Pesto Pasta and Gajar ka Halwa or What I made with the goodies I got from the Fresh and Local Radio show

Wow! That has to be the longest title yet to any blog post I’ve written so far.

2 weeks ago I was invited to the Fresh & Local radio show to talk about Indian cooking. The recording ended with a bag of farm-fresh sweet-smelling carrots, and packets of Dehn’s Garden herbs. I came back home certain about what I’d make with the carrots, but unsure of what I’d do with the fresh Basil and Rosemary in the goody bag. After some quick searching online and within my bookmarked recipes, I made 3 delicious dishes, all of which were a first for me.

Gajar ka Halwa, a popular North-Indian carrot dessert

Gajar ka Halwa

I used the fresh, sweet carrots to make this creamy, decadent dessert that is a big part of many an Indian’s childhood. Gajar ka Halwa typically takes hours to make as it involves cooking grated carrot with milk, until the milk completely reduces. I used this shortcut method I came across on ShowMeTheCurry.com. I made the whole thing in about an hour in the microwave. No kidding. See the recipe here.

Pesto pasta

I used this really simple recipe for making the Basic Basil Pesto from WhippedtheBlog. Then, I prepared the dish like so:

• While you cook the penne, in a large pan, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil and cook about a quarter of an onion, roughly chopped, on medium heat until the onion is soft and translucent. Turn off heat and keep aside.
• Once the onions are a little cool, spoon in 3-4 large spoonfuls of the pesto sauce. I like more pesto in my pasta so I use a lot.
• Once the pasta is cooked, before draining, add about 2 ladle-fuls of the starchy water into the onion + pesto pan. Drain pasta and add into the pan. Immediately, mix really well. Add more pesto if you feel like it.
• Serve immediately and garnish with some fresh Parmesan cheese

With the Rosemary, I made some simple Garlic Rosemary chicken, à la Rachael Ray. No pictures here!

I still have a lot of the Rosemary still left. Any ideas on what I can do with it?

In other news, I just got featured as a Savvy Seven woman in Savvy.mn‘s October issue. Here’s a chance for you to learn some crazy trivia about me 🙂