Blog Patrol # 1

Does this title sound intimidating? I think it's an impressive title. :) Anyway, the post is meant to be friendly, and is simply a round-up of the recipes by fellow food bloggers that I have tried out in the last few days. Some recipes were entirely new to me and some were better recipes for familiar dishes. Here they are, listed in alphabetical order. I haven't clicked any photographs for these, because the authors have. And they have clicked some really good ones. (Did I hear somebody calling me lazy?)

1. Cream of Broccoli Soup: I had a recipe for this soup sitting on my hard disk, but never really felt motivated to go ahead and try it out. After Saffron Hut did a post on it, I had enough motivation (read 'more than enough saliva in the oral cavity'). I tried out her version and was it good! It was great even without the pepper, which means that it is good also for infants and small children. (I have a seventeen-month-old fussy daughter, remember?)

2. Palak Paneer: I have numerous recipes for this one, none of which has satisfied me so far. The other day, when I wanted to make Palak Paneer, I just knew that only a fellow food blogger would have the solution for this. As I was doing a search on Blogger, I came across this one by Indira of Mahanandi and I was sure that I had found the 'right' one. Moreover, using roasted cashews really intrigued me. I have used soaked cashews in Punjabi/Moghlai preparations so far. But roasted cashews was something totally new and exotic. I was glad that I tried out this one. The spinach gravy was creamy and very, very aromatic. I know what I am gonna cook, whenever I want to impress my guests at dinners.

3. Tart Ratatouille with goat's cheese: Does this happen to you? That you read a recipe and you know at that instant that you are gonna like the outcome. This was one such recipe. I knew I had to try it out as soon as I read this one by Meeta of What's For Lunch Honey?. And it was indeed very good. I made my own pizza base for this. (Now then, who was calling me lazy?) Otherwise, I stuck to Meeta's recipe through and through. It is a hearty dish with a lot of vegetables. Her recipe would serve 3 to 4 persons. I reduced the amount of vegetables to 2/3 for the two of us and had the Tart as a one-dish meal. Mmmmmm....

4. Tuesday Soup: I have tried out several recipes by Nupur of One Hot Stove. I am happy to confirm that ALL have turned out well. I have chosen this one for this round-up, because I have made it something like 5976 times so far. Ok, I am exaggerating, but I have really made it quite often since January 2006 (that's when I got to know about food-blogging in general and Nupur's blog in particular). I have also tried adding different ingredients to it e.g. sweet corn kernels, sweet potato, asparagus (my current love interest!) and it has given fantastic results every time. I have also used a fistful of moong dal sometimes and offered the soup with lots of crusty bread to make it a simple yet filling dinner. I don't use the garnishes in Nupur's recipe, especially the croutons, but you could go ahead and use them. This soup again is fit for infants and small children (that's without the pepper and the croutons). By the way, did I mention that I always pressure-cook it? I do, and it is super-fast.

Hope you too try these out. In case you have done already, please let me know.