Pasta Cooked in Ground Chicken Spinach Sauce

Pasta Cooked in Ground Chicken Spinach Sauce 

Kolkata Food Bloggers is presenting another fabulous event. This time its Know Your Food Blogger 2. For those of you who still do not know who we are. We are a bunch of mad hat food lovers who loves cooking, clicking , sharing and knowing. For this event we are dedicating a week each for our members who are participating in this fabulous event and recreating some wonderful dishes. This week's star is our very own Sarani Tarafder from Cocoawind: Back to Basics.

My entire interaction with Sarani has been virtual. Early on we realized that this bubbly enthusiastic lady and I have studied in the same school and my older cousin sister has been her former classmate and has in fact attended her wedding. Talk about it being a small world but then again that must have been years ago since our lovely lady in question has spent a large chunk of her married life in the USA.

What I love about Sarani is the balance she maintains between food which is indulgent and food which is mostly healthy yet delicious.

For quite some time have I eyed and marked her fabulous recipe for Pasta Cooked in Ground Chicken Spinach Sauce . What I love about this particular recipe is how well the lovely Sarani has camouflaged Spinach for her tiny tot. Now having become an aunt at quite an early age thanks to my older cousins,  struggling to make kiddies have veggies is something which is highly familiar to me and the way our lady in question has skilfully been successful in getting her lovely child to eat Spinach is proof enough of her expertise in the kitchen. Well I have always loved spinach and it doesn't need camouflaging for me but there is something about blend spinach which gets me very excited.

Anyway coming back to recipe,  after the week long indulgence during Diwali I had sadly ruined months of exercising and careful eating and this recipe couldn't have come at a better time. Since I am following a low on carb  high on protein and vegetable diet I did modify the recipe a little bit but it essentially remains the same. The original recipe asks you to use spices or herbs as per your choice which is what I did and to make it oil-free and even more healthy I chucked out the frying part altogether and added some Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the end which is optional. This dish was so fabulous and healthy that I know that it will be a staple in my ktichen.

So here goes the recipe which serves 1 :

1/4th cup wholewheat penne pasta
Half a large bunch of fresh spinach
200gm to 250gm ground chicken
1 extra large garlic
3 to 4 peppercorn
Salt as per taste
1 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil (optional)

Bring a pot of water to boil along with a pinch of salt and add the spinach when the water starts boiling and cook for exactly 2 minutes and take out the spinach and let it cool down and add the pasta and let it cook as per instructions on the packet. In the meantime once the spinach has cooled down blend it with salt, garlic and peppercorn and keep it aside. Once the pasta is cooked drain it but reserve the water and bring this water to a boil with the ground chicken and cook till its cooked all the way though. If there is extra water left drain it and keep aside the stock and now put the cooked ground chicken and blend spinach back in the pan and add the pasta and mix well and serve with a drizzle of 1 tsp EVOO. Enjoy a delicious healthy meal.

This is part of

Creamy Potato Spinach 'Aloo palak malaiwale'

Creamy Potato Spinach 'Aloo palak malaiwale' 

There here are some dishes which you anyway know are going to be delicious because butter and cream makes everything extra delicious. Now normally I don't even bring in fresh cream in my house because the thought of those extra kilograms hanging from everywhere on my body  is not something I relish thinking about but then there are those special occasions when you can actually indulge and my mother-in-law's visit is reason enough to make a creamy lip-smacking Aloo Palak Malaiawale aka Creamy Potato Spinach.

Now before I share the this recipe let me tell my readers from before that any substitution of the ghee or cream used here will not render the same results at all. In case you want to not use ghee the only other substitute for ghee can be mustard oil but even that cannot give it that delicious taste that ghee gives .

Anyway moving on to the recipe

Serves 3 to 4

4 medium sized potatoes cubed into medium size
1 large bunch of spinach
1.5 tbsp minced garlic
1 inch ginger chopped julienne
1 green chili julienne
Salt as per taste
4 cups of water
4 heaped tbsp fresh cream
2 heaped tsp clarified butter 'ghee'
Pinch of asafoetida 'hing'
Garam masala made with 1/2 black cardamom, 1 green cardamom, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 2 tsp coriander seeds, 1 blade of mace, pinch of nutmeg, 1 bay leaf , 1/2 inch cinnamon, 3 cloves
3 to 4 green chilies
Dollop of butter

Start by dry roasting the ingredients for your 'Garam Masala' and then grinding it to a fine powdery consistency.

