Quick and gorgeous Spaghetti and Tomato Sauce

“The strands of spaghetti were vital, almost alive in my mouth, and the olive oil was singing with flavor. It was hard to imagine that four simple ingredients [olive oil, pasta, garlic and cheese] could marry so perfectly.” Ruth Reichl, Tender at the Bone (1998)

Quick and gorgeous Spaghetti and Tomato Sauce with Vegetarian (soya) meatballs

This is a recipe I make at least once a week and when I do, I always have to make extra as my son’s friends (neighbours) come over too.

They always ask me Sonia aunty when will you make that yummy tomato sauce and Spaghetti?

Feel free to amend this recipe to suit your personal taste. I make this sauce with and without meatballs and sometimes even without mushrooms.

Serving this dish with garlic bread makes it purrrfect!


Ingredients:

8oz/220g Spaghetti
3tsp Olive oil
6 cloves of garlic (crushed or finely chopped)
2 - 400g tins of plum tomatoes or chopped
Handful of fresh basil (roughly chopped)
Pinch of paprika
½tsp Worcester sauce or dark soya sauce
6 small or 4 large Mushrooms (chopped)
Soya Meatballs or Soya mince (found in freezer department at Asda) - optional
Salt & freshly ground pepper
½ cup water
Handful Cheddar or parmesan Cheese for garnish (grated)

Recipe:

1. Bring a large pan of water to the boil and cook the spaghetti according to packet instructions.

2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan and add the garlic. As it starts to brown, add the 2 tins of tomatoes

3. Whilst the tomatoes cook, add basil, paprika, Worcester/soya sauce, salt, pepper, mushrooms and soya meatballs or mince.

4. Bring to boil and simmer on low heat for about 15 mins, taste to see if it meets with your taste. In the meantime, the pasta should be done too.

5. Garnish with cheese and serve immediately

Tips:

• The sauce can be made and frozen to use another day, when you really just do not feel like cooking.
• I have added mince instead of veggie soya meatballs and it has still been a real hit with adults and children. If you do want to add this, do it at stage 3, add with other ingredients.
• You can add other vegetables too; sliced green peppers, chopped carrots are some suggestions or even a glass of wine at stage 3.

Then sit back and enjoy!

Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 15 mins
Easy/Hard to make: Very Easy

Basil Flavoured Indian Tea or Tulsi Chai

"Ecstasy is a glass full of tea and a piece of sugar in the mouth"

Basil Flavoured Indian Tea or Tulsi Chai

There are times when you need to just unwind, put everything behind you and just relax. Who is your best friend in need at this time, who/what better than a simple, yet delicious cup of tea.

This one does the trick for me, if you have not tried it, see if it works for you. It is ready in 10 mins so no hard work here :)

• Basil Flavoured Indian Tea or Tulsi Chai:
  
  Ingredients:
  
  2 tea bags of your favourite tea or 2 teaspoons of loose tea (I use decaf PG teabags)
  1 cup water
  1 cup milk (I use semi-skimmed but any will work)
  5 leaves of basil
  3 teaspoons of sugar (this should make 2 to 3 cups so this can be altered to suit your taste)
  
  

Recipe:

1. Bring the water and milk to the boil. Add the tea/teabags and sugar.

2. Rip the basil with your fingers and add to the tea, while it comes to the boil.

3. Stir well. Once boiled, lower the heat to simmer for 5 mins.

4. Take off the heat, when it is a nice dark color, strain into a cup.

Enjoy!

Tips:

• I find that if you add the same amount of water and milk produces a lovely creamy tea. You could alter this to suit your taste. Some friends I have use condensed milk instead.

• Indian tea (unlike western tea) is boiled and simmered. You could simply boil and strain but most Indians do like the traditional stronger flavour and simmer it for a few mins. How do you like yours?

Hard/Easy to make: Very easy
Preparation time: 0 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins

I served this tea recently at a ‘Get Together’, where we had 4 families that are close friends coming over. The tea went so well with some ‘Spicy Filo Parcels’ and hot ‘Best ever Chocolate Chip Cookies’. Check out my recipes for these and impress your friends too!

The best chocolate cookies ever!

The best chocolate cookies ever

"In the cookies of life, friends are the chocolate chips"

Fancy some chocolate chip cookies, that are crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside? How about the best chocolate chip cookies in the world? This chocolate cookie recipe is so easy to make and yet so yummy! There are easy step by step instructions to guide you, with pictures too. You just have to try it for yourself!!

Our son (11 years old) had just returned to school after his holidays. Just before the holidays he was told by the school he would need to do a talk (presentation in school) on one of his favourite authors. He chose Roald Dahl and had all slides ready. On his first day back at school he was told his talk will be on Monday (a week from today) and oh,yeh he would be the first child presenting!

