Tomato Rasam (Spicy South Indian Tomato Soup)

During our visit to India last year,  we had been to Kumarakom house boat which was an amazing experience.  We had great relishing meal prepared by the on-board crews and rasam was one of them. Rasam is a South Indian watery soup and varies slightly from region to region. There are several types of them like tomato rasam, lentil rasam and pepper rasam to name a few. Some uses dal/lentil to thicken the soup, but I haven’t used it mainly because I wanted to keep it simple, watery, and I was too lazy to cook dal and mash it.  I have used the spices as mentioned in the little book that own, but you really can get instant rasam powders from supermarkets these days. I dont think you really need to get all those readymade stuffs. It is not that tricky to make it home and i found it quite easy and instant.

The other day I was preparing lunch and all of a sudden I got this craving for  rasam that I had from the houseboat. Thanks to the social Networks, I got hold of my dear friends Nisha Rosh and Dhanya KP instantly, who approximately gave me their recipe. My tomato rasam is a result of their recipe and valuable tips combined with another recipe from my favourite book Lalitha Pachakam by Nikhila Govind. I normally mix and match few recipes to make something. I am not sure if I am doing the right thing but I have always been like that. Thanks you guys for the recipe and tips; it was simple, fuss free, delicious, and just the way I wanted it to be. A thin tomato soup with tantalising aroma and flavour with a note of heat from the crushed pepper was the result. Just perfect for a cold afternoon.

Tomato Rasam (Spicy South Indian Tomato Soup)

serves 4-6

Ingredients:

4 medium/350g/2 cups finely chopped tomatoes

4 cups boiling water

1 tbsp tamarind

¼ cup hot water

salt as necessary

A handful of coriander leaves with stem on

To temper:

2-3 tbsp coconut oil

½ tsp black mustard seeds

6 shallots

5 fat cloves of garlic

2 twig curry leaves

¼ - 1/2 tsp asafoetida

¼ tsp cumin seeds

½ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp pepper corns

4 dried red chillies

Preparation:

1. Boil tomatoes in water for about 10 minutes until it is soft and cooked. Pass it through a sieve and squeeze all possible pulp out. Reserve the strained liquid and discard the seeds and skin in the sieve.

2. Mix tamarind in hot water and squeeze to loosen its tough pulp. Pass it through a sieve again and pour it into the strained tomato juice.

3. Pour the tomato and tamarind mixture into the tempered oil or viceversa. Add in coriander leaves with stalks, salt and cook until it starts to boil.

4. Just before serving discard the corinader leaves and have it before your regular meal or pour it into plain rice along with dal and sambhar.

To temper:

1.Using a pestle and mortar gently crush the garlic and shallots just to break them up.  Keep it a side.

2. In a dry pan roast cumin and pepper for about 30 secods or until they leave aroma. Pound them to fine powder.

3. Heat a pan and add oil. Add in mustard and cumin and let them crackle. Once they start crackling, add red chillies broken into two, curry leaves, onion and garlic. Once they go soft and trasnparent, add in roasted and ground cumin and pepper, asafoetida, turmeric and stir for few seconds.

Note:

Even though it mentioned gently crushed garlic and onion, I finely chopped garlic and shallots in the recipe and I dint like the feel of chopped onions. I would be using gently crushed garlic and shallots next time.

Creamy Broccoli and Mushroom Soup

 

It's officially summer here and it is the best time you can have in the UK. It’s bright, days are longer, warmer and lots of colours around you. Fruits, birds and not forget, creepy insects are also in plenty during this time of the year.  It is also one time of the year where you get to see lots of children playing outside, chitchatting, racing and all the fun. My son is really enjoying the change, weather, his newly acquainted friends and so am I. He spends lot of time in the nearby park, with the neighbourhood kids and yet is full of energy. It’s just me who gets exhausted and drained by the end of day running behind him as he als started crying for every little silly things! He’s never been like that before, and I assume it’s all part of attention seeking drama. Even though I am quite aware of his ploy, I get fooled every single time. Sigh!

About the soup, I came across this Mushroom and Broccoli soup prepared by my friend Shami. To talk about shami, she is a great cook and a fantastic baker and she owns her own Empire in Facebook. She claims I was her inspiration, but looks like she is on a marathon and I can’t  be any way close to her. She is fast! She cooks on regular basis, post it on FB and all I couldd do is sit and watch her cook and grow!  I had some good amount of mushrooms sitting in the fridge on the edge of decaying, and so I planned to make shami’s soup. The dinner was fixed and I knew it was going to be easy; it is a mushroom and broccoli soup.  I knew I was going to modify it my own way and that is just the way I am. I can’t follow a recipe religiously even though I had failed miserably many a times making changes that are not really required. Here, I added potato, cheese , nutmeg and stock cubes. Simple to make (apart from chopping broccoli and slicing mushrooms) and it was so delicious with my high expectations. I am not a great fan of the earthy flavour of mushrooms, but something has  wrapped that taste up and it was just so perfect for me – Creamy, rich-tasting, yet light, busting with flavours and simply satisfying!
 

