Lemongrass lifts flavor in carrot soup

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Once you have read through the recipe and all the ingredients are organized the rest is “Soup”

This is a lovely soup and especially when you can get carrots fresh from your garden or local farms.  Even though the carrots are fresh, they are still peeled.   I found this carrot lemongrass and coconut soup to be light and refreshing. It was also fun and easy to make, since the formula is similar for most soup recipes.

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The outer, harder sections of the lemongrass is tied together and placed in with the soup for added flavor.  The remainder of the lemongrass is diced small enough to disappear once it is puree.

I have added all of my chopped vegetable to a slightly foaming melting butter and also season prior to “sweating” them.  Using my butter wrappers to trap the steam as well as a lid.  (I could have used parchment paper instead of the butter wrappers)

 

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Putting my saved Kerrygold butter wrappers to good use

“Sweating” is a term I learned while at Ballymaloe Cookery School.  I wrote a blog about sweating, hope you have time and an interest to read. https://catharinesacts.wordpress.com/2013/10/20/sweating/

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The chicken stock  is added once the vegetables has started to release their juices during the sweating step and will continue to soften as they simmer.

I have found that learning this basic cooking skill  of “sweating” has increased the flavor in all of my go to recipes.  Which shouldn’t be a surprise since it is the first step in building flavors in stews and soups.

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Once the coconut milk is added and the soup is puree, it should be returns to the cooktop or “hub” to reheat

The lemongrass bundle is tossed, the coconut milk is added and the soup is seasoned again prior to pureeing.  I use a blender or in Ireland it is called a liquidizer.

Once the soup is reheated, ladle into warm soup bowls and garnish with a herb.

This is one of many soup recipes in Master it by Rory O’Connell and I continue to learn and understand the reasoning behind his words as I  work my way through this excellent book.  

Cheers

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