Its been a long time since i made a recipe post. Life goes on as usual, but not my mind. I had and i still have severe mood swings, which made me stay away from online for a while. i always feel breaking the ice is one crucial point to go ahead with challenges. Today, this moment i decided to break the ice with my blog!! here i dusted down this carrot soup post from draft and presenting here.
Hope to Cook and Blog More in this Summer Holidays! Wish me Lots of Strength and Hope Your Wishes Pushes me furthur!!!


Summer is here. Chennai is super hot now.  I made this carrot soup in winter, but posting it now in hot summer. When i saw these carrots with its leaves on, i couldn't resist to pick one bunch. two years back, when we were in Ooty, we traveled to avalanche. on route there were so many carrot fields, we stopped in between and got fresh carrots right from the fields. we even spotted two carrot cleaning machines which cleaned the mud and cleaned the carrots thoroughly.

In Chennai, we can rarely find these root vegetables with its leaves. when i spotted, i got a bunch a tried this soup recipe from BBC Good Food book.


Ingredients:

Carrots - 3 or 4 (small sized ones or few baby carrots)
Onion - 1
Thai Red chilly - 1/2 ( remove the seeds)
Potato - 1
Garlic - 2 cloves
Ginger - 1' inch
Vegetable stock - 200 ml
Spices - cinnamon, star anise and lemon grass
Butter - 1 tsp
Madras curry powder / sambhar powder - 1/2 tsp


To Garnish:

Coconut cream - 2 tsp's

Method:

Heat a pan, add butter, spices, ginger, garlic, red chilly and saute the onions, carrots and potato.
Add the vegetable stock to the pan also add madras curry powder 1/2 tsp. cover the pan and cook the vegetables in medium flame for about 12 minutes. then remove the whole spices cinnamon, star anise. Let the vegetables get cooled down. Then grind them smoothly. Again heat the soup. Add salt to taste and serve the soup warm with coconut cream on top.


Notes:

I used Maggie veg stock cube to prepare vegetable stock.

Half of a Thai Red Chilly will add lots of spice to the soup. make sure to remove the seeds of the chilly.

Serve either with coconut milk  or fresh cream.





cream of mushroom soup

Mushroom soup is easy to prepare and it is far better in taste than ready to make soups available in the market. Soup when served along with bread make it as a good meal. we prefer this simple meal in winter. I always make it a point to cook the mushroom the same day i buy. this way we can avoid the color change in mushrooms.



mushroom

Cleaning the mushroom takes time, but cleaning one by one with our scrubbing our fingers over the mushrooms under tap water makes it easy.

kaalaan soup


                                                     Cream of Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:

Button Mushroom - 200 gms
Onion - 1
Butter - 1 tbsp
Milk - 1 and half cup
Pepper and salt to taste
Fresh cream - 1 tsp 

Method:

creamy mushroom soup

Clean the mushroom well and trim the stem like part a little. Chop the mushroom into pieces.

mushroom soup

In a pan, add butter and sliced onion, saute the onions till it turns translucent, then add in the chopped mushrooms and saute in medium flame for about 5-7 minutes till the mushroom emit water and get cooked well.

button mushroom soup

Then add the milk to the pan and let the milk boil. switch off the flame and let the pan rest for about 5-10 minutes till the contents on pan is cooled completely.

mushroom soup

Shift the mushroom along with milk to your mixer grinder and grind it nicely. Again heat the pan, add the grinded soup and just warm up the soup. remember not to boil the soup. Season the soup with salt and pepper.

Add fresh cream as a garnish to the soup.

creamy mushroom soup

Serve with toasted bread slices.

Notes:

You can skip onions and just saute mushrooms in butter and proceed.

Do not let the soup boil, after grinding, the soup may get grainy. so just warm up.



Chilli Gobi


When we were in bangalore i have ordered gobi 65 at hotels as they serve it hot, which will be great for the chilling weather. Last year i found out a superb recipe for this chilli gobi at marias menu. soon i tried and liked the fry very much. Though i did not add any sauces, eating just plain was very good. it was super crisp and tasted so good. only drawback is the recipe calls for egg white.

Chilli Gobi snack



These small forks are gifted by Raji when we met for the first time. She is such a sweet person and i can never forget our first meet. Raji hope you remember our first meet! Thank you for these lovely forks!

Ingredients:

Cauliflower - 1
Kahmiri chilly powder - 2 tsp
Egg - 1 (just egg white)
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Maida - 1/4 cup
Corn flour - 1/4 cup
Oil to fry - 1 cup

Method:

Gobi/cauliflower


Cut the stem off from the cauliflower and split into separate small florets. Wash them well. In a vessel add 2 cups of water and let it boil. add these cauliflower florets and a bit of salt. cook for at
 least 5 minutes in medium flame. drain the cauliflower and set aside.

Chilly gobi

Mix the kashmiri red chilly powder with 2 tsp's of water into a thick paste.

step1


To make the flour batter -
In a separate bowl, add the maida flour and corn flour, sieve them well. add ginger garlic paste. kashmiri chilly powder paste and egg white to the flours. Mix them all till they are well combined.

step2


Add little bit of water about 2 tbsp's to make the mix little thin.

Gobi fry


Heat a pan to fry, add oil and heat it. once the oil gets medium hot, dip the cauliflower florets in the flour batter and drop into the oil slowly. fry them they turn into golden color. drain in a kitchen towel.

chilly gobi


Serve in hot, when cooled down it do not taste good as it loses it crispiness!

Notes:

You can add a tsp of vinegar while preparing the flour batter.
 or you can serve with chat masala sprinkled over the chilli gobi.




Creamy Sweet Corn Soup

I saw this recipe in a TV show long back. when i chanced upon Del monte Creamy style Sweet corn, i bought a tin to try out this soup. It just tasted like the one we have at restaurants. its an easy recipe too. you can just follow the instructions given on the tin and make it. My son loves soup very much. he would taste all sorts of soup, but his all time favorite is my tomato soup. I am preparing mushroom soup this evening, which i will share with you tomorrow.


Sweet corn soup

This recipe has corn starch, so it tastes different than regular sweet corn soup, in which we cook the corns and grind into a puree like the sweet corn soup i made earlier.


Ingredients:

Creamy style Sweet corn - 1 small tin
Carrot - 1
Beans - 5
Cabbage - 1/4 cup (grated)
Corn flour - 1  tsp
Vinegar - 1 tsp
Spring onions - 2 tbsp's (finely chopped)
Pepper powder - 1 tsp

Method:

sweet corn creamy style

Chop vegetables and spring onions(green part) into small pieces.

Grate cabbage into thin strips.

Mix the corn flour with 1/4 cup of water without any lumps and set aside.

sweet corn soup1

In a pan, add 2 cups of water, add carrot and beans. let them cook in medium flame for about 5 minutes, once the vegetable are half way cooked, add in the creamy style sweet corn and mix well. Add the grated cabbage and let the soup boil for 5 mins in slow flame.

corn soup 2

Now add the corn flour mixed with water to the pan. mix well before adding to the pan.
Finally season with salt, pepper and 1 tsp of vinegar. Add the chopped green spring onions and give a mix. let the soup come to a boil and switch off the flame.

Serve the soup hot with crushed pepper.


sweet corn soup

Notes:

If you do not find cream style sweet corn, just add the sweet corns alone.

adding vinegar is also optional.


Cooking regional cuisines with their own special chilly is like bringing the same flavor and heat required for the dish. If you happen to find Kashmiri chilly, Goan chilly, Guntur chilly, Bedgi chilly, do try the regional special recipes. This Vegetable Kolhapuri needs kolhapuri lavangi mirchi to get the right spice and color for the dish.

Kolhapuri Vegetable Curry

This is a easy to prepare side-dish that goes well with roti, naan and pulao. It may look like a spicy dish with the color, but its a mild flavored curry with cashew paste, which thickens the curry.


                                                   Kolhapuri Masala Recipe

Ingredients:

Dry Red Kashmiri Chilly - 4
Dry Red Chilly - 4
Corriander seeds - 2 tsp
Pepper - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
Nutmeg - a small pinch
Cloves - 4
Cinnamon stick - 1'inch size
Dry Coconut - 2 tsp's
Cardamom - 4

Method:

kolhapuri masala

Dry roast the above ingredients in slow flame for about 5 minutes, till its lightly roasted and gives out a nice aroma.

step1

Cool the roasted spices and grind into a fine powder. You can store in a air tight container and refrigerate it for further use.




                                               Vegetable Kolhapuri Recipe
Ingredients:

Onions - 2
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp's
Bay leaf - 1
Oil - 2 tbsp's
Cashews - 10 / 15
Tomato - 1
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Kolhapuri Masala - 2 tsp's
Chilly Powder - 1 tsp (optional)

Vegetables:

Carrot - 2
Potato - 2
Beans - 6
Green peas - 1/4 cup

Method:

veg

Grind the cashews with warm water into a fine and smooth paste. set this aside.

Peel the skin of the carrot and potato, dice them lengthwise. chop the beans. Steam the vegetables for including green peas for about 12 minutes.

step2


Heat oil in a pan, add bay leaf and finely chopped onions and ginger garlic paste. roast the onions in slow flame, till they turn light golden color. Now add turmeric powder and salt to the onions. Then add in the kolhapuri masala powder and chilly powder(optional). saute along with the onions.

step3

Now add 1 cup of water and let the curry come to a boil.

step4

Add the cashew paste to the curry and let it come to boil. now add finely chopped tomatoes and mix with the curry.

step5

Finally add in the steamed vegetables to the curry and mix slowly. Remove the curry from flame.

Garnish the curry with corriander leaves.


Kolhapuri Vegetable Gravy

Serve with pulao varieties, Roti, Naan or pulka.


Notes:


If you cannot find kashmiri chilli, use normal dry red chilly available with you and add kashmiri chilly powder in the curry.

This is a semi gravy so add water accordingly.


Thirunelveli Halwa

Making our traditional sweets brings more happiness. Tirunelveli halwa is my hubby's favorite. He always buys a pack of halwa whenever he visits tirunelveli. I wanted to try this halwa for this diwali, first i was little hesitant to try as it takes lots of ghee to make. Watching masterchef and all the cookery shows, i gathered my confidence and tried it.

Wheat Halwa

Tirunelveli halwa came out so well and everyone who ate loved it and asked me for the second servings. Feeling Great on trying this halwa! Though everyone liked this halwa more than my jangri, I completely loved my jangri!

When Jayashree posted halwa recipe back in 2008, i kept a note of the recipe as it was so easy that we need not stir and just use our pressure cooker and microwave oven. I started making as per her recipe and when i added the wheat milk to the sugar and water in the cooker, it got thickened instantly, i feared about pressure cooking the mix and went ahead with the traditional painful stirring on stove top! But will try out the microwave version once for sure, as i liked the halwa taste.

Tirunelveli Halwa

This Halwa recipe is not tricky, its very easy to make and beautifully turns out into delicious halwa with just one mandatory condition of stirring it for about 1 hour! Yes it almost takes 1 hour to stir,stir, stir, ghee, ghee, ghee, stir, stir, stir. thats it. The next day, halwa was beautifully set and i was happy to cut them into slices. It was silky and firm, a perfect halwa i would say!

Thirunelveli Halwa

When i started clicking pictures, rain started and the weather went gloomy. i could not click pictures as i wanted. so here is my statement - Do not judge this halwa with its appearance, it was so Yummy!! I just took a picture of this halwa with jasmine, as the idea struck, so here it is...

halwa

Ingredients:

Cracked Wheat / Samba Godhumai Rava - 1 cup / 250 gms.
Brown Sugar - 3 cups
Ghee - 3/4 cup / 200 ml.
Water - 4 cup
Cashews - 10

[1 cup cracked wheat yielded 1 cup wheat milk.
For 1 cup wheat milk - 3 cups of brown sugar and 4 cups of water is added. ]

Method:

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Soak the Cracked Wheat in water for overnight or 10 hours.

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Next day grind the soaked cracked wheat along with water in your mixie jar. Now filter the grinded mix to extract the first pressed milk. then add another cup of water and grind to get the second pressed milk. its just like how we do for coconut milk.

IMG_6779

Once the wheat milk is extracted, mix the first pressed and second pressed and set aside. do not disturb it for 2 hours.

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After 2 hours, the milk would have developed scum and the water would have seperated and will be above the milk layer. discard the water carefully and measure the milk alone. For me it exactly measured 1 cup / 250 ml. Wheat milk was like dosa batter.

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In a Pressure cooker pan, add 3 cups of brown sugar and cups of water. just dilute the sugar and switch on the flame.

IMG_6803

Make sure the flame is low and start adding the wheat milk on one hand and keep stirring with the other hand, so that no lumps are formed. actually i left to form lumps, as i was clicking pics. then i managed to filter the whole mix and started off again.

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Soon after adding the wheat milk, it got thicken, and the stirring process started. You need to stir for every 30 seconds to avoid the halwa sticking to the bottom.

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In the mean time, chop the cashews into small pieces, fry in ghee and add it to the halwa.

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Keep on stirring and add ghee 1 tbsp at a time. almost 45 mins later, halwa drank all the ghee and got ready, as it started to ooze out the ghee. it also stops sticking to the bottom.

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check this video to get an idea, on how the halwa will look at the end.



Once the halwa is ready, serve it warm to your family and then you can grease a tray with the ghee that ooze out from halwa and transfer the halwa to the greased tray. i left the tray overnight and i was able to cut the halwa into slices.

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Re-heat the halwa, every time you serve, as the ghee tend to solidify and change the halwa texture and taste,

Thirunelveli halwa


Notes:

You can use normal sugar, i preferred brown sugar to get the exact tirunelveli halwa color.

Be generous with the amount of ghee you add, finally it oozes out the ghee, so if you prefer, you can remove the ghee and consume.

This halwa keeps well for 2 days at room temperature. you can store this halwa in fridge and it stays good for 2 weeks.

Always Re-heat or microwave the halwa for 30 - 45 seconds before serving.

Use only Samba Wheat Rava to make this halwa.