When you are cooking something for the first time, you always want it to be perfect... so perfect that you begin to feel you can become a restaurant chef. But it is only when you actually get to the grind that you know the tricks and tactics of the game.
I LOVE Italian food... Being a vegetarian, you cannot get too much of it. But that does not in any way reduce my awe and my curiosity to cook those beautiful looking dishes. the reasons I love Italian food is because, it is probably the only cuisine in the world to be as interesting and attentive to detail as Indian food is. The rich look it gives makes you wish you could keep waiting it time and again. Having said this, call it an oxymoron or whatever, but i am a little allergic to eating the usual pasta, although it is the one thing i like to cook the most. I have had many successful pastas at home, but never have i felt like eating it too much. But Spaghetti has always had a very special place in my list of favourite dishes. So after a very long time, I wanted to try my luck in it. I decided to add all my favourite stuff, so that nothing goes wrong, because this is the one dish that i really really love a lot, and i wanted to impress my sister (who has constantly been annoying me by slurping at the various types of pastas in many other blogs) and show her that i do have the talent to make a restaurant quality pasta.
But what I got into was an angel with too much devil inside. So go ahead and take a look at my first blooper in my first baking experience. :)
The Marinara Sauce:
A sauce always tastes better if it has stayed for longer. So it would be much better if it was prepared a day before being served. That would also give you more time to concentrate on the rest of the recipe, unlike me.
Ingredients:
5 tomatoes, finely chopped,
4 onion, finely chopped,
3 cloves of garlic, minced,
2 tsps coriander leaves, finely chopped,
1 tsp red chilli powder,
1 cup tomato sauce,
2 tbsp butter,
salt to taste.
Method:
So start off buy heating one tbsp of butter in a pan and fry in onions and garlic. then add the tomatoes and cook until the become really soft and tender. now add some salt and chilli powder. Then add the coriander leaves and the tomato sauce.
Now add the rest of the butter. Let it reduce for a while. You can add some water to bring it to a saucy consistency. After it has reduced and cooked, switch it off. You can also add some lime juice to enhance the flavour. And your sauce will be done.
The paneer balls:
Now we come to the paneer balls, and this is where my baking blooper starts. Just for the record, it tasted great. I just didn't know to bake it properly. So people like me, it is better if we stick to shallow frying until we learn baking properly. :P
Ingredients:
3 potatoes, boiled and skin pealed,
100 gms paneer,
few mint leaves,
1/2 tsp chilli powder,
salt to taste,
bread crumbs,
oil.
Method:
First, take the paneer and crush it so that it would be easier to mix. Boil the potatoes and peel of the skin. Now mash both of this together. You can do this with a masher or with you hands (i prefer hands, because i love the smell), till it comes together like a nice soft dough. Now heat a pan and just saute the mint leaves without any oil. this will help in bringing out the flavour and the smell. Roughly chop it and add it to the mixture along with the salt and chilli powder.
Now roll them into small balls. You can roll them on the bread crumbs to make it crispier. Well since i didn't know baking and i tried it for the first time, it was a total failure and my what was supposed to be crispy and light paneer balls turned out to become hard biscuits. :P Then my mother had to come for the rescue and shallow fry the rest of them, to save the family from dental issues. So if all goes well for you, you will get tasty, tempting paneer balls..
The Grand Finale:
And serve it up restaurant style. :)
I LOVE Italian food... Being a vegetarian, you cannot get too much of it. But that does not in any way reduce my awe and my curiosity to cook those beautiful looking dishes. the reasons I love Italian food is because, it is probably the only cuisine in the world to be as interesting and attentive to detail as Indian food is. The rich look it gives makes you wish you could keep waiting it time and again. Having said this, call it an oxymoron or whatever, but i am a little allergic to eating the usual pasta, although it is the one thing i like to cook the most. I have had many successful pastas at home, but never have i felt like eating it too much. But Spaghetti has always had a very special place in my list of favourite dishes. So after a very long time, I wanted to try my luck in it. I decided to add all my favourite stuff, so that nothing goes wrong, because this is the one dish that i really really love a lot, and i wanted to impress my sister (who has constantly been annoying me by slurping at the various types of pastas in many other blogs) and show her that i do have the talent to make a restaurant quality pasta.
But what I got into was an angel with too much devil inside. So go ahead and take a look at my first blooper in my first baking experience. :)
The Marinara Sauce:
A sauce always tastes better if it has stayed for longer. So it would be much better if it was prepared a day before being served. That would also give you more time to concentrate on the rest of the recipe, unlike me.
Ingredients:
5 tomatoes, finely chopped,
4 onion, finely chopped,
3 cloves of garlic, minced,
2 tsps coriander leaves, finely chopped,
1 tsp red chilli powder,
1 cup tomato sauce,
2 tbsp butter,
salt to taste.
Method:
So start off buy heating one tbsp of butter in a pan and fry in onions and garlic. then add the tomatoes and cook until the become really soft and tender. now add some salt and chilli powder. Then add the coriander leaves and the tomato sauce.
Now add the rest of the butter. Let it reduce for a while. You can add some water to bring it to a saucy consistency. After it has reduced and cooked, switch it off. You can also add some lime juice to enhance the flavour. And your sauce will be done.
The paneer balls:
Now we come to the paneer balls, and this is where my baking blooper starts. Just for the record, it tasted great. I just didn't know to bake it properly. So people like me, it is better if we stick to shallow frying until we learn baking properly. :P
Ingredients:
3 potatoes, boiled and skin pealed,
100 gms paneer,
few mint leaves,
1/2 tsp chilli powder,
salt to taste,
bread crumbs,
oil.
Method:
First, take the paneer and crush it so that it would be easier to mix. Boil the potatoes and peel of the skin. Now mash both of this together. You can do this with a masher or with you hands (i prefer hands, because i love the smell), till it comes together like a nice soft dough. Now heat a pan and just saute the mint leaves without any oil. this will help in bringing out the flavour and the smell. Roughly chop it and add it to the mixture along with the salt and chilli powder.
Now roll them into small balls. You can roll them on the bread crumbs to make it crispier. Well since i didn't know baking and i tried it for the first time, it was a total failure and my what was supposed to be crispy and light paneer balls turned out to become hard biscuits. :P Then my mother had to come for the rescue and shallow fry the rest of them, to save the family from dental issues. So if all goes well for you, you will get tasty, tempting paneer balls..
The Grand Finale:
Ingredients for Garnishing:
2 tbsp grated cheese,
coriander leaves.
Finally to put it all together, boil the Spaghetti as per the instructions, with some salt. Place it in a plate. Now heat the marinara sauce and add the paneer balls in it. Let it cook for a minute or so, this helps the flavour of the sauce to get into the paneer balls. Now drop this sauce on top of the cooked spaghetti. Add some grated cheese and coriander on top.
And serve it up restaurant style. :)
