The White Ramekins

food & photography

  • Home
  • Recipes
  • Portfolio
  • About

Lamb Meatballs & Spaghetti

September 10, 2014 by TheWhiteRamekins

 Lamb Meatballs & Spaghetti

Meatballs and Spaghetti is one of those Italian comfort food which would probably tempt each one of us. A heaping plate of spaghetti topped with hearty tomato sauce and flavoursome meatballs evokes the feeling of a perfect comfort food. And specifically, pasta still remains one of my easy weeknight dinner option, something which I can bank on any day. The life gets easier if I have a big bottle of pre-made passata in my fridge.

Lamb Meatballs & Spaghetti

I have seen my taste buds moving from a strong liking of white cream sauce based pasta to a lighter tangier tomato sauce one. Rather, if I put it this way, it is white sauce which I prefer during cold winter days. While on hot summer day, it is light summery tomato sauce with loads of fresh basil torn straight from balcony plant. Freshly grated Parmesan and freshly torn basil leaves just do the magic trick and make you a wonderful yet easy weeknight treat.

Lamb Meatballs & Spaghetti

This time, I made these lamb meatballs which I adapted from Donna Hay’s magazine, who herself is well known for her fast fresh and simple recipes. This one is a no brainer too, yet it is easy to fall in love with those light and summery flavours. Originally, the recipe called for beef and pork, which I have substituted with an equal amount of lamb mince meat as per my liking. If you want you can cook the meatballs to the half stage (searing in the pan) and store them in air tight container in freezer for using them later. 

Lamb Meatballs & Spaghetti

 

Lamb Meatballs & Spaghetti
2014-09-09 11:09:37
Hearty lamb meatballs cooked in light and fresh tomato sauce and topped with Parmesan cheese and basil leaves.
Write a review
Save Recipe
Print
For meatballs
  1. 2 tbsp olive oil
  2. 500 gm lamb meat, minced
  3. 60 gm fresh white bread crumb
  4. 1/4 cup milk
  5. 1 egg
  6. 2 cloves garlic
  7. 2 tsp mixed dried herbs(oregano/sage/thyme)
  8. Crushed black pepper and salt
  9. 2 tbsp olive oil
  10. 1 onion, finely chopped
For sauce
  1. 2 tbsp tomato paste
  2. 500 gm fresh tomatoes, blanched and peeled
  3. 2 cloves garlic crushed
  4. 1/2 cup lamb stock
  5. 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
  6. 1 onion, finely chopped
  7. Crushed black pepper and salt
  8. Handful of fresh basil leaves
  9. 2 tsp dried thyme
  10. Freshly grated Parmesan to serve
  11. 250 gm spaghetti
For meatballs
  1. Mix all the ingredients except olive oil very well in a large bowl.
  2. Wet your hands and roll the meatballs taking 1 tbsp of mixture at a time.
  3. Heat a large frying pan. Add oil and cook the meatballs on medium heat for 4-5 minutes, turning meatballs frequently.
  4. Take out the meatballs from pan and let cool.
For sauce
  1. Heat the oil in the same pan you cooked the meatballs. Add garlic and onions and cook them until soft, around 2-3 minutes.
  2. Add the tomato paste and balsamic vinegar and cook for another 2 minutes.
  3. Add the fresh chopped tomatoes, stock, herbs, salt and pepper and let cook for 5 minutes.
  4. Add the meatballs to the sauce and cook for another 20 minutes, until meatballs are cooked through.
  5. Cook the spaghetti in a large saucepan with boiling water and loads of salt. Drain off the spaghetti once cooked.
  6. To serve, place the spaghetti in serving plates, top with generous amount of meatballs and sauce, followed by Parmesan and fresh basil leaves.
By Himanshu Taneja
Adapted from Donna Hay
Adapted from Donna Hay
The White Ramekins https://thewhiteramekins.com/

Filed Under: Pasta, Savory Tagged With: comfort food, food, italian, meatballs, pasta, spaghetti, tomato sauce passata

Tiramisu Ice Cream

July 20, 2014 by TheWhiteRamekins

tiramisu ice cream

Oh! I love tiramisu. The deep coffee flavored dessert with the lusciousness of mascarpone is something I would never say no to. And what if you get that a tiramisu ice cream? It just can’t get any better. A quintessential Italian dessert being turned into an ice cream to cool you off from the intense heat. Although, the weather has got slightly cooler this week due to official arrival of monsoon, you still can enjoy the ice cream.

tiramisu ice cream tiramisu ice cream

I made this ice cream a couple of days back. Actually I had  half a carton of cream in my fridge, which I wanted to utilize. And then mascarpone occurred to my mind. I hadn’t had tiramisu in long time and I was craving for it. I made this last year probably. I have made tiramisu verrines and the the classic style tiramisu from the authentic savoiardi cookies, which my friend brought for me. And this time I wanted to try it differently, in a frozen dessert.

tiramisu ice cream

I thought of an ice cream cake too, but didn’t have courage to turn on the oven in the intense hot summer. Thank God! the weather has cooled down a bit, so I would be back to baking spree now. This is a recipe which I adapted from The Perfect Scoop. It’s one gem of a book from David Lebovitz on frozen treats. I keep on hoping between The Perfect Scoop and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. But I can’t say for sure, which one is my favorite.  As of yet, I love both! 

tiramisu ice cream tiramisu ice cream

The original recipe didn’t call for eggs, but had asked for a lot of liqueur, which I didn’t want truly speaking. So I though of giving it my own twist by making it custard based, so that it gets more luscious and creamy. And I am glad that it I did that. It came out super smooth and velvety with those deep flavor of coffee which I had been craving for. We also made affogato and served them in pretty martini glasses. Tiramissini, we called them! Isn’t that chic? We all loved it a lot!

