Pumkin Soup

I had this butternut squash in my fridge for almost 3 weeks. After seeing Arjuna's Pumkin-carrot soup I wanted to try it so brought it and yestered I finally used it for making soup. Check out Arjuna's recipes here.

I made this for evening, instead of our regular coffee/tea. I used the recipe of tomoto soup wanted to make it simple at possible. I was perfect for the rainy evening and we had it with tosted garlic bread (store brought).

Ingredients

Pumkin/butternut squash 2 cups (cooked till soft)

Butter 1 tsp

Cloves 3

Cinammon 2 small peices

Red chilli powder 1 tsp

Black pepper 2 tsp.

Method:

Peel and cut into cubes and pressure cook the squash till soft. When cool mash it nicely.

Heat a sauce pan, add butter when it starts to melt add spices cloves and cinnamon. then add mashed squash.

Then add about 4-5 cups of water( less or more water according to your desired consistancy). Bring it to a boil and add chilli powder and black pepper and salt.

After 5-6 min. Switch off the heat. It ready. Adjust salt and spice to desired tasted.



I like lots of black pepper . So used black pepper as a garnish. Enjoy.

Ragi Mudde

Ragi Mudde with Spinach Sambar

Ragi(red millet) Mudde/rounds/balls is popular in south Karnataka. Growing up, both my mother side of the family or my father side of the family didn't do this often. But once in a while my mom used to make this with a request from me and my sister.

After getting married, at my husband's house this was a everyday lunch. My mother in law makes the best ragi mudde traditional way( adding ragi flour directly to the boiling water). For my husband this is the best and satisfying meal of the day. After we got married I came to know that my husband loves mudde, so after coming to the states I called my MIL and asked the for the recipe and method to do mudde. I did try and it was a big flop. It seems easy adding ragi flour to boiling water and keep stiring....but ragi forms to a hard lumps if not stired properly. I didn't want to give up....so tried each week..but I couldn't make it. My mother does it slightly different by mixing water to ragi flour and then adding to boiling water(to avoid forming lumps). Next time I tried this way and it came out fine. So for some time I did make using my mothers method. After few years I wanted to do MIL's method and tried again......still couldn't do it and to this day I can't. Still thinking to try and make it traditional way .....

After many many tries from last 5 years now I can confidently say I can make Ragi mudde but not the traditional way.

So here is how I make it.

Measurement is important to get right consistancy.

1 cup/measure of Ragi flour

2 cups/ measure of water( 1 cup for boiling and 1 cup for mixing with ragi flour)

Method:



Take 1 cup fo ragi and equal amount of water and mix it to a smooth paste.



Consistancy should be thick as the picture above when mixed with water.



Meanwhile bring water to high boil, when water starts to boil add the ragi mixture.



Keep stiring it untill it all comes together(I use wooden spatula to stir it). Then kneed and transfer to a bowl/plate. Allow it to cool a bit.



By wetting you hands with little water, press the dough and make them to a round shaped balls. Thats it Ragi mudde is done.

For first timers.....this method works wonderfully. Let me know if any one tries this way.

Channa dal-Coconut chutney

In this post I would like to write a little about the place we live. We live in a small town called Barrow in Alaska, which is north of Arctic circle. This is the northmost town in America. The town is very small with population of about 5-6 thousand people. During summer there will be 24hrs sunlight for about 4 months. Summer is almost over here and we already had a few snow showers. During winter there will be complete darkness(no sunrise) for about 2 months, which is the hardest time for me.

We are the only Indian family here (myself, my husband and our 17 months daughter). We have just one general grocery store. Being vegetarians, we mostly depend on fresh produce. The availability and selection of fresh produce is very limited. Most of our Indian grocery we order through Internet and shipping costs are usually more than the grocery itself. We stock up about 6 months supply. Shall write more about the place later in some post......

So few days back when I saw fresh coconut at the store, I couldn't wait to get home and make coconut chutney. So I made Idly and coconut chutney over the weekend. It felt like some celebration using fresh coconut after so long.

I am very excited to post this recipe of channa dal and coconut chutney. Yesterday I made Red rice flour rotti to go with channa dal and coconut chutney.

So here is the recipe



Channa dal - 4 tsp

Coconut fresh - 1/2 cup

Cilantro - few strands

Fresh Ginger - About 1 inch

Green chillies - 2

Tamarind paste - 1/4 tsp

Salt as per taste.

Dry roast channa dal until it turns golden brown. When its cooled add all the above ingredints along with channa dal add enough water to make smooth paste. Now its ready to be served.



We had it with Red rice flour rotti. For rice flour rotti click here.