Pumpkin – Red Bell Pepper Soup and Pesto Rolls

The rains, they have arrived in our part of the world. The last few weeks have been the most gorgeous weather. To celebrate this, I am posting a nice recipe for a simple soup and some fabulous pesto rolls.  Nupur’s BB#4: Whats lurking in your kitchen made me look at my fridge with renewed interest and even tho the last date for entries is over, with the amount of stuff i have hoarded both in the fridge and the pantry, i will be continuing to cook for the next couple of weeks with ingredients already here.

OK enough now… onto the recipe….

For the Pesto Rolls, the recipe inspiration was from these gorgeous rolls. So the pesto sauce is the same that i used for the Spaghetti. And of course I had to make changes to the recipe for the roll. Swapping the All purpose Flour with whole wheat etc. I also skipped the cheese (I know cheese makes everything more awesome, but really, I do not need cheese in my life… not at this point).

For the Pesto Rolls (makes 24 small rolls)

1/2 Cup Pesto from this recipe

3 cups flour, you can use All Purpose, I used 2 cups Whole Wheat and 1 Cup APF

1 teaspoon dried yeast

1 cup water (warm)

1/2 cup milk (warm)

1 teaspoon sugar

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix together the sugar, water and milk. Add the yeast, mix well and leave it on the counter top to bloom (about 15-30 mins). in a large bowl, add the flours, salt and mix. Add the milk- water mix and knead to a smooth dough. You can also do this in a food processor. Oil a bowl with the olive oil and place this dough in the bowl, turn to coat with the oil and cover and set aside till it doubles in size, about 1 hr.

Punch the dough down and knead it for 2-3 minutes till it is nice and elastic. divide into two large portions and shape into a ball rolling it between your palms.

Flour a clean rolling surface with a little bit of dry flour. I use my stone counter top. With a rolling pin, roll out to a 1/4th of an inch thickness. you can roll into a rectangular shape, i just rolled it out round.

Spread the pesto with a blunt knife in a thin even layer. Pick up one end of the dough and roll it into a spiral. with both your palms, make a roll like a swiss roll. gently move it onto a chopping board and slice into 11/2 inch pieces. (they can be frozen at this point and baked straight out of the freezer when needed) Place on a baking tray and leave them to rise for about 45 minutes.

Preheat an oven to 375degrees F and bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. When done and still hot, brush with some melted butter. I shaped a few into croissants just for fun and ended up with about 24 small rolls. enjoy while still warm with a hot bowl of soup.

Pumpkin and Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup (serves 3)

1 medium sized red bell pepper

1 cup yellow pumpkin,skinned and cubed

1 medium red onion, chopped

1 ripe red tomato, chopped

1 teablespoon olive oil or butter

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1/2 cup of milk (i used skimmed milk)

Roast the Red bell pepper on and open flame till charred, keep it in a tightly closed container (or a zip lock bag) to sweat. scrape off the charred skin, seeds and stalk and chop up the flesh into small pieces.

Heat the butter/ oil in a pressure cooker. Add the chopped garlic and saute till aromatic. Add the chopped onions, pumpkin pieces and saute for 2 minutes. Add the chopped tomato and red bell peppers, salt and 3 cups of hot water and pressure cook for 2 whistles. When the pressure releases, open the cooker, pour into the blender jar and pulse till everything is incorporated. Strain with a soup strainer to remove the skins of tomato etc. pour it back into the pressure cooker, add the milk , oregano and pepper and heat through, stirring constantly. Taste to check for seasoning and adjust. Serve hot or cold.

Back to the Pavilion and some comforting Noodle Soup

It was a superb impromptu vacation. To see a part of the country you didn’t know what to expect from. It was so wonderful and exciting, that i even forgot to fuss over turning a year older!! We had a lovely time, i came back with fabulous memories, a tonne of photographs, the joy of having met a dear friend and gratitude for my namesake who graciously opened her home to K and me. Also came back with severe sun burn (the skin on my neck is still peeling) and K is a little under the weather! I hope to blog about all the places we saw in a while. for now, let me just say, much as i had a fabulous time, coming back home after literally sleeping in a new bed each night was so wonderful!

For now, since K is down with a cold and little bit of fever post this hectic trip and the weather in Hyderabad has pleasantly cooled off to welcome the not so heavy rains, i decided to make a simple vegetable soup / broth with noodles. i never quite liked chicken soup even when i was a meat eater, preferring to have the vegetable version of it always. now that i am vegetarian, i am a little  amazed at the flavours the soup takes on. I’d like to feed this soup to all those people who think vegetables and particularly soup made from them will only be tasteless.

Noodle Soup

This is a real easy and simple soup and can be made with any veggies you may have at hand. Plus its kind of like and open and shut case. Just toss everything you need into a pot (I used a pressure cooker), let it all cook and simmer for 15-20 minutes while you go and refresh yourself after a hard day’s labour and dinner is ready!

Noodle Soup (Ingredients make for 2 Large servings)

1/2 cup diced onion

1 cup ripe tomatoes, diced

1 cup vegetables of choice (i used florets of cauliflower and diced carrots)

21/2 cups water

salt to taste

1/2 tsp butter or olive oil

1/2 tsp finely chopped ginger and garlic

5-6 black peppercorns, crushed

6-7 fresh mint leaves, chopped

1 cup cooked noodles, i used the flat instant variety

method: heat the pressure pan and add the butter / olive oil. add the onions and other veggies and saute till the onions are just changing colour. add the ginger and garlic and saute another few seconds. add the tomatoes, water, crushed pepper and salt to taste. cover and cook till the vegetables are just cooked. i cooked it under pressure for one whistle.

open the cooker and check for seasoning. add the cooked noodles, add the chopped mint leaves and simmer about 2-3 minutes. Serve hot.

