Spaghetti in Red Sauce

Dig your fork in, twirl it till the noodles are well wrapped around it... open your mouth wide and in goes this treat for the taste buds!

Dig, twirl and eat!

Spaghetti in Red Sauce

Ingredients

100 grams spaghetti cooked as per packet instructions

2 tsbps olive oil

7-8 garlic cloves finely chopped

1 medium onion finely chopped

6-7 whole peppercorns

2-3 bay leaves

3 medium tomatoes pureed 

4 tbsps tomato ketchup

2 tsps oregano or mixed herbs

4-5 black olives sliced

Salt to taste

The ingredients lined up

Method

In a pan heat the olive oil, add the garlic, the onions and the peppercorns and bay leaves and sautee till the onions turn pink.

The garlic and onions being sauteed

Once the onions are pink, add in the tomato puree and let it cook. To this add the oregano or mixed herbs and the ketchup and salt. 

The sauce in its final stage

Toss in the spaghetti and mix it well with the prepared sauce.

Spaghetti in the sauce

Garnish with the sliced black olives and serve hot!

Spaghetti in Red Sauce

Bengali Style Pineapple (Annarser) Chutney

My love affair with Bengali food began recently about 10 months back when I was introduced to the authentic version in Calcutta. From street foods to the classic Bengali meal (Bhojohori Manna), and the REAL Bengali sweets: rossogulla, shandesh etc, the love affair has just kept growing.

Today, I tried my hand for the first time at a small but an essential part of the traditional Bengali meal: the chutney ('chaatni'). I made a pineapple chutney borrowing the recipe online, ofcourse with my own twist on it! 

Annarser (Pineapple) Chutney

Ingredients

1/4th large pineapple chopped

2 tsps oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1/4th inch ginger chopped

2 bay leaves

1 cup water

4 tbsps sugar

Method

In a pan, heat the oil and add the mustard seeds to crackle. After the mustard seeds crackle add in the ginger and the bay leaves. Add in the chopped pineapple and sautee a bit.

Pineapples being sauteed in the tadka

Now add the water and the sugar and stir and cook till the chutney thickens.

Cool and serve. In a traditional Bengali meal, a course is papad served with chutney. 

The chutney

The chutney up close

The next time I am going to try and chop the pineapples a bit finer and make the chutney a little more syrupy. Though it turned a little bit dryish than what I have seen, the taste was brilliant! 

Healthy Cutlets (but don't tell the kids that!)

I remember those days at Xavier's when my mornings used to begin with a breakfast of cutlet pav if I were in a hurry. A spicy crispy deep fried potato cutlet served with a soft fresh pav (it used to be 8 in the morning when the pav was just delivered!) and some tangy tomato ketchup. Of course, those were also the days when I could afford to inhale fried foods and not worry much about putting on weight though it was a major goal in life for me to try and put on a bit at least! Anyways, its not only because of weight but due to a general awareness of healthy living that I try and make everything I cook as healthy as I can.

I had these really yummy cutlets (after a really long time) at my friends house for his birthday and I tried to make them today at my place from memory and with my own twists. They turned out really delicious and here I am clicking away at my keyboard really fast and sharing the recipe! 

Healthy Cutlets 

Ingredients

4 medium sized potatoes boiled and mashed

2 carrots grated

1/2 small cabbage grated

1 beetroot grated

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1 tbsp chilly powder

1 tbsp garam masala

Salt to taste

2-3 tbsps cornflour

Rawa for coating 

2-3 tsbps oil

Method

In a pan heat 1 tbsp oil and add the ginger garlic paste. To this add the grated carrots, the grated cabbage and the grated beetroot. 

All the grated vegetables being sauteed

Add the salt, the garam masala and the chilly powder to the vegetables as they are cooking.

The vegetables being sauteed with the masalas

Once the vegetables are cooked, add the boiled potatoes and more of salt, garam masala and chilly powder (if needed). Cook till the mixture begins to leave the side of the kadhai, leaving it clean.

The vegetable and the potato mixture

Remove from heat and let it cool a bit. Then add the cornflour for binding and mix in well. Make medium sized round cutlets of this mixture and coat with the rawa.

The cutlets shaped and coated with the rawa ready to be shallow fried

On a tawa, heat the rest of the oil and shallow fry the cutlets till golden brown on both sides.

Shallow frying the cutlets

Serve the cutlets piping hot off the tawa with your favourite chutney and ketchup and enjoy!

The cutlets (finally!)

Homemade Pizza Sauce

Pizzas have seeped into our regular food so much so it has almost become a staple. Move over Pizza Hut and Dominos, every small and big restaurant including roadside stalls and college canteens serve it, even if its just a tomato ketchup with grated processed Amul or other cheese version. I know my aunty's very traditional  Gujju kitchen also has it once every couple of weeks because they enjoy it.

I believe that what makes or breaks a pizza is the sauce that is used to flavour it. The toppings or the cheese do not have much of a flavour of their own and the sauce adds layers of taste to the pizza. Here is a recipe of my homemade pizza sauce.

A fully loaded vegetarian pizza with the homemade pizza sauce

Homemade Pizza Sauce (for 4 8 inch pizzas)

Ingredients

2 tbsps olive oil

2 medium onions finely chopped

2 bay leaves

3-4 whole peppercorns

4 medium sized tomatoes pureed

 1/2 cup ketchup
1 1/2 tsps dried oregano or mixed dried herbs (thyme, basil, oregano, parsley and rosemary)

Salt to taste

Method

In a deep pan heat the oil and add the bay leaves and the peppercorns when the oil is heated. Add the chopped onions and saute till pink. Then add the pureed tomatoes and cook. Stir in the ketchup, the herbs and the salt to taste. 

To make a pizza, toast the base as desired, spread a layer of the sauce, the cheese and the desired toppings (three kinds of peppers, American corn, olive slices etc). Cover and cook till the cheese melts and serve hot!

Cheese and olives pizza with the homemade pizza sauce

Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup for the Indian Palate

Winter just demands soups. You cannot have winter without craving for soups, just as you cannot have a rainy day without a craving for pakoras and masala chai.

I am bored of the standard tomato soup though I love it and I wanted to try something different. I found this recipe for roasted red pepper and tomato soup and have adapted it for more traditional Indian palate and a kitchen where there is no oven. It turns out to be a lovely thick soup with a light roasted spicy flavour from the red pepper and the tang from the tomatoes. And it makes a good, healthy one-dish meal for those watching out for their weight.

Ingredients

2 red peppers
2 tbsps olive oil
3 medium sized tomatoes
1 medium sized onion
6-7 garlic cloves
1 bay leaf
4-5 whole peppercorns
Salt to taste

Method

Wash the red peppers and dry them, apply some olive oil over them and roast them on the gas stove.

Deskin and deseed them, its easy to deskin roasted peppers. Blend the peppers in a food processor with the onions, garlic and the tomatoes. Heat oil in a pan add the bay leaf and the peppercorn. Add the prepared pepper soup puree and bring to a boil. Add salt to taste. Serve hot garnished simply with a corriander leaf and enjoy the sipping pleasure!

Thai Red Curry

Look at the beauty of the thick red curry below. I wish I could share the refreshing spicy lemongrassy coconut-y fragrance rising from it and I made it from scratch!

I stumbled upon Thai Red Curry at 14 when one of my favourite restaurants Monis, one of the oldest restaurants in Thane, introduced new dishes in their menu. I took a chance despite reading coconut and I fell in love at first bite! Since then it has always been my preferred order at the restaurant and even at Thai restaurants with a wider menu, I still order this comforting meal.

I have tried to figure out how to make it without having to buy the readymade pastes and having to hunt for the ingredients all over the world! I have finally attempted and cracked the recipe for an Indian kitchen with most of the ingredients now most commonly found in one. The only new ingredient we don't find are the lime leaves, but a trip to Crawford helped me with it. I am sure they are available with certain vegetable vendors (hey now they stock lettuce and cherry tomatoes and broccoli et al!) and next time I will look for them there.

Thai Red Curry (Vegetarian)

For the red curry paste

7-8 whole kashmiri chillies soaked in water for at least 3-4 hours

1 onion

6-8 cloves of garlic

1/2 inch piece of ginger

2 lemon grass leaves

5-6 Kaffir lime leaves (which the vegetable vendor I got from called it nimbu ka patta!)

1 tbsp dhania-jeera powder

Salt to taste

For the curry

1/2 medium sized red pepper diced

1/2 medium sized yellow pepper diced

1/2 medium sized green pepper diced

4-5 baby corns diced

200 ml coconut milk

2 tbsps olive or peanut oil

Salt to taste

Method

Grind the chillies, onion, garlic, ginger, lemon grass, Kaffir lime leaves dhania-jeera powder and salt to make a smooth paste.

In a deep frying pan, heat the oil, add the vegetables and toss them till they are a bit glossy. Add the red curry paste prepared as above and the coconut milk with the salt. Cook till it comes to a boil, you can add a bit of water for adjusting the consistency as you like it.

Serve it with a heap of hot steaming rice.

Starbucks (It Finally Feels Christmas-y!)

My friend and I missed Christmas yesterday, thanks to the really hot weather, the no Christmas trees around our places and me also because of no Christmas Carols or movies!

So today on a whim, we made a bit of a change in our plans for the day, and stepped into Starbucks (because it would be Christmas-y there!) and we weren't disappointed. Starbucks is spread over a decently large area for South Bombay or even Mumbai for that matter. The first thing that hits you, apart from the delightful smell of the coffee, is this space, the lighting, the soft lighting, the Indianised classic decor and for this season, the Christmas trees (there were 2, one large, one small!) and the carols! I was totally floored! We were so happy as it feels like you have stepped into a different world.

The Christmas Tree at the Mezzanine seating level

View of the reception and coffee serving area from the mezzanine seating level

Tree stump-like tables!

Decor shelf with old brass kettles and teacups, old books and some trunks.

 After enjoying the decor for some time and finding ourselves huge comfortable chairs in a corner of the cafe, me and my friend went ahead and placed our orders, a mocha latte, a white chocolate latte (something new, coffee with white chocolate!) and a fudge chocolate chip cookie. The coffees were fragrant and rich with the chocolate but the best part we savoured over was the cookie, it was pure sin. My friend who has stayed in Leeds in England for a year did comment that she couldn't find as good cookies in England at Starbucks as this one! Says quite something, I must say!

Mocha latte, White chocolate latte and Fudge Chocolate chip cookie

Me enjoying our time at Starbucks! (check out the huge chair!)

We did not have anything else as we had gone pretty close to lunch, but we do plan to go there again soon to try out the sandwiches that captured our interest.

Overall a good coffee experience!