Sooooo many options, so little time. When Foodgoat announced this months theme for IMBB #14, my first thought was "Wow, what an extraordinary theme!" (my second thought was "Thanks for not choosing blue...") We had great fun last weekend roaming around Viktualienmarkt on the hunt for orange food without a carved in stone plan. Since we couldn't decide on just one dish, we went for a quick, manageable 3 course orange menu.

We started off with a Roasted Orange Pepper Tomato Soup with Basil Oil and Bread Chips. Roasted pepper soups are always a treat with either some good quality Balsamico sprinkled on top or like we did here with basil infused olive oil. The crisp slices of rye bread we saw on a TV cooking show, "Koch doch!" (it loosely translates to "Just cook!") with the German cook Alexander Herrmann. He baked very thin slices in the oven between two baking trays to avoid the bread get all curly. We took a shortcut, our panini grill did a good job here and it saved time, too... Those bread chips are really a great substitute for any soup side-dish!

Roast peppers in a very hot oven under the grill, until the skin throws bubbles and turns black. Put the peppers in a plastic bag and seal it. While the peppers are cooling down, the enclosed humidity makes it easier to strip off the skin afterwards. Peel them after about 15 minutes and cut the peppers in small pieces.

Put the tomatoes in boiling water for about 10 seconds, rinse them with cold water and remove their skin as well.

Heat olive oil in a pot, add chopped shallots and sauté until they get glassy. Add the tomato puree, the roasted peppers and the chopped, peeled tomatoes.

Add about 3/4 liter of broth and some cream. Season with fresh/dried chilies, fresh-ground black pepper, thyme and additional salt, if needed. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes and mix it with a hand-held blender.

Take a bunch of basil and crush in a mortar. Heat up some olive oil, add the basil and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Use a sieve to get rid off the basil parts.

Slice bread thinly and bake it in the oven or use a panini grill until it gets lightly brown.

Arrange the soup with a few sprinkles of the basil oil and serve with bread chips.

Next was an Orange Tomato and Thyme Tart, very yummy and very easy to make!

Preheat oven to 190° degrees Celsius. Add a thin layer of pesto (we used ready-made pesto this time) on the puff pastry, leave an edge of 3cm.

Slice tomatoes and arrange on the pastry. You can either slice them evenly or quarter them, up to you.

Add the rosemary leaves as well as the olive oil and the Balsamico.

Now brush the edge with the egg yolk and bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven, add the salami and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes. Finally, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle a bit more olive oil over the tart.

Orange Panna Cotta
A nice way to finish the orange menu. The subtle taste of the orange zest and the vanilla brought back some childhood memories. Some shops used to sell (perhaps still?) ice cream which you squeeze out of a plastic cup, the name was Pop-Orange (or similar). The panna cotta tasted very much alike this kind of ice cream. By the way, when I noticed the cute dots of chocolate sauce decorating Keiko's Green Tea Panna Cotta (which is still on our to try list), I made a memo to myself. Thanks for the wonderful inspiration, Keiko!

Heat the cream, add the sugar and the zest of an untreated orange and a lengthwise sliced vanilla bean. Let it lightly cook for about 15 minutes and stir every now and then. Remove the vanilla pod and also the pot from the heat.

Meanwhile soak the sheets of gelatin in some water (for about 10 min). Squeeze well. Add them to the cream mixture and stir well until the gelatin has completely dissolved. Now pour the mixture in cups or other containers of your choice and let them cool for at least 5 hours. Some say, that it's helpful to stir the mixture every now and then, to ensure, that the black vanilla seeds won't settle on the bottom. Honestly, I never tried it, because in fact I like the sight of a few black vanilla "dots" on the top (provided you unmold the panna cotta).

Briefly dip the form in hot water and you can easily free the panna cotta ;)

Our backup dessert alternative: Panna Cotta with Orange Jelly
For the OJ sauce we simply took freshly squeezed orange juice and some sugar, heated up to reduce it. Then added a soaked sheet of gelatin. Unfortunately, it didn't really work out the way we had hoped it would. The reduction was much too bitter in taste.