Hey peeps,

Long time, no see! My sincere apologies!! This is an unintended food post again,thanks to my food cravings. A post about my favorite meal has to go up on my blog! So let's do this.


                                           

Tasted penne pasta for the first time in life at Hardrock Cafe, Bangalore. Man, it was heavens!! The white sauce oozing out of the penne, the luxury of parmesan cheese mixed with tender chicken, its a different feel. From thence, chicken penne in white sauce is my must have at all the Continental/Italian kitchens I go to. In Kolkata here, I chanced upon visiting this small vintage cafe called "The Country House Cafe" and there I built the order Chicken Fettuccine in Alfredo with herbs and corn, broccoli and mushrooms; took me to a different world. #VeraLevel. We are regulars now there just for the Chicken Fettuccine and the watermelon juice with mint syrup. And one day I was tired of visiting the place (only because, my schedule was too tight), a bizarre idea struck in mind. Why not making the pasta in your own kitchen, instead of  shelling out lots of money? I was too scared of cooking the pasta sauce myself; what if I ruin the sauce and hate pasta forever? So I went to market and bought the readymade pasta sauce. I think its Alfredo sauce from Dr. Oetker's; came home with all the excitement, I was ready to roll. I asked my maid not to enter kitchen for a while, Concentration boss! Started cooking pasta by myself erm,,,, follwing the instruction on the carton actually. Yes, in between I came out of the kitchen to remind William how grateful he should be, coz his wife is saving his money opting to cook some exotic Italian dish in the kitchen by herself. So after all this tantrums, I finished cooking, dished out the food in a nice glass bowl and tatsed it. Reaction after my epic meal: My eyes watering, my tongue looking for honey, pasta turned out to be sooooo sour as if tasting the buttermilk after 4 days. It was so bloody sour. Looking at my reaction, William ran away fearing the offer. It was a colossal failure :(

Now after 2 months after seeing lots of videos, I decided to make pasta again, this time without store bought pasta sauce and making the sauce by myself. If you are following me on IG, you would have seen the dish that I made. Yes, it was a huge success. I didn't follow a particular recipe. This is sourced from tens of Italian cooks series with my customization. I am glad that it worked well this time. So let's do it.

No. of servings - 2
Ingredients for sauce:
Butter - 2 tbsp
Garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
Refined flour - 1 tsp heaped
Milk - 1 cup
Mixed herbs ( thyme, rosemary, basil, oregano) - 1.5 tbsp
Cheese ( processed/cheddar/parmesan/mozarella) - 3 tbsp grated
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Chilly flakes - 1/2 tbsp
Leftover starch water from cooked pasta - 2 tbsp
Parsley - 2 tbsp chopped
Salt to taste.

Ingredients to cook chicken
Butter - 1 tbsp
Boneless Chicken (either small cubes or thin long strips) - 200 grams
Orange juice - 3 tbsp
Mixed herbs ( thyme, rosemary, basil, oregano) - 2 tbsp
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Chilly flakes - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

I. Lets cook pasta first.

First bring water to a rolling boil
Add salt
Add pasta of your choice (penne/fettuccine/shell/macaroni)
Let it cook for 6 minutes
DO NOT add oil.
Strain water and set aside. Do not drain water, save the water, you might need it later.

Cooked Pasta

II. Lets cook chicken now.

Add butter
Add chicken pieces and other ingredients except orange juice. Let them cook for 6-7 minutes.
Whenever the water given out by chicken dries out, add orange juice. This gives out a sweet citric fkavour into your chicken. Cook for 5 minutes.
Now chicken is fully cooked, spoon out the chicken and use the same pan to make pasta sauce

whisk whisk

Cooked Chicken

III. Lets cook sauce.

Add butter in the same pan you cooked your chicken
When it starts to bubble, add garlic paste. Cook for under a minute to avoid the burnt taste of garlic
Add refined flour and saute it with garlic paste.
Add salt to taste.
Its time to add milk; while adding the milk don't forget to whisk the pan to avoid any lumps. Keep stirring, keep stirring, keep stirring.

Soon after adding the milk, add herbs and cheese of your choice. I used cheddar cheese and parmesan cheese.

Shredded Parmesan and Cheddar

In goes, herbs, chilli flakes, pepper and cheese

 Stir until the cheese melts away. Now mix your chicken and cooked pasta in the pan with cheese. I have also added cooked corn into the pasta.
If you feel the sauce is thick, add the starch water to thin the consistency.
Sprinkle some chopped parsley for extra flavour. Your pasta is ready to serve.
Enjoy!!

Chicken Alfredo Mac & Cheese

Foot notes:
Why starch water?

• When you use normal water to thin the consistency of the sauce, the flavour reduces, you might have   to add the little salt and in this tiny step, your dish could collapse. So use starch water. 

• Starch water helps in gluing the sauce to your pasta. It gradually brings sauce to your desired consistency - thick or thin.

Why I used Parmesan and cheddar?

• I personally prefer parmesan since it's rich in taste. Feel free to use any cheese. If you like it gooey chewy, then go for mozarella. If you like it bit sharp, go for cheddar.