Chef In You » Pasta & Noodles

Vegetable Pot Pies

DK — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:46:23 +0000

Sometimes the simplest of dishes make an outstanding centerpiece in your dinner table. It need not be elaborate or gourmet, but simply few dishes put together and showcased in an elegant manner – just like this pot pie. Its such a no fuss dish. Easy,pretty quick and an impressive dinner for guests or for any special occasion. Its so grand that it can be your meal to this Holiday season – be it Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas get together.

The other day, I had some guests for dinner. I had had a long day and was not really upto making anything elaborate. But one cannot just serve the guests anything now, can we? My husband suggested that we can as well go out and eat. I just went into the fridge to see how well it was stocked. Umm – carrots, celery and few spring onions – not bad. Freezer section housed peas, beans and PUFF PASTRY! Oh yes! Pot Pies Having Puff pastry is always a boon. Its so versatile to allow almost any kind of dishes at short notice. With the menu decided – it took about 1-1/2 hours total to prepare these. Most of the time was on the skillet and oven. Not much work on prep work.
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Post tags: beans, carrots, celery, cheddar, chickpeas, corn, cream cheese, garlic, kidney beans, onions, Pappardelle, peas, Puff pastry sheet

Penne All’arabiata

DK — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:09:02 +0000

Exactly a week ago, I got a request from a reader for Arabiata! Pasta arabiata or Penne all’arabiata is one of the most simplest of all pasta recipes (as if most of the other pasta recipes aren’t simple enough!). I have made it often enough, hence was surprised that I hadn’t posted it already at Chef In you. Anyways, if you love ‘hot’ dishes, then this is perfect for you. Next time you have Tomato season or if you grow your own tomatoes – then don’t forget to make this dish which glorifies fresh tomatoes. Using ripe tomatoes is the key.
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Post tags: olive oil, onions, Parmesan, red chillies, tomatoes

Herbed Wheat Orzo Pilaf

DK — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:00:10 +0000

I dig simple recipes – after all one should be incentivized, for even thinking of cooking at home after a hectic day at work isnt it? But cooking same old day to day meals can be boring! And who has the time to think of new stuff anyways? When I wanted to make changes to my same old meals, I thought of simply revamping some of my oft repeated dinners with minor changes. Instead of kidney beans, switch it to cannellini beans, instead of couscous try quinoa, try brown rice instead of regular white rice, go for hearty one pot soups instead of elaborate 3 course meal, go for Orzo instead of regular macaroni or spaghetti pasta! Probably same recipe but with a new makeover! Avoids tedious ‘oh-no-same-old-stew’ voices around the house and you don’t have to struggle to make this happen to!
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Post tags: chives, garlic, lemon, marjoram, olive oil, onions, oregano, Orzo, Parmesan, parsley, peas, pistachios, thyme

Baked Asparagus with Kamut Pasta

DK — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:10:59 +0000

Its amazing to know the number of varieties that one gets for Pasta nowadays. I am not talking about the shapes of the pasta but the kind of flours used to make the pasta – wholegrain, sprouted, wheat, buckwheat, kamut etc etc! Mind blowing I must say. Its been ages since I bought the original make – why go for it when you have so many yet to be finished! The last time I did my pantry check, I found I had some unused Kamut pasta spirals left. My fridge had some left over Asparagus from my soup of 2 days back.

Thought of baking the asparagus crispy and crunchy and making a simple, quick and easy pasta dinner for us. The recipe is very fast to make with minimal steps and it is one healthy meal too. Nuts, Vegetables, wholegrain and healthy fats. Nothing to bargain isn’t it. The recipe may sound lengthy but different steps can be done simultaneously thus saving time. Actually in totality, I finish this recipe in about 15 minutes. While baking the asparagus, Pasta can be cooked on the side. At the same time, you can start the actual cooking process. Now to the recipe, this is how I made it

Approx. 2 cups of Kamut Pasta spirals
about 10-15 Asparagus, stems chopped
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
2-3 scallions (spring onions), chopped
1-2 tbsp Garlic Oil (garlic fried in little olive oil)
1/4 cup of pine nuts
salt to taste

Method

In a zip lock bag, place the asparagus along with garlic oil. You can otherwise just put some olive oil along with minced garlic. Close the bag and shake it so that the asparagus is coated with oil.

