Chicken Fettuccine with Homemade Pesto

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It was not intended to be, but last weekend was shrouded in red, white, and green.  Yes, Italia. Starting with delicious thin crust pizzas at our favorite pizza joint, Luzzos,on Friday.  Stopping off at the San Gennaro street festival for lunch ,on Sunday.  And ending appropriately with a dish of pesto chicken fettuccine for dinner later that night.

San Gennaro is really my kind of festival.  For me, the appeal of street fairs is all about the food.  This one was callled the "Annual Feast of San Gennaro" and was it a feast!  There were lines of food stalls offering up fresh seafood, chicken parmesan, pastas, pizzas, calzones, italian cookies, biscotti.  Anything remotely Italian was featured in some way along the ten block walk.  I was in heaven.  After scouring the stalls, I finally settled on a chicken parmesan sandwich swimming in a rich tomato sauce.  I couldn't decide on which of the hundred beckoning desserts to try until the owner of an ice cream stall offered me a taste of his refreshing mango gelato. I was sold!

The San Gennaro Festival

That night, inspired by the Italian goodies I had experienced, I decided to make pesto chicken fettuccine.  The day before, Nadir and I had gone to a farmer's market and picked up a variety of vegetables and herbs including a bushel of basil.  We later stopped off at a specialty food store called Eataly (yes a play on the word 'Italy' as everything in the store is Italian).  Its a great store because it has a restaurant in every section of the store.  For example, where I was browsing for pastas, there was a pizza and pasta place, and in the cookie section there was a dessert and coffee counter.  Anyway, we picked up some fresh pasta where we could see a woman making it from scratch beside the counter and took it home.

Fresh Pasta at Eataly

Italian food is fairly simple.  For pastas, its usually served with pesto or marinara sauce, and some sort of vegetable or meat.  What makes some better than others is the quality and freshness of the ingredients.  I combined the basil from the farmers market with some toasted pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, and some salt and pepper to taste, to make a fresh pesto.  I then sauteed some chicken in a pan with garlic, paprika, and salt.  While the chicken was cooking, I put the fresh pasta in some boiling water and let it cook for about 8 mins.

Homemade Pesto

Once the pasta was done I drained most of the water except for a cup which I reserved for the sauce.   I added the pesto to the chicken and slowly added about half a cup of water to make the pesto into a sauce (careful not to make it too watery).  I then grated some parmesan cheese onto the chicken and added the fettuccine to the pan coating it well with the sauce.

It was really good!  The taste of the pesto was so much better than the store bought stuff I had used previously.  The basil flavor really came out in the dish and the fresh pasta made a huge difference.  I almost felt like I was eating in Italy.  To add a bit of crunch I toasted some pine nuts in a frying pan and sprinkled it over the pasta along with some fresh basil and grated parmesan cheese.

Recipe for Homemade Pesto


Ingredients
2 cloves garlic
2 cups fresh basil
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
1/2 cup grated parmesan
2/3 cup olive oil
Pinch of salt and pepper

Put the garlic, basil, and pine nuts in a blender and pulse to combine.  Slowly add the olive oil while the blender is running.  Add the parmesan at the end and pusle a few times.

Recipe for Chicken Fettuccine with Pesto

Ingredients
1 lb chicken breast cut into small cubes
1 lb fettuccine
1 cup pesto
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
Garlic powder
Paprika

1)Put a pot of water to boil on the stove.  Season the chicken with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika, and saute in a pan until the it is cooked through.

2)Add the fettuccine to the boiling water while the chicken is cooking.  Once the pasta is done keep a cup of the pasta water and drain the rest.

3)Drain the liquids from the chicken and add the pesto.  Keep the heat low.  Add the pasta water a little at a time until the pesto sauce is the consistency you desire.  1/2 a cup or a little less for one cup of pesto should be enough.

4) Grate some parmesan cheese into the sauce before you add the fettuccine so when you mix it, the cheese melts and sticks to the pasta.

5) Add the fettuccine and mix well to coat ensure all the pasta is well coated with the pesto sauce.  Sprinkle some toasted pine nuts on top and some fresh basil on top before serving.

Chicken Korma

Its Ramadan time again. Ifthars with pakoras, samosas, fruit chaat, doodh pati chai. All this followed by pulaw, salans, bhujiyas....those from Pakistan will definitely be able to relate. Its one of the great parts of being home; the bountiful fried foods to break your fast and the huge feast that follows. The best part is that you don't have to make any of it. It just magically appears on the table waiting to be devoured.

