I just didn't know what to name this pasta dish. Its yet another penne pasta dish I made with different ingredients available wth me at that time. It was a weekend when I blackmailed my sister into coming over because I was cooking something yummy. So thought of naming it that way.
Ingredients:
Penne Pasta: 250gms
Olive Oil: 3 tbsp.
Salsa: 100ml
Garlic: 2 cloves
Onion - 1 medium
Cherry Tomatoes: 10
Capsicum: 1 (yellow or red)
Baby corn: 5 or 6
Sausages: 2
Streaky bacon: 3 strips
Basil Leaves - a sprig
Black Olives: 5
Parsley - garnish
Cheeses: Parmesan, Emmental, Mozzarella
Method:
Boil water and add penne to it with some salt and olive oil. Once the pasta is cooked, drain and keep aside. Mince garlic, chop onions, capsicum. tomatoes. Cut baby corn into thin strips. Slice sausages and olives. Heat olive oil in a pan, add minced garlic and let it sizzle for a few seconds. Add onions, capsicum and baby corn. Toss around till onions become soft. Add sausages. Take streaky bacon strips and snip them up using a pair of kitchen scissors into the pan. Allow the bacon fat to melt, and add the the cherry tomatoes and basil leaves. Add in the salsa and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the sliced olives, grate the cheeses and add them too. Combine well and garnish with parsley and some grated parmesan or emmental. Pasta Yummyolio is ready to serve!
So I was lazing around on Saturday when I was supposed to finish some work. Wasted lots of time watching tv and at around 10.30pm, I started to get the hunger pangs coz the last time I ate something was in the morning. There's so much of chaos outside my house, lots of kids running and shouting about, huge family get togethers happening on a Saturday night. Ignoring the ruckus outside I decided to fix something really fast, and walk into the kitchen to see a huge pile of dishes in the sink and on the countertop. If I had to fix anything, I had to first clear out the dishes. I quickly set myself at the task so that my hunger doesnt start to give me a headache. Almost finished, suddenly we lost power. If it goes late at night, surely its some problem and it should be back soon. I wait it out by watching the latest episode of Desperate Housewives I downloaded. Power comes back after half an hour. I pause the episode, return to the kitchen and finish the remaining dishes. I decided to do a quick one pot meal. No referring recipes, just dumping stuff I had around the kitchen to make one nice hearty meal. I saw a packet of penne pasta and put that onto boil. I check the freezer and got out one last chicken sausage lying in there. Ooh a packet of small shrimps. Thought I'll use em too and get it out to defrost. Checked the refrigerator, found one red capsicum and a packet of cherry tomatoes. I start chopping the vegetables and I lost power again. Grrrrr... I wait it out again, ignoring the hunger pangs again. Resumed my tv episode and it got over too. Just waited silently in the dark, and got it back again in another 10 minutes. I slice an onion, mince some garlic, drained the pasta, put the shrimps to boil (I cant eat it raw like some people do). And yet again, I lose power. God, this is so damn frustrating now!! I switched off the boiling shrimps coz I did not want to overcook it, wait again, and its back after 10 minutes. Thankfully, I managed to prepare the rest of the meal without losing any power. The recipe is explained below. So I plated it nicely to take a picture to post it on the blog. The first one I took is the one you saw above. The dish did look nice and colorful. But I notice that some of the penne is jutting out awkwardly on the sides and maybe I should re-arrange it a bit more to look more elegant. I focus my camera again and click. At that very second I clicked, guess what happened. Look at the shot I got and take a wild guess!! Aaarrggh!!
Boil penne pasta as per instructions on packet, with some salt and oil. Drain and keep aside.
Chop the cherry tomatoes, capsicum, slice onions and mince garlic. Chop the chicken sausage into bite size pieces, grate the parmesan cheese. Wash and clean shrimps and boil it for about 5 minutes and drain. Slice pitted olives and chop parsley.
Take a heavy bottomed pan, heat 3 tbsp olive oil, add the minced garlic, sliced onions and capsicum. Cook until soft. Sprinkle the Italian seasoning (I added some garlic bread seasoning I had) and oregano. Add shrimp and sausages and toss to coat with oil. Add chilli-garlic sauce. Add the cherry tomatoes and tomato puree. Toss again. Lower heat, cover the pan, and simmer for about 5 mins. Open and add parmesan cheese (leave some for garnish). Add the pasta little by little, tossing at the same time to coat it with the sauce. Take off the heat. Sprinkle black olives, parsley and parmesan cheese. Serve hot.
Made these for dinner on a lazy Sunday. You might think its junkfood, but I have packed it with lots of veggie nutrition. :)
Ingredients:
Buffalo skinless sausages - 1 per roll
Samoli/Sausage bread - 1 per roll
European cucumber - 1 sliced
Carrot - 1 grated
Tomato - 1 sliced
Remia Garlic sauce/Salsa Ali Oli - as required
American yellow mustard - as required
On the side:
Any fried/baked potato chips of your choice: French fries/wedges/criscuts/crispies/chips
Sauce of your choice - ketchup/garlic sauce
I used Cascade Wild West Buffalo skinless sausages for this recipe. You may try with any sausage of your choice.
Method:
Heat a pan and place defrosted sausages on them. Cover and allow to grill. Turn occasionally. I would keep the lid closed and move the pan around, allowing the sausages to roll around. I've noticed it oozes out some water and a bit of fat and this allows the sausage to cook and give a barbecued sauce effect outside.
Slice open the samoli or sausage rolls and pinch out some of the bread on the inside, so that the sausage and other veggies can be placed easily.
Add grated carrots in one side's depression. Then pour Remia's garlic sauce over it. Line up the cucumber and tomato slices on top.
Pour mustard sauce on the other half's depression. Place the fried sausage on this.
Close and serve with potato fries of your choice. :-) Bon appetit!
I tried this recipe from the Kairali channel's Magic Kitchen show. I like Lekshmi Nair because of her presentation skills and enthusiasm for cooking on this show. She does a good attempt at bringing modern cooking to the typical malayalee. Its amazing how she cooks with so much of jewellery on her lol! Especially those bangles and rings. And shez got lovely manicured polished long nails. Simply amazing! All the same, shez sweet and chirpy!
Ingredients:
Ingredients (for 1 large omelette):
For the omelette:
Eggs - 4 nos.
Milk - 1/4 cup
Baking Powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Butter: 1 1/2 tbsp
Salt
For the filling:
Sausages : 4 long pieces sliced into medium thickness
Onions : 2 medium (I used half a white onion) chopped
Oregano - 1 tsp
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Butter - 1 tbsp
Salt
Chilly garlic sauce/Sweet chilli sauce : 1 tbsp
Cheese slices: 2 (or grated mozzarella)
Method:
For the stuffing:
Heat butter in a pan. Add onions to it and saute till it becomes translucent. To this, add sliced sausages. Fry them for about 2-3 minutes. Now add pepper powder, oregano and salt to it and mix well. Add chilli garlic sauce to this mixture and saute for another minute. Keep this filling aside in a bowl.
For the fluffy omelette:
Separate the eggs. Yolks in a bowl and whites in another. Make sure the bowl into which you are adding the whites is completely dry as even the slightest bit of moisture will not allow the whites to froth when beaten.
Take the bowl containing the yolks, add whisk lightly with a fork. Now add milk to it and mix again. Add baking powder and whisk once again.
Now whisk the egg whites vigorously to form a thick froth (so thick its tough to get it off the bowl when tilted) using an egg beater or with ur hands and a whisk. Add a bit of salt in between. Once beaten fully, heat butter in a pan. Now you need to start acting quickly because once the egg whites will start to lose its froth if you let it stand (Just like how froth of soap will lose its volume in time). While the pan is getting hot, add the egg yolk mixture into the whites and combine gently with a fork.
Now add this mixture onto the pan and even it out with a spatula so that its spread out on the pan. Cover the pan with a lid and let cook on a very low flame for about 10 minutes. In between, open to check the cooking of the insides of the omelette. Make a few slashes on the omelette to allow the insides to cook well. Once omelette is cooked, add the sausage stuffing on one half of the omelette. Now place the cheese slices on top of this stuffing. Once the cheese starts to melt, switch off the flame of the stove. Slide this open face omelette onto the serving plate. Let it rest for a minute. Fold the omelette in half. Cut it into quarters and serve 1 half for each portion. Serve with buttered bread toast. Yum!
Now this is a very simple snack that we used to order whenever we visit a really cosy place in Indiranagar, called the Ant's Cafe. They make lovely French toasts and omelettes too, their Masala omelette is popular but I specially loved their Spinach Frittatas (should try making it at home someday). Another favourite from the cafe were chocolate pancakes which I have already tried at home :) Then of course there is this very simple Sausages with Onions & Capsicum. Such is its simplicity that any bachelor looking for a tasty quick snack that goes well with beer will be delighted. Its a rooftop cafe, very airy and just lovely to be there on a lazy Sunday morning.
Ingredients:
Sausages - 4-5
Onion - 1 medium sized, chopped
Capsicum - half, chopped
Pepper - as per taste
Oil - 2 tsp
Method:
Slice the sausages in medium thickness. Heat oil in a pan, add the onions and fry them till they start changing color. Now add the capsicum and mix for another minute. Add the sausages. Toss them around so that the sausages change color on both sides. Sprinkle pepper over them and keep tossing it. Once you feel that your sausages are done, take them off the heat and serve. Goes well with chilled beer! Cheers!