He had completed most of his slides in the holidays so after school each day, he added the last few ouches. It had to be 7 minutes long or you have to do it again. He practiced for a whole day on Sunday! Yes, a whole day and was nervous as he was going to be the first child presenting in his class so the pressure was on!

His talk I have to say was sounding pretty good, it had humour in it and a lot of interesting facts about how Roald Dahl had a hard childhood and that was the reason why some of his books reflect the adults as being unkind to the young ones (like Matilda). He wanted to follow the rules set by the school, one of which was for the audience to have something that can be passed around to leave a lasting impression.

As his topic was Roald Dahl, he was going to include ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ and to make it memorable for the audience he wanted to take in some chocolate cookies. So he spent some time searching for the recipe and then came into the kitchen shouting, Mum, I have found ‘the best chocolate cookies recipe ever’. This was from Angela's site, which did sound perfect, with some slight changes. I dedicate this amended version of the recipe to you, Angela!

In case you wondering how did it go at school you will have to read on…. In the meantime, here is my version of the recipe:

The best chocolate cookies ever:

Ingredients - see pictures below for visual information:

300g plain (all-purpose) flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 teaspoon fine salt
170g unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
215g light brown sugar (I used damerera, dark brown sugar can be used too)
120g granulated white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
150g milk chocolate chips (plain chocolate chips can be used too)

Note: I used half unsalted butter and half salted, as this is what I had available. I also reduced the salt to ½ teaspoon which worked perfectly. The original recipe states to use 300g chocolate chips, this is your choice, I found 150gms to work well as otherwise it could to be too sweet.

Recipe:

1. Sift together flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Set aside.

2. Stir together melted butter, brown sugar, sugar and vanilla. Add egg, then the yolk. Beat well to ensure that egg is evenly distributed.

3. Stir in dry ingredients, then fold in chocolate chips until incorporated. If using 300gms chocolate chips, it will look as if there are too many chocolate chips but the dough will be able to hold them all.

4. Cover with cling film and chill dough until firm. At least 30 minutes.

5. Preheat the oven to 190C/Gas Mark 5.

6. Drop 1/4 cup sized "hockey puck shaped" mounds of dough onto a greased baking sheet. You can use a baking sheet instead of greasing which works very well. You could use a 1/4 measuring cup to both measure and shape the dough which works perfectly. I guessed about ¼ cup size and rolled into a golf ball size and shape, then slightly flattened them. This amount of dough should make over 15, I made 19, as per the cookies tower picture J

7. Bake in preheated oven for approximately 10-12 minutes or only until the edges begin to turn golden. (They'll look and feel underdone but they're ready.)

8. Cool on the sheet for 1 minute and remove with a wide spatula to a cooling rack. Cool thoroughly and enjoy!

Tips:

• At stage 3 of this recipe; the dough may look a little too sloppy for a proper cookies’ dough, it is meant to be this way. Refrigerating it makes it lovely and firm.


• If you do not want all the cookies in one go, the dough can be refrigerated or frozen until required. Although, it would be best to defrost the dough before using. This way you could have yummy hot cookies when you want! Very impressive too when you have unexpected guests to suddenly have a batch of hot cookies with their tea.
  

The cookies were perfect, as you can see in the pictures. They were a real hit at the presentation and the presentation itself, well the teacher left a note in his homework diary that read (copied from his diary):

Your son’s talk was FABULOUS!
He talked clearly, with expression and left the whole class entertained.
He should feel very proud of himself! :)
Signed by the teacher

The school was happy, our son was happy and oh yes the children in his class were very happy, with the cookies. I had the parent’s ringing me for the recipe so I was happy too :)

I made these again at home for friends who were coming over for tea, all 4 families! I served Spicy Fillo Parcels and some hot Chocolate Cookies, with some Indian basil tea, which was the perfect accompaniment for the cookies. They went down a treat!

Create and Enjoy with us too!!! The recipe for the Spicy Fillo Parcels and Indian basil tea, are available on my site too.

Preparation time: 20 mins

Cooking time: 30 mins

Easy/Hard to make: Easy to Medium

Spicy Fillo Parcels

"You may feel that you have eaten too much...But this pastry is like feathers - it is like snow. It is in fact good for you, a digestive!"

Spicy Fillo Parcels

I was so looking forward to my weekend as we had some close friends coming over for tea. We see each other often and our children have a good time playing together, especially now that the summer is here!

However, this time I wanted to make something different to the samosas and rasgulas (Indian sweets). I thought about what to make that had not been made by either of our friends Get togethers. Then I remembered one of my family members once made these outstanding Filo parcels with vegetables, which were absolutely gorgeous. I thought a spicy version of these would be perfect for the get together.

