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!

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....)

Fun with Beetroots - Part 1: Red Hering Salad

My last post has been some time ago, so I thought I update you on my experiences with beetroot. As some of you know, each week I receive a "surprise vegetable&fruit box" and this time it included two beetroots. The first idea that sprang to my mind was a raw beet root carpaccio, the second was roasted beets. However, this is exactly what I have done the last two times with beet roots. So here is something else, two simple recipes, starting with a fabulous red hering salad.



Ingredients:

• 4 large hering filets (either in brine or in oil, they should be salty)
• 1 apple, I use Braeburn here, but anything similiar will do, just shouldn't be too sweet
• 1 onion
• 1 cooked beetroot (cook for 20 mins and then peel)
• 100 g yoghurt
• 100 g soured cream
• 100 g Schmand (I don't know if there is an english equivalent, i would just double the amount of soured cream)
• salt, black pepper and a pinch of sugar

The assembly

• cut the fish, the beetroot and the apple into dice
• cut the onion into halves and then finely slice
• mix everything in a bowl, than add the dairy products
• add the spices to your taste
• put in the refrigerator for at least half an hour

That's it, optionally you can also chop in a boiled egg, I do prefer it on the side though. Serve with dark rye bread, preferably with Pumpernickl, if you can get hold of it!

Quick Pear & Blue Cheese Tarte

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope you enjoyed the festive season as much as I did and your start into 2012 was fabulous. I certainly had (actually still have) a very relaxing break and now I am looking forward to going back to work (yes, really!)

As first post for the new year, I chose this very quick, adaptable and yummy recipe using ready-made puff pastry.




Ingredients:

• puff pastry (1 pack or as much as you like)
• 1 small or half a large pear (preferably a bit sour and with crunch, not too sweet)
• blue cheese to your liking (I used a creamy gorgonzola but I guess almost every blue cheese would do)
• soured cream
• roughly chopped walnuts
• parsley, pepper

How to make it:

• roll out the puff pastry, 1 cm from the edges, cut lines parallel to the edges with a sharp knife, but don't pierce the dough (this will give you slighty higher risen edges of your tarte, so the filling won't escape)
• cover the inner box with soured cream (generous portion), add the sliced pears, sprinkle the walnuts and crumble blue cheese over
• make sure the rim is still dry, otherwise it won't rise
• bake in a preaheat oven at 150 °C (no fan) for roughly 15-20 mins (but this depends on the cheese you use!)
• sprinkle with parsley and freshly ground black pepper

That's it. You might also want to try different toppings, some of my favorites are figs and parma ham, smoked salmon and spring onions or chickenbreast and black olives.