Tricolour Pasta for the World Cup Champions ~ INDIA

Winning the world cup 2011 is one of the greatest moments in the sporting history of India..... This team has come together in the real sense and done us all proud...

These are some of the defining moments of the match where lots of runs were saved with magnificent fielding, taken wickets with superb bowling and nailed Lanka's coffin with awesome batting and the thing which saw them sailing thru was the fierce hunger-to-win and the spirit to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat....
The force which united everyone..... GOD of Cricket... Fans Chanting S-A-C-H-I-N... during the match along with pride for the nation.... He wasn't alone in celebrating.... his children, teammates, even Jumbo(Anil kumble, isn't he cute :) ), fans......

Office has it's share of enthusiasm n enthusiasts as well ....

I watched the match on Tv at home(since I'm nursing ruptured ligaments of my foot) with Mom, Dadaji n Bua and was on facebook watching it with my friends and cousins Pushpanjali, Pinakini, Rahul, Payal, Anjli, Shweta, Divya, Diya, Priti, Mehul,Vimoha, Nimi, Radhika, Lubna and many more friends :)

We had totka's from the India-Pakistan semi finals extended for the finals... Facebooking with friends, Focusing with Anjli didi, Divya's coffee, My vodka shots and Dairymilk Chocolate.... Rahul not moving from where he was sitting :), Payal eating chocolate brownie ice-cream :)))))), Vimoha saying "Now im superstitious- changed my profile pic to the same as when we won against Pakistan! koi shak nahi hona chahiye which men in Blue!!!"

Some of my updates:
Sehwag ki mummy se shikayat karo......

Malinga u resemble an ugly version of Raavan!!! Via Mehul Jain

80 from 81 balls...

Distracted: Put on Star Plus for a bit on the comedy serial with Raveena Tandon
My sister, Nivritti Chandra had done Raveena's make up... proud of you girl.... Way to go... :)

My friend say "i think dhoni will make 100
get MoM
and then will give it to gambhir
ravi shastri style"

Dadaji says to Bua... don't say negative things... will put tape on ure mouth.... ROFL.... laughed my guts out.... :)

If we lose by 2 runs... the bookie sms doing the rounds will be proved right... India PLZ WIN...

Ravi Shastri.... U'll burn in hell saying that Malinga will do something special for SL.....
#MURDER # RAVISHASTRI

patake bajne chalu ho gaye hain....
5 from 12
4 from 11
partnership of 48 from 41
patake in delhi outside
finished so well by DHONI... we love u.........6^er......

Dhoni being carried off the field by his team makes....yuvi hugging 10dulkar, dhoni in tears, team hug, bhajji in tears, kiran rao in tears on amir's shoulders

Mohammad Razvi: Nichiketa, Did India win?? Can you put live commentary on facebook so I can re-live the moment. Oh wait, you already did. LOL!!!

Diya Pinto: I followed the match by reading Nachiketa Chandra 's status updates! How 21st century am I??!!

Sharma uncle calling dadaji to congratulate... dadaji says... bahut badiya khele ladke... khushi manao... hali tamasha chal raha hai... :)

Chakde song playing in the stadium

Nice way to shut everyone one up... :) @dhoni...... :)

Koi Ravi Shastri ka khoon kar do... :))))

De diya ghumake... but let's give it to the SL team... They also played very well... 3 cheers for Cricket :))))))

Victory is ours.... The team celebrates along with their Coach and all the support staff, they are all thanked. Excitement is written across everyone in bold letters....

To celebrate... I made a Tricolour farfalle pasta with a Arrabiata sauce, White sauce and Pesto sauce to match our flag colours....
Pesto Sauce

Adapted from Reluctant Gourmet

Ingredients

3 cloves garlic

2 cups fresh basil leaves

3 tablespoons pine nuts

1 dash salt and pepper

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese grated

Method:

The traditional way of making pesto is with a mortar and pestle. Start by adding basil, garlic, salt, and pine nuts to the mortar and grinding them to a paste. Pound in the cheese. Finally whisk in the oil until you have the desired consistency.

As much as I enjoy trying traditional methods, I usually don't have the time or energy to bruise basil leaves so I reach for my food processor and puree a batch in a matter of minutes. If you don’t have a food processor, you can also use a blender. Here's how I make my pesto sauce.

Add the garlic to the food processor and mince. Next, add the basil leaves, pine nuts, and a dash of salt and pepper to the bowl of the processor. While the processor is running, slowly drizzle in olive oil through the feed tube until all the ingredients are pureed.

You may need to stop the processor at this point and scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula to get every mixed together. Now add Parmesan cheese and mix it into the rest of the mixture. If the pesto is too thick, add a tablespoon of water.

Arrabiata Sauce

Ingredients

2 tablespoons of Olive Oil

1 Onion finely diced

8 cloves Garlic, crushed n roughly chooped

2 chopped Tomatoes

1 table spoon Tomato Sauce

1/2 teaspoon Chilli Flakes

2 packets maggi Chicken Stock Cubes

100gms amul Cheese grated or Parmesan

Big handful of Basil shopped roughly

100ml Milk or Cream [i use milk, lesser fat you see]

Salt, Chilli Flakes, Oregano and Pepper to season

1/2 cup sliced Olives

1/2 cup Mushrooms

1/2 cup Baby corn

1 teaspoon Butter

Method:

Saute the mushrooms in 1 teaspoon of butter, salt and pepper. reserve the water in the pan as stock.

Blanch the baby corn.

Rinse olives out of the brine.

Heat the oil and cook the garlic till browned.

Add all the spices to the hot oil to release flavour(chilli flakes, oregano)

Add onions cook till pink/translucent.

Add chicken stock cubes and tomatoes along with the sauce till cooked through

Add milk and bring to a boil.

Add the basil sliced olives, mushrooms and baby corn.

Simmer for 5-7 minutes.

Mushroom Sauce
Shared by Gauri
Ingredients:
2 spoons olive oil
4 Packets Mushrooms
2 Glasses Milk[Luke warm]
2 cloves garlic
2 teaspoon of mixed herbs[You may vary as per taste]
Salt to taste

Method:

Put 1 teaspoon olive oil in a pan and cook for about 15 – 20 minutes finely chopped mushrooms, add a pinch of salt it will be done faster, don’t add water since Mushrooms will leave water and will be cooked in the same itself.

Once done keep it aside to cool, and make a fine thick puree of the same without adding water in the Grinder. You can keep a few slices of cooked mushrooms aside to be used like that.

In another Pan, Put 1 teaspoon in the Pan and add 2 teaspoons of the herbs along with lots of finely chopped garlic, sauté for 5 minutes till it is cooked, remember we don’t have to turn it golden brown like we do for North Indian Dishes as we don’t want to loose its essence.

Now its time to add puree of the cooked mushrooms, add finely chopped and cooked mushrooms 1 small portion along with the puree in the Pan.

Let it cook for 5 minutes now add 1-1.5 glass of luke warm Milk in the Pan, add salt to taste and cook for 15 – 20 minutes.

Assembly:

Pasta:

To start with boil water with a pinch of salt and 1 table spoon cooking oil, when it comes to boil, put all the Pasta in it and let it cook for 20 minutes. When it is done, drain the extra water and wash the Pasta in cold Water and keep it aside to be used later.

In a bowl mix the 3 different pasta sauces with 1/3 quantity of the cooked pasta.

Enjoy the celebrations....

Nivritti said "It was bizzare, it was crazy, the patriotism, the madness was just to contagious...everyone shouting their throats dry...."india india"....at 1am the city was choked and everyone was euphoric...saalam to mumbai as well....it was truly amazin...g..people out in their cars, in rickshaws, trucks, on foot..on the carriers of their cars, dickies, bonnets, just ecstatic every where waving the indian flag....clicking pictures and no one felt like a stranger to each other....................................................awesome experience......................."

Vikas Luthra said Don’t know which one of your million posts to respond too...but they are all equally ebullient...:))...I enjoyed reading them all..and it was a great match to watch!....too bad could not be there...Cheers...V.

Amitabh Singh said The 1983 win was much more euphoric......but I guess most of you were not born then.....have fun my little ones..... :-)

Atul uncle's quotes his Top 5 World Cup Stadium experiences
I went for the cricket match yesterday. What a lifetime experience!!
Here are my top 5 takeaways:
1. Queueing up still comes naturally to Mumbaikars. Thousands formed long lines across 9 entrances and waited patiently in the hot sun, to enter the stadium. No pushing, shoving, jostling. (My friend from the North remarked - its so nice, they don't pinch bottoms here :)..)

2. 33,000 fans gave Sri Lankan Captain Jaywardene a standing ovation when he scored his century.

3. Even young kids knew the entire lyrics to A R Rahman's "Vande Mataram" and stood to sing it with pride every time it was played.

4. Courtesy and etiquette among spectators was mind blowing. As they left the stadium, touching to see thousands of fans shaking hands and thanking the CISF, Police, ATS for their impeccable security and hard work.

5. Every single fan booed when Sharad Pawar's name was called out and was shocked to discover that everybody disliked him!


Shalvika Sood said Memories from d finale: An emotional Yuvi sobbing into Bhajji n Sachin.. Sachin crying back....An exuberant Kohli presenting Sachin with d memorabilia wicket n later foisting him on his shoulder....d young ones cheering Kirsten n giving d coach his due.....d ever Mr Cool MSD turning n ducking quietly to wipe his tears b4 joining the team huddle....n then Gauti sealing it with a humble 'ths was for u Sachin'!!!!!

Richa Sharma said Dear Raj Thackery, a Chandigarh lad, a Jharkhand captain and a Delhi boy, with the team won the world cup for us and dedicated it to a Marathi legend. Your regional hatred has failed. Jai ho!

Yuvi... tonight's gonna be a good good night... ;) bartender of the evening... ;)

This is to all the passionate, crazy, emotional, whacky updates that kept all of us going and this is to moments which would live with us forever
That's Right Rajni, Ganjni & Dhoni made it for India in Final in Mumbai....rest done by team....Great moment.... :-)

Can any celebrations be complete without something sweet..... Flag Cookies for everyone....
Recipe is the one we used for the September 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge

Have good good night boys... you deserve it... 3 cheers for Dhoni n his boys....

Healthy Mushroom Pasta ~ By my Guest Gauri

This is my celebrations for reaching 200 blog posts.... A lot of you will wonder, why am I not making something fancy to celebrate it. Getting to the 200th post has been a journey full of wonderful people who walked with me in life and some joined me thru the blog world.

So I thought of having an event called 'Celebrations' where I would open out my blog to some of my friends who would share some parts of their journey with me as Guest Posts......

My guest today is Gauri, a friend from office who can get any client to do anything she wants with a huge smile and amazing persuasion skills.


She's a huge foodie at heart.... We both love chocolates, sweets and momos..... We'd eat loads of them every evening in office... and loads of foodie conversations shared over more food.... :)

She's a person of varied moods and facets.... Her bright smile is enough to light up an entire room.... We had such a blast on our Bhimtal trip....

A small something for the Indian readers of Gauri.... She will select 1 lucky commenter to win complimentary vouchers of Moksha, a cozy lounge in New Friends Colony, New Delhi. So be sure to leave a note at the end of this post with your location. Readers in other countries can share the same with anyone in proximity of the restaurant.

Gauri Writes.....

Nachiketa or Nachi as we all call her, is a fun-loving and always on the top of the world. She is the one you can look up to for any kind of professional or personal help. She will help you if you are right but in case she feels that you are wrong, she will make you run, center right and left. I know her now for almost 4 yrs. We are both working for 99acres, She is creative and always on her toes to make some innovation in Product team, and I am the one who sells her ideas being in the sales team of 99acres.

At this Platform, I want to congratulate you on your 200th Blog Post as well as igniting my passion for cooking. As they say, The Way to a man's heart is through his stomach, so is working for me too ;-) lol...

It has been 1.5yrs since I got married. My Husband is a big foodie and loves variety when it comes to food. Am always trying to find easy recipes that don't have a million ingredients yet taste like you spent hours and hours preparing in the kitchen. Passion for cooking was always latent in me but couldn’t take out much time for it. It all started at Nachiketa’s Birthday party this year. She was a gracious host and had done a lot of preparation for the party. We had an awesome lunch at her place. The time we said our goodbyes, I was so sure that my husband will tell me to learn a few recipes from he, and here it was…… as soon as we sat in the car, even before he started the car engine the demands for Pasta, cheese cake and other Dips served by Nachiketa started pouring in.

So I tried first with her no-bake strawberry cheesecake. It came out really yummy so next I tried white sauce Pasta, which is my weakness too :) and to be very honest was the quickest and easiest of all.

I took a rough idea from her as in how to go about it, what all ingredients would be required for the same. I had done some alterations in the same, I tried making the Pasta with No Cheese and NO Cream at all…….Absolute Diet conscious but yet tasty Pasta.
At first the sauce tastes sort of yucky when you are heating it, but after it is cooked and completely done, the sauce is absolutely 'to-die -for!!

A super easy, ultra tasty recipe that calls for a packet of herbs[Basil/Oregano/Sage/Thyme], Wheat Pasta, Mushrooms and Milk for the Sauce.

Mushroom Pasta

Ingredients:
2 spoons olive oil
4 Packets Mushrooms
2 Glasses Milk[luke warm]
2 cloves garlic
2 teaspoon of herbs[You may vary as per taste]
250 Grams Wheat Pasta
Salt to taste

To start with boil water with a pinch of salt and 1 table spoon cooking oil, when it comes to boil, put all the Pasta in it and let it cook for 20 minutes. When it is done, drain the extra water and wash the Pasta in cold Water and keep it aside to be used later.

For the sauce, Put 1 teaspoon olive oil in a pan and cook for about 15 – 20 minutes finely chopped mushrooms, add a pinch of salt it will be done faster, don’t add water since Mushrooms will leave water and will be cooked in the same itself.

Once done keep it aside to cool, and make a fine thick puree of the same without adding water in the Grinder. You can keep a few slices of cooked mushrooms aside to be used like that.

In another Pan, Put 1 teaspoon in the Pan and add 2 teaspoons of the herbs along with lots of finely chopped garlic, sauté for 5 minutes till it is cooked, remember we don’t have to turn it golden brown like we do for North Indian Dishes as we don’t want to loose its essence.

Now its time to add puree of the cooked mushrooms, add finely chopped and cooked mushrooms 1 small portion along with the puree in the Pan.

Let it cook for 5 minutes now add 1-1.5 glass of luke warm Milk in the Pan, add salt to taste and cook for 15 – 20 minutes.

Once the sauce is cooked, you can add the cooked pasta in the same and serve Hot along with Garlic Bread.