These Chickpea and Sweet Potato Balls were actually meant to go into sandwiches as burgers. But the first time round I didn't freeze them enough and made a huge burger out of them which threatened to disintegrate all the time I was trying to fry it. It had to be topped off with melted cheese and sauce to make it stay together. So I decided to fix it with a binding agent- mashed rice and top it off with bread crumbs. The Marinara sauce was an experiment I made earlier this week. This was my first attempt at a homemade pasta sauce. The only other time is when I tried to create my own mushrooms in white sauce dish in the first month that I started cooking. Anyone with the least experience in cooking can tell you that a homemade pasta sauce is definitely not level 1 cooking. So you can imagine that the only reason that mock alfredo sauce tasted good was because of all the cream I put in.
Marinara Sauce is one of those 3-4 ingredient recipes which are a quick fix and a much healthier option to store bought sauces. I flicked this recipe out of the New York Times cooking section and modified it. One piece of warning however is that Indian Tomatoes do not work as well as you want them to in this recipe because they are much more sour than their international counterparts. A good idea maybe to replace them with cherry tomatoes or attempt a re-calibration of the taste with a little sugar or ketchup. The chickpea and sweet potato balls are my own concoction based on some taste memories of aloo tikkis.
Also spaghetti marinara is not a very traditional combination. The marinara sauce freezes well and can be typically used over pizzas and possibly smaller pastas. In fact after I made this sauce, I tasted it for the first time over fusilli pasta. But bolognese is something I cannot make, so I guess this was my way of making Spaghetti Bolognese with meatballs.
On my Kitchen counter:
Spaghetti
For the marinara sauce:
3 medium sized tomatoes
4-5 garlic cloves
Olive oil- 3 tbsp
Salt
Oregano
Chilli Flakes
Mixed seasoning (Italian)-optional
Ketchup- 2 tsp or Sugar 2 tsp
For the sweet potato balls:
2 sweet potato tubers
Handful of chickpeas
Chaat masala
Salt
Red chilly powder
Garam masala powder
Breadcrumbs
Cooked rice
Vegetable oil to shallow fry
Boil the chickpeas and sweet potatoes each for 13-15 minutes until soft and well done.
Mash together and add salt, add the chaat masala, red chilly powder and garam masala powder.
Add the cooked rice and bring together to a moulding consistency.
Roll it in breadcrumbs and shallow fry over medium heat in vegetable oil.
Keep turning them so they cook evenly.
Can freeze left overs as burger raw material or as pre-made patties/bullets.
Spaghetti must be placed in a pot of boiling salted water with a few drops of oil.
Cook for 10-12 minutes.
Drain and shock with cold water.
Mash together the tomatoes with a little water. Keep them slightly whole to ensure a good texture.
Chop up the garlic cloves.
In a pan, heat up the olive oil.
Saute the garlic cloves until they turn slightly brown.
Add the tomatoes and the juice.
Also add the oregano,salt, chilli flakes and the mixed seasoning now.
If you are going to add sugar, do that as well now. But I lean towards the sweetness of ketchup.
Let the water evaporate and the sauce start to thicken.
When the oil and the sauce start to turn red, add the ketchup.
Keep stirring to prevent burning and the sauce will continue to thicken.
Once the sauce comes together and the tomatoes are cooked through and turned a bright red, take off the heat.
Once cooled, the leftover sauce can be placed in the freezer for future use.
