Multigrain Pasta

I've been working on a recipe for whole grain pasta these past few months.  Today's recipe was sort of a everything but the kitchen sink type recipe.  I added every whole grain I had to make pasta dough. Stay tuned, I'm not done experimenting on my family, I mean experimenting with food and my family. My multigrain pasta includes equal parts: brown rice, spelt, pearled barley, rolled oats, semolina, and 00 Typo Flour.  I milled most of these myself except the semolina and 00 Typo Flour.  You can also buy these as flour.

 Spaghetti and meatballs, they go together like bread and butter, chili and cornbread. 

 Ingredients for this recipe are: 4 cups multigrain flour (brown rice, spelt, pearled barley, rolled
oats, semolina, and 00 Typo Flour), 6 eggs, 2 teaspoons salt, and 2 tablespoons Olive Oil.

 Mix flours and salt together in a large bowl.  Make a well in the flour and add eggs and Olive Oil.  Using fingers or fork beat the eggs.

Begin mixing flour into eggs, and continue until dough is together.   Knead the dough for a
few minutes.

 Form a ball with the dough.   Rub olive oil on ball.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rest
 for 30 minutes.

Divide dough into 8 portions. At this point invite a family member or friend to help roll out the
dough.  My friend Bridget helped me roll out this pasta while I made meatballs and sauce.
Bridget also had help from my daughter and her son.

 Roll dough through pasta machine on highest setting, 7 and work the dough through the
subsequent roller settings, 6, 5, 4, and 3.  When you have rolled through the 3 setting it is time
to cut the pasta. 

 

We made a lot of spaghetti.

Here it is with turkey meatballs and sauce.  Very yummy.

Enjoy!

French Omelette

I love French Omelette.  I learned how to make them a few years ago and they are the only way I like my omelette now.  I have become an omelette snob, I only cook them the way I will show you in this post.  Omelettes are a wonderful way to use left overs too.   If you have leftover steamed, sauteed, or stir fried vegetables add them to a french omelette and voila you have made good use of your left overs.

That is a wonderful folded yummy breakfast.

 Ingredients for this recipe are: 2 eggs per person (I was making two omelettes so I used 4 eggs),
Baby Bella Mushrooms, 1 Roma tomato,  1 green onion, 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, and Ghee (butter or cooking spray would also work).  These are the ingredients I had, but omelettes are a
personal breakfast.   You can use what you want inside, mix it up.  Remember this is your breakfast
 use ingredients you like.

 Add hot water to bowl of eggs to warm them up to room temperature, about five minutes should
do it.  Remember the French don't have to do this step because they don't refrigerate their eggs
 like we Americans do.

 Dice the tomatoes and green onions.  Slice the mushrooms.

 Whatever vegetables you decide to use should be sauteed before placing in the omelette.

 Whisk the eggs until pale yellow.

  Melt a teaspoon of Ghee or other oil in a preheated, on medium flame, 8 inch saute pan.

 Add eggs.

 Pull sides of eggs towards center with silicone spatula and tip pan to spread uncooked eggs to the
open spot.  Repeat steps clockwise around the pan.

 Add ingredients to middle, do not overload the omelette.  Think French not American omelette.
 Also think fast cook time.  We want to set the eggs not overcook them.

Fold one third of omelette to center.

 Now tipping the pan gently roll omelette out onto plate and flipping it into a neatly folded in
thirds letter.

This omelette was my first one and trying to photograph and cook is difficult to say the least,
so it is more done than I would like.  This next omelette is how your omelette should look.

This omelette is cooked, but not browned, so the eggs are perfect.  When I was younger my
brother made omelettes,  they were his favorite breakfast and one of only a couple of foods
he was able to make at that time.

Enjoy!

Indian Roti

Roti is an Indian flat bread.  I have a very good friend, Tina who is Indian/Guyanese.  She inspired my Indian dinner tonight.  She has promised to make me Roti, and probably what I made tonight wasn't as good as hers, but I wanted to have it with our Indian dinner.  Roti is traditionally made with Chapati or whole wheat flour in English.  I used Spelt instead.  I also used my homemade Ghee, recipe found here.

 The last part of our Indian inspired dinner, Roti.  We can eat now.

 Ingredients for this recipe are: 3 cups spelt flour (whole wheat also works), 1 cup warm water,
1 teaspoon salt, and 2 teaspoons Ghee (recipe found here).

 Add Ghee, salt, and flour together.  Add water slowly, only adding enough to form a slightly
sticky dough.  Knead the dough for a few minutes.

 I love dough, don't you?

 Separate into 8 small dough balls

 Roll out dough, to about the thickness of a tortilla.

Preheat your griddle, medium-high heat.

 Brush Roti with Ghee and place Ghee side down on griddle.  Cook until you see bubbles.

Brush Ghee on the other side.

 Flip and cook until lightly golden brown.

