Pasta with Spinach Basil Pesto

There is only one food that DH cherishes next to traditional South Indian food. Pasta. I didn't know how he got a liking for pasta and I guess it is because of the cheese. He loves cheese. Noodles & Company is one of our favorite hangouts for a quick and casual dinner. Whenever we go there he always orders Penne Rosa. I do not know how he orders the same dish every single time. I usually order

Low Calorie Dum Aloo Benarasi

People who dislike potato are hard to find. Though potato is a much favored veggie, I don't cook them often in my kitchen. I  rarely cook potatoes on its own. Mostly, its paired with other veggies so that I need to use only one. I buy only half a kilo of potatoes at a time. And that might last formore than a week or so. Here the vegetable vendor will double check if I wanted only half kilo since people usually buy more than a kilo at a time. When I come across baby potatoes in the market, its hard to resist. I invariably buy them. I make dum aloo which uses curd in it. Once I came across this recipe at Tarladalal's and wanted to try it. I did not deep fry it as in the original. Though there is some work involved in it, with little planning, it can be done easily and is worth all the effort that goes in.

Ingredients

• Baby potatoes - 12 nos
• Oil - 2 tblspn for shallow frying 

For the gravy

• Garlic - 3 cloves
• Ginger -1 inch
• Dry chillies - 6 nos
• Cashew - 2 tblspn
• Cumin/jeera - 1 tspn
• Saunf/fennel seeds - 1 tspn
• Tomatoes - 3 nos
• Water - 1.5 cups

Seasoning

• Butter - 1 tblspn
• Cardamom powder - 1 tspn
• Kasuri methi - 1 tblspn
• Sugar - 1 tspn

For Garnish

• Fresh Cream - 1 tblspn (optional)
• Chopped Coriander leaves

Method

Wash and scrub the potatoes clean. Boil the potatoes till fork tender. You can pressure cook for one whistle. Also you can microwave for 5 minutes. Prick the potatoes with a fork. Heat oil on a non stick pan and add the cooked potatoes. Shall fry till the skin wrinkles. Keep it aside.

Heat oil in a kadai. Add all the ingredients for the gravy. Simmer till the tomatoes are cooked and turn pulpy. Cool and grind the mix to a smooth puree.

Heat butter. Add cardamom powder and the gravy.  Cook till the gravy simmers and the fat separates and floats on top. Then tip in the shallow fried aloo, kasuri methi and sugar.Cook till the gravy thickens and the potatoes have soaked in the flavors. Add a tablespoon of cream and garnish with coriander and serve hot with some phulkas/rotis.

P.S Though I have used 6 dried red chillies, the dish was not much on the spicier side. It could be the variety of the chilli. Adjust the chillies according to the variety you use and the spice levels that suit your palate.

Prawn Masala

Seafood is one of my favorites. I love to eat prawn both in gravy/semi gravy or just cooked with butter, salt and pepper and garlic with lime juice. Today I thought of making the masala prawn to go with the rasam I made. I very much like to eat prawns with rasam, which I think is a very good combination. I still remember in my childhood especially when I am sick with fever, mom definitely prepares rasam and this prawn fry or semi gravy. My mom used to feed me and once I ate all of the food she prepared. No one can beat a mom's love for their kids, my mom is not an exception. :-)

Ingredients:

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Little help on how to clean and de-vein a shrimp

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1 lb Prawn - De-vein, shelled and cleaned

2 Onions sliced

2 Tomatoes sliced

2 green Chilies slit

1 tsp Ginger-Garlic paste

1/4 Cumin seeds

1/4 Caraway seeds

1/4 Fennel seeds

1/2 Turmeric powder

1 tsp Red Chili powder

1 tsp Cumin powder

1 tsp Black Pepper powder

Salt to taste

2 tsp Oil

1/4 cup Cilantro chopped

Method:

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1. In a pan add oil and when it's hot enough add cumin, caraway and fennel seeds. When they turn slight brown add ginger-garlic paste and saute until the raw smell goes off and it turns slight brown.

2. Now add onions and saute it until it turns brown.

3. Add tomatoes and all the spices except pepper powder and garam masala powder - turmeric, chili and cumin powder and mix well and cover and cook in medium high heat.

4. Make sure the masala powders are cooked well with the tomatoes.

5. Add Shrimp, mix well and cover and cook for about 5 mins.

6. Open and keep stirring adding salt, garma masala and pepper powder and cook for another min.

7. Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with steamed rice or roti's.