Grilled Corn Soup

I know I have made a corn soup somewhere somehow sometime before this. I wanted to use this recipe because I was intrigued by the promise of basil-infused oil - Love it! The original recipe uses cream and stock, which I didn't It also recommends to strain out the solids from the liquid, which I skipped - I like my soup thick and chunky.

If you are using fresh corn like I did, start with cooking the corn over salted boiling water for about 3 - 5 minutes. Once cooked, remove and put it to grill. I just discovered I can grill certain foods using Teflon pan! Eureka!! Let it cool before you attempt to remove the kernels. You'll need to reserve the cobs for use in the soup.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 large onion, roughly chopped
• 1 small potato, cubed
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 cooked cob of corn, kernels removed
• one generous pinch of sea salt
• Corn kernels
  
• dash of paprika
• pinch of ground cayenne pepper
• Freshly ground black pepper

1. Saute onions with a generous pinch of salt.
   
2. Stir in potato cubes to coat. Add milk, and stripped corn cob. Simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Add kernels, paprika, cayenne and black pepper. Simmer for another 5 minutes. Taste and adjust with salt.
   
4. Process into puree, and serve with basil-infused oil.
   

Basil-infused Oil

• 2 TB Olive oil
• a handful of fresh basil leaves

Bring olive oil to heat (not boiling) over medium heat. Remove from heat and throw in basil leaves. Let it sit for 10 minutes or so. Swirl oil over soup to serve.

Red Lentil Soup with Lemon and Caramelized Onions

I chose this lentil soup recipe for three reasons:

1. There's a box of frozen cooked red lentils that I was yet to use.
2. I'm leaving to Singapore in two days and there a big bunch of fresh parsley yelling at me.
   
3. Adrian likes caramelized onions.

So I adapted the recipe for the cooked red lentils. You can click here if you are using uncooked red lentils. Both of us like sourly taste hence the lemony touch suits us just fine. As predicted, Adrian was very impressed with the caramelized onions. I believe his words were "I can eat a whole bowl of just this". Why didn't he say it before? I could have just fried up the onions and be done with.

Ingredients:
Serves 2

• 1 cup cooked red lentils
• 2 cup water
  
• 1 tablespoon miso paste
  
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 C parsley, chopped

• 1 small onion, sliced thin
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  
• 1 teaspoon natural cane sugar
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• sea salt and pepper
  

1. To caramelize the onions, melt the butter over moderate heat. Throw in the onion and cook until beginning to brown. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar evenly over onions and continue to cook until caramelized. Stir in lemon juice, salt and pepper.
2. In a saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon of butter. Stir in turmeric, cayenne, salt and pepper, and cook for 1 minute. Add cooked lentils, stirring to coat.
   
3. Combine with miso soup and bring to a boil. Turn off heat, and stir in chopped parsley and lemon juice. Ladle into bowls and serve with caramelized onions.

Blossom Your Taste Buds to Vegetarian Wonders

Mia and I had this joke about the overt Anusara expression. So when I half-jokingly requested for a theme for the home-cook dinner at her house, she replied with "Blossom Your Taste Buds to Vegetarian Wonders/ - Anusara Mia". John Friend would have been proud.

Mia and Fredrik make the prefect Swedish couple I know. Everything about them just seem so perfect: the tidy white apartment (less so now that Ludvig is in their life), perfect manner, charming charisma, well dressed.... everything about them is just so..... CLEAN. They are like the couple in 70's Sci-fi movies. Like this (except they have blonde hair):

It was a fun night with great companions (and charming baby) where I gladly played Chef de Cuisine and Mia the Sous Chef, Fredrik the Chef de Plunge, and Adrian the Food de-Vourer. I simply can't bear the sight of the mess I made. God bless the dishwasher.

I didn't take the pictures of the dishes - didn't want to creep them out - hence the use of my old photos. Here's a rundown of our dinner menu:

Couscous and Spinach Pilaf with Labneh and Chili-roasted Tomatoes

Exactly the same recipe as Barley Pilaf with Roasted Vegetable and Deep Fried Goat Cheese. We made these changes:

• Labneh instead of deep fried goat cheese. Mia and Fredrik prepared homemade labneh the night before. It's flavored with minced garlic.
• Zucchini instead of pumpkin.
• Organic wholewheat couscous instead of cooked barley.

Again, this dish takes a while to prepare but works well with planning and it never fails to impress even the carnivores. Despite the rainbow combination of colorful vegetables and herbs, the unassuming, darkly colored, cinnamon-spiced lemony caramelized crispy onions always win. My Swedish friends were talking about making this for their non-vegetarian parents back in Sweden during Christmas.

Veggie Inside-out Lentil Burger

An adaptation of the Veggie Chickpea Burger. The patties are made up of lentils, eggs, onions and homemade breadcrumbs. Use black lentils if you may - they hold up the shape better than red lentils. We (or rather Fredrik) sliced the patties into two halves and used Couscous Pilaf as the filling. If you have extra labneh, spread them generously over the cut side of the patties. Mia liked the idea of turning patty into burger bun and called it the inside out burger.

Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

The combination of roasted tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese sends everyone into ecstasy. The oven-toasted tortilla shell (or taco shell) gave it an interesting crunch.

Vegan Coconut Chocolate Pudding

I was talking to Dan (our chef friend) the morning before and he mentioned "no matter what you cook, how good the main course is, dessert ALWAYS wins". Coming from a pro chef with years of experience, he must be right. This is a relatively easy dessert that you can make in advance. The secret is coconut milk. YUM~ I seriously need to work on my measuring skill: there were 3 large servings left at the end of the night. I took home one. It never hurts to have more chocolate.

Corn Soup

I think I like corn a lot. The sweet and savory smell of steamed buttered corn always makes tme drool. Although I don't order corn soup from restaurant - I guess they are never as good - I do have a desire for it. It has taken me this long to make a corn soup because..... not sure. I thought Adrian didn't like corn?
Anyway I decided to give it a go. It seems like a good one to have with the leftover Savory Tomato Pesto Pie. The corn and carrot add to the sweetness, and the milk to the creaminess. This recipe uses boiled milk with corn cobs as broth - it boosts the flavor of the corn and tastes like you are eating fresh corn of the cob!

Ingredients:
(serves 2)
1 ears of corn

1 cup milk

1/4 yellow onion, diced

1/2 carrot, peeled and sliced

1 large garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup water

salt and pepper

2 large sprigs of fresh thyme

sour cream, optional

1 Cut kernels form the cob, reserve cobs. Boil milk with cobs in a large saucepan over medium heat. Reduce heat and cover for 8 minutes.

2 While the cobs are cooking in milk, heat a bit of oil in a skillet and saute onion until soft. Stir in chopped carrot, kernels and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Stir until vegetables are soft.

3 Add vegetables, water and thyme sprigs to the cob/milk saucepan. Cover and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. Discard cobs and thyme sprigs.

4 Using a hand blender, blend mixture until smooth. Serve hot or cold with sour cream.