Soulful Creations

Oops, I forgot to post my day 4 recipe for the marathon, I did post day 5 with the chocolate cake! Anyway barring that mistake, this would be the day 6 of the marathon and the 11th in my books (confusing numbers eh?!) Well these are yet another batch of cookies that I made to be sent to friends this year- absolutely delicious people! A success story modified from the Martha Stewart recipe for Noel Nut balls , I am beginning to like her cookie recipes... Ingredients 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 1/2 cup vegetable shortening 2 tbsp honey 1 tsp orange juice 2 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour 3/4 cup chopped pecans (best if chopped by hand) 1/2 cup sifted confectioners' sugar, plus more for rolling 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg 1/2 tsp clove powder Method Cream butter and honey until fluffy. Add orange juice, and beat to combine. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, pecans, confectioners' sugar, and salt, nutmeg, clove powder. Add ...

Science... never solves a problem without creating ten more- Bernard Shaw Merry Christmas y'all!! Kinda late for that but hey the thought is what counts doesn't it? So the 24th evening we had a small get together with great people and even greater food. Lot of Japanese treats and snacks. For the main course we had Pav-bhaji, Rajma and Japanese rice (with radish, bamboo, beets and carrots- I should ask my friend for the recipe, it tasted real good!) . For dessert we had ice cream and an eggless chocolate cake .  I was aiming for a black forest cake but somehow lost my enthusiasm and made a chocolate cake with whipped cream and toasted almond topping. Ingredients 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder 1/2 cup whole wheat flour 1/2 cup all purpose flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 can condensed milk 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled 1/2 cup water a pinch of salt 1 tsp almond extract Method Preheat the oven to 360F. Sift the cocoa powder, flour, bak...

Newest in the list, the focal is a swarovski button

Oh the warm smell of spices is the hallmark of the holiday season and is the one thing we all love, don't we? GInger is definitely one spice that I love to include in my cooking/baking expeditions during this time of the year. So I was naturally happy to see that this month we were doing the gingerbread house for this month's challenge, well it was a fleeting moment anyway until I realized that it was yet another kitchen mishap. Consider this my 10th new recipe and the 3rd in Nupur's marathon . The December 2009 Daring Baker's challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi . They chose to challenge Daring Bakers' everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book  as the challenge recipes. I used Y's recipe Ingredients 1 cup butter, room temperature 1 cup brown sugar, well packed 2 tablespoons cinnamon 4 teaspoons ground g...

It's a shame that the only thing a man can do for eight hours a day is work. He can't eat for eight hours; he can't drink for eight hours; he can't make love for eight hours. The only thing a man can do for eight hours is work- Faulkner Here is the recipe for the challenge, the 8th in my book. For the longest time I thought green split peas are the same as pigeon peas, so I bought some dried split peas. Now let me tell I am not a great fan of the split pea soup, I should have known then that they are not the same, because I love pigeon peas! The year end cleaning session led to this recipe using split peas.  Ingredients 1 1/2 cups green split peas 1 tsp minced fresh ginger 2 green chili, chopped 1 tsp turmeric 2 tsp ground coriander about 3/4 of a 16 oz bag of frozen spinach 1 cup coconut milk Oil for cooking 1¼ tsp kalonji seeds asafetida powder 1 tsp fresh lime juice Water and vegetable broth for cooking the dal Salt and pepper to taste Meth...

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion and desire- Aristotle You do understand that I had to do this, don't you? The 7 day-7 recipe marathon that a lot of us have signed up for, check Nupur's blog to check about rest of the players. This year, just like the last, I am making a bunch of cookies for friends. Lime meltaways as Martha Stewart calls them are the first of the lot. They have the very refreshing, very familiar citrus flavor and they were so delicate that I decided not to ship them. Ingredients 12 tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature (I did half butter and half crisco vegetable shortening) 1 cup confectioners' sugar Grated zest of 2 limes 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract 1 3/4 cups plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour 2 tbsp cornstarch 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg 1 tsp ginger powder 1/4 teaspoon salt Method Cream butter and 1/3 c...

"There is no use trying, said Alice; one can't believe impossible things. I dare say you haven't had much practice, said the Queen. When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as  six  impossible things before breakfast"- Lewis Caroll Yes, I am getting well versed with the art of believing in impossible things. I might not be a great cook or a baker but hey, that does not stop me from doing something I love. In fact cooking is like doing experiments in the lab, they are not that different really! This is a very delicious recipe modified from here . I am not sure if it really is a Burmese dish but it does not matter, does it?!  Ingredients 1 1/2 cups rice 1 sliced green pepper 1 1/2 cups boiled mixed vegetables (carrots, beans and green peas) 1 onion sliced 2 tsp white vinegar 1 tsp sugar 1 stick cinnamon 4 cloves Tomato ketchup Chilli garlic sauce Oil for cooking Salt and pepper to taste ...

"If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog? Five ? No, calling a tail a leg don't make it a leg"-Abe Lincoln Wow, never thought trying out 25 new recipes in 25 days was going to be this hard- well part of the problem is I get lazy once I get back home, so am rarely excited about cooking these days! Anyway I am going to continue to see how long it does take. And before we go into the recipes, let me just say it was a disaster, not in the sense that the final products were inedible but more like "what-in-the-world-did-I-end-up-with" disaster.  The recipe I tried was Makki di roti from here . Usually I like Sanjeev Kapoor's recipes but this one I am not sure what the problem was. Ingredients 3 cups cornmeal (I used coarse, may be that was the problem!) 1/2 cup wheat flour Salt to taste Butter, to top the rotis with Method Whisk in salt and wheat flour into the cornmeal. Knead using warm water, until you get a soft dough.  Divide t...

An attempt at visualizing the  Fourth Dimension: Take a point, stretch it into a line, curl it into a circle, twist it into a sphere, and punch through the sphere- Albert Einstein Luckily for me I did not have to do so much to attempt the fourth recipe- again a very simple recipe. I have reinforced the fact, for myself and hopefully for others too, that keeping things simple brings out the best of everything and it is definitely true with bread. I modified the recipe from here , I made only one loaf. Ingredients 2/3 cups  raisins 2/3 cups  boiling water 1 1/2 tsp.  baking soda Mix raisins and baking soda and pour boiling water over it. Let it stand overnight. Method 2/3 cups sugar a pinch of salt 3 tbsp vegetable oil 1 1/2cups Barley Flour 2 tsp instant coffee powder Combine ingredients, including the plumped up raisin mixture and mix well. Spoon the dough out into greased loaf pan Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes Judgement Awesome......

B y three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the most bitter- Confucius The third one was not so bitter after all... Ingredients 1 cup chickpea flour 1/2 cup quick cooking oats 2 tsp. ground cumin 1 tsp. chili powder 1/2 tsp. salt 1 15-oz. can chickpeas, rinsed and drained 4 green onions, chopped (1/2 cup) 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley 1 Tbs. olive oil 2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tsp.) 2 tsp minced ginger To make Croquettes: 1. Whisk together chickpea flour, oats, cumin, chili powder, and salt in bowl. Whisk in 3/4 cup hot water. Stir in remaining ingredients, and season with salt and pepper, if desired. At this point because I had oats too the mixture seemed dry and would not bind together, the wise guy then mashed the whole thing up for me and we cooked it like vadas! 2. Coat nonstick skillet with oil; heat over mediu...

Here is another piece I made yesterday- think its looks festive enough!

One's first love is always perfect until one meets one's second love Elizabeth Aston, The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy, 2005 This is certainly true of this recipe here- it was absolutely easy to make yet it tasted as though I spent hours making it! Thanks to Sanjeev Kapoor for this wonderful recipe - I am posting my slightly modified version here, Ingredients 8-10 slices  Wheat bread       2 tbsp butter (I used smart balance) 2 cloves I medium onion,  chopped 2 bay leaves 3 tbsp all purpose flour 3 cups milk a pinch of grated nutmeg 3/4 cup grated cheese (I used parmesan) 1 cup frozen green peas, thawed and microwaved for about 2-3 minutes 2 medium potatoes, cut in small cubes and boiled 3 carrots, diced and blanched 1 head broccoli, cut into florets chilli-garlic sauce salt and pepper to taste 1 tbsp butter, cut into cubes  Method Preheat oven to 425F. Cut the bread slices into small one inch pieces, add ...

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This was purely coincidental- Harini (guest host) announcing this month's theme for the mingle and me making a soup the very same day, in  fact even before I read her or Meeta's blog that day! This soup stems from my feel-like-asian mood and no-beans-but-yay-to-pasta-please feeling. So I combined the two things that I craved for the day- Ingredients 3 cups Vegetable broth 1 medium onion, chopped 1 1/2 cups diced celery and carrots 1 head broccoli, separated as florets chopped spring onion and parsley, for garnish (I did use a lot of these, so am not sure if I can call them " garnish ") 1/2 cup soy sauce 1-2 tbsp chilli garlic sauce (depends on your taste) a handful of tiny-weeny seashell pasta a handful of frozen peas, thawed salt and pepper to taste a couple of bay leaves 1 tbsp minced ginger Butter/oil whichever you prefer Methdod Add butter to a stock pot, heat it and then add the bay leaves. After a few seconds, add onions, celery an...