Cream of Mushroom Soup and Garlic Bread

       Cream of Mushroom Soup

Ingredients

Fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced : 1 small packet

Shallot, minced : 2

Garlic cloves, minced : 2

Unsalted butter : 3 tbsp

All purpose flour : 2 tbsp

Chicken stock : 2 cups

Cream : 1/2 cup

Pepper : 1/4 tsp

Nutmeg powder : 1/4 tsp

Dried thyme : 1/4 tsp

Salt to taste

Method

 Heat the butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add mushrooms and onions, stirring well to coat with the butter. Cook until the mushrooms have wilted and most of the liquid evaporates. Add the garlic and cook two minutes more.

Blend the flour, salt pepper and nutmeg. Cook for about one minute.

Whisk in the chicken stock. Simmer until slightly thickened, stirring frequently. If your stock is unsalted, you may have to add a bit more salt at the end. Let your taste buds decide!

Add the cream and bring just to a simmer. Remove 1 1/2 cups of the soup and puree it. Pour back into the pan, stir to incorporate.

Turn off heat, adjust seasonings if necessary, and enjoy!

           Garlic bread

You can make this on the grill, in a skillet, or in the oven.

Ingredients

Unsalted butter, softened : 4 tbsp

Extra-virgin olive oil : 2 tbsp

Garlic, finely chopped : 2 tbsp

Baguette ( French bread ) 

Fresh flat leaf parsley, finely chopped : 2 tbsp (optional)

Grated Parmesan or mozzarella : 1/4 cup (optional)

Method 

For making in the oven,

Preheat the oven. Stir together the butter, oil and garlic in a small bowl.

Using a serrated knife cut the bread into 1-inch-thick slices without cutting all the way through to the bottom, leave the slices attached to each other.

Gently pull apart the slices and use a pastry brush to butter them with the garlic mixture.

Wrap the loaf in foil and bake in the center of the oven for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes open up the foil and bake 5 minutes more.

If you are making this on a grill or in a skillet,

Slice the bread into 1/2 inch to 1 inch thick slices ( cut the slices on a slight angle )

Brush both sides of bread with garlic butter and place on a grill or into a hot skillet. When the bread is browned a bit, flip it over and wait tll brown.

You can add shredded Parmesan,mozzarella cheeses and parsley to any version of this.

Fried sweet potato chips

It's a bit late that I post , unfortunately my laptop stopped working which had all my blog related materials and I had to put all things together again.

Yesterday it was raining here , we spent so much time looking through our flat's window enjoying the rain outside. 

My Bh took this snap during the morning walk to the beach.

Off to today,s recipe

Ingredients

Vegetable oil, for frying

Sweet potatoes, washed : 2

Chilly powder : 1 tsp

Garlic powder : 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Directions

Cut the sweet potatoes into batons (fry shapes) , then soak them in water for around 45 minutes. This is the important step to make them crispy ! Drain and pat dry. Add chilly powder, garlic powder, and salt. Mix well and deep fry. Serve with Thai chilli sauce or with any dip of your choice

Jalebi recipe

Ingredients

• Maida / All purpose flour : 1 cup
• Corn flour : 2 tbsp
• Thick curd : 3/4 cup (approximately)
• Cooking soda : 1 pinch
• Ghee : 2 tbsp
• Orange food color : 1/2 pinch
• Oil + Ghee : for deep frying

For sugar syrup

• Sugar : 1 cup
• Water : 1 cup
• Lemon juice : 1 tsp
• Orange food color : 1/4 pinch
• Rose essence / elaichi powder :  a little ( optional )

Method

• Mix maida, corn flour, cooking soda, ghee and food color in a bowl. Add curd and make a thick batter by adding more water. Consistency should be like vada batter. Keep it in a warm place for overnight or until it ferments well. Next day mix well with a ladle. it should be a sticky thick batter of dropping consistency.In another stove, boil sugar with water, food color, until sring consistency.  Then add lemon juice, essence / elaichi, and keep in lowest heat possible.

• In a flat bottomed pan, heat oil + ghee. Level should be very low as shown in the pic. Take a durable ziploc bag with hole, fill with the batter and draw circles in a medium heated oil. Oil should never fume. Also it should be enough to fry the jalebis porous and crisp. So adjust the heat accordingly. Make 3-4 circles per piece and end the circle by overlapping the tip when you end, otherwise the shape wont be good.
• Fry on both sides till crisp and drain it and add immediately to the hot sugar syrup. Let it be dunked in the syrup for 2 minutes at least. After some time, drain it and arrange in a plate.

Notes

•  The batter consistency is very important, it should be thick like vada batter. If its runny, then jalebi will become flat.
• While cooking jalebi, keep flame medium to make it crisp.
• lemon juice prevents sugar from crystallizing.