Stewed Gizzard and Tagliatelle in Spinach

Hey y'all!

 

Here's a recipe I came up with last week. It's nothing dramatically new. I just had a day when I felt like eating pasta. I had some macaroni at home but at the last minute, I decided using the Tagliatelle in Spinach that had been sitting in my kitchen for a while. When it was time to think of the animal protein to accompany the meal, I gave that a long thought. You'd think it was more than a normal meal I was pondering on. Thing is, I'm not much of an animal protein fan. I can well eat my meals and do without it. But in this environment, people tend to frown on that. I eat them mostly because I know my body needs them. I like fish/seafood a lot and like beef the least. For chicken, I'm just indifferent although I have a little love for turkey. So this day, I had no animal protein at home and I really did not feel like doing chicken seeing as I seemed to be having that too many times. I have this belief that poultry goes best with pasta, actually. And since I eat a lot of pasta, well, I was tired of all that chicken. It then occurred to me that Wait a minute! I love Gizzard! That's one of the few animal proteins I just cannot pass. So, I went off to buy half a kilo of Gizzard. I wanted as little as possible as I was the only one eating it. So, I came up with this meal:

 

Gizzard - Half a kilo

Tomatoes - 7

Scotch Bonnet (rodo) - 10 (I eat a lot of pepper. Reduce yours if you don't)

Onions - 2

Olive Oil - 2 tbsp.

Italian Seasoning - 1 tsp

Garlic (powdered) - 2 tsp

Maggi chicken cube

Cayenne powder - 1 tsp

Salt

Granoro's Tagliatelle with Spinach 

 

I washed the gizzards of dirt. I was pleased to discover that Half a kilo of gizzard was so much that I had to keep some away. I even took some time admiring this particular gizzard. This was nicely pink and I just bought it from one of these neighbourhood frozen food shops. The packed ones I've been getting from those popular big chain supermarkets were not even as much or pink or fleshy or lovely looking before being cooked.

 

Yummy gizzard

 

Seasoned the gizzard with some Italian Seasoning, a bit of Maggi, a teaspoon of Garlic powder and a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Add half an onion and a quarter cup of water. Let cook. Then put aside afterwards.

 

While that's cooking, clean the tomatoes and pepper and onions. Put in a blender and pulse. I didn't puree as I always like my pepper to be rough and not smooth.

 

Blended pepper

Next, pour the olive oil in the pan or wok. Then add some chopped onions. When the onions turn transparent, pour in the blended pepper and let cook on medium heat for about 15minutes.



 

When cooked, add all the dry ingredients and the juice from the cooked gizzard. Let cook for about 5minutes. Add some more chopped onions then add the cooked gizzard. Cover and let cook for another 5 minutes then take off the burner.

 

While the sauce was cooking, boil some water in a separate pot. Add a bit of salt. When it's boiled, put in the pasta. I used 4 rolls of the Granoro Tagliatelle in Spinach.

 



Tagliatelle pasta with spinach

Let the pasta boil for about 5mins as tagliatelle cooks quickly then drain in a sieve or colander. Look how beautiful that is.

 

 

I at first tried to mix the sauce with the pasta but I found that to be unnecessary as the strong green colour of the pasta did not let the colour of the sauce come through. So, I served the meal this way.

 

Yum!

 

My personal opinion is that this meal is suitable for weightwatchers. The pasta is infused with spinach to make it healthy. Kinda like wheat bread, I think. Gizzard too is known to be a healthy source of protein as against red meat.

 

Oh yeah! It tasted fantastic!

 

NB: Writing this post tonight has helped me none. The plumbing is bad in my flat so there's no running water. I didn't want to cook anything that'll cause me to have dirty dishes so I'm stuck with eating bread for dinner. I now went to write this post. Now, I'm hungry for real food. Just swell!

 

Seafood stir-fry and Pasta

Since this blog is just about me posting my favourite activities and interests, here's a recipe I just discovered and absolutely love.

I found this recipe off the internet while I was having a bored period. I don't quite remember the link now but when I do, I'd be sure to update. Why I particularly got interested with this recipe is because 1. I love pasta. That's my go-to staple. As tiny as my kitchen is, if you see nothing else  in there, you can be sure to meet some pasta. My father is a pasta fanatic. He passed it on to me. 2. I love seafood too! But not as much of a staple as pasta is to me. I got the Breco Seafood Mix from Shoprite which has squid, calamari rings, shrimp, octopus, etc and it's quite cheap. Just under 800naira.

So, 2 loves and I was ready to try this recipe.

Here's what you need:

Pasta (I used Tagliatelle cos that was what I had on hand)
5 Carrots - skinned and chopped
2 Green pepper - chopped
4 Scotch Bonnet - chopped (You can use the number you desire. I love my food very spicy)
1 Onion - chopped
3 Tomatoes - chopped
Tomato Paste (Original recipe said to use Pasta sauce but I had none at home)
Black Pepper (I used whole. You can use powdered if you wish)
Seasoning (I used Maggi crayfish. Original recipe said Maggi chicken but hey! This is seafood!)
Crushed chilli (very optional)
Powdered Ginger
Powdered Garlic
Salt
Olive oil - 1 tbs
Seafood Mix (I used Breco seafood mix. )

Directions:

I had let the Seafood Mix melt down from the day before by bringing it out of the freezer and putting in the refrigerator. I rinsed it severally and then put in a colander to lose any leftover fluids.
Pour oil in frying pan wok (I don't own a wok. Yet). Let it heat up for a bit then you add some of the onions. Let the onions fry on low heat until it's about transparent. At this point, first add carrots and stir continuously. After about 1 minutes, add in tomatoes, green pepper and scotch bonnet. Continue to stir for about 5 minutes on low heat. Add the remaining onions.

Err... Couldn't quite get to rotate this

Take about a tablespoon of the tomato paste and mix in 1 tablespoon of water to reduce its thick consistency. Stir this to the wok and let cook for another 5 minutes.

At this point, put on a pot of boiling water for the pasta. Add a teaspoon of salt and a dash of olive oil. When boiled, put in the pasta and let cook till soft.

Back to the sauce. Add all dried ingredients (salt inclusive) at this point and stir into the mix. Let cook for 2 minutes then add the Seafood mix.

 

Ensure you are on low heat when this comes in. Seafood does not exactly like to be cooked on high heat lest it tastes and feels like glue.

I really cannot understand why these pictures are not in the right angle

Cover the point and let simmer for about 5 minutes or as long as you feel it's cooked enough for you to eat. Turn off the burner and let sit.

Drain the pasta into a colander to remove fluid. Serve the sauce on the pasta and it's ready to be devoured.

Bon appetit!  




PS: I have a confession to make. That last shot? Well, after I cooked the meal, it looked so good that I gobbled it in no time and forgot to take a picture. I took a second serving and still did not remember. By the time I remembered, it was all gone. Next day, I cooked the same recipe but with one slight difference. I was out of the Seafood mix. I had used up all I had. But I had a small packet of Calamari rings sitting in my freezer! Well, all na seafood. No scam there. I used the Calamari rings instead and made sure I took a picture right before I gobbled this one too all up! You'd fall prey too, I assure you.

Hope you like it!