Sun 14 Dec, 2008
One of the nice things about being out of town is I don’t have to worry about the local allergens. One of not so nice things is figuring what everyone else is allergic to!
Anyway, today’s recipe involves milk, and a lot of it. We only made soup and a simple salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, and bell peppers, with some dressing found in the fridge, very easy), and I’m only going to write about the soup.
The original recipe was found in “The Joy of Cooking”, I can’t remember what page, and an edition from about 1990ish. Again with the lack of pictures, we were too busy drinking wine and talking about things that happened a long long long time ago rather than looking for cameras. The original recipe was spicy corn chowder, with Raven’s suggestion (and actually she did much of the cooking) we turned it into corn chowder with curried shrimps.
The ingredient list looked something like this:
- About 3/4 a liter of milk
- Three bags of frozen corn
- Lots of paprika, red cayenne powder, yellow curry powder, turmeric, salt, and pepper
- One green and one red bell pepper
- One poblano
- Two unidentified anaheim-ish peppers
- A few potatoes
- Some butter
- Garlic and onions
- Small precooked shrimps
- Enough oil to saute shrimps
We precooked the potatoes by boiling them. The garlic, onions, and peppers were sauteed in the soup pot with butter, and when done, put in the milk and potatoes. As we argued about whether it was soup or hot milk, we put in the the other ingredients except the shrimp, and kept adding various spices, in the hope that some of them would turn it into soup, while keeping it on the heat all the time, boiling it down somewhat. As it approached a more “soup” quality than “hot milk” quality, Raven sauteed the shrimps, without using oil or butter, in yellow curry powder, and then tossed them in. Comparatively easy!
This fed seven people, one of which showed up three hours after the rest of us ate. The soup was well received–people who were looking at it suspiciously as we started later went for seconds, and the poor guy who showed up late was lucky to get the last bowl, as we were all threatening to eat it.
The only thing I would do different is add something to the milk for a more substantial base–while cooking potatoes, spices, and other stuff into the milk does give it some substance, next time I would blend potatoes, or possibly some bread, into the broth. I found a stale baguette and hacked into pieces and let it soak in my bowl–I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I love bread, and it was delicious.
Steel Phoenix says:
For a more substantial base I would add coconut milk and/or sour cream. Cook some of the potatoes longer if you want it thicker.
I think I’d substitute out the onions for ginger. I know recipes are supposed to start with ‘cut up half an onion and throw it in the pan’, but yuck.
Raven says:
@Steel Phoenix - This could probably be done easily without the onions; I’ve made one very like it before for a friend that was allergic to them, and just left them out.
stanza says:
@Steel
Coconut milk would make for a very different soup (see next week) but sour cream is an interesting idea. Yes to the potato idea.
Ginger is an interesting idea–I’ll try it that way next time.
awurrlu says:
Coconut milk also occurred to me. Coconut goes really well with curry and shrimp. Hmm. ;-)
stanza says:
@awurrlu
Perhaps this is the soup we make next time we are at your house:
http://www.justhungry.com/sweet-potato-coconut-and-shrimp-miso-soup