Recipe: Soup with roasted capsicum and lentils

Yes, yet another soup. But I eat loads of soup in wintertime! And this certainly is a perfect winter dish: smoky and satisfying.

I’m not especially fond of cooked capsicum but prefer it raw, but then again I just l o v e anything that’s been roasted. Capsicum turns incredibly sweet and charismatic when roasted; plain cooked it’s just sweet and dull. Smoked paprika and Peruvian pepper complement the capsicum’s sweet and roasted flavours in a wonderful way. I paired the sweet soup with a goat’s cheese cream, and probably needless to say that the marriage of salty and sweet certainly is a merry one. To boost the soup’s nutritional values, I added some red lentils. Yum!

Roasted capsicum and lentil soup
Serves 4–5

3 red capsicums
1,5 dl red lentils
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
200 gr sour cream
vegetable broth
smoked paprika, Peruvian pepper (crushed)

1. Preheat the oven to 250°C. Deseed the capsicums and cut them into large chunks. Place them on an oven tray and bake them until the skin turns black. Leave the capsicums to cool and “sweat” in a dish covered with e.g. tinfoil, and when they are cool enough, peel the skin off.
2. Sauté the onions and garlic.
3. Add the lentils and vegetable broth and cook until the lentils are (over) done.
4. Add the capsicums and leave to simmer for a while.
5. Purée the soup with a hand blender or like until it is as smooth as it gets, and then pass it through a sieve to achieve the most lean and silky consistency ever. It really is worth the effort.
6. Add the sour cream and spices, buzz it once more with the blender to get it all smooth and fluffy. Serve with goat’s cheese cream (soft goat’s cheese, yoghurt, water) or crumbled goat’s cheese.

Bliss!

2010 → 2011

Merry Xmas and happy new year! As noted before, time flies incredibly fast, I can‘t believe it! December went by faster that I could even grasp. I was in Finland for a little over a week and it was fabulous – so nice to see those oh so dear friends and family, love you guys ♥ Christmas was wonderful but so short, as always. But no reason to mope around, for straight after Xmas comes new year, which this year meant that a load (I mean LOTS, some 40–50) Finns came to Berlin, one young lady staying at my place for a week :)

It must have been one of the best new years ever!! I started partying on Thursday and finally called it quits on Monday morning somewhere around 8 AM. Of course I slept a few hours here and there, too, but still it was one of the craziest weekends I‘ve ever experienced – in a good way, definitely! On Thursday we were in My Name is Barbarella (Skalitzer Straße 36), which had just re-opened its doors. I came in rather late (around 4–5 AM) so I missed Ian Pooley, but I still had a blast and stayed until they closed :) Then we headed to Golden Gate (at Jannowitzbrücke), which is famous for its wicked Thursday techno nights, but this time I‘m not entirely convinced that it was a good idea, after all. It was packed, as always, but all of us (save one crazy Estonian) suddenly lost all our energy and spirit and ended up heading home pretty soon. Given that I still had all of NYE ahead of me, I started to have doubts that maybe crawling home at nine in the morning wasn’t the brightest idea.

Despite feeling not-that-good until Friday evening, NYE got started fantastically :) We dined at a Vietnamese restaurant in Kreuzberg, which was probably the most chaotic restaurant visit I’ve experienced so far. What do you mean you don’t frequently have 30 Finns all ordering at the same time, can’t be that hard...? Well, despite the challenging (to say the least) order process, everyone more or less got their dishes and drinks and left more or less satisfied. Time to turn 2010 into 2011!

On midnight, we stood on the roof of a house in Friedrichshain and saw the fireworks in all possible directions. One of us had even bought a bottle of real champagne, so it definitely was a turn of the year with every detail in place. A night I’ll reminiscence about when I’m an ooold granny sitting in a rocking chair. :)

We went for a drink to mini.mal Elektrokneipe (Rigaer Straße 31), a very nice little bar in the northern part of Friedrichshain. I had dragged along a bag with a bottle of sparkling wine and a pair of high-heeled shoes and had nearly forgotten it already twice, and finally then left it in mini. Efficient as I am, I still haven’t been there to ask whether it’s still left... Mañana, mañana. And morning it nearly was when we got to our final destination around 4 or 5 AM: Feieralarm! It was a huge party on Storkower Straße, absolutely magnificent :) Lots of friends, good music, neat venue, horrid toilets and great atmosphere! We stayed for 12 hours or so, so I guess that speaks for itself :)

