Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Making iced coffee





1 cup of ground coffee beans
4 1/2 cups of water

Let sit for twelve hours and then filter through coffee filter.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Anja's sweet potato soup recipe!

Basic Sweet Potato Soup (Makes about 4 big portions)

3 large sweet potatoes
3 very large carrots
1 large onion
75 grams butter
250 ml heavy cream
3 cubes bouillon (chicken or vegetable)
4 heaping tablespoons Maizena
White pepper
Salt
Sugar
Cayenne pepper
Nutmeg

Peel potatoes and carrots and cut into small chunks. Put one of the carrots and the sweet potatoes in a medium saucepan and fill with just enough water to submerge. Bring to a boil on high heat and allow to cook until soft, about 25 minutes. Add 1 tiny sugar spoon white pepper, bouillon, a few shakes of nutmeg, and 10 shakes (about 1/8 teaspoon) cayenne pepper.

In the meantime, dice onion and put in a frying pan with 50 gr of the butter. Sautee on high heat until soft and golden, then reduce to medium heat and add remaining carrots. Sprinkle with about one and a half teaspoons sugar and salt and pepper to taste. Sautee on medim heat for 15 minutes or so, so that the carrots become softened but not mushy and semi-caramelized.

Remove potato-carrot mixture from heat and add cream. Use a pureeing wand to puree until smooth. Add half of the carrot-onion mixture and puree again. Stir in the remaining carrot-onion mix along with 25 gr butter. Put Maizena in a small bowl and dissolve with a bit of water to form a milky mix. Pour into soup and stir. Add about 350 ml more of water to soup, or as desired (soup will thicken later).

Return soup to medium-high heat and bring to a simmer, stirring frequently. Soup should thicken significantly and any grainy, floury texture from the Maizena should dissappear.

Season with any of the following:
Curry powder
Mango chutney
Sauteed apples and onions with bacon
Truffle Oil
Candied sausage (bake sausage slices at 250 C, drizzled with sweet chili sauce or another sugary syrup)