Creamy Broccoli and Mushroom Soup

Serves 10 -12 as Starter
Preparation time: 10-15 mins
Cooking time: 20 - 25mins

Ingredients:

4 cups chopped broccoli, 320 g

4 cups sliced mushrooms, 300g (I used closed cup mushrooms, u can easily use button mushrooms)

1 large onion chopped, 1 cup, 135g

6 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 medium potato,140g, cut into 1 cm cubes, almost a cup

2 ½ cubes of Knorr vegetable bouillon cubes (Stock cubes)

3 cups of semi skimmed milk or whole milk

2-3 cups hot water

A good pinch of grated nutmeg, around 1/8 th of a nutmeg

½ cup grated mild cheddar cheese

6 tbsp soft butter

A dash of olive oil

1/3 cup plain flour

Salt and freshly crushed pepper to taste

Preparation:

1.Heat 2 tbsp butter in a large frying pan or saucepan. Throw in chopped onion, garlic and potatoes and 1 vegetable bouillon cube. Sauté till onions go soft and potatoes are half cooked, for about 7 minutes.

2. Add in chopped broccoli and sliced mushroom, stir, cover it and let it cook on gentle heat until broccoli is cooked through, yet slightly crunch, for another 6-7 minutes.

3. Tip the cooked vegetable into a bowl. Rinse the saucepan and then heat rest of butter until melted. Add in the flour and keep stirring for a minute. Turn off the heat. Let it cool down for a minute, then add in milk. Stir it well with a wire whisk to breakdown all lumps of dough. Return it back to heat, crumble in the rest of vegetable stock cubes, and simmer by stirring occasionally until it boils.

4. Add in boiling water and bring it to boil again. Simmer for 2 minutes and then add in all the cokked vegetables. Simmer for a further couple of minutes to bring in the flavour of teh vegetables to the milk.

5. Grate in nutmeg, stir well. Turn off the heat and then add grated cheddar and just mix in. Adjust the seasoning if need be and serve hot with lot of crushed black pepper alongside any rustic bread like ciabatta, baguette or garlic bread.

N.B:. I haven't added any salt here as the Bouillon cubes are really salty.

Swiss Oatmeal Soup with Chicken and Vegetables and a Thank You Note!

Nothing is more comforting than a bowl of hot steaming soup and a rustic bread to dunk in to it on a cold winter evening. On such a cold evening I decided to make my favourite Cauliflower and Potato Soup when my hubby put forward his suggestion of having a thick, creamy chicken soup and not a chicken and sweet corn soup that I make on a regular basis! I din't even ask his opinion as I knew he would come up with some non-veg plan and ruin my already set mind of making cauliflower and potato soup. He was adamant on having chicken soup that was of some creamy consistency and I came up (had to come up) with these. It is a modified version of Swiss oatmeal soup that I got from one of my old scribbled recipes and I just sneaked some chicken in it! I don’t really know if it is appropriate to call it a Swiss Soup anymore. Anyways, here is the recipe that made way to another good soup in my kitchen.

Swiss Oatmeal Soup with Chicken and Vegetables
Serve 6

Ingredients:

1 large potato peeled and diced (315g, 1 ¾ cups)

2 medium carrots diced (230g, 1 1/3 cups)

1 large onion chopped (165g, 1 cup)

1 fat garlic clove, chopped

270g Chicken on bone (I used a large legpiece)

3 dry bay leaves

2 cubes of chicken maggi bouillon

3 cup boiling water

1/3 cup Quaker Oats

2 Tablespoon butter

1 Tablespoon Olive oil

½ cup whole milk (optional) or water

Preparations:

1. Place a non-stick saucepan on medium heat and add oil+butter. Add bay leaves and oats and sauté for 3-4 minutes or until it starts changing colour or lightly coloured.

2. Add all vegetables and sauté for 2-3 minutes adding few tablespoons of water when it starts sticking to the pan. (I added 1/3 cup of water here.)

3. Add chicken cubes, chicken and water. Cook until chicken is very well cooked and starts falling off the bone. Take it out using a slotted spoon and shred it into titbits and keep it aside. Discard the bone.

4. Using a potato masher, lightly mash the vegetables to make a chunky soup. Add chicken, boil for 3-4 minutes. Add milk, stir to combine and turn off the heat. Serve hot alongside any rustic bread like garlic bread, foccassia, Ciabatta etc.

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This post also comes along with a Thank you note to my lovely reader and a friend - Nasi who tries my recipes and sends me pictures whenever possible. After I posted the recipe of BFG, she immediately tried it on the very same day (including assembling and decorating) and sent me a surprising mail with gorgeous pictures of her creation. Along with Black Forest Gateaux, Celebration chocolate cake, Orange cake, Cardamom and Pistachio Cookies are some of them that she tried with success. Thank You Nasi for your constant support and encouragement. It means alot to me. Below is her mail that that she sent me few days back and the pictures she shot. Don’t they look perfect?

"I baked the cake the moment I saw it on your blog. I couldn’t resist!!!It was not for the eating part but for the thrill of baking it. I didn’t have cherries with me and I didn’t use them as I don’t like them in my cake ( I know this can’t be called as a black forest cake!!!).I also used sugar syrup instead of cherry syrup and also use Raspberry jam as decoration instead of the cherries...I know mine is not anywhere close to yours but I enjoyed making it very much.......and the taste??....It was delicious and I felt it tasted much better the next day after it was refrigerated...it was soft and delicious.....enjoyed every bit..The photos are taken from my mobile...but I hope at least you could get a glance of how my cake looked....Thanks a ton for the easy recipe......."

 

Thank You for stopping by!

Potato and Cauliflower Soup with Cheese

Potato and Cauliflower Soup with Cheese
Serves 4 (1 cup each).

Soups are always a healthy alternative to fat filled snacks or any other dinner/lunch platter which contain enormous amount of oil/clarified butter etc. Recently I have been trying to reduce the use of saturated fats and other oils after an alarming discovery of the calories that is present in a Tablespoon of fat, be it an olive oil or sunflower oil. I am not sure about butter, coconut oil and clarified butter, but I guess it should be much more than the others mentioned. Yeah, Can you believe that a tablespoon of vegetable oil has 135 Kcal?!!!I read it on the label on the bottle.... So I am trying to cut down the amount of oil in my recipe, you may use more as you wish. But, the foods that contain more oil, is quite tasty if you agree, and I always had an affinity to add more oil.... I always think, why do all or almost all tasty food should be unhealthy or High in calories?!

So, on such a day when I was browsing for some healthy recipe, I came across this stunning soup at Saju’s blog. Her recipe was ‘Cauliflower and broccoli soup’. I badly wanted to have the soup ago, but dint have broccoli to start with. Hence I substituted broccoli for potato, the one vegetable that I always have in stock and made it. It was really tasty and a filling soup. Thanks to Saju for such a delicious recipe. We had it for afternoon tea along with French Baguette and had the rest at night a swell. I dint find much of a difference in taste when I had it at night, but it was really good at noon.

I have modified the recipe a bit and here goes my version. I have added little cheese - I just couldn’t hold my temptation, so added it to give a light cheesy taste. Also added water along with milk, you can use complete milk rather than adding water. The soup was very refreshing and filling. It tasted really yum with garlic bread and baguette.

Ingredients:
1 ½ cup (200g) chopped cauliflower florets
1 cup (170g) potato cut into small cubes
½ cup (80g) thinly sliced carrot
½ cup (70g) chopped onion
¼ cup (4 Tbsp, 25g) grated cheddar cheese (optional)
1 ¾ cup semi skimmed milk
1 ¼ cup water
1 maggi stock cube crumbled (chicken or vegetable)
3 Tbsp plain flour
1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Preparation :
1.Heat a saucepan, add oil. Add all the vegetables and sauté for 5 minutes. Add water, milk (leaving behind little milk to mix the flour) and stock cube and cook till vegetables are cooked well and is soft.

2. Mix the flour with little milk and add the milk to the vegetables. Let it boil for few minutes until thick. Don’t add the flour directly to soup without mixing it with milk since it becomes lumpy!

3. Add the grated cheddar and mix well until just melted. Season with pepper and serve hot.

4. Serve hot with any baguette or garlic bread.

(Salt was not added since there was adequate amount of salt in the stock cube. You may reduce the amount of stock cube in the beginning, if necessary, and add them later to adjust the salt level.)

This post is my entry for the ‘Monthly Mingle-Soups' organized by Meeta , author of one of the most stylish blogs around- "What's for lunch, Honey?". The event is hosted by yet another lovely blogger - Harini of Tongue Ticklers.

Italian Bean and Pasta Soup

I made this soup to go with garlic bread for dinner last night and we loved it so much that I thought I would share with you all. The soup was light and quite filling. And do you want to know where I got the recipe from? The wrap of willow Butter!!Yeah, I have the habit of collecting the recipes from anywhere and everywhere. I always take the grocery booklets from the groceries everytime because they contain many recipes and I thought they were nice. Now my collection has become so big, and I really dont know what to do! My husband sometimes comment that I'm like a mouse bringing all the mess and waste to home......Aaaah....but I am sure there are many ladies out there like me, crazy about collecting recipes, and keep flipping them over again and again and still never get bored of it, isn't it?!!!

Ingredients:
1 tbs butter
2 medium carrots thinly sliced (1 cup)
1 medium onion sliced thin (1/2 cup)
2 large cloves garlic,chopped
1/2 large tomato (1/3 cup)
1 tsp tomato puree
400 can Red Kidney Beans drained and washed (1 1/3 cup)
3/4 cup frozen green peas
2 chicken Stock cube (I used Maggi)
1500 mls water
75 gms pasta shapes, I used fusilli (1 cup)
salt and pepper to season (I dint add salt, since stock cube is quite salty)

Preparation:
1. Heat a sauce pan, melt butter and add onions, garlic and carrots. Stir and cook gently for about 5 minutes and add tomato and tomato puree and saute until tomato is soft.
2. Add beans, peas and stock cube and boiled water and cook for 10 minutes.
3. Add the pasta shapes and cook for another 7 minutes or until the pasta is cooked. Season with salt and pepper if necessary.