Pumpkin-Carrot Soup with Curry Butter

Some time back I had friends over for dinner. I wanted to offer them something that combines the flavours from Europe with India and is suitable for everyone, meaning not too spicy but at the same time not bland. The week before the dinner I started experimenting in my kitchen. I was clear that I wanted the base to be pumpkin. However I find that pumpkin on its own does not have that much flavour. That's when I started adding carrots to it. As the week went by I experimented with different ratios of pumpkin and carrots. I also started adding various Indian spices to it. I can tell you I had a lot of soup that week until I ended up with this recipe.

And I learned a few things during that week. One is, it sometimes makes sense to add up spices at the end as they otherwise cover the flavour of other ingredients. Another one is that you don't need cream to get a creamy tasty soup. Which makes this soup a great option for people who are on diet. Lisa, this recipe is for you.

For the curry butter I melt 50g butter over low heat. When the butter is half melted I add to it 20g Madras Curry Powder and stir it until you have a smooth mixture. Cook the curry butter for 2 minutes over low heat. Take care that the butter does not separate. Set aside and let it cool down.

While the curry butter is cooling I let another 50g butter soften in a small bowl. Once the butter is soft stir in the curry butter and mix well until you have a even smooth paste. Than the mixture goes into the fridge to set.

For the soup I take a large pot. This recipe is for 6 portions so make sure the pot is big enough. I always cook a bit extra and deep freeze the additional soup in portions.

My favourite mixture is 750g pumpkin and 500g carrots peeled and cut into pieces. Cut the carrots into smaller pieces than the pumpkin as they take longer to cook. 1 large onion, about 50g, cut into pieces and 2 gloves of garlic. Put it all in the pot. Add 1,5 - 2 litres of vegetable stock. The vegetables should be covered by about 1cm water. Bring to a boil and cook until the vegetables are soft. If necessary add a bit more vegetable stock. Once the vegetables are soft take the pot of the heat and let it cool down a bit.

Now comes the messy fun part of it. Pour the vegetables with the liquid into a blender and blend until you have a uniform purée. Now pour the soup back into the pot. If you don't have a blender / kitchen machine you can either use a hand blender or mash the vegetables with a potato masher or a fork.

Now I put the soup back on the stove. If the mixture is too thick I just add a bit more vegetable stock to liquefy it. At this stage the soup is rather bland. To bring out the flavours I add fresh ground pepper and salt to taste as well as a good pinch of nutmeg, all spice and cinnamon. Cook the soup over low heat for about 5 minutes so that the flavours can develop.

To serve I pour the hot soup into individual soup bowls. Than I place a teaspoon (about 7-10 g) of the chilled curry butter in the middle of each soup bowl. By the time the soup is on the table the butter is melted. Give the soup a nice stir before you eat it to combine the flavours.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola

Bread Pudding or as we call it in Germany... Arme Ritter

Mama said there'll be days like this, there'll be days like this my Mama said... And as usual Mama was right....

Days like this are days when you need soul or comfort food. Food that makes you instantly feel better because it takes you back to childhood or another place of time when you were very happy. Bread Pudding or Arme Ritter as we call it (in English it means Poor Knights) is such a soul food for me. My Mother or Grandma would make it when one of us was unwell or they wanted to give us a special treat. Til today Bread Pudding gives me this feeling of comfort of being cuddled up in bed and being pampered by Mama. The ultimate combination is to have it with hot cocoa.

The original recipe is with apples and raisins. But I often use other fruits like pears, bananas, dry fruits, cherries and sometimes even strawberries. What ever is available in the fruit basket.

However pineapple, papaya and kiwi should not be used as they react with the milk used and give the pudding a bitter taste.

To give it a special grown-up twist I soak the raisins or dry fruits up front in rum or brandy. Well, to be honest, there is always a jar of rum-raisins in my storage room... just for emergencies.

Before I start cooking a take an oven proof dish, about 22x22cm in size and grease it generously with butter. You can bake the bread pudding also in individual dishes. For this recipe you will need about 6 individual oven proof dishes.

For the pudding I cut 250g bread, best a few days old and dry, into thin slices. Thin means about 0,5cm thick. I also cut 200-250g apples into slices of 2mm thickness.

In a bowl I mix 3eggs, about 180g, with 300-350ml milk, 1 tablespoon of sugar and ½-1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon until I have a smooth mixture. The amount of cinnamon you use depends purely on your personal taste.

To put it all together I layer the bread and fruit in alternate layers into the baking dish starting and ending with a layer of bread. Over each layer of bread I sprinkle about 1 ½ tablespoon of raisins (for this recipe you will need about 5 tablespoons of raisins). Carefully I pour the egg mixture over it. To make sure the bread is evenly soaked with the egg mixture I poke a few times with a knife or fork into the layers. This helps to release any air stuck between the layers. In case it is not enough liquid I simply pour a bit more milk over it.

For that extra yummy crust I cut 1 ½ tablespoons butter into small pieces and sprinkle it on top of the pudding. The whole thing goes into a pre-heated oven at 180-200°C for about 30-40 minutes. To check if the pudding is done poke a toothpick or knitting needle into the centre of it. If it comes out clean the pudding is done. If not bake it a bit longer.

