SOUP | Saute Fry N Bake

Thai mushroom coconut soup

Preparation time : 10 minutes
Cooking time : 15 minutes
Serves : 4 – 6 members

Description

Thailand always relate’s to sun, light green sea, crowded, hot and traffic to me. It was one among the few countries I got to visit as a newly married 14 year old innocent girl. Days of being nothing, not knowing your likes, passion and mainly your own self. I remember eating Indian food through out the trip. So my knowledge of Thai food was nil until recent when I first got to try Thai red curry at a restaurant. I did try making Thai green curry at home later and that was it. My previous trip to London, my brother did take us out for dinner to a Thai restaurant named champor champor at Weston street. A cozy small eat out that served authentic Thai food. Everything we ordered was excellent. The soup sure did pop in my mind every now and then. So this recipe is just my interpretation of the soup I had there. Pretty close but yet to perfect the soup though. Tangy with the scent of lemon grass and the flavor of coconut milk sure makes you want to have more soup. Now the crazy part of how the world connects from a Thai dish had in London that is being tried out in a South Indian home and finally being shared to the world at large. Amazing isn’t it?

Ingredients	Quantity
Water	7 cups
Maggi stock cube	1
Lemon grass	1 stalk crushed
Lime leaves	2 thinly sliced ( leaves from the lemon plant )
Ginger	1/2 inch piece crushed to small bits
Red chilly	1 sliced
Mushrooms	10 sliced
Thick Coconut milk	1 cup
Salt	to taste
Fish sauce	1/4 teaspoon
Lime juice	1 tablespoon
Coriander leaves	few to garnish

Method

Boil water, stock cube, lemon grass, ginger and chilly together for five minutes.
Add sliced mushrooms and cook further until cooked.
Stir in thick coconut milk, fish sauce and lime juice. Continue cooking for another 3 minutes.
Taste and adjust seasoning and lime juice. Remove the lemon grass stalk.
Serve hot with a garnish of red chilly slices and chopped coriander leaves.

Notes

I used dried lemon grass stalks as fresh ones are not available at my home town. At times I do substitute with lemon rind as well but the flavor does differ.

Man-chow soup

Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Cooking Time : 30-35 minutes

Serving : 4 -5 members

Description

My every visit to Coimbatore in every two weeks once at least , my daughter Anisha makes sure to take me to mushrooming new eat outs there .like wise once , she ordered a take away from some chines restaurant for soup , starter to main course and sides . All ready to start our chines lunch , she served me man -chow soup that was a deep dark in colour with veggies , chicken and a thick slippery consistency . I hate thick soups , my vote goes to clear water like soups always . So as she served it to me I told no thank you but she forced me to give a try . She sprinkled few deep fried crisp noodles over and we both started our lunch with a slurp of soup . The first mouth full , I experienced all the possible textures , taste and flavours at one shoot . This soup did prove me wrong about thick soups and made me change my mind once for all . ( Uff , I at least had one think I didn’t like and now even that’s gone into the bin .. ) from that day I have been having the taste and aroma of the one bowl wonder soup haunting me every now and then . Made it on a cold rainy day for dinner as nothing offers comfort to an Cold day than a cauldron of soup bubbling away on the stove top , sharing the heat and aroma with you in the kitchen . Cold rainy days are the perfect time to enjoy a recipe to cosy up to a warm soothing bowl of hot soup and it vanished in seconds from the table

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
garlic	2 tablespoons chopped
Ginger	1 inch piece chopped
mushroom	1/2 cup sliced
Oil	2 tablespoons
capsicum	1/4 cup juliens
carrots	1/4 cup juliens
Beans	1/4 cup juliens
chicken	3/4 cup – minced
Stock or water	4 cups
light soya sauce	2 tea spoon
cornflour	1 teaspoon
salt and pepper	salt and pepper
Vinegar	1 teaspoon
ajinomoto	1/4 teaspoon ( optional )

Method

Heat oil add garlic , ginger and sauté till light brown .
Add all the vegetables , chicken and stock or water . Cook till vegetables and chicken are cooked .
Add soya sauce , vinegar , salt and pepper to taste ,ajinomoto and cornflour mixed with 2 tablespoon of water . Cook on low flame for 5 minutes stirring constantly .
Serve hot .
Vegetarians can omit chicken and can add celery and more leafy vegetable instead following the same recipe .

