Holiday Soup Redux Part Three—Kwanzaa: Fried Okra and Coconut Milk Soup topped with Crumbled Cornbread

The third and final installment of the Holiday Soup Redux series (see part one and part two) on Kwanzaa was an interesting tutorial for me on the holiday and its seven days of celebration (Dec 26th-Jan 1st). I also learned about the holidays traditional fare (fried okra, chicken gumbo, corn bread, coconut shrimp, and sweet potato pie, etc) in order to create an original soup recipe. Originally, I thought a pot pie soup with a fried crust would be perfect, but after a few days with that idea it just seemed like I was just creating a pot pie and not anything too exciting and original. I finally decided on a fried okra and coconut soup topped with crumbled corn bread. I have never cooked with okra, nor really enjoyed it beyond a few occasions, so although the soup sounded simple I felt it would be a challenge for me in understanding how exactly to meld these flavors and if this sort of concept actually works. Here's what I did:

Part One-Okra/Coconut Milk Soup

Ingredients:

2 cups of okra, chopped up
4 cups of coconut milk  (I used Thai organic)
4 cups of water (2 cups for rice)
1 cup of rice (I used white rice with beans)
1/2 cup of chickpeas
1 teaspoon of curry
1 teaspoon of cumin
1/4 cup of heavy cream
Salt
Pepper

Directions:
Pour water and coconut milk into a pot and let boil. Cut up the okra and place it in a frying pan with heavy cream. Add curry, cumin, salt and pepper to the okra. When the okra turns slightly brown place it in the coconut milk/water pot and cover on a very low flame. Start the process for the cornbread (see recipe below). When the cornbread is in the oven, add water to another pot and let boil. Add the rice to the boiling water and let cook on medium heat for 20-30 minutes. Open a can of chickpeas or prepare them from dry beans (depending on your preference). Soup should be done by now where you can place about a cup of rice and chickpeas in a bowl. Pour the soup on top and break up the cornbread into segments on the very top of the soup. Enjoy!

Part Two— Cornbread, adapted from jungleswife.com. 

For this soup I searched for the easiest and most convenient cornbread recipe, since as I have mentioned I feel more comfortable making up my own recipes with soups and not with other food items. There are tons of recipes online, but this one from jungleswife.com was ideal, since it used minimal ingredients and even better most of which I had in the house. However, there are numerous options out there, so using what you like is always a good choice.

P.S. When it was all said and done it turned out to be more of an effort than a successful soup, but I enjoyed trying something different even if it meant ending up with a bland and slimy soupy.  Never having used okra before the consistency was a little off to me, but presented and exciting challenge of an ingredient and style of cooking that I have never tried and sometimes that is enough when creating and testing out new soups.


Some adjustments for next time:

• I would fry the okra in some sort of bread crumb as opposed to in a cream base.
  

• I would add more vegetables such as green beans, carrots, peas, etc to give the soup more flavor.
  

• I would try to make my own coconut milk such as from this homemade coconut milk recipe from coconut recipes.

To learn more about Kwanzaa check out these books. Also, please share any recipes from the holiday and pictures, especially of traditional Kwanzaa soups!
 
Seriously Soupy Serena

Chestnut Soup is Everywhere!

Great mind's think alike. A rather obnoxious statement, but that perhaps rings a little bit of truth, especially as I just finished reading the article Everything From Nuts to Soup from the New York Times. The article, written by Melissa Clark talks about her preparation of chestnut soup for the holidays, and as some of you already know I posted this morning about potentially making a chestnut soup in the Holiday Redux Part Two series. Although my chestnut soup never came to fruition and another took its place I enjoyed reading about Clark's approach to her soup (adding prunes, apples, and mushrooms) and how she prepared the chestnuts (I had not gotten that far).  One of these days I will get my hands on chestnuts and when I do you will sure to be the first to know!

Article:
Everything from Soup to Nuts

Recipe:
Chestnut-Apple Soup With Calvados Cream


I also found this great chestnut cook book; if you find any of these recipes inspiring write to me at seriouslysoupy@gmail.com and share your experiences!

Seriously Soupy Serena

P.S. Has anyone ever made a chestnut soup? I would love to hear about it.

Holiday Soup Redux Part Two—Christmas: Sweet Potato/Cranberry Soup

Sweet Potato/Cranberry Soup - Seriously Soupy

For the second installment of the Holiday Soup Redux series, I created a recipe that is my take on a traditional Christmas meal. However, figuring out exactly what makes a traditional Christmas meal can be rather daunting task, especially since every family has their own unique dishes, and those that are considered traditional (ham, fish, and turkey) didn't really inspire me nor could I choose which one was considered more traditional over the other. So, using Mel Torme's and Bob Well's 1944 classic "Christma's Song" and their famous opening line, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire" as inspiration, I fell in love with the idea of doing something with chestnuts (what's more Christmas than chestnuts?!?)  However, this inspiration came to me the day before Christmas Eve and finding chestnuts the day before Christmas Eve proved to be yet another daunting task.  Moving on, I thought to myself, "what else just screams Christmas?"  Cranberries!  This resulted in a twist on a sweet potato soup that was infused with ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon to create a hearty and rather delicious soup that was also really quick and easy to make. Here's how to make this seriously soupy Christmas soup:

Sweet Potato and Cranberry Soup

Ingredients:
6 cups of water (2 cups of water for the cranberries)
* 1 cup of heavy cream (optional)
6 sweet potatoe, peeled and chopped up
2 cups of fresh cranberries
1/2 yellow onion, chopped up
1 whole parsnip, chopped up
1 piece of ginger,minced
1 tablespoons of nutmeg
1 tablespoons of cloves
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste
* used for the cranberry and potato mixture

Sweet potatoes and ginger for the soup

Cranberries for the soup

Directions:
Put water in a pot and set to medium boil. Chop up the sweet potatoes, onion, parsnip, and ginger into squares and place in the slightly boiling pot of water for 30-45 minutes. In a separate and smaller pot, add 2 cups of water and add the cranberries (if using fresh). Set to a low flame and cover. The cranberries will start to pop as they open up, when this happens (about 5 minutes later) add cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and some sugar. About 10 minutes later the seeds will be released and the water will turn red. This indicates that the cranberries are ready. Turn off the flame and set aside this mixture. Add the heavy cream, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, salt, and pepper to the sweet potato mixture. Cover for another 10 minutes and check with a fork to check if the potatoes are soft. If soft, blend the mixture together with a hand blender until it turns into a puree. With a slotted spoon scoop up the cranberries and place them in the soup (try to use all of the cranberries). I also added about a cup of the remaining cranberry/water mixture and blended again. I also left my puree slightly chunky with some cranberry pieces because I like it chunky, you can puree to taste. I also topped the soup off with a few cranberries for a garnish.

Cranberries boiling

P.S. I used the heavy cream, partially because I still had it from the potato and leek soup recipe, but also because I wanted to create a creamier soup. It can be omitted, based on your dietary restrictions and preferences.

Seriously Soupy Serena