Penne Pasta with Roasted tomato sauce and vegetables, chicken nuggets

As the kids grow up , fussiness and tantrums are often on the rise. Variety is not an option anymore but a compulsion. Same similar food on consecutive days is a big no no...the whine is almost instantaneous. Family meals , especially dinners are often dictated by their likes and dislikes, at least to ensure the given meal is finished without much ado. I am sure most Moms would agree.  

In my home, the current rage being pasta, I take the opportunity to pack in as much of veggies  into a bowl full of pasta as I can.....

 

Ingredients :

1.Penne Pasta cooked 'al dente' as per pkt instructions - 250 gm
2.Blanched vegetables for stir fry - carrot, beans, baby corn, brocolli etc

3.Tomatoes cut into quarters - 8-10 medium sized

4.Chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces - 250 gm, marinated in ginger-garlic paste-lemon juice-White 5.Sesame seeds-3 tbsp

6.Pepper corns - crushed

7.fennel seed paste

8.Rock Salt

9. Pepper

10.Chilli flakes 

11.Basil - a handful

12.Garlic - finely chopped - 8-10 cloves

13. Dried Oregano

14. Italian seasoning

15. Grated cheddar cheese - 1 cup

16.Salt to taste

17. Butter/Olive Oil

Procedure :

Roast Tomato Sauce (inspired by Kalyn's recipe of slow roast tomato)
 
1. In a mortar pestle roughly grind 2 tbsp of fennel seeds with a few drops of water
2. Brush the baking tray with oil and preheat the oven (OTG) to 250 deg C
3. Smear the quartered tomatoes with the fennel paste, pepper powder, rock salt, dried oregano and drizzle EVOO.
4.Place on the baking tray cut side down.
5.Set the OTG in grill mode for about 25 minutes at 250 deg C. Keep and eye to ensure the tomatoes dont get charred.Continue till the skin of the tomatoes are wrinkled.
While the tomatoes were being grilled, I continued with the stir fried vegetables & chicken
6.In a pan/wok, take a tsp of EVOO. Add chopped garlic and basil leaves. lightly fry.
7. Add the roasted tomatoes and mash them.
8. Add water drained after boiling pasta mixed with a spoon of cornflour. Add 1/2 cup of grated cheese. Mix well

Stir fried Vegetables : 
1. Blanch the vegetables after cutting them into small equal sized pieces.
2. Dry roast white sesame seeds in the wok. Remove
3. Heat EVOO/Butter. Add crushed pepper corns, a dash of sugar.
4. Add the blanched vegetables and toss them around in high heat.
5. Add required salt, dried oregano and chili flakes
6. Sprinkle the toasted sesame seeds



Chicken nuggets

1. I used some previously marinated (ginger-garlic paste, salt, pepper, lemon juice) chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces.
2. Heat oil in a wok. And throw a bay leaf or two.
3. Pour the chicken pieces. Brown them on medium-high heat.

In a large bowl assemble the cooked (al-dente) penne pasta, stir fried-white sesame garnished vegetables and chicken nuggets along with the roast tomato sauce. Toss them around to mix well. Garnish with grated cheese.

Whole Chicken Roast...

My first try at making whole roast chicken and it was a super success! But the credit goes completely to the awesome Barbecue sauce used to marinate the chicken and of course to me for following the recipe to the 'T', which is so very uncharacteristic of me....The few variations are due to non-availability of the ingredients and not an intentional attempt at deviation! ;)

The recipe and procedure which I followed so sincerely, are here. However noting the variations/improvisations in the ingredients as follows:

Dry Bay Leaf instead of fresh bay leaf
Regular Vinegar instead of Balsamic Vinegar
Sunflower Oil instead of Canola Oil
Kashmiri Chili powder instead of Smoked Paprika

Some personal notings for future reference :

• I used an OTG at a temperature of 200 deg C.
• The Chicken was approx 1.3 kg. 
• Time of roasting was aroung 1 hr 20 min. But could be around 10 minutes less as the top of the chicken was slightly charred, but that definitely added to the taste.
• I marinated the chicken overnight instead of the suggested 5-6 hours.

I served the roast chicken with a side dish of mashed potatoes (with dill-garlic-cheese) and some steamed and (butter) sauted vegetables.

The mashed potato: (Boiled 1 potato per head)

1. Heat 1 tbsp of butter in a wok and season with crushed pepper corns, chopped garlic.
2. Add chopped dill and the smoothly mashed potato.
3. Add a large cup of milk and stir it well to mix with the mashed potato.
4. Add grated cheese, salt to taste, chilli flakes and pepper and mix well.

Serve...

This recipe is off to Sobha Shyam's Event COOK IT HEALTHY PROTEINicious @ Good Food

Fried Jumbo Prawns in roasted tomato-cheese-garlic sauce, with Cinnamon Rice

My 'fishwallah' got me Jumbo Prawns (around 11 prawns weighing 2 kgs) one weekday morning. I was ecstatic but the joy and anticipation had to be shelved till weekend arrived.
Bored of the usual 'Malaikaris' (Prawns in Coconut milk) and 'Bhaape chingris' (Prawns steamed in mustard sauce), wanted to try out something new. And hence this experimentation.....

But a warning....it was a high on calories dish. Used Oodles of butter and also cream and cheese.

Ingredients : what I used ...

A.For the fried Prawns                                         1. Jumbo Prawns - 2 kgs (11-12 prawns)

2. Lemon juice of 2 small lemons
3. Salt
4. Pepper
5. Chilli flakes
6. Butter for frying

B. For the sauce
1. Tomatoes - 3 large sized
2. Onion -1 large
3. Grated Cheese - I used 2 cubes of processed cheddar
4.Garlic cloves - 5-6
5. Cream or full cream milk - 1 cup
6. Salt
7. Pepper
8. Basil leaves
9. Chilli flakes
10. Butter

C. For the cinnamon rice

1. Normal Sonamasuri rice we eat....basmati will add to the taste - 2 cups
2. Butter - 50 gms
3. Bay Leaf - 1 or 2
4. Cinnamon sticks - 5-6 long ones broken into smaller pieces
5. Nutmeg powder - a pinch
6. Sugar - a pinch
7. Salt to taste

Procedure : in the sequence i made.

Prawn Marination

1. The prawns were washed, cleaned and deveined the previous night
2. Marinate the prawns in lemon juice, salt, pepper and chilli flakes for 1/2 hour.

Making the Sauce :

3. I roasted the tomatoes over gas flame after slitting them at the top . Roasting/Grilling over charcoal will obviously add to the flavours.

4. In a wok, took a teaspoonful of butter, added chopped onions and the roasted tomatoes chopped and a pinch of sugar for caramelising. When the onion & tomatoes were nicely browned, took them off the wok, cooled and made a paste.
5. Then in a wok, again took a teaspoon of butter, added the onion-tomato paste, chopped garlic and mixed well

6. On low flame, added milk while stirring, followed by chopped basil leaves, followed by grated cheese.

7. To increase the tartness of the sauce, the lemon juice the prawns were marinated in , may also be added at this point

8. Finish off by adjusted the salt and sugar and a generous sprinkling of freshly crushed black pepper and chili flakes.
The sauce is ready.

Cinnamon Rice (I made it in Rice Cooker but can be made in the microwave too)
9. In a wok, take 2 tbsp of butter and when hot, add the bay leaf, broken cinnamon stick and a pinch of sugar

10. Add the previously washed and drained rice. Fry on high heat.

11. Add a pinch of nutmeg powder, followed by salt


12. Transfer to rice cooker. Add 4 cups of water (for 2 cups of rice). Add a tsp of lemon juice and set in on for cooking. For microwave, the ratio of rice:water should be slightly less than 1:2 i.e for 2 cups of water 3 1/2 cups of water.

The Star of the show : PRAWNS

13. Fry the lemon-salt-pepper-chilli flakes marinated prawns in butter.

Sit down for a divinely tasting, immensely high calories lunch!!