Wednesday 3 February 2010

Penne with Tuna and Pesto

Penne with Tuna and Pesto

I normally have my pesto with chicken or bacon. When I made pesto recently I decided to try to make it with canned tuna. It was really good. I had it with some penne.

The recipe for penne with tuna and pesto is as follows:-

Ingredients:-

Water for boiling pasta

100 gms Penne

3 tbsp Pesto

170 gms (1 can) Tuna

½ Onion

8 cloves of Garlic

2 tbsp Olive oil

Grated parmesan cheese to garnish

Salt and pepper to taste

Recipe:-

1. Add the penne to a pan of boiling water, add some salt and continue boiling.

2. Boil the pasta for 15 minutes stirring regularly.

3. Drain the pasta after it is cooked.

4. Meanwhile peel and finely chop the onions and the garlic.

5. Heat a pan on a low flame and add the olive oil to the pan.

6. After the oil is heated up to this add the onions and the garlic and fry for 2 minutes, mixing regularly.

7. To this add the can of tuna and continue frying for 10 minutes mixing regularly.

8. After this add the pesto, salt and pepper and fry for 3 minutes mixing regularly.

9. Take the penne in a plate and cover it with the pesto.

10. Garnish with parmesan cheese.

Hope you enjoy cooking and eating it?

Saturday 9 January 2010

Chocolate Mud Cake Recipe

Chocolate Mud cake

This is one of the best cakes I have ever made just writing about it makes my mouth water.

Ingredients for the Cake:

1 ½ cups Flour

200 gms Chopped Dark Chocolate

2 tsps Vanilla essence

1 cup Sugar

3 Eggs

2 tsps Baking powder

1 cup Water

1 ¼ cups Butter

¾ cup Cocoa

Recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Grease a 9 inch pan with butter and line it with some batter paper and grease it with butter and dust with cocoa powder.

2. Boil the water in a saucepan, to this add the butter, sugar and dark Chocolate and continue boiling and stirring the mixture till the butter, sugar and the chocolate have melted and the mixture is smooth and well mixed.

3. Meanwhile sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa together. After sifting add this mixture to the chocolate mixture and mix till it is well mixed and there are no lumps. Then wait for the mixture to cool down.

4. After the mixture cools down add the eggs and mix thoroughly and then add the vanilla essence.

5. Pour the batter into the pan and place it in the oven and bake it for about 45 minutes.

6. After 45 minutes take out the cake from the oven and pierce the cake with a knife to see if it is baked. If the cake is baked the knife will come out clean. If the knife comes out with batter sticking to it then place it back in the oven and bake till it is completely baked.

7. Then remove the cake and place on a cake rack and wait for it to cool down. After it has cooled down keep the cake in the refrigerator to chill.

8. After the cake has chilled pour the chocolate ganache over the cake. The recipe for the ganache follows below.

Ingredients for the Ganache:

¼ cup butter

200 gms Dark chocolate chopped

½ cup cream

Recipe:

1. Bring the cream and the butter to a boil in a sauce pan, remove the pan from the heat and add the chopped dark chocolate to the boiling cream and butter mixture.

2. Mix till the chocolate melts and there are no lumps and the ganache is a smooth mixture.

3. Pour half this mixture over the cake till the cake is completely covered with ganache. Smooth with a spatula till the cake is completely covered with chocolate.

4. Place the cake in the refrigerator and chill till the ganache hardens.

5. After the ganache hardens pour the rest of the ganache on the cake till it is complete covered by a smooth layer of ganache and refrigerate.

6. After the ganache hardens cut and serve.

Hope you enjoyed baking and eating it?

Saturday 2 January 2010

Friendship, Love, etc.

The Wikipedia meaning of the word friendship is a relationship which involves mutual knowledge, esteem, affection, and respect along with a degree of rendering service to friends in times of need or crisis .The word friendship has a very different meaning these days. Everybody makes friends easily. Everybody is friends with everybody. People go around telling everybody that they are friends with everybody even though they have just barely met. People invite everybody whom they have barely met or know to parties and embrace them with gifts and hugs. Everybody loves everybody. With the introduction of social interaction websites, making a friend has become very easy. People start adding people as friends whom they hardly know, and everybody wants to make friends with everybody as they feel having a lot of friends is great. The more friends, the better. Making a friend is just a click away. You then get to rate and rank them. You can also make friends with random people by just sitting in your room. You don’t need to meet each other to know each other you can do it by reading each other’s profile online, who knows if what’s written in there is true. Friends tell each other how much they love each other even though they do not know each other well enough or because they don’t know the meaning of the word. They make a lot of promises which they don’t keep. They make promises to you, they tell you that they will always be there for you, but disappear when you need them the most, but they always appear when they need you. This is the reason why when you tell somebody that you love them it doesn’t mean much. It’s so hard to find someone who loves you and really means it. There are so many people out there who just blurt out the word to you and it doesn’t mean much when they say it. Even when you tell someone that you love them you don’t mean it and therefore when someone tells you that they love you it doesn’t mean much to you. The word has completely lost its meaning. It is really hard to find someone who really loves you and will always be with you, no matter what. When was the last time you said the words to somebody and really meant it?

What do you think and feel about this?