Veg Puff pastry

I have previously posted Egg puff recipe. A slight modification to it is its veg counterpart. It involves the same pepperidge farm's puff pastry sheets which need to be thawed for about 40mins at room temperature before using.

Ingredients:
4 Boiled and cubed potatoes
1/2 onion finely chopped
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp coriander powder
1 green chili finely chopped
1 tsp turmeric (optional)
1/2 inch ginger finely chopped

Salt and more chili powder as per taste

Method:
Heat oil in a saucepan and saute the onions, followed by rest of the spices. Add potatoes,salt and stir well. Turn of the heat and let it rest for a bit.

Take the pastry sheets thawed at room temperature for 40 mins, cut 1 sheet into 6 equal squares. Put the potato stuffing in the center of each square and fold them to cover all the stuffing. Bake in oven at 375 for about 40 mins or until they turn golden brown.

You could add more vegetables like mushrooms, beans, peas and corn to the vegetable stuffing. I didn't have anything extra with me so I kept it simple.

Peach Pie

Pies always looked complicated to me, with all the fancy crust and the delicious filling, I thought of it as something only professional bakers could pull. But then I ran into this recipe in a cook book which looked pretty doable to me. So here it goes..

Ingredients for crust:
2 cups of flour
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup milk
pinch of salt

Ingredients for filling
4cups peeled and sliced peaches(I thawed my frozen peaches)
1/4th cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
5 tbsp sliced butter
1 tbsp flour

Method:
Knead together the ingredients for the crust and make a pliable dough. Divide the dough into 2 balls. Roll the balls into sheets to line your baking pan, this will make the crusts for your pie.

Place one sheet in your baking pan and spoon peaches on it. Reserve a tbsp of sugar and sprinkle the rest on the peaches. Next sprinkle all of the cinnamon and top it with slices of butter and 1 tbsp of flour. Place the other sheet on top of this and pinch the ends of the 2 sheets together to seal the filling in between the 2 sheets.
Sprinkle the reserved 1 tbsp of sugar on top. Using a fork poke holes on top of the pie.
Bake at 350F for about 55mins or until you see the pie crust turning golden brown.

Strawberry preserve

I didnt know making preserves would be so easy. We recently bought a lot of strawberries(25lbs) from the local farm. I froze all of it except for about 1 lb that I used for making the jam.

Though the original recipe requires a lot of sugar,about double the quantity of berries you use, I used just 1/3rd. The result was the preserve didn't set well.. it ended up slightly runny. Which didn't bother either of us. Also the natural sugar in the strawberries gave it the perfect sweetness. We have loved the preserve on our toasts and bagels so far. Yet to try it on some vanilla icecream.. :) yummmm..

Ingredients:

2 cups crushed strawberries
1 cup Sugar
3 FL oz pectin

Method:

1. Mix crushed strawberries and sugar into a bowl and set aside for 15 mins
2. In a pot boil water and pour the pectin, boil for another minute mixing thoroughly
3. Pour this mixture into the strawberry-sugar bowl and mix well.
4. Pour it into sterilized glass jars and let it stand at room temperature for 24 hours

You can store this preserve in the freezer for a long time. They have a shelf life of 1 month in the refrigerator, if it lasts that long that is :)

Cauliflower soup

Usually if the dish in front of you is yummy then you had probably assume that the cook spent a long time in the kitchen making this elaborate looking dish. Not always true! Especially with this cauliflower soup that I have here today. Its as simple as it can get, but it will keep people thanking you for the yummy food and appreciating all the effort you have put into it. Little do they know.. :)

Ingredients:
1 cauliflower head roughly chopped
1/2 cup onions chopped
4-5 sprigs of rosemary
3-4 stalks of celery (optional)
2 cups milk
4 cloves of garlic
1 granny smith apple peeled and diced for garnish
1 tbsp oil
salt and pepper for taste

Method:

Take 1 tbsp of oil in a pan and chopped onions, rosemary, garlic cloves. Followed by salt and pepper for taste.
Saute until onions becomes translucent and garlic cloves turn a golden brown.
Add cauliflower and celery, cover and let it cook through. Once the cauliflower is slightly mushy add milk and bring it to a boil. Turn off the heat and pass it thru a blender to make a coarse mixture.
Return it to the original vessel, warm it again and adjust salt+spices as per your liking.

Before serving add a tsp of the diced apples to each bowl. Alternately you could slightly fry the diced apple in butter before garnishing. I tried it with and without frying the apple but didn't notice a significant difference, so I skipped the frying business this time around.

Enjoy, the simple yet delicious soup!

Chocolate cake

Ingredients for the cake:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup fruit cake mix (optional)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp soda powder
1 egg
2 tbsp butter


Ingredients for the icing:
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method for cake:

1. Beat egg in a bowl, add butter followed by sugar and whisk so that the butter mixes well into the sugar and egg.
2. Add cocoa followed by fruit cake mix, milk,cocoa powder and again whisk.
3. Next add the flour little by little and keep whisking.
4. Finally mix in vanilla extract and soda powder
5. Pour this into a greased baking dish and bake at 350F for 30 mins or until a knife pierced through the cake comes out clean.

Chocolate Cake Icing:

In a bowl, whisk together all the Icing ingredients to make a thick paste and refrigerate for 15 mins or so. Once the cake cools down, apply icing on cake with a butter knife.

Let the icing set for a few minutes and then serve! Yumm...

Tri colored Vermicelli

Vermicelli is one of those dishes that is hassle free and gets ready in a jiffy. I spent 10 mins in the kitchen(including cooking time), awesome dish as a breakfast or an evening snack. A cup of hot tea to go along with it is a bonus. Tri-colored vermicelli gets its name from the 3 vegetables we use, namely peas, carrots and corn.


Ingredients:

1/4 cup of mixed vegetables - Peas, diced carrots and Corn (I used frozen)
1 cup vermicelli
1 cup water
2 tbsp oil
1 green chili chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp jeera seeds
1/4 tsp sugar
salt to taste
lemon for garnish

Method:

1. Lightly roast vermicelli in 1 tbsp of oil to get a golden brown color
2. In a separate pan heat a tbsp of oil and add mustard followed by jeera
3. Next add green chili and veggies, saute it a bit
4. Add water and let water boil.
5. Next add vermicelli and cook covered on a medium flame
6. Take off heat when done, garnish with a lemon wedge when serving.

Tomato Soup

Nothing can beat a bowl of warm Tomato soup when you are down with flu like symptoms. I followed this recipe I found online. I adapted it a bit to suit my sparse pantry and to keep the calorie count low. Here is my version, it tasted amazing!





Ingredients:
4 Tomatoes chopped
2 tbsp chopped onion
2 tbsp tomato sauce
1/2 inch of ginger chopped
2 cloves of garlic crushed
2 Bay leaves
1/4 cup of mint leaves
1/4 cup chopped carrots(I used frozen)
1/4 cup peas(I used frozen)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup water or veggie broth
1 cup 2% fat milk (or use cream instead)
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp olive oil
salt
pepper

Method:
1. Sprinkle salt, pepper(generously) and olive oil on the chopped onions,tomatoes and crushed garlic, roast it at 450 degrees for 15 minutes in the oven.
2. In a pan add butter and saute the ginger, followed by bay leaves, mint, carrot, peas and tomato paste.
3. Add water and cook the veggies for 10 mins
4. Once the veggies are cooked through add the roasted veggies and cook for 5 mins
5. Take off the heat and blend until smooth
6. Put the soup back in the pot, add milk and boil it one last time.

Serve hot with croutons or wheat thins!