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

Steamed Green Beans Salad

Here is the back story - a true record of a conversation I had with myself :)
Fresh, tender beans stacked beautifully, so much so allz you need do is clip the pointed ends and steam them for about 3-4 minutes in your microwave - I say keep talking - in a flat large pan, saute in 1/2 tsp of olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic, cut like thin & flat along with 1/2 tsp of crushed red peppers- Getting more interesting, keep going, I encouraged myself - Well,  add the steamed beans to this and sprinkle salt and turn in the pan, keeping them whole & in shape. Okay and .... Well now you take about 20 pieces of almonds, cut flat with their skins on and sprinkle and serve HOT ...My alter ego says, Okay lemme taste this first (a chewing pause before) OMG, that is SOOOO delicious - Can I try some more, I say reaching out to grab a few when splat came my other hand clamping over the stealing one saying in a semi-stern tone - Ah ah ah... wait till its on the dining table along with the rest of the food, or you'll get nothing then...

There you have it. Now for the pictures and remember if you see these beans in the store, snap them up -this can be made in 10 minutes flat :)

My late and last entry for the Blogging Marathon -

Cheers and wishing you a healthy week and extreme enjoyment and joy in the simpler recipes of life :)

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Baby Spinach & Plum Salad

So here's my next salad for Srivalli's Blogging Marathon, and I chose to to Salad and Soups - sorry I have been salad heavy, but those are my daly lunch (almost) and it was fun to try out a different salad each day - Salad is to me things that I like or even love coming together in a simple and healthy form! I always garnish my salads with nuts, just to have that crunch to it and make it more appealing :) I did use my Balsmaic vinaigrette (Charles, tune in here :)

1.5 cups of Baby Spinach leaves
1/2 a plum
10-pinenuts
A dribble of Balsamic Vinaigrette

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Apple & Cottage Cheese Salad

Happy Deepavali greetings all - Hope you had a wonderful celebration - The first 4 hours of mine were spent cleaning my Lakshmi lamp :) I am sorry I could not post yesterday on account of working hard to keep the spirit of Deepavali alive for my kids in the place so far from home or even a bigger city where there might have been some community celebration - But here is a super simple salad, packed with protein that I made this afternoon -

1/2 apple - cubed

2Tbsp -cottage cheese, small curd

about 10 broken walnut pieces

1/2tsp of honey (optional)

Place in a bowl in the given order and dig in  - Hope to come back with another simple one tomorrow - Sorry I am not editing my photos today :(

Priya's Now Serving Apple-Cottage Cheese-Walnut Salad

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Arugula & Fresh Mozzarella Salad

Please don't kill me - This is yet again an Arugula based salad -  (A blogger friend just informed me that these are called rockets in England so I was tempted to change the title to Rocket & Mozzarella Salad - what can I say except I love these greens and they have made my salad experience incredibly enriched... Take a look at this fresh green leaf below and tell me you are not tempted :)

This time I paired it with Oh-So Fresh Mozzarella cheese and juicy beef tomatoes (not particularly fond of that name but...)

The dressing a simple store bought, fat-free Annie's Raspberry Vinaigrette - start with smaller drizzles and add more if necessary - the trouble with store-bought being they can get taste acidic.

Pictures are self-explanatory, but the single serving remains the same

For 1 Serving
2 cups of fresh, washed arugula
3 - 1" thick slices - These come pre cut and can be sliced thinner if desired)
Note This can be substituted with Tofu or Paneer if desired
3 fairly thick slices of tomatoes

Place the bed of Arugula and arrange tomatoes over it
Add the Mozzarella pieces over the tomatoes and there you have it
Drizzle dressing over it and enjoy

This was shared by 4 adults who love salad :)

Apple & Arugula Salad

After the comments I got for my Arugula Salad, I realize that Arugula may not be so popularly known - so let me inform you that it is one of the best salad greens - I am not a fan of lettuce and I far prefer spinach and even more so Arugula as the green salad base - So please if you see some fresh arugula, make a swipe for it :) and you won't regret it - it contains none of the bitterness that romaine and often red cabbage/lettuce do -

