Baked ribbon pakoda

Some months back I wanted to make some 'spicy snacks sans oil'.  It would be very hard to make one spicy crunchy snack without deep frying. So I baked my ribbon pakoda (look for my original ribbon pakoda recipe, for the variation in ingredients) and got a satisfactory snack. Hope you all like it too.

Ingredients:
besan flour - 2 cups
rice flour - 1 cup
red chilly powder - 3 tsp
hing - 1/4 tsp
salt - 2 tsp
butter - 2 tbsp
Ajwain (omam) - 1 tbsp (crushed)
sesame seeds - 2 tbsp
cumin - 1 tsp

Method:
Mix salt with one cup water.
In a mixing bowl put chilli powder, asafoetida (hing), ajwain , sesame, cumin , rice flour and besan flour thoroughly.
Then add salt water little by little  and make a dough like chapathi dough. Also add molten butter while making the dough.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg C.
Line an aluminum foil over the baking sheet (cookie sheet).
Slightly brush some oil , so that it comes off easily after baking.

Fit the ribbon pakoda maker in the "Murukku maker" and squeeze long strands of dough.
Bake for 10 - 12 minutes. Take the cookie sheets out, turn the pakodas and bake again for 7 - 10 minutes (depending upon the oven). The pakora should not get red or mild red. They should stay yellow, but crispy. So check it often.
Let them cool and store in airtight containers.

Serving suggestions:
Serve hot as evening snack along with tea / coffee.

Mixed veggie chicken soup

As the weather gets chiller and chiller my craving for hot soups will soar incredibly. Even though I like to make fresh soups,  I keep in hand some cans of soup as backup also. On the other day I had a couple of cream style corn soup cans and knorr chicken cubes.  I wanted to infuse them in my regular soup and here is a comforting soup for you all from my kitchen!

Vegetable soup with corn, chicken and rice.

Ingredients:
cream style sweet corn soup - 1 can
chicken soup cubes -1
chicken thigh with bone - 1 (optional)
frozen peas - 1/2 cup
carrot - 1
green beans - 10
basmati rice - 2 tbsp
barley - 1 tbsp
Bring to boil 2 cups of water. Rinse rice , barley and add to the boiling water. If using fresh chicken piece, then chop it into small pieces and add now.  Let it be cooking in stove-top. In the meantime chop the carrot,  beans and add to the rice, barley. Also add the frozen peas and cook them all till tender. It will take nearly 30 minutes to cook.  We can pressure cook too...but I do in stovetop.  In the same time prepare the below in a separate vessel.

For tempering:
Shallot - 3
garlic - 4 cloves
cinnamon - 1 tiny bit
bay leaf - 1
tomato - 2
Jalapeno - 1
butter - 2 tbsp

While the above soup is getting cooked, in a separate vessel melt 2 tbsp butter. Add shallot, cinnamon, bay leaves and saute till onion gets soft. Then add the crushed garlic and saute for few seconds. Then add finely chopped tomato, jalapeno and cook till tomato gets mushy. Now add this to the cooked vegetables soup, can of sweet corn soup, chicken stock cube, salt. Sim and cook till everything gets very soft.

Flavoring:
Ginger - 2 inch
cilantro - few leaves
Grind the ginger and extract juice. Add this to the soup and bring to a boil. Garnish with freshly chopped cilantro.Switch off.
Mixed vegetable chicken soup is ready !

Serving suggestion:
Serve with warm bread.
If needed add black pepper powder while serving.