This was a recent experiment that ended up as a tasty dinner and then lunch the next day. I used a basic carrot soup recipe with ginger and lemon to start but then added a lot of other things to it (curry powder, cashews, coconut cream). It made a very interesting, satisfying soup.

My inspiration for adding all of those extra ingredients were a really wonderful bowl of soup I had a couple of years ago at The Cricket Cafe on Belmont and a recent lazy approach to dinner in the form of Pacific Foods Cashew Carrot Ginger soup.

I think you could easily substitute coconut milk for the cream (it won’t end up as creamy) but you’ll save some fat for a dessert or something. I went ahead and froze my leftover coconut cream in three batches for other recipes. That’s what I do when I open a can of coconut milk and don’t use it all. I’m assuming it will work with the cream as well. No one comment and tell me it won’t work. Do not crush my dreams!

Also, I just want to add that I got the Ad Hoc at Home cookbook for my birthday and I am so excited to cook something from it!

Curried Carrot Soup with Coconut & Cashews
Adapted from a recipe in Bon Appétit
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 white onion, chopped
1 tbsp peeled fresh ginger, grated
Optional: 1 tsp fresh turmeric, grated
1 tsp curry powder
4 cloves minced garlic
3 cups medium carrots, peeled, chopped
1 tomato, seeded, chopped
zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup toasted cashews
3 cups chicken stock or canned low-salt broth
1/3 cup coconut cream
small squeeze of lemon juice
Optional Garnishes: chopped green onion, thai basil leaves

Frozen pieces of ginger and turmeric, about to be microplaned

Melt butter and heat oil in a heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 4-5 minutes. Add ginger (and fresh turmeric, if you’ve got it), garlic and curry powder; sauté 2 more minutes.

Oh, last month I came across fresh turmeric at Pasta Works. I know, neat! I used what I needed then and then peeled some and cut it into about 1-inch pieces, wrapped it up and froze it like I would peeled, fresh ginger. That’s what I used here. If you have access to fresh turmeric, great. If not, just skip it. Or if you wanted to, you could add maybe a 1/4 tsp dried. But I wouldn’t worry about it.

Next, add the chopped carrots, tomato and lemon zest; sauté 1 minute.

Add 3 cups stock and bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover partially and simmer until carrots are very tender, about 20 minutes.

Stir in coconut cream and cashews. Cool slightly.

Puree soup in batches in blender. Return soup to pot. Squeeze in a little lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring soup back to a simmer, thinning with more stock, if needed. Ladle into bowls. Garnish with green onions and Thai basil if you have any.

***

Oh, I just added a bunch of images to Flickr, including: Brunch at Country Cat, our last dinner at Carlyle, Lincoln City and assorted food stuff.

Both jwa and I had short ribs recently at Tabla (New Year’s Eve, I believe) and ever since, I’ve wanted to make some. I finally gave it a try last weekend and was pretty happy with the results. The cooking liquid here is deeeeee-licious! And the meat was pretty good too! The meat just fell off the bones, nom-nom-nom-nom.

The original recipe said to make the ribs the day before you eat them, just re-warming before serving. An advantage to that is that you can pull some of the solid fat off the top. I didn’t do that, but I did cook it in the morning, let it cool, refrigerated for a couple of hours and was able to spoon some of the fat off the top that way.

But really, you’re eating a big pot of red meat, are you really concerned about the extra fat? So, you could probably time this to just be done when you want to eat it and not worry about it at all, or just try to skim some fat off while it’s still hot.

Braised Short Ribs
Recipe adapted from Michael Symon
5-6 Servings
2 tbsp olive oil
3 lbs meaty beef short ribs on the bone
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 fresh thyme sprigs
2 fresh rosemary sprigs
1 tsp anchovy paste (or 1 anchovy)
1 bay leaf
1 head garlic, cloves separated
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup dry red wine
2 tbsp red wine vinegar

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large enameled cast iron casserole or big, heavy pot. Season the ribs with salt and pepper. Add half of the short ribs to the casserole and cook over moderately high heat until browned, about 6 minutes. Transfer the ribs to a plate or bowl. Repeat with the remaining oil and ribs.

Add the celery, carrot and onion to the casserole and cook over moderate heat until softened, about 7 minutes.

Turn the heat down to low. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, until glossy, about 2 minutes.

Add the herb sprigs, anchovy paste, bay leaf and garlic and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Next, add the stock, wine and vinegar and bring to a boil.

Return the short ribs to the pot, then cover and braise in the oven at 325 degrees F for 1 hour. Drop heat to 225 degrees F and cook for 3.5 - 4 more hours or until meat is tender.

Let cool and then refrigerate until read to serve. When you are about ready to eat, skim as much fat from the top as you can and rewarm the pot of ribs over medium heat.

This was delicious with some polenta and roasted broccoli!

We got dinner & lunches the next day and one more dinner out of this!

Recently, I found myself with a bag of lentils and a dream. Or something like that. Maybe it was just a bag of lentils, a craving for soup and memories of the awesome chicken tagine of last month. So I kind of combined the two for something I like to call Lentil Soup #22 (or Moroccan-Style Lentil Soup). I’ve posted lentil soups before, but this is way different.

I used Spanish lentils for this (they hold their shape really well) but any brown lentil will work fine. So would red or green, probably.

Lentil Soup #22 (or Moroccan-Style Lentil Soup)
Adapted from a recipe by ME!
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cumin
2 tbsp sun dried tomato paste
1 cinnamon stick
8 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
1 1/4 cups brown lentils
1 handful cilantro, chopped
Optional: 1/2 tsp Rogan Josh seasoning
Garnishes: more cilantro and yogurt

Heat the olive oil in a big soup pot. Add the onion and garlic and saute over medium, until a little golden and soft, 8-10 minutes.

Next comes the paprika, cumin, tomato paste and Rogan Josh seasoning, if using. Stir and cook about another two minutes.

Add the cinnamon stick, broth, diced tomatoes and bring to a boil.

Combine the lentils into the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, about an hour. Taste and adjust seasonings and salt and pepper to taste. Add the chopped cilantro and serve.

Garnish with more cilantro and yogurt.

***

In bread news, I made the Pecan, Raisin & Anise Baguettes which turned out well and then last weekend I made another French Round. I let the starter go for 16 hours, I used Morton Kosher Salt (saltier!) and spritzed with water. It made all the difference! So good! nom nom nom nom

We had this meal over New Year’s Weekend because I believe lentils are lucky to have around that time. Of course, I opted to not use lentils because I had some Christmas Lima Beans that I needed to use. I hope Christmas Lima Beans are still lucky. I soaked my beans for about 8 hours before I used them in the recipe, so make sure you do that if you are using larger dried beans. You could also just use lentils, like the original recipe calls for and skip the soaking all together. I think that’s what I’ll do next time.

That said, this meal was fantastic! The tomato salsa is really fragrant and good and I have discovered Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage at Trader Joe’s. Wow — it was so tasty in this. Feel free to use the sausage of your choice — chicken, turkey or traditional pork sausage. Note: If your sausage is not raw, I would just cook briefly in the pan, not bake in the oven too.

This will feed a lot, so invite people over or have lunches and dinners for the week to look forward too.

Sausages and Legumes with Tomato Salsa
Adapted from a recipe in Jamie’s Italy
8 medium-sized good-quality Italian sausages (my package of chicken Italian sausage only had 5, so that’s how many I used)
Olive oil
1 pound broccoli florets
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
A small handful of chopped thyme

For the tomato salsa
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 small red onion, peeled and finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
1 small stick of cinnamon
1-2 small dried red chilies, crumbled
2 tbsp red wine vinegar, plus extra for dressing
2 (14 ounce) cans of good-quality plum tomatoes (I used Italian stewed tomatoes)

For the lentils (or beans)
14 ounces lenticchie di Castelluccio or Puy lentils (or the equivalent in pre-soaked beans)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 bay leaf
A handful of fresh flat–leaf parsley, leaves chopped, stems reserved
Red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

Start the salsa: Heat the olive oil in a pan, then add the onion and sliced garlic, cinnamon stick and a the chili, saute on a gentle heat for 10 minutes, until the onions are soft. Turn the heat up and add your red wine vinegar — stand back.

