Roasted Yams / Sweet Potatoes with Jalapeno Peppers and Fresh Parsley (Serves 3)

Hi there! I just got back from vacation yesterday from India. I went there after a gap of 2 years. It was a totally enjoyable trip, meeting up with our family, relatives and friends, and just the feeling of being back at home. An added bonus was that I went to see the Taj Mahal for the first time in my life, and I can only say that this is not the last time I am going there. I can’t find words to describe it.

Apart from that, I ate to my heart’s content all the street food that I missed out on, and have a lot of recipes under my belt, waiting to be cooked.

Ok then, back to fun. I cooked up this dish a couple of months ago when we had invited our friends over for lunch. I had wanted to make some potatoes, but prepared these yams instead. I have wanted to prepare yams or sweet potatoes this way and the result was very appealing to the mouth and the tummy J.

2 medium to large yams / sweet potatoes
2 large jalapeno peppers chopped fine (1/2 inch length)
2 tbsp oil
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp coriander powder
Salt to taste
Bunch of fresh parsley leaves chopped fine

Poke the yams with a fork, making holes, and bake at 300 – 350 degrees F until done (roughly 35-40 mins), making sure they don’t get mushy. You can alternatively pressure cook or boil the yams...not as tasty as roasting them though. Cut the yams into ½ inch pieces.

Heat the oil in a pan on medium heat. Add the cumin, coriander and cayenne pepper. Reduce the heat to low, and add the yams. Season with salt to taste, and mix the ingredients well. Roast the yams on low to medium heat until they are roasted, nice and golden. At this point, add the jalapeno peppers and some fresh parsley leaves (about 1 tbsp) and cook for a few more minutes. Garnish with the rest of the parsley leaves. Serve hot.

This is the dish to make if you want to surprise yourself or your guests with something that is unique and has layers of different flavors in it.

Health Rating: High

Fennel Butternut Squash Soup (Serves 2)

Hey there, been a little while since I posted. I had become somewhat lazy and complacent, knowing that I had a recipe bank of around 10 recipes waiting to be written and posted. But then things aren't that easy as we all know.

What with spending time with my daughter and wife during the weekends, coupled with other social outings, I didn't find the appropriate time to post a recipe. Right now I am writing this post squeezing it in before the Saints-Vikings game. What a game that Jets-Colts turned out to be. Lot of fun, always, the NFL playoffs.

Anyway, back to the subject matter. Some weeks ago I had purchased butternut squash thinking I would make a chicken dish with it. Never ended up doing that, and instead made a simple soup combining the squash with fennel producing a soup bursting with flavor.

1 cup chopped fennel root

1 butternut squash medium size (8" length)

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp fennel seeds

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

black pepper for seasoning

small bunch of fresh coriander leaves chopped fine

small bunch of fresh parsley leaves chopped fine

1 tsp browned butter (ghee)

First, slice both the ends off the butternut squash so it can stand up. This way, cutting the squash vertically in one half becomes easy. After cutting the squash and scooping out the seeds, take a baking tray and drizzle some olive oil on it. Lay the squash inside out and bake it at 350 degrees for around 45 minutes or until nicely roasted and cooked. You can also boil the squash in water and cook it faster, but it won't taste as good as when it is roasted.

Scoop out the cooked squash from its skin and mash it with a hand blender or with your hands until it is a smooth puree. Set aside. In a wok or a pan, on medium heat, add the olive oil. When the oil is a little hot, add the cumin and fennel seeds. After 10 seconds or so add the cut fennel root, and saute until the fennel is golden brown. Sprinkle in salt and black pepper for seasoning, and add the cayenne pepper as well. Saute for a couple minutes more and add the squash puree. Add 1/2 cup of warm water, mix everything well and heat it on low to medium flame for 5 minutes. Garnish with the coriander and parsley leaves on top with a little drizzle of browned butter and you are done.

Serve this delicious soup hot in a bowl with a side of toasted bread, buttered up if you want to indulge.

Health Rating: High

Ingredient Substitute/s: If you are a vegan, just omit the browned butter addition at the garnishing stage. Fennel can be replaced with onions, and the butternut squash can be replaced with yam or pumpkin or vegetables in the same family.

