Friday, December 03, 2010

Louisiana Style Pasta -- Cheesecake Factory kind

I don't know about you but I love the Louisiana Style Chicken Pasta at Cheesecake Factory. I love it so much that it is the dish I always have when I am there.


Not that I am there a lot.

I mean I would love to be there always but they have this 40 minute waiting time and my kids are not really the waiting kinds and though I can wait till infinity to have that pasta, my kids have better things to do.

Maybe I just have way too much time on hand. Maybe I should find myself better things to do.Like ordering a dessert next time I am there. This Pasta makes me so full that I always skip dessert.

Or like googling for Louisiana style Chicken pasta instead of waiting for it. Taking matter into my own hands.Having my Pasta and eating it too. Not all kinds of pasta. But hey Louisiana, here I come.

So this is the star recipe that came to my rescue. I will be eternally grateful to this lady for coming up with this thing and though I mangled her recipe and put my signature touches all over it, the credit goes only to her.

Also I totally skipped the chicken part since there was none. I asked the other adult to get me some chicken breasts when I started cooking this, which is 9:15 PM yesterday night to be exact. But he ignored. I didn't even ask him to hunt for it, to just get it from the grocer's but he still ignored. Men just aren't the same anymore.They don't gather food, they just eat it.



Heat 2 tbsp Olive Oil in a skillet. Recipe said 1 tbsp butter but you know me.
Chop 3/4 th of a small red onion in small pieces and add to skillet.
Follow suit with 2-3 cloves of garlic minced.


When the onion is soft add
1 red bell pepper chopped in small pieces
1/2 of a green bell pepper or 1 small yellow bell pepper chopped in small pieces.
1 cup of sliced mushroom

Saute for about 4-5 minutes till the veggies soften.


Now the spices.

Add
1 tsp crushed red pepper or 2 Dry red chili crushed. Adjust as needed and increase if you have no fear of red pepper.


More spices. Since this was Cajun cooking D decided we need to skip Basil which the recipe had and add these spices instead. Again we did not have Basil and at 9:15 PM yesterday D ignored my plea to get basil from the grocer's so he came up with his theory about Louisiana people not using Basil and such.

1/4 tsp of Dry Roasted Cumin powder 
1 tsp of All spice roughly crushed(optional)
1/2-1 tsp of fresh Black Pepper powder
Note: If you have a store bought Cajun spice powder, you can just use that instead

Saute for 2-3 minutes


Add
1/4 pint of heavy cream + 1/2 cup Milk -- Recipe said 1&1/4 pint of whipping cream
1 cup of water -- Recipe said 1 cup of chicken stock
Simmer until it comes to a slow boil. Now cover and at medium heat let it simmer for 5 minutes or so till sauce thickens a little.
Note: You need to add the cream as per the original recipe if you want a creamier sauce. I liked my low cal version though.

Meanwhile cook Bow Tie Pasta according to package directions




Back to the sauce.

Recipe said to add 4tbsp of Minced fresh basil which we skipped because no Basil @home.
Add about 1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese to the sauce. Stir to mix.

Check for seasonings and adjust salt and pepper. This is a must, the adjusting.

Simmer sauce till it thickens. Should not be runny.



Drain and add pasta to the skillet tossing gently to mix the pasta with the sauce.I added the pasta gradually mixing to make sure that the sauce was enough to coat the pasta.

I did not use the whole box, about a cup of cooked pasta did not find its way into the sauce.




The delicious Pasta is ready, sitting there hot and pretty.



Eat it and fall in love. You deserve it. Maybe add some more grated Parmigiano. Life in December is all about good food.

I will send this in to join Presto Pasta Night started by Ruth and hosted by Rachel at The Crispy Cook.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Kumro Seddho/Kumro Bhaate -- Mashed Butternut Squash

So here we are, back to hectic Monday, from a long luxurious weekend. My high point of last week was getting the Cuisinart Hand blender from CSN Stores.Yep, that is what I finally ordered, thanks for all your wonderful comments. I still have some left over points and have to finish them up by this month end. I am not going to get extra tall bar stools, but they are selling those if you like.

Now back to the weekend we were discussing. Hope you all had fun, cooking, cleaning and clearing up.

Kumro Bhaate
Kumro Bhaate

Me ? I really had fun. Not to make you jealous or anything but all I did this holiday was eat food cooked by friends and sit at the corner couch with my feet tucked beneath reading Judy Blume. Typical "lyad khaoa" as we call such relaxation in Bong lingo.

Of course it wasn't totally peaceful, because there is LS to account for. But she spent a lot of time with BS and our friend's daughter and didn't cause much harm except scribbling with a pencil on the walls of their new home. Now these friends are practically like family, so they didn't mind the graffiti and continued to feed us good food throughout.

I wouldn't have done that. Before LS came into our life, I was very particular about walls and such stuff. I would internally hyperventilate if a child so much as brought a crayon to my Western Flaxed wall. And then LS came and changed everything. In the scheme of things, Western Flax suddenly was not that important.

I didn't tell my friends that though. I mean here was this guy effortlessly making rosogolla from scratch, just to give us the fresh wonderful taste of warm soft rosogollas bobbing in light syrup and here was I doing nothing but sitting on the corner sofa and there was my little girl practicing "Sircol" on their fresh white walls. How could I tell them fresh white walls was not important ?

Apparently they knew.



Back home yesterday, I was not up to cooking much. It was D's dinner making day so I had to do something for lunch. While I cooked the chicken, I thought how exactly I should serve the Butternut Squash in the refrigerator.

I am not particularly fond of cutting and peeling B. Squash. I never said this, because I thought it was my personal problem. But it seems it is a global phenomenon(does 2 people make global ?) and peeling butternut's tough outer skin is not everybody's idea of fun.

I usually do Mandira's roasted butternut squash . That way, there is no peeling and it tastes good too. But the soul craved some sunny kumro bhaate or kumro sheddho with steaming rice.Yes, I could have hacked the squash in chunks, boiled them and then peeled the skin to make kumro sheddho. That would be normal but also b..o..r..ing.


So I hacked them, tossed them in olive oil, red chili pepper, roasted cumin powder, salt, little honey and roasted them as Mandira said. I kept the honey and spices low, 'coz ultimately I was going to mash it up and spike it up with mustard oil.

After it was done, I peeled the skin off. You could also scoop out the orange fleshy innards, that would be easier. It came off effortlessly like hair off my scalp. I then mashed the soft flesh. Added a tsp of mustard oil, 3 finely chopped green chili, sugar and salt to taste and lightly worked everything in.

It tasted delicious. Not exactly my kind of comfort food, but the kind of food I am at the right age to go back to seeking comfort.

For posterity's sake, BS loved this and asked for seconds.


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Kumro Seddho -- Mashed Butternut Squash

Cut a butternut squash vertically through the center. Scoop out the seeds. Now hack large chunks of it(same or larger than the ones in the picture).

Toss the chunks with
1 tbsp Olive Oil
a pinch of Dry Roasted Cumin Powder
1/4 tsp Red Chili Powder
salt to taste
1 tsp of honey

Preheat oven to 350F. Roast the squash in a single layer till you see squash is done and the skin is just starting to shrivel. Do not over roast it, because we are now going to mash it.
Note: With regular Indian pumpkin skip the roasting part and just boil, mash and season

When done, peel the skin off and scoop out the orange soft flesh in a wide mouthed bowl. Mash it, yeah, mash, mash.Add 2 tsp of Mustard Oil, 3 green chili finely chopped, a little sugar and salt to taste. If you like it hot, crumble two dry red chili pepper and add the flakes. Work everything in lightly with your fingers. Garnish with freshly chopped corriander leaves.

Serve with steaming white rice.

Note: If you want to skip the oven, you can boil the butternut squash on stove top till tender. You can also cook in the microwave for 10-12 minutes or until tender and fully cooked. Remember to cover and add a little water while cooking in the Microwave.
If you have a Pressure cooker, cook in the pressure cooker. It should be done in 5-6 minutes, I am thinking, check this.
In the MW or boiling method, the squash may become watery. So after mashing remove extra water and then add the seasonings.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Alu Seddho/Alu Bhaate -- Thanks for Mashed Potatoes

This Thanksgiving I am really thankful that BS does not have a Thanksgiving Feast at school.


Now don't get me wrong. Usually I have no problem with them, the feasts that is. Actually I love feasts more when they are hosted by a third party.

In all her pre-school years, the teacher would put up a sign up sheet behind the door a week before the party and the parents would pick anything from that list to get for the feast. The school was paranoid about food allergy in a good way and no cooked food from home was ever allowed. The list was always always made up of boxed or packaged items, juice, fruits and paper products. The school supplied the rest.

Her school since last year is no less paranoid about food and does not even accept home baked cake etc. for birthdays.

So last year when her teacher sent home a list a week before Thanksgiving with a tick and my name against Mashed Potatoes, I was flummoxed. With despair I looked at the Paper Products, Table Cloth, Juice boxes, Apple slices all there on the list but nary a tick for me on any of them but Mashed Potatoes.

Why me ? I said silently and soon after I said 20 "Hail Marys". I mean shouldn't I be thankful that after all it was only mashed potatoes and not a whole stuffed turkey.


And what after all is Mashed Potatoes ? Nothing but what in Bengali we call Alu Seddho and what I ate for breakfast with rice and ghee for the first eight years of my life until the doctor intervened.

Alu Seddho or Alu Bhaate with a hint of mustard oil, finely chopped red onion and green chili, served with steaming rice, light masoor dal and a spoonful of flavorful ghee is after all every Bengalis comfort food. My Ma could make it with her eyes closed. Why, even my Dad could make it with his eyes open and that speaks volumes about the ease of the dish.If I had doubts about mashed potatoes I would be putting my Bong upbringing to shame.

So I said "Hah" and promptly forgot all about it.

However as the day dawned near I started having my doubts. Logical doubts based on real life. Doubts like would BS's classmate take to mustard oil like fish takes to water ? Was it ok to put finely chopped raw red onion in food served to 20 odd kids, half of whom probably had never seen an onion in life ? What if their parents sued me because the green chili was too hot or the mustard oil caused them to sneeze ?

So, I sent her teacher a mail asking what kind of Mashed Potatoes they preferred, Asian-Indian or American-Indian ?

The teacher said I need not worry too much and I could pick any American recipe.

So, of course I googled and each recipe of mashed potato looked worse than the other. I mean, milk, heavy cream and cream cheese in your mashed potato ? Why would you need two sticks of butter to make a potato taste good, hello, who set up that rule? What was I doing here, trying to teach kids spell O-B-E-S-I-T-Y?


Chop potato in quarters. Boil in pressure cooker or in an open pan. You can also microwave. When the potatoes are done, cool and peel the skin. Mash the potatoes with a masher or your hands. Add few drops of mustard oil, very finely chopped red onion, very finely chopped green chili, salt to taste. Work everything together. Make uneven, rustic looking balls and serve with steaming rice and ghee.

So, there I am again, e-mailing the teacher, asking which exact recipe she wanted me to follow.

Was Alton Brown's mashed potatoes with garlic good enough ? Did she want cream cheese or just milk and butter was fine ? What potatoes did she think would cut the deal, Russet or Yukon Gold ? How many times should I wash my hand and was Bath & Body Anti-bacterial better than Purell ?Did she even know how much a bag of Yukon Gold cost ? I mean, what is wrong with Idaho, I make Alu Seddho with Idaho and they are very good.

At this point I am sure the teacher must have hollered a few choice words at me in confinement of her school's staff room. In a very polite mail, she suggested I just buy mashed potatoes at the super market and send it to school.

Trust me, till that time the e-mail arrived I did not know that they sold mashed potatoes in the Super Market. Yes, mashed potatoes in a tub or in a box, microwaveable and ready to eat. I could see before my eyes, Manju'r ma, my Ma's house help, losing an opportunity to be the next Martha Stewart simply because she did not know to package and market alu seddho. My eyes welled up at the opportunity lost and I cried fat tears right there at one of the aisles in the frozen section of Shop Rite or was it Wegman's.

Ok, I actually cried because there were so much to choose from. I came home with tons of mashed potato boxes, some with sweet potatoes, some with garlic and chive, some plain, some organic, some in tubs while others in flat boxes. The hubby not trusting my choices had made his own detour and came home with boxes which had dehydrated mashed potato flakes. Where do they need that now ? NASA maybe ?

Our dinner table overflowed with boxes of mashed potatoes of all kinds. We finally narrowed down to the kind we thought would serve the school right it's purpose and returned the others. Some for which we lost the receipt stayed in the pantry for the next 6 months till expiration date. Some stayed in the freezer and my Mom made delicious Alu'r chop with them.

And BS claimed she loved mashed potatoes the way her Didun made.

This year I don't remember the exact brand which we had sent to school and I would have to start all over again. But the school authorities had enough of my mails last year and this year second graders are not having a Thanksgiving feast.

Honestly, it is not my fault.

*****************


Ok, and today, at around midnight, I baked this zebra cake from this wonderful blog. The midnight part is not as important as the "I baked" part. It was an easy cake to bake and was quiet good to eat too. I found it a little less sweet for the kids liking so next time I am going to up the sugar. For now I did a cream cheese and chocolate frosting to enhance the sweetness.

Happy ThanksGiving folks, if you are celebrating. If not, just be thankful.