Roasted butternut squash soup with caramelised onions

Squashes and pumpkins - especially the yellow kind - are usually prized by people who love them for their sweetish taste. Me, I'm kind of meh about them for precisely that reason... they're not quite sweet and not quite savoury either, and when you roast them they turn squidgy. (Parsnips, which are also kind of sweetish, at least have the decency to turn crisp on the outside when oven-roasted, so I tend to like those. But squashes... they just squash.)

Anyway, I've bought butternut squashes before and let them sit around till even they were too awful to be used (and believe me, they take a very very long time to get that way because of their incredibly hard outer skin or shell), and then thrown them away. This time I was determined to use the squash, so after 15 minutes of determined - and sometimes downright dangerous - sawing, I had the squash halved vertically, to see its innards for the first time ever with my own two eyes (four if you count my contact lenses).

Once the thing was peeled, it was a doddle. It roasted without any trouble and I made the soup without any trouble either. I cooked up some masoor dal for protein and pureed that with the roasted squash as well. Pete liked the soup quite a lot, although I was a bit ambivalent about its taste, myself. It was, as I had known it would be, a bit too sweet for me even with the addition of plenty of ground pepper. But even Pete had to admit that the caramelised onions and croutons were what raised the stakes in the soup arena. Without those savoury garnishes the butternut squash soup would have been just too... yup, you guessed it, sweet.

Recipe for: Roasted butternut squash soup with caramelised onions



Ingredients:

1 medium butternut squash
3 cups vegetable stock
1 medium onion, chopped
1/3 cup evaporated skim milk
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp black peppercorns, freshly ground to powder
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup masoor dal
2 tbsp olive oil
a few toasted herbed croutons for garnish (NOT optional)
salt to taste

For caramelised onions:
1 small onion, very thinly sliced
1 tsp butter
2 tsp sugar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C.

2. Cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds and stringy bits with a spoon.



Peel the squash and chop it into 2" chunks.



Roast, uncovered, until the squash is soft - about 45 minutes, but check to see.



3. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan and sweat the garlic and chopped onion until slightly translucent.



4. Add the stock and masoor dal along with the cinnamon.



5. Let this bubble gently on medium high heat until the lentils are nearly transparent and soft.



Set aside to cool.

6. In the meantime, heat the butter in a small pan.



Let it melt and turn golden brown (be careful not to burn it), then add the sliced onion.



Turn down the heat and let the onions soften slowly, stirring now and then, till they're soft and caramelised to a golden brown. This should take about 10 minutes or so.



Reserve the caramelised onions for garnish.

7. Now scoop out the cooked lentils along with half the cooking liquid,



and blend to a puree along with the roasted squash.



8. Return the blended vegetables to the pan containing the remaining cooking water and stir it all till well mixed.

9. Pour in the evaporated milk and stir it in.



Bring to a gentle simmer,



then add the freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste. Stir it in. Let the soup simmer for 2-3 minutes longer, then switch off the heat.

10. Serve the soup in warmed bowls topped with some caramelised onions and the croutons.

Kiwi Gee's Recipes from Down Under - Poricha Koottu

This is a classic South Indian recipe, one made probably in every home. And equally probably it will vary slightly from home to home, never really exactly the same anywhere.

I've done my version (or rather, my mom's version - actually, probably my grandmother's version and so on upwards!) earlier, except that in my family it's called "poricha kuzhambu" and it varies ever so slightly from Kiwi Gee's. For instance, I've never known it to have pureed tomatoes in it, or ginger, and it's one of the few items we make that doesnt have coriander leaves as garnish!

But, as I already said, each to his/her own. And, as Kiwi Gee says, it's "Esply good for rotis on ‘onionless’ days. Nowadays, it is a boon to me as I get my veggies and dhal into one simple dish that is quick to cook and nutritious to eat. And easy to camouflage the veggies in all that dhal, esply as far as feeding the hungry hordes (kids) goes".

So there you are - a way to get those dreaded veggies into your kids, if you have them (kids, I mean). If you dont, it's merely a good way to incorporate all the odds and ends of vegetables that you might have in the fridge. Either way, a good recipe to have on hand. ("This koottu can be made with different veggies – white pumpkin, carrots, frozen mixed veggies, cabbage, spinach, zucchini, etc. ")



Kiwi Gee used "choko" (in the strange language of Down Under *wink* it refers to chayote squash/Bangalore kathirikkai!), but I didnt have any on hand as it's not a vegetable that's seen in the local supermarkets. Luckily I did have a half of doodhi (bottle gourd), so I used that in its place. Also added a chopped carrot, a potato, some green beans and, at the very end of cooking, frozen green peas. (What's life without green peas, eh?).

Recipe for: Poricha kootu



2 cups chopped mixed veggies (any combination of potatoes, carrots, green beans, chayote squash, eggplant - if you absolutely must - etc)
1/4 cup moong dal
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder (a pinch)
1 tsp oil

For the seasoning:
Coriander leaves
Curry leaves
1 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tsp channa dal
1 tsp urad dal
pinch asafoetida powder

For the paste:
2-4 green chillies
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp grated ococonut
5 pepper corns
Small piece of ginger
1 large tomato (or two medium ones)

Method:

1. Wash the moong dal, drain and add a cupful of water along with the vegetables and a pinch of turmeric powder.



2. Pressure cook the vegetables and the moong dal for 3 whistles or until the dal is well mushy. Set aside.



3. Chop tomatoes into small bits and grind to a fine paste along with ginger, green chillies, cumin seeds, coconut and pepper corns – grind raw.

4. In a kadhai, heat the oil, add the hing powder, mustard seeds, channa and urad dhal and curry leaves.



5. When mustard pops and dhals are reddish, add the paste.



6. Fry for a minute, then add the pressure cooked vegetables and dhal along with the frozen peas if using.



7. Keep stirring till it all comes to a boil (adding water if reqd to keep it at a pouring consistency), then add salt, mix and switch hob off.



8. Sprinkle chopped coriander on top. Use as a side dish with rice or rotis.

Chow-chow thogayal (chutney)

Item 1: 1/4 of a chow-chow (bangalore kathirikkai)

+

Item 2: about 1/2 a coconut

=

Item 3 = Chow-chow chutney or thogayal

This is probably the only sort of equation I can understand, having been maths-impaired since birth. It's the stuff of my nightmares, mathematics, and it has NO place on my blog or indeed in my life.

So I'll talk about chow-chow thogayal instead.



My mother usually makes thogayal with the addition of a vegetable - cabbage, white pumpkin, chow-chow, etc. When I was younger, I used to think that thogayal made by adding vegetables was inferior to that made with coconut alone - as if the purity of the coconut had been compromised (I guess as a kid I was pompous in thought if not speech!).


Ingredients for thogayal (clockwise, starting top right): Coconut, dried red chillies, urad dal, tamarind piece and curry leaves

I dont feel that way any more, which is why this recipe is being aired. Also, adding a bit of vegetable is a great idea if you're a bit short of coconut - and it doesnt compromise on taste one whit. Of course, since the vegetable is only partly cooked, the thogayal only stays good for a couple of days.

Putting coconut chutneys in the fridge definitely DOES compromise the taste, because they acquire a sort of staleness that's unattractive on the tongue. It's not that the chutneys go bad, but they lose some vital essence... I like to imagine that it's their soul...

Enough of the belaboured whimsy, and on with the recipe!

Recipe for: Chow-chow thogayal (chutney)



Ingredients:

1/2 cup chow-chow, sliced
1/2 cup coconut, grated or slivered
5-6 dried red chillies (or to taste)
1 tsp tamarind paste or 1/4-lime sized piece of tamarind
10 curry leaves
1/2 tsp asafoetida powder
2 tsp urad dal
2 tsp oil
Salt to taste
Warm water as required (approx 1/4 cup)

Method:

1. Heat 1 tsp oil in a small pan and stir-fry the sliced chow-chow for 2-3 minutes, till the slices start to soften. Remove from the pan and set aside.

2. Heat the second tsp of oil in the same pan and fry the red chillies, urad dal and curry leaves till the dal turns golden. Remove the chillies and set aside.



3. Grind the fried chillies, coconut, tamarind, asafoetida powder and chow-chow together, using only as much water as required to make thick but finely ground mixture.

4. When all the ingredients are ground up properly, add the rest of the tempering (the curry leaves and urad dal) along with salt to taste and grind for another 20 seconds, so that the dal and curry leaves are shredded but not completely amalgamated.

5. Serve as a side dish with idli, dosa, chapaties, etc, use it as a filling for sandwiches, or eat it mixed with ghee and steamed rice with any dry vegetable dish.

ARF/5-A-Day #3 - Poricha kuzhambu (South Indian mixed vegetable 'stew')

I like this particular cooking event hosted by Sweetnicks, and I'm pleased that I havent missed too many episodes - just the first one entirely. I took part in the second ARF/5-a-day event, but was too late sending my link to Sweetnicks (mainly from sheer ignorance).

The other events hosted by food bloggers are usually out of bounds for me for various reasons - not enough time/inclination/imagination/expertise/take your pick - but since I've been trying to eat more veg and generally be more healthy, this event appeals to me a lot. It isnt difficult either - I mean, vegetables and fruit are everyday items on the menu, so putting up a post is easily accommodated. As an added bonus, I get to feel like I belong with the other food bloggers. It's all good! Yay for Sweetnicks! :)

Anyway, my entry for ARF/5-a-day #3 is poricha kuzhambu - a favourite with all of us when we were growing up and especially so for my mother, because she could use up all the odds and ends of vegetables left at the end of the week. It's my brother's all-tmie favourite, I think - paired with coconut thogayal (a type of chutney) and sutta appalam (poppadums which have been cooked directly on an open flame instead of being deep fried). I like an added extra with that - narthangai, which is a type of green citron (my best guess, since I dont have the English word for this fruit), salted and sun-dried.

