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Chickpea Salad With Fresh Herbs and Scallions

Chickpea Salad With Fresh Herbs and Scallions

Need a bit of drama at your 4th of July party? This Chickpea Salad With Herbs and Scallions would be perfect. It’s not the traditional Fourth of July potato salad (wonderful as that is!) Instead, it’s a delightful chickpea variation on that traditional salad that…

Coming Up Roses: Strawberry Lime Almond Snacking Cake

Coming Up Roses: Strawberry Lime Almond Snacking Cake

A rose is a rose is a… strawberry.  Strawberries, North American natives,  are in the rose family. Grown in abundance by North America’s indigenous people, the pretty sweet fruits were part of the Columbian Exchange once European explorers and colonists arrived. Among other crops, Europe…

Oldies But Goodies: Neil’s Romaine Salad

Oldies But Goodies: Neil’s Romaine Salad

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie recipe is for a delightful salad, Neil’s Romaine.  You’ll love the garlicky salad dressing.

You don’t want to miss this great recipe…again.

Want to dive deeper into our recipe archive? Just click one of the categories at the top of this page or use the category search drop down menu on the right side of this page.

And…here is a link to Blue Cayenne’s main page: Blue Cayenne..If you are in the mood to cook (or eat!), we hope you will take a moment to look at the many excellent recipes we have featured.

 

Get Your Morbid On With A Pickle Brine Margarita

Get Your Morbid On With A Pickle Brine Margarita

Looking for an unusual cocktail? This Pickle Brine Margarita from The New York Times might be quirky enough to fit the bill. You can find the link to the original recipe here. The NYT gives credit for this cocktail to a bar in Brooklyn named  The…

Coffee-Glazed Molasses Bars

Coffee-Glazed Molasses Bars

  This is a delightful little snacking cake. It’s got all the flavors—molasses, allspice, cinnamon, ginger. Oh. espresso. It’s got espresso flavor, too. It is just the kind of flavor bomb you need to jolt you out of your late afternoon funk…or your just-outta-bed bleariness. …

A Really Good Mushroom Soup. Really!

A Really Good Mushroom Soup. Really!

This is the “little black dress” of mushroom soups. It’s basic. It’s elegant. It never disappoints.

This recipe is from Deborah Madison’s cookbook Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen. You can order the book through your local bookstore or on Amazon here. It is a great book to have in your collection if you are a soup person like me. 

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen. 

A Really Good Mushroom Soup

May 24, 2024
Ingredients
  • 1-3 T. butter
  • 1/2 C. chopped shallot (or onion)
  • 2 T. chopped parsley
  • 1 pound mushrooms (rinsed and chopped)
  • Salt and freshly-ground pepper
  • 1 garlic clove (minced)
  • 1 C. bread crumbs
  • 1 quart vegetable broth
  • 1/2 C. cream
  • Chopped parsley (or extra cream) for garnish
Directions
  • Step 1 Melt butter in a large soup pan. Saute shallots and parsley in the butter until they are soft. Add the mushrooms and stir to distribute the mushrooms in the butter mixture. I used cremini mushrooms in my soup.  Add 1/2 t. salt. Mix. Continue to cook the ingredients until the mushrooms release their liquid.
  • Step 2 Add garlic, bread crumbs and stock and mix. Bring the soup mixture to a boil . Lower the heat to medium and simmer for about 15 minutes.
  • Step 3 Puree the soup in a blender or food processor. I found it was too easy to turn the soup into a totally smooth soup. So, I pureed it in batches and left the last batch less pureed. This gave me little flecks of mushroom in the soup and a more interesting texture overall.
  • Step 4 Stir the cream into the soup. Thin with a little broth if you like. Adjust salt and add pepper to your taste.  Garnish with chopped parsley or a swirl of cream. Serve with crusty bread.
Tangerine Trees, Marmalade Skies and a Truly Delicious Broccoli Forest Loaf

Tangerine Trees, Marmalade Skies and a Truly Delicious Broccoli Forest Loaf

Hetty McKinnon’s recipes usually delight my senses. This one caught my attention with it’s fanciful name. In fact, for some reason, this reminds me of the colorful imagery in the first stanza of  McCartney’s and Lennon’s Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. You remember those…

A different kind of pancake:  Yellow Bean and Spinach Dosas

A different kind of pancake: Yellow Bean and Spinach Dosas

I grew up with the notion that pancakes needed to be sweet. You know, sweetened batters cooked on a grill, slathered with butter and drizzled with a generous glug of maple syrup. (Those were wonderful pancakes.) As my palate has matured and much to my…

Oldies But Goodies: Strawberry Pistachio Cake

Oldies But Goodies: Strawberry Pistachio Cake

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie recipe is perfect to celebrate spring and this year’s exceptional strawberry crop. This is a recipe for Strawberry-Pistachio Cake. Here’s the link: Pistachio-Strawberry Cake.

You don’t want to miss this great recipe…again.

Want to dive deeper into our recipe archive? Just click one of the categories at the top of this page or use the category search drop down menu on the right side of this page.

And…here is a link to Blue Cayenne’s main page: Blue Cayenne.If you are in the mood to cook (or eat!), we hope you will take a moment to look at the many excellent recipes we have featured.

 

 

Turkish White Beans

Turkish White Beans

These Turkish White Beans are wonderful—delicious and with a distinct Mediterranean flavor.  This would be perfect for a plant-based main dish served with crusty bread and a green salad (maybe with feta?) or as part of a mezze assortment of dishes. This recipe is from…