Here is the recipe I made:

Spicy Filo Parcels:

Ingredients - see pictures below for visual information:

75g or 3oz butter or margarine
1 inch piece of ginger (chopped)
4oz or 1 cup bean sprouts
The following 3 vegetables - sliced into thin shreds – as shown in pictures
2 celery sticks
2 carrots
4 spring onions
½ lemon juiced
1 or 2 chillies – optional - (chopped finely)
Fillo Pastry – cut into pieces of about 15cm X 15 cm (roughly do not have to be precise). I used Just-roll Filo Pastry
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Thinly slice the celery, carrots and spring onions, as in picture.

2. Heat half the butter/margarine in a large frying pan. Add ginger and chillies and cook for a couple of minutes.

3. Add vegetables (carrots, celery, spring onions and bean sprouts). Add salt to taste.

4. Stir fry. You will get the lovely chilly aroma and remove from heat when the vegetables look done. This should take about 5 minutes.

5. Remove from heat and let the vegetables cool, and put the oven on to 1800 C.

6. In the meantime, ensure the Filo pastry is cut to roughly 15 cm square pieces. Do not panic if you have cut yours into rectangles instead. Keep the Filo pastry wrapped in cling film or a damp tea towel while using.

7. Melt the butter. Lay one piece of Filo pastry sheet, brush with butter. Layer the second piece in a criss-cross shape (as in picture) and butter this too. Carry on until you have 4 layers. Butter the last layer.

8. Spoon some of the vegetable mixture on the middle of the last layer of pastry and then gather all the edges upwards. Pinching the middle to seal the filling. This will create a lovely little parcel.
9. Carry on with the remaining pastry and any broken pastry pieces I used at the end to create a final parcel. Just open them as far as they will go and keep layering, with butter in between.

10. Brush the completed parcels with butter and place on a baking tray. Bake for about 15 – 20 mins until golden brown. Keep checking, in case the tops are browning too fast, reduce heat to 1500 and cook for 10 mins.


Tips:

· You have various options with the fillings, you can be creative and make meaty ones or others that work very well are having a samosa filling in them (potato and peas). All fillings need to be pre-cooked before using in this recipe.

· Filo pastry can be bought in advance and frozen until required. These parcels can also be made the day before and refrigerated. Then simply heat in the oven at 1800 C for 10 mins.

Hard/Easy to make: Medium
Preparation time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 30 mins

I served these the first time at a ‘Get Together’, where we had 4 families that are close friends coming over. They were simply superb! I served them with Indian tea, infused with basil and the yummiest chocolate cookies. Check out my recipes and impress your friends too!

Tortilla Pizza

"You better cut the Pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six"

Tortilla Pizza

When you are tired or when you get unexpected guests, what would be your ideal recipe? Well, here is a recipe that takes no more than 10 to 15 minutes to get straight to the serving table.
It is loved by children and adults alike and is healthy too, does that sound too good to be true?
Well, here it is:

Tortilla Pizza:

Ingredients:
1 packet Flour Tortillas (about 10 tortillas in one pack)
1 large mushroom or a handful of the small ones (sliced)
1 medium sized onion (sliced)
1 large pepper – can be any colour (sliced)
2 chillies or 1 jalapeño – optional (sliced)
4 slices of cheese (or use a cupful of grated cheddar)
Hot and Sweet sauce, I used this but you can use any you have handy

Recipe:

1. As you can see in the picture above, first ensure all the vegetables, including chillies are sliced

2. Heat a non stick frying pan on medium heat (do not add any oil)

3. Add one single tortilla onto this pan

4. While the tortilla is in the pan, add a slice of cheese on the tortilla, then some slices of pepper, mushroom, onion and chillies – spread them as you would for a pizza. Then sprinkle some sauce (as shown in picture below)

5. Now place one more tortilla on top of this, straight in the pan

6. Now flick (turn over) the tortilla in the pan to cook the new tortilla you have just added. (I take this out in a plate and place another plate on top and then just turn it over and place back in the pan.)

7. Add another layer of cheese, vegetables, chillies and sauce once more

8. Finally place one more tortilla on top of this. Flick the tortilla again to heat the new tortilla you have just added.

9. You should now have a layer of 3 tortillas with filling in the middle

10. Remove from heat and slice, enjoy with sauce/chutney of your choice


When our family and friends try these, all you can hear is mmmm and ohhhh, as they realised how hot and yummy the bite was! They quickly sip on their beers and reach out for more…

Tips:

• Tortilla packets can be bought and frozen, so they are waiting for you when you need them.
• This recipe is meant to be a quick snack, starter, appetiser or a light main meal. If you do not have the vegetables mentioned here, be creative and use the ones you have that you feel would also work. Same with the sauce and chutney, use what you have and like.
  
  Then sit back and enjoy!

Hard/Easy to make: Easy
Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins