Roasted Pepper & Tofu Soup

I am now treating my recipes like laundry or dishes - if you don't wash them periodically, they accumulate and you don't know where to start, the difference being, often I tend to create dishes and then have to rely on my pictures to remember the things that went into it.  But I have another adaptation of a recipe for you from the Vegetarian Times.

This is one heck of a soup and if you happen to like tofu, this one's a winner for you - Again this one;s a simple and quick recipe with not too many ingredients.

Ingredients

• 2 Roasted Red Peppers (pickled or roasted fresh for the occasion)
• 2 red peppers cut fine, thin and long
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1 16oz pack extra firm tofu cubed 
• 1 carton about 4 cups of veggie broth
• 2 cups of water
• 1 cup of fresh baby spinach chopped
• 2 Red chilies (first tempered in 1 tsp of olive/sesame oil)
• 1 tsp of sriracha sauce
• 1 tbs of tamarind paste (I only recommend Lakshmi brand for those living in the US)
• 1 tsp sugar

Method

1.  Finely grind the roasted peppers, garlic and tempered chilies into a smooth sauce
2. In a pot, add the sauce, the 2 cups of water and the vegetable broth and let it come to a boil on medium heat
3. Add the tamarind, sriracha  and sugar to this and stir in well
4. In a flat sauce pan add about 1 tsp of oil and sauté the cut peppers and tofu just for a couple of minutes.
5. Add the spinach
6. Add to the boiling soup and the soup to a simmer for about 5 minutes or until the spinach looks green and cooked

Enjoy Hot
Makes about 8 servings

Mango Spice Cake with Mango Compote (Eggless)

I know January is the month we are all making those resolutions to be good about what we eat etc… But let's face it, what we really need to be doing all year round is moderation, including sweet indulgences. Don't make a cake just for yourself or your family - make it for a get-together or a special occasion - that way you not only share the indulgence but have friends and family taste your wonderful cooking - win-win situation, if you ask me.

This cake was inspired by the recipe I found in the January edition of Vegetarian Times, a magazine that can put out some recipes that I am immediately attracted to. This was a heavily mango based recipe and I cannot think of one Indian who can resist a recipe with mangos. So there I was folding the edge of the page even as I was reading it.  I made a trial run of it as it is intended for an upcoming event.
Lo and behold, with my husbands extreme chopping skills, I donned my apron and set of to work. Well, not really - was still in my nighty, but hey, who's judging, right?

Very easy, very quick cake to make - Not much flour, a lot of fruit. According to the recipe, the cake made in a  8x8 square pan I made it in yields about 12 pieces at 249 calories each. Enjoy it with friends and family



Ingredients

For the Cake

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger (i used fresh)
• 1tsp baking soda
• 1/2tsp salt
• 4 large mangoes, peeled and diced -about 4 cups, of which set aside 1-1/2 cups for the cake (rest for the compote)
• 1 cup of sugar 
• 1/2 cup of safflower or sunflower oil (I subbed with corn oil since I did not have sunflower oil readily available)
• 1tbs apple cider vinegar (I subbed this with spanish sherry vinegar)
• 1/2 cup golden raisins

For the Compote

• 1-1/2 cinnamon sticks, slightly cracked 
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1cup of water 
• 2 -1/2 cups of diced mangoes

Method for the cake

1. Position 1 rack in the center of the oven and one at the very last rung and preheat to 350 F. 
2. Coat  8inch square pan with baking pan spray
3. Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl
4. Puree fresh ginger and 1-1/2 cups of mango until smooth. 
5. Transfer puree to bowl and whisk in one cup of sugar oil and vinegar (whatever you have with a hint of sweetness)
6. Stir in flour mixture and fold in raisins 
7. Spread batter in prepared pan.
8. IMPORTANT - Slide large cookie sheet onto to bottom rung of the oven - this will help diffuse the heat needed to cook the cake on the top shelf. 
9. Cook for about 30 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean

For the compote

1. Bring 1 cup of water with the 3/4 cup of sugar and cinnamon sticks to boil in a medium sized pan, over medium heat and reduce to simmer for about 8 minutes (yield should be about a cup after reduction)
2. Transfer syrup, cinnamon et all to a shallow bowl. Add the diced mangoes to ti and allow it to soak. 
3. Cut triangles of cake and top with compote and serve. 

