13 August 2011

soup, eggs & dessert

I love to cook and especially bake. I also love trying new recipes. This year I've been a bit lacking in trying new recipes, but this past week, I've tried 3 new recipes! They are: Thai Summer soup, Egg nests & Lemony Strawberry-Brita. The first and third, have been a hit and the second, not so much. I think part of the reason for Mr Siili didn't like the egg nests was because I was also making the Lemony strawberry-Brita at the same time and he was expecting something sweet, not savory. Oops.

In any case, I'm sharing the recipes below. Let me know if you make any of them and what you think of them.


The Thai summer soup was light, quite delicious and easy to make. I'll definitely be making this again, in the summer or winter. I found this recipe from a Pirkka, which is a brand for Finnish K-group markets. I've translated the recipe below.
Photo credit - Pirkka
Thai Summer soup (Thaimaalainen kesäkeitto)
Prep and cooking time: 30-60 minute
5 servings
Ingredients
4-5 (~ 10,5 oz) potatoes
3 (~ 7 oz) carrots
1/2 (~ 8,8 oz) broccoli
1/2 (~ 8,8 oz) cauliflower
1 Tbs green curry paste
4 cups water
3/4 tsp salt
1 can (400 ml) coconut milk
~ 3,5 oz sugar pea pods
2 Tbs chopped parsley or coriander
In addtion
lime slices

Directions
  1. Peeland chop up the potatoes and carrots. Remove the broccoli and cauliflower florets and cut up the stems. Heat the curry paste in the pan for a moment.
  2. Add the potatoes, carrots and water. Bring to a boil and season with salt. Boil on medium heat for about 5 minutes.
  3. Add the broccoli and cauliflower to the soup. Boil for about another 10 minutes, until the vegetables are soft. In the end, add the coconut milk and sugar pea pods. Let the soup come back to a boil.
  4. Decorate with parsley or coriander. Serve with lime slices and bread.
My Notes:

We don't care for sugar peas too much, so we substituted baby corns instead. Very yummy! Also, the green curry paste we used wasn't very strong, so we ended up doubling it. I think next time I might even triple or quadruple the amount to give it more curry flavor.


I love Simply Recipes recipes! She has so many easy recipes that are just yummy. While this recipe is my least favorite of all that I have tried from her site, it is due to a personal preference due to the fact that I don't really care for eggs. But when I had extra egg whites from the Lemony Strawberry-Brita recipe (mentioned below), I figured I had to try this novel egg idea instead of letting them go to waste. The nests are a great and fun idea, but I'm not sure if I'll make them again.

Photo credit - Simply Recipes

Egg Nests
2 servings
Ingredients
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese


Directions
  1. Preheat the oven to 450°F with a rack in the middle. Line a roasting pan, or baking sheet that can take high temperatures without warping, with parchment paper or Silpat.
  2. Separate the egg yolks from the whites. Make sure there are no little pieces of egg yolk in the whites or you will have difficulty getting the whites to beat properly. It helps if you are making more than one egg nest to keep each egg yolk in a separate prep bowl.
  3. Place the egg whites in a very clean mixer bowl (any residual oil in the mixer bowl will keep the egg whites from whipping up properly). Add a quarter teaspoon of salt to the egg whites. Beat the egg whites with a whisk attachment in a mixer (or using a hand mixer), starting on low speed and then slowly increasing to high speed, until stiff peaks form.
  4. Gently fold in the grated Gruyere cheese, taking care not to deflate the egg whites.
  5. Create two mounds of the egg white mixture on the lined baking sheet. Form the mounds so they look like nests, with indentations in the centers.
  6. Place in the oven for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes, open the oven, pull out the rack with the egg white nests, and gently add an egg yolk to the center of each nest. Return the baking sheet to the oven and cook for 3 more minutes. Serve immediately.
My Notes:
We didn't have Gruyere cheese on hand, so I just used the edam that we do have.


I clipped this recipe out from the S-rhymä (which is a brand for Finnish S-group markets) magazine I get each month because the picture looked so good and who am I to resist strawberry and lemon? When Mr Siili saw the recipe, he got excited about it remembering something his mom made. That just clenched the deal and I had to make this! A bit on the sweet side, but still very yummy!
Photo credit - S-rhymä

Lemony Strawberry-Brita (Sitruunainen mansikka-Brita)

20 - 25 pieces
Ingredients
Base
1/2 cup + 1 Tbs margarine
1/3 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
2/3 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup cream
1 Tbs margarine (for the baking paper)
Meringue
3 egg whites
2/3 cup sugar
1 bag (~2,5 oz) sliced almonds
Lemon Kissel

1/3 cup
lemon juice
1 cup water
1 cup (scant) sugar
4 egg yolks
4 Tbs corn starch
2 Tbs soft butter
In addition
1 quart fresh (sliced) strawberries

Directions
  1. Prepare the cake base. Separate room temperature egg yolks in one bowl and whites in another. Whip the margarine and suger. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing the whole time. Mix the flower and baking powder. Add them to the dough in alternating turns with the cream. Mix until the dough is smooth. Cover a baking pan (with sides) with baking paper and spread the margarine over the paper. Spread the dough over the margarine, about the size of 8 in x 12 in. 
  2. Prepare the meringue. Whip the egg whites into a hard foam. Add the sugar a little bit at a time, beating the entire time. Spread the meringue on top of the dough. The surface of the meringue can have peaks/shapes. Spring some almond slices on top. Bake the cake base at 350F in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes or until the meringue is a beautiful color. Let cool.
  3. Prepare the Kissel. Measure into a sauce pan all of the kissel ingredients, excluding the butter. Over medium heat, heat the ingredients, stirring briskly the whole time. Once the kissel has thickened a bit, continue to heat it for a few more minutes over a low heat. Add the soft butter to the kissel and stir until smooth. Allow the kissel to cool and sprinkle some sugar on the top.
  4. You can prepare the kissel a day in advance and store it in the fridge. Cut the cake base in two (horizontally) and lift the meringue layer away from the bottom half. Spread the kissel and sliced strawberries on the cake base. Put the meringue layer on top of the kissel and strawberries, meringue side up. Serve immediately.
My Notes:
My base and meringue were not nearly fluffy enough to cut in half when I took it out of the oven. I think it was because I just tossed the cream and flour in together and mixed away. It didn't effect the taste one bit! Next time I think I'll bake them separately anyway. The lemon kissel was insanely sweet! I think I'll try to make it a bit less sweet next time, or as per Mr Siili's suggestion, just leave it out completely. This dessert was sweet enough and yummy enough to not really need the lemon kissel. It was good though.

Enjoy!