Bake these asparagus by placing them in a baking sheet at 400F for about 10-15 min (depends on oven – mine takes about 10m) until crispy.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to Package instructions.

Toast the pine nuts in a skillet.

Once toasted, add the cherry tomato halves along with spring onion whites. You don’t have to cook the tomatoes through. A little stir fry for 2 minutes should do.

Add the cooked and drained pasta along with baked Asparagus.

Give it a quick stir , you can add a little pasta water if desired.

Garnish with grated Parmesan and tada – you have a healthy, wealthy good looking gourmet lunch/dinner under 15 minutes.

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Post tags: asparagus, garlic, kamut, olive oil, pasta, pine nuts

Udon noodle stir fry – Quick healthy fix

DK — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:06:00 +0000

I try to add greens in our diet at least 3 times a week. We all know how important it is to include greens don’t we? But eating same old spinach every time is boring indeed – well at least its for me – so I try to try different greens each time, like rotate it say from spinach, to mustard greens, bok choy, so on and so forth. Recently it was time for trying out another green – choy sum. I got some very fresh baby choy sum from my local Asian grocery. You can get to know more about the vegetable here in this link

I had some fresh udon noodles in my freezer which I had been itching to use for a long while. So recalling a recipe from some book, I made Udon noodle stir fry. The recipe is immensely simple and gets done within 15 minutes. Highly nutritious and palatable this dish is a good choice for the health conscious.

approx ~~500lbs~~ 500 gms udon noodles (Ok – I accept! I was v hungry when I wrote this post!)
1 onion,chopped
3-4 spring onions,chopped- whites and greens seperated
1 carrot, cut into juliennes
approx 1 cup sugar snaps
2-3 garlic, minced
1 inch ginger, sliced into thin strips
3-4 petite baby choy sum
approx 1 cup sprouts
1-2 tbsp japanese soy sauce (as per taste)
1 tbsp chilli oil (or as per taste)
few Nori strips (just cut roasted seaweed sheets into thin strips)
salt to taste

Method

Boil udon noodles in water, as per package instruction. Meanwhile in a wok- heated in high heat, add 1 tsp oil , then saute onions, spring onion whites,garlic and ginger for 1-2 min.

Add the sugar snaps and carrot and saute for another 2-3 minutes. Since it is on high heat make sure to keep stirring the vegetables to avoid burning.

Add the chopped greens and saute for another 1 minuted when it starts wilting.

Add the noodles, soy sauce, chilli oil along with sprouts – give it a good toss until the noodles are coated with the sauce.

Garnish with nori and spring onion greens and serve hot. Make sure to make this dish as near to serving time as possible.

This is my entry to AWED :Japanese hosted by Lavi.

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Post tags: carrots, choy sum, nori, onions, soy sauce, sprouts, sugar snaps, Udon

Moroccan spaghetti

DK — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:41:00 +0000

Who does not love Pasta? It forms part of my diet on a regular basis. They are simple, delicious and healthy too – of course as long as you are not generous with your Alfredo sauce that is Pastas are so flexible and versatile. You can make anything and everything with them. Add as many ingredients you want, add even your kitchen sink to it, it would still turn out to be delicious (OK! Don’t add your kitchen sink – that’s a lot of hard work, the theme is to be simple and less time consuming anyways!:))
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Post tags: almonds, chickpeas, cilantro, cumin, garlic, mint, olive oil, olives, onions, pasta, saffron, tomato

4 Cheese Baked Pasta Shells

DK — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:06:00 +0000

I had about 3/4 cup of cottage cheese left in my fridge for a while and I dint want to test its patience anymore from not going yellow, so was thinking of what to do with it and googled for something simple and quick for dinner. I chanced upon this recipe for Lasagna which used Cottage cheese. Its hard for me to stick to a recipe verbatim. Do you have this problem too? So made some changes to incorporate my needs – High Protein, Less Fat, Healthy But Simple and Fast! And the following is what I ended up making.

