Basil and tomatoes - Fare thee well - Summer 07

There is a distinct nip in the air, heralding the arrival of fall, this weekend we have had crisp, cool sunny weather. Going to the store however I found these really beautiful baby roma tomatoes. I was thrilled to see them! Of course, nothing better to pair them with other than basil. Made a simple pasta, that was something that the kids loved and made everyone else happy. So here we are,

Farfalle with green peppers and roma tomatoes.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 cup dried farfalle
3 tbsp extra virgin olive
1 green bell pepper thinly sliced
1/2 cup homemade or prepared pasta sauce
1.5 lbs baby roma tomatoes, halved
1/3 coarsely torn basil leaves
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Method of Preparation

1. Cook the farfalle according to the directions on the package and drain.
2. Heat the oil and add the pepper and saute for 5-7 minutes.
3. Add the pasta sauce and the tomatoes and cook for 3-4 minutes.
4. Add the pasta and basil and toss.
5. Mix in the basil leaves and the salt and pepper and serve hot.

This week's WHB is being hosted by Katerina at "Daily Unadventures in Cooking!". Her blog features wonderful, practical everyday food and is hardly "unadventureous". This post is for her.

Shrikhand and Chicken for Jane

Photo Source - Wiki

Asking me to make Indian food, is nothing out of the way. It happens all the time, I am more than happy to indulge. Jane is my new boss's wife, who has never visited India but loves India in a deep, to the roots wonderful kind of way. She senses the deep simplicity of India, unfortunately, however there are so many layers and versions to India. I understand and feel the warmth she percieves from India, but, have to temper this my telling her the India that features on the business week covers every week, well close enough is different.

Well, we asked them to join us at our house a couple of weekends back and among other things, I made an interestingly simple coconut chicken recipe and mango Shrikhand. The Shrikhand, was made from fresh mangoes, something that you can get pretty good ones this time of the year at our local Indian store.

By the way, one of the good things about making curry on a weeknight dinner, is that this can actually be made ahead of time, and the flavors actually improve.

Chicken Curry with Coconut and Curry Leaves

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1/3 cup oil
A few cloves, cardamom, cinnamon
1 tsp turmeric
2-3 green chillies
1 onion finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
1 whole chicken, skinned and cut into small pieces
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp cumin-coriander powder
1 can coconut milk
1 sprig of curry leaves
2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the oil and add the whole spices, onion and ginger.

2. Saute this briefly and add the chicken, salt, pepper, cumin-coriander.

3. Cook on high heat, stirring frequently, until the chicken is well browned and the oil begins to surface.

4. Add the coconut milk, curry leaves and 1 cup water and simmer for 20 minutes.

5. Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice.

Now, for an exceedingly simple, delicate dessert from Gujarat.

Shrikhand

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 carton whole milk yogurt

3-4 fresh mangoes

1/3 cup powdered almonds

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp crushed cardamoms

Method of Preparation

1. Hang the yougurt for 6-8 hours to drain the water, this should be a nice solid cheese-like mass.

2. In the meantime, peel and puree the mangoes.

3. Mix with all the ingredients and chill and serve.

Weekend Musings - Quick tossed Pasta

Last night we went out to catch up with some friends over dinner. The food was just so ooo good. There was this really wonderful papri chat that my friends mother had made from the scratch, was so good. I was drinking the red wine a fruity California Merlot, I don't know what caused it but boy! did I wake up with an horrid headache this morning. It just refused to go away. I took at least 3-4 tynenols, ironically enough last night we were dicussing about the pros and cons of pain killers last night. Well, then I completed the usual chores for the weekend and managed to get some sleep this afternoon, now, how rare is that.

Later, this evening, I fussed around the house. It is mind-boggling just how much junk these kids accumulate. Aug-Oct is birthday season in my kids daycare, this practically takes over our social calendar, and then I am left with all the junk from the goody bags. Well, I filled at least 2 garbage bags of junk and dropped this off in the dumpster on my way for my regular walk.

At night, I decided to put scrounge through my fridge to put together a pasta with whatever I had available. I have to confess I was pleasantly suprised with the results. The combination of ingredients laced with some green chilly and cilantro resulted in a well-balanced dish with just a hint of spice. I would recommend this with a good glass of wine, I have sworn off alcohol for the rest of the weekend after last night.

Red and Green Spicy Pasta

Serves 4

Ingredients

9 oz angel hair pasta
Water and salt for boiling
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
3 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 green chilly minced
1 red pepper cut finely
1/2 cup finely chopped prociutto
1 cup grape tomatoes halved
1/2 cup prepared marinanara sauce
Salt if needed
1/3 cup toasted slivered almonds
3 tbsp shaved aged parmasan
2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Cook the pasta till just done (should be very al dente), drain and set aside.
2. Heat the oil and butter and add the garlic, followed a few minutes later with the chilly and red pepper and cook for 3-4 minutes.
3. Add the prociutto and grape tomatoes, and, the tomato sauce, with salt if using. Let this cook for a few minutes.
4. Add in the pasta and mix well for 3-4 minutes.
5. Stir in the remaining ingredients and mix well to let the flavors mix.

Enjoy!

The cilantro in this recipe makes for an interesting fusion of flavors. This goes to Zorra at Tomate, who is hosting this weeks WHB.

Soy-Orange Ginger Fish

Thinking Quick! Thinking Spicy! Thinking.... Well, you get the drift... As always, trying to whip up dinner, actually to watch with this movie called, "The Holiday." Someone asked me my taste in movies, the answer sounded odd even to me, but I love watching alternate film and good sappy romantic comedies. Yes, the holiday is the later kind, but you know, there is nothing wrong with happily every after.

Anyhow, once in a while we do dinner on a plater, wine in a glass and movie on the screen. So here is the "dinner on a plate."

Dinner on a Plate

Serves 4

Ingredients

1/2 cup soy sauce
1 inch piece ginger
3 green chillies
2 clementines juiced
1 small bunch cilantro
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp honey
1.5 lbs. salmon
2 tbsp oil

Method of Preparation

1. Add the soy sauce, ginger, chillies, orange juice, cilantro, garlic and honey and blend till smooth.
2. Add to the salmon and let this sit for 30 minutes or longer.
3. Add the oil on a baking dish and place the salmon in a single layer.
4. Turn on the broil and broil for 7 minutes on each side.
5. Serve hot with rice or salad.

Chive-Sun Dried Tomato Omelette

The other morning I had made myself an omelette on a whim, and, my daughter tried it. Well, now she is all into having an omelette usually for breakfast. Well, nothing to inspire your creative juices than your eager 4.5 year old. That (.5) half is especially important, she will make sure that you do not forget it when mentioning it too her. Well, this morning, this is what we had for brunch with a side salad.
It also got me to use a new herb, yes, just in time for WHB. This is being hosted by Kalyn at Kalyn's kitchen.

For Each Omlette

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 egg
1 tbsp minced onion
1 tbsp chopped chives
Salt to taste
1 tbsp chopped sun-dried tomatoes
2 tbsp goat cheese
Freshly ground black pepper

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the oil on skillet or frying pan.
2. Beat the egg with the onion, chives and salt and pour on the skillet.
3. Quickly top with the sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese.
4. Cook for about 5 minutes and sprinkly with the pepper.
5. Fold and serve how.

My daughter added some ketchup on hers, I encourage you to have it any way you like it.

Tomatoes and Herbs - Desi Pizza

One of the bounties of summer is of course, amazing wonderful tomatoes! These are so plentiful, enticing you with their rich beautiful color. I have to confess, I love tomatoes all year round and my friend Bob, complains when I buy fresh tomatoes in winter, pointing out how bad that is for our plannet, since they are being transported at some ridiculous cost to the environment (since it takes energy to do this). Well, this is not an agruement that has an easy ending so, for now, I will continue to eat my fresh tomatoes as long as I can afford them of course.

Tomatoes pair beautifully with most herbs, especially in my opinion with basil and cilantro. Here is something interesting that I did with a store-bought un-cooked cheese pizza. I used the "Freschetta" store multi-grain crust.

While the oven pre-heated, I chopped two tomatoes into fairly thick slices. Sprinkle the pizza with cumin seeds (1/2 tsp), crush 1/2 dried red chilli pepper, generously add fresh black pepper. Top with the tomatoes and add 3 tbsp finely chopped cilantro.

When the pizza is cooked, spinkle with the juice of half a lime and if you wish 1/2 tsp chat masala.

This was a really simple way to add sparkle to something off the supermarket shelf. I will send this off to WHB, which is being hosted by the chocolate lady, who has some stunning chocolate cookies on her blog.

Punida-Lemon Rasam and a meme

Well without the camera I have lost a little blogging momentum. This week I did make something interesting. That and then I was tagged by Sharmi, for a meme. So I figured, let me just write without having to worry about the uploading, downloading getting the picture just right...

What I made earlier in the week was Rasam, and, on a whim I added some dried mint leaves to it. The results were pretty amazing. The delicately tart and spicy broth tingled on the tongue and was balanced perfectly by the gentle freshness of the mint leaves.

Now for my random throughts,

1. Living in the East Coast I love Fall. I thing I live 10 months of the year to experice the burst of colors and crisp clean air. I am probably one of the few people who feel happy when summer is leaving.

2. My children want to make me be a better person everyday. That among many other ways is how they have enriched my life. I want to eat better, do better deeds on a daily basis. So, I thank you Aadi and Deepta for helping me strive everyday.

3. Only when you have your own children do you really understand how much your parents did for you. Especially the early years, they mean so much, needs so much and they still continue to give every day of our lives.

4. My one regret is that I am so far away from my parents. I wish I could be closer and do more for them.

5. I love cooking, it helps me feel happy on both good days and bad. Especially on bad days, the calming experience of chopping, mixing and putting everything together makes a big difference in my spirits when I am done.

6. As a mother, it is very difficult to find time for oneself. However, simple things like even doing groceries peacefully (yes, this is what I do every Saturday morning, while my husband feeds the kids breakfast can make a difference).

7. I think overall, I have been lucky with my share in life.

Well, thanks Sharmi for making me thing. I must be so self-obsessed since all my random thoughts are about myself.