Cream of Broccoli Almond Soup

Some left over broccoli which had turned yellowish and hence didnt want to use it for normal stir fry or in mix veggie dish preparation. So soup it was to cater to the kiddo tummies in the evening..

Ingredients :
Broccoli - I used 3/4 of a medium sized broccoli cut into medium sized florets
6-10 Garlic cloves chopped roughly
1 tej pata
Almonds - a handful...about 10-15..blanched, to ease the removal of skin
Salt
Rocksalt
Pepper corns ...freshly crushed
black Pepper powder
Chili flakes (optional)
grated Cheddar cheese
Milk - 3 cups
butter

Procedure :
1. Pressure cook the broccoli, chopped garlic with tej pata and a pinch of salt.
2. After blanching the almond in hot water, peel off the skin and saute the almonds in butter till golden brown
3. Now in a blender, make a paste of the pressure cooked broccoli-garlic and sauted almonds.
4. Heat butter and add crushed peppercorns to the heated butter. Fry for a few seconds and add the blended broccoli-garlic-almond. Cook on high heat till the raw flavour is eliminated.
5. Add milk and milk cream (malai/দুধের সব্র ). till it is of creamy & soupy consistency. Mix on high heat and lower the heat, cover and bring to a boil.
6. Adjust the salt by adding rock salt.
7. Sprinkle pepper powder, chili flakes (optional). Take it off the flame.
8. After pouring into soup bowls, garnish with grated cheddar cheese.

Serve this bowful of healthy goodness ....steaming hot...it's a meal by itself!

A Quick Banana Cake

When your fruit basket is weighed down by a bunch of over ripe bananas that nobody in the family (including you) will touch, you know something HAS to be done to avoid the fruits from going straight to the bin. Well, that's exactly how this cake happened to happen in my kitchen. Otherwise I am not much of a baker and would never ever volunteer to bake a banana cake, of all things..... ;)

Ingredients :

Ripe Bananas - 3
Eggs -
Flour / Maida - 2 cups
Sugar - 3/4 cup
White Oil - 1 cup
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Vanilla Essence - 1 tbsp
Fresh Cream / malai - 3 tbsp
Cinnamon sticks - 2-3"
Broken Cashew - a handful
Salt - a pinch

Procdeure :
1. In a mixie jar, put the following and mix:
     a) peeled and chopped bananas
     b) eggs
     c) sugar
     d) fresh cream / malai
     e) oil
  Pour into a wok like vessel or mixing bowl.

2. In a container, pour the flour, baking powder, powdered cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Mix well.

3.Pour the dry mix into the wet one. Gently fold in to combine.

4. Add vanilla essence & cashew pieces. Fold in .

5. Pour the batter into a preheated and greased cake mould. The oven is to be preheated to 250 deg C for 8-   10 min.

6. Set the OTG in 'baking' mode, at temp 175-180 deg C for 45 minutes.

 

Insert a fork / toothpick into the cake and if it comes out clean, the banana cake is done.

Let it cool in the oven and then cut a thick slice ...the taste is mildly sweet with a hint of banana flavour.
Eat it just as it is . I had mine with chocolate sauce, garnished with roasted almonds! And despite being quite a banana hater, I loved the cake!!

This post is off to 
1) Sudeshna's Blog (COOK LIKE A BONG) ' s CHRISTMAS EVENT;  

2) Indrani's Blog Event SPOTLIGHT:HEALTHY BAKING which was originally announced here;

3) 'Fast & Quick Healthy Dishes - Guest hosted by Kalpana Sareesh of Life with Spices, on behalf of Priya of Priya's Versatile Recipes

Soupy affair 2 - Spinach-Almond Soup

Though it's an ideal winter evening pre-dinner appetizer, if fresh spinach is available, a wet monsoon evening is also 'just right' for this soup. That is exactly what happened. Picked up bunches of fresh spinach. Spinach as it is, is not exactly my elder one's (AD) favourite....hence have to resort to 'soupy' tricks !!
So here goes the recipe....

Ingredients :

Spinach - 6-7 bunches washed and roughly chopped
Almonds - 10-12 - blanched to remove the skin
Onion - 1 small, chopped
Garlic - 2-3 cloves - chopped (Optional)
Pepper corns - freshly ground - to taste
Milk - 600  ml
Cream - optional - 1 tbsp
Grated cheese - depends....cheese always tastes great
salt - to taste & sugar - a pinch
red chili flakes - 1 tsp - optional
Ghee/Butter/Olive Oil - 2 tsp

Procedure :

1. In a wok, heat butter/ghee/oil and add the chopped onions, garlic, almond and a pinch of sugar. And fry till the almonds & onions are golden brown.
2. Add the washed & chopped spinach. Stir it around a bit and continue cooking till the water evaporates.
3. After cooling, grind the fried/sauted almond-onion-garlic-spinach into a smooth paste
4. Transfer back to the wok and slowly add warm milk and keep stirring to ensure no lump forms. Bring it to a boil and simmer for 3-5 minutes. Now add the salt. Let it simmer for a minute more
5. Take it off the flame and serve after garnishing with freshly ground pepper & grated cheese.

This post is off to Weekend Herb Blogging #291 started by HAALO and  hosted for the week by PAULCHEN'S FOODBLOG