Oven Roasted Tomato Soup -- Indian Ishtyle

First day of new school. Bus at 7:30. Too much excitement. Up since 4' in the morning.

Novelty wears off in two days time. Now 6:30 in the morning on a weekday is not a good time to be at our home. There is so much drama that HBO would cower down in shame and the pimply Dish Network guy with the Indian name would never ever call me again saying "Auntie, we at dish network have a great deal".

Ever day and I really mean this, I intend to get up at dark and sneak out before even the clock says 6:30. I really don't want to get caught into the early morning melodrama. The Dad could handle this better I think, he has done this through the last 3 years of pre-school. But to become the Saint Mom is my current short term career goal, so I stay put.

I am up way before 6, cajoling and then shouting at the 5 year old to get up. I am chirping brightly about how the new school is going to be so much fun while the 5 year old clearly thinks otherwise. She misses her pre-school which was way more fun by her standard. I am trying to make b'fast interesting which she refuses to touch and thwarts my attempts at creative lunch making by asking me just pack a sandwich.

Going at this rate my sainthood is highly jeopardized, the Vatican will not even peruse my resume if I am packing sandwiches with nothing but chicken nugget in them.

Back home to compensate that lunch with a healthy dinner and also use up the bounty of cherry tomatoes, I device a Oven Roasted Tomato Soup. The bold flavor of garlic and sweet scent of tomatoes roasting in the oven is enough to make me feel happy and uplift my spirits.
I decide to go the Indian route and spice up the Tomato soup with some whole cumin and then as a last minute whim add a little of my Red Masoor Dal (Red Lentil). With garlic chives and coriander snipped from the herb pot, the soup definitely tastes tantalizing.

"It is the best Tomato soup we have ever had", says the hungry Dad

"Why is the Tomato Soup orange, I want a red tomato soup", says the 5 year old

The glare and 15 minutes later she says, " It is yummy", while she mops up the dregs with the last piece of bread !!!





Read more...

Oven Roasted Tomato Soup

In an aluminum pouch throw together 30-35 cherry tomatoes, 4-5 cloves of garlic, salt and ground black pepper. Drizzle liberally and I mean liberally with olive oil. Put in the oven at 400F for an hour, In my toaster oven it took an hour and then I had it on broil

Heat a deep bottomed pan or a soup pot

Pour Olive oil, this time don't go over the top

Add 1/4 tsp of cumin and when it sizzles add some finely chopped white onion. Saute with a sprinkle of sugar till onion turns a light shade 0f brown

Add the roasted tomatoes & garlic

Add organic vegetable stock and then about 1/3 cup of washed Red Lentils (Red Masoor Dal)

Add salt to taste and let the soup come to a boil. Cook till the lentil is fully cooked

Add fresh herbs of your choice. Definitely coriander and I also added some garlic chives

Cool and puree in a blender

You don't need to strain. Serve with crackers or bread

Prawn Patia -- straight from Persia

Today was not a day in my dysfunctional "to do list" to write a post. No, today was a day for me to wallow in self pity for the simple reason that my child has grown up and is no longer a Kindergartner and is going to Grade 1 tomorrow.

Not my fault, solely nature's, I mean the "growing up" part. But as a Mom it is my birth right to put my hormones to full use and make a big senti deal of the whole growing up thing. The way Moms pine about the baby growing up you would think they are happiest cleaning poop and staying awake through the night. But all that sentimental mush would have done nicely for a post and with a balanced dose of nostalgia, melodrama and some pre-school rhymes it could have soared my blog hits.

I had even thought up choice phrases to write a teary post about how the little baby who looked into my eyes 5 year 8 months 3hours and 45 minutes back is no longer little and entering the big bad world (actually a school only fifteen mins away from home) .But all that will have to wait, for there is a fishy situation.

A Bong Mom or (maybe a true Bong Dad but not the resident one) will abandon fisrt born's milestones for the love of fish and that is exactly what happened here. Indrani sent me a reminder about the Fish event at her blog and luck had it that there was a brand new, still smelling fresh ,fish recipe sitting in my draft which was only waiting to be posted for a fishy event.

It is called Prawn Patia or Prawn Paatia or something similar. I had no clue that this dish existed, I am pretty clueless you might think but that is the truth. So I was clueless until I saw this name in Kalyan's blog. He is a clever Bong guy whose best half is a Parsi, a very intelligent thing to do, i.e. to marry into another culture, that way you get to sample lots of variety in food at home itself. Now though I have hardly ever had Parsi food, I have this fascination for Parsi food. So when I saw that Prawn Patia was a Parsi dish, I simply had to make it.

Kalyan had no recipe in his blog or maybe I wasn't able to find one, so the recipe I thought would be most fitting for such a dish is from RecipeZaar. I adapted the recipe and the result was delicious. All those whole coriander, cumin and fennel used for tempering added a lovely new flavor to the dish. I also dry roasted and ground a part of the above spices to make a powder which was not called for but I used in the recipe. I gave the tamarind a miss, the vinegar provided the tartness that suited our taste.The only thing I wasn't too sure of was the consistency of the gravy, any verdict ?

Going to the event @ Appayan with Prawn Patia is Doi Maach, a bengali preparation of fish in yogurt sauce and Bhapa Ilish, steamed Hilsa in mustard sauce.


Read more...

Prawn Patia

My adaptation of this recipe


Prep

Dry Roast 1 tsp Cumin Seeds, 1 tsp Corriander Seeds and 1/2 tsp Fennel Seeds. Cool and grind to a powder in a spice mill

Squeeze some lime juice and salt on the shrimp and set it aside. I had about 15-20 frozen shrimp which I defrosted.

Make a wet paste of 2 cups of chopped red onion + 4 green chili + 2" ginger + 2-4 cloves of garlic + 3 tbsp yogurt + very little water

Start Cooking

Heat a Frying Pan/Kadhai

Toast 1/2 tsp of Cumin seed, 1/2 tsp of Coriander seed and 1/4 tsp of Fennel seeds

Add Oil

Add 1/2 tsp of Mustard seed, 1/4 tsp of Paprika, 1/4 tsp of Red Chili Powder

When the spices start popping lower the heat and add the wet onion paste. Fry this for 20-25 minutes at medium heat till you see it turning golden and there is no raw smell. This will need some time, don't try to hasten the process.

Add the dry roasted spice powder,1 tbsp of tomato puree, 1 tsp of white vinegar, salt and sugar to taste. Fry for 5 more minutes

Add about 1/2 cup of water and let the gravy come to a simmer. Add the shrimp but do not over cook it.

To finish off I added about 1/4 cup of fat free half and half but this is not in the original recipes

When the shrimp is done garnish with some finely chopped coriander and serve with hot rice

Imam Bayildi -- and then The Imam Fainted

Its the last week of summer hols around here. I am jittery. Guess why ? Big sis S starts Grade 1 next week in the big school. Yeah the little girl who was a couple months short of 3 when I first started this blog is going to be a first grader now.

Last week we went uniform shopping for her. Since she doesn't meet our township's cut-off date she is going to a private school for a year and then will be back in the public school system in Grade 2. Now this school she is going to is a Catholic School and they have uniforms.

That had made me very happy initially. Having been straitjacketed into uniforms 12 years of my life, I love them. What I didn't realize is, it was my Mom who shopped for my uniforms and also largely maintained them while I was merely a bystander. Now roles have shifted.

It was there at the uniform store, it hit me that I really need to live up to the role of a Mom . Nothing before, nor even the stubborn lactation consultant had thrust this thought into my face so hard as did the uniform store.

I realized that there are only so many shirts and tunics and gym shorts you can buy. I also realized that I need to gauge and buy the perfect size which will fit through whole year. Of course I can be extravagant and buy all sizes but then I won't be writing this blog, there would be someone writing it for me.

And because of the limited buying you need to maintain these stuff. As a responsible Mom you would need to iron the shirts every couple of days, you will have to sew on buttons 'coz those goddamn shirts have numerous buttons ready to fly off any minute, you might have to hem or un-hem skirts depending on how the child grows, you might even have to mend a rent in those expensive knee-highs, and then keep those black shoes shining bright.

