Trials of making pasta dishes.

I recently started making pasta dishes both cream based and non-cream too.

Will be posting the recipe soon after a few more tries. :)

Prawns and Clams Aglio Olio

Carbonara with Blue-Cheese

Smoked Salmon pasta with Shitake mushroom cream sauce

Fried Pork cutlets

Here is a very savoury dish that is relatively easy to make. You can have this dish as a main course with fries and mash potatoes + salad; or as part of other dishes (i.e. stir-fry veggies and soup).

Ingredients (serving 4 - 5 persons)

400g of Pork loin (you could buy those already cut into cutlet size or a entire strip)
Butter crackers
2-3 whole eggs
Salt and pepper
Light soy sauce and sesame oil

First thing to do is to wash the pork loin and cut it into cutlet sizes. Depending on your preference, you could have small pieces; or (my preference) to make it into a 'butterfly' shape.

You would need to get a tenderizer and pound the cutlets so that they are nice and tender before we fry them. Remember to tenderize the meat to the extent that they seem flatten and soft; do it to both sides of the cutlet.

Season the tenderized cutlets with salt and pepper evenly and both sides to desired levels. (From my experience, you can use just little pinches of salt.) After coating the cutlets with salt and pepper, put the cutlets into a mixing bowl and add about 1-2 teaspoons of light soy sauce and 1-2 teaspoon of sesame oil (depending on your taste). Mix it evenly so that the cutlets absorbs the soy sauce and the sesame oil. (Using your hands to mix it would be easier and more fun.)

Let the cutlets sit for around 30mins to an hour in the fridge; while you prepare the butter crackers.

I use butter crackers because they have a nice buttery taste to the crackers which will make the cutlets have the buttery crust taste as well. You could use bread crumbs or corn meal as well; and seasoning to taste.

Crush the butter crackers so that they look like bread crumbs. You can use a traditional chilli pounder or a blender. Put the 'crushed' butter crackers onto a flat dish that you can easily coat the cutlet with.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk evenly.

Heat frying pan with oil (enough to cover half a cutlet) over medium heat
Dip seasoned cutlet in whisked egg, then coat the cutlet with butter crackers crumbs on both sides
Place cutlet into frying pan and fry til golden brown

*Use a clean plate with a paper towel on it to absorb the oil.*

Homemade Beef Patty Burgers stuffed with blue-cheese

This is my first try making homemade beef patty burgers.

Ingredients
400g grounded beef
chopped parsley
dried oregano
chopped spring onion
salt and pepper
cornflour
one whole egg
Blue-Cheese

Use a big bowl and put the beef and all the ingredients in. The spices used can be altered depending on your taste. From my research on burger patty, it seems like anything goes depending on your taste.

Use your hand and blend the ingredients nicely mixed.

If you are intending to keep it for a few days, I suggest you get some baking paper and cut them into squares and lay the patties on them.

To form the burger patty, use your hand and grab a palm size full of meat and start rolling it into a meatball. Compact it as you go along to hold the flavours into your patty.

For my case, I added Bluecheese as an extra ingredient to give it a punch.

As you flatten the meatball into a patty, compact the sides of the patty as well. This will make your patty strong and will not break off into pieces when grilling or pan-frying.


Burger toppings
Bacon
Fresh tomatoes slices
cheddar cheese slice
sauteed onions and mushrooms
Toasted burger buns

Prepare the bacon beforehand by pan-frying them to desired crispness. Some like it very crispy; other like it juicy and meaty.

Toast the burger buns in the oven or on a grill. Spread some mayo or butter on the buns, place your sliced tomatoes on them.

To sauteed onions and mushrooms, cut onions into strips and not too fine; or else they will disappear in your pan. Cut the mushrooms (I used portobello) into thin slices. Put some olive oil in a pan, heat it up to medium heat and put the onions in. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add a bit of sugar; use low heat and stir well and make sure the onions don't burn. After the onions start to soften, put your mushrooms in and stir fry till you see the mushroom softening and the aroma of both the onions and mushrooms can be sensed.

Below are some photos of the process:

Outcome
There are rooms for improvements for my burger patty. It tasted okay to me; but I would like to play with various flavours and see how it turns out.

Use your own creativity and enjoy your cooking with your favourite ingredients.

Menu of recipes to be conjured after I move in...

My new home is currently under-going renovation; and even before the kitchen has begun work, I am already thinking of the wonderful dishes I can be and will be making in it.

I have come up with a list of recipes that I intend to do when I move in and settle down. And of course, I will upload those recipes once I have made them (with pictures).

