Linguini with tomato sauce

This is a mish-mash of various pasta recipes I've been reading on food blogs and seeing on food network (I highly recommend it for wholesome, family entertainment :)

Ingredients:
Linguine pasta (I added as much as I could hold in my hand :p)
finely chopped tomatoes - 2
finely chopped onion - 1
red chili flakes - 1/2 a palmful
mustard - 1 teaspoon
garlic - 3/4 cloves
1/2 a cup shitake mushrooms (I used frozen)
1/2 cup any store-bought marinara/pasta sauce (I used a combination of salsa and a few teaspoons of peanut sauce)
olive oil - 3/4 teaspoons
cheese - 4-5 teaspoons shredded parmesan, a spoonful of cream cheese
lemon juice - 2 teaspoons
salt - as needed
handful of sunflower seeds and dried cranberries

Recipe:
Boil water (enough to cover the pasta), add salt to the boiling water and add the linguini to it (takes 8-10 minutes to cook). Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, garlic, onion and saute for a few minutes, add the sunflower seeds, red chili flakes, tomatoes, frozen mushroom, the pasta sauce, 1/4 cup of water and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add salt, cranberries and lemon juice. Drain the pasta and add the sauce to it. Toss well and sprinkle the cheeses on it.

Panagam

Copying this recipe here so I can consult it for the next SriRamaNavami :)

Ingredients
6 tablespoon gur, jaggery, or brown sugar.
2 pinches cardamom (elaiche) powder
1 small piece dried ginger
1 teaspoon lime or lemon juice
pinch of salt
2 cups water

Powder the gur and the dried ginger well. Take water and add the above powders and the cardamom powder. Add salt, and the lime or lemon juice. Stir well and serve.

Source: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/165/story_16514_1.html

Ridge gourd (peerkangai)

This is the first time I ventured cooking with a vegetable that always scared me. After reading several food blogs featuring ridge-gourd, I decided it was time I stood up to it!



So, I tried Priya's recipe to make a peerkangai chutney and also managed to whip up a peerkangai subji with tomato gravy (I used coconut milk for a creamy gravy) - probably the first time I cooked two different dishes using the skin and pulp of the same vegetable!


I was very apprehensive of the chutney but it was even better than the subji! Am scared of ridge gourd no more!

Icecream medley!

Satish and I take credit for this entirely original icecream medley!

Ingredients:
Breyer's Coffee icecream (or any other icecream, as you can see, I am not very particular with the ingredients :p)
a couple of spoonfuls of Graeters butter-scotch topping
2 Chessmen cookies
1/2 a cup full of strawberries chopped into small pieces
couple of tablespoons of honey

The method in the madness:

Crush the chessmen cookies into powder. To one big scoop of icecream, add the powdered biscuits, then the butterscotch topping, add strawberries and a drizzle of honey. Ta da!

Sindhi dal.

Since k has the sniffles :) and specifically asked for dal bhath, I googled for a dal recipe that's familiar hence comforting but not too familiar and I found this interesting Sindhi-dal recipe. I upped the ginger a bit and skipped the tamarind and we had a nice dinner to drive away the sniffles :)

Beetroot, kale.

Today's menu - beetroot curry and kale dal (substituted spinach with kale - thought I would try out some seasonal vegetable before the season runs out!)

Source: Mahanandi

Puliinji and cabbage curry.

Cabbage curry - Never realized cabbage could taste so good (read healthy) with just five minutes of cooking.
Puliinji - I would put it in the vatha-kuzhambu category. Very tasty!