Cauliflower and Potato soup

This post has been way overdue and the reasons are too many to elaborate. My sister was visiting from India, work was crazy, was trying to run too much, etc etc. All of which translated to me not cooking a whole lot and blogging even lesser. I missed both so I am trying my best to get back in the groove. 

We have been getting a lot of great produce from our summer CSA, which we have been cooking in the fastest possible way by sauteing it in some olive oil and keeping the spices to the bare minimum. This has been very tasty and efficient however I would like to be more creative and come up with some interesting ideas. That being said, simple meals are currently the norm in our kitchen. The cauliflower and potato soup which I am blogging today is one such recipe. This was actually inspired by my sister who made a great potato soup when she was here. My sister was not much of a cook when we lived together. But now that she has married a pastry chef, the tables have turned, much to our delight! I absolutely loved her soup and decided to changed it only a wee bit to include cauliflower. The result is delicious, creamy and velvetty.

It is also super easy to put together. The main flavor ingredient here is the browned garlic so be careful not to burn it (especially if you are prone to burning things like me). Here goes then, thanks to my lovely sister who I wish was here longer.

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 large potato, peeled and chopped into chunks
1/2 medium sized cauliflower (florets separated)
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1/2 onion, chopped into chunks
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
- Heat the butter and olive oil in a stockpot.
- Add the garlic cloves and saute till light brown.
- Add the onion chunks and also saute till soft and light brown.
- While the onion is browning, cook the potato and cauliflower till soft (I cooked them in the pressure cooker).
- Add the potatoes, cauliflower and onion garlic mixture into a food processor along with some cooking liquid from the boiled vegetables.
- Blend till smooth and return to the stockpot.
- Add milk, more water if required (depending on the consistency), salt and pepper.
- Bring to a simmer and serve hot with some extra cracked pepper on top.


Makes 4 side servings.

Swiss chard and potato quesadilla

I continue my exploration of cuisine de Mexico with this Swiss chard and potato quesadilla. Am I too stuck in time with my trip to Mexico that I cannot seek inspiration elsewhere? Well, that is not exactly true you see. Barely a week after getting back, I had to get a wisdom tooth extracted. For those of you who have gone through this, you may know that after this process, your culinary options are, well, how shall I put it? Limited. 

Hence I am sure you will excuse me for another Mexico-inspired entry. Its quite good too and unintentionally vegan. It features thinly sliced potatoes sauteed with some cumin and paprika along with some thinly sliced swiss chard sauteed with onion and garlic. Swiss chard and potatoes make strange bedfellows but not in a quesadilla. They worked great together even without the cheese. If you think a quesadilla cannot be a quesadilla without cheese, feel free to add in some monterrey jack or cheddar. I used the habanero-lime tortillas from Trader Joes which I so love but any tasty tortilla would work well here. The next time I might bake the potatoes to get them a little more crispy. There is not a lot of spice in these so a spicy tomatillo or adobo chile sauce would be on the great. With my current dental condition, I avoided the spice and stuck with a mellow avocado yogurt sauce. 

On a different note, with some enforced down time, I found two excellent reads over these last few days. One was the much enjoyable murder mystery, The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall. It was recommended by one of my favorite bloggers, Nupur from One Hot Stove and I couldn't wait to read this book after she wrote about it here! And I loved it. It was the perfect mix of mystery and humor set in urban Delhi and what I especially liked was the Hinglish (Hindi English).

The second was Espresso Tales, by one of my favorite authors, Alexander McCall Smith. It is the second volume of his Scotland Street series and is the perfect book to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon with. I do like my fair share of books which search your soul and move your heart, but sometimes you just need a book which is going to make you feel that everything is going to be all right with this world after all. Especially after a wisdom tooth extraction.


Here is the recipe.

4 large tortillas
1 bunch swisss chard, sliced thin
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Yukon gold potatoes, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon salt

- Heat olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan and add the thinly sliced potatoes.
- Saute them till cooked, adding salt, paprika and cumin, mixing well to coat.
- While the potatoes cook, in another pan, heat some olive oil and add chopped onion and minced garlic.
- When the onion and garlic softens, add the chard and saute with some salt.
- Add couple of tablespoons of water and cook covered till tender.
- Heat the tortilla, line with potato and chard and fold over. 


Makes 4 quesadillas

Potato cakes with Pineapple Mango chutney

This post is way overdue. When I started blogging I had promised myself I would not give any reasons/excuses to my readers (if I found any :)) why I have been late or not been blogging. Simply because at that time I thought no one except my Mom would be reading this and probably not be affected too much if I didnt blog once in a while. But now I am so glad to report that things have changed! I actually have some readers who have been asking me why I havent been blogging! So here are some reasons. Well reason number one has been work, it just been so busy! Reason number two has been the onset of spring which has made me deliriously excited about the not so far away warm weather. I have been thinking (and browsing for ideas) of spring dresses, spring breaks, spring brunches, spring breaks. You get the picture. All that thinking and working doesnt leave too much time for blogging. But I miss blogging and hence I am back with this great recipe that I tried for brunch last Saturday for my best friend.

I saw this recipe in the latest Bon Appetit issue and immediately bookmarked it. What appealed to me the most was the accompanying pineapple and mango chutney, which was really tasty. I made a few changes to the original recipes, removing the eggs from the pancakes and adding some cayenne powder for extra spice in both. With the chutney and a refreshing salad it made for a really good brunch.

Before I post the recipe, I wanted to introduce a new blog! My husband Aditya who has been taking all these beautiful pictures for my blog has started his own photography blog with three of his friends. I am really excited for them so do check it out if you get a chance!

Potato cakes:
8oz shredded sweet potato
8oz shredded potato
3 tablespoons grated onion
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon flour
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder

- Combine the shredded potatoes and onion. Squeeze out any water.
- Combine all the ingredients together with onion and potato mixture and mix well.
- On a hot griddle, pan fry each pancake till cooked through. (Couple of minutes on each side)

Pineapple and Mango chutney:
1 cup cubed pineapple
1/2 mango, cubed
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons rice wine/white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

- Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer covered for 15 mins.

Makes 8 pancakes.

Spinach and Potato soup

We have had a completely white weekend. 3-5 inches of snow for Raleigh means a grinding halt to life as you know it and also a raid on the milk and bread racks of grocery stores. In the news frenzy preceding this snow storm, I particularly liked the advice of this one radio host who insisted on Friday evening that we make sure we are at a place we want to be for the rest of the weekend. My question is as opposed to?

Anyways I do like the snow. Atleast watching it from the warm insides of our house. Having grown up in Mumbai where winters bring in "cool" temperatures of 70F, being out in the snow is not one of my favorite things. And even though our house always maintains Mumbai-esque temperatures, the outside freeze inspired me to cook up a warming soup.

This one was quite easy to put together with spinach and potatoes being the star ingredients. Topped off with a little bit of parmesan it warmed us enough to endure the snowy outsides for the rest of the weekend.

Ingredients:

1 pack of frozen spinach/1 pound of fresh spinach

2 medium sized Yukon Gold or any white potatoes, peeled and diced

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 onion, chopped

1 large clove of garlic, minced

4 cups water/vegetable stock

1/4 cup milk (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

shaved parmesan to top

- Heat butter in a heavy bottom pan.

- Add the onions and garlic and saute till the onions are soft.

- Add the diced potatoes along with some salt and mix well.

- Add the water and bring to a boil. Cook covered till the potatoes are cooked.

- Add spinach and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

- Blend to a smooth puree and return to heat.

- Check for seasonings and add more salt/pepper.

- Add milk if using and keep on heat for a couple of more minutes.

- Serve hot, topped with some parmesan. Stay warm!

Makes 4 side servings.

Potato, kale and pasta salad

After all the indulgence of the Christmas break I really felt the need to make a post about something lighter and healthier. And one thing that always makes any dish healthier for me is the addition of greens. I was also trying to work through cleaning out the pantry and found some pasta and a potato who was begging to be eaten soon. So I decided to use them all together into a carbalicious salad made a little healthy by addition of kale and dressed very simply with store bought pesto. Talking about pesto, I absolutely love the Genvoese pesto from Trader Joe's. I use that for pasta salad all the time with different combinations of veggies and nuts and its worked wonders every single time. It worked equally well this time with the unusual combination of kale, potatoes and pasta. If you like nuts, pistachios would be a great addition to this salad. I didn't have any on hand so skipped those and finished this salad off with a little bit of shaved parmesan. Here goes..

This is my third entry for the Recipe Marathon on One Hot Stove.

Ingredients:

1 cup fusilli pasta

1/2 cup boiled and chopped potato

1 cup kale, shredded into ribbons

1 tablespoon pesto

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon grated parmesan

- Cook pasta according to directions till soft.

- Heat a teaspoon of olive oil and cook the kale with a little bit of salt and pepper till tender.

- Combine the pasta, boiled potato and kale and add the pesto. Mix well.

- Add more salt, pepper if required and top off with the parmesan.

Makes 4 side servings.