Roasted Carrot and Parsnip Soup with Coriander

If necessity is the mother of invention then, leftover food is the mother of...well...different food.

It's winter and I cocoon in the warmth of my home. Enough food to feed a hockey team rolls out of my kitchen: Beelzebub's maw offers breads, casseroles, roast chicken, baked chops and lots and lots of roast veggies every few days.

It all gets eaten, sometimes frozen for a rainy day. Leftovers get played with--sometimes successfully, sometimes not. This is a successfull dalliance.

The other week my own poor planning left me without any exra meat or potatoes, but an overabundance of oven roasted carrots and parsnips.

I stared at them for a while. I'm sure a roast carrot and parsnip quesadilla could have done the trick, but I wasn't enthused. I could have baked some chicken legs or perhaps fried a quick steak, but for whatever reason neither of those options seemed satisfying either.

Falling snow and a quick wind put me in the mind for a hearty soup. The vegetables were roasted with warming spices of cardamom, coriander and cumin and the idea of turning them into a burnished gold soup was exactly what was called for.

As with most soups, I think this is really a non-recipe recipe: create a flavour base, add liquid, add the veggies boil and purée. Add more liquid, if needed.

My only tip I (and it's really not my tip, as I've seen it mentioned in chef interviews and recipes) is to add a bit of carrot juice after puréeing, to add a bit of brightness to the taste as well as colour.


Roasted Carrot and Parsnip Soup with Coriander
Yield approx 1.5l (6 cups)

Ingredients
flavourless oil
0.5tsp black mustard seeds
0.5tsp ground coriander seeds
0.5tsp ground tumeric
0.5tsp cinnamon
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2.5cm (1") piece of ginger, minced
300g (2c) roasted carrots and parsnips
(4c) hot vegetable stock, plus more, if needed
2tsp vinegar or lemon juice
375ml (2.5c) carrot juice (optional)
salt and pepper (to taste)

Garnish (optional)
sour cream
coriander leaves (cilantro), minced

Method
Heat mustard seeds in oil over medium heat until the seeds begin to crackle and pop. Tip in coriander, tumeric and cinnamon and fry for about a minute. Add the onions (and more oil, if necessary) and fry for about a minute and then add the garlic and ginger. Continue to cook until the onions are translucent and limp. Add carrots and parsnips, stiring until everything is well coated. Pour in stock and vinegar and stir. Lid the pot and let blurble away for about 15 minutes or until the vegetables are heated through and yield to a wooden spoon. Take off the heat and let cool for about 10 minutes (or longer, if you wish).

Purée the soup in a food processor, immersion blender or a jug-style blender until it’s as smooth as you prefer.

Return the soup to the stove and simmer over medium heat. Add extra stock and carrot juice (if using) and stir. Balance flavours to taste.

Serve hot with optional dollop of sour cream and chopped coriander leaf stirred into each bowl.


cheers!
jasmine



I'm a quill for hire!

Gung hei fat choy! Salt & Pepper Squid with Garlic and Chillies

Every time I go for dim sum I hope the trolley offers salt and pepper squid. Golden and crunchy, spiky and salty I could probably devour a basket all on my own.

The other day I found the same dish on local Vietnamese restaurant's menu. I ordered it and, yes, it was pretty much the same dish as wheels by me, nestled betwixt and between steamers of siu mai and har gao.

This got me wondering of the dish's provenance and if it was simply by a happenstance of abundant regional coastlines or if it was manufactured to appeal to Western palates. The similarities, down to the sautéed chilli garlic was simply...uncanny.

Authenticity of salt and pepper squid is neither here nor there. I set out to replicate the dish and I think I did a fairly good job of it.

I think, at its heart, it is a non-recipe recipe: squid rings and tentacles dusted in a peppered flour and cornflour mixture, deep fried for a couple of minutes and then tossed in lightly sauteed in a sweet and slightly sour mix of garlic and chillies. I suppose using Thai sweet garlic chilli sauce may put a few noses out of joint, but really all that means is more for the rest of us.


Salt and Pepper Squid with Garlic and Chillies
Serves 1-3, depending if a main or starter

Ingredients
0.5tsp Sichuan pepper (see notes for substitution ideas)
1Tbsp all purpose flour
1Tbsp cornstarch (cornflour)
250g (0.5lb) squid, cleaned, sliced into 0.5cm (0.25") rings and pieces, patted dry (one squid)
Flavourless oil, for frying
salt
1 shallot, minced
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1 chilli pepper, minced
0.5tsp chinese black vinegar (see notes for substitution ideas)
0.5tsp sweet chilli-garlic sauce
Lettuce leaves (bibb or iceberg)

Method
Toast Sichuan peppercorn in a skillet until their fragrant oils have released. Let cool for a minute or two and then crush or pound lightly.

