ROASTED VEGETABLE SOUP

Last week my net connection was down so you can imagine the suffering ;) , the worst part in it was that I could not post to my blog when I had promised I would have something up  every week  :( . Well I also believe that every cloud has a silver lining,  this week was my movie time so I didnt get time to cook still I can talk to you about a new dish. I generally cook on Sundays as thats when am free and up in the morning :) last Sunday I had made Soup. All those who know me will tell you Sunday and no chicken...SURPRISE...!!! Well thats a funny little story. I wanted to make chicken and had asked the butcher on Friday itself to keep one ready for me by Saturday evening. When I went on Saturday he said its over so I told him to keep one by Sunday morning. I went to the shop 5 times on Sunday and he could not get chicken. Can u believe a butcher shop without meat or chicken :) . Genarally its said we should get the ingredients available and then decide on the dish..... there's where i totally differ, I always plan what I wanna make and then go shopping. I have faced this problem of changing my plans at the end moment several time but it never happened that I didnt get the main ingredient. Anyways failing to get any chicken I was so sad and needed something comforting and easy to cook....so my Roasted Vegetable Soup was created

FOR SOUP
Potatoes	2 number
Carrot	3 number
Parsnip	2 number
Pumpkin	1/4 of a medium sized
Cauliflower	1/2 of a large one
Milk	2 cups
Ginger, grated	2 teaspoon
Mint leaves	A few handful
Oil	2 tablespoon
Salt	A per taste
Pepper	A per taste

     SOUP :-

1. Preheat oven to 160C. 
2. Peel and cut the vegetables in large cubes. Arrange them in a tray . Drizzle a bit of oil on the vegetables; season with salt and pepper.
3. Cover the vegetables in the tray with a foil. Roast the vegatables in the oven till they are done.
4. Heat one tablespoon oil in a large saucepan; add the vegetables and cook during the process keep mashing the vegetables.
5. Add the milk on the saucepan and stire the vegetables to it. Add salt and pepper and keep stiring.
6. Blend the soup till smooth and keep cooking till the desired consistancy is reached.
7. In a different pan heat one tablespoon oil, add the grated ginger and fry for 5 min. Add the mint leaves and fry for 1 min and add it to the soup.
8. The soup is ready to be served.

I served it with crunchy grilled cheese sandwich...it did comfort me :) .

FUDGY CHOCOLATE BROWNIE

Finally after ages I decided to cook for my blog. Its not that I ever stopped enjoying cooking but cooking for blog is totally different.....try something new then look for the right dish and setting and finally the photo shoots. I cannot blame my long break on anyone or anything just that my head was filled with a lot of stuffs and I wanted out of everything. Now that I am back from home everything feeling better. Visiting everyone made me realize that there are people who believe in my cooking so I am back :) . I decided to make something sweet, a sweet way to say sorry to my blog - BUON APPETITO. Among all the possible sweet dishes I picked Brownie. I have had a lot of brownie over time and have been planning to make one soon and finally today seemed to be a good day :) . The fact that they're incredibly easy to make is an added bonus. All you need is one bowl , one spatula and one pan. No mixers or any fancy techiques yet the outcome is very rewarding....a perfect dish. Do you think there is anything called Perfect Brownie ??? I kind of doubt that. Some like it with dry fruits - nuts and raisins , some like it with chocolate chips and yet others like it with icing. Not that I am against any of those brownies but I am a fan of the warm fudgy one. So when I decided to make my very first Brownie I wanted to my favourite kind so I made Fudgy Chocolate Brownie inspired by Donna Hay's recipe.

FOR BROWNIE
Milk	1/2 cup
Dark Chocolate,chopped	1 cup
Butter	3 tablespoons
Demerara sugar	1/2 cup
Fine White Sugar	1 cup
Eggs	4 number
Cocoa Flour	1/2 cup
Plain Flour	1 cup

     BROWNIE :-

1. Preheat oven to 160C. Butter and flour the sides of a square shaped cake tin and set it aside.
2. Pour milk in a saucepan over low heat and let it get warm. See that it does not boil.
3. Add the chocolate and butter to the same saucepan and stir until smooth. Allow this mixture to cool down slightly.
4. In a bowl, whisk eggs and the 2 sugars till the sugar dissolves.
5. Add the cocoa and flour in a bowl and mix well but not heavily. 
6. Finally add the chocolate mixture and mix until combined. 
7. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes at 160C or till a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
8. Allow to cool slightly in the tin before slicing.

Enjoy the dish with Warm Milk or Coffee, that makes a good combinations.

BRULEED LAUKI/BOTTLE GOURD HALWA

Cooking can be great fun when we get to enhance our knowledge. Last few weeks thats what I did, I experimented with a lot of ingredients and cusines. I even recreated a few famous dishes from all around the world.Surprisingly the experiments were no failure :) and I had loads of fun creating all those new dishes. The dish I am about to share today is part of my experiment series :). The main ingredient of this dish is Lauki/Bottle Gourd. The bottle gourd has various name calabash or opo squash or long melon or dudhi but its commonly known as Lauki in Hindi and Bottle Gourd in English. Have read about the healthy benefits of Bottle Gourd in a few sites so I have summarized them and decided to share it with all. HEALTH BENEFITS : --> Bottle Gourd has attracted a lot of attention due to its importance in treatment of Blood Pressure and Heart disease. --> Bottle gourd is very valuable in treating urinary disorders. --> This vegetable is very good for balancing liver function. It is often recommended by ayurvedic physicians when the liver is inflamed. --> Ayurveda suggests Bottle gourd juice once daily in the early morning for treating Graying Hair. --> Mixture of bottle gourd juice a sesame oil acts as an effective medicine for insomnia. --> The bitter variety is prescribed as a cardiac tonic, as an antidote to poisoning and for alleviating bronchitis, cough, asthma affections. --> The dietary fiber present in the bottle gourd makes it a very useful vegetable in preventing digestive disorders such as constipation, flatulence, and piles. --> Bottle gourd juice is also considered to be beneficial in insanity, epilepsy, and other nervous diseases. I heard about this dish from a friend, he said that in his family this dish is a must have for Diwali. Although he promised me in the year 2010 that he would treat me, that didnt happen till now :P . Finally I decided to give it a try on my own. Unaware of the ingredients and procedure, I googled it, but somehow I didnt enjoy the recipes so I created a version inspired by my Mom. And then I took a step further by topping it with caramel. Let me not bore you with long talks and share with you my version of Bruleed Lauki Halwa....hope you enjoy it as much as I did :)

FOR LAUKI HALWA
Lauki/Bottle Gourd	1 soft, large sized
Ghee	2 tablespoons
Milk	3 cups
Condensed Milk	1/2 cup
Cardamom powder	1/2 teaspoon
Sugar	5-6 tablespoon

FOR TOPPING
Sugar	3 tablespoon
Water	2-3 teaspoon

     LAUKI/BOTTLE GOURD HALWA :-

1. Peel and grate the bottle gourd finely. 
2. Par-boil the bottle gourd and then spread it over paper so the water is slightly soaked.
3. Heat ghee in a kadhai, add the soften lauki and fry till its cooked properly. It took me 20 min to reach the proper stage.
4. Mix-condensed milk with milk and pour over the cooked lauki.
5. When the milk is 75% reduced add the cardamom powder and mix well.
6. Finally add sugar and mix it with the halwa. Keep on stirring and cook the halwa for some more time.
7. Pour the halwa in a serving bowl and let it cool down slightly.

    SWEET TOPPING :-

1. Combine four parts granulated white sugar with one part water in a sturdy, thick-bottomed cooking pot.
2. Turn the stovetop to medium-high and stir the mixture constantly with a wooden spoon until the sugar begins to dissolve.
3. Bring the sugar and water to a boil and stop stirring the mixture.
4. Reduce heat to medium.Boil for approximately 8 to 10 minutes.
5. Distribute the amber color throughout the mixture by gently lifting up the handle of the pot and swirling the mixture.
6. Wait till the mixture until it reaches a uniform rich, brown color.
7. Pour the caramelized sugar over the cooled halwa and let the dish cool down completely.

Enjoy the dish when its cold, cracking the caramelized topping and combining with the halwa it turns out to be great .

