Cream of Spinach

Another Wednesday , another soup, this time it is spinach …


"Beautiful soup, so rich and green
Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful soup!
Beautiful soup! Who cares for fish
Game, or any other dish?
Who would not give all else for two
Pennyworth of beautiful soup?"
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Well, it seems Queen Victoria herself enjoyed Alice In Wonderland so much that she suggested Lewis Carroll dedicate his next book to her, and was accordingly presented with his next work, a scholarly volume entitled "An Elementary Treatise on Determinants", a serious mathematical work. He was a great mathematician too!

Sorry about the off-topic, random rambling!
Back to the spinach soup recipe , here it is !

Ingredients

2 Cups spinach (washed and chopped)
2 Tbsp butter
1 tbsp maida
1 small onion chopped
2 cups milk
1 bay leaf
Pepper powder (suit your taste)
Salt
Method
Melt 1 tbsp butter add chopped onion.
Add chopped spinach to this and sauté it thoroughly.
Cool this and blend it into a puree.
Melt 1 tbsp butter , add bay leaf and maida to this.
Add milk to this and make sure there are no lumps.
Add salt and pepper.
Add water ( 1.5 cups) to alter the consistency and bring it to a boil
The soup is ready!

I tried serving this with cheeselings instead of the usual bread croutons – tasted good !

Carrot Sago Fusion

Holi Hai! – A riot of colours in my kitchen!

Colours , Colours ! so many shades and hues
Can truly wash away the daily blues;
The VIBGYOR in this kitchen of mine …
Well,To enjoy this rainbow I don’t need to put up with the rain !

I always enjoy the confluence of colours in the kitchen- even in the simplest form – be it a Vegetable Upma , or a Brinjal Gojju.
The combination of beans, carrots, capsicum, green peas, sweetcorn and tomatoes is vibrant and colourful and I use them in most of my creations. Every time I sauté them together I feast my eyes on the mix of yellow, orange, red and the shades of green!
Well, they (don’t ask me who) say “cooking is an art” and what is an artist without colours?
So, next time when you are cooking, enjoy all the beautiful colours around you, soak them in!

The Sweet dish for Holi this time was an experiment (a successful one of course, if it had failed nobody would have known about it).
Fusion of Sago and Carrot Kheer. Try it , it’s different !

Ingredients
¾ Cup Nylon Sago (soaked for 3 hours)
5 medium sized tender carrots ( diced)
1 cup Sugar (add more/less to suit your taste)
3 cardamoms
1 Clove
6-8 Cashew nuts
2-3 Cups Milk
Few drops of ghee
A few strands of saffron (optional)

Method

Pressure cook the carrots in one cup milk along with the lone clove , cashews and cardamoms.
While it cools, cook the soaked Sago in 1 cup of water with a 3-4 drops of ghee and the saffron strands.
Stir it occasionally.
Once the carrots have cooled, discard the clove and puree it in the blender to a creamy consistency.
Add this to the boiled sago.
Time to transform this into a sweet-dish – so add Sugar , bring it to a boil, stirring all the way.
Enjoy the dessert!

PS- The flowers in the pic are from my balcony garden!

Water Melon Salsa

Summer is here and so are water melons!
On every other pavement there are mountains of water melons. Needless to say it has become the main ingredient in all my culinary endeavors this month- Hand crushed Water melon juice with pepper, melon scoop fruit salad …
Here is one of the recipes I tried for a get-together we had last weekend. I also decided to carve a water melon basket to hold the salsa gracefully.
It is easy to make and friends approved its good taste!
So here it is..

Ingredients

3 cups water melon (chopped fine)
2 cups Capsicum (finely chopped)
1 cup Yellow pepper (finely chopped)
2 firm and ripe tomatoes (cored and chopped)
2 cups sweet corn (steamed)
3 medium sized onions (finely chopped)

2 Tablespoons Olive oil
Dried Basil
Oregano

For the dressing
2 Table spoons vinegar
2 tsp sugar
Salt
2 table spoons red chilli sauce
2 table spoons tomato ketchup
1 tsp white pepper powder

Method

Sauté onions in olive oil.
Mix all the veggies in a large bowl except water melon
Mix all the ingredients in another bowl
Add the dressing and toss the veggies gently
Add oregano, basil liberally
Add the water melon just before serving as it makes the salad watery.
Again toss gently and serve with a smile !

You can fill this in the water melon shell or carve a basket and fill it with the salsa. You can top it with water melon balls scooped out using a fruit baller.

QED (Quite Easily Done OR Quite an Easy Dish)
PS: This recipe is for a party(15-20 servings) , so halve or quarter the measures if it is just for your family.

Rich Tomato Soup

A hot soup with garlic bread on the side can really brighten up a dull evening!
Wednesday is our “Soup Day” at home. So, look forward to some healthy soup recipes !
Tomato Soup is everyone’s favorite. It is a cook’s delight as it is very hard to get it wrong!
Someone said “ Soup is a lot like a family. Each ingredient enhances the others; each batch has its own characteristics; and it needs time to simmer to reach full flavor. “
Senti stuff – but still very true...
I truly enjoy making and eating soup !
The aroma that fills your kitchen when the lightly flavoured soup is simmering in a pot on your stove top – mmmm…I just love it....
One of those rare dishes – that is simple, healthy and yet very very deli.cio.us
Go ahead and make this one for your family.
But then, at the end don’t forget to add the secret ingredient – A dash of love .

Makes 4 servings (large)
Ingredients
5 ripe tomatoes (medium size, use the egg shaped ones, if you like it more tangy , use a mix of round and egg shaped ones)
1 medium sized carrot (diced)
1 medium sized onion (chopped fine)
2 teaspoons butter (or refined oil)
1 inch cinnamon
2 cardamom
1 tsp pepper powder
4 tsp sugar(or as per your taste)
Salt to taste
Method

1. Heat the butter in a pan and add the chopped onion. Sauté till light brown.
2. Add the spices and carrots
3. Quarter the tomatoes and add them
4. Add 1 cup of water and pressure cook it nicely
5. Once cooled , skin the tomatoes and remove the spices.We want it lightly
flavoured not strong
6. Blend the mixture fine.
7. Bring it to boil and add sugar, salt, pepper
8. Serve hot with Garlic bread or dinner rolls

Crispy Rice Ribbons

Sinful Indulgence – Blame it on your Basic Instinct!
Recently, one of our friends was seriously telling us that humans have a innate tendency to eat fried stuff. He was citing from a study that said : Early humans never knew when and where their next meal came from – so the instinct was to eat fried stuff as it allows you to store energy for a long time. I just loved this theory ! No! I am not poking holes in this one (though I do it for all other theories that I read about!). This suits me fine, just fine enough to savour my crispy rice ribbons.
I strongly urge you to believe in this theory and indulge once in a while!

Crispy Rice Ribbons

Ingredients
2 cups Rice flour
1 cup fried gram/hurigadale flour
I prefer this to besan
2 tsp ginger (grated)
3 tsp sesame seeds
2 tsp chilli powder
2 tbsp hot oil
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Method
Sift the flours together.
Add sesame seeds, ginger, chilli powder, salt and mix well.
Add the hot oil, mix well.
Take a little of this mixture , knead this into a dough with little water.
Ensure the batter does not become too loose.
Put this into the press with the ribbon disc(vertical stripes)
Press it in hot oil. Take it out when it is golden brown.
Drain on paper towels.
Repeat this for the entire mixture.

This surprisingly does not take too much time.
For this measure it takes roughly 20-30 mins.

Sweet corn Macaroni Soup

This is one of the dishes I demonstrated on the cookery show on TV (etv-kannada).
Of late, I have developed a great weakness for sweet corn. In all the three shows I have done so far there was at least one sweet corn dish!
Ingredients
1/2 cup sweet corn
½ cup boiled and cooled macaroni
½ cup mixed veg chopped (carrot, capsicum, cauliflower florets)

2 cups milk
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp maida
1 tsp white pepper powder
1/2 tsp sugar
Salt to taste
Oregano (optional)

Method

Melt the butter and add the maida
After a minute add the milk little by little stirring continuously
Add the salt and pepper
If you want to make it more creamy – this is when you add some cheese spread (1 tbsp)
So this is your white sauce.
Meanwhile bring 1.5 cups of water to boil and add al the veggies and sweet corn in it.
Cook it for 5-7 minutes else they become too soft – we need them crunchy
Add the white sauce and macaroni slowly into this and bring to a boil.
You can add a dash of oregano for additional flavour if you wish.
I give it to my kids with dinner rolls or garlic bread
It is very wholesome indeed!

Pineapple Kesaribath

Long time no write !

Here’s again a simple and quick dish with pineapple flavour.

Goes well with Upma, Shavige bath. This breakfast combo is a common one in Kannada-weddings.

It is also something that people used to serve when the boy-sees-girl meetings happened in the past.

We used to refer to this as UK meetings – Upma-kesaribath meetings – where marriages are made!

So, that’s a divine connection indeed!

Nothing should stop you and me to make this on a normal or a festival day and enjoy the taste and laugh about the UK meetings of the past!

Ingredients

1 cup fine (chiroti) rava

1 3/4 cup water

Few Strands of Saffron

1 cup sugar

½ cup chopped pineapple

2 tbsp Refined oil

2 tbsp Ghee (or more !)

Nuts and raisins

Method:

Roast the rava slightly with 2 tbsp oil (should not become brown at the same time should not smell raw)

Boil the water with pineapple and saffron.

Add the roasted rava slowly while stirring to remove lumps.

Allow it to cook for a minute and then add the sugar and stir well.

Cover it and simmer it for a couple of minutes.

Heat the ghee and add nuts and raisins and add to the Kesaribath.

Voila! The pineapple is ready to be savoured !

Variation : You can use mashed ripe banana or even chopped apple with fresh grapes instead of pineapple.