Saturday, February 4, 2012

Mushroom soup

As my family's soup recipes are mostly non-veg based and somewhat more in south Indian fashion, I never had the confidence to prepare some fancy soup without proper recipe. The funny thing is I can bake without any hesitation but get confused when my hubby asks me for a restaurant style soup:) But my love for hearty warm soups always made me ask for recipes whenever I taste great soups. In course of time I learned a few. Last year I bought some books from the nearby library when they hosted a brown bag clearance sale. This soup book called 'Soups' written by Ms.Robin Howe, is one among them. It has many descriptions on choosing the herbs,stock making, ingredients and tips. I got this mushroom soup recipe from this book and made it in a lean version.


Ingedients: (2 cups)
Mushroom - 10 (fresh or canned)
(6.5 oz can / 200 gm with water)
onion - 1/4 cup
butter - 1 tbsp
salt - to taste
black pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
All purpose flour - 1 tbsp
milk - 1 cup

Method:
Heat a thick bottom vessel. Add the butter and onion.
Saute the finely chopped onion in butter.
After it gets soft, slide in the finely chopped mushroom.
Stir for a few seconds.
Then put the AP flour and fry for a minute.
Add 1 cup water and cook covered with salt.
After it reduces to half cup, pour a cup of milk and cook till it gets slightly thick.
Serve with a dash of black pepper powder.

Serving suggestions:
Serve hot with little fresh cream (optional).
If the soup seems thin, microwave a tbsp of Ap flour, mix it with 2 tbsp water and add to the soup. Then reheat again.

Original version:
mushroom - 1 lb
onion - 2
butter - 3 oz
chicken stock - 2 pints
milk - 1 1/4 cup
flour - 2 oz
cream - 1/4 pint
egg yolk - 2
salt, pepper - to taste

Method:
Prepare by the above method, but  puree 70% of mushroom after sauteing. Replace water by chicken stock.
For garnishing, saute remaining chopped mushrooms in butter and add.
Sprinkle a dash of paprika powder before serving.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Pistachio Kulfi ice cream

Kulfi can be called the king of 'Indian ice creams'. There are many variations like mango kulfi, pista kulfi, almond kulfi, semiya kulfi etc. In India , Kulfi ice creams are mostly made in molds resembling Popsicle and sold in a hand pulled truck. The kulfi makers use special equipments to make it from scratch (whole milk). But it is very difficult to try that procedure at home (for my skill level...hi..hi). So I made a kulfi using my simple recipe and still I got the perfect pista kulfi taste:)
I made this for '2011 Thanks giving day' and I was excited to see my friends loving it:)

Serve a cup of Pistachio kulfi ice cream after that special weekend lunch for your loved ones:)
Ice cream before freezing.

 Pistachio kulfi ice cream studded with a cherry .

To soak and grind:
Cashew nut - 10
pista (pistachio) - 10
cardamom seeds - 1.5 tsp
saffron - 3 strands

Other ingredients:
Pistachio nuts - 1 cup
Sweetened Condensed Milk - 14 oz can (400 gm)
fat free Whipped Topping 8 oz (225 gm) - 2 packs
green food color - 1 drop (optional)

Method:
Soak the above mentioned nuts overnight or for 8 hours and grind to a fine paste.
In a wok dry roast the pistachio nuts and chop it to small pieces. (Using a chopper for 1 pulse or very coarsely). Let it cool completely.
The whipped topping should be kept in refrigerator till we start using.
In a mixing bowl add the nuts paste, food color and Condensed milk . Mix well.
(Though the food color is optional, I got this color after adding a drop of green food color only. Till then it was pale beige in color).
Then blend in the coarsely chopped pista.
Now add the whipped topping and mix gently (too much mixing will make the ice cream hard).
Immediately transfer them to a freezer-safe lidded container.
Cover and freeze for 3-4 hours.

Creamy rich pista kulfi ice cream is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve as dessert.
Makes nearly 15 - 20 generous servings.
Before scooping, keep the ice cream in room temperature for 2 minutes to facilitate smooth handling.

Very simple version:
Also check out my short cut for kulfi flavored ice cream.

Alternate method:
(without whipped cream and condensed milk):
We can make this kulfi by altering my vanilla ice cream recipe too.

Chow chow Paruppu koottu and peel thogayal

Chow chow / Bangalore Kathirikai / Chayote  A dal curry paruppu koottu with chow chow and a spicy chutney using it's peel (chow chow tho...