Three Curry Soups

The best thing about soup is that you can make it out of just about anything. This post is evidence of that, and I hope that it inspires you to make your own delicious curry soup. It's a great time of year for it, with the cold weather and all. I've made these three blends throughout this fall and winter but never got around to posting them.

These soups are all Indian inspired, but if you don't like spicy, you obviously have other options. I also make a mean potato leek soup. Two of these three involved the use of a pressure cooker, but you can easily do without one when cooking anything. It just takes a bit longer. Two of the soups also require the use of a blender. If you don't have one, buy one.


Lentil soup, which you can see pictured above, is one of my favorites. At some point, I will do a full post on this recipe, which I am fairly sure is legitimately Indian. An Indian friend usually eats it with rice, but I find that's unnecessary. It's already so tasty, filling and healthy. A little yogurt is fine, since I make it fairly spicy.


This bowl of goodness is the result of an old squash that sat around my apartment for a week or so. I knew I had to use it soon, and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Curried squash soup was a perfect fall solution. I used many of the same ingredients as I would in the lentil soup, but I just added them to pureed acorn squash, which I baked first.


My last soup of 2009: Carrot Tomato Soup. This one was quite a bit lighter and less spicy than the previous soups. Basically, I pressure cooked the veggies and pureed them. I then sauteed some onion, black mustard seeds and cumin seeds. I added the veggies with some chili powder and turmeric. It was quite good with crackers.

Bahamian Macaroni

As I carefully maneuvered through snow and ice on my way home tonight, my mind wondered to a friend who is currently sailing across the Caribbean. She recently gifted me the neat turtle spoons (that you can see pictured above) and a few recipes. This is one of them.

Nea, I very much enjoyed your gift. Everyone should check out her awesome sailing blog! Everyone should also try a variation of this recipe, which is better than Wisconsin mac and cheese but can still be eaten with ketchup.

Ingredients:
Most of a box of elbow macaroni noodles (I used whole wheat)
1 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 stick of butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1-2 habanero peppers , diced.
1 green bell pepper, chopped coarsely
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 Roma tomato, chopped coarsely
Salt to taste

Start by boiling the macaroni and sauteing all of the peppers and vegetables until they are softened, about 5 minutes. Combine strained macaroni and veggies in a greased baking dish. Add the butter before this cools and mix. Add the eggs, cheese, Worcestershire and salt. Mix and distribute evenly in dish. Pour the cream on evenly. Top with more grated cheese. Bake for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees.



**A few notes about this recipe: First, I did not label this post "vegetarian," because there are so many animal products in this recipe. I also used a small amount of cream instead of the 2 cans of evaporated milk that the recipe lists. The tomato was totally my idea, and I used some fancy cheddar cheese I had sitting around. Finally, the recipe called for "hot sauce to taste," so I obviously used two habaneros.

Sweet and Sour Veggies with Rice Pilaf

Seeing as Christmas is days away, I thought it would be a good time to clean out my refrigerator to make room for more holiday goodness. I'll be spending some time at my mom's house anyway, so I wanted to get rid of my fresh vegetables and herbs. These two dishes were perfect for that.

Neither dish is especially spicy, which might come as a surprise to you considering that I used about 8 green chillies total. In case you haven't already familiarized yourself with Thai green chillies, this is what they look like. Remember, they are small but potent.

The sweet and sour veggie dish was inspired by this recipe, but I made some changes of my own. I got pretty excited when I saw a whole list of "Indo-Chinese" recipes. Indo-Chinese food is basically the Indian version of the "Chinese" food we get in American restaurants.

Sweet and Sour Veggies
Ingredients:
4 green chillies, chopped
1 medium red onion, but into about 8 large peices
1 carrot, sliced.
1 sweet potato, chopped and boiled until edible
15-20 green beans
1 can of baby corn, rinsed
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons vinegar (I used red wine vinegar because its all I have)
3-4 tablespoons ketchup
3-4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 tablespoons ginger-garlic paste
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds
1/4 cup fresh chives (optional)
Sesame seed oil

Using sesame seed oil in a large pot, saute green chillies and cumin seeds until seeds start to pop. Add your onion, carrots, beans and corn. Add the rest of your spices slowly, and consider adding water if you'd like more sauce. Add sesame seeds, potato and chives. Serve once the vegetables are all slightly softened, about 10 minutes at a low heat.

Rice Pilaf, or whatever you want to call it
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups rice, uncooked
1/2 cup lentils of any color
4 green chillies, chopped
1 sprig of curry leaves
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 teaspoons turmeric
Oil to saute
Salt to taste

First, saute you're green chillies, cumin seeds, curry leaves and mustard seeds. Wait for the seeds to start popping. Add 4 cups of water. Add rice and lentils. Add chili powder, turmeric and salt. Bring to a boil and cover. Reduce the heat. After 20 minutes, remove from heat. Serve.

Chicken Curry

Another Sunday night special. I made chicken curry for myself and a friend. It's fantastic, and Tasha agrees. Last time I made this dish for her, it was part of a "spicy food eating contest" and was outrageously hot. Tonight, I made it more mild and more edible.

There are so many recipes for chicken curry, and I'll do my best to put this one in writing. It's really good, and it yielded a managable amount of food. It fed two people tonight, and I have leftovers (pictured above) to put in my lunchbox for the next two days.

Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts
1 small bell pepper of any color, sliced
1/2 large red onion, chopped
1/2 cup sliced carrots
4 green chillies, sliced
10 curry leaves
2 teaspoons red chili powder
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon ground garam masala
1 handful of garam masala, not ground
2 tablespoons ginger garlic paste
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Salt to taste
Oil for saute
*You don't need to do this recipe in a pressure cooker, but this device is amazing. I recommend everyone buys one.

Mix a marinade for the chicken about two hours before you want to eat. The marinade should include the lemon juice, yogurt, turmeric, chili powder, ground garam masala, ginger garlic paste and a little bit of oil/water. Cut you're chicken breasts into 2 inch pieces and add them to the marinade. Let sit for an hour and a half.

Saute onion until translucent in a pressure cooker. Add green chillies and curry leaves, and saute for another two minutes. Add carrots and chicken mixture. Add whole garam masala. Saute until chicken is slightly brown. Add 1/4 cup water and cover the pressure cooker. Wait for the cooker to whistle 6-7 times (more if it needs it), and remove from heat. After pressure cooker has cooled, open the lid. Lightly saute you're bell pepper and mix that into the chicken curry.

Serve with rice and plain yogurt/yogurt sauce.

Poorly Planned Peanut Butter Cookies

I had a craving for peanut butter cookies today. Seeing as I had peanut butter and other baking essentials, I assumed I would be fine. In the end they turned out well, but there were a few small hangups along the way.

For one, I did not have the peanut butter chips that the recipe called for. This was fine because those are gross. I used a mix of milk and dark chocolate chips instead. Also, I only had about 1/2 cup peanut butter. So I used tahini for the other half cup. Finally, I did not have vanilla extract, so I used cinnamon for a little extra flavor.



To top it all of, they expanded more than I thought they would in the oven. I also left them in there just a little to long. They are not burnt, but the bottoms are browner than I would like. Whatever. I guess that's just how the cookie crumbles!

*This is yet another recipe adapted from the Smitten Kitchen, so go there for ingredients and preparation methods.

BACON!

For the last several weeks, I have had a package of bacon in my freezer. I do not often eat bacon, but I had it in my head to cook a big meal using bacon in more than one dish. Last night, that's exactly what happened.

I kicked the night off by baking some bacon-free biscuits. Yet another recipe from Smitten Kitchen turned out fabulous. I can only hope my recipes will someday yield such pleasing results. These buttermilk chive biscuits would be a great addition to many meals, and they sure were to mine!



Next, I moved on to the BACON! I chose to make black eyed peas, a dish that will always remind me of my grandmother, who is from Texas. This recipe is adapted from the one on the package of the peas, but I'll give it to you anyway.

Ingredients:
1 6.5 oz. package dried black eyed peas
1 cup long-grain white rice
4 cups water
2 tbsp fresh thyme, minced
2 large bay leaves
5 strips bacon
1 medium sized yellow onion, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, chopped
2 stalks of celery, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1-2 green chillies, because I love them
Salt and pepper to taste

First bring the dried peas to a boil in a pot of water. Boil for 2-3 minutes. Then cover, and soak peas for one hour. Drain the peas, and then add them to the uncooked rice. Add the 4 cups of water, and simmer with the thyme and bay leaves until rice is cooked and water is mostly absorbed.

Cook bacon in skillet until crisp. Drain it on a paper towel, and discard all but a small amount of the bacon grease. Saute the vegetables, garlic and chillies in the bacon grease. Add the vegetables to the peas and rice. Chop up the bacon and add to the mixture. Removed leaves. Season to taste and serve.



Finally, this dish was supposed to be the main event, but it sort of fell flat. I think I used too much bacon. Due to this mistake, I will condense my recipe as I explain.

Obtain 1 large fish fillet. I used fresh cod. Season it with lemon and dill. Cut into medium sized pieces and wrap with bacon. Fry pieces lightly on each side. Place in baking dish, and bake for about 20 minutes, doing what you can to remove excess grease.

Lesson learned, use the bacon sparingly!

Palak Paneer

One of my favorite things about this recipe is how vile it looks. Don't get me wrong, this cheese-spinach curry is wonderful, but it looks like white chunks in green sludge.

You may not know this from my blog, but I would say I'm actually quite good at cooking Indian food. I make great lentil soup, a mean chicken curry and many other dishes. I own a pressure cooker and am a frequent visitor to the Indian grocery store near my apartment.

Like any other recipe, I added what I had and skipped what I did not. However, this is a recipe I glanced at beforehand.

Ingredients:
1 bag spinach
1/2 large green bell pepper, very coarsely chopped
1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
3-4 green chilies, sliced
8-10 curry leaves (not usually included in this dish)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
1/2 cup plain yogurt
Ghee for cooking
Salt to taste
About 8 oz fried paneer (I have made this from scratch, but prefer to buy it in a bag)

First, fry the onion until soft, and add the chillies and curry leaves. After one minute, add the bell pepper, and all the other spices, including the seeds and paste. Add the spinach and saute until soft. Wait for it to cool, and add the mixture to a blender or food processor. Blend well while slowly adding the yogurt. Pour mixture into pan and add paneer. Serve with rice and Indian relish/pickle.

I made this dish pretty spicy because I knew the yogurt would make it more mild. It turned out well, and the best part will be eating the green sludge leftovers at work tomorrow.