Weekend Cooking: Beetroot Soup

 Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

Today I am going to share the recipe for beet/beetroot soup ... okay... I can see most of you wrinkling your nose hearing the word 'beet'... well I was and still am not a big beet fan myself but my dear husband loves the vegetable a looooot and recently he put me up for a challenge to the likes of "Iron Chef" wherein my 'secret ingredient' for the three-course meal was beetroot!!! Initially I was a little shocked when he revealed the secret ingredient but then I have to say, in retrospect am glad he chose beetroot as the secret ingredient, 'coz that really made me rack my brains and look out for some innovative meal options and the beet soup was what I made for the appetizer course. I found this recipe at recipezaar and modified it based on the ingredients I had at home and the outcome was  a big hit with both my husband and me.... :)


So without any further ado lemme dive into my beet soup recipe... 

Prep & Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Olive Oil - 2 tblsp
Medium-sized Onion, diced - 1 
Carrot, scraped & diced - 1 
Medium-sized Beetroot, peeled & diced - 1 
Spinach, chopped - 1 small bunch
Garlic, finely chopped - 1 clove 
Orange Juice - 100 mL
Vegetable Stock - 500 mL
Salt & Pepper - to taste
Yoghurt/Sour Cream - for garnish
Coriander/Parsley Leaves - for garnish


Method:

1. Heat a heavy-bottom saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add oil, garlic and onions and saute for 5 minutes till onions become translucent.Then add the spinach and the chopped carrots to it. Saute it for a couple of minutes.
3. Add the diced beetroot and saute the vegetables for a further 5 minutes with constant stirring. 
4. Then add the vegetable stock, orange juice, salt & pepper and bring it to a boil.
5. Bring down the heat to a low and let the soup simmer for around 7-8 minutes.
6. Turn off the heat, drain the vegetables on a strainer and let it cool down. Retain the strained liquid in a separate container.
7. Once the strained vegetables have cooled down, put them in  blender and blend till a coarse paste is formed. You can blend it either to a coarse or fine paste depending on how you like to have your soup.
8. Then mix the paste and the strained liquid together and warm it slightly over the stove.
9. Then ladle the soup into serving bowls and top it off with  a dollop of yoghurt and a sprinkle of coriander leaves. 

 Yummy and healthy beet soup for two is ready!!! :) 

Have this soup either for a starter course like we did, or you can have it with some warm garlic bread or french bread and make it a light and healthy meal by itself.... 

Lemme know your thoughts on beetroot and whether you like this recipe or not...  Looking forward to hearing your views....

Book Review: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

Book Title: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Author: Alan Bradley

Genre: Fiction - Mystery

ISBN: 978-0-385-34230-8
Pages: 370 
Source: Local Library

A quick look at the story:

The story is set in the summer of 1950 in a scenic English countryside, where eleven year old Flavia de Luce, the heroine of the story, lives in an old Mansion called Buckshaw along with her dad and two older sisters. Flavia is a smart and precocious child with a passion for chemistry & a penchant for poisons!!! One evening, a dead bird is found on the doorstep of their mansion with a postage stamp pinned to its beak and then early next morning Flavia stumbles on a man lying in their garden, taking his last breath ... this sets the scene for the rest of the story wherein Flavia takes it upon herself to solve the case and to find the murderer much ahead of the policeman investigating the case...

 

My Thoughts:

I must admit that there were two things which I found attractive the moment I set my eyes on this book on a fellow blogger's blog,

• one was the pleasant green color of the book with a picture of a postage stamp pinned on a dead bird's beak.... and the other, 
• was the title of this book... I felt it was a very creative title for a book especially a mystery one!!

