Ode to Pasta

My latest hobby is to go on the web and find out what day it is. By day, I don't mean what day of the week, but for instance, you know how we have Mother's Day in May, Father's Day in June, so on and so forth....... that kind of day. And I am surprised that there is in fact a day, for every day of the entire year! Well, at least they have come up with a day for every day of the year! Yes, that was a redundant statement...........

And so apparently, today, October 17th, is National Pasta Day! We had pasta just the other day. My daughter whipped up her special pesto pasta, using sea shell pasta. She incorporated peas, corn, carrots, red swiss chard, leeks and a ton of garlic. It was par excellent!

My daughter's delicious Pesto Sea Shell Pasta

Not sure I want to make pasta again tonight, but I thought it would be fun to put up some of my pasta pictures from the past........ sort of like an ode to pasta!

My "Devious" Penne Pasta

Chicken Soup with Farfalle

My One-Pot Pesto Pasta

My rather tasteless Shrimp Scampi made with angel hair pasta

My creamy delicious Orzitto

So there, that's my little ode to pasta. (Yes, I do notice that I tend to make more of pesto/green pasta that the red sauce based kind!) Pasta is versatile, and you can never have enough of it! If you haven't already had pasta this week, go ahead and make some awesome pasta tonight. It is afterall National Pasta Day! Oh, don't forget to wear some gaudy clothes while cooking, because, it also happens to be "Wear Something Gaudy Day!" Are you going, "Geez!" yet?! ;)

Hot Stuff!

I love hot and spicy food, and that is the ultimate truth. Of late, I have fallen in love with Naga Bhut Jolokia. Yep, the Ghost Pepper- the hottest pepper I have eaten. Well, it used to be the hottest pepper in the world, until the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion took over. I'm waiting to try that one soon.

Since I love hot and spicy food, I of course have a thing for sauces with a kick. Not your ordinary tomato ketchup kinda sauce, but the gourmet kind. And if the sauce has some ghost pepper action going on, I have to get it! I am proud of my little collection of hot sauces that I have going, and I thought I ought to share it with you.

My lovely collection- still counting.......

In the above picture, starting from the very left, we have Dave's Insanity Sauce, Dave's Ghost Pepper Sauce, Mrs. Renfro's Ghost Pepper Salsa, and finally, Melinda's Naga Jolokia Sauce.

In terms of the heat factor, Dave's Insanity Sauce holds true to its name- INSANELY HOT, followed by Dave's Ghost Pepper Sauce, which can literally rip your taste buds off of your tongue. The ghost pepper salsa is pleasantly tongue-burning hot, and the mildest of all is Melinda's Naga Jolokia Sauce.

Dave's Insanity and Ghost Pepper sauce bottles come with a warning, yes, an actual warning! It goes, "Use this product one drop at a time. Keep away from eyes, pets and children. Not for people with heart /respiratory problems. Shake well and refrigerate after opening." And boy, do they mean it! Heck, the ghost pepper sauce even claims, "It also is a great industrial cleaner and grease remover." And the insanity sauce claims something similar, "Strips waxed floors and removes driveway grease stains." Now you can either take that literally, or treat it like Applied Biology, your choice! ;)

I always have Mrs. Renfro's Ghost Pepper Salsa stocked up in my pantry. In fact, ever since my husband discovered this about a year ago, we don't care much for any other salsa available at the grocery store. It is a brilliant super-hot salsa, and for every bottle sold, a part of the proceeds goes to  The Chile Pepper Institute towards research and education. And I'm all for that! We do know that chile peppers actually have medical benefits, right? Ever heard of capsaicin? That's the stuff extracted from peppers that helps alleviate Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis pains, and even helps regulate blood sugar levels in diabetics. So yeah, it's all good stuff!

Melinda's Naga Jolokia is the mildest of this lot, because even though it has ghost peppers, there are other ingredients, such as carrots, papayas, and passion fruit that totally mask the heat that one would otherwise expect from a sauce that so proudly claims that this is their "hottest offering by far." But hey, no qualms about that. It is still quite tasty. Plus you don't have to worry about any waxed floors getting stripped off!

