Curried Sweet Potato Soup with Carrot & Lentils

Nothing like finding inspiration in a surprise dental emergency.  I cracked a tooth leading to needing a full extraction.

Yes, ouch. But once all was removed I needed to find something to eat while on a liquid diet this week.

Here is the resulting mash-up of several ideas I had while digging through soup recipes. 

The lentils were key -- part thickener, part protein supplier (remember, no meat for this guy this week).  Carrots & curry just sweetened the deal.

I got it done in my electric pressure cooker in about 40 minutes and then puréed it -- a perfect balance to the other mush I'm eating this week.

The cool thing is that I can see using this as a base curry sauce once I can chew again.  I'll be poaching some chicken or fish or shrimp in this over rice someday soon.  

Enjoy!

Curried Sweet Potato Soup with Carrot & Lentils

2 Tbs canola oil
1 small onion, diced
1 cup carrot, diced
1 sweet potato, peeled & diced
2 Tbs chopped garlic
1 Tbs chopped ginger
1 cup red lentils
4 cup chicken or veg stock
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cardamom
2 tsp curry powder
salt & pepper to taste

Heat oil
Sautee onion, carrot, sweet potato, garlic, & ginger for 5 minutes. Season with salt & pepper.
Add other spices. Cook 2 minutes.
Add lentils & stir.
Add stock.
Cook for 30 minutes
Puree
Serve with spoon of yogurt.

An alternative method: 

Use pressure cooker instead of on stove. 5 minutes on high, let pressure come down naturally, and then puree.

Blood Orange Marmalade

I had my first blood orange when my wife Jen & I were in Italy for our 2nd anniversary --  the honeymoon we should have originally taken.  While in Venice, we took a daytrip to Murano, saw some glass-making artisans and then got some lunch at a local market.  Sitting in a sunny little park off the main drag, I pulled out the red-skinned orange not knowing what to expect and fell in love with the sweet/tart berry-ness.

Here in California, blood oranges are only available in the winter -- they show up in our groceries as early as Thanksgiving but more typically around New Years and they're only around till early March.  I drive Jen crazy by filling up our fridge with bags of the suckers wanting to make all sorts of things with them (cakes, tarts, curds, ice cream, & marmalade).

Here's my take on making the marmalade based on the recipe from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.


Blood Orange & Lemon Marmalade

This makes around six 8 oz. jars

3 lbs                                   Blood Oranges (around 8)

2 big or 3 small                 Lemons

4+ cups                              Water

6 cups                                 Sugar

8 tsp                                    Grand Marnier

A. Prep peel

1. Using a sharp knife or vegetable peeler, cut the colored part only from the oranges and lemons.

2. Avoid getting the bitter white layer

3. Place peels in a saucepan generously covered with cold water.                 

4. Bring to a boil over medium-low heat                 

5. Boil for 10 minutes.                 

6. Drain.                 

7. Again, generously cover with cold water and return to a boil.                 

8. Boil for 10 more minutes until the peel is softened.                 

9. Drain.                 

10. Cut peel into paper thin strips                 

Alternate method to 1-10 :  use a Microplane to zest the fruit -- avoid getting the bitter white layer

B. Prep fruit

1. With a sharp knife, cut and set aside the remaining peel and membrane from the oranges and lemons.                 

2. Thinly slice the oranges and lemons, setting aside any tough pith or seeds                  

3. Roughly chop the fruit -- be sure to save all the juice

4. Place the reserved peel, membrane, pith, & seeds (from steps 1 & 2) in a cheesecloth bag

C. Cook the fruit -- Part 1

1. Put chopped fruit, peel, cheesecloth bag and 4 cups water in a saucepan

2. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat

3. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently for around 30 minutes until peel is very soft when squeezed with fingers

4. Remove from heat

5. Take cheesecloth bag and squeeze out as much natural pectin as possible over a separate bowl and then add this back to the fruit

6. Puree in blender or food processor

7. Measure out 6 cups of the fruit mixture

8. Add more water to get a total of 6 cups

9. Mix well

NOTE: Prepare canner, jars, and lids now

D. Cook the fruit -- Part 2

1. Ladle all 6 cups of cooked fruit into a clean, large, deep saucepan.

2. Bring saucepan to a boil over medium-high heat.

3. Maintaining boil, gradually stir sugar into pan.

4. Boil hard stirring constantly until the mixture reaches the gel stage, about 15 - 18 minutes

5. Just before gel stage, add Grand Marnier to saucepan

6. Remove from heat and test gel.

7. If gel stage has been reached, skim off foam.

E. Canning the fruit

1. Ladle hot marmalade into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace

2. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary by adding hot marmalade

3. Wipe rim

4. Center lid on jar

5. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight

6. Place jars in canner, insuring that they are completely covered with water.

7. Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes.