Now coming to the actual story... no doubt that Alan Bradley is a talented writer: the story is a gripping, fast-paced one and it revolves totally around the central character - Flavia. Now here's where I have conflicting emotions... I surely do like the smart, witty and intelligent Flavia who is bursting with enthusiasm and has a thirst-for-adventure but at the same time I feel that it's a very thine line that separates a smart kid from an over-smart one and Flavia to me was leaning more to the over-smart side. I mean, she is just a 11 year old kid and I somehow can't relate to her concocting complicated solutions and toxins in a lab all by herself... infact the part of the story where I initially felt she was acting way over  her age was right in the beginning of the story..... the police come over to the mansion to investigate the crime scene and when the inspector asks her to get her dad, Flavia replies that her dad need not be disturbed from his sleep and that she can lead the police to the crime scene herself... Now, which 11 year old child would act so unperturbed and adult-like at a murder scene ... if I was in her place I would have right away fetched my dad!!! Then again, I do realize that it's just a fictitious story and character... and in all fairness to the author, his descriptions about Flavia seem to indicate that aside from her passion for chemistry, she is just like any other kid her age, seizing every opportunity to pull a fast one on her two teenaged elder sisters... :)

In a nutshell, apart from a few quirks that I had with the heroine's characterization, the plot is a good one and would surely keep the readers interested especially the way it's unravelled... I surely do plan on reading the next book in this series, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag.

I am sure I fall into that minority of people who did not like Flavia de Luce's character fully.... the majority of the people in the blogosphere love her and here are couple of wonderful reviews on this book by fellow book bloggers:

http://bfishreads.blogspot.com/2010/03/review-sweetness-at-bottom-of-pie-by.html

http://www.thebookladysblog.com/2010/04/02/just-read-it-the-sweetness-at-the-bottom-of-the-pie/

My take on this book: 

A good plot with a slightly precocious and 'over-smart' lead character...  recommended for both first-time mystery readers as well as regulars.

Rating: 

Monthly Round-Up : June 2010

I picked up the idea for this post from Beth's blog, I felt it's a good idea to look back and see what all books I have read and managed to review over the past month... 

Firstly, my apologies for not being very active in my blog over the last couple of weeks, its been crazy busy on the home-front and I couldn't get any reviews posted, but well I still managed to squeeze in some reading this last week...

Books I read & reviewed: (My rating for each of the books are listed in the parentheses)

• Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy & Nathan Whitaker 

          ( )

• Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by  Beth Hoffman 

          ( )

Books read but not yet reviewed: (I plan to review these books this month for sure!!)

1. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
2. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
3. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
4. The Weight of Heaven by Thirty Umrigar
5. The Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
6. Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen

Currently Reading:

• Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
• In the Convent of Little Flowers by Indu Sundaresan

I have to say, the books I picked up in June were all good ones and I loved most of them, I guess the reason for that is 'coz all the books were picked up based on recommendations from fellow bloggers and friends... :-)

I am looking forward to getting a lot of reading done in July as I have a bunch of books which I picked up from my local library sale and also have another bunch of books that I won in giveaways... :-)

So what books did you read in June??? and what do you have planned for July?? Lemme know...

Teaser Tuesdays - June 15, 2010

Teaser Tuesdays (TT) is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

 My teasers for this Tuesday:

After she and Juan married and began to have kids he took a job as a toquero  in Saginaw. He drove truckloads of fruit and vegetables from the farms to the distributors, and his easy translations between English and Spanish, along with his affable manner, made him an ideal go-between to negotiate wages and terms.

- p. 166, Stealing Buddha's Dinner - a memoir by Bich Minh Nguyen

I started reading this book last night and am on p. 34 out of a total of 256 pages. Hopefully I should finish this book over the next couple of days...

Library Loot: June 7 - 13, 2010

Library Loot is a weekly event/meme co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. Anybody can participate in this meme and at any time during the week. All you have to do, is to link your blog post to the Mr Linky present in Eva/Marg's blog. This weeks Mr Linky is over at Marg's blog.

This is the first meme that I am part of in the blogosphere and it's an apt one for me as most of the books I read are borrowed from the local library.

In the past week, 4 of the books that I had requested, were available for pickup and guess what.....when I went to pick them up, I was lucky to find another book that I have been wanting to read, in the library's floating collection shelf... so overall it's been a good week for me in terms of books... :) I have listed below my last week's loot:

Book Title: The Forbidden Daughter 

Author: Shoban Bhantwal

ISBN: 978-0-7582-2030-1

I read some good reviews about this book(unfortunately I can't seem to remember on whose blogs' I had read those reviews)  and decided I wanted to read it. I am reading this as part of the South Asian Authors Challenge(SAAC). 

Book Title: The White Tiger
Author: Aravind Adiga
ISBN: 978-1-4165-6259-7


The White Tiger has been on my radar for a long time now. This is the author, Aravind Adiga's debut novel and he won the "2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction" for this book. 
I had borrowed this book from a friend last year and had started reading it but somehow the book did not keep me very interested and I hardly got through the first couple of chapters before it was time to return the book.. so here I am, taking my second chance at reading this book... and this time I intend to complete the book!!  I am reading this also as a part of SAAC.

Book Title: Water for Elephants

Author: Sara Gruen

ISBN: 978-1-56512-499-8

I discovered about this author from Jen's BEA post and I realized that I haven't yet read any of her books and so, requested this at my library. The story is set during the Great Depression and revolves around the world of Circus...I am looking forward to reading this book.... 

Book Title: The Twentieth Wife

Author: Indu Sundaresan

ISBN: 978-0-7434-2818-8

This is the first book in the Taj Trilogy and is the story of an empress called Mehrunnisa who lived during the Mughal era in India and was married to the Emperor Jahangir. The other two novels in this trilogy are "The Feast of Roses" and "Shadow Princess".

Book Title: My Name is Mary Sutter
Author: Robin Oliveira
ISBN: 978-0-670-02167-3


This is one of the latest books that have been getting rave reviews from all the book bloggers and so I had to pick it up when I found it on the "floating-books " shelf... :)

And finally I have one more book that I got at a great deal from the library's "On-sale" cart and I just couldn't resist buying it....

Book Title: The Post-Birthday World

Author: Lionel Shriver

ISBN: 978-0-06-118784-1

I had added this book to my wishlist after I read a very frank and honest review over at Devourer of Books... and now I finally have my own personal copy of the book to read.... :)

Well... those were my books for the week.... have you read any of these books??? What are your views on them???? Looking forward to hearing them...

South Asian Author Challenge

The South Asian Author Challenge is being hosted by S.Krishna at S.Krishna's Books.

A quick look at the challenge details:

1. This challenge is to encourage people to read books by South Asian Authors – South Asia being India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.
2. The books which qualify for this challenge should fulfill 2 requirements:
• The author must be of South Asian descent.
• The book must be about South Asia in some way.
3. The time period for this challenge is between  January 1, 2010 – December 31, 2010.
4. There are 4 different commitment levels for this challenge namely, 3, 5, 7 or 10 books.

This is the first challenge that I am taking part in the blogging world and am very excited about it....I know it's a little late for me to join this challenge, but well, it's better late than never, right??? 

I have decided to go for a commitment level of 10 books for this challenge. I have a tentative list of books I plan to read for this challenge and have listed them below:

1. The Weight of Heaven by Thirty Umrigar - I read this book last month and will be posting the review soon.
2. In the Convent of Little Flowers by Indu Sundaresan - I am currently reading this book.
3. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese - This is in my TBR pile.
4. The Forbidden Daughter by Shobhan Bantwal - This is in my TBR pile.
5. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga - This is in my TBR pile
6. The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan - This is in my TBR pile.
7. Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya - This is in my TBR pile.
8. yet to decide on a book..
9. yet to decide on a book..
10. yet to decide on a book..

 S.Krishna has posted a good collection of books and authors in her South Asian Review Database that would qualify for this challenge and I intend on going over that list before finalizing on my last 3 books...

I am very much open to suggestions from you regarding books and authors for this challenge...so feel free to drop me a comment...

Book Review: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

Book Title: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt: a novel

Author: Beth Hoffman

Genre:  Literary Fiction

ISBN: 978-0-670-02139-0

Pages: 306

Source: Local Library

A quick look at the story:

The book is set in the year 1962. Cecilia aka CeeCee is a 12 year old girl living in a small town in Ohio called Willoughby. She has spent most of her childhood taking care of her psychotic mother, Camille while her dad has conveniently chosen the easier path and kept himself away from his family on the pretext of his sales job. One day when Camille dies in an accident, CeeCee's great aunt Tootie arrives and takes her home with her to Savannah, Georgia. The rest of the story is about how CeeCee thrives in an atmosphere filled with people (read as: Aunt Tootie, her housekeeper Oletta and Mrs Odell) who genuinely care for her and shower her with love and affection. 

My Thoughts:


I picked this book from my library after reading rave reviews about it by almost everybody in the blogging world. And I have to agree the book did not disappoint me one bit. Now who doesn't love a nice, feel-good story...  I really really liked it!! 

