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

Mushroom cobbler

Clearly summer is over, like seriously over! Its been raining non-stop since yesterday and I've thoroughly enjoyed staying indoors, snuggling up on the sofa watching brainless sitcoms back to back. We are off to Devon day after and i have so much to do, so I'm not quite enjoying the wet and windy day today. 

Chilly days like these call for warm bakes and crusty bread. So i got around to making this tasty mushroom cobbler by Marcus Wareing, a first for me actually. I have never tried making a cobbler before- a fruit one especially- and was pleasantly surprised at how nice this tasted. The scone was so flavourful and the perfect topping for the creamy mushroom mix. It does take a bit of time, but hey nothing tasty comes easy right? I had the privilege of meeting Marcus Wareing in person and visiting his signature brasserie Gilbert Scott last year. The place is fab and I'm glad i picked this recipe which is straight off his menu at Gilbert Scott.

Great British Chefs has this amazing array of summer recipes, contributed by the experts in the field and i had a tough time choosing one. My first choice was the hokey pokey ice cream, but the husband definitely thought it wasn't ice cream weather. Second choice was the cobbler, closely followed by the new potato salad with bacon and broad beans (which I'm sooo making soon). I'm entering this post for the GBC Summertime Bloggers challenge and even though summer may be over, there is no harm in embracing the summer bounty that's still in abundance. Crossing my fingers. Wish me luck.

Recipe halved (serves 2)

 

Scone topping
Plain flour- 87 gms
Baking powder 1 1/2 tsp
Cheddar cheese- 15 gms, grated
Dill- 1/2 tsp, finely chopped
Salt & pepper- to taste
Butter- 50gms, at room temperature
Ice cold water- approx. 1 tbsp
Egg white- for egg wash

Cheese sauce
Milk- 300ml
Bay leaf- 1
Cloves- 2
Thyme leaves- a small sprig

Shallot- 1 small, finely chopped

Butter- 20gms
Flour- 20 gms
Cheddar cheese- 25 gms, grated
Ground nutmeg- a pinch
Salt & pepper- to taste

Mushroom filling
Oil- 1 tbsp
Chestnut mushrooms- 250 gms, quartered
Flat mushrooms- 250 gms, chopped into chunks (same size as that of the chopped chestnut mushrooms)

Paprika- 1/2 tsp (optional)

Baby spinach- 100 gms
Garlic- 5 pods, crushed
Bacon bits- 5 rashers (optional)
Salt & pepper- to taste

 

First get the scones ready.
Mix together the flour, baking powder, cheese, dill, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl.
Grate in the butter (i thought this was a really cool idea, to grate in the butter, especially if you have forgotten to take it out to bring to room temperature) and mix gently with your hands to resemble coarse breadcrumbs.
Pour in the water, a bit at a time, if you are doubtful, and bring the whole mix together to form a dough.
Don't over work this mix, or else the scone becomes tough.
Keep covered in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

While the dough is resting get the cheese sauce going.
Mix together the milk, bay leaf, cloves, thyme leaves and shallot shallot in a saucepan, infuse over medium heat and bring to a simmer.
At this point remove from heat and leave aside to infuse for about 20 to 30 minutes (or however long you'd take to prepare the mushroom filling)

Fry the bacon in a saucepan till crisp.
Drain on paper towels and chop into small pieces.

 

Heat oil in a large frying pan and throw in all the mushrooms.
Season with paprika (if using), salt and pepper and stir fry on medium heat till it changes colour.
Throw in the spinach followed by garlic and continue frying till the spinach has wilted, the mushroom is cooked and all the water is absorbed.
Transfer to a baking dish.
Also stir in the bacon bits into the mushroom-spinach mix.

Preheat the oven to 180C at this point and get back to the cheese sauce.
Strain the infused milk into a cup and use the same saucepan to complete the sauce.
Melt the butter and add the flour.
Stir with a wooden ladle and cook the roux for about 5 minutes on low heat.
Add the infused milk, bit by bit, into the roux and whisk well to avoid lumps.
Increase the heat to medium-high and simmer for about 10 minutes, to cook the roux.
Add the cheese, season with salt and pepper and nutmeg. Stir it all in.
Pour over the spinach mix. Keep warm.

Take the scone dough out of the fridge and give a nice knead.
Lightly flour your work surface and roll out the dough to 1 cm thickness.
Cut into 7 disks using a 3cm diameter ring and place on top of the mushroom mix .
Brush the scones with egg wash and bake the cobbler in the middle shelf of the oven for about 25 minutes or till the scones turn golden brown and the mixture bubbles.
serve with some crusty bread.

 

Notes: You can roll out and cut the scones a day or so ahead and freeze them till ready to use.
Original recipe called for oyster mushrooms, i didn't have any, but certainly use them if you can.
I had to desperately use up some bacon and hence added that. Of course you can add chicken, beef or pancetta to the mix to make it a more heavy meal.
If you are using self raising flour for the scones, then reduce the baking powder to 1/2 tsp.
I did add/ omit some ingredients from the original recipe, just to suit our taste.

French onion soup

First of all, thanks a bunch to all of you who wrote in with all those words of consolation. It felt good to know I'm not alone in the whole Vday-bday saga. You girls rock. Hugs :)

The husband came back on Friday afternoon with a bad fever and it was like having a baby at home. I panic when anyone other than me fall sick and this was no different. Ro goes a bit overboard and acts like a whiny kid being all 'I'm so cold,' and 'touch and see if I have fever (every 5 mins) and has been on the couch snuggled up under the throw watching telly all day. Every evening I ask him, 'are you going to work tomo,' to which he says 'are you crazy.' So its been lunch and dinner non stop for the past 4 days and it has driven me a bit crazy because I haven't done my usual quota of articles. He claims his appetite has gone for a toss and this morning the fever subsided and turned into a cough and cold. Perfect time for soup I thought and decided on the French onion soup which I've seen in so many restaurants and has been curious about. Scouted around for a recipe and decided on Finla's descriptive one with minor changes.

I am actually jinxed when it comes to soups. I am not crazy about soups and I seldom get them right when I make from scratch. Whenever we crave soup, we go for the canned ones, jazz it up with leek and such and enjoy it hot. I must also add that I am not a fan of the clear soups and prefer the creamy ones (cream of mushroom, chicken and celery topping the list) any day.

That is why I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this soup. I must admit, its not an easy soup to make and takes an awful lot of time. The procedure is pretty straightforward but its all about timing (you cant just leave it to simmer on stove top and watch Gossip Girl in the meantime. I did it and had to face consequences). But the end result is rather rewarding, I assure you. You push past the cheesy bread, dip into the slightly sweet onion soup, and its bliss. Not exaggerating here, but it was delicious on a cold winter evening. I of course paired it with some dry white wine and wished I'd made some more to freeze and keep for a rainy day. Since my soup disasters have been plenty, I was not sure about making a huge quantity and I'm now kicking myself for not doing so. There's always a next time (or is there?).

Recipe adapted from here (serves 2)

Butter- 10 gms

Oil- 1 /2 tbsp

White onions- 2 large, thinly sliced (julienned)

Garlic- 3 pods, chopped fine

Fresh thyme- 1/2 tsp (chopped) (dried is fine as well)

Sugar- 1/2 tsp

Balsamic vinegar- 1 tsp

Plain flour- 2 tsp

Beef stock- 500 ml

Dry white wine- 3 tbsp

Sat and pepper- to taste

Croutons

Ciabatta slices- 10 to 12

Grated cheese- 1/2 cup (I used a mix of sharp Cheddar, Gouda and Emmental)

Garlic powder- 1 tsp

Olive oil- 2 tbsp

Place a large stainless steel sauce pan over medium heat and melt the butter along with the oil

When it starts to sizzle add the chopped onions, garlic and some salt (to draw moisture out) and stir around for a while till the oil and butter coats them well.

