I had some daikon in my refrigerator and not sure what to make with it, then I remembered some delicious soup with a clear and delicate broth I ate in Japan with lotus roots and fish. I decided to go that route with my daikon. After a bit of research, I found a recipe for a similar soup made with salmon and daikon called ” Sanpeijiru“. I found this recipe on this beautiful blog called “Just One Cookbook“, and since I loved most of the recipes, I thought to try this one out. Sanpeijiru is a specialty from Hokkaido where they eat a lot salmon and potatoes.

One particular thing about Japanese is that they are very particular about their broth and always filter it so that it becomes crystal clear, with absolutely no residue. My Japanese neighbor, Rui is so picky that she uses coffee filter instead of fine strainer to obtain an impeccable broth.

The broth is made of Kombu a thick seaweed, which is the base of most broths, and gives a very delicate flavor. Daikon is a staple of Japanese cuisine (and many parts of Asia too), it’s a thick and white radish used in broth, grated, pickled, in salads, or on sashimi, in so many different forms or shape. It’s high in vitamin C and one root vegetable very low in calories.

I did marinate the salmon with salt and sake, but not for 2 days, just one day. I used scallions instead of the Tokyo Negi and used salmon fillet instead of salmon scraps. I wanted to add some greens such as kale, but I decided to try the original recipe for the first time. Kale is not really a Japanese ingredient so I thought to keep it authentic.

The result is a clear and clean brothy soup, very delicate, and obviously very light. I just feel clean and nourished which is a great feeling.

 Ingredients

• 1 lb salmon fillet
• Palm-sized kombu
• 4 cups water for soup
• 8” (20 cm) daikon radish, peeled and cut in slices then quartered
• 1 carrot, peeled and cut in slices
• 4 scallions, cut in 2 inches long stems and then sliced lengthwise
• 1 potato, peeled and cut in pieces
• 4 Tbsp. sake
• 1 tsp. kosher salt or more

Instructions

Marinate salmon slices in sake, salt and lemon or Yuzu for 2 days. Cut salmon fillets into 4 inches pieces. Bring water to a boil, pat dry salmon fillets and blanch them for 30 seconds in boiling water. Drain and rinse salmon pieces. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil and add salmon and kombu and let it cook for about 15-20 min. Filter broth to obtain a clear fine liquid.

Add vegetables to broth and let simmer until tender but not mushy. Remove kombu. Filter some more if necessary. Add sake and adjust with salt.

Beets are so lovely, I love them in any shape or form. It’s the type of vegetable you either love or hate. Most people who tasted this soup, loved it. I guess it has to do with its smooth and delicate flavor. When you think about a beet soup, you imagine something different, and certainly not as good.

The good thing about summer, (even if you don’t know it’s summer by looking at the weather here in San Francisco) is that the stores are filled with exciting seasonal vegetables such as these beautiful spring shallots. Usually, you only find them in May-June so whenever they’re available, I get excited like a kid in a candy store. Like any other fresh vegetable, they need to be consumed fast, unlike the dried shallots.

Ingredients for 3-4

• 2 spring shallots, cut
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 2 large carrots, peeled and cut in slices
• 5 medium size beets, peeled and cut in small pieces
• Vegetable broth (just enough to cover the vegetables)
• salt
• yogurt (optional)

Preparation

In a large pot, heat olive oil. Add shallots and cumin. Stir and cook until fragrant. Add beets and carrots. Cook at medium heat for a few minutes mixing well. Add broth and let cook for about 30 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Adjust with salt.

Place the cooked vegetable in a blender and puree it.

Serve hot in bowls with yogurt and some green shallot stems.

I got a little sick this weekend, another weird migraine that made me drained, so anytime I get sick, I like to eat soups…I know I made one not that long ago, but when I feel sick, soups are great to get re-hydrated and they seem to coat my stomach very nicely. Do I sound like a grandma? maybe. I haven’t made that root vegetable soup for a long time, and had everything in the refrigerator to make one…so here we go grandma started to peel the vegetables and the soup was on its way.

I love root vegetables in so many ways, and in a soups, they’re delicious. All those flavors are combined together to make a smooth and velvety purée. Rutabaga had a bad reputation in Europe especially among people who went through the second world war, since it was the only vegetable they could find during that time. It’s basically an hybrid vegetable that was produced due to the “hybridisation” of a turnip and a cabbage.

My mom adores to puré her vegetable soup and anytime I go home, there is a huge pot filled with some kind of colorful soup for dinner, we rarely have heavy dinners… I am so spoiled that I turn into a brat, a real “bratty” brat…that would be me, la fille indigne (the unworthy daughter) instead of eating her soup, I make the “Maggi” soup called Sveltesse 0% that is an dehydrated soup with 50 calories per bag. You just pour boiling water on top et voilà! you have a quick soup with 50 calories that tastes good (for a dehydrated soup, it does). I have no idea why, or how…I never eat any kind of that stuff, ever, but for whatever unexplained reason, when I am home, I like the Sveltesse soups. Of course, I get the annoyed stare from my mom, who got somehow used to it, but cannot help to give me the look.

I think we all have our “devil food“, and I admit it with no shame, that Sveltesse 0% is my little devil soup, well at least it’s not some heavy chocolate cake filled with butter and corn syrup.

I never eat that kind of thing here, when I go home, I rarely cook, since two cooks in the kitchen are too many, then I break the habits, all habits. I even turn into a meat eater, not that much but I eat prosciutto, and salami. Something I rarely do here. When you change environment, I think you tend to change your habits also, and adapt to the local way of living..if you don’t, it can be a nightmare.

