Creamy White Sauce Broccoli Pasta

Ingredients

• 350 g mini shells or any small shaped pasta
• 1 head broccoli cut into small florets
• 15 ml olive oil
• 30 g butter unsalted
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 2 g Italian seasoning
• 0.5 g red pepper flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 250 ml heavy cream, if you don't want to use cream, milk with flour is a good alternative for white sauce 
• 100 g Parmesan cheese freshly grated

Serves 4

Instructions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta according to package instructions. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water.

In a large skillet add the olive oil and butter over medium heat. Once the butter has melted add the onion and cook for 3 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds until aromatic

Add the broccoli florets to the skillet, along with the Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes until the broccoli softens. For children, I would normally blend broccoli in a blender for creamy consistency.

Add the heavy cream and ½ cup of the reserved pasta water to the skillet. Bring to a boil then simmer for another 5 minutes until sauce thickens. Add the Parmesan cheese and cooked shells. Toss everything together. Cook for another minute

Instead of heavy cream, the other option is to use regular milk or even dairy-free milk and then thicken it with flour or cornstarch. That being said, you’ll need to whisk the flour or cornstarch together with the milk before you add it to the sauce.

Mummy's Magic Chole

Ingredients 

2 cups chickpeas

1.5 onion (medium size) finely chopped 

2 tomatoes (medium size) made into a paste 

Ginger paste 

Garlic paste 

Jeera 

Hing 

Haldi powder (1/2 tea spoon) 

Red chilli powder (1/2 tea spoon) 

Dhaniya Powder (2 tea spoons) 

Jeera Power (1 tea spoon) 

Garam Masala powder 

Tamarind paste 

Kasuri Methi - 2 tablespoons 

2 bay leaves 

3 cloves

2 small cardamom 

2 inch cinnamon stick 

Tea water (by boiling 2 tea spoons tea leaves) 

Homemade Chole Masala - 2 heaped teaspoon (see recipe at https://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/recipe/Chana-Masala.html) 

Chopped coriander leaves 

Salt - as per taste 

Oil 

Method 

- Soak chickpeas overnight. 

- Add bay leaves, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and tea water and some salt. Pressure cook the chickpeas (4-5 whistles). 

- When the pressure cooker cools down, smash few spoons of chickpeas inside the cooker to help thicken the gravy. 

- Add oil in a kadhai, add hing and jeera follwed by chopped onions. Once the onions are little brown, add ginger and garlic paste, haldi powder, red chilli powder, dhaniya powder, jeera powder and kasuri methi. 

- Once the masala starts sticking to the pan, add tomato paste and fry for some more time. 

- Add the masala back to the chole in the pressure cooker and mix it well. 

- Pressure cook the mixture again for 4-5 whistles. 

- When the pressure cooker cools down, open and add the tamarind paste, garam masala and chopped coriander leaves. 

- Taste salt and adjust as needed.

Dark Chocolate Orange Cake

Ingredients (For 2 round cakes, If you want a smaller round cake, please simply halve the ingredients)

260g White Butter
260g Flour
260g Sugar
2  Tsp Baking Powder
4 Eggs
Zest of 2 Oranges
Fresh Juice of 1 Orange
Dash of Milk
Pinch of Salt

For the Ganache
240g Dark Chocolate
200ml Double Cream
1 Tbsp Butter

1. Preheat your oven to 180C.  Line two cake tins with butter or baking paper.

2. Whisk together the butter and sugar till fluffy.

3. Add eggs one by one with a little bit of flour (seived with baking powder and .
salt) and mix

4. Add the remaining flour and mix.

5. Grate the oranges and add  the zest and orange juice and mix. Add a small dash of milk and mix.

6. Split your mixture in to the the two cake tins and pop in the oven for around 30-35 mins. To test if they are ready prick your cake with a fork, if the the fork comes out clean they are ready.

7. Once your cake is cooked, leave to  completely cool before spreading on the ganache.

8. To make the ganache put a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Add the chocolate to the bowl and let it start to melt. Once it’s begun to melt add your cream and mix till you have a nice smooth mixture. Add the butter and again melt it in and mix. Drizzle it over your cake whilst runny or leave it to cool.