Ingredients for Fried Noodles

1 packet par boiled chinese eggnoodles Drained and Dried on a kitchen towel

Ingredients	Quantity
cornflour	1/4 cup
maida	1/4 cup
Salt	to taste
oil	to deep fry

Method to fry noodles

Mix cornflour , maida and salt to taste together .
Sprinkle over the boiled noodles and toss well making sure no moister is left on the noodles .
Heat oil to deep fry . Fry one cup noodles reducing the flame to medium to get crisp and golden colour noodles .
Drain in absorbant paper and repeat with the rest of noodles . To serve , place the fried noodles on a plate beside a hot bowl of soup as each individual can have more or less of the deep fried noodles per taste .
Usually the deep fried crisp noodles is crushed and sprinkled on top of the soup but I like more crisp noodles than just a sprinkle .

Vendakai paal curry

Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Cooking Time : 20-25 minutes

Serving : 3-4 members

Description

Vendakai paal Kari . A side dish very own to my hubby’s place which is simple , yet an inventive approach to cooking with focus on using local ingredients . Usually this side dish is served in most Muslim house holds through out the Nellai district with each house having their own twist and version to it . The basic of this dish is same by adding thin and thick extracts of the coconut but the other ingredients may vary and most households garnish with maasi ( Maldives dried fish powder ) here at hubby’s place they don’t add maasi . This dish is one among my favourite side dishes . Once my grand ma balkees perima ( dads mom ) had come to my hubby’s place to visit me on a two days trip . My grand mom being a fussy person about food and every thing around , I had to take extra care to satisfy her needs . She loves fish and fish is one among the best local produce that Nellai is best known for . Made fish curry with other side dishes for lunch , one being vendakai paal Kari . My fussy grand mom liked the vendakai paal Kari so much that she just could not stop raving about it in a hilarious way though !!!Well, who would have expected this simple lesser known but much more flavourful and interesting side dish would impress her taste buds to this extent . Till date this dish fills my mind with soaked wealthy emotions of memories about my grand mom balkees perima . Miss her tons and loads as she is no more :-((

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Tender small ladies finger	1/4 kg cut into finger size
First coconut milk thick extract	1 /2 cup
Second coconut milk thin extract	1/2 cup
Small onions	one hand full chopped
Tomato	1 big chopped
Green chillies	2 slit
Coconut oil	1 tablespoon
Cumin seeds	1/2 teaspoon
Curry leaves	few
Chilli powder	1/4 teaspoon
Turmeric powder	a pinch
Salt	to taste

Method

Heat coconut oil in a non – stick pan . Add cumin seeds and curry leaves . Once they crackle add small onions , green chillies and ladies finger .
Saute until the ladies finger changes colour and gets dry without being sticky .
Add the tomato and saute until it lets out all its juices and gets to a mushy pulp .
Add salt , chilli powder and turmeric powder . Mix well adding thin second extract of the coconut .
Cover and cook the ladies finger . Once cooked and the thin extract has evaporated , add the thick first extract of the coconut .
Simmer and let the coconut milk infuse into the ladies finger for a few minutes and when oil separates , remove from heat and serve hot as a side dish with white rice or chapatis .

Notes

Wash the ladies finger whole . Pat dry with a napkin .
Then cut and use . In case the ladies finger are wet , it tends to get sticky and mushy .
You can do the same with French beans , drum sticks and potato fingers . ( use fennel seeds instead of cumin seeds with drum stick and potatoes .)

