Rigatoni with meatballs

Instead of the usual white sauce recipe, I just came up this recipe this morning when I ran out of lunch box ideas for my big K . I didn't make the usual white sauce because I did not have cream cheese at home. So with the heavy whipping cream in the fridge staring at me, I decided to make something simple with whatever ingredients I had and it came out good. Well Kiddos loved it and that makes me a happy mom ☺. 

Ingredients :

Rigatoni -  1 box

Heavy whipping cream - 1/2 cup

Pamersan - grated, 1/4 cup

Salt

Dry Basil leaves

Meatballs - 12 no.s

Ok so this is what I did....

1)Cooked rigatoni pasta with salt and drained.

2) To the hot pasta, added a tablespoon of butter and heavy cream 1/2 cup, added a 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan

3) Added cooked meatballs to the pasta. Gave a quick mix to coat the meatballs in the instant white sauce

4) Add some dried basil leaves.

Lunch ready for kiddos in 10 minutes. Happy children Happy Mom !!!

Beef Ellu Curry

Yumm !!!! This curry tastes even more better because it brings back lot of memories of my maternal grandparents home. The evening before any wedding in the house, this Beef - Ellu Curry would be made with Kappa and so many other yummy traditional Kerala food. The best part is all our cousins, uncles and aunt every single one of them forget every other food on the table and go ahead to attack this Ellu Curry with Kappa. Little cousins, who are not big fans of Kappa go ahead and have this Ellu Curry with Parotta which also is another perfect Combo !!!

So here is the recipe...

Cook Beef with salt, turmeric, asafetida and pepper in a pressure cooker with a 1/2 cup of water.

Meanwhile, get the Masala and Gravy ready for the Beef...

Beef - roughly 1 kg
Onion - 2
Tomato 1 optional
Ginger and garlic Chopped -  2 table spoons
Chilli powder - 1.5 tablespoon
Coriander powder - 2 tablespoon
Garam Masala -  1 teaspoon
Fennel Powder - 1 teaspoon
Tumeric Powder - 1 teaspoon
Asafetida Powder - 2-3 pinch
Curry Leaves -  fresh, a handful

1. Fry the onions well till brown, but not burnt
2. then add the chopped ginger and garlic with curry leaves. At this point you can add the tomatoes and cook very well, till the oil clears on top and the tomatoes are really mashed up.
3. Add the masala powders and fry well, till you get the desired color.
4. Add the cooked beef to it and mix well and cook well till the beef and has cooked with all the flavors of the spices infused in the meat.

Enjoy this with Kappa or Parotta !!!!

Beef macroni and parmesan

All I know is that before you know it, it gets over. I made it last week and my kids & their friends just loved it. They kept asking for more. That made a happy mommy more happy !!!

Here's how you make it...

Minced Beef
Onion - 1 (chooped)
Ginger garlic - 1 teaspoon (chopped)
Green Chillies - 3-4 (adjust according to your taste )
Pepper Powder - 1 teaspoon
Pasta sauce
Pamesaon cheese grated 1 cup
Macroni - Cooked and drained ( reserve a little of the pasta water, so that it doesn't get too dry)

1. Boil water in a pot, cook macron, drain and keep aside, reserve some water.
2. In a skillet, add onions, cook them till translucent, add ginger garlic, green chillies, cook well.
3. Add the pasta sauce.
4. In a separate pan, add the minced beef and fry till brown, drain off the excess fat to save you from visits to the cardiologist.
5. Add the browned beef to the pasta sauce thats cooking. Add salt.
6. Add the beef, pasta sauce mixture to the cooked macroni and top it off with the grated parmesan and some oregano (optional)
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Grilled Panini with meatballs, teriyaki Sauce , bell peppers and onions

Roasted Capsicum & onions in Teriyaki Sauce with meatballs, served with some lettuce over grilled Panini smile emoticon


This is so simple...here is how you do it...
Ingredients

Meatballs ( used the ones from Costco , I'll be posting a recipe on how to make it at home )
Slice your Bell Peppers lengthwise ( Used Red and Orange )
1 Large onion
Teriyaki Sauce
Chop Romaine Lettuce or any lettuce that you have
Pre- grilled Panini ( Use any flat bread , whatever is available , Chappathi's , tortillas, naan, whatever you have in your kitchen )
Make the egg, if you would like it have it.

Method :

Drizzle Olive Oil oil on a skillet
Add the sliced bell peppers and onions
Saute well
Add the teriyaki Sauce - a splash, I added around 2-3 table spoons
Continue Sautéing
To the peppers and onions ,add the meatballs that you heated in the microwave .
I heated my paninis in the toaster oven, you can also do it on a normal pan.

Assemble everything you have just made on a plate and enjoy !!!

Easy Peazy Lunch / Dinner

Switch off

Kerala Beef Fry

Like every other blogger, let me also tell the story behind this recipe. ;) . There are some friends or some people with whom you share some special topics when you meet or talk over phone or chat or whatever. Manju and I have been good friends since college days, we discuss stuff but the best discussions I have with her is always recipes. This is the recipe I got from Manju, for me its mostly eyeballing the ingredients. I just cannot measure and add, but when I started doing the blog and people started demanding recipes, Manju came to my rescue and she has given me the measurements of each of the ingredients that go into this beef fry.  Thanks Manjukutta ! <3

Recipe:

Beef - 1/2 Kg
Cheriya Ulli ( pearl onions or shallots ) - 1 cup
Tomato - 1 
Pepper - 1/2 teaspoon
Chilli powder - 1/2 tablespoon
Corriander podwer - 1 tablespoon
ginger garlic crushed - 1 tablespoon
Vinegar - 1 tablespoon
Fennel Seed powder (Perumjeerakam podi ) - 1 teaspoon
Garam Masala - 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon
Asafetida - a nice pinch
Tumeric - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt to taste
Slice 2 medium onions and keep aside -this is needed only the second half of the story wink emoticon

First half of the story :

1) Mix all of the above with a ladle or your bare hands (best method, so all of the ingredients are massaged into the beef) smile emoticon
2) Close and cook with 1/4 cup of water till beef is almost cooked. If there is water remaining, after the beef is almost done, open the lid and cook a little longer on a higher flame till all the water is evaporated.

You can stop it at this stage and store in the fridge and fry it the next day, it will taste even better as all the flavors would have been infused into the beef

INTERVAL

Second half of the story

3) Heat coconut oil in kadai (skillet) , add some whole garlic peeled or otherwise into the oil with a nice bunch of fresh curry leaves
4) Add the beef into the oil
5) Throw in 2 medium onions sliced lengthwise.
6) Put on low flame, keep stirring in between.

Enjoy this with some hot chappathis or some hot rice, Morr Kachiyathu. beans thoren and this yummy beef fry smile emoticon