Month: February 2012

Crab, Prawn & Cherry Tomato Linguini

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Yes, I know. I’m proclaiming my love for Italian food again. But I am not going to apologise for that. I really do love Italian. If not cause of the carbs, I would eat pasta every single day. haha. But I have limit to once a week. The most! That’s okay, right? haha

Well. I didn’t intend to have Italian until my bestie sent me photos of what she was having at Da Paolo @ Rochester last night and I knew instantly what I wanted to try making : Crab meat linguini. That’s the only thing I order when I head to Da Paolo. Just saying the name of the place is making me want to have their crab meat linguini again. That’s how much I LOVE it. and how delicious it is!

Sorry bad lighting cos of the ambience!

I attempted to make a healthier version. Well by healthier, I mean leaving out the cream. As you will be able to see soon, everything else is healthy and not that sinful, really. Well without or without the cream, my version is nothing close to the one from Da Paolo though it was still satifying and yummy (The mr finished every single drop in the pot! hehe). But it was still a recipe worth blogging about! Hope you all will give it a try and enjoy it as much as we did!

Crab, Prawn & Cherry Tomato Linguini (an original recipe by Food Made With Love)

Ingredients :

1 canned crab meat (170g, 120g drained)

10 pieces of prawns, shelled & deveined and cut to small pieces

10 cherry tomatoes

2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 chilli, deseed and chopped finely

5 pieces of sundried tomato, chopped finely

3 tablespoon of olive oil

1 tbs tomato paste

1 tsp dried oregano

120ml dry white wine

300ml fish stock

salt & pepper, to season

grated parmesan, to serve

300g pasta, cooked according to the back of the packaging and drained

Steps :

1) Season the cherry tomatoes with a bit of the chopped garlic, 1 tbs olive oil and dried oregano and place them on a baking tray. In a 180 degree celcius preheated oven, bake the tomatoes for 15 mins.

2) Heat a deep dish pan over moderate heat, add the olive oil, garlic, chilli and sundried tomatoes and fry till soft and fragrant. Careful not to burn the garlic, or it will taste bitter.

3) Add the prawns in the mixture and fry till they turn from opaque to white. Add the baked cherry tomatoes (including all the juices) and the tomato paste. Mix it well but gently, not to mash the cherry tomatoes. Add the white wine and allow it to reduce by half.

4) Add the fish stock and allow it to simmer over low-medium heat for 15-20 mins. Season with salt and black pepper and add the crab meat at this point. (Don’t add it too early, as it might break down and you won’t be able to taste it).

5) Toss in the cooked pasta and mix well. Serve with grated parmesan and ENJOY!

Tip :

Instead of chopping garlic when you need it, chop it before hand and place it in a air tight glass container. Cover it with olive oil and you’ve not only got garlic-infused olive oil to use whenever you need to, you have chopped garlic all ready to go! (: Place them in the fridge and you should be able to keep it for up to a month! I would recommend not making too huge a container. Maybe prepare a container every 1-2 weeks depending on how big a fan you are of garlic!

Steamed Seafood Egg Toufu

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The Mr and I have decided to abstain from meat on Fridays so we either go full-fledged veg or have an addition of seafood. And I must say, it’s not a bad idea at all! (:  Of course, it’s so much easier to cook meat dishes. But this makes me think out of the box and try things that I don’t usually cook! Just the thought of it makes me excited!

My brother stopped eating meat about 2 years ago and there are a few dishes mummy makes for him that I decided that I should give it a go. Mummy is really amazing. She tries her best to cook a whole variety of things for korkor and they are all super delicious. Needless to say, mummy and my grandmother are the 2 people who inspires me to cook. (:

One of my favourite seafood dishes I love (and there is quite a list haha) is mummy’s steamed seafood egg toufu. It’s healthy and super good. You could easily eat a whole bowl. Mum usually makes hers with fresh soy bean milk (unsweetened) but I went a quicker way (and cheated) and used soft toufu instead. Of course the texture is not as smooth as it could be. But the flavour was close!

So I would recommend this for people who don’t eat meat, and are aiming to get healthier in time to come! I think most of us are striving for a healthier us, right? Take the first step! Of course, exercise is necessary! So here’s the recipe :

Steamed Seafood Egg Toufu (Adapted from Mummy)

Ingredients :

1 tube of silky toufu

3 whole eggs, lightly beaten

250g prawn, cute into small pieces

100g fish paste

3 tsp fish sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

ground white pepper, for seasoning

fried shallots and spring onion (for garnish, optional)

Steps :

1. Cut the top of the tube of silky toufu and squeeze the toufu into a big bowl. (Don’t worry, it should be mashed)

2. Pour the beaten eggs into the bowl and mix well with a whisk. Add the fish paste and prawn. Whisk the mixture till well combined.

3. Season with fish sauce and pepper. Steam for 30-35mins or until cooked through.

4. Pour the sesame oil over the egg, and garnish with fried shallots and spring onions.

DONE! (:

Give it a go and let me know what u think! (:

Garlic Mushroom Quinoa

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I have a new obsession. Actually. Not completely knew.

