Welcome to my flog (food+log). In these pages you would find an array of dishes which I'd learned from great chefs the likes of Jamie Oliver and David Rocco among others, and dishes which I've invented or re-invented out of inspiration, observation, even in the moment of depression throughout my life. I'm not a chef by profession nor have I undertake any formal learning in the art of cooking and culinary, but cooking has been my whole-life passion and it is my way of showing my love to my friends and family. I think of it as the most sincere expression of tender and loving care one can show towards their loved one. Drop in your thoughts, ideas and perhaps other great recipes you might want to share. Always remember, cooking is not rocket-science and certainly not just for women. Go with your instinct, with what you like and enjoy the process. Never worry about precise measurement, when you feel its right, you'll get it right. |
  narien "I cook; therefore I'm hungry" These are the great chefs who inspire me and my cooking.. 
My cooking guru 
My Italian Godfather 
When you need "No Reservation" 
Hot huchie mama!!  
 
          Previous recipes/postings are available by clicking bold numbers on the archive calender below.
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Potato Gnocchi with simple tomato sauce Gnocchi, the Italian soft dumpling, is a wonderful dish one can enjoy preparing with the whole family. Sure you can buy the dried variation from most hypermart, but a weekend shopping of the same with one's family can never beat the fun atmosphere of making a home-made gnocchi. These dumplings may take a bit of time to make but I can assure you it is a time worth spending. For those unfamiliar with this type of pasta, gnocchi is a variety of thick, soft noodle or dumpling. Made with the same traditional durum wheat flour with added potato, breadcrumbs and ricotta cheese. Normally gnocchi is eaten as entrées or as minestrone (soup), a lot of variations have been made that it now becomes a meal by themselves. For those who familiar with making home-made gnocchi, then you know that the process can be tricky at best. What you want are light, fluffy dumpling pilows but what we often get is dense chewy dough balls. The trick actually lies with the rolling process, instead of ingredients. When rolling it out, you want a light touch, gently stretching the dough outwards as you roll it into shape. A heavy touch will compress the dough, thus making it dense and chewy. Gnocchi can be paired with any of your favourite sauce, though a simple tomato sauce with Parmesan or a light butter cream sauce will do. Ingredients for the gnocchi 1kg of Russet potatoes 3 cups of plain or all-purpose flour 1 egg salt and freshly ground black pepper for the tomato sauce 2 cans of peeled plum tomatoes (try La Doria or La Valle) 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced a handful of freshly grated Parmesan salt and freshly ground black pepper extra virgin olive oil To make the gnocchi : Boil the potatoes with the skin left on. Cool them a little, then peel and mash them in a bowl. Add the egg, salt and pepper to taste and combine well. Start adding the flour in by hand, with half of it as a beginning. Mix everything with your hand until the mixture holds together as a dough. Put the dough out on a lightly floured smooth, clean surface. Knead lightly for about a minute, adding more flour if needed, if the dough sticks too easily to the surface or to your hands. Once the dough is smooth and manageable, divide it into smaller portions, each about the size of an orange. Flour your hands lightly (this will be the tricky part which will determine whether you'll have a light, fluffy dumplings or a dense, chewy type) Using both hands, and a light touch, roll the dough out with a back and forth motion, starting at the center and stretching the dough out, to form a roll. Don't put so much pressure as to compress the dough, but enough pressure to create a rope of dough. The trick is to stretch the dough sideways as you are rolling. If the rope becomes too long for your surface, cut it in half, and start working on that smaller segment. Roll the dough out until the roll is about the size of a middle finger. Cut each roll into a 1-inch pieces. Continue until all dough is used. To make it more authentically Italian, (and if you have the patience), make ridges by using your index finger and the back of a fork in a rolling action which will create an imprints of the fork and indentation of your finger which will allow the sauce get trapped on the surface of the gnocchi. Place the gnocchi on a lightly floured tray. You can frozen these gnocchi in a freezer by covering them using cling wrap.  To cook the gnocchi, fill a large saucepan half-way with water. Bring to boil, add a few teaspoon of salt and drop the gnocchi in the water, one by one. Try not to fell the gnocchi on top of each other, but rest on the bottom of the pan in a single layer instead. It is imperative that you cook the gnocchi batch by batch as not to crowd all of the into the saucepan to prevent them from sticking onto each other. As the gnocchi cooks, the will rise to the surface after a few minutes. Use a slotted spoon and remove the gnocchi into a colander. Keep the water boiling briskly and repeat untill all gnocchi is cooked. For the sauce : Heat some olive oil into a medium sized saucepan. Add the garlic and cook until the lightly coloured, then add the tomatoes. Mush and squash the tomatoes as much as you can. Season the sauce with salt and pepper. As soon as it comes to the boil, reduce the heat to low and let simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Once you have a medium thick consistency of the sauce, remove from heat, add the Parmesan, stir well. Combine the gnocchi with the sauce and serve immediately. 
Creamy shrimp and broccoli fettuccine For most of the time, whenever I prepared pasta with cream sauce, I had always use full cream milk to substitute the use of single or double cream in the recipe. The reason being is cost; it's rather to pricey to buy and like milk, they don't store very long. Unfortunately unlike milk, they can be drink by themselves so unless it is constantly used on a daily basis, it's not worth it for someone who only does their Italian cooking during the weekends like myself (which is even lesser now with the emergence of a little rascal  ).But sometime, there are recipes which milk is a poor substitute. In order to fully appreciate the authentic taste of the cream, the use of actual double/whipping cream is essential. This is one of it. Authentically the recipe call for the use of spinach as the greenery but I prefer something more crunchy to complement the rich creamy taste of the prawn, hence the use of broccoli. Other variations to the recipe can also be implemented to suit you taste (diced chicken ham instead of prawn for an example) Ingredients (Serves 4) 400g of fettuccine 400g of shrimp, peeled and deveined medium sized broccoli florets, cut into small pieces a cup of double cream extra virgin olive oil 2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced half a handful of parsley, finely chopped salt 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper Cook
the pasta according to the instruction on the packet. Once al dente, drain
thoroughly. Bring a small saucepan half filled with water
to a boil. Blanch the broccoli in the boiling water for 1 minute. Drain and run
the broccoli under cold water to stop the cooking. Otherwise the lingering heat
from the boiling water will overcook the broccoli. Set aside. While the pasta is cooking, combine the
cream, garlic, and pepper in a large skillet and bring to a simmer over high
heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 7 to 10 minutes until the
mixture thickens. Add the shrimp and cook 2 to 3 minutes, until the shrimp have turned pink on all sides. Toss in the broccoli and the parsley. Mix in the fettucini. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately. 
Basil pesto Somehow, throughout the entire excursion of
my Italian cooking, I had never tried nor wrote about making pesto. I had
written countless words about tomato sauce and everything there is to know
about pomodoré, but not one about pesto. Maybe because pesto is not
mainstream here, which is weird since pesto is an integral part of Italian
dishes, especially if one is talking about pasta. It has been embedded into the
eating culture of Italians, sort of like what sambal belacan is to the
Malays, where one would consider a meal as incomplete without it. Somehow not
many people here know about it, heck, if one were to dine in an Italian joint,
or any restaurant serving pasta as one of its menu, one can hardly find any pasta
dish incorporated with pesto as its sauce. 
Parmesan chicken
Chicken and cheese. Two of my favourite when combine together creates the most explosive taste you can have in your mouth. This dish is so fantastic, I can warrant that if serves to guests on any party or get together, they would fight for drippings, every last crumb! Though I don't really regard this dish as a meal on its own, it is still a wonderful dish to have as a light dinner (could a meal involving chicken considered as light?) or maybe as snack while watching your favourite DVD's. I would always serves this dish with simple pasta with butter/oil sauce since I wouldn't want the pasta to overshadow the chicken which is the main star. Ingredients (Serves 4-6) a clove of garlic, minced 150 g of butter (preferably unsalted), melted a cup dried bread crumbs a handful or more freshly grated Parmesan cheese (depend on how cheezy you want your chicken to be) 2 tablespoons of fresh parsley, chopped 1/4 teaspoon of salt a large pinch of dried mixed herbs (oregano, rosemary, thyme, etc.) salt and freshly ground black pepper a kilo of skinless, boneless, chicken meat, cut into small pieces Preheat oven to 230 dg C. In a bowl, combine the minced garlic with the melted butter. In another bowl mix together the bread crumbs, Parmesan, parsley, and the dried herbs. Season well with salt and pepper. Dip chicken pieces into garlic butter, then into crumb mixture to coat. Place coated chicken pieces on to a baking dish. Try to leave a little room between each piece. Drizzle with remaining garlic butter and bake for 15 minutes, or until chicken is thoroughly cooked with the juices visible. Don't be alarmed if the chicken seems to be much more browned on the bottom side than on the top since the bottom side had direct contact with the surface of the baking dish. Serve immediately. 
Wild mushroom linguine
In reality, the mushroom used is not really wild since it's store-bought. But to called it tame mushroom or store-bought mushroom linguine would sound ridiculous so what the heck. I would normally use portobello, but shitake mushroom which is now widely available and becoming more popular is also another option. I like to add a few cut of sausages since I like some meat flavor in my pasta, but the original recipe only call for the use of mushroom. Ingredients (Serves 4) 400g of linguine 3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped 1 red chilli, roughly chopped 500g of assorted wild mushrooms, cleaned and halved a handful of parsley, finely chopped, to garnish extra virgin olive oil salt and freshly ground black pepper Optional : slices of your preferred sausages Cook the pasta according to the instruction on the packet. Once al dente, drain thoroughly, reserving some of the cooking water. Heat some oil in a frying pan over a medium heat; add the garlic, chilli, sausages and mushrooms and fry for 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Then stir in the pasta, add a few ladle of the reserved cooking water to loosen the sauce and serve immediately, garnished with a sprinkling of chopped parsley. 
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