**in no particular order**

- Roasted Lamb Chop with herbs
- Hainanese Chicken Rice
- Fried pork cutlets
- Curry Chicken
- Miso Codfish
- Pan-seared Salmon with herbs
- Spaghetti Pesto with seafood
- Spaghetti Carbonara
- Quattroformaggi Pizza


Recipes from mom
- Stewed Sea-cucumber and Duck in Dark Soy Sauce
- Nonya and Indonesian style grilled chicken
- Nasi Lemak
- ...

This is what I can think of for now. But I can assure you that the list will grow longer.. :)

Sinful Temptations

Some food outlets serve a variety of food. But only has a handful of good stuff.

Guess from the pictures of the food where this place might be...

Bacon Cheese Fries...

Crab Cakes...

To my fellow food lovers...

Dear all,

I know it may seem like I have neglected my blog for a while. A lot of things have cropped up recently (i.e. work, life, my future home...) and I could not find extra spare time to sit myself down to share with you all on the food and cooking experiences that I would like to share.

Just to update all. My new home would be coming soon. I should be moving in around late June this year. And you can be sure that I would have a lot of wonderful 'kitchen' experiences to share with all of you.

I would share my home cooking experiences with all. And I would love to hear from you as well.

We can share cooking tips and tricks we use.

Til then, take care and I shall update all soon.


Ken

Chicken Rice Recipe

As promised, this will be a start to exciting food journeys to come. To kick start, I have decided to make something that I love to eat; and not too taxing to make as well.


Chicken Rice Recipe

Ingredients
1 whole chicken
Finely chopped garlic
Thin strips of ginger
2-3 pandan leaves
(5-6 persons)


The first step to most cooking (personally) is to select the best ingredients. Best does not mean the most expensive but means they are fresh and well-prepared. In chicken rice, the chicken would of course be the star of the dish. It is important that you select a chicken that you like to eat. Some prefer Kampong chicken, some Sakura chicken, some Halal chicken, some prefer fresh chicken. It’s a matter of preference; but an advice would be to choose whole chicken and not get chicken parts. The taste is just somehow different to me.



Once you bought the chicken and other ingredients, it preparation time.
1. Wash the chicken. Cut away the excess fats and head and feet. Remember to wash the inner of the chicken and remove the unwanted stuff. (The fats may be used as an extra ingredient for the rice but if you are health cautious then it can be omitted. Remember to cut the fats into very small pieces.)
2. Use 2-3 small cloves of garlic and chop them up fine.
3. Cut 7-8 thin strips of ginger
4. Get 2-3 pandan leaves and wash them thoroughly


Firstly, get a soup pot that would be able to fit the whole chicken and fill the pot with water. The water should be at a level where it could cover the chicken when its placed in the pot. Bring the water to a boil (you can add a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of cooking oil into the pot). Put the chicken into the pot once the water is boiling; then turn the flame down to moderate low and put the lid on. Cook for 20-25min.



Thereafter, take the chicken out of the pot and put it on a plate and rub some salt around the whole chicken (not too much; just a little will do); wait for it to cool. (Do NOT throw the chicken soup away.) In the meantime while the chicken is cooling down, you can prepare the rice.

For the rice, you can use 3-4 cups of rice. Wash the rice once to rid it of impurities.

After that, take a wok or a saucepan and put it over a small flame. Put some sesame oil (about 2 tablespoons) into the wok and let it heat up. It should take less than 20 seconds. Put the garlic into the wok and stir fry the garlic to expose the flavor, then add the ginger slices and stir it evenly. If you are using the chicken fats, you can add it in as well. Reduce the flame to a very small one and stir the mix evenly for 30 seconds or so. You know you are done when you can smell the various flavors.



Pour the mixture into the rice and mix the rice evenly. Tie the pandan leave into knot and place it into the rice pot as well.



If you look back at the chicken soup, you would notice that the is quite some oil floating on the top of the pot. Use a soup ladle and gently scoop the oil together with the soup and pour it into the rice pot. Try to remove as much oil as possible from the soup for the rice. This makes the rice flavorful with the chicken soup as a base for the rice. Use your own measure of soup for the rice as you would when cooking rice normally. **Note: If the soup is still hot, do not cook the rice immediately. Let the rice pot mixture cool down a bit before cooking.)



We are pretty much done. Now all that is left is to cut the chicken and serve it up on a large plate. My preference is to have my chicken rice meal with a dash of light soya sauce + sesame oil mix and superior dark soya sauce. I am not a big chicken rice chilli fan, hence I don’t know the recipe for the chilli. (Consult my mom if you want to know. :P)