Garlic Soup

As the weather gets cooler, my appetite for soups increases. It is soup season everybody and I'm starting it with a rather uncommon soup; garlic soup. Garlic is my favorite thing ever and when I found out there was a garlic soup I immediately became interested. 

Contrary with what  you may think, this garlic soup is not super strong since you first need to roast the garlic to the point where they become "sweet". Now, I'm not saying this is a soup you should make for your date unless your dating your husband for 9 years (my case) then you can get away with it. 

The croutons on this soup are really good, I suggest you make extra as they will fly off your serving plate. I also suggest to serve them at the very last minute to keep them crunchy when you serve the soup.  

Ingredients:

Serves 4 

3 Garlic heads, peeled

5 cups chicken (or vegetable) broth 

extra virgin olive oil

4 thyme sprigs

salt and pepper

2 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon butter

In a small heavy-bottomed saucepan, place the garlic and two sprigs of thyme and add enough olive oil to just cover the garlic completely. Cook the garlic over low heat until lightly browned, about 25 to 30 minutes. The garlic should be really tender at this point. Do not let it brown too much or else it will taste bitter. Strain the garlic (keep the garlic infused oil for cooking, it's amazing) Place the garlic in a pot and add 1 tablespoon of the garlic oil, with the back of a spoon, mash all the garlic. Turn the heat to low and add the butter and flour, cook for about two minutes, stirring constantly then add the chicken broth and the rest of the thyme and season with salt and pepper to taste. Boil for 15 minutes, strain the soup and return to the pot to keep it warm until ready to serve.

Note: This is no a super thick soup but you can add heavy cream to make it a bit richer.

For the croutons

Slices of bread

Blue cheese

Chopped scallion to serve

In a baking sheet lined with a silicon math, arrange the bread slices and brush them with some garlic infused oil. Add blue cheese on top and place it under the broiler for a couple of minutes until the cheese melts and the bread is golden brown and place a slice of bread on each bowl of soup. Sprinkle with scallions.

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Last Figs of the Season

When deciding what to do with the last figs harvested from our tree, an upside down fig cake seemed like a great idea and, oh boy, was I glad I went for it. Even my husband asked me why I didn't do this cake to begin with, and I simply answered, "I saved the best for last".

A slice of perfection: Moist, tender, sweet and beautiful texture, everything I look for in an upside down cake. I love this cake a little warm and a scoop of vanilla ice cream is always welcome to the party but quite honestly the figs are just so good that they are all I want to taste. 

Ingredients:

For the figs:

1 cup light brown sugar

1 stick of butter (4oz)

9-10 figs  cut lengthwise

9-inch round baking pans

Place the butter and sugar in a skillet, whisk to combine and cook until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is bubbly which should take about 4 to 5 minutes. Pour the caramel over the cake pan, arrange the figs on top, be very careful as the caramel is super hot. You can even wait a few minutes to let it cool down. Arrange the figs (cut side down) on top of the caramel and let it cool before adding the cake batter.

For the cake:

2 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup milk, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla 

2 Lg eggs, room temperature

Preheat the oven 350 F. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix the dry ingredients just to blend. Add the butter to the dry ingredients and blend on low speed for 2 to 3 minutes. In a mixing bowl, whisk to blend the milk, vanilla and eggs. On medium speed, slowly add half of the liquid to the dry ingredients and blend well, slowly add the other half and mix until well combined. Turn the speed up and mix for 30 seconds or until batter is smooth. Pour the batter over the caramel and figs and bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate. 

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Spaghetti with Grape Tomatoes

Hello guys, just a quick post to share with you this fantastic pasta recipe with tomatoes from our garden. Very simply made but so fresh, filling and comforting. Just a perfect bowl of pasta and also super quick to make. Simplicity at its best!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! 

Ingredients:

2 pounds of grape tomatoes, halved

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

fresh basil, chiffonade

1 pound of spaghetti or angel hair

salt and pepper to taste

Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Heat the olive oil, add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Then add the tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste, lower the heat, cover and cook slowly for 15 minutes. Then add basil and toss well.  At this point you can add the cooked pasta, toss very well before serving and add more fresh basil and Parmesan cheese if desired. 

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Last Days of Summer Grilling

We don't eat much meat around here but occasionally we like to enjoy a good grilled cut of meat. New York strip is one of my favorite cuts to grill as it has a nice marbling and, properly cooked, it's really tender. But the real star in this recipe is the chimichurri sauce. If you are not familiar with chimichurri, it's an Argentinean sauce (also popular throughout South America) commonly used over grilled meat. It's very simple to make as it requires ingredients that you probably already have on hand. Everybody has their own version, of course, but the usual suspects are parsley, garlic, olive oil and white vinegar. 

Chimichurri also goes great over grilled chicken and vegetables. I particularly love it with roasted potatoes. To change things a bit, I sometimes like to replace half of the parsley with mint, it is really delicious. 

I also made a salad, yes, with figs. I love the combination between figs, blue cheese and honey. This time, I decided to stuff the figs with blue cheese and bake them for 25 minutes then drizzled them with honey. The greens are lightly dressed with olive oil because when you cut into the figs they release a lot of juice and that makes a beautiful "vinaigrette".  

Ingredients: 

Chimichurri Sauce

1 1/2 cup parsley

(or half parsley and half mint)

3 garlic cloves

1/2 cup olive olive

3 tbsp white vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and 

process until smooth. Serve immediately or keep in the 

refrigerator until ready to use just make sure it comes to 

room temperature before serving. 

For the figs

8 figs

2 oz blue cheese, cold

honey 

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Cored the figs just enough to make room for some blue cheese, we don't

want to get rid of all the seeds. Stuffed them and arrange them on a baking pan.

Roast them for 20 minutes and drizzle them with honey before serving. 

For the salad

Mix greens

Extra virgin olive oil

Pistachios

Blue Cheese

Salt and Pepper

Place the mix greens in a  bowl, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and 

pepper to taste, toss well. Arrange the salad in plates, top with blue cheese, pistachio and the roasted figs. Serve immediately. 

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Mango Mini Pies

I have a thing for mangoes. It's not strange, I grew up in a house with two mango trees. I was not considered "lucky" to have the trees since in Honduras, a lot of people do. During mango season, you will see them everywhere. Neighbors exchanging mangos, giving them away, selling them, you just don't know what to do with them. 

My mother-in-law use to make the most amazing mango jam (she passed away a couple of years ago). I remember she use to come to visit us from Honduras and she would bring with her a big jar of mango jam she had made. That jar as big as it was, never lasted long. We ate it with pancakes,  with scones, made tarts, you name it. She shared the recipe but I had to modify it a bit because mangos here aren't the same as over there, it could be the kind of mango, who knows, but the final product is still really good. 

I also made mini mango pies which are fantastic and super tasty, they are best served a little warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or just as they are. They also go great with chai tea, hot or cold.  I love that stuff. 

Ingredients:

Find the pie crust recipe HERE

For the mango jam

2 lb mango, peeled and 

cut in chunks

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice + zest of

one lemon

1 vanilla bean, split 

lengthwise

1/8 cup dark rum

In a large saucepan, combine all the ingredients (except the rum) and let it macerate at room temperature for 30 minutes. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until the mixture thickens. Add the rum, stir well and let it cook for a minute more. Fill the sterilize jars with mango jam and let cool.

To assemble:

Preheat the oven to 425 F.

Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Using a round cutter (mine is 3-inch) cut out circles. Place half of the rounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat and fill them with mango jam. Brush the edges of the dough with a little water and place another piece of pastry on top. Seal the pies using a fork and punch holes on top of each pie. Brush the top with a little egg wash and sprinkle it with sugar. Bake for 12 to15 minutes or until golden brown.

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