Creamy Cheesy Pasta

Its been ages since I have written anything at all. It doesnt meen I havnt been cooking.. It just means, i havnt made anything interesting recently. Actually thats not true!

My Wife loves cheesy pasta.. She is a big fan of white sauce! When we go out to a Itallian dinner, thats what she looks for.. So I thought I would try to cook her something which would be cheesy and also different than what she is used to.

I turned to chow.com and posted a request for suggestions and a lot of people gave me good ideas. Finally here is what I made

sauted garlic and shallots in olive oil.
added chopped baby bellas.
Once the mushroom softened up a bit, added some flour and mixed it up in the mushroom and shallots and garlic.
Then added some white wine and cooked the entire thing till I reduced the wine.
Then added vegetable broth and cream and let it reduce for a few minutes.
I then added half a can of diced tomatoes and some itallian seasoning and salt to taste.
Once the entire sauce looked to come together, I added crumbled gorgonzolla cheese,
some grated smoked gouda cheese and grated parmessan cheese.

I finally mixed this into farfalle I had cooked earlier before starting the sauce.

The dish looked heavenly and the combination of the three cheeses was just so tasty!!

I will post a picture soon!

Fish Pakoda

My Friend Tina always complained that we did not visit her often, so she came up with a plan. She would call us and tell us that her mom prepared "fish". Me and Poorni would be there in a jiffy. Personally I dont like fish too much because of the fishy taste but aunty prepares it in such a way that it just tastes awesome!!


I decided to make this recipe for a get together and called up my friend for the recipe. It still did not come out as aunty's, nevertheless it tasted good. Here is the recipe -



Ingredients:

Pompfret Fish - 2 pounds (I used Tilapia)
lemon juice - 1 tsp
red chillie powder - 1 and 1/2 tsp
turmeric pwder - 1/4 tsp
black pepper powder - 1 tsp
ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
curry leaves - 6 - 8 leaves
salt

Method:


Fish should be cleaned up and scaled. Rub salt all over the fish and wash it. Do this 2-3 times. I was told this helps in removing some of the fishy smell. Pat dry the fish abd cut into bite size pieces. Now mix all the ingredients and around half of the curry leaves in a bowl and marinate over night. When you are ready to make this, heat oil in a vessel and when the oil is hot add some curry leaves and deep fry the fish. Serve it with coriander chutney.

Chicken Biryani

This came out fabulously.. I looked up quite a few recipes and different styles of making biryani. Wikipedia gives a nice explaination in the different styles of biryani making. Finally I thought that for a first time biryani maker, I should try out Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe. Check out his video demo here.
Here is what it looks like right before I put it to dum.

And here I tried my hand at plating the biryani.. I know I need to work on making a better presentation :)

Recipe coming soon...

Spaghetti with tomato, basil, and mushroom sauce

I love to cook itallian food for my wife. Itallian cooking to me is very calming and very romantic and it always puts me in a great mood. I put on some nice music and open a bottle of wine and then start cooking... I think this is my first Ittalian recipe for my blog.. hope you try it out and like it!

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 large shallot, minced (about 1/4 cup), plus 1 shallot,
sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
10 ounces baby portobello mushrooms, chopped into 4
parts each
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1 pack of
Spaghetti
3/4 cup vegetable stock or canned vegetable
broth
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, thinly
sliced
Additional grated Parmesan cheese

Method:

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add minced shallot and 1 minced garlic clove and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Increase heat to high, add all mushrooms, and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer mushroom mixture to bowl.

Heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in same skillet over medium heat. Add onion, sliced shallot, and remaining 2 garlic cloves; sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add diced tomatoes with juices and white wine and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in mushroom mixture and 1/4 cup fresh basil. Remove from heat. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper; cover to keep warm. (Mushroom sauce can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Rewarm mushroom sauce before continuing.)

Cook pasta in heavy large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain well. Return pasta to pot. Add mushroom sauce to pasta and toss to coat. Add vegetable stock and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, tossing to coat. Transfer to bowl; sprinkle sun-dried tomatoes and remaining 1/4 cup basil over. Serve, passing additional Parmesan cheese separately.

Goat Curry

I think this has been my best attempt at making goat curry. I have made goat curry both in south indian style and north indian style. the major difference between the two style is that in South indian Style I add coconut milk and curry leaves. The other big thing I have started to do is I pressure cook the meat to make it soft and tender.. I love it when the meat is falling off the bone. Getting goat meat has also become a little easier around the boston region. I used to buy it in Quincy from this middle eastern halal store.. but the meat was not that good... Somebody at work suggested I go to Cheema's on Cambridge Street in Allston, and I think they have their permanent customer in me...

