Pasta with Homemade Sauce

I learnt cooking at my mother's side. She has got to be the best in the world (of course, all kids feel that way). I made macaroni yesterday, and it turned out brilliant (for my usual cooking standards of course).

Without further ado...

Recipe:

1 packet macaroni

1/2 red pepper, julienne

1/2 yellow pepper, julienne

2 leaves green cabbage, chopped

1/2 red onion, chopped

1/2 packet, mushrooms

3-4 pats of butter

2 tbsp flour (I used atta)

1 cup milk

2 tbsp fresh cream

100 gms processed cheese

3 tbsp port wine

Make the mushrooms first. Slice them, drizzle some olive oil and soya sauce, add a tiny dollop of garlic paste over them and cook them for four minutes in the microwave. While that is cooking, fill a bowl of water, add a pinch of salt and the macaroni, and put it to boil. Ideally, it should come to a boil and then simmer gently till the macaroni is cooked. The macaroni will start looking softer, and larger as it cooks and absorbs water. The test for cooked pasta is that it should be a la dente - when you bite it, it shouldn't be too soft, just enough resistance to bit through. Drain the water once the pasta is cooked and keep aside. 

Once the mushrooms are done, season them with some salt. Add all the chopped vegetables together with a pinch of salt in a bowl and cook gently for 2 minutes. The vegetables should remain raw, but get hot and their colour should intesify. Add all the mushrooms, pasta and vegetables together in bowl, and keep aside.

The sauce is the most fiddly bit, and if the sauce is hot, the dish will be too. So don't worry about the other ingredients getting cold. 

Melt the butter, and add the flour to it. Gently roast the flour, being careful not to brown it. Once the flour absorbs the butter, add the milk. Beat the milk and flour together, trying to dissolve as many lumps as possible. Don't worry if they all don't come out, they will start to disappear when cooking. Put the mixture back on the fire, and keep stirring till the mixture thickens into a paste. Add the cream and cheese, and keep stirring till they dissolve completely. The paste should be fairly thick. Add the port wine to thin it down, keeping in mind the sauce should be creamy. 

Add all the ingredients together and serve. 

I didn't have any meat, otherwise I would have put in some shredded chicken. Any kind will do. 

Pak Choi Hakka Noodles

I hadn't ever heard of pak choi, so when I went shopping in Mumbai and saw some in the supermarket last month, I was instantly intrigued. I like to think of myself as daring in the kitchen, mainly because I have no idea what I am doing. Well, that's not entirely true, but I do usually start making something without a clue as to what the final result will be. I sort of make it up as I go along. Most of my 'experiments' are based on cookery programs, watching my mother and well, tasting the result after every addition. (Yeah, that's all right until we are talking marinade. So gross.)

I picked up a packet, which contained two small cabbages. The cabbages remained in my fridge for a week before I decided to actually use them. Now my fridge is a massive freezer all by itself, as it freezes EVERYTHING. (Ever tried frozen bread? Awful. Trust me.)

Recipe:

1/2 packet Chinese hakka noodles
1 small pak choi cabbage
2 spring onions, sliced
7-8 french beans, julienne
3 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
salt to taste

Cook the noodles first, boiling them in slightly salted water. Cook until the noodles are a la dente, and drain off the water. Put the garlic, sesame seeds and the olive oil into a microwave-safe dish, cover and heat on high for two minutes. Covering the dish is important otherwise the sesame seeds will splatter the insides of the oven.

Slice the cabbage head off, leaving the stalks and the green leaves separate. Chop the stalks and the leaves lengthwise, making long thin pieces of cabbage. I read somewhere that the trick to making pak choi is to have the leaves and the stalks separately. Put in all the vegetables into the garlic-sesame oil and microwave open for 2 minutes. The vegetables should be hot, and slightly cooked without losing their raw flavour.

Mix in the hakka noodles and the sauteed vegetables in a big dish.

Any vegetables can be used while making these noodles; it's only a question of establishing a good flavour.

Garlic and Sage Chicken

I have a tendency to go overboard in two places: supermarkets and bookstores. So I bought some boneless chicken recently, and I have exactly five days to empty out the contents of my fridge. Such an impossible task. 

So yesterday I decided to marinate the chicken, and roast it today. What a happy idea for today!

