Moroccan chickpea soup with harissa

Winter has finally set in, in my part of the world !
It was really sunny and hot till the weekend, but on Sunday the temperatures really dropped...My little one heads off to school really early in the morning and we now have to bundle him up in his woollens...The days are pretty warm, but the evenings get really chill



Made Moroccan chickpea soup with harissa and some thyme roasted potatoes to go with it, for dinner last night
There's this lovely restaurant for Mediterranean food here in Ahmedabad called Souq, which we have been frequenting regularly since they opened. Had this chickpea soup here for the first time and loved it - everything on their menu is really really good !

Last month I was in Bombay for a few days and on one of our shopping sprees, my cousins and I landed up in Moshe's thrice in one day ! Its a lovely cafe, that serves Mediterranean and some super awesome desserts !! We first went to the one that's in the Fab India store at Kalaghoda. While one cousin was helping an uncle with his shopping, the other one and I chatted endlessly about food ! We then ran up to the Moshe's there and picked up some kiwi and green apple jam and a bottle of harissa...
We went to another Moshe's for lunch and the third for dessert after our shopping had drained us out and we needed the sugar rush to keep us going !

Harissa is a hot chilli paste, popular in North African cooking. Add it to pasta, soup, couscous to make a spicy tasty difference. This can be made at home
With this store bought harissa on hand, I decided on the chickpea soup with harissa. Got the recipe from OneTribeGourmet, a blog that's a visual treat !

Moroccan Chickpea soup with harissa

Recipe Source - One Tribe Gourmet

What you need -

1 cup cooked chickpeas / kabuli chana / garbanzo beans
3 cups of stock (I used the liquid from cooking the chickpeas)
1 small onion
5-6 cloves garlic
2 tomatoes / 6-8 ripe cherry tomatoes
1/2 tsp saffron threads
1/2 tsp roasted and powdered cumin seeds
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp black pepper powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp harissa sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped cilantro / coriander leaves

What you do with it -

Soak the chickpeas overnight in a pot of water and then cook in pressure cooker / stove top
Drain and reserve the water
Chop the onion, garlic and tomatoes
Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a deep pan
Add the garlic and onion and saute until translucent
Add the cumin powder, saffron threads, salt, pepper and chili powder
Saute for 2 mins and then add the tomatoes
Add the cooked chickpeas along with the stock or the water the chickpeas were cooked in
Mix well and cover and allow to simmer for about half an hour
Add chopped coriander lemon juice and let it simmer for 10 more minutes
Use a hand held blender to pulverize the chickpeas but don't mash it up completely
Spoon into the soup bowls and garnish with coriander leaves, lemon wedges, a spoon on olive oil and a tsp of harissa sauce
Serve hot !

Cherry Clafoutis and Apple Flaugnarde

Till a few months back, I had no idea what 'Clafoutis' and 'Flaugnarde' meant, but thanks to all the blog hopping, I actually made these on Sunday !
I am still not sure I know how to pronounce these, though !!
Deeba, the baking diva, has some amazing creations on her blog...Her pictures are fantastic and I can spend hours drooling over all the exotic dishes she comes up with !
I've seen her use these pretty little ramekins and I recently picked up six of them, so had to try out something in them - thankfully, I didnt have to wait too long - with cherries in season and this really neat recipe on her blog, I knew exactly what I was going to make as a Father's day special !!



Deeba used plums in hers and I am sure the juice of that added a lot to the taste of the clafoutis, but after my overdose with plums last year, I decided to stay far away from them...



Filled three ramekins with the pitted cherries (learnt that here)that looked really nice and red and for the remaining three, I tried the flaugnarde. I learnt from Deeba's blog that flaugnarde was basically the same batter used with fruits other than cherries - this was a great idea - it meant I saved my time pitting the cherries and I could get 2 desserts with one meal !!



I used apples and raisins for the flaugnarde and actually liked it better than the clafoutis - I am guessing the cherries were not sweet enough or perhaps didnt seem to ooze out too much juice to make the clafoutis moist...Maybe, I will try with the plums someday...

For the original recipe, go straight here

To see my tweaked version, continue reading...

What you need -

25- 30 red cherries
3 eggs separated (this was another adventure !)
3/4 cup castor sugar
1/2 cup plain flour / maida
2-3 drops vanilla essence
3/4 cup fresh cream

What you do with it -

Preheat oven to 170C
Grease 6 small ramekins with oil / butter
Pit the cherries, and halve them
Arrange half the fruit at the bottom of the greased ramekins
For the flaugnarde, I chopped the apple and heated it in a pan with 2 tsp of brown sugar till the apple looked a little stewed. Arrange these in the ramekin. Drop in 5-6 raisins in each ramekin over the apples
To make the batter, whisk the egg yolks with half the sugar until thick and pale. With a rubber spatula, fold in the flour first, the vanilla essence and then the cream
Whisk the egg whites with the remaining sugar till they form firm peaks
Fold them into the batter gently
Pour the batter over the fruit to reach about 3/4 of the way up
Bake in the oven for 15-20 mins, take out and arrange 3 whole cherries on top and bake for a further 5-7 minutes
Serve warm with some cream or vanilla ice-cream

Stuffed Eggplant

I discovered Purple Foodie's blog a couple of months back..I love the way she comes up with one interesting dish after another...Though I never venture too much into the desserts area, which I think she does complete justice to, I did try out her crispy apple crumble and it turned out awesome...
The cake from my previous post is also from her blog..

