Linguini, Dandelion Greens With Tuna, Capers And Tomato Sauce

Spring is here so let's eat weeds... and I really do mean weeds in the form of dandelion greens. I was a little skeptical about eating this notorious garden weed but fell in love with it after just one bite, now you can see me harvesting fresh tender dandelion greens around my neighbourhood.

My new job is taken up a lot of my time and I must confess I hardly have time to blog surf anymore, but it is the most satisfying job I have had in a while and I will reveal that in the very near future so please stay tuned. 

This is one of the many pasta dishes we have been eating in the last few weeks. It is a refreshing change from our usual spag bol; the combination of tuna and capers is always a winner in our favourite tuna pasta but this is slightly more hardy for our often chilly spring nights. 

serves 6 as a one dish meal

you'll need;

plenty of good olive oil

2 medium or one large brown onions, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

a large pinch of chili flakes

1 large tin of crushed tomatoes

1 large tin of tuna spring water, drained

1 tbs of sugar

salt and pepper to taste

linguini, cooked till al dente and drain well

a handful of freshly picked dandelion greens or cavolo nero

extra olive oil to serve

grated parmesan cheese to serve

Fresh tender dandelion greens are for the picking everywhere. I especially like them in pasta dishes.

Prepare the onion and garlic. 

Saute onion, garlic and chili flakes with olive oil until onion is soften and translucent. 

Add crushed tomatoes, tuna and capers and mix well, allow to simmer until sauce thicken slightly, season with sugar, salt and pepper.

Cook pasta in plenty of salted water until al dente, add in the dandelion greens for a few seconds and drain well.

Add some tuna sauce to a pan and bring to a simmer, add drain pasta and mix well.

Drizzle with extra olive oil and grate some parmesan over and enjoy with a glass of chilled rose.

Pasta Soup With Chicken, Mushrooms, Bokchoy And Wakame Seaweed

I did warn you about my obsession with this particular type of pasta (casarecce) and this is what I whipped up when I wanted something quick and comforting during a wet and windy afternoon.

The casarecce soaked up just enough of the tasty hot broth in their cavities, making each mouthful a very pleasant experience on a 8 degree day. If you are not convinced or are unable to find casarecce simply replace it with Shanghai noodles or homemade hand-cut noodles, after all the pasta was a replacement for noodles in the first place.

Have a great weekend and remember to come back for a very delicious Malaysian dish that is very close to my heart, see you then!

recipe from the tummies' kitchen
recipe per serve
you'll need;
1 cup of cooked casarecce or pasta of your choice
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 chicken thigh, sliced and marinated with a little soy, pepper, sesame oil and corn flour
2 chinese mushrooms, soaked in boiling water for 15 minutes then sliced
1 bokchoy or Asian green of your choice, sliced
1.5 l of stock
2 tbs of wakame seaweed
dash of white pepper
dash of sesame oil
cut chili in soy to serve

Marinate the chicken and finish off the chopping and slicing.

Saute garlic with a little oil then add in the  chicken and mushroom and continue to cook for 30 seconds.

Add stock and allow the content to come to a simmer.

Add cooked pasta and wakame and simmer for a minute or until the seaweed has expanded.

Finally add the sliced bokchoy and cook until slightly wilted, add a dash of sesame oil and white pepper and check for seasonings.

Serve the warming bowl of noodles with some cut chili in soy on the side.

Karashi Mentaiko Supagetti 辛子明太子スパゲッティ Spaghetti With Mentaiko And My 600th Post

Do not judge a book by its cover and it is appropriate to use the saying to describe this rather ordinary looking pasta dish. What it lacks in the look department is aptly compensated by the unique and addictive flavour that will have you ask for more, a reason why I have chosen this to be my 600th post.

Apart from the furikake (rice seasoning) and shredded nori which are used as garnishes, everything else is of foreign origins. Despite that, this quirky and very tasty dish is quintessential Japanese, the willingness of the Japanese to experiment with non Japanese ingredients is why there are always surprises awaiting when one visits a Japanese eatery.

The star of the dish is of course the karashi mentaiko (marinated spicy pollock roe) or known as myeongranjeot in Korean. Though it was only introduced to Japan over a century ago, it is now considered a common ingredient in Japanese cooking. It is difficult to describe the taste of mentaiko; it is salty, savoury, fishy , a little spicy and utterly delicious! ... words failed me really so do make it one of the ingredients you must try before you die.

P.S My dear friend A had started a lunch group at work with 5 of her colleagues (each contribute a  fixed amount of money and each would take turn making lunch etc etc.) and I was quick to say yes when she asked me for my assistance when it was her turn to cook. This formed one of the components of her bento boxes.

recipe from the tummies' kitchen

serves 3 as part of a Japanese meal or bento

you'll need;

250g spaghetti, cooked until al dente

65g of karashi mentaiko (marinated spicy pollock roe), separated from the membranes and set aside

3 heap tbs of pure cream

4 heap tbs of kewpie mayonnaise (Japanese mayonnaise)

pepper to taste

shiso fumi furikake (shiso rice seasoning) or finely shredded fresh shiso leaves

shredded nori seaweed

You can find mentaiko at all Japanese and Korean grocers (ask for myeongranjeot) and this is the packaging of the one we used.

And this is how the marinated pollock roes look like. Remove the the tiny eggs simply by making an incision on one end of the roe and squeeze out the tiny eggs from the very thin membrane.

Shiso fumi furikake (shiso rice seasoning) and we used pure jersey cream from South Australia, available at La Latteria in Carlton.

Place mentaiko, cream, cupie mayonnaise in a large seasoning bowl and whisk until well combined, season with pepper. Meanwhile cook spaghetti with a large pot of salted water.

Place drain spaghetti into the bowl with the mentaiko cream mixture and mix well.

Sprinkle with shiso fumi furikake (or fresh shiso) and shredded nori seaweed.

Or seen here as part of the offerings in a bento. Please check out my tori no karaage (fried chicken) and recipe for origini (rice balls) and maze gohan (mixed rice balls) will be posted next so please stay tuned!

"The Strange But Wonderful Food Of Kuching 4" Stir Fried Pasta With Chicken, Mushroom And Vegetables - "Malaysian Monday 81"

I must confess.... I am an addict! 

But not to worry! the thing is I am not addicted to drugs, video games, twitter or sweets but a certain type of pasta, namely the beautifully shaped casarecce. 

Well using pasta in Malaysian cooking is nothing new; chicken macaroni soup (with an Asian soup base) is as popular as Ipoh hor fun and spaghetti is now the preferred "noodles" for Johor laksa. This willingness to adopt new and foreign ingredients into our everyday cooking is just one of the factors that made our cuisine so unique and exciting.

During my stay in Kuching, any outing to a particular hawker centre must include a stir fried pasta dish. Though fusilli was the preferred choice back then but I can't think of a better pasta than casarecce to use in this dish that brings back so much fond memory of the charming city that I once called home.

serves 2 as a one dish meal

you'll need;

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

150 g of chicken fillet, sliced and marinated with soy, sesame oil, pepper and a little corn flour

3 mushrooms, soaked in 1/2 a cup of boiling water for 15 minutes before slicing

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups of cooked casarecce or pasta of your choice

3 tbs of oyster sauce

2 tbs of light soy

3 tbs of dark soy

1 tbs of sugar

1 tsp of sesame oil

reserved mushroom soaking liquid
1/2 cup of stock

2 heads of bokchoy, sliced

a large handful of bean sprouts

cut chilies in soy to serve

Chop garlic, marinate the chicken slices, soak and slice the mushrooms and slice the bokchoy.

Saute garlic with a little oil in a hot wok for 10 seconds before adding the chicken and mushroom, cook on high heat for a minutes, push the mixture aside and add in the beaten eggs and scramble lightly.

Add in the cooked pasta and mix well, stir fry for a minute...

Add seasonings, mushroom soaking liquid and stock, continue to stir fry for another minute.

Finally add in the bokchoy and bean sprouts and stir fry for another minute of until the vegetables are slightly wilted. Check for seasonings.

Serve with cut chilies in soy on the side. 

I am the host for this month's event so please send all your entries to sureshchong@yahoo.com

To find out more about the event and on how to enter please click here.

Casarecce Siciliane With Saffron Cap Mushrooms, Leeks And Chestnuts

We had a little break after the mushroom bruschetta and it was time for for me to get back to the kitchen. For our main I cooked a comforting pasta dish using all the other ingredients that A brought back with her.

We called this dish "pasta with good friends of autumn" since other autumn favourites such as leeks and chestnuts also present, more importantly they compliment each other so well.

A selection of mushrooms together with a little dried porcini will make a good substitute for the wild mushrooms used here.

serves 6 as a one dish meal
you'll need;
3 tbs of olive oil
50 g of butter
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 small leeks, finely sliced
25 saffron cap mushrooms (yields about 4 cups) , sliced
15 chestnuts, roasted, peeled and chopped
150 ml of cream
100 g of Fingal Gold washed rind cheese or gorgonzola cheese
salt and pepper to taste
chopped parsley
500 g of casarecce Siciliane or pasta of your choice, cooked until al dente and drained well
grated parmesan or pecorino cheese to serve

Prepare the ingredients, meanwhile bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil, cook pasta while you prepare the sauce.

A block of delicious washed rind cheese from the Mornington, you may use blue cheese for this recipe.

Add olive oil and butter to a hot pan and immediately add in the chopped garlic and leek, cook for 5 minutes or until the leek is soft and translucent.

Add mushrooms and cook on high heat for 5 minutes.

Add cream and cheese, use the spatula to work the cheese into the sauce, it should melt quite easily. Season well and add in some chopped parsley.

Add drained pasta to the sauce and mix well.

Transfer the pasta to a large platter.

Serve with some grated parmesan or pecorino cheese.

Midweek Pasta - Spaghetti Carbonara

There are many disputed stories about the origin the dish but give a medal to the genius who invented this fabulous dish I say!

With so few ingredients needed and most are readily available in our kitchen, this is the perfect dish on days when cooking up a storm is not the key phrase for the night.

They key to the success of a good carbonara is the quality of the ingredients so go out and get the freshest free range eggs and a good chunk of Parmesan cheese (non of those tasteless locally made stuff). More importantly no cream please!

serves 4 as a one dish meal 
you'll need;
500g of spaghetti
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
2/3 cup of grated parmesan cheese
2 tbs of olive oil
40g of butter
3 garlic cloves
300g of pancetta or bacon, cut into small strips
extra parmesan to serve

Cut pancetta or bacon into strips and place eggs, egg yolks and parmesan cheese in a bowl, whisk everything with a fork and set aside.

Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan and add in the pancetta or bacon together with the garlic cloves. Cook over moderate heat until the pancetta is crisp, discarding the garlic and remove the pan from the heat source and allow to cool slightly otherwise the residue heat from the pan might cook the egg further.

Cook spaghetti with plenty of salted water until al dente, drain well and add to the pan, toss well before adding the egg and cheese mixture and mix well.

Serve immediately with sprinkling of extra parmesan cheese.