Vermicelli Aglio Olio with Chinese Sausage - Waxed Meat #2

One kick ass idea from Peng. LOL. Love ya Peng.

I love aglio olio. The fragrant garlic makes this pasta dish soooo appetizing and not that cloying to eat. And when fusioned with Chinese sausage, double the enjoyment.
The Chinese sausage is used in place of bacon..and imagine honeyed bacon.. OOOOOooooooooo....

I chose to use spring onion instead of parsley to add more oriental touch to it. Remember to slowly cook the garlic until it dries up before you toss in the cooked pasta. If not, it won't be nice, seriously!

Creamy Avocado Pesto Pasta - Pasta Week # 3

Recipe tried out on Sept 2011.

I had 6 avocadoes that I know not what to do with it. One afternoon, I saw this recipe and I told myself to go buy some sweet basil on the next grocery trip.

I made this one afternoon, kept the other half of avocado cream for another meal. Creamy and Delicious!
Healthy too!

Classic Macaroni and Cheese - Pasta week # 2

Recipe created in Aug 2011

My first encounter with Mac and Cheese was at Kenny Rogers Roasters in 1994 at KotaRaya's branch. It was my favourite side dish. Sometimes I will just order Mac and Cheese and nothing else. Each time I go to KL by bus, I will surely dine there at least once just for this. It was only walking distance from Puduraya Bus Station.

BLT Pasta Salad - Pasta Week #1

Recipe tried out in Sept 2011

Love this salad.

Well, who doesn’t love BLT
Bacon--- Lettuce---Tomatoes.
A wonderful combination, usually in sandwiches.

Spaghetti Carbonara

I’ve made Pioneer Woman’s Spaghetti Carbonara, the real thing with raw eggs and cheese(no cream) twice  , and loved it twice.

The first time I cooked this, Mike didn’t eat it, cos I cooked it at my Mother’s. And this time, he said, “It’s a waste that you’re not doing business with this…” and continued to shove the spaghetti into his mouth

But she put in so much parmesan.. a bit too expensive for me, so I substituted it with the cheapo cheese powder(Formaggio de Pasta) and sliced cheddar. Works wonders for me : ).
And I chose not to use wine or stock. Bacon and onions are flavourful enough for me, therefore, I find there is no need to use stock, but feel free to use stock if you want. The end product is not dry…. and the coating of gravy is just nice, like cream sauce pasta, but no cream is used here.

Spaghetti Carbonara
Recipe adapted from Pioneer Woman Cooks
Serves 2

170gm spaghetti (1/3 pack)
100gm streaky bacon, cut small
1 small onion, about 50gm unpeeled weight, coarsely chopped
4 cloves garlic, sliced
1 cup water
½ tsp salt
2 eggs
2 slices cheddar cheese, chopped
2 Tbsp cheese powder/finely grated parmesan
Handful of chopped parsley

1. Put bacon into pan and cook on medium low heat until golden. The bacon will release a lt of oil. Remove bacon from the oil (renderings :p)
2. Put in chopped onions into the pan (still with the oil) and sauté until soft and put in sliced garlic and sauté until golden. Dish up (w/o oil)
3. Pour away the oil and heat the pan until hot again and put in water. Bring the water to a boil and put in 2/3 of the bacon and all the fried onions+garlic. Season with salt (has to be slightly oversalted) Simmer on medium heat for 3 minutes. (You can do this step in advance while waiting for dinner time)
4. Bring a pot of water to boil,.
5. While waiting for the water to boil, mix eggs, chopped cheese slices, cheese powder, black pepper and parsley together.
6. When water had boiled, cook spaghetti according to instructions on packaging. (better bring the bacon gravy back to boil now and keep it warm on low heat)
7. Pour everything from the pot into a colander (fishing out the spaghetti takes time, so better pour them out).
8. Shake the colander a few times and quickly pour the very hot spaghetti into the egg mixture. Pour in the hot bacon gravy and toss everything. It’ll look soupy. Toss, toss, toss. Throw in the remaining 1/3 of crispy fried bacon.
9. Leave the pasta in the bowl for 10 minutes, so that the eggs and cheese will thicken and coat the spaghetti well. (you won’t see the “soup” after 10 mins)
10. After 10 mins, give it a final toss and serve.

Pasta with Salmon and Red Cabbage in Cream Sauce

I first tasted this at a Italian Restaurant say…. 13 years back, with my 1st bf. Hehehe. Mike knows him… it’s no secret. Anyway, I am not reminiscing about him, but about this fettuccine that I had there. It’s salmon and red cabbage cooked in cream. Absolutely yummy.

You can use any pasta you like, and I used Tripoline here. And if you want to know where I got this pretty frilly edged pasta, it’s at Tesco. It’s their homebrand pasta.

