Thanksgiving Recipes: Butternut Squash Soup with Adzuki Beans

This was taken with a DSLR and a new lens, courtesy the ManofFewWords!:-)

And the rest with my old Point and Shoot Nikon.

Hung Curd/ Yogurt Dip with sweet peppers, red chilli flakes and roasted cummin.

Dessert: Meyer Lemon Cheesecake with a Walnut crust

 Berries in a light Meyer Lemon-honey-sugar syrup.

Brunch: A simple pizza with a sprinkling of  Parmesan, yellow tomatoes, red onion slivers,  salt and black pepper.

Over the years, several versions of the traditional American  Thanksgiving dishes has become part of a new tradition; some years we have had a completely vegetarian menu. Our daily diet preference is vegetarian  and when we cook poultry or fish, it is always in a modest quantities. Every other dish, mashed potatoes, greens, green beans, bread, soup and chutneys would be spiced with flavours familiar from our cuisine too. Some dishes would just get an increase of the heat quotient. 

This dish mimics the traditional Kerala dish, the Erisseri where coconut is ground with cummin and also roasted to meld  with pumpkins, raw plantains, yams, beans and lentils. Heat comes from black pepper. Fried Shallots were added in some regions, or on some occasions. In the 'feast/sadya' version, the moisture was cooked away and coconut oil was used generously. In this soup, I have used coconut milk with ground cummin powder  and white pepper powder for the heat. This follows the route of another traditional dish, the Olan, Plantain and Adzuki Beans Soup; this is very similar but omits cummin and roasted coconut. This goes to Deb's Souper Sundays.

Serves One

Ingredients

1Cup of skinned  Butternut Squash

1/4 Cup cooked Adzuki beans

[soaked overnight and cooked]

1/2 Cup or more of coconut milk

1 pinch of cummin seeds, powdered

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1/4 tsp white pepper powder or according to taste

Salt

2 shallot, sliced and fried for garnish

Method

Cook the butternut squash and garlic  with just enough water and salt.

Once cooked, add the coconut milk and cummin powder

Season with white pepper powder

Cook for 4-5 minutes on simmer

Garnish with fried shallots, Serve.

South Indian Moong Dal Curry Soup

A simple birthday lunch for M, in India: Bell-Pepper Avial, Cherupayar Curry-Moong Dal Curry, Rose-matta Rice, Mulagu-manga/pickle and Pappadums.



This  is a very simple Moong Dal Curry. It has several variations: one can do away with onions and garlic but the basic ingredient is the paste of ground coconut with cummin. Several whole spices like cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and cinnamon-leaf also come in the variations: sometimes boiled with the moong beans, or infused into the oil used to saute the onions  and left to simmer in the curry or ground with the coconut paste. All these alter the flavour subtly and provides you with that particular home-made dish from memories. This is a soupy version and goes to Deb's Souper Sundays.

Serves about 6, 1 Cup of Soup each!

Ingredients

I cup moong dal, soaked in plenty of water overnight

1 Cup of grated coconut

1/2 tsp of cummin seeds

2 cloves of minced garlic

1/2 cup of finely chopped red onions

2-3 slit hot green chillies

1 stem of curry leaves

2 tbsps of coconut oil

1 broken dried red chilli

1/4 tsp mustad seeds or cummin seeds

Salt

Heat 1 tbsp of oil

Saute the onions and garlic for a few minutes

Add  the slit green chillies and saute for a few more minutes

Add the soaked moong beans

Boil the Moong beans with 2 2/3 cups of water, salt and 1/4 tsp turmeric powder

Meanwhile grind the grated coconut with 1/2 tsp of cummin into a smooth paste.

At this stage you can decide on a thick-curry or a Curry Soup.

Reduce the amount of water to half a cup while adding the coconut-paste to  the cooked beans.

Add it to the cooked moong beans alongwith 2 cups of water

Let it come up to a gentle boil

Simmer for 5-8 minutes.

Temper mustard seeds or cummin seeds in the other tbsp of oil

alongwith curry leaves and dried red chilli.

Add a pinch of asafoetida  and pour over the curry.

For the Soup version:

Add fried onion slices as garnish.

Plantain and Azuki Beans Soup: another version of Olan!

This is another version of Olan served in Southern Malabar, made with Plantains and Red Azuki Beans. This dish is part of the traditional Kerala feast repertoire.The traditional Olan recipe does not use any onions, garlic or cummin. North Kerala/ Malabar Sadya dishes, do not use any onions or garlic.  This hearty, meatless soup works for winter and reminds one of many dishes from South America and the Carribbean. This goes to Deb's Souper Sundays.

