Farfalle with Wild Mushrooms and Crème Fraîche

(Part of a weekly series by a group of bloggers, featuring Gourmet Live's 50 Women Game Changers in Food - see end of post for list of bloggers participating & their blogs)

This week we're shining the spotlight on Delia Smith at #35 on the list of 50 Women Game Changers in Food. For someone who is Britain's best selling cookbook author and has been teaching the nation to cook since the 1970s, Delia doesn't evoke the kind of recognition or awe one would assume came with those accolades. That could also be because she has humble roots in the world of cooking and appeals to cooks all across the board. She's not one of your exuberant chefs that display complicated or fancy techniques. She's more down-to-earth, working her way through the kitchen in a laid-back manner, teaching you the basics and simple techniques in cooking. That has obviously endeared her to the larger population.

Critics sometimes call her dull, lacking in passion while working with her ingredients but, who are we kidding - she's sold 21 million copies of her cook books. She's had no formal training in culinary school. She started out enthusiastically cooking for her boyfriend when she was a young girl. I guess she truly believed the phrase - the way to a man's heart is through his stomach - even though they eventually didn't stay together. But, that was the beginning of her journey with food. She started working in the kitchen of a restaurant, doing the dishes, slowly working her way up to waitressing and then even cooking. She landed a food writer's role at The Daily Mirror's new magazine in 1969 and was on her own cooking show by the early 70s. Cook books followed and slowly she was educating the whole nation on British cooking. You can read an exhaustive biography of hers in an article by The Independent and also pore through tons of her recipes on her website, Delia Online.

I picked a pasta recipe because it is both simple and unassuming like her but, incredibly delicious in taste. The husband and I ate this along with baked meatballs in a white wine sauce and it was one of the most perfect meals! The crème fraîche really makes the difference here and lends such a delicate, creamy touch to the pasta. I love mushrooms in any shape or form, so having them in the dish was just the perfect combination for me. You should really try this, it's simple and easy to make. Bon Appetit!

Penne with Wild Mushrooms and Crème Fraîche by Delia Smith

Ingredients and instructions:

• 1 lb 2 oz penne rigate (I used farfalle) 
• 1 lb mixed fresh mushrooms (flat, chestnut, shiitake or mixed wild mushrooms, for example), finely chopped 
• ½ oz dried porcini mushrooms 
• 9 fl oz (250 ml) crème fraîche (If you don't have this, you could substitute with 3/4 measure sour cream and 1/4 measure heavy cream - still tastes divine) 
• 3 tablespoons milk 
• 4 tablespoons butter 
• 4 large shallots, peeled and finely chopped 
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 
• ¼ whole nutmeg, grated 
• lots of freshly grated Parmesan (Parmigiano Reggiano), to serve 
• salt and freshly milled black pepper 

First pop the porcini in a small bowl, then heat the milk, pour it over the mushrooms and leave them to soak for 30 minutes. Then heat the butter in a medium frying pan over a gentle heat, stir in the shallots and let them cook gently for 5 minutes.

Next, strain the porcini into a sieve lined with kitchen paper, reserving the soaking liquid, and squeeze the porcini dry. Then chop them finely and add them to the pan, along with the fresh mushrooms and the balsamic vinegar.

Next, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Give it all a good stir, then cook gently, uncovered, for 30-40 minutes, until all the liquid has evaporated.

About 15 minutes before the mushrooms are ready, put the pasta on to cook (see How to Cook Perfect Pasta below). Then, 2 minutes before the pasta is cooked, mix the crème fraîche into the mushrooms with the soaking liquid, and warm through.

Drain the pasta in a colander, return it to the hot pan and quickly mix in the mushroom mixture, then place the pasta back on a gentle heat so it continues to cook for 1 more minute while it absorbs the sauce.

Take it to the table in a hot serving bowl and hand the Parmesan round separately.

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Here's a list of the other bloggers participating in this series. Do go over to their blogs to see what yummy dishes they've whipped up. If you'd like to join the group, please get in touch with Mary of One Perfect Bite.

