My favourite quick carrot soup

You say 'pureed soup' - I think 'carrot soup with coriander and aniseed'

For me, it's the quintessence of pureed soup, it's a liquid dream, it's the warm comfort of a cold evening, the cooling pleasure of a hot afternoon. It's versatile, it's under my skin.


I've almost always got organic carrots in the fridge that we've grown ourselves. They're full of taste and have got a homely flavour. Making this soup is very easy and, fortunately, someone has usually peeled the carrots before I get my hands on them:) In wintertime, it's great to enjoy it warm, but it's just as wonderful when eaten cold. I especially love that during summertime! We do have 1-2 weeks of hot weather here!;)

Chicken broth can be replaced by vegetable broth, heavy cream or sour cream can be used in place of cream cheese. Whatever you've got handy! Cream cheese can also be flavoured with herbs /onion/garlic/whatnot.

Carrot soup with coriander and aniseed
(serves 4)

400 g carrots
1 onion
1 tbsp butter
8 dl chicken broth
ground coriander seeds
ground aniseed
4 tbsp cream cheese
1 tsp sugar
salt, pepper

1. Slice the onion and the carrots, sautee in butter in a saucepan until onion is transparent, about 10 minutes.
2. Add the broth and boil until carrots have turned quite tender, 20 minutes will do fine.
3. Puree the potful, then return to the saucepan.
4. Add cream cheese and flavour with coriander, aniseed, salt (if needed), pepper and sugar to taste. Heat, but don't let the soup reach boiling point.

The soup is creamy, even a little portion of cream cheese does wonders! The flavour of carrots is sweetish, but the spices push it to a limit. Coriander and aniseed are not very strong flavourers, they're rather mild, so they suit carrot perfectly. What pleasure!

This time I served the soup with some crispy rye bread cubes, but it's equally good with white bread cubes or grilled chicken. More often than not I like to eat it plainly, without a topping, because the soup itself completes the taste. That sounds weird enough:)

So I guess it's also the perfect recipe for this month's Monthly mingle, themed Comfort foods. Although it's not something from my childhood or anything I'd eat together with my family, I'm sure this soup will guide me through the best and worst moments of the life still ahead of me:D

Spicy chocolate truffles, if you still miss Christmas

A part of my holiday gifts were these spicy chocolate truffles. They were a bit different from truffles I'd made before because the filling was softer, silkier. With 2007 and all the Christmas mumbojumbo gone, spicy desserts still make their appearances in our kitchen. All year round, actually, all year round...

So for me any time is right for writing about a truffle with a taste of Christmas.

Spiced chocolate truffles

125 g dark chocolate
125 g milk chocolate
1/2 dl light cream
juice of one orange
75 g sugar
50 g butter

flavouring options for 1/3 of the mixture
1/4 tsp ground aniseed
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon + 1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp Cointreau

coating
about 250 g dark chocolate
50 g milk chocolate, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, cloves, aniseed, nuts...

1. Break chocolate to pieces
2. Bring cream, orange juice and sugar to a boil together and add to the chocolate, stirring until incorporated well.
3. Add butter and mix well.
4. Divide the mixture into 3 parts and choose a flavouring option for every one of them. Let the new mixtures stand in the fridge for some 30 minutes.
5. Make balls or other shapes (you might want to distinguish the different flavours) of the mixtures and let them harden in the fridge.
6. Melt dark chocolate over a waterbath and dip all the truffles into the chocolate, then let them harden on a non-stick surface like foil.
7. Decorate truffles with different flavour differently. You can roll them in powdered sugar or cocoa powder or decorate them with melted milk chocolate. Before hardening you can add cloves on top of clove truffles, aniseed on top of aniseed truffles or just different nuts.

I made truffles flavoured with aniseed, cloves and cardamom/cinnamon. Loved them all! The flavours came through very well and I just couldn't help but pick the aniseed ones.
I really liked the softer filling and it surprised me every time I bit into a truffle. All the superhigh gigaquality truffles that cost a lot of money are usually a lot harder to bite in, for whatever reason. Everyone needs a change, right?

But it was a bit hard to form the balls so I kept running between the stove and the freezer! I guess it's good to combine running with chocolate once in a while...

Warm sweet-savoury feta cheese

An impressive appetizer that's ready in 5 minutes.
OK, so you'll be washing the dishes afterwards, but that like...doesn't count. Let someone else do that.

It's a dish inspired by Cretan cuisine, both salty and sweet and can confuse your taste buds to the point where they stop analyzing and just start enjoying. As the flavour is quite intensive, I wouldn't serve as big portions as the original recipe suggests. I cut them in two - this wasn't all I was eating, OK? This is actually called an appetizer, not a Huge Main Dish. The aniseed's flavour - that's not less intensive. So if you're not too fond of it, add just a teeeny bit or skip and be proud of it.


Grilled feta with honey and aniseed
(Epicurious, serves 4-8)

400 g feta cheese, cut into pieces
4 tsp olive oil
3 tbsp honey
1 1/2 tsp whole aniseed
ground/crushed black pepper

1. Preheat your oven's grill element
2. Divide feta between 4-8 small baking dishes and brush or drizzle with oil
3. Grill about 3 minutes, the cheese should turn golden (Mine didn't, but tasted good anyway)
4. Meanwhile, combine honey and aniseed in a saucepan and heat until hot or do the same thing in a small bowl with the help of a microwave oven.
5. Drizzle 1/2 - 1 tsp honey mixture (according to the size of the serving) onto every portion and sprinkle with ground/crushed black pepper.

The feta, salty as ever, doesn't get any milder in my opinion, but rather gets this strangely addictive extra nuance of good gooey sweetness. I like how the texture changes in the grilling process and the cheese is a bit grainy afterwards. If the dish is almost empty, there are still tiny pieces of feta that have been soaking in honey and have the richest taste. Aniseed, though voluntary for all the (silly) picky eaters, gives the cheese a very different flavour and is a must if you want to impress someone. Including yourself.

If served warm, I'd recommend serving the feta with crisp bread. I also imagine it over some green salad with just a drizzle of olive oil for the summer. When the dish has cooled, the cheese becomes firmer, but the good flavour remains. I Enjoyed the leftovers with some juicy oven-baked salmon this evening - a good combination.
Thank God I'm not a picky eater:)