1 pkt Jumbo Pasta Shells ( use about 10-15 shells for 2 ppl)
1 1/2 cup home made Marinara sauce ( or go for store bought like Prego!)
2-3 tsp approx Italian seasoning, as per taste ( Its a mix of dried herbs like Marjoram,Basil,thyme,rosemary etc)
3/4 cup of Cottage Cheese, low fat
1 cup Ricotta cheese, low fat
1 cup Mozzarella, grated, part skim
1/4 cup parmesan, grated
handful of cilantro/Parsley, chopped
1 onion,chopped finely
2-3 garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Method

1.Cook the Pasta shells in large pot, so that they dont stick to each other. Cook only for about 10min till slightly soft since it would cook more in the Oven.Drain.

2.In a skillet, cook the onions and garlic in 1 tsp of Olive oil and then add the marinara sauce.

Add seasoning and the salt/pepper if needed. bring to a boil.

3.Mix the 4 cheeses along with cilantro/parsley.

4.Spray non stick oil spray in a shallow baking pan and ladle some of the sauce at the bottom. Now pipe the cheese mixture into the jumbo shells one by one and place in the pan. Once done, pour rest of the marinara on top.

5.Bake at 350F for about 15-20min and serve hot.

© DK for Chef In You, 2008. | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cottage cheese, dried herbs, garlic, Jumbo pasta shells, mozzarella, onions, Parmesan, Ricotta

Spaghetti With Bean Balls

DK — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:28:00 +0000

Americans have wonderfully adapted many of other cuisines into some of their own classics. I have always been curious about many cuisines and have tried to make use of the best of it into my own cooking. This American adapated Italian Cuisine – Spaghetti with Meat balls has been further adapted by me for a healthy and vegetarian dish as Spaghetti with bean balls.

This is very versatile and can be used with varied combinations. I have used so many different twists to it and it remains unblemished! Among so many types out there, this is my version.

Ingredients
For the Bean Balls

1 cup Black beans
2 slices of bread
1/2 cup milk/buttermilk
1/4 cup Italian style Bread crumbs with herbs and spices ( or plain bread crumbs would do too )
few springs of cilantro,chopped
1 small onion,chopped into small pieces
1-2 green chillies,chopped (as per req )
salt to taste
1 tsp curry powder ( optional)

For the Gravy

1 onion,chopped
3 large tomatoes, chopped
2-3 cloves of minced garlic
1 tsp of grated ginger
1 cup of tomato puree
1 cup milk
3-4 tbsp tomato ketchup (optional)
salt to taste
Spaghetti as per req.
few springs of thyme (optional)

Method

1.Soak the beans in cold water,after cleaning it,for at least 6-7 hrs. Cook it in a pressure cooker well.Soak the bread in milk for 2 min.

2.Once cooked,drain excess water if any.Dont throw it away. Now grind the beans in a processor, or mash it well and you can use the drained water in case needed here. Add chopped onions along with rest of the ingredients for making the bean balls.

3.The consistency should allow to make balls of it.If v thick use some of the drained water, otherwise use some cornflour to make it thicker. Make big balls and fry them till brown.

VARIATION : You can bake them to make it more healthy. It usually takes about 30-45 min for me in 350F Oven. This is more healthy and there is not that much of a difference in the taste. After making balls,brush them with little Olive oil and place them in a muffin tray or cookie sheet, whatever works for you.

4.Cook the spaghetti as per package instruction. Once done,heat a non stick with a little olive oil. Add the spaghetti,season a bit of salt and pepper. Toss well. Add some thyme and cilantro and toss them till mixed and then set aside.

5.In the same pan add onion,garlic,ginger and tomatoes and cook them till tomatoes get all soft and mushy.

Add tomato puree,ketchup and cook for a few more min. Then add milk and make into a gravy consistency. You can use the pasta water instead of plain.

6.Jus 5 min before serving add the balls into the gravy and then place the spaghetti in a plate and place the balls and gravy on top, or any way you choose. This is healthy and wholesome

You can use different ingredients for making balls, be it lots of vegetables, or indian cottage cheese ( paneer ) or jus bread. It works well with all. The bean balls also taste very good as a evening snack with some chutney.

This is my entry to Susan’s Legume Love Affair Event

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Post tags: black beans, buttermilk, curry powder, garlic, ginger, ketchup, milk, onions, spaghetti, thyme, tomato

Vegan Pad Thai

DK — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 19:50:00 +0000

As the name suggests, Pad Thai is a cuisine of Thailand and is one of its most popular dishes enjoyed all over the world. I dont prefer cooked eggs in my food, so have a vegan version of the dish.