The very thought that my Mom did all this and more through most of my school years, wanted me to book her a flight and bring her here. To reach that exalted position I need to apprentice at a laundry and go get a needlework for dummies. Till then I keep my fingers crossed that the dad does the ironing and I can fix those buttons with glue.

Eggplants stuffed and ready to go in the oven

Now as part of the celebrations I mentioned last week I made an exotic turkish dish for the small gathering at home. Exotic seems to be the right way to describe anything Turkish I feel but this one is really exquisite. And to think that I had no clue that such a dish existed on the face of earth until August 1st.

That is when we were visiting some friends. As kids were being taken care of and I had ample time to rummage through their book shelves I found a cookbook with this recipe. The name caught my attention. "Imam Bayildi" or The Imam fainted. Why, You say. Try this beautiful eggplant dish doused liberally with olive oil and infused with herbs, and you will know for yourselves

I also referred to this blog for very nice step by step pics as to what exactly should be done while peeling and stuffing, though my version was a tad different. This recipe has the measurements, mine are eyeballed.


Read more...

Imam Bayildi

The recipe is for 4 eggplants

Get those long slender eggplants and trim the “heads”. Do not cut them completely off. Peel the eggplants in stripes i.e. the skin and the peel should run parallel. Put the eggplants in salted water. After 30 mins remove and drain on paper towel

Heat 1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil. This is a must and no other oil will do.Add two chopped red onion and saute till pink. Add 8 cloves of garlic minced.

Add 1 large juicy tomato chopped(or half a can of diced tomato), 1/2 cup of chopped coriander(the recipe said parsley), 1 tsp of citrus zest, white pepper powder, salt and sugar to taste. Saute till the tomato softens and is cooked. I added some Red Chili powder and also some garlic chives from my garden to spice it up.

Remove and keep aside

Now you need to fry the eggplants whole.

Heat 1/2 cup or a tad less of olive oil in a deep bottomed pan. Saute the whole eggplants till they are lightly browned on all side and a little soft but not thoroughly cooked. Do not try to do all the eggplants together, saute them individually. Note: I had to chop of a fraction of the eggplant tip because they weren't fitting into my frying pan. However if you are doing so do not cut from the head end

Arrange the eggplants in a baking dish

Cut open a slit/pocket in each eggplant. You might need to salt the pockets at this point if needed. Spoon in the stuffing in generous quantity into the pockets. If they spill over it is better. Pour in the juice and about 1/4 cup of hot water + olive oil into the baking dish.

Preheat oven to 375F and cook covered till eggplants are fully done. At the end of the process remove the cover and keep in oven for few more minutes to dry out any excess liquid.

Serve whole at room temperature

Baked Version (Updated n August '17):

Get those long slender eggplants or the smaller but selnder eggplants, and trim the “heads”. Do not cut them completely off. Peel the eggplants in stripes i.e. the skin and the peel should run parallel. Put the eggplants in salted water. After 30 mins remove and drain on paper towel

Preheat oven to 400F. For my toaster oven, I heated it to 425F

Line a baking tray with aluminum foil and put the eggplants face up. Score the flesh of the eggplant with a knife, making diamond patterns, but not cutting through the skin. Press sliced clove of garlic in the flesh of the eggplants.

Brush the eggplants generously with olive oil and salt. Put them face-down on the baking sheet. Bake for 25 mins.

Next take out the tray and carefully turn the eggplants so that they are now face up. Cover the tray loosely with an aluminum foil. Put back in the oven for 20 more minutes

Meanwhile, make the tomato-onion-garlic mix as you would in the regular version

After 45 mins or so when the eggplant are almost done, take out the baking tray. Scoop the tomato-onion mixture onto each eggplant face. Put back in oven for 10 mins

Serve with some feta on top

This was named Eggplant Indiana in our home!!!






Trivia:The BIG question. Why did the Imam faint ? Multiple choice, pick your own: a) The imam (Muslim prayer leader) fainted or swooned when he tasted how good it was b)the stingy imam fainted when he saw how much expensive olive oil was used c)the imam was delighted when a shopkeeper's wife was required to quickly prepare a dish for the imam's unexpected visit