Now ever since I read this Italian chef's tips on maintaining the green colour of spinach I have never had  trouble with maintaining its colour. Its simple actually. Wash the spinach well. The easiest way to make sure you get rid of all the dirt is to fill a bit pan with water and then chopping off the end of the spinach and soaking the leaves in the water and rubbing them and cleaning them. This mostly gets out all the dirt.             Bring the 4 cups of water to a boil. Now add the chopped spinach leaves and let it boil for exactly 2 minutes and immediately take out the spinach and there you have boiled green spinach. Reserve the water in which you have cooked the spinach.

Cube the potatoes and heat the ghee and add the asafoetida 'hing' and when it splutters add the minced garlic, ginger and chili  and saute till softened and add the potatoes and cook on medium heat to saute the potatoes and add the reserved spinach water and bring to a boil and add salt and then simmer covered till the potatoes are mostly cooked. It might take anything between 10 minutes to 15 minutes.

In the meantime make a paste of the cooked spinach and 3 green chilies.

Now add half the garam masala and remove the cover and cook till the curry dries up. Add the spinach paste and mix well and then add the cream and mix well and simmer for 2 minutes . taste and add salt if required. Serve with a dollop of butter on top with soft chapatis or hot fluffy rice.

Pollo Alla Milanese

So the most delicious things in life are the simplest ones. One such delight is the Pollo alla Milanese which is basically chicken breast beaten well to flatten it and then served with spinach and a tomato sauce but then Christmas is all about love is it not?

Well it actually goes back to the 26th when I was tryign to meet my deadline and was in a flurry of typing , listenign analsyizing etc and then the phoen rings and here si what happened:

H: "Where are you Manjari?" Me: " I am in my house why?" H: "Come out please" And holy Mother of God there he was standing in front of my house , my lanky bear of a husband. Well with his beard and all he can pass of as a bear , a lanky one at that standing with his luggage and a rose. Between transit to his hometown the dear man had made a stop and demanded that i immediately accompany him which was not possible since I had a deadline and a Christmas celebration which had been anyways fashionably postponed . With precious little time left since we came to an agreement of my traveling on the 30th I knew that a Dundee cake and whole roast would not be possible what with packing and all and so I decided on a simple recipe which did not require the oven.

So this cotoletta as the Italians would say might have originally been made of veal but i have read in blogs by people from that land of culinary delight that chicken is also acceptable hence from Cotoletta alla Milanese it becomes pollo (chicken) alla Milanese. Well authentic cotoletta is a cutlet fried bone in but i did get my chicken breasts all deboned from the butchers and used the bone for a fantastic stock for later usage .

Christmas is definitely all about relationships and so I had originally planned on the Pomodoro (tomato) sauce and spinach tossed around with garlic and olive oil but since I was going away I could help ask my best friend which sauce she would prefer and she said she would want the white based sauce and so the dish finally came to represent the Italian flag. My dear friend and cousin gobbled up both sauces and from the way they were engrossed in the dish I can say that my Christmas was most definitely a wonderful one. Now Bechamel sauce is essentially French but add a bit of nutmeg and Parmesan and you have Italian white sauce

Anyways the most obvious reason for choosing this lovely dish is because of its sheer simplicity and here is what you do

Use 1 chicken breast per person and flatten it with a mallet Ah but before that this is what you need

Chicken breast 1/2 per person
Salt and pepper
Olive Oil
Homemade breadcrumbs Handful for 2 breasts
1 egg per breast (again the size of eggs vary greatly)
Roughly 50gm all purpose flour per breast


For the pomodoro sauce (Tomato sauce)

8 large plump tomatoes
3 to 4 large sized garlic cloves which when minced should yield about 2.5 tbsp garlic (You see the size of the garlic varies from place to place)
Salt and pepper
2 to 3 tsp red chili flakes
Handful of fresh basil
1tbsp extra virgin olive oil

For the special Italian bechamel sauce

3 tbsp of silky smooth almond paste
3tbsp unsalted butter
3 cups of whole milk
6 tbsp cream
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper
A good handful of Parmesan cheese

For the spinach

I used about 500gm of spinach
3 tbsp minced garlic
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

The recipe is basically very simple.

Start with the sauces . Simple blanch the tomatoes and chop chop chop. Use about 4 tbsp olive oil and saute minced garlic and add the chili flakes and half the chopped basil and quickly add the tomatoes and stir and cook on medium flame till it bubbles and add salt , pepper and the rest of the basil then mash a bit and simmer till you get a thick sauce.

