Ginger up! Spiced Cauliflower Soup

Lunch time today comes with a velvety spiced cauliflower soup. It's the easiest thing in the world to make when you are hungry, as it cooks so quickly. 30 busy minutes in the kitchen are over and it's time to call your family for lunch :)


Type of cuisine: Indian/Vegetarian
Mildly hot
Cooking time: 30 minutes


Oh, I never liked cauliflower :( ....until I discovered Indian cuisine. One day, I came across and fell in love with Aloo Gobi (an enchanting mix of cauliflower and potatoes with selected spices). 
The other day I had a fresh cauliflower in my fridge and going through the options, I made up my mind to turn in into a soup.


A hot soup with spices and pungent flavours is best recommended on cold, gloomy winter days.

The spices

2 tablespoons of freshly grated ginger root

2 tablespoons of turmeric

2 tablespoons of cumin seeds (use them for decoration at the end)

1 tablespoon of (yellow) mustard seeds

2 tablespoons of coriander seeds (keep some to use for decoration at the end)

1 tablespoon of onion seeds

You will also need

a cauliflower head (fresh)

chicken or vegetable stock

single cream or yoghurt (I use single cream)

a small onion

Preparation

Break the cauliflower into florets and boil them for 15-20 minutes. Drain (but keep some of the water)

Method

In a pot fry the onion and the spices (ginger root, cumin, mustard, coriander and onion seeds) and cover- they will pop and splatter your cooker with hot oil! (And you could get burned as well).

Pour the water in which the cauliflower has boiled in over the spices and mix.

Add the cauliflower and use a vertical blender to puree the soup.  

In a small bowl, take some soup from the pot and dissolve a chicken/vegetable stock in it.  Add to the soup and let it simmer. 

Work in the cream/yoghurt and add the turmeric.  

To serve use the some cumin, coriander or onion seeds to decorate. 

The result should be light, creamy and very tasty. 

The ginger is the base of this delightful soup and it will give it a mild spicy flavour.  

As I can't handle hot chilly too well, most of my Indian dishes tend to be mild. This dish will surprise you with its edginess, given by the fresh ginger root. Don't substitute it for dry powder ginger from the supermarket. It will ruin your soup. Store the ginger in a cold place. It will keep well in the fridge for a couple of weeks. 

From the Land of Milk and Butter: Brussels Sprouts Soup

I would like to start today's entry with Once upon a time... but I won't because there is no conflict in this story, nor a witch, nor a step mother to come, to meddle and ruin this culinary relish that is relatively easy to make and will definitely bring a smile to your face.

When I say "relatively easy", I mean you will have to cook slowly and be patient.  You'll see why.

Type of cuisine: French w Indian spices/Fusion

Time: 40 minutes

Availability of ingredients: it is recommended that you use fresh brussels sprouts, though, if you are stuck, you can use frozen sprouts :(

this soup is great accompanied by Dijon mustard on fresh baguette 

What you need to tick before starting 

400 gr of brussels sprouts (approximately 20 heads)

4 small potatoes

750 ml of milk

250 ml of water

butter (just a knob)

4 cloves of garlic

1 small onion

cumin

turmeric/saffron

1 cube of chicken stock

onion seeds (for decoration)

Preparation

Melt the butter, dice the onion and crush the garlic. Fry them lightly in the butter. Add the cumin seeds.

Pour the milk and mix slowly. Set aside. 

Boil the brussels sprouts for 5 minutes in a cup of water (250 ml).

Boil the potatoes for 20 minutes. Drain. 

Method

Pour the water you used to boil the brussels sprouts into the milk and butter soup. Dissolve the chicken stock and add the brussels sprouts.  Use the vertical blender to bring the sprouts to a silky consistency.

Mash the potatoes very finely and carefully. DO NOT USE THE FOOD PROCESSOR to puree them. It will break the molecules and it will make the mash gluey (arghhh...)

Add the potato mash to the soup. Add the saffron or the turmeric and another pinch of cumin seeds (if you like). Stir over heat until hot. 

To decorate, before serving, sprinkle some onion seeds. I also used some leaves which I had peeled and boiled for a couple of minutes, then placed them in iced water (to stop the cooking process and help them retain the colour).  

My opinion

This soup is absolutely wonderful when it's cold and you are snowed under. The potatoes will make the soup smooth, the milk and the butter will give it the tenderness of silk, while the brussels sprouts will colour it in the delicate hue of raw pistachios. 

Naan. Nan. Nang ... and a slice of history

Naan bread reminds me of... Saudi Arabia. It's because I had it there so many times, either in private homes or restaurants. I must admit, home-made naan bread is much better than the one served in restaurants. It's softer, creamier, sweeter.
There are many Naan recipes that you can find either online or in Indian cookbooks, but here is my version.

Naan with honey and onion seeds

What you need:

3 cups of white flour

1 slice of butter

3 big spoonfuls of yoghourt

1/4 cup of warm full-fat milk

15 g fresh yeast

a spoon of honey (for extra sweetness)

a pinch of salt

garlic

onion seeds

extra virgin olive oil (for moisture)

Method

1. Dissolve the yeast in warm milk and melted butter and honey, mix lightly. Add the yoghourt and let it rest for a couple of minutes.

2. In a deep bowl, mix the flour, salt, garlic (freshly grated or powder), onion seeds.

3. Pour the dissolved yeast (no. 1) onto the flour and knead till the dough becomes smooth. Let it rest in a warm place.

4. When it raises and doubles in volume, you know it's baking time. You can now be as creative as you wish and shape the naan in a variety of forms. You can take a small ball of dough and flatten it and make small naans, or you can make tamis style.
Put it in the oven (@ 200 degrees Celsius) for 5 minutes- watch them, they bake and swell quite quickly.

Options

Because naan is eaten hot with curries, dips (raita, chutney), or tarkha dahl, you probably won't have the chance to use all the dough. So, wrap it tightly in plastic foil and let it snooze in the fridge.

You might want to.... revamp it later! :)

Here is my Naan...a l'italienne.

So I came back home late the other night and I wasn't in the mood to fix dinner or make something special.  As I looked in the fridge, I found the rest of the dough and asked my husband: would you fancy a pizza?
Although he said that naan would definitely not rhyme with Italian, I decided to give it a try and make a Naan...pizza. Call it fusion!

Method

I flattened the dough and once I had a thin base I brushed it with olive oil.

I opened a can of diced tomatoes from Cirio (http://www.cirio.co.uk)- they are very handy especially in winter- and I added some Camargue salt with basil, a pinch of rosmary and a clove of garlic.

I brushed the pizza with the tomato sauce and I sprinkled the grated mozzarella, then I finely sliced a green pepper and some slices of salami. I used Salam de Sibiu, the original. (http://www.sibiusalami.com)

source: www.phoneline.ro

After less than 10 minutes in the oven we had a surprisingly delicious meal, accompanied by a glass of Prahova Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Well, a sip or two on my part and more for Mike.

Food for thought
I find that sometimes when you are a bit adventurous in the kitchen and you are not afraid to experiment and sample ingredients, you can make amazing discoveries. Well, sometimes you make amazing mistakes as well :) but intuition and common sense can save you from kitchen disasters.
For my naan I used milk instead of water and honey instead of sugar. I think that gave my naan bread an extra wow factor. It was so sweet, tender and velvety.

Salam de Sibiu is one of oldest Romanian brands which has survived Communism and managed not to be swamped up by other similar products, even though the competition is fierce. I wonder if people outside Romania  have heard of this brand of salami or if they have ever tasted it? Don't want to use my blog to boast its taste, flavour  or qualities (just because I am Romanian), but it's really good! So good that on the Romanian market alone there are many (cheaper) versions of Salam de Sibiu. But they are, as I just said, mere copies.
If you want to read more about Salam de Sibiu, check out this link: http://www.sibiusalami.com/history.html