Post #157

ok, I think its kinda about time for a western food post. tho I must admit that ive been rather slack nowadays I've really only been cooking chinese food for dinner. a stir fry is always quicker to whack up than anything else. love my chinese heritage. hehe.

this is not by any means any extravagant candle light western cuisine. i've stuck with the quick-to-whack-up theme and made pasta and salad. recently i found some lovely handmade fresh pasta selling at coles, and i couldn’t resist the temptation. i've always wanted to make my own pasta knowing that it would taste a million miles better than the dry packet ones. but the thought of investing another piece of kitchenware and the image of hubbys face when flour is dusted all over the kitchen pulled me back to crude reality. yes, to the extent that i would rather pick up the packet of expensive handmade fresh pasta and dump it in my shopping basket, with no regrets. this one leek and herbed spaghettini!!!

in order to bring out the pasta i kept the sauce as simple as can be. i've decided to cook it with fish, lemon and a touch of cream. so so simple but tasty!! to cook the sauce, i started the pan with finely chopped onion, leek and garlic, sautee and then add a splash of stock and some chopped chilli. place the piece of cod in the broth, then add seasoning, lemon zest and lemon juice. close the lid and let it simmer till the fish is just cooked. then add a dash of fresh cream in, let it bring to the boil again and the sauce is done. meanwhile, cook the pasta in a separate pot. great thing about fresh pasta is they only take 2 minutes to cook!! scoop the al dente pasta across to the sauce, add a sprinkle of chopped mint and toss to combine. DONE!!


-creamy lemon fresh spaghettini with cod-

fresh pasta has an indescribably lovely texture ~ much spring-ier (but not chewy) and velvet-ier than its dry counterparts!!! considering a plate of pasta served in a restaurant would cost more than $20 at the minimum and chances are they also use dry pasta, this is actually not bad for value, as one packet renders 2 servings!!

and to go with the pasta, I also made a salad - yes hell we are healthy!! hahaha… i picked up 2 pomegranates the other day because they were discounted. and i made a chopped cucumber, pomegranate, olive, almond and mint salad with a lemon and balsamic vinaigrette. pome bursts!!!!


-chopped cucumber, olive, almond + mint salad with pomegranate-

Post #156

when our friend suggested that we have hotpot at her place on the labour day public holiday, my mind for some bizarre reason wondered off to wonton and dumpling land. i never ever really had to make wontons or dumplings from scratch because my mum is literally a wonton/dumpling-machine *no kidding* and our fridge rarely falls short of wonton/dumpling supplies. i would only help mum out on the odd occasions, making a batch or two when mum's mass producing them. anyways, i'll save the wonton/dumplings for another post.

reason why i raised this topic is because i had to make wonton n dumplings, i had to buy some pork mince. and i have never bought any meat in any sort of large scale (and yes, 1kg of pure meat with no bone is considered large scale in my household). my method of "measuring" anything that uses the concept of grams or kilograms has always been descriptions of "numbers" (if the item can be counted, e.g. 8 prawns) or "handful" or "scoop" or "half" or "quarter" (if the item cannot be counted). so after i asked for 1 kg of pork mince and saw the huge pile of meat that got shoved into the plastic bag, i thought i should have stuck with 2 handfuls...

so what i'm trying to get at is that i had too much leftover mince, and hubby asked if i could make this well-known shanghai-nese dish called 獅子頭 (lion head meatballs). hubby for once came up with a sensible food idea!!


-獅子頭 *lion head meatballs*-

this was my first attempt. i found from googling that they come in 2 forms - in soup or braised in thick sauce. hubby prefers the latter. and there's this variation i found on the net that i particularly wanted to try with the mince mix -combining pork mince (i used 80% lean and 20% fatty), finely diced onion, chopped shallot, grated ginger, some tofu, corn flour, n the basic seasoning. then grab a small handful of mixture (about size of an egg) and dab it repeatedly from the palm of your right hand to the left - apparently this gets rid of the air in the meat mixture. pop them in the pan one after another to sear the outside till golden. you can achieve better looking balls with perfect round shape and golden coating by deep frying them. then pour in some water, cover the lid and let them bubble away for a few minutes. then surround the balls with bok choy and let it simmer for a bit more, adding seasoning and a bit of oyster sauce and soy sauce. when the balls are cooked through and the veg are cooked, round it off with some corn starch water to make a thick sauce and its done!!

the tofu adds a good softness to the balls. this helps especially when the there's protionately less fatty mince used. and best to chop the onions really small! great alternative to italian meatballs!! :)