Next stop was Berghain, which I’m not especially fond of, and definitely not for the price of 26€ (ok it was for the whole NYE-weekend and the line-up was juicy, and apparently the party was good). When the doorman announced that a friend and I wouldn’t get in (for reasons that remained a mystery), I of course was humiliated and disappointed, as the rest of our group went inside. Nevertheless it was a good turn in plans: I finally got some sleep and saved some money. And there’s a first time for everything; I hadn’t been turned back at Berghain before, now I can cross that out on my list, hehe.

On Sunday I was well rested and fresh as a day drop, what could be a better setting for some a museum visit. We went to see the exhibition “Hitler und die Deutschen” (“Hitler and the Germans”) at Deutsches Historisches Museum. It was supposed to explain the relationship between Hitler/the NS-rule and the German people and how it was possible that Nazi-Germany happened in the first place. The exhibition was “ok” but I think it completely failed to answer the question “why?”, it rather just presented “what?”, and I didn’t come out especially enlightened or informed. We did have only 1,5 hours, which wasn’t really enough, but still. Well, I’ve heard a lot of good about the exhibition, so apparently it appeals to many, so go figure. Non-German-speakers should be warned, though, that as at most museums, the texts are mainly in German.

We also paid a visit to the Museum für Fotografie some day before new year. There’s an exhibition about microphotography and its history. It was very interesting, but many older pictures lacked explanation on what they represented, which sort of took the whole point out of it for me. I still recommend the exhibition, and Helmut Newton’s and Alice Spring’s photos (the permanent exhibitions) are definitely worth a look.

On Sunday evening we headed to FraRosa, a wonderful and romantic small restaurant in Prenzlauer Berg (Zionskirchstraße 40). The concept is this: a four-course menu is served for 20€, and for the wine you pay a 2€ start money, for which you receive a glass, and then you go ahead and drink as much as you want of numerous white, red and sparkling wines, and pay according to your conscience. The food is “wine-oriented Nouvelle Cuisine, experimental and avant-garde-orientated” according to their site, which in our case manifested as a quite Italian menu with some interesting combinations. Absolutely delicious and all in all a wonderful experience, I warmly recommend the place :)

Sunday continued with squeezing the last party juices out at Suicide Circus (Revaler Straße 99, next to S Warschauer Straße), where there was a Sandwell District night. I had a good time despite being already quite worn out on the party front and just mainly hung around. Some of our friends tried to come in later and were turned back at the door, again for some reason remaining a mystery. If there’s one thing better in Helsinki’s club culture than Berlin’s, it’s definitely the lack of arbitrary door policy... Ok, if you’re completely wasted or otherwise can’t behave, it would be fair not to be let in and be just your own fault and shame, but that sort of despotic behaviour at the door with no apparent grounds whatsoever just feels really unfair and unwelcoming (well, duh). Oh well, this time I was inside and, as said, had a good time, and it was a very fine ending for an exhausting but terrific weekend and new year. Thanks guys, thanks 2010, and welcome 2011! :)

Recipe: Fennel and celery soup with blue cheese cream

Yeeessss, my prayers have been answered: it’s snowing!! I’ve been walking around smiling like an idiot, it’s so incredibly beautiful and fresh and.. ah! I just love it!

Autumn and winter call for warm and hearty meals, which means that I’ve been consuming soups in absolutely ridiculous amounts. A few days ago I did a carrot & tarragon soup with feta cream (I’ll post the recipe later), and I got really excited about the feta cream thingy. I’d made carrot & feta soup before of course, but always had the problem that the feta just didn’t melt properly (no, I didn’t use the low-fat stuff), but stayed in rubbery lumps no matter how much you molested the blender. But as a cream it worked much better, blended in smoothly and as a bonus you had clear flavour contrasts with the sweet soup and salty cream.

