Ginger Sesame Watercress Soup

The first legit snow day. Kids are home today and tomorrow has been declared a holiday already. Outside 10 inches of snow waits to be shoveled and my Canadian man has geared up to shovel, since the man who blows snow for us has just undergone a knee replacement surgery. And, it had to be the heaviest snow!  So my older daughter gears up too, to help. She is excited to be out as is the little one heavy snow makes good snow people . So booted and jacketed from top to toe, the three head out each on their personal pursuits. I am at home trying to get my valentine's project for my kiddos, esp the little one finished - this is a big deal in our house and for some reason the kids have always been into it, the girls especially. And I try to draw energy from their enthusiasm and end up making Nutella cookies with my daughter's help yesterday.

Three hours and some later, I poke my head through the garage door to enquire about lunch and in unison they demand something warm and yummy.  I rifle through the fridge to see what I can rustle up at short notice. Like a scanner that beeps when it spots things, so to my eyes zoned in on the half used tofu, spring onions begging to be eaten before they go rotten, baby carrots and a big whopping piece of ginger. Pulling these out from the fridge I sprint downstairs to my other fridge to see what else catches my fancy and voila watercress.
I sprint back up, go to the pantry and get down some TJ vegetable stock. At this point I feel like I was on one of those cooking shows where they assign you one ingredient and you had to race to come up with some ideas around it.

I place my big pot on the stove, threw in some olive oil to sauté the veggies and then just like the last few clicks of a rubric's cube, things fell in place so naturally and believe you me, I have never heard my hubby rave so much about anything quite as much as he did about the soup. He also insisted I blog it right away so that I would archive the recipe for keeps.

RECIPE
For 6 hearty portions
Can be made in 10-15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1medium bunch of watercress (as sold in whole foods)
• 6-8 baby carrots slit in 4 
• Half pack of extra firm tofu  cubed (Trader Joe brand)
• 1carton of vegetable broth (Trader Joe brand)
• 4 stalks of spring onions finely chopped
• 2 inches long and as thick of a ginger piece chopped roughly
• 1tbsp of sesame seeds (white or brown)
• 1tsp of olive oil

For the flavoring

• 1 heaped tbs of peanut butter
• 1tbs stir fry Szechuan sauce
• 1 tbs Sriracha sauce
• 1 cup of water

Method

1. In a pot, add olive oil and the sesame seeds. 
2. When they start turning golden, add the veggies and stir in high heat for a minute before lowering to a simmer
3. In a blender, add the chopped ginger to half the carton of veggie stock and blend smooth
4. Add to the pot and allow the veggies to cook in the ginger broth. Add also the rest of the broth. 
5. In the same blender, add the water, and all the flavoring ingredients and blend until smooth.
6. Now add this to the boiling soup
7. Allow the whole soup to boil for 2-4 minutes before taking off the flame.
8. Serve hot

I guarantee you that this will be a super hit plus it is such a quick recipe.

I have another wonderful preparation to share with you next time - until then stay warm or cool as the case may be.

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

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!

Sweet Potato and Hazelnut Soup

Mama Mia - Looking for a gourmet soup to put together for a wonderful evening together with friends, here is a fabulous soup - The hazelnuts gives this soup a creamy and delicious finish and for sweet potato lovers like me, this was a match made in heaven. 

Ingredients

• 5-6 medium sized sweet potatoes washed and steamed
• 1/2 medium red onion chopped
• 2 cups of water
• 1/2 cup hazle nuts
• 2-3 green chilies (optional)
• 1tbsp chopped cilantro
• 1tbsp olive oil

Method

1. Heat the oil in a pan
2. Add the green chilies and the onions and sautee until onions are golden
3. Mash the sweet potatoes and add to the pan
4. In a pan, roast the hazelnuts for a minute, no more
5. Add to the curry and stir in
6. Add salt and cilantro and stir like a dry curry for a couple of minutes
7. Now add the water and cook until the water boils
8. Remove fro  flame
9. Cool a bit and grind

I stuck a tortilla for the picture, but actually served it with delicious olive bread (a house favorite) from Trader Joe's

Enjoy

Garnish with cilantro and olive oil or as desired

Cheers, Until next time - this will go to Avant Garde Cookies soup de mois!

Apple-Cauliflower Soup

Listlessness. Exhaustion. Insomnia. Hence Inertia. This pretty much sums up the way I've been feeling for the past several weeks. I am not able to get myself to blog as often as I'd like to even if have made numerous delicacies and photographed some if not all of them. Give me some motivation guys - tell me something in your comments that makes me want to come back. I thank all the wonderful souls who have stopped by to comment on my blog - you are the reason I feel responsible to be consistent (to the best possible) with my recipes. 