For your white Italian bechamel sauce simply melt the butter and add the smooth nut paste and the milk and quickly add salt, pepper , nutmeg half the cheese and stir continuously so that no lumps are formed to make a smooth silky sauce and then add the other half of the cheese and mix well. You can also first bring the milk to a boil with the nutmeg salt and pepper and simmer it for 5 to 7 minutes then melt butter add nut paste and the flavoured milk and cheese and simmer while stirring continuously.

All you need to do is flatten the chicken a bit and season with salt and pepper and then simply roll around in the flour and then dip in whisked eggs and coat well with breadcrumbs so that no bit is left un-coated and then fry in the olive oil. The flavour of this cutlet comes from the frying in olive oil and this one must never substitute with other oils else it seizes to be Pollo alla Milanese from Italy and believe me the flavour of the olive oil fried cutlet is superb. Here is a little tip with your breadcrumbs. The fresher it is the better it is of course and nothing beats homemade ones but adding a bit of salt, pepper and dried oregano gives an amazing flavour.

Once you are done with the chicken. Simple add 5 to 6 tbsp olive oil to a hot pan and add the minced garlic and the chopped spinach and cook on high heat for not more than 3 minutes to retain the colour and flavour. Over-cooking renders the spinach bitter.

You have your beautiful meal waiting for you and everybody to appreciate

Green green green , green baby Green

So this was one of the few gastronomical challenges that I have taken up. You see a very sweet virtual friend shared how she was on an extreme diet which only allowed green vegetables. Now, I have the greatest sympathy and support for people who try to go healthy no matter how crazy it seems as long as they do not skip meals. You see most people are mean. I have had first hand experience with the whole weight gain saga. While when you are actually slim trim no one really notices, put on a few kilos and the number of people who are concerned will amaze you. Given that many among them will be your true well wishers and being an adult you would very likely know who they are but the other percentage of sympathizers are just like crabs trying to pull each other down. Now I do love salads but colourful ones, going green all the way was quite challenging

So there I was trying to figure out about going green all the way. I mean sure there is the usual broccoli, cabbage , leafy vegetables but I wanted something different and eureka, I was suddenly hit with an idea for all green salad. Now I am personally not on such a strict diet and did use a little bit of Cheddar cheese (the fresh ones from Kalimpong are delicious) but that can be left out.

What you need

2 to 3 cucumbers
One big bunch of spinach leaves
2 tablespoonful of chives
1 whole jalapeno pepper
A few peppercorns
1 tablespoonful of celery
4 to 5  fat garlic cloves
Salt as per taste
2 tsp olive oil.
Cheddar cheese
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
Juice from half a lemon

Start by slicing the cucumbers diagonally to form large thin slices. taste one and if you find it bitter take some salt and mix it well with the cucumbers and leave aside. After 20 minutes wash them thoroughly and use it. The salt draws out all bitterness and leaves the cucumbers with a little bit of salt. Wash your spinach well. The easiest way to do so is by immersing them in a pot full of water and then washing them thoroughly under running water. Keep a bowl of ice water ready. Blanch your spinach by bringing a pot of water to boil and immersing the spinach for only 1 minute. Immediately immerse the leaves in ice water to stop extra cookign so that the leaves retain that superb green colour.

Since I was using the salad for 1 person's consumption I used half of the blanched spinach leaves, in case you use the entire lot feel free to increase the amount of peppercorn, chives , garlic etc as per taste. Now put everything except the cucumbers in a blender sand blend away.

Arrange the cucumbers in a neat row . Put a thin slice of cheddar on top and scoop a little bit of the spinach on top and there you have the healthiest possible salad ever. I would not recommend leaving out the cheddar. You might also use the blend spinach a a dip.

Palak Paneer (Indian cottage cheese in spinach curry)

While washing chopping and prepping today I was taken back to a hot summer's evening earlier this year. My husband is a solar site engineer and so while I had visited him at site in Haryana we were invited by one of his juniors to dine with his family in the near-by village. While the initial thoughts regarding that day makes me find it hilarious, such as the young man telling me I should not take my husband's name and how I looked an appropriate wife in a churidar and hoe covering the head brings good luck. Most other days when he would come back with Arvind, I would be in trousers and a cotton overcoat. While I do believe in when in Rome do as the Romans do the idea of suffocating in the heat of June under a scarf was impossible. The family was wonderful and to be fair ti was the most delicious of meals I have ever had. The paneer and dal were exquisite , in no other restaurant of Delhi or Haryana have I tasted that good a dish, rather two dishes. I am naturally fond of clarified butter and it was my day. My remembrance of that day is more focused on the little girl I met in that household. Aged about 9 she was fascinated with this "sheherwali" , head uncovered, wearing a hint of lipstick and after the initial shyness remained attached to me throughout the visit. I guess children across borders in all states and nations are the same. They are full of questions, speak really fast when excited and are intrigued by anything which is different form their surroundings. In our 2 hour long conversation I did learn that her favourite subject was geography and that she loved "palak paneer" "Mujhe na palak paneer bohot hee pasand hai" (i just love palak paneer) (A beautiful curry made with cottage cheese and spinach) , what i do also distinctly remember is her telling me that she hates the kitchen and hates the idea of cooking. While I was craving palak paneer I could not but remember this little girl and could not help hoping that she never is pushed into the kitchen unless she expressly wants to. Here is remembering  you little girl , here is hoping that you travel the world and here is hoping you do whatever your heart wants you to do. With Amrit ji's recipe for palak paneer , cooked in clarified butter alone and chapatis with ghee on top this is an evening to remember. Here is to winters and all little girls and hoping they never are pushed into this activity that we all love against their will.

Anyways for those of us who do love cooking here is the recipe. Start by making the paneer. Its all in a  day's work.

For the paneer:

1 litre of whole milk
1 tbsp vinegar diluted with 1 tbsp water / 1 cup leftover whey

Bring the milk to a roaring boil and add the diluted vinegar or whey  . You shall see the cottage cheese forming in front of your eyes and when the whey has completely separated and you can see white clusters floating about in green water , turn off stove and cover and wait for 5 to 7 minutes. Then transfer everything to a clean thin cloth with a bowl underneath it to collect the whey and drain the water for not more than 10 minutes and then use a big flat bowl to transfer the content and press it down to a slab and then put a weight.

Now here is a trick. Many people use the "sil" of sil-nora. A slab of stone with an oval stone shaped object for grinding but while usign that would make yield set paneer it will be ahrd and we do not want our cottage cheese to be hard so press down with another plate and use something like a stone bowl or a heavy book, not one that can be thrown to injure people wink wink on top for a couple of hours. This way the paneer is  soft yet set perfectly. So lets say you start makign it at 11 a.m. , you should be done by 3 p.m. or say 4 p.m. Do reserve the water. It dishes a beautiful unmatched flavour to dishes when used.

For the palak paneer. Now I followed the recipe of Amritji but also took help from my over the years collected ones

So you have your :

1 big bunch of palak / spinach
1 heaped tsp to 1.5 tsp ginger garlic paste
Half a tomato
2 small but not tiny sized onions chopped very finely
2 to 4 green chilies
Pinch of bicarbonate of soda
Juice of half a lemon or a bit less.

2 green cardamom
2 cloves
cinnamon
1 tablespoonful to 1.5 tablespoonful of Coriander powder
2 tsp Cumin powder
1 heaped tsp chili powder
Pinch of garam masala
Salt as per taste
Clarified butter about 5 to 6 tablespoon

Start by first thoroughly washing the spinach /palak leaves. The bets way to make certain that you get all the dirt is immersing them in a big bowl of water and washing them with your hands while changing the water twice or thrice or a greater number of times. Now palak is a leafy vegetable with high water content, so you need not add too much of water. Do add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to ensure that the green colour is maintained. In the meantime make a course paste of ginger and garlic, chop the onions as finely as possible and blend half the tomato.

Now blend you cooked spinach to a smooth paste. Add the chilies when blending and if you cannot handle so much heat just leave the chilies out.

Keep a bowl of warm water ready, I usually use the leftover water from the spinach. Cube the paneer and saute in clarified butter till golden but not beyond that and add them to the warm water. this step ensures that they stay soft and beautiful. Take some clarified butter and add your onions, saute till translucent. Add the garlic ginger paste and cook till done but not browned or worse burnt. Add the spices after smashing them with a mortar and then add the tomato and a wee bit of the spinach water to make a thick paste and add the coriander and cumin powder.  Now remember that too much cooking of spinach makes them loose colour. So add the spinach and bring to a  quick boil and then simmer and quickly add the paneer and  mix real well and add a pinch of garam masala and lemon juice with a bit of clarified butter and transfer to a bowl. The lemon juice aids digestion when taking leafy vegetables. Serve with hot flatsbread smeared with clarified butter.