Recipe:

500 gms boneless chicken

Marinade:

3/4 cup port wine

7-8 fresh sage leaves

5 tbsp oil

3 tbsp garlic paste

1 tbsp salt

pepper to taste

Mix all the contents of the marinade thoroughly, and then one at a time, drop the pieces of chicken in it. Rub the marinade into the meat gently, and pile into a container that ensures the marinade has covered the pieces completely. Leave to marinate for 24 hours. 

To roast, preheat the oven to 170 degrees (I used my convection oven). Place the chicken in the roasting pan, with assorted chopped vegetables (I put cauliflower and spring onions because I didn't have potatoes) lining the edges. Roast the chicken for 35 minutes.

After removing from the oven, check the meat to see whether the meat is cooked all the way through. The meat should be moist on the inside, and slightly crisp on the outside.

Simple Trifle

This trifle was a complete hit, and is very easy to make. Most of the ingredients are assembled rather than mixed together. The key to this dessert is to chill the trifle at every stage. 

The picture looks awful, because I took it in hurry, before it was attacked. 

Recipe:

First layer:

7-8 butter cookies, crumbled

3 pats of butter

Second layer:

1 packet jelly (strawberry)

4 tbsp fruit crush (strawberry)

Third layer:

2 bananas, chopped

1 1/2 cups cashewnuts, whole

Fourth layer:

2 tbsp custard powder, heaped

5 tbsp sugar

1/2 litre milk

Fifth layer:

4 cups cream

5-6 cashewnuts, halved

strawberry syrup

Mash the cookies in with the butter, and press it down hard onto the bottom of the seving dish. Cover the dish with clingfilm and put into the fridge for a couple of hours.

In the meantime, prepare the jelly mix as per the instructions on the packet, and leave to cool for 20 minutes. Once the mix has cooled a little, but not started setting, mix in the fruit crush. Leave the jelly to partially set. Once it has partially set, pour it into the serving dish with the biscuit base. The jelly needs to be at exactly the right consistency, otherwise the biscuit will rise into the liquid. Leave the jelly to completely set in the fridge.

Heat the milk in a microwave-safe bowl. Mix the custard powder and a little of the milk in a separate bowl to make a paste. Then mix the paste with the rest of the milk. Mix thoroughly with a beater, ensuring there are no lumps. Heat the mixture, till it boils. Be careful while mixing the boiled mixture, if using a microwave. Mix in the sugar and leave to cool, just before the mixture sets fully. 

After the jelly has completely set, layer the banana slices on to the jelly surface. In the gaps formed, sprinkle the cashewnuts liberally. Pour the custard on top of the fruit and nut layer, allowing the custard to find its own level. Cover the dish with cling film and allow it to set thoroughly in the fridge. Only remove once the custard has set. 

Beat chilled cream in a bowl, whipping to a pouring consistency. The cream shouldn't have any lumps. Then pour the cream onto the custard layer, letting it set once again. 

Once the cream has completely set, use the cashewnuts and strawberry syrup to garnish the trifle. While serving, scooping up all the layers is more difficult in a deep dish, which is the mistake I made. I would suggest a shallower dish, which is clear so that the layers and colours are visible.

Tip: Orange Juice

I love freshly squeezed orange juice, with a reasonable amount of pulp. The other day when I squeezed some juice, I had a lot of pulp left on the squeezer, so I scooped it up and put in a glass. Today, I mixed the pulp thoroughly, further breaking the fibres down. And topped the entire glass with Sprite. Tasted divine.

I imagine this would go well with alcohol as well, I suppose vodka. But since I am an indifferent drinker, I didn't try that out. 

Cream-Cheese Toast

I should warn everyone that this recipe also has my favourite Amul cream. I just think everything tastes better with it, but then again that's my personal opinion. 

I was a little sick of the standard cheese that you get in India, the Amul or Britannia cheddar, maybe because I was watching a program on Travel and Living about cheese. The cheese that was in focus was this gorgeously creamy looking gorgonzola. Now I have never actually seen blue cheese before although I've had it in dressings. I always imagined a robin's egg blue cheese (which of course it wasn't), and recoiled from tasting it. However, after watching this program, I might actually taste it whenever I get an opportunity. 

Recipe:

1 cup shredded cheese

4 slices of bread

3 tbsp of cream

2 spring onions, sliced (or 1 small onion as preferred)

2 leaves of cabbage, sliced

5-6 french beans, julienne

1 tsp white sesame seeds

1/4 tsp garlic paste

salt, pepper to taste

oil for frying

Put all the vegetables into a microwave bowl, with the garlic paste, salt, pepper and sesame seeds and microwave on high for 2 minutes. I have a combination oven with a grill, so I grilled the bread till it was golden brown on both sides. 

Mix in the cream and the cheese with the hot vegetables. The vegetables should have a slightly more vibrant green colour, but they aren't cooked through, retaining the original raw flavour with a hint of crispiness. 

Stir in all the ingredients gently, so as not to mangle the shapes, till the mixture becomes thick, somewhat like a dough. Ideally, the mixture should leave the sides of the bowl and should fall off a spoon.

Spoon dollops of the mixture onto the toasted bread, and put under the grill for 3 minutes, or till the cheese melts completely.

Ideal for a breakfast spread, I cut the slices into small triangles, and laid it out on a breakfast buffet for 2.

Stuffed Poie

I've been living it up in Goa; writing all day, eating at intervals and of course, snoozing stretched out on the sofa. I have cooked up the occasional snack, but with a mother who can cook up the most mouth watering food, why would I settle for my own?

I have been trotting across the Indian landscape and I have had very little time to cook much less blog about my cooking. But I had to specially mention the snack I made the other day, because my mother liked it so much she makes it every day. Don't get the hopes up; it's a simple sandwich.

In Goa, there is fabulous bread that is available, known in the local dialect as Poie. I don't really know how it in spelt, but the pronounciation is po-eeeeee (which looks very inelegant so I stuck to Poie). 

Stuffed Poie

4 poies

4 eggs

1 cup of milk

2 medium onions

2 spring onions

2 cloves of garlic

1 1/2 cups grated cheese

1/3 cup grated coriander

4 tbsp shredded bacon

salt and pepper to taste

pats of butter and oil for frying

First, fry chopped onions and mashed garlic in a little oil. Beat the eggs and milk together in bowl, and pour on top of the fried onions. As the egg starts to cook, scrape away at the bottom layer, so that the egg gets scrambled. (This is difficult to explain in words). Don't over cook, and just before all the eggs are cooked, add in the cheese and the bacon. Take off the heat and mix the coriander in thoroughly. Add the salt and lots of pepper. One could add in paprika or chilli flakes for the spicy touch. 

The rest is even easier; take the biggest, flattest pan you own and bung in on the gas. Put in the pats of butter and wait for a second while it melts. Slit the poies halfway through the side, and fry them on both sides on a low-medium heat till they become crisp. Stuff them with the egg mixture, and leave warming on the pan on low heat for about 2 minutes. 

Serve with freshly made chips and a dollop of mayonnaise. 

Macaroni Bake

I am a die-hard non-vegetarian. Not because I cannot live without meat, but because I find myself helpless when I have to make something savoury without it. And also I love the flavours. So when I was confronted with the task of cooking a meal for a vegetarian family, I was fairly stumped. Now, before I give the impression that I am completely useless, a salient point here is that I was not cooking at home. I was cooking for the people whose home I was staying in. Ah, I think I hear. 

I nipped out and got a small packet of pasta, one of those Knour soup packets and a small block of cheddar cheese (that's the only kind you get in Indian supermarkets). Oh and my handy, staple Amul cream. Can't cook without the stuff.

Recipe:

1 packet of macaroni

200 gms of tomato paste

100 gms of grated cheddar 

1 packet of Knour's Creamy Mushroom soup

2 cups of Amul cream

1 medium-sized potato

1 medium-sized tomato

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 an onion

handful of chopped coriander

salt and pepper to taste

First, I par-boiled the potato. I always, always manage to undercook the potato (in fact almost everything), but this time, I kept the pot of boiling water on the stovetop till I was hundred percent sure (I checked repeatedly). 

Then put the pasta to cook, till it was a la dente. And on a third burner, I put a pan with the soup pwder mixed with half water and half milk. The packet said 600 ml, but I put about 450 ml, as I wanted it thick. 

After the pasta was done, I removed it and drained away the hot water. Then, dumped the tomato paste into a container and mixed in salt, pepper, chopped onion and crushed garlic. I then lowered the flame and added the cream to it. Tomato paste tends to be sour, which I'm pretty sure nobody would have liked, so I added the cream. After beating the mixture together, I put in the pasta, and mixed it in well. 

In the meanwhile, the soup had finished cooking, so I turned off the gas. Layered the macaroni on the base of an oven dish and flattened the surface. Thankfully the potato was finally done, so sliced that thinly and layered it on top of the pasta. Did the same with the tomato.

