Brrr, it's cold! I need soup...

Nothing like a hot bowl of soup to warm those chilly winter evenings. I make tomato soup very often. Just a quick and simple soup. For a thicker and creamier version, I sometimes add white sauce to the soup.

Cream of Tomato soup

2 tomatoes
1 carrot
1 potato
1 clove garlic (optional)

Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1/2 cup White sauce
Basil leaves, for garnishing

Pressure cook tomatoes, carrot and potato with 2 cups water. Once cool, drain (save the liquid) and puree. Meanwhile make the white sauce and keep aside. Heat olive oil, fry garlic (optional), add the puree and the reserved liquid. Season with salt and pepper. Add the white sauce, stir well and simmer for few minutes. Garnish with basil leaves.

Red lentils and brown rice soup

I got brown rice recently and I was looking for recipes with brown rice. 101cookbooks had a nice soup recipe and I made this soup last week. I was telling Mom about this and she told me it sounded like kanji (rice porridge) that she used to have when she was young. She used to eat it plain while this soup is topped with olive oil, cheese, almonds and black olives. This delicious soup makes a great one-pot meal. I followed the recipe closely.

2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
6 cups vegetable stock or water (I used 2 maggi cubes)
1 1/3 cup red lentils
1/2 cup brown rice
salt if required (I did not need to add any salt as the broth was very salty)

For garnish
black olives, finely chopped
cheese

I first soaked the brown rice for 4 hours and the lentils for 1 hour though the recipe did not say anything about soaking. In a pot, combine olive oil, onion, and red pepper flakes. Fry till onion becomes brown. Stir in the broth, bring to a boil, then add rice and the lentils. Simmer for 30 minutes or till rice is cooked. Serve each bowl topped with olives, cheese and olive oil.

Sabudana khichdi

Sabudana khichdi is one of K's favorite dish (if made right) and I got this recipe from my MIL. It is very important to get the texture of the sago right. There are times the sago becomes a sticky lump and other times when it is too dry and hard. Trick is to soak the sago well and the method given in the recipe below works for me. But the soaking time might differ with different brands of sago so just keep trying till you get it right.

Sabudana khichdi 

1 1/2 cups sago, soaked and drained
1/2 cup peanuts, roasted and ground coarsely
2 big potatoes, boiled and mashes
2 green chilies, chopped
1 tbsp cumin seeds
3-4 tbsps oil
coriander leaves, chopped, for garnishing

Wash the sago, and soak it in just enough water for 2 hours. Drain, spread the sago on a plate and keep it aside for minimum 1 hour. Keep the plate covered so that the moisture is retained. Heat oil and add cumin seeds. When they splutter, add green chilies. Then add potatoes, peanuts, salt and mix well. Add sabudana, mix well, and cook on low flame for 5 minutes. The sago was tender and moist and hence in 5 minutes the dish was ready. But if you think the sago is not fully cooked, cover and keep on gas for longer time (maybe 10-15 minutes), stirring once in while. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Methi Paneer Buns

I usually have lunch pretty early and by 3 in the evening I feel very hungry. Never know what to make for my evening snack. It cannot be too heavy but it should also fill my stomach. No fried stuff. Nothing too sweet. You see my problem........  Luckily I found this recipe. Methi paneer bun is a perfect evening snack and I will be making these quite often.

Methi Paneer Buns (makes 8-10)

For the recipe go here . I only changed one thing. Instead of 2 cups paneer, I added 1 cup paneer and 1 cup yogurt. These buns were just fabulous.You have to try them.

Black Channa Curry

I got this recipe from a friend. I have slightly modified the recipe to shorten the cooking time. In the original recipe, spice bag filled with spices is used and later discarded. Tea leaves are also added to the spice bag but in this recipe, I do not use tea leaves and I just add the spices directly to the chickpeas.

Black Channa Curry

2 cups kabuli channa (chickpeas)
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 tomato
1 clove garlic
1" piece ginger
1/2 tsp red chili powder
salt to taste

Dry roast the below ingredients till almost blackened. Cool and grind to a powder. Keep aside.
2 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp anardana
1" piece cinnamon
4 cloves
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
4 black cardamoms
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 bay leaf

Soak chickpeas overnight. Drain water. Put in a pressure cooker. Add 4 cups fresh water, 1 tomato slit in half, ginger, and whole garlic clove. Pressure cook to give 2-3 whistles. After the pressure drops, open the cooker. Add salt, powdered masala and mash the channas a bit. Again pressure cook to give 2-3 whistles. Heat oil in a kadai. Add onions and fry till caramelized. Once the onions are blackish brown, add chili powder, and the tomato and the garlic cooked with the chickpeas. Just mash it well, add to onions and saute for few seconds. Drain the chickpeas but do not discard the liquid. Add this to the onions. Keep the flame on medium high and let the chickpeas cook for some more time, 15 minutes or so. If the curry gets too dry, add the reserved liquid. Remove from flame and garnish with tomatoes. Serve hot with rotis or puris.