Onion soup

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Cooking Time : 20 minutes

Serving : 5 members

Description

Onion soup . This is the basic method I follow to make a rich creamy soup at home . Not sure from where I learnt it . The first time I tried it out was with mushrooms when my brother Darvesh was sick and had to be given some soup ( I did avoid the butter and cheese then but everything tastes better with a smear of melted butter :-)) . just loved the creaminess the white sauce gives to the soup . From then on this has been my magical mantra for a creamy rich soup . I do the same with carrots , green peas and potatoes . Once wanting to make mushroom soup for dinner .. Started of but in between noticed that I had no veggies at all . Just went ahead with onions and the soup was Delicate , velvety , creamy and yum . Now a days when ever confused about what to do for dinner , any unexpected guests drop in home and pressed for time , the first in my menu list is onion soup . It rustles up a fuss free yet impressive brunch apt for any meal or time of day . What more do you need than soaking into good food with a relaxed ambiance .

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Onions	1/4 kg sliced
Garlic	1 big flake
Butter	4 tablespoons
Pepper	to taste
Salt	to taste
Milk	2 cups
Flour	2 tablespoons
Grated cheese	2 tablespoons

Method

In a pressure cooker , fry the sliced onions along with salt to taste and garlic in two tablespoons of butter for ten minutes .
Add four cups of water and pressure cook for 2-3 whistles . Remove from flame , cool completely and blend the onions to a puree . Strain and set aside .
Melt two tablespoons of butter in a pan , stir in the flour and keep stirring and cook gently for about one minute . Remove the pan from heat and gradually stir in one cup of milk .
Replace the pan on heat . Bring to boil , slowly stirring continuously until the white sauce thickens . Set aside .
Mix onion puree , one cup milk , cheese , white sauce , pepper to taste and bring to boil and cook for 4-5 minutes letting all the flavors infuse together .
Adjust the consistency by adding water or milk to get a semi thick following soup . Serve hot with garlic bread .

Note

The same method can be followed by substituting 1/2 the amount of onions with mushrooms for mushroom soup , carrots for carrot soup , potatoes for potato soup or green peas for green peas soup .

Beetroot borscht

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Cooking Time : 12 -15 minutes

Serving : 4 members

Description

Beet root borscht . This is a clear hot soup originated from Ukraine . This hearty and delicious soup is known as red borscht because the beet root gives it a deep red hue . Simple to make , it’s cooked in oil , and features no cream , cheese , or thickening agent . Add all vegetables you want , and let the soup simmer until it is thick and gives out a wonderful aroma and color . Serve it bubbling hot , garnished with curd and celery and accompanied by toasted whole wheat bread , multigrain bread or just normal plain bread . This borscht is light on your tummy and goes swiftly out of sight . I made this borscht on a rainy day (this borscht is a winter soup ) because of the eye catching color it has and is really healthy to . Found the original recipe to be too bland so my twist was to add orange juice to spike up the taste with a bit of fruitiness along with sourness . Habit’s don’t stick if they are joyless and healthy decadence needn’t be an oxymoron . Well food has to be a pleasure , not an obligation . Right ???

Main Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Beet root grated	3/4 cup
Onion	1/3 cup thinly sliced
Potato	1/2 cup thinly sliced
Carrot	1/2 cup grated
Cabbage	3/4 cup shredded
Tomato	1/2 cup thinly sliced
Stock cube	1 ( chicken or vegetarian ) - I used maggi chicken cube
Orange juice	2 oranges
Olive oil	1 teaspoon
Salt and pepper	to taste
Water	3 cups or more

Ingredients for garnishing

Ingredients	Quantity
Sour cream / hung curd	2 tablespoons
Celery / parsley	4 teaspoon chopped

To serve along – Toasted bread .

Method

Heat oil in a deep non – stick pan . Add onions and saute on a medium flame for one minute .
Add beer root , potatoes , carrots , cabbage and tomatoes . Mix well and saute on a medium flame for another two minutes .
Add 3 cups of water along with the stock cube . Mix well and simmer for 5-7 minutes , stirring continuously .
Once the vegetables are cooked , pour the orange juice , season with salt ( be careful with salt as the stock cube contains a lot of salt ) and pepper to taste . Mix well . Taste and adjust .
Serve hot garnished with sour cream / hung curd and chopped celery .