Ingredients:

Goat Meat cut in small one inch chunks - 3 Pounds
Ghee (Clarified Butter) - 4 table spoons
Cinamon Stick - 2 inches
Cardamom - 5-6 pieces
Cloves - 5-6 pieces
Onions - 2 large chopped
Ginger Garlic paste - 2 tsp
Tomatoes - 2 chopped
Potatoes - 2 cut in big pieces
Salt to taste
Red Pepper Powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Garam Masala - 1 1/2 tsp
Coriander (Dhaniya) Powder - 2 tsp
MDF Meat Masala - 2-3 tsp

Method:

Heat the Ghee in Stainless steel wok
Add the cinamom stick, cardamoms and cloves.
Saute till they start to crackle.
Add the onions and saute them till they are a nice golden colour.
Add all the powder spices except the meat masala and mix it into the onions
Now add the meat sear it so it gets cooked on all sides.
Once the meat is browned on all sides add the tomatoes and mix it into the meat.
Transfer all of this into the pressure cooker and add enough water to immerse the meat.
Add 2-3 teaspoons of MDF Meat Masala and the potatoes and close the cooker.
Cook for 20 miuntes.
Put the cooker under cold water if you want to check if the meat became tender.
Pressure cook again if it has not become tender.
Make sure you have enough water or else you might burn your gravy!
If the gravy is too watery just let it cook on medium heat.
Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice.

Quick-fried Shrimp

I saw this recipe in a book and found the recipe to be interesting... We decided to try it out for a pot luck get together and every one loved it.. Its a very easy recipe and just took few moments for us to cook this wonderful appetizer.

Ingredients:

Cooked and peeled shrimp - 1 pound
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric pwd - 1 tsp
Black mustard seeds - 2 tsp
Ghee or butter - 4 tbsp
Coconut milk - 1/2 cup
Salt and pepper - as per taste
Chopped fresh coriander

Method:

Even though the shrimp were de-veined, I prefer to clean the shrimp and also look through it to see if any shrimp has any vein in it.
Pat dry the shrimp
Put ginger garlic paste, chilli pwd, turmeric pwd, mustard seeds in a bowl.
Heat wok until hot and add ghee or butter and swirl it around until foaming.
Add the marinated shrimp and stir fry till the water released evaporates. Over cooked shrimp taste rubbery, so make sure u don't over cook it. If little bit water is left, let it be.
Add coconut milk and let it simmer for some more time.
Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle coriander.
And you have just finished making a fabulous finger food :)

kolumbi fry

I finally found my kolumbi fry recipe. If anybody has been following my blog, I had earlier written about my quest for this recipe I had tried. Read here for details if you havn't read it before. Yesterday I got a great deal for shrimp at my local grocery store and my craving for that recipe came back. So I googled and googled and googled some more.. Tried all sorts of search string.. kolambi fry, shrimp masala, manglorean shrimp fry, shrimp fry, shrimp snack, marvan shrimp fry, marvan shrimp curry, dry shrimp masala.. no success! Then I thought I should include some of the ingredients in my search and sure indeed I hit jackpot!! I remembered that my recipe used only dry spices and one of the spices was Asafoetida. Searching "shrimp kolambi asafoetida" got me my page!! Here is the link to the recipe and just in case I can't find this site again I have written out the recipe too. I will definitely try this recipe tonight and post a picture.


Ingredients:

20 Big Prawns (shelled,deveined )
1 tbsp Garlic paste 2 tbspn oil
2 tsp Red chilli powder
1 tbsp Garam Masala
1 tsp Turmeric poder
1 tsp Hing (Asafoetida)
salt
serves 4

Method

Heat oil in pan.
Add tumeric and hing.
Stir for second and add prawns.
Stir for about 2 minutes.
Add chilli powder Garam Masala and salt to taste.
Stir and add water.
Cook for 5-7 minutes on low flame

Chicken Chettinaad

Ingredients:

• Chicken
• Onions - Chopped
• Tomatoes - Chopped
• Whole red chilly - 4 stalks
• Whole black pepper - 10 seeds
• Coriander seeds – 1 tsp
• Grated coconut – ½ cup
• Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
• Green cardamom – 3-4
• Cloves – 3-4
• Cinnamon sticks - 1
• Aniseeds – 1 tsp
• Poppy seeds - 1 tsp
• Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tsp
• Curry leaves - 4/5
• Red Chilly Powder - 1 tsp
• Lemon juice - 1 tbsp

Method:

• Clean the chicken and cut into small pieces
• Chop onions and tomatoes and keep aside
• Roast –
  Whole red chillies - 4 stalks
  Whole pepper – 10 seeds
  Grated coconut – ½ cup
  Coriander seeds – 1 tsp
  Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
  Green cardamom – 3-4
  Cloves – 3-4
  Cinnamon sticks - 1
  Aniseeds – 1 tsp
• Soak 1 tsp Poppy seeds in water for few minutes
• Grind the roasted ingredients, poppy seeds with ginger garlic paste
• Heat oil in a kadai
• Add curry leaves and the grounded paste
• Add tomatoes, red chilly powder and turmeric
• Add chicken and let it cook
• Add a little water as and when required
• Add lemon juice at the end