Spirali with Prawns & Coconut Milk

July 25, 2014December 31, 2018 amcarmen4 Comments

TGIF! Hope everyone had a good week. Today’s dish is once again pulled from my 1000 Italian Recipes Cookbook, though I must say that the ingredients are hardly Italian at all – but nonetheless packed with flavour and again very little ingredients needed. Today’s post will be a short one as I don’t have a long back story for you to endure before getting to the recipe, but please do enjoy this lovely dish.

PREP TIME 10 MINS | COOKING TIME 18-20 MINS | SERVES 2

INGREDIENTS

1 cup spirali pasta (or other shaped pasta)
250g tiger prawns, shelled and deveined
1 cup (200ml) coconut milk
1 stalk lemongrass, ends crushed and tips sliced
1 red bird’s eye chilli, sliced
Zest of 1 lime
Chives
Ground salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

Cook the pasta in boiling, salted water according to the packet instructions. Drain and set aside reserving about 2-3 tbsp of the cooking water.
Meanwhile, heat the coconut milk in a small saucepan together with the crushed lemon grass, lime zest and half of the chilli slices. Leave to simmer over low-heat for about 10-15 minutes for the flavours to infuse into the milk.
Add the prawns and leave until they turn pink (about 3 minutes), then stir in the chives and season with salt and pepper.
Fish out the lemongrass stalks and toss through the pasta. Garnish with remaining chilli and lemongrass slices. Serve.

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Steamed Whole Snapper

July 23, 2014December 30, 2018 amcarmen5 Comments

Hello Everyone! My fridge (or should I say, my part of the fridge since I share a house with about 20 other people) has been looking a bit lonely for the past week. Nothing makes me happier than going to Paddy’s Market, and coming home with bags of fresh meat, seafood, and vegetables – and a bonus development of arm muscles from carrying heavy shopping bags, but probably not good for my back in the long run. My part of the fridge is looking happier now with all that food!

I probably bought more than 5 kilos of meat ranging from beef, chicken, and yummy pork ribs. I also got 2 whole snappers for $15, one of which will be featured in today’s post, and the other probably later in the week, as well as some prawns and salmon portions. I know that this sounds like a LOT of food for a tiny girl like me, but all this will probably last me a month or so. Paddy’s is not difficult to get to from where I live, but it is quite a bit of a trek and time consuming to go to every week to shop especially when there are a few other supermarkets close by. The reason why I go to Paddy’s at least once a month is because of their meat, seafood, and vegetables – cheaper and definitely fresher and of better quality than your local Coles or Woolies. I once got sick from meat that I got from Coles… That’s all I’m going to say.

Anyway, onto the recipe – this is a dish that my mom would always make for dinner, using a different fish of course and a different method of cooking. She usually cooks it over a charcoaled barbecue and I don’t know, there’s just something about it being cooked that way that made it so much more tastier. I obviously wasn’t going to start a barbecue for just one fish, plus, I don’t actually have a barbecue in the house (well I do but it runs on gas and I kind of blew it up towards the end of last year – don’t ask). So I stuck to steaming the fish today, but if you do want to give this a try, I highly recommend my mom’s way of cooking. Lip-smacking goodness I tell you!

PREP TIME 10 MINS | COOKING TIME 20 MINS | SERVES 2

INGREDIENTS

1 whole snapper, gutted, scaled, and cleaned
1 thumb-sized ginger, sliced
1 stalk green onion, sliced, green and white parts separated
1/2 red onion, sliced
1/2 tomato, sliced
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns
1/4 tsp rock salt
1 red bird’s eye chilli, sliced

METHOD

Nestle the snapper on a large piece of foil and scatter the red and white parts of the onions, ginger, tomatoes, peppercorns, and salt. Drizzle the lemon juice, soy sauce and sesame oil over the fish.
Loosely seal the foil to make a package, making sure that there is enough space at the top for the steam to circulate while the fish cooks.
Steam for 20 minutes. If you don’t have a steamer, you can place the parcel on a heatproof plate, or a stainless steel wire steamer rack, over a pan of gently simmering water, cover with a lid and steam.
Garnish with the remaining green onions and chilli slices. Serve with steamed rice.

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Chorizo & Leek Orecchiette

July 18, 2014December 30, 2018 amcarmen2 Comments

Hello Everyone! Here is another recipe from my ‘1000 Italian Recipes’ cookbook. I am actually surprised at the fact that most of the featured recipes in this cookbook require no more than 8 ingredients to create such a lip-smacking dish – which is a good thing because it means less preparation, easy, quick, and simple, and obviously less expenses. You know what they say, less is definitely more.

Orecchiette is basically a type of pasta shaped roughly like small ears, hence the name (orecchio, ear, OR orecchiette, little ears). They are slightly domed with their centres are thinner than their rims. This particular shape gives them an interestingly variable texture; soft in the middle and somewhat more chewy on the outside.

PREP TIME 5 MINS | COOKING TIME 10 MINS | SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS

2 cups orecchiette pasta (or other shaped pasta)
2 chorizo sausages, sliced
1 leek, sliced thinly
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp rosemary leaves, finely chopped
2 tbsp garlic-infused extra virgin olive oil
Fresh red chillies, optional
Shaved parmesan cheese

METHOD

Cook the pasta in boiling, salted water according to the packet instructions. Drain and set aside reserving about 2-3 tbsp of the cooking water.
Meanwhile, heat the oil over high heat in a medium-sized pan and fry the chorizo sausages until golden. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Sweat the garlic and onions without colouring. Then add the rosemary leaves and leeks. Reduce the heat and cook until soft, about 3-5 minutes.
Return the chorizo sausages to the pan and add the reserved cooking water. Turn the heat off and toss together with the pasta. Season with a touch of pepper and fresh chillies if desired, and shaved parmesan cheese.

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Neapolitan Casareccia Salad

July 15, 2014December 30, 2018 amcarmen7 Comments

Hello Everyone! It’s been a whole week since I last uploaded, sorry for that! I haven’t been cooking anything new the past week – just things I’ve already covered in this blog, or quick, easy meals because I didn’t feel like cooking. I’ve also been eating out a bit, catching up with both old and new friends over the holidays, and also saying farewell to my other Dutch housemate Sam. It’s getting lonely in the kitchen now without you! No one to creep up on me (be it in the kitchen or bathroom) and unintentionally spook me, no one to fight with over for our favourite shower room, no one talk to while cooking, and no one to eat with. No one to share my desserts with! And most importantly, no one will ever understand me when I say, “you’ve never heard of Medina?!” Please come back! Please don’t leave!

Anyway, today I got back into my cooking and decided to pull out a recipe from a cookbook that I bought months ago. A little story first about this cookbook. It was a public holiday I think (it was that long ago that I cannot remember), that I decided to go to a place called Basement Books at Railway Square – well, it was more that I recommended my friends to go there after a trip to Dymocks. I told them that books were generally much cheaper there. So while they were looking at novels, I was of course looking through the cookbook section. I found this cookbook, ‘1000 Italian Recipes’ split into three categories, starters and sides, mains, and dessert. Publisher’s price was at $16.99, and Basement price was at $9.99. I thought, what a bargain! Then I saw the exact cookbook behind it on the shelf and it said $12.99. Confused, I asked the sales lady what the actual price was, and she told me she would check at the counter. “It’s actually $6.99!” she said, and once again I thought, what a greater bargain! 1000 recipes for only $6.99!

So, why is it that I’ve only come around to try out a recipe from this book? Well, I don’t exactly know why. I’ve gone through the book numerous times and even bookmarked my favourites. I guess the main reason why I haven’t cooked from it yet was that I was probably not feeling very inspired, even though the recipes were fairly simple. I used to cook pasta at least once a week since I started cooking. No-cream Bacon Carbonara was my go-to dish whenever I wanted something quick and simple, but even so, I’ve not made that dish for a while because it made me feel sick and nauseous after a while – and I’m not quite sure if it’s the raw egg in it or the heap load of cheese. Anyway, I should get onto the recipe and stop blabbering about!

First off, casareccia is basically pappardelle pasta, rolled vertically and twisted into half, and works well with chunky sauces. The original recipe is meat-free and doesn’t call for the addition of chilli flakes. But you can get creative and bulk it up with bacon, ham, salami, etc. I kept it vegetarian, until I realised I had a pack of Hungarian salami in the fridge. Next time!

PREP TIME 10 MINS | COOKING TIME 1 HOUR | SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS

2 cups casareccia pasta (or other shaped pasta)
1 punnet (200g) cherry tomatoes, halved
75g black olives, pitted and chopped
3 tbsp baby capers, drained
2 tbsp garlic-infused extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp fresh basil leaves
Dash of dried chilli flakes
Shaved parmesan cheese

METHOD

In a small pan, heat up the olive oil. Once heated through, add to a large stainless steel bowl together with the tomatoes, olives, and capers, and chilli flakes. Toss and then set aside to macerate (to soften or become softened by soaking in a liquid). I like to leave it to macerate for at least 5 hours for the flavours to further soak into the olive oil, but 1 hour should do the trick.
Cook the pasta in boiling, salted water according to the packet instructions. Drain and add to the macerated vegetables, with the basil leaves. Toss to combine and add more oil and seasoning if necessary.
Garnish with basil leaves and shaved parmesan cheese. Serve warm.

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Basic Scones

July 9, 2014December 30, 2018 amcarmen3 Comments

Hello Everyone! So from yesterday’s a post, I mentioned that I had a tea and scones party. I decided to hold one when I made strawberry jam a few days ago. I wanted to have some scones with them, but I didn’t want to eat everything for myself – and so I decided to share the love! It was an afternoon/night of fun and laughter, and meeting new people over homemade goodness. When I say meeting new people, I mean my friends from different places (uni, housemates, etc.) meeting my other friends, and becoming mutual friends.

I decided to go with very basic scones because I wanted the berry-flavoured jams and lemon curd to shine. The original recipe for these basic scones can be found at Taste. When baking them, the kitchen and hallway filled with amazing buttery aromas. You could tell that these were going to be really tasty; crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. I think we (my friend Jialing & I; we made two batches so she worked on one while I worked on the other) may have underestimated how high the scones would rise so some rose a bit too much and collapsed – but still tasty nonetheless. This recipe is for one batch, which should make about 16 scones (probably only 10-12 if you made them too big like we did :P)

PREP TIME 15 MINS | COOKING TIME 20-25 MINS | MAKES 16 SCONES

INGREDIENTS

3 cups self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
80g chilled unsalted butter, cubed
1 cup milk

Only 3 basic must-have pantry ingredients! How convenient!

METHOD

Preheat oven to 200C.
Sift the self-raising flour into a large bowl and add the cubed butter. Rub the butter into flour using your fingertips until the mixture resembles a breadcrumb texture.
Make a well in the centre and add the milk. Mix with a flat-bladed knife until the mixture forms a soft dough. If the mixture is a bit dry and crumbly, add more milk if required. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until smooth (don’t knead the dough too much though or your scones will be quite tough).
Pat the dough into a 2cm-thick round, and using a circular cutter (about a 5cm diameter, or to whatever size/shape you want), cut out rounds. Press the dough together and cut out the remaining rounds.
Place scones onto a tray lined with baking paper, 1cm apart from each other. Lightly sprinkle the tops with a little flour and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden and well risen. Serve warm with cream, assorted jams, and lemon curd (for the cream, we just bought a tub of thickened cream and whisked it until it thickened to a spreadable consistency).

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Homemade Lemon Curd

July 8, 2014December 30, 2018 amcarmen4 Comments

Hello Everyone! Yesterday afternoon I made some deliciously yummy lemon curd for today’s tea and scones party (which I will write about and post the recipe to basic scones tomorrow).

I decided to make it to go with the scones because I saw photographs of lemon curd being used as a spread with scones. I never knew the combination of the two go well together. It was heaven – scone, lemon curd, and whipped cream (and I’m not talking about the canned whipped cream; I find it very artificial-tasting to be honest). I followed the recipe from Taste, but I must say, it took me more than 10 minutes to get it at the desired consistency. I don’t know if it’s because I was doing it wrong, or the timing is a bit off in the recipe – but nonetheless it tasted SO good.

PREP TIME 5 MINS | COOKING TIME 45 MINS | MAKES 2 JARS

INGREDIENTS

2 whole large free range eggs
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup caster sugar
80g unsalted butter, chilled
Zest and juice of 2 lemons

METHOD

Whisk the whole eggs, yolks and sugar in a saucepan until smooth. Then place the saucepan over low heat.
Add the butter, lemon juice, and zest and whisk continuously until thickened (original recipe says about 10 minutes, but I took at least 45 minutes to get it really thick and to the right consistency, or at least the consistency I wanted it to be at).
Pour into a sterilised jar, cover, and keep in the fridge (lemon curd keeps for up to 2 weeks).

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Leche Flan (Crème Caramel)

July 6, 2014December 30, 2018 amcarmen16 Comments

Hello Everybody! Today’s recipe is definitely one of my favourite desserts and hands-down a crowd pleaser. It is one of the most-made desserts this year, today being the 4th time and in 3 consecutive weeks in June. Each and everyone of my friends love it, crave it and always look for it whenever I’m around during house parties. I’m pretty sure I’ll be making a lot of people happy by posting this recipe today – hint: Pam, Rachel, and Francesco.

Leche Flan, or also known as Crème Caramel, is a rich and heavenly dessert (the way I make it of course), made up of egg yolks and milk with a soft caramel top. It is widely known throughout the world (especially in Europe) and has been in the dessert menu of most restaurants because of its convenience in preparation – and it really is that simple! In the Philippines, celebrations such as parties and town fiestas won’t be complete without it.

PREP TIME 5 MINS | COOKING TIME 25 MINS | MAKES 6 MINI FLANS

INGREDIENTS

6 egg yolks, at room temperature
1 can (395g) condensed milk, at room temperature
1 cup milk, at room temperature
6 tsp caster sugar
1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Yes, you only need 5 ingredients! And makes 6 small, round flans. Working with ingredients at room temperature is ideal as I found that when I made them with chilled ingredients, the egg yolks started to form and you’ll then find lumps of egg yolk in your flan.

METHOD

Add one teaspoon of sugar to each round metal mould. Caramelise the sugar by placing the mould on the stovetop. Mix thoroughly until the solid sugar turns into liquid (caramel) and turns light brown in colour. Be careful as the sugar can easily burn. Set aside to wait for the caramel to fully solidify and cool down.
In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and vanilla extract together. Then whisk in the condensed milk, and finally the milk until well combined. You may see tiny bits of egg yolk starting to form. If so, strain the mixture through a sieve into another bowl.
Pour the mixture equally into the moulds and cover the tops with foil (this is to prevent any water droplets from the steaming process dripping nto the mixture – trust me, I’ve done this once before and I got very watery flans).
Place in a steamer and steam for 15 minutes. Once done, turn the heat off and leave it in the steamer for a further 10 minutes. Remove from the steamer and set aside to cool down before placing them in the refrigerator for at least 4-5 hours before serving.
To plate up, run a butter knife around the edges of the flan, place a serving dish on top of the mould, invert, and enjoy!

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Homemade Strawberry Jam

July 4, 2014December 30, 2018 amcarmen1 Comment

What do you do when you have a punnet or two of strawberries in the fridge that are on the verge of becoming overripe? – Make jam of course! I’m pretty sure you can do many other things with them, but today, I made jam.

I’ve actually had the strawberries in the fridge for almost 2 weeks before I decided to do something of them. I got them from my friend Pam; she was leaving to go back to Singapore that day. I wasn’t going to eat them only because I’m a bit sceptical of any fruit lasting beyond a week. The strawberries were actually still quite firm. They were very dark red in colour and the outside looked like it was starting to dry up. They were nonetheless still quite juicy when I cut them open.

PREP TIME 5 MINS | COOKING TIME 20 MINS | MAKES 2 JARS

INGREDIENTS

2 x 125g punnets of strawberries, hulled and halved
2/3 cups caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Zest and juice of one lemon

METHOD

Combine all the ingredients in a medium-sized saucepan and cook over very low heat for 20 minutes, until the strawberries release some of their juices and the mixture boils slowly. Cook until thickened.
Pour carefully into sterilised canning jars and either seal or keep refrigerated (see below on sterilising jars).

Sterilising Jars:

Jars should be made from glass with a metal lid that has a rubber seal. To sterilise the jars and lids, wash with hot, soapy water. Rinse well and arrange jars and lids open sides up, without touching, on a tray. Leave in a preheated 80C oven for 25 minutes, or boil the jars and lids in a large saucepan, covered with water, for 15 minutes.

Remember as a rule:

Hot preserves go into hot jars and cold preserves go into cold jars.

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Peach Crumble

July 2, 2014December 30, 2018 amcarmen1 Comment

For my 21st Birthday (which was like a year and a half ago), one of my friend’s from church, Tom, got me a set of 4 mini-cocottes with an accompanying cookbook. It was probably one of the best gifts I’ve ever received – a lot of people back then knew that I am a foodie and that I love to cook. The mistake they always make is that they get me food, such as chocolates and even gingerbread cookies (since my birthday was towards the end of the year, they thought they’d give me a birthday and Christmas gift too). I never really liked receiving food as gifts as I always say “I’m just gonna poop it out later anyway”, but cookware or even tableware? Best.

Note, I’m actually not a very big fan of chocolate. Moist, warm, oozy, chocolate cake: Yes. Chocolate bars, candies: No.

From this cookbook, I’ve only actually made two recipes, Shepard’s Pie and of course today’s post, Peach Crumble – which I have made numerous times because I just love it! Even my friends love it! It’s also simple and requires no more than 10 ingredients. I’ve tweaked the recipe a bit in terms of lessening the amount of sugar (I don’t really like my desserts too sweet and sometimes when I see ‘1 cup of sugar’ it scares me a bit). I also used less peaches than what the recipe calls for, and discarded the juice of lemon – in the past I have found the lemon too overpowering, making the dessert very sour. I think the zest adds enough lemony flavour to the crumble.

