Spicy Red Lentil Cream Soup--To Warm Up

Sometimes when the day is busy and I have no time for a lot of cooking, this simple and rich soup makes a whole dinner. It is lovely, especially on a cold and windy day as today. I always keep all kinds of lentils in my pantry and in no time I can turn them into an easy and healthy dinner that my whole family will enjoy.

Red lentils are easy to cook since, unlike some other beans, they do not require to be soaked before cooking but cook fast straight from the box. Lentils are rich in protein and for that they are much appreciated by vegetarians. Moreover, they are one of the best vegetable sources of iron, B vitamins, zinc, magnesium, and folate. So do not feel guilty for being lazy-- this lentil soup is not only simple and easy, but also very healthy. I hope this argument will convince you to try this recipe.

I like to serve this soup with Middle eastern breads and extra crème fraîche on top, particularly if I serve it as a one-dish dinner.
 

Spicy Red Lentil Cream Soup

Ingredients:
(Serves six)

2 cups red lentil (about 1 lb),
500 ml carrot juice (I buy organic from Costco),
500 ml vegetable broth,
2 shallots chopped,
2 garlic cloves, minced,
1/2 cup crème fraîche (the Latin American crema fresca would be an excellent substitute for it) or any other cream you like, plus extra to decorate,
1 tsp ground cumin,
1 tsp mild curry powder,
1/ cup chopped fresh coriander leaves,
3 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp of salt, fresh, coarsely ground black pepper.

Preparation:

1. Heat the oil in a large heavy duty pot. Add chopped onion and garlic and fry until soft.
2. Wash and drain red lentils. Add them to the pot. Coat with onion and garlic and fry for about a minute.

3. Pour in the carrot juice and broth and let the lentils cook for about 25 minutes, until they become soft. Cooked lentil will turn into a purée almost by themselves but if you like a smoother texture, you can use a hand blender to purée it more.

4. In a small bowl mix together crème fraîche, salt, pepper, ground cumin, and curry. Add this spiced cream to the lentil and mix everything together. Bring to boil and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let all the flavors infuse for about 5 minutes.
5. Pour the soup into serving bowls. Decorate with a dollop of crème fraîche and chopped, fresh coriander leaves.

Semolina Spaetzle with Caramelized Onion--October Special

Last week, when I visited the nearby World Market store, I stumbled on a huge October Fest promotion of German food products. I bought two bags of dry spaetzle. My kids like them and these little German noodles could be a great time saver when I am preparing their lunch. I usually serve them with meat sauce. But when I came home wondering what to prepare for dinner I thought that the October Fest was a good excuse to make some home-made spaetzle.

Any kind of home-made spaetzle are so good that they taste best almost on their own. Simply just some melted butter on top makes them delicious. My favorite are spaetzle served with chanterelles in cream sauce, when they are available in the fall. The most demanded in my home however are the traditional rustic spaetzle, served with caramelized onion on top. The dark gold and slightly crispy onion gives a nice contrast to the mild and somewhat firm spaetzle.

Spaetzle recipes call for quite a lot of eggs. The proportion usually is 2/3 cup of flour per egg. This time, I used the semolina flour, which gave my spaetzle not only a strong yellow color but at the same time more texture.

I brought from Poland a special colander for making spaetzle. If you fall in love with spaetzle, as much as we did, it is worth investing in such equipment. Otherwise, a regular colander with large holes would also work.

At the dinner, while gulping the spaetzle at an enormous speed, accompanied by half sour pickles, my son asked what they were made of. "Just flour, eggs and a bit of milk". "Wow! That is all? So simple and sooo delicious?!" Yes, it is.

Semolina Spaetzle with Caramelized Onion

Ingredients:
4 large eggs (preferably organic,
1 cup fine semolina flour,
1 cup all purpose wheat flour,
1/2 cup milk, 2 tbsp melted butter,
1 large onion, butter or olive oil for frying, salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:
1. In a medium bowl beat eggs with milk until they are well combined.
2. Add both kinds of flour to the eggs mixture and mix with a whisker until a smooth batter forms. If it is too thick add a few tbsp of milk. Let the batter rest for 30 minutes.

3. In the meantime peel off and chop the onion. Heat the 3 tbsp of butter or olive oil in a frying pan. Add chopped onion and fry it for 5-8 minutes, until it becomes dark gold.

4. In a large pot heat 5 quarters of water with one tbsp salt. Transfer a batter into a colander with holes and place over the pot with boiling water.

5. When the water boils vigorously, rub the batter through the colander using a plastic spatula or a wooden spoon.
6. When the whole batter is in the water bring it again to the boiling point. Turn down the heat and cook spaetzle for about 3-5 minutes.
7. Drain the spaetzle on a colander.
8. Transfer to a serving plate. Drizzle with caramelized onion and pepper on top.

Serve with green lettuce or sour cucumbers.

Polish Apple Pie--the Easy Version

It has been a third fall since I started writing this blog and the same third season for apples. And I do not know how it happened that so far I have not posted a recipe for a traditional Polish apple pie (or cake), which is probably the most popular Polish cake. It used to be served as soon as the first ripe apples appeared late in the summer and until the last winter apples were pulled out of the cellar in early spring.
If you ask me, the best apple pie I had was that made by my grandmother. Her shortcrust pastry could win a Nobel Prize in that category (if there were such a category, of course). I still use it to make many different cakes and mostly to make these wonderful small pastries that are on the title photo of my blog. But I believe that her apple cake was exceptional also because there was an endless variety of apples in Poland suitable for all kinds of apple cakes.
Apple cakes were the type of cakes most often baked in my home. It was easy, as in our yard there were growing at least three different kinds of apple trees and all of their fruits were suitable for cooking and preserving. They were juicy or mushy, sweet or sour, hard or soft, but always aromatic and perfect for the fall and winter desserts.
The recipe that I share today is an easy variation of the one my grandma made because it does not require rolling the dough. Instead you grate it on a grater.
We have never used cinnamon in my home for that recipe but since it goes with apples very well, you may add some according to your taste. Apple pie, as always, is great fresh and warm, just slightly cooled down, but this is also great the next day because it tastes very nice when it gets softer.

Polish Apple Pie
(For a 9-inch tin with high walls)
Ingredients:
3 cooking apples, preferably sour, but McIntosh or Golden Delicious can be also used,
1 cup sugar, plus 1 extra tbsp,
2 cups all purpose unbleached flour,
2 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature,
2 tsp baking powder,
4 medium eggs, separated, a pinch of salt,
1 tsp cinnamon (optional).
Preparation:
1. To make a dough place flour and baking powder in a large bowl. Mix it well with a spatula.
2. Add to the bowl butter cut into small cubes and working with hands make large crumbles.
3. In a small bowl mix egg yolks and one tbsp of sugar until it becomes pale. Add yolk mixture to the butter-flour bowl and working with hands, as fast as possible, make a smooth dough.
4. Wrap the dough in a plastic foil and freeze for at least one hour, until it becomes hard.
5. Just before baking preheat oven to 375F.
6. Peel off all the apples and grate them on a grater with large holes.

7. Use 1 tbsp of butter to grease the bottom of the 9-inch large baking tin with high removable walls. 8. Take the dough from the freezer and using the large hole grater, grate half of it directly on the bottom of the tin.
9. Beat whites until almost stiff. Add one third of the sugar and beat until it dissolves and whites become shiny. Do that the same with the second and the third part of the sugar.
10. Mix grated apples with whipped whites, add cinnamon if you like it, and spread evenly on the grated pastry.
11. Grate the second part of the dough on top.

12. Place the pie in the oven. Bake for about 60 minutes until the top of the pie becomes gold. Cool down, cut in triangles, and serve.