Curried Cauliflower Soup with Coconut and Chiles, Salmon Cakes

Last night I took two recipes and chewed them up and spit them out easier.  First I had a cauliflower in my refrigerator and saw a recipe for cauliflower soup in Food and Wine Magazine that sounded good.  So I bought the rest of the ingredients that I needed and began to make the soup.  I quickly realized that the list of 7 spices and about three steps was for making curry powder.  I have very good curry powder in my cabinet from Penzeys.  My head was about ½ # smaller than the one called for so I also skipped the part where you roasted about a 1/3^rd of the head in the oven as a garnish.  We also had salmon cakes, but I will get into that one later.  When Jim came in for dinner, he said, “You only have to cook the salmon and dinner is ready?”  He then asked what I was cooking earlier that smelled so good outside.  It was this soup.  So here is my version of the soup I found in a January Food and Wine. 

Ingredients:

1 ½ # head of cauliflower, cored and chopped

1 ½ T EVOO

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 t good quality curry powder (Penzeys)

1 large onion sliced

2 T freshly grated fresh ginger

1 T minced garlic

¼ C dry white wine

1 baking potato peeled and cut in ½” pieces

1 qt turkey stock (If you are vegetarian, used vegetable stock, I had turkey stock to use up from Thanksgiving)

½ C unsweetened coconut milk

¼ C chopped cilantro

1 seeded and thinly sliced jalapeno and a lime wedge for serving

Directions:

1.       In a large pot heat the EVOO and add the onion.  Cook over moderate heat, stirring, until softened for about 5 minutes.  Add the ginger, garlic and curry powder, stirring for one minute.

2.       Add the wine and cook until evaporated, about 2 minutes.

3.       Add the cauliflower, potato and stock and bring to a boil. 

4.       Simmer over moderate heat until the vegetables are very tender, mine took 30 minutes.  It all depends on how much chopping you want to do on the cauliflower and potato. 

5.       I use an immersion blender.  Blend until smooth. 

6.       Next I chopped and combined cilantro and the jalapeno.  After ladling the soup into bowls, top with this condiment and add a squeeze of lime. 

This soup was very good.  It makes a good 6 servings. 

This soup with a salmon cake recipe I cut out of USA Weekend by Ellie Krieger sounded good to me.  The cakes were to be served with a Ginger-Sesame Sauce.  I did not make the sauce as I had the soup, but added some of the sauce ingredients into the salmon cakes.  If you are careful, you can make 12 cakes, 6 servings.  I got 11. 

Ingredients:

6 slices whole-wheat sandwich bread

2 15 oz. cans salmon, drained and picked over for skin and bones

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

5 scallions, white and green parts

1/2C canned water chestnuts, drained and finely chopped (I used the whole can)

¼ C finely chopped fresh cilantro

½ t freshly ground black pepper

3 T EVOO

1 ½ T peeled and grated fresh ginger

Directions:

1.       Remove the crusts from the bread, tear into pieces and process in a food processor until you get fine bread crumbs.

2.       In a large bowl, flake apart the salmon with a fork. 

3.       Add the eggs and mix well.

4.       Finely chop the scallions and add to the bowl. 

5.       Add the water chestnuts, cilantro, pepper, bread crumbs and ginger.  Mix well.

6.       Shape into patties. 

7.       In a large non-stick skillet, heat half the EVOO over medium heat. 

8.       Add half the patties and cook for 5 minutes per side.  Repeat for the remaining patties.  We actually are saving half for another meal. 

Not my favorite, but good.  I don’t think the sauce would have made a difference and Jim never sauces his food and I end up with leftover sauce.  But the combination of the spicy soup and salmon cakes was good together.