Food Republic

Creamy shrimp and broccoli fettuccine

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:42:29 GMT

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

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:36:50 GMT

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 pomodor�, 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.

I had prepared pesto many times before and though nowadays you can easily find ready-made pesto in most supermart and hypermat, they can never beat the taste of fresh home-made one even when it is stored or frozen.

Borrowing the exact description of pesto from Wikipedia, it is a sauce originating in Genoa in the northern region of Italy (pesto alla genovese). The name is derived from the Italian word pest� ("to pound, to crush", from the same Latin root as the English word pestle), in reference to the sauce's crushed herbs and garlic. The basic ingredients of a pesto is obviously herbs (most common is basil) which are washed, dried, put in the mortar with garlic and salt, and crushed to a creamy consistency with pine nuts, bounded together with olive oil and cheese. Since pine nuts is not a common ingredient one can easily find in our local supermart or hypermart shelves, walnuts is our only best bet for substitute. Stored in a tight jar, or simply in an air-tight plastic container, pesto can last in the refrigerator up to a week and can also be frozen.

Though traditionally pesto is always served with pasta, there are many other uses of pesto to accompany your favourite dishes. You can also use it as dipping sauce, and it goes well together with your roasted chicken, grilled seafood, fishes, and combined as recipes for other delicacies (which I will write about it later perhaps)

Ingredients (Serves approx. 4)
a clove of garlic
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 handfuls of fresh basil, leaves picked and chopped
a handful of pine nuts, very lightly toasted
a handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
extra virgin olive oil

Pound the garlic with a little pinch of salt and the basil leaves in a pestle and mortar, or pulse in a food processor. Add the pine nuts to the mixture and pound again. Transfer to a bowl and add half of the Parmesan (note that if you want to freeze the pesto you make, omit the cheese since it doesn't freeze well. When you want to use, defrost and only then add in the cheese). Stir gently and add the olive oil-you need just enough to bind the sauce and get it to an oozy consistency.

Season to taste, then add most of the remaining cheese. Pour in some more oil and taste again. Keep adding a bit more cheese or oil until you're happy with the taste and consistency. Optionally, you may like to add a squeeze of lemon juice to give it a little twang, but it's not essential. Try it with and without to see which one suit your taste

Parmesan chicken

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:24:18 GMT

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.

Pasta with stuffed sausage

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 05:54:23 GMT

One of my favourite processed food of all time has gotta be sausages. It's so wonderful to have them in all sizes, small cute cocktail, big and fat, long and skinny..these days you can get a lot of variety in your sausage. When I was a child, there was only either your regular beef frankfurter or chicken frankfurter and it only comes with the size most of us came to know of. I like to get those stuffed sausages with the likes of garlic, black pepper and my favourite, cheese. When I make my pasta with my regular tomato sauce, I tend to use the one stuffed with cheese because the taste of the cheese will add to the richness of the tomato sauce. When I made my light butter/oil sauce, garlic stuffed sausage would be the perfect combo. Try experimenting with different variation to different type of sauce to find which will suit you best.

Ingredients (Serves 4)
6 sticks of stuffed sausages, sliced according to your taste
2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
one whole fresh red chilli
350g of spaghetti or linguine
a bunch of fresh basil
extra virgin olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cook the pasta according to the instruction on the packet. Once al dente, drain thoroughtly.

In the meantime, heat a large saucepan on a medium heat and add 2 lugs of olive oil. Add the onion and stir for around 5 minutes or until softened and lightly golden. Then add the garlic and chilli, and as soon as they start to get some colour add the basil leaves and the tomatoes. Bring to the boil and season to taste. The momment your sauce starts to boil, add the sausages and occasionally stir around while continue to gently simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Once the sauce is ready, remove from heat, stir in your pasta into the sauce and mix well. Serve immediately.

Wild mushroom linguine

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:29:39 GMT

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.

Prawn tempura with lemon soy dressing

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 05:14:22 GMT

I had posted the recipe for tempura before but only recently did I learned how to make a wonderful lemony dressing. The use of rice vinegar is common among Japanese dishes but in our shore it might be quite a task to procure. I would suggest a Japanese specialty store but (I bought one at OU new wing, I think it's on the 3rd floor near the central escalator) I do suspect you can get one at Cold Storage. For the prawn, to make it more worthwhile for you to cook, get a large size, steroid-induced tiger prawn which is easily available in most hyper-mart. It does cost a fortune, so I do suggest this dish only for special occasion and the like.

