French Onion Soup

Winters are generally very pleasant in my city, but this year its quite cold. I crave for something piping hot throughout the day. I keep switching between Black Coffee and Green tea during during the day and soup or porridge as a snack in the evening. I've been wanting to make this soup for a long time and after watching Jaime Oliver, make this French classic on TV, I just couldn't stop myself. Here's my version of 'The French Onion Soup' and of course, like all my recipes, I added my own twist to it!

Difficulty level: Low

Quantity: Serves 5  

Prep time: 60 minutes

Can be served as: Appetizer 

Ingredients:

Onions – 4 medium sized, finely sliced

Garlic – 4 pods grated

Butter – 75 grams

Olive oil – 1 teaspoon

Salt and pepper as per taste (be careful how much salt is added if you are using chicken stock cubes)

Dried Thyme – 1 pinch

Bay leaves- 2

Vinegar – ¼ teaspoon

Cumin powder – ½ teaspoon

Chicken or mutton stock - 1 liter (if you are using stock cubes, check for salt content)

All purpose flour (maida) - 2 heaped tablespoon

Bread – French loaf or garlic loaf or baguette (any long loaf bread sliced at an angle)

Cheddar Cheese – as per needed

               

Must have tools:

Heavy bottom non-stick pot

Grill oven or microwave oven

Preparation:

Add butter and oil in the pot; once the butter has melted, add onions, garlic, thyme, bay leaves, cumin powder, salt, pepper and cook on medium high flame for 20-30 mins till the onions are caramelized and golden brown.  Once the onions are cooked, add the vinegar and cook for further 2 mins. Remove the bay leaves from the pot and discard; turn the flame to low. Start adding the flour slowly into the onion mixture, working the flour into the mixture cooking it gently; don’t burn the flour. Once the flour is cooked, start adding the stock gradually and mix it well into the onion mixture getting rid of any flour lumps. Cook till the oniony stock is bubbling.  Check salt and pepper and alter as per taste.

The classic soup is served with the strips of onions but since my hubby was not really sure how it would taste, I blended the mixture with a hand blender. It turned into a nice thick porridge consistency. You can add more chicken stock or just water to take it to the consistency you prefer.  While the onion mixture is bubbling, heat a pan and toast the bread slices lightly. Just before serving, pour the onion mixture into a microwave/grilled safe bowl and place the bread slices on top of the soup, grate the cheese on to the bread liberally. Microwave for 30 seconds or grill for 5 mins till the cheese is melted and golden.  

 Reality check:

• It’s an absolutely yummy and a hearty soup!
• Serve with some more slices of bread, a salad and it becomes a complete meal.
• The original recipe actually has Red Wine in it; you want, add some wine just before adding in the flour.
• We were feeling full after having one big serving of the soup at about 7.30 pm and skipped dinner. So watch the quantity you serve. 

Cheesy Mushrooms & Spinach Pierogi

After watching tons of food shows on TLC and Fox Traveller on TV, I have learnt so much about food. Luckily, I have a very encouraging family that allows me to experiment on them, with the food I make! Last night's dinner, I tried making Pierogi. It was just an amazing melt in the mouth dumpling; and was perfect for a cold winter night supper. Pierogi is a Russian word for pie.

Pierogi /pɨˈroʊɡi/ (Polish pronunciation: [pjɛˈrɔɡʲi];  also spelled perogi, pierogy, perogy, pierógi, pyrohy, pirogi,pyrogie, or pyrogy in English or other Slavic languages) are dumplings of unleavened dough – first boiled, at which point they can be served with melted butter or various toppings, or then fried with onions – traditionally stuffed with potato filling, sauerkraut, ground meat, cheese, or fruit. Of Central and Eastern European provenance, they are usually semicircular, but are rectangular or triangular in some cuisines. Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierogi

Difficulty Level: Medium

Serves: 6-8 (makes about 40-45 dumplings)
Preparation Time: 2 hours (incl. prep, resting of dough and cooking)
Can be served as: Appetizer or make it a main dish by adding some baked/grilled meat, fish or chicken.

Ingredients:

For the dumpling 

• All purpose flour (maida) - 1 cup/about 100 gms; extra for dusting and rolling
• Dehydrated Potato Flakes (Available as Aloo Mash in supermarkets) - 1/2 cup
• Single cream - 150 ml
• Water as per required

For the filling

• Mushroom - 200 grams; cleaned, fine chopped in a food processor
• Spinach- 100 grams (after stocks are removed), fine chopped in a food processor after washing
• Garlic 3-4 cloves; finely chopped
• Cheddar cheese cubes - 3; grated
• Salt as per needed
• Pepper powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Dried mixed herbs - 1/4 teaspoon (oregano, thyme, rosemary)

For saute 

• Onions - 3 big; finely chopped in a food processor
• Butter - 6 tablespoon
• Cumin power - 1 teaspoon
• Oil - just few teaspoons to be kept close to stop the butter from burning; I used olive oil. 

Cooking equipment:

2 saute pans, kadia/wok, deep but wide stainless steel cooking vessel.

3 inch cookie cutter or a sharp edged bowl to cut out the dumplings.
Fork
Rolling pin and board.
Food processor - not mandatory; if you don't have one, you'll have the tedious job of chopping the veggies & mushroom finely, with a knife.

Preparation:
The dough: Mix all the ingredients except and knead like a normal roti/poori dough. Add a bit of water if required. The dough consistency must be roll-able just like for roti. Wrap in a cling film and leave it in the fridge for min of 15 mins. 

The filling: 

1. Cook spinach first: Take the kadia/wok and put the spinach in and cook it in medium heat without adding any water. The spinach has high water content so cover it and cook for 10 mins, once you feel its cooked then leave the vessel open and let it cook in high till the water evaporates completely.
2. Cook mushrooms: Take a saute pan place it on high heat and throw in the mushrooms when the pan is extremely hot. It's important to have a heated pan because the mushrooms have a high water content and the hot pan will dry out the water quickly. This process should take about 10 mins. Don't worry mushrooms will look like it is leaving lots of water, but it's ok. Ensure you keep the heat up all throughout so that the water evaporates while cooking the mushrooms. Add salt as per taste in the last 3 mins of cooking along with some ground pepper. Once the water is completely evaporated then take off the heat and transfer the mushrooms to another place/dish.
3. Take the same pan, put it on medium heat, add 1/2 teaspoon of butter with just a dash of oil to stop the butter from burning. Toss in the chopped garlic. Once the garlic starts becoming golden, add the mushrooms, cooked spinach and the grated cheese. Once the cheese starts melting in, mix well till the spinach, cheese and mushrooms come together nicely. Taste and see if it the spice and salt is enough for you. Take off from heat and leave it to cool.

Filling the dumpling:

1. Remove the dough from the fridge and knead it once; by now the dough would have firmed up making it easy to roll. Make small balls larger than the size you would take for a roti/paratha. Flour the board and roll the dough very thin; it must be thin enough to cook in a water bath in less than 2 mins but must be thick enough to hold the filling in there when folded and cooked. I would say it must be as thinner than a lasagna sheet. 
2. Cut out the dough into circles with the cookie cutter or sharp edges of the bowl, place less than half a teaspoon of the filling in the center of the circle and fold into half. Press and seal the edges with a fork which will also give a nice design to the edges of the dumpling. 
3. Place the dumplings on a floured surface/plate till you prepare all the dumplings. 
4. Take a deep but wide stainless steel vessel and boil water to cook the dumplings in. Add a pinch of salt while the water is boiling. 
5. Take another saute pan and put it on medium high flame. Drop in a tablespoon of butter with a dash of oil. Once the butter is melted, throw in 1/2 a chopped onion and cook it on a medium flame.
6. Gently drop 6-8 dumplings in the boiling water and leave it to poach. The dumplings will raise to the top once they are cooked. 
7. Always ensure you have the saute pan on the stove cooking the onions when you put in the dumplings in the boiling water. By the time the dumpling cooks the onions would also have turned golden. 
8. Add a sprinkle ground cumin powder to the onions and mix. Then remove the floating dumplings and toss them straight into the buttery onions. Saute the dumplings in the butter till the dumpling turn slightly golden. You must handle the dumplings very carefully as they are very delicate. Turn the dumplings so that both the sides get a light golder colour
9. Transfer to a plate and serve hot as soon as the dumplings get off the pan with all that lovely buttery onions. 
10. Repeat till you saute all the dumplings and have been served. Please DO NOT cook the dumplings and leave them, else they would break. Always cook and saute them when you have the family waiting at the table to eat. 

Reality check:

• You can make any kind of filing for the dumplings; savory-meats, chicken, fish, prawns, crab meat, cheese, green leafy veggies, panner just what ever you feel like. 
• Also sweet fillings - sugary dry fruits, prunes, caramelized nuts etc and then saute the dumplings in burnt butter and serve with a drizzle of maple syrup. Or you can just deep fry the sweet dumplings and serve with a snow of icing sugar. 
• Get your kids to eat things that they would not normally eat with roti or rice. 
• You can also use the dumplings in a nice chicken/veg stock and make it a dumpling soup instead of sauteing it. 
• You can also deep fry these dumplings instead of sauteing it; but obviously they will be high in calories.
• I have served this along with a nice purple cabbage n corn salad, garlic bread and buttered beans; it made up for a complete meal. 
• You can make the dumplings (roll, cut, fill and seal) even a day before and refrigerate. Pierogi are perfect for freezing but do not freeze raw Pierogi. Since not boiled raw Pierogi will crack in a freezer, it should be slightly boiled first (blanching). Throw the Pierogi into a pot with boiling water + some salt + 1 spoonful of oil. Stir and wait until they float to the top. Then, immediately remove the Pierogi and drop into the second pot with very cold water containing 1-2 spoonfuls of oil. Lay the Pierogi in such a way so that they don't press and freeze after its cooled down completely. Thaw them for 4-6 hours and then cook them as instructed above.