I have used Peanut oil for this dish since it brings out that flavour of asian cooking. My recipe is as below:

Ingredients

8 ounce Packet (or as per need )of Rice Noodles – thick variety
1 tbsp Peanut oil
7 oz of Tofu, firm variety, sliced into thick squares
1 bell pepper ( any color, I used red )
3-4 cloves of garlic,minced
2 tbsp Tamarind paste, or tamarind dissolved in water into thick paste
1/4 cup of roasted peanuts
1 cup of bean sprouts
1 medium carrot,julienned
1 onion, sliced.
1 cup snow peas,strings removed
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp of corn starch
2 tbsp lemon juice
few springs of cilantro, chopped for garnish
2-3 spring onions, for garnish
salt to taste

Method

1.Spread the Cornstarch on a plate. Coat the Tofu sqaures with the flour. Heat a non stick pan,spray it with PAM spray or little olive oil and place the Tofu’s on the pan. Turn them after 4-5 min. Repeat till the tofu’s have been browned. Set aside.

2. Cook the noodles as per the instruction in the package. Set aside.

3. Heat a pan with peanut oil. Stir in the onions, garlic,carrots and cook till soft.

4. Add the bell pepper,snow peas,tofu,soy sauce,tamarind paste and stir fry on high heat for 5-6 min taking care not to break the tofu.

5.Add the noodles and mix well. Add salt and mix well. Continue to stir fry on high heat for another 2-3 min till the noodles mix well.

6.Switch off the heat and then add the lemon juice,peanuts,sprouts and mix well. Garnish with cilantro and chopped spring onions.

© DK for Chef In You, 2008. | Permalink | 21 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bean sprouts, bell peppers, carrots, cornstarch, garlic, lemon, onions, peanut oil, peanuts, rice noodles, snow peas, tamarind, tofu

My Comfort Food : Mac n Cheese

DK — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 19:49:00 +0000

WARNING : If you are on a diet, dont read this post!

One of the very first recipes I made when I came to US was Mac n Cheese! The idea of how such a simple dish of some cheese and pasta could create sensations to one’s palate,never ceased to amaze me. There are millions of variations ranging from the simple of ingredients to complex assortment of cheeses.But this is one of those v few dishes which is so flexible to accomodate any versions without compromising on taste.

Be it from using almost fat free version to adding veggies to it, the flavor that it imparts is so soothing. Cold,rainy days makes me crave for spicy,fried and cheesy goodies.There is something so comforting about a crusty and gooey cheese that melts and clings on your sides of your mouth and goes sliding on your oral cavity!Yum! Below is the recipe of Mac n cheese, the way,I like it.

2 cups Macaroni Pasta (elbow pasta )
2 cups milk
1 bay leaf
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
1 cup grated cheddar
1/4 cup parmesan cheese,grated
1 cup Mozzerella cheese,grated
1/2 cup Monterey Jack Cheese,grated
1/2-1 cup bread crumbs
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Cook the pasta as per the instructions in the label. Cooking upto 90% is enough since more cooking will take place in the oven. Preheat the Oven to 350F

Heat a saucepan. Warm the milk slightly with Bay leaf. Allow it to infuse for 5 min. Meanwhile heat a non stick pan. Add the butter and melt it on medium heat. Add the flour and whisk it well till you it starts foaming and starts getting a lightly toasty smell. Take care not to burn it/darken it.

Remove the bay leaf from the milk and add it along with this flour mixture and whisk well till it thickens in consistency, approx 5-6min.

Remove from heat and add all the cheeses and mix it till it melts into one solid mass.

Now add the pasta along with it and season it well and mix well again. Pour it out onto a well greased baking dish.

Sprinkle the top with bread crumbs well till it covers the top completely and bake it in the oven for 30-40 min till it starts bubbling and the top is browned. Its a good idea to place a foil or another oven proof dish to catch any spills from the dish when its bubbling.Scoop it on a plate and get ready for a heavenly experience.

This is my contribution to Meeta’s Monthly Mingle Event:Comfort Foods and to Eve’s Comfort Food Cook Off Event

© DK for Chef In You, 2008. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cheddar, Macaroni pasta, milk, monterey jack, mozzarella, Parmesan