Did I tell you that we got snowed in like the dickens and had no electricity or water (yes primitive living conditions in the most advanced nation - simply because we are on a well)  - Cold frigid nights, melting snow for water - need I say more - We have resolved to invest in a genie this year. 

Getting to recipe, this soup was conceived of a cauliflower waiting to be cooked and an apple, the last of the lot. I decided I would put them together and make this delicious soup (for the soul) and that's exactly what I did - My littlest one LOVES soups and she devoured it verily!

Ingredients

• 1 medium cauliflower hear 
• 1/2 onion (optional)
• 1stalk of celery
• 1 apple (I only buy Pink Lady apples)
• 1 can of evaporated milk (optional can be subbed with water)
• 1pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
• 1tsp of freshly ground all spice
• 1-2 tsp of olive oil

For garnishing since this is a rather mild soup

• 1 jalapeño (optional) or freshly ground pepper kernels, cilantro
• roasted almonds or cashews or freshly grated parmesan

Method

1. Cut cauliflower into florets
2. dice onions and apples and cook in olive oil.
3. Add the evaporated milk and let it all cook together
4. Add salt and remove from flame
5. Grind into a smooth soup 
6. Add the spices 
7. Pour back into pan and let it cook some more

Serve hot with recommended garnish

Colonial Virginian Peanut Soup

I got the opportunity to make this soup for a women's get together - Our host lived in a home built in the time of Jefferson's era and Monticello and we were excited to get a tour of the house. The theme for the potluck was also colonial. When the wonderful lady that organizes the events wrote to us the food she wanted brought, I plumped for the peanut soup - 1) another great soup to my repertoire 2) more importantly, I was for the first time in 10 years of living here making an authentic Virginian recipe - how cool was that! This soup is said to have some roots in Africa and could've have come to the US when the slaves were brought in (not times I like to dwell upon). But the fact that Virginia is so well known for peanuts, make it easy to assume that they found various uses for their peanuts and the soup was one of them.

I have made it twice so far, an this be my third attempt - Both the earlier occasions, I missed out on taking pictures, but this time I made the soup just to take the pictures, lol

I got this recipe off the web from Colonial Williamsburg's old King's Arms Tavern The recipe is quite simple and absolutely delicious. But it is pretty bland and using a little all spice and nutmeg took the soup to a whole new level of satisfaction

For those who know me well, I tried to make a less-guilty more contemporary version of this highly rich and fatty soup - without a single compromise to the taste, I guarantee.

So here goes.

Ingredients 

• ¼ cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter (substitute with 1tbsp olive oil)
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 celery ribs, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons flour (NOT required - Soup is creamy and thick enough without this)
• 8 cups Chicken Stock* (or low-salt canned chicken stock)This I definitely substituted with Trader Joe's Vegetable broth)
• 2 cups smooth peanut butter (I used the natural kind from Skippy)
• 1 ¾ cups light cream or half-and-half (You can safely cut this down by a half or even less)
• Finely chopped salted peanuts, for garnish

Instructions

1. In a large saucepan or soup pot over medium heat ,heat the oil. Add the onion and celery and cook, stirring often, until softened, three-five minutes.
2. Stir in flour and cook two minutes longer.
3. Pour in the broth, increase the heat to high, and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring often, until slightly reduced and thickened, about 15 minutes. Pour into a sieve set over a large bowl and strain, pushing hard on the solids to extract as much flavor as possible. Return the liquid to the sauce pan or pot.
4. Whisk the peanut butter and the cream into the liquid. Warm over low heat, whisking often, for about five minutes. Do not boil.
5. Serve warm, garnished with the chopped peanuts.

A perfect soup for winter days and autumn days, rainy days and basically any day :) Enjoy with friends and family - A lot more cooking chez moi - will be back soon with another winner recipe :)

Check my Facebook page for more pictures about the process 

Rosy Raita with Beets

My first post for the NEW YEAR was to be my peanut soup - but as I've lamented on my facebook page, both the times I made it were for parties not hosted by me and it got eaten up well before I could remember to take my clicks - But by golly, I will make it again anon and will present it with the aplomb it deserves. But for now let me feast your eyes and senses to this mind blowing raita.