After about 10 minutes, reduce heat to super low, add the chopped thyme and cook for about 30 to 40 minutes or till the onions wilt and turn a light brown (very imp.) in colour. Keep stirring in between to prevent the onion from sticking to the bottom. Caramelising the onions on low heat is the trick towards getting the perfect onion soup. You technically do this over a period of 3 hours (but as we all know, that long for the onions to caramelise is just not worth the effort, especially for a sick husband whose taste buds are all screwed up anyway).

Once you attain the light brown colour, add the sugar, crank up the heat to medium and let it turn darker. This could take about 8 to 10 minutes.

Follow up with vinegar and cook for a further 6 to 7 minutes till the colour completely changes to dark brown. Don't forget to keep stirring in between.

Get the stock ready at this point. Heat it up if using pre-made stock, or if using stock cubes, add boiling water to about 1 beef bouillon cube, dissolve and keep ready.

You can also pre heat the grill at this point.

Add the flour and cook for about a minute.

In goes the beef stock and white wine, stir well.

Do a taste check and season with enough salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes.

Transfer to soup bowls.

For the croutons, in a small bowl mix together the olive oil and garlic powder.

Arrange the ciabatta slices on a baking tray lined with foil paper and liberally brush the olive oil-garlic mix on both sides.

Place under a grill for exactly a minute.

Take it out, flip to the other side and chuck it back under the grill for one more minute (I managed to burn mine, so watch it like a hawk).

Assembling

There are two ways to do this: Transfer the soup into oven safe bowls, top with toasted bread slices and generously scatter the cheese on top. Place under the grill till the cheese melts and then have it hot.

The other way to do this is to add the cheese to the toasted slices, chuck them back under the grill till the cheese melts (about 2 mins) and then top the soup with the cheesy slices.

Notes: Don't use the red onions, they will be incredibly sweet.

Replace white wine with Cognac which is better any day

Traditionally a French baguette is used to top the soup, but I'm far from traditional and hence the ciabatta :)

Use 2 minced garlic cloves instead of garlic powder for the bread slices

Be extremely careful while caramelising the onions, as one bad move (could scorch) and your soup could taste bitter.

I followed the second method while assembling simply because my soup bowls were not oven safe.

You should be able to crush the onion easily between two fingers and you can be sure that the consistency is right.

Curried carrot and lentil soup

Its absolute soup weather here, and since this year winter came in a lil late (thank god for that) we haven't really had much of a soup thing going on. The other day Ro got back from home craving for a bowl of hot tom yum soup and even insisted we head out to a Thai restaurant to have some. I shrugged it off saying I slogged in the kitchen for one whole hour (yes too much time) to come up with dinner and also left overs in the fridge make me uneasy. I love an empty fridge as opposed to others who love an over filled fridge :)

Although I love a good bowl of soup on and off, I am not really an expert at making them. In fact I honestly suck at it. So its all soup sachets and canned soup jazzed up with veggies and all sorts of stuff. If it wasn't for some carrots I needed to get rid of from the fridge, I wouldn't have made this soup either. Carrots are not really a favourite of mine, and other than eating them raw, I really cant handle them. This soup however was a welcome change. The sweetness actually was a good thing, since it matched perfectly well with the lentils and Indian flavours.

On a completely different note (although those of you on FB will already know), we are off to India, tomorrow, for 3 weeks (rather unexpectedly) and I am super thrilled that I get to spend Christmas and New Years with family and friends. This time, unlike last year, I shall just be resting and relaxing and watching loads of mallu movies and harassing my brother and sis-in-law. Although I have promised mom a lot of baking and this and that, I am pretty sure I WILL NOT be doing any of those. Good thing my mom doesn't read the blog :)

I wanted to fix up a couple of guest posts by a few of my favourite bloggers in my absence, but then a one week notice to all of them is rather unfair and so I have just decided to go ahead and schedule a couple of posts while I'm away. So if I don't visit y'all for a month, please do pardon me, its only because I'm either sitting in front of the TV, or prop shopping (plan to do loads of it) or sleeping, or eating, in Kerala. But do drop in, as I have a couple of interesting recipes making its appearances here.