Val - More Than Burnt Toast [] Taryn - Have Kitchen Will Feed [] Susan - The Spice Garden [] Heather - girlichef [] Miranda - Mangoes and Chutney [] Jeanette - Healthy Living [] Mary - One Perfect Bite [] Kathleen - Bake Away with Me [] Sue - The View from Great Island [] Barbara - Movable Feasts [] Linda A - There and Back Again [] Nancy - Picadillo [] Mireya - My Healthy Eating Habits [] Veronica - My Catholic Kitchen [] Annie - Most Lovely Things [] Claudia - Journey of an Italian Cook [] Alyce - More Time at the Table [] Amrita -Beetles Kitchen Escapades

Curried Chicken Pasta

When it comes to quick dinners, I love dishing out pasta and experimenting with the sauce or the meat that goes in it. I was a bit bored of the regular white sauce or meat sauce and wanted something different. I remember watching this short ad segment on Food Network where Aarti Sequeira demonstrates a quick and easy butter chicken where she'd first marinated chicken in yoghurt, ginger and garlic pastes before frying and adding it in a readymade mix.

I thought I'd incorporate that style and come up with my own marinade, making my pasta sauce with that as the base. I'd run out of yoghurt and had to look for substitutes. By the time I fiddled around the kitchen and threw stuff in my marinade, it turned out to be a curry-based chicken. It was so yummy! The final dish didn't taste completely like curry but, the hints of it added a beautiful touch. Bon Appetit!

Ingredients and directions:


For the marinade

• 1 teaspoon garlic paste
• 1 teaspoon ginger paste
• pinch of turmeric powder
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• Season with salt

Mix all the ingredients together. Cut about 3/4 pound boneless chicken into small cubes and toss in the marinade and refrigerate for half an hour. 

For the sauce

• 400 ml chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons dried minced onions
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 3 tablespoons tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons cream

Heat pan. Put the chicken and the marinade in the pan directly and let it cook for a while. That's right, you don't need oil in the pan since the marinade already has olive oil, you can add a little bit of olive oil later on when you mix the pasta and it feels too dry. 

Saute the chicken till they brown slightly on all sides. Add the chicken stock, minced onions, dried basil, tomato sauce and cream. Once the mixture comes to a boil, simmer and let the chicken cook completely, for about 15-20 minutes. 

If the sauce is still very watery, turn the heat up to high and let the liquid thicken. I added some frozen broccoli and mushroom mix 5 minutes before it was done.

Toss with your favorite pasta and enjoy!

Spinach Basil Pesto

Pesto sauce is one of the easiest sauces to put together. You throw a couple of ingredients in the blender and voila, your pasta sauce is ready. If you team it with whole wheat pasta and baked chicken, you have a wholesome healthy meal right there. It's a great way to get your greens in.

The spinach and basil complement each other beautifully, giving you a fresh burst of flavor. You can have fun with any number of combinations, though I feel the little bit of basil you add in really makes a huge difference. So, go to town with your experiments. Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:

• 5 cups spinach, with stems cut and washed
• 1/2 cup fresh basil
• 4 cloves of garlic (if they're tiny ones, add more depending on your taste)
• 4 tablespoons mix of roasted pine nuts and walnuts
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• Salt to season, if you like

Directions:
Add a few spinach leaves in the blender along with the garlic, basil leaves, nuts and one tablespoon of olive oil. Blend till finely grainy. Add more spinach leaves and olive oil, blend. Continue this process till you've added all the spinach and olive oil. Blend the parmesan cheese. Season and serve mixed with pasta.

There are certain variations to mixing it with your pasta. You can mix it with the pasta on a stove with medium low flame and let it cook for a few minutes. Or, you could put the pasta mixed with pesto in a baking dish, top with a little cheese and bake it.

Creamy Cheese Sauce for Pasta

(Archived from Nuts & Sprinkles)

What do you do when you have to make a meal appealing to a 4-year-old? Dump oodles of cheese in it, of course. And that's what I did when I decided to make a creamy sauce for pasta for my niece who was coming over for a night stay. You can't go wrong with cheese and pasta. And I was right. The little munchkin ate this without a fuss. Well, even the hubbs and I couldn't get our paws off. So, thought I'd share this recipe with you and wish you many merry cheese-y meals!

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 
• 2 tablespoons butter/olive oil 
• 1 1/3 cups chicken stock 
• 2/3 cup light cream/low fat milk 
• ½ tomato pureed 
• ½ cup Parmesan cheese 
• Salt and pepper to taste 

Mix chicken stock, cream/milk and pureed tomatoes and keep aside.

Heat oil and add the flour to it and cook for a minute. Remove from heat and slowly add the liquid mixture, continuously stirring to avoid formation of lumps. Place it back on the stove on medium heat and stir till it thickens. Add the cheese and let it melt in.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix with your favourite cooked pasta and serve.