Around Town with Arina - In a Soup!

The concept of cold weather is somewhat alien to Mumbai but thankfully it does get a little cool during monsoons and winter which is when the focus shifts from cold refreshing drinks and salads to big bowls of hot soup. There’s nothing like a hearty soup to brighten up a gloomy rainy day and one doesn’t necessarily have to be on a diet to have soup. There are a lot of soups that are rich and high on the calories. What I love about soup is that it can be as simple or elaborate, light or heavy as one may wish. A simple tomato soup with one or two basic ingredients or a noodle soup with lots of veggies and/or meat both are equally satisfying and comforting on a cold gloomy day.

Every restaurant or cafe has at least a few soups on the menu but one place that has caught my attention recently is a chain of mall food court kiosks is The Soup Bowl. It serves only soups and breadsticks to accompany. They have a variety of soups from different cuisines with vegetarian and non-vegetarian options. But sadly they’re only in the suburbs as of now, at Mega Mall, Oshiwara, In Orbit Malad, and Oberoi Mall, Goregaon East. But I make it a point to have a bowl of soup from there whenever I visit either of these malls.

Sometimes when I’m lazy I resort to the ready to eat soup packets, some variants of which are actually quite nice. But since I was a kid I’ve always preferred and loved home made soups made from scratch. And I can gladly make a meal of it especially when I’m feeling under the weather. The fondest memory I have of soup is the Spicy Veggie Clear soup my father made for me when I had a cold or sore throat, it works better than any antibiotic in the world. I call it my “Chicken Soup” because it really works for me just like chicken soup does for non-vegetarians who are unwell. It is the ultimate comfort food and the people I have shared the recipe with have also said the same and it has become their family remedy for a cold or soar throat.

SPICY VEGGIE CLEAR SOUP

1 tsp Garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp Ginger, finely chopped
1 tsp Green Chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
1/4th Carrot, cut into thin strips
3-4 French Beans, diagonally sliced thin
3-4 Baby Corn, thinly sliced
1/4th Capsicum, cut into thin strips
Some shredded cabbage
1/4th Onion, thinly sliced
2 pinches White Pepper
Salt to taste
Spring onion leaves, sliced
2-3 Cups Water or vegetable/noodle or rice stock
1-2 tsp Soya sauce
1 tsp Oil

Heat oil in a wok, add the garlic, ginger, green chillies, and sauté, add the onions, carrot, French beans, baby corn, capsicum and sauté till the sides and base of the wok start browning a little. Add cabbage and sauté a bit; add salt and white pepper and soya sauce. Add water and bring to boil, simmer for a few minute. (Can add a handful of noodles at this stage if desired to make it more filling). Add the spring onion leaves and let it simmer for few minutes. Serve piping hot for best results!

We at APB would love to know your favourite soup so do share it via comments here or on the APB Facebook Fanpage.

A Corn(y) Affair

During the monsoons, one craves for different kinds of food: chai, pakodas/bhajiyas, hot soups, and a favourite of most, corn. Corn can be had in many forms; boiled or roasted with different seasonings like salt, pepper, chaat masala, red chilli powder, lemon juice to name a few but each person has their preference so it can be pretty much anything. Corn is used in a lot of cuisines for different dishes, salads, soups, fritters, chaats, baked dishes, pasta, pizzas, pancakes, in rice dishes , the options are endless.

With the local bhutta (roasted corn cobs) walas by the sea side diminished over the past few years luckily there are a lot of places in the city corn can be found in different disguises. The simplest form of corn can be found in movie theatres and malls at the boiled corn stalls that serve fresh hot boiled corn with different seasoning as per your choice. Soam serves delicious corn khichdi and corn panki. All time favourites of a lot of Mumbai-ites, New Yorker and Cream Center offer amazing creamed corn enchiladas, corn-capsicum quesadillas and cheese corn balls. Samrat at Churchgate have chatpatta corn bhel for the corn lovers. Blue waters at Oshiwara serves one of the best tandoori makkai (corn) in the city.

Corn is such a thing that can be had as a light snack or be used to make a hearty filling dish depending on the time of the day or one’s mood. It tastes equally good hot or cold and goes well with a lot of other ingredients. Here is one of my all time favourite recipe I came up with when I was in one of my experimenting moods and was looking for a fresh change from the usual. It was also featured in Me magazine a couple of months back.