Ingredients
For the prawn tempura:
500g of tiger prawns, de-veined
1 egg yolk
310ml of ice cold water
150g plain flour, plus extra for dusting the prawns
vegetable oil, for deep-frying

For the lemon soy dressing:
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of rice vinegar
1 teaspoon of wasabi
� teaspoon of sesame oil
1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice

Make the lemon soy dressing by simply mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl.

To make the prawn tempura, first make the batter by combining the egg yolk and water in a bowl. Then stir in the flour and mix well but make sure the mixture is a bit lumpy.

Heat the vegetable oil. Toss the prawns in the extra flour for dusting then coat the prawns with the batter. Shake off any excess and wait until the excess batter stop dripping from the prawn and only then you should put them into the oil.

Fry the prawns in batches until brown and cooked. Drain on paper towel.

Snippets - Diet Change

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:56:25 GMT

On October 10, on a Friday evening at 1.44, my firstborn son, Muhammad Ikhwan Mirza was conceived vie induced labor 2 weeks earlier than scheduled. Unprepared, both my missus and I went to the hospital the previous night for her routine weekly check-up. Her blood pressure shoots up 151 over 103 and forces our doctor to admit her to ward that night and the baby must be conceived the following morning to avoid further risk to mom and baby.

Thanks to almighty God, it only took three and a half hour of constant pain to my missus from the first contraction until the baby was finally conceived. And so the recovery period or 'pantang' in Malay begins for my missus. And so begins her dietary changes which also mean that I can no longer cook freely as before. My mom officialy took charge of the cooking, and all the indulgence I used to prepare had to be defered until this period is over.

For myself, I would be busy looking over my son to bother about cooking but nevertheless, when time is on my side, I will occasionally heat my pan and my wok and work my knife so these pages would not remain idle.

"Luke, I am your father.."

Tagliatelle with spinach, mascarpone and parmesan

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:06:01 GMT

When I was a little boy, spinach is the only leafy green vegetables that I can bear put into my mouth thanks to the cartoon "Popeye" with the thought of eating it will grant me super human power such as his. Until I grew older enough to understand what a load of bull that was, I stop eating spinach and with it, stop eating green vegetables. I think this is a really good dish for kids to teach (or trick) them into eating spinach. Even though they may not eat it on its own, with the combination of the pasta and the sauce, they can suck on the tagliatelle, the mascarpone and the cooking water make a fantastic sauce. The mascarpone cheese can be subs with other melting cheese as do the double cream with full cream milk.

Ingredients (Serves 4)
400g of tagliatelle or spaghetti
2 teaspoon of butter
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
400g of fresh green spinach, washed thoroughly and finely sliced
120ml of double cream
150g of mascarpone cheese
2 handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt and freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil

Cook the pasta according to the instruction on the packet. Meanwhile, get a frying pan or a wok, heat a drizzle of olive oil, add the butter and garlic. When the butter melts, add the spinach. After 5 minutes it will have wilted down and will be nice and dark. At this point, season with salt and pepper, then add the cream, mascarpone and a little ladle of the pasta cooking water. Let it come to a simmer and then season again.

Once the pasta is al dente, drain but reserve some of the cooking water. Toss in the pasta into the spinach sauce. Add the parmesan and mix everything together. Loosen to a nice silky consistency with some of the reserved cooking water. Serve immediately with a separate shaving of parmesan.

Snippets - Anniversary weekend

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:11:04 GMT

It was the second anniversary of my wedding on Sunday so I thought of retiring my cooking at home and took my missus for a treat during the weekend. We went to the Legend Hotel smack dab in the city next to the once legendary The Mall and checked ourselves into their Executive Suite for a night stay on Saturday.

It was a room to behold, and frankly was a bit too big a space just for the two of us. It has two halls, as with most suite, separated with an English wooden door. The living consist of a working desk complete with a internet-enabled desktop (though with a dumb terminal instead of a CPU), a 2+1 cushy sofa, a glass coffee table and of course a television set. The bedroom has your most obvious bedroom necessity, queen size bed with a runner, side table, a television set, a small glass round table, a single seat sofa. The are two bathroom available, one next to the entrance door and another spacious main bath in the bedroom. You get your usual tub, shower room and toilet room with stained glass half-door in the main bath but what's fascinating is that there is no door save for a pathway towards the entrance of the main bath, so unless you're a couple, it may be a little bit awkward having someone who can just walk in while you're dipping in the tub.

