cook 
Note: this recipe is adapted from one originally posted on Facibus Reviews.
I made this for breakfast this morning - it passed the “I’ll have that again!” test so is herewith recorded for posterity.
You will need:
- 1 cup cooked rice
- a tablespoon of butter
- 200gm tin of smoked kippers (preferably in springwater) - drained
- handful of fresh parsley
- half a handful of fresh basil leaves
- four eggs
Place rice and butter in a casserole dish. Add kippers, parsley, and basil leaves. Mix well. Crack the four eggs over the top of it and bake at 200 degreees Celsius until the eggs are cooked enough for you. Serve warm.
This post was adapted from one originally posted on Facibus Reviews.
This recipe is adapted from one that Stephanie Alexander wrote in The Cook’s Companion (one of my favourite cookbooks of all time). It serves two people as a main or four as an entree.
You will need:
- 500gm Scallops (frozen are fine, thaw first)
- one onion, chopped finely
- two cloves garlic, chopped finely
- two sticks celery
- two tablespoons olive oil
- chopped red capsicum
- 425gm tin tomatoes
- one or more of basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup white wine
Brown a finely chopped onion in a tablespoon of olive oil. Add a 425gm tin of chopped tomatoes. Add whatever herbs you have from this list: basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, as well as some salt and pepper, and cook until the tomatoes are a nice salsa-y consistency. To the tomato mixture add a chopped red capsicum, two cloves chopped garlic and two sticks of celery. Cook until the celery starts to soften.
Heat a separate pan - when hot add a tablespoon of olive oil. When very hot add 500gm scallops out of the shell (the Coles supermarket frozen ones, while not as good as fresh, certainly serve in this faux cuisine version) and sear for not more than one minute, turning gently two to three times. Pour in 1/4 cup white wine. Not more than a minute later, add the tomato/vegetable mixture and stir through, cooking for not more than one additional minute (in other words, the scallops are not cooked for more than 2 1/2 minutes total). Serve immediately in big bowls.
Stephanie recommends serving it with toast - we rarely eat carbohydrates of an evening so usually avoid bread, but I think it would be a good accompanyment. She also recommends making the tomato sauce from scratch using fresh tomatoes - this would be a nice touch in the summer/autumn.
This recipe was adapted from one originally posted on Facibus Reviews.
There is a wonderful Easy Beef Wellington recipe over at cooks.com - they call it “Individual Beef Wellington Steaks”. If you are carnivorous and like steak slathered in mushrooms and don’t mind the taste of pate you’ll probably love it. Here is my faux cuisine version.
You’ll need:
One sirloin/tenderloin steak (200-300gm) per person
One sheet frozen puff pastry per person
Two tablespoons tinned mushrooms in butter sauce per person
Butter to seal
Pate - equivalent of one tablespoon per person (use more to taste)
Salt and pepper
- Grab trimmed steaks, season with salt and pepper,
- Cook the steaks in a hot (200 degrees Celsius) oven for ten minutes,
- Chill the steaks (I wait until they are a little cool then put them in the refridgerator).
- Onto a thawed sheet of puff pastry, put a couple of tablespoons of cooked mushrooms (being lazy I used tinned mushrooms in butter sauce, it worked fine).
- Put the steak onto the mushrooms then slather the pate over the steak
- Wrap the puff pastry around the whole lot, seal with butter, bake at 200 celsius until the pastry is brown and puffy, eat. Mmmm
Note: This recipe is adapted from one originally posted at Facibus Reviews.
If your mileage varies, tell me. Like all faux cuisine, experiment, but experiment with friends before trying a given variation with people you are trying to impress.
