Easy to make - 3 ingredient pasta !

I am a sucker for Italian food, there is nothing on earth  which beats a warm cheesy slice of thin crust pizza, hot and gooey lasagna or bowl of pasta :) I love to cook as much as I love to eat but many friends of mine keep telling me that they get freaked out when they see an elaborate recipe with a long list of ingredients and a step bye step procedure.. Cooking is really easy you just have to get the basic recipe correct and build your own style over time, I have given below a very simple Pasta in Red Sauce recipe, for those of you who love to learn how to cook, for those of you who are experts already enjoy the pics and be supportive :)

Ripe tomatoes boiled in water for 2 minutes

3 Things you will need:

• 3 firm ripe tomatoes
• 5-6 cloves of garlic crushed using a mortar and pestle
• 1 cup of pasta of your choice

Few cloves of garlic crushed

For making red sauce

• Boil the tomatoes in water for 2 minutes, remove the skin and grind into paste
• Heat a kadai, add 2-3 spoons of olive oil
• Add the crushed garlic and saute gently
• Add tomato paste to the garlic and olive oil
• Simmer for 1 minute 
• Add salt to taste & remove from flame

Keep it simple the first few times u make it just try it and you will develop great confidence in yourself and fall in  love with the flavor of garlic :)

Pasta of your choice -boiled & drained 

 Choose pasta of your choice and boil until its done and drain and add this to the red sauce in the kadai and gently mix with a spatula and serve piping hot :)

Pasta in red sauce !

Options for garnish: 
You can either garnish it with grated cheese or chopped cilatro/coriander

Garnish with coriander/cheese or crushed pepper

Options for seasoning 
You can sprinkle crushed pepper or oregano to suit your taste, I just had the pasta as is and it was absolutely YUMMMMMMM!

Serve HOT!

Ensoi your pasta and tell me how you liked it!!

MASH @ Besant Nagar

So finally I went to much praised, critically acclaimed MASH at Besant Nagar...how did i like it? Errr hmm ..Let me put it this way ..My mom raised me such that if i dont have any thing nice to say i dont say anything at all ...

Fiery Fotato

Hot chocolate

Kalamari Fritters

Kalamari with Lemon garlic butter sauce

chicken sizzler

MASH

~Fin~

 Ok I admit I m kinda sorta very disappointed given that I've heard soooooooooo much about this place..

Sampoorna @ Besant Nagar

I've heard a lot about this tiny lil place called MASH located at Besant nagar beach, so after much planning  (unsuccessful planning) :P Botu and I decided to go to MASH for a quick bite after work, however when we reached there and walked up  to the restaurant we saw a sleepy guy with a hammer and some turned down tables and chairs :( apparently they were renovating ..LOL Just perfect timing , oh well that was not a Bummer not even close, cos if u have been to Besi beach u wud know that it is sprawling with eat outs and new restuarents, so we decided to go to this tiny lil place called Sampoorna for some Kappi and Snacks ..

Chicken Panniyaram and Onion Chutney

 Since i came back from Karaikudi I have been craving for Panniyaram so i ordered some hot and spicy chicken panniyaram. 

Aloo Bonda

Botu has  turned veggie so she ordered some Hot and crispy Aloo Bonda :)

 I love what they have done to the walls of Sampoorna, its soo bright and beautiful.

Interesting sink 

My cup of Filter Kappi  :)

Sampoorna is located right next to MASH at Besi beach, do visit it and i assure u'll enjoy the food :)

Sampoorna at Besant Nagar beach



Nice & easy home style chicken curry

A friend of mine asked me a recipe for simple and easy chicken curry .. 2 weeks back so I prepared a nice chicken curry the very next day, clicked pix and decided to post it, however my trusty personal lappy had other plans!! It crashed and refused to get fixed so I went without internet at home i.e. No FB & Blogging for 2 weeks, yes i survived, anyways back to the chicken curry so this is about two weeks late :P bare with me peeps more posts coming soon :)

Home style Chicken curry

Lets start with 1/4 kg of chicken, it serves 2.

Ingredients 

2 big onions finely chopped

2 medium size tomatoes finely chopped

10 cloves garlic and 1 inch ginger crushed

2 spoons yogurt 
5 baby potatoes slit in halves

For seasoning 2-3- cloves, a small cinnamon stick

Ingredients

Marinate the chicken

Wash and drain the chicken pieces, add the following ingredients, marinate and keep aside for 1/2 hour..

• a few pinches of turmeric
• 2 teaspoons of curd
• 1 spoon of garlic and ginger paste
• 2 spoons of chilli powder and 
• 1/2 spoon crushed pepper
• Sprinkle some salt 
• Sqeeze half a lemon

Marinated Chicken

Procedure

• Heat a kadai, add 4-5 spoons of oil, add cinnamon and cloves and fry 
• Add the chopped shallots, curry leaves and fry 
• Add the marinated chicken pieces and baby potatoes and fry for 10 minutes

Chicken Curry in Progress

• Add the tomatoes and reduce flame (Adding tomatoes later allows the colour to be bright red)



Chicken curry in progress

• Add salt and chilli powder and reduce the flame
• Let it cook for another 15 minutes and remove from flame 
• Serve with Idly, Dosa, Rice or Simple and Easy home made Briyani

Chapatti and chicken curry

Mutton Briyani, Chicken Curry and Raita

Ensoi!!!

Paniyaram~O~Paniyaram !

A few days back while planing for a rather official mid morning snack for a group of special people from my favourite town we chose to order a much popular chettinadu snack- Paniyaram and Kara Chutney! I had my apprehension as to whether everyone would enjoy it, whether it would get leftover and wasted but I m happy to say I was so wrong!

On the menu were ~
Karapaniyaram Spicy Panniyaram
Inipupaniyaram Sweet Panniyaram
 Karachutney Spicy chutney

Sweet Panniyaram is mildly sweet due to the jaggery in it . It does not need a side dish or a chutney can be eaten like a snack or with a hot cup of coffee or tea! It tastes best when it is hot.

Kara panniyaram is usually bland and tastes somewhat like a roasted idly and hence you need a nice spicy chutney as a side dish.

Spicy chutney made by grinding onions, tomatoes, red chilies with tamarind seasoned with mustard and curry leaves.

Kara chutney and Kuzhipaniyaram a match made it heaven!

More pics of Karapaniyaramm

Karapaniyaram

Sweet paniyaram

Here is how the vessels looked once we were done!


Ain't it the most beautiful site? :)