Credits:https ://www.cookbakeeat.com/hidden-dark-chocolate-orange-cake-recipe/

Eggless Chocolate Marble Cake

Found an awesome Eggless Chocolate Marble Cake recipe on simply vegetarian . Super soft and moist. Sorry for no photo because the cake vanished in 2 mins after coming oven fresh :)

Ingredients

• All Purpose Flour - 2 cups +2 tbsp
• Baking Powder - 2 tsp
• Baking Soda - ½ tsp
• Salt - ½ tsp
• Sugar, fine grain - 1&1/3 cup
• Cocoa powder, unsweetened - 4 tbsp

• Vegetable Oil - ½ cup
• Yogurt, thick at room temperature - 1 cup
• Milk, room temperature - ¼ cup
• Hot Water - 4 tbsp
• Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp

Instructions

Preheat the oven at 350*F / 180*C. Take a regular size Cake Loaf Pan (7-8inches) and grease it lightly. You may also line it with a parchment paper for easy handling.

Mixing the Ingredients

1. Take a big bowl and sift 2 cups all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into it. Mix it well with a fork. Set aside.
2. Take another big bowl. Add Sugar + Oil + Yogurt in it. Take the electric Egg Beater and whisk all the ingredients for 2 minutes, till light and sugar is mixed well.
3. Add milk + flour mix to this sugar and yogurt mix.Mix all the ingredients gently till dry ingredients are incorporated well.
4. Meanwhile dissolve 4 tbsp of coco powder in 4 tbsp of hot water. Mix well till it becomes kind of sauce. Set aside.

Dividing the Batter 

1. Now divide this batter into 2 equal parts. In one part of the batter, add vanilla essence and 2 tbsp of all purpose flour (optional, check consistency of batter to decide). Mix it well till incorporated in the batter. This is your vanilla batter.
2. In other half of the batter, add the coco powder sauce. Mix well with a fork till well incorporated and the whole of this batter turns chocolate brown in color.

Pouring the Batter in Cake Loaf Pan

1. Add vanilla batter first at the bottom of the pan.
2. Then pour the chocolate batter on top.
3. Tapped the pan on the counter few rimes so that the batter settles down evenly with no gaps in between.
4. You may pour the vanilla and chocolate batters in the pan in alternate sequence or the sequence of your desire, may be chocolate first and vanilla later. However you want to do it.

Baking the Eggless Marble Cake

1. Place the cake loaf on the lower middle shelf of the oven.
2. Bake it for 35-45 minutes. The time will vary depending upon the type of your oven.
3. I would recommend you to check the cake for done-ness with wooden pick test, after 30 minutes.
4. Check every 5 minutes in the middle of the cake, after 30 minutes to see if the cake is baked

Shami Kabab
 Use a packet of SHAN Shami Kebab Masala. In Pune, it can be found at Dorabjee's.

1. The recipe is printed on the back of the packet. 
2. Soak the chana dal for at least 30 minutes before start of cooking.
3. Here is a list of things to do to tweak the printed recipe into truly yummy and Nawabi:

• In a wok pre-heated to 180 C, pour two tsp mustard oil or ghee (I prefer mustard oil) and heat to just below smoking point. Saute coarsely chopped onions and garlic in this until the onions start turning translucent.
• Add boneless mutton to the wok, increase heat to 200 C, and stir fry until the water released by it reduces by half.
• Drain chana dal and add to wok.
• Keep stir-frying the mutton and chana dal together in the wok until there is some liquid still left in the wok.
• Add all the SHAN masala to the wok and continue stirring the contents. When dry enough to grind to a paste of the consistency of atta dough, turn off gas and let cool.
• Chop a bunch of 100 gm fresh mint leaves and add to dough.
• Soak 10 thin strands of kashmiri saffron in warm water for an hour, and add to dough.
• Knead the dough thoroughly well with your palm and fingers after adding the soaked saffron.
• Pass the dough through the grinder in small lots for one last time!
• Break two eggs in a bowl and whisk.
• Add the whisked eggs to the dough and knead again. 
• Make patties of the size that suits you.
• Shallow fry and serve. 

Pesto Pasta

I have recently been to Italy and still am missing the amazing food. I was never a big fan of Italian food until I happened to taste it in Rome, Florence etc and I can tell you, I just fell in love with everything I ate! Even the Pizza! and Pesto Pasta!! Top two things I would always run away from.

So much so, that the moment I mentioned that it might be hard to replicate it in India, given that it's so difficult to find such high quality ingredients, my brother took an offence and ordered basil leaves when I was out of city. And ever since I came back, he has been pestering me to use them.

Anyway, Chef Kumar woke up today and decided precisely at 8 PM that we should make pesto sauce today. While the Parmesan was missing and needs to be added to the processor tomorrow, here is the recipe I used

Ingredients (depending on serving size you would like to choose) - though I can share upfront, that I chose the one in middle with 0.75 cup of basil leaves and let me tell you, that with my brother around, it will barely be enough for 2 people - leave alone 6.