Tri Coloured Corn Soup

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
2 ears American Corn
1 small Red Bell Pepper
1/4th Cup Spring onion leaves
4 Cups Vegetable/Rice/Noodle Stock
Salt to taste

Method:
De-seed bell pepper and cut into squares, place in baking tray, drizzle with olive oil. Roast in a preheated oven at 150 degrees C for about 10-15 minutes.
Meanwhile boil the corn and remove the kernels. Keep a handful aside.
Puree the rest till completely smooth adding stock as required.
Take the corn puree in a thick bottomed sauce pan and add stock to get desired consistency. Add salt to taste and boil.

While the soup is boiling. Make a paste of the roasted bell pepper. Keep aside.

Make a paste of the spring onion leaves and keep aside.

Remove 2/3rd and keep aside in a bowl or sauce pan.

In the remaining 1/3rd add the bell pepper paste and mix well and let it simmer for few minutes. Keep aside.

Take another 1/3rd in the sauce pan and mix the spring onion paste and simmer for few minutes.

Can be served in 3 small glasses as shots or small bowls in a platter.

Rushina's Recipes - Confetti Salad

I have always loved salads and regularly make a meal of them. Research has proven that just adding a single salad to you diet daily can significantly improve your nutritional status and also protect against disease and weight gain, in fact those who eat raw vegetables daily show and higher levels of folic acid, vitamins C and E, lycopene and alpha- and beta-carotene. So add a bowlful of goodness to your day… use every excuse to Toss! One of my favourite salads is this simple Confetti Salad. Ideal for hot summer days like we are having and perfect to toss up using whatever you have to hand. Just remember keep it fresh colorful and finely chopped!

Serves: 4-6
Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup cooked small size pasta (macaroni, orzo, fussili, tiny alphabet pasta)
1/2 cup mixed coloured peppers, finely chopped
1/2 cup boiled sweet corn
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
1/2 cup tomatoes, finely chopped
1/2 cup broccoli, cut in tiny florets
Juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
A few leaves ice berg lettuce, shredded
Salt to taste

Method:

Combine everything in a large glass bowl and mix well. Can be served immediately or chill for a while and serve cold.

Variation:

Add finely diced cooked chicken or or small prawns.

The Cook'ing' Monster

Dear Rushina,

When people ask me what my hobbies are, I automatically say ‘cooking’ and they automatically reply, “Oh? What can you cook?” And if there’s a friendship to be made, what follows is a respectably long conversation about the foods I love cooking, punctuated with a lot of swallowing and lip-smacking (one’s own of course). It has occurred to me that no one ever asks about the things you can’t cook. Which is funny, because the failure to cook presents as great an opportunity to forge a meaningful bond as accomplishments in the kitchen. For example, I cannot bake.
And not because I haven’t tried. Mrs. Lal, my home economics teacher in school had magic hands. Watching her bake sublimely fluffy muffins and cakes made me feel like I could do the same. I returned home for the holidays, inspired by her classes and proceeded to turn our kitchen inside out and impress my parents. I followed all the steps (neatly handwritten in my home-ec notebook), used the same ingredients, waited for the stipulated time for the cake to bake and opened the oven to find that my cake never rose. I blamed the baking soda and tried again with a fresh packet and failed. Then I tried another brand and failed. Then I tried yeast and failed. My cakes, brownies and even cookies (which don’t rise too much) never rose to the occasion. Finally, my poor father who had to taste each batch regardless of the outcome, gently suggested that I try using the oven for something else.
Some years later, blaming my disastrous baking summer on my age (I was thirteen), I decided it was time to put down the white flag and wage a war against baking soda again. This time secretly during the day, when my parents were at work. We also had a new cook by then so she encouraged me without knowing what trauma awaited her. Unfortunately, all the ingredients conspired against me and all I had to show for my efforts was hot gooey batter and a very demoralized cook (she was on my side). The ceasefire was once again in place.
I have used the same oven to bake fish and roast meats, with great success. But baking cakes, cookies etc remains my valley of the shadow of death, that dark secret place of shame that lurks in my happy world of cooking.
After you introduced me to the purple foodie’s blog, I haven’t been able to get baking out of my thoughts. Perhaps its time to fight my cook‘ing’ monster.

Theyie