Healthy Soup

          December is here and there is a nip in air. You long for something hot and soothing for your taste buds. You try out different kinds of soups, which will make you feel warm.

This soup is a changed version of famous and all-time favorite Monchow soup. This soup contains lots of veggies and oats and is filling and soothing too especially since this weather brings in cold and cough and you just long for some warm soups…

So here is list of ingredients.

Time for preparation : 30 min

Serves : 2 people

Ingredients :

2 cups finely chopped mixed vegetables (broccoli/cauliflower, cabbage, French beans, carrot, mushroom, baby corn/American corn, bell peppers green/red/yellow)

1 tomato – finely chopped

1 large onion – finely chopped

1 tablespoon garlic – finely chopped

1 tablespoon grated ginger

1 green chilli finely chopped (optional)

1 tablespoon dried or fresh herbs like basil, oregano, thyme, sage or just coriander leaves will do

1 tablespoon oil or butter

1 cup plain oats or masala oats

Salt and black pepper powder to taste

Method :

1.     In a thick bottom pan add the oil/butter.

2.   Sauté ginger, garlic and onion till translucent.

3.   Add the chopped veggies and tomato.

4.   Sauté for a minute.

5.    Add 1 litre water, salt and herbs and let it come to boil.

6.   Add the oats and mix well and cover the pan and let it cook till all veggies are cooked.

7.    Adjust the salt, add pepper powder.

8.   Serve hot.

Hot n yummy soup.... 

PS : I am not a good at clicking snaps, one might not find the pic tempting but I can assure you one thing you will definately love the soup...

Notes:

• If not broccoli you can use normal cauliflower.
• If you don’t like oats in your soup, you can avoid adding it while cooking.
• Now-a-days lots of flavored oats are available in market; you can use it instead of normal, plain oats. It will also give different flavor to the soup.
• If you don’t have fresh herbs you can add dried herbs or just add coriander and mint leaves.
• Instead of onion you can use spring onions also with its green leaves.

  

Enjoy cooking… Enjoy winter J

Stuffed Capsicum

          Diwali festive are over … you have stuffed yourself with all the ghee loaded sugar-loaded sweets and now you crave for some spicy but non greasy stuff.

          Here is an easy and non-greasy recipe of stuffed capsicum which can either be baked in an OTG or roasted in a kadai. This is a recipe handed down from my Aayi so it’s a traditional one. And it is made from ingredients easily available at home so you don’t have to rush to buy the ingredients.

Cooking time 10 min

Total time 20 min

Ingredients

½ kg Small sized capsicum

½ grated coconut

1 cup chopped coriander leaves

¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

Red chilli powder to taste

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoon oil + oil for greasing

1 lemon juice

Besan / chickpea flour 1 cup or as required

Method

• Buy capsicums, which are small in size and has flat bottom so that they can stand on their bottom J
  
  
• Cut the uppermost part but retain it with stalks so as it can be used as lid
• Clear inside of seeds and white strings.
• Lightly cover it with oil inside out and keep it aside.
• Mix coconut, chopped coriander, lemon, salt, sugar, turmeric, red chilli powder and 2 teaspoon oil.
• Add besan 1 spoon at a time till it forms a homogenous mixture.
• The mixture should be sticky but not forming a lump.
  
  
  
• DON’T ADD WATER.
• Stuff this mixture in the capsicum and place the cut lids on top of it.

                         

• Pre heat the oven for 10 min at 180’C
• Place these stuffed capsicum on a greased pan and bake for 10 min or till all the sides are roasted.
• Serve hot.

Happy Baking J

FAASOS - review

“Rocky and Mayur have ventured out to explore food from all parts of India and curate videos on Askme.com  I'm contributing my part by relishing my favorite dishes at Faasos and sharing my views with you all!”

          Now-a-days, people like to experiment with food. Everyone is a foodie now. Everyone wants to tickle their taste buds with different flavours and cuisine. With a new restaurant springing up every day in every nook and corner, restaurants charging a bomb and people becoming health conscious, it becomes a very difficult choice of where to eat out. But since now-a-days everyone is hooked to their smartphones and rely on various apps from shopping to booking tickets why ordering food from restaurants should be left behind?

          So recently I came to know of Faasos app, and last week when I had little energy left to cook after a very hard day I decided to try out their food by ordering from app.

          And I was not disappointed. Their app promises exciting meal options ranging from breakfasts, full meals, snacks, desserts… you name it. They also have special menu for the day. Since I was ordering for 1^st time I was bit skeptical on what to order, how the taste will be etc. 

          So I booked a value combo meal of wraps and rice. Immediately I got an email confirmation of meals booked and the total bill amount to be paid. Plus their app also indicates total amount of time before the food is delivered at our doorstep, etc. Though the estimated time for delivery was nearly an hour, my food arrived well before the stipulated time. Even their packing of food was neat and well thought of, easy to carry when on move without tension of spillage of oil or gravy.

          And the food… yummy… The wraps; soft and spicy paneer wrapped in soft rotis and the rice; long grained rice cooked to perfections with paneer and gravy. It was heaven. And for health conscious people, let me tell you, their wraps were not oily or greasy as we usually get.

       

   I loved their food, their service and also their app on which they keep updating their daily menus and special deals of the day. Will surely love to order again from Faasos and would love to recommend to you all atleast try out once and you won’t be disappointed.

          

Tomato Gojju (chutney)

          This recipe is one life saver for me and to most of us south Indians. It’s the most versatile recipe I ever came across. It can be used to mix with rice or can be used as an accompaniment for chapatti, dosas and idlis, or as a dip or as a side dish too.

          I never knew of this dish until my hubby started to travel. That’s when I came across this dish and got the recipe from 1 of my family friend. After many trial and errors, now I make it with some minor changes to suit our palette.

Preparation time: 15 mins

Cooking time: approx. 1 hour

Ingredients

Tomato 1 kg

Oil ½ cup

Curry leaves 2-3 springs

Mustard seeds 1 teaspoon

Cumin / jeera 1 teaspoon

Chana dal 1 teaspoon

Udad dal 1 teaspoon

Groundnuts a handful

Methi seeds 1 teaspoon

Saunf ½ teaspoon

Haldi – a pinch

Red chilli powder

Sambhar powder 1 tablespoon

Salt to taste

Little bit of jaggery

Grated ginger 1 tablespoon

Chopped green chillies 1 tablespoon

Hing

1. Wash nicely all tomatoes and pat dry all the moisture.
2. Remove the eye part (stalk) of the tomatoes and roughly chop them.
3. In a thick bottom pan or non-stick kadai, pour in the oil.
4. Add mustard seeds, after it starts to splutter, add cumin and curry leaves.
   
   
   
5. Then add the chana dal and udad dal along with groundnut. Fry till it changes its colour.
6. Add methi, saunf, hing.
7. Then add ginger and chillies, fry till they lose their raw flavor.
8. Add the tomatoes and roast a bit.
   
9. Add the salt so that it leaves moisture and it becomes easy to cook.
10. DON’T ADD WATER.
11. Add salt to taste, haldi, red chilli powder and sambhar masala powder. Mix well.
12. Cover and allow it to cook.
13. After the tomatoes are half done adjust the seasoning, and mash them with the back of the ladle so that it becomes mushy and paste like.
14. Add the jaggery.
    
15. Cook well till the oil floats at the top.
16. Allow it to cool before you store it in a clean glass bottle.
17. It can be stored in fridge for early 15-20 days.

Note:

• If you like you can finely chop the tomatoes or puree them.
• You can add red chilli powder according to your taste.
• You can increase or decrease the quantity of the dals and groundnut depending on your liking.
• You can avoid adding any of dals if you don’t like the taste, similar with saunf.
• DON’T ADD WATER. Then the chutney can't be stored for long.
• You can use refine oil or olive oil for this dish.
• The oil acts as preservative for this dish which helps in storage for long time.

Happy cooking :-)

Homemade Gadbad Icecream

          Summer is all about ice creams, fruit juices, fruit salads, coolers and fresh seasonal fruits.

          After lunch or dinner we usually like to gorge on mangoes or litchis or jackfruit or desserts prepared from them especially ice-creams. In summer, lunch or dinner is not ended till you slurp down a bowl of ice-cream.

          This ice-cream is very popular in coastal area of Karnataka, originally from Udupi-Mangalore, this dish is one mouthful or should I say stomach full. As a kid whenever I used to visit Udupi, we had a compulsory rule to visit to Kamat Ice-cream or Diana or when in Mangalore, it used to be Ideal ice-cream to gobble down this heavenly delight. This is the 1^st time I tried it at home, and it was a success. So here is the recipe of the Famous Gadbad Ice-cream.

