It took me years to learn to appreciate soups. Meanwhile I not only love to cook, but also to eat it, especially during these cold days. When I was a child every Sunday we had a rich bouillon, with lot of vegetables and meat. I remember my dad always left a lot of soup in the plate, he only liked to eat the pasta and carrots in there, and still he does today. And I must say, I was also not better than him, in fact worse. I never wanted to eat that soup fresh, but after it was a few days old, I couldn't get enough of it. I loved it a lot with cooked rice, yeah that might sound strange, but that was my favourite way to eat it. Every week I cook at least twice a soup, mostly for dinner during autumn and winter. Last Friday it was time to check what's left in the fridge and I found some coriander roots, lemongrass and these inspired me to prepare a carrot soup. It is a complete improvisation, but now I was clever enough to write it down, so that I can share it. The soup was served with some fresh coriander leaves and caramlised yellow carrot.
Ingredients:
500 g carrots
1 small potato
5 coriander roots
2 stalks of lemongrass
1 chili
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 piece of cassia or cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1 knob of butter
900 ml chicken or vegetable stock
juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt, pepper
Peel carrots, potato, onion and garlic and cut in slices. Melt butter and sautee vegetables for about 10 minute together with chopped coriander roots, halved chili, cinnamon and garam masala. Pour stock over it and cook for 20 minutes. Set some of the liquid aside and puree the rest in a mixer. If it is too thick add some of the liquid. Put it back on the stove, season with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
Weekend Herb Blogging, that was created by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen and now managed by Haalo, of Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once is already taking big steps forward to its 5th year. Cinzia of Cindystar is going to be next week's host. If you'd like to participate, make sure you check out the rules and send your entries to cmc AT cindystar DOT it. Now let's see the entries!
The first entry has arrived right away from Greece, from Katerina from Culinary Flavors. She shares a recipe for "Mama Blue Chicken" with a cute story behind it.
Rachel from The Crispy Cook from Saratoga County, NY, USA has a terrific post about a Poblano Peppers variety, the Tiburon pepper. You are going to find a couple of tips how to use this green beauty.
Cinzia from Cindystar from Italy, who is our host this week shares a wonderful recipe for a Pumpkin Muffins a perfect autumn treat.
Claire from Chez Cayenne from Houston, Texas, USA, shares a recipe for whole wheat apricot and pecan bread that is perfect for breakfast or even goes well with a hot bowl of soup.
Susan from The Well-Seasoned Cook from New York, USA, shares a recipe for pink satin applesauce that is wonderful way to use some fresh fall apples.
Haalo from Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once from Melbourne, Australia was craving for cauliflower and she shares a real delicious recipe for a cauliflower cake.
Joanne from Eats Well With Others from New York, USA likes to buy things just in case. In that case she has finally opened a can of pumpkin puree out of 20 and baked delicious pumpkin white chocolate chunk and candied ginger bars. 
Brii from Briiblog in English from Valsorda on the Garda Lake, Italy shares a recipe for a vegan light shortbread crust cake with prune jam and rice pudding.
Finally my entry about quinces:
Thank you all for participating! I hope you had as much fun as I did hosting. Thank you Kalyn and Haalo! See you next time!
Yesterday's lunch was almost a disaster. I wanted to prepare a lemon sabayon to serve with fish and broccoli puree with roasted macadamia nuts. The sabayon recipe called for egg yolks and lemon juice and zest. To be exact for 6 egg yolks and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. I thought it is not possible, that this is going to work, but as it is a recipe by one of my favourite chefs, I halved it and decided to try. As I thought, it was a disaster, but it is my fault. I have only read the ingredients, but not the recipe, where it also says to add some water. Though, I should have came to the idea of adding some liquid anyway. So quickly, I had to look for another sauce, and as I liked to idea of leek, I looked for a sauce with leek and found Roux's leek coulis with saffron. In some way I also wanted to use lemon in the dish so i made some candied slices of lemon and served it on top of the fried fish. By the way the fish this time is a Coregonus species, that are known as whitefishes.
Ingredients:
(recipe adapted from Michel Roux)
200 g leeks, white part only
25 g butter
150 ml chicken or vegetable stock
1 pinch of saffron
150 ml cream
1/2 teaspoon dill
salt, pepper
Half and wash the leeks, then slice them finely. Bring water to the boil and blanch it for 2 minutes. Melt butter and sweat leek over low heat for 10 minutes. Add stock, saffron and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Add cream and cook for another 5 minutes. Whiz mixture then strain through a sieve, season with salt and pepper and add dill just before serving.
Some weeks ago I've bought at least 5 different kinds of pumpkins, that are still waiting for being cooked. Somehow I just didn't want to accept the fact that it is indeed already pumpkin season. So yesterday, finally, I decided to prepare something. I thought panna cotta is not such a bad idea. First i wanted an apple panna cotta with caramlised pumpkin, but then the pumpkin ended up in the panna cotta and the apples in the caramel.
Ingredients:
200 g pumpkin (peeled and deseeded)
2 tablespoons orange blossom honey
1 mace1 cm fresh ginger
1 piece of cinnamon or cassia
200 ml cream
1 tablespoon sugar
2 gelatine leaves
2 apples
1 tablespoon butter
100 ml white port wine
1 tablespoon sugar
+ 1 tablespoon sugar and 2 tablespoons lemon juice
Put the peeled and deseeded pumpkin into a pot together with the spices, honey and enough water to cover it and cook until soft. Remove the spices and puree, then press it through a sieve. Soak gelatine for 5 minutes in cold water. Bring cream together with sugar to the boil, add gelatine and mix well. Pour it into glasses and put it to the fridge for 3-4 hours. Before dicing the apples, set 4 thin slices aside. For the apple ragu melt butter and sautee apple for a few minutes, add sugar, caramelise and add port wine and cook for 5 minutes. Sprinkle apple slices with lemon juice and sugar and caramelise over medium heat in a frying pan. Serve panna cotta with the apple ragu and the caramelised apple slices.
Crumble is a typical British pudding containing stewed fruit, topped with a mixture of butter, flour and sugar, served with custard or ice cream. The topping can contain spices like cinnamon, ginger and ground or chopped nuts and/or oats. Commonly used fruits are apples, pears and berries. Crumbles originated in Britain during World War II. It was born due to the strict rationing of the ingredients required to make a pastry. Crumbles were the perfect alternative, using a small amount of flour, sugar and butter. As lately I can't get enough of quinces, I decided to prepare a spicy quince crumble on a rainy autumn afternoon.
Ingredients:2 quinces
50 g sugar
1 star anise
3 cloves
2 cardamom pods
2-3 pieces of cassia or half a cinnamon stick
1/8 teaspoon sichuan pepper
1/8 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 piece of fresh ginger
For the crumble:
40 g butter
30 g brown sugar
10 g vanilla sugar
40 g coarsly ground almond
40 g flour
For the quinces put everything into a pot and add enough water so that the quinces are covered. Bring it to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer over low heat for 50-60 minutes or until soft. You can let it stand over night or remove it from the liquid and let it cool. For the crumble cut butter into small dice. With the help of your fingers rub it into the brown sugar, vanilla sugar, ground almond and flour. Do not mix it too much! Put it to the freezer for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Fill ramekins with the sliced fruit and top with the crumble. Bake for 15 minutes.
Ingredients:
