Green Lentil Soup with Curried Brown Butter

December 30, 2011 | Filed Under Lentils, New Year's, Soups | 7 Comments 

 

Delicious!  That’s how this Green Lentil Soup with Curried Brown Butter tastes.  Just delicious!

I hadn’t planned on cooking anything yesterday evening.  I was tired.  Then someone complained about being hungry.   I remembered this recipe from 101 Cookbooks and thankfully had all the ingredients – well almost all the ingredients, except the chives and broth.  My soup still tasted really good. 

The instructions say to puree the lentils soup with an immersion blender.  I don’t have an immersion blender and I really couldn’t be bothered trying to putting the lentils in a regular blender.  Too much work.  Remember it’s me.  I like easy and simple.   No fuss.  Besides, I like the texture and bite of the whole lentils in my mouth.  I was happy with the outcome of my soup.  It was perfect for a cold day and is definitely a perfect meal for cold New Year’s Day.  

I don’t believe this specific soup is a customary good luck meal but it contains lentils, which are traditional symbols of good luck (they represent money)  in many countries.  So, I consider this a perfect meal to enjoy at the start of the New Year.  I like that.  May the New Year 2012 be a good year for all of us. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012, everyone!

Peace, love, hope, joy, good heath, and prosperity,

Paz

 

 

Green Lentil Soup with Curried Brown Butter

from 101 Cookbooks

 

You can use either green lentils of green split peas here. Both are delicious, but the green split peas tend to lend a brighter green color to the soup.

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, ghee, or extra-virgin coconut oil?
1 large yellow onion, chopped
?3 cloves garlic, chopped?
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
?5 1/2 cups / 1.3 liters good-tasting vegetable broth or water

1 1/2 cups / 10.5 oz / 300 g green lentils or green split peas, picked over and rinsed

3 tablespoons unsalted butter?
1 tablespoon Indian curry powder
?1/2 cup / 125 ml coconut milk
?Fine-grain sea salt?
1 bunch fresh chives, minced

small cubes of pan-fried paneer (optional)

Combine the 2 tablespoons butter, onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes in a large soup pot over medium heat, stirring regularly, until the onions soften, a couple minutes. Add the vegetable broth and lentils and simmer, covered, until the lentils are tender. This usually takes 20 to 30 minutes, but can take as long as 50 minutes.??

In the meantime, warm the 3 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and let it brown. When it starts to smell nutty and fragrant, stir in the curry powder and sauté until the spices are fragrant, less than a minute.??When the lentils are finished cooking, remove from the heat, stir in the coconut milk and 1/4 teaspoon salt, and puree with an immersion blender. You can leave the soup a bit chunky if you like, or puree until it is perfectly smooth.

Stir in half of the spiced butter, taste, and add more salt, if needed, typically a couple of teaspoons if you used water instead of a salted broth. Serve drizzled with the remaining spice butter and sprinkled with chives, (and paneer cubes if you’re using them).??

Serves 4 to 6??

Prep time: 5 min – Cook time: 45 min



New York Monday: Restaurant Window

December 26, 2011 | Filed Under New York Monday | 5 Comments 

Happy New York Monday!

Paz

 

 

 

 



Merry Christmas! and Lemon Pineapple Zucchini Bread

December 25, 2011 | Filed Under Baking, Bread, Christmas, Holidays, Lemons | 10 Comments 

 

 

A funny thing happened on the way to the oven to bake this bread. 

I saw this Lemon Pineapple Zucchini Bread recipe on mischief mari’s blog.   The idea of how the flavors of the main ingredients would taste intrigued me.   Lemon, pineapple and zucchini?  Together?   Hmm… I don’t know about that.   Would it really taste good?  I wanted to know and set out to make my bread.

Following the instructions, I put all the ingredients together.  As I mixed the batter and looked at it, I kept thinking to myself, “Hmm… I don’t see any green.”  The batter was the normal pale yellow.  I could have sworn that I’d used all the ingredients, so I dismissed my thoughts and poured the light-colored batter into the baking pan. 

After I put the batter in the oven, I started cleaning up.   I washed the bowls, measuring cups, spoons… and put them away.  I wiped the sink and stove top and looked around the kitchen to see if I’d missed any other dirty dishes.  That’s when I saw the two cups of zucchini, patiently waiting to be mixed into the batter.  Yikes!   I’d forgotten one of the main ingredients of the bread!  Fer cryin’ out loud!  I chastised myself.  This recipe is called Lemon Pineapple ZUCCHINI Bread NOT Lemon Pineapple Bread.    I, quickly, pulled out the hot bread pan and placed it on the stovetop.  By this time, the bread had been baking for about 10 minutes.   It hadn’t taken shape yet, so I mixed the zucchini into the heated batter, returned the pan to the oven, and prayed that I wasn’t too late to save the bread. 

My Lemon Pineapple Zucchini Bread did not turn out nicely.   The zucchini didn’t spread in the batter and stayed mainly on the top.  The rest of the bread had baked properly but the zucchini portion of the bread didn’t bake all the way through.  I returned the loaf into the oven.   The top portion of the bread never completely baked, while the rest of the bread became over-baked and even turned too dry.  What a mess!  We ate pieces of the bread but no one wanted to finish it.