I figured this cream thing could be used with all sorts of cheeses, and as my dear parents know so well, I’ve adored blue cheese ever since I was a kid. The smellier and stronger, the better. So what to match that blue cheese with? My first thought was endives or chicory, but they’re so mild in flavour that I’m not that sure how they’d work in a soup. And a big point is their mouthfeel, anyway. From somewhere between the endives and the aniseedy flavour of tarragon in the carrot soup came fennel! My newly found friend celery would go along just perfect, and with the blue cheese cream they would make a perfect threesome. It was heavenly, even if I say so myself.

Oh and one thing I’ve also just recently discovered: puréeing! I don’t mean just with a hand mixer or blender, but passing the whole thing through a sieve after that. I used to think it was just some foppish thing involving extra work phases and more dishes, not to mention throwing away whatever stays in the sieve instead of eating it, but I’ve made a full turn on this matter. The consistency is just SO much smoother and more pleasant, it’s definitely worth the effort. I often have the problem with puréed soups that after eating them for a few days (as you always end up doing, for it is simply impossible to do a soup of just 2–3 servings), they start to feel as baby food in my mouth. Then I get disgusted and feel tempted to just throw the rest away, if there’s still some left. Baby food problem: solved.

So, now finally to the recipe.

Fennel and celery soup with blue cheese cream
Serves 4–5

Soup:
3 small fennels or 2 medium sized fennels, tops trimmed, ends cut and then thinly sliced
4 sprigs celery, chopped
2 onions, chopped
good-quality vegetable broth
1 glass dry white wine
100 gr sour cream
a splash of lemon juice
freshly ground salt and black pepper to taste

Cheese cream:
100 gr strong blue cheese, crumbled (I used Bergader Edelpilz)
100 gr natural organic yoghurt (a low-fat will do, but a completely fat-free version won’t mix well with the soup), or about the same amount of cream
1 tbsp (walnut) oil
water, to thin out

1. Sauté the fennels, celery and onions until tender, season with salt and pepper.
2. Add the white wine and broth, leave to simmer until the veggies are all tender and the alcohol has evaporated.
3. In the meanwhile, make the cheese cream: mix all the ingredients together with a (hand) blender, add just enough water to thin the cream out into... well, a cream. Quite runny but not watery.
4. Purée the veggies as smooth as you can with a (hand) blender. The smoother you make it, the more you can pass through the sieve and the less goes to waste. Then, as said, pass it through a sieve: use a metal sieve with small holes and push the soup through with a ladle (using a little force is allowed). Be sure to scrape the bottom of the sieve! Don’t feel to bad about what little goes unused – I tasted it and surprisingly, it tasted like nothing! Which means that the soup is even more intense in flavour :p~
5. Add the lemon juice and sour cream, and blend it once more to be sure to have a smooth and lean consistency. Check the taste and add salt/pepper/juice/whatever is needed. Bear in mind that the blue cheese cream is very salty!
6. Serve with the cheese cream and roasted walnuts.

Maybe the dullest-looking soup ever. In real life, the colour is a bit greener, though.
And what’s most important, it tastes good!

Recipe: Roasted pumpkin and garlic soup

I made this soup already in September, but it’s still pumpkin season, so I have a hunch it will be making a comeback in the near future.

I love roasted vegetables! Roasting just gives them such an earthy sweetness, it’s absolutely irresistible. Pumpkin is available everywhere for a very reasonable price, and so the thought of a soup made with roasted pumpkin was all too tempting to be ignored. When I thought of roasting also garlic, and of course adding pumpkin’s best friend, sage, I had no choice but to start cooking immediately.

