Few days ago, we had some friends visiting us. One friend suggested I make ragda pattis for them, I wanted to make something else for starters. Most of these friends are chicken lovers, so I thought of making chicken kababs. There is something very interesting about chicken on skewers – my family is not a big fan of skewers, but I love the look of them. Just to make them more interesting, I added some capsicum (green bellpeppers) and pineapple to them.
These were so easy to make – the time consuming thing was to put them on skewers and then grilling them. I did skewering while watching IPL match – Ohh, I am a big Rahul Dravid fan and loved watching him bat!. I would have baked them, but I had enough time left before my friends arrived. So I went ahead with grilling them on my cast iron grill pan. They went very well with green chutney that I prepared for ragda pattis. They were all gone in minutes. I wish I had prepared more!.
Ingredients: 1 lb(approx 0.45kg) boneless chicken 1 capsicum (green pepper) 10-12 pineapple pieces 2 tea spns ginger garlic paste 1Â tea spn cumin powder 1 tea spn coriander powder 2 tbl spns thick yogurt(curd) 1 tea spn chilli powder Salt
Method: Mix together yogurt, ginger garlic paste, cumin powder, coriander powder, chili powder, salt in a bowl. Add about 3/4 th of the marinade paste to chicken pieces and keep aside for 4-5hrs. Add remaining marinade to pineapple and capsicum pieces, mix well. Skewer chicken and vegetables. Heat a grill pan and grill them till chicken is done. Serve hot.
We are a family of Italian food lovers. While V almost always takes angel hair pasta when we are at any Italian restaurant, I have tried most of the different options available. I love different cheese stuffed pastas/lasagnas, but I feel really guilty about eating them. I wanted to find out a good alternative to all the cheese, without changing the taste. Then last week, I watched a cooking show where Laura used tofu in the stuffing. I was not paying attention, so I don’t remember if she used only tofu or mixed something else with it. I loved her idea of using tofu. Now, I can make these stuffed shells/lasagnas without feeling too guilty about eating so much cheese. I am still not ready to move completely to tofu filling – I still love the cheese, so I am going to continue mixing both as of now.
Instead of plain tomato sauce, I use my vegetable-tomato sauce – I use a little tomato paste to make it thick. We loved it, so I am going to make this once in a while.
Ingredients: 15 jumbo pasta shells 4 oz (approx) ricotta cheese 4 oz (approx) soft tofu 2 tbl spn + 1/4 cup parmesan cheese 1 cup spinach 1/4 cup onions 1/2 tea spn dried basil (optional) Olive oil Salt 1 and 1/2 cups (approx) pasta sauce – I use homemade sauce
Method: Cook the pasta shells according to instructions on the packet. Heat olive oil and add onions and salt. When they become translucent, switch off heat and add chopped spinach. Cover and leave for few minutes. Then mix it well. Let it cool. Now in a bowl, crumble tofu, ricotta cheese. Add 2 tbl spn parmesan cheese, spinach mixture, basil, salt and mix well. Stuff the pasta shells with the mixture. Preheat oven at 350F for about 10 mins. In a oven safe dish, spread half of the pasta sauce. Line the stuffed shells on top. Then spread another layer of remaining sauce. Spread parmesan cheese on top. Cover the dish with aluminum foil. Bake at 350F for 30mins. Then remove the aluminum foil and bake for another 10 mins. Serve hot.
Serves :3 Preparation time : 20 mins + baking time
