Kidney Beans Pasta

Last year I got the honor to visit Italy with my family. We went to Rome and Venice. And it does not take long to fall in love with such great cities. Rome is known for its historical significance and Venice is such a romantic place that it has become our favorite destinations in Europe ever.

We also got attached to the place, cause our son (now 3+ years) saw the sea for the first time in his life! And he was blessed to see his first of the seven wonders of the world i.e. the great Colosseum! He was sleeping half way through the entire tour but shhh... don't tell him :-). 

So in the memories of our Italy trip I thought to give it a try to the humble pasta, but with little bit of a twist :-).

Pasta is first boiled and then mixed with the tomatoes and onion mix. Topped with kidney beans and pumpkin seeds :-). Flavors turned out to be great! You must give this dish a try!

Ingredients 

• Freshly boiled or Tin kidney beans
• 2 onions cut into long strips
• 1 large tomato cut into long strips
• 2 tsp Pumpkin seeds 
• 1 tsp Coriander powder
• Boiled pasta
• 2 green chili finely cut
• 2 cloves garlic finely cut
• 1.5 inch ginger piece finely cut
• Black pepper as per taste
• Red chili powder as per taste
• Soya sauce
• Oregano 
• Olive oil
• Salt to taste

Method

• Take a pan on medium heat. 
• Add 4 tsp olive oil. 
• Add fresh ginger and garlic. 
• Add cut onions. And saute them till they are translucent. 
• Add tomatoes. Saute them for another 10 minutes. 
• Add pumpkin seeds for the crunch factor.
• Add soya sauce. Stir.
• Add kidney bins. 
• Add salt, black pepper, coriander powder.  
• Saute for another 5 minutes. 
• Add boiled pasta.
• Add oregano.
• Mix them well and serve hot.

#MNoExpert, but I hope you will like it.

Yummy treat for an extra hour

Finally its that time of the year when you want to save some more day light. Its time to roll forward your watches by an hour. How beautiful the longer days look! You can do so much more with that extra hour. Its time to enjoy the sun bit more. Its time to be happy for an extra hour. Its time to enjoy the company of your loved ones for an extra hour. If you are one of those lazy chaps then you get some more time to be a tad lazier :-). Its 6 pm already and sun is still shining as if summer is calling me out. 

It feels so refreshing. Feels like eating an ice cream or sipping a chilled beer or how about making a dessert for yourself :-).

As I already promised to come up with a doable dessert soon, so here I am with my first hand experience at a dessert. 

Ingredients

• 1 big apple diced. 
• 4 to 5 red strawberries. Take fruits of your choice.
• 50 gms any Sugar. 
• 2 to 3 pieces of your favorite chocolate. 
• Honey and flavored yogurt for plating.

Method

• Put a pan on medium heat. 
• Pour a small cup of water and add 50 gms sugar. 
• Add diced apples and strawberries 
• Mix them well in sugar syrup 
• Cook them with lid on for just 5 minutes or till apples become tender. 
• Take the lid off and add 2 pieces of chocolate. 
• Let the chocolate melt. This will give out chocolate brown color to the mix. 
• Add crumbled sweet bread of your choice. 
• Mix them well. 
• And that's it. Plate it and refrigerate.  

Let's plate up

I decided to plate them in two different styles. 

I am not an expert on desserts. I took inspiration from one of the dishes by Gordon Ramsay and added my twist of sweet bread and yogurt. I hope you will like the dessert. 

Tempering Rice... A quick one!

Recently I got to know the difference between a sequel and a franchise movie. If there are only two parts then its a sequel however if its 3 or more parts then the movie is a franchise. 

For example Alien, Fast and Furious movies are franchise where as Harold & Kumar is a squeal with only two parts (Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay). 

You might be wondering where I am getting at :-)? Well, its my third blog on cooking recipes that means my blog is now a franchise, right? Kidding :-).

Since its the third recipe, you need three things for this one: 

1. Cooked Basmati Rice 
2. Tempering and 
3. A good music play list :).

So let's get to it.

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp Cumin seeds.
• 2 inch piece of ginger, cut into fine julienne.
• 2 medium size onion, finely chopped. A chopper would be preferred.
• 3 large tomatoes, finely chopped. A chopper would be preferred.
• 3 green chilies (adjust according to your taste).
• 2 tsp red chili power (adjust according to your taste).
• 1 tsp Cumin powder.
• 1 tsp Coriander powder.
• 1 tsp turmeric powder.
• 1 tsp black pepper.
• Lemon Juice.
• 3 tsp Olive Oil, Refined Oil, or Desi Ghee.
• Salt to taste.
• Frozen/Fresh peas.
• A glass of Rice.
• Peanuts (optional)
• Tomato ketchup (optional).
• Garam masala to garnish (optional).
• Coriander leaves to garnish (optional).

Cooking Process:

We will cook rice and tempering separately and in the end we will mix them well together.

The Rice

• 1 glass of raw basmati rice, well rinsed with tap/filtered water till they are clean.
• Put it in microwave safe bowl.
• Add some salt, peas and cumin seeds.
• Add two glasses of water and cook it. I cook it for 20 minutes in microwave on Medium High. You need to look out for your microwave settings.
• While it cooks lets get to tempering.

Here is how it should look:

The Tempering

• Heat the pan, add olive/ refined oil or Ghee.
• Add cumin seeds, let them crackle.  
• Add onion with green chilies.
• Add ginger julienne.
• Add salt.
• Let the onions change its color.
• Add tomatoes.
• Add all the dry spices i.e. red chili power, coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder
• Mix well. Cover the pan and cook it well. 
• Keep stirring in between.
• Roughly cook it for 15 minutes.
• Once its done add peanuts, tomato ketchup, garam masala, black pepper, lemon juice. 
• Cook it for another 2-3 minutes.

Here is how it should look:

The Mix

• Buy this time your rice will be ready.
• Pour the cooked rice into the tempering bowl. No need to change the bowl.
• Mix well.
• Cook it for another 5 minutes. 
• And that's it.

Final Product

Tempering Rice

Hey I am not expert, but I hope you will like it :). As always your comments are most welcome. And also don't forget to close off your play list :).