I have been obsessed with it for the past 6 months. At first, I didn’t know if I would like it. Cause it looked like a seed. But when its cooked, it blooms to almost barley-like. We first only had the white ones. But recently we had a new addition of red ones. Equally delicious. Equally healthy! Have you guessed it yet? QUINOA of course! (:

I think adding the red ones makes it look much prettier don’t you think? hehe

Something I LOVE to have with my quinoa is stews. Anything with gravy really. It goes like two peas in a pod! Even better than rice, in my opinion. My mum would probably say otherwise, especially when having my grandma’s pig trotters. haha It’s been done and tested. But, I prefer it with quinoa. Personal preference I suppose.

Anyway! One of my favourite ways of cooking quinoa is cooking a mixture of mushrooms on the side and stirring it into the cooked quinoa and that to me is a complete meal! I could have that everyday. haha Just saying (: Obsession to a whole new level. oops.

Before stirring it in!

For photo-taking purposes, I’ve placed the mushroom on top of the quinoa and have not mixed it together yet. haha Of course, you don’t have to mix it in. It will still be equally delicious, I promise!

So here’s my favourite recipe! Hope you guys will like it as much as I do!

Garlic Mushroom Quinoa (an original recipe)

Ingredients :

1/2 cup quinoa (cook according to the package, take off heat once it’s cooked)

1 tbs olive oil

3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped (this can be altered to your liking)

300g fresh mushrooms, cut into small pieces

1/4 cup water

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp garlic salt

freshly ground black pepper

Steps :

1. Cook the quinoa according to your package. It will differ with different brands. It’s either 1 cup of quinoa to 3 cups of water or 2 cups of water. (Please read the cooking instructions carefully! Too much water, and the quinoa might turn mushy, and that wouldn’t be nice anymore.)

2. Add the olive oil to a fry pan and heat over moderate fire. Add the garlic and fry till almost golden brown, careful not to burn them as it will turn bitter.

3. Add the mushrooms and fry for about 3-5 minutes, until the mushrooms starts to soften. Add the chilli powder, garlic salt and pepper.

4. Add water and allow it to cook until all the water has evaporated, stirring occasionally. If mushroom are not soft enough, add a bit more water (1 tbs at a time) and once again allow it to evaporate. (Do make sure the mushrooms are almost completely dry so as to not make the quinoa mushy when stirred together)

5. Add the mushrooms to the quinoa and mix well. Serve!

Enjoy! Remember you can definitely have this on its own or have it with dishes, just like rice! (: Hope you enjoy quinoa as much as I do!

just one more picture, just cause (:

Have a great Friday and weekend ahead everyone!

A Come Back : Ragu

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I do apologise sincerely for my lack of posts since the end of last year. For those who don’t know, I was really busy with my wedding preparations and that’s really all I have been up to the past 3 months! and yes, I am married! (:

And after the wedding, it was our amazing honeymoon in Bali and then it was Chinese New Year. Not sure about you guys, but CNY is a time to just spend with family and feast! haha

Well. I am back! And for the first post of 2012, I am blogging about one of my favourite cuisines. Italian.

Who doesn’t like Italian? I love love love love pastas. Creamy, tomato-y, squid ink. You name it, I love it. haha. That’s how much I love pastas. A habit of mine (a good one I think!) is to try out some of the yummy dishes I had in restaurants/cafes. So far, I’ve tried making lasagne, gnocchi, risottos. One thing that I’ve always wanted to try is ragu.I remember watching the Italian Food Safari and said to myself “You really gotta try to make this one day”

Tonight was the night. I took out my “Simply Italian” cookbook bought by my mummy (underused in my opinion) and flipped through the book from the first page to the last and found a ragu recipe! So I decided to swing by Springvale Market after work & got the ingredients and whipped it up for dinner.

A keeper. This recipe is definitely a keeper. I could just eat the ragu without any pasta. The flavour was amazing. I use to think it’s like a bolognese. But it’s so much more. A pity I didn’t have time to cook it a little longer, I’m pretty sure it would taste even better when the meats have all broken down into the tomato base. mmm.

Ragu (adapted from Simply Italian by Sophie Braimbridge)

Ingredients :

60g butter

90g pancetta, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

1 celery, finely chopped

1 carrot, grated

250g minced beef

200g minced pork

200g chicken livers, trimmed and finely chopped

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

125ml milk

125ml dry white wine

250ml beef stock

400g tin chopped tomatoes

2 heap tbs tomato paste

salt and pepper

grated Parmesan, to serve

Steps :

1. Heat the butter in a heavy based saucepan and add the pancetta. Cook until lightly brown and add the onion, celery and carrot. Cook over moderate heat for about 8 mins or until soften, stirring from time to time.

2. Add the minced beef, pork and oregano to the saucepan. Season with the nutmeg, salt and pepper.

3. Cook for about 5 mins, or until the meat has changed colour but not browned. Add the chicken liver and cook till it changes colour.

4. Stir in the milk and simmer for a couple of minutes. Pour in the wine and increase the heat and allow it to boil for 2-3 minutes or until the wine is absorbed. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

5. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste and half of the stock, partially covering the pan and allow it to cook for a minimum of 1 hour (optimally, 3 hours). Add more stock as it is needed to keep the sauce moist.

6. To serve, cook pasta of your choice according to the package, drain and toss the pasta with the ragu sauce and serve with grate Parmesan.

ENJOY! (:

ps : store leftovers in the fridge up to 3 days or in the freezer for a month (: