Pasta Shells with stuffed Mozzarella and Chicken and Béchamel Sauce

Pasta Shells arranged in the Pyrex dish.

What you need:

For Filling:
Pasta Shells - Half a packet
Mozzarella - Half Cup
Shredded Chicken - 1 Cup (I used leftover chicken from chicken broth)
Green Chilli - 2 pieces
Egg - 1 
Red Chilli flakes - 2 Teaspoon
Salt to taste
Oregano - 1/2 Teaspoon

For Béchamel Sauce:
Butter - 2 Tablespoon
Flour -  2 Tablespoon flour
Milk (heated) - 1 1/4 cup
Salt to taste
Fresh ground pepper
Grated cheddar or Parmesan - 1/2 cup 

Instructions:

Boil the shells like any other pasta and carefully spoon them out, try not to break.

Now mix all the filling ingredients. Remember egg is used for binding the filling together.

Pre-heat the oven at 350 F. 

Put a saucepan on medium heat and add butter. Once the butter starts to melt add milk.
Simmer milk and then add flour to it and keep stirring it with the  help of whisk. (it shouldn't have any lumps).
Now add salt, pepper and cheese. Keep stirring with the whisk until you achieve the require consistency of your sauce. Your sauce is ready, keep aside.

Take a pyrex dish, spoon out some sauce into the dish. Now arrange the pasta shells in the dish.
Pour over rest of the sauce and sprinkle some mozzarella cheese. Cover it with the foil and put into over for 30 mins. Pasta Shells are ready to serve!

You can do all sort of variations with this and try Napolitana Sauce instead of  Béchamel Sauce.

Cookie Cutters !

My Cookie Cutters In Spotlight!

Kung Pao Chicken

Kung Pao Chicken

Kung Pao Chicken is originaly known as Gong Bao Chicken and it is cooked with beef or shrimps as well.

What you need:

For Marination:

Boneless Chicken Breast - 2 Pieces 
Dark Soy Sauce  - 1 1/2 Tablespoon 
Oyster Sauce - 1 Tablespoon 
Corn Flour  - 1 Tablespoon
Olive oil      - 1 Teaspoon 

For Sauce

Dark Soy Sauce - 2 Tablespoon

Oyster Sauce - 1 1/2 Teaspoon

Sugar - 1 Teaspoon  

Other Ingredients: 

Red Chilli Peppers - 8 

Garlic Cloves - 3 

Spring Onions - 1 cup  

Olive oil - 4  Tablespoon 

Szechwan peppercorns (Optional)  - 1 Teaspoon 

Cashews  - 1/4 cup 
Peanuts  - 1/2 cup 

Method:

Cut the chicken breasts into medium sized slices, remember not too thick and not too thin!

Mix all the marination ingredients except corn flour and pour onto the chicken. Mix well and then add the corn flour. Mix Mix Mix :P 

Keep it in refrigerator. 

For atleast half an hour ! 

Now keep your wok at high flame and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Toss the peanuts and cashews, fry them for 3-5 minutes. Keep aside.

Mix together ingredients for sauce. Keep that aside too! 

Chop the garlic finely. 

Cut the spring onions diagonally.

Ok, we are done with all the cutting, marination and mixing. Let's get to real work! ;)

Put the wok at medium-high flame add 2 tablespoon of olive oil and add your chicken.

If the chicken is white or let's say 80% cooked, take the wok off the flame.

Now take the frying pan and add last 2 tablespoon of olive oil (Oh you can use sesame oil as well) and add garlic, Szechwan peppercorns and red chilli peppers. Stir until they are aromatic and red.

Add the sauce into the frying pan give it a little boil. Toss the chicken in and then the spring onions and nuts. Cover and let it cook for atleast 5 minutes, so that the aroma of all the ingredients is mixed well together. 

Kung Pao Chicken is ready now! Serve it hot with Chinese fried rice.

P.S: I also added powdered peanut mixture to the sauce. 

Please give me your feedback \m/

Tomato Chutney

Tomato Chutney

What you need:

 
6 Tomatoes 
1 Tablespoon oil
1 Teaspoon Nigella sativa/ Black seeds/Kalonji
1 Tablespoon of ginger paste
1 Tablespoon of Garlic paste
1 Teaspoon vinegar
1 Tablespoon brown sugar (you can use white as well)

Put oil on low heat and add ginger and garlic paste and Kalonji. Let it cook but don't let it go brown. Then add chopped tomatoes. If you want you can peel off the skin and then add them. I added without peeling off the skin. Make sure from time to time that tomatoes are not getting sticked on the pan.

Let it cook on medium heat until they are soft. Now, add sugar and vinegar. 
Cook until the skin is separated from the tomatoes or until thick mixture is formed. 
I didn't want to blend all the chunks, so I cooked it until they were very soft. (For about an hour on low heat) The oil will be separated. After that I blended my mixture for about 2 minutes, so that it would not form paste. Pour in a container and let it cook then refrigerate. Try to consume within two weeks.

You can vary your ingredients. 

Mine is yummy! But it was my first try. I will try to bring some variations next time :D

Enjoy !!!