Turnip Kurma

Fell in love with Turnip since the first time I made it a few weeks ago. It's purple skin and white interior thats hard to cut, but crisp n juicy to bite into makes for some melodrama in your mouth!
I made a Kurma with it as a side for Rice and Rotis. S and I loved how the combination tasted, so I decided to put it down here.

Here's the recipe (and a picture, ofcourse!)

Serves 3
Turnip - 3 diced
Tomatoes - 2, diced fine
Onion (Medium) - Chopped roughly
Grated Coconut / Coconut powder - 1/2 cup
Cumin + Black Pepper Corns + Fennel - ground to a fine powder
Kashmiri Chilli powder - 1/2 tbsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tbsp
Green Chillies Slit lengthwise - 2
Garlic Pods 2 - chopped
Cilantro - to garnish
Oil 3 tbsp
Water - 1 cup

• Heat oil in a pan, and add in the garlic and green chillies
• Once the aroma rises, add the onions and saute till golden brown. Now add in the tomatoes and let them sweat for a bit until it forms a coarse paste
• Add in the chopped turnip and cover with a lid for a minute or 2 to let it sweat. 
• Add the salt, chilli powder, turmeric and spice and mix well. Close with a lid and cook until tender.
• Now add a cup of water and let the gravy thicken. 
• Once it's thickened, simmer the flame and add the coconut powder and stir. 
• Garnish with Cilantro and serve with roti or rice.

Orange Nut Bread

'Cuties' as they are called are my favorite fruits. Tiny, easy to peel, seedless sweet oranges that come in crates of 24 and called 'Cuties' would be the #1 selling fruits if only they were marketed right! Somehow, they are not available in our local supermarket at all times. So when I do find them, I buy them in an instant.

After patiently emptying almost half the cart of cuties myself, I decided to try something new with the rest. You guessed right, I tried to make Orange Bread. It came out pretty well, and I made 2 packets of bread and took them to my colleagues M and J :)

Orange Nut Bread

Bowl 1
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Cup Sugar
3 tbsp grated Orange Zest
1 tbsp Baking Powder
1/4 Cup chopped Nuts
1/2 tbsp Salt

Bowl 2

2 Eggs
1 Cup Orange Juice, freshly squeezed and strained
1 tbsp Vanilla Essence
2 Oz Butter, Melted

• Preheat the oven to 175F
• Beat bowl 2 together. Add in Bowl 1 mixture and blend until well mixed.
• Pour into a prepared bread pan and bake until cake rises and sides become golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Roughly 50 mins.

Spinach Cucumber Soup

Eating significantly smaller portions than what I am used to gives me a nagging headache. I usually last 4 meals before I give up and remind myself I should start eating normally n just exercise regularly.

Who am I kidding, Right? We all know how that one ends... And it's not even New Years yet.

Anyway, green has a calming effect on me. And it also makes for a pretty colorful bowl of soup.

So, Monday night I served Spinach Cucumber Soup !


Makes 2 large bowls -

Spinach, 1 bunch roughly chopped
Cucumber, 1 long, peeled and sliced
Veg Stock, 1 cup
Butter, 1 tbsp
Peppercorns, Fennel, Jeeraham - 1 tbsp each finely ground
Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp
Lemon Juice - 2-3 tbsp
Salt - 1.5 tbsp

Add chopped spinach and cucumber in a heavy bottomed pan with enough stock & water to cook the vegetables. Once cooked, cool and purée in a blender. Meanwhile, heat the butter in a pan and add the spice powder and ginger garlic paste and sauté for a few mins. Add the purée to the spices and stir in the salt and lemon juice. Serve hot or cold with some bread on the side.

Chayote Corn Soup (Pretty Spicy)

Soup week resurfaces every time our bathroom scale hits a never seen before high. Yes, it happened again this Sunday!

We started our Saturday with a cup of green tea with lemon n honey. (Don't laugh! There is no harm in believing that all those years of bad eating & lack of exercise can be nullified with a glass of tea!)

And, to intensify the regime - we slept through most of Sunday as someone once told us that lack of sleep makes you bloat.

Lastly, while doing our weekly groceries - we stayed clear of the chips, cheese and cake aisles.

Good so far? :)

We still ended up with a fairly fat bill buying just fruits & vegetables. A lot of first time buys this time - including Chayote (Chow Chow), Butternut Squash & Asparagus.

Sunday menu was Chayote Corn Soup. Don't judge me for thinking that the Chayote would be perfect to play the part of a grumpy mean vegetable villain in a children's cartoon. Doesn't it look like it would eat you up, if you don't bite into it first? :P





Chayote Corn Soup (Pretty Spicy !)
Makes 2 large bowls

Onion (Medium Sized, Chopped)
Garlic Pods - 3, Minced
Green Chillies - 2, Slit Lengthwise
Chayote - 1, Diced
Sweet Corn - 1 cup, defrosted
Olive Oil - 3 tbsp
Cilantro - To garnish
Fennel, Pepper Corns, Jeeraham - 1 tbsp each, ground to a fine powder
Veg Stock - 1 cup
Water - as required
Salt - 1-2 tbsp
Yogurt - 1/2 cup

Heat oil in a pot, add garlic n chillies n wait till aroma rises. Add onions n sauté till browned. Add Chayote & Salt and let them sweat for a bit. Add stock to just submerge all the veggies in your pot. Once the veggies are cooked - allow to cool slightly. Transfer to a processor and purée. Transfer back to the pot n add water as required to control how thick or thin you need your soup to be. Add sweet corn, spice mix and yogurt and give it a stir until all ingredients have blended.

Transfer to soup bowls, garnish with cilantro and have with dinner rolls / garlic knots or sour dough bread!

Rudolph's Red Nose Spritzer

This time, the occasion was Deepavali. There isn't ever a time when there's no reason to celebrate, right? Not when you are surrounded by a bunch of happy souls who are ever ready to raise a glass n toast to good times!

S & I hosted a potluck at our place last night for Deepavali and sure enough - friends from in and around NJ made it a lovely evening by attending and staying over. It wasn't complete without a lunch at Saravana Bhavan and a movie at Edison. Too bad, it had to be a Vijay starrer.

In anycase - the best part of any get-together are those mini conversations that occur in groups of 3 and 4 throughout the night. The guys talk about cricket and the girls whine about the guys talking cricket and many such cliches. Amidst one such chatty session - me and my girl friends came up with some exciting new cocktail recipes. Some borrowed, and tweaked to suit the Indian tongue which still finds melagu rasam the most intoxicating drink amidst all!

Will release each of the cocktail recipes here one by one. First up, is Rudolph's Red Nose Spritzer (Inspired from Pinterest)

What you need:

A large glass pitcher
A standard measure of a cup
Mix together the following, decorate with some Rosemary springs n serve in a chilled glass...

5 cups Orange Juice (no pulp, store bought)
2 cups Lemon Soda (I used Archer Farm's Lemon Soda from Target)
2 cups Vodka
1/2 cup Maraschino Cherry Juice

Maraschino cherries are not a variety of cherry, but given the name due to the manufacturing process used to preserve them. There's more detail here, but I will say it is the same as the accompaniment with Sweet Pan that you consume in India at a wedding!

1/2 cup fresh Lemon Juice
Lemon Slices / Raspberries and Rosemary Sprigs to garnish

Stir all the ingredients together and serve chilled. It's that simple!

Scrambled Tofu Manchurian

By now, I am fairly certain that the regulars to my blog might have figured out that I am an Eggetarian, with special affection to Paneer.

As you can see, we use Paneer in everything from Pizzas to Tikkas and consume some form of Paneer at least once a week. And since, we are being health conscious n all - I tried to work with its low fat cousin last Sunday. Yes, 'Tofu'.

What came about was Scrambled Tofu Manchurian. It's the kind of dish that goes well with English muffins, bread, rotis and even curd rice!

What you need:

1 pack frozen Tofu, I used extra firm organic un-cut tofu

1 carrot, grated

1 medium onion sliced

1/2 capsicum sliced

3tbsp olive oil

Chopped Cilantro

Spices

1 tbsp Garlic powder 

1 tbsp Chili powder

1 + 1/2 tbsp Salt

1/2 tbsp Garam Masala

Sauce

5 tbsp Manchurian Sauce

I used store bought sauce. Sauce can also be made by simmering 2 parts soy sauce + 2 parts vinegar + 1 part red chili sauce with 3 garlic pods and sesame seeds toasted in olive oil. If you like it tangy, you may add some ketchup to the mix.

Method :

• Boil tofu in hot water until spongy
• Cube Tofu and pat try on a tissue
• Preheat the oven to 300F and spray a pan with some olive oil and spread Tofu cubes evenly and toast until brown in the oven
• Alternately, you can shallow fry them
• Meanwhile, in a non stick pan - sauté veggies until they are cooked with a lil salt and the spice mix
• Now add Manchurian sauce and bring to boil 
• Add toasted tofu and cover lid for a few mins until smell of raw flavor disappears
• Top with fresh cilantro & serve while hot

Lemon Sponge Cake

Back in Pilani where I spent 4 wonderful years is where I started baking. No fancy ovens, no clean utensils even. With broken hindi and cocoa powder weighed in an old fashioned balance n bundled in a day old newspaper - some of us would set out to make cookies or cakes in one corner of our hostel's mess. Mess, is a good name for it all. =)

Often times, these baking experiments were remedies to forgotten birthdays, bad exams or a way to cope with lonely nights far away from your family. But over the years - they've come to mean something else. The smell from the oven as the cake rises to fill the mold brings with it memories of midnight gossip over coffee n cookies. I cannot imagine life @ Pilani without my wing.

 Here's a toast to good times!

 Ingredients

2 Eggs
1 + 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 tbsp Baking Powder
1 tbsp Baking Soda
1/2 cup Milk
4 Oz Butter
1 Cup Sugar
2 tbsp Vanilla Essence
1 tbsp Lemon Extract

• Preheat the oven to 350F
• Beat the melted butter, 1/2 of milk and sugar together. Add in the 2 eggs and beat further until blended well.
• Add in the flour, baking powder and soda and remaining milk until the batter is smooth and folds into a ribbon when scooped using a spoon
• Add the vanilla essence and lemon extract and whip 1-2 times
• Add batter to a greased cake mold and bake for 20-22 mins or until a cake tester inserted to the center comes out clean

I had tossed in some cut strawberries into the batter but wouldn't recommend that if you are trying this recipe :)