The day I saw this Stuffed Eggplant Goodness on her blog, I had decided I must try it out..Bookmarked it and then completely forgot about it...



In the market, I saw this beautiful eggplant (bharte wala baingan) and picked it up with the bharta on my mind. Chopped the onions and tomatoes for it and then remembered Purple foodie's eggplant, went back to my bookmarks, saw that the ingredient list, at least most of it, was available in my kitchen and went ahead to vegetarianise her recipe. I did not have parmesan cheese, but had 2 cheese slices...



This halved, loaded eggplant looked like a complete meal to me, but I was sure TH would ask me 'This is dinner ?', so I quickly spiced up some leftover rice with olives, red chilli flakes, garlic and shallots. Served the eggplant on the bed of rice - was a pretty picture and tasted good too
Thank you Shaheen, for a brilliant dinner...

Here's the link to the original recipe and here's my tweaked vegetarian version...

What you need -

1 large eggplant
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
1 bayleaf
3-4 cloves garlic
1-2 tomatoes
1/2 cup crumbled paneer
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp mixed herbs
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
salt and crushed pepper

What you do with it -

Slit the eggplant lengthwise
Pre-heat oven to 200 C
Grease the baking dish with some olive oil and then place the eggplant, cut side up
Sprinkle oil over the eggplant with a chopped clove of garlic and some oregano
Bake for about 25 mins, or till tender
Scoop out the flesh from the eggplant and mash it up gently with a fork
In a pan, heat the 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat
Add the onions, chopped garlic, bayleaf, oregano and red chilli flakes
Then the tomatoes, salt, pepper and mixed herbs. Once its a little mushy, add the crumbled paneer and the eggplant flesh
Remove the bayleaf
Lower the oven temperature to 190 C
When the mixture cools a bit, fill it back into the eggplant shells (Shaheen uses egg here, which would give it a nice binding, but I didnt have any at home, so skipped that)
Return the shells to the baking dish. Sprinkle with olive oil
Bake the eggplant for 30-40 minutes or until the shells are tender when pierced with a skewer
During the last 10 minutes of baking, add bits of the cheese slices onto the eggplant and bake till done. You could use a lot more cheese here, I had run out of cheese !

Time to celebrate - 1 year up !

My foodie blog is one year old !!
To celebrate, I baked this yummy chocolate-walnut marble cake



Followed the recipe from Purple foodie's blog, except that I used walnuts instead of hazelnuts, and reduced the quantity a bit..
Turned out really nice, the aroma of the cake filled the house, the ground walnuts gave it a lovely twist and the marble / layered effect was something I was super thrilled about !
It was also an inauguration of the beautiful glass bundt pan I bought in Bangalore a few months back..



My cooking has become more innovative and experimental after I started blogging and visiting blogs..Baking was something I never tried too much and was never confident about, but after the fairly successful breads, cakes and muffins, it does feel great to bake now...

Thank you people, for visiting my blog...The comments from the blogging world, the mails I get from my cousins and friends telling me what they have tried out from my blog, truly makes my day ! Thank you !

Carrot Coconut Muffins

My adventures in the kitchen have become much more interesting after I discovered the food blogging world. There are a zillion options out there, waiting to be 'tried and tasted' and after blog hopping for a while, it actually gets difficult to decide on what I want to make from which blog !

I never attempted baking earlier, except for an odd cake once in a way. I just didnt think I could do that well, but over the last few months, after seeing so many of you baking so wonderfully, I gathered all my courage and now am thrilled to say I've even baked bread a few times !!



When my brother was in UK a couple of months back, I asked him to pick up a muffin tray for me and ever since I got here, I've been waiting to try out a lot of the bookmarked muffin recipes.

I wanted to make these lovely looking muffins I had seen on Miri's blog for a long time, but everytime I decided making it, there was some ingredient always missing, either the carrots or the butter or sometimes, even the flour !!

But today, I had to make it, with a few substitutions though...
It turned out really really nice - soft with these nice bites of carrots, raisins and coconut in between.



What you need -

1 cup maida
1 cup wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter (unsalted)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups grated carrots
1 apple
2 really ripe bananas
1 cup grated coconut
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup raisins
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

What you do with it -

Mix together the flours, baking powder, cinnamon powder and baking soda
Peel and grate the apple
Run the bananas thru the blender to make a smooth paste
Beat the eggs and keep aside
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together till creamy. Add the pureed bananas and beat some more
Mix in the eggs and vanilla essence into the butter, bananas and sugar and then add the flour, grated carrots, greated apple, chopped walnuts, raisins and coconut mixing just until combined
In Miri's words "The key to spongy muffins is not to mix the ingredients too much but just till they come together"
Spoon the batter into lightly greased muffin pans or you can line the muffin pans with muffin papers and then spoon the batter into them.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 deg C (350F) for about 25 minutes till a toothpick inserted comes out clean
Rest for 10 minutes and turn out of the muffin pan and let it cool completely