Then turn the heat down to low and add the canned tomatoes. Break them up with a wooden spoon and simmer while you work on the rest of the meal.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Put the beans into a pot, cover them with water, and add the 2 whole cloves of garlic, the bay leaf, and some tied-up stems from the parsley. Simmer for around 20 minutes for lentils, up to an hour for larger beans. Make sure that you’ve got enough liquid covering the lentils or beans.

Toss the sausages in a little olive oil and sear them in a pan, then put them in the preheated oven for 25 minutes or until golden and crisp. It helps if the pan you seared them in is oven safe.

Toss your broccoli in a little olive oil, salt and pepper and add it to the oven too, roasting for about 15-20 minutes. When done, toss in a bowl with a squeeze of lemon juice and some extra virgin olive oil.

Once the lentils or beans are cooked, remove the parsley stems and bay leaf and pour away most of the water from the pot. Mash the garlic cloves up with a spoon, mix in with the lentils or lentils, and dress them using 4 tablespoons of good extra virgin olive oil and 1 or 2 tablespoons of good vinegar. Throw in all your finely chopped parsley leaves, mix, and season.

Remove the sausages from the pan and pour away any fat. Transfer lentils or beans into your serving bowl. Remove the cinnamon stick from the salsa and discard it, then season well to taste and spoon it over your lentils or beans. Place the sausages, either sliced or whole, on top. Sprinkle with the thyme or parsley and serve with a big bowl of the roasted broccoli.

Starting this meal off? A killer antipasto platter I put together with — roasted red pepper, marinated artichoke hearts, roasted garlic, olives, prosciutto, mole salami, marinated mushrooms and aged provolone.

So here is what we snacked on Christmas morning while opening presents. This is also a great way to use up the odd piece of puff pastry you may have in your freezer after the holidays. Or, just go buy some puff pastry for the sole purpose of making these. That would certainly work too!

The original recipe is based on one by Ina Garten but I cut the butter way down. Seriously, I think the original recipe’s rolls would have been swimming in butter. I adjusted it to only 4 tablespoons total (about half of what was originally called for).

I also omitted the raisins and added the pecans to the filling, as many reviews mentioned that the pecans burned while on the bottom of the muffin tin.

Note: I put these together the night before up to getting them in the muffin cups. Then I wrapped them up tightly with plastic wrap and kept in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning I baked them. Worked really well!

Puff Pastry Cinnamon Rolls
Recipe adapted from the Barefoot Contessa
3 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tbsp brown sugar, packed
1 sheet frozen puff pastry, defrosted

For the filling:
1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/3 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped pecans (mine were lightly salted and toasted)
1/2 tsp orange zest
1/4 tsp anise seeds

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Locate a jumbo 6 cup muffin tin. Combine the 3 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons brown sugar. Divide this mixture between the bottom of the six muffin cups.

In a bowl, mix the brown sugar, cinnamon, pecans, orange zest and anise seeds.

Lightly flour a wooden board or stone surface. Unfold your sheet of puff pastry. Brush the whole sheet with the melted butter. Leaving a 1-inch border on the puff pastry, sprinkle the sheet with the brown sugar/pecan mixture.

Starting with the end nearest you, roll the pastry up snugly like a jelly roll around the filling, finishing the roll with the seam side down.

Slice the roll in 6 equal pieces. Place each piece, spiral side up, in a muffin cup.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the sticky buns are golden on top and firm to the touch. Be careful - they’re hot!

Allow to cool for 5 minutes only, invert the buns (you may have to do this one at a time, not just by flipping the muffin tin over) onto onto a plate. Use a spoon to spread any brown sugar/butter that stays in the cup, on top of the roll.

These are delightful eaten warm, but still delicious eaten at room temperature!