Mulliga-what? Making the Perfect Moolgatunny Soup

This blog is slowly morphing into a record of the Cooking Party meetings, but I'm totally fine with that. For our second session M and I combined sea salt chocolate, the Beach, and mulligatawny soup, and came up with a relaxing and invigorating hangout. Mulligatawny is a soup that is traditionally from the Anglo-Indian population in India, and is like a daal, but with coconut milk added. Here we replaced the milk with 3/4 of a cup of coconut powder, and about a cup of water. We also made it vegetarian with no meat in it. Oh, and it tastes divine the day later; the spices merge and intensify and there's really a depth there that wasn't before.
As for the pronunciation- The Mixmaster really has a laugh at how I pronounce this soup. What can I do when I first learned of it from the TV show Seinfeld? The way you correctly pronounce it is the second way it's written in the title. This is really a recipe to try- quick and easy and inexpensive.
Here's Epicurious' version: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mulligatawny-Soup-232690

Cooking Parties and Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie recipe

Well, I haven't been writing much about cooking because I've actually been cooking. I've started working as Front of the House (FOH) at a restaurant in a farmer's market. Working in the food industry is so awesome for a foodie that I literally spring out of bed at 5:30 am (!) on market days. I live for it.

Recently I've started to have cooking parties (my name, not the official name) with my friend, M, in efforts to pool food knowledge, hang out, and make meals for the week. What could be better than smelling the scents of vegetarian Shepherd's Pie wafting through the apartment while flicking between Fashion Television and Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food? Not a whole damn lot, I'll tell ya! After our first session I thought I might come back to this space and encourage others have similar parties with their friends. And coincidentally, our plan is not unlike Oliver's own; to make good food accessible to ourselves, cut down on take out and dinners out, and share knowledge. Hopefully with whiskey martinis the next time we do so. Hmmm....

Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie*

2 packets Yves veggie ground round, chicken flavour

Corn kernels from two cooked ears of corn

4 russet potatoes

one carrot, small dice

one onion, small dice

two cloves garlic, minced

one stalk broccoli, cut into small florets

8 leaves fresh basil, sliced

olive oil

1 tsp thyme

1 tbsp veggie stock powder

salt and pepper to taste

1/3 cup milk

2 tbsp butter

• Cut potatoes in a large dice (peel on) and put in a pot of water, set to boil. Cook until the Potatoes are fork tender. Set aside to cool, and peel when cool.
• Using a large pan, saute onions and garlic in a little olive oil. When translucent add carrots and cook for 3 minutes on medium low, and add broccoli and cook another 3 minutes. Add fake meat, herbs, stock powder, and cook for 10 minutes. Add 1/2 cup water, so the mixture isn't too dry, and mix. Set aside.
• To make the mashed potatoes, mash with milk and butter. Add salt and pepper.
• Using a large glass dish, layer fake meat mixture, corn, and top with mashed potatoes. Place in a 350F oven and bake for about 1/2 an hour, or until golden brown on top.

*The potato section is an estimate, as I wasn't doing it.