Sort of Spicy Tomato Pasta Sauce

Have you ever organized a pasta night? Last week, this is the most successful cooking session ever! I was amazed of how many friends and colleagues joined for pasta night. Typically, in a cooking session, it is about 12 people but I didn't expect that we were in total 40 people for this night. I was even surprised that the small apartment can fit that much people.

At first, I was excited to show my friends how fresh pasta taste very different from dry pasta and I only prepared fresh ones for 10 people. It takes quite a while to make it for 40 people. I actually have to ask some of them to buy dry pasta, I was glad there was a grocery store nearby.

It wouldn't be a pasta night if there weren't any sauces involved. You can see in the picture the number of wonderful sauces that were made. In total, 15 creative sauces were made and all tasted incredibly good. I learnt a lot about sauces that I was unfamiliar with.

Since I was busy making and cooking pasta, I did not took a lot of pictures that day especially that the tomato sauces were all gone after the first batch of pasta. I will post a spicy tomato sauce from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution with sausage added. Other sauces will be posted in the following week.

Serves 4-6
Preparation Time: 5 mins
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1/4 cup fresh basil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 fresh or dried chile, seeded and sliced
2 cans (14 oz.) diced tomatoes
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Procedure

1. In a pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until softened.

2. Add in garlic and chile and cook until fragrant, about 1 min. Stir in basil leaves.

3. Add tomatoes and balsamic vinegar to pot and bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper.

Making Your Own Pasta

I just got back from a full week conference. Don't worry, I'm still partially food blogging while writing my thesis. I finally accepted the offer to do my PhD in Ottawa, Ontario. I found a marvelous place to live with a huge fully equipped kitchen, at least twice as large as my home kitchen. This means more tested recipes with a new group of people. I haven't given much thoughts about how to plan a one-person menu, any suggestions?

During the conference week, I went to a kitchen equipment store and saw a pasta machine that was on sale for only $20. The cost of such machine is about $70. Before buying a kitchen appliance, I have to get the approval of my parents and strangely, they were strongly in favor in buying one. When I came home, I immediately open some of my favorite cookbooks, start making pasta and cut it into fettuccine. Pasta requires three basic ingredients: egg, flour and salt. My first attempt of making pasta was impressively success. This is the first time that I have ever tasted fresh pasta and it taste very different from the dry ones. No wonder that on this season of Hell's Kitchen, Gordon Ramsay can tell if the pasta is made fresh or not. Fresh ones have a soft and tender texture which absorb the full flavour of sauces. The recipe is adapted from The Cook's Book - Concise Edition.

Serves 2
Preparation Time: 25 mins
Cooling Time: 30 mins
Cooking Time: about 1 min, depending on the shape
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 eggs

Procedure

Dough
1. Pour flour onto the surface and form a well, large enough to hold the eggs.

2. With a fork, whisk eggs and slowly incorporate it with flour. Add salt to eggs and continue pulling small amounts of flour until it becomes thick.

3. Once thick, start kneading and add the remaining flour until it can no longer absorb the flour.

4. Set dough aside, clean work surface and dry hands.

5. Knead the dough on clean surface until smooth and elastic. Sprinkle a bit of flour if very sticky, but don't let dry.

6. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 mins. This will help soften the dough, enough to be stretched.

Pasta Machine
7. Cut dough in half. Flatten the dough and pass it through the widest setting on the pasta machine.

8. Decrease the setting a notch and pass the dough once again. Repeat it once more.

9. Fold the dough into thirds and flatten it. Return to its widest setting and repeat step 7 and 8, 3 more times until the dough fells silky and elastic.

10. Roll the dough through the machine on decreasing settings until desired thickness is reached.

11. Use cutters to cut pasta into fettuccine or tagliarini. Toss a bit of flour to prevent for sticking after cutting.

Cooking
12. In a large pot, boil water and add salt.

