Pasta on the run.

Being Sunday I decided to get up a bit late in the morning and my schedule just went haywire. I had promised my nephew and neice that I'd make pasta for lunch. I tried getting out of that, tried bartering, promised gastronomic delights for the next week..... to no avail. I was the focus of accusatory looks. This recipe was born from that desperation... 1st to make pasta and 2nd to make it fast. So it's a mix of Indian, Mexican and Italian.... so we'll call this recipe Indimexicalian!! I just brought out the ingredients my fridge had inside. So here goes.
Recipe for Indimexicalian Pasta
Pour some olive oil in a pressure cooker. When it's hot add coarsely chopped garlic, green chilli, mint and corriander to it. Then add chopped onions, bell peppers, carrots (you could also add mushrooms... or just about anything you want to)..... sauteed for a couple of minutes and then added some salsa sauce. Then mixed it all up. Then added the spaghetti sticks (which I broke into halves) and added enough water to cover up all the spaghetti in there and some. After that add salt/sugar and paprika to your taste. Put the lid and weight and cook till you hear the 1st whistle. After about 10mins. Pour the contents into an oiled baking dish. Add bread crumbs (to mop up any extra liquid) and top it up with cheese. Bake in a pre heated oven at 200 Deg C till the cheese turns a nice brown. Voila!!! You are ready to serve the Pasta. Did taste good ... international integretion huh!

The good for you green veggies- Spinach.

In my quest for oil free recipes, (cos the guilt trip one takes after eating oil laden food is just not worth it.) I try to get diff recipes and try them with as less oil as possible. I have found that a palak paneer cooked in a teaspoon and a half of oil tastes just as good as the oil laden one and also that one can actually eat more and not feel full. The fine tuned version of my very own Palak Paneer.
Palak Paneer
Ingds:
2 bunches of Spinach (leaves to be blanched and liquidized into a paste)
6-8 cloves garlic/ 1” ginger/2 green chillies (ground together)
2 onions (medium) chopped finely
250gms Paneer cut into cubes
a pinch of turmeric (optional..it’s ok not to add it… but don’t add too much as the spinach turns an unsavoury dark green)
red chilli powder … this depends on your taste
Dhania jeera powder 1 tsp
Garam masala powder ½ tsp
Salt to taste
Sugar 1 tsp
For the tempering: 1 dry red chilli, 1 badi elaichi, 2 cloves, 4 pepper corns, 1 small piece of cinnamon.
Method: Blanch and liquidize the spinach. Make ginger garlic green chilli paste… if you are in a hurry just liquidize ginger/garlic/green chilli and spinach together into a smooth paste.
Heat a little water in a pan (as if you are taking water instead of oil) then add the chopped onions into the water…. Keep a lid on this and cook the onions till done. Then add the green paste, mix well for a couple of minutes, then add the turmeric, red chilli powder, dhania jeera powder. Mix well and then add the spinach paste. Add the salt and sugar and bring it to a boil. Then add the paneer cubes (no frying required) and the garam masala powder and bring to a boil again.
In another pan heat 1 ½ tsp oil, add all the spices given for tempering. Roast them well… this is a must otherwise one gets the metallic taste of spinach. Add this tempering to the palak paneer. Your palak paneer is ready to be served.

Palak paneer reminds me of another tasty spinach dish…. The palak raita (spinach salad.. though it’s more a dip).
Palak raita:
Blanch and liquidize spinach leaves. Add a green chilli while liquidizing. To this add roasted jeera powder, salt, sugar and thick curd. Beat well. Tastes good with fritters and kababs.

Bon appetit!