10 minute itsy bitsy clear soup

Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Cooking Time : 10 minutes

Serving : 4 members

Description

10 minute itsy bitsy soup. A soup i learnt as a teenager initially when i started cooking (a married teenager). At moms place i don’t remember being served a soup at all except for the paaya soup (aatukkal soup) served with arusi maavu rotti. The same at my in-laws place to. I prefer watery soups to creamy soups.But my hubby and my kids like creamy soups. So very rarely do i make watery soups at home. Maybe once in 4 times of creamy soups, a watery soup will be prepared.Usually i don’t garnish my soups at home as i serve my soups with a sandwich or a starter which is more than enough. I like the concept of having a hot home style soup before a meal as your food intake gets reduced to a certain level and is great healthy eating option. The nutritional boost of these watery soups will make them your go to food to beat the calorie count.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Mixed vegetables	2 cups ( carrots , beans , cabbage , capsicum , mushroom , ) - Cut into thin long strips
Water	4 cups
Vegetable or chicken stock cubes	2 ( I used maggi )
Garlic	2 flakes crushed
Onion	1 sliced
Butter	-1 teaspoon , ( optional )
Celery	1 stalk with stem and leaves
Pepper	to taste

Method

Pressure cook all the ingredients together except for butter , stock cubes , pepper and garnish items for 3 whistles .
Add the stock cubes , pepper to taste and butter . Bring to boil . Taste and adjust .
Do not add salt to the soup as the stock cube contains a lot of salt . Remove the celery stalk .
Serve hot with any garnish of your choice .

winter pumpkin soup

Preparation Time : 30 minutes

Cooking Time : 15 minutes

Serving : 4 to 6 members

Description

As usual , I was just going through one of the foodie groups I am a member of ( chef at large ) and came across a post where they had baked bread cups to serve soup in . Just went head over heels with the idea , scrolling down another post …with a soup bowl made with buns . This version seemed better practically , visually and make cooking fun . Already it was soup and sandwich for dinner so just added the soup bowl bun as well . Made the soup bowl with burger buns and did a little thinking to get the bun crisp and a bit hard to stand and hold the soup in it . Finally brushed with butter and baked to crisp and it worked perfect . I recommend these soup bowl buns to impress your guests . Made pumpkin soup to celebrate the short span of winter we have at my place as its cold now . ( I know it sounds wired as Nellai and the word cold are far apart from each other ) . The pumpkin soup recipe is Donna hays which I had hastily transcribed from one of her telly shows . The soup was warm , smooth , velvety and a perfect comfort winter soup . The caramelised Ingredients mingle beautifully with the slight sweetness of the honey .The hot soup just gets soaked in to the side walls of the soup bun giving a soft gooey melt in mouth bread and breaks down to bits of crisp bread that can be dipped into the soup and had . Who ever said ” stylish meals have to cost the earth ” try out this versatile winner with oohs and aahs guaranteed .

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Pumpkin	2 wedges seeds removed
Onion	1 large whole with the skin
Olive oil	1 tablespoon
Salt	to taste
Garlic flakes	3 whole with the skin
Chicken stock	4 1/2 cups , ( dilute 2 chicken stock cubes ( i used maggi chicken stock cubes ) in 4 1/2 cups of warm water )
Cream	1 cup
Honey	1 tablespoon
Pepper	to taste
Coriander leaves	to garnish
Sour cream / hung curd	to garnish

Method

Apply olive oil over the cut pumpkin , onion and garlic flakes .
In a greased baking tray , place the pumpkin , onion and garlic . Sprinkle salt to taste over and bake in a pre heated oven at 220 degree Celsius for one hour .
The pumpkin , onion and garlic should be caramelised nicely . Scoop out the flesh of the pumpkins . Peel the onion and garlic flakes and set aside to cool .
Blend the pumpkin flesh , onion , garlic with one cup of chicken stock to a smooth gooey textured purée .
Pour the purée into a non – stick sauce pan and add the remaining chicken stock , cream and honey . Mix well and bring to boil .
Keep stirring . Season with salt and pepper to taste .
Serve hot with a garnish of coriander leaves and sour cream .