For me the one of the best surprises of the cake was biting into those succulent golden raisin…mm mm so good.  I'll sign off now until the next time - and in the words of Barney the great purple dinosaur, I LOVE YOU :)

The Coffee Cake you've all been Salivating for!

When I say coffee, I don't mean a cake you have with coffee. What is mean is a cake that smells gloriously like coffee with each bite; a cake that coffee lovers can get addicted to - Don't say I did not give you fair warning. So… (as my wonderful host in Spain started most of his sentences) I am revealing to you the best recipe - alas cannot claim credit - of the most enjoyable cake I've tasted, evah! And thanks goes to the Pioneer Woman whose recipe worked like a charm and my daughter who is my best baking buddy!

The recipe I am turning over to the link here - Just follow verbatim - really!

I am just showing you my results. Please drool, at least a little :)

RECIPE

Ingredients

• FOR THE CAKE:
• 2 cups Flour
• 2 cups Sugar
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 2 sticks Butter
• 3 Tablespoons Instant Coffee Crystals
• ½ cups Buttermilk
• 2 whole Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla
• _____
• FOR THE ICING:
• 1-½ stick Butter
• 1 pound Powdered Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Instant Coffee Crystals
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 4 Tablespoons Heavy Cream

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two round baking pans.

In a large bowl, mix sugar, flour, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Set aside.

Melt 2 sticks of butter in a pot over medium-low heat. While that’s melting, add 3 tablespoons instant coffee to 1 cup boiling water. Set aside.

Once butter has melted, add coffee mixture to the butter in the pot. Let it come to a boil for about ten seconds, then turn off the heat. Set aside for until slightly cool.

In a separate bowl, add buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Mix until well combined.

Pour the butter/coffee mixture into the flour mixture. Stir the mixture together gently. The purpose here isn’t to mix it together perfectly, but to cool down the heat before adding the egg mixture.

Add in the egg mixture and stir gently until well combined. Then pour into pans. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until set.

Allow to cool completely.

Combine all icing ingredients, then ice the cake. Chill for an hour before serving.

The recipe and preparation is courtesy Pioneer Woman

Bhel Puri - Simple Indian Snack

Happy New Year to all my blogging mates. I have become a rather whimsical blogger since summer of  13 - but life, as it is won't to do, has been giving me a lot of lateral challenges and has made sure I am busy, one way or another.

A round up of the highlights of 2013 for me
First 5 months - working with my son on college applications, essays - working as in being on his case to complete tasks in a timely manner; blogging, jogging and getting physically fit for

1. wedding in the family and wonderful family reunion
2. graduation of my son and preschooler (lol) 
3.  helping my 11th grader make course selections for school
4. an idyllic summer with the family  
5. my new venture at the local market 
6.  new beginnings - one to college, and one to elementary school
7.  an unforgettable trip to Spain and San Fran
8.  trying to get my children's story critiqued by the powers that b
9.  Such fun cooking classes - my first venture
10.  Cooking, baking and super duper winter holidays that have alas come to an end now

New Year Resolves

To pray and love more, eat less - chocolate at any rate :);
To write more on my blog and other stuff
Be good about my Yoga and exercise, if my achy breaky joints will allow me
Be a better guide and role model to my kids
A more supportive wife for my hubby
Travel to a new part of the world
To be happy with all the blessings I already have been given.

A super response to my Facebook photo of the sumptuous lunch from Sunday has encouraged me to kickstart my blogging for the year with this fun and delicious snack which can become a meal, based on how much one consumes :)

For my Firangi friends, Bhel-Puri is a typical roadside snack in Mumbai and Maharashtra which is of course now as pervasive as french fries and can be had in any part of India.

Priya's Bhelpuri - serving 6

Ingredients

1) 16 cups of puffed rice
(A little dope on this - Puffed rice is available in all indian stores under the name of MURMURA - In tamil, Muru Muru means crunchy - the stuff gotten in these packets are not that and most always tend to have a stale smell to them,  just because it is the nature of the beast -short shelf life. But the best way to crispin and drive out the staleness is to set your oven to 250, spread the rice kernels in a cookie pan patted down in one layer and heated for about 5-7 minutes. This does wonders, believe me!)

2) 1 large purple onion (that would be pink for the not so color savvy) chopped finely

3) juice of 1 large lemon to be mixed into the chopped onions

 4)  FOUR medium sized red potatoes boiled and chopped into cubes and mildly salted

5) 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro

6) Sev -I made mine own so I will give you the recipe here - a tough call if you do not have the press- store bought is okay,  Haldiram's sev is recommended

 7) Peanuts a handful

Scroll down for chutney recipes

keep all ingredients separate in bowls as shown below

For chutney #1

1 tablespoon of tamarind paste
1/4 cup of water
I tsp sugar
a pinch of salt
2 tsp of Sriracha sauce
a pinch of cumin (entirely optional)

Mix in all ingredients together and keep

For chutney #2
1/2 cup of free yogurt
1green chili
1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves
pinch of salt

Blend into smooth paste

Quick Sev

1 cup of besan flour sifted
1/2 cup of rice flour
1-2 tsp of salt (taste to see if you need more)
1/2 tsp of asafetida
3 tbsp melted butter
1 tablespoon thyme seeds 1 tsp of  whole black peppers soaked and ground in 1/2 cup of water
Mix all the dry ingredients so salt is evenly spread into the flour
Add the butter and knead it in
Grind soaked ingredients and strain through fine filter into the flour
The batter should be flow-y not dense, at the same time not watery (yes, this takes finesse and practice)

Fill the press(I usually spray non-stick olive oil into the hole so the batter sees out smoothly)
heat the oil and press away.

NOTE: although it seems highly procedural and a lot of work, it with practice takes probably 1/2 hour - only about as much time as it takes to run to the Indian store to get the sev - so I say why not make mine rather than settle for store bought -

RECOMMENDATION - I would suggest that until you want to take that step into making  your own sev, store bough will do just fine!

My local friends - please don't say I will just come and have it at your home -  I know you are perfectly capable of making this just beautifully, on your own - so please give it a shot :)

Now you have the puffed rice and all the ingredients ready

Take your plate or should I say like a true Maharastrian -tek your plet and add the bhel first, followed by the potatoes, the onions, sauces, sev and cilantro in that order - stir them together and eat :)

Hope you've enjoyed the first recipe of the year - I have a few more aces up my sleeve and I will share them with you soon

Love and peace to all.

Macaroni with Spinach sauce

Today I made a resolve to get back to blogging, if only for the sake of writing, an exercise like all others, that needs to be kept up, if I don't want to stagnate…which is pretty much what I've been doing in this department. And that calls for time-managements and less over-committing of my time to other far less useless pursuits - by this i mean my recent addiction to angry birds friends - an online game that is exciting because you are playing against somebody, but also stressful because each time your high score is beaten, you want to up it and in this way end up spending good time that is better spent writing about how I waste it :)

Oh well, like a writer's block, I have suffered from a blogger block - We grew so many veggies in our garden this past summer and I have cooked like the dickens but somehow have not felt enthused to sit and blog them or crop my pictures. Did I mention to you among other things, I have also started working at the market, selling crepes, aka masala dosas. This has been a awesome outlet for me and I get to do this with my older kiddos, an icing on the cake!

And I have been traveling to exotic Espana :) The most wonderful experience with the dance and the spanish Guitar that I have fallen in love with verily-  AND...folks of all the countries I have visited in Europe and elsewhere, including the US where I live, I have never seen cleaner public restroom anywhere but Spain. Impeccable until you read the Madrid airport of course  - Even the Spanish cannot keep up with the world's dump in their busiest airport!  I am not about to make this a travelogue but I would like to share some pictures with you all, assuming of course, that I still have an audience out there who is interested in reading what I have to write. Oh God, please be there :)

In any case, we returned home only to fall right back into parental duties of driving, cooking, baking for school events, cooking cleaning etc… not my idea of fun - the US way of life - sigh - especially because I know better lives can be gotten (in some ways) back in my home country. But that's a topic for an entirely separate lament.  What I meant to say is I've literally had no time to recover from jet lag, what with the whole house sniffling -cos t'is the season for the sniffles, being fall and all.

Another hurried dinner day before I have to run my girls to their music dance and whatever else class. Thinking on my feet and thinking simple is becoming second nature to me, in so far as daily dinners are concerned. This is not to say they are not made with love or with an element of the exotic. Like on election day when i said - ok it's going to be macaroni and…. went racing down to the basement where our old fridge houses additional supplies of milk veggies and miscellaneous. Saw a box of fresh spinach and quickly, easy as abc it struck me to me a sort of spinach pesto to go with the mundane macaroni.

