Tis the season for soups and all things savory. Now, I am a fan of the soups that warrant hours to pull out the savory and rich flavors that stick to your bones and protect them from the cold that’s coming down in Michigan. However, we’re all busy, there are times when something under and hour is called for. Don’t worry, the next soup recipe I have is about 30 minutes.

This is a favorite of C’s, my sister and myself. Natural sweetness from the carrots gets enhanced by the natural earthy, woody flavors of cumin and coriander. The dill pesto, done with roasted peanuts instead of pine nuts, give the soup a great bright herbal kick. I often serve this soup with home made sour dough croutons.

Serves: 4

Ingredients

For the soup:

1 16 oz. bag of baby carrots - I use it for the convenience
1 large Spanish onion, chopped
1 1/4 teaspoons coriander seeds
4 cups of chicken stock
1 heaping tablespoon of ground cumin
1 tablespoon of ground coriander

For the dill pesto:
1 cup packed coarsely chopped fresh dill
3 tablespoons roasted peanuts
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves of garlic

Preparation

For the soup:

1. Heat a heavy large saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add carrots, onion and coriander seeds and sauté until onion is translucent and tender, about 10 minutes.
3. Add the chicken stock and bring to boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until carrots are very tender, about 35 minutes. 4. Add the ground cumin and coriander. Use an immersion blender target=”_blank” and puree the soup, until the consistency is smooth. If you have to use a blender, make sure you don’t seal the lid completely. Mixing a hot liquid in a sealed blender is bad news!
5. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

For the pesto:

While the soup is simmering, prepare the pesto.

1. In a small processor, pulse the peanuts until coarsely chopped.
2. Add the dill and garlic cloves. Pulse until ingredients are finely chopped.
3. Stream in the olive oil and pulse until desired consistency.
4. Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

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The menu

1. Roasted Asparagus with Serrano Ham and Aioli Sauce
2. Salmon with Mojo Sauce
3. Spicy Potatoes

Late one night, I was surfing through the channels and ran across a Discovery Channel, wait, maybe it was TLC…hmmm, anyway, they were covering cuisine in Spain. Settling back with a glass of cab, I was slowly starting to drool. It was around 2:30 a.m. or so, I called C up and said, “Did you know that they have these “societies” that all they do is get together, cook, eat and drink?!”
She groggily and casually responded, “Yes. ”
I said, “We need to go!”
Giggles on the other end.

The men took turns in the kitchen creating these incredibly simple and beautiful looking dishes, and the whole event lasted all night long. It’s kind of a joke at my house, that my dinners take 5+ hours long. Hey, I think it should be that way, friends, food, wine and conversation. That’s where it’s at! Oh yeah, back to Spain. So…I’ve been on the look out for Spanish style dishes and I’ve tweaked out some of my own. Well, here are 3 dishes that I recently tried from a Tapas Book I found in the bargain shelving at BN.

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So…better late than never? We actually had our dinner 2 weeks ago and I have been promising to put the pictures and recipes up since then. But if you look through the blog, you’ll see that I’ve been busy cooking and drinking.

Where’d this idea come from? Actually, a suggestion of someone very close to me. She became frustrated, after trying to get me to repeat something I’ve made for her, and all I could say was, “I don’t remember what I did.” Well, this is my version of my rolodex of recipes, some my own and some I’ve gotten from books and sites. Hopefully, this will help me keep track of things and actually help some readers see that it’s not too tough to cook.

Here’s the first dinner menu. It’s a collection of some of Nobu’s recipes with some tweaks and the dessert piece is my own. I hope you enjoy!

• Oysters with Matsuhisa salsas
• Asparagus and Salmon Roe with Egg Sauce
• Cilantro Soup with Monkfish
• Prawns with wasabi pepper sauce
• Puff Pastry Round with Mascarpone whipped cream, chocolate & fresh berries

Here are the pics from the dinner.

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