Wonton Soup - A Recipe Of Warm Goodness

October is leaving making me feel guilty about how much less time I have given to my love my blog and my fellow food enthusiasts. At first it was festival fervor and then all the festivities had left me tired. But Diwali festivities were indeed a joy. A time which comes once in a year.

Visiting friends and having guests have made me gorge on so much of calories. I am sure each of the food lover must have put on a few kilos. Post the festivities, the time to shed those extra kilos has come. Being not an exercise person what max I can do is with food. That too cutting on the high calorie ingredients and opting for healthier ones. And now with cold winds and dropping temperatures winter is on its way. A time when we want to sleep a bit more in mornings, eat a bit more in meals and feel a bit more drowsy.

Light soups are a delight in this cold weather. Warming our souls and protecting us from the cold winds. And when it comes to soups, I have a special liking for Chinese soups. Hot n spicy balancing the coldness. Last night I decided on making Wonton soup keeping my dinner light and having a great morning ahead. Deriving its name from Cantonese (simplified Chinese), the name won ton means swallowing a cloud. The wontons floating in this popular soup of Chinese cuisine are thought to resemble clouds. The soup is served hot and makes a fulfilling meal in itself.

Ingredients

For Wontons

1 cup chicken minced
2 tbsp onion finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1-2 green chillies finely chopped
salt to taste
a package of wonton wrappers
water as required

For Soup

4 cup chicken broth
vegetables of your choice (broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, scallions etc)
1/2 cup noodles (optional)
salt to taste
pinch of black pepper

Method

* Mix all the wonton ingredients together properly to make the filling.
* Then moisten the edges of the wonton wrapper with water.
* Place a big teaspoon of the filling in the center and fold the edges giving desired shape.
* Take care in closing the edges so that the won tons do not open while boiling.
* In a large pan boil water add the won tons made.
* Let them cook for 10 minutes and they come up in the pot.
* Remove them from the pan and set aside.
* Boil chicken broth in another pan with salt and pepper according to your taste.
* Add broccoli, scallions and won tons to it.
* Bring it to a boil.

Note: No need to add all the won tons made. You can use a few as per your requirement and freeze the rest. For almost 2 months you can use them for making wonton soup.

Diwali Festival - Suggest A Recipe

I always seem to remember festivals as special days which brought the family and friends together. Other than new clothes, beautiful rangolis, mango leave torans, fresh flowers, smell of camphor, incense sticks what I was more excited about was great food delicacies. From sweets to chocolates, cakes to desserts, curries to pastas everything was made with special care and festive spirits. And on the days of the festival cooking together, then eating together was real fun resulting into great bonding and delicious food. Such is the fervor of festivals. Magical !!

Now when Diwali, the festival of lights is just after few days, I have been thinking, planning are reading through the blogs for deciding on the festive meals. This time its my turn to host the festive dinner. Already I have been occupied with a lot of cleaning and decorating the house and neglecting my blog. But I promise to be back with full set of mouthwatering recipes and photographs of what all I had made.

For Diwali I have thought of few and rest you all suggest me. Already I had a big mind boggling session with no results. So I would be glad to get a little help form all my foodie friends and visitors. Add a comment with your suggestions. The recipe that would be a hit with my guests, I would feature it on my blog. You all just have to give the post link and I would get extract the recipe from there (**this time no gifts but I promise next time I would offer a giveaway). According to the five course would take one from each suggested like a soup, a dessert, a curry etc.

So I am signing off for now. Would be meeting with all of next week with more. Wishing you all a very Happy & Prosperous Diwali !!

Broccoli Tikkis For The Evening Tea

With low temperatures, foggy weather and unwelcome showers, I found myself longing for something hot to warm my insides. Peeping into the refrigerator I realized I missed on buying the fresh stock of groceries. But the wet weather dampened my spirits of going out. Other than milk, cheese and butter, what called out to me was a bunch broccoli. My culinary mind started thinking and I decided on making Cheese Broccoli Tikkis which would be just perfect with hot glasses of tea. I prefer having tea in glasses rather than cups and I know most of the tea lovers would agree with me on this.