tiramisu ice cream tiramisu ice cream

Tiramisu Ice Cream
2014-07-20 02:19:58
A rich and velvety smooth frozen twist to classic Italian Tiramisu with deep coffee flavor and mocha ripple.
Write a review
Save Recipe
Print
For the ice cream
  1. 2 cups mascarpone
  2. 1/2 cup sugar
  3. 3 egg yolks
  4. 1 cup cream
  5. 1/2 cup milk
  6. 1/4 cup espresso
  7. 1 tbsp coffee powder
  8. 2 tbsp dark rum {optional}
  9. 1/2 vanilla bean, slit
For the mocha ripple
  1. 1/2 cup sugar
  2. 1/3 cup light corn syrup
  3. 1/2 cup water
  4. 6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
  5. 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  6. 1 tbsp coffee powder
For the mocha ripple
  1. Whisk together all the ingredients in a saucepan.
  2. Heat over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture begins to bubble slightly at the edges.
  3. Remove from heat and let cool completely in fridge.
For the ice cream
  1. Pour milk, half cup of the cream and vanilla bean in a saucepan and heat on medium heat until sugar dissolves completely and the mixture starts to boil.
  2. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar to a creamy consistency. Add two small ladle full of hot milk and cream mixture whisking rigorously.
  3. Add the egg mixture to the remaining milk and cream mixture in saucepan, whisking rapidly.
  4. Heat the egg mixture in saucepan on a low heat, stirring continuously, until the custard coats the back of a wooden spoon.
  5. Take the custard off the heat. In another bowl, whisk together the mascarpone, remaining cream, custard, coffee granules, espresso and dark rum (if using) to make smooth mixture.
  6. Cover with plastic wrap and chill thoroughly in fridge, preferably overnight.
  7. Freeze the chilled mixture in your ice cream machine, as per manufacturer's instructions.
  8. Once ice cream is ready, drizzle the mocha sauce in the bottom of container. Working quickly, layer half of the ice cream in container with mocha sauce alternating with ice cream and the mocha sauce.
  9. Freeze the ice cream in freezer for 3-4 hours.
By Himanshu Taneja
Adapted from The Perfect Scoop
Adapted from The Perfect Scoop
The White Ramekins https://thewhiteramekins.com/

 

Filed Under: ice cream Tagged With: affogato, coffee, food, ice cream, italian, summer, tiramisu

Blogger’s Table | Zanotta @ Leela Kempinski, Gurgaon

October 10, 2012 by TheWhiteRamekins

Amidst the suave, well cultured and purely professional staff managing Zanotta, the award winning Italian fine dining restaurant of Leela Kempinski and our happy-go-lucky bunch of bloggers from Blogger’s Table, it was a rather classy evening spent on last Saturday. The restaurant situated on the 6th floor of the hotel right there at the doorstep of the suburbia manages to rise and shine like a star on the face of this now-happening food district, Gurgaon.

It kicked-off with an introductory chit-chat with the hotel’s General Manager, Roger Wright, F&B Head Shisheer Manohar, Head of PR & Marcom Vinay Narang and their seasoned Executive Chef Emmanuel Guemon over a glass of sparkling wine. And as soon as we finished exchanging the cards, we were talking food and this is what mattered most to all of us.

We took our conversation to a long dining table, with each one of our names assigned to seats, inside the restaurant. Mine was adjoining Sid, Charis, Rekha and the Chef Emmanuel. There was already a dated five course menu, especially designed by the team for the evening. I was already impressed by the minute-level details that have been taken care of and there was more to follow.

After I chose for the non-vegetarian menu, first came the scallops nicely charred and done to the level of tenderness served along with zucchini salad.  They were paired with a Craggy Range Chardonnay from New Zealand. Right after the scallops, we were served a Sicilian sea food soup, quite full of fresh flavors from sea. I was slow on wine and was served another one Albert Bichot Cote de Rhone, Chardonnay from France, before I could finish my first one. The bread basket was getting refilled silently time and again. All the servers were quite attentive, I must say.

 The dinner table had a dramatic appearance between the meal. A strawberry sorbet, as a palate cleanser walked down the ramp. And everyone was gaping at it. An igloo carved out at one side, dimly lit with a candle from inside, with a small serving of sorbet sitting on a napkin in the front. It was an amazing piece of artwork, not just any sorbet. Nonetheless it tasted divine. Following that we were served a very delicious mushroom ravioli based in a simple tomato basil sauce paired with another glass of wine Valpolicella ‘Classico’ Allegrini, Corvina. For the main course it was Zanotta special Salmon with arugula pesto sizzling on a very hot plate; simple flavors, yet potent enough to satisfy the taste buds. It was a Penfolds Rawson’s Retreat, Cabernet Shiraz from Australia which paired the main.

 A bitter chocolate semi freddo with candied orange peel and mint was a fabulous dessert, which summed up the dinner. All in all it was a wonderful evening spent with the blogger friends and the highly proficient team of Zanotta. And it was fun knowing Chef Emmanuel Guemon, who besides having spent 28 years in this profession, is also a shy and modest food photography enthusiast.

Photo Courtesy Rekha Kakkar @ http://www.mytastycurry.com/

Other’s on the table that night:

Sid Khullar of ChefatLarge
Rekha of My Tasty Curry
Deeba Rajpal of Passionate About Baking
Charis of Culinary Storm
Parul of Shirazine
Ruchira of Cookaroo
Sangeeta of Banaras Ka Khaana

Filed Under: review Tagged With: blog event, blogger's table, food, Gurgaon, italian, restaurant review, The Leela

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • Next Page »

Hi! I'm Himanshu - a home chef who loves to cook, bake, style and photo shoot... Read More…

Connect with me

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2023 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress