Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Curry Vegetable Soup

No pictures unfortunately. A spicy, hearty soup.

Ingredients:

Carrot
Onion
Potato
Kidney Beans
Frozen Peas
Coconut Milk
Milk
Chestnuts
Chili Flakes
Ground Cumin
Cayenne Pepper
Red Curry Paste
Vegetable soup bouillon
Flour
Olive Oil
Sesame Seed Oil

Heat saucepan with olive and sesame seed oils. Add diced onion and carrot. Season with sea salt and pepper. Cook for a little bit on medium-high heat then deglaze with a bit of and then some of milk. Add vegetable bouillon and spices to taste. Add frozen peas, coconut milk, red curry paste, potatoes, kidney beans chestnuts and a bit of water. Reduce, cook, simmer, whatever.

When everything is cooked you have powerful flavour! Add water and stir in a bit of flour to thicken.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Desserty Polenta




I set out to make polenta today. It actually went quite well with this being my first attempt.

Ingredients:

Milk
Water
Butter
Cornmeal
Salt
Vanilla
Brown Sugar

Topping:

Raisins
Craisins
Dried Apricots
Ginger
Butter
Corn Syrup


Bring the milk just to a boil. Slowly add cornmeal while whisking constantly. Realize that you don't know how much cornmeal to liquid you need so recover by adding water. Add a little bit of butter and season with a little bit of salt. Stir occasionally over low heat for an hour.

After an hour taste the polenta and ask yourself "what do I do now? I just wanted to make polenta... I have no idea what to do with it or how one should eat it." Decide that the polenta is a little on the sweet side and therefore would make an admirable dessert. Mix in some brown sugar and vanilla.

In a sauce pan, melt some butter and add the dried fuit and ginger to it. Deglaze and reduce a few times with water. Towards the end, I added some corn syrup to thicken it. Top the polenta with the 'sauce' and garnish with sliced almonds.

Voila, but the topping needs work.