Lamb and Eggplant Soup

The other day when I was in the post office waiting for my turn to receive a package I entertained myself at the magazine counter (oh no! this sounds like potential shopping...) and could not resist not buying (oh yes!) a little recipe book devoted entirely to eggplant dishes!

After post office I headed straight to the supermarket to buy all the ingredients i needed for the LAMB AND EGGPLANT SOUP. The ones who know me in person can just imagine the excitement that took over me. And a few hours later done it was and I must say the flavour of the soup got better with every day.

The original recipe states lamb ribs, but I bought some other piece instead which also contained bone, which is good when you are making broth.

So in short:

500 g of lamb

2 eggplants

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

1 carrot

3 potatoes

1 tomato

1 bay leaf

2 tbs flour

salt pepper

olive oil

First I made the broth from the lamb. I cooked the lamb in water for a bit over an hour but later realised this was too little and I suggest cooking the broth for 2 hours. Of course it depends of the piece of lamb you are using as well. Make sure you remove all the foam that forms on top of the liquid.

While your broth is in the making you can go ahead with the rest of the ingredients. Cut the eggplant, onions, carrots, garlic, potatoes and tomato into small pieces. Toss the eggplants in the flour and fry in olive oil. About 10 minutes.

Fry the onions, carrots and garlic. In the end add tomato and let simmer a few minutes.

When the broth is ready, remove meat and add potatoes and 10 minutes later eggplants and other vegetables as well as bay leaf. Season with salt and pepper.

I cut the meat into pieces and added back to the soup. Taste again to check whether you have enough salt and pepper. Remove bay leaf once you have turned off the heat and let stand for 20 minutes if you have the patience.

Great choice for cold weather I must say. Done now with my praise talk.. :)

What's cooking? Spicy Prawn Soup (Tom Yam Goong) the Thai way!

Here's a post that has been unjustly long due about my cooking class in Thailand where the tricks of cooking like a real Thai were shown to me by a cheeky local cook. Apart from a few good laughs I also realised that Thai cooking is actually very simple and done the right way you get a very fresh dish quite quickly. So I did get over my fear of cooking Thai food, since it always seemed so complicated due to the massive amount of different flavours in each dish.

As a responsible and good girl I photographed pretty much every step, so you will be able to get a good visual of what was taking place.

    

Your shopping list for Spicy Prawn Soup (5 portions):

10 pcs. fresh prawns

100 gr. mushrooms, cut into straws

10 pcs. lemongrass, sliced (mash with knife the part of the root, so the juices come out)

6 pcs. kaffir lime leaves

2 tbs. lime juice

4 tbs. fish sauce

6 pcs. dried chili

1/2 l chicken stock

3 pcs. ginger root

1 pcs. coriander root

10 pcs coriander leaves

3 medium sized tomatoes, chopped roughly

2 small purple onions, cut (as seen in photo above)

2 tbs. vegetable oil

What you do:

1. Peel and wash the prawns.

2. Heat half of the chicken stock.

3. Add lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, ginger root, coriander root, tomatoes, onions and chili.

3. Heat for two minutes, add the prawns and cook a while.

4. Add the rest of the chicken stock and simmer gently for 3 minutes.

5. Add straw mushrooms and season with lime juice and fish sauce.

6. Garnish with coriander leaves.

7. This babe is served HOT!

Pumpkin and Apple Soup

Before you go eugh, listen up! This recipe is from a very good book (only in Estonian) called "Looduslik toit. Täisväärtuslik elu" by Marika Blossfeldt who also runs Polli talu. Over the time I have tried several recipes from this book and today you will learn more about this soup that I was a bit sceptical about at first, took some trouble to make it, but was absolutely worth the time and effort.

This book is not just about healthy recipes it talks about healthy lifestyle, how to be mentally and physically healthy. Marika talks about food and moods, what causes different cravings, the art of eating as well as how to approach our professional life and relationships. I liked her thought that it is important to develop relationships in life that nurture and leave aside the ones that tire us out.

The recipe in English as follows:

0,5 kg pumpkin, remove seeds, cut into big pieces

1 liter of water

3 leeks (I had just one and it was fine), chop into small pieces

3 celery stalks, chop into pieces

2 tbls olive oil

3 apples, remove seeds and core, chop into pieces

240 ml apple juice (was too lazy to make fresh juice, so I didn't use it at all, just plain water)

1 tsp fresh ginger

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp cround nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

Put the pumpkin pieces in steamer with about 500 ml water and steam around 20 minutes. Keep the water from steaming. Remove pumpkin flesh from pumpkin peel with spoon and set aside.

