Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Indian Penne: A Twist of the Twist of Taste

Indian Penne

Two fusion foods in one day? I must be goin bonkers!! I think its because of watching this new show on Fox History & Traveller channel, called The Twist of Taste by Vineet Bhatia. This guy is totally twisting Indian foods into more gourmet-like fine-dining platters. So I googled him and found this article. I learned that he's the only chef apart from Gordon Ramsay to receive Michelin stars in two separate countries. So he seems to be a pretty big name in the food industry, now probably a celebrity chef. At the end of the article, he mentioned this penne with chicken tikka pasta dish he cooks for his sons at home. It sounded wierd and I had no idea how it would taste like. But having had a horrid day at work, I decided to try it and surprise myself. Thank god it turned out well. I did twist this twister's recipe to suit the stuff I had in my refrigerator. I did not want to make chicken tikkas because of the marinating time. I had some chicken seekh kababs in the freezer. Also had capsicum, baby corn, so I used em all.

Ingredients:

Penne Pasta: 250 gms
Turmeric Powder: 1 tsp.
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp.
Salt to taste
Mustard seeds: 1 tsp
Onion: 1 medium chopped
Capsicum: 1/2 chopped
Baby Corn: 4 cut into strips
Garlic: 2 cloves minced
Ginger: 1 tsp minced
Green chillies: 1 finely chopped
Seekh Kabab: 2
Tomatoes: 2 chopped
Tomato Puree: 3 tbsp.

Method:

Slice the Seekh kababs into half inch thick pieces. Boil water, add turmeric, chilly powder and salt. Add 400 gm pasta, preferably penne. Cook until slightly softer than normal. Separately, in a little olive oil, sauté garlic, mustard seeds, green chillies, ginger and finely chopped onions. Add baby corn, capsicum and seekh kababs. Allow to cook till the seekh kababs change colour to your preference. Add chopped plum tomatoes and a pinch of chilli powder (optional, its spicy already). Add tomato puree. When the mixture is ready, Toss it all up with the penne. Let the spices seep into the pasta. Serve.

Note: So if you want to use chicken tikka instead, just add the chicken tikka after adding the tomatoes. And I guess tomato puree wont be necessary.

0 comments: