Spicy soup to warm us up...

Whenever we have soup for dinner, I like to have something crunchy to go along with it. It could be some crusty bread or chips, but since the soup tonight already has tortilla chips as a topping I thought this would be a good time to make some homemade crackers.

I wanted something that was thin and crisp with a nice bite to them. Curry and Ginger Crackers turned out to be just what I was looking for. These crunchy crackers are slightly sweet, have a bit of heat to them and a pleasant bite from the crystallized ginger. The ginger needs to be in very small pieces, so to achieve this you would want to have a food processor or even a blender. While you could chop them by hand, it would take forever to get them small enough. Blending them with part of the flour ensures they don't gum up the blades when you process them. The curry in these crackers adds a flavorful and interesting twist to them. Getting the dough quite thin is essential to get the right texture. I have these rolling pin bands that allow me to get an even surface with whatever thickness I need. I used the 1/16" band to get the right size. To make short work of cutting out squares, I used a pizza cutter and a ruler. If your dough sticks a bit when you try to move them to the baking sheet, you can move whatever you rolled it on into the freezer for about 5 minutes. These are quite addictive!

The soup I made to go with these crackers for dinner tonight was Chipotle Turkey and Corn Soup. This soup does not need to simmer long so it is great for a quick weeknight meal. Thin strips of turkey breast are seared off until brown and then a quite spicy mixture of chipotles, chicken broth and corn are added. Left to simmer for only 5 minutes, the soup has a high amount of flavor. A final squirt of fresh lime juice brightens up the soup and the crushed tortilla chips add a nice texture as they slowly absorb the broth. Warning, this is very spicy if you use the full amount of chipotle and adobo sauce. Reduce both amounts by at least half if you don't like that.

Recipes

Curry and Ginger Crackers

Chipotle Turkey and Corn Soup