Pasta with tuna sauce

Well, this one is a delicious and fast made recipe and I own it to my sister's imagination. I prefer it hot, but you can cook it without much chilli powder…

Ingredients

500 grams / 17 oz pasta (any type)
500 ml /17 fl oz tomato juice
140 grams /5 oz canned tuna in water (or in oil) drained
240 grams /8.5 oz drained canned mushrooms
5 tablespoons of oil (4 for the sauce and 1 for the pasta)
3 teaspoon salt (1 for the sauce and 2 for the pasta)
½ teaspoon garlic powder (or 1 thin chopped garlic clove)
A pinch of black pepper
A pinch of chilli powder (or 1 teaspoon if you prefer it hot), or boukovo, or Tabasco sauce.
A pinch of oregano

Method

Boil the pasta according to my “Pasta boiling secret”

In a saucepan, heat well the oil and sauté the mushrooms until they get shrunk and red. Add the canned tuna, garlic, black pepper, chilli powder (or the other hot ingredient you got) and oregano. Continue sautéing the mix for 5 min, stirring. Add the tomato juice and the salt (1 teaspoon). Lower heat and simmer for 7- 9 min.

That’s all. Serve in deep plate with the sauce on top, chopsticks or fork…

Alternatives:

If you haven’t got tuna at home, you can use canned mackerel
If you haven’t got tomato juice at home you can use ketchup with water (300 ml ketchup + 200 ml water)

Another Pasta tip:

Although I know that you prefer spaghetti, I try to use pasta that has holes in it… (I mean rigatoni, penne rigate, bucatini etc) when I combine them with sauce. I do this because sauce, fills up the gaps of the pasta and turns them more delicious than they already are… Jim.

Feel like a real Cowboy!

Ok, this is a product of my imagination, because you see, I’ve never had the chance to be a cowboy. Nevertheless, my sister and my brother-in-law adore this hot recipe!

Ingredients

-400 gram/ 14 oz of prepared canned red kidney beans
-400 gram/ 14 oz of prepared canned corn
-400 gram/ 14 oz of sliced bacon or 12-15 strips (chop the bacon in very tiny squares of ½ inch x ½ inch)
-250 gram/ 9 oz of canned mushrooms
-250 ml of tomato juice
-1 tablespoon of boukovo or 20 ml Tabasco® sauce or 20 ml of your tabasco-style sauce… (alternatively you can chop 3-4 Thai peppers or 2 chili peppers or any hot peppers you like)
-4 tablespoons of oil
-½ tsp salt

Method

Put in nonstick frying pan the oil. After it gets heated add the well drained mushrooms and the bacon and sauté them well. Then, add the canned beans (with all their broth –this is important) and the drained corn. Stir well for 5 min. Then, add the tomato juice, salt and the HOT stuff (I mean boukovo, Tabasco or the hot peppers you got). Stir once and simmer for 10 min.

That’ it! Instead of hot coffee try cool beer and you will remember me…

Make your own tabasco-style sauce at home!

This was my family’s secret for yeas but now it’s time to be revealed…

Ingredients:
-3.2 pounds of red hot peppers (any type, but i would recommend chili or thai)
-21 fl oz vinegar
-2 teaspoons salt
-2 teaspoons sugar

Method:
Put on a pair of rubber gloves (and I also recommend a doctor’s mask) open the window and place the peppers in a blender with some white vinegar(1-2 oz is ok). Don't place the whole stuff in the blender. Instead, try to blend the peppers by 1 pound each time.

Find a large bottle, able to contain aprox. 1,30 gallons and fill it with the “red hot pulp” you' ve just created, using a funnel. Fill the one third of the bottle. Fill the rest of the bottle with the rest white vinegar and leave a space of 2 inches from the bottle’s mouth (for 3 pounds of peppers you need 21 ounces of vinegar). Add salt and sugar.

Seal the bottle with wax and place it in dark, dry place at least for 2 years (I recommend to stick a label with the production date on it, so that you will know when you are going to open it.


Straining the hot stuff (2 years later...)

Use an alight candle to melt the wax seal and open the cap. Use a metal strainer to strain the pulp in a jug or jar. Do not try to strain it in another bottle at once, because the pulp is too thick and the thin red liquid will overflow the bottle externally. Ok, now you' ve got the HOT sauce you dreamed off.


