Riddikulus-ly Pink Beetroot and Strawberry Smoothie

I am posting this just to get over my ridiculous need to blog about food only when I have something random, funny, introspective or nostalgic to go along with the recipe. For once, I don't. I mean, I don't have anything of any importance to say right now. And the lack of having anything of any consequence to write about, has been stopping me from posting about food. Which is ridiculous.

I know what you are thinking. How are they related? Just writing about a dish, its recipe, the cooking method; that should be enough, right? Yeah. It should be. But I am weird. That's the only explanation. I like my food to have a story. Any story. (Also I kinda like to think that all you guys come visit my blog as much for the crazy stories as the decent recipes). So I am now trying to post without a story. Or without anything really. Other than the food. And now I have successfully rambled on about nothing without a mention of the recipe! Riddikulus!

Oh, and if you think that I spelt 'ridiculous' wrong there, then clearly you haven't read Harry Potter and you cannot ever be my true best friend. Ok, yes, I know you may not want to be my true-best-friend, but its your loss, really. And since this post (which started with all good intentions) has now really fallen under the ridiculous category, let me enlighten you with the advantages of a 'Riddikulus' spell:

Sunday Spaghetti with Iced Jasmine & Lemon Green Tea

This weekend was 2 days well spent. Except for a couple of hours spent at work, I feel proud of myself for really making use of this weekend to get a lot of things done. Firstly, I got our car stereo repaired. Wheeee! I was scandalized last month when Sid told me that the car service centre had said the barely 2 yrs old Blaupunkt system had gone kaput and had to be replaced! I refused to replace it – it had cost us a neat 5 figure amount and I was not willing to give up on it so soon. So after driving around without any music for the last couple of months, I finally figured out an authorized service centre. And what do you know? They fixed it for free! And now my music-starved soul could finally hear the strains of the radio channels! :) That definitely called for some celebration.

Rest of Saturday was spent AC shopping with A, a really average dinner at KFC (What is this big deal about deep fried, tasteless chicken? It’s the worst kind of junk food among all junk food!) and then watching 2 good movies back to back on DVD. Sunday pretty much followed the same pattern. After a late breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, I just whiled away my time surfing the net. Do you know that I couldn’t upload pictures onto my blog anymore because my Picasa web album storage quota was full??! That was really annoying. So I ended up buying $5 worth of 20GB Google storage online. Now I think I have enough space for the next 5 years!

Anyway, by evening I was sure I wanted to make something nice for dinner and not let “The Weekend Epicurean” waste an entire weekend. At this point I don’t know if I’m cooking to post on the blog, or I’m blogging to post what I have cooked! I bought a packet of durum wheat spaghetti last month and have been itching to try it. So another DVD night seemed to be the ideal setting for some pasta and iced jasmine lemon green tea.

Spaghetti with Chicken and Mushrooms

Ingredients:
Spaghetti – 1 pkt (I used whole wheat brown spaghetti)
Boneless chicken – 200gms

For the chicken marinade:
Salt
Pepper
Paprika/Red Chilli powder
Soy Sauce
Mustard paste – 1 tbsp
Chilli sauce – 1 tsp
Garam masala
Lemon juice – 2 tsp

For the sauce:
Button Mushrooms – chopped – 100gms
Garlic – finely chopped – 1 tsp
Onion – finely chopped – 1 medium
Cream – 100gms (I use Amul Fresh Cream)
Red cooking wine – 3 tbsp
Milk (optional)
Cheese – 1 cube (Laughing Cow Mushroom cheese)
Salt
Pepper
Oregano
Tomato sauce – 2 tbsp

Chop the boneless chicken into bite sized pieces, put in all the ingredients for the marinade, mix well and refrigerate for half an hour. Cook the spaghetti as per instructions on the pack. Pour in the contents into a big vessel of boiling water. Add some salt. Cook for 10-15 min till the spaghetti is al dente. Pour in a glass of cold water and strain immediately.

Heat 2 tsp oil in a heavy bottomed pan or kadhai. Add the marinated chicken pieces. Cover and cook for about 10min till the chicken is done. Remove from pan. Put in the chopped garlic and onion and fry till just turning brown. Add the chopped mushroom, salt, pepper and oregano. Cook till the mushrooms are soft. Pour in the wine and the cream and let simmer for a few minutes. If you require more sauce, add a little water or milk. Now add the cooked chicken pieces, tomato sauce and a cube of cheese and cook on low flame for a couple of minutes. Adjust seasoning and turn the flame off.

Pour this sauce over the spaghetti, mix well and serve hot.



Iced Jasmine & Lemon Geen Tea

Ok, so this one is as simple as it gets. I have a box of Organic India Jasmine & Tulsi Green Tea bags.

Heat ½ litre water in a vessel with 6 spoons of sugar and bring to a boil. If you want to skip refined sugar, go with brown sugar or honey. Turn off the flame, dip in the tea bags with the paper tags on the outside and cover with a lid. Let the tea steep for 20 min. Remove the tea bags, add another ½ litre of cold water and juice of 1 lemon. Refrigerate. Serve with ice cubes and wedges of lemon, or Tulsi (basil) leaves.