I split the pack I got over 2 days to make 2 different salads out of them - In this recipe, I used apples - Here again, call me an apple snob, but I am not fond of any apple except the following - Pink ladies or Honey crisp - For a salad, you want an apple that feels crunchy, that is juicy, that has a thinner skin, that has a beautiful blend of sweetness and sourness - Fuji, Gala, Jazz etc are a far second to the first mentioned apples - We get the mavu (pasty) kinds in India supposedly from Kashmir - could never stand them - matter of fact, can't say I've tasted any that I liked in india - Apple to me was a cultivated taste that came with eating the Pink Ladies - Those are I believe a product of New Zealand - I could move to NZ just for these, and the untouched, pristine, intensely beautiful scenery would be just a perk (lol)
Pink Lady apples are a dollar per - but totally worth it, but sometimes you may be lucky and hit a sale1

All kidding apart, if you don't like apples, pick a fruit that pleases you and use that - I love anaar, but we do not find them here :(

For individual servings
2 cups of FRESH, washed and dried arugula (all these pack say pre-washed, but I wash them anyway, just in case
1/2 Apple (Pink Lady or Honey Crisp) with skin cut into thin slivers
2Tbsp Cottage Cheese (low fat, small curd)

 Cherry Juice-Mustard Dressing (very low fat)

2Tbsp Pure Cherry Juice (can be substituted with any other 100% juice that is available and liked)
1 squirt (bout 1/4 inch) of Dijon Mustard or other
Whip until mustard is nicely mixed into the juice
Drizzle generously over salad
Grate mozzarella or fresh parmesan (optional)
Dig in :)
This is my second recipe for Valli’s Blogging Marathon  and my theme is Salads and Soups

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Nutty Arugula & Strawberry Salad

Kicking of second week of Valli’s Blogging Marathon with this super salad

The key to a green salad is FRESH greens – cannot emphasize that enough J

This is a salad that can be thrown together in a matter of minutes (much like any greens based salad) – Tastes delicious and even my salad-hater daughter has been converted to a fan – Salad is a food that needs to be exciting, with at least 2 things you can see in it that say, Hey, I could eat this salad for that ingredient - Or at least that is the philosophy that I subscribe to, not having been a much of a salad person either – give it to me cooked any day, I said until I learned to make a mean salad which was at once healthy and pleasurable – So try this one

Prep time: 10 minutes or less

For a single portion for Salad

2 cups FRESH Arugula (wash & spin dry or dab with paper towel)

2 strawberries diced from top to bottom

1tbsp walnut – crushed

1tsp peanuts (optional)

Grated Parmesan garnish (optional)

Here is a wonderful 10- minute recipe for a no or very, very, low fat dressing

Again this for a single portion of dressing

2tbsp Low fat yogurt

2tsp agave nectar

1/2tsp garlic flakes

Fresh ground pepper (pepper mill)

Whip these together and drizzle over salad

Ta-dah – gourmet salad good to gorge on 

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Pumpkin Papaya Soup

This is a soup that was inspired by having a ripening papaya at home along with pumpkins we picked at the patch. A simple hearty and tasty soup perfect for the cooler days of Autumn and halloween parties :)
It is very South Indian influenced in the spices and herbs that went into it, with a slight touch of Italian, in that I used some rosemary and sage
This is my recipe for Day 2 of Srivalli's Blogging Marathon

Ingredients

1 Small pie pumpkin ( peeled & cubed)
1/2 big sized ripe papaya (decided, peeled & cubed)
2tbsp coconut powder
2tbsp coriander
2 dry red chilies (I used 2 too many)
4 cloves garlic
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp rosemary crushed
2 leaves sage crushed
1/4 cup almond slivers
1/2 tsp turmeric

Preparation
1.Crush rosemary and safe and keep aside
2. In a frying pan, heat 1 tsp of oil
3. Add the coriander, coconut powder, chilies and garlic and fry until the coconut powder assumes a nice brown crispy color - Dry grind and keep
4. Remove from flame
5. In a separate deep (4-5 quart) pot, add the cubed pumpkin and papaya and allow them to cook adding 1 tsp of salt, turmeric, sage and rosemary
6. When they are soft and mushy, remove from flame allow to cool down
7. Grind into a fine paste in a blender
8. Return the ground up pumpkin- papaya to the pot and add the dry-ground mix into the paste and stir in nicely
9. Set flame at low flame and allow it to simmer for about 4-5 minutes stirring if your pot is not a non-stick
10. Serve HOT

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This is off to Vardhini of  Zesty Palette's Halloween Fiesta