TOMATO AND LENTIL SOUP

I love making soups at home from scratch instead of cooking soups using soup packets. When we soups from fresh ingredients it is much more healthier (without preservatives and MSG), tastier and quite easy to make :) Earlier I used to make simple tomato soups (since tomato is my favourite vegetable) but this time I decided to add lentils (Dal) to the soup for a different taste :) It turned out to be delicious and super tasty.

INGREDIENTS:

• 7-8 large ripe tomatoes
• 1 medium carrot (optional)
• 5-6 cloves of garlic(optional)
• 1 large onion
• 2 tbsp dried basil
• 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp butter  (optional)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2-3 bay leafs
• 1 cup masoor dal
• 2 green chillis
• 3 cups water
• salt to taste
• black pepper to taste

PROCEDURE:

• Roughly chop the tomatoes. carrot, onion, garlic cloves and keep aside. Wash the masoor dal very well. As i didnot have carrots at home this time I did not use them :)

• I use a pressure cooker to make this soup, however if you want you can use a large pan. Put butter and olive oil in the pressure cooker and add the chopped onions and garlic and bay leaves. Cook till the onions are translucent. If you want you can skip the butter or instead of oil use only butter the taste remains same, I use olive oil to make it healthy :D

• Now add the carrot and the lentils and stir well. You can use any lentils you want, personally masoor dal is my favourite :)

• Then add the tomatoes, the basil, the oregano, salt, pepper,chillis and mix well. You can use any other seasoning you want, I am a big fan of basil and oregano. However I would advice to add less amount of salt here and you can adjust later on. Then add the water.

• I usually let it cook for 3-4 whistles and then cool it for a whlie.
• I do not have a hand blender so I cool the soup before I blend it, however if you have a hand blender you should blend it while it is hot.

• Strain the soup well in order to get a smooth soup. I do not add any flour or cornflour as I always get a very good consistency, but if you wish you can if your soup is too runny.
• Once the soup is blended then adjust the seasonings. 

This recipe can be modified as you wish by adding other vegetables or you can make it non-veg by adding chicken etc. I hope you will try it out and please do tell me how it went.

CHICKEN DO-PYAZA

I am always on the lookout for new chicken recipes. This is a very famous dish and I am sure we have all had this dish at least once in our lives. I always had this dish in restaurants. So I decided to try this recipe out for our sunday lunch.

INGREDIENTS:

• 500 grams chicken
• 1 tbsp garlic paste
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 medium onions chopped
• 2 medium onions diced into big pieces
• 3 medium tomatoes pureed
• 2+1 tbsp yogurt
• 1 tsp tumeric powder
• 1+1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 2 tsp garam masala powder
• Salt to taste
• Water as required
• 2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves for garnish
• 2 tbsp oil
• 2-3 green chillis

For the Garam Masala:

Grind together

• 2-3 green cardamom pods
• 1 big black cardamom pod
• 1/4th stick cinnamon
• 3-4 cloves
• 1 tsp mace

PROCEDURE:

• Marinate the chicken with ginger- garlic paste, 1 tbsp yogurt,salt and 1 tbsp red chilli powder for 15-30 minutes. The dish will turn out fine if you marinate for a few minutes.
• Heat oil in a pan and add the garlic paste, the chopped onions and cook till the onions turn translucent.
• Then add the tomato puree (i used fresh tomato puree but you can use any store-bought tomato puree) and cook till the oil separates.
• Mix the tumeric powder, chilli powder and cumin powder with the yogurt and add to the pan. Stir well.
• Then add the chicken and the diced onions and mix well so that the masala coats the chicken and onions well.

• Now add water as required (if you want more gravy then add more water) and cook the chicken on a low flame till it cooks.
• Now add the garam masala and mix it well.
• Chicken Do-Pyaza is done :) 

You can serve this with rice and some freshly made salad or with rotis, as you please :)

 

Please do give me feedback :)

LEMON CAKE

I am simply addicted to baking. Last Christmas I finally bought a new oven. The oven which we had earlier was rarely used since my grandmom used to make puddings and cakes using pressure cooker. I tried baking with pressure cookers, convection microwave ovens, although pressure cookers worked fine with simple cake recipes microwaves gave me a lot of trouble specially with adjustment of temperatures. But ever since I bought my oven I have baked a lot of different cakes, pies, tarts and even breads with a lot of ease and the end result has been perfect each time :) :)

I study all night long and usually start feeling hungry in the wee hours of the morning. So I decided to make a cake which I can easily store (and eat without any fuss). This recipe is inspired from the Orange Cake I made during winters but since good oranges are not available now so i decided to substitute them with lemons and changed the recipe a little bit :)

INGREDIENTS :

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• Pinch of nutmeg powder
• 3 tbsp butter
• Pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4th cup sugar 
• 1/4th cup + 1 tbsp sour cream
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 2 tsp lemon zest

PROCEDURE:

• Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg twice and keep aside.
• Cream together the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. I did not have unsalted butter at home to I used the normal Amul Butter which is a salted one, so I did not add any excess salt.

• Now add the eggs one by one in the butter and sugar mixture and incorporate well.

• Then add the lemon zest, the sour cream and the vanilla essence and mix well. (If you have vanilla extract you can use it)

• Now mix the flour mixture and the lemon juice alternately.

• Pour the mixture into a lined cake tin (use any shape you like). I do not line my tins I simple grease them with butter or oil and then dust them with flour.

• Preheat the oven for 10 mins and bake for 30 - 40 mins or till done.

• You can decorate it as you wish. I used some lemon wedges to decorate it.
• You can also glaze the cake :)

I will certainly post icing recipes soon.  Well, my cake turned out to be super moist and simple perfect :) Hope yours does too :)

Hope you like this recipe and try this out :)