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READY,STEADY,COOK…Pasta, Grilled Cottage Cheese & Salad!

2008/04/19 / 17 Comments
“The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a star.”
Anthelme Brillat–Savarin
IMG 7555 A Vegetarian challenge…

IMG 7620

Wonder how many of you have heard of the BBC daytime show ‘Ready Steady Cook’? I used to watch it often while visiting the UK years ago. Two members of the public, or occasionally sporting or other celebrities, provide two celebrity chefs with a bag of ingredients they have bought, usually to a set budget of £5 The chefs proceed to make several dishes out of the said ingredients (and a generously stocked kitchen containing basic ingredients and spices), in 20 minutes, with the help of the contestants and the programme host (things have changed a bit now, but the show goes on!). Ainsley Harriott was the presenter then…charismatic, larger-than-life & flamboyant. I googled about the show, & was absolutely delighted to find he’s still on this addictive food show, “My aim is to make cooking fun,” he says!
collage3 A medley of flavours…Healthy, wholesome & exciting!
These days my philosophy of cooking is vaguely based on ‘Ready Steady Cook’…without the 20 minutes clause of course! There was a time I used to shop with the end product in mind. Of late, I walk into the supermarket or local vendors shop, & pick up whatever catches my fancy. Then proceed back home to make a meal out of it with no specific plan. Makes cooking fun, & pushes my own creativity to different levels. I enjoy this a lot as it breaks the everyday monotony…& I find it encourages the kids to eat as they look forward now to different stuff showing up on the table!
collage6
So here’s what I picked up at the bazaar…baby potatoes (which seldom show up), bell peppers, sweetcorn on the cob & cottage cheese. I had some portion of multigrain elbow pasta which I wanted to use up…& then of course plenty of garlic, basil & mint! Here’s what my home show created on the go…
Baby Potato Sweetcorn Salad
IMG 7550 Ingredients:
Baby potatoes – 500 gms / boiled, peeled & halved
Sweetcorn – 1 cup ( I used 2 fresh cobs; you can use frozen/canned)
Hung yogurt/Greek yogurt – 1 cup
Cream – 1 tbsp (optional)
Ranch Buttermilk dressing powder- 2 tsps / heaped (optional)
Juice of 1 lime
Fresh mint leaves – 1 handful/ chopped
Red Onion – 1/ finely chopped
Salt collage4collage1Method:
  • Whisk the yogurt + cream + lime juice + salt + buttermilk dressing till smooth.
  • Put the baby potatoes + onion + sweetcorn+ mint in a bowl. Toss well.
  • Pour in the dressing, toss well. Serve either at room temperature immediately or chill until required.

Grilled Cottage-cheese Slices

IMG 7601Ingredients:
Cottage cheese – 500 gms / cut into 8 slices
Oil – 2 tbsp
Oregano or crushed dried mint – 1 tsp
Juice of 1 lime
Sea salt or rock salt
Freshly ground pepper
Paprika – 1/2 tsp collage2Method:

  • Whisk the oil with oregano + lime juice + sea salt + paprika + pepper.
  • Marinate the cottage cheese slices in this for at least an hour.
  • Just prior to serving, pick out a slice gently from the marinade & put onto a hot grill pan. Turn once, & pour a little marinade over the second side.

Multi-grain Elbow Pasta with a basil-walnut Pesto Dressing

collage5

Ingredients:
Elbow pasta – 250gms
Red bell pepper – 1
Yellow bell pepper – 1
Garlic – 2 cloves
Salt to taste
Fresh basil leaves – 5-10 / chopped

collage4For the dressing:
Walnut-basil pesto – 2 tsps (I’ve made my own & keep a jar in the fridge)
Olive Oil – 4 tbsps
Juice of 1 lime
Salt to taste
Roasted red chili flakes

collage4

Method:

  • Char grill the bell peppers & garlic cloves & seal in a ziploc until cool.
  • Put the pasta onto boil.
  • Whisk the olive oil + pesto + red chili flakes + lime juice + salt to make the dressing.
  • Drain the cooked pasta & mix into the dressing. Keep aside.
  • Clean & chop the grilled peppers. Chop the grilled garlic cloves with basil leaves. Toss both these into the pasta & mix in well. Adjust seasoning.
  • Serve warm or at room temperature. Leftovers can be served chilled as a nice cold salad!

IMG 7566ENJOY!!

This one had a fairytale ending…let’s see what happens when I set out next!!

Posted by Deeba @ PAB

About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.

17 Comments

  • Manggy

    2008/04/19 at 11:50 am Reply

    What a great, healthy dinner Deeba! I’m not sure I’m carefree enough to blindly pick ingredients yet, heh 🙂 I like to plan things to the last detail, sigh!!

  • Purnima

    2008/04/19 at 1:43 pm Reply

    Deeba, this is truly a lovely dinner, filling and nutritious! Loved the colors veggies lend to pasta! Yummmmm.

  • Passionate baker...& beyond

    2008/04/19 at 4:30 pm Reply

    Ha Ha Manggy…you should be ‘young & fancy free’; ready to take risks in the foodie world!! Seriously, you’ll do great!!
    Thanks Purnima…this was fun & YUM too!
    This was fun to put together Rosie; do you get to see RSC on BBC2?

  • Passionate baker...& beyond

    2008/04/19 at 4:30 pm Reply

    Ha Ha Manggy…you should be ‘young & fancy free’; ready to take risks in the foodie world!! Seriously, you’ll do great!!
    Thanks Purnima…this was fun & YUM too!
    This was fun to put together Rosie; do you get to see RSC on BBC2?

  • Rosie

    2008/04/21 at 2:00 pm Reply

    Hi Deeba, yes RSC I watch on BBC 2 sometimes and Ainsley Harriott is still hosting the show. They changed the out lay of the set now to what it used to be like and the audience have remotes to vote instead of boards to hold up lol

    Rosie x

  • familiabencomo

    2008/04/21 at 2:14 pm Reply

    Well…. I was going to surprise you this morning by tlling you that I tagged you for a blog award…. You deserve it – you are a real artist!

    We LOVE at things pasta at Casa Bencomo…. Thank you for this post. I always need a new way to make it.

    Tanti baci, Amy

  • Cham

    2008/04/21 at 3:57 pm Reply

    Summer in ur plate, love all the fresh simple items… especialy, the yogurt potato salad, yum 🙂

  • Lisa

    2008/04/21 at 8:14 pm Reply

    That’s one fine sounding and looking dinner. I’m quite smitten with the grilled cottage cheese slices!

  • adele

    2008/04/22 at 1:22 am Reply

    Oooh. I particularly like the sound of that salad – I’ll have to bookmark it for summer. 🙂

  • arundati

    2008/04/22 at 10:17 am Reply

    what a fabulous medley of flavours, textures, colours!! simply wow!! and well deserved on the award…you so deserve it…hugs!!

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