8. Remove canner lid

9. Wait 5 minutes

10. Remove jars, cool, and store.

I scream for my ice cream maker

We got an ice cream maker as a gift this past holiday season from my mother-in-law and it's moving up in the ranks of fun kitchen toys to play and experiment with (I'm still enjoying the electric pressure cooker I got a few birthdays ago from my wife -- other posts to follow on this item).

Typically, I try to read beyond the manual finding some online links and some books from the local library to understand how the new toy works and what kind of tasty frozen treats I can make.  Here's 3 books I found that have been quite useful:

1. The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz
2. The Ciao Bella Book of Gelato and Sorbetto by F. W. Pearce & Danilo Zecchin
3. Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer

Each have a wide range of amazing delicious-sounding recipes to try.  Each take their own approach to making them.

The difference between Lebovitz & Pearce/Zecchin's methods is more to do with the order of incorporating the ingredients -- milk, cream, half & half, sugar, eggs, flavorings and chocolate when used. 

JBB breaks things down a little differently in #3 by removing eggs from the equation but adding in some cream cheese and corn syrup that makes putting a batch together somewhat easier IMHO.

I've made the following:

Ice Creams
Coffee
Blood Orange
Vanilla Bourbon with Spicy Pecans
Chocolate Mint
Chocolate Peanut Butter

Sorbets
Chocolate Tangerine


Some advice
1. Get yourself some dedicated containers -- you'll want to have more than one flavor available  :-)  While I did get myself two 5 cup Rubbermaid containers I am still considering some generic non-plastic ones.

2. I like JBB's method of chilling your mixture in a gallon-size ziploc bag.  More surface area gets exposed to get the temperature down quicker -- even more so if you choose to sit the bag in an ice bath before doing a long chill. Try to chill your mixture in the fridge overnight before freezing it -- it really helps the ice cream set up. 

Rosemary Thumbprint Cookies filled with Blood Orange Jam

Based cookie on sugar cookie in Ruhlman's Ratio -- swapping almond extract for vanilla and adding some fresh rosemary.

Here's how it went:

A.    Dry Ingredients
    2       cups    All-purpose Flour    (12 oz)
    1       tsp      Baking Powder
    1/2    tsp      Salt

B.    Wet Ingredients
    2      sticks   Unsalted Butter     (8 oz)
    1      cup      Sugar                     (8 oz)
    1                  Egg

C.    Other Additions
   1/2    tsp       Almond Extract
     1     tsp       Fresh Rosemary (finely chopped)

D.    Fillings
   1/2    cup     Blood Orange Jam

NOTE: I weighed out the flour & sugar per Ruhlman

1. Combine items in section (B) and items from section (C) in mixer
   a. Whip butter in electric mixer (I used the KitchenAid with the paddle attachment)
   b. Cream in sugar
   c. Add egg along with the almond extract & rosemary

2. Mix items in section (A) in a separate bowl.  Use listed weight of items.

3. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients until uniformly mixed

4. Wrap dough in (plastic wrap / waxed paper / parchment paper) as a long tube and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes

5. Preheat oven to 350 F

6. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper

7. Assemble thumbprint cookies
   a. Scoop tablespoons of dough
   b. Roll into thick 1-inch cylinder, flatten top & bottom, place on tray
   c. Poke center of the cookie ball with end of wooden spoon -- funnel opening so it looks like a volcano
   d. place 1/2 tsp of jam in the center of each dough ball.

8. Bake for 17 minutes. Edges should be lightly browned.

9. Take cookie sheet out of oven but let cookies rest on sheet for 1 minute

10. Remove cookies from sheet and onto racks to cool

The end result was a chewy savory cookie and I got to take advantage of my homemade Blood Orange Jam!

Why cook?

Food is one of the great equalizers.

Everyone needs it every day.

Without it we wither away.  

Eating alone allows for meditation on the day to come or that which has passed.

Dining with friends and family is the ultimate in good times.

So the question is......what does cooking bring to the table?

Of course there will always be a place that will gladly charge you a dollar for a morsel of goodness.

But the joy of creating something that someone will enjoy -- now that's some pleasure!!  Whether that "someone" is someone else or just myself, to witness a friend or loved one getting some satisfaction from your own creation can't be beat.

For me, it's also the acts of learning and creating -- the researching of past recipes, the exploring and acquiring of ingredients, the absorption of what makes a particular dish tick, and then prepping and preparing the dish, sometimes sticking to the chosen recipe and sometimes straying a little. Getting things right and screwing up royally.

It all adds up to a process that relaxes and invigorates me.  Both meditative and heart pumping, cooking is more than a path to daily nourishment.

It's part of my survival.