Onion- 1 large, roughly chopped

Garlic- 4 pods, peeled and roughly chopped

Carrots- 200 gms, peeled and chopped into cubes or rounds

Red lentils- 1/4 cup

Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp

Coriander powder- 1 tsp

Red chilli powder- to taste

Pepper powder- to taste

Soup cube- 1 small (vegetable or chicken)

Water 500 ml

Salt- to taste

Oil- 1/2 tbsp

Milk- 1/4 cup

Heat the oil in a pressure cooker and throw in the onions and garlic. Sauté for about five minutes on medium heat till wilted.

Throw in the cumin, coriander and chilli powders and cook till the raw smell of the masala's disappear, about a minute or so.

Add the lentils and carrot and stir around, making sure all the masala catches on to them.

Add the soup cube, water and bring to a boil.

Place the lid on the cooker along with the weight and cook for about 15 minutes or 3 to 4 whistles.

Once the pressure dies, open the lid, add the milk, season with enough salt and pepper and bring to a gentle boil.

Take it off the fire and wait for the soup to cool a bit before using an immersion blender to make a smooth mix, or if you prefer to leave it chunky, go ahead and serve it with some herbed garlic bread (I adapted Shabs recipe, just that I used chopped parsley instead of basil)

Notes: Freeze the soup in an air tight container and use it later on a rainy day

Replace the masala powders with about 2 tsps of curry powder

The soup cube makes all the difference, so don't omit that

Sending these over to the Christmas Carrot Competition over at Love the Garden.

Thai-inspired butternut squash soup

Made the first soup of the season and it wasn't a favourite. Its the first time I've cooked with butternut squash and to be honest I wasn't too fond of the obvious sweetness...at least not in a soup for sure. I spiced it up quite a bit, in spite of that it was still sweet and not my kinda soup flavour. 

I adapted the Thai-spiced roast pumpkin soup recipe by Cooksister for this soup. The changes I made were:

I replaced the Pumpkin with 500 gms of butternut squash

Used a medium size leek stalk instead of the onion

Chopped up two pods of garlic and added to the leek while frying

Used red curry paste instead of the green curry paste

Just before I pureed the soup, I added a slit chilli as well to the mix since it was too sweet for my liking

Added a dash of Maggi seasoning towards the end

Drizzled some coconut milk on top and served it hot with some garlic and herb bread.

Spicy, garlicky potato wedges

I am on a recipe-trying spree...meaning trying out recipes from other blogs. Yeah, i know i have been doing so for a long time now, and its only getting better:)

There have been quite a few disasters as well. Like the other day i tried red velvet cakes and had to chuck it all because it tasted awful. I shall attempt it again when im in the mood.

It was such a cold day and Ro worked from home which meant constant nagging about lunch, tea, nibbles...and he claims i secretly enjoy showering him with all the attention.DUH!

Anyway, I was blog browsing and came across this awesome blog ...drooling, i decided to make something . Unfortunately the only ingredients available were for the Garlicky Baked Fries and i didnt think twice. Give me potatoes in any form any day and i'll be a very happy person. Carbs carbs, i know, but who cares when its so bloody awesome.

I made a few modifications here and there and the result was marvellous. I paired it with a chilli mayo dip and a shot of espresso and I couldnt have asked for more on the cold winter evening.

• I used baby potatoes- 6 of them cut into wedges
• I added 3 dry chillies, crushed, to the garlic and EVOO since i did not have cayenne pepper.
• I also added a half tsp paprika.

The mayo dip is pretty easy as well. I use store bought garlic mayo (4tbsp), add chilli sauce or ketchup (1 tsp) and a few drops of water and mix well to get a smooth paste. Dip dip dip and chomp chomp chomp.