Carrot Soup

It has finally started to get cold here.  It even snowed for the first time since Halloween this weekend.  I have been on a bit of a soup kick and I like to have it for lunch since I spend most of the morning in my office typing in mittens.  I have been wanting to try a carrot soup for a while, but have never got around to it until last weekend.  Big Girls Small Kitchen posted up a recipe for Roasted Carrot Red Curry Soup and it sounded delicious and not too time consuming.   

I personally did not think the recipe had enough curry paste in it.  After I doubled the amount, I just keep tossing in teaspoons until I decided it was enough- I think I probably quadrupled it.  That was the only thing I really changed in the recipe.  It was a bit cool for my liking, so I would suggest warming it more before serving, or at least testing it before hand. I also have to keep stealing the neighbors blender/processor since mine broke and then I have to repay them in soup.  I might need to invest in an attachment for my Kitchenaid sooner than later...


Roasted Carrot Red Curry Soup
Makes 4 servings

• 1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces 
• 2 small red onions, quartered
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 inch ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 garlic cloves roughly chopped
• 1 to 2  tablespoons Thai red curry paste (some of you may want to start with less and do taste test as you go adding more. 
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• One 15-ounce can coconut milk 

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, toss carrot and onion with oil, sugar, and salt. 
3. Spread the veggies evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until browned and tender, stirring once halfway through.
4. Transfer the vegetables to a food processor or blender along with the ginger, 1 teaspoon curry paste, and the stock.  Blend until incorporated. 
5. Add coconut milk and blend until smooth. Taste for seasoning and add salt and additional curry paste if you like. 
6. Reheat and serve. 

Enjoy! 

Chicken with Coconut Rice & Black Beans

This recipe is easily one of my favorites that I do not make enough.   I found this recipe in the August 2007 issue of Real Simple. It is really easy to make and the leftovers still taste great.  I end up just mixing the black beans and rice together, it all goes together so well.  I normally use a red pepper as the recipe lists, but this round I had a green one that needed to be used.    
Since I love warm rice and milk with cinnamon and sugar, I like to double the amount of rice I make.  This way I use all the coconut milk, since you only use one cup for the recipe.  The coconut flavor is really subtle  (in both dishes) and just tasty.  



Chicken with Coconut Rice & Black Beans
4 servings 

• 1 cup long-grain white rice
• 1 cup coconut milk (1 14 oz can)
• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2 1/2-inch pieces
• salt and pepper
• 1 large green bell pepper, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 1 large clove garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 19-ounce can black beans, drained
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1. Cook the rice according to the package directions, replacing 1 cup of water with the coconut milk.
2. Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Pat the chicken dry with paper towels.  Season the chicken with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper and cook for 3 minutes. Turn the chicken and move it to the sides of the skillet.
3. Add the bell pepper and cook, stirring often, for 3 minutes.
4. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until the bell pepper is slightly soft and the chicken is cooked through, about 4 minutes. Transfer to plates.
5. Add the beans, cumin, ¼ teaspoon salt, and the remaining oil to skillet. Cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. 
6. Serve with chicken and rice.

Enjoy! 

Coconut & Beef Curry with Noodles

Monday night was time to cook with something completely new that I had not tried ever in any form.  I had two new ingredients in this recipe, coconut milk and Vermicelli.  The recipe came from my new cookbook Fresh Flavor Fast from Everyday Food.

It was really easy and quick to make once I sliced everything up.  I have to be annoyed here for a moment: all recipes these days have the amount of time it takes to cook, but they don't account for the time it takes to cut, dice, mice, slice, etc before you get to "thinly sliced lengthwise."  All that cutting takes much longer than 25 minutes.  Returning to your normal blog post: It was totally worth the time.  It was really good, the only change I would have made was adding some of my brothers dried chili mixture.  I also screwed up, as usual, I thought I had curry paste, but I had roasted red chili paste instead, so I guess it wasn't really curry.  I will have to try it with actual curry sometime. 

Since I didn't feel like cutting the recipe in half or quarter, I made the full 4 servings and saved it for lunches this week.  I am picky about my leftovers, I hate it when things start to fall apart, will not eat leftover burgers or hot dogs, the list continues. I was worried that the peppers might be kinda gross soggy, but they were fine and the flavor was still great. 

Coconut & Beef Curry with Noodles

• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 8 oz. vermicelli (rice noodles) 
• 2 Tbsp. corn oil
• 1 lb. beef sirloin, cut into thin 2-inch strips
• 1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 2 red bell peppers, thinly sliced lengthwise
• 1 Tbsp. Thai red curry paste ( I used roasted red chili paste)
• 1 can (14 oz.) coconut milk
• 1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add a generous amount of salt. Cook noodles until tender according to package instructions. 
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat 1 Tbsp. oil over medium-high. Season beef with salt and pepper; add half the beef to the skillet. Cook, without stirring, until browned on one side, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate, and repeat with remaining beef. Set beef aside, you will cook it more later.
3. Add onion, bell peppers, and ¼ c. water to skillet; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are crisp-tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Add curry paste stirring and  scraping bottom of skillet, until fragrant and combined, about 1 minute.
4. Return beef to skillet, with any accumulated juices, and add coconut milk. Simmer until sauce thickens slightly, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in lime juice (f you have fresh basil some of it in too), and season curry with salt and pepper.
5. Serve beef curry over pasta.

I really need to get better at making food look more appealing like they do in the books...

 Enjoy!