Honey Curry Bread and Warm and Spicy Cashew Tomato Soup

Here’s the thing.

On Wednesday, I was kidnapped.  Yes, it’s true.  Right in the middle of class, someone swooped in and transported me off to this alternate universe called “Fourier space”.

It was the land where everything I apparently did not learn in my college differential equations class went to die.

There were all sorts of weird symbols and these strange functions called “transforms”.

And, just to give you an idea, it’s the type of place where “it is convenient to write things as complex (i.e. imaginary) numbers”.

(!!!!!!)

Yeah, that’s totally a direct quote.  I’m not quite sure what to make of it either.  Though, from what I can tell, the idea is that when you’re looking at something through a microscope, there are all of these weird “transformations” that happen in this “imaginary number space” and that’s how you end up seeing the image that you see.

All this time I thought I was doing science.  When really.  It was sorcery.

Thankfully, I escaped from this awful, awful place.

And upon returning home, I craved simplicity.

I craved second grade and learning how to write in cursive and thinking that long division was super ridiculously hard.  (Actually…it still is.  But as an adult, you get to use a calculator.)

I craved grilled cheese and tomato soup.

Because really, what could be more simple?  Or delicious?

This is not your average elementary school Wonder bread/American cheese sandwich with a can of Campbell’s, however.  No siree.

This is grilled cheese and tomato soup for those of us who have extra time now that we have calculators to do all the dirty work for us and don’t have to worry about carrying numbers or where the decimal point goes.

Honey curry bread grilled cheddar cheese with a warm and spicy cashew tomato soup.  A.Ma.Zing.

The bread is sweet with a hint of spice from the curry powder – the perfect compliment to a super sharp cheddar.  And the soup?  A revelation.  Also filled with curry-esque spices it is so richly flavorful that you’ll really have to stop yourself from drinking it out of the pot.  But really, it’s so good for you – why bother?

The perfect comfort food after any traumatic graduate school class you may have experienced.  Or just because.  Does comfort ever really need a reason?

Honey Curry Bread
Makes 1 loaf, adapted from The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1 tbsp yeast or 1 1/2 packages
• 1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 to 3 1/2 cups AP flour

Instructions

1. Mix the water and yeast in a small bowl.  Add a pinch of sugar and stir to mix.  Let sit for about five minutes or until it becomes foamy.
2. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan and stir in the curry powder.  Cook over low heat for 1 minute.  Stir in the honey and remove from heat.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl, combine the butter mixture, yeast, buttermilk, salt, and 3 cups flour.  If using a mixer, use the hook attachment to combine, adding enough flour to form a soft dough.  It should be enough so that after a minute or so of mixing, the dough no longer sticks to the side of the bowl.
4. Mix for 5 minutes on high speed to knead, or until smooth and elastic.
5. Place the dough in a greased bowl.  Cover with a damp towel and let rise until doubled, about 2 hours.  Punch the dough down.  Shape into a standard loaf and place in a loaf tin.  Cover and let rise for 45 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 375.  Bake until loaf is browned and sounds hollow when lightly thumped, about 40-45 minutes.  Cool on wire rack to room temperature.

Warm and Spicy Cashew and Tomato Soup
Serves 4, adapted from Daily Unadventures in Cooking

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lb tomatoes (I used 1 lb kumato and 1/2 lb plum)
• 2 tsp olive oil
• salt, as necessary
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp roughly chopped ginger
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp chipotle chili powder
• 1/4 cup salted cashews
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 1″ piece of cinnamon stick
• 1 cardamom pod, bruised
• 4 cups water
• 1/3 cup nonfat greek yogurt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 300.  Cut the tomatoes in half lengthwise, gently tossing with 1 tsp of the oil.  Sprinkle with salt.  Lay the tomatoes on a baking sheet lined with foil, cut side up.  Bake for an hour (or longer if you have the time).
2. Meanwhile, in a large pot, brown the onion in the remaining oil until it is a nice, even golden brown.  Cook on medium and stir often.  Once browned, add the garlic, ginger, garam masala, coriander, chili powder, cashews, and tomato paste.  Cook for a few minutes until nice and fragrant, stirring often.
3. Add cinnamon, cardamom pod, and water, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pot and get up any browned bits.
4. When the tomatoes are finished roasting, add them to the soup and stir.  Simmer gently for 30 minutes.  Remove the cinnamon stick and cardamom pod (if you can find it…I just left mine in).  Using an immersion blender, blend thoroughly.
5. In a small bowl, slowly whisk a few tbsp of soup into the yogurt.  This will help to thin it and allow it to emulsify better into the soup.  When thinned out, stir back into the soup over low heat.  Season to taste with salt.  Serve hot. Preferably with grilled cheese.

I am submitting this to Souper Sunday which is hosted by Deb over at Kahakai Kitchen. It has also been yeastspotted!