Desi style tomato soup

Wonderful soup for winter season and great if you want to eat something light (sans butter and heavy cream).

This will serve 8-10 people

Ingredients:

• 3 pound tomatoes (I use roma tomatoes but other varieties will do equally good)
• 1 large white or red onion chopped into chunks
• 2 green chilies (add more if you want it more spicy) cut in halves
• 5-6 cloves of garlic cut in halves
• 1 tbsp dried oregano (even better if you can replace it with fresh)
• 1 tbsp dried basil
• 10-12 fresh basil leaves
• 1 tsp black pepper powder
• 1 tsp cumin coriander powder
• Salt to taste
• 1/3rd cup heavy cream
• 2 tbsp butter

Step 1: Wash the tomatoes, put them in a pot covered with water and heat it until you see tomato skin braking. Drain the water and let tomatoes cool down. One tomatoes cool down, peel off and discard the skin.

Peeled tomatoes

 Step 2: Heat oil in a large pot, saute garlic till lightly brown. Put in chopped onion and saute until translucent. Add green chilies dried basil, oregano, fresh basil, black pepper, salt, cumin coriander powder and saute for another 2 minutes.

Step 3: Add peeled tomatoes and 2 cups of water to sauteed onion and cook for 8-10 minutes. Let it cool a bit and puree using a food processor or hand blender. Add heavy cream and butter and bring the soup to a boil. You can adjust the consistency by adding more water.
Serve it hot with garlic bread or just like that.

I forgot to take a picture of the final product and it was all gone by the time I thought of it :).

Jalapeno potato puffs

There are so many variations of this appetizer one can make. You can replace the filling with anything and everything you like, make it sweet or savory.



Here is a savory spicy version. This will make 18 puffs adequate for 8-9 people.

Ingredients

• 9 Jalapenos
• 1 box of puff pastry (it will have 2 sheets and each sheet will make 9 puffs)
• 3-4 medium size potatoes (boiled)
• Half onion finely chopped
• 1/2 cup cream cheese (can be replaced with any other cheese you like for example 4 cheese mix or mozzarella etc.)
• Salt to taste
• 1 tbsp amchoor powder (can put more if you want)
• 1 tsp black pepper powder
• 1 tsp red chili powder (optional)

Step 1: Chop off Jalapeno stems, cut them in half and deseed using a sharp knife. Use gloves if you can while deseeding, and don't touch your eyes until you wash your hands thoroughly after doing this :).

Step 2: Mash boiled potatoes, add chopped onion, cream cheese, salt, pepper, red chili, amchoor powder, and any other spice (like garam masala) if you want.

Step 3: Stuff Jalapeno halves with above prepared mixture as shown in the pic below.

Step 4: Thaw puff pastry sheet (I take it out of the freezer and keep it in fridge overnight), spread it out and cut it into 9 squares. Put a piece of stuffed Jalapeno on a square and fold the puff pastry to completely cover the  Jalapeno.

Step 5: Preheat oven to 400F, place stuffed puff pastry on a foil covered baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes then broil for 3 minutes. Keep an eye on it while baking, to avoid burning.
Enjoy just like that or with a hot cup of tea.

Garlic bread

This is one dough which can be used in multiple ways, I use it to make garlic bread, tawa naan, bhature, pizza base and buns!

Here are the ingredients for dough (this will make 8-10 naans or buns , 12-16 bhature depending upon their size and is enough to make a medium to large pizza depending upon thickness of the crust)

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup of milk (I use full fat)
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil

To activate yeast you would need
1/5 cup of lukewarm water (warm it in microwave for 5-8 sec)
1 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar

For garlic bread I use "Johnny's Garlic Spread and Seasoning", got this from Costco. And you would also need 2-3 tbsp butter after baking.

Activate yeast by mixing sugar and dry yeast in lukewarm water and keep it aside for about 5 minutes. You will see the solution becomes frothy indicating that your yeast is working.

Put together all the other ingredients in a kneading bowl along with activated yeast and knead it until you get a soft dough. Add more water as required. To make garlic bread I put in 1 tbsp of garlic spread powder while kneading the dough.

Once done you need to rest the dough, keep it covered in a warm place for about 1 hour. You will see that it almost doubles in size in one hour, now bring it to a working surface and punch out all the air in the dough. Then spread in an oval or rectangular shape (I kept thickness at 1/4th of an inch), cut it into 1/2 inch strips and place it in a greased baking tray. You can put aluminium foil on the tray and grease it with oil.

Now cover this tray with a cloth and put it in a warm place for 20 min. After 20 minutes preheat your oven at 420F and bake the bread for 15-20 minutes (time can vary depending upon the oven).
It will be ready when the crust turns golden brown.

Put softened butter in a bowl and mix in 1 tbsp of garlic spread. Brush this mixture on the bread immediately after you take it out of the oven. And your bread is ready to serve. If it gets cold, just cover it with foil and put it in oven at 350F for 2-3 minutes.

You can use the same dough and make naan on tawa and brush it with same butter and garlic powder mixture to make garlic naan!!

Potato Cutlet

I made this so many times and it never goes wrong. If you are serving these at a party, freeze the left-overs and you can have a plate of tikki with chole later sometime :). Here is the recipe:
Will make 12-15 cutlets

• 5 Medium size potatoes boiled and pealed
• 5 Slices of white bread (sprinkle some water on these, just to dampen them a little)
• 1/2 Medium red onion finely chopped
• 2 Green chilies finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon roasted cumin powder
• 1-2 tablespoon dried mango powder (Amchur powder)
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper powder
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• And oil for frying

Mix in all the cutlet ingredients, except bread crumbs and knead all together to make a nice soft dough. Make small circular patties, coat them nicely in bread crumbs and deep fry till golden brown.

Dahi Bhalle (fried lentil dumplings in yogurt)

Dahi Bhalle is one of the most famous snacks in Northern India, served cold it makes an excellent starter. There are some tricks to it, and once you know it you can never get them wrong :)

Here is what you would need (it would make approximately 50 bhallas)

Oil for deep frying 

For dahi bhalla

• 1 cup split urad dal without skin washed, soaked overnight with 8-10 methi seeds and grind this to a fine paste adding very little water 
• 2″ piece of ginger and 2-3 green chilies ground to paste
• Salt to taste
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

For yogurt

• 3 cups thick fresh yogurt
• 1 cups water
• 2 tbsps roasted cumin  powder
• 1-2 tbsps ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon of dahi bhalla masala

For garnish

• Mint coriander chutney
• Tamarind chutney

Mix all the dahi bhalla ingredients in a bowl and deep fry small dumplings (a little smaller than the size of a ping-pong ball) of this paste until golden brown. Check the first batch to see if dumplings are cooked from inside, fry them little longer if not so. As soon as you take them out from oil, put them in cold water in a large bowl. You will notice that bhallas (dumplings) in water start to lighten in color after 10-15 minutes. Keep these in water for another 15-20 minutes, and meanwhile mix in ingredients of yogurt. Squeeze out water from bhallas gently and place them in a flat tray adjacent to one another and pour the yogurt mixture over them evenly. Refrigerate 2-3 hours before serving. For serving put 3-4 bhallas in a bowl and garnish with mint and tamarind chutnies and serve.

Quick Cheesy Bread

If you like garlic bread, jalapeno bread or cheese bread, I bet you will love this. Not from scratch but as good as it can get.

Here is what you will need

12 oz tube of refrigerated buttermilk biscuits

1 cup shredded cheese (I used pizza mix)

3/4th cup finely chopped onions

1/4th cup chopped basil (or 1 tbs dried basil would also work fine)

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

2 Tablespoons olive oil 

1 tbs chopped green chilies or chopped pickled jalapeno (optional) 

Preheat oven at 375F.

Open the biscuit can and pull biscuits apart, chop each into four parts. Mix rest of the ingredients in a bowl.
Take a 13X9 inch baking pan and line it with aluminum foil, place the cut biscuits in it leaving little space between them. Sprinkle on the cheese mixture and tuck it in-between the biscuits. Bake it in oven for 15-17 minutes until the top is golden brown. Serve it hot with soup or just by itself as an appetizer. 
There are a lot of variations possible here, you can try cilantro, parsley, Parmesan cheese, Cheddar cheese, green onions etc. If you can think of an interesting twist on this, I am all ears!

Tandoori Cauliflower

Today was a day of experiments, and this one worked very well! Its marinated whole cauliflower baked with marinated onions and potatoes.

Here is what this recipe calls for

• One whole cauliflower (cut its stem and remove the leaves so that it can sit on a tray, wash it and drain the excess water)
• Half of a large white onion (sliced)
• Four small red potatoes (sliced, you can leave the skin on if you like)

Marinade ingredients

• 3/4th cup of yogurt
• 2 tablespoon of tomato ketchup
• Tandoori masala or any Garam masala
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder (optional)
• 1 tablespoon of oil 
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes (optional)

Mix together all the marinade ingredients in bowl, and put it generously all over the cauliflower. In rest of the marinade put in sliced onion and potatoes. Leave everything to marinate for 2 hours and then bake it at 400F for 35 minutes. It can be served just by itself as a meal or with Roti or Naan. 

Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese) Puffs

These stuffed puffs can be eaten as a snack or full meal, it is quite filling. For this you would need 1 puff pastry sheet and following ingredients for filling

300 grams paneer

½ cup chopped onion

1 tablespoon chopped green chilies

½ teaspoon jeera powder

½ teaspoon black pepper powder

1/4^th cup chopped cilantro

Mix in all the ingredients required for filling in a bowl. If your store bought paneer is hard and not easy to mash then here is something that would be helpful. Put paneer in a bowl of water, paneer should be completely under water, microwave it for 2-3 minutes. This will loosen the paneer and easy to work with.

 Roll out your thawed pastry sheet and cut it into nine equal squares and divide the filling into nine equal parts as well. Take a piece of pastry sheet, put the filling on it and fold it to make a ball. Heat the oven to 400F and bake puffs for 15 minutes and then broil for two minutes. Keep an eye on the puff they burn very easily.

Serve them hot with sauce and tea :).

You can always adjust the spices in the filling according to your taste.

Broccoli basil soup

I made it for the first time today and was a little apprehensive as I was not sure how broccoli would taste in soup. But it turned out great, I gave a bowl of this soup to one of my neighbors and she loved it :).
This will make 4-5 serving of soup (serving being one regular size bowl)
Ingredients

• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 2-3 cloves of Garlic 
• 2-3 green chilies coarsely chopped
• 1/4th of a large onion chopped
• 10-12 basil leaves
• One medium size potato (I used yellow potato)
• 5-6 cups of broccoli flowerets
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 tbsp cumin powder
• 1 /2 tsp black pepper powder
• 1/4th cup of mascarpone cheese (can be replaced by heavy cream or 1/2 cup of full fat milk)
• Water

Heat oil in a pot, add garlic cloves, green chilies and onion and saute till onion is translucent. Then add basil leaves, broccoli, potato, salt, cumin and black pepper powder and stir in everything. After two minute add enough water to cover the contents in the pot, close the lid and let it simmer for 20 minutes (you can also pressure cook it, two whistles). After 20 minutes check if broccoli is cooked, you should be able to mash it with the ladle. Switch off the heat and let the soup cool down a bit, then use an immersion blender to puree the mixture until smooth (you can add more water if the soup is too thick for you). Mix in mascarpone cheese and serve it with any kind of bread (jalapeno cheddar bread in the picture).

You can replace broccoli with tomato (4) and baby carrots (2 cups). And keeping rest of the ingredients and recipe same, you get tomato-carrot soup.

Avocado Roti (Avocado Indian Flat-bread)

This is a very soft and healthy roti and at the same time delicious and goes very well with curry or sabji. Here are the ingredients, measurements are approximate and would vary depending on the size of avocado.

• Two ripe avocados, de-seeded and mashed (it should look like a paste)
• 2 finely chopped green chilies
• Salt to taste
• Jeera powder half tsp
• 2 cups of whole wheat flour (another half cup to adjust the consistency of the dough)

Put mashed avocado, salt, jeera powder, green chilies and two cups of flour in a large bowl and knead to form a soft and non sticky dough. Add more flour in case it is sticky or too loose. And remember "NO WATER", if you add water and keep this dough in refrigerator it will be very sticky next day and you will have to add more flour and knead it again. 

And then make rotis as you would usually do.  You can also modify this recipe by adding other ingredients like cilantro or ajwain or flax seed powder etc.