Month: April 2011

Everybody can make pasta carbonara!

I remember my first time making pasta carbonara. Well, it ended in disaster. The pasta was overcooked to the point of clumping. The sauce was gloopy (I made it with corn starch….cue /screams of horror). The bacons were cremated. Yeap, it was that bad.

But those days are behind me. I can now make pretty decent basic pasta carbonara and the steps are incredibly simple too! Don’t believe me? Read on…

# – Creamy, porky, bacon carbonara pasta!

The ingredients:

  • 4 egg yolks
  • 150ml of whole milk (you can use cream but that’s just naughty, isn’t it?)
  • 4 slices of back bacon (or 8, or 12 if you’re in the mood!)
  • 140 grams of pasta or enough for 2 people (I used spaghetti, but you can use other types too)
  • 2 spoonfuls of butter
  • 3/4 tablespoon of salt
  • Ground black pepper for taste

# – First of all, cut the back bacons into strips. Make sure every strip has bits of fat attached ;)

# – On medium flame, dump the bacon strips into a pan to brown. There’s no need for additional oil as the bacon will produce its own grease. Stir around occasionally.

# – After about 10 minutes, they will look like this. Turn off the flame and set aside.

# – Now in a bowl, pour the milk into 4 egg yolks.

# – Add 3/4 tablespoon of salt.

# – Followed by a dash of black pepper.

# – Whisk with a fork till everything’s combined like this…

# – Now cook the pasta according to instructions on its packet.

# – Then drain the pasta and put it back into the pot it was cooked in. Add two dollops of butter.

# – And now, pour in the eggy mixture into the pasta.

# – Dump 3/4 of the cooked bacon strips into the pasta. Stir till pasta, bacon and the carbonara sauce are well mixed. If you find the sauce a bit too watery for your taste, you could actually put the pan on low heat and stir till the sauce looks a bit reduced and thicker…be observant though as you don’t want dry carbonara pasta. Dry carbonara pasta is nasty, trust me I know!

# – Plate it and garnish with the leftover bacon strips.

# – Simple, delicious, comforting pasta carbonara, DONE!

This is also a great recipe when you’ve got a surplus of egg yolks. I make meringues once a week so I’ve got a lot of egg yolks lying around waiting to be turned into yumminess.

You’d probably notice that there isn’t any cheese in this recipe. Well, you could put it in of course, but for a cheese fiend like myself, I was surprised to find this carbonara rather decadent without the cheese even. Who am I to dictate though? :)

Easy peasy onion and chilli angel hair pasta with crabstick

This was actually adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s Angel Hair Pasta with Crab, Chilli and Lime. I made his original version many times and it always turns out absolutely delicious! This afternoon, I thought of making it for lunch but realised I had no lime, no parsley and not crabmeat :(

So what I did was substitute lime with lemon, parsley with onions and crabmeat with…well, crabsticks :D The result was a fresh, light, sweet (from the onion) and lemony pasta, perfect for a satisfying lunch. And the best thing about this dish? It’s so easy to cook!

# – You may notice that my lemons look a bit ghetto, that’s because they were zested a couple of days ago. No wastage in this kitchen! Hehe.

The ingredients:

  • 140 grams of angelhair pasta
  • 4 pieces of crabsticks
  • 1 chilli, sliced
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped roughly
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • Around 6-7 tablespoons of vodka
  • Salt for season

# – First, boil the angelhair pasta according to instructions on the package. Then drain, toss with olive oil and set aside.

# – In a large saucepan, heat up some oil and fry the garlic.

# – Dump in the chillies.

# – Followed by the chopped onions.

# – And then, the chopped crabsticks.

# – Stir everything for a bit till the crabs are slightly browned and the onions have wilted slightly.

# – Then you pour in the vodka, w00t!

# – Season with salt and stir…

# – After the vodka had reduced a bit, remove pan from heat. Dump in the drained angelhair pasta. Mix and toss till everything’s combined.

# – Serve on a plate and lightly drizzle with olive oil. This recipe serves 2, by the way.

# – And finish it off with juice of half a lemon for each plate.

# – Easy onion chilli angelhair pasta with crabstick.

This is perfect for when you don’t have to cook for so many people. Portions are easily controlled and ingredients are easily available. Most of them are probably in your pantry already.

You can always substitute crabsticks with fishpaste or fishballs or better real crabmeats. I guess you can probably use chicken or pork too, but make sure they are tenderised properly (try marinading them in lemon juice with a drizzle of olive oil) otherwise they might not go so well with such a light tasting pasta.

Happy cooking!

A kickass beef lasagna borne out of true love.

I tend to avoid ordering lasagna when I’m eating out because they often turn out to be too try, too tart or just downright nasty. So my BF has decided that the only way to get me to appreciate Garfield’s favourite food is to make them at home.

And what do you know….he makes the meanest lasagna in town! It’s so delicious and so cheap (compared to eating out) that it really doesn’t make any sense for us to eat lasagna outside.

I know how some people might find making lasagna quite a daunting task. But truly, it’s really simple! The secret is…COMPARTMENTALISATION! Just file all the lasagna making steps into 3 categories:

(1) Cooking awesome minced beef
(2) Making white sauce
(3) Assembling lasagna.

I find that once you’ve compartmentalised cooking tasks like that, the steps would become much, much simpler and straight forward. It’s also easier to know which ingredients to prepare or take out first, which utensils to use and generally, it keeps the stress level down! Okay, it keeps my stress level down!

So here’s the recipe to my BF’s meanest lasagna in town, with step by step pictures of the man doing the works ;)

p/s: Mom, these are not my fingers…don’t freak out please.

(1)For the awesome minced beef:

  • 1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
  • 1 carrot, grated
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 300 grams of minced beef
  • 1 tablespoon of tomato puree
  • 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 1/2 tin of tomatoes
  • 50ml milk
  • Oregano
  • salt
  • coarse black pepper

(2)For the white sauce:

  • 25 grams of butter
  • 25 grams of all-purpose (plain) flour
  • 300ml milk
  • black pepper
  • salt
  • ground nutmeg
  • 90 grams of cheddar cheese

(3)For the assembling

  • Lasagna sheets
  • Oregano
  • salt
  • coarse black pepper
  • 2 tomatoes, sliced
  • 2 handfuls of grated parmesan cheese

Lets begin with………(1) Making the awesome minced beef:

# – First of all, dump the grated carrots, minced onions and minced garlic into a well-oiled wok or a big pan. Stir a bit.

# – Add 2 bay leaves.

# – A dash of oregano. You can use fresh herbs of course!

# – And a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce. Personally, I think Worcestershire sauce makes everything tastes better!

# – Don’t forget a dash of salt to bring all the taste out.

# – And finish of with black pepper. By now, you should probably have the the best damn tasting carrots and onions in the world!

# – Next, dump in the minced beef…

# – Some tomato puree for colours.

# – Followed by whole can of chopped plum tomatoes and a bit more….

# – Don’t forget the milk.

# – And lastly, a dash of Tabasco sauce for a good kick.

# – Stir till all the minced beef are cooked. Then, set aside.

Now, it’s time for for………(2) Making white sauce:

# – Melt the butter in a saucepan.

# – Then dump the flour in and beat with a wooden spoon….

# – Till it looks like sticky yellow dough!

# – Add 1/3 of the milk and replace the wooden spoon with a whisk.

# – Whisk till smooth.

# – Then add more milk and whisk till smooth again. Repeat till milk’s finished.

# – Now add some nutmeg for taste.

# – And cheese and black pepper. Whisk, whisk, whisk, till smooth…

# – Till it looks something like this. Smooth and smells so delicious! White sauce, DONE!

Now that we’ve gotten (1) and (2) out of the way, it’s time for………..(3) Assembling the lasagna:

# – Very importantly, remove the bay leaves from the minced beef so you won’t bite into a tough piece of leaf while eating your lasagna…

# – Then pour half of the minced beef into a 10″ roasting pan or a deep baking tray

# – Flatten the minced beef down so that the entire bottom of the pan is covered.

# – Then lay the lasagna sheets over the minced beef. Try to keep all the minced beef under the sheets.

# – If you have exposed minced beef, just break the sheets into the desired sizes ;)

# – Next, pour 1/2 of the white sauce over the lasagna sheets.

# – And spread it out till it covers everything.

# – Followed by the rest of the minced beef. Spread it out to cover everything.

# – And more lasagna sheets.

# – Now pour in the rest of the white sauce & spread it all around.

# – Slice 2 tomatoes and lay them out over the white sauce like this.

# – And NEVER EVER forget the cheese! Top off with some salt, oregano and black pepper. Stick it in a pre-heated oven at 225 degrees celcius and bake for 25 minutes.

25 minutes later….

# – A delicious looking, oh so gorgeous lasagna for 9 people!

# – Serve with homemade garlic bread.

# – There were only 4 of us, but we ate 7 portions of lasagna among us hehehe.

# – Juicy, beefy, cheesy lasagna…

# – Simply superb.

To my BF: Thanks for such a beautiful lasagna! <3 And that...is how we roll it. Happy lasagna making!