Showing posts with label Western Pasta Dish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Western Pasta Dish. Show all posts

Monday 28 November 2011

{GO GREEN} Basil, Chilli and Garlic Spaghetti, Pistachio Crumbed Chicken plus Avocado Milkshake

Now till end of December 2011 is our annual end year school holidays where most of the kids get to enjoy a long holiday break before the new school term starts in 2012. Since we often had late breakfast during this period of time, I would cook something rather simple, fast and in small portion just enough to fill our stomach till tea-break or dinner.

Here we have some really quick to prepare spaghetti with nutty oven baked pistachio chicken plus a cup of smooth and creamy avocado milkshake for our brunch.

Wednesday 19 October 2011

{Halloween Special} Jack O' Lantern, Black Cat Pumpkin Soup, Eyeballs Fettuccine And Death By Chocolate

Halloween is the celebration typically held on 31st October each year where this date marked the end of the summer and beginning of the cold winter which was often a time of death. As usually this year you could also join in some Halloween event at some of the tourist attraction such as Universality Studios Singapore, Halloween Horror Nights(here), Sentosa Spooktacular (here), FrightFest@Singapore Flyer (here) and etc.

This is the second year (read last year post, here) I cooked Halloween theme dishes despite that we don't actually celebrate this festival. Same as last year I have cooked a creamy pumpkin soup but with fusion of Asian and Western ingredients. And for this year we have a set Dinner Menu that comes with salad, soup, pasta and dessert with Halloween theme decorated.

Thursday 7 July 2011

[June - $20 Budge Meal] Round-Up!

Thanks everyone for supporting the June - $20 Budget Meal event on using any types of "Noodles" to create a one-pot dish. Sorry for the late round-up and I sincerely would like thanks each and everyone of you who takes the effort to note down the pricing of each ingredients and total spending of the dishes to support this event. Here we have a total of 15 fabulous "Noodle" dishes created by a group of wonderful bloggers and facebook friends from different countries such as USA, Australia and Singapore.

Here are all the entries for the [June - $20 Budget Meal], listed in the order of the date submitted.


Fried Tung Fun (Glass Noodles)
by Ellena of Cuisine Paradise (Singapore)
Total Spending: S$7.40; Serves 4



Fried Udon
by Veronica Chia of Peng's Kitchen (Singapore)
Total Spending: S$5.55; Serves 4



Ravioli with Chicken Filling in Tomato Sauce
by Wai Fong of Fong's Kitchen Journal (Singapore)
Total Spending: S$9.60; Serves 4



Mee Hoon Kuay (面粉馃)
by Janine of Not the Kitchen Sink! (Australia)
Total Spending: AU$7.06; Serves 2



Prima Taste Singapore Laksa La Mian by Ellena of Cuisine Paradise (Singapore)
Total Spending: S$8.75; Serves 2



Soy Sauce Chicken Noodles
by Wai Fong of Fong's Kitchen Journal (Singapore)
Total Spending: S$6.60; Serves 3



Braised Meesua With Chicken and Greens In Abalone Sauce
by Alice of I Love.I Cook.I Bake (Singapore)
Total Spending: S$7.50; Serves 4<
Fried Noodle with Vegetables
by Ann of Anncoo Journal (Singapore)Total Spending: S$11.20; Serves 3



Mixed Tempura Udon(served 2 Ways)
by Wai Fong of Fong's Kitchen Journal (Singapore)
Total Spending: S$5.60; Serves 3



Capellini Aglio e Olio with Zucchini, Bell Peppers, Mushrooms
by HL(tigerfish) of An Escape to Food (California : United States)
Total Spending: USD5.70; Serves 2



Hokkien Lor Mee
by Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets (Pennsylvania : United States)
Total Spending: USD6.50; Serves 4



Stir Fry Korean Sliced Rice Cake
by Wendy of Wen's Delight
Total Spending: S$8.20; Serves 2-3



Spinach Rocket Pesto Salmon Spaghetti
by Daphne of More than Words (Australia)
Total Spending: AU$9.00; Serves 4



Titi Noodles (Mie Titi)
by Alice of I Love.I Cook.I Bake (Singapore)
Total Spending: S$15.40; Serves 4-6



Colorado, United States
by Ching of Little Corner of Mine (Colorado, United States)
Total Spending: USD5.75; Serves 4


We shall have a rest for July and I shall update everyone on the new theme for August soon :) Stay tune!


Wednesday 1 December 2010

The Goodness of YIFON Bottled Mushrooms

Mushrooms have always been a popular add-on ingredients for many homecooked dishes because they are delicious and full of rich nutritional values that can be used in various way of cooking. For busy working adults and parents like myself, cooking can sometime be a hassle that we would like to avoid especially after a long day at work. So I guess what most of us looking for are those quick and easy dishes or some instant products  that helps us to whip up hearty meals within a minimum cooking time.

These Yifon mushrooms are uniquely packed in clear glass bottles that comes in 6 different exotic varieties such as:- Pickled Bailing Mushrooms, Spicy Nameko Mushroom, Spicy Bailing Mushrooms, Assorted Mushrooms, Spicy Golden Mushrooms and Teatree Mushrooms. All these are finest quality of mushrooms that contain no preservatives, artificial colourings and trans-fast which you could easily enjoy straight from the bottle or complement them with either porridge or noodles. In this post I would like to share with you 3 different recipes which I have used some of these delicious instant Yifon Bottled Mushrooms as part of the main ingredients to concoct some lovely dishes for my family.


Note:-
~ These bottled mushrooms are halal-certified and it is also suitable for Vegetarian consumers too.



Have you tried or heard about Teatree Mushroom(茶树菇)? These mushrooms are high in protein, low in fat and sugar content and it also contains plenty of minerals and anti-cancer properties that most mushrooms would claim of. Some of the Chinese physician also recommend these mushrooms which are neutral food that nourishes the Qi (energy) of our body and at the same time boost up our immunity if consumed regularly. So for the first mushroom dish I  would use this YIFON Teatree Mushroom to prepared a tofu dish which you could serve it as starter during gathering or as a main course itself.

This is a very simple dish that requires only two main ingredients such as the unique taste of these teatree mushrooms that pairs well with the bland silken tofu.

Silken Tofu With Yifon Teatree Mushrooms
Preparation Time: 10 Minutes
Cooking Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:
(serves 2 - 4)
1 Bottle of YIFON Teatree Mushrooms
1 Packet of Silken Tofu for Steaming, cut into 6 portions
1 Teaspoon of Minced Garlic
1/2 Tablespoon of Cooking Oil
1 Teaspoon of Sesame Oil
1 Chili, deseed and sliced
Some Chopped Spring Onion

You could easily prepare this dish by using either microwave or steam it using a pot/wok over the stove. Personally I would preferred microwave method which is hassle free and it would also minimize the water content of this dish compared to the normal steaming method.

Method:
1. Remove the tofu from the packaging and place it on the serving plate. Cut it into 6 or 8 equal portions according to your preference.
2. Top each piece of the tofu with your desire amount of YIFON teatree mushrooms together with some extra mushrooms on the surrounding of the tofu.
3. Next heat up a small pan with the mixture of cooking and sesame oil, sauté the minced garlic and chili till fragrant, stir in the chopped spring onion and give it a quick stir before removing the pan from heat.
4. Drizzle the garlic mixture evenly on top of the tofu and cook it in the microwave for about 1 - 1.5 minutes on medium heat powder.
5. Remove the dish and garnish with extra chopped spring onion and serve it warm.


Note:-
~ In order to maintain the taste and texture of the dish, microwave it for 1 minute and check whether the tofu and mushroom have being warm up before continue with the next 30 seconds as different microwaves would varies from its voltage power.

~ As for those using steaming method over the stove, place the tofu dish into the steaming rack only after the water comes to boil, steam it over medium heat for 2 - 3 minutes.



So within less than 10 minutes you could enjoy a plate of delicious steamed silken tofu with teatree mushrooms that is healthy and full of goodness as tofu is also low in calories too.


For busy mum like many others and myself we tend to look for dishes that are hearty and easy to prepare so that we could have some nutritious meals even on busy weekday nights. So for the second recipe I would like to share with you on how I normally prepared my “Braised Brown Rice with Mushrooms” by using one of this instant bottled mushrooms.

For your information Nameko Mushrooms (滑子蘑) is a small and amber brown colour mushroom with a jelly-like coating that is used as an ingredient in most miso soup. From google search this is also one of Japan’s most popular cultivated mushrooms that has a slightly nutty taste too. Here I am using some of these "YIFON Spicy Nameko Mushrooms" to cook a one pot dish together with brown rice and some simple ingredients shown below.

Braised Brown Rice with Spicy Nameko Mushrooms
Preparation Time: 10 Minutes
Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients: (serves 2)
1/2 Bottle of YIFON Spicy Nameko Mushrooms
125g (1 Cup) Brown Rice
350ml Hot Water/Chicken Stock
40g Corn Kernels
40g Green Peas
2 Rashes of Bacon, cut into strips
Cut Chili and Spring Onion for garnishing


Note:-
~ You can replace brown rice with normal white rice according to your preference.
~ Frozen mixed vegetables of similar quantity can be used to replace the corn kernel and green peas too.

