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Spicy Chorizo Pasta with loads of veggie goodness!

April 29, 2014 by manjirichitnis 13 Comments

I often struggle to get the hubster to consume hero veggies like Broccoli and Mushrooms ,both which I quite frankly love .. always have ! So what started off as a veg pasta was met with a grunt and audible grumbling and had to be re-engineered to create something fabulous ! I am therefore grateful for the grumbling  – totally depends on the end result right? 😉 Its also a very good recipe to use all the veggies lying around in your fridge and many some store cupboard excesses to start that spring clean you have been itching to do ( yes I love cleaning – am quite certain I have a mild OCD too)

Preparation Time: 25 minutes Cooking Time:40 minutes Serves: 4

Ingredients:

  • 500 gm Penne
  • 300 gm Chorizo chopped bite size
  • Broccoli a handful
  • Button Mushrooms – half a small packet – std supermarket size-chopped bite size
  • 200 gm Sweet Corn and Red Peppers canned
  • Grated parmesan Cheese – generous amount;)
  • 1/2 of a large Red Onion
  • 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped
  • 2 large tomatoes pureed
  • Sea salt
  • 2 large tablespoons Olive Oil
  • Chilli flakes as per taste
  • 2 large Spring onion finely chopped
  • 1/4th cup low fat cream
  • Dried italian herb mix for pasta 2 teaspoons

Method:

For the creamy sauce

  • In a saucepan heat one and a half large tablespoon of oil and saute the finely chopped garlic and when it begins to brown add 2 cloves of garlic chopped spring onion and saute for about 1 min
  • Then added the finely chopped broccoli
  • Now add the chopped button mushrooms and the sweet corn and red pepper mixture.
  • Add the cream and cook on a low flame for 2 – 3 minutes,season with salt  and then add generous amounts of cheese.
  • This sauce should have a balance between creamy and chewy with the mushrooms on the broccoli can retain a bit of its crunch so if you use a lid it may overcook

Before starting on the spicy sauce boil the past in a large saucepan and add sea salt and olive  a generous splash I use flavoured oil – the bottle had a large sprig of rosemary some crushed garlic and chilli flakes tossed inside to give it a deep rich flavour- so , so good!

For the Spicy Sauce

  • In a saucepan heat half a tablespoon of oil and fry the red onion chopped lengthwise and 2 garlic cloves finely chopped.
  • Then add the bite  sized pieces of Chorizo and reduce the flame to low.
  • Let the chorizo almost start to get crispy and  then added the pureed tomatoes,dried herb mixture,chilli flakes and salt as per taste.

In a clean bowl add a generous portion of the creamy sauce, top it with cooked pasta and then add the spicy chorizo sauce.Sprinkle with as much cheese as you want and watch it melt into the steaming hot pasta.If you want just a bit of guilty pleasure drizzle some chilli olive oil on the pasta before mixing the whole thing together!

1-IMG_6688 (Copy)

Filed Under: Food, Meat, Quick and Easy, Recipe Index Tagged With: boil, broccoli, button mushrooms, chilli flakes, chop, creamy sauce, delicious pasta, easy past recipe, food blogger recipe, fry, garlic, Italian cuisine, Italian her mixture, Italian recipes, juicy, low fat cream, low flame, non veg pasta recipe, olive oil, parmesan cheese, pasta with chorizo recipe, penne, plate your pasta right, puree, red onion, red peppers, saute, sea salt, sliceoffme recipe development, Spicy chorizo, spring onion, sweetcorn, tatsy pasta, tomatoes, travelsfortaste cooks, water

Pasta Please Challenge – April 2014

April 1, 2014 by manjirichitnis 29 Comments

Spring is here and so is April, Easter breaks around the corner. With kids being at home it is a great time to cook up some delicious, healthy, and quick pasta recipes for the whole family. I love cooking pasta because it is a great way to bring smiles around on full tummies and its a great way to combine lots of greens with meat or leave out the meat totally and get a very healthy meal on the table. Its also a thrifty meal idea to use up things from your larder and fridge that would otherwise face sure death. Pasta comes to the rescue always!

This is the first-ever food challenge and linky that I shall be hosting so am nervous and hopeful that everyone participates with great enthusiasm 🙂  Thanks to Jacqueline who blogs at Tinned Tomatoes, for letting me host this lovely food challenge for April’14.

The theme for this month’s entry is – OLIVE OIL. I have just infused a bottle of olive oil with crushed garlic,chilli flakes and fresh Italian herbs! Am very  excited to create something tasty with this oil and use some of  large packet of Pappardelle Pasta I purchased yesterday!

Sounds exciting? Ready to join in the challenge?

The rules ARE:

PASTA PLEASE – Food Blog Challenge – April 2014

To join in, simply post a pasta dish on your blog by the 28th of April 2014

Link to Travelsfortaste and Tinned Tomatoes.

Use the Pasta Please logo in your post.

If you use twitter, tweet your post with @tinnedtoms and @manjirichitnis using the hashtag #PastaPlease and we will re-tweet it to our followers.

Current theme is Olive Oil.

Vegetarian dishes and  with any dishes using  meat,sea food,pork,beef,chicken,dry fish are  allowed (any non-vegetarian
dish).

One entry per entrant.

Recipes must be added to the linky by 28 April 2014.

Please email me your post with one image on fruitsnveg@yahoo.com.(Why? because the Linky has a GREMLIN inside and is not working! Thankfully its the last day to link up -phew!)

pasta please

Entries So far :

  1. Tagliatelle with Chorizo,Garlic and Sundried Tomatoes by Corina of searchingforspice blog.
  2. Fusilli with Baked Eggplant and Marinara Sauce by Ridhi of Drizzling Delicious Blog.
  3.  Easy Entertaining :Stuffed Pasta Shells by Katie of Feeding Boys Blog.
  4. Chicken Riggies: A Utica,New York Pasta Speciality by Rachel at The Crispy Cook Blog.
  5. Red Peppers in Pasta Bake, Stuffed and in Soup by Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe Blog.
  6. Extremely Delicious Vegetable Lasagne by Chris of Cooking around the world blog.
  7. Gnocchi with Asparagus,Sage & Prosciutto by Louisa Foti of Eat your Veg blog.
  8. Spicy Chorizo Pasta with loads of veggie goodness! by me 🙂

 

Filed Under: Lifestyle, Miscellaneous Tagged With: April 2014, chicken, chilli flakes, crushed garlic, fish, meat, olive oil, pappardelle, Pasta Please Challenge, seafood, sliceoffme, Theme for April 2014 Pasta Please challenge is Olive Oil, Tinned Tomatoes, veggies

Tasty and Quick Pasta for two from ”nothing”

September 25, 2013 by manjirichitnis 21 Comments

We all have those days when we realise that all those reserves we had stowed away in various places – the fridge, the cupboard are well..not there and you are hungry and it’s too late to step out.

Panic not! There are ALWAYS a few things here and there which can be thrown in to make something superb! I made some very tasty and quick pasta yesterday and it was such a satisfying experience I cannot tell you how pleased I was with the outcome.

Please feel free to throw in stuff that you have, that needs using up.Waste not want not I say!

Ok so here goes.

Ingredients:

  • Pasta – whichever type you have left enough for 2 people – used tagliatelle and generally 2 rolls are good for one very hungry adult 🙂
  • Sea salt (basically just regular salt)
  • olive oil or regular vegetable oil 1 tbsp
  • Tomato puree/ 1 large tomato sliced and diced fine (I scraped off some leftover tomato puree in a can that was at the very back of my fridge  – just in time !
  • Chilli flakes as per taste)
  • Chorizo – again I have a small portion lying around and it packs a punch in the taste department!
  • Spring onion finely chopped, I had a small bit left over from a bunch and it tasted awesome with the chorizo
  • Dried herb mixture – 2 tsp (or use fresh herbs off your kitchen plants – my dried herb mixture is a bit of left over artisan mix from one of the many food fairs I go to 🙂 it has garlic,parsley,chilli,sun dried tomatoes,salt and basil)
  • 2 – 3 cloves garlic sliced very fine and deep fried to give a superbly crunchy deep taste
  • Some cheddar cheese, I had 2 different packs tied with a rubberband and lying quietly in a small corner of my fridge door – ha! perfect find for pasta I say!

Method:

  • Boil the pasta in a saucepan with a sprinkling of sea salt and drizzle some olive oil as it nears the point when it’s cooked completely, this will ensure it does not get sticky and stodgy.
  • As soon as the pasta is on the boil, in another saucepan,heat 1tsp olive oil or sunflower oil and fry the garlic until it is crisp, to get them to crisp slice them superfine,as much as you can manage to without slicing off your fingers;)
  • Then throw in the chorizo slices and as they cook they release a lot of oil and it really can add a lot of flavour and you don’t buy propecia want to waste that so quickly chuck in the chopped spring onion and the tomato puree,stir and cook this mixture for about 2 minutes on a very low flame.

The oil from the Chorizo adding flavour to the spring onion

After the Chorizo is cooked it should look like this

  • Drain off the excess water from the pasta ensuring there is just a little bit to allow the pasta to remain smooth.
  • Turn off the heat at this point and mix well.Then add some chilli flakes and the cheese – as much as you have or as much as your waistline and conscience allows 😉
  • The heat trapped inside the pasta and the sauce will melt the cheese and it just disappears into the pasta giving it that perfectly cheesy not over-the-top taste,which is ex-actly what you want folks!The yummy deliciousness that this pasta is makes me want to dive right into the plate and its smoky garlicy flavour with just the right amount of chilli and chorizo which is my absolute personal favourite for pasta dishes,what more could one ask for!?! 🙂
  • I wish I had some smoked ham,fresh basil and some more chorizo – but hey this was so good I am going to make it again and again!
  • I hope you do too and if you do drop me a line here in the comments, I love reading what you have to say!I am most looking forward to those comments where you were in a similar situation and used the ”nothing” from your fridge and made pasta as delicious as mine – just use your imagination!

The best pasta I've ever made!

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  • I am entering this recipe into the ”No Waste Food Challenge” for Jan ’14,hosted by the lovely Elizabeth who blogs at  Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary and has taken on the baton to host this challenge from Kate over at Turquoise Lemons who initiated this very challenge,couldn’t think of a post more apt for this I say ! If you too would like to link up but find the details on Elizabeths blog. Find the whole round up here

no-waste-food-badge

  • I am entering this frugal recipe for Credit Crunch Much hosted by Helen of Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla of FabFood4all and for Feb’14 hosted by Angela of My Golden Pear. Making use of ingredients which I wouldn’t have otherwise used together and finding things lurking in my fridge which have been salvaged and not chucked into a food bin a few days later, I think this recipe definitely fits the bill for this challenge.

Credit-Crunch-Munch-Just-Pic

Tasty and Quick Pasta for two from ”nothing”

Filed Under: Food, Meat, Quick and Easy, Recipe Index Tagged With: cheddar, chilli flakes, chorizo, dried herbs, emergency food, garlic, nothing, olive oil, pasta, saucepan, sea salt, smoked ham, sunflower oil, tagliatelle, tomato puree, tsp

Spicy Grilled Chicken Bites With a Cooling Avocado Dip

September 5, 2013 by manjirichitnis 2 Comments

With an obvious change in the weather, we all are living in fear that this year’s glorious summer is coming to an end. I was lucky enough to get a few invites to barbecue parties in the past few months and had my share of some really divine meats and grills and some rather lumpy or burnt bits too!!!

Lucky because I live in a tiny rented flat with a small open plan kitchen. I try all sorts of tricks to fool myself into thinking that I am cooking in the fresh open outdoors. One of my favourite tricks to fool myself and get some tasty tidbits on my plate is by using a grid pan and earthy spices with smoked sea salt, delicious dips and of course washing these down with chilled beer.

Since I always seem to have some basic purees and pastes frozen and hiding in some corner of my tiny freezer I try and use them up quickly to ensure I always have place for some frozen desserts. One such favourite spicy green paste is made with one medium sized bunch of fresh coriander and 2 bright green chillies. Coriander is expensive and a regular feature in my kitchen so I try and freeze it after chopping it fine or better still making this paste and just adding large spoons to curries which gives them an instant face lift!

For a spicy twist on grilled chicken I decided to make these easy to pick and pop in the mouth pieces of chunky chicken making it a more fun way to share your food on the table. I love that it’s easy to just throw things on the pan and even the dip is a no fuss 3 step recipe which is a brilliant companion to the heat of the chillies on the chicken. The fact that the dip has zero oil is a big bonus.

You can make the coriander paste and store it in the freezer and even with the dip recycle it as a quick spread on sandwiches and use up any leftover meats the next day for a packed lunch. So convenient, especially on a Monday morning after a lazy weekend!

Placing the chicken on chunky cabbage leaves smeared with some mustard paste is another inexpensive alternative to posh salad leaves and helps finish of the last of that quarter portion of cabbage which lies neglected in your veggie tray and faces the threat of going into the bin soggy and spoilt, not a pleasant thought at all.

Guaranteed to tickle your taste buds this original recipe from my tiny kitchen is a food adventure in itself. Here’s how you can make this quick grilled chicken in easy steps:

Spicy grilled chicken bites with cooling avocado dip

(Serves: 4, Cooking Time: including 40 mins for marination is 1 hour):

Ingredients:

  • 4 chicken breasts
  • 4 large tbsp coriander and green chilli paste (proportion of 1 bunch of coriander with 2 green chillies)
  • Himalayan Pink Salt for seasoning
  • 2 tbsp refined oil
  • 1 tsp mustard paste
  • 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped
  • ½ tsp red chilli flakes
  • 4-5 leaves of fresh cabbage washed
  • ¼ medium sized red onion cut lengthwise
  • Toothpicks with little flags

For the dip

  • 2 avocados
  • 1 stalk fennel with few leaves
  • ½ medium sized red onion finely chopped
  • Himalayan pink salt for seasoning

Method:

Marinate the chicken breasts with coriander and green chilli paste, salt as per taste and 3 cloves of finely chopped garlic. Make small cuts on the chicken breasts with a knife and rub in the marinade. Add one tbsp oil to this mixture allowing the garlic to marry with the coriander and chilli paste. Marinate for 40 minutes

Cutting the chicken into thick cut style bites

On a grid pan spritz enough oil to coat the pan. Pan fry the breasts turning the sides over when they begin to change colour. When both sides appear to have changed colour remove the chicken breasts on a chopping board and let them cool for a while.

Meanwhile, smear the cabbage leaves with a small amount of mustard paste and place on a wooden board which will be used to serve the dish.

Now prepare the dip – Halve the avocados and scoop out the fleshy part. Take the thin green stalk and tender leaves of the fennel and put them together through a blender to make a coarse paste. Chop ½ a red onion fine and to the avocado and fennel paste, season some Himalayan salt. The dip is now ready.

Pan Grill red onion ,garlic and red chilli flakes close up shot

Now get back to cooking the chicken. In the same grid pan add a 1 ½ tbsp oil with some red onion cut lengthwise and sauté for a while for a caramelise finish. Now cut the pieces of the chicken into “thick cut home-made potato-chip” like sizes and place them on the grid pan along with the onions.

Chicken on pan being grilled with the spices

Sprinkle the red chilli flakes .Cook on low flame till done and flip over using tongs, a bit of charring is allowed to add more flavour. Place the chicken strips with toothpicks on the fresh cabbage leaves in a flat plate.

The chunky avocado and red onion dip will offset the grilled chicken bites.

close up with all elements of display

Serve with garlic bread on the side and some chilled drinks and soak up all the sun you can before the leaves turn auburn.

chicken on a toothpick with dip close up

 

This was my first post for the Great British Chefs community and can be found here

Filed Under: Food, Meat, Recipe Index Tagged With: avocado, bbq, cabbage, chilled beer, chilli flakes, community, cook, cooling dip, delicious, eat, Great British Chefs, grid pan, mustard, original recipe, spicy chicken, summer, tasty, toothpick, yummy

Food,travel and lifestyle writer. Photographer.

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