So I got the garlic, the spinach, a red chili or two, and a fistful of pine nuts. But to make it more wholesome, I added a can of campbell's mushroom soup and a 1/2 cup of milk - brought it all to boil and then ground them into a fine sauce. I then threw the macaroni into it and added some grated parmesan to the plate as I served it out. A simple healthy and delicious meal. The kids enjoyed it and I had it all made in less than 20 minutes. Now this is what I call a win-win situation :)

I am going to try this out with other veggies and will keep you posted as I make them

Will be back with a a spanish recipe and some pictures soon.

Infused Olive Oils

It's been a long, tough week besides being a summer of BIG changes - one child off to college, one a junior at high school,  perhaps the only continuum, and my baby off to Kindergarten. It's happy stuff, and yet, intensely sad. As Washington Post writer, Michael Gerson, so aptly observed, the step into college of your child, is the end of his or her uncounted days with you. From here on, we stand aside and let them go headlong, to pursue their dreams and futures - all far easier said than done. The love never lessens, but the eagerness to be completely involved must be dampened, at least on our part.  It's just been a week now, so the feelings are intense.  As for my KG, that is as big a wrench as this is the first journey towards establishing herself in the world. Put like that, it seems like a pretty daunting task for a 4+yt old. But here I am, finally with my one consolation prize - writing more or getting back into the swing of things.

My garden gives me a lot of pleasure, with the fairly good yield, altho much of our plants have had to deal with an extremely intemperate summer and way too much rain to fully flourish.  But we take what we can get and are grateful for it.  The idea to make herb and spice infused olive oil came from a visit to a restaurant where they had mixed herbs into a butter and cheeses. I have, of course seen infused oils many many times in stores, But with all the fresh herbs and spices in my garden, I was eager to make my own.

It was thus I ended up with 4 different ones - Basil, garlic, habanero & lavender. But for the garlic that was store bought, the rest are fresh from my garden and the end result is really spectacular.
For instance, a tsp of the basil or lavender oil drizzled over a salad brings the experience up to a whole new level, or to add a tsp of the habanero and or garlic is enough to spice up a pasta. Use it in any way you will. It's all about your taste.  Quantities recommended for each
2 sprigs of basil or lavender in about 8 ounces of olive oil; 3 habaneros or garlic pieces thinly slivered for the same amount of oil.

What I got from this experience - Making something exotic does not require time, but it does require the right ingredients. Will be back soon with more stuff, I promise!

Love ya!

Swiss Chard & Beet Greens Kootu (stew)

What has become of me? I seem unable to get the right moment to sit and blog - Heaven knows, with the veggie garden producing hearty veggies, I have been cooking up a storm. Something to be said for the lazy hazy crazy days of summer! Kids around, chillaxing when we are not hustle around the garden or doing other "summery" things, like keeping up late and trying to sleep in late - an impossibility with my rooster husband who wakes up the sun! So much so, the layers of lethargy that has built up is so high, it needs super will power to knock it down and get down to being productive in the blog world. My interest in cooking remains alive and steady. And, my experiments continue, especially with the homegrown veggies.  And it is with pride I present to you this super food in a most delectable stew or kootu

Beet greens (which are red, lol) and the ever so colorful and beautiful swiss chard together make for an excellent combination. Couple those with coconut and spices and man, have you made yourself a healthy dish that is a perfect combination with either rice or chapatis.

Here is my simple recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups of chopped swiss chard
• 1 cup of Beets greens chopped fine
• 1 beet chopped fine (I threw this in since I had it)
• 1bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp of black pepper
• 1 red chili to grind and 1 to saute
• 1/4 cup coconut powder/ or grated coconut
• 1/2 cup of cashew, hazelnut, & almond milk (optional) (available in TJ's)
• 1 tsp of coconut /sesame oil) for cooking and 1 for tempering
• 2 cup of water

Method

1. In a saucepan, lightly fry the coconut, chili pepper and bay leaf in a tsp of oil
2. Pour a cup of water and grind and set aside
3. To the same pan, add the greens  and stir for a couple of minutes 
4. Add 1 cup of water and allow it to cook for a few minutes 
5. At this point, add the salt and stir in
6. Now add the ground coconut mix and allow all of it to come to a boil or two.
7. Remove from flame and transfer to a serving bowl
8. Temper with a tsp of oil some mustards seeds, cumin and 1 red chili
9. Serve with couscous, rice or chapatis.