Sautéed Spinach in Sardines

Another exciting day to start and this recipe is a stellar because I haven’t eaten sardines (in can) for so long. Why? It’s because sardines (in can) here in India are gold in price. They are mostly imported from other countries and most Indians do prefer to eat fresh sardines rather than in can. So I also guess that most of the locals don’t even know sardines are canned.

Precious sardines, at last I have tasted you!


The golden price of sardines in can


Anyway, this recipe is just so easily to cook. All you need is garlic, onions, spring onions and tomato. For seasoning, you need to use soya sauce, salt and ground black pepper. In a pan, heat up the oil for sautéing garlic, onions and tomatoes. After this you need to put the sardines and put two tablespoons of soya sauce.

Ingredients you need for this recipe


Fresh and Green Spinach


After that, you can now put the spinach. Add water suited to your liking as you flavor it with salt and ground black pepper. This would not take too long because spinach is easy to cook so two to three minutes of cooking the spinach is okay. I do miss pechay but since it is not available here in India, spinach is the next best thing to include.

Tada!! Sauteed Spinach in Sardines


The taste of the sardine was great, it has a bit of spice and the sardine was not so mushy unlike any other local sardine in can. Anyway the price speaks for itself; it costs Rs66.00 or equivalent to $1.50 for that 155 grams. You might have screamed already, yeah I know because in the Philippines, one can of local sardine just cost around P 18-20+ pesos or equivalent to $.047 cents, see big the difference? But anyway, hubby and I enjoyed eating our sautéed spinach in sardines.

Saag Paneer Recipe

I recently knew that saag also means spinach or mustard leaves. I thought the only word for spinach was palak. But anyway paneer means cottage cheese or tofu. There are different versions of cooking this recipe although I just simplified mine by not using the blender for the saag or spinach.

Easy to Cook Saag Paneer



It would be looking like palak paneer recipe if I blended it with the masala so what I did with this recipe is to cook the spinach without blanching it. Spinach is easy to cook and they shrink out too. What you first needed to do is to heat the pan with oil and put the cumin seeds or jeera. After this you can now sauté garlic and onions till it becomes light brown in color.

Once garlic and onions are done, then it is time to put turmeric powder, ginger-garlic paste, coriander powder, green chili, red chili powder and cumin powder. Keep the flame into medium heat and add your bunch of fresh spinach leaves.

Stir it well with the spices and then you can now add your cottage cheese or paneer which is cut into bigger cubes. You only need to cook the spinach and paneer for about 3-5 minutes in slow flame. You don’t need to add water into it since the spinach itself will give out the juice and this will be sufficient enough to tenderize the paneer. But if you think you have used a non-stick pan for cooking, then just add ¼ teacup of water and add salt to taste and stir well.

Some would like to fry their cottage cheese first before mixing it with the saag or spinach. Others would also put into blender the spices together with the spinach. But as I have said, this method is much more similar in cooking palak paneer so I didn’t intend to do such method.

I wanted to eat the spinach leaves and not looking like a spinach puree. This is my rendition of the saag paneer recipe. But you can do whatever style you would like to choose which best suits your tongue. This recipe would only take less than 8 minutes from preparation to cooking. It is good for moms on the go who don’t have much time cooking lunch or dinner because of a busy schedule.

Budget Savvy Chicken Pesto Pasta

I used to remember when I was in Makati, we used to go to a restaurant that offers Italian foods and I really like their seafood pesto pasta. It’s not because I was craving to eat one but I just wanted to try if ever I can come up with chicken pesto which I can share wholeheartedly with hubby.

Very delicious Chicken Pesto Pasta, a must try!



I got this recipe online but as usual, you know me, if I don’t have the ingredients available, I would improvised just like what I did to some of my recipes here. But it turns out still yummy and delicious even without sacrificing the budget just to buy those expensive ingredients. I am talking about parmesan cheese or regianno cheese. These types of cheese are quite expensive here in India for the fact that they are exported. So what I did was to just use cheddar cheese and see what would come up.

Luckily I was able to buy fresh basil leaves and it was just cheap. Although I don’t want my pesto to be with just basil leaves so I also bought spinach to make my dish healthier. About the pine nuts, well this is another ingredient that I cannot find in the market or big groceries. So I have alternated it with almond nuts or what they call badam in India. This nut is not that expensive compared to pistachio and walnut. I was able to buy 100 grams for only Rs.69 ($1.56).
I just used regular spaghetti pasta, but if you want you can also use penne pasta or fettuccine. About olive oil, I did not use that extra virgin, just the regular olive oil because that is a bit cheaper. Here in Mumbai the price of a regular olive oil in 200ml can was Rs149 ($3.38). So if you’re a smart mommy just like me, you would go for something which is cheaper but does not have to compromise the taste of what you’re going to cook.

I finish preparing this dish with the help of hubby because it was his off day. He was the one who grinded the toasted almonds and helped get the blender for the blanch spinach and fresh basil leaves. The scent of blended ingredients was really magnificent. The smell of garlic cloves with fresh basil, spinach, cheddar cheese, and almond brings me back to that same restaurant to where I order their seafood pesto.


A budget savvy recipe for pasta lovers!




Here are the basic ingredients for cooking chicken pesto pasta:

Chicken (breast part or any meaty part) – cut into cubes or smaller pieces
Spaghetti pasta (or any pasta of your choice)
Spinach (one bunch)
Fresh basil leaves (one bunch)
Garlic
Cheese (cheddar) if you have budget, use Parmesan and Regianno
Salt
Ground black pepper to taste
Olive oil
Almond nuts (if you can find pine nuts, the better)

Methods / Preparations for your Budget Savvy Chicken Pesto Pasta:

Step 1: For your pasta- Cook it as per instruction in the label, set aside when its cook and ready.
Step 2: For your spinach- Blanch it first before putting it in a blender together with fresh basil leaves.

Step 3: Cooking your chicken- Just put salt and ground black pepper on your chicken pieces and fry it using olive oil. Set aside when the meat is tender.

Step 4: Toast your almond nuts (or whatever nuts you have bought) and prepare to mix it with 5 garlic cloves. Put it in a grinder and once ready, you can now add it into the blender together with the rest of the ingredients which is the fresh basil leaves, spinach, cheddar cheese and olive oil. It is up to you what type of consistency you like. If you like it creamier then do not put too much olive oil.

Step 5: Once your pesto sauce is ready, you can now mix it with your pasta and fried chicken bits. This pesto sauce will last for quite some time so you need a container to put it in if you have extra. You can grate more cheese if you like and sprinkle some more of those grinded almond nuts.

This recipe is not that difficult to prepare. You just need patience in washing off those blenders and grinders and pots and pans once you finish cooking. I definitely enjoyed this delicious aromatic dish. I am sure you can cook this for your family and make them happy too.

Sautéed Spinach

I didn’t want to stress much to think on what to cook so I just prepared an easy recipe which is sautéed spinach. Just make sure to buy the fresh bunch of spinach and wash it carefully before preparation since there will be soil residue on the stems of spinach, not unless you buy it in a grocery where it is already packed and cleaned which is not like you buy in a local market.

Nutritious Sautéed Spinach



I have tried a lot of great and easy to cook spinach recipes and I may include this one also. No need to include spices but just the regular ingredients you have in your kitchen like garlic, onion, soy sauce and ground black pepper.

When cooking spinach, do not cover it so that the color will still remain greenish and not that dark. Anyway, when we sauté this wonderful veggie, don’t use dark soy sauce, but the regular Chinese soya sauce. If you have a veggie wash, it is much better to use it as you soak and clean the leaves of spinach. Here is the sample easy to cook recipe for Sautéed Spinach:

Steamy hot spinach!


Ingredients:
Bunch of fresh green spinach
1 medium onion (chopped)
2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
Oil
Soya sauce
Salt
Ground black pepper
1 green chili (optional)
Water

Preparation / Method on how to cook Sautéed Spinach:

Step 1: Wash the spinach well and cut it like 1-2 inches wide since this veggie will get smaller once cooked.

Step 2: Heat oil in a pan and sauté garlic and onion in it, then once it is light brown you can add the green chili. Add the Spinach and put 2-3 tbsp. of soya sauce. Keep the flame into medium heat and add about half teacup water. Season with salt and ground black pepper and keep the flame slow and cook the veggie for 2 to 3 minutes more without covering or putting a lid. Serve hot with rice and this dish match perfectly with any kinds of fried meat or fish.

How to Cook Palak Paneer

Palak Paneer ( Spinach with Cottage Cheese or Tofu) is a recipe very well known and is a traditional food in India. It is a very delicious and healthy recipe good for vegetarians and health conscious people. I personally like how palak or spinach is so green before I put it in a blender and make a fine paste. Cottage cheese or tofu plays an important part to balance this recipe since palak itself is too fine and to chew something from this recipe, you need the softness of the paneer or tofu (tokwa in Tagalog). Below is the list of ingredients needed for this recipe.

Ingredients for Palak Paneer:

1 bunch of Spinach (Palak)
half tsp. of garam masala
half tsp. of cumin powder
half tsp. coriander powder
pinch of turmeric powder
half tsp. of chili powder ( if you want it more spicy, you can add more)
2-3 cloves of garlic
pinch of fenugreek leaves powder
1 tomato - chopped in small bits
one medium size onion
1 tbsp. ginger-garlic paste
2 green chillies (sliced into pieces)
salt to taste
2-3 tbsp. of oil
2 tbsp. whip cream or all purpose cream (optional)
paneer or cottage cheese(tofu)- 1 vacuum packed size

Methods/ Preparations for Cooking Palak Paneer:

Boil water and once it reaches the boiling point, put the spinach or palak in and don't cover your pot because this will get your palak darker in color and not green. Once your palak is done, set it aside or cool it down before you put it in a blender to make a fine paste. Just put ample amount of water for your own preference.


Sauteeing the ingredients:

You need to heat the oil and then put the garam masala first, then followed by cumin powder. After this you need to put the garlic cloves and then onions. Put a small amount of salt in your onion to cook it faster. After this you need to put a pinch of turmeric powder on your onion and stir it well so that it won't stick at the bottom of your pan. Put the ginger-garlic paste and next will be your tomatoes. Once your tomato is kinda mushy, put the coriander powder and then later put the chili powder and next will be the fenugreek leaves powder. After putting the fenugreek powder, add the chopped green chillies. Set this all aside and keep it cool for some time before you put it in a mixer to make a fine paste.

Cooking the Palak and the Paneer:

Once you have mixed into fine paste the sauteed ingredients, put some ample amount of water into it and make it boil, after this you can now add the palak paste that you set aside awhile ago and it will look like the picture below. See how the steaming goodness of palak is:

Notice How Green my Palak Is


Once you see some oil on the site of your pan or wok, then you can now put your paneer or cottage cheese (tofu). Simmer for a few more minutes till your cottage cheese or paneer is tender and ready and then the last is your whip cream.

Palak Paneer is now ready to eat


Just make sure you cut the cottage cheese or paneer a bit bigger. You don't want your paneer crushed so avoid stirring and stirring the pan. Just put some more salt if you feel like the taste still needs more.