It seems that lately I have a crash on avocados, altough in the past I did not really pay much attention to this gorgeous green fruit. It is good to know that unripe fruits are poisonous, and if you cook avocado it might turn bitter. I think this soup here has a serious chance to became the most favourite of the comming summer! It has such a silky texture that strokes your throat like nothing else. Play with the spices, just do not forget: less is more! It is also important that it has a nice consistency, not too thick! Therefore I used coconut water and served it with a coconut milk. Boost it with freshly ground pepper, chili or tequila.
Ingredients:
2 small ripe avocados
500 ml coconut water
1 lemongrass
1 lime
1/2 bunch of mint
chili
tequila
2-3 tablespoons coconut milk
salt
pepper
Bring coconut water with the chopped lemongrass to the boil, remove from the heat and let it infuse for 30 minutes. Half avocados, remove the core and scrap out the flesh. Puree avocado together with the cool coconut water, lime zest, half of the mint and chili as much as you desire. If it turns to be too thick add more coconut water or even some vegetable stock. Season with salt, pepper and lime juice. If you like boost it with a little tequila. Chill and serve with mint leaves and some coconut milk.
New year, new habits or something like that. That philosophy motivates me these days and I really try to make things better and more efficient then in the past. Besides I promised myself not to look back, but just go forward. Let's see what the magical number 13 brings, after all I was born on a Friday the 13th. As far as cooking is considered I decided to use most of the ingredients that I collected through autumn so that when spring is here my pantry and freezer are more or less empty. My first "victim" today was one of the pumpkins, yeah one of them, there are still 3 left so expect more pumpkin recipes within the next days. This one is a simple pumpkin cream soup, nothing more, nothing less. However, it contains both butter sauteed and oven roasted pumpkin, just like Heston Blumenthal suggests, to achieve a far more complex pumpkin flavor. On the other hand, if you end up with a more or less tasteless pumpkin, well then nothing can save the soup! This pumpkin season I wasn't very lucky with these yellow beauties, however this soup turned out delicious and was really comforting on this pretty cold winter day.
Ingredients:
for the pumpkin soup:
800 g pumpkin
200 ml coconut milk
1 shallot
50 g butter
few rosemary sprigs
2 cloves garlic
800 ml vegetable or chicken stock
salt
cayenne pepper
for the coconut foam:
200 ml coconut milk
2 g lecithin
Preheat the oven to 200°C and bake half of the pumpkin with 2-3 sprigs of rosemary and garlic. Peel both the baked and the raw pumpkin. Melt butter and add chopped onions and the raw pumpkin cubes and sautee for 15 minutes. Then add baked pumpkin, coconut milk and stock and cook for 20-25 minutes. Then puree soup and add a fresh rosemary sprig and let it stand for about 15 minutes. Season with salt and cayenne pepper. In case the soup is too thick then use some stock or coconut water to achieve the desired consistency. For the coconut foam bring coconut milk to the boil and lecithin and whip it with a mixer. Serve with an extra sprinkle of cayenne pepper.
The last kick has been given by the elderberry-apple jam, though I was curious about the beetroot-elderberry combination already since quite a long while. As the three are pretty great together, I decided to combine them in a soup. Its colour is definitely dominated by the berries and even stronger, because I used chioggia beet instead the normal ones. Chioggia has a much sweeter and almost no earthy taste, therefore the soup is very fruity. It is a nice autumn meal that warms you for sure and brings a smile on your face with its gorgeous colour. Ah, and just leave the cream and you won't have to care about the calories!
Ingredients:
4 small apples
1 medium beetroot
2 tablespoons elderberries
1 teaspoon butter
1 tablespoon cane sugar
250 ml apple cider
150 ml water or apple juice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons cream for serving
Peel and dice apple and beetroot. Dislodge the berries from the stem. Over low heat melt butter, add cane sugar and let it caramelise. Add beetroot and 50 ml of apple cider and let it reduce. Now add the apple, the berries, the rest of the cider and the water or apple juice or even beet juice. Cook for 15-20 minutes, then puree and mash it through a strainer. Add vanilla extract and serve with a few drops of cream.
Finally, summer has arrived! We had a couple of pretty cold and rainy days and I have been desperately looking forward to some sunshine. Luckily, it is not a heat wave but it is real warm and it is perfect to enjoy some cold soup. What could be more refreshing than a glass of cold cucumber soup? Well, a glass of cold coconut cucumber-gooseberry soup with thai basil and a touch of lime. The whole thing topped with roasted black mustard seeds and coriander seed oil.
Ingredients:
1 English cucumber
200 g gooseberry
400 ml coconut milk
5-6 thai basil leaves
1 lime
salt, chili
Wash cucumber, peel and cut in chunks. Put sliced cucumber, gooseberries, coconut milk and basil leaves into a blender and pulse until smooth. Sieve soup and season with salt, lime zest and little juice and chili. Serve with roasted black mustard seeds and corianderseed oil.
After an overindulging weekend I wanted something very light for today's lunch. As I anyway bought too many bunches of radish on the market, I wanted to make something that needs a lot of them. I have had the idea of radish soup already for a while on my mind, but I always postponed it. I definitely wanted to cook the radish, but it was important to keep its colour, therefore I prepared a stock using potatoes and then I used that to cook the radish for a few minutes. During the morning walk I collected some ramson flowers, ground ivy, yellow archangel, henbit deadnettle that brought spring right onto the plate.
Ingredients:
300 g potatoes
1 onion
1 bay leaf
1/8 teaspoon caraway seeds
2 teaspoon butter
500-700 ml vegetable stock
1 bunch radish
125 g yoghurt
3-4 tablespoons rapeseed oil
salt, pepper
Peel and cut potatoes in cubes. Sautee chopped onion in a teaspoon butter, add diced potatoes, bay leaf, caraway seeds and vegetable stock. Cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes. Now sieve and set the liquid aside. You won't need the cooked potatoes for the soup, but do not throw away, instead make a puree or use in some kind of yeast dough that needs cooked potatoes. Sautee sliced radish in the other teaspoon of butter, add the potato liquid and cook for 2-3 minutes. Pour the soup into a mixer, add yoghurt and puree, season with salt and pepper. If you want a really smooth soup sieve. Serve the soup either lukewarm or chilled. For the oil puree about 1/4 of the radish leaves with the rapeseed oil.
There are plenty of vegetables and fruits out there that would make the perfect combination, but they are just not in season in the same time. For example white asparagus is amazing with a blood orange hollandaise. Sometimes a fresh cucumber would just be the perfect ingredient that a dish needs, but no season yet, so it is not available from a local producer, at least not free range. I believe that products that are common in your area you should only buy when it is in season, it is worth to wait for local strawberries, asparagus and so on. Your reward is going to be an explosion of flavours. Of course not everything is automatically bad that comes from abroad. But it is good if you check if that veggie or fruit is in season in that particular country that time of the year. So you know that it has seen some sun and it is not from tunnel or whatever. Of course it is not that easy to resist, but I believe that it is really stupid and negligent to sell strawberries in February or watermelon already in April! Altough, I really care very much for the products that I use in my kitchen and I try to get everything from local producers, once in a while I can't resist. A juicy mango, artichokes or avocado happen to get into my shopping basket. But after all one shouldn't be too strict, because then we all can stop eating chocolate, drink coffee or even use pepper. These gorgeous tomatoes are from Sicliy and called Marmadino. They are in season from the middle of February until May. I simply love Sicily and everything that comes from there, so it was impossible to say no to these. They have a truly amazing flavour, just wow. No wonder that they were gone pretty fast among some buttered bread, so I used some tomato juice for the soup.
Ingredients:
600 ml tomato juice
200 g rhubarb
2 tablespoons rape seed oil
1 onion
10 g fresh ginger
1 clove garlic
50 g celeriac
4-5 tablespoon brown sugar
50 ml port wine
1 bay leaf
1-2 cloves
1 star anise
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 bunch of fresh basil
salt, pepper
Peel and dice the onion, garlic, ginger, celeriac and sautee in hot oil for a few minutes. Add sliced rhubarb and sugar and let it caramelise a little, then add port wine and reduce. Then add the tomato juice and the spices packed in a muslin. Cook for about 10-15 minutes, then remove the spices, puree and season. Then add the bunch of basil and leave it on the hot plate for 5 minutes, then remove. If the soup is too thick add some vegetable stock and some sugar if needed. Some frehsly grated orange zest give a nice kick to the soup.
Attention! The soup is sour, really sour! I didn't want to make a sweet soup or even to combine the rhubarb with strawberries. I rather had the idea of a spicy and sour soup that is served cold. I wouldn't say that it is going to be my favourite, but it is indeed refreshing, now we only need real warm weather to enjoy it. If you want it less harsh, then add some heavy cream or even more sugar.
Ingredients:
1 shallot
10 g butter
300 g rhurbarb
3 tablespoons sugar
juice of 2 oranges
3 cm fresh ginger
1 star anise
2 cm cinnamon
2 pinches freshly grated nutmeg
450 ml vegetable stock
salt, pepper
Sautee chopped shallot for a frew minutes in butter. Add sliced rhubarb, sugar, grated ginger and the rest of the spices. Pour freshly pressed orange juice and stock over it and cook for about 10 minutes. Remove spices and puree. Season with salt, pepper, some ground cinnamon and nutmeg. In case you add some cream, then cook it together with it for about 5-7 minutes. Serve warm or cold with fresh goat's or sheep's milk cheese.
The task was challenging, because nobody in the family likes seafood. My dad might eat a scallop or two, but that's it. However, this time I thought I might be able to trick them into eating langoustine. And it worked, at least to a certain point, because nobody wanted the tails on top of the bisque. But still it was a success, because my mom told me that it was the best soup she ever had. Well, that's a compliment, right? I kept it as simple as possible in order to concentrate on the delicate taste of the langousintes. At last it turned to be a pretty traditional bisque, if I may say that.
Ingredients:
for the stock:
10-15 langoustines
1 teaspoon butter
2 shallot
1 clove garlic
1/2 fennel
1 carrot
1 parsley root
2 thin stalks of celery
100 ml dry white wine
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 small bay leaf
fish stock or water
for the soup:
1/2 teaspoon water
1 shallot
1 small potato
1/2 fennel
1/2 teaspoon tomato puree
2 pinches of saffron
1 twig tarragon
70-90 ml cream
1-2 teaspoon cognac
salt, pepper
Remove the heads of the langoustines, then peel the tails and devein. Be careful during this process because the peel of the langoustines is a lot header then the peel of prawns. Sautee heads and peel in butter until it gets pale. Now add diced vegetables, bay leaf and coriander seeds and sautee for a few more minutes. Add white wine and cook until reduced. Pour stock or water over it, just enough so that it is covered and cook for 10-15 minutes and sieve. Sautee chopped onion, potato and fennel in butter, add half of the tails that you have set aside, then add the prepared stock and cook for 10-15 minutes. Now puree and add cream and cook for another 5 minutes, season with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat, add tarragon and let it stand for 5 minutes. Then remove tarragon and season with some coganc. Serve with the rest of the leftover tails that are fried in butter and flambee with cognac if desired.
Thinking about this week's sinful dessert, I thought it might be a good idea to cook something light for lunch. Altough, cauliflower is not in season yet, I am here with a soup, simply because these days I recieved one as a gift instead a bouquet of flowers. This might seem to be a little strange, however I am not a fan of cut flowers, therefore I was surprised by a green cauliflower. I have already had yellow, but I did not really like it, now after this one I am really keen to get a purple one. However my greengrocer is not willing to plant it, because she says it is not enjoyable at all. As far as this soup is concerned it is pretty spice, yet still light thanks to the buttermilk and the lime.
Ingredients:
500 g cauliflower
1 teaspoon butter
1 shallot
1 potato
1/4 teaspoon garam masala
600 ml vegetable or chicken stock
200 ml buttermilk
1 lime
nutmeg oil
salt, pepper
Sautee chopped shallot, add cubed potato and garam masala, then the cauliflower florets and pour stock over it. Cook over medium heat until soft, then puree it together with the buttermilk. Season with salt, pepper and the juice and zest of a lime. Serve with breadcrumbs, nigella seeds and a few drops of nutmeg oil.
For a very long time I really could not even think of using frozen mushroom, I just was not convinced enough, and could not imagine that it actually can be good. After discussing about frozen mushrooms with some fellow foodies, I decided to give it a try. Why should one use frozen mushrooms, after all so many different kinds of fresh ones are available throughout the year. Well, in my area it is absolutely impossible to get wild mushrooms, whether fresh or dried, but at least some types you can get frozen. And wild mushrooms are just absolutely amazing, and if frozen is the only way to get them, well, then I do. And so good, that finally I gave in! Since today morning I could not get the charactheristic taste of cep and the slight sweetness of parsley root out of my mind, so I had to get them together in one dish! I think the parsley root foam goes perfectly well with the soup and the crispy oat flake balls bring the missing excitement. The idea which is by the way so simple, yet ingenious is adapted from Nils Henkel. Basically it is nothing else, but deep fried hardend fat coated with breadcrumbs or anything like that. The inside of the balls simply melt away while frying and you end up with empty and crispy balls. Perfect instead of the traditional croûtons in soups or with salad.
10 g dried cep
1 tablespoon butter
1 shallot
500 ml veal stock
1 twig thyme
2 tablespoons crème fraîche
few drops of lemon juice
salt, pepper
for the parsley root foam:
20 g butter
1 shallot
50 ml white wine
2 large parsley roots
200 ml vegetable stock
50 ml cream
salt, pepper
you'll need these also:
coconut fat
flour
egg white
oat flakes and breadcrumbs
For the soup sautee chopped shallot, add diced mushrooms, soaked cep and thyme twig. In case you use frozen muhsrooms, sautee it over low heat until all the water has absorbed. Then add veal stock, cep water and cook for 15-20 minutes, then remove the thyme twig and puree with crème fraîche. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice. For the parsley foam melt butter and sautee onion, add white wine and reduce. Then add sliced parsley root and cook in the stock until soft. Sieve (do not through it away, you can either prepare a soup or a puree), add cream, season and foam it with mixer right before serving. To make the crispy oat flake balls dice coconut fat in equal pieces, then freeze for 15-20 minutes. After dust in flour, then roll in egg white and then in the oat flake-breadcrumb mixture and freeze again. Deep fry in 170°C hot oil.
I have almost completly forgotten about that lonely rutabaga in the fridge. If you haven't had them yet, then I would suggest to go for a puree with fish. In our family it was one of the winner dishes during the holiday season. Anyway, this soup was inspired by an old favourite combination: fish with tarragon and mustard. As far as the mustard is concerned use anything you desire, may it be English or French, with or without seeds. It's really up to you. I must confess that the soup is rather a mustard soup than a rutabaga. The reason is simple: I am a huge mustard fan.
Ingredients:
for the rutabaga soup:
500 g rutabaga
1 onion
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons butter
1-2 allspice
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
750 ml vegetable stock
salt, pepper
Sautee chopped onion in a tablespoon butter, after a few minutes add sliced garlic and diced rutabaga and sautee for 5 minutes together with the allspice. Add vegetable stock and cook for 15-20 minutes. Puree and press it through a strainder (there will remain quite a lot of puree in the strainer, but this can be served the other day as a side dish). Season soup with salt, pepper and mustard.
for the rainbow trout balls:
150 g rainbow trout
1 egg
2 tablespoons crème fraîche
1/4 teaspoon ground mustard seeds
1-2 tablespoons fresh tarragon
salt, pepper
Chill trout until ice cold, then puree together with an egg, mustard powder, crème fraîche and tarragon. Form balls with a help of two spoons and cook in simmering water in 2-3 minutes. Serve soup with trout balls, peanut oil and coarsly chooped peanuts.
Today, I was in some kind of rustic mood, if I may say that, so the timing couldn't have been better to cook a big pot of minestrone. The other reason for the soup is that I have collected a couple of parmesan rind, that actually is the heart of every minestrone. Without it is just not the same, and nothing can replace that savoury cheese. Minetrone is a soup that you can enjoy in every season, but to me winter is the best time of the year for a bowl of heart warming soup. This season I always add dried beans and curly kale or savoy cabbage to the vegetable mixture. Just feel free to use any vegetable you have at home and are in season. I think dried beans are essential, but if it should be rice or pasta, is really up to you. Freshly baked bread is just perfect with it, however those who follow my blog know, that I am not very good in bread baking. However today it must be my lucky day, because I managed to bake a soft bread with a crispy crust. Finally, I made it!
Ingredients:
for the soup:
50-70 g dried beans
1000-1500 ml vegetable or chicken stock
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion
3-4 carrots
1 piece of celeriac
2 parsley root
1 leek
1 garlic clove
2-3 potatoes
1 can plum tomatoes
5-6 leaves curly kale
1 piece of parmesan rind
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
40-50 g pasta
salt, pepper
Drain dried beans the evening before and cook it the next day until soft. Peel and dice the vegetables and sautee in olive oil for a few minutes. Add about a 1/4 teaspoon salt and dried oregano, the parmesan rind and the garlic clove. Pour stock over it, add canned tomatoes and cook over low heat for 40-50 minutes. Then stir in cooked beans and pasta and cook until the pasta is done. Season with salt and pepper.
for the bread:
250 g strong flour
7 g salt
25 ml olive oil
10 g yeast
230 ml water
30 g sun dried tomatoes
2 twigs fresh oregano
1 teaspoon durum wheat
Sift flour into a bowl, sprinkle salt somewhere on the side and make a mold in the middle of the flour. Crumble yeast into the mold and pour lukewarm water over it and start to work the ingredients together. Then add olive oil and knead a smooth dough. Let it rise for an hour. Preheat the oven to 220°C. Cut dried tomatoes in small cubes and mix it with the fresh oregano leaves and knead it into the dough. Form a long bread, brush with water and sprinkle the top with durum wheat. Pour about 250 ml water into the hot oven and bake the bread for about 30 minutes.
Considering the mood of this soup, I think we can hardly call it wintery, but for me it was just perfectly comforting on this extremly cold day. The first photo is kind of a cheat, because I haven't used Meyer lemons, but regular one. I think the zest would have been a bit too bitter otherwise. I must say, that I was waiting for days, until I finally gave in and cooked this soup. I was afraid that I end up with a warm lemonade. Well, I was wrong, it is so taste, I would even say it is kind of a soul food, after all in a way it is fresh, but still it warms you and so smooth that it strokes your throat. It is not visible, but a bunch of peas are hidden in the soup, that were perfect in combination with the scallop, and the basil oil just brought the whole thing to right point.
Ingredients:
1 shallot
1 tablespoon olive oil
50 g round grain rice (e.g. arborio)
1000 ml chicken stock
50 ml vermoutt
100 g peas
1 lemon
1 egg
salt, pepper
Sautée chopped shallot, add rice and stir so it is covered with oil. Add the vermouth and cook over high heat until it has reduced. Add 500 ml stock and cook over low heat with the lid on until the rice is cooked thorugh. Now puree, sieve and pour it back to the pot. Add the rest of the stock, peas and bring it to the boil, let it cook for 2 minutes. Grate lemon zest into the soup. Whisk egg white until half stiff with a pinch of salt. Whisk egg yolk with two tabelspoons of lemon juice and add some of the hot soup while whisking. Pour egg yolk mixture into the soup and whisk it together, then stir in the beaten egg white. Season with salt and pepper and serve with seared scallops and basil oil.
What a week! I am so totally tired, you have no idea! After all I had to bake about 6 kilos of cookies, two 40 cm cakes and one 20 cm round one. In fact, I still have to decorate them and pack the cookies, but that is just peanuts! However, I must say that I have enjoyed every single moment of baking and I would do it over and over again! On the other hand I had absolutely no time to plan for Xmas, but I am going to catch up next week and take 2-3 hours to think about everything in details. Today, I felt like I really deserve something special for lunch after so much baking. Agree? I wanted something that is prepared fast and not much work. Huh? A consommé and little work? Well, if you have a fish stock in the freezer, then nothing is easier then that. The rest of the work isn't that much at all, really! Of course I had some ideas while cooking about how to pimp the seafood served with the soup, but I had just no energy to realise them. Though I could not resist to at least prepare a portion of herb oil using the green of the fennel bulb, at least that!
Ingredients:
100-150 g fish bones (prawn shells and other parts)
2 celery stalks
1 parsley root
1 onion
1 fennel bulb
1 bay leaf
5 coriander seeds
1/4 teáskanál sáfrány
500 ml fish stock
3 egg whites
few drops of lemon juice
4 prawns
4 scallops
2 seabass fillets
salt, pepper
Mix together the chopped onion, parsley root, half of the fennel bulb, celery stalks with the fish parts and the egg whites and pulse it for a few minutes in a mixer. Over low heat bring the chilled fish stock with the spices and the egg white mixture to simmer and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. Sieve using a cheesecloth add saffron and bring consommé to the right temperature and simmer for a few minutes. Season with salt, pepper and few drops of lemon juice. During this time the egg white mixture is going to clear the consommé. Fry or poach the fish, prawns, scallops in court bouillon or fish stock.
Yesterday, I wrote it pretty confident, that I have a couple of recipes on stock. Well, it turned out that this soup is the last one. I have already mentioned a couple of times that cranberries are just gorgeous in combination with clove. The last kick was given by these ricotta dumplings, that are actually also great for dessert, so if you decide to make it, go for a double portion. It is worth it!
Ingredients:
for the soup:
400 g chestnut
1 tabelspoon butter
1 shallot
50 ml marsala
400 ml chicken or veal stock
100 ml cream
2 cloves
salt, pepper
for the dumplings:
100 g ricotta
1 egg yolk
1/5-2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons semolina
100 g cranberries
50 g sugar
2 pinches of ground clove
25 ml orange juice
Boil chesnuts for 25 minutes, let it cool and peel, you should have about 150-200 g of chestnuts. Sautee onion in butter, and peeled chesnuts, pour marsala over it, add cloves and as soon as the wine has reduced pour stock over it and cook for 10-15 minutes.Remove clove and puree soup together with the cream. Season with salt, pepper and some more Marsala.
For the dumplings mix together ricotta, egg yolk, flour and wheat groat, then let it stand for 30 minutes. For the filling cook cranberries with the sugar and ground clove in orange juice for 5-7 minutes, then press it through a sieve and set aside to cool. Make 4 to 6 small dumplings: flatten the ricotta dough and put a small portion of cranberry puree in the middle. Cook dumplings in simmering water, they are ready as soon as they swim on the top.
