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

Baked Stuffed Zucchini

This wonderful dish is at once light, delicious and awfully simple to make. It can be light based on what you choose to stuff the zucchini with - If you are thinking mozzarella, cream cheese,  meat, or some other high calorie stuffing, think again - We had this dish at a local restaurant and even as we were eating it, I had resolved to make it. This falls under the gourmet category and certainly has the WOW factor when it comes to impressing your family, friends or a very special person in your life. So go ahead and give it a try - takes all of 30 minutes to make and the end result is most "appointing" - used as an antonym to disappointing :)

Ingredients

• 2- 3 medium sized fresh Zucchinis
• 1/3 cup of greek yogurt (I recommend Fage)
• 3 tbps of mascarpone ( entirely optional) Can be substituted with more greek yogurt
• 1 tbsp of Miscuglio (a fine blend of italian herbs and spices)
• Tomato Sauce - We made ours with diced tomatoes, garlic and some red chilies and italian herbs
• 2/3 cup of grated sharp cheddar cheese for topping before baking
• Olive oil for brushing
• Bread crumbs for sprinkling

Method

1. Set oven to 400
2. On the slicer side of the grater, make long thin strips of the Zucchini 
3. Arrange on a baking pan and gently brush with olive oil and bake for about 10 minutes
4. In the meanwhile, prepare your baking dish
5. Add the tomato sauce to the bottom of the dish and keep
6. In a bowl, mix the yogurt and the mascarpone together along with the Muscuglio. 
7. Remove Zucchini from oven and let cool for a few minutes (else the yogurt will get liquify in the heat)
8. Once cooled,  add a tsp of he yogurt mix to one end of the strip and roll the zucchini as shown in the pictures
9. Once all of them are made
10. Place gingerly on the tomato sauce in baking dish
11. Top with the smallest amount of break crumbs
12. Add the grated cheese over the rolls
13. Bake again at 400 for about 15 minutes 

Serve HOT :)

Garden Fresh Salsa

When you have a garden that gives you the freshest ingredients to make the finest salsa, I say, heck why not make the most of it! :) The garden truly is on its way out with the chill of Autumn setting in. Nevertheless that chilies are putting out their last produce for the season as are the tomatoes. The cilantro is still going strong although not for much longer, perhaps and the bell peppers are finally making an appearance. So whatchya waiting for? That's right! Get that salsa made already, will you?!
Chop up some onions and garlic and squeeze some fresh lime juice into the above ingredients and a smidgeon of salt and voila - And what is the secret ingredient? Habanero peppers of course :)
A quarter goes a looooooooong way so be judicious in your use of this dynamite pepper

Ingredients

• 2- 3 medium sized tomaotes
• 1 small onion
• 1/2 cup of fresh cilantro
• 1/2 habanero
• 1/2 bell pepper
• 2cloves of fresh garlic
• 1-2 tsp of lime/lemon juice
• salt

Method

1. Chop all ingredients finely if you do not have a mixer that can make the salsa for you
2. Otherwise, chop roughly and put in your vitamix or magic bullet and let it go until it is blended but retains some texture
3. Refrigerate immediately if you are not using right away

NOTE: this tastes best fresh or made half an hour before use - keep refrigerated for best taste.

Enjoy amigos!

Cashew-Peanut Vegetable Stir Fry

A nutty idea but trust me when I tell you you could eat it all up and hanker for more - This is another of those one the spot recipes - a new take on stir-fry which was hugely successful with the family - The only time it takes is to cut the veggies... and when it comes to cutting multiple veggies, I love to do it since I always get so turned on by the brilliant colors of them all and I feel like an artist creating amy own color palette.

Here are the veggies I used - 

• 1 each of orange and yellow and green peppers
• 1 perfectly juicy and ripe tomato (big)
• 1 big red/purple onion
• 2 small (long) eggplants

Nuts, herbs and spices

• A fist full of 
• cashews, peanuts, sesame
• 2tbsp Spicy Schezwan sauce

Plus 2 tsp of sesame oil to saute the veggies in

Method

In a wok/wide pan, heat oil and throw in the veggies

Cook until tender but still crunchy

Powder the nuts together

Add the sesame whole and the nut powder along with the sauce and stir until all the veggies are coated with these

Cook for a minute or two longer

Serve hot with noodles, chappatis or eat as is.

Broccoli & Coconut Usili Curry

This is the simplest and tastiest and healthiest broccoli preparation if one is looking to Indianize this green and great veggie. It is light and delicious and can be paired with chappatis or rice or couscous or can even be had as is. Takes 10 minutes flat to make and is highly satisfying.

Ingredients

• 2 medium broccoli bunches
• 1/2 grated coconut
• 2red chilies
• 1/2 tsp urad dal
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp oil

Method

1. Grate the broccoli with the bigger scraping side
2. Steam broccoli until tender (not soggy) this keeps the lush green color intact
3. In a pan, heat oil, add urad and brown
4. Add chilies and broccoli and turn in the pan
5. Add the salt and the grated coconut and let all the flavors blend
6. Serve as desired

Green Chili Thokku (Preserve)

My garden was bursting with green chilies and we kept collecting in the hope that we would get some spicy ones - Alas to our disappointment, although they were extremely aromatic and flavorful and raised our expectations no end about its spiciness. Ironically, they lacked the sting which is a quality all of us proper South Indians look for in our green chilies.  We have learnt now that we have to plant the different varieties of chilies at least a 10 feet away from each other because what can happen if you plant spicy ones and sweeter peppers side by side, one takes over the flavor of the other, in our case the sweet dominated the spicy :(  So a lesson learnt for next year. Joke is I had to use store-bought green chilies and a few red chilies to spice up my chili chutney (lol)  But it smells phenomenally good and and tastes incredible, esp with thachu mammu or yogurt rice; a fab spread on sandwiches and with chappatis and cheese...