When I first tasted this in Delhi at my sister's house, I was blown away by the color of it - So beautiful and the taste was no less incredible - That very moment, I had resolved to make this once I got back home. While it has taken me months to get to it, I finally did it and it was, as I'd predicted, a huge hit with friends and family alike.  This is a killer dish to brighten any dinner table, its rich color at once brightening the table and the eyes of those that lay sight on it.

What you need:

1. 1 big beet grated very finely or pureed
2. 1 carton (32 oz) of yogurt - I used Dannon PlainYogurt
3. For garnish
4. 1/2 tsp of fennel seeds
5. 1/2 tsp of cumin seeds
6. 1 spicy green chili finely chopped
7. 1tsp mustard seeds 
8. 1tsp of oil to pop and sautee the above
9. Salt

Method

• Peel and puree (or) finely grate the beet - I chose to do the latter
• Pour the yogurt into a serving dish and whip it to make it smooth
• Add the beets and whisk it it
• Watch the magic of the beautiful rose color engulf the bowl :)
• Saute the seeds and chili and mix it into the raita
• Refrigerate until time to serve
• *Garnish with cilantro if desired.
• Serve with aromatic pulao like I did 

Enjoy and will be back soon with another yummy recipe - yup- the peanut soup

Roasted Garlic & Cherry Tomatoes

September 7, 2012 | Filed under: Curries and Veggies, Entree, Entrees, Recipes, Uncategorized, Vegetarian and tagged with: Baked,Cherry tomato recipe, Entrees, Italian, Low Fat recipes, recipes, Salad, Sun Gold Tomatoes, Vegan, vegetarian | Edit

They are small, beautiful, and perfectly round. They are sun kissed, thin-skinned and utterly juicy. They can be eaten like grapes and are a perfect addition to a green salad. So those were pretty much the two ways in which we were eating these beautiful tomatoes, a bumper crop in my friend’s veggie garden. She and I have bartered veggies from each other’s gardens, although hers is twice as big as mine – I got figs, sun-gold tomatoes, delicious cucumbers, basil and now spicy chilies (yes!) and I gave her some of my okra eggplant and earlier on some cilantro, lettuce.

The last time she gave me some of these, I had them unused in my fridge and she suggested this preparation to me. Thanks Fla! It was amazing!

Now this is a post for a special blogger friend, Radhika who is celebrating her birthday today. She has been appreciating recipes from my garden all through the summer and I thought it would be befitting to post something fresh for her.

I also take this opportunity to announce that I am joining Radhika and the stellar bunch of bloggers on their Avant Garde Cookies, Epicurean Voyage. I am thrilled and excited to be doing this with Radhika, a versatile and energetic woman who constantly organizes wonderful new ways of enhancing our culinary creativity and her own. Priya Sreeram, whom I’ve considered a soul sister from the get-go who writes from her heart and cooks that way too. Kavitha, a young lady who has impressed me as an enterprising “cookie” juggling a blog where she is so active and university, hats off to her! I am looking forward to getting to know my other cookies over the course of this voyage; Jay, Veena, Roshni & Anusha  – First impressions however…

When I visited Anusha’s Blog, the picture of her Vegetable Fried Rice bowled me over – I would have liked that bowl all to myself!

The Tamarind Ginger Pickle that I saw when I visited Roshni’s blog had my tongue in a tickle for a lick of that delish pickle

The Eggless Double chocolate cookies on Veena’s blog seem like the perfect post dinner munch for me as I write this

Jayanthy’s blog is a visual treat with amazing pictures…

My voyage with the group begins soon…

Back to the recipe with homegrown deliciousness – but for the garlic all else was grown in my garden – The tomatoes are of course courtesy my pal.

Ingredients

• 1 lbs of Sun Gold Tomatoes washed
• A Handful of  Red & Purple Cherry Tomatoes
• 3 small-medium red onions
• 2 pods of garlic
• Spices
• Rosemary & Oregano
• Ground Pepper
• Sea Salt
• Olive Oil Spray

Angel Hair pasta (as much as needed)

Method

1. Set the Oven at 350 degrees F
2. Spray a baking pan with olive oil
3. Layer with tomatoes
4. Place garlic pods in the pan
5. Chop the onions and find room for them as well on the pan
6. Add fresh oregano & rosemary
7. Bake for 45 minutes
8. In the mean time, boil your pasta, drain over cold water.
9. Drizzle a small quantity of olive oil along with some salt and toss
10. Remove veggies from oven and serve over the pasta.
11. Eat with gusto.
    

