Lasagna

I really love lasagna. What there not to love? Gorgeous layers of cheese, meat, pasta...sorry, I think I zoned out for a bit there. I was gifted a cookbook with simple American recipes by my friend Bryan a few years ago when I had just started to cook. I was really wary of cooking Italian or anything "American" back then, but this book changed that. So, thanks Bryan.

Lasagna is generally made with some sort of ground meat. Of course, one could avoid the meat altogether and make it with veggies and cheese. I have yet to try that version out. Maybe when I finally take the plunge and turn vegetarian...

I'm using ground chicken in this recipe. I've used ground turkey before so anything works, really.


Ingredients (Serves 8, very easily)
1lb Ground chicken/meat
6 Garlic cloves, minced
1 Onion -finely chopped
1 Tspn Italian Seasoning
Salt to taste
Ricotta Cheese - about 1/2 of a 150z container (I didn't really measure. this depends on how much you put in. )- 1.5 cup
Mozarella - 4-6oz (Again, didn't measure but had an 8oz packet on hand)- Maybe 1.5 cups
Parmesean Cheese - 1/2 cup
Lasagna pasta - about 12 (cook according to directions on box)
Olive Oil - 1tbspn
Marinara (or any Pizza/Tomato) Sauce - 12 oz (give or take; I used store-bought)

Optional : Button Mushrooms (I had to finish a carton before it rotted)

Method:

1. Heat up the olive oil in a pan. To it add the onions and saute for about 3 mins. Add the garlic and italian seasoning. Saute until onions are translucent. Ensure you don't let the garlic burn. If adding mushrooms, add at this point. Also add salt.

2. To the above, add the minced meat. Saute until cooked and begins to brown.

3. Add tomato sauce (marinara) to the pan and bring to a boil. You sauce is now done.

To assemble lasagna, use an appropriate baking utensil and
(i) thin layer of the sauce.
(ii) layer of pasta noodles
(iii) ricotta and mozarella on top of noodles.
(iv) sauce on top of the cheeses
(v) back to (ii) and repeat.

(vi) the last layer should be a layer of pasta noodles. top this off with a generous layer of pamesean cheese.

Baking instructions:
Set oven to 425 and pre-heat for about 5 minutes. Cover your work of layered art and cook for 10 minutes. Then remove the covering and bake for another 10 mins or until the top is a nice golden brown.

That's it! Serve with salad and garlic bread!


excuse the crappy picture again. I really need to get used to my camera.

Tomato Sauce with Atomic Italian Meatballs

I don't eat beef anymore and I avoid Lasagnas, meat sauce, and meatballs in Italian restaurants. But I used to eat beef a long, long time ago and am familiar with the tastes of the above dishes. oh my, so good. Using ground turkey or chicken makes a great substitute in my opinion and I use it to recreate these yummy dishes. I recently bought ground chicken and after making my nuclear sheek kababs, I still had some meat left over. I decided to try out Italian meatballs!
Most meatball recipes I looked up used eggs to bind the meat or perhaps to keep 'em moist. Either way, I'm not a fan of cooking with eggs so my recipe is a little different. I have paired this post with a tomato sauce recipe from LV.

sidenote: If you haven't caught on by now: Atomic implies insane amounts of garlic and nuclear implies insane amounts of garlic AND other spices. I should patent this usage.


Atomic Italian Meatballs: Makes about 10 medium sized meatballs (Approximated the amounts here. since it was my first time making it, I wasn't paying attention to the amounts)

1/2 lb of Ground chicken
1/4-1/2 cup of bread crumbs ( I make my own bread crumbs: normal wheat toasted, ground with italian spices and you got it, garlic powder)
italian seasoning (oregano, basil, thyme, whatever you have on hand) - 1tspn or so
fresh garlic - minced about 5-10 cloves (yea, i was serious about the "atomic" bit)
Garlic + Herb powder - 1/2 tspn (definitely optional at this point ;) )
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil to pan fry the meat balls and about 1-2 tspn to mix in with the meat
Parmesean cheese - 1/4-3/4 cup.

1. Basically, you mix everything thoroughly including the 1-2tspn of olive oil. I let this sit for about 10-15 minutes. Roll into balls of desired size; i kept them medium because I wasn't sure how long they take to cook and i wanted them thoroughly cooked before I added them to my sauce.

2. In a non-stick shallow pan add olive oil to coat bottom and let it heat up on medium heat. Add the meatballs and slow cook them on medium-low. Cover them to ensure they remain moist.

3. After about 10 minutes (give or take) they should be done. I would recommend doing just one test meatball first to taste and make sure that the seasoning is fine.

4. drop into tomato sauce (I used store bought in the above picture) and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Serve over a bed of cooked pasta.


Here is a recipe for homemade tomato sauce from LV:

8 tomatoes (I leave the skin on, but you can remove it too)
1/4C olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 chopped carrot
A handful each: fresh parsley, fresh basil, and fresh oregano--chopped
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4th tsp ground red chilli peppers
1/2 tsp cumin
1 Bay leaf
3 Tb Red wine
1/2 Tb corn starch
1 can tomato paste (I've tried leaving this out, but trust me, put it in)
***Optional: lemon zest, extra carrots, zuchinni, parmesan
****Tip: if you have parmesan rinds, add them in while the sauce is
cooking and scoop them out at the end for extra flavor.

Directions:
1. Marinate the Chef
2. Saute garlic, onion, carrot, bellpepper and bay leaf in the olive
oil in a very large pot.
3. Add all the other ingredients except for the corn starch and tomato paste.
4. Simmer for 2 hours.
5. Mix wine with corn starch and stir into simmering sauce. Add tomato
paste until the sauce looks and tastes right to you.

Kofta Curry

I'm sure there are ways to improve this one. But the taste was so good the first time I tried it, that I had to post the recipe here. Kofta is aka meatball. So it's a meatball curry! This one is sort of a random recipe i.e. I came up with it myself. Hope you'll give it a try! I know I will...next week. :)


Serves 2-3

Ingredients

Minced Chicken - 1/2 lb
Serrano Chilli peppers - 1/2-1 finely chopped, seeds and all.
Garam Masala - 1 tspn
Salt to taste
Bread Crumbs - 1/2 cup [I toast up regular bread when I can't finish an entire loaf. So I used toasted wheat bread]
Vegetable oil - 2 tbspn
Onion - 1 chopped
Tomatoes - 2 chopped
Red chilli powder (Indian)- 1 tsp
Cumin powder - a little more than 1 tsp
Coriander powder - a little more than 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - literally a pinch.
Fresh coriander/cilantro for garnish and for koftas (optional)
Coconut milk - 1/2 can (about 6-7 fluid oz.)

Part 1: the koftas

In a mixing bowl add the garam masala, bread crumbs, serrano, cilantro, salt, and chicken. Mix throughly and add 1tbspn of oil to keep this moist. Make spheres or ovals and set aside. Let this sit for about 20 mins.

Part 2: the curry

1. In a pan add 1 tbspn oil and let it heat up. To this add the chopped onion and saute until it is translucent.

2. Now add the chopped tomatoes and saute for about 3-4 minutes.

3. In a separate bowl mix the spice powders (cumin, coriander, red chilli) in 1.5 cups of water. Add this to the pan and let it come to a boil.

4. As this is simmering, add the meatballs to it and let it cook for about 10 mins or so.

5. next add the coconut milk and let it simmer/boil for about 10-15mins. Taste this at some point to add salt as required.

6. It was very liquidy so I just let it boil for some 20 or so minutes and finally gave up since it tasted fantastic. Eventually as it cooled, it got a little thicker so that was good, but overall it's still a very liquidy curry. That's why I categorize this recipe as a work-in-progress.

7. Garnish with fresh chopped coriander.

Serve with hot basmati rice and raitha.

NOTE: You can always add more serrano or red chilli powder as it is simmering, so add a little at first and see if you can handle the heat. Serranos can vary in size and heat, so a little may just go a long way.

Nuclear 'Sheek' Kababs

I went to the store to get some Chicken breast meat but instead walked out with minced turkey meat. Since I was out of Lasagna ingredients (my go-to recipe for minced meat), I decided to try out an Indian buffet favourite: Sheek kabab.

Sheek or Shish? that is the question. According to wikitionary, sheek implies minced meat and shish implies cubed pieces of meat. I like Nuclear Kababs. My brother gave them this name because of their intense aroma.

I also want to pay homage to two of my companions in the kitchen that I lost over this recipe. Lousy companions, but companions none the less: My knives.



Ingredients:

1 Lb of minced meat (I use either turkey or chicken; lean meat works)
1 medium onion finely chopped
1/2" ginger finely chopped (use your grater)
6-8 garlic cloves finely chopped (you may want to lower the amount of garlic)
Lime/Lemon juice of 1
Vegetable Oil-1.5 tbspn
about 1.5 tbspn water with saffron (can omit)
Fresh green chillies (I used serrano) - 2-4 depending on how hot you like your food.
Salt
Pepper - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder- a pinch
Red chilli powder - 1/2tsp
Corriander powder - 3/4tsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/2tsp

Optional: Fresh Cilantro/Corriander leaves

Method:

1. In a utensil, add all of your ingredients except the meat, oil, and saffron water. mix and taste to check if you want more spices or salt.

2. Next add the rest of your ingredients and mix thoroughly.

3. Let it marinate in the fridge for anywhere from an hour to 6 hours.

4. Make them into shapes you are familiar with (sphere in my case) and fire up your grill and grill 'em! Or, since I'm lame I just pan-grilled them in a non-stick pan. Since I had already used oil in the mix, I didn't bother oiling the pan before cooking them. They will release liquid as they cook. Cook on one side for about 5-7 mins until it starts browning and then flip and let other side brown as well.

5. Serve with grilled onions, lemon wedges, warm pita, saffron flavored basmati rice, and a yoghurt sauce (Yoghurt + some fresh minced garlic + salt) .