Quick Fix : Pasta Sauce Twists

I was never a proponent of store-bought pasta sauces. I always loved making my own sauces from scratch. But then, I graduated, got a real job and now I have no time. If you hate the preservative-y taste of all the big brands, here are a few ways to jazz up your pasta dinner, with the help of just a few additions!

PESTO: I like to cook my pasta in fat free butter instead of olive oil (since the pesto sauce already contains olive oil). After adding the sauce to my pasta (I usually prefer Orzo with pesto), I add fresh cream. At the very end, I add diced tomatoes because I don’t want them to get squishy.

ARRABIATA: Even though this sauce contains all the spices and flavorings, I like to add two cloves of garlic, fresh basil and finally mozzerella as a garnish. It goes great with Tortellini or Penne. If you want to go further, you could add green bell peppers and meat/fish of your choice.

VODKA: This sauce is usually already pretty great but I throw in a little crushed chilli flakes and baby spinach. Goes well with Bowtie.

ALFREDO: There is so much you can do with a cream sauce. You could add herbs, veggies, seafood, wine! I have a few variations. First, red bell peppers and fresh basil. Second,  mushrooms, thyme, rosemary, basil and a tiny bit of any good white wine. Third, capers and spinach. Shrimp and chicken go very well with Alfredo. Traditional pasta pairing is Fettucine, but I prefer Fussili and Penne.

TRADITIONAL TOMATO/MARINARA: This is probably the least of my favorites. I add lots of basil, garlic and either red wine or cream.

Happy experimenting!

Quick Fix : Everything Pasta

I didn’t go to work today coz I was sick, so I had to make something for myself for lunch. Now seeing that I have been lazy and not done my groceries for a month, I was in deep shit. So i raided my fridge and pantry and came up with a really nice pasta. Remember though, by just throwing everything but the kitchen sink, while you’re being innovated the end result may actually sulk. I made some scrumptous pasta (paired with lovely chilled white zinfandel) with nothing but tomatoes, store bought olives, pesto sauce and alfredo sauce. Here’s what I did:

• In a pan, add olive oil, two whole cloves of garlic and lots of red chilli flakes.
• To that add your boiled pasta. I had tri colored fusilli so that’s what I used.
• Add two spoons of alfredo sauce (this will be a pretty dry dish coz you don’t want a heavy lunch), half a spoon of pesto sauce (because the one I have is really really strong) and a little bit of evaporated milk (since I was out of cream and this is thinner and better).
• Add in some chopped green olives – you could use black olives if you prefer those.
• Add tomatoes.
• That’s pretty much it. It’s really a very satisfying lunch meal.

Masala Dal

This is one of the few Indian foods I can make and it really does kick ass, if I may say so myself. It’s also one of the first things I made when I started cooking like 5 years ago.

• Put some toor dal to boil. I personally just put it into my rice cooker and it does the job. However, you do want to keep checking on it because the rice cooker tends to overflow and things can get messy. If you use just your regular yellow dal for this recipe, it will still be good though not as good.
• If you can, mash 3 cloves or garlic and a little ginger into a paste.
• In a pan, add oil and some jeera.
• Once the jeera sputters, add the ginger-garlic paste.
• To this, add about three tomatoes, chopped into medium sized peices. The size doesn’t matter because they will eventually break down into a sort of squishy pulp.
• Remember to cook your tomatoes well and not be hasty. They do take time but you really need them to be squished and not still in chunks.
• Add your cooked dal.
• Add about a cup and a half of water, depending how whether you like your dal thick or watery.
• Throw in about two spoons of chilli powder, a spoon of jeera powder and a spoon of coriander powder (dhanya powder).
• Mix well and let the dal come to a boil, allowing the spices to cook,
• After this, you want to squeeze the juice of a lime. Don’t use a lemon because it would make it too sweet.
• Add about a spoon of sugar.
• You’re done If you like spinach a lot, you could add some spinach too at the same time you add the tomatoes.

Quick Fix : Green Curry Fried Rice

Sometimes it doesnt make a difference whether you make an entire meal from scratch or if you throw some store-bought sauces and pastes together. It can be just as yummy. Case in point: Thai food. I’ve never actually attempted to make anything Thai from scratch.

For my green curry fried rice all I do is:

• Boil rice in the cooker. I sprinkle a little bit of dry basil into the rice water for flavoring.
• In a wok, fry ginger and garlic in oil (sesame oil if you want to keep it authentic).
• Add veggies or meat of your choice. I usually like to add carrots, baby corn and green peppers. You could add cabbage, french beans, snow peas, mushrooms or tofu.
• Add canned green curry paste and a tin of coconut milk. The canned green curry paste is very concentrated and is killer spicy. You might want to add it in small quantities till you’re satisfied with the taste and level of spice.
• Add a few basil leaves.
• Add the rice. Tada , its done!

Bruschetta

One of my favorites! I absolutely love Bruschetta. For people who don’t know what it is (you’re so weird), Bruschetta, simply put, is like garlic bread with toppings. The toppings themselves can vary from tomatoes (the traditional form) to roasted red peppers and even just pesto sauce. I like the original version the best and here’s my recipe.

