La Recette du Jour

Taste & Create beckons once more! This time I am paired with Sweatha of TastyCurryLeaf. I hastened directly to her blog hoping to find something I could cook for dinner that evening and was immediately rewarded.

Her blog is very interesting; it’s clear that her background is Indian (so lots of yummy-looking Indian recipes) but she lives in the US so the Indian food is interspersed with an eclectic mix of American, Italian, and other cuisines — she seems very adventurous in her cooking. In addition, although she doesn’t specifically mention it, she’s clearly vegetarian, so that made it attractive too. Even on a quick glance I could see there were plenty of good candidates. But for that evening I kept it simple: roasted red bell pepper soup, using easily available ingredients. I love the flavour of roasted red peppers so it looked worth a try.

I don’t make soup as often as I should, given how good home-made soup is, and this was a reminder of how quickly you can whip up something good. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly; Sweatha says to thicken it with cornstarch, but I felt this was unnecessary and would affect the fresh flavour, so I left it out. I also didn’t use coriander leaves, because a) I don’t like them, they taste of soap to me and b) they are nearly impossible to find here anyway. I used ground coriander seeds instead. For added spice I used my infamous Scotch Bonnet-infused chilli sherry. This lives in the larder, well away from the drinks cabinet and with a large warning notice affixed to it. A teaspoon is enough to add pizazz to anything. And finally I used crème fraîche instead of ordinary cream, because it tastes nice!

This is not the only recipe I’ll try from her blog, since this T&C runs for two months — I might even try some of her simple Indian dishes. I love good Indian food, and when I was a student in London I often cooked Indian meals — it was easy to get the ingredients there, and it lends itself to cheap but excellent vegetarian feasts. Now I never cook it, because I think you need to do it regularly to get it right, and it is more difficult to find the ingredients you need here. So I just have to wait for visits to the UK to pig out in Indian restaurants!
Recipe for Roasted red pepper soup »

I was so surprised by this recipe on Orangette’s blog that I bookmarked it to try when sprouts were in season. Despite its oddness it seems to have found its way round the blogosphere and I discovered several variations. This is my take on it.

It has to be noted that Steve doesn’t like sprouts, unless they are overcooked in the British fashion. So while I liked this dish, I was pretty sure he wouldn’t. In fact I knew just what he would say, and I was not disappointed: “It needs lardons in it!” He was more receptive than I expected, but it’s still fair to say that if you don’t like sprouts you probably won’t like this. If you are a confirmed carnivore, you could add prosciutto or lardons to it, but it’s fine without.

In fact despite the unusual main ingredient it is a fairly classic northern Italian approach to pasta — a very simple, no-fuss sauce that lets the vegetable used shine: think artichokes, courgettes, or asparagus. So even if you don’t like sprouts you may find inspiration here anyway!
Recipe for Pasta with Brussels sprouts »