Fry the leeks and celery in olive oil around 5 minutes, then add apples, liquid (juice or water), spices, ginger and bring it to boil. Lessen heat to minimum and give it around 10 minutes of cooking.

Then mix everything together and puree the vegetables. Add some of the pumpkin water if it is too thick. Do not forget salt and pepper.

It really tastes a lot better than it may look and great if you want to finish your day with something fresh and light.

Good food requires music with good vibe like Omar "Something Real" (the sound quality in this video is average, but you will get the point)

Slimming Leek Soup

 

Warning: Keep scrolling if word "diet" is not part of your vocabulary!

For the rest let me reveal you the secret of slim French mademoiselles - the diet soup with leek. I just had a cup of it and it tasted great particularly after seeing some photos of Kate Bosworth looking more amazing than ever (and this woman is super slim!). Now too I feel that I can do it and this perfection  is just a few months of diet soup drinking away. Not that I have any information that this soup is part of Kate's menu, but I assume that apart from regular starving something like this must be on her menu. No offence, Kate!

Talk is cheap, so here's the key to better you:

1 leek

1 garlic clove chopped into smaller pieces

0,5 l water

2 tbsp olive oil (make sure it's extra virgin, personally I like olive oil that has a strong flavour)

black pepper and sea salt

some rye breed or other whole-meal bread

Wash the leek, chop into 5 cm pieces. Boil the water, add leeks and garlic, remove any foam that may form during the boiling. Takes around 10-15 minutes to make it. Strain. Add olive oil and pepper.

Très facile!

Russian Borsch

Enough of fooling around and let's bring on the hardcore gourmet soup game! Namely, I am about to reveal the hidden secrets of borsch making, the way my mother has taught me. Naturally there are many different recipes for borsch and I am not saying they are wrong and mine is the best, but if you do it like I tell you here, you won't go wrong. Promise! :))

Since I still have a lot to learn about recipe writing (e.g. actually note down the ingredients and quantities I use when I make something) then I photographed all products in quantities that were used in the soup this time to make this task easier for myself and more visual for you.

For the broth:

2 litres of water, bring it to boil

add the beef osso bucco piece and let it boil a bit, remove all foam that forms on top. if you want more colour and taste, fry the osso bucco piece beforehand a bit.

After about 40 minutes of boiling on medium heat add ginger, garlic, onion (the more the better the taste, imo), carrots and parsley

For the perfect beef broth make sure you have at least 3 hours in total. So make sure you have plenty of time or go to the gym meanwhile, like I did! ;)

Add salt and pepper to taste. Put beef aside and strain or filter the broth. Throw away all the vegetables used in making the broth. Let the osso bucco cool.

For next step:

 

Peel the potatoes and carrots. Chop potatoes and cabbage into small pieces and add to the broth which is being brought to boil. Do not close with a lid in the first 15 minutes, so that the cabbage smell evaporates. Then cover with lid.

Meanwhile, grate carrots and mince onions. Heat up a frying pan with some olive oil, first add carrots and some minutes later the onions. Let them braise under a closed lid until they are cooked. Then add salt, sugar, some fresh lemon juice and tomato paste (about 1 tablespoon, or one tomato), let simmer few more minutes. Before you add this mixture to the soup, make sure the flavours are balanced - it is not too sour, salty or sweet.

Now add to the soup. Also add a few bay leafs.

 

 

While it is all simmering at low heat, chop the beef into small pieces, removing everything that is not actual meat. Also grate the previously boiled beet of about 200 -300 grams (that's one of the items I always buy ready made, since it makes life so much easier) and add  to the soup together with two minced garlic cloves. Bring it to boil, flavour with more salt if you wish and remove from heat. Also now it is the time to find those bay leafs in the soup and remove them.

And voila, we are ready!!!! :)

By the way, this soup tastes best on second day and from there on. So make sure you make it one day in advance if you are preparing it for guests.

Upon serving garnish with sour cream, fresh minced garlic and chopped parsley leaves.

Suddenly I feel so hungry... ;)