Broccoli Cream Soup

Ingredients

Serves 4 to 6

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 4 cups Basic Chicken Stock, plus more as needed
• 2 cups broccoli , trimmed and cut into florets; peel and cut stems crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick pieces
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 cup veg or chicken stock
• 2 cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 small stick cinnamon
• 1 green chilli
• 2 cloves garlic
• handful of peas or one stack of celery

Directions

1. steam the broccoli n peas or celery(watever u r using), grind n keep it aside.
2. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat .Fry cloves,garlic,cinnamon,green chillies n bay leaf. u can either grind them or can leave as such. Add onion and cook, stirring, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute (the flour should not take on any color).
3. Pour in stock, whisking until fully incorporated, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, whisking often, until thickened, about 10 minutes.
4. Add the broccoli puree n milk.
5. Thin with more stock or water, if necessary. Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Broccoli Cream Soup - Martha Stewart Recipes

Bread Halwa

Ingredients:

• 1 cup ghee (clarified butter)(adjust as per taste)
• 6-7 slices of bread
• 2-3 cardamoms (elachi)
• 2 tbsps almonds (badam)
• 2 tbsps cashewnuts
• 1/2 lt milk
• 1 cup sugar (adjust as per your taste)

Procedure :

• Heat three fourth cup of ghee in a cooking vessel and add the bread pieces and fry them till they turn a golden brown.
• Grind elachi, almonds and cashewnuts (leave a few toasted almonds and cashewnuts aside for garnish) to a fine paste.
• Meanwhile boil the milk, add sugar and keep stirring it till it blends into the milk.Combine the nuts paste.
• Add the fried bread slices and the remaining ghee to this mixture.
• You can leave the bread as small pieces or mash them if u want a puree kind of texture.
• Let it simmer till the bread turn soft and cook in the milk mixture. Garnish with the toasted almonds and cashewnuts.
• Serve warm or refrigerate until chilled and serve. It tastes good both warm and cold.

MysorePak

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Ghee
• 1.5 cups Gramflour
• 2 cups Sugar
• 1/2 cup water

Method:

• mix besan gram flour with little ghee and sieve
• Take sugar in thick bottomed saucer.Add water and let it boil to form sugar syruptill it is soft ball stage.
• Melt the ghee in a bowl.
• Now add the flour slowly to the sugar syrup and mix rapidly so that no lumps are formed.
• Then add the hot ghee to the flour , stirring continuously .Cook till the mixture becomes frothy and ghee seperates.
• Spread out on a greased plate. Cut into squares when firm.

Methi Chutney

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of fresh methi leaves (one small bunch)
• ¼ cup of sesame seeds
• 8 dried red chillies or more
• (This chutney needs a little bit of extra hotness, so don’t skimp on chillies)
• 2 teaspoons tamarind juice
• ½ teaspoon urad dal
• ¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
• 1 teaspoon of peanut oil

Method:

• In a pan, heat half teaspoon of peanut oil.

• First add and toast dried red chillies, then sesame seeds and urad dal, until golden. Remove them.

• In the same pan heat another half teaspoon of oil and sauté methi leaves for few minutes. Take them all in a plate, wait to cool. (Whenever you make these kinds of chutneys always wait for the ingredients to cool, never blend when they are hot. If you do this, the change in taste will be significant)

• When they are cool enough to touch, take them in a blender, add tamarind juice and salt.

• Puree them to smooth paste.

• If necessary add few tablespoons of water for smooth blending. (Don’t make it too watery.)

• It goes very well with Rice,Idlis n roti.