13. Add fresh pasta and cook for about 1 min. It is ready when you can no longer taste the rawness of the dough.

14. Drain and serve with your favorite pasta sauce.

Spicy Marinated Lime Spareribs

Do you have your own barbecue? How is your experience with it? I never barbecue before but I do consider of having one myself.

This week, we made some spicy spareribs with a hint of lime. The spareribs are marinated overnight and baked in their own sauce. I guarantee you that you will love the taste of spicy and acidity. BBQing must taste even better.

Serves 4
Marinade Time: overnight
Baking Time: 1 hour
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 onion, chopped
1-inch ginger, sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 red chile pepper, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 lb pork spareribs, separated
salt and pepper
cilantro for garnish

Procedure

1. In a bowl, combine all ingredients except for spareribs and cilantro.

2. Place spareribs in a ziploc and pour in the marinade. Refrigerate and marinade overnight.

3. Preheat oven to 375F.

4. Place spareribs in a baking dish, covered with aluminium foil. Bake for an hour. Baste spareribs with the marinade and repeat this process every 5-10 mins. Serve.

Lion's Head Meatball Stew

At first glance, the name might sound weird for a dish. The Lion's Head Meatball Stew is traditionally cooked in Shanghai which consists of oversized pork meatballs and greens. The large meatball size represent the lion's head and the greens for its mane. For the stew, we added some leftover pork and beef balls.

Serves 4-6
Preparation Time: 15 mins
Cooking Time: 30 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 lb ground pork
1 tsp ginger, minced
2 water chestnuts, peeled and minced
1 egg
1 tsp sake
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper
1/2 nappa
5-6 cups chicken stock or water
2-3 scallions, diced

Procedure

1. In a bowl, combine pork, ginger, water chestnuts, egg, sake, soy sauce, sugar, salt and pepper.

2. Shape ground pork into large meatballs, about 3'' in diameter. Flatten them a bit so it is not completely round.

3. In a skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Pan fry meatballs until golden on the outside.

4. In a soup pot, cover bottom with nappa. Place meatballs on top of the nappa.

5. Pour chicken broth and bring it to a boil. Cover and simmer for 30-45 mins until meatballs are fully cooked. Garnish with scallions.

Tiramisu

Have you ever tried making your own tiramisu? I received a few suggestions from you readers to post a tiramisu recipe. The first time that my Taiwanese friend made this dessert, I didn't know it contains strong brewed coffee as I never drink coffee in life. I am more of a tea person.

For those who don't know what is tiramisu, it is an Italian dessert, made of layers of lady fingers and mascarpone-based mixture, topped with cocoa powder. Unfortunately, I didn't take the final picture of the dessert.

Serves 16
Preparation Time: 15 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 package of lady fingers
475g mascarpone cheese
1 1/2 cups brewed coffee
1 cup Marsala wine
3 tbsp Kahlúa or any coffee flavoured liqueur
6 egg yolks
cocoa powder

Procedure

1. In a large bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar until it becomes pale.

2. Add mascarpone to bowl and fold it into the egg yolk mixture with a rubber spatula.

3. In a separate bowl, combine brewed coffee, Marsala wine and Kahlúa.

4. Dip lady finger into the coffee mix and place it onto a 8'' x 8'' baking pan. Repeat the same process until it covers the bottom of the pan.

5. Spread the dipped lady fingers with half of the mascarpone mixture. Repeat the layering process.

6. Sprinkle with cocoa powder and store in the refrigerator overnight.

Thai-Style Yellow Curry Shrimps

Here is a quick and satisfying shrimp dish made by my Taiwanese friend. The curry sauce is a simple mix of coconut milk (or whole milk) and curry powder. I can guaranteed you that you want to remake this sauce for dinner parties.

Serves 4
Preparation time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

3/4 cup milk or coconut milk

2 tbsp yellow curry powder

1/2 teaspoon of soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon of oyster sauce

1 small onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2-3 red chili peppers, seed removed, cut in half lengthwise
300g shrimps with shell and head still on
1 scallion, chopped

Procedure

1. In a bowl, mix milk with curry, soy sauce, oyster sauce and sugar.

2. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Cook onion until transparent. Add in chili peppers and garlic. Cook until fragrant, about 1 min.

3. Pour in sauce and stir for about 1 min. until hot.

4. Add shrimps to skillet and cook until it turns pink. Serve over rice and garnish with scallions.

Korokke

Korokke is the Japanese version of a nugget. The main ingredient is mashed potatoes and it is combined either with chopped meat, seafood or vegetables. The korokke can be dipped in worcestershire sauce or simply in ketchup.

Serves 4
Preparation Time: 5 mins
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb Yukon gold potatoes, peeled
1/2 lb ground pork and beef, mixed
1 small onion, cubed
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup all-purpose flour or cake flour, sifted

1 tsp salt

1 tsp nutmeg
Bread crumbs

Procedure

1. Cook potatoes until soft in boiling salted water. Mash the potatoes.

2. In a skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Sauté onion until transparent. Set aside. Cook ground meat until browned. Remove from heat.

3. Combine meat, onion and potatoes. Shape it into 1-inch patties.

4. In a small bowl, combine egg, water, flour, salt, nutmeg.

5. Dip potato patties in the batter and coat with bread crumbs.

6. Heat oil for deep-frying to 350F. Fry until golden brown, about 1-2 mins per side. Serve.

Lobster with Ginger and Scallions

Have you ever order lobster in a Chinese restaurant? The Chinese has its own way in preparing and cooking the lobster. Most people are used to cook lobster in boiling water, check out my past blog post: Lobster with Pasta and Spicy Lobster. The Chinese first cut the lobster into pieces and isolate the tomalley (green substance) and roe (black stuff similar to caviar) which will be cook separately. The tomalley and roe are first steamed in order to fully cooked them (roe becomes red when fully cooked). The lobster parts are then stir-fry in a wok and the tomalley-roe are added afterward. It is common to deep fry cooked lobster, but this step is optional.

IMPORTANT: Almost every part of the lobster are edible, except for the head sack behind the lobster eyes. Remove the black veins found at the bottom of the tail. I think that is about it. Let me know if I missed anything.

Here is a crush course on how to prepare lobster, the Chinese way. If needed, click here for the anatomy of the lobster. Be aware, this is one of the messiest preparation, better do it outside. Check out the step-by-step pictures for guidance.

For 2 lobsters
Preparation Time: 20 mins
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

2 lobsters
pinches of corn starch
3 tbsp ginger, cut into sticks
4-5 scallions, green parts only, cut into thirds
2-3 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp rice cooking wine

Procedure

Cutting Lobster

 1. Make sure that the lobster is fully clean before cutting.

2. Using a butcher knife or sharp chef's knife, cut lobster in half at the abdomen.

3. With the abdomen/tail, discard black veins, reserve the roe and chop into 4-6 pieces.

4. With the top part, chop arms and claws.

5. Using both hands, separate legs from its top shell.

6. With the legs, reserve the tomalley (green substance) and cut the ends of each leg.

7. With the shell, discard antennas, head sack and eyes. Cut the shell in half lengthwise which will be used as a holder. Place tomalley and roe on both shells.

Cooking Lobster

1. Place 2-3 scallions, ginger and a pinch of cornstarch over each tomalley-roe.

2. Steam for 5-10 mins until roe is fully cooked. Set aside.

3. In a wok, heat oil over medium-high heat. Stir fry ginger and lobster until the shell turns red and meat turns white, about 5-10 mins.

4. Add in tomalley-roe and scallions. Stir fry for 1-2 mins.

5. Add soy sauce, rice cooking wine, and about 1/4 cup water to prevent from drying. Cover for 2-3 mins. Serve.