If you want more liquid and less noodles, adjust accordingly.

Keerai Molagootal

 

When I married K, I didnt think much of the cultural differences between us…. it was such a non issue….the small fact that we must have grown up eating food that was chalk and cheese didnt even cross my mind…when people ask me how i ‘adjusted to the food and all”, i look at them with what seems to me like a look telling them “i dont really know what you mean” ….

For one, i love the food that his mom makes…. at first bite, i was hooked…whats not to like about food that’s yummy and wholesome? i was struck by how simple and yet tasty the preparations were…. the food we ate at home was so different from what he ate…. we cant cook without ginger garlic paste, onions and an assortment of wet and dry masala…. amma(mine) will sneak in a little coconut into everything that she makes….amma (k’s) will finish cooking even before my eyelids open wide, onion and garlic are major no no’s and there’s a fixed combination of what goes with what…..

naturally, i have my own style of cooking…what works for me is simple, quick and fuss free….no long drawn roasting and frying and grinding and all that…. what i mostly cook is a marriage of taste and convenience…and it works like a charm for me…..

Keerai Molagootal is one such traditional Palakkad Iyer dish that had me hooked… its a simple to make dish and is flavourful. it also is full of all the nutrients that spinach brings and includes proteins from the dal. Though I’ll admit it did take a while to get used to the unselfconscious green on my plate!! This goes great with Steamed rice and Avial. It is also a good accompaniment with rotis.

The return of Recycle Rani – Rasam Soup

The picture is a bit hazy….but the flavours of this one are anything but!! they are full bodied!!

For k, rasam is “sick food” to be had when you are really under the weather…..and for me….i can eat rasam and rice practivally every day…..problem is on the rare occasions that I make rasam, it remains in the fridge for a couple of days…..even in the smallest of quantities, I cant seem to finish it…..and my loathing for wasteage is legendary………a couple of things from the pantry and I was slurping on the most surprisingly wonderful soup!!

I don’t think this will be made again only if I have some leftover rasam for the soup…..with some rasam powder on hand, this can be whipped up anytime…..and with the rains coming on full blast here…..this is perfect food for this time of the year…throw in some boiled pasta…or pair it with some crusty bread….and dinner is served!!

Tomato and noodle soup

Pleasantly chill winter nights call for special warmer called soups……….i never thought i was a soup person…. I mean I used to sip my Cantonese soup on my by now scalded tongue every time we went out for Chinese (which was about twice a year) only because it was the tradition to have a soup before the main course (of chow mien…yay!!) and because that’s the way my parents had ordered the food….it wasn’t until many years later that I found out that there were many countries other than china that had soup as part of their meal….naturally I took my time discovering soups and they are still my favourite diet food, also my recovering from a bad cold or high fever food…..they’re also my quick fix for a fuss free meal when I have to feed only myself for dinner food…..ok let me rephrase….. for a not so regular soupy person, I turn to them for warmth and comfort that only soup can give you……………and in the last few years, rarely have they failed me….. this then is a typical no nonsense easy to put together tomato soup, with some noodles thrown in to up the carbohydrate quotient. Simple and filling and great for a chilly evening and my hips are surely saying thank you tonite!!

cooking for one…….noodles with soup

With K declaring he had a dinner meeting which meant he wouldn’t be gracing the dinner table with me in tow, I was wondering what to rustle up for a quick meal……….every once in a long while, this happens. And am sure I am not alone in what I feel………sometimes cooking for one is more difficult than eating alone!! As I rode up in the lift I tried to think of what leftovers I could make do with, came up with nothing…the fridge, for the first time this month has nestled no leftovers!! The rain since afternoon, now down to a drizzle gave me an idea…….i smiled and as soon as I unlocked the door, kicked off sandals and put away handbag I walked into the kitchen. I decided to play the “how soon can you serve yourself a decent dinner” game…the fact that I was famished helped a great deal. My fix was simple, yet filling and I must add delicious (even if I not so graciously am saying it myself!!). I cooked some Hakka noodles into my creamy mushroom soup instant mix from Knorr soups. I’m not a fan of preserved food. i haven’t eaten too many ready to eat meals either. even stuff like soup and pasta, i like to make from the basic ingredients. but i do stock a few packets of soups for emergencies and hunger striking in the middle of one of our favorite weekend indulgences of watching movies till the morning!! also with K being severely kitchen challenged, i need a back up if i fall ill. but more often than not, i hurriedly use up this stuff when i realise i have been hoarding in vain and the expiry date is approaching rapidly. In less than 12 minutes I sat down to some TV and a dinner that left me very satisfied. Of the 12 minutes, 2 minutes were spent clicking photographs!! never mind the monochromatic colour of the soup, i thought i’d add a dash of colour with the i used a kitchen cloth my mom gave me even if hearts aren’t really my favorite motif!!In fact this quick dinner allowed me the time to not only post this one but I actually overcame my techno phobia and figured out how to upload the pictures I had taken of the baby aloos with kalonji from my phone too!!