I agree the story is kind of predictable and does not have much of a surprise element to it but what kept me hooked on to the book was the attention to detail by the author. I loved the way Beth Hoffman has talked about and described each and every character in her story however small their role is, be it the nosey-Miss Hobbs whom everybody detests or the sweet Miss Obee who sneaks marbles in her dress. She has also portrayed relationships beautifully, such as the friendship between Lucia and Rosa Hoffman, the unspoken mother-daughter affection between Oletta and CeeCee.  In addition, Beth Hoffman has also addressed the key issues that existed in the American society at that time such as, racial discrimination, deforestation and protection of one's heritage, in a very subtle way. 

The book has lot of instances wherein Aunt Tootie and Oletta try and instill self-confidence in CeeCee but below, I have mentioned one particular line from the book which distinctly stood out for me:

My aunt's face was so serious I couldn't imagine what she was going to say. She took hold of my hand and looked into my eyes. "It's what we believe about ourselves that determines how others see us." (p.249)

All in all, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is a heartwarming story and is highly recommended by me both for book clubs as well as for individual book readers. And oh...did I tell you that this book fully justifies the usage of the phrase "Southern Hospitality" !!!

I am already eagerly awaiting Hoffman's next book... In case you are interested, here's the link to her website: http://bethhoffman.net.

Did you get a chance to read this book? Please do feel free to let me know of your thoughts on this book as well as my review...

My take on this book: Highly recommended. Period.

Rating: 

Book Review: Quiet Strength

Book Title: Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, & Priorities of a Winning Life

Author: Tony Dungy & Nathan Whitaker

Genre: Biography & Autobiography/Sports, Memoir

ISBN: 978-1-4143-1801-1

Pages: 301

Source: Local Library

My Thoughts:

Tony Dungy takes you through his life starting as a football player and his move onto football coaching eventually leading to his team - the Indianapolis Colts' victory in the Superbowl held in 2007. Throughout the book he emphasizes about the morals and principles instilled in him by his parents and also about his christian calling and how they helped in shaping the person that he was/is today.

Overall - a very inspiring and feel-good book. And you don't have to know football to read the book - he explains pretty clearly about the various plays, people and games as and when he refers to them in the book, however I would say knowledge of the game would surely help you appreciate the book better because most of the people and incidents referred to in the book are involved with football.

The one thing I really liked about this book is that it is NOT preachy!!!

My take on this book: This is a good, inspiring book and recommended particularly for people who have even the slightest interest in American football.

Rating: 

Book Review: The Blue Notebook

Book Title: The Blue Notebook

Author: James A. Levine

Genre: Literary Fiction

ISBN: 978-0-385-52871-9

Pages: 206

Source: Local Library

My Thoughts:

I picked this book after a I read its review at my friend Ramya's blog. Let me warn you at the outset that this book is a very powerful and disturbing read!! It gives you a peek into the life of a 15 year old child prostitute, Batuk, who lives in the city of Bombay in India.

 The book describes various incidents from Batuk's childhood-her happy times with her family and also talks about the circumstances which led to her being sold at the tender age of 9, to an "Uncle" in Bombay  by her own dad. The story then goes on to talk about Batuk's life in Bombay between the ages of 9 and 15.  

An interesting aspect about this book is that it is written in 1st-person narrative, unlike most books/articles on such topics, wherein the author gives us a 3rd-person view of the situation. The 1st-person narration lets you have a look into the protagonist's day-to-day life as is, without it being clouded with too much of sentiments and emotions. Also, since the book is written from the perspective of Batuk, who is a smart young girl with basic schooling, there is a lot of innocence in her language but at the same time her experiences in life has given her a maturity which far surpasses her age!! It shows you how resilient and adaptable we humans are. For example, in the book, Batuk equates the act of having sex with her clients to that of baking a cake - she says, timing is very important to obtain a cake of the right consistency!

Overall, this story is not an easy read and has graphic and violent descriptions of sexual scenes!! But eventually, when you do finish reading the book, the brutality of the entire child-prostitution scenario will hit you hard and will make you more aware of whats happening in the world around us!!!

My take on this book: It is a recommended read for adults with a strong-heart...

Rating: