3-layered Tuna and Vegetable Casserole

This is a great dish to make on a cold, winter day. It’s extremely easy to make and not very expensive if you need to take it for a crowd. The Tabasco or hot sauce really adds to the flavor, but if you don’t like spicy food it’s easily avoidable. The feta cheese gives it a strong flavor too, so if you are planning to substitute it, try to use a strong.  

3-layered Tuna and Vegetable Casserole

2 cans tuna, drained and flaked

2 cans cream of celery soup

2 small zucchini, cut into cubes

2 red peppers, cut into cubes

5-8 green onions or 1 bulb onion, cut into small pieces

About ½ cup feta cheese

2 eggs

2 cups milk

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

1 tbsp chili flakes

½ box whole wheat pasta, cooked al dente

Tabasco or hot sauce (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Chop all the vegetables and toss in salt and pepper. In a separate bowl, whisk together the soup, eggs, and milk. Then add the tuna and mix well before adding the cheese and the chili flakes.

In a baking dish, evenly spread out the pasta, then the vegetables. Give the tuna and soup mixture a good stirring and then pour over the vegetables. DO NOT STIR IT. Put a few random drops of Tabasco over the soup mix so that it looks like little red dots.

Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the top starts to brown in areas. Remove and let it sit for 10 minutes or so. Serve hot. 

Chicken and Vegetable Frittata

My weekly CSA is still churning out scallop squash and zucchini faster than we can eat them, and so in an attempt to use as much of it as possible, I decided to make this Frittata. To my understanding, a frittata is a big, fat omelet full of vegetables or meats, and can have an infinite number of fillings. In fact, you can put in anything you like. So here is a quick and easy dinner idea.

Chicken and Vegetable Frittata

 Chicken and Vegetable Frittata
1 breast roast chicken, shredded
2 Scallop squash, diced fine
1 zucchini, diced fine
3 sweet peppers (any variety), diced fine
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp Italian Seasoning
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 tbsp chili flakes
Ground smoked paprika for seasoning
6 eggs, well beaten
1 ½ cups milk

Place all the vegetables in a frying pan with a tall lip. Put on the stove, on high. Mix in all the herbs except the paprika. Once the vegetables start to soften, add the chicken. Cook for another minute or two so that the chicken mixes with the herbs well. Add a tablespoon of water at a time, if need be.

In a bowl, beat together the eggs and milk. Add a little salt, if desired. Pour the eggs into the frying pan and turn the stove down to low. Place a lid on the frying pan to help the egg cook. DO NOT STIR. When about half cooked, sprinkle the top with smoked paprika. Remove from stove when the egg is fully cooked. Serve hot.

Pancakes

This is a family recipe that we have been eating as long as I can remember. Pancakes were a special breakfast for mornings after all our friends had slept over or when we had a special family breakfast on a Sunday morning. We would drown them in butter and honey, or a preserve or jam, or sugar and lime and they were spectacular.  They are extremely easy and inexpensive  to make.

Pancakes

1 cup flour

1 cup milk

1 egg

Pinch of Salt (optional)

1 tbsp sugar (optional)

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Butter for frying

Place the flour, milk, and egg in a bowl and beat until smooth. Heat a frying pan, and place a little butter in it, to coat the pan well. Pour in a little batter, and tilt the pan to evenly spread across it. Allow the pancake to brown and then flip it over and cook the other side. Serve hot.

Notes:

* Makes 6-8 pancakes, depending on the size of your frying pan.

*Beat the sugar and vanilla into the batter to make the pancakes sweet, and salt when making them savory. 

*Stuff with Barbeque Pork and Beans for a delicious dinner. 

Basic White Sauce

Most chefs will tell you that white sauce is one of the basics you have to know to be a good chef. Personally, I find this to be one of the most difficult sauces to make, mainly because I always misjudge the consistency that it will become once it cools, and I, almost always, end up adding a little milk, and reheating, and re-whisking right before I use it. But yesterday, I found that these proportions make a great tasting sauce, and I did manage to get it to the perfect consistency, for my Eggs Kejriwal, without adding more milk! Looks like I’m ready for culinary school or maybe even a spot in Gordon Ramsay’s kitchen?

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp flour

1 cup milk

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

In a sauce pan, on low heat melt the butter, add the flour, salt, and pepper, stirring constantly. Try to remove as many lumps as possible. Then slowly add the milk, a little at a time, so that you can keep whisking the sauce and keep it smooth. Keep stirring after all the milk is added. As soon as it starts to bubble on the sides or starts to thicken, remove from the stove. Continue stirring it for a few minutes to help it cool without forming a thick coating on top. 

Notes:

*I use Lactose-Free, Fat-Free milk for my sauce, but I imagine it would be much creamier and thicker with full-fat milk. 

Chicken Curry Quiche

Chicken Curry Quiche

My mom is an extremely good cook.  She is capable,very often, of taking something old and boring out of the fridge, and giving it a completely different flavor, texture, and taste. It becomes a whole new dish, and it's usually a big hit with us. The sad part is, its not always easy to recreate, especially when she combines a couple of different leftovers to make it. I can only aspire to my mums ability to do this, and this dish is the kind of thing I think she would do. As per my mums request, I would like to add in this announcement... We do not serve leftovers to guests at our home. We only do this kind of thing for our immediate nuclear family!

I used the leftover chicken from the Chicken Curry that I made a couple of days previous (its the same recipe as Easy Pork Curry), after we ran out of the curry and only had chicken left. It turned out to be quite a good quiche and I was able to brag about it to my dad, who was the first person to nominate my mom for that prestigious title!

3-4 pieces leftover chicken, shredded
1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
2-3 green chilies, finely chopped
Salt to taste
Chili powder to taste
pepper to taste
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 9" frz pie shell

Chicken Curry Quiche

Bake the pie shell empty according to the packaging. It should be cooked so that the base isn't soggy. In the mean time de-bone the chicken and cut it into small pieces or shred it. Include any of the curry masala that sticks to the chicken. Set aside. Finely chop the cilantro leaves, and the green chilies and keep them aside too, separately. Beat together the eggs and milk and keep ready.Once the pie shell is out of the oven, let it cool for a few minutes.

To assemble, evenly layer the chicken on the bottom of the pie shell. Then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and chili powder. Next spread the green chilies out evenly, and then the chopped cilantro. Top the whole thing with the milk and egg mixture. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the quiche is set. Serve hot with a salad and bread.

Tomato Soup with Mushrooms and Basil

Tomato Soup with Mushrooms and Basil

Dinner is usually the big meal in this household. Mainly because my husband and I are both here for it. Which means lunch tends to take a back seat, and my husband often takes dinner left-overs for lunch the next day. I am usually left to scrounge around the fridge for left-overs, or I make myself a soup or a couple of sandwiches (Don't feel bad for me, those are some of my favorite meals).

This week, we have a friend staying with us, so I jazzed up my ordinary can of tomato soup a little and also made some grilled cheese. It turned out extremely well, and is now going to become a frequently made lunch soup.

1 can Campbell's Tomato Soup
1 1/2 tsp dried basil
1 pkt fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 soup can milk
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Chili powder to taste
1/2 tbsp butter

Stir-fry Mushrooms 

Heat a skillet pan or wok, melt the butter in it, and put in the mushrooms. Toss them so that they are evenly coated with melted butter, then add the salt, pepper, and chili powder. Adding salt to mushrooms makes them release the water they retain. Fry the mushrooms, stirring occasionally, until they are cooked.

In a saucepan, pour out the can of soup and put it on medium heat. Mix in the basil. Measure out one can of milk (I use fat-free) using that same soup can and add it to the soup. Stir until its well blended and the soup starts to boil. Add salt to taste if required. Once the soup is hot and starts to bubble, switch of the stove, and pour soup into soup bowls. Then add the mushrooms to the soup, also adding a little bit of the gravy from the mushrooms. Serve very hot with Grilled Cheese.

When-In-Doubt Pasta In White Sauce

There are days when I have cooker’s block! Yes, I just made that term up. It’s when I have no idea what to cook, nothing in my recipe book, folder, and file appeals to me, and there isn't enough time to browse through random recipes online. This is when I turn to pasta.

My husband is not a big fan of pastas. He’s lactose-intolerant and finding tasty pasta recipes without cheese in them is close to impossible. So, I usually come up with my own recipes, and they are generally in a white sauce. For this recipe I've used Penne, but I prefer Farfella (the bow-tie looking one). Here is what I made for dinner Friday night.

Pasta in White Sauce

8oz (About 200gms) Penne

1 (full) chicken breast, cut into approximate 2 X 2 inch chunks

1 zuchinni, cut into chunks

1 red or yellow pepper, diced

1 bunch green onions, diced

2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 heaped tsp dried oregano

1 headed tsp dried thyme

1 heaped tsp dried marjoram

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Chili Flakes (optional)

1 cup (shredded) cheddar cheese (optional)

1 cup milk

1 tbs flour

Little olive oil

In a saucepan, bring some water to a boil, with a little salt and a teaspoon of olive oil. Once it’s at a rolling boil, put in the pasta and cook till almost al dente. Switch off and keep. The hot water will continue to cook the pasta until it cools down, which is why you must switch it off before it is fully cooked. 

In a bowl, mix together the flour and milk, and set aside. In another bowl, marinate the chicken pieces with about a teaspoon each of salt and pepper.

Heat a little olive oil in a pan on medium heat. Once it’s hot, put in the chopped pepper and green onion. Fry it a little, till the green onion starts to brown and the pepper starts to soften. Then add the garlic and cook till it browns. Add the herbs, chili flakes, salt, and pepper and cook for about 30 seconds. If it starts to stick or burn, use a little water from the boiled pasta. Next put in the chicken and allow it to brown slightly. When the chicken is half cooked add the zucchini. Now add the milk mixture and let it heat up and start to thicken. Add cheese if you wish to. Bring the sauce up to the consistency you like. Switch off the stove. Drain the pasta and mix it in with the chicken in white sauce. Serve hot with a salad. If you’re not lactose-intolerant, sprinkle with grated Parmesan.

Note:

*The pasta should have a generaous coating of white sauce, it should not be floating in it.

*I keep the skin on the zucchini, cut of the ends, slice it into quarters length wise, then cut it about ½ an inch thick. The zucchini pieces should be about ½ the size of the raw chicken pieces.

*I use lactose-free fat-free milk, but using whole milk will make it a lot creamier and tastier.