Then, tookk the makeshift bechamel sauce (soup) and poured it over the layers. As is the case with me always, the oven dish was too small. For the final touch, mixed the cheese and chopped coriander together, and sprinkled liberally over the surface. 

I put the whole thing in the microwave to bake for 5 minutes. Just before serving, I put it back under the grill for 2 minutes so the cheese would melt. 

Mulberry and Almond Delight

I have to admit I made up the name for this post for the lack of recipe, experience or even general knowledge coming to my rescue. I am notoriously bad with titles of any kind, and frankly naming a dish boggles my mind.

When in Bombay, my mother had picked up a punnet of mulberries. I was totally fascinated, as I love berries in general. I decided to save them up for Pune, and make some mulberry muffins. However, I am still minus a muffin tray. So I thought I would bake a cake. That plan fell through as well, as I have no idea where to get unsalted butter here. Additionally, I was out of eggs (I'm always out of something or the other, aren't I?) and besides, I didn't have a sieve for mixing the flour and baking powder. So no luck there.

I set out to make kalakand, and met with fierce opposition from my mother. She is fed up of the stuff, although I can't see why as I only made the tiniest bit. So I halted in my tracks, and made something entirely different.

Recipe:

1 punnet of mulberries, chopped

1 1/2 cups of fresh cream

4 tbsps of sugar

250 gms of paneer

1 cup of condensed milk

3 drops of bitter almond essence

handful of almonds, peeled

Sprinkle sugar liberally on the chopped mulberries, and leave overnight in the refridgerator. Something called maceration takes place. Then mix in the cream thoroughly. The cream should take on a gorgeous purple hue. 

As with kalakand recipe, mix the paneer and condensed milk thoroughly and microwave.

Once this is done, mix in the almonds and essence. I left the almonds in whole, thinking it would give a nice texture, but met with disapproval, so I guess slivering of almonds is in order. Pack in the mixture into a square container, patting down the top for an even surface. 

Pour the mulberry cream on top. Don't smooth it, keep shaking the sides till it settles in an even layer. This will allow a natural gloss to develop. Leave the whole thing to cool and set in the fridge, for about an hour. Cut into pieces and serve on a plate with fresh mulberries at the side, if you like. My family ate it right out of the container, so I couldn't actually do much with it.

Sweet Corn Sour Soup

An oxymoron - but what on earth was I supposed to call the concoction that materialised in my kitchen today. Confused? Let me explain. 

We had no power all day long, reasons being alternatively, a faulty fuse situation and lack of supply from the electricity board. So our day started at 2. We had cereal in the morning, but come 1:30, we were ravenous. So I decided to trot into the kitchen to make sandwiches. I opened the freezer to look for cold cuts, and espied two massive packets of sweet corn. My mother isn't too fond of the stuff, so it had been lying there for absolutely aeons. I pulled out the packet, along with some chicken salami. I was out of vegetables, so my sandwiches were going to consist of soft bread, mayonnaise, grated cheddar, oregano and chicken salami. Boring. So I thought I would cook some corn and mix it in with the cheese and grill it. 

But my plans went awry, again. Thanks to that lemon. 

Recipe:

1 cup of sweet corn

half an onion, chopped

6-7 peppercorns

drizzle of olive oil

1/2 tsp of garlic paste

1/2 a SMALL lemon

2 tbsps of vinegar

sprinking of fresh dill 

coriander seeds

shallots

dash of tobasco sauce

1 cup of cream

salt to taste

I first braised the garlic paste and the peppercorns in the olive oil (cover dish, and microwave on high for a minute). I then put the corn in a bowl and microwaved it for 8 minutes (since it was frozen), till it was warm. Then I put in the rest of the stuff, barring the cream, and cooked it for 5 minutes. No, actually it was 3 minutes. The electricity went off in the middle. 

When I pulled it out, it was frighteningly sour. So my mother suggested I add in some cream to reduce the sourness. I did, and it turned out amazingly. Add a little more cream, if the soup is still too sour. I beat the concoction up with a beater, and it turned out beautifully frothy and creamy.

Oh, and don't forget the salt. I always forget to add salt. 

Served with sandwiches, it was tasting magnificent. I dipped the edges in the soup, and they became really soggy and yummy. The middles I ate plain, and spooning in some kernels of corn as an after-thought.

The ingredients that are shaded in pink were not actually separate. I love gherkins, and I constantly have a jar of Tify's french cornichons in my fridge. I used the liquid that comes in that bottle to flavour the corn. I have listed them separately here, so that one can recreate the taste.