On the other side of the world in New York, with its 90 degree humid days and 16-hour food-less rozas, the prospect of Ramadan doesn't seem half as exciting. In an effort to make it feel a little more like home I've revisited the tattered book of delicious recipes my mother had given me. To say she is a spectacular cook is an understatement.One of my favorite recipes from this little notebook is chicken korma. It is hearty, flavorful, swimming in curry, and extremely satisfying when you haven't eaten all day. It takes a while to make but its worth every minute. We ate it hungrily the first night and we had enough leftovers for dinner the following night as well. It sometimes tastes even better the second day because the flavors have had more time to set.

To make the korma you have to marinate the chicken with garlic and ginger. Separately grind a few ingredients like almonds, fried onions, and coconut and add it to the yogurt to form the basis for the sauce. The chicken is cooked with the yogurt to form a rich hearty curry. The actual recipe is below in more detail.

Batool's Chicken Korma Recipe

1 Chicken cleaned and cut up into whole pieces like leg, breast(with the bone)

2 tsp garlic paste

2 tsp ginger paste

600g plain yogurt

handful of cocunut

32 pealed almonds

2 handfuls of ready fried onions

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1/4 tsp tumeric powder

Directions

Coat the chicken with garlic and ginger and leave it in a dish to marinate

Heat the coconut in a pan until it is slightly brown and crusted. Then heat he almonds in a pan to crust it as well. Separately grind the fried onions, coconut, and almonds in a food processer until very fine. Mix them into the yogurt one at a time.

Add oil to a pan and once it is hot add the tumeric, chilli powder, and salt and stir. Immediately add the chicken and let it brown for 5-7 mins on high heat. Add 1 1/2 cups of water to the chicken and put it on low heat until most of the water evaporates.

When there is about an inch or two of curry mixture, add the yogurt. Add another cup of water and mix for about ten minutes. Let it cook for a while until it starts to become brown. Add another 1/2 to one cup water as it becomes thicker and starts to brown. Let it cook until the curry is the consistency you desire and has a rich brown color (for me it was another 30-40 mins).

Sprinkle some freshly cut cilantro at the end to garnish the dish.

L'Entrecote

Whenever I think of steaks my mind immediately drifts back to delicious dinners at L'Entrecote St Jean in Montreal. As students, we would occasionally treat ourselves to soup, steaks, and profiteroles at this charming French bistro. We would walk down Peel street in negative 40 degree weather with icy pellets hitting our face and gusts of wind that almost swept us off our feet, and stumble into this bistro with relief. The first thing to hit us was its warmth; the welcoming mahogany interior, the unpretentious one item menu, and the appetizing hearty soup that defrosted our insides.

Recently, I had dinner at the original Le Relais de Venise L'Entrecote in Paris which I suspect the Montreal one is modeled after. It is almost exactly the same. The ceaser salad with the light vinegar dressing is a perfect starter. The thin slices of strip steak are tender and swimming in a fantastic sauce. The sauce is what stands out to me in all these restaurants because it is rich, buttery, and plentiful. The fries on the side aren't your run of the mill potato wedges but very finely cut crispy and steaming hot "french" fries. Just as I was satisfyingly leaning back in my chair after having devoured the steak frites, the server came back with a second round of strip steak and bountiful crispy fries. To say that I was stuffed by the end would be an understatement. There was, however, room in the dessert compartment of my stomach for some more. I'm glad I didn't skip it because what arrived was a towering dessert with alternate layers of meringue and ice cream dripping with chocolate sauce. It was divine...

Last week we discovered that there was a Le Relais de Venise L'Entrecote in New York. We were there the next night and experienced Paris all over again. Apart from the strong New York accents everything was the same. The interior had the same decor, the steaks with the deliciously crispy fries lived up to our expectations and the decadent profiteroles for dessert ended the meal on a decidedly sweet note.

Having tried this restaurant in three different cities, I can safely recommend it. Its not your sophisticated best cut lightly marinated steak, but it is delicious, for those who enjoy a good sauce, thinner leaner pieces of meat, and a convivial atmosphere. If you're in Paris, New York, or Montreal, stop by. You won't regret it.

Mediterranean Pasta

I have returned to blogging after a summer of complete gluttony. My siblings were visiting New York for a month and then we were off to Paris for another few weeks. The word of the season was 'food.' We squeezed in some culture with plays and exhibitions but we made sure that these activities included pre-museum lunches and post theatre desserts. The meals ranged from Shake Shack burgers and Peter Luger steaks, to one star restaurants in Paris, and decadent desserts at Pierre Herme. As a result, I think I've cooked a handful of times in the past few months and sampled a good number of restaurants in both cities. Having finally returned to New York "sans famille" and thus reality, I've dusted off my pans and started cooking again. It feels good.

Yesterday, I was in the mood for seafood because of some delicious meals I had over the summer. One was an amazing dish at a buzzing restaurant called Jane. The dish, aptly named 'Jane Benedict', is decadent, with a base of crab cakes topped with poached eggs where the yolk oozes out to enhance the rich hollandaise sauce it is topped with. I know, for some, it sounds odd, but trust me it is to die for! The other, was an absolutely amazing fish we had at an Asian restaurant called Kittichai (see below)

I knew I couldn't replicate those crab cakes or the fish so I opted for a much easier seafood dish made with shrimps. I decided to use some Mediterranean flavors such as cherry tomatoes for a pungent flavor, onions for crunch, basil, and some balsamic vinegar in the sauce to give it a kick. First I put two boxes of cherry tomatoes in a pan with some olive oil until they started to pop, then I added some chopped onion with garlic, salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar to the pan and stirred it until it became a sauce adding the shrimps at the end. In the meantime, I had boiled some whole wheat spaghetti (you can use any pasta you like), which I added to the pan with the sauce and some pasta water. I sprinkled it with some basil leaves for flavor and we were done. It was simple, delicious, and flavorful. I would definitely recommend it and if you have some cheese laying around you can finish it off with a few shavings of parmesan.

Recipe for Cherry Tomato Shrimp Linguine (from the Noshery blog http://thenoshery.com/2010/04/13/cherry-tomato-shrimp-linguine/)

Cherry Tomato Shrimp Linguine (Serves 2)

• 5 oz dry linguine (or spaghetti)
• 3 Tbs olive oil
• 10 oz cherry or grape tomatoes
• 1/2 large red onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste
• 24 large deveined and peeled shrimp
• fresh basil

Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Cook pasta until al dente.

While the pasta cooks heat a skillet with 3 tbs of olive oil at medium high heat. When the oil is nice and hot add 10 oz of cherry tomatoes and stand back. If you have a spatter screen you may want to use it. Fry the tomatoes until they start to pop. Add salt, pepper, garlic, balsamic vinegar and red onions to the skillet. Stir the until onions are tender and tomatoes are soft, about 10 minutes.

Add shrimp to the skillet. Cook until the shrimp is pink and begins to curl. Add cooked linguine and toss until evenly coated.

If you have fresh basil tear it and add to the pasta and toss.

Spring Strawberry Spinach Salad

Now how's that for a tongue twister. Try saying it ten times fast.

Luckily its a little easier to make than it is to say...

I tried this salad almost a year ago when my sister was in town visiting. I really didn't think I would like it because strawberries and salad seemed like a weird combination. After much coaxing, I finally did, and to my surprise, I loved it! So much so, that when I lived in San Diego it became part of my lunch staple where the strawberries are seriously in a league of their own.

Chopping up strawberries, adding them to a bowl of baby spinach, tossing it all with a balsamic vinegarette, and then topping it with toasted pine nuts takes literally all of five minutes and makes for a delectable combination. The best part is that it's healthy, low in calories, and the perfect dish to make in spring.

Note that I've named this the Spring Strawberry Spinach Salad. Spring has supposedly begun but with the snow thats hit NY for the past two days we still haven't given up our winter coats. I'm hoping by including some light fresh spring recipes I'll be able to encourage the good weather to move in quickly. We're all a bit tired of heavy winter foods and ready to trade in the winter squash for flavorful strawberries, cherries, and apricots!

Try it out. It'll brighten up your day even if the weather refuses to do so....

Recipe for Strawberry Spinach Salad

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 pack of strawberries (about 15-20 strawberries)

1 pack or 3 cups of baby spinach

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

Dressing

3 tbsp olive oil

1.5 tbsp balsamic vinegar

salt

pepper

Directions

Pour baby spinach into a salad bowl. Dice each strawberry in half and add to the spinach. Mix together the olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a separate bowl and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix in the dressing and then add the toasted pine nuts last for a bit of crunch.

Simply Salmon

We've all had those days where we're too tired to cook, not in the mood for greasy takeout chinese, and hope that if we procrastinate long enough a delicious, preferably healthy, meal may magically appear on the table. I've done this a few times and I've sadly discovered that there's no food fairy godmother.

All is not lost because I've discovered a go-to meal that has a three minute prep time, is healthy, and most importantly tastes delicious. I actually disliked salmon before I tried this dish and now I'm converted. Its that good!

Melt about 2 tbsp of butter in a bowl, add a cup of breadcrumbs along with some dill, and some salt and pepper for seasoning. Mix it all together and layer it on top of the salmon. Bake in the oven for about 20-30 mins if the pieces are thick (less if they aren't). The result is deliciously flaky salmon complemented by crunchy dill flavored crust. The butter incorporated in the bread crumbs gives it a beautiful golden brown color when it comes out of the oven.

Yesterday had been an exhausting day for both Nadir and I. We sat down to dinner at almost 10pm and devoured this meal. It was both quick and completely satisfying. Try it out. Its worth those three minutes....

Adapted from Claire Robinson's Herb Crusted Salmon Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup fresh bread crumbs
• Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh dill
• 2 to 3 tablespoons butter, melted, plus 1 tablespoon
• 4 center-cut salmon fillets

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a bowl, then add the bread crumbs, salt and pepper, and finally the dill. Mix together with a fork.

Pat the salmon dry and season on all sides with salt and pepper, to taste. Top each fillet with the herb/crumb mixture. Put the pan in the oven and bake until the fish flakes with a fork. About 20 minutes. Transfer the fish to a platter and serve immediately.

Anniversary Dinner - Tender Succulent Short Ribs..

Now, if that title didn't entice you, then there's not much that will. I rarely spend hours slaving over a meal in the kitchen but once in a while an occasion comes along where you just want to make something that will knock someone's socks off...namely, a first anniversary. I had toyed with the idea of going out to a romantic restaurant but as our main pass time is checking out places to eat, I thought this would be something a little more memorable.

Speaking of romantic restaurants, a few weeks earlier, we had dined at a classy place called Prado, in San Diego, set in the middle of a beautiful park. I ordered duck which was amazing but I looked over at Nadir's huge short ribs and took a tentative bite. The tender meat just fell off the bone and proceeded to melt in my mouth. Needless to say, a few minutes later, the short rib dish was in front of me and the duck had mysteriously made its way over to Nadir :)

With the memory of those short ribs still fresh in my mind I started looking online for recipes. A lot of them seemed pretty complicated and entailed leaving things overnight and cutting up hundreds of vegetables. I finally decided on a pretty simple recipe by Paula Dean. . I seasoned the short ribs with salt and pepper and seared them in olive oil and garlic. I then added some beef broth and water and brought it to a boil. Afterwards, I put everything in an oven proof pot with a lid, adding onions and seasoning and let it cook for 2 1/2 to 3 hours in the oven. The short ribs aren't hard to make they just take a while to cook.

While they were in the oven I made some mashed potatoes, mushrooms, and salad to go along with them. I pulled the short ribs out of the oven once Nadir was home and, hands down, it was one of the best dishes I've ever made. The meat was so tender that it just flaked off the bone. The gravy was hearty and flavorful and the creaminess of the mashed potatoes alongside the butter coated mushrooms complemented the meal perfectly. This isn't a meal you'll be making weekly but when you want to pull out the big stops, keep this recipe in mind. Its definitely worth it.

Recipe for Short Ribs by Paula Dean

Ingredients

• 3 pounds short ribs
• House Seasoning, recipe follows
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• Oil
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped, plus 2 more cloves chopped
• Water
• Beef Broth, plus more for roasting
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 onion, sliced
• White rice, for serving

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Season ribs liberally, or to taste, with House Seasoning. Lightly dust with 2 tablespoons flour. (I skipped the flour part)

In a Dutch oven, place a small amount of oil. Add the 2 garlic cloves and cook until lightly browned. Add the ribs and brown on each side. Add half water and half beef broth to cover ribs. Bring to a boil. Remove the ribs from the Dutch oven and place in a casserole dish (I used a pot which had a cover that I left on while it was cooking in the oven. I highly recommend you do this). Add the remaining garlic, salt and pepper, onions, and about 1 cup broth to the ribs. Roast ribs for 2 hours. Serve over buttered white rice.

House Seasoning:

1 cup salt

1/4 cup black pepper

1/4 cup garlic powder

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.