This is usually a dessert I pull out during the summer as peaches are in season then here in Australia. To my surprise, when I went shopping a few days ago at Coles, I found peaches! At first I was a bit skeptical knowing that they weren’t in season, and then I realised they had been imported from the US. I bought them anyway despite it being a tad bit more expensive than the local peaches during the summertime, because I needed peach crumble in my life right now and I couldn’t sit around and wait for summer to come along. But a warm peach crumble dessert fits perfectly with the cold weather don’t you think?

PREP TIME 15 MINS | COOKING TIME 20 MINS | SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS

3 large ripe peaches
100g cold unsalted butter, cut into little cubes
1 cup plain flour
2/3 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup crumbed walnuts
1/3 tsp ground cinnamon
Zest of one lemon

METHOD

Preheat oven to 190C. Lightly butter 4 mini-cocottes.
Bring a saucepan on water to a boil and plunge the peaches in one by one for 2 minutes. Remove using a slotted spoon and transfer to a deep dish to cool. Once cool, the skin should easily peel off. Cut into generous chunks or slices and mix with the lemon zest, cinnamon, and half of the sugar. Set aside.
Mix the remaining sugar together with the butter, flour, and walnuts in a bowl. With your fingertips, quickly mix the ingredients together until looks like rough bread crumbs. If your mixture is too warm, put the bowl into the refrigerator for 15 minutes and start again when it has chilled.
Fill each mini-cocottes with the peaches and top with the crumble mixture. Place any remain peach slices on the top.
Place the cocottes on a baking tray lined with aluminium foil. This is to catch any juices that may overflow from the cocottes; saves having to clean the tray later. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, uncovered.
Serve hot out of the oven or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream (optional).

Additionally, you can use any stone fruit besides peaches, such as apricots and plums – anything that is ripe, available locally, and in season. Reserve and leftover crumble by freezing it in a small ziplock bag.

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Stir-fried Pipis in XO Sauce

June 29, 2014December 28, 2018 amcarmenLeave a comment

I remember the first time having this, not too long ago actually, about 1 and a half weeks ago, instant love. I was having dinner with Pam (ex-housemate, fellow foodie, and now long-distance twinnie) and her family who had just arrived that morning from Singapore. We were meant to have a homemade pizza night but we were all feeling a bit tired to cook. Still happy anyway because I got to meet Pam after 4 months since we last saw each other, and I got to meet her family. We had dinner in Chinatown (forgive me, I don’t actually remember the name of the restaurant), and amongst the many dishes we ordered, the stir-fried pipis in XO sauce caught my attention.

It was so yummy, well cooked, and had a good amount of spice to it. It was that good that I had to recreate it for myself, and I did – with larger pipis as well (the ones at the restaurant were baby-sized)! They were only $16.00/kg at the seafood market in Market City. The pipis were already cleaned and had no sand and grit in them. They were also alive which amused me quite a bit to be honest. I stood there over the bucket and started playing with them – tapping their shells, and picking them up and squeezing their shells shut, until the lady approached me and asked me if I wanted to buy them. I bought roughly about 800g for about $13.00 and I was able to get two meals out of it – with steamed jasmine rice and pan-fried eggplant. So delish!

XO sauce is a spicy seafood sauce commonly used in southern Chinese cooking. It’s made of roughly chopped dried seafoods, including scallops, dried fish and shrimp, and subsequently cooked with chilli peppers, onions, and garlic. XO sauce can be used as a condiment on the side of main dishes or used in cooking to enhance the flavour of fish, meats, vegetables, and otherwise bland foods such as tofu or noodles. The named is derived from fine XO (extra-old) cognac, which is a popular Western liquor in Hong Kong which denotes high quality, prestige, and luxury.

Check out the original recipe from Yahoo!7 Lifestyle.

PREP TIME 5 MINS | COOKING TIME 10-12 MINS | SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS

800g live pipis
1/2 cup fish stock (or clam juice)
1/4 cup XO sauce
1/4 cup Chinese Shaoxing rice wine
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
3 red birds-eye chillies, sliced
2 stalks green onion, sliced
Juice of 1 lime

METHOD

Heat olive oil in a large frying pan (or preferably a wok if you have one) over high heat. Sauté the green onions and red chillies (reserve a few for garnishing later) for 2 minutes or until softened.
Add the pipis and cook for a further 3 minutes or until most of the shells have opened.
Add in the XO sauce, fish stock, Shaoxing wine, and oyster sauce. Simmer for about 3 minutes or until all shells have opened (cook for no more than 5-6 minutes, discard any unopened shells). Transfer to a serving plate.
Top with reserved green onions and red chillies. Drizzle with lime juice and serve with steamed rice.