Carrot & Ginger Soup

Man, it's cold! There is nothing more warming than a spiced soup these days. Here is my favorite winter soup, very simple and very quick, if you don't like ginger, you can replace it with chili or simply leave it out.
Here is what you need:

• 5 large carrots, roughly sliced
• 1 large white onion cut into rough chunks
• 2 cm knob peeled fresh ginger, cut into pieces
• 1 tbsp honey
• 500 mL (or more) vegetable stock
• soured cream for the finish (if wanted), thyme
• black pepper

How to make it:

• soften onions in a little bit of olive oil, add ginger and carrots and cover with a lid
• stir from time to time an fry for ca. 10 mins.
• add the honey, stir through and add stock
• simmer with a closed lid until carrots are soft
• blend until smooth, if needed, add more stock
• just before serving, top each individual portion with a dollop of soured cream and season with thyme and coarse ground black pepper and drizzle over a bit olive oil

Voilà!

Choux-Pastry (Brandteig)

Hi Everyone, I attempted this for the first time. Always thought it is very hard to get it right, but I tell you what, it is so easy! Choux pastry can be transformed into eclairs, profiteroles or german Windbeutel, also croqueembouche (but I wouldn't make one of those....)
I chose to make a hybrid between profiterols and Windbeutel and I froze them straight away. They thaw without damage and that way I always have something for desert in case of surprise guests!

So here the ingredients for the Choux pastry:

• 100 g plain flour
• 75 g unsalted butter
• 175 mL water
• 1/4 tspn salt
• 3 eggs, beaten

Method:

• put salt, butter and water in a pan and warm gently until the butter is molten and then quickly bring to boil
• add all the flour in one go, remove from heat and beat until you have a smooth dough
• put back on heat and stirr for another 2-5 mins, it is supposed to transform into a glossy ball and come easily off the sides of the pan
• let cool completely
• add small portions of the egg and stirr vigorously after each addition
• the dough should be still firm enough to be piped out, so stop the egg addition, if the mixture becomes to liquid
• pipe onto a grease proof paper and follow the cooking instructions

Cooking instructions:

• for profiterols or croqueembouche pipe out small heaps of max 2cm diameter (they grow quite a bit)
• for eclairs pipe out ~8 cm lines
• bake in a preheated oven at 200 °C (no fan!!!) for 15 mins
• open the oven door to release steam and continue baking fo 5-10 mins at 180 °C
• take out of the oven and make a hole in each bun/eclair, so the steam can evaporate
• bake for another 10-15 mins
• make absolutely sure, they are cooked completely through, they will collapse otherwise! If you think they are ready, give them an extra 5 mins
• let cool completely on a wire rack before filling

For the fillings:

• custard for eclairs (thick, more pastelike custard)
• whipped cream for Windbeutel
• crème anglais for profiterols, plus molten chocolate on top
• a mixture of mascarpone cheese and whipped cream with vanilla for my "hybrid version" + molten chocolate mixture on top (50 g dark chocolate, 1 tbsp water and 25 g butter)
• or whatever you like! shouldn't be to liquidy though :-)

Enjoy!