Peanut Curry Bisque 11/7/09

I found this recipe on epicurious.com under the name "Lightly Curried Peanut Bisque".  According to Wikipedia a Bisque is a seafood soup or smooth soup.  I did look into possibly adding shrimp, but I can only afford shrimp when it is a really good deal.  And good deals on shrimp doesn't happen very often in my land locked state.  I changed the name, because I always tend to change the recipe.  And while it might look like a lot of ingredients you could very easily just use 2 1/2 tsp of curry powder in the soup, plus salt and pepper.

My changes come from laziness in measuring (Rachel Ray doesn't measure!), needing to use something up or after a taste or a good smell I think, "hmmm this would be good with this and I have some."  The nice thing about soup is that it is very flexible :-).

A note about curry: Curry is a blend of spices.  Each company has their own version.  If you don't like one, try a different brand.  We discovered a spice store when we lived in Torrance, Penzeys.  They had bottles of each of the spices that you could smell.  I loved going there, but my sniffer would stop working about half way around the store.  We happen to have 3 of their 9 curry blends, and I used a little of each one - Sweet curry and Hot curry on the chicken; and Sweet curry and Maharajah in the soup.

This one turned out incredible!!!!! It doesn't look like it would be a full meal, but it was very filling.

2-3 Chicken breasts
Curry powder
2-3 Tbl butter
1 large onion, chopped
3 carrots (I did a handful of the baby carrots), chopped
3-4 stalks of celery (my celery was on the small side), chopped
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp coriander
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp black pepper
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 box chicken broth
1 sweet potato, chopped
1 c. heavy cream
1/2 salt

Cover chicken breasts liberally with curry powder.  Bake chicken (350° for about 1 hour), chop into bite size pieces.

Saute onion, celery and carrots in the butter.  Add the curry spices let cook for 1-2 minutes.  Stir in the peanut butter until fairly blended.  Add the chicken broth, stirring to blend.  Let simmer for about 30 minutes.

Add the sweet potato and cook until the potatoes are tender.

Blend the soup (hand mixer or food processor).  Stir in the cream, salt and the chicken, heat the soup gently on simmer.

Next time I think I will use coconut milk with the cream, maybe 3/4 c. coconut milk and 1/4 c. cream.

Pumpkin Ginger Soup 10/31/2009

Another week, another Saturday soup.  And what else to make on Halloween but Pumpkin Soup.  I have a recipe for a Curry Pumpkin Soup, but I wanted to try something a bit different and I wanted to use a real pumpkin instead of the canned puree.  So here goes with this week's recipe.

2 Tbls butter
1 onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 inches of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced thin
1 medium pumpkin or 6 c. pumpkin puree
1 box of chicken broth
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or 1/4 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp cloves and add more nutmeg)
Fresh nutmeg, several passes on the grater
salt
pepper
1 c. cream or half and half

Cut pumpkin in half, remove the stem and seeds.  Place skin side down in a roasting pan, put in 1-2 inches of water, cover with foil bake at 300 until tender.

Saute onion, red pepper in butter.  Add garlic and ginger after the onions and red pepper have softened. Let the whole mixture saute to bring out the flavors.  Add salt and pepper, just under 1/2 tsp each.

Add pumpkin and chicken broth.  Let simmer about 30 minutes.  (I tend to let the soup simmer while I finish other things on my list, sometimes it is 30 minutes, other times it is up to 1 hour).

Puree the soup with a hand blender or in batches with a food processor or blender.

Add the pumpkin pie spice, freshly grated nutmeg and more salt and pepper to taste.

Stir in the cream, heat until the cream gets warmed up.

We served the soup with some sun dried tomato and chicken sausage, just a little spicy, but good.

This one turned out well.  Patrick suggests serving next time with grilled cheese sandwiches.

Cream of Chile Soup - 10/24/2009

Last year we started a tradition of having soup every Saturday during winter. We tried a variety of soups last year and have been collecting recipes in anticipation of the cold weather for our new winter of soups to begin.

Today it is Cream of Chile Soup. Mostly because we bought too many pasillo peppers last week. I usually start with a recipe and then adjust as I go. I tend to do things like chop up the whole onion rather than stopping at exactly 2 cups. I use the last nub of butter instead of cutting off exactly 2 tbls. Since it is soup, it doesn't matter as much.

So here is the recipe - my way.

2-3 Chicken breasts
2 tbls butter

1 large onion, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped (frozen from our garden)

7-9 pasilla or poblano peppers, chopped

1 jalapeño pepper, chopped

2 cloves garlic - minced

1 tsp oregano

2 bay leaves

3-5 potatoes

1 box chicken broth

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 can of corn
Shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
Tortilla chips
Cilantro - optional

Bake the chicken with some oregano, garlic, salt and pepper.

Saute butter, red pepper, onion, pasilla peppers, jalapeño, garlic, oregano, bay leaves. (I turn the pan on med-high, put the butter in and start chopping, adding the ingredients as I finish chopping each one and adding the spices at the end).

While still sauteing, peel and chop 3-5 potatoes.

Move the saute mixture to a large pot, add the potatoes, chicken broth, cumin, salt and pepper. Let simmer until the potatoes fall apart. (Yes you could just put all the saute mixture into the large pot from the beginning, but I find I get a better flavor when I use my saute pan.)

When the potatoes are easily smashed with a spoon, remove the bay leaves.  Puree about 1/3 of the soup in food processor with the cream.  (If I had a hand blender I would just use it in the pot, still leaving some of the bits whole and chunky.) Add the puree mixture and the can of corn back to the pot.

Shred the chicken, add to the pot.  Heat until warmed all the way through.

Serve with shredded cheese, tortilla chips and cilantro (if using).

Turned out well - this one is a keeper!