And there are two methods - one without cream and other with one. I followed the one without cream. I think oil could be a lot less than what appeared in the recipe. For one serving, use ~100 gm pasta.

	Servings	1	2	3	4	5
Ingredients	Measure
Basil leaves	Cup	0.5	1.0	1.5	2	2.5
Parmesan	Cup	0.25	0.5	0.75	1	1.25
Pine nuts + Walnuts	Tbsp	2	4	6	8	10
Garlic	Gloves	0.7	1.3	2.0	2.7	3.3
Extra virgin olive oil	Cup	0.05	0.1	0.15	0.2	0.3
Heavy Cream	Cup	0.2	0.3	0.5	0.7	0.8
Salted Butter	Tbsp	0.7	1.3	2.0	2.7	3.3
Salt	To taste				I used 2 tsp
Pepper	To taste				1 used 1 tsp

METHOD 1 - Pesto cream sauce (this is inspired from the site - certifiedpastryaficianado)

1. Toast pine nuts and garlic (still in peel) in a small saute pan over medium heat for 1 minute. Remove garlic and roast pinenuts till they get dark golden brown, about 2 more minutes. 
2. Remove garlic from peel and place into food processor with basil leaves, Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and salt and pepper to taste. Begin processing, drizzling in olive oil while it mixes. Set aside.
3. Add cream and salted butter to saute pan over medium-low heat and bring to a simmer, Add pesto and combine. Heat through for a minute or so until hot. Add pasta (al-dente) to pan 

METHOD 2 –  Basic Pesto sauce

1. Peel the garlic, then pound in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of sea salt.
2. Pick, roughly chop and add the basil leaves, then bash to a paste (or pulse in a food processor).
3. Add the pine nuts (very lightly toast first, if you like) to the mixture and pound again, then stir in half the Parmesan.
4. Drizzle in some oil – you need just enough to bind the sauce and get it to an oozy consistency.
5. Add most of the remaining cheese, then season to perfection with salt and black pepper. Have a taste, and keep adding a bit more cheese or oil until you are happy with the taste and consistency.

EDITS: So after completing the first attempt, realized that above ingredients definitely needed adjustments. Lesser oil, more basil, more pine nuts (I actually added walnuts apart from pine-nuts too - that really gave amazing flavor)  etc. You also do not need to use cream at all. And definitely Italian stomachs might be smaller but given Indian appetite, it's no way going to be able to serve so many people. Done all edits in table above

And the final look is as follows. Proud me!

Penne Arrabiata - Vegetarian Version

Living in middle of cooking legends at my home failed to pressurize me and the chef in me woke up today. So I decided to make the yummiest Penne Arrabiata in the world and I felt super proud of it till I spoke to my sister.  (Well,  one of the other reasons was that eons ago, I bought the pasta box and if I had not acted sooner, it may have soon hit it's expiry date).

Anyway, I called up my sister to share my accomplishment and she went ROFLing over to say.."but didi..it's the easiest dish to make in the entire world".

(While I do agree with her,) I will still not let my sense of pride go down and hence am sharing the version of Penne Arrabiata.

Ingredients:

• 250 gm Penne (Al dente) - I used wholewheat penne
• 6 Tomatoes (medium size, blanched, roughly chopped)
• 3 Onions (Finally chopped)
• 1/2 Cup Tomato Puree
• 3 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 4 Cloves Garlic (can put 1-2 more too, if you really like garlic)
• 1 Tbsp Oregano
• 1 Tbsp Red Chilli Flakes
• 1 Tbsp Parsley
• Half cup Parsley leaves
• Salt (to taste, I used 1 or 2 Tbsp may be. Ok put whatever! )

Method

1. Boil penne in plenty of boiling water with 2 Tbsp salt till al dente (I did that for approx 10 mins in the penne I had). Drain and set aside to cool.While it's getting cooled, you may want to add 1 Tsp of olive oil and toss very lightly so that the penne doesn't stick with each other
2. Heat olive oil in pan. Put garlic and saute it for 30 secs
3. Put red chilli flakes and onions (on medium heat). Cook till onions are translucent
4. Keep the flame on medium heat. Put tomatoes, tomato puree, salt, oregano and parsley powder. Let this cook for 8-10 mins. Add parley leaves (save some for garnish). For fans of cheese,you can also add grated Parmesan cheese
5. Add penne slowly and toss lightly. 
6. Remove from heat, add parsley leaves as garnish (and more Parmesan - actually you can add as much as you want)  and serve hot!