Oyster-Brie Soup

This is a wonderful Thanksgiving or Christmas soup recipe for those who like oysters.  It’s an artery clogger, but what the heck, it’s the holiday season!
Oyster-Brie Soup
(Serves 8)
Ingredients:
1. 3 dozen oysters or 1-3 quart jars, depending on your love of oysters.
2. 4 cups cold water
3. 2 sticks unsalted butter
4. ½ cup flour
5. 1 cup coarsely chopped onions
6. ½ cup coarsely chopped celery
7. ½ tsp white pepper
8. ½ tsp red pepper, or to taste
9. 1 lbs brie wedges
10. 2 cups heavy cream, or half-and-half
11. ½ cup champagne or white wine
Instructions:
1. Combine oysters and water, and place in Frig for one hour.
2. Melt butter, add flour, and beat.
3. Add onions and celery, and sauté
4. Stir in pepper, add cheese and stir until cheese melts, being careful not to let it scorch. Add cream and champagne/wine, and keep stirring. Cook for 4 minutes at simmer.
5. Separately bring oysters to a boil. Turn off the heat and add all the oysters to the soup and add the oyster water until you have the consistency you want.
(Note: you can also add the uncooked oysters directly to the soup if you have them in quart jars, then add water as needed to reach the consistency you like. The oysters will cook just find in the hot soup.)

Ginger Syrup Recipe

If you like ginger, this is easy to make and versatile.

Ginger Syrup Recipe Details | Recipe database | washingtonpost.com

Ted's Alu & Phulgobi Recipe

Those of you who were here at my place in July will remember Ted's marvelous Alu-Phulgobi (आलू फुल्गोबी)           dish that he cooked for one of our lunches.  Here is the recipe (thanks to Ted's sister Charlene).  I've cooked it twice.  The first time I ended up with far too much liquid if I added the water the recipe calls for, so the second time I didn't add any water at all and it came out just right.  (I guess it depends on how much water gets released from the onions.)  I also added the potatoes before the cauliflower because the potatoes take much longer to cook and the cauliflower can get mushy quickly.


INGREDIENTS

2/3 cup oil

1 tsp crushed garlic

1 tsp finely chopped ginger root

1/2 tsp. white cumin seeds

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt                                  

1 pinch (or more) of turmeric                             

4 dried chilies  (Charlene omits, but go with your own preference)

1/2 cauliflower cut into small florets

2 medium onions sliced

3 medium potatoes

fresh cilantro leaves

2/3 cup water (Hank adds no water)

Directions 

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan

2. Add the cumin seeds (Charlene uses regular cumin seeds) and dried chilies and mix

3. Add the onions to the pan and fry, stirring occasionally until golden brown

4. Mix the ginger, garlic, chili powder, salt, and turmeric together. Add this mixture to the onions and stir-fry for about 2 minutes.

5. Add the potatoes and cauliflower to the onion and spice mixture, stirring to coat the vegetables in the spice mixture.

6. Reduce the heat and add the fresh cilantro leaves and water to the pan. Cover and simmer the mixture for about 10- 15 minutes.

7. Transfer the potato and cauliflower curry to warm serving plates and serve immediately.

And whole wheat soft tortillas make a great substitute for chapati (चपाती).

Thanks, Ted!

PS:  When you are adding a blog entry and are in the editing window, you'll notice the अ in the toolbar.  That transliterates a Hindi word you type phonetically in English to Devanagari script.  To use it, click on the अ on the tool bar to turn transliteration on, type your Hindi word phonetically in English, and then press the space bar.  Click the अ again to turn the transliteration feature off and continue with your English. 

Recipes for Health - Spicy Quinoa, Cucumber and Tomato Salad - NYTimes.com

This is a recipe that is probably similar to the one Sue made at the reunion in Hollywood that, coincidentally, showed up in the NYT yesterday.  Bahoot achaa hai!

Recipes for Health - Spicy Quinoa, Cucumber and Tomato Salad - NYTimes.com