Did someone say, "pasta salad?" :)

picture gotten from BubbleWS

So, yesterday, I didn't feel like having a proper lunch so, I decided to make a pasta salad that I'll eat (and then decided to eat the pasta salad as my dinner).
Okay! So, this was the first pasta salad I had ever made and it ended up being the best that I had ever tasted. Half of the ingredients in it were raw and the other half were cooked which made it quite healthy. Here's my recipe:

Ingredient
Umm.....fusilli pasta (GOTTA HAVE THAT FUSILLI! :) )
2 eggs
1/2 of a plantain
4-5 cherry tomatoes
1/3 of a small onion
2/3 of one garlic clove
Salt
Pepper (I used some black pepper and a dash of hot peppers)
Paprika
Olive Oil

Method

• Place two eggs in a pot of boiling water and leave them to boil for 30 minutes before turning off the heat and swapping the water in the pot for cold water (carry on with the other steps while the eggs are boiling).
• Slice a plantain horizontally to make 2 equal-ish halves. Store one of them. With the second half, slice it vertically to make two near equal halves. Slice each of this halves vertically once again to leave you with 4 "sticks" of plantain. Next, horizontally cut the sticks into about 1x1cm-ish (at least) cubes and pour them into a deep fryer for a couple of minutes (till they're nearly chocolate-brown)
• Pour about 2-3 handfuls of fusilli pasta into a pot of boiling water, spice up the water with some salt, paprika and your choice of peppers, place it on the hob and cook that pasta for no more than 10 minutes (or whatever your pasta's cooking instructions say).
• On a chopping board, roughly chop/dice the onions and garlic. Slice each tomato open horizontally to make two equal halves then slice each half horizontally and vertically. Place everything in a glass bowl with a drizzle of olive oil, stir and mix them up well. Cover the bowl with some cling film/plastic wrap and leave it at a maximum of two and a half feet away from a window.
• Once the eggs are done, cut them up just like you did with the tomatoes and pour them into your raw bowl.
• Once the pasta's done, drain it and pour it into the bowl of raw goodies.
• Once the plantain's done, drain out the excess oil on it and pour it into the bowl of rawness.
• Next, give everything a good stir and mix.
• Cover up the bowl again, but only partially and leave it by the window for a few minutes just for it to cool down a bit.
• Cover the bowl up fully and pop it in your fridge.

Now, I know that pasta salads can last for about 3-4 days, but I advice that they are eaten up the day they are made not just for health reasons, but because most of the nutrients in the raw ingredients at the time of making the salad will still be intact.

Bon appétit! :)

The Amazing Fusilli

I have this crazy, new obsession with Fusilli. We were "introduced" when I went to Tesco, stood in the pasta section and couldn't decide if I wanted my beloved organic spaghetti or some other form of pasta and then a friend said, "get this one," and handed a pack of fusilli over to me.

Fusilli cooks to perfection in exactly 5 minutes. Like 5 minutes on the dot! Isn't that amazing! Especially for a college student!

Here's how I enjoy my lovely, lovely Fusilli

Ingredients
Fusilli pasta (of course)
1 Shallot
2-3 tablespoons of Dolmio ("spicy") pasta sauce (depending on how much pasta you're making)
African Yellow Pepper/Cameroon Pepper/Any really hot pepper you can get your hands on
Salt
1 Egg
Sunflower Oil


Method

• Pour as much fusilli as need into a pot, boil some water, pour over the fusilli, turn the heat under the hob to max. and cook the pasta for exactly 5 minutes (set a timer if you have to)
• While the pasta's cooking, cut up (could be in a regular or irregular shape) one shallot
• In a frying pan, pour in about a tablespoon to a tablespoon and a half of sunflower oil and before it gets hot, pour in the cut up shallots and a dash of salt (this will not only get the shallots cooked, but also infuse the oil with the taste of the shallots).
• When the shallots have softened (and before they start browning), pour in the few table spoons of Dolmio sauce, stir everything in the pan together well.
• Add as much of the hot pepper you can get your hands on to the contents of the pan (I love my food spicy so I add A LOT)
• Fry everything for about 30 seconds stirring continuously
• Drain out 99% of the water in the pot the pasta was in and pour the pasta into the frying pan.
• Stir and turn over the contents of the pan till the colour of every fusilli has changed to at least a faint one of that of the pasta sauce and let the everything cook a little (you can add a little more oil here if you think it's needed)
• I would usually add some more pepper here, but you don't have to.
• Next, crack and egg and beat it in a cup or bowl, pour it into the frying pan and stir and turn over the contents of the frying pan to coat the fusilli with the egg.
• Let everything sit in the pan stirring occasionally until the egg is not visibly raw anymore before turning off the heat.
• Get a bowl, dish some pasta into it.
• Eat then get up, make some more of this and eat it up again.