Presenting to you my Green Chili Thokku/Preserve - also sharing a couple of fun art I made with them.

Ingredients

• 3lbs of Fresh green chilies 
• 4 thai green chilies (not required if you have spicy chilies already)
• 1/2 cup of urad dal
• 1tsp of tamarind paste
• 1/4 tsp of asafetida
• 1tsp turmeric
• 5tbsp Gingely/sesame oil
• salt
• Tempering with mustard seeds

Method

1. de stem the chilies and keep ready
2. In 2 tbsp of oil roast the urad dal until golden brown
3. In a wide pan add 2 tbsp of oil and add the green chilies and allow them to cook until lightly browned
4. Add the salt, tamarind and asafetida to this and stir for a little longer
5. Cool and grind 
6. Add a tbsp of raw sesame oil to the top to keep it preserved. Enjoy in any which way you want to :)

Chili Thokku

Colorful Veggie Stir Fry – Indian Chinese Style

Some days the sun shines brilliantly and makes for the best day to click some good pictures – especially of food – A day like that presented itself and I was beside myself with joy since I had invited some friends over for lunch and I was planning on making this veggie stir fry. Colorful veggies can be a big turn on for the gastric juices and a visual treat. And I hope to achieve this with this recipe. For those who see my FB page, you will have seen this as my "cover photo" and on the slide above on my homepage :)

This is an all too simple recipe, the only hard or interesting part (depending on how you view it) is the veggie cutting – I made this a fun chore and you can see the result of it in the pictures below.  A few ingredients to spice it up and I was good to go.

Here now is my recipe

Ingredients

Veggies of your choice

Hot stir fry sauce

1tsp Sambar powder

1 tsp or squirt of Sirarcha sauce

1tbsp Ginger

1tbsp Garlic

1tsp sesame seeds

1tsp of Asian spices

Nuts (optional)

1tbsp +2tsp of sesame oil
Fresh green Thyme to garnish (can use basil or other too)

Method

Heat 1tbsp oil

Add the garlic and ginger and sesame seeds

Roast till garlic is golden

Add the chopped veggies
Add all the spice powders – The sambar powder infuses a fine Indian aroma to this dish while the Asian Spices confirms that it is indeed a Chinese dish with an Indian twist JThe addition of Potatoes also lends some Indianness to the dish.

NOTE: If you are using potatoes, like I did, you may want to cook it for a few minutes in the microwave or steam them ahead of time for a 3-4 minutes

Cook on high flame stirring/tossing them

Once they are tender, but still crisp, add the sauce

IMPORTANT – The veggies should be Al dente and retain their shapes and their own individual flavors – that’s what makes this dish special

Serve HOT Over noodles or as a side with Jasmine Rice J

Serving with Whole Masoor dal "soup" & Pappads

This is my week 3 Cuisine of the month at AGC posting- Do check out my co-AGCians recipes - Anusha, Jayanthi,Kavi, Priya, Radhika, Roshni and Veena

Rainbow Chard & Veggie Casserole With Paneer

This was a pleasurable dish to make. I had this super colorful Swiss Chard that I’d bought at Whole Foods. And I had all my garden veggies and was planning on some really interesting dish. It was the same morning that Radhika emailed me the secret ingredient for our Avant Garde Cookies posting and it was Paneer… I had made some a few days before and this seemed like the perfect garnish/addition to this veggie medley.  What’s more I even had my béchamel sauce that I’d blogged the day before and I thought it would make a perfect addition to the dish.

Here is my recipe.

Ingredients

• Basically this can be done with any veggies or greens of your choice
• I used Rainbow Swiss chard, cherry tomatoes, onions, orange and yellow bell peppers, green chilies (optional) – I also had some snake gourd I chopped up and used.
• 1tbsp olive oil
• 1cup of béchamel sauce (use any other sauce of your choice)
• 1tsp curry powder (optional)

Method

1. Stir-fry the veggies in about ½ tbsp. of olive oil
2. Place this is a baking pan neatly
3. I used the béchamel sauce to top my stir-fried veggies (I sprinkled some curry ma powder on top)
4. Sautee the paneer in another 2 tsp of olive oil – I used some curry powder and salt to spice it up a bit
5. Arrange the paneer on the top
6. Add some cheddar if you like
7. Bake for about 25-30 minutes at 350 F
8. Garnish with Fresh Cilantro

The pictures are self-explanatory.

Enjoy with noodles or just by itself.

 

 This is off to Avant Garde Cookies

This is for the Avant Garde Cookies Group. In this venture with me are  Anusha, Jayanthi,Kavi, Priya Sreeram, Radhika Roshni and Veena