Curried Carrot Soup; Salad with Grapes, Blue Cheese and Walnuts; Wholegrain Toasts
curried carrot soup:
1/4 cup oil
6 medium carrots
1/2 yellow onion
1 tsp vegetable broth
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp ground ginger
//heat oil, saute onions and chopped carrots for 5 min.
//cover with 4 cups water, boil, simmer for 20 min.
//add spices, process in a blender.
//simmer for 10 min and serve warm.
KJJ: This recipe was adapted (ever so slightly) from a recipe in A Simple Celebration- which is heavily Deepak Chopra related. The soup was simple, and tasty (really, not too hard to go wrong), but it really could have been better. Every recipe I make out of that book seems to take awesome ingredients and make them only so-so. I wanted something thick with a beautiful carrot and curry flavour. This seemed very mild and rather watery. It could have used a lot more punch. I am trying to appreciate more delicate flavours because of JRWs naturally elegant tastes (he whispers, while I shout)... but my suggestion to you readers is to pick up
Anna Thomas' A Vegetarian Epicure Volume II and peruse through her bitchin' recipes. They just seem to have a lot more heart and soul. The recipes in A Simple Celebration seem always to require many expensive (for an apartment hobo) ingredients and always fall sort of flat. I've even tried infusing the dishes with LOVE, as they suggest.
JRW: I also wished for it to be a tad thicker, slightly heartier-but probably because I'm American and used to really heavy meals. It wasn't bad, not at all, though. A little bit ( this is not meant as an insult) like something you'd have at a vegetarian cafe (like Mother's, for all of you in the 512). I know I talk smack about Mother's, but I'm not talking smack about the soup. Or KJJ's culinary creations.
KJJ:The salad, my concoction, was salad greens and spinach with grapes, crumbled blue cheese, walnuts, and the ever trusty mustard-honey- olive oil-lemon juice-vinegar-salt-and-pepper dressing combo.
JRW: I don't think I've ever met anyone who can make a better salad (I like to think I influenced her though with my signature spinach, asian pear and camembert mix, bka 'The Bennett"). There's really nothing more refreshing than a fork-full of good baby spinach, mixed with the slightly-salty and mildy pungent bleu, the nutty underline of walnut, the sweet flesh of red grape being the exclamation point, all awash in a wonderful vinaigrette.
Now, about that cheese...the Rosenberg is good. It doesn't try to be too much, it's not overly sophisticated, it's not snobby. It's just a good cheese. Slightly pungent, wth just the right amount of that tang that makes a stinky blue cheese thrilling. You know you're eating mold, but you know you're not in fear of some weird, fungus-induced, hallucination hell-ride, Brothers Grimm style. And it's not very expensive, making it perfect for food hobos like us.
KJJ: Tea and dessert (French lemon tarts) is never bad! PS There is a freakin' awesome pirate radio station frequency infiltrating Austin Texas that I can only receive in my car and it is just about the goddamn best thing ever to happen.
JRW: Yes. They play 7 seconds at a slowed-down pitch while singing along, then follow it up with Richard Hell and a medley of grindcore. Take that KVRX.
curried carrot soup:
1/4 cup oil
6 medium carrots
1/2 yellow onion
1 tsp vegetable broth
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp ground ginger
//heat oil, saute onions and chopped carrots for 5 min.
//cover with 4 cups water, boil, simmer for 20 min.
//add spices, process in a blender.
//simmer for 10 min and serve warm.
KJJ: This recipe was adapted (ever so slightly) from a recipe in A Simple Celebration- which is heavily Deepak Chopra related. The soup was simple, and tasty (really, not too hard to go wrong), but it really could have been better. Every recipe I make out of that book seems to take awesome ingredients and make them only so-so. I wanted something thick with a beautiful carrot and curry flavour. This seemed very mild and rather watery. It could have used a lot more punch. I am trying to appreciate more delicate flavours because of JRWs naturally elegant tastes (he whispers, while I shout)... but my suggestion to you readers is to pick up Anna Thomas' A Vegetarian Epicure Volume II and peruse through her bitchin' recipes. They just seem to have a lot more heart and soul. The recipes in A Simple Celebration seem always to require many expensive (for an apartment hobo) ingredients and always fall sort of flat. I've even tried infusing the dishes with LOVE, as they suggest.
JRW: I also wished for it to be a tad thicker, slightly heartier-but probably because I'm American and used to really heavy meals. It wasn't bad, not at all, though. A little bit ( this is not meant as an insult) like something you'd have at a vegetarian cafe (like Mother's, for all of you in the 512). I know I talk smack about Mother's, but I'm not talking smack about the soup. Or KJJ's culinary creations.
KJJ:The salad, my concoction, was salad greens and spinach with grapes, crumbled blue cheese, walnuts, and the ever trusty mustard-honey- olive oil-lemon juice-vinegar-salt-and-pepper dressing combo.
JRW: I don't think I've ever met anyone who can make a better salad (I like to think I influenced her though with my signature spinach, asian pear and camembert mix, bka 'The Bennett"). There's really nothing more refreshing than a fork-full of good baby spinach, mixed with the slightly-salty and mildy pungent bleu, the nutty underline of walnut, the sweet flesh of red grape being the exclamation point, all awash in a wonderful vinaigrette.
Now, about that cheese...the Rosenberg is good. It doesn't try to be too much, it's not overly sophisticated, it's not snobby. It's just a good cheese. Slightly pungent, wth just the right amount of that tang that makes a stinky blue cheese thrilling. You know you're eating mold, but you know you're not in fear of some weird, fungus-induced, hallucination hell-ride, Brothers Grimm style. And it's not very expensive, making it perfect for food hobos like us.
KJJ: Tea and dessert (French lemon tarts) is never bad! PS There is a freakin' awesome pirate radio station frequency infiltrating Austin Texas that I can only receive in my car and it is just about the goddamn best thing ever to happen.
JRW: Yes. They play 7 seconds at a slowed-down pitch while singing along, then follow it up with Richard Hell and a medley of grindcore. Take that KVRX.
