Loaded Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken noodle soup is a very favorite at our home. My husband actually has this soup along with half a sandwich during his business trips at a Panera Bread if he can find one in the city that he travels to.
My kiddo has loved this soup since she was what six months old. We used to puree the soup and give it to her and she would lap up an entire bowl without any fuss. Well, now we do not need to puree it like before.

We have been making this soup at home with chicken, carrots, onions, garlic, celery and ofcorse chicken with some Italian spices. Thought of just taking it a little bit further and making it a compete meal by adding a few other ingredients. It was a good meal in a bowl with some nice easy peasy home made artisan bread

Ingredients

2 carrots
1 medium onion
5 cloves garlic
3 to 4 celery stalks
2 cups of small bits of chicken (I use breast meat) - about 2 to 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cups fresh baby spinach
1 can cannelloni beans
1 to 1 & 1/2 cups broken spaghetti (you can add more or less - or any pasta of your choice)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon dried Italian herb seasoning
1/2 teaspoon pepper
salt to taste
5 cups chicken stock (to make it quick) OR 7 cups water and let it simmer for longer

Method

Finely chop the onions, celery, carrots and garlic. Add the oil to a big saucepan and add these veggies to this oil. Once they start to sweat, add some salt and add the chicken pieces. Mix well till the chicken turns a nice white color (the pink is gone). Now add drained cannelloni beans, chopped spinach,  dried Italian herbs, pasta, pepper powder and mix well. Add water or stock and mix well. Bring it to a nice boil. Once this mixture boils, bring the heat to medium low and cover the saucepan and let the soup simmer.
If you are using stock, the simmer time becomes less, as stock has a lot of flavor. maybe in an hour or so the soup is ready to savor. However, if you are using plain water, it takes some time for the water to become flavorful. Soup should be ready in about 3 to 4 hours.
This tastes good with bread and salad - becomes a complete meal in a bowl.

You can make this into a vegetarian soup by not adding the chicken - and substituting vegetable stock for chicken stock, if you plan to use stock/broth

No Knead Bread

Artisan Breads look so beautiful and it always seems like a lot of work has gone into baking them. Also, it has that unique homemade feel to it. The shape, the colors everything says 'its beautiful'. 

Sourdough Bread is one such bread and an all time favorite. Baking a sourdough bread was a dream come true for me. I mean baking the final bread was easy - but, getting the starter done and waiting for it to ferment over a couple of days was the tough part. Moreover, you need to keep baking sourdough breads regularly to keep the starter alive or atleast keep feeding the starter to keep it alive. In my case, I used to just feed the starter to keep it alive (as I did not bake this bread frequently) - and well, as you can guess......... I had more of the starter and I could actually open a bakery for sourdough bread.

I had to finally discard the starter with a very heavy heart.

I then came across this book Artisan Bread in five minutes a day - and the basic 'Boule Bread' recipe. It looked like the sourdough bread and it was very very easy to make. Takes just about 4  hours to get the bread ready on your table. - and you have an Artisan Bread that you made at home by yourself to boast about.

This has been a regular bread at home. Holds stuff well for sandwiches & paninis, goes great with soups and is divine when it is toasted lightly with a little bit of butter.

Ingredients

6 and 1/2 cups - All Purpose flour
1 and 1/2 tablespoon - Active Dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon - Salt
3 cups - Lukewarm Water (about 110 degrees Fahrenheit)
Cornmeal for dusting - I used flour as I had no cornmeal at home

Method

In a large mixing bowl, add flour, yeast and salt. Pour the lukewarm water  and with a wooden spatula mix this mixture till a lump-free sticky dough forms - about 5 minutes. Cover the bowl with a cling wrap or a kitchen towel and let it rest for minimum 2 hours.
Spread the cornmeal or flour on kitchen counter (you can use a wide mouth plate too) and put the risen dough on this. Cover the dough also with flour and form into a ball by rolling gently on the counter. Place this ball on a baking sheet (I used a pizza pan) and let it rest for 30-40 minutes for a second rise. With a sharp knife, make 3 lines to help the steam out while baking. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and place the baking tray/sheet into the oven. On the oven floor (below the baking tray) place bowl with water (this helps to keep the bread moist). Bake for 30-35 minutes or till you hear a hollow sound when you tap the top of the bread. once done remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.
I made two round breads with the entire dough mixture.

If you are not going to use the entire dough mix - then, you can freeze this dough up to 2 months.  After the first rise of 2 hours - wrap the unused dough tightly in cling foil and freeze.

oats and cardamom cake

I take my 2.5 year old daughter to a mommy and me spin and stretch class in our community. She loves it there and goes about doing all the stretching exercises along with the instructor.

It has been a good 10 weeks and the class is coming to an end now. We mommies along with the instructor decided to have a small party (potluck) for the kiddos and also us adults. We wanted it to be a pizza party - but, the instructor seems to be very good at maintaining her diet and avoids sweets, all purpose flour, cheese etc etc. It was hence decided to be a fruits and popcorn party.

I was the chosen to bring bite sized pineapples.
However, the instructor had said if I could bake something healthy, she would love that too. Hence, I started to explore healthy baking options.
Well, this is a trial recipe - which turned out good int eh first go itself. I love the taste of cardamom and the bite from the oats. 

I hope they all like it tomorrow at the party too.

Ingredients

1 and 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 and 1/2 cups Quaker oats (quick oats)
1/2 cup all purpose flour OR wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup milk (I used almond milk)
1 teaspoon cardamom powder
1 tablespoon milk masala (optional)

Method

powder the oats in a grinder till its fine. In a mixing bowl add the oats powder, flour, baking powder, salt, cardamom powder and milk masala and mix well.
In another mixing bowl, add the brown sugar, vegetable oil and eggs and mix/whisk well till the sugar dissolve. Now add the milk and mix well till its an integrated mixture.
Now add the dry ingredients and mix everything well till it becomes a nice and smooth cake batter.
Pour it into a greased cake container and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes or till a toothpick inserted inside comes clean.
You can even bake muffins out of this. They would take about 15 to 20 minutes to bake.

Ananas Bhat (Pineapple Rice)

I love pineapples. There is something about the aroma of this fruit that takes you to a tropical paradise. The sweet and sour notes that tingle your tastebuds and the pale yellow color. Well, I am sure you know that I am a huge pineapple fan.

The other day I had purchased this beautiful huge pineapple from the super-market. Nicely cored and cut into pieces, I savored this yummy fruit continuously for 2 days. My husband is allergic to pineapples and my kiddo is not a fan I guess.

The cut pineapple pieces were just lying in my fridge and I was wondering what to do with them. And, it dawned on me - why not make ananas bhat. My mom had made this once and I had loved it a lot. 

Ingredients

1 cup basmati rice
2 cups pineapple juice (I used fresh juice)
1 cup chopped pineapple pieces
1 cinnamon stick
4 cardamoms
6 cloves
1/4 cup ghee (clarified butter)
1/4 cup of coconut powder (unsweetened)
3/4 cup sugar - if you want it a little more sweeter, you can add 1 cup sugar too
2 tablespoons milk masala
    you can use chopped nuts of your choice too
1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg powder
4 to 5 drops of yellow food color (optional)
few strands of saffron (optional)

Method

Wash the basmati rice well and let it soak in water for about an hour. In a saucepan, add half of the ghee. When it heats up, add the cloves, cinnamon and cardamom and let it infuse the ghee and bring the heat to medium low. Drain the rice and add it to the infused ghee and mix well. Add the pineapple juice, food color and saffron and cover and let it cook on medium low flame untill the rice is nice and fluffy - this will take about half hour. Fluff the cooked rice with a fork and add the pineapple pieces, coconut powder, sugar, milk masala (or chopped nuts), cardamom powder, nutmeg powder and the remaining ghee and mix well. Cover and let it cook on medium low flame for about 15 more minutes.
Savor it warm or at room temperature.

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Buttery Croissants - We Knead to Bake # 2

Croissants - well that word itself takes you on a beautiful buttery, flaky, aroma filled tasty journey into France. Well, atleast thats what it does for me and for my better half too.
We love croissants - but, then who doesn't???
I had never baked croissants before. You can say that the amount of butter thats goes into the preparation and then the consumption was what had scared me the most. Infact after getting to know how croissants are made, we had avoided these yummy treats - yup, its been over 5 years, we have savored these yummm treats only about twice a year, every year.
Ofcorse when Aparna mentioned in the facebook group that the bread we will be baking for the month of Feb is a buttery indulgence - somehow we all knew it was going to be a croissant. And yes indeed croissants it was.
After reading the recipe she posted and watching the amazing informative video - I was a bit intimidated with regards to the length of time needed to get the final crescent shaped pastry. She did mention we could give this month a pass if we did not want to use butter for health or any other reasons. I actually thought of letting it go this month. But, then the posts started pouring in and after looking at all the buttery and yummy goodness - I was tempted to make them too.
I am so glad I got over my fear of cooking with butter and making a pastry and flaky dough and made these beautiful looking treats. My almost 3 year old kiddo loved them the most - and thats like the most amazing appreciation anyone could ever ask for.

I adapted the recipe from girl vs dough. I just halved the recipe, as I was just trying it for the first time and was really not sure how it would turn out. Well, no complaints there - it turned out great. Do visit the site for all the steps - she has done a fabulous job.
I am taking the liberty to write the recipe kinda just like how Stephanie has written on her blog. However, the measurements are half as I used half of everything she mentioned.

Ingredients

3/4 cup warm whole or 2 percent milk (about 105-110 degrees F)
1/8 cup sugar
1 and 3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon salt
3/4 cup (1 and 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled in the fridge
1 tablespoon milk for the wash over the croissants

Method

In the bowl whisk together warm milk, sugar and yeast until yeast is dissolved. Let the mixture stand for about 10 minutes untill it becomes nice and foamy. This shows that the yeast is working and its now ready.
Add 1 and 1/2 cups flour and salt to this yeasty mixture and mix well till it forms a nice and sticky dough. It should take about 8 to 10 minutes to get there.
You can do this by hand or use your stand mixer with the dough attachment to do it for you.
Remove dough from bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. Knead by hand for 2-3 minutes, adding more of the remaining flour as needed just until the dough is smooth and elastic and no longer sticky. Shape dough into a 1 1/2-inch thick rectangle. Cover it lightly with flour, so that it does not stick to the plastic wrap you are going to wrap it in. Place in fridge 1 hour to chill.
While the dough is chilling, make the butter packet. Place sticks of butter together on a sheet of plastic wrap. Top with another sheet of plastic wrap - using a rolling pin and your hands, thwack, beat, roll out and press the butter into an even, flat, 4-by-2 and 1/2-inch rectangle (be as precise as possible). Wrap the butter up in the plastic wrap and place it in the fridge to chill.
Remove dough from fridge and from plastic wrap. Place on a lightly floured surface and press the dough into a 8-by-5-inch rectangle (be sure the edges and the corners are as well-shaped as possible) - Do this with a rolling pin and shape it with your fingers. Remove butter packet from fridge and from plastic wrap and place in center of dough, short ends of butter packet parallel to long ends of dough. Fold top half of dough over butter packet, then fold bottom half of dough over it like a business letter. Rotate dough so the short end faces you.
With the short end facing you, flatten the dough evenly by pressing the rolling pin onto the surface (try not to roll it out right away). When the dough has flattened, roll it out to a precise 7-by-5-inch rectangle. Fold the dough again like a business letter, then wrap tightly in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill for 1 hour.
Repeat the above step (“With the short end facing you… chill for 1 hour”) three more times, chilling the dough for 1 hour between each fold, for a total of four folds. After the fourth fold, cover the dough tightly with plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge overnight, or 8-12 hours.
The next morning, unwrap the dough and place it on a floured surface. Roll out the dough into a large rectangle about 10-by-16-inches. Using a pizza cutter or a sharp knife, divide the dough into 12 triangles. Cut a small slit at the bottom of each triangle and roll up like a crescent roll. For chocolate croissants, place 1/2 to 1 ounce of dark chocolate in the bottom center of the triangle before rolling up.
Place croissants about 2 inches apart on parchment paper lined baking sheets. Cover with tea towels and let rise until puffy, about 1-2 hours.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Brush each croissant with milkwash and bake 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool completely on baking sheets before consuming.

Note: Croissants will keep fresh in a plastic bag or airtight container at room temperature for 3 days. For longer life, keep them in a plastic bag or airtight container in the fridge for 5 days, and in the freezer for up to 1 month. (These were notes from Stephanie)

I baked about 6 of those croissants. The balance I froze immediately after getting them into a crescent shape. When I want to bake them - I will just thaw them in the fridge for about 8 hours and then line them on a baking sheet and let them proof at room temperature for about 3 to 4 hours or till they get fluffed up. Bake them at 450 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes and savor them with jam, butter, tea or make a nice sandwich out of them.