I serve it warm with fresh whipped cream or vanilla sauce.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola

Pasta with Broccoli and Prawns in Lemon Sauce

Pasta is for me a stable food. I just love good hard wheat pasta and can easily eat it 5-times a week without getting bored of it. So you can expect a lot of dishes that can be combined with pasta in my blog.

Another stable in my kitchen are prawns. As I am one of the blessed ones living in a coastal city they are available fresh all year around. If you a less fortunate one you can always use good quality frozen ones. Just make sure you defrost them completely before you use them for cooking.

The broccoli use in this recipe can be replaced by regular green peas or sugar peas.

This is a quick and light dish that has a wonderful freshness to it. It always gives me a summer feeling. I guess that is due to the lemon flavour in it.

As a general rule I take 65g dry pasta per person and boil it in a lot of salted water until it is al dente. What shape of pasta you use is completely up to you.

While the pasta is cooking I cut per person 150g broccoli into big pieces and cook it for about 5 minutes til it is also al dente. Drain but reserve 5 tablespoons of the water.

I a pan I heat 1 teaspoon olive oil. If I use olive oil it is always extra virgin olive oil. To it I add 1 small onion cut into dices and 1/3 teaspoon ginger-garlic-paste. Stir fry this over low heat until the onions are soft. Than I add 125g prawns (peeled and de-veined) to it and cook them for about 1 minute or until they are done. This depends also on the size of the prawns you use. Small prawns need only a few seconds to be cooked. Take the cooked prawns out of the pan.

Add the 5 tablespoons of the broccoli water and 1 tablespoon lemon juice to the pan. I let it boil for about 1 minute. Than I add 1 ½ tablespoons cream to it season it with freshly ground pepper and salt and 1 teaspoon of chopped chives. Add the broccoli to the sauce and mix well.

To serve I place the pasta on a flat plate. On top of it I place the broccoli with the sauce. As a third layer I top it up with the prawns. If you feel like decorating it just sprinkle some finely chopped fresh chives over it.

This is one of the pasta dishes that is best enjoyed without adding any parmesan or other cheese to it.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola

Thank you

Hallo everyone!!

Thank you all for your support and feedback on my first blog. I will take it all to heart.

To make it a bit easier for you from now on all ingrediences will be in bold letters. I don't like to write a separate list for the ingrediences. It's jst not my thing. I hope you can understand this.

Further I will try to put up a picture with every blog so you can see what the dish looks like.

To start with here the picture of the Chocolate-Coffee-Banana Cake from last week.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola

Chocolate-Coffee-Banana Cake

This blog is named after my Grandma Frida. She was a great woman and the one who taught my cooking. It all started when I was not even tall enough to see whats on the stove. She would pull a chair near the kitchen counter that I could stand on it and see whats going on ontop. Ever since I love cooking. I love baking even more and Grandma Frida is till date a great inspiration for me. But in contrast to my Grandma I am an impatient cook. I don't like spending hours in the kitchen to create a dish. I prefer simple food made out of fresh ingrediences and with little effort. 

My Chocolate-Coffee-Banana Cake is one of these. Easy to make and everybody loves it.

To start with I pre-heat the oven to 180°C. In a big bowl I mix 240g eggs, that is about 4-5eggs depending on size of the egg, with 180g sugar. Beat it til it has a pale yellow colour and of a light foamy texure.

While my kitchenmachine is doing this work I make 200ml strong espresso. As an alternative just disolve 7-8 heaped teaspoons of instant coffee powder in 200ml hot water. To it I add 150ml vegetable oil. I recommend an oil that has no strong flavour on its own like sunflower oil. And 50ml of yoghurt. Give the whole mixture a good stir.

Mash 2 bananas, approx 250g and add it to the egg mixture. Than slowly pour the coffee mixture into it and mix it all well.

In a seperate bowl mix 300g plain white flour with 50g of cocoa, preferable organic cocoa, and 14g of baking powder. Add the flour-cocoa mixture spoon by spoon to the egg mixture and mix well.

Pour the dough into a Gugelhupf form* and bake at 180°C for about 1hour. To check if the cake is done poke a toothpick or knitting needle into the cake. If it comes ou clean the cake is done. If not bake it a bit longer.

Let the cake cook down in the baking form. To take the cake out run a knife along tha upper edge of the cake to loosen it from the form. Than turn it upside down onto a plate.

The cake is yummy as it is. For special occasions I decorate it with one of the following 3 options.

A generous dusting with icing sugar or

I mix 200g of icing sugar with 3-4 tablespoons of Kahlua and pour this mixture over the cake to give it an even coating. This enhances the coffee flavour of the cake or

I melt 250g of dark chocolate. Once melted I mix in 3-4 tablespoonsof cream. Pour the mixture over the cake to give it an even coating. This enhances the chocolate flavour of the cake and is a favorite among kids.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola

*A Gugelhupf form is a round baking fish that has a hole in the middle so the cake is actually in a ring shape.