The little twist of the soup is the cream of tarragon, and turnip chip…the turnip chip looks like one but is not fried, it’s just cooked in the oven.

Ingredients for 6

For the soup

• 2 carrots, peeled and cut in chunks
• 1 medium size potato, peeled and cut in chunks
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/2 sweet potato, peeled and cut in chunks
• 3 turnips (2 for the soup, 1 for the chips), peeled and cut in chunks, except the one for the chips
• 1 parsnip, peeled and cut in chunks
• 1 rutabaga, peeled and cut in chunks
• 1 cup celeri head, peeled and cut in chunks
• vegetable broth
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

For the tarragon cream

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbs plain yogurt
• 1 tbs chopped tarragon
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the soup

In a large pot, heat olive oil, then add onions and bown them. Add the rest of the vegetables, salt and pepper and stir and cook for about 5-10 minutes. Add broth, enough to cover the vegetables by 1/3 inch. Simmer until the vegetables are cooked. Add broth as needed, to always have the same quantity on top of the vegetables.

When vegetable are cooked, mix with a hand blender or mixer. Adjust salt and pepper and serve with a tsp of cream of tarragon and 2 turnip chips.

For the turnip chips

Slice the turnips about 2mm slice. Boil in water for a 5 minutes. Drain and pat dry, then place in the oven and let it dry, sprinkle with olive oil and salt. Let it dry some more until the chip is crunchy.

For the tarragon cream

Whip heavy cream. In a mixing container, mix yogurt, lemon juice, tarragon, salt and pepper. Carefully add whipped cream.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/10/where-are-your-roots-vegetable-root-soup-with-turnip-chips-and-tarragon-cream/feed/ 17 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/09/my-first-american-cake-carrot-and-walnut-cake-with-cardamom/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=my-first-american-cake-carrot-and-walnut-cake-with-cardamom http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/09/my-first-american-cake-carrot-and-walnut-cake-with-cardamom/#comments Sun, 27 Sep 2009 05:50:37 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=4113 Mon premier gâteau americain – Gâteau aux carottes, noix et cardamome

This is an odd and very bright picture of the cake but I have so much light under my window with direct sun light to the table, that could not manage to shoot with a more subtle lighting.  The picture is incredibly bright, you might want to put on your sun glasses if you look at the picture for too long, you don’t want to get permanent vision damage!! Sorry about the lighting.

I have never had carrot cake before I moved to the US, and at the beginning I found that weird. I thought Americans and their crazy ideas…using carrots in a dessert! I was horrified…So it took me a few years before I actually attempted to taste it.

I have to admit that coming to America, allowed me to be more open to new things. Europeans in general are a little more conservative (especially the French and Italians who have a strong gastronomy history) in terms of cuisine and tend to be more rigid about how things should be done. That’s why I really love Alain Ducasse, he is an amazing chef, he knows how to keep the traditions but in such an inventive and creative way that it all blends beautifully together. He does not combine too many overpowering ingredients in one dish, and focuses on one primary flavor enhanced with less strong ingredients. I think that too many complex flavors in one dish, mess it up, because you don’t know what you eat anymore and it gets confusing for your palate.

I do love traditions and traditional cuisine, that’s how I grew up, (but that’s why I moved in a certain way because the weight of traditions was somehow suffocating me as a young adult and I wanted some freedom to be myself). I also do enjoy new ideas and flavors in the kitchen. I think you can use the knowledge of traditional cuisine to develop new ideas and combinations. I certainly don’t want to get into politics but if you look at French politicians and presidents before the current president and unpopular Sarkozy, they really were like Museum pieces. The same old dinosaurs with the same old speeches who have been around for ages, and I think that’s scary. (Berlusconi is a different story that I will not discuss here). The French do not like changes and this is ingrained in their culture and I think Italians either. If I look at my family in Italy, they would not eat anything “non Italian” and even for Italian food, it needs to be prepared in a particular way. My Aunt would never use basil with a meat based sauce for pasta, she only uses basil on tomato sauce. My mother never ever uses lamb in her pasta sauce, whereas in Abruzzo they do, etc…so to each its own.

I know that the original carrot cake does contain cinnamon, and I substituted it with cardamom to get a different twist, and the cardamom flavor was quite subtle, you might want to add more if you like. If you like cinnamon, you can use it too. The cake turned out very moist, with such a beautiful deep orange. Now for the “purists” who want to keep their carrot cake traditional, they might think that this is too funky. It might be funky but it’s delicious nonetheless.

Ingredients for 6 people

• 2 eggs
• 300 g carrots (about 3 medium)
  
• 100 g white flour
• 100 g wholewheat flour
• 100 g butter, melted
  
• 4 tbs plain yogurt
• 70 g granulated sugar
  
• 40 g light brown sugar
• 10 g palm sugar
• 2 tbs almond meal
• 70 g walnuts, chopped
  
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  
• 1 tsp baking powder
• one pinch baking soda
  

Preparation

Beat the eggs with the different kinds of sugars until the mixture double its volume and turns white. Add yogurt, butter and vanilla extract and mix carefully. Add both flours and almond meal. Add baking powder and baking soda, then add cardamom and mix some more. Incorporate carefully carrots and walnuts to the mixture.

Bake in a non-stick pan for about 45 min at 370F.