BLACK CHICKEN

When I think of the time I enjoyed Chinese food the most, all my thoughts are of Shillong. I am born and brought-up in Shillong, capital of Meghalaya, a beautiful hill station of North East of India. Meghalaya is one of the smallest state of India and has three major tribes - Khasi, Jaintia & Garo. Shillong, the home of Khasis mainly, is a small town with very simple lifestyle - no big shopping malls or fancy restaurants but its very clean & beautiful. Shillong has rolling hills around the town, its said that those hills reminded the European settlers of Scotland. Hence, Shillong is also known as "Scotland of the East"...!!! The cuisine available in most of the restaurants there, other then the local cuisine, is CHINESE. Whether its some special occasion or just wanted to spend time with friends we would always visit a nearby Chinese restaurant...and all of them had excellent food. Among all of them I had 2 favourite - I don't really remember the names however one was near my school and the other in the heart of the main market. Both of them provided huge portions and impossible for one person to finish yet I would finish everything that I ordered....all of the items were really yummy :P . The dishes never looked too fancy however they all had something special in them that everyone enjoyed....and would look for the next excuse to come back to the resturant again. After I came out of Shillong, I tried Chinese in several restaurants. You must have guessed what I am about to say, its true.....its nothing compared to what I had in Shillong. Now that I have not been home since 3 years slowly my liking for Chinese is also vanishing, largely due to the food. Not that its anything bad with other places, its just not the way I liked it :) . People who know me would disagree cause even now at times I get Chinese as take away, but for someone who used to have Chinese 2 times a week now I get it ones in a month and that too half is wasted. I am just waiting to go home and get back to my kind of Chinese :) . Today, I am not sharing anything I tried in Shillong but its a dish I saw in a cookery show called Poh's Kitchen. Well in the show they used some ingredients that I didn't get here and they used beef which I don't eat....so why did I still try out the dish. The answer is in what attracted me....well I was  attracted with the name Nasi Kandar aka Black Beef, I mean a black looking dish and appealing...hmmmm.... didn't seem to be very possible at the first shot and I just had to give it a try :) . Surprisingly it worked and I enjoyed something new.

Chicken pieces with bones	250 gms - cut in small cubes
Egg	1 number
Red Bell Pepper	1 number
Onion	1 number
Garlic cloves	3 numbers
Red Chilli	2 numbers
Tomato Puree	2 tablespoons
Dark Soya Sauce	2 tablespoons
White Vinegar	1 tablespoon
Brown Sugar	1 tablespoon
Red Chilli powder	1/2 tablespoon
Cornflour	1 tablespoon
Oil	2-3 tablespoons
Salt	As per taste

      To marinate :-

1. In a bowl take the chicken cubes and add egg, salt, 1 tbs tomato puree ,1 tbs dark soya sauce and Red Chilli powder.
2. Mix them all properly. Then add the cornflour and mix again such that every chicken piece is well coated.
3. Let it stand for 30 min.

     For Black Chicken  :-

1. Cut the red bell pepper in small cubes. And chop the onion, garlic and red chilli finely.
2. Add 3 tbs oil in a wok and let it heat.
3. Fry the marinated chicken cubes till they are done and the coating is turns dark and crispy.
4. Remove the fried chicken cubes in a paper towel and set aside.
5. In the same oil add the chopped onion, garlic and red chilli and fry till the onion starts to carmalize.
6. Add the cubed red bell pepper and fry for 6-7 min or till the pepper soften.
7. In a separate bowl. whisk together the left over tomato puree, dark soya sauce, white vinegar and brown sugar.Add the sauce in the wok and cook.
8. Add the fried chicken pieces in the wok and mix again till everything is well coated with the sauce.
9. Cook for 5 -6 min more. And the dish is ready. 

I tried the dish with simple garlic noodles.        

CARDAMOM FLAVOURED ICED TEA GRANITA --- Guest Post by Lubna Karim @ Yummy Food

The blogging world gifted me a few lovely and talented friends and one of them is Lubna Karim . I am sure you all know her...her recipes seem so delicious and inviting......and the pictures are stunning. I keep staring at her shots everytime I visit her blog.

Lubna from Yummy Food lives in Bangalore with her family. She is so down to earth and a wonderful person.....she will always great you with a smile. You can see her passion and love for cooking and photography in every post or click.

Each photograph clicked by her tells a story on its own , they also portray her eye for detail. She also educate us on the art of photography....she makes it seem so easy. 

Necessity is the mother of invasion of many new things…..this applies in cooking too….Those where the days when my womb was burning hot baking out a cute little baby inside…..Summer was on full swing and every time I wanted to have something cool to indulge…..There were only very few or say next to no carvings during my pregnancy. 

Only thing which tempted me or more I carved for was ice tea and that too in the form of granita….it may sound little bizzard  but…I had this carving in the initial days of my pregnancy…...Granita is nothing but semi frozen dessert made out of sugar, water and various flavourings. 

To satisfy this urge…one day I made very light tea decoction and left it in the freezer for an hour….scarped it and got myself indulged in it…..there was very peculiar feeling of gratification in my senses…..I loved it …. And so a new recipe is born and from then till now I make it very often….When I served them to my friends at one of the summer noon party…they loved it a lot….so now this is one of the regular granita, I make during summers….So here is the twist to taste recipe…an whole new very chill makeover to your ice tea.

Cardamom Flavoured Iced Tea Granita :

INGREDIENTS:
½ tbsp. Tea powder (I used Taj Mahal brand)
1 ½ tbsp. Sugar
1 no. Cardamom, crushed lightly
1 cup Water

PREPERATION:
Bring water to boil by adding tea powder, sugar and cardamom. Simmer for 1-2 minutes and turn off the flame. Leave it to cool.
Once the decoction gets cool, pour it into a flat container with edges or into a rectangular baking dish. Cover it with a thin plastic foil and leave it in the freezer for around 1 hour.
After 1 hour, run the fork along the sides of the container and break up into small chunks…. Freeze again.
Repeat this process for 2-3 times until you get flaky ice without any liquid remaining. Transfer this into serving bowls and serve immediately. 
Last but not least add your 'love' to make the dish 'YUMMY' :P

VARIATIONS:
You can create as many of variations of your choice….apart from cardamom, I love making mint flavoured iced tea granita, lemon flavoured iced tea granita and also with fresh ginger iced tea granita….You can even make green tea or herbal tea granita….

Thank you Priyanka for the invitation to write on your blog. It was really fun doing it for you dear….

CREAMY EGG AND POTATO CURRY

Life always has its own plans for us and sadly we can never alter these plans. Three weeks earlier I was all excited to met my parents and enjoy my long awaited vacation.....but. Its true I spent three weeks with my parents but I never want to spend those days again.......shocked. Well my Baba(father) is very ill and was here for check-up, he had been suffering since many years but he never told anyone.....its only when Mamoni(mother) saw all the visible symptoms that I got to know about it. After his check-up we were told of all the physical aliment he is suffering from.....now he has loads of medicine through out the day....I am still shocked with his attitude toward himself. Parents get worried when we neglect about ourself or we don't tell them about our problems, I don't know why they don't realize that we feel the same.....even we are worried about them and if they fall ill it affects us so much. I hope now my parents understand that they should just tell me everything directly.                                                                                                                             very old pic of my parents Anyway,the changing of my plans by life didn't stop with this, I planned for my parents to stay with me for a month so that both of them can rest and relax a bit as doctors said he needs a lot of rest. And even that plan could not work out.....why? Well life planned something more horrible.....one of my uncle, my Baba's sister's husband, expired and I knew that Baba had to go else that would hurt him more. So he left and I know when he goes home he will start his routine and wont get the most required rest....all this worries me, then again that's what life has planned and I can just play my part in it. As it has been planned for me,  again I am alone with the same routine life and the only real fun time is when I am blogging. As I was alone and not in a very good mood, so I didn't feel like shopping or cooking anything special. So last Sunday was perfect for a easy , simple curry and the Creamy Egg & Potato Curry was part of the menu. Gravies are often the star of any Indian meals and a good creamy gravy can make the meal a perfect one. This is an awesome gravy......full of flavors with all the simple spices and coconut cream. Its a perfect dish that goes well with rice, chapati and paratha. Great for those lazy days..!!!

Eggs	6 numbers
Potato	2 medium sized
Onion	1large
Ginger-garlic paste	1 tablespoon
Green Chilly	2 numbers
Tomato	2 numbers
Coconut milk	100 ml
Turmeric powder	1/2 teaspoon
Red Chilly powder	1/2 teaspoon
Roasted Cumin powder	1/2 teaspoon
Oil	2-3 tablespoons
Salt	As per taste
Pepper	As per taste
Cilantro Leaves	1 cup

1. Hard boil the eggs and remove the covering. Marinate the eggs with little salt, tumeric powder & red chilly powder.
2. Cut the potato lengthwise like the wedges. Soak it in water with some salt.
3. Cut the onion in large blocks. Place the cut onions in a baking dish and drizzle slight oil on top. 
4. Season with some salt, pepper and give it a mix. Roast it at 180C for about 15 minutes.
5. When the onions are done, let it cool and then blend it to a smooth paste.
6. Blanch tomotoes in hot water and let it boil till they get soften. Remove the skin and blend that to a smooth paste to make tomato puree.
7. Heat little oil in a kadhai and fry the eggs and potatoes separetely. Remove them and set aside separately.
8. In the same kadhai, add ginger-garlic paste fry for some time and then add the roasted onion paste.
9. Fry the mixture for 5-6 min. Then add tomato puree and cook under cover and low flames till the oil separetes out.
10. Mix the spices - tumeric powder, red chilly powder and roasted cumin powder with little water till it forms a paste.
11. Add the spice mixture to the kadhai and mix all the cooking ingredients together.
12. Then add the fried potatoes and eggs to the kadhai and cook for 6-7 min.
13. Mix the coconut milk with 1/2 cup of warm milk and pour in the kadhai.
14. Cook the dish in low flame and under cover till the water is soaked.
15. Finally garnish with chopped cilantro leaves.

I tried the dish with rice and paratha and enjoyed it with both. 

CELEBRATION WITH FISH IN SPINACH & MUSTARD GRAVY

Celebrating what you may ask....well am finally going home. Yahoo..!!!! am all set for fun filled 2 weeks, just counting the days now :) . Since the last 2 weeks I was at a fix cause there was a high chance that my leave would be rejected and I spent most of the time shedding tears. Its been 3 years that I have visited my home so you can imagine how I was feeling when nothing seemed to be working. Finally by the end of this week I got the great news and I have been thrilled since then , of course fingers are crossed as we never know when things can change :) . I am so excited to be with my family....enjoy 'direct' talks with Mom, spend time bugging Dad...which is super fun, share stories with cousins and definitely relax and enjoy all those lovely home cooked meals. My ever growing to-do list is ready, well not just to-do ---- there are to-eat list , to-shop list , to-visit list....and many many more. The news of my leave being approved is something worth celebrating and today I partied with Fish in Spinach & Mustard Gravy. I consider it to be a very festive dish as its part of my families party food and is created  during very special occasions. The last time I had it was when I went to my ancestral home for my aunt's wedding and that was some 10 years back approximately. The fish used for this dish is 'Boal' commonly known as Wallago in English, I could not get the fish here so I used Rohu......I know the 2 fishes taste totally different but as its said Necessity is the Mother of Invention :P . Also the original version uses 'Lai Pata' (not sure of the English name) its a very loved green leafy vegetable in North-Eastern India, I have not seen it anywhere else so I could not find 'Lai Pata' as well so I used Spinach. As expected the flavour of my variation is way too different from the original however it was not bad and I enjoyed the day. I promise to come back with loads of new stories and recipes. When I am back, will share more on  the beauty of my hometown through my eyes...keep waiting, hope you would love them :) .

Rohu Fish pieces	4 numbers
Spinach	1 bunch
Mustard seeds	2 tablespoon
Sesame seeds (optional)	1 tablespoon
Green Chilly	1 numbers
Fresh Red Chilly	2 numbers
Nigella seeds	1 teaspoon
Dry Red Chilly	2 numbers
Turmeric powder	1/2 teaspoon
Mustard Oil	2-3 tablespoons
Salt	As per taste

1. Roughly chop the spinach and set aside.
2. Soak the mustard seeds and sesame seeds in luke warm water. 
3. Marinate the fish pieces with a little turmeric powder , salt and a few drops of oil.
4. Blend the mustard seeds , sesame seeds and one green chilly with little water till it forms a smooth paste.
5. Heat oil in a kadhai(a cooking utensil that resembles a wok), and shallow fry the fish pieces. They should not be over done.
6. Remove the fish in a paper towel. The oil in the kadhai is used for the gravy.
7. In the kadhai, add nigella seed and dried red chilly, as it start spattering add the smooth paste and cook.
8. As the oil start separating out, add warm water , fresh red chilly and chopped spinach. Cover and cook in low flame.
9. After 5 min, add the fried fish pieces. Add salt as per taste and cover again. Cook for 7-8 min.
10. Uncover and cook for 10 min more so that excess water is evaporated.

I had a great celebration with a dish that reminds of home, now time to start packing the bags .