Plantain  and Azuki Beans Soup
Serves 4

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Red Azuki beans, soaked for 5 hours or more
2 Cups of cubed raw plantain, with skin

1/2 Cup finely chopped onions

2-3 finger hot green chillies, slit [ or more according to taste]

2 cloves of garlic, lightly crushed

1/2 tsp cummin seeds

1 1/2- 2 tbsps coconut Oil

Salt

1/2 Cup of thick coconut milk
1/2 cup of thin coconut milk or plain water

Method

Step One: Cooking Azuki Beans

Soak the azuki beans in about 3 cups of water for about 5 hours/ overnight

Cook with 1/4 tsp of turmeric, and salt 
or

Pressure cook  on medium high,
After one whistle, turn the heat down, cook for 10-15 minutes and turn off the heat.
Step Two: Cooking Raw Plantain
The green skin is kept on in this recipe
Cut the raw plantain into cubes,
Soak in plenty of water with 1/4 tsp of turmeric and 1/2 tsp of salt
for 20 minutes
Rinse a couple of times and drain.
Cook the plantain cubes with salt and 2 slit green chillies with 3 cups of water.
Reserve the water for the broth/soup
Important: Make sure that the plantian in cooked well;  almost but not quite to the point of mushiness. Plantain tends to harden as the dish sits/ it gets cold.
Step Three
Once the plantains are cooked,
Heat  2 tbsps of coconut oil
Temper 1/2 tsp of cummin seeds
Add 2 cloves of garlic, saute until soft,
Add 1/2 cup of finely chopped onions and saute until soft
Add the cooked azuki beans  alongwith the slit green chillies,
Add the cooked plantains and reserved water
Bring to a simmer, 
Add  the thin coconut milk at this stage or enough water for the soup, 
Simmer for another 5-6 minutes, 
Step Four
Add the thick coconut milk and immediately take off the heat.
Optional: Serve with another drizzle of thick coconut milk over individual servings.

Squash and Beans Soup!

This is part of the re-inventing process  with  traditional dishes! And yes, have been on a spree of winter melon and squash....:-)
Squash and Peas Clear Soup  has  the subtle flavour of coconut and has been re-invented from the traditional  Olan. Coconut milk gives the richness of cream and can be used: either towards the finishing process or  just as a little garnish for the soup. Garlic cloves are boiled alongwith the squash and give a milder flavour.

Ingredients

1 1/2 Cups Cubed Squash

3/4 Cup Black Eyed Beans

2 non-spicy long green chillies

1/2 Cup thin coconut milk

1/4 cup thick coconut milk

2-3 cloves of garlic crushed

1/4 tsp white pepper powder

2-3 curry leaves

1/2 tsp coconut oil for garnish [ optional]

Optional: for tempering:

 2-3 finely chopped red shallots/sambhar onions

1/ 4 tsp cumin seeds

1 clove garlic finely sliced

Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil/ coconut oil and when it reaches the smoking point, temper the cumin and fry the onions and garlic quickly, taking care to see that they don't burn.

Pour over the Soup.

Method

Boil the Squash with about 1 cup of water with the garlic cloves, turmeric powder and salt until cooked but still holding its shape.

Soak the black-eyed peas in cold water for 1 hour or more. Cook the black-eyed peas separately with salt and add to the cooked  squash. Add the thin coconut milk and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Add 1/4 cup thick  coconut milk and take off the heat. Drizzle with coconut oil and add freshly torn curry leaves.

Here have just added a drizzle [1 tbsp] of thick coconut milk to the individual bowl of soup. One can either mash up the boiled, softened garlic or  have a milder flavour by leaving the garlic cloves as is.

Winter Melon

Could not resist the play on words with the snow....

Winter Melon Curry/Olan

This traditional dish  incorporates winter melon, green chillies, coconut milk and a drizzle of coconut oil. Pumpkin alongwith Winter Melon is used to create this simple but very elegant dish.

Olan

Ingredients

1 cup -Winter Melon, cut in thin, fairly square slices!

1 cup- Pumpkin/Butternut Squash, cut  in thin fairly square slices,

1 or more hot green chillies, according to taste

1/4 cup thick coconut milk

Salt

1 tsp -Coconut Oil.

Method

Cook the winter melon and pumpkin in about a cup of water, cooked, not mushy and still retaining its shape.

Season with salt.

Add slit green chillies, simmer for a couple of minutes

Take off the stove/heat.

Add the coconut milk

Drizzle coconut oil and serve.

This dish can be re-invented as a very simple Summer Soup.Another combination uses Black-eyed Peas/ Cowpeas/ Vella Payar.  A final addition of thick coconut milk after the dish is taken off the heat and a drizzle of coconut oil completes the cooking process. 

Snake Gourd Curry

This simple traditional dish from Kerala,  dresses up really well as a mild flavorful soup!

Am cooking the version without coconut paste or coconut milk.

Ingredients

1 Cup of finely chopped Snake Gourd, with the seeds removed

1/2 cup of Toor/Tuvar Dal

1 Green chilli sliced in slants! :-)

2 cloves garlic, crushed [ optional]

Turmeric

Coconut Oil

Fresh Curry Leaves

Salt

Method

Cook the Dal with  the turmeric powder. This can be done in two ways:

* cook the dal and mash it well or

*cooked but still retains the shape.

Add the finely chopped snake gourd, crushed garlic cloves and salt to the dal and let it come up to a boil.

Turn to simmer and let the snake gourd cook: about 8-10 minutes.

Drizzle with coconut oil and add fresh, torn curry leaves.

Simple  Padavalanga Mulagushyam without the coconut-cumin paste !

Surprisingly this curry goes well with plain yogurt; the combination was  rice,  pappadams/fried curd chillies and mango pickle in brine.