My reason for making poricha kuzhambu was pretty much because I had lots of bits of vegetables - carrots, cabbage, green beans, spinach, potatoes, chayote squash. And I added some frozen green peas as well, because I love peas. It's an incredibly healthy recipe, containing all these veggies as well as protein in the form of moong dal. It's also very simple if you use a pressure cooker.


Moong dal

Recipe for: Poricha kuzhambu (South Indian vegetable 'stew')


Poricha kuzhambu, served over rice with coconut thogayal and fried bitter-melon crisps (brought over from India!)

Ingredients:

4 cups mixed vegetables, chopped (any combination of carrots, green beans, cabbage, spinach, potatoes, chayote squash, aubergine, peas, etc, but not okra)
1/2 cup moong dal
1/2 tsp turmeric powder

Grind together to a smooth paste, using a few tbsp warm water:
2-3 tbsp grated coconut
1 tsp black peppercorns
3-4 dry red chillies (or to taste)
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp rice flour

For tempering:
1 tsp oil
2 tsp whole cumin seeds
2 tsp mustard seeds
7-8 curry leaves
2 tsp urad dal
pinch of asafoetida powder

Method:

1. Pressure cook the dal and vegetables together with turmeric powder for about 3 whistles. When the cooker can be opened safely, stir the vegetables and dal till mixed.

If not using a pressure cooker, cook the dal separately in plenty of water till soft and mushy. Drain most of the water and mash the dal. Cook the vegetables separately in just enough water to cover, till they are somewhat overdone but not a helpless mush. Mix the two together, add salt to taste, and set aside.

2. In a deep pan, heat the oil. Put in the mustard seeds, cover, and let them pop. Add the rest of the tempering ingredients and stir till the urad dal turns reddish.

3. Now pour in the vegetable-dal mixture. Stir in the coconut masala paste until it is well amalgamated with the vegetables.



4. Add more water if the mix is too thick, and stir. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer gently for five minutes.

5. Serve hot over steamed rice, or with chapaties.

Chayote squash (Bangalore kathirikkai) kootu

Say pumpkin, and immediately the garish orange one comes to mind - the one that's hollowed out to make Jack o' Lanterns for Halloween. I guess it's eaten a lot in the US during Thanksgiving - made into pies and cookies and cakes and casseroles and goodness knows what else. But orange pumpkins arent my favourite - the white ones are. That is, translucent white on the inside, and green on the outside.

White pumpkin seems to be a vegetable eaten mostly by Tamilians... it's one of my favourites when made into kootu (using ground coconut to flavour the gravy and bring the cooked vegetable "together") following my mother's recipe.

I'm not sure if it's particularly popular elsewhere (except when making aviyal, I suppose) in India, because the last time I visited my mother when she was living in Hyderabad, we didnt find white pumpkin in the vegetable shops for love or money. And the one time that I spotted a pumpkin, the shopkeeper refused to sell us a portion of it - it was all or nothing. Since a whole pumpkin is a waste of a purchase for just two people - even for two people who love it! - we had to leave with nothing.

But a reasonable substitute for white pumpkins - which I have never seen in the UK - is the chayote squash... or Bangalore kathirikkai, as I knew it in Madras. It's a slightly strange looking vegetable, puckered up on one side, but it tastes great when made into kootu.


Chayote squash, or Bangalore kathirikkai


What it looks like cut lengthwise

It's nice as a side dish with vatha kuzhambu/sambar and rice, fantastic as an accompaniment for rotis and pretty darn good over plain rice as a main meal. That's what I had yesterday for my dinner - chayote squash kootu with rice and microwaved appalams. Homey, filling and healthy!

Recipe for: Chayote squash (Bangalore kathirikkai) kootu



Ingredients:

2 cups chayote squash, chopped evenly into small cubes
1/4 cup gram dal (chana dal/kadalai paruppu)
Two pinches of turmeric powder
Water

For the coconut paste:

2 tbsp fresh grated coconut
4-5 green chillies (or to taste)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp rice flour

For the tempering/tadka:

1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp cumin seeds
a few curry leaves
pinch of asafoetida
2 tsp oil
1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves for garnish (optional)
Method:

1. Put the chopped squash and the chana dal in a saucepan and pour in just enough water to cover the vegetables fully.



2. Add the turmeric and stir, then cover the pan and bring the water to a boil. Turn down the heat to a slow simmer till the chana dal is cooked but still retains its shape, about 15-20 minutes. (Test by squashing a kernel of dal between your fingers - if it mashes easily, it's done.) Keep an eye on the water level so that it doesnt fall below the level of the vegetable. The squash should be cooked by then as well.



3. Meanwhile, grind the coconut paste ingredients into a smooth paste using some warm water (about 3-4 tbsp).

4. Add the paste to the cooked vegetable along with salt to taste, and mix well. Let the kootu simmer for 3-4 minutes.

5. In a small pan with a lid, heat 2 tsp oil and add the tempering ingredients, then close the pan. Wait till the mustard seeds have popped and the cumin seeds and urad dal have changed colour, then pour directly onto the kootu. Mix well and take the kootu off the heat.

6. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve with rice or chapatis/rotis.