Assorted Pasta Bolognese - A Twist on Spaghetti Bolognese

I have to start this post with an apology to my readers. It has been quite a while since my last post and while the reasons are large and varied. I can tell you that the first part of my New Year 2013 was spent away on a holiday/medical research followed by what I earlier thought I would never experience "Writer's block"! I am happy to tell you though that I did spend that time in trying out new recipes and now am ready to share with you all of my new creations. January left with a bang with my darling' daughter's much celebrated 3rd birthday.

Of course as tradition goes, Mum always needs to pamper lil ones with their faves during their birthday celebration. Izzy has always loved pasta, noodles, tomato/ragu base with meat. So what best to make than Bolognese Sauce. Hmmm, but since we only had a duo at the celebration at first and pasta being one of my favourite as well, I decided to add a mild twist to the traditional Spaghetti Bolognese. I used Noodles and Rigatone. Needless to say the birthday girl was wowed with her surprise brunch meal. Bolognese Sauce as you may know is a meat based sauce originating from Bologna, Italy. Hope you enjoy this meal as much as we did.

Pasta Bolognese

 You need:

For the Bolognese Sauce:

• 500 gms Minced meat (Veg option: Soya granules)
• 1 large grated Onion
• 1 grated carrot
• 4 cloves of garlic, crushed and diced
• Sprinkle of oregano
• 2 tbsp of tomato paste or Homemade Tomato Puree
• 500 gms of tomatoes, skinned and chopped **
• Dash of Worcestershire Sauce (Veg option: Soya Sauce as Worcestershire sauce may contain fish)
• Salt and Pepper -  to taste
• Olive oil as required
• Dash of dried parsley or 2 tsp of  fresh parsley

*Optional: 

• Dash of red wine (avoid if cooking for kids)
• 1 tbsp of cream

**(Tip: you can skin the tomatoes by running the tomatoes under hot water)

For the Pasta:

• 50 gms of Noodles (half cooked and strained)
• 50 gms of Rigatone Pasta (half cooked and strained)
• Grated gruyure cheese (optional)

The Make:

Preparation Time: 10 minutes | Cooking Time: 20-25 minutes | Serves 4-6 adults

1. Heat olive oil in a deep bottomed skillet and saute the onions and carrots till translucent. Do not brown.

2. Season with salt and add the crushed garlic. Next sprinkle the oregano and saute for 1 minute on medium heat.

3. Add the mince meat, parsley and  add the tomato paste. Saute well.  You can add the red wine at this stage and reduce. I did not use wine as I mentioned this was a kids meal for my little one.

4. Next add the chopped tomatoes and Worcestershire sauce. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes. You can uncover and add cream at this stage.

5. Add the pasta and noodles. Saute without crushing the pasta and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. 

6. Serve with grated gruyere cheese or other of your choice on top.

Tip:You can also serve the sauce on the side and top the pasta with the sauce and cheese while serving, then you will get a more creamier texture as the pasta would absorb the sauce in the cooking process mentioned above.

Serve hot with crusted bread or your favourite salad or as is. Bon Appetit little ones :)

Topped with Gruyere Cheese

Turkey Gravy - The Christmas Specials continue

Turkey Gravy is the essence that binds the whole Turkey dinner or lunch. So you want to get it right. Remember the turkey drippings in the Turkey Delight roasting process was caught onto the roasting tray. We will use these drippings to make the gravy. The gravy is essentially a blend of the turkey drippings flavoured in the roasting process, flour, butter (optional) and additional stock (optional). The stock could be either vegetable stock (that you get during the boiling of the potatoes for the stuffing) or chicken stock or the turkey giblet stock itself that you raised during the making of the stuffing.

The gravy must be not lumpy. To make this smooth, flavourful gravy,

You need:

• 3-5 tbsp of flour
• 2 cups of liquid (water or stock)
• Turkey drippings
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 100 gms of butter (optional)
• Worcestershire sauce (optional)
• Juice of 1/2  lemon (optional)

The make:

1. Take off the drippings from the lukewarm roasting tray and transfer it to a skillet on a low flame. If the drippings are too little, add the butter and blend.
2. Mix the flour with lukewarm stock or water as desired and whisk well to ensure there are no lumps. 
3. Slowly add the flour mix to the skillet bit by bit, whisking continously to ensure there are no lumps.
4. Add more stock or water as desired if you want the gravy to be thinner.
5. You can add the worcestershire sauce if you would like your gravy to be browner.
6. Add salt and Pepper to taste. Tip: Remember the stock and/or the drippings would have enough of salt. 
7. You can also add the lemon juice for extra tang.

Serve with the Turkey Delight and Turkey Stuffing for that winning meal! Merry Christmas in advance...hope you have a falalalala... lalalala time!

Dosa-Idli Poddi - Chutney (Rice pancake or Steamed Rice cake Powdered - Chutney)

This one is dedicated to my uncle Joy (Joychayan, Mum's eldest bro) who is no more. God rest his soul! He used to have a handy bottle of this every time we visited him in Abu dhabi. Really easy to make and a good combo with Dosa or Idli.

Dosa-Idli Poddi - Chutney

You need:

4-5 dried red chilies

4 tbsp of urad dal (split black gram - when split it is white in color)

1/2 tbsp salt

4-5 pepper corns

1-2 tbsp of EVOO or olive oil

The make:

Preparation time: 2 minutes| Cooking Time: 2 minutes

• Dry roast all the ingredients except the EVOO for about a minute till the urad dal is lightly brown.
• Grind the dry roast to a fine powder. Bottle in a clean, dry jar and store in a cool, dry place.
• When using the powder, add a tbsp of the grounded powder with some EVOO or Olive oil.

Melba Sauce

For the Melba Sauce:

• 4 tbsp water
• ½ tbsp corn flour
•  3-4 tbsp redcurrant jam
• 3-4 tbsp Raspberry jam

*    * This time I used Strawberry Champagne Preserve (which has a jam like texture – 8 tbsp)

Method to prepare the Melba Sauce:

1. Mix the corn flour in lukewarm water.

2. Slowly melt the jams in a pan while stirring all the time.

3.Add the corn flour slowly, stirring all the time again not to form lumps.

4. Cool in fridge or room temperature

Pouring the Melba sauce to set aside