Ingredients

1 tsp olive oil
2 onions chopped
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tbsp green chillies chopped
1 broccoli chopped
1-2 boiled potatoes grated
2-3 tbsp mozzarella cheese
1/2 teaspoon garam masala powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper powder
1/4 cup bread crumbs
salt to taste
2-3 tbsp oil

Method

* In a frying pan heat 1 tbsp oil.
* Add onions and fry them till golden brown.
* Further add ginger garlic paste, green chillies, garam masala powder, black pepper powder and saute them for few minutes.
* Then add broccoli and salt. Mix well.
* Cook for few minutes till broccoli is tender.
* Remove from heat and let it cool.
* Add grated potatoes and mix properly.
* Make balls from the mixture or kebab like shapes.
* Cover them with breadcrumbs.
* Heat a non stick pan with 1 tbsp of oil and cook the tikkis.
* Let one side turn brown then the other.
* Serve them hot with yogurt dip or green chutney.

Note: You can make variations to the recipe. Like by making a thick chickpea flour paste and dipping the broccoli balls in it and then frying them. Although this method takes in much oil.

Gatte Ka Saag From Jaipur Trip

Three days of goodness and now I am back to my love my blog, writing very first post after almost a gap of a week. I went to the colorful city of Jaipur symbolizing the royalty of the bygone era. Surrounded by hills, the beautiful city was laid by the great Rajput king, Maharaja Jai Singh II.

Although I have been to Jaipur earlier but this visit was the best. Being with family, I had a blast. From the magnificent Nahargarh Fort (Rang De Basanti song was shot) to the glorious Jaigarh Fort and then the remarkable Amber Fort, my journey was filled with awe on the glorious history and architecture. Then off to shopping where I bought beautiful hand made art pieces.





The highlight of the whole trip was the food at cultural village resort of Chokhi Dhani where we got lucky in having the complete traditional Rajasthani meal consisting of Bajre ki roti, Gatte ka saag, Panchmel dal, Moong dal halwa, kadhi, Aloo dum, Bajre ki khichdi. Each of the dishes were served in seperate small leaf cups. Halwa was as usual the favorite of everyone. For me Gatte ka saag served with hot rotis was ummy. The aroma of ghee was enriching and the taste was heavenly. Here is the same recipe which I got from the Rajasthani cook -

Ingredients

For Gattas

1/2 cup chickpea flour (Besan)
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/8 tsp carom seeds (Ajwain)
2 tbsp yogurt
2 tbsp Oil
salt to taste
water as required

For Curry

2 tbsp onion paste
1/2 tbsp ginger paste
2 tomatoes, blanched and pureed
1-2 tbsp Oil
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tbsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
1/4 tbsp garam masala powder
salt to taste
(according to taste you can vary the quantity of spices)
fresh chopped cilantro leaves

Method

Making Gattas

* In a large bowl mix all the ingredients and knead into a soft dough.
* Make long cylindrical rolls from the dough.
* Then heat a pan filled with water.
* When water starts boiling drop the rolls in the water and let them cook for 5-10 minutes.
* Then remove the rolls from the water and cut into small pieces.

Making curry

* In a wok, heat oil, add cumin seeds.
* Then add onion paste followed by ginger paste, coriander powder, chilli powder and turmeric powder.
* Let the spices cook on medium heat for few minutes till the paste turns brown in color and oil separates.
* Pour the tomato puree and 2 cups of water.
* When the water starts boiling add gattas made earlier and garam masala powder.
* Further let the curry simmer for few minutes.
* Serve hot with chapatis, garnished with cilantro leaves.

Note: For a twist you can add a little besan dissolving in few spoons of water to the curry.