A year ago, my husband's colleague gave us some bhut jolokia achaar (ghost pepper pickle) that he got from New Delhi, India, and it was killer stuff! Here's a picture that I found on this website. Too bad they are out of it, else I'd have ordered it right now!

So there, that's my collection of ghost pepper sauces for now, and I hope to get a hold of that Trinidad Moruga Scorpion one of these days! 

Celebrating Grains

Woo-hoo! I got one more opportunity to guest blog for Full Circle. Thanks, FC!

Last week, I got an email from them asking me if I would like to write on the topic, 4 Other Grains to Eat besides Rice. OF COURSE I'd like to write on this topic, was my response (sans all the caps......)! I mean, what an exciting thing to write about! I could have written a mighty long article on this topic, however, there's this thing called word-limit, and so I had to chop it up. Well, the post turned out decent enough. The pictures turned out pretty good. Oh, and they were nice enough to put my picture up there, too. *GRIN*

Here's my post: 4 Other Grains to Eat Besides Rice.

Like I say in my post, September happens to be Whole Grains Month- so this was perfect timing!

Spicy Tomato Asparagus Noodles

Last evening, our neighbor brought us some tomatoes from her garden. They looked beautiful, and after thanking her like a dozen times, and shutting the door, my immediate thought was ooh, gotta make some spicy tomato noodles!

The tomatoes, freshly picked from my neighbor's very own vegetable garden, were nice, and red, and firm, and simply gorgeous. Oh, and a 100% organic of course!

Gorgeous organic tomatoes, fresh from my neighbor's garden!

Prepping:

1. I first chopped up the tomatoes. Also minced some garlic. You can make it as garlicky (if that's a word!) as you want. And I roughly chopped some beautiful tender asparagus.



Delicious Tomatoes

Psst: While chopping the tomatoes, I ate up one raw tomato- it was the best tasting tomato I've ever eaten! Sweet like heck, with just a mild hint of tang in the background. My son tried some, and he couldn't stop either! In fact, I felt bad to cook those gorgeous beauties. They definitely don't deserve to be cooked, I thought. And so, I decided that instead of really cooking them, I'll just throw them in at the end.

Tender Asparagus

2. I cooked some regular chowmein style noodes from a packet. I thought I ought to take a picture of the instructions on the packet. OK, not trying to be mean or anything--- but, it was quite funny. Very straightforward, but funny!

Very straightforward instructions (disregard the spellings.....!)

Cooking:

1. A wok would have been nice, but since my wok is not all that great (I got it for free from one of those online orders I made one time), I just used a big pan. Put some cooking oil, got the stove running, and then threw in the garlic. I didn't want to brown the garlic, just sort of get the oil infused with the flavor. I then added about 1/2 teaspoon of red chilli powder for some kick.

Garlic and red chilli powder in oil

2. Then in went the asparagus, that was quickly stir-fried for about a minute or so, you know, to retain the beautiful green color as well as the crunch.

Asparagus

3. I added some salt to taste, and also some freshly ground black pepper. And then threw in the noodles that I had previously cooked. Normally I would have added the tomatoes along with the asparagus, but remember, I didn't want to kill those lovely tomatoes by cooking them. Therefore, I added the tomatoes right at the end. And gave it all one good stir, to get the flavors rolling.

Spicy Tomato Asparagus Noodles

My spicy tomato asparagus noodles turned out pretty darn good. Well, it wasn't all that spicy like I intended it to be. Guess I should have added a good couple teaspoons of red chilli powder. But then, I can go overboard with the spice, sometimes!

The best thing was that I finally, after all these years, successfully ate my noodles with chopsticks! Two thumbs up for that!



Mm mm!

A Day at the Spokane Farmer's Market

I am so excited- I guest blogged for Full circle! Thank you, Full Circle, for publishing my post, "Top 10 picks at the Spokane Farmer's Market." It sure was fun writing for you!