Instant Rawa Uthappam

Ingredients:

• Rava/ Semolina/ Sooji - 1 cup
• Curd/ Yogurt/ sour cream - 1cup
• Water - as required
• Onion - 1/2 medium size , chopped finely
• Tomato - 1 medium size ,finely chopped
• Green chili - 1-2 as per taste
• Capsicum - 1/4 finely chopped
• Red chili powder - as per taste
• Coriander leaves - 1 fistful , finely chopped
• Oil- for making the uttapam

Method:

• Take rava in a vessel and add half of the curd ( the more sour the curd is the better it tastes) , add water so that the batter that is formed is of medium consistency. Let it stand for 10 -15 minutes ,in the meanwhile you can chop up the vegetables .
• After 15 minutes , the rava would have soaked up the water and the batter would have become thick , add the remaining curd and mix well . Now add the vegetables ,salt , chili powder and mix the batter once more.
• Take a frying pan and heat it over the stove , add a few drops of oil and then spread a ladleful of the batter on the pan . Spread it a little with the ladle. Now pour a few more drops of oil over it and cover the pan with a cover . Let it cook for a couple of minutes , then flip over to the other side and cook similarly.
• When both the sides are well cooked ( slight brown spots would appear) , serve hot with tomato ketchup or the traditional coconut chutney.

Tip:: If the rava n curd mixture stands for an hour or more it gives an entirely diff taste which is really good too. I have tried it once.

Tamil Style Tomato chutney

Ingredients:

• 1. 6 ripe tomatoes roughly chopped
• 2. 1/2 red onion roughly chopped
• 3. 3-4 red chillies (add more if you need it more spicy)
• 4. 2 tbsps Ural dal
• 5. few pepper corns
• 6. cumin seeds few
• 7. a bit of tamarind
• 8. grated coconut 1 1/2 tbsp (this is optional and can be left out

Method:

• 1. Heat a pan and dry roast Ingredients 3-6 and set aside.
• 2. Pour oil and fry the onions and when cooked add the the tomatoes and tamarind
• 3. Cook the tomatoes till raw smell goes, add salt.
• 4. If you are adding coconut, add the defrosted one and fry for a few seconds.
• 5. Cool the mixture and blend to a smooth paste.

Bruschetta with Tomato and Basil

Ingredients

• 6 or 7 ripe plum tomatoes (about 1 1/2 lbs)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 6-8 fresh basil leaves, chopped.
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 baguette French bread or similar Italian bread
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Method:

• Prepare the tomatoes first. Parboil the tomatoes for one minute in boiling water that has just been removed from the burner. Drain. Using a sharp small knife, remove the skins of the tomatoes. (If the tomatoes are too hot, you can protect your finger tips by rubbing them with an ice cube between tomatoes.) Once the tomatoes are peeled, cut them in halves or quarters and remove the seeds and juice from their centers. Also cut out and discard the stem area. Why use plum tomatoes instead of regular tomatoes? The skins are much thicker and there are fewer seeds and less juice.
• Make sure there is a top rack in place in your oven. Turn on the oven to 450°F to preheat.
• While the oven is heating, chop up the tomatoes finely. Put tomatoes, garlic, 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, vinegar in a bowl and mix. Add the chopped basil. Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Slice the baguette on a diagonal about 1/2 inch thick slices. Coat one side of each slice with olive oil using a pastry brush. Place on a cooking sheet, olive oil side down. You will want to toast them in the top rack in your oven, so you may need to do these in batches depending on the size of your oven. Once the oven has reached 450°F, place a tray of bread slices in the oven on the top rack. Toast for 5-6 minutes, until the bread just begins to turn golden brown.
• Alternatively, you can toast the bread without coating it in olive oil first. Toast on a griddle for 1 minute on each side. Take a sharp knife and score each slice 3 times. Rub some garlic in the slices and drizzle half a teaspoon of olive oil on each slice. This is the more traditional method of making bruschetta.
• Align the bread on a serving platter, olive oil side up. Either place the tomato topping in a bowl separately with a spoon for people to serve themselves over the bread, or place some topping on each slice of bread and serve. If you top each slice with the tomatoes, do it right before serving or the bread may get soggy.
• Makes 24 small slices. Serves 6-10 as an appetizer. Or 3-4 for lunch (delicious served with cottage cheese on the side.)