Mushroom Pesto Pasta

Hi buddies,, now if you are only into hot-spicy food then pesto is something NOT for you. Its quite mild, rich, not too creamy and very very yummy. The smoothness of extra virgin olive oil, nutty taste and aroma of roasted pine nuts and herby flavour of basil leaves will make you fall in love with it.

Ingredients for Mushroom pesto pasta

couple of medium sized mushrooms (sliced or cut into wedges)
500 gm spaghetti
salt, to taste

Pesto:
100 gm basil leaves
30-40 gm roasted pine nuts
around 50 ml extra virgin olive oil
3-4 garlic cloves
pinch of salt
pinch of crushed black pepper

For the Sauce:
1. put basil leaves, pine nuts, garlic and half of the olive oil in food processor and make smooth paste.
2. pour some more olive oil and again give it a go.
3. mix salt and pepper.

For Pasta:
1. Saute the sliced mushrooms in 1 tbsp oil in a frying pan. Here you can put more or less quantity of mushrooms according to your choice.
2. Add boiled spaghetti, lil bit salt, pesto sauce and toss it well.
3. Add fresh basil leaves on top and serve right away.

Authentic style of making pesto is to do it in 'mortar n pestle', u can do it in food processor if therez shortage of time or if u want completely smooth texture. When I tried it first time, I made it manually, in mortar n pestle, next time I tried in food processor but found the manual one better as it has little grainy texture due to crushed pine nuts.

Kerala's Fish Fry

For one reason I love winters is nature's permission to eat fish, like it better than chicken/meat. Fish so delicate that it cant be preserved for long period, so here we fish-fans have this advantage of getting served only fresh fish in restaurants ;) This Kerala styled fried fish is so yummy that i can have it everyday (seriously)





Stuff needed

500 gm fish (fillets or simply cut into pieces)
3-4 tbsp coconut oil

For the red chilly-garlic chutney:
8-10 fresh red chillies (remove seeds if you want it mild)
12 medium sized garlic cloves
salt, to taste
1 tsp lemon juice

Marinade:
salt, to taste
1/4 tsp red chilly powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp tamarind paste
1 tsp garlic paste

1. clean, wash and pat dry the fish
2. Mix all the marinade stuff and rub the mixture on fish pieces, keep in fridge for 10 mins.
3. heat oil in a frying pan and add fish pieces.
4. Stir the frying pan quickly but carefully, it prevent the fish sticking at the bottom.
5. Turn the fish upside down after 1-2 minutes and repeat stirring, if needed.
6. Remove the pieces from pan and serve hot.

For the chutney:
1. mix all the ingredients and make fine paste in either food processor or mortal-n-pestle


Fish is high in Proteins so if you want something healthy then go for it instead of meat. It goes quite well with mint or coriander chutney also.
Plus few things we must keep in mind while cooking fish:
use ONLY fresh fish
DO NOT over cook as it dries the fish and spoils the texture
cook on slow-medium heat only..

Black Chickpea Curry

People say that Black Chickpea Curry or Kaale Channe are good for health, even dietitians say the same. Well whether its plain roasted or in the form if curry they are lot better than white chickpea. And herez the traditional or Punjabi way of cooking Kaale Channe..

Ingredients:

500 gm black chickpea
3-4 medium sized onions (finely chopped)
2-3 tbsp ginger garlic paste
2 medium chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup curd
1/2 fresh cream
1 cup coriander leaves
3-4 chopped green chillies
2-3 tbsp ghee/oil

Spices
1 tsp cumin seeds
1" cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
2 green cardamoms
2-3 cloves
pinch of mace
salt, to taste
1 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp coriander powder

1. Boil the chickpeas in a pressure cooker, its even better to soak them in lukewarm water for 10-12 hours earlier.
2. heat ghee in a thick bottomed pan, add cumin seeds, bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and mace. cook them till they start crackling.
3. Add ginger-garlic paste and saute for some seconds.
4. Add chopped onions, add a pinch of salt as it will speed up the cooking. saute till the onions are golden brown. sprinkle lil water if onions stick at the bottom.
5. Add tomatoes and green chillies and cook them till the oil starts seprating. add some more salt, turmeric powder and coriander powder.
6. Sprinkle some more water and cook for 1-2 minutes.
7. Turn off the gas and add curd, stir quickly and again turn on the gas burner. (here its better if the temperature is lil lower while adding curd)
8. Cook again for some minutes and add boiled chickpeas, bring it to boil and add cream.
9. Simmer for 25-30 minutes. add coriander leaves and serve hot with rice/flat bread.


Boiled Black Chickpeas or its soup is natural remedy for cough/cold in winters. If you have good metabolism or cooking for guests, just top it with some butter or ghee, trust me it tastes really amazing.

Afghani Murgh Malai Kebab

As the title suggests, these Kebabs are so creamy and spicy and totally melt in your mouth..

Stuff::
500 gm roughly minced chicken
3-4 chopped green chillies (optional)
Marinade:
1 tbsp magaz
1 1/2 cashewnut paste
1/2 cup cream
salt, to taste
1 tbsp poppy seeds

1. mix all the ingredients and keep in fridge for an hour.
2. divide the mixture into small equal sized balls and grill them for couple of minutes.

