Archive for March 2014
Seafood pasta in a white wine cream sauce
This may be one of the most time consuming pasta dishes as it has several layers of preparation, but the end result is simply delectable. I guarantee plates will be licked. Growing up near the coast line, seafood is a integral part of our daily food intake and I just love the simplicity of the flavour profiles in this dish, also this is a great dinner party treat which will have your guests coming back for more. Hope you enjoy this.
Spaghetti with Meatballs
Ahh meatballs! Who doesn’t like meatballs, I guess the vegetarians don’t; BTW you can make a all veggie variation of this, which I will put up in another post, for now let’s talk meat. This recipe is basically a Spaghetti Bolognese but the meat is turned into meatballs. Simple huh, yes! But a lil more elbow grease, and the best part is you can make these in advance and all you have to do is assemble it before eating.
Spaghetti Bolognese
If you like a meaty and hearty meal, you’ve come to the right place, this beautiful Italian meat sauce hails from Bologna, and is one of the most popular sauces in the world. There are various ways to work this recipe, you can add your own tweaks to it, I however follow this tried and tested recipe because I want to taste all the flavours and yet keep it simple.
Spaghetti Aglio Olio with Shrimp
Aglio Olio, the ultimate sweet, nutty and spicy indulgence for the health conscious. This recipe is literally one of the easiest pasta dishes ever, however this works really well with long pastas, you could also use Fettuccine, Ziti, Capellini, Tagliatelle. I personally wouldn’t recommend using short pasta but it does work with Fusilli and Farfalle. In this dish the dominating flavours have to be controlled by you, if you like garlic, go ahead add as much as you’d like, however don’t make the mistake of using one flavour that completely overpowers all the other ingredients. This works really well with fresh pasta. Enjoy!
Fettuccine Alfredo
This is one of my favourite dishes, although in the earlier posts about sauces I haven’t talked about butter sauces and cream sauces, I promise to do the same very soon. But this dish is so easy and tasty that I’m sure you’re going to make it a regular feature in your pasta journey. This works very well with kids too, because of its creamy yummy-ness. Enjoy.
Pasta–the long and short of it!
Fresh vs. Packet - Pasta out favourite indulgent Italian dish, to me it's just Soul Food. Whether it's a celebration, dining out or cooking dinner for my wife, this is one starch I'll never get tired of. Pasta is made in hundreds of shapes and sizes. Each shape is appropriate for different preparations because of the way different kinds of sauce cling to them or the way their textures complement the texture of the pasta. Remember that fresh egg pasta and factory-made pasta are very different products. It makes no sense to say that one type is better than the other. Italian cooks use fresh and dried pasta in different ways, with different recipes for each type.
Veloute Sauce
A Veloute Sauce is more widely used now instead of a béchamel sauce, it tastier and cheaper to make and a must in chicken and fish dishes.
Brown Sauce or Espagnole
This is the heavy flavorful sauce that should be served with red meats; steaks, ribs, roulades! It may seem like a daunting task but once you’ve mastered it, you won’t be able to eat your meat without it. Enjoy!
Béchamel Sauce
This is another standard or leading sauce used in ‘continental’ cooking! It’s my favorite and there are many variations to make small sauces including flavorings.
Tomato Sauce
This is my favorite sauce for pastas, pizzas, as a sandwich spread, in burgers, pretty much anything. Enjoy!
Yield 2 L
INGREDIENTS
50g Pork Fat / Chicken skin (alternative)
OR
50ml Pure Olive Oil
25-50g garlic cloves, sliced OR crushed OR finely chopped
125g Onion, diced
125g Carrot, diced
125g Celery Stock, diced (1/4 if using Indian Celery)
2kg Tomatoes; skinned, deseeded and coarsely chopped
OR
2kg Canned Tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1L Tomato Puree
100g Tomato Paste
200g Ham bones or browned pork bones
OR
200g chicken carcass
100ml Tomato Ketchup
2nos. Red dried chillies
1 Bay Leaf
1/4 tsp Dried Thyme
1/4 tsp Dried Rosemary
1 tbsp Mixed Herbs
1/2 tsp Fresh Ground Pepper
Pinch of sugar and salt to taste
To make a pure vegetarian version omit all the non-veg items, simple! Although I’d advice to use a seasoning cube (maggie) much to my distaste, but it does add flavour!
PROCEDURE
1. Render the pork fat in a heavy saucepan, do not brown OR the chicken skin, do not burn OR just add the olive oil.
2. Add the garlic and let it sweat for a few minutes, don’t burn the garlic.
3. Add red chillies, onions and carrots and sweat for a few minutes till onion is translucent, again do not burn.
4. Add tomatoes, puree, paste, ketchup, ham bones, herbs, sugar and salt, bring to a boil and simmer on low heat for 1.5-2 hours.
5. Remove bones, chillies, use a hand held processor and blend to desired consistency; smooth for pizza, chunky for pastas.
6. Adjust seasoning, herbs and sugar, it should taste just right, hint of spice, sour and sweet; the taste should be to YOUR liking.
TRICKS
1. To deseed the tomatoes, cut a 'plus sign' on the top ends of the tomatoes, making slight incisions.
2. Put them in boiling water till the skin starts to bubble, remove and refresh in ice water to stop cooking.
3. Peel off the skin, cut the tomatoes on quarts and remove all seeds and 'white parts', keep all of the above.
4. Use a sieve and a ladle to press out all of the liquid, use this in the sauce its highly flavored.
VARIATIONS
1. Add fresh chopped Basil and/or fresh chopped Parsley for added flavour.
2. Add sauteed chopped mushrooms for the Italian variation along with the above.
3. Meat Sauce - Brown a mixture of Beef & Pork mince (1kg) or only either one of the two meats. Add 250ml of Red Wine, 2L of the Tomato Sauce, 1L of brown stock, dried Parsley, Basil and Oregano for taste and simmer uncovered for 1 hour till most of the excess liquid has evaporated.
4. Tomato Creme Sauce - Use butter instead of Olive oil or rendered fat in the basic recipe. Add 1 cup of Cream per liter of sauce, bring to a simmer and serve.
Stocks
A stock is a clear, thin liquid flavored by soluble substances extracted from meat, poultry, and fish, and their bones, and from vegetables and seasonings. The objective in preparing a stock is to combine the correct ingredients with the correct procedure. The need to prepare stocks at home is to use for soups and sauces, once you’ve mastered stocks and realized the uses in soups and sauces this is one ingredient you won’t be able to live with out. Given below are the ingredients, the preparations and procedure to make good restaurant quality stocks at home.
Sauces
Sauces are gaining some importance in restaurants in this country, mostly in the best of restaurants which may be considered fine dining, where kitchens hire saucier chefs that specialize in the art and science of making world class sauces as a important ingredient of a meal.
However most restaurants here serve generic sauces; the typical brown sauce always thickened with corn starch because the cost of making a roux is high ad time consuming, the garlic sauce (typical), the mushroom sauce (whew) and the incomparable 'White sauce'! Why are we Indians obsessed with thick gummy and pasty sauces with our 'conti' meals, incessantly ordering more and more bowls of poorly prepared - corn starch thickened - Maggie cube seasoned - sad excuse for a sauce. I don't get it; don't people have a discerning palette? Haven't they tasted good sauces with their food? Whatever the reason I intend on changing that and hopefully teaching you how to make simple great sauces to go with a fantastic gourmet meals that you will cook for yourself and loved ones, at home.