Today I used

150gm tripoline pasta, cooked al dente in a pot of salted water.
200gm salmon
200gm red cabbage, sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
¼ cup finely chopped onions
1 cup whipping/heavy cream
Extra milk for thinning down
Salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp olive oil

1. Prepare a small basin of water, put in some vinegar/lemon juice and soak cabbage slices for 5 minutes. This step is to prevent the cabbage from bleeding and making the gravy blue later. Drain the water away.
2. Microwave salmon on high for 2 minutes, or steam it for 7 minutes. Flake fish.
3. Heat pan and put in olive oil.
4. Put in onions and garlic and sauté until onions are translucent.
5. Put in cabbage and cook until it looks slightly softened, season with salt and pepper.
6. Put in salmon and heavy cream. Bring to a boil.
7. Put in cooked pasta and toss, if the gravy seems too little, add in some milk.
8. Dish up and serve.

Actually, if you like the taste of lemon, you can just soak the cabbage in plain water for 5 minutes (so that it won’t bleed when you cook it), and squeeze in some lemon juice right after you put in the cabbage to prevent the cabbage from turning blue but pink instead.

Spaghetti Aglio Olio with Sautéed Mushrooms

I love aglio olio. It’s just pasta coated in garlic chilli oil. Simple but delightful

I love mushrooms, they are sweet and fragrant. Taste absolutely fabulous sautéed in butter.

This is an easy meal. Just 30 minutes and you're good to go.

Sautéed Mushrooms (inspired by Jamie Oliver)
250gm white button mushrooms, lightly and quickly rinsed, sliced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste

1. Heat a pan on medium heat. Put in oil and butter.
2. Saute garlic until fragrant and lightly golden.
3. Put in sliced mushrooms (turn heat to high) and cook until they wilt and slightly caramelized.
4. Season with salt. Dish up and set aside.

Spaghetti Aglio Olio
200gm spaghetti (to be cooked al dente)
2 dried chillies, coarsely milled, or you can use 1 tsp those pepper flakes in bottles (reserve some for garnish)
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbsp olive oil
Some parsley for garnish

1. Bring a pot of water to boil, put in some salt and cook spaghetti until al dente. Drain and set aside.
2. Use a clean pan, put in on medium low heat. (I read, do not use high heat, unlike Chinese cooking, let the garlic slowly infuse the oil)
3. Put in olive oil and garlic, cook until garlic is fragrant then put in chilli flakes.
4. Cook until garlic is slightly golden, put in 1/2 tsp salt and put in cooked spaghetti.
5. Toss spaghetti in the fragrant oil. Taste, if not salty enough, add more salt.
6. Put sautéed mushroom into the spaghetti and toss. (Or you can skip this step if you want to top the spaghetti with mushrooms instead of mixing them in)
7. Dish up and top with some chopped parsley.

Cherry Tomato Basil Tripoline with Tomato Cream

Remember my tomato cream from yesterday? That cream is not a soup. Not cream of tomato. It's a dressing, a gravy, a sauce, antyhing but not a soup.

I’m using the tomato cream to replace milk cream, and remember as this is an emulsion, it’ll break apart when heated too much, just like regular mayos will. So, just put the tomato cream at the end and give it a toss to warm it up. Not too hot though.

It’s a good alternative to people who can’t take dairy, but want to have some creamy pasta. It really almost taste like regular cream sauce pasta, except for the smell, tomatoey instead of milky. But this does not taste like those made with canned tomato paste, and this has a very fresh smell and light tomato taste that my kids love a lot. They keep on asking for the cherry tomatoes.

The pasta
150gm tripoline or any other pasta that is suitable for creamy sauces
250gm red cherry tomatoes, halved vertically
Handful of fresh sweet basil (as much or as little as you like)
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Olive oil for cooking
1 tsp butter for cooking
½ tsp salt to taste
1 cup tomato cream


1. Cook pasta is a pot of salted boiling water according to instructions on packaging until al dente. Drain and set aside.
2. Heat a pan/wok on medium heat and put in olive oil and butter. Put in finely chopped garlic and fry until slightly golden. Turn heat to high.
3. Put in halved cherry tomatoes and spread the tomatoes around. Do not stir it too much. Put in salt. Leave it for 15 seconds and give it a light toss and leave it for another 15 seconds.
4. Put in cooked pasta and toss. Cook for about 10 seconds and put in basil and cook for another 5 seconds.
5. Pour in tomato cream and turn off the heat. It’ll be very warm. Toss the pasta and dish up to serve.

Swedish Meatballs with Pasta

Last Christmas, family friends, The Cha Family, gave us this pack of oh-so-cute bear shaped pasta.
I only managed to cook it lately with swedish meatballs. I used the gravy pack from Ikea and served it with Ikea's meatballs, bear pasta and some blanched brocolli.

Everybody loved it.
Thanks Wai Hoo, Winny, Loius and Lucille

:)

 This is Lydia and Lyanne's portion. They loved it a lot. Lydia don't eat brocolli florets but loves the stems.

Mike and my portion :)

Cheezy Baked Pasta

I did this in 2 variations, tomato sauce and béchamel sauce. It was my first attempt at making béchamel sauce, and it was easy and tasty!!

I first tasted béchamel sauce at Pizza Hut when they had this Baked Chicken Spirals few years back, and I tot making béchamel sauce was difficult… no it wasn’t. It’s much much easier that I thought.

What u need to make 3 portions:

200gm pasta of choice (macaroni, spirals or whatever short pastas)
- Boil pasta according to instructions together with some salt. Drain and rinse with some cold water to prevent sticking.

Chicken
- 300gm chicken thigh meat marinated with ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp black pepper, 1 Tbsp honey abd 1/3 tsp ground oregano. Marinate for 1 hour and fry in a bit of oil until chicken is browned.



Bechamel Sauce
- In a saucepan, on medium heat, heat 2 heaped Tbsp butter (abt 30gm) until butter starts foaming, put in 2 Tbsp flour and cook, stirring for 1-2 minutes. Put in 2 cups of milk and stir until mixture boils and thickens. Season with ½ teaspoon of salt. Remove from heat.

Tomato Based pasta sauce
- Any brand of bottled sauce that u like.

Toppings:
Baby tomatoes, Capsicums, onions, mushrooms, and 250gm mozzarella (sliced or grated, as u like)

Assembly:
Divide cooked pasta into 3 portions into foil pans, or any bakeware u prefer.
Put in enough sauce to cover. Put some chicken and preferred vege, and lastly top with cheese.
Grill pasta until cheese melts and turns golden brown.

Yummy and so so cheesy.........



Half eaten.... half to go.........

Verdict: With Mike and me both being cheeseheads, we love the bechemel version...

Yummy!!!!!

Pasta in Cream Sauce 白汁依粉

This may be a very common recipe to many others, but many of my friends have been asking me how to do a cream sauce for pasta.

Here's how I do it. You can put in whatever you may like.... calamari, chicken, ham, peas, carrots...

I use whipping cream because it is the most common form of cream available in Malaysia.

Pasta in Cream Sauce Recipe

Portion for 2
150gm pasta, cooked al dente.
1 pip garlic (chopped)
1/2 red onion (chopped)
1/2 cup prawns
1/2 cup mushrooms
1 cup dairy whipping cream (Anchor, Emborg... bla bla bla)
1 tsp parsley flakes
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and black pepper to taste

Method:
1. Heat pan and put in olive oil. Saute garlic and onion until fragrant and softened.
2. Put in prawns or whatever meat preferred and stir fry for a while until almost cooked.
3. Put in mushrooms or whatever vegetables preferred and stir until everything is cooked.
4. Pour in whipping cream and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle in parsley flakes.
5. When sauce has boiled and thickened, put in cooked pasta and coat pasta with sauce.
6. Remove from heat and serve.

Wendy's Lasagna

This is a backpost, way back to Chinese New Year 2008.

I had open house for my friends, and I made lasagne for them, they are fans of cheese and all things close to the cow.



Did some research and I find that the cheeses that they use is kind of rare in Malaysia, and the most important is they are darn pricey here.

I saw on pioneerwomancooks the way she does hers was easy, but finding hot sausages is rather difficult here. She uses cottage cheese, mozarella and grated parmesan... I just downed it all to mozarella. Used fresh tomatoes and did away with the hot sausages. I added cream to the white layer to make it creamier... Some of my friends can't take beef, so I changed it to chicken... the rest of it, stayed kinda similiar.

So, here's my way of doing it, using easier to find ingredients.

Wendy's Lasagna Recipe

Tomato base
1 Kg minced chicken
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
1 bulb Big onion (finely chopped)
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp dried basil
2 Tbsp dried parsley
2 cups pureed fresh tomatoes
1 large can San Remo tomato paste (I think it's around 500gm)
2 tsp salt

Saute garlic and onion in olive oil. Put in minced chicken and cook until brown. Add in tomato puree, tomato paste, parsley, basil and salt. Cook mixture until it is almost dry. Dish up and let mixture cool down

White Sauce base
1 cup whipping cream
2 eggs
300gm grated Mozarella Cheese
2 Tbsp dried parsley

Mix everything together well.

Final Assembly
1 Packet of instant lasagne sheets (250gm)
200gm grated mozarella cheese
1 Tbsp butter

1. Butter the base of a 9 X13 inch baking pan.
2. Lay a layer of lasagna sheets on the bottom.
3. Spoon carefully half the white base onto the lasagne sheets.
4. Spoon 1/3 of the tomato base onto the white layer, making sure not to disturb the white base.
5. Lay another layer of lasagne sheets on top of the tomato base layer.
6. Repeat step 3, 4 and 5.
7. Top the lasagna sheets with the final 1/3 of the tomato base and sprinkle grated mozarella on top generously.
8. Bake at 170C for 30 minutes.

I made this 2 days in advance and kept it in the fridge until my friends arrived. Made them wait for lunch..... hahaha!!!