Summer Pea Soup

Despite the scorching heat, we were inspired to create this wonderful recipe for Summer Pea Soup. It's light and tasty when served at room temperature, and a hint of almond essence makes it a pleasantly surprising dish for a Saturday lunch.

Ingredients
400 gr dried yellow peas
3 cloves garlic, pressed flat with the wide edge of a knife

3 tbs olive oil
1 tsp cumin
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 tbs almond essence
salt and pepper



The Recipe
In a large pan saute the garlic cloves in the oil for a few minutes until they turn golden. Add the peas and mix. Add water (just the right amount to cover the peas) and boil. Simmer and let cook for 45 minutes on low heat, or until the peas are very soft.
Mix in the cumin and lemon juice. Add 1 cup water, stir and let boil. Then add the basil leaves, almond essence and salt and pepper. Mix well and let cook for another 10 minutes. Set aside and let it cool. Serve at room temperature, or if you can't wait, just serve it hot (it's just as good...).

Egyptian Black Lentil Soup

In our everlasting attempt to expand our cookbook collection we traveled to Egypt and picked up a copy of My Egyptian Grandmother's Kitchen by Magda Mehdawy (on our way we managed to see the major sites and taste some local specialties). Our first recipe trial was very successful, resulting in a hearty lentil soup, excellent for any time of year. For a nicer look and a lighter consistency, you should use yellow lentils.

Ingredients:

500 gr black lentils

1 tomato, quartered

1 carrot, quartered

1 tsp salt

1 large onion

1 tbs veg oil

1 cup water

1/4 cup lime juice

1 tsp cumin

chopped parsley

The Recipe:

Wash the lentils well. Transfer to a large pot, add the tomato, carrot and salt and cover with water.

Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.

Remove from heat and puree in a blender.

Chop the onion and fry it with the oil in a large pot until golden brown. Add the pureed lentils, water, lime juice and cumin. You may add more water as needed. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Transfer to serving bowls, garnish with chopped parsely and serve. The soup will taste even better tomorrow. When reheating you might want to add some water since it tends to thicken in the refrigerator.

Carrot Tomato Soup

We were looking through old photos of dishes we made and discovered these great photos of a carrot and tomato soup recipe we threw together not so long ago.

The Ingredients
1 tbs. butter
6 carrots, cubed
1 sweet potato, cubed
3 tomatoes, cubed
1 round zucchini, cubed
1 small red chili pepper, chopped (if you don't like it too spicy, add the chili whole)
1 tbs. brown sugar
1tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
juice from 1/2 lemon


The Recipe
In a soup pot, saute the carrots and sweet potato in the butter until they begin to soften, add the tomatoes and zucchini and continue to cook for 3 minutes. Add enough water to the pot to completely cover the vegetables. Add the chili pepper, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Puree soup in blender (or with a hand held blender). Add lemon juice and salt to taste.

You can top each serving with a pinch of lemon zest. It makes a big difference.

Borscht with Shrimp

This week our pile of root vegetables continued to grow, amounting from our weekly organic vegetable delivery. So, we asked ourselves: What can we make with carrots, sweet potato, beets and zucchini? We hadn't made soup in a while and decided to try our luck and make something up. This experiment resulted in a very tasty (and slightly spicy) borscht soup. Our twist on a Russian classic.

Ingredients:
1 tbs. butter
3 carrots, cubed
1 sweet potato, cubed
2 small beets, cubed
1 round zucchini, cubed
1 cup white cabbage, shredded
3 tbs. hot pepper relish (Adzhika) or 1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cinnamon powder
1/2 cup of coriander, chopped
10 peeled shrimp
salt and pepper to taste

The Recipe:
Saute the carrots, sweet potato and beets in butter in a large pot until slightly softened, about ten minutes. Add the zucchini and cabbage (which cook faster) and saute for another 5 minutes. Add water to the pot until it almost covers the vegetables and bring the mixture to a boil. Lower the flame and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the hot pepper relish or chili, cinnamon and fresh coriander and stir. Add salt and pepper to taste. Then add the shrimp, watching them closely and as soon as they turn pink, about 2 to 3 minutes, turn off the heat and serve.

 

 

Walnut Sage Olive Oil

In a moment of creativity we arranged a few toasted walnuts, 3 leaves of sage and a clove of garlic in a small glass jar and filled it with olive oil. We left it untouched for 3 weeks on a shelf in our kitchen. When we finally opened the jar a few days ago, we discovered it really worked! The aroma and taste of the walnuts, sage and garlic blended into the oil. You can add it to salad dressing or sprinkled it on soups. Try it out, or even better - try your own combination.

Lobios Chorba, Georgian Red Bean Soup

A few weeks ago we promised I and Y to treat them to a birthday dinner whenever they choose. Last Friday they took us up on the offer and we delivered a mezze feast consisting of no less than 15(!!) different dishes. It also gave us the opportunity to try out a large variety of new recipes.