• The type of bread and even the size of your slices is up to you. You could do long slices of French baguette or small bite size peices – just as long as it isn’t a regular loaf of milk bread because that would be too soft for this.
• Drizzle a little olive oil on both sides of your bread and toast them either on a pan or in the oven.
• As soon as they’re ready, take a clove of garlic and rub it on top of the bread. Doing this flavors the toast but also avoids having to cut your garlic and cook it. Make sure you rub it well enough to get that garlic bread aroma but not so much that your bread starts to crumble.
• Next, we’re going to make three mixtres. First, in a bowl mix some room temperature butter and just a little bit of finely chopped basil. Leaving the butter at room temperature helps it to mix well with the basil and you get a nice consistency.
• In a second bowl, mix very finely chopped tomatoes, olives (green or black -ur choice) and a table spoon of tomato puree. Add salt and pepper.
• The last mixture consists of olive oil, honey and balsamic vinager. I use imitation honey because the taste is the same and it’s healthier. This combo should be a very small quantity because it’s only going to be used to drizzle on top of the bruschetta.
• Now, it’s time to assemble.
• First, spread the herb butter mix over each slice of toast. Top it with the tomato mix. Sprinkle some mozerella cheese and put the slices into the oven only till the cheese melts. Remember to use only a little cheese.
• When it comes out of the oven, add the little glaze that you made. With this too, use sparingly.
• Your bruschetta is ready!

Granitas

We’re pretty far from summer. but I love granitas too much to care Granitas are semi-liquid flavored ice scrappings- much like Ice Lollies but not on a stick. This is one of the very few desserts I make – I’m really underdeveloped in that area. There are countless variations but here are two I particularly like.

• MANGO GRANITAS
  In a wide flat dish, mix mango juice with a little orange juice and a few squeezes of fresh lemon. Add sugar depending on how sweet you like your deserts. Another option is to add a little champagne. Cover with a sheet of plastic and place the dish in the freezer. Check on it every 15 minutes or so and with a fork, begin scraping/fluffing the surface. In about two hours the granita should be ready. You can eat it as is or you can use it as a topping for ice cream or a peice of cake.
• COFFEE GRANITAS
  I’m not much of a coffee person but this is pretty tasty actually. Similar to the first recipe, bring together some espresso mix (or your preferred type of coffee), sugar and a little cocoa powder. You could add coffee liquer if you like. Follow the same freezing directions as the first recipe. This would go great on top of a cheecake or mousse.

Quesadillas!

Yay! I first tried this two years coz I needed something fun to accompany my Asti before the superbowl. It’s vegetarian because I don’t cook meat, but I’m imagining that there’s a lot you could do to infuse meat into this. Bon apetite!

In a pan, fry onions and green peppers (long thin slices) in butter (the non-fat one because you need a quite a bit).

• Throw in a whole clove of garlic. This is just so that the onions and peppers get that garlicy flavor without worrying about biting into a peice of garlic.
• Add in some chilli flakes or paprika (not too much because we add heat later on) and dried/fresh oregano.
• Once the onions and peppers reduce in size and become all squishy, turn the heat off. Throw away the whole garlic clove.
• In a bowl, mix finely diced tomatoes, finely chopped jalapenos, very little fresh cilantro and a few drops of lemon juice.
• Incorporate the onion and pepper combo into the fresh mixture. Add salt and pepper.
• The cheese I use is just the store bought “Mexican Cheese” from Kraft. This is almost always a combination of Monterey Jack and yellow Cheddar.
• Now, since I don’t have the fancy quesadilla press you see at Qdoba, what I do is this – I first take my flour tortilla, sprinkle just a little cheese on top and put it in the microwave fo 30 seconds. This is so that the tortilla gets a little warm AND the cheese melts – making for a sticky base for the filling.
• Next, add the mixture to one side of the quesadilla – don’t overcrowd it and don’t spread it all around – just half the tortilla!
• Add more cheese on top of the mixture – this is what will seal the tortilla. Close it and fry in a pan with a little oil.
• Now, in the spirit of cullinary masterness you may want to make your own salsa and guacamole – take it from me..the store bought ones are fabulous! Use them.
• Voila – we are done Like I said, you could work meat into this by adding a little chicken or beef when you’re cooking your onions and peppers.

Tried, tested & failed : Don’t try substituting coriander seeds for actual coriander. I have learnt that the two are very distinct. Don’t use Extra Virgin Olive Oil because it tends to burn easily. Don’t forget the salt in all the merryness. Don’t go crazy with the cheese..remember it’s only the binder.

Today’s secret ingredient is..

So, what’s all this shiz about? In short, I love to cook. I love to cook so much that I spend most of my time (when I should be doing things that I’m paid to do) coming up with recipes. So this is just to help me keep track of my valiant experiments. I’m not Mario Batalli, though I would love to marry him and hug him for life. I cannot attest to the greatness of my recipes, I have not been to le Cordon Bleu (yet), so no hate mail.

“With a full heart and an empty stomach, I say to you in the words of my ancestors…ALA CUISINE! “
- Wackjob Chairman from Iron Chef.