Baked Rotini pasta with roasted fennel

I make pasta about once a week. We like our pasta with some side dish on the side. Venkatesh is extremely fond of vegetables, so I try to incorporate different kinds of veggies in our diet. Yesterday i made baked tri color rotini pasta with vegetables and to go along with that i roasted fennel bulb.

Coming to fennel, its a native to southern Europe and southwestern Asia. It is used in lot of Italian cooking too. The florence fennel is a collection with inflated leaf bases which form a sort of a bulb. The bulb is the part which we actually cook. The fennel has a strong aromatic herbal smell to it. Some find the smell is too strong to take. more info on fennel click here

Tri color rotini pasta and fennel bulb with fennel fronds (leaves)

Recipe for Baked Pasta:

1. Tri color Rotini pasta (any kind of pasta works) - 3/4th pound
2. Any kind of veggies you like- I used beans, carrot and broccoli.
3. Marinara sauce
4. 2 cloves of garlic
5. Crushed red pepper
6. Grated mozzarella cheese and
7. Olive oil.

In a pot boil lots of water, add salt and add the pasta to it. Cook the pasta, till its about eighty percent done. Don’t cook completely, because we will be finishing the cooking in the oven.

Now take an oven safe pot, add the pasta, olive oil, garlic cloves (finely chopped), crushed red pepper, veggies and the marinara sauce. Toss it, till the pasta is well incorporated with the above ingredients. Sprinkle grated mozzarella cheese on the top, cover with an aluminum foil.

Preheat the oven to 350F and bake the pasta for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another five minutes, this helps the cheese to melt. Serve with roasted fennel (or any kind of side dish) accompanied with some soft drink or just cold water.

I steamed the beans for a minute in the microwave before adding them to the pasta and baking it.I do this because beans generally need more cooking.

Recipe for roasted fennel:

1. One medium sized fennel bulb
2. 2 tsps of olive oil
3. Crushed black pepper
4. Grated Parmesan cheese
5. Salt and
6. Chopped fennel fronds( fennel leaves)- 1tsp

The fennel bulb is pretty hard in texture. So I prefer cutting them long and thin. Refer the picture for the size. This helps the fennel to cook fast and it also significantly reduces the cooking time. So, it’s very important to cut them thin.

In a baking dish, arrange the fennel. Sprinkle salt, pepper, olive oil and parmesan cheese and ½ a tsp of fennel fronds. Mix well, cover with the foil and bake at 350F for about 20 minutes. Remove and check if it needs more cooking. Now add the remaining ½ a tsp of fennel fronds and serve. Roasting the fennel in the oven makes it soft, moist and sweetish in taste.

I cooked my pasta and fennel together at the same time.

Baked pasta with roasted fennel

Fennel can be found in any supermarket in the U.S. It’s generally near the greens section in the vegetable aisle.

Red bell pepper curry

We live in center city Philadelphia. Close to our apartment, we have a market where i get fresh vegetables and fruits from local farms. They are not only fresh, but very reasonable in price. This morning i happened to get fresh red bell peppers from this market for a very low price. ( and that would be 4 med sized peppers for a dollar…!, what a deal, don’t you think so…).

Long back, my sister gave me a recipe for egg plant, i thought why not use the same spices and make the red bell pepper curry. And the curry turned out pretty good. This curry can be eaten either with chapathi or rice.

Recipe:

1. Medium sized red bell peppers - 3
(any color of pepper is fine)
2. cumin (jeera)- 1tsp
3. dry red chillies- 4
4. garlic cloves- 2
5. dry coconut- 3 tsps
6. dalia (roasted chana dal/chanaga pappu)- 2 tsps
7. lemon juice- 1 to 2 tsps and
8. coriander leaves (cilantro)

In a pan add one tsp oil then add one garlic clove, cumin and dry red chillies. Slightly toast them. Remove mix the above ingredients with the dry coconut, dalia and grind.

Cut the bell pepper in to small chunks. In a pan do the tadka first ( 3 tsps oil, few mustard seeds, 1/2 tsp chana dal, 1/4 tsp cumin seeds and a pinch of hing).
Now add the remaining one clove of garlic(finely chopped)with the bell pepper. Add half a teaspoon of salt and cook till the pepper becomes soft.

It takes about ten minutes for the peppers to cook. Now add the spice powder, lemon juice and cilantro. Taste and reseason accordingly. Enjoy with chapathi or hot rice.

Recipe: akka

Happy Sankranthi

Sankranthi Subhakanshalu!

photo courtesy:
123greetings

Sankranti (Telugu: సంక్రాంతి ), is a festival that signifies the beginning of the harvest season for the farmers of India.It is also called ‘Makara Sankranthi’, it is celebrated primarily in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka & Maharashtra. (above article taken from wikipidea, more info click here….

In Andhra pradesh, my home state we call it “pedda panduga” which means the big festival. It is generally a three day festival, which starts on Jan 13th and goes up to Jan 15th (Sankranthi is one of the few festivals which come on the same day every year). Each day has its own significance.

• The first day being the bhogi panduga
• Second day Sankranthi and
• The third day is Kanuma.

I have a lot of child hood memories associated with this festival. We usually spent this festival at my grand mother’s place in Nellore.

On Bhogi, we use to wake up as early as 4 am in the morning and lightup bhogimantlu (bon fire). Items like old broom sticks, woods and paper are thrown in to the fire. It signifies the destruction of the evil and departure of the poverty. Later we clean the courtyards and sprinkle it with water and cowdung and draw beautiful muggulu (also called rangoli). Then the muggulu are decorated with mariglod flowers on fresh round cow dung balls. Then everyone takes bath and wear new clothes.

Sankranthi, the main day of this three day celebration starts with Lakshmi pooja(Goddess of wealth). Sweet Pongal (made of rice, lentils and Jaggery) is offered as naivedyam (offering) to the god. The cattle, especially cow is also offered prayers.

Other entertaining sights during Sankranthi are Gangireddu (decorated oxen) which are taken from one house to other, they are often see nodding their head, accompanied by their owner who sings songs. People offer them rice and clothes. We also have bommala kolluvu which displays various dolls and toys.

Food plays a very important part in this festival. In Andhra we make ariselu( made of rice and Jaggery), kajjikayalu, jantikalu, puliharam(tamarind rice), garelu, boorelu, laddu and sweet pongal.

Women and kids go to relative’s house and neighboring houses for tambulam (which consists of tamalapakulu, coconut and flowers)

Kanuma, is a festival for farmers. The farmers decorate their cattle and offer prayers. This is a very happy occasion for the farmers because they sell their produce and get money. People visit temples and family gatherings happen.

Cinema is a very popular media in our Andhra, a lot of movies are released during this period. In the evening people go to watch the movies.

There are so many other memories which are related to this festival, like- hari dasu, banthi poolu, chamanthi poolu(flowers), gobbimmalu, muggulu, gummadi kaayalu, and all the sweets which I mentioned earlier. No wonder we call it pedda pandugaa in our Andhra Pradesh. It truly is, though I miss all of this here in U.S, just to think about it makes me so happy.

Wishing each and every one a Very Happy Sankranthi!

On this Special occasion, I would like to share this simple yet divine and delicious sweet with everyone- Sweet Pongal( we call it chekara pongal, chekara means sugar. Though we make it with jaggery we call it chekara pongal, i dont know why). This is the first recipe i will be blogging this year. And i am very happy to start with a sweet like this.

Sweet Pongal Recipe:

• Rice- 1 cup
• Yellow moong dal (pesala pappu)- 1/2 cup
• Jaggery- 1 1/4th cup
• Milk- 4 cups
• Water- 2 cups
• Cardamom – 3 ( grind using a mortar)
• Few Cashews and raisins and
• Ghee

Lightly toast the yellow moong dal, now mix it with rice add the milk and pressure cook.(Make sure the rice and moong dal is just cooked through, but not very mushy).

Now take a big skillet, add two cups of water and jaggery powder. Let the jaggery melt and water come to a boil. Once that’s done, add the cooked rice and dal mixture. Mix it well and cook for about five minutes.

In a different skillet heat 3 tsps of ghee, add cashews and raisins and fry till light golden brown.

Once the pongal comes together add the cardamom powder and the fried cashews and raisins and turn off the stove.

Offer the sweet pongal to the God as naivedyam( offering) and enjoy this simple yet delicious sweet as prasadam with your loved once.

Recipe: amma
Note: I prefer my pongal with just enough sweetness to it, if you prefer it much sweeter add some more jaggery.