SoupS

Green Pea Soup
Saute the onion in butter. Add the chopped garlic - Add stock and the peas. Stir in the chooped herbs with a little salt and cover. Bring to a boil and simmer unitl the peas are tender. Puree the soup into a smooth consistancy. Stir in 1/2 cup of cream and serve.

Garnish each serving with a sprinkling of chopped herbs and some fresh whole peas that have been blanched in salted water.


Cabbage Soup 1
Sautee onions, carrot 2. Add the stock and seasoning, cover, and bring to the boil
and simmer. Cook the cabbage till soft. Add to the soup with half the yogurt and heat gently. Serve topped with the remainder of the yogurt.

Cabbage Soup 2
Sautee onions, garlic in olive oil. Add stock, water, carrots. Bring to a boil and then add diced potatoes. Simmer until the potatoes are tender.Add shredded green cabbage and continue simmering until the cabbage is wilted.


Bread and Garlic soup
Sautee onions, garlic. Add stock. Add cream, diced bread. Puree.


Cashew Soup
Sautee onion and garlic in butter. Put crushed cashew nuts and onion mixture in a blender. Blend until smooth. Put cashew mixture into a deep pan. Add pineapple pieces, potatoes, vegetable stock,cream, salt and black pepper.

Cashew soup 2

Sautee onion, garlic . Grind cashew. Add the onion mixture from the skillet, the ginger and 1 cup of the water. Process until well pureed. Pour into soup pot, add masala lemon and orange juices, simmer gently over low heat for 30 minutes. Add the steamed vegetables and adjust if necessary with more water to achieve a slightly thick consistency. Season to taste with salt, then serve once the soup is heated through.

Peanut soup
Sautee onion in butter,Stir in maida. Add stockbroth and simmer until the soup begins to thicken, about 5 minutes. Stir in peanut butter, cream, salt& Pepper.Heat through but do not boil. Stir in 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice.


Sweet Potato Soup
Saute onions, Add the sweet diced potatoes and stock. Simmer till tender. Puree the potatoes. Stir in the milk/ cream.


Rice & Mushroom soup
Sautee onions, mushrooms. Add cooked rice, salt, stock, cream.




Beer Soup
Sautee veggies in butter.add stock, beer, milk. Heat to simmer. 3. Garnish with thin bread sticks.

Roasted Pumpkin Soup
Roast in the oven until it is tender, the scoop contents out of the shell. Peel and cut 4 medium size potatoes into chunks. Cook potatoes till tender. Add roasted pumpkin. Puree soup or a potato masher for a chunkier soup.

Pot in Pot cooling System

Pot-in-Pot Cooling System.
Invented by Mohammed Abba, Nigeria

A small earthenware pot is placed inside a larger one, and the space between the two is filled with moist sand. The inner pot is filled with fruit, vegetables or soft drinks; a wet cloth covers the whole thing. As water in the sand evaporates through the surface of the outer pot, it carries heat, drawing it away from the inner core. Eggplants stay fresh for 27 days, instead of the usual three. Tomatoes and peppers last for up to three weeks.

A simple technology, but with profound social implications. It has freed thousands of families from the tyranny of selling fresh produce on the same day, or risk it getting spoilt. At 40 cents a set, innovations don't come cheaper than this !

Transit of Venus

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On tuesday June 8th, the sun will be fainter than usual. On the face of the sun will be a small, dark dot. The dot is Venus, passing directly between Earth and the sun for the first time since 1882

The interest in observing the transit of Venus led to the invention of the movie camera and to the discovery of the great barrier reef

Kepler first predicted a transit of Venus in 1631. Ever since scientists have keenly followed the transit of venus- first for measuring the distance from Earth to Sun and now for detecting life on extra solar planets.

Given the relative speeds of the two planets, transits should occur every one-and a half years, but are actually much rarer as Venus's orbit around the sun is tipped relative to that of Earth.

Scientists tried timing Venus's transit from widely separated points on Earth, from which the could easure the distance from earth to sun.

Measuring Venus's path in 1769 was one of the mission objectives of James Cook's first voyage. Once this official mission was accomplished, Cook explored the south Pacific, accurately mapping New Zealand and stumbling ( literally ) upon the Great Barrier Reef.

When all the results came in, the astronomical unit was calculated to be 153m kilometres, with an uncertainity of 1m kilometres. The uncertainity arose as it was difficult to measure the exact start and end of the transit, without recording equipment.

Pierre Janssen, a French astronomer, invent a multi-exposure camera with a slotted rotating wheel instead of an ordinary shutter, the forerunner of the movie camera.It did'nt help much.

Visible in both Europe and the United States, The 1882 transit was a public sensation. Thomas Hardy wrote a novel about it. Telescopes were set up in town squares and millions of people had a look. It was the last chance to see a transit of Venus until 6 June 2004.

Though we now know the value of AU with great precision, scientists still study transits to finetune techniques to understand planetary compositions of extra solar planets. By measuring the transit in different colours scientists can theorrize about the atmosphere of the transiting planet. Transits have thus become the best way to search for extra solar life