Chicken Masala (Serves 6)

Happy New Year everyone! Hope all of you had a wonderful holiday. I am glad to have put last year behind me and am looking forward to 2010 from a health point of view after the issues I went through last year.

We had a get together for the kids on Christmas day and a potluck dinner to go along with it. I made a quick chicken masala based on a recipe that was passed on to me from a friend of mine years ago. I have maintained the recipe for the most part while making fine adjustments here and there over time. It is a very simple affair and is sure to be a popular hit among your guests.

The recipe calls for a whole chicken including the bones, but without the skin. The natural juices of the chicken just give a fantastic flavor to this dish. I opted instead for chicken breasts only, losing a little bit of the flavor but staying on the healthier side of things. Let's get to the recipe then.

6 large chicken breasts (or 1 whole chicken cut up without skin)

4 tbsp oil

3 medium onions diced into 1/2 inch pieces

5 cloves garlic finely grated

1 inch piece of ginger finely grated

3 large tomatoes diced

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 1/2 tbsp red chili powder

1 1/2 tbsp chicken moghal powder or meat masala powder

one large bunch fresh coriander leaves finely chopped

juice from 1/2 a large lemon

Cut the chicken pieces into cubes and set aside, along with its juices. In a large heavy bottomed skillet, add the oil and as the oil is getting hot add the onions. Cook the onions on medium heat until they turn golden to dark brown, making sure you don't burn the onions.

At this point, add the grated ginger and garlic, turmeric powder, red chili powder, and the chicken moghal spice powder. If you can't find this specific powder you can use any meat masala powder, since the spice ingredients in most of the brands that make meat masala are common anyway (good brands are Everest or Badshah procured from any Indian grocery store). Stir well to mix the spices and the onions for a few minutes.

Now add the tomatoes and stir well. Cook on medium to low flame until the oil slowly starts separating from the vegetables. The chicken is added at this stage along with its juices, and then cooked on low flame until well done. You can add few tablespoons of water now and then to make sure the dish does not dry out while cooking.

After the chicken is done, turn off the fire and add the lemon juice. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot with rice or chapati. The dish in this form is dry and is great as an appetizer with alcoholic drinks. You can also add some water and heat it up and then eat it as a gravy with rice. Enjoy!

Health Rating: High

Note: If the chicken masala is too spicy for your taste, you can go easy on the red chili powder and meat masala powder by reducing them by 1/2 a tbsp each.

Dried Fenugreek Leaves Dal (lentils) (Serves 4)

A quick and refreshing dal (also known as Dal Methi) that can be had as a soup, or served with rice or chapati/tortilla.

3 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves

2 cups cooked yellow tuvar dal (look under the alphabet 't' in this link)

1 small onion finely chopped

2 tsp cayenne pepper (or red chili powder)

1 1/2 tbsp oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/8 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp salt (or according to taste)

1 1/2 cups of hot water

Pressure cook the tuvar dal and keep ready. As an alternative you can use store bought canned cooked yellow split peas or cooked green split peas.

Pour oil in a hot deep skillet. As the oil gets hot, add the cumin seeds, turmeric powder, 2 tsp cayenne pepper, onion, salt and 2 tbsp of dried fenugreek leaves (crush it before you add it). Reduce the flame to medium/low and cook until the onions are done and just starting to turn slightly brown. Make sure that the fenugreek leaves don't turn black.

Add the dal, and 1 1/2 cup of hot water. Cook until the dal comes to a boil. Reduce to a low flame and add 1 tsp of cayenne pepper, and 1 tbsp dried crushed fenugreek leaves. Mix well together and let it simmer for 5 more minutes. Serve hot.

Add 1 tsp of brown butter (ghee, optional) on top if you would like to enhance the flavor.

Health Rating: High

Baked Asparagus with Rosemary and Walnuts (Serves 3)

My wife and I love asparagus. We usually put it on a skillet with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and roast it till it's nice and slightly brown, and have it with pasta and sauce as a side dish. This time around I decided to bake it in the oven instead, and made some additions to the ingredients to make it more interesting.

