Simply Spicy Peppered Pasta

One of those days when cooking felt tiresome and curling up in the couch and watching television sounded and felt just so perfect I still had to get motivated and cook something for dinner. I found some pasta in the cupboard and decided to make it as simple as possible. Somewhere in the back of my mind I wanted to make something different and very tasty. In the fridge I found a bunch of asparagus and carrots and thought that would make an interesting combination with some roasted garlic. I went from being not motivated to very excited and motivated to cook all of a sudden. By adding some pepper and dry jalapeno pepper the end product got me a lot of praise from my 5 year old daughter. My entry to Dil Se Divya's blog event Think Spice: Pepper.

Gadgets:

Cutting Board
Knife
Stock Pot
Colander
Wok

Ingredients:

Spaghetti pasta - 1 box
Asparagus - 1 bunch
Carrots- 2 sliced into thin long strips
Garlic- 8 cloves cut into halves each
Pepper - 3/4 tsp (this determines the spice)
Pasta Seasoning - 1/2 tsp
Dry Jalapeno - 1/4 tsp (from Costco)
Water for boiling pasta
Butter - 3 tbsp
Olive Oil - 1 tsp
Salt


Preparation:

1. Boil water in the stock pot and cook as per the pasta instructions.

2. Heat the wok with butter and oil (this helps the butter to not brown up fast) and add garlic. Wait for it to roast and then add carrots cook for 3 minutes and then asparagus and a little salt.

3. Add pepper, pasta seasoning, dry jalapenos and toss in the cooked pasta with 1/4th cup of the pasta water to keep it moist. Serve it hot with some baguette on the side.

Pear Glazed With Apricot And Orange Juice

A very mild and elegant dessert that is super dooper easy to make is this baked pear. I wanted to prepare something healthy and easy for a dinner party and this was a big hit. This recipe was taken from Everyday with Rachel Ray Magazine. The changes I made to this recipe was I used apricot spread instead of preserve and used some nuts for garnish. By using the preserve this dessert turned out very mild and was perfect for people who liked mild sweet and or healthy dessert. What I liked about this one is that it was easy to prepare for a crowd. Served with ice cream and walnuts you can make it an outstanding dessert.

Gadgets:

Measuring Cups and Spoons

Bowl

Baking Tray

Cutting Board

Knife

Pear Corer

Peeler

Orange Juice Make

Oven

Ingredients:

Fresh Orange Juice - 3/4th cup

Apricot Spread - 1/2 cup

Pear - 4

Ice Cream ( optional)

Walnuts - 16

Preparation:

1. Peal the pear and cut them into half and remove the seeds from the middle.

2. Place them cut side down on the baking tray.

3. Mix Orange Juice (store bought or home made) and spread them over the pear t form a glaze.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-28 minutes, cool and serve them with a scoop of ice cream and some toasted walnuts.

Grilled Vegetable Pasta

Yesterday for dinner I grilled some eggplant and onions and made some sandwiches. As I had some extra grilled veggies I thought I would make something with them today. This morning as I was pondering on what to convert the veggies into I thought of some grilled veggie pasta. Along with the veggies I tossed in some fresh tomatoes, olives, pine nuts and sun dried tomatoes. Let me tell you something, if you like eggplant please do give this one a try. I just loved the marriage of flavors and it was just perfect to eat them hot and watch it rain outside. As I was half way into the pasta, I thought that it would be great to convert anything. For example, if we have some left over eggplant prepared the Indian way as a veggie side dish I am sure you can make some pasta and toss in the remaining eggplant and it would be very tasty.I have known of people eat pasta with vathal kozhambu, mor kozhambu etc.

Gadgets:

Sauce pan

Spatula

Measuring Cups and Spoons

Grill

Cutting Board

Knife

Bowl

Ingredients:

Pasta (Any kind) - 1 packet

Water for boiling pasta

Grilled Eggplant - 2

Grilled Red Onions - 2

Fresh Tomato - 2

Kalamata Olives - 3/4 th cup

Sun Dried Tomato - 1/2 cup

Pine nuts - 1/2 cup toasted

Salt

Pepper

Crushed Peppers - 1/2 tsp

Pasta Seasoning - 1 tsp

Oregano - 1/2 tsp

Basil - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 3 tbsp

Preparation:

1. Grill the eggplant and onions and cut them into cubes.

2. Cut tomato into big cubes and set it aside.

3. Dice the olives and mix them with the sun dried tomato and oil and set aside.

4. Cook pasta as per the instructions in the back and drain when its cook and add to a bowl. Add the seasoning and mix well.

