December 2007 Revisited—Carrot Soup

Christmas at the farmhouse is a always a time to surround yourself with good food and family. After finishing off my sister's cinnamon pancakes for brunch, the entire family and some old friends are anticipating a return of a recipe I tried out at Christmas time a year ago, carrot soup. I believe I got the recipe from a William Sonoma cookbook.

The recipe, if you turn back to that blog entry, suggests that the carrots would be softened after 20 minutes of simmering; guess again, perhaps in a pressure cooker after 20 minutes. Despite the fact that this recipe isn't as easy as it sounds; I would recommend it to anyone who has an afternoon to kill on a sunny but cold December day.

Since, I have time on my hands (Greg stranded me here at the farm while he went to Lowe's); I began by baking three sweet potatoes (1 for this recipe and 2 for another I plan on trying in a few days). I covered the skins with oil after cleaning placing them in a baking pan. For those of you too lazy to return to the blog from 2007, just cut up half an onion; sweat them in oil and butter. At this point I added approximately a ½ cup of vermouth and the raw cleaned carrots. I placed the lid on the stock pan and let them go for about 2 ½ hours on low heat.

If you can believe, the carrots were still giving me trouble at the end of the 2 hours. I could put a knife through them but that was about it. I took them off the heat and with my blender I tried to break them up before I added the peanut butter and the broth. I added the contents of one baked yam and then brought the entire soup back up to a simmer. I then turned it down to low heat for another 2 hours. My hope is that by adding the yam, the soup will have a more hearty flavor. I remember that the last time we tried this soup it was very lite summer feel instead of a winter one.

Dinner is in a few hours, I am serving a dark brown bread with a hot crab meat dip/spread. Also, I am serving a Japanese cabbage salad with a Japanese mayo as a dressing. The dressing is similar to one found in a Kani salad. Here are what you will need for the dressing:

Kani Dressing Ingredients (mix, stir, dress cucumber and crab meat)
2 cups mayonnaise
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic juice
3-4 teaspoons
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon paprika
3/4 teaspoon white pepper