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!

Fun with Beetroots - Part 2: Beetroot soup

So, here is the second recipe with beetroots. It was a bit inspired by Borscht, but I didn't want to make such a complicated dish today. I was more thinking of something really quick and simple but warming, especially with nasty weather like this. I still had one cooked beetroot and a couple of potatoes from yesterdays dinner. So, this soup is what I came up with:

Ingredients:

• one cooked beetroot (medium size, two small ones otherwise)
• 2 boiled potatoes
• 1 leek, trimmed, only the white part
• 500 ml beef stock
• 100 ml cream
• 2 tbsp soured cream
• pepper

And how I made it:

• cut the beetroot and the potatoes into small chunks
• simmer in the stock for 15 mins, until soft
• now, blend everything (be careful with splashes, otherwise everything gets a nice pink colour!)
• with the cream, there are two options - easy one is, just add and stir through, second one is whip the cream and then add carefully to the soup, gives a lighter texture, more like a foam
• before serving add soured cream and pepper

That's it - simple as that. Believe me, the soup has a vivid pink colour, but the picture won't bring it out (due to the bad light from outside....)

Pizza

Tonight I fancied Pizza. Sometimes I just go and get one from the italian restaurant at the corner, but today I felt like making one myself. Also, it is a very good way to get rid of left overs from your fridge.
There are plenty of ways how to make a pizza,  this is my way.

Ingredients:

For the Dough:

• 300 g plain flour
• 125 mL warm water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• 1 sachet of dried yeast or half a cube of fresh yeast

For the sauce

• 3 fresh tomatoes, chopped up (alternatively also canned tomatoes)
• 1 tbsp of tomato purée
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped up
• 1/2 large white onion, cut into small dice
• 1 tbsp oregano (dried or fresh and chopped)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• good pinch of black pepper
• 1/2 tsp sugar

And the topping:
Depends on what you like, for the pizza here I used mushrooms, tuna, olives, caperberries, onions and grated emmentaler cheese

How to make the dough:

• sift flour in a bowl and make a well in the middle
• add the oil and salt and pepper on the outer rim 
• add the water (should be at least hand warm, but not hot) in the well and add sugar
• crumble fresh yeast in water or add dried yeast
• then with your fingers add more and more flour from the sides to the water mix to form a dough
• knead for a bit and let rise for at least half an hour (the dough should double in size)

How to make the sauce:

• heat a tsp of olive oil in a pan, add the onions and garlic to soften them
• before the onions turn brown, stirr in the tomato puree and the fresh tomatoes
• add herbs and spices and put a lid on
• let the mixture simmer on a low heat, until the tomatoes are soft, then take lid off and reduce the liquid so that you obtain a "ketchup" like consistency

Finally:

• knead the dough again, then roll it out on a greased baking tray, any shape you prefer
• spread the tomato sauce, but don't add too much, otherwise the dough will get soggy
• distribute the toppings but again, don't add too much
• add a bit of oregano to your own taste and a bit olive oil
• finally spread the grated cheese
• bake in a pre-heated oven (I use 150 °C fan oven) for as long as it takes, I would think mine took about 15-20 mins.

And finally, enjoy your Pizza! ( I have mine with a glass of Grauburgunder since it is a tuna pizza)

Christmas is coming...

Dear Everyone,

Christmas is coming closer each day and I have decided to add a special section all around christmas cooking and baking. I will contribute with some family recipes, but really your help is wanted: It would be nice to get a selection of traditional recipes for christmas from all around the world, maybe shared with a story on how christmas is traditionally celebrated in you home country. If you don't celebrate christmas, you maybe wanna add something equivalent, like traditional recipes for Diwali or Eid. In any case, I am really looking forward to the next few weeks and hope you are sending me all your favorite recipes!
 --Stef xx--