5. Add the grilled veggies followed by tomato and then the olive sun dried tomato mix and coat every pasta well.

6. Add toasted pine nuts and serve them hot. DELISH.............

Kathirika Kootu/ Eggplant Side Dish

Kootu is one of my favorite side dishes and very popular in the South Indian cuisine. There are so many types and methods to prepare a vegetable or a mixture of them and make them really delicious. A combination of kootu with rice and rasam or chapathi is something I enjoy at any given time. One kind of kootu that is very popular in my household is eggplant kootu. I found that using the type of egg plant matters. After experimenting I find the purple eggplant in the U.S and the Indian variety to be the best in creating the right texture and taste to the kootu. This is because I find the other varieties cook very easily and the eggplant does not hold its form well in the end.

Gadgets:

Cooking pan
Cutting board
Knife
Measuring Spoon
Seasoning Spoon/wok


Ingredients:

Eggplant - 1
Water- 1 cup
Cumin- 2 tsp
Sambar Powder - 1 tsp
Salt
Cilantro powder - 1 tbsp or fresh cilantro - 1 tbsp
Dry Coconut - 1 tbsp
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Udad Dhal - 2 tsp
Asafoetida - a few shakes
Cooked Thoor Dhal - 1/2 cup
Turmeric Powder - 1/4th tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Red chillis - 1 or 2


Preparation:

1. Cut the eggplant into big cubes and place it in the cooking bowl with some water and salt.

2. Add turmeric, cumin and sambar powders to it and cook for 8 minutes.

3. Add thoor dhal and allow it to cook for 2 minutes.

4. Heat the seasoning vessel and add 1 tbsp of oil. Add asafoetida and mustard. Allow it to pop and then add udad dhal and dry chillis. When the dhal becomes golden brown add dry coconuts and remove from heat. The coconut will get roasted in the heat.

5. Add the seasoning to the eggplant, garnish with cilantro and serve it hot.

Kadai Paneer

The first time I had tasted Kadai Paneer was in a restaurant. I loved the flavor of the smoked paneer from the tandoor and the crunchy texture of bell pepper and onions. Its been on the back of my mind ever since to prepare it sometime but I kept postponing it thinking that it would be hard to get the tandoori effect. This recipe was something that developed while I was on the phone with Harry. Wondering what paneer dish I could prepare, I asked her for some suggestions. She suggested kadai paneer. It made me want to experiment to create something close to the version I had tasted. I was really happy with the outcome because I was able to create the smokey flavor and crunchy texture. It tasted wonderful hot out of the kadai. A must try if you are a paneer lover.

Gadgets:

Kadai/Wok

Wooden spatula

Cutting Board

Knife

Skewers

Bowl

Ingredients:

Red Onion - 1 big

Mini bell peppers - 20 or bell peppers - 3

Garlic - 6 cloves

Ginger - 1 inch

Tinned diced tomato - 1/2 tin or 2 roma tomatoes.

Cumin - 1 tbsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Chilli Powder - 1 tsp

Coriander powder - 2 tsp

Coriander - 2 tbsp

Salt

Raw Peanuts - 1/2 cup

Oil - 2 tbsp

Paneer - 1 slab (450 gms)

Additional ingredients for paneer marinating:

Oil - 2 tsp

Sugar - 1/2 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt

Preparation:

1. Cut the onion and peppers lengthwise. Slice the garlic and the ginger.

2. Heat the wok on high and add 2 1/2 tbsp oil. Then add the onions and cook them without any salt to make them stay crunchy.

3. Add garlic and ginger after 2 minutes followed by the bell peppers. Cook the bell pepper for 3 minutes and then add the tomatoes.

4. Add all the powders and salt and cook on medium high for 5 minutes constantly stirring.

5. Meanwhile cut the paneer into big cubes. In a bowl add oil, turmeric powder, salt and chilli powder. Give them a stir and add paneer and coat each cube with this mix.

6. Skewer 5 to 6 paneer cubes at a time and cook it over the gas stove to make tandoori or smoked effect.

7. Add skewered paneer to the cooked veggies. Garnish with cilantro and toasted peanuts and serve them hot with some roti.

Note: To roast the peanuts add 1/2 tsp of oil to the raw peanuts and microwave for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes.