Sweet Potato Soup

Tonight I made something that was outright good. Not that the other things weren't good, but this was "I want to share with this other people RIGHT NOW" good.

Here are the ingredients (link to full recipe):

• Olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 2-inch chunk fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced - about 1/4 cup
• 3 large sweet potatoes, about 2 1/2 pounds - peeled and cubed
• 3 tablespoons light miso
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth, or water
• 1 cup whole milk
• Salt and pepper

First prepping the ingredients:

Now that I had all of our ingredients ready to go, I sauted the onion and ginger in olive oil until the red onion is nearly translucent. We didn't have fresh ginger so I used 1 tsp of ground ginger instead. So at this point I'm fying onion, ginger, and garlic - so the kitchen is very aromatic.

And now the sweet potatoes and miso:

I sauted it all a little longer and then added 4 cups of vegetable broth and let it simmer for 25 minutes.

Okay, now one DVR Simpsons episode later, it's time for the fun part. This is my second time making soup and my second time using the immersion blender. Look at it go... (Liz helped)

Now to just mix in 1 cup whole milk and some salt & pepper and we have soup!

I've never had miso before to my knowledge, but I'm guessing that is flavor that is pulling this all together and making it awesome. The garlic provides a nice background flavor and the onion has occasional but somewhat understated presence. It is also filling but pretty much guilt free as the only fatty ingredient in the 2 quarts of soup is the 1 cup of whole milk. It also has a lightly spicy aftertaste.

Liz's quote says it all "this is so good that I'm not missing that we don't have bread".

Pie!

I made pie! This is a chocolate peanut butter pie from Good Eats. In the episode this recipe is from Alton Brown roasts his own peanuts, makes them into peanut butter and then uses then in the pie. That was a little ambitious for me so I used the home-style peanut butter from the deli section at the grocery store.

Ingredients

6 1/2 ounces chocolate wafers
1 tablespoon sugar
5 ounces unsalted butter room temperature, divided
3 ounces powdered sugar, approximately 3/4 cup
12 ounces of "homemade" peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream

First preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. I always forget to do this ahead of time.

In the food processor, combine the cookies and sugar. Process until the wafers are fine crumbs.

Melt the first 3 oz of butter in microwave and drizzle into the crumb mixture. Use the pulse button to mix it so that the butter doesn't pool at the bottom. Pour the mixture into the pie pan and press it into place. I used my fingers and a rubber spatula. Bake for ten minutes.

While the crust is cooling put the peanut butter and the last 2 oz of butter in the food processor. Process for 1 minute. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and process for another 1 1/2 minutes. It totally changes texture as the peanut bits get smaller and more air gets into the mixture.

Dump it into the pie pan.

Carefully spread the mixture into the pie shell and then bake for 10 minutes.

While the pie is cooling make the ganache to go on top. The recipe calls for chopped chocolate but I used chocolate chips because that's what I had on hand.

Place the heavy cream into a heat-proof bowl and microwave on high. I over did mine a little. Next time I pay closer attention. Pour the chocolate into the bowl and let it sit for 2 minutes. I actually timed it so I wouldn't cheat. Mix it up with a spoon. It takes a while to combine.

Pour the topping over the pie and spread with the back of a spoon. It says to chill for 90 minutes but we only waited thirty minutes. Yum! I'll definitely do this one again.