The New Chef's Journal

Mulligatawny is a traditional Indian, curry flavored soup. I first tried it at White Tiger on Capitol Hill, and that's still my favorite version of it. The recipe I used comes from guiltykitchen.com . My version was definitely not as good as some that I've had in restaurants, but it was still okay. I think that that the big mistake I made was the type of coconut milk I used. I accidentally bought some Trader Joe's light coconut milk, instead of the regular stuff. Real coconut milk would have added a bit more thickness, which my version was lacking. If you try this recipe yourself, make sure you get the right stuff. Ingredients: 2 tbsp butter 1 medium onion, diced 2 carrots, peeled and diced 2 celery stalks, diced 1 granny smith apple (or other tart apple), peeled, cored and diced 1″ piece fresh ginger, finely minced 2 cloves garlic, grated or minced 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp ground coriander 1 tsp tumeric 1 Tbsp curry powder 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 1/4 tsp freshly gra...

Egg drop soup is a personal favorite of mine, so I wanted to see how challenging it would be to make at home. It turns out that it's actually very simple to make, but hard to get perfect. The version I made was pretty good, but could have been a bit better. The recipe I used comes from Simplerecipes.com . I'd recommend it, but with a couple of tweaks, which I describe below. Ingredients: 3 eggs, lightly beaten 4 cups of chicken stock 1 tablespoon of corn starch 1/2 teaspoon grated ginger 1 tablespoon of soy sauce 3 green onions, chopped 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper 3/4 cup of straw, enoki, or sliced shitaki mushrooms Directions: 1. Reserve 1/2 cup of the stock and mix with the cornstarch until dissolved. 2. Place the chicken stock, ginger, soy sauce, green onions, mushrooms and white pepper in a pot and bring to a boil. 3. Add the cornstarch and stock mixture and stir. Reduce heat to a simmer. 4. Slowly pour in the beaten eggs while stirring the soup. The egg w...

Brazilian shrimp soup is something I've never made before or even tried in a restaurant. This recipe is something that I stumbled across by accident while searching for something new to make and thought it sounded delicious. This is the description included when the recipe was originally published in Food & Wine magazine:            " Coconut milk's rich flavor will keep you coming back for more of this  substantial soup. A true Brazilian version would include slices of okra,  but ours is already so satisfyingly thick that we left it out." For those interested, this is the wine recommendation: "The sweet elements here call for a somewhat assertive sweetness in the wine as well. A Vouvray demi-sec, from France's Loire Valley, ought to strike just the right balance." The recipe I'm using is a combination of the original Food & Wine version and versions from the Annie's Eats food blog and Group Recipes . My version includes a bit m...