The Lobios Chorba, is a hearty bean soup that is a bit tangy and is very good for a cold evening. Since we had many more courses to go, we served it in small coffee cups (not in the pictures).

We adapted this recipe from "The Georgian Feast" by  Darra Goldstein:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups dried red beans
8 cups water
1 bay leaf
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 onions, peeled and chopped
1 carrot. peeled and chopped
2 leeks, sliced thinly
3 tbsp butter
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 small minced hot pepper
ground black pepper
6 sprigs each of parsley, coriander and dill, minced
1 tbsp red wine vinegar

The recipe:
Simmer the beans with water, bay leaf and 1 tsp salt on low heat until tender (about 2 hours).
Meanwhile, saute the onions, carrot and leeks in the butter until soft.
In a mortar and pestle pound the garlic with the remaining salt.
When the beans are soft add the sauteed vegetables, garlic, hot pepper and black pepper. Simmer for 15 more minutes, then stir in the minced herbs and vinegar and serve.

Noum Bai Chok by the Waterfront, Sihanoukville

Noum Bai Chok (not sure about the spelling), yet another yummy Cambodian dish that came straight our way as we were slurping our mango smoothies, is rice noodles and herbs in a fish curry soup. It's made on the spot by the trusted smiling vendor who wanders around the beach carrying all the products on her shoulders. First she piles a bowl with assorted fresh herbs: mint, banana blossom, green beans and others we could not identify.

Then, she adds a handful of fresh hand-made rice noodles and covers the lot with a hearty fish curry broth.

All that was left for us was to add the condiments of dried/fresh chili, salt and sugar to our liking. God bless.

A word of advice: the best food on Cambodian beaches is sold by these mobile vendors.

Northern Eats, Chiang Mai

In Chiang Mai you are never too far from a hearty and incredibly delicious bowl of Khao Soi. This egg noodle curry soup, made from red curry, coconut milk and pieces of chicken, is topped with pickled mustard greens, sliced shallots, fried noodles and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. The place to get it is on Faham Road where many local restaurants serve the dish.

The Cooking Class

Chiang Mai offers many cooking classes. We randomly picked one and had a go. The Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School is one of the more popular establishments for vacationing Brits and Aussies searching for a way to impress their mothers back home. The course was well run (considering the large number of participants, we were 30!) and consisted of demonstrations and individual practice. We cooked and enjoyed 6 dishes in 6 hours and went home satisfied.

Fellow chefs at lunchtime.


Tom Yam Goong.
This famous fresh Thai soup is so easy and quick to prepare. All you need to do is chop garlic, shallots, lemon grass and galangal root and add them to a chicken/fish/veg broth. Wait till it boils then add cubed straw mushrooms and tomatoes. After a couple of minutes add chopped chillies, fish sauce and kaffir lime leaves and cook on low heat for 2 minutes. Finally, throw in some fresh prawns (clean an headless) or chunks of white fish (but don't over cook). Remove from heat, squeeze in lime juice and top with coriander.

Ingredients clockwise: tomato, straw mushroom, lemon grass, lime, purple shallot, galagal root (the pinkish chunk) and kaffir lime leaf.


Tom Yam soup, ready.


Tord Man Plaa, a deep fried fish patty is made out of ground white fish, red curry paste, fish sauce, tapioca flour, baking powder, palm sugar, shredded kaffir lime leaves and thinly sliced green beans. Just mix the ingredients and deep fry in a wok until brown.


Laap Gai is a spicy chicken salad served with cold cucumber. To make this one you need to toss minced chicken breast, sliced shallots, finely chopped galagal, fish sauce, lime juice and chili powder together in a wok. When the chicken is cooked, remove from heat and mix in chopped fresh spring onion, coriander and mint.

Tom Kha Gai, Chicken and Coconut Milk Soup

Chicken breast, galangal, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, straw mushrooms, coconut milk, chicken stock, fresh cayenne chillies, fish sauce and lime juice make up this deliciously tasty and aromatic soup. Boil the coconut milk and stock first, then add mushrooms and chicken, and finish with the rest. Serve in a bowl and garnish with fresh cilantro.

Freshly sliced lemon grass.


Straw mushrooms, kaffir lime leaves and bird chillies.


Fish sauce (rosey color) and lime juice (yellow).


The finished product.

Noodle Soup

As we said before, we couldn't get enough and kept on coming back to the same stall at the Chinese Market in Kashgar. This noodle soup straight from the wok took our beloved vendor two minutes to cook up. Watch and learn:

First cook thin rice noodles and bok choy in boiling water.

When the noodles are cooked remove from the flame and strain. Transfer into a bowl and add a ladle of meat broth made with pieces of meat, ginger, garlic and green onions.

Don't forget a spoonful of pickled greens (any cabbage will do), to add that Chinese Market flavor.

Voila!


The same dish comes pre-packaged in styrofoam with lots of additives and MSG. It is a common dinner for the locals on the night train, as they pour boiling water, supplied by the somewhat irritated train staff, and slurp noisily, munching on raw pork sausage on the side. The Royals tried this and were appalled.