This is a perfect post for my blog event FAST FOOD not FAT FOOD guest-hosted this time by my sweet friend, Archana of The Mad Scientist's Kitchen - Do send you entries to her if you have a healthy recipe you've made - 

Other ladies wishing Radhika a happy birthday with a virtual treat are Priya, Roshni, Kavi

A couple of links to visit
Priya: http://eq-myblog.blogspot.in/2012/09/chilled-nutty-choco-bites-virtual.html
Roshni: http://arusuvai-kurippu.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/baingan-bharta.html
Kavitha:http://foodomania.com/quick-birthday-chocolate-cake/comment-page-1/#comment-1431

Cucumber Rasam

Cucumber Rasam

A long unprecedented hiatus from my blog – My mind has been overused by too many other things happening in my –as in – my children’s lives, I have not had a moment to stay focused enough to let any creative juices flow, a writer’s block so to speak. But I did have a fabulous vacation with my family when we got to relax without having to plan the next meal, the next drop off or pick up, pick up groceries and the other million things we normally have to do in our busy “American” mommy lives! But the next ailment is my extreme allergies to pollen in the springtime that shuts me down completely, especially since I have to be on many medications to keep myself afloat!  Thanks to all those who sympathized with me on FB when I posted those God Awful pictures of myself with my blood-shot eyes and Rudolph like nose! 

I have SO many recipes in my drafts it’s not funny and like any scaredy cat, I was afraid to even look to see what to blog, because the task seemed too daunting. But here I am with a couple of recipes I’d like to share _ The rainbow cake which I will get to second; the first is my Cucumber Rasam.

This was a lazy person’s idea to finish the cucumbers we’d bought earlier last week – Raita would mean some exotic or some other main dish – with my nose dripping and eyes watering, standing in front of the stove is the last of my desires, trust me.

I washed peeled, cut and ground the cucumbers with a cup of water

I added 2 tbsp of lemon juice (from a bottle) and some salt

So far, so good!

Then I took a 1-1/2 tsp of rasam powder, added half a cup of water and let it boil for a good long time so there would be no rawness to it

I added this to the cucumber juice and stir it in

As is the way, I tempered with some sesame oil/butter some cumin seeds, mustard seeds and curry leaves.

I also garnished with some cilantro.

It tasted AWESOME

NOTES:

Never heat up the cucumber juice

If serving with rice, ensure the rice is piping hot to compensate for the lukewarm rasam

Refrigerate if you want to have it as a soup -which I did

Hope you will try to make this rasam and enjoy it as much as we did. I will be back by the end of the week with the cake – Promise J

An appeal to all my blogger friends - I would like to hopefully restart commenting on all your recipes - but please help by getting rid of word processing that blogger has made even more difficult now - It takes time and acts as a disincentive - You can always control the contents by saving the comment to publish after you have seen them - thanks y'all and love ya!

Cream of Spinach Soup

A week or so ago, I was praying that that darned groundhog would not see his shadow - but he did and what's more, ever since the weather has altered to winter-like conditions with nasty wind-chills. This, after a really balmy spring like January is not cool - I mean for the weather to be so cool ;p.
This weather has warranted some warming of them cockles - so I made me a cream of spinach soup that got eaten to the last drop :)
Agreed, I actually used cream in this recipe, but a cup for about 10 cups of spinach and a small fistful of pine nuts.  The Fat content is hopefully negated by the goodness of the greens. It yielded about 6 servings. A winner soup for those who love spinach.

Ingredients

• 1Family Sized Box of Organic Baby Spinach
• 1Small fist ful (about 2 tbsp) pine Nuts
• 1-2 Dry red chilies (cayenne) (not for the faint hearted)
• 1 tsp of whole black peppers (this is a must ;)
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 1cup of milk (if required)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 tsp olive oil

Preparation

• In a wide mouthed pan, heat the olive oil and temper the chilies, peppers and brown the garlic
• Add the spinach and swiftly toss it around - 
• NOTE: A whole box of spinach is a lot volume-wise. So stir in handfuls at a time so as not not get overwhelmed 
• Once the leaves have softened a bit, add the cream and the pine nuts and allow them to boil together - this should take 3-5 minutes
• Add some milk if you want more volume
• Salt to liking
• Cool it before you grind.
• Refrigerate if you like cold soups. 
• Pour back in the pan and allow it to heat up again, if you like it hot - like we do chez moi.
• This can be served with warm bread or crackers 

Until the next time, adios amigas!
Sharing this with Javelin Warrier's Event  Made With Love Mondays