Love and Calories!!

"Relax, Sit down, serve yourself a little pasta & taste life" Now that's what I do, when I make Pasta, the love for it just grows each time I make them! And what if some good sauce is combined to it...the pasta only develops its full flavour then. Sauces are of many types which are used in Pastas. Cream and butter sauces blend very well with fresh egg pasta, Meat sauce (Ragu) is so good with any tubular shaped ones, seafood sauces are ideally suited for thin noodle shaped pastas such as linguine, spaghetti or stuffed ones like ravioli. But for the dried pastas, which we normally stock it up in our pantry, a typical tomato sauce is all you need to make.  To start with, I am posting the basic tomato sauce recipe otherwie known as Sugo Al Pomodoro ("Sugo" means sauce or juice & "Pomodoro" means Tomato). Now there's quite a confusion between some of the Italian culinary words which I just can't figure it out, such as, "Sugo...

The dish "Rat-a-too-ee" grabbed my attention only after watching the culinary adventures of Remy the rat in the movie "Ratatouille". Until then it was just any other French word to me. Though it was a light-hearted animated  movie, it inspired me in many ways as to how you must use your sense of touch, taste & smell in whatever you cook. one should not just eat to live but get to know the gastronomy of cooking.  "Ratatouille Nicoise" pronounced as "Rat-a too-ee Neesua" is a roasted vegetable stew originated from the place called Nice in France. The basic ingredient of the stew is tomato & the main vegetables used in this dish are zuchinni/courgette, eggplant & bell pepper.   Ratatouille is mainly served as a side to any pasta or bread but here I have combined both together to bring out a single main dish. This is a very healthy meal as it has no fat content & also packed with nutrients. This recipe is a simpler & q...

Some Carbs & Greens coming your way this time and both these dishes are great as an accompaniment to any meat or vegetarian main meal. Stir Fry Greens are the easiest, quickest & the most healthiest dish you can make. You don't have to sweat it out in the kitchen & at the same time you give your body a complete pack of nutrients. This recipe can be made with any kind of edible greens like spinach, brussells sprouts, kale or leaves of any root vegetables like beets, carrots or radishes.  Stir Fry Greens: Ingredients: 500 gm greens (you can use spinach, kale, brussels sprouts, or any other edible mixed greens)  4 green chillies (slit into half) 1/2 tsp mustard seeds 1/2 tsp cumin seeds 1 inch ginger ( finely chopped) 2-3 cloves of garlic (finely chopped) 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 1/2 tsp lime juice 1 tbsp oil 1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas (optional) 1 tbsp fresh or desiccated coconut (optional) salt to taste Method: Wash...

Now before introducing this dish to all of you, I must admit, I had no idea that such a dish exists. Until I tried "Khattu Mag" in two of my Gujrati Thali sessions. For those of you who are not familiar of what a THALI is, it is a selection of various dishes (number goes from 4- 12) of a particular region served in small steel bowls on a big round steel plate. So if you are visiting India for the first time, I suggest you to try out Thalis of different regions in order to get familiarized with the native delicacies. :) So "Khattu Mag" was one of the veggie dishes which I very much relished in my Gujrathi Thali. It was a combination of a dal & kadhi gravy. I usually had them both as two different dishes. Ths was two in one. I immediately thought of making this at home and post it in my blog for my vegetarian friends. "Khattu" means Sour & "Mag" means Moong beans. So as the name suggests, it is a simple gravy but a lot of flavours will...

 OKAY!! Am now getting too bored of salad postings in my blog. Salads are good but nothing like a gourmet. :) So here I am with a super good recipe of a Chinese origin. yummmmy right?? One normal day, my letter box was filled with umpteen number of take away menu cards and Chinese take aways were the maximum. I just went through couple of them and found that everybody were giving out the very same dishes. It simply struck to me that why not I try one of those dishes right at home. It is not that difficult if your pantry provides almost all the Chinese ingredients (hey there all the sauces!!) for your cooking. And moreover Chinese cooking is so easy & fast, that you will end up cooking something so simple, delicious & grand in no time.   "Sweet & Sour Chicken Drumsticks" would be a perfect accompaniment to any kind of Chow mein or fried rice. It is quite quick to make apart from the deep frying bit which takes the maximum time. You will be very happy to see...

Last two weeks were so hectic for me that I didn't find time to even open my blog page. Lots of friends coming home, cooking, eating junk, visiting places, our famous festival "Vishu" came up  & finally I ended up getting sick. I am still in bed but was so frustrated doing nothing that I thought let me post one of my healthy salad recipes which I had promised earlier. I saw this salad recipe in one of the BBC cookery shows & was quiet eager to make it. The original recipe suggests the use of Halloumi instead of Paneer. Halloumi is a type of Greek cheese made of mostly Goat's milk. It has the same texture of that as Paneer, hence I used Paneer. Must say, It was quite filling and delicious, perfect for a Summer afternoon. Ingredients: 200 gm couscous 200 ml hot vegetable stock / hot chicken stock 400 g can chickpeas (drained and rinsed) 1 tbsp olive oil 1/2 courgette/zucchini (sliced) 200 gm paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese), cut 1 inch length wise 2 medi...

Salads! Salads! Salads! Am going to post some simple, quick, filling yet delicious salads in the coming weeks. Am going to start with my all time favourite Desi salad, i.e the Indian Chickpeas. I love the tanginess of the lime, crunchiness of the onion, sourness of the tomato & finally the chickpeas which helps in combining all these flavours to make your salad absolutely delicious. So let's bring on Summer with some yummy refreshing salads!! Ingredients: 1 x 400g can of chickpeas 1 green chilli (finely chopped) 1 clove of garlic (finely chopped) 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 medium tomato (roughly chopped) 1 medium red onion (finely chopped) 1/2 cucumber (cut into batons) 2 tbsp coriander leaves (finely chopped) 8-10 baby spinach leaves (washed, if necessary chopped) 2 tbsp lemon juice 1 tbsp olive oil salt & pepper to season Method: Heat the oil in a non stick pan & add the cumin seeds, garlic & green chillies. Now add the canned chick peas to the pan & toss for a...