Brown rice is known to have higher nutritional values as compared to white rice. And when cooked they gives off an aromatic jasmine fragrant with its chewy texture and sweet nutty flavour. But if you are not comfortable with the taste of brown rice, you could always start off with a mixture of brown and white rice and slowly increase the amount of brown rice intakes in your daily diet.

Method:
1. Rinse brown rice a few times and soak it in water for at least 30 minutes if time permits.
2. Heat up a small saucepan using 1 teaspoon of cooking oil, sauté the bacon till golden brown and slightly crispy, remove and set aside.
3. Using the same saucepan throw in corn kernels and green peas then give it a quick stir before adding in the soaked brown rice that has been drained well.
4. Continue to sauté the rice mixture for about 1 minute then pour in either Hot Water or Chicken Stock.
5. When the mixture comes to boil again, lower the heat and simmer the rice for about 20 minutes or so till the rice is soft and the water/stock has almost absorbed.
6. At this stage, toss in the Spicy Nameko Mushrooms and cooked bacon evenly and continue to simmer the rice for another 3 - 5 minutes.
7. Serve hot with extra garnish of chopped chili and spring onion.



Tips:-
~ Soak the brown rice in water for at least 30 minutes prior cooking time to soften the rice for easy cooking but if you are running out of time you could add in extra 50ml more of water to cook the rice.

~ For those using water to cook the rice you can season it with 1/4 teaspoon of salt or chicken stock powder at step 4.



Brown Rice does take a little longer to cook than white rice but the time isn't much longer if you pre-soak the rice for a while and cook using the absorption method. If you do not have any brown rice at home you could still try out this recipe by replacing it with white rice and the end results would still taste as good as brown rice. And for those who has child whom is a picky eater that dislikes most of the vegetables, I am sure they would be delighted to see this colourful dish that is filled with wonderful aroma from the fried bacon and crunchy texture of the Nameko mushrooms.


If you prefer something more westernize with a distinguish flavour compared to those two dishes above perhaps you could try this “Spaghetti Aglio e Olio with Trio Mushrooms”. Aglio e Olio or also known as garlic and oil is a traditional Italian pasta dish that is made without adding any store-bought ingredients. The dish is usually prepared using lightly sautéd minced garlic in olive oil together with some dried chili flakes and garnish with chopped parsley.

For my 3rd recipes I am using YIFON Assorted Mushrooms where you could find 3 different types of mushrooms in the bottle such as "Po-ku(整香菇)", "Golden Mushrooms(金針菇)" and "Button Mushrooms(蘑菇)" which is great for any stir-fried dishes together with either meat or noodles.

And with a bottle or two of this instant assorted mushrooms stored in my kitchen pantry, I could easily whip up our favourite spaghetti anytime without worrying about to look for decent qualities of fresh mushrooms that sometime might not be available in the supermarkets. So here is my ingredients on preparing this pasta dish:-

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio With Trio Mushrooms
Preparation Time: 5 Minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
(serves 2)
1 Bottle of YIFON Assorted Mushrooms
185g Spaghetti
1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 Tablespoon Minced Garlic
1/4 Teaspoon Dried Chili Flakes
1 Medium Tomato, deseed and chopped
Handful of Parsley, chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste




Method:
1. Cook spaghetti following packet directions, until al dente. Drain well.
2. Heat a frying pan over medium heat with the olive oil. Add minced garlic and dried chili flakes and saute till the garlic is almost golden brown in colour.
3. Stir in the drained Assorted Mushrooms and give it a quick stir for about 10 seconds before tossing in the cooked spaghetti, chopped parsley and tomato cubes.
4. Toss the mixture well with a tong or long chopstick for another 5 seconds before removing it from heat so that the spaghetti would soak up the flavour from the garlic and chili oil.
5. Lastly season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper before serving.


Note:-
~ You can increase the dried chili flakes to 1/2 teaspoon if you prefer more spicier taste.

~ Increase the amount of minced garlic to 3/4 tablespoon to a richer garlic aroma and taste.

~ Carefully not to burn the garlic otherwise it will turn bitter.



When I first read about this product tasting invitation I was still hesitating on whether to give it a try because our family hardly consume those bottled or canned food products. And in Singapore it also very convenience to purchase fresh mushrooms that is easily available in the supermarkets or etc. But after trying a few types of these bottled mushrooms from Yifon it actually changed my mind set on these instant mushrooms which taste just as good as those fresh mushrooms and most importantly they are also carefully packed with rich nutritional values as well. For more information of these products you can refer to their official website at http://www.yithong.com/.

These instant mushrooms can be purchased at any leading supermarkets at a retail price of S$1.95 per bottle from the canned food department. So why not try to look out for these Yifon bottled mushrooms during your next visit to the supermarket and grab a bottle of two for your pantry and use it to cook your favourite mushroom dishes or serve it straight from the bottle as a topping for porridge or noodles.

Lastly I would like to thanks Daen Ng of Vibes Communications Pte Ltd and YIFON on the invitation to try out their delicious instant bottled mushrooms. And I would also love to hear from those who has tried these mushrooms on some of your feedback and methods on consuming them too.


Saturday 24 October 2009

Purple Wheat Noodles Salad

As we have late and heavy Lunch today, I decided to whip up something light, simple but vibrant in colour. So this is what we have for our Special weekend Dinner Menu. With my "new ingredient" that I managed to grab from one of the Supermarket, I can't wait to try out this "new products" from KOKA Noodles.

I was attracted to an advertisement on Friday, 23 Oct 2009 in the TODAY newspaper introducing on this new Purple Wheat Noodles from KOKA. I was immediately captured by the word "PURPLE WHEAT" and I am also curious about the actual colour and texture of the noodles. According to the advertisement, the promotion will last for a week which you can read more at this link HERE.

After grabbing a packet of this Purple Wheat Noodles which is 1 of the 3 packets left on the shelf. Rey and I starts to look around for other ingredients to prepare our Dinner. Since this noodle is purplish in colour, I decided to use it to make a Colourful Salad Noodles Dish. Rey suggests to grab a pack of cherry tomato and breakfast ham while I think some curl lettuce will do a great job to enhance the colour and add extra crunch.

Other than the salad ingredients, I also made some garlic oil to act as the salad dressing.

Ingredients For Garlic Oil:
50ml Of Olive Oil
4 - 5 Cloves Of Garlic

Method:
1. Preheat a small saucepan with drizzle of olive oil, then add in the garlic cloves and saute it till fragrant.
2. Pour in the remaining olive oil and saute the garlic till slight golden brown, dish up and set aside for later use.


Ingredient For Salad: (serves 2)
2 Individual Packet of Koka Purple Wheat Noodles
4 Slices of Breakfast Ham
2 Hard-boiled Egg, halves
8 Cherry Tomato, halves
50g Fresh/Frozen Corn Kernel, blanched
Some Salad Lettuce
2 Tablespoons Garlic Oil

Method:
1. Cook the eggs in a small saucepan under medium-low heat for about 4 - 6 minutes from the time the water boiled.
2. Removed from heat, rinse and peel off the shell then cut into halves and set aside.
3. Bring another pot of water to boil, cook the instant noodles according to the packet instruction, rinse with cool water and set aside. (rinse with cool water to stop the noodle from further cooking and also to make it taste spongy)
4. You can either blanched the Ham with boiling water or you can pan-fry it under low heat for about 30 second on each side with some Olive oil.
5. Next, drizzle 1 to 2 tablespoons of the garlic oil on the cooked noodles, toss it well with the blanched corn kernel and cut tomato.
6. To assemble the dish, place some lettuce on the plate, place the noodles mixture on it.
7. Top with ham, hard-boiled egg and you can drizzle some extra garlic oil and serve it warm.


So after seeing this Noodles Salad, do you have the urge to try making some for yourself? This is indeed a very healthy and nutritious dish, if you can't find any Purple Wheat Noodles, don't worry, you can always replaced it with whatever you have in your pantry. Posted by Picasa


Monday 18 May 2009

Baked Pasta With Bolognese Sauce & Cheese

Baked Pasta is always one of my favourite Quick and Easy dish in the list. Sometime I also baked this in in small foil tin shown above and packed it as lunch to work. It's very simple dish and yet full of vibrant texture and taste.

For this baked pasta, I prepared it with some seasoned mince meat, pre-cooked elbow macaroni, chopped brown onion and parsley, sliced assorted mushrooms and some shredded mozzarella cheese. In this recipe I use a few tablespoons of LEGGO'S PASTA SAUCE - BOLOGNESE (click on the LINK to see the sample and range of available sauce) to act as the sauce based for the pasta. If you don't prefer tomato base sauce, you can always swap it with white sauce like Carbonara.

Since I am sharing this baked pasta with my colleagues for lunch. I decided to fill the cooked pasta into individual small foil tin and top it with some extra chopped parsley and a generous amount of shredded cheese. (so sorry I won't be sharing the details of this recipe because it will be feature in the recipe column of Parents World which I am contributing the recipes on)

Pop them into a toaster oven for about 5 minutes or less to melt the cheese and you can served them hot or warm with some extra chili flake or parmesan cheese....... Posted by Picasa


Monday 26 June 2006

Vareniki Dumplings

Made this as dinner for my friend who visited us yesterday. Wow..... You must be wondering what is "Vareniki Dumplings". You might have heard of Pork Dumplings, Shrimp Dumpling, Vegetable Dumplings or etc.... But what is Vareniki Dumplings?

Vareniki are square or crescent shaped dumplings of unleavened dough, stuffed with cheese, mashed potatoes, cabbage, meat or hard-boiled eggs or sometime with fruit filling. It's very popular in Russia as a quick-fix dish. During preparation, the filling is wrapped with dough, boiled for several minutes, and then covered with oil. So in another word, it is a Russian Dumpling just similar to our Asian Pork Dumpling but stuff with different filling and cooking method.


I come across this interesting recipe from one of blog that my friend Tracy introduce to me. It consists of alot of interesting recipes which Suyin records all her cooking adventure during her study in Australia. You can find the original recipe from her link which also include with a cooking video. For my version, I add in some extra vegetables, fruits and Parmesan cheese for extra colour and favour.

Ingredients For Dough: (make about 20 wrappers)
1 Cup Plain Flour, sifted
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 Egg Yolk
100ml Of Drinking Water

Methods:
1. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl, then stir in the salt.
2. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the egg yolk and oil.
3. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the egg, gradually drawing in the flour. After a few minutes the dough will be too stiff to use a spoon and you will need to use your fingers.
4. Once all the flour has been incorporated, turn the dough out on to a floured surface and knead for about 3-5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
5. If you find the dough is too wet, add a little more flour and continue kneading. But if the dough is too dry, then sprinkle some water and knead till smooth.
6. Cover with cling wrap and set aside for at least 15-20 minutes.
7. The dough is now ready, roll the dough out into thin sheet then use a round cutter(8cm) to cut into round wrappers.
8. Wrap each wrapper with 1 Tablespoon Of Potato mixture and repeat it with the rest of the wrappers.
9. Bring a big pot of water with 1 teaspoon of salt and olive oil to boil, then add in the wrapped dumplings.
10. Continue to simmer until all the dumplings floats up, remove, rinse with tap water and drain well. (put around 6 dumpling at a time, don't over crowded the pot)
11. Set aside for later use.

Potato Filling: (can make 50 dumplings)
3 Medium Size Potatoes
30g Soft Butter
1/2 Onion, finely diced
1/2 Cup Grated Mozzarella/Cheddar
2 Tablespoons Sour Cream
Some Black Pepper & Salt

Methods:
1. Wash the potatoes, cut into half then steam it for about 15 - 20 minutes until tender.
2. Scoop out the potato flesh into a mixing bowl then mash it with a fork until smooth.
3. Preheat a pan with butter then saute the diced onion till soft and fragrant.
4. Remove from heat, add in the mashed potato, and stir till combine, then add in cheese, sour cream, pepper and salt.
5. Continue to stir till all mixture is well combined then set aside for the wrapping.

Assemble:
50g Of Bacon, cut into slices
1/2 Packet Of Sweet Bean
6 Cherry Tomato
100g Blueberry, optional
Parmesan Cheese Powder
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Methods:
1. Preheat the pan with 1 Tablespoons of Olive Oil, then saute the bacon until fragrant then add in the cooked dumpling in two batches.
2. Pan-fry until both sides are golden brown then remove and place on serving plate. Continua with the rest.
3. Add in some extra olive oil, then stir-fry the sweet bean and cherry tomato till fragrant then add in the blueberry and stir for another minute.
4. Remove and divide it evenly onto the top of serving dumpling then sprinkle with some extra virgin olive oil and Parmesan cheese powder and serve.

Notes:
The original Vareniki Dumpling is served with drizzle oil on top but for my version, I add in extra bacon, vegetables and cheese to give it more favour.

As for the left over potato fillings, you can either kept in the fridge for making a 2nd batche or you can make half of the recipe instead. Sometime it depend on the size of the potatoes or the amount of fillings you wanted to wrap. Posted by Picasa

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