Eat your Roti with Tikka Masala Vegetables (recipe here), Garam Masala (recipe found here),
and chicken nuggets (recipe found here).

Enjoy!

Tikka Masala Vegetables

I have been making Indian food for dinner tonight. Tikka Masala Vegetables was the next dish I worked on. This was a side dish to the chicken nuggets.  I used the other half the spice mixture from the Garam Masala Sauce for this recipe as well, so hopefully you still have the Garam Masala spice mixture too.  

 Sneak preview of everything altogether.

 Ingredients for this recipe are: 1 green bell pepper, 1 cup baby carrots (2 large carrots), 2 small potatoes, 1 small yellow onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 1/2 inch piece of ginger, the other half of the
Garam Masala spice mixture from the recipe found here, 2 tablespoons Ghee (recipe found here),
 and not pictured is 2/3 cup yogurt (recipe found here).

Peel the potatoes and dice them along with the other vegetables.  Using a garlic press mince the
garlic, and using a grater grate the ginger.

 Saute vegetables with Ghee in a large pan.  Sprinkle with spice mixture.

 Stir until combined, add 1/4 cup water and cover with lid.  Cook on medium until vegetables
 are tender.

 Add yogurt, stir and serve...

With the Garam Masala sauce, chicken, and Roti.

Enjoy!

Garam Masala Sauce

Near my home, is a wonderful store, Patel Brothers.  It is an Indian Grocery store in a very Indian neighborhood.  This store has the best selection of herbs and spices and everything Indian.  I bought the whole Garam Masal spice/herb mixture from here.  I love all the Indian food.  A lot of it I have no idea what it is and I feel a little awkward being so white when I walk through this store, but it is so fun to see all the imported Indian food.  I think I now understand why all the fuss from the early explorers trying to get to India the fastest way possible.

I would have gladly made Garam Masala Chicken tonight with my Patel Brothers finds, but my children requested chicken nuggets.  This is my compromise.  I made Garam Masala Sauce to dip the chicken nuggets in for our American take on Indian food.  You may use this sauce to cook chicken in if you want Garam Masala chicken (curry chicken).

 Beautiful color, don't you think?  This is the start of yummy Indian food.

 Ingredients for this recipe are: 1 tablespoon whole Garam Masala spice/herb blend, 1 cup
whole tomatoes in puree, 1 teaspoon coriander seeds, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 1 teaspoon
cardamon pods, 6 cloves of peeled garlic, 1 inch piece of ginger peeled, 1 teaspoon turmeric,
 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon salt, 2/3 cup yogurt (I used homemade, recipe found
  here).  You may use ground spices instead, be sure to skip the next three steps.

 Toast all the whole spices and herbs in a dry pan until they begin to become fragrant.

 Grind spices and herbs in a spice(coffee) grinder until fine.  Sift mixture through a sieve to
remove larger pieces.

 Puree tomatoes, add half the spice mixture and yogurt together in a small sauce pan.  Cook
sauce on low for 10 minutes at least. 

Store sauce in a lidded container.  Eat with the chicken nuggets we made earlier, or cook it with
 chicken like they do in Indian curry.

Enjoy!

Chicken Nuggets

I was asked by my oldest son to make chicken nuggets, and he said he would eat them.  My son and I do not see eye to eye when it comes to chicken nuggets.  He thinks that homemade chicken nuggets aren't as good as the ones he has eaten at certain fast food chains.  He also explained that he doesn't like them made with flour, only made with bread crumbs.  Currently I do not have bread crumbs, so my chicken nugget recipe is more a traditional fried variety.   Sorry folks, yes I fried some food today.  In my defense, we don't have fried food very often, and my motto is variety and moderation when it comes to food.  This is not a healthy recipe truthfully, but I figure as long as I don't eat the whole batch of fried chicken its okay.

 Fried chicken nuggets, homemade.  That's okay with you right?

 Ingredients for this recipe are: 1 package of chicken tenders cut into 1 inch cubes, buttermilk
(I used homemade, recipe found here), paprika, garlic powder, ground red pepper.

 I didn't measure.   Add buttermilk until the chicken is covered in a ziploc bag.  I added about
1 teaspoon each of paprika, red pepper, and garlic powder.

 Shake the chicken, rub the buttermilk and spices all over the chicken. Let the chicken sit
in the buttermilk marinade for an hour in the refrigerator.

 When you are ready to fry, remove chicken from bag and drain in a sieve placed over a bowl.

 Assemble everything to fry.  Pour 3/4 inches worth of peanut oil in a deep fry pan.  Heat oil
over a medium-high flame. 

 Dredge buttermilk chicken in salted flour (I used spelt flour).

Check oil temperature with a drop of water, if it bubbles you are ready to fry.  Add chicken
pieces, being sure not to crowd the pan.  Fry chicken till golden brown, 2-3 minutes.  Remove
from oil with a strainer.

Salt the chicken after it has been fried.

Enjoy!