Mix together wheat and corn flours with the crushed Sichuan pepper. Set aside.

Heat a few inches of oil in a high-sided pot until it shimmers and an inserted wooden skewer (or wooden spoon handle) bubbles when inserted.

While the oil heats, dredge the squid pieces in the spiced flour mixture and set aside.

When the oil is ready, fry the squid in batches, for about two minutes. The rings will not take on much colour, but perhaps a few golden speckles. Remove to drain on paper towels, hitting each batch with a pinch of salt while still hot with oil.

Continue frying the squid, ensuring the oil's temperature is maintained, and adding more, if necessary.

When all the squid is cooked, put a frypan on a medium flame and add a spoon or two of the frying oil. Add the shallot, garlic and chilli and saute for about a minute, or until the garlic has scented the air and the shallots begin to wilt. Add the vinegar and chilli sauce and stir well. Tip in the fried squid and coat.

Test a piece and balance flavours to taste.

Serve hot on a bed of lettuce

Notes:
- If you don't have Sichuan pepper, you can use black pepper or chilli pepper, but change the quantities to suit your spice tolerance; you won't need to toast black or chilli pepper.
- You can use red or white wine vinegar with a bit of soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce instead of black vinegar. The flavour will be different, but still perfectly good.
- This recipe is easily doubled, if you want.

cheers!
jasmine



I'm a quill for hire!

Milk chocolate pecan toffee cookies

A couple of years ago I heard about Blue Monday.

No, not the very fabulous song by New Order that hit the charts back in the day, but what feels to me like very suspect "research" to pinpoint when "we" are at our psychological low points.

Heh...I guess I was right to be suspect. When I did my own fleeting research, I found this probably-soon-to-be-removed Wikipedia article, claiming it was part of SkyTravel's PR campaign three years ago.

Regardless, the past two weeks proved to be quite trying for a number of people in my real and virtual circles. Broken hearts, work-related stresses, multiple deaths and multiple hosptilisations (for those of you who wish to read the exbf's adventure in emerg, click this. Remember, it's only funny because he's alive). There were days my heart ached when I checked my voicemail, email, replies, direct messages and message via my Twitter account.

I do what I can to help: do this and that to help ease their burden, offer an ear, shoulder or point of view, offer comfort food.

Comfort cookies, to be precise.

Everyone who bakes chocolate chip cookies has at least one recipe in hand. I probably have serveral dozen in my collection, but Anna Olson's chocolate chip cookies is one of the two I return to over and over again. In its original format it produces a reasonable number (24) of delicious, buttery, chewy cookies, which with a minor tweak can turn into a reasonable number (24) of delicious, buttery, crisp cookies.

When comfort and restoration are calle for, sometimes chocolate chips need a little additional help. Thankfully, chopped pecans and toffee bits stepped in to do their part to add extra butteryness and crunch to the chocolaty chewy cookies.

I'm not so egotistical to claim these cookies will make your life easier and solve all your problems. Simply, they just may make you feel better...and isn't that what a good cookie should do?


Chocolate Chip, Toffee and Pecan Cookies
Adapted from Anna Olson's Chocolate Chip Cookies in Sugar

Yield three dozen, depending upon the size of your cookie spoon

280g (2c) all purpose flour
1dspn (2tsp) corn starch
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
0.5tsp salt
170g (0.75c) softened butter
200g (1c) brown sugar
50g (0.25c) sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
135g (1c) milk chocolate chips or buttons
50g (0.5c) chopped pecans
40g (0.33c) toffee bits

Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Line cookie trays with parchment.

Sift together flour, cornstarch, bicarb and salt. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugars until smooth. Mix in vanilla and eggs. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix in the flour mixture in two batches. Scrape down the sides again, before folding in the chocolate, toffee and nuts.

Drop by tablespoonful onto the prepared cookie sheet, slightly pressing the tops. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are golden and the bottoms are slighly brown and easily lift from the tray.

Cool on the tray for a few minutes before removing them to a cooling rack.


cheers!
jasmine
I'm a quill for hire!