Ingredients (for 2 people)

1 cup finely chopped fruits (banana, mango, apple, chikko, pineapple)

¼ cup nuts (pista, cashew, badam)

¼ cup coloured tutti frutti and raisins

2 cherries

2 scoop vanilla ice cream

2 scoop mango ice cream

2 scoop strawberry or pineapple ice-cream

¼ cup vanilla custard

¼ cup orange jelly

2 tablespoon rose syrup

Gather all ingredients

• Follow the instructions given on the pack for making the custard and jelly.

Set Jelly

•  You can make ice-cream at home or get from outside. You can get my ice-cream recipe here.
• All above two steps can be made n kept in fridge 1 day in advance.
• Finely chop the fruits of your choice and keep aside. Avoid citrus or watery fruits like orange or plum. (I had used plum, but since it gets too watery its better not to add).

Chopped fruits and nuts

• Soak the nuts for 1 hour in warm water so the skin can be easily peeled.
• Finely slice the nuts and keep aside.
• Next mammoth step is assembling the dish.
• Take 2 tall glasses (since I am written down ingredients for 2 people, you can take as many glasses you want).
• Bottom-most layer is chopped fruits, followed by a layer of jelly.

• Next layer is of 1 scoop of strawberry ice-cream.

• Sprinkle some nuts on ice-cream.
  
  
• Place 1 scoop of mango ice-cream on top, followed by a tutti frutti and little bit of custard.

• Topmost layer is a scoop of vanilla ice-cream with a little drizzle of rose syrup with a cherry on top.

• Pheww… gadbad ice-cream is ready to slurp.

The Final result - yummy Gadbad icecream

Enjoy :-) 

Kadgi Chakko (Jackfruit subji)

         In summer we all eagerly wait for summer fruits; mangoes, jackfruit, cashew etc. While travelling through the coastal route you can smell the awesome sweet smell of cashew and mango flowers blooming, you see jackfruit trees laden with small jack-fruits which when ripe is full of sweet flesh.

          We always associate fruits with sweet dishes or desserts, but we can also make savoury dishes from them, especially when raw fruits are used. For example tender cashew is added in sprouted moong curry or tendli ki subji. We make chutneys from raw mangoes. Similarly, we in Udupi-Mangalore make a dish from tender jackfruit which is called Kadgi Chakko. Kadgi means tender jackfruit. This is a typical Konkani dish made in every household. 

Ingredients

½ kg raw jackfruit

10-12 bedgi red chillies

1 cup coconut

1 tablespoon dania seeds

2 teaspoon udad dal

2 teaspoon methi seeds

Tamarind – size of lemon

Salt to taste

Hing or asafoetida – ½ teaspoon

Curry leaves – 2 strings

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

2-3 dried kokum

1 cup oil

1 tablespoon jaggery/gul

• 1^st step is to remove the prickly outer skin and inner sticky core.

Inner core (the triangle part has to be removed)

• Cut jackfruit into medium size pieces.

• Steam the pieces in cooker, with little bit of water maybe ¼ cup, upto 3 whistles.
• In 1 teaspoon oil, roast 1 teaspoon of udad dal and methi seeds till brown and keep aside.

• Masala: grind coconut, 8 – 10 red chillies, dania seeds, tamarind without adding water. Make a coarse powder. Add the roasted udad dal , methi, along with hing, salt to taste and jaggery and grind it.
• Smear the paste to the boiled jackfruit and keep aside for 10 minutes.

• In a non-stick kadai or hard bottom kadai take 1 cup oil (this is not for health conscious, weak hearted people).
• Add the remaining udad dal and methi.
• When they start turning brown, add mustard seeds.

• After they splutter, add hing, curry leaves, broken red chillies and fry a bit on medium heat.
• Add the dried kokum and the masala smeared jackfruit.
• Stir nicely but with a delicated hand, least all gets mushed up.

• Cook nicely with occasional stirring else it will get struck at bottom and get burnt.
• Cook till oil starts to leave sides.

• Serve hot with pulkas or chapatti. Some like to eat it alone or best combination is hot steamy rice with dalli toy and kadgi chakko… yumm.

Note:

1. This dish, when cooked with more quantity of oil, stays for 2-3 days without getting spoiled and tastes better with each passing day.
2. While getting jack fruit, make sure that jackfruit is neither totally ripe nor tender. The flesh inside should be creamy in colour with seeds formed though not fully developed.
3. Some like it fully mashed up, others like to get chunks of it while eating. So mashing it fully or keeping pieces of it is up to you.