Apart from the amenities, the room also supplies you with a pair of slippers, pair of bathrobe, a bathroom scale with a red velvet cover, an ironing set, safe, small fridge with wine bucket a a couple of wine glass (which we used to good effect getting wasted on apple juice), electric kettle, a flask and all the other usual thing you get in a hotel room.

For 350 M'sian quid I didn't expect much from a suite but somehow The Legend amazes me especially the attention to detail that I've noticed in the room. The completeness of the room had not made me picked up the phone asking the housekeeping for some missing necessity as with most hotels I've patronized and to that I felt astonished. The best part is that my room was in the same floor with the fitness centre and the pool so comuting back and forth was real pleasent.

Food for thought

There are 5 eateries outlets within the hotel, the main brasserie is Di-Atas, while you can dine at Museum Chinese Restaurant to savour oriental cooking or indulge in all things Japanese at Gen Japanese Restaurant. For getting wasted on alcohol while listening to half-baked musician, The Monkey Bar is available 'till late nite. We only went for the complimentary buffet breakfast as we didn't want to waste time having dinner at any of their restaurants as we want to really enjoy our suite. So we take out some pizza, pretzel, cinnamon rolls, a whole lotta apple juice and indulge all the unhealthy treat in-doors. The breakfast buffet that we had the following morning though, as a catch for the nice room, really sucks! It was the worst set of menu and the worst set of taste I ever had. Needless to say, I'd rather have a nice fat roti telur at any mamak than fine dining to some .....I'd rather not finished the sentence.

Usual suspect : bacon strips, corn kernel, sausages, fish fingers; not at all tasty

Fussili with tomato concasse - pasta not even cooked to al dente, and the tomato sauce is an insult to all Italians

Floating stars - the only thing worth chewing

Tricolore - Milk, orange, guava; to drain down the horrible taste of the dishes

Pancakes and waffle with maple syrup and blueberry jam

Smudge - Blueberry yogurt that tasted like paint

A supposedly healthy option; but a haphazard to your tongue

My missus seems not to mind..

...while I'm slightly pissed

Coming back

Having indulge all the best things The Legend has to offer me (except for the lousy breakfast), the thought of coming back had sprung to my mind even the minute after I checked-out. It was a wonderful weekend, and my missus and I truly enjoy a weekend break from all the bulls around the world. It was a lovely anniversary celebration, it was nice to stay away from my kitchen and sample some of the worst commercial cooking in the world, and it made me truly appreciate life even more.

Sunset view from the room

A view from the pool

Linguine with cheezy prawn

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 13:28:16 GMT

The best thing about pasta is that when you have the understanding of the concept and fundamentals of each type of the sauce, you can simply create your own recipe. You can blend ingredients which are to your liking to create a wonderful succulent sauce which then can be combined with your preferred pasta. This dish was born out of my love towards two of my favourite ingredients in a pasta sauce, prawns and cheese. The main idea is infusing the prawns with the taste of one cheese, and having the sauce combined with another. In this recipe I used cheddar slice to infuse the prawns with, the more common and less expensive type of cheese. You can try with different type of melting cheese, such as Mozzarella, Mascarpone or Fontina while for the end sauce, obviously Parmesan is the best choice though you may want to go with Pecorino or Grana Padano.

Ingredients (Serves 4)
400g of linguine or fettuccine
2 cloves of garlic
200g of prawns, peeled and deveined
1 fresh red chilli, thinly sliced
a good knob of butter
3-4 slices of sliced Cheddar cheese
2-3 handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons of roughly chopped parsley
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cook the pasta according to the instruction on the packet. Drain thoroughly once al dente.

Meanwhile, heat a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the butter and once melted, add the garlic and chilli and cook, stirring until the garlic is slightly coloured. Add the prawns, compile them together to the center of the pan and immediately lay the Cheddar slices on top and covering all the prawns. Once the cheese melted, continue stirring the prawn and cook for 2 minutes, until the prawns turned pink. Season with salt and pepper.

Toss in the pasta together with parsley and Parmesan and stir until the pasta and the sauce are well combined. Serve immediately with a separate freshly grated Parmesan.