Notes: Instead of adding the powdered masala to the chickpeas and pressure cooking it again, you could just fry the masala with the onions. Caramelize the onions, add the powdered masala and fry for few minutes. Add chickpeas and proceed as given above.

Everyday food - Dal

I can eat dal and rice/roti everyday with no complaints. Last week I tried two new dishes, one with moong dal and the other with channa and urad dal. 

Moong Dal
I got this recipe from my sister. This time, I did not take the easy way out and cook the lentils in the pressure cooker. I followed the recipe exactly and cooked the lentils on the stovetop. The dal was yummy!



1 cup moong dal
2 tbsp oil
1 onion
2 medium-sized tomatoes, chopped
2 green chillies
1" piece ginger
few curry leaves
few coriander leaves finely chopped
pinch turmeric powder
salt
2 cups water

Wash the dal and soak it in 2 cups water for about half an hour. Finely chop the onions, green chillies, ginger and saute on a medium flame. Once the onion turns golden brown, add the soaked dal with the water, curry leaves, salt and turmeric powder. Cook on low flame. When it is half done (about 15 minutes), add tomatoes. Blend well. In another 10 minutes the dal should be fully cooked. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Dal Methiwali
One more recipe from my sister. I think she got this from some magazine and I had it for a long time but never got around to making it until now. In the photo, the dal does not look very appetizing but the dish was actually pretty good.

1/3 cup channa dal
1/3 cup urad dal
2 cups water
1 small onion
1/4" ginger
salt  to taste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsps dried fenugreek leaves
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp ghee or butter
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
pinch hing
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 dhania powder
1/4 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp lemon juice

Wash the dals, and soak in 2 cups water in a large heavy bottomed saucepan for 30 minutes. Chop the onion, and ginger finely. Add to the soaked lentils along with salt, turmeric powder and dried fenugreek leaves. Bring to a boil over high heat, cover, reduce the heat to low and cook for about 45 minutes or until lentils are cooked. Or you could just pressure cook the lentils to two whistles. Keep aside. Chop garlic finely. Warm ghee in a small kadai. Add the cumin seeds and hing. When cumin seeds splutter, add the chopped garlic and cook until lightly browned. Remove from heat and quickly add the chili powder and dhania powder. Stir for a second and pour this into the lentil mixture. Mix in the garam masala and lemon juice.

Mixed Vegetable Kurma

This is a simple and wonderful recipe for kurma that I got from my sister. It goes well with rice and rotis. I made it slightly thick this time but if you want more gravy just add more water after adding the vegetables to the ground masala paste.  

Mixed Vegetable Kurma

Mixed boiled vegetables - I used 2 potatoes, 2 carrots,1 cup cauliflower,1/4 cup green peas. Other vegetables that can be added are knol-knol, and beans
Salt, to taste
1/8 tsp turmeric powder
1 stick cinnamon
1 cardamom
2 cloves
2 onions

Grind to a paste
1" piece ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 green chili
1/2 coconut

Garnish
1 tomato, chopped
Handful of chopped coriander leaves

In a pan, heat oil and fry cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and onion. When onions are cooked, add ground masala paste and fry till raw smell goes, about 10 minutes. Add boiled vegetables and enough water. Bring to a boil. Simmer till gravy thickens. Garnish with tomatoes and coriander leaves.

Sprouts with Yogurt

I came across this website one day while searching for some recipe. It has some really nice original recipes. It is just amazing, the number of food blogs out there. So many exciting dishes, just waiting to be made. All the photos of the dishes look so good that I want to cook and taste everything right away. K is real happy with my experiments in the kitchen but sometimes I force food down his throat just so that it gets over soon and I can make something else. Just kidding. :-)) Coming back to this website, the recipe that I had to try immediately was Dahi Misal or Sprouts with yogurt. It actually requires 5 different types of sprouts and I had only moong sprouts but I could not wait. I made this with only moong sprouts and it was yummy! Here is my slightly adapted version of this recipe.