Soup Bowl Buns

Cut the top of a burger bum horizontally to get a thin lid .
Scoop out the inner flesh of the buns lower part creating a hollow well but with a thick base and sides .
Butter the lid on both aides and the hollow bowl of the bun inside , out , all around , bottom and the base .
Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius and bake the buttered buns and lid for 10 – 15 minutes until the lid and hollow base gets crisp and a bit brown .
Remove and keep covered in a foil paper until required to serve .
Pour the hot soup and garnish , serve and enjoy .

Note

Can grease the Bun with olive oil as well .

Oriental Chicken Soup

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Cooking Time : 10 minutes

Serving : 4 members

Description

A very light soup . Easy to make and tasty . Few ingredients used for this dish . I like only watery light soups . This is my favourIte .

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
garlic	2 teaspoons
mushroom	1/2 cup sliced
Oil	2 tablespoons
capsicum	1/4 cup juliens
carrots	1/4 cup juliens
chicken	3/4 cup – minced
tock or water	4 cup
light soya sauce	2 tea spoon
cornflour	1 teaspoon
salt and pepper	to taste
ajinomoto	1/4 teaspoon ( optional )

Method

Heat oil add garlic and sauté till light brown .
Add all the vegetables , chicken and stock or water . Cook till vegetables and chicken are cooked .
Add soya sauce , salt and pepper to taste ,ajinomoto and cornflour mixed with 2 tablespoon of water . Cook on low flame for 5 minutes stirring constantly .
Serve hot . Vegetarians can omit chicken and can add celery and more leafy vegetable instead following the same recipe .

Vegetable Noodle Soup

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Cooking Time : 10 minutes

Serving : 4 members

Description

Easy healthy soup . Kids will love it because of the noodles in it . Colorful and light as well .

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Carrot	1/4 cup shredded
cabbage	1/4 cup shredded
Bean sprouts	1/4 cup
capsicum	1/4cup cut into stripes
spring onion	1/2 cup chopped
ginger	1 tea spoon shredded
vegetable stock or water	4 cups
noodles	1/2 cup (broken )
salt and pepper	to taste
soya sauce	2 tea spoon
corn flour	2 tea spoon

Method

Combine all vegetables with the water or vegetable stock and cook 5 minutes .
Add the noodles , salt and pepper to taste .
Mix well and cook till noodles is cooked through .
Add soya sauce . Mix well . Dilute the cornflour in 2 table spoon of water and add to the soup stirring continuously in low flame till a little thick . Taste and adjust .
Serve hot immediately .

Sweet corn chicken soup

Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Cooking Time : 10 minutes

Serving : 4 members

Description

One of the first dishes I learnt to cook . I was in the 8 th standard . We were introduced to a new subject called home science . Our teacher for home science miss bina , used to teach us one dish a month when we had practical classes . At that point of time Chinese food was into a great rave in India . We all were so excited to learn a restaurant style Chinese soup . Thanks to miss bina to have taught me this dish . My culinary journey started from my home science practical classes .

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Sweet corn cream style	1 tin
chicken	4 pieces
potato	1
vinegar	1 tea spoon
salt	to taste
ajinomoto	a pinch(optional)
white pepper	to taste
egg white	2 beaten
water	4 cups
corn flour	1/2 teaspoon diluted in little water

Method

Pressure cook sweet corn,chicken pieces,potatoe with 4 cups of water for 4 vissels .
Cool.grind the potato pieces to a smooth paste.shred the chicken away from the bones .
Mix the ground potato and shredded chicken to the sweet corn and mix well.add vinegar,salt,ajinomoto and pepper .
Keep on medium flame and stir well.once the soup starts to boil ,pour the beaten egg whites as stirring the soup to get thin threads of egg white in the soup .
Cook till the egg whites are cooked .taste and adjust.add the diluted corn flour mix and stir well till soup gets thick.
Adjust the consistency of the soup by adding water if the soup is too thick .serve hot .