Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Mascarpone and Fresh Basil

The King of Soup made this beauty a few months ago and I can still taste it. Sooooooooo good. This soup comes from our soup bible, 500 Soups by Susannah Blake (page 86). It's hard to describe how truly delicious it is - let me try some adjectives. Creamy, rich, velvety, hearty, you get my drift. Although there are a few steps in the process, I promise you it is worth it. Make sure you double this recipe - you can freeze whatever you don't eat right away.

You might think that soup should be reserved for cold winter months when we need to warm up our insides and hunker down next to the fireplace. I think that you can enjoy hot soup all year round. I am sure you've heard before that the best way to cool down on a hot day is to drink hot liquid - well soup is definitely a hot liquid. (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/a-hot-drink-on-a-hot-day-can-cool-you-down-1338875/?no-ist)

In fact, why not turn this into a barbequed soup? Try roasting your bell peppers on the BBQ instead of in the oven - thereby keeping your kitchen cool, and being able to advertise this dish as 'BBQ'.

I'd love to hear your comments on this soup! Here's the recipe. There are no adaptations because it's perfect as-is. Thanks Susannah Blake!

Ingredients:

6 bell peppers
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3 ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
5 cups vegetable stock
6 tbsp mascarpone cheese
handful of fresh basil leaves, plus extra to garnish
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Slice the peppers in half lengthways and place on a cookie sheet.

Bake them for about 30 minutes until they are charred.

Put the peppers into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let them sit for about 15 minutes until they are cool and the skins can be easily removed. You might find it easier to peel the peppers if you keep them whole. It's a personal preference.

Peel the peppers and remove the seeds. Set them aside.

Once your peppers are ready to go, heat the oil in a large soup pot. Add the onion and garlic and cook for about 4 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and stock. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to low, cover the pot and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Put the flesh of the peppers in a food processor or blender with any juices. This photo is of the flesh on its way to the blender.

Add the mascarpone. Pour this mixture into the soup with the basil and process the whole thing with a hand blender until smooth.

The King likes to strain the soup through a sieve after blending to ensure a velvety texture.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve piping hot with fresh basil leaves for garnish.

There's a reason he's the King.

Homemade Peanut Butter

This is going to be a really short post. Not because I don't love peanut butter. I mean, that's what kept me alive for about 15 years (give or take 5 years).

Back in the day when I still lived in the most beautiful province in the world (Newfoundland and Labrador), and I was a VERY picky eater, I pretty much sustained my existence on peanut butter, Mary's homemade white bread (she made 6 loaves every single Sunday, without fail), homemade macaroni and cheese (http://richlerrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/11/grown-up-macaroni-and-cheese.html), and tomato soup. Ahhhh, those were the days.

Since that time my love affair with Kraft Peanut Butter has remained untarnished. A few years ago I started buying natural peanut butters, and they are OK, but the separation that happens really bugs me. Who has time to stir peanut butter every morning? Not me.

A couple of weeks ago I decided that this was the time to try to make my own peanut butter. As I normally do, I went to the internet and started my research. No matter how many posts I checked, they all said the same thing. Put some peanuts in a food processor. Process. Eat. For real.

So I did it.

Ingredients:

2 cups peanuts

Method:

Put the peanuts in a food processor. Process for 2 minutes. Eat.

Some words of caution, kind of. If you want a smoother peanut butter, add some oil (but not too much). If you want crunchy peanut butter, set aside 1/2 cup of the peanuts and add them just at the end. If you want a bit of salt in your peanut butter, add a pinch or two (or three). I use roasted peanuts for my peanut butter. The guidance I read online said not to use dry roasted peanuts. Next on my list is to try this with almonds and cashews. Maybe I will even make a mixed nut butter! 

Enjoy :-)

Lime Coconut Squares

Hi There! It's been a while, I know. I just returned from an evening work event and the King of Soup and our progeny are out at a Marlies game - what better time to plop myself in front of the computer to crank out a few posts I've been meaning to get to.