Sprouts with Yogurt

1 cup sprouts (I used moong sprouts)
2 potatoes, boiled and mashed
1/4 tsp tamarind paste
1/2 tsp grated jaggery
1 tbsp goda masala (recipe given below)
1/4 tsp chili powder
salt
  
Grind to a paste
1/4 cup roasted unsalted peanuts
1/4 cup coriander leaves
1/2" ginger

For tempering
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp asafoetida
1 sprig curry leaves
1 small onion, chopped
2 small tomatoes, chopped

For Garnish
Whisk together 1 cup yogurt & salt. Sprinkle chaat masala and red chili powder on top. Can also add sev as garnish.

If using dried beans and sprouting them at home, pressure cook the sprouts. I usually buy sprouts from the market and cook in hot water for 3-4 minutes or until soft. Keep aside the sprouts to cool. In a pan, heat oil. Add all tempering ingredients except tomatoes. Fry till onions are soft. Add tomatoes and saute for 2-3 minutes. Now add the ground paste and goda masala. Saute for about 10 minutes adding water if masala gets too dry. Add salt, jaggery, chili powder and tamarind paste and  1/2 cup water and bring to a boil. Fold in the sprouts and potatoes. Simmer for few minutes till everything is mixed well.
To serve  - spread the sprouts mixture on a plate, top with cold yogurt and add sev if using.

Goda Masala

Goda masala is a major ingredient used in Maharashtrian cooking. I just googled goda masala and used the 1st recipe I got from the search results. I have given the recipe below for your easy reference. Do not be lazy and try to substitute this masala with something else. The goda masala gives the above dish its strong flavor. Make the masala beforehand and you can store it for months and also use it in dals and curries. 

Maharashtrian Goda Masala
1 cup coriander seeds
1/4 cup cumin seeds
1/3 cup white sesame seeds
2 tbsp cloves
2 tbsp big cardamom
2 tbsp cinnmon sticks
2 tbsp black peppercorns
2 tbsp lichen (skip if unavailable)
1/2 cup bay leaf
1-2 tsp oil

In a pan, heat oil and roast all the spices together till they turn very dark in color. Keep stiring while roasting and be careful not to burn the spices. Once roasted, cool and then grind to a fine powder.

Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

I was looking at recipes at onehotstove when some link there took me to this site: egglesscooking. There are lot of wonderful eggless recipes here that I want to try. I started off with the oatmeal coconut cookies. The author suggests in her notes to the recipe that the cookies were too sweet and offers some suggestions to reduce the sweetness. I tried the recipe with the modifications suggested. Here is how I made it.

Oatmeal Coconut Cookies (makes 12 cookies)

All purpose flour, 1/2 cup
Baking soda,1/4 tsp
Salt, pinch
Dessicated coconut (unsweetened), 1/2 cup
Quick cooking oats, 1/2 cup
Butter, 1/4 cup
Granulated sugar, 1/4 cup
Honey, 1 tbsp
Milk (if required), few tbsps

Preheat oven to 350F. Melt the butter with the sugar and honey in a small saucepan over medium heat. Keep aside to cool. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in the coconut and oats. Pour the cooled melted butter mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well. I found that the cookie dough was not moist enough so I added little milk. Instead maybe you could add more honey or melted butter. Once you get the right consistency, roll into balls and place on a cookie sheet 1 inch apart. Flatten the balls slightly. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

No-cook chocolate balls

I am planning to make pizza for dinner tonight. This is the first time I will be making pizza at home from scratch and I am pretty excited. Hope it comes out well. For dessert, I wanted to make something simple. Did not feel like baking a cake or making any of our Indian sweets like gajar ka halwa or gulab jamun etc. Then I remembered that Mom once made this yummy dessert with condensed milk and drinking chocolate powder and it required no cooking. It was a long time ago and she had forgotten the recipe but luckily I had it in my recipe collection. The chocolate balls were ready in 10 minutes.

No-cook Chocolate Balls (makes about 20 small balls)

Marie biscuits, 13-15
Condensed milk, 1/2 cup
Drinking chocolate powder, 2 tbsps
Dessicated coconut, about 1/4 cup

Mix the condensed milk and chocolate powder in a bowl. Keep aside. Put the biscuits in a ziploc bag and crush to a coarse powder with a rolling pin. Add this to the condensed milk and mix well. Make into small balls. If the mixture is not thick enough add more crushed biscuits. Roll the balls in dessicated coconut till the coconut sticks onto the ball. Chill or eat as it is.

Upma Kozhukattai with Sambar

When I told K I was making upma kozhukattai for dinner he was confused. Kozhukattai, to him, means the sweet South Indian dish that is filled with coconut and jaggery. Upma is a dish made with rawa and is usually had for breakfast. Upma kozhukattai is steamed rice flour balls and can be served with chutney or sambar. Traditionally, raw rice is soaked, dried and powdered and used for making these kozhukattais. But there is an easier method for making this dish for lazy people like me. I got this recipe from my mom who makes it for breakfast once in a way.

Upma Kozhukattai

 
2 cups idli rawa
1 tbsp bengal gram dal
1 tbsp toovar dal
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 green chili
 Pinch of asafoetida
1 sprig curry leaves

Soak bengal gram dal and toovar dal in water for 1/2 hour. Drain water, add green chili and grind coarsely. Keep aside. Heat oil in a large kadai. Add mustard seeds. When it splutters, add asafoetida and curry leaves. To this, add 2 1/2 cups water (you might need to add more water) and salt and bring it to a boil. Keep the flame on sim, and add the ground mixture and the idli rawa slowly, constantly stirring. Keep stirring till all water is absorbed and the resulting mixture does not stick to your fingers, about 5 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes. Take big handfuls and shape it into ovals. You will get about 16 kozhukattais. Steam for 10 minutes. Serve hot.

For the sambar

I made mixed vegetable sambar to go with the kozhukattai. I am not giving the recipe here but just wanted to share couple of tips with you. When pressure cooking the dal, cut a  tomato into half and add to the dal. Later, peel the skin, mash the tomato and add to the sambar. The sambar comes out thicker this way. Also, add small piece of jaggery to the sambar when adding tamarind.

Corn Egg Curry

This is my go to dish when I am short on time or inspiration. Very simple to make and tastes great!

Corn Egg Curry

1 cup corn (I use frozen)
2 eggs
2 small onions, sliced
2 tomatoes, chopped
1" ginger, chopped finely
1 green chili, chopped
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp jeera seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp garam masala
chili powder, to taste
salt, to tatse
oil
chopped coriander leaves, for garnishing

Boil water. Add corn and cook till done to your satisfaction. Drain water and keep aside. In a kadai, heat oil. Add jeera seeds and mustard seeds. When they splutter, add ginger and green chili. Fry for few seconds. Add onions and fry till onions are translucent. Add tomatoes and all the powders and salt and fry till tomatoes are soft. Add corn and fry for couple of minutes. Break the eggs into the pan. Be careful not to break the egg yolk. Cover and cook on simmer for 4-5 minutes or till the eggs are done to your satisfaction. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with rice.

Coconut Masala Turnips

We make this curry with chayote (chow-chow) traditionally. Since I only had turnips at home, I made this curry with turnips.

Coconut Masala Turnips

3 turnips, peeled and diced
2 tbsps peanuts
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp urad dal
1/4 tsp hing
Oil

For the masala

1/3 cup coconut scrapings
1/2 tsp jeera seeds
1/2 tsp peppercorns
1/2 tsp coriander seeds

 Boil turnip, and peanuts with turmeric powder till cooked. Grind to a paste all the ingredients for the masala. Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds, urad dal and hing. When urad dal turns brown, add the ground paste and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add little water if necessary. Add the boiled vegetables, and combine well with masala. Fry for a minute or so. Serve hot with rotis.
If you are making this curry with chayote, add 2 carrots.

Shredded Radish, Coconut and Carrot Salad

Another simple and refreshing salad from Yamuna Devi's cookbook.

Shredded Radish, Coconut and Carrot Salad

1/2 cup shredded radishes ( I used white radish but we can also use the round pink ones)
1/3 cup shredded fresh coconut
1/3 cup shredded carrots
salt
1/4 tsp paprika ( I did not have paprika so I added pinch of chili powder to spice up the salad)
2 tbsps chopped fresh corainder
1 tbsp ghee
1/4 tsp ajwain seeds
1/4 tsp fennel seeds
1/4 tsp cumin seeds

Combine the radish, coconut and carrot in a bowl. Add salt, paprika and coriander leaves. Heat ghee in a saucepan. When it is hot but not smoking, add the ajwain, fennel and cumin seeds and fry until they darken. Pour the seasoning into the salad and toss well.