Finally the fourth sister is here! Anchal's fancy-shmancy pasta sauce

Heheheehe I'm jealous i have no one to cook for and you girls aren't even around tsk :(

 

BUT here is a recipe for Pasta Sauce

Chop one large red onion, crushed garlic and sautee in olive oil....keep cooking this until the onions start to go a bit brown then add slices of portabello mushrooms (button mushrooms wont have the same affect) and wait till they cook right down and almost start to blacken.  Add salt and pepper to taste and then add half a cup of red wine to deglaze the pan, this should take off all the bits from the bottom (this is where all the yummy flavour is :) ).  To this add a can of chopped tomatoes....and the sauce should go to this really nice brown colour....trust me it doesn't taste tomato-ey at all, to add a little bit of richness add a tiny knob of butter and that'll make the sauce all shiny.  I usually make this with penne pasta or with spirals but you can try anything.

 

As for cooking brown pasta my tip is to heavily salt your water and not add the pasta until the water is bubbling and then just to keep the pasta moist add a tsp of olive oil or a small bit of butter....it wont let the pasta stick or dry out but it'll get taken out with the water so you wont be having fat either.

 

Ooohhh another tip I have is for cooking rice, when you cook basmati rice instead of cooking it in a rice cooker or a pressure cooker...cook it in a kadhai or an open pan....after the rice is cooked put it in a sieve and pour boiling water over it...this takes all the starch out and makes the rice nice and fluffy, you'll be amazed at how light the rice is and it doesnt leave you feeling sleepy or lathargic.

 

Those are my tips for today, quick recipes for cranberry cookies and ginger bread men coming up :)

 

Ohhh and also be careful with the choice of food processor you are using for your dosa batter, i've just recently burnt my blender because it couldnt handle the load so a food processor is a good idea and also make sure you check the wattage....i know this sounds so old fashione but the best thing i've found so far for dosa batter's is the sumeet mixi from india...they were fantastic!!!

 

okie ladies i have heaps more to share so i'm thinking do we want to start a blog of the sisterhood of the travelling kadhai?  what about sisterhoodkadhai@gmail.com as a common account and then we can just add things on the blog....what do you think??

 

love yaa

xoxoxxo

a

Pasta Ideas

haha i absolutely love that name! :)

 

and i think you describe cooking so well...it's such a great feeling when something turns out really well and also interesting to figure out what went wrong when something doesnt!

 

firstly about wholemeal pasta and brown rice - i switched almost entirely to brown rice about 6-7 months ago...i'm completely used to it now - as long as it's basmati. the trick is to soak it for about half an hour before cooking it. and also to add a little more water than you would to white rice. definitely worth a try. i will say that it will take a few days to get used to it. i don't regret making the switch though. i only eat white rice when i'm out now...we decided not to buy any to avoid temptation :)

wholemeal pasta - most of the dried pasta (spaghetti or linguini mainly) that i buy is wholemeal...but we often buy fresh pasta (stuffed etc) from the supermarket and that one is usually white

wholemeal dried pasta tastes fine...just have to be a little more careful when cooking it to ensure it doesnt overcook...i know that's the general rule with pasta but with wholemeal pasta the texture is really off when it's overcooked...again worth a try

 

pasta sauces - the one totally original sauce i made that turned out great was with roasted red peppers/capsicum. you can roast it yourself too but i bought a bottle of pre-roasted peppers from the supermarket. i was tired of the tomatobased sauces so wanted to try something different. i put in the pre-roasted peppers with a handful of toasted almonds (i wanted something that would make it creamy and didnt have any cream so randomly decided to add almonds) with chilli flakes, salt and garlic into a blender and blended the whole thing together. the sauce can be used with anything - veggies, chicken etc...i did it with shrimp and mushrooms. (i usually use frozen pre-cooked shrimp cause i'm always up for shortcuts!)

 

my favourite pasta sauce - and this may sound really lame - is super super simple especially with stuffed pasta...olive oil, loads of chopped garlic and chopped basil/dried basil. as simple as it sounds i l-o-v-e it

 

my hubby came up with his own creation the other day - a "mushroom pesto" he called it. he put a bunch of button mushrooms with green chilli, garlic and olive oil into the foodprocessor. it was really good i have to admit :)

he also likes to use pre-bought store tomato based sauce but make it a 'meat sauce' - where he will saute vegetables and ground turkey in the pan and then add in the store bought sauce with more spices...that's pretty nice too

 

so there's a few ideas :)

 

luv

megha, another sister of the travelling kadhai