I made mulligatawny

Yo everybody. I made this a looong time ago. We're talking back in October. It was DELISH, and I think I'm going to make it again soon. But it wasn't what I had in mind when I started out. After doing a little research I learned that the bright red, tomato based Indian soup I was thinking of is often called mulligatawny but is actually Rasam. That will have to be my next project, as I continue to pursue my goal of making every variety of lentil soup known to man.

I followed the recipe pretty exactly, except I had to substitute some of the harder to find ingredients. I couldn't find tamarind concentrate, so I added extra lemon juice because I think tamarind would add a kind of fruity bitterness? I used ground cardamom instead of the pods, and dried coriander instead of fresh leaves. Next time I'll have to go stock up at an Indian grocery store because I bet all those ingredients do make a big difference. But even with the substitutes, this soup had such a complex flavor! All those spices (as pictured above)! And you even through some apple in there--who would have guessed?



Mulligatawny
from Michelle Chen, author of the recipe: "Literally meaning pepper water, Mulligatawny Soup is an Anglo-Indian invention created by servants for the English Raj who demanded a soup course from a cuisine that had never produced one."

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon ghee (clarified butter), or vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
• 2 green chile peppers, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander seed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 4 pods cardamom, bruised
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh curry
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 apple - peeled, cored, and chopped
• 1 large potato, peeled and diced
• 1 cup Masoor dhal (red lentils), rinsed, drained
• 8 cups chicken broth (I used No-Chicken broth)
  
• 1 tablespoon tamarind concentrate
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 cups coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Heat ghee or vegetable oil in large pan (use low heat); cook onion, garlic, ginger, chilies, spices and curry leaves, stirring, until onion is browned lightly and mixture is fragrant. Do not over brown the onion or else it will give the soup a burnt taste.
2. Add carrot, apple, potato, dhal, and chicken stock to pan; simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes or until vegetables are just tender. Discard cardamom pods and curry leaves.
3. Blend or process soup mixture, in batches, until pureed; return to pan. (I used an immersion blender, which worked just as well.) Add tamarind, lemon juice, coconut milk and fresh coriander leaves; stir until heated through.

I made harira, the traditional soup of Morocco

One of my favorite Middle Eastern restaurants, Bedouin Tent in Beorum Hill, serves this kind of soup--a hearty, tomato based soup with lentils and chickpeas and a complex, savory but cinnamon-y flavor. As the weather's gotten colder, I've been in the mood to make soups and thought this was a good one to start the season.

I did some research and looked at a bunch of recipes on the web. I learned that in Morocco, this soup is eaten for Iftar, the nightly traditional meal that breaks the fast during Ramadan. It's thickened with tadouira--a mixture of tomato paste, flour and cilantro. There are many variations--some include chicken, some lamb. The kind I'd had at Bedouin Tent was veggie, so I knew they had to be out there. Finally I found a few versions which were mainly lentils, chickpeas, tomatoes, spices and vermicelli. And who doesn't like some noodles in their soup? I settled on this recipe and followed it pretty exactly.

I am being completely honest with you all here: THIS WAS THE BEST SOUP EVER. Seriously guys. You will want to eat this soup ALL THE TIME. It's hearty and filling and noodle-y and tomato-y and lemony and cinnamon/spicy. One bite and you will be like, "Fall and winter: BRING IT ON."

Harira Soup
Serves 8

Ingredients

Harira

• 1/2 cup green lentils
• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped (2 cups)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 15-oz. can chopped tomatoes, drained, liquid reserved
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 15-oz. can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup vermicelli
• Lemon wedges, for garnish

Tadouira

• 2 Tbs. all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 2 Tbs. lemon juice
• 1 Tbs. tomato paste

Directions

1. To make Harira: Cook lentils in pot of boiling salted water 2 minutes. Drain. (I did this but still don't understand why it was necesssary.)
   
2. Heat oil in large pot over medium heat. Add onion, parsley, cilantro, ginger, and cinnamon; sauté 5 minutes, or until onion is soft. Stir in tomatoes, and sauté 5 minutes more.
3. Stir in broth, chickpeas, lentils, reserved tomato liquid, and 3 cups water. Season with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 45 minutes, or until lentils are tender, stirring occasionally.
4. To make Tadouira: Whisk flour with 1 cup water in bowl. Whisk in cilantro, lemon juice, and tomato paste. Stir Tadouira and vermicelli into Harira, and cook 3 minutes, or until noodles are soft. Serve with lemon wedges.

I made Coconut Ginger Lentil Soup

Recently my cousin Rachel sent me an email simply entitled "YUMMY" with an intriguing recipe for Coconut Ginger Lentil Soup. The recipe was from her best childhood friend, Georgia Graham, who happens to be the sister of the drummer from Blind Melon and the inspiration for the video for "No Rain". They both attended Miss Betty's School of Dance back in Columbus, Mississippi (where my maternal family is from), and a photo of Georgia dressed up in a bee costume for a recital inspired their album cover (above) and the concept for the video. Crazy, right?

I decided to make it one very chilly Saturday night while Suzanne made a chocolate souffle. There were a lot of delicious smells going on in our apartment that night, let me tell you.

Here it is--the official Blind Melon Bee Girl Coconut Ginger Lentil Soup, comments in bold:

Ingredients:

1 T vegetable oil1 small onion, diced1 carrot, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced

1 celery stalk, diced (I HATE celery. When I teach the vocabulary word "odious" to my ninth graders, I always use celery as an example. Maybe the only food I detest. But I guess it is necessary for flavor. So I chopped it up real fine and cooked it for a long time.)

1 t red chili flakes (forgot to buy so I just used red pepper flakes and a little cayenne)

1 t cumin seeds, freshly ground using a mortar & pestle (Just used the pre-ground stuff)

1 T grated ginger root

1 T curry paste (I used Patak's Balti) (I used Thai Kitchen red curry)

1 c red lentils

3 c water or vegetable stock (I thought it needed way more liquid than this. I guess it depends on the kind of consistency you prefer, but I used about 5 cups of broth and the soup was still pretty thick.)

1 tiny can coconut milk

1 T candied ginger, diced

yogurt (optional)

In a large soup pot, heat up the oil and saute the onion, garlic, carrots and celery until soft, about 5 minutes. Add in the cumin, chili flakes, ginger root and curry paste and saute for another minute. Stir in the lentils and add in the water or stock. Lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes, until lentils are somewhat soft. Add in the coconut milk and the candied ginger and simmer for another 10 minutes. (I ended up needing to cook this a lot longer for the lentils to get soft enough. Maybe about 40 minutes total.) Serve with a dollop of yogurt.

I had never cooked with candied ginger before, and had no idea what to look for in the grocery store. It ended up being in the bulk section. Here is what it looks like:

Here is what the soup and souffle looked like cooking together side by side:

Overall, this was a big success. I might have gone a LITTLE too crazy with the cayenne. It had some serious kick. Also, I thought it was maybe a little TOO gingery. Next time I would play up the savory flavors a little more to counter the sweetness. Here's what the finished product looked like:

In general, I recommend cooking with lentils all the time. They are so cheap and healthy and easy to cook--no rinsing required, and they co ok pretty quickly compared to other dry beans. Sometime I will post my recipe for Crushed Lentil Soup, which I make allllll the time. But I w ill definitely integrate this soup into my regular lentil repertoire.