Pumpkin Soup with sweet corn

Getting Inspired is not new to the Hindi film industry but I recently saw a new level of such inspiration when I caught a couple of songs of the yet to be released movie ‘Radio’ starring Himesh Reshammiya. ‘Mann Ka radio’  reminds me of I want You, Savage Garden & the other one ‘Janeman’ seems to be lifted from 'Notting Hill, ‘When you say Nothing at All’, right down to the bench in the park! In fact, if you search for the Hindi songs on Youtube, it mentions the respective English ones in the ‘related videos’ category!I am waiting have a look at the other songs in the movie now!

Coming to the soup now, as I have mentioned earlier, somehow I can not imagine a soup without Tomato in it apart from the sweet corn soup of course. So in that sense this is the first time I have tried some thing other than tomato, it still has sweet corn in it but not in the usual way.

I have vouched for this book earlier, and this soup also comes from the same one. One of the best things about this book are the beautiful pictures which make you want to make them immediately. It also helps that the recipes are quite easy & straight forward. I needed such recipes especially for the soups, since I needed motivation to make it a regular meal in the first place!

 

Pumpkin Soup with Sweet corn

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 3 cups Pumpkin or Butternut Squash, peeled, deseeded & diced
• 1 cup Sweet Corn kernels
• 2 tblsp Butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3/4 cup Milk
• 1.5 cups vegetable stock (or water)
• Salt & Pepper

Method: Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a deep saucepan. Add the onions and cook till it softens, approx 5-6 min.

Add the diced Pumpkin (or butternut squash) along with half the sweet corn, stir well & season with salt & pepper. Cover and cook for sometime, approx 6-8 min.

Add the milk and stock and give it a good stir and bring it to boil. Then, simmer and cook till the pumpkin has cooked through. Keep an eye on the soup while its cooking as it may boil over because of the milk.

Meanwhile pre heat the grill. Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter and mix with the remaining corn. Season with salt & pepper and keep it under the hot grill to toast, approx 6-8 min.moving the sweet corn halfway through.

Once the soup is cooked, blend it to a puree using a hand blender or a food processor.

Serve the soup hot, topped with the toasted sweet corn.

My Notes: The first experience with a tomato less soup was great. We liked the sweet pumpkin & sweet corn combination. The toasted sweet corn was even better! This soup was filling & delicious.

Corn Patties

As with numerous of my recipes, this one is adapted from a recipe from Khana Khazana. The format of this show, the host Sanjeev Kapoor and even the recipes, everything is so appealing that you want to try everything that was shown in the episode right after seeing it. Corn patties was one such recipe which was a part of a snacks special episode.

Being a complete snacks person, I always welcome recipes which I know will taste great but are also health conscious. When it comes to evening snacking time, most of the things that come to mind are either deep fried or full of cheese etc.

And again majority of them have potato in it. Not that we don't like Potato, in fact we love it! Potato is one thing that I have to replenish every 3rd day in my kitchen and I am always looking for the biggest pack available in the store :) A dear friend A, was almost shocked on hearing about our potato consumption! We generally go on these grocery shopping sprees together and had bought a big bag of potatoes each. About 12 days down the line & there I was buying my 3rd bag & she had not even reached half of the earlier one!

But you really need a change sometimes. So this snack recipe without any potatoes & not deep fried seemed perfect. I had made these quite some time back but somehow did not blog about it. So here it is now.

Makes about 8-10 patties

• 1 cup Sweet Corn
• 1/2 a Capsicum, Green/yellow/red (I had a red one)
• 1/4 cup Peas, boiled
• 4-6 Mint leaves
• 1 tsp Lime juice
• Butter
• Bread slices
• Salt
• Pepper powder

Method:
Pre heat the oven to 180 deg C.

Reserve about 1 tblsp of the corn and course grind the rest. Mash the boiled peas. Finely chop the capsicum. Mix all of these in a bowl. Season with salt, pepper powder and lime juice. Finely chop the mint leaves and add them to the above mixture. Also add the reserved sweet corn. Mix properly and keep aside.

As you can see, I couldnt resist adding some boiled potatoes to this one as well!

Cut the bread slices in desired shape. I cut them into round slices with the help of a bowl with sharp edges. They can also be shaped into oval patties. Dip these slices in cold water and then squeeze out the water. On one slice place the earlier prepared mixture. Cover with another slice and then press to seal the sides properly. Apply butter generously on all the sides. Place on a baking tray and bake for about 30 minutes (turning the patties halfway through) or until the patties are crisp & brown. Serve with any dip of your choice.