Carrot Ginger Soup

I loved this soup it is so easy, so quick, and sooooo good! I hadn’t been feeling very well lately…was coughing all night. So, my mother asked me to have a lot of ginger, turmeric and cloves. These herbs are amazing and I am already feeling better. My body was begging me to give it more ginger. Ginger has a lot of health benefits. Indian moms instill that in you, i.e, health benefits of herbs and spices. They always concoct some home remedy for any small problem you have.  So, I missed my mom a lot when I accidentally came across this show by James Wong. The show is all about home remedies and is called – Grow your own drugs.

I confess, even though my mom and my mom-in-law coaxed me to quickly mix a few kitchen ingredients and make a remedy that makes me feel better, I wasn’t motivated enough to get out of bed and do all the work. But, when I was lazily flipping channels and came across this show,  I took it as a sign – “Ketki, you must now get out of bed and make your own medicine”, said a voice in the back of my head.   Therefore, I made this soup and the soup made me feel so much better that I went ahead and made the poppy seeds thingy as well (the one that my mom-in-law suggested).

I followed this recipe for the soup and it turned out to be very healthy and hearty. I am definitely gonna make it again.

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Orange Pineapple cake with Ricotta Cheese based frosting.

A scrumptious cake made from cake mix with a very simple twist!

This cake started of as an experiment but now I will make this my signature cake for sure! It is so heavenly that I can’t get enough of it. In fact, I sat down with a beautiful piece so that I can take a picture and upload it – but temptation triumphed!

The cake mix box says combine 1 cup water, 3 eggs, 1/3 cup vegetable oil and bake at 350 F. Now thats boring! I added three simple ingredients – orange, ricotta cheese and confectioner’s sugar and came up with this delightful and decadent cake.

Here is what I did –

Set the oven to 350 F.

I scraped the orange peel lightly with a grater to get the zest and I used a citrus juicer to extract the juice of the orange.

I then combined 3 eggs, 2/3 cup water, 1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice, 1/6 cup ricotta cheese and 1/6 cup vegetable oil with the cake mix. I folded in 1/2 tsp orange zest with the batter.

I baked it in a square pan for about 40 minutes and surprisingly it is very moist – I suspect thats because of the ricotta cheese.

I later whisked together 1 tbsp milk, 2 tbsp ricotta cheese, leftover orange zest, and 1/2 cup or more (make it as sweet as you like) confectioner’s sugar to use as frosting.

Things I used –

1 Orange, 1 packet pineapple cake mix, 3 eggs, half of 1/3 cup vegetable oil (1/6 cup), 1 tbsp milk, 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar, bowl, hand mixer, citrus juicer, grater, and most important- an oven :P.

Try it and let me know if you like it!

Foodography

Foodography.

Paneer stuffed biscuit!

I had been aching to bake since the breadsticks turned out so good. That was a long time ago, I baked them yesterday:) and I was honestly aching to bake! I dreamt about all these baked goodies in the little sleep that I got. Bear claw, biscuits, pizzas, cakes, cheesecakes, cupcakes…you name it and I wanted it.
Anyway I had been thinking about trying empanadas or calzones but I really don’t like frying… So I thought of giving my absolute favorite southern food- ‘the biscuit’, a North Indian twist and satisfy all my cravings at once. Brilliant 😀

How did I do that?

I made the dough for normal buttermilk biscuits set the oven to 400 F. I then let the dough sit, the oven preheat and in the meantime I made my filling : diced paneer, scallions, cilantro, Thai chili pepper, red pepper, tomato paste, salt, sugar and a pinch of garam masala. I took one egg, made the egg wash and used the rest in the filling.
Press the dough flat on a tiny dusted cast iron skillet layer on the filling cover with a layer of flat dough, secure the circumference by pressing all around. Brush the top with egg wash. Make three tiny slits at the top and bake for 12 minutes! That’s it, And don’t forget to serve with bacon:)

Breadsticks

I baked breadsticks today! The inspiration was the bread flour counting the days if its shelf life on my flour shelf and of course Olive Garden:p I wanted to recreate the unlimited garlic breadsticks they give you with lunch or dinner. Since I am a novice and no culinary genius I obviously went on to thee Internet and searched for breadsticks! Duh! Found this recipe tried it and loved it!

You should try too:)