Tip:

Do not throw away the strained pulp. You can keep it in a jar in your refrigerator to spice any food you prefer hot. It's very hot, so be careful with the quantities.

Cheers!

Spicy Chicken with rice

This is a very simple recipe and takes just half an hour to prepare a delicious, filling and impressive meal. A nonstick frying pan is essential.

Ingredients (for 2 persons)

2 chicken breasts
1 cup of parboiled rice
1 tablespoon of olive oil (or any oil you commonly use)
Salt, pepper, oregano and boukovo


Method for the Chicken

Chop each chicken breast in 4 slices so that you got 8 slices in total.
Salt and pepper the slices. Add a pinch of oregano and a teaspoon of boukovo.
Put a tablespoon of oil into the nonstick pan and wait for 3-4 min to get heated. Wiggle lightly the pan so that the oil to cover the whole pan surface.
Place the slices in the pan

--Tip1: when placing each slice, try to dip it in a small amount of oil that already is in the pan surface

Fry the chicken from both sides using a wooden ladle and after 15 to 20 minutes it will be ready.

--Tip 2: to make the meat getting a nice red color you can pour 1.5 ounce of water while the frying the chicken. This will cause steam to rise and will give instantly a nice red color to the chicken.

Method for the rice

Use a sauce pan and ad 22 ounces of water. Wait until it reaches the boiling point. Add a teaspoon of chicken (or vegetable) powder base or 1 chicken (or vegetable) cube base (alternatively you can you a teaspoon of salt, a pinch of pepper and a pinch of curry powder (if you got some). Put the rice inside and boil it for 20 min. (You can prepare this cooking at the time you place the chicken in the pan, and so you will have the rice ready at the same time with the chicken)

You can serve it as I suggest you in the photo above…

Good appetite… yum-yum…

What is “Boukovo”?

Boukovo (perhaps the origin of the name is Bulgarian) is the spicy, very hot, flake powder made from hot red peppers (usually hot Thai peppers that Greeks call “tsuska”, but you can use any type of red HOT pepper). Boukovo is very popular in the Balkan countries and people there use it very often to spice soups, sausages, meat and casserole dishes.

How to make your own Boukovo if you cannot find it at the spice/herb store

First of all you will need 4 to 5 pounds of well dried red hot peppers. You can dry the peppers by placing them in thread chain. Take a needle with thread and sew the peppers one by one from the calyx (or the area between the calyx and the pedicle). Pass about 40 to 50 pieces in each chain. Then, hang the chains in place with a lot of sunlight and fresh air. After two months you’ll get a lot of well dried peppers.

Put on a pair of rubber gloves (and I also recommend a doctor’s mask) open the window and place the dried peppers in a plastic bag. Then start to crumble them in small flakes as I show you in the photo above.

That’s it! Remove the calices and the pedicles and place the “red hot snow” in jar with an airtight cap.

Good Hunting!

Make your Tabasco style sauce at home

Pasta "Inferna"

Well this is one of my favourites "made-easy" recipes and my family loves it. It's very hot though, so it's recomended only for the bold ones...


Ingredients

-Any type of pasta

-Fresh pepper or/and onion (Chopped in thin slices)

-Fresh hot (green or red) pepper (any type) or Boukovo (?) (Boukovo is the result of crumbling dried red hot peppers)

-500 gr. Tomato juice, or minced tomatoes or at least ketchup...

-400 gr. Fresh mushrooms (chopped in thin slices) or 240 gr (drained) canned ones

-Salt, pepper and oregano

Alternative
If you haven't got any mushrooms or even onion or fresh peppers you can use sliced ham, or bacon to give extra taste to the sauce!

Method

1. Put some funy/joyful music on your stereo system! Remember Cooking means to have FUN!
2. Cook any type of pasta (spaghettini, linguini, penne, farfale, pennette, fusilli, rigatoni etc) in the way I advise you in the blog entry "Boiling Pasta Secret"
3. In a saucepan, saute the chopped onions, fresh (non-hot) peppers, fresh hot peppers and mushrooms, until they get shrinked and red (not black which means that they are carbonized he he..)

4. Pour the tomato juice or minced tomatoes (or 200 gr of Ketchup with 200 gr water)

5. Add Boukovo (1 spoonful) or 1 teaspoonful of Tabasco sauce, 1 spf of salt, some black pepper and oregano.

6. Boil the sauce for 15 min.

AND THAT' S ALL! Good appetite and Fun!