Tip :-

If you have leftover whey from a previous paneer making session store it in the refrigerator and use it to make paneer the following time you are making it by bring the milk to a roaring boil and adding 1 cup of whey per litre of milk. It takes a bit of time to form the cheese but it gives the softest cheese ever

Spinach based winter curry from Bengal

Green winter valley from Bengal.

There are times when you cant stop feeling how lucky you are. My favourite and dear aunt M. The one who guided me when it comes to all Bengali affairs of the kitchen and what I like is her meticulous way of explaining things such as "Chop the brinjal larger than the other vegetables else they will become too soggy and break" or "don't add too much water when boiling spinach because  ti has a lot of water content in ti which will automatically come out while cooking" "When done with cooking Indian food if using chilies take a bit of water in the same kadhai and add thew chilies and use the spatula to get all that is stuck on the sides with vigorous stirring, this way the chilies maintain the green colour and its easy to clean the kadhai" , "Ektu ghee garam masala na dile ki taste ase sona , tumi exercise kore niyo " (darling without a bit of clarified butter and homemade garam masala the taste remains unsatisfactory)

She swims, she knits , she cooks , she cakes and what is astonishing is how perfect every thing she touches is. I was lucky enough to hear how her mother would keep a big trunk in which all the silver utensils were stored. She attributes most of her recipes to her mother which has eventually been passed on to me and so I can actually call these vintage old school Bengali recipes and boy do they taste good.

Whenever I feel at a loss I know which number to dial. This one is a simple affair a big bunch of spinach leaves, 1 potato, 1 raddish , half a brinjal, a bit of asafoetida, bay leaf, cumin seeds , ginger chili cumin paste , clarified butter, vadi, sugar and homemade garam masala and its a true blue Bengali affair. I am just counting my lucky starts that she came into our family many a decades ago :)

The affair is simple :

Half a brinjal
1 potato
A big bunch of spinach leaves cleaned thoroughly
1 radish
Clarified butter
Garam masala (homemade is preferable)
Mustard oil
1 to 2 tsp Ginger chili cumin paste
1 tsp Cumin seeds
2 slit green chilies
A pinch of asafoetida
A few vadis (dried lentil cones)
1 bay leaf
Salt as per taste
1 heaped tsp sugar. In case you do not like your dishes too sweet reduce it to 1 tsp or even half a tsp but we Bengalis especially people from the Western side of undivided Bengal like their curries with a hint of sweetness.

Dice the radish into very little pieces, the potatoes a bit bigger and the aubergine in chunks. Chop the spinach leaves. Boil everything but remember it has to be thick not watery . remember that spinach leaves have a lot of water content so use little water cover and cook. Heat mustard oil and first fry your vadi and put aside. Then add asafoetida, bay leaf , cumni seeda and when they splutter add the ginger cumin chili paste and then add the boiled vegetables and bring to boil , add salt and then simmer , covered till the vadi is well cooked. Since all vegetables are precooked it doesn't take much time . Add ghee and garam masala and simmer for another half a minute and then transfer to a bowl. Add 1 tabelspoon water in the same wok and put in two or three green chilies and use the spatula to get all that is stuck on the sides. Once most of the water has evaporated just add the chilies to the cooked dish. This way the chilies retain colour. Do not worry if there is a little bit of water in the bowl it will quickly set with the vegetables if left too dry it will become more dry .

Comforting Spinach Soup

There is a cool breeze in the air. Actually the weather is kind of crazy in Calcutta. During the day-time it is still hot but thankfully not humid but come night and its beautifully cool. Its the perfect time for all things soupy. And so I look in my refrigerator and what do i find? A bunch of fresh Spinach leaves. Oooh I was immediately thinking of a smooth glossy Spinach delight.

All that it requires

1 bunch of fresh Spinach leaves
A few cloves of garlic , I would say about 5 to 6 of them
3 cups of homemade chicken stock
Peppercorn which is freshly ground as per taste
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt as per taste
Olive oil or butter
A bit of parsley (the fresher the better)

This one actually requires the least bit of time. Soak your leaves after chopping off the stalk in a bowl of water to get rid of all hidden dirt. In the meantime chop 2 onions, press the cloves of garlci with the back of your knife and ground your pepper.

Saute the garlic , onions , pepper (there is something about the taste of sauteed pepper) and add the spinach , cover and let it be for 7 minutes or 10 minutes, add your chicken stock, salt, be careful because the stock has some salt in it as well. Add the nutmeg and bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Cool it and blend bend blend . You are done. Its a healthy meal along with some wholewheat bread. You can add a bit of butter in the end.