Mulligatawny Soup

Soup season is definitely here. There's no doubt about it, and here's another restaurant soup from my past.

Years ago, I attended a franchise presentation for a small chain of Indian fast-food restaurants. It was a very interesting concept, as all of the food was prepared off-site and managed in a manner that made it easy to prepare and serve quickly.

Anyway, their website had a recipe for Mulligatawny, a soup that was made famous in North America by TV's Seinfeld. I made it at the time and it was quite tasty. When I decided to make it again, I was surprised to find that the website no longer existed. Fortunately, the Internet Archive had a copy of the page and I was able work from there.

The recipe on the website had a few errors in it, and I never bothered to write the authors for a correction, so I winged it in a few places. Fortunately, that's the nature of the soup - most of the ingredients vary wherever you go. Some variations use meat, some don't. Some use coconut milk, others use milk and cream.

Another tasty looking variation can be found at Foodland Ontario. Unlike their Moroccan Chicken recipe, I'd probably attempt the Foodland Ontario soup by following their directions.

Mulligatawny Soup

Phase 1

2 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 cup onion, diced
1 crushed garlic clove
1/4 cup red pepper, chopped
1 cup tomato sauce
4 cups water
1/4 cup chopped basil
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp curry powder
salt and pepper to taste
1-1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup cream
2 tsp sugar

1. In a pot, heat oil on medium and sauté onions and cumin seeds until onions are translucent.
2. Add garlic, red peppers, and tomato sauce stirring continuously.
3. Add water, basil, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, curry powder, salt and pepper, and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce to medium and cook, covered for 30 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
5. Transfer mixture to a blender.
6. Add milk and puree the mixture.
7. Return soup to the pot and stir in cream and sugar.

Phase 2

2 tbsp canola oil

1/4 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup water
1 bay leaf
1 potato, peeled and diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1/4 cup eggplant, peeled and diced
1/4 cup green peas
salt and pepper to taste

1. Combine all ingredients in a deep pan over medium heat.
2. Let vegetables simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until cooked.
3. Pour mixture into pot from phase 1 and let simmer for at least 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

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Grilled Baba Ghannouj with Chinese Eggplant and Zucchini

I was contacted by the people at Three Farmers in Saskatchewan (Canada) asking if I'd like a sample of their new oil from a seed called camelina. Rarely do I turn away free stuff, so I agreed, and several weeks later, a teeny, tiny package arrived at my door:

Clearly, this must be some hot stuff if they only sent me about a half a cup's worth of the stuff. I imagine it's related to the amount of processing required to render a high-quality cold-pressed oil. It's only available at high-end retail outlets such as Pusateri's and The Cheese Boutique. You can check their website for other places in the GTA and across Canada.

Camelina is what's referred to as an aincent grain. The oil itself is rich in omega fatty acids, has a slight nutty flavour and an earthy smell (Meredith: "it smells like dirt, but the food tasted so good with it!")

According to the Wikipedia article on camelina, the seed has been busy in areas like biofuel production and animal feed as well, so it's clearly starting to pick up again in terms of popularity, even if it's not in the human consumption department.

Three Farmers has some good ideas behind it - a small collective of farmers working together to make a specialized product. Neat from a technical standpoint: each bottle comes with a QR code to help geographically locate where the seeds were harvested from.

Anyway, the day the oil arrived, I was already preparing Meredith a nice meal of grilled vegetables and fish. With the addition of the oil, I decided to do something different using those ingredients. To use more of the oil, I decided to turn the vegetables into a baba ghannouj, and I also used the oil on the fish before grilling to help the spices stick around.

Salmon served with the baba ghannouj, a baked potato and
some of the Haggis and Herring's famous salad with
balsamic vinaigrette.

Both dishes turned out spectacular. The oil wasn't overpowering and blended well with the flavours.

Grilled Baba Ghannouj with Chinese Eggplant and Zucchini

3 Chinese eggplants, cut into 1/2-inch rounds
1 zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch rounds
1 tbsp camelina oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
sea salt to taste
3 tbsp tehina
1/4 cup camelina oil

1. Toss the sliced eggplant and zucchini in 1 tbsp oil
2. Grill the eggplant and zucchini until soft on the inside and a bit crispy on the outside
3. Quickly puree lemon juice, garlic and salt in food processor.
4. Add tehina and camelina oil and puree again.
5. Add eggplant pulp and puree until smooth.

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Linked to Jane Deere's Fusion Fridays

Grilled Ratatouille

Looking at the recipes I've published during the last month or so, I realized that since fixing my barbecue, I've been grilling quite frequently. In a previous life, I barbecued Moroccan sausages 12-months a year. As long as I had a beer in my hand and I was bundled up, I was good. I might restart that tradition.

Ever since I saw the movie Ratatouille, I've wanted to try making my own version of the vegetable stew. I even found a couple of recipes that follow the signature dish from the movie. The presentation is just as beautiful in real life as it was on screen, however, it was a little too much for me. I wanted something more rustic (read: less complicated preparation).

When I saw Alea's grilled ratatouille, I thought I had found what I was looking for as a starting point, but I didn't realize what I was getting myself into. I took Alea's idea of grilling the vegetables before the finer chopping, chose my own vegetables and quantities (similar to hers), and added some tomato sauce as well.

Where things went south for me was in the cleaning department (I like one-pot dishes): I used more bowls than I thought I would for the prep (with all of the vegetables soaking in oil); chopping the vegetables after grilling, but before adding them to the pot with sauce also got messy. Really messy. I'll make sure to take appropriate measures next time and avoid a much bigger cleanup job than I had originally anticipated.

Taste-wise, it was a huge hit. Everyone loved it. I'll definitely be making it again.

A couple days later, for the benefit of the movie-going crowd, I served the leftover ratatouille over linguini (har, har).

Grilled Ratatouille

2 yellow zucchini, sliced into 1cm rounds
2 green zucchini, sliced into 1cm rounds
1 purple eggplant, sliced into 1cm rounds
2 sweet onions, peeled and sliced in half
2 red peppers, seeded and sliced in half
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and sliced in half
8 roma tomatoes, sliced in half
1/2 kilo portobella mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 pint tomato sauce
1/2 cup red basil, chopped
salt

1. Preheat the grill.
2. Brush or toss vegetables with olive oil.
3. Grill the zucchini, eggplant and onions for 10-15 minutes (turning to grill all sides).
4. Grill the peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms for 6-10 minutes (turning to grill all sides).
5. In a dutch oven, heat a small amount of olive oil on medium and add garlic. Stir for 1 minute.
6. Add tomato sauce and simmer on low.
7. Meanwhile, chop grilled vegetables and add them to tomato sauce.

Serve with sliced baguette.

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Eggplant Lasagna with Tortilla

In August, my mother-in-law brought me a huge eggplant from the market, leaving me wondering what to do with it. Meredith is still off garlic, so a giant tub of baba ghannouj wasn't going to happen.

I also had a container of ricotta cheese I had bought on sale without any particular plans, so I started looking for eggplant lasagna recipes. The one that caught my eye used tortilla as well (to capture some of the moisture, I assume) and it looked like an appetizing base. In the original recipe, it was presented far nicer than anything I could do: baked in individual mini-lasagna pans with dainty layers of flavour presented quite nicely.

That's not my style (I'm lazy), so I opted for the casserole dish instead. It also helped use as much of that giant eggplant as I could. The pile of sliced eggplant was huge.

Eggplant Lasagna with Tortilla


1 container (400g) ricotta
3 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 tbsp dried parsley
3 tbsp fresh basil, minced
1/4 tsp nutmeg
salt, pinch or to taste
1 medium eggplant, thinly sliced (optional: peel first)
3 tortillas sliced into 3” strips
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
2 cups tomato sauce
additional Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees.
2. In a, bowl mix the ricotta and Parmesan and fold in the egg, parsley, basil, nutmeg, and salt. Cover and refrigerate.
3. Assemble the lasagna as follows:
1. tortilla
2. cheese mixture
3. shredded cheese
4. sauce
5. eggplant (gently press down on the eggplant)
6. cheese mixture
7. shredded cheese
8. sauce
4. Complete the cycle two more times for a total of 24 layers, ending with sauce.
5. Sprinkle Parmesan on the final layer.
6. Bake for 50 minutes and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

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Bow-tie Pasta with Sausages and Roasted Vegetables

• 3 roasted red peppers
• 1 eggplant, sliced and roasted
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 sausages (450g), grilled or baked and sliced
• 1 can crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup pitted olives
• 1 tbsp dried basil
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 1 box whole wheat bow-tie pasta
• Parmesan cheese

1. Slice eggplant and roast peppers and eggplant, removing skin from peppers when done.
2. Slice peppers and eggplant and set aside.
3. Partially roast sausages, slice and set aside.
4. Heat pan with 2 tbsp. olive oil and fry onions and garlic until soft.
5. Add back sausages and continue frying until browned.
6. Add crushed tomatoes, wine, olives, basil and parsley. Bring to a boil and simmer on medium-low for 15-20 minute, stirring frequently.
7. Boil the pasta, strain and set aside.
8. Add peppers and eggplant to the tomato sauce mix and simmer on low for another 5-10 minutes.
9. Add pasta to the tomato sauce.
10. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

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Baba Ghannouj (Roasted Eggplant)

• 1 medium-sized eggplant
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• sea salt to taste
• 3 tbsp tehina
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• chopped parsley for garnish

1. Puncture eggplant and bake at 450F for 45-50 minutes, turning once.
2. Remove the eggplant pulp and set aside.
3. Quickly puree lemon juice, garlic and salt in food processor.
4. Add tehina and olive oil and puree again.
5. Add eggplant pulp and puree until smooth.
6. garnish with parsley.

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Moroccan Eggplant Salad

• 1 large eggplant
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 small red onion, chopped (1/4 cup)
• 1 tbsp red-wine vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley, divided

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
   
2. Pierce eggplant and roast on a pan for 45 minutes.
   
3. While eggplant is roasting, toast cumin in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until fragrant and dark brown. Let cool and grind with a mortar and pestle.
   
4. Remove flesh from roasted eggplant, discarding skin and stem; mash the eggplant with a potato masher.
   
5. Toss eggplant flesh with onion, vinegar, sugar, 1 tablespoon oil, 1 tablespoon parsley, 1/2 teaspoon toasted cumin, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
   
6. Serve drizzled with remaining oil, parsley and cumin.

(Original recipe by Ruth Cousineau on Epicurious)
Recipes by the Haggis and the Herring: tasty world recipes tested in our kitchen

Bayngan Barta (Roasted Eggplant and Onions)

And yet another fun Indian Friday night with friends. Chicken Tikka Masala and an eggplant dish from India Food House. I'll save the Chicken Tikka recipe for another week, tho :-)

India Food House was a landmark in Peterborough when I was at Trent. I hung around so much I was eventually put to work in the kitchen – mostly preparing naan, peeling garlic, and doing dishes.

Only once, when the restaurant was short-staffed on a busy day, I actually waited tables.

Bayngan Barta (Roasted Eggplant and Onions)

• 1 large eggplant
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 4-5 large onions, diced (equal to the amount of eggplant pulp)
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp Spanish paprika
• 1 tsp garam masala
• salt (to taste)
  

1. pierce eggplant and roast at 450-degrees for 45 minutes
2. remove eggplant skin and chop the pulp
3. heat oil and saute onions on medium until onions are translucent
4. mix in tomatoes, turmeric, paprika, garam masala and salt, and simmer for 2-5 minutes.
5. add eggplant pulp and let simmer on low for 45 minutes.
   

(adapted from the Peterborough and Kawartha Lakes Region Restaurant Guide feature on the India Food House)


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