Corn and Fire Roasted Poblano Soup

This soup was a revelation. It was just one of those things that I put together after googling what I had in my fridge. This is a simple soup and a little different from the other corn soups out there. But it packs a punch.

Recipe

1 onion finely diced

3 to 4 cloves garlic chopped fine

1 pack frozen corn kernels (use fresh if you can)

4 cups milk

3 poblano peppers ( 2 if you like it milder)

32 oz vegetable broth broth

1 tbs butter ( just enough to cook the onions)

salt and pepper to taste

Roast the poblano peppers over a flame. When they are blackened completely put them in an air tight container and close the lid. The steam from the poblano peppers helps loosen the charred skin from the pepper. After 15 minutes or so open the containers and remove the charred parts from the poblano peppers. Chop the peppers into a fine dice.

Defrost the corn kernels and put them into a blender along with the milk. Blend thoroughly

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and add the chopped onion. Stir and cook till they start becoming translucent and then add the garlic. Cook this for 2 to 3 more minutes. Add the corn and milk mixture to this pot along with the broth. Add the chopped poblano peppers. Cook this mixture on a medium flame for about 30 or more minutes till you the corn is cooked and you get a thicker creamy consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste. Since we use a lot of broth in this soup it is best to add the salt in the end so we can control the total amount of salt in the soup.

This soup definitely taste better on the second day. The poblano peppers need some time to really permeate through the soup. But when they do this is a very satisfying and very rich tasting soup. Perfect for this chilly weather we have been having.

Orange Gin and Tonic

A couple of months ago a bushel of oranges and a large bottle of cheap gin happened in my kitchen at the same time. Alright so it wasn't a bushel more like half a dozen but it is such a cool word. And I was still in my infuse stage. So the bottle gin went into a jar with 5 oranges cut into 8s. It remained there for a week and then the gin was filtered into a air tight jar.

Fast forward to this 8:30 p.m Saturday and husband was in kitchen with a craving for cocktails. And 30 minutes later I was sitting down with Orange gin and tonic and some fresh bruschetta. The bruschetta was made with some fresh pesto from the last of our basil plant and some home made rosemary bread. The drink was just one past orange infused gin with two parts tonic and was perfect.

Recipe

1 part Orange infused gin

2 parts tonic water

Add to glass. Chuck some ice in, stir and enjoy.

Vegetarian Soondubu Jjigae

Korean food is a relatively recent find for me and from the very beginning it has been like love. Korean food like Indian food is served piping hot especially the jjigae. Soondubu Jjigae named after the special soft tofu that is used in this soup is a very popular Korean dish. However it is not a very vegetarian friendly dish. In the sense that even in the very diverse Korean street in NYC the vegetarian soondubu jjigae was nothing like the fiery cauldron that the regular jjigae.

This altered vegetarian version however is a big improvement and is delicious.

Recipe

6 to 10 dried shitake mushrooms

2 smallish zucchinis

half a onion

2 to 3 cloves garlic

a packet of soon tofu

3 tbsp Korean chili powder

2 large chili pepper ( these are not the very spicy variety of pepper. For more about the chili peppers refer here.)

1 packet of beach mushrooms

1 tbsp mushroom sauce

1 green onion

salt to taste

The process starts with making stalk. Take 5 cups of water , add the dried shitake mushrooms, onion and garlic. Just peel the onion and garlic and add them to the water so it is easy to fish them out later. You could also add dried kelp. I avoid kelp since my husband is not a big fan of the flavor. Boil the mixture to make stalk. Filter the water and take out and reserve the dried shitake mushrooms.

In a large sauce pot, add 1 tsp oil. To this add the red chili powder. Slice the now boiled shitake mushrooms that you had reserved from the stalk making and add it to the pot. Let cook for a minute and then add the squash and the stalk. Add salt and mushroom sauce. Let the mixture boil for 5 minutes. You can also use any other vegetables that you may want. Add the beach mushrooms and the soon tofu. Let boil for 5 more minutes. Add sliced green chilies, green onion. Crack two eggs and add them a few minutes before serving and allow the egg to cook in the mixture. The eggs are optional and the jjigae taste very good without the eggs also.

Another optional thing is a little bit of sesame oil just before you turn off the flame.

Eat piping hot with rice and banchan.

Green Tomato Thokku

Irene came and left us relatively unscathed. While I am very grateful that a storm that inflicted so much damage on so many people was so kind to us I was a little upset with the damages to my small patio garden. All the moving around of the large tomato, eggplant and pepper plants let to many broken branches and a bunch of produce that is too small, too green, too raw.

So long story short I found myself with quite a few green tomatoes. I was not sure how to use these. I tried adding them in stir fries, soups etc but it was not working for me. Green tomatoes have a nice tart flavour that is not disguised in stir fries.