Roasted pumpkin and garlic soup
Serves 4–5

ca 1 kg pumpkin, peeled and cut into even-sized cubes (keep the seeds!)
1 whole garlic, head trimmed off
1 huge onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced
200 gr sour cream
1 dl white wine
vegetable stock
sage leaves
salt and black pepper, to taste

1. Preparation: Place the pumpkin cubes, pumpkin seeds and a couple of sage leaves on a baking tray with a generous piece of baking paper, sprinkle some vegetable oil, salt and pepper over them. Wrap the garlic along with a dash of olive oil in tin foil. Shove the pumpkin and garlic in a 180°C oven for about 45 minutes. Roughly turn them over once, so that they roast evenly.
2. Sauté the onions and celery in a pot.
3. Add the white wine and let it simmer on low heat until the alcohol has evaporated.
4. Press the garlic cloves out of their shells and add them to the pot. Throw along also the pumpkin pieces, sage leaves (maybe 5–6, taste your way through as they can be quite strong in taste), vegetable stock and the sour cream.
5. Purée the soup until smooth; if you have the energy and pedantry you can thereafter pass it through a sieve in order to get a really silky consistency.
6. Check the taste, add e.g. salt, a dash of lemon juice, honey or other spices, when needed. Serve with your home-roasted pumpkin seeds and crispy butter-fried sage leaves. Yum-my!

Sigh, again an incredibly dull and ugly food picture.
Photographing inside at dark sure doesn't bring the best out of the looks of my food.

Recipe: Comfort casserole

I used to have a cooking blog, but I eventually didn't have enough enthusiasm or motivation to keep it alive. My pictures sucked (and still do, admittedly), which of course is a bit discouraging as several other food blogs really have great pictures, and I just didn’t update it often enough.

Now I thought I might try to revive the food blog section. As this isn’t strictly a food blog, I won’t have to worry about not posting enough recipes, I’ll just post when I feel like it. And now I do! The recipes will for the most part be vegetarian, but occasionally some seafood might swim in too.

As autumn creeps in, I always start craving for stews, soups and casseroles – warm, comforting, hearty meals. I like to use seasonal ingredients, and when I saw delicious-looking string beans and Brussels sprouts in the grocery store the other day, I got the idea of a very cheesy casserole with sour cream. I had made wild mushroom bisque the other day and had still some mushrooms left, and I figured they would go along perfectly in this autumnal meal.

I don’t mean to brag, but by god, this was good! (Or is, I still have a good deal left.) I named it “comfort casserole” because that just sums it up. To add up the luxury and cosiness, a splash of white wine would not hurt at all. Smoked tofu would also go along very well, in the casserole itself or then served with it. But so, here’s the recipe:

Comfort casserole
Serves 6–8

ca. 300 gr string beans, ends trimmed
ca. 500 gr Brussels sprouts, halved
30 gr dried wild mushrooms
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced
2 small parsley roots (parsnip will also do just fine, or why not carrot), thinly sliced or cut into juliennes
2 onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
200 gr sour cream
1,5 dl half cream (15%), I used a wild mushroom & white balsamic flavoured, but you could use just regular cream and add a dash of balsamic vinegar, or all sour cream
(1 dl dry white wine)
200 gr strong grated cheese, I used mature cheddar and Emmentaler
3 organic eggs, lightly beaten
rosemary, salt, white pepper

1. Soak the mushrooms in warm water for about an hour, squeeze out the excess water and chop them very finely. Don’t throw away the soaking water! Pass it through filter paper or a cheese cloth and use it for the casserole.
2. Blanche the string beans in salted water for a few minutes. This is important, because even string beans may be toxic uncooked.
3. Sauté the onions, celery and garlic, season with salt and rosemary. Move into a large bowl along with the beans and parsley root.
4. Move the Brussels sprouts on the pan and fry until golden brown. Add the mushrooms and about a dl of the mushrooms’ soaking water. Leave to simmer until the liquid has evaporated and/or the sprouts are al dente, then add to the veggie bowl.
5. In a bowl, mix the sour cream, cream, white wine, some of the mushrooms’ soaking water, eggs and most of the cheese. Season with salt and white pepper, and some more rosemary if you feel like it. You won’t want the mixture to be too running, otherwise your casserole will run all over the place. If you feel it’s too fluid, you could add another egg or some all-purpose flour (just be sure to whisk it together with some liquid so that you won’t bump into yucky lumps).
6. Combine the two bowls and pour into a casserole. Sprinkle over the leftover cheese and bake in.. umm, 180°C for about an hour. I’m not too sure about the time, just check on it and take it out when it’s got a golden brown crust. Let it settle and cool for a while, and dig in!

Haha, it sure isn’t a looker. But it compensates in taste what it lacks in looks.