Risotto con pomodoro e basilico

Risotto is a beautiful and yummy rice based Italian dish, somewhat similar to our Khichdi. The rice used in Risotto are thick and small in size. Using Basmati or long-grained rice wont do justice with this beautiful delicacy. Plus using fresh herbs will make you LOVE it..

Ingredients::

250 gm rice
3-4 tbsp olive oil
1 small roughly chopped onion
1-2 cloves crushed garlic
2-3 tbsp butter
salt, to taste
5-6 fresh basil leaves (you can put double if you want)
1/2 cup pomodoro (or red sauce)
vegetable stock water

1. Heat oil in a pan, add garlic and onions. saute for 2-3 minutes.
2. add rice and stir till they are coated with oil.
3. Meanwhile heat veg stock water on separate burner.
4. Take a ladle full of stock water and pour in the rice, cook on medium flame and stir gently to avoid sticking at the bottom.
5. Repeat step 4 and cook Risotto on medium flame till the rice are tender.
6. Add some more salt (if needed as stock water already has some salt in it), butter, chopped basil leaves and pomodoro, cook for some more minutes on medium flame.
7. Serve hot in a plate instead of bowl.

Stock water instead of plain water is quite essential for some dishes but we usually dont have it ready at home. So one good substitute of veg stock water is: heat 1 lt water and mix 1 tbsp veg soup powder (either only veggie soup, sweet corn soup or any type you can use) as stock water is mainly for flavour and little taste. Ive tried it and it works awesome!!

Bengali Fish Curry

Im trying to think and i guess ive never cooked anything Bengali yet. Well Bengali people are big fans of seafood and their cuisine has wide range of dishes that contain fish and prawns. The fish curry ive made for dinner tonight actually contains Surmai fish but due to the small range of seafood in Punjab, i picked Dome/Dom (pardon me i dnt really know how its spelled right) as its salt-water fish.

Ingredients::
500 gm fish pieces
1 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 cup whisked curd
3 tbsp onion paste
1 tsp sugar
salt, to taste
5 tbsp mustard oil

Spices:
1 bay leaf
1 tsp cumin seeds
3-4 green cardamoms
3-4 cloves
1/2 inch cinnamon

method:
1. Rub 1/2 tsp turmeric and salt on fish pieces and set aside for 5-10 mins
2. Put curd, ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder and 1/2 tsp turmeric in a bowl and mix well.
3. Heat oil in a frying pan upto smoking point and stir fry the fish pieces on both sides for 2-3 minutes. take them out of the pan and set aside.
4. Use the same oil for further cooking, pour it into a thick bottomed vessel and heat again.
5. Add bay leaf, cumin seeds, cardamoms, cinnamon and cloves. add onion paste after some seconds.
6. When the mixture turns light brown, add little bit salt and rest of turmeric powder. add curd mixture after some seconds.
7. Add water and sugar. when the gravy starts boiling, add fish pieces, stir gently, cover the vessel and turn off the gas after a minute.
8. Now leave it like this for 3-4 minutes and serve hot with steamed rice.

For most Bengali dishes, mustard oil is quite essential. If you just want fried fish for snacks then simply marinate the fillets with salt and turmeric and deep fry in mustard oil. Here double frying is not really necessary but doing it will improve taste and looks.

Kung Pao Chicken

This sexy thing belongs to Szechwan cuisine under the label of Chinese dishes. Like other Szechwan dishes Kung Pao Chicken is quite colorful, spicy and has beautiful aroma. Personally im a huge fan of Szechwan food as compared to Huaiyang, Cantonese or Peking dishes. I cooked it last week when we had guests for dinner and i was really really happy and excited to hear that my uncle who tasted Kung Pao for the first time really loved it and even suggested me to open an exclusive outlet for this chicken :D


Here are the ingredients

Marinade:
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp oil
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine

Sauce:
1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp black vinegar
1 tsp brown sugar (shakkar)
2 tbsp water
1 tsp cornstarch

Other:
1 kg boneless chicken pieces
3 tbsp peanuts
8-10 dry red chillies
3 tbsp oil
5 thin slices of ginger
3 cloves garlic, sliced diagonally
1 stalk scallion
1 red bell pepper (option)
1 yellow bell pepper (option)

howwwwwwww

1. cut the chicken into small cubes and marinate with above written stuff for 30 minutes.
2. mix all the sauce ingredients and set aside.
3. heat 2-3 tbsp oil in a wok and fry the chicken pieces upto 70% done.
4. put chicken pieces on a paper towel and set aside.
5. clean the wok and heat 2 tbsp oil, heat it up to the smoking point.
6. Add ginger, garlic, peanuts and red chillies. cook all these for couple of seconds and add chicken pieces.
7. Add sauce, mix gently and cook on medium flame for couple of minutes.
8. Add bell peppers and scallion. give it a quick stir and serve hot.


While cooking Chinese, say NO to ajinomoto as its not safe for kids n pregnant women. If you put sauces, vinegar and sugar in right amount, you wont need ajinomoto to improve any taste or flavour.