Homemade Hot Cocoa (using Raw Cacao powder)

Blogging Marathon# 62: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Chocolate

Dish: Hot Cocoa

We are starting a new edition of Blogging marathon today and my theme for this week is 'Kid friendly Chocolate dishes'. Kalyani is hosting this month's Kid's Delight event with this universally loved ingredient as the theme.

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Creamy Cauliflower Soup

Blogging Marathon# 61: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: Taste of Home Top 100 recipes of 2015

Dish: Cauliflower Soup

Starting a new month with a new edition of blogging marathon today. My theme for the first week is cooking from 'Top 100 recipes of 2015 from Taste of Home'. It was quite a task choosing just 3 dishes from that list. I scrolled up and down that page a million times before picking my dishes.

First up is this creamy and delicious cauliflower soup. It is a very easy recipe to make -- cook cauliflower, make cheesy white sauce, mix them together and serve hot!!

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Vegetarian White Chili with Roasted Poblano Peppers

Can you make a wild guess of what could be the scariest thing that can happen to you right now? We experienced it recently -- it's not flu or ebola virus or zombie apocalypse!!!!!!! It is losing your internet, tv and phone service for an entire DAY. WHAT??? Yes, it happened to us yesterday and everything went haywire at home. You would think the adults will be the ones most affected, but it was the 7 year old who declared a state of emergency and wanted to leave the house. His dad who was (supposed to be) working from home was more calm than the kid who gets about 1 hour (if that) of computer time every day and he looked soooo lost without it. Let me tell you, we got a lot done in this 24 hours: the whole basement looks clean now and I finally got a chance to look through all the new cookbooks I recently got free from the very friendly librarian. 

Thankfully we are back in action with all the devices up and running and fully connected. I was worried I won't get this White Chili post in time for the upcoming Super bowl XXXXIX sunday. But here it is for those of you looking to make something different for the party this weekend. 

This Chili uses white beans instead of the more traditional red or black beans, hence the name White Chili :-) This recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine and has roasted poblano peppers that add nice smokey flavor and depth to the dish.

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Herbed Tempeh Stew

We came to the end of yet another week long blogging marathon, as usual it went by pretty fast. I enjoyed making and eating all the “winter special” dishes and also the awesome dishes my fellow marathoners have cooked up this whole week. Thanks to Valli for organizing the marathon and I’m already looking forward to the next one. 

For the last day of the marathon, I made this hearty stew with tempeh, veggies and herbs. I bookmarked Vaishali's Savory Herbed Tempeh Stew recipe more than a year ago and finally got to make it for the marathon. Stews are thicker and heartier than soups. This recipe is thick, creamy and delicious -- a perfect winter meal. I let my stew simmer a little longer to make it thicker.

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Gajar Halwa (Carrot Halwa)

For Day 6 of BM, I made the most widely made and liked dessert in India, Gajar Halwa aka Carrot Halwa. I read somewhere that carrot halwa is generally made in winters because the sweet carrots or gajar is widely available in winters. My MIL makes the best Carrot halwa and she makes hers with khoya, but I took the short cut and made mine with condensed milk. 

For best results, this dessert has to be cooked low and slow, on a low flame stirring occasionally in the beginning and more frequently at the end when the halwa is coming together. 

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Ven Pongal & Gosthu

For Day 5 of BM# 10 under Winter Special theme, I have a very comforting and hearty combo, Ven Pongal & Gosthu. I'm sure these dishes are made all year round, but a hot bowl of pongal with the hearty vegetable & lentil curry just warms you up from within, making it a very special winter dish in my opinion. 

Recipe for Ven Pongal is adapted from Chandra Padmanabhan's Dakshin cookbook and I made Suganya's gosthu to go along with it. A perfect way to end a looong day of shopping. 

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Thai Style Split Pea Soup

Bowl of hot soup is such a comforting meal on a chilly winter day. I'm not a big fan of soup, but this split pea soup is so hearty and delicious that I went back for seconds. Original recipe is from Culinate. To make it perfect for a weeknight dinner, I pressure cooked the split peas making it a perfect one-pot meal that can be made in less than 30 minutes. I also used ready made tom-yum paste that a dear friend gave me. But I have included the recipe for spice paste at the end.

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Mooli Paratha

For Day 2 of BM# 10, I made some good old Indian style winter comfort food --- mooli paratha. These parathas are made with daikon radish which is generally available in the winter. My husband is not a big fan of mooli, so I followed Rak’s recipe to cook the mooli before stuffing in the paratha. Parathas turned out hearty and delicious, not stinky at all like my husband predicted.

  

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Homemade Hot Chocolate

I can’t believe it’s end of November and we will be in a brand NEW year in little more than a month’s time. Time seems to fly with no worries, but here we are trying to play catch up with time. My space has been quiet for some time now due to a personal tragedy and I’m still struggling to pull myself together to do anything. But I thought Blogging marathon and hosting Kid’s Delight event will cheer me up and get me back into cooking and into the upcoming holiday mood. 

So here I am ready for another edition of Blogging marathon. Thanks to Valli for organizing 10 successful BMs this year. I picked “Winter Special Dishes” as my theme. Growing up in Southern India where the temperatures are mild to high throughout the year, dishes remain the same almost throughout the year. We use seasonally available produce, but the basic dish did not change dramatically. It’s only after coming to chilly northeast US that I realized the reason and need for making winter “special” dishes. Weather in winter makes me want to just curl up under a throw with a hot bowl of soup to warm up. 

These are the reasons I think what makes a dish “winter special”:

• Warms you up from within when eaten, like a soup. 
• Warms up the house when cooked/ baked, like a baked pasta dish etc. 
• Use produce available in winter, like winter squashes etc. 
• Since winter also means Holiday season, any dish that is rich and festive falls under this category too. 

 

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