It came out terrific, full of flavor and was devoured in no time at all, with the pasta playing catch up. Very simple to prepare, and extremely easy to eat it all up :-)

1 bunch of asparagus (2.25 lbs)

salt and pepper to taste

5 cloves of garlic

3 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

cayenne pepper to taste

2 tbsp walnuts chopped fine

1 1/2 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves chopped

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Wash the asparagus and cut off the hard end part of the stem which is very light in color, usually around 1 to 2 inches from the bottom. Smash the garlic cloves, chop into small pieces and set aside.

In a baking tray, lay the asparagus, covering the entire baking tray. Add the garlic, extra virgin olive oil, some cayenne pepper (based on your 'heat' index), walnuts, fresh rosemary leaves, and salt and pepper for seasoning. With your hands toss and turn until everything mixes well. Put the tray in the oven and bake until the asparagus is slightly brown, a little crunchy.

Serve warm with some great pasta and sauce, or just eat it as is. Although I didn't, you may sprinkle some dry grated cheese in the end to add more flavor if you would like.

Health Rating: High

Baked Cauliflower (Serves 2)

I wanted to turn around something quickly to go along with dried fenugreek leaves dal (yellow lentils) I had already prepared, as I was heading out to see a movie.

I ended up making some baked brussels sprouts from one of my old recipes, and also baked cauliflower mainly in the hope that my daughter will finally eat cauliflower. My daughter does not touch cauliflower made the regular Indian way.

This was ready in no time, and with no hard work at all.

1 medium cauliflower
salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp grated pecorino romano cheese

Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut off the leaves and the stem from the cauliflower, and clean it thoroughly. Break the cauliflower into small 1 inch pieces by hand, lay the pieces on a baking tray, sprinkle salt and pepper to taste and drizzle olive oil on top. With a spoon or your hands, just mix it all together to make sure the cauliflower is well coated with the oil and seasonings.

Bake the cauliflower for around 15-20 minutes or so turning it over once, until it starts getting roasted.

Take it out of the oven, transfer to a platter, and sprinkle with grated cheese on top. Serve hot.

My daughter actually did eat some of it, and I was an extremely happy father.

Health Rating: High

Ingredient Substitute/s: You can add any cheese you prefer, or none at all. Also adding red pepper flakes will add some great flavor to this.

Portabella Mushroom & Broccoli Rabe (Serves 3)

My wife works close to the Bronx's little Italy (Arthur Ave.) in NYC. Since we had never been there, we decided to go check the neighborhood out, and have lunch at one of the local Italian restaurants there. Another big incentive for me was that Teitel Brothers, the biggest wholesaler and retailer of Italian grocery in Bronx is also situated there, and I wanted to stock up!

After roaming around the neighborhood for a while and building up an appetite, it was time to eat. We turned around Arthur Ave and came across this simple and nice little restaurant called GianTina's. We were lucky in that this place turned out to be really good food-wise, although I would expect a little more effort from a service point of view.

My wife and I ate like pigs and ordered a lot of good wine and great food, making sure we had some to take back home :-). My wife had a kind of spiral pasta with pesto and cheese, and I had chicken with vegetables and sausages cooked in a wine sauce, both of which were great.

What caught my eye while going through the menu was one of the appetizers, Broccoli Rabe with Portabella Mushrooms and I ordered that. It was one of the best tasting appetizers I have ever had, very simple in preparation which I found out by asking our waitress, but rich in taste due to the fresh vegetables and especially the extra virgin olive oil. The flavor of this dish stood out due to the bold tasting oil which took the taste up several levels.

Since then I have been cooking up this appetizer dish at home very regularly, which I want to share with you all here.

1 portabella mushroom
1 whole bunch fresh broccoli rabe leaves (store bought)
3 tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil
5 cloves garlic crushed with knife and chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Chop the portabella mushroom into 1 inch long pieces and keep aside. Crush the garlic cloves with a knife and chop them.

Clean the broccoli rabe leaves well and cut the end portions out so you are left with the leaves and a little part of the stem. Chop the leaves up after this. If you would like to take some of the bitterness out of the rabe, put the leaves in boiling water for a few minutes, take it off the flame, drain the water and run cold water through it to stop the cooking process.

In a pan, heat the extra virgin olive oil, add the garlic and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the mushrooms, some salt and pepper and continue sauteing. Add the leaves at this point, season it with the salt and pepper according to your taste and cook just until the broccoli rabe leaves are done. That's it! Serve hot as a side dish to your pasta and sauce.

Oh, and by the way, after lunch we visited the Teitel Brothers store and I was like a kid in a candy store, wanting everything I saw. Law of the 'wife' was established immediately and I was brought to my senses :-). But I still got a stock of great extra virgin olive oil (Edda), oil cured olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and fresh and aged cheese.

Health Rating: High

Ingredient Substitute/s: You can replace the rabe with spinach leaves, or the portabella mushrooms with regular mushrooms but the taste isn't the same as with portabella mushrooms. Ingredients are really what your imagination can come up with as long as they complement each other well.

Greek Salad (Serves 2)

This salad happened by chance. I was at the local grocery store on Sunday buying vegetables for the next couple of weeks and was looking for ricotta cheese. I ended up picking a box of feta cheese thinking it was indeed ricotta cheese that I was picking up. Here comes old age.

My wife called me when she left work and asked me what's for dinner. Since we wanted to prepare something real quick, I offered salad and that too Greek salad as a choice. We already had most of the ingredients, some whole wheat pita and hey, feta cheese as well. How perfect! :-) So it was decided. I picked up some oil cured black olives from the market at the Grand Central terminal in NYC.

I put together the salad rather quickly after referring to a couple of books and then deciding to go my own way. My lovely wife Anita meanwhile grilled some tofu Indian style and toasted the pita bread. A few camera clicks later, we were devouring the salad away and wiped the whole salad bowl clean. Well, almost. Okay now to the fun part.

2 endives

2 kirby cucumbers

1/2 large red onion

2 medium plum tomatoes

3 scallions

1 cup crumbled fresh feta cheese

1 1/2 cups chopped fresh parsley leaves

6 tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup chopped oil cured black olives

1 1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

Clean and chop all the vegetables into similar medium size pieces. Add the feta cheese, olives, and parsley leaves. In a small bowl, whisk together the extra virgin olive oil, ground pepper, lemon juice and salt (be careful with the salt since the feta cheese and olives already are salted). Pour this over the vegetables and mix everything together well. Serve cold.

Health Rating: High

Ingredient Substitute/s: One thing I didn't add in the salad that is a part of Greek salad is wine vinegar, simply because I didn't have it. Quantity depends on your preference really. Now since I have made this once, I can't wait to experiment with different ingredients in this. Something for vegans perhaps.

Spicy Portabella Mushroom & Fenugreek Leaves (Serves 4)

I had a handful of portabella mushrooms in stock. What I like about portabella mushrooms apart from their unique taste is the relatively harder texture compared to the other kinds of mushrooms. They also absorb the spices and oil flavor well.

One of my favorite dishes is portabella mushroom and broccoli rabe cooked in really good extra virgin olive oil and garlic. But I wanted to try something different with the mushrooms this time around, and was a little stumped looking inside the refrigerator for a while trying to find something out of the ordinary that would complement them. I finally ended up with a large bunch of fresh store bought fenugreek leaves, and with a little help from Mr. cayenne pepper, we have a knockout dish people! :-)

4 Portabella Mushrooms (1 lb)

1 whole bunch of fresh fenugreek leaves (sold at the Indian or specialty grocery stores)

1/2 tsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp coriander powder

1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper powder

3 tbsp olive oil

salt to taste

Wash the mushrooms and fenugreek leaves well. Cut the mushrooms into 1/2 inch pieces. You can even cut them lengthwise into thin long strips. Strip the fenugreek leaves off their stems, cut them fine and set aside.

In a wok or something similar, add 3 tbsp of olive oil, coriander and cumin powder, and fenugreek leaves. Sauté for a couple of minutes and then add the mushrooms. Sauté the mushrooms as well for a few minutes.

At this point when the frying pan is hot, start adding the cayenne pepper powder to the dry sides of the wok, above where the food is actually cooking. As soon as you put the pepper there, due to the heat of the wok, it will start smoking and will release fumes. Immediately mix the powder from the side of the wok with the vegetables. Do this a few times until all the 1 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper powder has been used up.

This semi burning process with the cayenne pepper powder that I just experimented on a whim imparted a smoky hot and spicy taste, and added great flavor to the vegetables. Hope you enjoy it. Serve with chapatti/tortilla or mix it with plain rice for flavorful 'fried rice'.

I did want to mention that I found cayenne pepper rather different than the usual Indian red chilis, in that the heat from the pepper hits your tongue initially like a blast and then quickly subsides down unlike the red chilis where your mouth burns, eyes start watering and you are running around for some cold water.

Health Rating: High

Radish Yogurt Salad (Serves 4)

Based on the amount of radish we had yesterday (thanks to my innovative grocery buying) I quickly turned it into a yogurt salad (raita in Indian).

Most people must be familiar with white radish. Make sure you buy it fresh and clean. Its very crispy and juicy if picked up fresh.

A Chinese grocery with a lot of footprint is the best place to shop for these to ensure freshness. By the way, radish is very good for the digestive system or so i read somewhere. I eat it cause it tastes great. Here is the recipe.

1 8-10 inch length white radish

1/2 small red onion

1 bunch fresh coriander leaves fine chopped

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups 2% low fat good quality Indian or Greek plain yogurt (Indian: Desi Natural Dahi, and Chobani for Greek)

1 tsp "JalJira" spice powder made by Everest brand

Clean the radish well, and chop of the leaves from the root. You don't have to throw away the leaves, as there is another great recipe for the same. My wife makes that, and I hope to post that one soon enough. Cut the radish and one half of a red onion into small pieces, around 1/8th of an inch or so.

In a bowl, add the radish, onions, yogurt, salt, coriander leaves, and JalJira. Mix them well together, and refrigerate it for 20 minutes or so.

Serve cold along with Chapati/tortilla, as a side dish with a meat or vegetarian dish, or just eat it as is which I do a lot of time.

Health Rating: High

Ingredient Substitute/s: Since this is a yogurt based salad, you really can add all the vegetables that one has in a salad, BUT you have to be careful as they may not jell well enough with the JalJira. Also, yogurt can accommodate a lot of different spices and herbs, and it is always encouraging to play around with spices and see what one likes.

PS: JalJira is a spice mixture that is sold as a digestive aid. Usually its mixed with water and ice as a drink. It is made of salt, cumin, black pepper, mint leaves, dry ginger, chili, black salt, asafoetida, and citric acid (ingredient list right of the box that I bought).

Hummus (Serves 4)

I have been wanting to make my own Hummus for a long time now. It's one of the middle eastern foods that I am very fond of, one that I always eat in restaurants or off the shelf. I have to admit that many places aren't that good in their creation of this dish unless one goes to an authentic middle eastern restaurant, or if it's made properly. Well that's we are going to do.

If you let your imagination run wild with the right ingredient combinations, you can come up with a real good hummus.

Which is what I exactly did, and ended up with a hummus that is really delicious. I share it with you here.

2 cups cooked chick peas

5 cloves garlic chopped into small pieces

1/4 tsp salt or according to taste

1/2 tsp red chili or cayenne pepper powder

1 tsp white sesame seeds toasted until light brown

1 1/2 tbsp worth of fresh coriander or parsley & mint leaves chopped fine

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp grated lemon zest*

4 medium green chilis or jalapeno peppers (with all seeds and stem removed) and chopped fine

1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

* zest is the outer skin of lemons or oranges. It has a strong delicious citrus flavor. In this case, take a grater and grate just the yellow part of the lemon skin.

You can use store bought canned chick peas (garbanzo beans) or cook it yourself in a pressure cooker (which will take some effort). Save the water in the can, and give the chick peas a rinse in cold water.

In a large bowl, add the chick peas with the water that comes along in the can, extra virgin olive oil (this really adds great flavor to the hummus compared to light olive oil), garlic, salt, cayenne pepper, coriander and mint leaves, and lemon juice. Grind this mixture in a blender till it becomes a fine paste.

Pour this in a serving bowl, drizzle a bit of additional olive oil on top, or in the center, and garnish the hummus with the lemon zest and chilis. You have to experience the enhanced flavor that the lemon zest and green chilis bring to the hummus, which is just fantastic!

Serve with pita bread, chapatti, celery, cucumbers, tortilla chips or just eat it as is. Perfect while entertaining friends.

Health Rating: High

Substitute Ingredient/s: Too small a place to write about other ingredients; I think I will just come out with different combinations and post them separately :-)

Black Eyed Beans Gravy (Serves 4)

I used to eat this dish a lot when I used to live in India. I used to travel a lot to Pune, the second largest city in the state of Maharashtra, and very close to Mumbai.

There were a few specific Maharashtrian cuisine style restaurants that I used to frequent on every occasion in Pune. I just love the taste of Maharashtrian food, and Pune is a place that won’t disappoint you in that regard.

There is one dish that I still remember from my visits that I used to relish. This was an usal (gravy that is made predominantly with pulses) made with black eyed beans. I recreated this dish at home one night when I was really craving that taste. I have to say that it came out fantastic. I am sharing it here.

One of the main spices in this dish and in many Maharashtrian dishes is ‘goda masala’, a blend of several spices. There are several different variations to this masala or blend.

The list of spices that are used to make this masala include sesame, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cloves, lichen, cardamom, bay leaves, black pepper, and lichen. Some add coconut to this, and some do not add all the ingredients mentioned above. All of these spices are then roasted in a little oil until they are dark brown in color and then put in a grinder to make a coarse to fine powder.

I usually buy readymade goda masala from a small Maharashtrian restaurant in Mumbai whose food I can’t talk enough about. I am getting the recipe from the owner that I will then provide here for everyone. One can also go to a big Indian grocery store and buy goda masala made by this company called ‘Everest’. I just stumbled upon it the other day when I was in New Jersey. I don’t know how good it tastes though.

Anyway, coming back to the black eyed beans usal recipe, here’s how that came about.

2 ½ cups cooked black eyed beans

2 cloves garlic peeled and smashed

1 large red onion chopped into small pieces

1/3 cup medium shredded dry coconut

1 tsp red chili powder

1 ½ tbsp goda masala powder

3 tbsp oil

Salt to taste

5 tomatoes cut into small pieces

2 ½ cups hot water

1 bunch fresh coriander leaves

You can either soak the beans in water for a couple of hours and then pressure cook it (till the steam is let out 2 times by the cooker), or soak it preferably overnight and then just cook it along with all the ingredients.

In a large pan add oil. Once the oil is medium hot, add the onions, garlic, goda masala, red chili powder, coconut, a little salt and let them all cook in the oil.

Once you just start seeing the oil separating and the coconut starts turning light brown, add the tomatoes and continue sautéing.

After a few minutes, add the beans and salt to taste, and 2 1/2 cups of hot water (or according to the consistency you want) and continue cooking on low to medium flame. If you really like the smoky flavor of the goda masala a lot, you can add another ½ tbsp of the same while the beans are cooking.

Once the beans are cooked and you can taste the flavor of the spices in the cooked beans, remove the dish from the fire and garnish with fresh coriander leaves finely chopped.

Serve hot with chapattis or tortillas, or with rice in which case you may want to add more water to the gravy.

Health rating: High

Ingredient Substitute/s: If you don’t have black eyed beans, you can add green moong dal, or brown lentils, or any pulse or beans you like. If you are adding kidney beans then adjust the spices and tomatoes etc. accordingly because of the thicker consistency of kidney beans compared to black eyed beans.

You can also go without the coconut but I feel that the taste factor goes way down when you do that.

If you don’t have goda masala or can’t procure it, you can easily add garam masala (1 tsp) along with some freshly ground (coriander/cumin/black pepper) (1 tbsp) and that should be fine, except that you really have to taste goda masala and its unique flavor along with the coconut to enjoy this dish at its best taste.

Fennel and Penne Pasta (Serves 2)

A quick lunch recipe I prepared a few weeks ago. Nothing was going on, we were just too bored to cook up a full meal. I was having wonderful conversation with my brother and father-in-law.

I thought of cooking a simple pasta, and prepared penne with fennel and red chilli powder, to make it a little bit spicy. Here is the recipe.

1 large fennel root

3 cups cooked penne (al dente - just done right, not overcooked)

1 tsp fennel seeds crushed a bit to let the flavor out

1 tsp red chilli powder or cayenne powder

1 tsp store bought dry basil leaves

2 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil for added flavor

Cut the fennel root into inch long slices, avoiding the center as it contains the stem. Set aside. To add more fennel flavor that gives a very fresh and different taste to the pasta, crush 1 tsp of fennel seeds. You can usually buy fennel seeds in any grocery store, if not get it at any Indian grocery store.

For the pasta, I think around 2 cups of uncooked penne should give you 3 cups of cooked penne. Cook the raw pasta in boiling water with some salt for roughly 10 - 15 minutes for ready to eat penne, or cook longer to your liking. Like always, taste the pasta to see if its cooked well enough to your liking.

As the pasta is getting cooked, on a medium hot pan add 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and just as the oil is getting hot add the crushed fennel seeds, dried basil leaves, and the red chilli powder. Immediately after this add the cut fennel root, salt and a little pepper taste and saute all the ingredients together.

Cook the fennel until it is cooked but still crunchy, to the point where the root still has its raw freshness and sweetness, but is cooked. Add the cooked penne at this time, 1/2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil and mix everything together well. Serve hot. This is a refreshingly different tasting meal especially due to the presence of the fennel seeds, and you will love it.

Health Rating: High

Ingredient Substitute/s: If you live in an area where you don't get fennel root, you can replace the fennel with large white onions (the sweeter and less pungent kind) and repeat the above process.

Stuffed Mushrooms (Serves 4-5)

- adapted from original recipe by Giada De Laurentiis

It was one Friday evening and raining continuously. We decided to get some wine. My wife wanted something to accompany the wine, and after digging through the refrigerator, came out with 9 mushrooms. Then she went to the Food Network website and got this recipe for stuffed mushroom by Giada De Lauretiis.

Since we didn’t have the ingredients the recipe called for, she modified the recipe accordingly. Here is the modified recipe as we had it. The outcome was fantastic.

Please note that the quantity of stuffing we prepared was for 28 mushrooms, but made only 9 of them. We put away the rest of the stuffing in the freezer for another day.

2 slices dried rye bread crumbs (large bread slices)

1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese

4 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

3 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander leaves

2 sprigs fresh rosemary leaves finely chopped

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

28 large (2 1/2-inch-diameter) white mushrooms, stemmed

Before you start the following, set the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (204.444 degrees Celsius).

Take 2 slices of rye bread and toast it till the bread is light brown. If you use regular white bread you would need 3 slices. Break down the bread into coarse crumbs. To this, add the cheese, garlic, finely chopped coriander leaves, rosemary leaves, salt and pepper to taste, and 3 tbsp olive oil and mix everything well in a bowl.

On a baking sheet, drizzle some olive oil to coat the sheet. Ready the mushrooms by removing the stems from each one of them. With a spoon, put the filling into the mushroom cavities and place them on the baking sheet, with the stuffing side facing up. In order to maintain moistness, pour the remaining oil over the filling on each mushroom and place the sheet in the oven.

We only put 9 mushrooms as that’s all we had at home. The original recipe calls for baking the 28 mushrooms for 25 minutes at 400 degrees F, till the mushrooms are tender and the filling is golden on top. We left the 9 mushrooms in there for 17 minutes until they achieved the golden color. I think it’s better to use that as a benchmark, but make sure the mushrooms don’t start looking dry. Balance it out properly.

At this point the mushrooms are ready. When we served ourselves (we had it with some Blackstone Chardonnay, nice white wine), on the spur of the moment, I put some fresh chopped red onions on top of the mushrooms and squeezed lime juice, and seasoned it with some salt to taste.

It was one hell of an appetizer, and I just loved it. Thanks Giada, and Anita for trying this recipe with modifications.

Health Rating: High

Ingredient Substitute/s: You can substitute the cheese with any cheese you may have that is kind of hard so it can be easily grated, like Parmesan cheese, even the powdered one made by Kraft, etc. Same goes for the bread.

If you are a vegan, you can easily substitute the cheese with 1/2 cup more of dried bread crumbs and not loose much of the taste in the process, as the ingredients are perfectly complementary to each other.