Wordless Wednesday: Slurp!

Can you tell she really loved the soup?

Spiced Tomato and Coconut Soup

Growing up you couldn't get me near tomato soup. My parents would warm up a can and serve it to us. Nothing else, no cream, chives, crusty bread, just tomato liquid as I called it. My disdain for tomato 'liquid' carried on until I met my husband. He loves tomato soup and would buy the canned version regularly early on in our courtship, because I was for damn sure was not going to make it for him! But the more I learned about food, I knew I had to face past food dislikes of certain foods. One of the first I tackled was tomato soup. I made my first tomato soup from scratch about 2.5 years ago and it was amazing. This soup had body, flavor, and not just a wet red glop o' liquid. My husband was very pleased and impressed as was I! So since then, I've made all kinds of different versions of tomato soups, including another favorite I made this past summer I blogged about. No more canned soups went inside my kitchen cupboards.

This soup is by Gordon Ramsay from his  book and series on Channel 4 Great Escape. Where he journeyed throughout Indian exploring one of England's favo(u)rite cuisines, Indian food aka curry. I caught a few episodes of this and it was a great learning experience and man it made me hungry. This book was also a Christmas present from the husband. I just cracked it open last Friday night, and when I saw this recipe,  I knew I had to make this tomato soup ASAP. I also found a few dishes for my upcoming and first Indian-themed dinner party with my pal Becca!

This soup is delicious, bursting with flavor and it can be made very quickly. To cut prep time, substitute canned whole tomatoes (drained) and use hot madras curry powder instead of the ground cumin, fenugreek, chillies, turmeric. I made this recipe almost exactly as he did, only I added less chili peppers as my daughter loves soup but can't stand heat!

This would make a great starter or a main course. Easily doubled and tastes even better leftover.

Spiced Tomato and Coconut Soup

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 lb Tomatoes

2 T vegetable oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 inch ginger, peeled and chopped

2 large garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

Kosher/Sea Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped (add more peppers or don't deseed for more spice)

1/2 dried fenugreek, crushed with a pinch of salt

1 bay leaf

1 t ground tumeric

1 t ground cumin

1/3 cup tomato puree

1 can of coconut milk (i used light coconut milk)

1T cumin seeds

pinch of asafoetida (optional)

handful of coriander/cilantro leaves for garnish

toasted coconut for garnish

Directions

Bring pan of water to the boil. Lightly score a cross at the top and base of each tomato then lower them into the boiling water for 15 to 20 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and refresh in a bowl of iced water. Once cooled, peel off the skins of tomatoes and then roughly chop.

Heat the oil in a medium sauce pan and add the onion, ginger and garlic. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and sweat for 4 to 5 minutes until onions begins to soften. Add the chillies, fenugreek, bay leaf, turmeric, and ground cumin and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes. Tip in chopped tomatoes and tomato puree and stir well.

Pour in coconut milk and use the can to measure out an equal amount of water. Add this to the pan and bring to a simmer. Cook gently for about 15-20 minutes until tomatoes are very soft and have broken down.

Puree the soup using a stick blender, or pour soup into a blender. If you really want a smooth result push puree through a sieve. I didn't do that, I like a little body to my soup :) Season with salt and pepper and set aside. 

When ready to serve, reheat the soup. In a small saucepan, heat oil (coconut or vegetable) and add cumin seeds and asafoetida if using. As they begin to pop, take pan off the heat and pour spiced oil in soup. Stir well!

Ladle into warm bowl and garnish if you want. This photo shoot was quite short as this soup was too hard to resist!!! Hope you try this!! It's perfect for this weather. The best thing is you don't need perfect tomatoes which you will not find this time of year in Germany. The sourness of the tomatoes adds good flavor to the soup :)

Enjoy!!

Why I love Twitter, Awards and Pinwheel Cookie Recipe (finally!)

First off, I would like to thank Christina over at Being Mrs. Jones and Visual Luxe for the new design layout. On Twitter, she asked if I would like a knew blog design and I typed (and said as I typed) YES!!! So happy with the new brighter look. Thanks again,  Christina!

