Creamy potato soup

The lighting in my new home is fabulous. Even on an overcast, gloomy day I still have pretty decent light coming into my living room and although my backyard isn't south facing, the huge French windows bring in enough light there as well. I did contemplate where i should be setting up my photography station and although it mostly depends on the time of the day and the sun position, I think I'm going to like the French windows than the living room, purely because i can use my gorgeous new dining table for the set up and not drag my photography table (which has doubled up as a side table at the mo) around, and also I'm lazy (maybe this is the only factor, now that i think of it).

(If interested, do follow me on instagram: mykitchenantics, to see nooks and corners of the house while i set it up).
My props are all 'propped up' up stairs and that's kind of a pain because it means i need to plan my shoot. Believe it or not, I don't plan my photo shoot in advance. I do a spur of the moment thing which means my set is a disaster zone after I'm done. I try the food in various serve ware before deciding on the one i like. Now that i have to go upstairs each time and since we've already established that I'm the lazy kinds, it requires a bit more planning.

Well, the reason I'm saying all this is because i nailed this setting with the first try. Although i brought down soup bowl and such, i tried this setting first and it worked for me. This is my mums recipe, well most of it. I've made it a couple of times and have created my own version with stock cube, cream and spring onions. her version is much more simpler, made with leftover chicken and potatoes, which is also great but i jazzed it up a bit more to make it more creamier and delicious. It takes almost no time to prepare especially because of the pressure cooker, but you can of course do this is a stock pot or sauce pan and derive the exact same or maybe tastier result. Its still cold in my part of the world, so soups are still welcome at the dinner table.

Serves 2 as part of main meal

Potato- 350 gms (around 2 large ones), peeled and cut into big chunks

Garlic- 2 large pods, peeled and lightly crushed

Leftover chicken on bone- 3 leg, thigh or wing pieces

Chicken stock cube- 1 1/2 cubes diluted in 3 1/2 cups warm water

Double cream- 1/4 cup

Salt- to taste

Freshly ground pepper- to taste

Spring onions- 2 sprigs, finely chopped

Herbs de Provence- to garnish (optional)

Chilli oil- to drizzle (optional)

Into a pressure cooker add the potato, garlic, chicken and diluted stock cube. Don't add the salt at this point as the stock cubes may be salty.

Pressure cook for about 15 minutes (around 3 whistles), wait for the steam to die down and then open the cooker.

The potatoes should be cooked, almost mashed or easily mashable consistency. If you feel its still hard, put it on for another whistle or so.

Remove the chicken pieces from the soup and leave the cooker open for the soup to cool down a bit.

Once cool, add the double cream, give a stir and using an immersion blender puree the soup to a creamy mix. Its ok if the potatoes don't get puréed, i like to have a bit of a bite between spoonfuls. But of course if you want it completely smooth, go all out. But make sure the garlic is not left behind in chunks.

Shred the meat off the chicken bone and add to the soup.

Check for salt and add more if needed, also season with a generous dose of pepper.

Just before serving, lightly warm the soup and garnish with spring onions, a light sprinkling of herbs de Provence and some good quality chilli oil.

Dip some crusty bread into it and sink into comfort heaven.

Notes: Break down the chunks of potato with a fork before blending, to make it a bit easier.

You can of course, chuck the entire thing into a smoothie blender and do the job. However with an immersion blender its just a tiny blade that needs cleaning and not an entire jar :)

You can add any leftover meat (or prawns even) of choice into the soup, doesn't have to be chicken. You can also just shred and add cooked chicken at the end, if you don't have them on the bone.

Add vegetables like spinach, carrots, peas etc to make it a completely veg soup.
The left over chicken i used was spicy, so the soup was too, if you do want to give a bit of heat, add a tiny piece of birds eye chilli while cooking the potatoes

Pressure cooker chicken biryani

How was your Easter weekend? How many bunnies did you see and how many eggs did you find?? None is my answer. Easter was more or less celebrated on a low key since nowhere in London did we manage to get appam and stew together, and so we had to make do with Ro's now famous chicken stew and garlic bread. It didn't go down without any drama obviously. I made a big fuss and said I hated this damn place (of course I was kidding) and who wanted to eat garlic bread with stew. I blamed Ro for it (which I then apologised for) and he was kinda lost wondering how he was to be blamed. I don't know what got into me but I was so pissed off that I couldn't get appam and stew on Easter Sunday..my mom calling up and saying they were all getting together at the club for an Easter lunch didn't make matters any better.

So I stormed out of the kitchen (right! yet again) and snuggled under the duvet with a book while Ro was battling out with the stew in the kitchen. He bugged me in between to know where the coconut milk was and I said up my a** to which he replied something nastier and although I'm sure I don't have under age children reading this, I shall refrain from using such language. Yes we will be horrid parents I think :)

So anyhoo, after his stew was all ready he tried to coochie coo and cajole me into eating it but I obviously threw my weight around and acted like a spoilt brat. He said he'd made my fav cocktail and I actually smiled...and I never heard the end of it. Of course he also gloated about his stew..which I must admit was indeed yummy. He claims he didn't even look for a recipe and it was all 'his invention,' but I would like to think he's not that awesome and he did check some recipe somewhere. 

A BBQ, a trek, movies and a picnic kept us busy and exhausted for the remaining 3 days. We have another 4 day weekend coming up and that again is gonna be a super busy one with a bit of travel thrown in.

Sorry to get side tracked, but coming to this biryani...I remember my mom making this so called 5-minute biryani on some Sundays when we were small. It used to taste absolutely yummy and since I was not in the mood for a full fledged biryani on one of the weekends, I decided to give this a go. I must warn you, its not the typical biryani and it DOESN'T get done in five minutes . But what my mom meant is the whole cooking process in the pressure cooker atop a burner is exactly 5 minutes and hence the name. Absolutely deceiving if you ask me. When I complained to my mom later that it couldnt be called a biryani she asked me if I thought I'd get a Hyderabadi biryani with so little effort. I must tell you we are a bunch of sarcastic people:)

The taste was good (not out of this world). It was more of a pulao than a chicken biryani, but I'm amazed at how the rice was perfectly cooked in spite of doing it in a pressure cooker. It is indeed a one pot meal.

Rice- 2 cups

Boiling water- 3 cups

Chicken- 1/2 kg, washed and cleaned (I used thighs and legs)

Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp

Curd- 1/4 cup

Salt- to taste

Ginger- 1 inch piece, roughly chopped

Garlic- 4 medium size cloves, roughly chopped

Green chillies- 4, roughly chopped

Cinnamon- 1 inch piece

Cloves- 2

Cardamom- 2 pods

Onions- 2 cups, roughly chopped

Tomato- 2 cups, roughly chopped

Ghee- 1 tbsp

Lime juice- 2 tsp

Coriander leaves- a handful (optional)

Marinate the chicken with turmeric powder, curd and salt. Keep aside

Coarsely grind together the ginger, garlic and green chillies using a pestle and mortar or pulse once or twice in a grinder. No need to have a paste-like consistency

Heat ghee in the pressure cooker and throw in the whole spices. Sauté till nice and fragrant.

Add onion and stir till light brown.

Add the ground mix and sauté till the dry smell goes.

Throw in the tomatoes and mix well till they get slightly wilted. No need to wait till the oil separates.

Add the marinated chicken and coriander leaves and cook till about 3/4th done. Stirring to see it doesn't burn the bottom.

Add the rice to the chicken and stir for a couple of minutes. Check salt and add as required at this stage.

Add 3 cups of boiling water, add the lime juice and close the lid.

Keep the heat on high and wait for the steam. Put on the weight and simmer (medium) for exactly five minutes. Whether you hear the whistle or not switch off the burner and remove the cooker from the heat.

Keep it closed for as long as possible. Basically don't open it immediately or until the steam has died.

Once you open the cooker, immediately transfer the contents into a shallow bowl and spread it out as much as possible. This will prevent it from clumping together.

Serve with all the accompaniments or just with pickle.

Notes: The beauty of this recipe is that there is no need for marination or soaking or anything.

If you want you can even omit the marination process and add the turmeric and curd along with the onion-tomato or go a step further and add all the stuff you'd add to a normal biryani like mint and coriander leaves and all that

I kept the cooker closed for close to half an hour and was holding my breath while I opened the lid; hundred percent sure it was gonna be like a sadam. But I was lucky it was perfectly cooked.

Store in an air tight container and you can use it for the next two days, if you have any remaining that is :)

Beef Curry

This is a damn easy beef curry especially if you have a pressure cooker. I usually avoid buying beef out here cos after all the cleaning i am kinda put off the whole thing. It also somehow ends up tasting too beefy...i am sure all of you must be wondering what i mean..but yes i do feel its a lil too obvious for me. This curry however proved me wrong and turned out real well. It was more like a stew but went great with roti.

I followed Maria's recipe to the dot except i used the pressure cooker to do all the cooking. It cooked faster and was more convenient. I kept it on for 3 whistles on low fire and after it was cooked, added the thick coconut milk, stirring in between, till it started boiling. And ofcourse the tempering does the trick for me.

PS: Sorry for the lazy post. After the long break I'm now finding it difficult to start again. All i need is a kick..you know where:)

PPS: Ro asked me where the beef was in the pic and i said it was all under there. So sorry for the hidous pic as well.