Thumbs up, I really liked it. I put a bit too much pepper in my batch but even with that I really enjoyed the flavors and consistency. The curry does not overwhelm the soup at all but leaves a nice almost tangy aftertaste. It is all vegetables so it's good for a vegetarian diet. It was a simple preparation, the only dicing of note were the onion and carrots. This is a soup requiring pureeing and I always recommend the use of an immersion blender. The trouble and mess of transferring the soup to a blender and then back to the pot along with cleaning the blender is just not worth it. A good immersion blender is invaluable if you make a lot of soups. Mine is a Cuisinart with a food processor attachment that is pretty cool and easy to use.
I made two changes to the recipe. First, In addition to the lemon zest called or in the recipe I added 1 tablespoon of fresh squeezed lemon juice and second I used cilantro instead of the flat parsley the F&W version called for. I often add lemon juice to my soups because I love the subtle tang it adds without really being distinguishable as lemon juice. If you've read other Cocina Caldo entries you know that I am an unapologetic cilantro shill and use it whenever flat leaf parsley is called for. I was a bit worried with this batch because my backyard grown cilantro is bursting in the garden and it usually is stronger than the store bought bunches but this worked out just fine using the called for portion.
INGREDIENTS
Soup
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 large white onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon of minced ginger root, peeled
2 teaspoons curry powder
7 cups of water
1 teaspoon of granulated sugar
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Tabasco
1/2 teaspoon of grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon of fresh squeezed lemon juice
Snipped chives for garnish
Drizzling Oil
2 bunches of fresh tarragon
1 cup of flat-leaf parsley leaves or cilantro
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
METHOD
- Cut up the onion, garlic, ginger and carrots
- In a large soup pot (6-7 quart of larger) heat the 1/4 cup of olive oil
- Add the onion to the pot and cook over moderately high heat, stirring frequently, until the onions are soft, about 10 minutes
- Add the garlic, ginger, and curry powder and cook, stirring until it gets fragrant, about 3 minutes
- Add the carrots and cook for 8 minutes to allow the curry to be absorbed by the carrots
- Add the water and sugar, salt and pepper to taste
- Simmer over moderately low heat until the carrots are very tender but not mushy, check at 45 minutes
While the soup is simmering prep the tarragon oil:
- Fill a small sauce pan with salty water and bring to a boil.
- Fill a bowl with ice cubes and water for an ice bath.
- Blanch the tarragon and parsley/cilantro in the small saucepan of boiling salty water.
- Transfer the herbs to the ice bath and then squeeze out the excess water.
- What I ended up doing was use a large wire mesh stainer to hold the herbs and lowered the strainer into the boiling water for 30 seconds to blanch and then just took the strainer to the ice bath and did the same thing in the ice water. No transferring of the herbs or spooning them out of either the hot or ice water.
- Transfer the herbs to a blender, a small one if you have one, since we're not talking about a large amount of herbs or oil.
- Add 1/2 cup of olive oil
- Puree until smooth
- Pour back into the wire mesh strainer and let the oil drain into a separate bowl without pressing down on the solids.
Back to the soup now that's it's cooked.
- Puree the soup with an immersion blender right in the pot or transfer to a blender to puree. Puree until smooth.
- Add the lemon zest and lemon juice
- Add Tabasco, salt, and pepper to taste
- Serve in bowls and drizzle with the tarragon oil and garnish with chopped chives