On to the awards. Was awarded the Stylish Blogger from Wendy and Faith! Both are two blogs that I thoroughly enjoy reading on a regular basis.
Wendy has delicious recipes from her amazing cookbook finds and her own glorious creations. Her latest post is something I will certainly try! Check it out: Smoky and Spicy Rice Pilaf- NOMNOM!
Faith has everything from marriage, fashion tips, funny to real life stories that I am anxious to read every time I see she has a new post. One of my favorite blogs! Her post on Martin Luther King Day was incredibly touching and definitely something I can relate to and appreciate! Check it out here!

I always giggle when I receive the Stylish blogger award because I am the complete opposite! As you can see here...ahem. Even when I try, I suck!

Also was awarded Versatile Blogger from my real-life friend and blogger buddy Tessie. Her adventures in homemaking, motherhood, being a full-time student are quite a read. I call her Supermom because the lady does it all, but she doesn't sacrifice what she's loved before children and school! Great inspiration!

And last, but certainly not least I received the Lovely Blog Award from fellow European Expats Alisha from Ardent Epicure and Nancy of Spicie Foodie! They have lovely recipes that are so exotic, healthy, and damn amazing!
 Nancy has done what most foodies dream of and has released a cookbook called "An Epiphany of the Senses available on Amazon. If you haven't read her blog, please do. She has certainly inspired me! One of my most popular posts, "Autumn Mac and Cheese: Mommy's Little Secret" was inspired by her. Also, Alisha has the most creative recipe and they're almost always healthy with a great story and description of ingredients used attached!  Her latest post featuring azuki beans had me so intrigued! Hoping to find some soon! Check out her post here!


Now, why I love twitter. Twitter is awesome because it's great for people like me who have random thoughts! Also, great for finding inspiration for recipes. The blog love amongst the bloggers on Twitter is remarkable, from congratulating one another for Top 9 on Foodbuzz, retweeting blog posts it's nice to see such a nice community that I am proud to be apart of!

I also love twitter because Ree Drummond of The Pioneer Woman tweeted the cookies I tweeted about for cookie week back in November. I tweeted a photo of cookies and thought a couple people would see them, but then I saw that SHE retweeted them I was really surprised and excited. I did "The Cabbage Patch" aka my happy dance! The only thing I was sad about was I made the cookies when  my internet was out so I didn't blog about them- dang it! I got a few extra followers on twitter and the blog so I felt bad there was no cookie recipe here for them. Those cookies got over 1000 views from that retweet alone...that lady is the woman! haha.

The other sad part is that I took photos of process and it's all saved on the computer that my ninja baby destroyed. Sigh. But these cookies aren't difficult, give them a shot!


So here is the recipe finally. It's from "Cooking" by James Patterson. I love this book, it's taught me so much about techniques and cooking. It's one of my cooking bibles.

Black and White Swirl Cookies
Ingredients
For Basic Butter Cookie Dough:
1/2 pound cold butter, sliced
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour or 1 cup all purpose flour and 1 cup cake flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt

For Chocolate Dough:
2 cups flour
2/3 cups confectioner's sugar
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold butter, butter sliced
1 egg
cocoa butter for dusting

Directions
Butter Dough
Make sure butter is as cold as possible. Put flour in bowl and sprinkle butter over the top. Make a well in the center then add egg, sugar and salt.and with the fingertips of one hand, move around the inside of the flour wall, moving around until the flour mixture and egg mixture blends together. Keep mixing until there is no loose flour. Try not to over mix. This can easily be done in a food processor, blending all ingredients until consistency of lumpy mashed potatoes. Or stand mixer, add flour and butter mixture, then pour in eggs, salt, and sugar while mixer is running at medium speed.

Chocolate Dough:
Combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt very well in a large bowl or food processor. Mix in butter well, until you have large crumbs, then add egg to bind.

 Roll out a rectangle of each dough 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick, lay one rectangle on top of the other, roll up tightly, and chill 30 to 45 minutes.

Preheat oven  to 375F.

Once dough are chilled, slice about 1/3 inch thick. Arrange on baking pans, and chill for another 30 minutes.

Once chilled, bake for 12 minutes, or until only the very slightest bit of browning is visible on the edges of the cookies. Let cool until set and then transfer to cooling rack. Once cooled store in tightly sealed container for up to a week. They didn't last 2 days in my house!

Enjoy!!! 

Wordless Wednesday: Mama's Little Helper

Curly Sous (chef)
My daughter loves to help in the kitchen. From cooking, to setting the table to even washing the dishes! I love my little curly sous :) Here she's stirring pasta for her and her brothers' lunch.