Culinary Chemistry

I met Sytle when I was working in Los Alamos, New Mexico. She had come for a couple of day’s experiment time there and right from the beginning we hit off very well. We spent a very nice afternoon wandering in the Los Alamos downtown (which is actually only two streets!) and then I cooked her a south Indian dinner. So the conversation drifted to international cuisine and that is when she gave me this fantastic recipe for marinara sauce. Till then I had regarded ‘Marinara’ as an exotic store bought sauce,but with her recipe I realized that it was unbelievably easy to make!!!. Even now three years later, I still make this sauce whenever I have ripe tomatoes in my fridge and marvel at its tasty simplicity.

Anyway, the other day after making the sauce, I found some spahgetti and soya-chunks.in my pantry, so voila I made of the vegetarian version of sphagetti and meat balls !!

cook the Sphagetti as per the package directions in salted water. Drain when it is al dente and run it under cold water.

Here goes the recipe:

Sytle’s Marinara sauce:

Serves four

Ingredients

5-6 roughly chopped tomatoes

One big onion

5-7 garlic cloves

1 bunch of basil- roughly chopped

A few chopped parsley leaves

1-2 tsp red pepper flakes

1-2 maggi veggi cubes

10-15 soya chunks

Olive oil

salt and pepper

Method

Soak the Soya chunks in hot water.Fry the onion and garlic in olive oil until transparent and add the roughly chopped tomatoes and half of the chopped basil. Cool and blend the mixture into a coarse paste. Simmer this paste in a wok for about half an hour. Add the maggi cubes for more flavor. Season with salt,pepper and red pepper flakes.Turn off the stove once the consistency of the sauce becomes thick. Add the soya chunks and garnish with chopped basil and parsley.

Stir in the sphagetti and mix with the sauce. I like it saucy and so I used less sphagetti but you can add more.

Tips:

Some goat cheese can be added to the sphagetti mixture and melted on the stove or in the oven

Gayathri, who had contributed the recipe of Scrumptious Strawberry Cheese Cake before, has come up with yet another super recipe. So here goes:

Vegetable Samosas and Coriander- Mint chutney

serves 16 samosas

for the cover:

-2 cups of Self Rising flour

– 1 tsp cumin seeds

– 1 tsp ghee

– few drops of a lime

– salt to taste

– enough water

Mix all the ingredients together to form a soft dough (should be like a chappati dough). Keep aside for 30 min.

for the stuffing:

– 2 cooked potatoes (one mashed and one cut in cubes)

– 1/2 cup of boiled peas

– 1/2 onion finely chopped (not mandatory)

– 1 tsp of garam masala

– a pinch of haldi (turmeric powder)

– 1/2 tsp of fennel powder

– 1 tsp of coriander powder

– 1/2 tsp of red chili powder

– 1/2 tsp of ginger-garlic paste

– 1/2 lime juice

– finely chopped cilantro

– salt to taste

In a wok, heat 1 tbs of oil. Add all the spices and the ginger-garlic paste. Fry for a few seconds. Now add the veggies, the lime juice, the cilantro and the salt. Stir well and cook for about 2-3 min.

Preparing the samosas:

Make eight balls out of the dough. Roll each ball like a chappati. Cut them in half. Take the semi-circle and fold it into a cone. Fill it with 2 tsp of the stuffing and seal the edges with a little bit of water+flour paste. Deep fry in hot oil till golden brown (on medium flame). Serve hot with a cilantro-mint chutney!

Coriander-Mint Chutney

– 1 bunch of cilantro(coriander leaves)

– a dozen of mint leaves

– 2 green chilies

– 2 Tbs grated coconut

– 4 Tbs yogurt

– 1/2 tsp of salt

– 2 tsp of sugar

Blend all the ingredients in a blender. Refrigerate before serving

The 3 Chocolates mousse: Restricted to chocoholics only!!!!!

This french dessert called ” le 3 chocolat” is a chocolate biscuit covered with 3 layers of chocolate mousse (dark, milk and white) and a chocolate icing. The result is just incredibly light and deliciously chocolaty!! Success guaranteed…

for 8 servings,

Step 1: the chocolate biscuit (genoise)

– 4 eggs

– 1/2 cup + 1 tbs sugar

– 1/4 cup all purpose flour

– 1/4 cup of cocoa powder

– 1/2 cup of espresso (without sugar)

Whip 2 eggs, 2 yellow and 1/2 cup of sugar together. Heat this preparation in a “bain-marie*”. Keep whipping till the mix is lukewarm (it should not boil !!). This will take about 5 min. Remove from the bain-marie and using a whisk keep whipping till the mix has tripled the volume. Sift in it the flour and the cocoa powder. Mix well.

In a separate bowl, beat the 2 eggs white to form snow peaks. Add 1/5 of the first mix to the snow peaks and stir gently. Now add the remaining of the mix to the snow peaks and stir very delicately.

Preheat your oven at 405 F. Grease a 9 inch spring pan with a little bit of butter. Pour the batter in it. Level it with a spatula and put it in the oven for about 12 min. Let it cool down. Sprinkle the espresso all over the biscuit. (You can also add a coffee liquor). Keep refrigerate.

* “bain-marie” is a heating technique consisting of a large pan containing hot water in which smaller pans may be set to cook food slowly or to keep food warm.

Step 2: the chocolate mousses

– 1/2 cup + 2 Tbs of bitter sweet chocolate chips

– 1/2 cup + 2 Tbs of milk chocolate chips

– 1/2 cup + 2 Tbs of white chocolate chips

– 60 cl of heavy whipping cream ( 2 cups + 1/3 cup )

The preparation is the same for the 3 chocolates. Just repeat the following for each type of chocolate. Start with the dark chocolate, then the milk chocolate and finish with the white.

Whip 20 cl of cream to obtain a “chantilly” (a stiff whipped cream). The chantilly is easier to make when the cream is very very cold. I usually put the bowl, the cream and the whisk in the freezer for 10 min just before whipping. Be careful not to whip too long that you will have butter 🙂

In a microwavable bowl, put the bitter sweet chocolate chips and sprinkle with a little bit of water. Melt the chocolate in the microwave. Add 1 tbs of the chantilly to the hot melted chocolate and stir well. Now add gently the remaining of the chantilly. Pour the mousse over the biscuit and spread it evenly with a spatula. Keep refrigerate.

Repeat the same procedure with the milk chocolate then with the white chocolate. After the white chocolate layer, keep your cake in the freezer for 2 hrs.

Step 3: the chocolate icing

– 1/2 cup of dark bitter sweet chocolate chips

– 1/3 cup of heavy whipping cream

Ground the chocolate chips. In a saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Add the cream to the chocolate and beat well. Pour the icing on the frozen cake and spread it all over with a spatula. Refrigerate till serving.

You can serve it as it is or decorate it as you please. I chose a simple decoration with shredded white and milk chocolate….yummy!

Tips: this cake can be prepared the previous day. In that case, just keep it in the freezer section. Defrost it in the refrigerator 2-3 hrs before serving.

I have been wanting to post this for a month now but as usual I caught the ‘periodical procrastination monster’. It went to such an extent that I haven’t blogged for two months!!!. Anyway my indolence would’ve persisted but for the fact that sitting in my inbox was this wonderful picture of delicious poori and saagu!!!…ok, let me explain,it all happened when one Sunday morning,a couple of months ago, our friends Thipps and Vinutha invited us for brunch, which we accepted with alacrity. Of course I was doubly happy because I could avoid cooking at least one meal and also get to taste good home made food!!!:-)). So we had a great brunch of Poori’s, Saagu,chutney, finished the meal with a delicious dessert of kesari baath and also had a good time playing with their cute two year old daughter. Before we started to polish off the spread I requested Thipps to click a photo of the food so that I could post it here in the blog. Well, a couple of weeks later, we met them again and I remembered to ask them to send the photos. Vinutha promptly did so and since then the ball(picture) has been in my court!!!….Finally I decided enough is enough and so scroll below for the mouth watering pics.

Kesari baath, pooris, coconut chutney and saagu (Clockwise starting from top left)