In the summer of 2012, the King of Soup's sister got hitched to a really awesome dude that we are proud to call brother. Since that time, we've been waiting patiently for offspring. While we were waiting, the King's brother and his beautiful wife produced a perfect little one so that kept the pressure off the sister for a few months. As we were basking in the glory of being Auntie and Uncle (and Cousins) to the beautiful one, an amazing announcement was made - that there would soon be another one joining the party! That day is soon upon us and we are all very busy getting ready and excited for this day. Several weeks ago, my Mothers-in-Law hosted a lovely baby shower for the King's sister, and the King's Mother baked these very excellent Lime Coconut Squares. I have made them twice since then and now I have to stop because every time I make them, I eat them.

I came late to the lime-is-awesome-in-dessert party, having had a deep relationship with chocolate for quite some time. With regard to citrus, I always knew about Lemon Meringue Pie but was never a fan. Later, I discovered lemon could be made into many pleasing desserts (like Lemon Squares, Lemon Ice Cream, Lemon Pound Cake), and realized there was more to life than cocoa. I was first introduced to lime with Key Lime Pie in the late 90s at a pot luck lunch. My friend Paula made the pie and of course, I tried it because that's what you do at pot luck lunches. It was to die for. I requested the recipe and have been making it at least once a year ever since.

These squares take it up a notch due to my Mother in Law's brilliant adaptation of the recipe, which is to use ginger snaps instead of graham cracker crumbs in the crust. The recipe also calls for coconut, and anything with coconut and lime together is A-OK in my books.

For my version I decided to use half graham cracker crumbs and half ginger snap crumbs for the crust, because I do love graham crackers and didn't want to leave them out entirely. I think that using all ginger snaps provides a little more kick, but both versions were delicious, and I am sure that using all graham crackers would also be yummy. For next time, I might even add some fresh ginger into the crust. Just sayin'.

Without further ado, here is the recipe. My adaptations are in brackets, as always. The original source for this recipe is Canadian Living Magazine, and I thank my MiL for sharing it with me.

Ingredients:

CRUST
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (I used half graham cracker crumbs and half ginger snap crumbs, or you can use all ginger snap crumbs)
3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted
1/4 cup sugar (I cut this back to 1/8 cup, or half of a 1/4 cup measure)
1/3 cup butter, melted

CURD FILLING
1 can sweetened condensed milk (I used the "light" version - and take note, this stuff has an expiry date so make sure to check your can before pouring)
4 egg yolks
2 tbsp grated lime zest
2/3 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

Method:

To make the graham cracker/ginger snap crumbs, use a food processor and spin until crackers/cookies are finely ground.

In the photo above you can see the layer of ginger snaps on the bottom and the graham crackers on top of that.

To toast the coconut, place it into a frying pan and put the burner on medium heat. Watch it carefully as it will burn before you know it.

In a bowl, stir together the crumbs, coconut, sugar and butter.

Press the mixture into a parchment-lined 8 inch square pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes and let cool on a rack.

While this is baking, zest and juice your limes. I think I used about 10 of them.

Then whisk together the sweetened condensed milk and the egg yolks. Add the lime zest and lime juice.

Pour into the baked crust.

Return it to the oven (still at 350 degrees F) and bake it for about 15 minutes, or until the edges are set and the centre still jiggles a little. Let cool completely on the rack.

Then put into the fridge for a full 12 hours. This way you will get a clean cut when you cut the squares.

These squares will keep in the fridge in an airtight container for a week. But who's kidding who? They won't last a day!

Makes 36 small squares and according to the Canadian Living site, each square is 83 calories, has 10 g of carbs, 2 g of protein, 5 g of fat, and 8 g of sugar. Remember that these counts are if you follow the original recipe to the letter. The site has a neat calculator so you can enter in the actual number of squares you got and see the calculation change. Here is the link: http://www.canadianliving.com/food/baking_and_desserts/lime_coconut_squares.php

Enjoy!