Here's the link to my article: http://www.fullcircle.com/goodfoodlife/2012/08/24/top-10-picks-at-the-spokane-farmers-market/

Some more pictures from my visit to the Spokane Farmer's Market last weekend:

Gourmet Cipollini

Jelly Bean Tomatoes!

Fresh Okra

Potatoes

Look at those Rattlesnake Beans on the right!

Beautiful carrots

Tabasco peppers!

Cheese Samples

Bright and gorgeous flowers

From Bees to Bubbles- Handcrafted soaps

If you haven't gone to your local farmer's market, you must do so. The produce there is simply fresh and beautiful. Strolling around the market is so relaxing and refreshing, and above all, you support your local farmers!! 

Love Rekindled

Just another couple weekends after this one, and kids will be back in school, and we'll have our routine back in place. Bet a lot of us are wondering: where on earth did summer go??? It has just zoomed by like crazy! And I have been slacking off on my blogging too! But hey, no complaints, because I have actually been enjoying summer this year, mainly because it involved some within-the-country travels, first to NJ, and the second to NC. And that really has been the highlight this summer.

NY City

My trip to NJ involved a bit of indulging in some par excellent Desi Khana, i.e. Indian food. I was stupefied, and I decided that the next time I get into the oh-I-miss-India-and-Seattle-is-so-blah mode, all I gotta do, is make a trip to NJ! It will be faster and cheaper than making a trip to India, for sure. I mean, the Indo-Chinese food there is exactly like the Indo-Chinese food we get in Bangalore! Gobi manchurian, chicken lollipop, schezwan noodles, chicken fried rice, you name it!

Gobi Manchurian

Chicken Lollipop: I have not found a single Indian restaurant here, in Seattle, that has this on their menu!! In fact, the Indian restaurants here are very very pathetic! There, I said it! I am sorry if you are somebody who owns an Indian restaurant in Seattle area, and are reading this post- but that is the ultimate truth! In fact, did you know that we have stopped going to Indian restaurants here?? Yep, that's right- we have stopped going to Indian restaurants because their buffets are plain simple BORING! As for Indo-Chinese--- we have one restaurant here, in Redmond, which, I guess, people go to, out of sheer desperation. I, very reluctantly, have to admit that a few weeks ago, I took my kids there, yes, out of sheer desperation!

Tokri Chaat: Who would have thought that this is available here in America?! I certainly didn't have the slightest idea! Well, my friends took me to this place called Dimple's Bombay Talk, and got me tokri chaat. "Tokri" means basket and chaat is of course, a lovely spicy, tangy, sweet, mixture of savory goodness. And you eat the basket along with the chaat. An edible basket, you wonder? Yes, the basket is made out of finely shredded potato and then fried- so yeah, you can go right ahead and eat it all! We have a few chaat places here- say, about 3 (wow!) and again, nothing impressive about them.

Tokri Chaat

OK, so you probably get the gist that Seattle's Indian food scene is not quite up to par. However, I have come to realize that this is in fact a good thing. Better for our health and better for my figure too. I mean, I have always been a chubby girl (hey, chubby sounds better than fat!), and eating chicken lollipop and gobi manchurian and gorging on deep fried tokri chaat will just make me go downhill at an amazing rate! So even though I am in awe of all that delicious Indian food in NJ, I think I am better off here, in Seattle.

In fact, when I came back, I realized that I actually missed Seattle. Nothing can beat our clean air, our evergreens, the Cascades, the hike and bike trails, the farmer's markets, the courteous drivers on our roads (mostly), and just the artsy charm, in general. Yeah, I prefer this to an overcrowded, noisy, polluted place filled with drivers in a mad rush, anytime. Agreed that the Desi Khana scene there is way better, but that certainly does not top my list of priorities!

In one way, I'm glad I made that trip, because it rekindled my love for Seattle.

Quinoa "Pie"- not just for the diabetic!

I mentioned in my last post that my parents are now into low Glycemic Index (GI) foods. That basically means that my mom's pantry is now devoid of any rice, or wheat, for that matter. Instead, her grocery list consists of foxtail millet (called "navane" in Kannada), wire-cut oats etc. These are the "ancient" grains with carbohydrates that take a longer time to break down, thereby releasing sugar into the blood at a slower rate as compared to "modern" grains such as rice, especially white rice, that spike up blood sugar levels at a rapid rate, and the latter is not a good thing, especially for diabetics. And that, my friends, is a pretty long sentence! So anyway, low GI foods are supposedly healthy foods. And with all this talk about healthy living and healthy eating, grains such as millet, oats, buckwheat and quinoa are being re-discovered by people. Well, if not people, definitely by my parents!

The other day I had made quinoa to go along with some baked salmon and grilled veggies, and some of the quinoa was leftover. The next day we had something else and the quinoa just stayed in the fridge. Finally, a couple days later, on a Saturday morning, I decided to use my mom's innovative recipe and converted the quinoa into a beautiful quinoa "pie." It turned out to be pretty darn delicious!

The Making, Ingredients and all:

1. Leftover cooked quinoa. Err, doesn't necessarily have to be leftover-- you could always make some fresh quinoa (cooks just like white rice)! I used roughly about 1.5 cups, maybe. (If you are aware, I follow the eye-ball technique when it comes to cooking......)

Cooked quinoa

2. I had some leftover grated carrot salad from the previous night. Decided to just throw that in as well. Hey, you can make it as healthy as you want! The salad already had salt and some coarse peanut powder.

Grated Carrot salad (with coarsely ground peanuts)

3. Chickpea flour (specifically black chickpea flour, called "kala chana besan" in hindi)- another diabetic friendly ingredient- about 3-4 tablespoons. This acts as the binding agent.

The binding agent- chickpea flour

4. I chopped up a small onion and a couple thai green chillies. And mixed up all of this. I added a few teaspoons of water, just to get a bit of a sticky consistency, to make it easier to spread it out in a baking pan.

Qunoa "pie" mixture

5. I then sprayed a baking pan with some Pam (regular oil will work too, and if you don't care, butter would be great!). I transferred the quinoa "pie" mixture into the pan and spread it out with my palm/fingers. You gotta be quick while doing so, else the mixture can start sticking to your palm and fingers and just get all messy.

Ready to bake!

6. Before sticking it into the oven, that I pre-heated at 400 deg F, I remembered that my mom, when she made the same thing with millet, added some pats of butter on the top and then let it all bake. Yep, butter makes everything, even low GI foods, better! So after placing a few pats of butter on top, I put it away in the oven and let it bake for about 15 to 20 minutes. At the end of it, the butter was all melted and the "pie" was all nice and browned up and best of all was the aroma! So inviting!

Quinoa "pie" all baked and ready!

Delightful Quinoa "pie"

7. I cut up the "pie" into slices, like pizza slices really, and served it with my sun dried tomato pachadi. Mm, mm, delicious! It tasted nutty and chewy and the ends were nice and crisp. In fact, like my daughter pointed out, it tasted like a veggie burger, one of those whole grain bocca patties-- simply outstanding, and super filling too!

Quinoa "pie" with sun dried tomato pachadi

Afterthought:

I realized that this awesome quinoa "pie" will make a great pizza base! I mean, if you are diabetic and you can't find diabetic-friendly pizza anywhere, or if you just want to do something super healthy for yourself, you just make this in the form of a pizza base (pat and spread it out nice and thin), bake it,  and then top it with veggies of your choice (or meat- but believe me, that will be extremely, as in EXTREMELY, heavy!!). And there, you'll have made yourself a real good, out-of-this-world-healthy, pizza!

Likewise, you can incorporate cooked millet or buckwheat or any grain, really, and create some unconventional deliciousness. Go ahead, try it today!