The next day, I was determined to try again.   Luckily I had extra zucchini and pineapple to use.   I put the ingredients together, attentively, and placed them in the oven.   Voila!  A perfect Lemon Pineapple Zucchini Bread loaf.  I’m happy to write that we were able to eat and enjoy this second loaf of bread.  The lemon, pineapple and zucchini taste good together.  Mari’s description was accurate, "It’s got a nice, light, slightly zingy flava.  So yum."  Yup!  Delicious.  The bread tasted perfect with a nice, hot cup of tea, Ovaltine or hot chocolate.

 Morals of my story:   1- Don’t bake (or cook) if you’re tired or pre-occupied.   2- If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. 

Thanks Mari, for the recipe.  By the way, folks:  Mari has a recently published book called the coolest cookies on the planet.  It’s a gem of a book!  I enjoyed reading her stories that inspired some of her cookie designs.  Her baking and design tutorials are easy to follow (I like easy!) and the photos are absolutely fantastic.   Check it out HERE. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS, everyone!  I wish you all a wonderful celebration.

Paz

 

 

My first bread did NOT turn out well.  Portions were unbaked.  So, I tried again.

 

I’m so glad my Lemon Pineapple Zucchini Bread turned out well the second time around.  Yay!

 

 

Lemon Pineapple Zucchini Bread

as seen on  cha no ma-ri

original recipe from Feral Kitchen

 

3 c. all purpose flour
1 1/4 c. sugar
4 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
4 eggs
2/3 c. canola oil
1 8 oz. can of crushed pineapple, drained well. (I found fresh pineapple at my local store. Chopped it up in with a super sharp kitchen knife. Perfect).
2 c. zucchini grated
1 Tbls. lemon zest

Directions:

Mari’s recommendations:

*I recommends having your zucchini grated, your pineapple crushed and your lemon zested BEFORE you start. Just makes the combining of all ingredients easier. Grate the zucchini with the grating blade on a food processor because it’ll take you ages if you do this by hand.  And I sure hope you have a super sharp microplane zester because dull ones are no fun.

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Grab two 4″ X 8″ baking pans and grease well.
  2. In a medium-sized bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix well.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, pineapple, zucchini and lemon zest.
  4. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.  Mix until moistened.  Do not over mix. This will look like a thick cake batter, and that is okay, it’s supposed to be that way.
  5. Add the mixture to the two baking pans and bake for 1 hour.
  6. Cool on wire racks then remove loaves from pans.  Makes two fabulous loaves.

 

A fabulous loaf of Lemon Pineapple Zucchini Bread!



Lunch with a Friend

December 22, 2011 | Filed Under Long Island, Mediterranean cuisine, Restaurants | 9 Comments 

 

Over the weekend, I went to visit a longtime friend who I hadn’t seen in a few years.   Our reunion was long overdue and I traveled to Port Jefferson, Long Island to spend some time with her.   Originally from Turkey, my friend and her husband own a restaurant that serves Mediterranean food.  Guess where we had lunch?   Yes, at her restaurant called ‘The Mediterranean Kitchen’. 

 

The restaurant was very cozy and welcoming and the staff, friendly. 

 

There was a section for the diners to eat.

 

 

In the back of the restaurant, there was a section for food products, trinkets,

and other decorative items from Turkey, for those interested in purchasing them.   

 

 

 

 

For sale.

 

Jewelry from Turkey.

 

Do you see the Evil Eye here?

 

Black Tea from Turkey.

  

More black tea from Turkey.

  

Tea biscuits to go with the above. 

  

Canned stuffed egg plants.

  

Green Olives.

  

Decorative bowl and vase.

 

Hot Roasted Eggplants.

 

I believe this is eggplant.

 

More canned and jarred goods from Turkey.

 

Oh my!  My friend really fed and spoiled me.   From the time we sat down to eat, our server, a young, pretty, Turkish girl continually brought different foods for us.   I managed to take a few photos of some of the food we ate but I was enjoying the food so much that I forgot to take a photo of the main dish, Iskender — grilled pita chips underneath shredded lamb, which was topped with a tomato sauce and yogurt.

I also forgot to take a photo of our dessert — a Portakal cake, an orange and cocoa cake with orange flavored icing.  Oh my gosh!  It was delicious with tea.   I tell you, sometimes, one forgets the camera when enjoying good food.

I also took home a dish of lamb souvlaki served on bulger pilaf.

 
 

 

Preparing some Turkish tea.

 

Menu from the Mediterranean Kitchen.

 

Hummus (mashed chickpeas).

 

Babaganoush (eggplant).

 

Tabouleh.

 

Pita chips.

 

Falafels.  OMG!  These falafels were to die for!  So, good!

 

Greek salad.

 
 If anyone is in Long Island, in the Port Jefferson area, and are in the mood for Mediterranean food, I highly recommend my friend’s restaurant. 
 

Paz

 

 



New York Monday: Penn Station

December 18, 2011 | Filed Under Holiday Decorations, New York Monday, Penn Station | 5 Comments 

Over the weekend, I went to visit a friend who lives on Long Island.  I had to take the train at Penn Station.  It was very crowded with other travelers.  This particular corridor has different stores on either side that sell everything — from food, clothing, flowers, and whatever you can think of.  Happy New York Monday, everyone!

Paz



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