Yesterday I had a brainwave about how I would like to use these tomatoes. What I was doing wrong was trying to mask the tartness of the green tomatoes. What I should do instead is celebrate them. So I made a green tomato thokku. This is a Indian spicy chutney that is eaten with rice and curd and is normally made with raw mangoes. And green tomatoes was the perfect substitute. They were firm enough to stand up to grating. The thokku was tart and very flavourful.

Recipe

4 large green tomatoes

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

2 tbsp til oil

a couple of pinches of asfoetida

1/2 tsp turmeric

salt to taste

3 tsp red chili powder (adjust to taste since this quantity will vary drastically based on chili powder used and your own preferences)

Grate the green tomatoes. Heat 2 tbsp til oil in pan. When oil is hot add the mustard seeds and watch them splutter. Add the asfoetida and turmeric. Add the grated green tomatoes. Add salt and let the green tomatoes cook on a low flame. Cook until all the liquid is absorbed and the oil forms a nice coating over the green tomatoes. Add the chili powder. Taste, adjust seasoning (chili powder and salt) and cook for a few more minutes.

Cook and store in a bottle in the refrigerator. Enjoy.

Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is one my favourite cakes and since it has been some time since I baked cakes I decided to stick with a basic, popular recipe found here. It is not the moistest cake but it is a relatively healthy cake that I do not feel too guilty about putting away in slightly larger than usual quantities.

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup cake flour

1/2 cup sugar ( I could not find brown sugar so I used white sugar instead. In the past I have used brown sugar and there is a definite difference in taste and if I had it I would have used brown sugar)

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups grated carrot

1 1/2 tbsp molasses

2 eggs

Juice from 1 orange

zest from 1 orange

handful of raisins

handful of chopped walnuts

1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Mix all the dry ingredients together. Add the carrot, eggs, molasses, juice, zest, vanilla essence and oil to the mixture. Mix until the mixture is uniform. Add the raisins and walnuts and stir until they are distributed throughout the mixture. Preheat the oven at 350 F. Grease a 9 inch cake pan and pour the batter into it. Spread if necessary and make sure the mixture is level. Bake in oven for 1 hr and 10 minutes till a knife inserted in the cake comes out clean.

I have been making a host of "relatively healthy" desserts since I find myself eating more and more sweets.

Zucchini Fritters

It is squash season. In addition to the zucchini that my single zucchini plant puts out husband also brought home some giant zucchinis from work that one of colleagues grows in his backyard. And so I have made a list of zucchini recipes I need to try. One of the top things on my list was zucchini fritters.

One of my fondest childhood memories are my mothers deep fried cutlets. Some weekends we would wake up from our naps to the sound of these potato cutlets stuffed with peas, onion and carrots sizzling in oil. My mother would form oval cutlets dip them in bread crumbs and deep fry them until they were just past golden brown. We had far more of these than was good for us.

So this weekend armed with a fridge full of zucchini and a slower metabolism I found this recipe for skinny zucchini fritters.


My version left out the Parmesan and a lot of the spices since I wanted to keep the flavors simple.


Recipe for Zucchini Fritters

1 very large zucchini grated.
1 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp dried basil
salt to taste
1tsp paprika ( depending on how spicy your paprika is add to taste)
2 tbsp egg white

Grate the zucchini with the peel on. Collect in a paper towel and squeeze to remove all the excess water. Place this grated zucchini in a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix and get ready to make fritters.

Shape into fritters.


Shallow fry in a pan on both side. I used my cast iron skillet for this and crust on these was perfect.



Eat with favorite dipping sauce. Lie back with a full stomach and take a nap.

Basil Vodka

I love basil. It is my favorite herb by a stretch. It is a party in my mouth just by itself.



I like to water my plants in the morning when the weather is mild and the air is still kind of crisp. Plants esp herbs let out a pocket of scent as you water them and the fresh air of the morning is the perfect backdrop. Basil followed by rosemary are the loveliest scents in my garden. I am a relatively new gardener and the first time this happened while I was watering my plants it made me smile for an hour.

But I digress. So I have two pots of sweet basil, one pot of Thai basil, a couple of assorted window boxes of lime basil and Genovese basil. So what do you do when you have tons of basil and a taste for languid, chatty evenings with the husband with a glass in hand.

Basil Vodka!!!



This bottle of vodka made the most lovely martini I have ever had.

Recipe for Basil Vodka

1 cup of packed sweet basil leaves ( Any other type of basil will also work and lend its specific flavour to the vodka. Its basil, you can't go wrong)
a small bottle of vodka

I used a glass container and placed the basil leaves at the bottom. Pour the vodka over it and cover. Keep this container in a place with cool spot with low light. After 24 hours filter and pour the vodka back into the bottle. Keep this bottle away for a week or more away from direct sunlight as the flavors develop.



Enjoy basil vodka. Drink responsibly and do not drink and drive. :) In fact this is a good reason to stay home cos a martini with this vodka will beat any martini at the local bar.