Cheesy Shell Pasta

I am not sure how to name this pasta dish because I created it on a whim just for Ruth!  Ruth is hosting Presto Pasta Night this week and I wanted to be a part of it.  :-)  I called it Cheesy Shell Pasta because it had cheese in it.  LOL!  I have some Camembert cheese in my fridge and milk, so why not give it a try.  You can certainly make it more creamy and cheesy by using heavy cream instead of milk and sprinkle with more cheeses on top and bake in the oven for 5 minutes before serving.  Whatever you like right?

I just used what I have in the refrigerator and pantry to create this delicious pasta dish.  My Edda said it tasted like Chicken Alfredo.  Hehehe...  This was our lunch and Evy's lunchbox for tomorrow.

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is Ruth herself! Check out her delicious round up on Oct, 1st!

Ingredients:

2 cups of medium shell pasta, cooked as directed, drain and set aside

Zest of one lemon

2 cloves of garlic, minced

3/4 cup of frozen mixed vegetable

1/2 cup of imitation lobster meat/ crab meat/ shrimps

1/2 cup of milk

1/2 of Ile de France Normandie Camembert cheese (110g), cut into pieces (or any cheese you have)

Dashes of Italian herbs seasoning

Salt to taste

Black pepper to taste

1 tsp. sugar

Parmesan cheese, extra and optional

Method:

1.  Heat the saute pan.  When heated, add in some olive oil, then garlic and lemon zest.  Saute quickly, then add in the mixed vegetable and imitation lobster meat.  Stir well.

2.  Add in the milk and cheese.  Stir until the cheese is melted.  Add in the cooked pasta, stir well.

3.  Season with dashes of Italian herbs seasoning, salt, black pepper and sugar.

4.  Serve hot with extra topping of Parmesan cheese.

Chinese Cooling Teas

 

I was having a bad sore throat and cold two weeks ago.  I might get it because of the heaty mooncakes I had been eating or the fried food my hubby brought back, I had no idea.  So, I went to the Asian market here in search of my cooling teas to cool my body and be rid of this cold and cough.  This is not a paid post, I just took this picture to share with my girlfriend here who could not read Mandarin.  I remembered she asked me once on what to buy last year when she was sick.  So, I took this picture since I am having these at home now and show her so that she would know what to buy next time.  Each bag has 16 packets and in each packet is a granules form of ingredient in which you just mix it with hot water to dissolve, almost instantly.  It doesn't taste very pleasant at first, but once you got used to it, you should be fine.  I am loving this teas now.  One is heat-resolving granules and the other one is 24 flavors herbal cooling tea.  Great for traveling too!

Herdez Salsa Macaroni with Shrimps

My girls didn't want to eat the porridge so I made this pasta dish for them.  It just so happen that I had a bottle of salsa in the pantry that I needed to use.  So, I created this easy macaroni and shrimps pasta with it.  None of them complaint that it was spicy so I guess it was not spicy to them, as it only listed as mild.  However, my picky eater Evy won't eat the tomatoes.  She is a strange little girl, as she will eat the blended pasta tomato sauce but not if she can see the tomato.  So, she only ate the macaroni and shrimps and picked out all the tomatoes and set it aside on her plate.

It is really hard as tomato is good for her.  I think she got influence by her daddy as he would not eat tomatoes too.  Because of this, I don't buy tomatoes.  Guess I will have to cook more spaghetti with tomato based pasta sauce as this is the only time she would eat it with no complaint. 

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is Valli of More Than Burnt Toast. Check out her delicious round up on Sept, 24th!

Ingredients:

2 cups of dried macaroni, cooked at directed, drain and set aside

8 extra large shrimps, smashed with your knife and minced

2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 bottle of Herdez salsa casera mild (16oz)

2 Tbsp. Ketchup

2 tsp. sugar

Dashes of Italian seasoning herbs

Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) for cooking

Method:

1.  Heat up a skillet, add EVOO.  Then, add minced shrimps and garlic, fry until shrimps are cooked.

2.  Add in Herdez salsa, stir well.  Add the ketchup, Italian seasonings and sugar.  Mix well.  Lastly, add in the cooked macaroni, stir well to mix.  Serve hot!

3.  You can serve with Parmesan cheese too.

Happy Mid-Autumn/ Lantern Festival!

 

Chinese around the world celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival on the 15th day of the 8 months on their lunar calender.  This day falls differently on the Western calender and this year 2010, it falls on September 22nd, Wednesday.  This day is a day of family reunion and family gathering around to enjoy a delicious spread of food and mooncakes.  Chinese believe that on this day, the moon is the roundest and brightest which signify completeness and abundance.  So, after a delicious meal, the adult would sit outside to enjoy the full moon while sipping tea and eating mooncake.  Whereas, the children would happily holding a lantern and join with the neighborhood kids to parade around the street.  We only had paper lantern back in the old days but now the plastic lantern has become popular as it is safer.  I remembered I used to make my own paper lantern at school as an art project, but with a paper lantern, one has to be careful as the candle would burn your lantern if you are not.  I bought two plastic lanterns for my girls to play, even though the plastic ones are safe, with lights, music and can even spin, it is still lacking compared to the beautiful paper lantern.

Have a happy and fun Mid-Autumn Festival and enjoy this day with your family members with a feast and mooncakes!!

Flat Rice Noodle Soup (Kway Tiao Deng)

A simple noodle dish can be so satisfying.  I wanted something light instead of stir-frying the rice noodle in oil.  So, I decided to make a pot of chicken vegetable soup to go with it.  Just so happen that I have some chicken bones, so I threw that in along with organic celery, organic carrot, two yellow onions, a piece of smashed ginger, and lemon grass.  Let it simmered for few hours and my stock was ready.

For the topping, I prepared some nai pak, fish balls, fried fish balls, tofu fish cake, ground pork and crispy fried shallots.  Serve it with hot chili padi in soy sauce.  Next time I might just try it with ground pork and veggie.  Evy totally loved this rice noodle soup.  She finished her whole bowl and requested the leftover for her dinner the next day.

Sweet Corn Dried Scallop Soup

Corns was on sales few weeks ago at the Farmers' Market here, 6 for $1.  I bought 6 and left with two corns to make soup.  You know, sweet corns will make the soup sweet, plus carrots, dried scallops, chicken bone and dried longan, all will make the soup sweet, so what could be not sweet about this soup?

This soup turned out to be sweet of course and with a little salt to bring in the overall flavor.  How you cooked your corns in the soup?

Ingredients:

2 Sweet corns

2 carrots

4 dried scallops

1 chicken breast bone or 2 drumsticks

15 dried longans

1500ml water

Salt to taste

Method:

1.  In a pot, add in water and chicken breast bone, or two drumsticks, let in boil.  When boiling, dish out any impurity that floated on top.  

2.  Add in the rest of the ingredients except salt.  Turn to low heat and let it simmer, covered for 2 hours.  Season to taste with salt and serve warm.

Pandan Oatmeal Waffles

I wanted to try pandan waffle and yet I wanted it to be healthy for my girls.  So, I added instant oatmeal.  I added chocolate chips because my girls loved them.  As this waffle is a to-go waffle and we eat it as is, I also added some dried cranberries and made it sweeter.  The calories for one of this is definitely 2-3 times higher than a piece of plain whole wheat bread.  But for growing up girls it should be fine.  What the heck, I eat it too because it's really good and it has oatmeal in it.

I actually loved the color because it is a change from the usual.  Strangely though Evy didn't like it and she was the one that asked me to make the Pandan waffle in the first place.  Guess I will have to omit Pandan and use vanilla extract for her.  I have an idea for another type of waffle which I am going to experiment next because of an article I read recently.

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cup instant oatmeal/ quick-cooking oats

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. pandan extract

1/4 tsp. salt

4 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. honey

1 3/4 cup 1 % milk

1/2 cup canola oil

Dried cranberries & chocolate chips, as needed (optional)

Method:

1.  In a big bowl, hand whisk the two eggs until fluffy.  Add in the rest of the ingredients except dried cranberries & chocolate chips and hand whisk until all is blended.  Set aside.

2.  Preheat your waffle maker.  When preheated, spray with buttery non-stick spray and scoop some of the batter onto the waffle iron.  Spread some dried cranberries & chocolate chips on top.  Then, cover the top and side with more batter.  Cover and cook until brown.  For mine is about 6 minutes.  Exact time depends on your waffle maker.

3.  Take it out with a spatula and chopstick and serve hot.

Or cool on wire rack and put in a zip lock bag and freeze for future use.  Toast in a toaster to heat it up.

Salmon Cauliflower Porridge

Evy was having a fever last week and I didn't think much about it.  Fed her some Tylenol and expected her fever to go away soon.  We had a potluck picnic in the day and she had been under the hot sun a lot playing and I thought her fever was caused by the heat.  Then, I noticed a suspicious looking bug bite on her leg which had gotten worst, red and swollen.  And her fever hadn't gotten any better, it had been up and down.  So, we took her to see her pediatrician since she was absent from school for three days in a row.  He prescript us antibiotic to treat the infected bug bite.   2 days after the antibiotic, I saw that the infected bug bite was clearing.  She was back to her normal self too.  But we have to take the antibiotic for 10 days.

I made this porridge for her with the thought that it was easier for her to digest.  It was really sweet with the drumsticks and dried scallops added into cooking this porridge.  She only had a bowl of this and after that she asked for rice.  She told me she didn't like porridge and much prefer rice.  Oh well...  Ended out I was the one that was enjoying the porridge!

Ingredients:

1 salmon fillet, slice into pieces

1 carrot, slice

1 bowl of cauliflower, about 1.5-2 cups

3 dried scallops, rinsed and soften in warm water, reserved water

2 drumsticks

1/2 cup of washed rice

Salt to taste

Method:

1.  In a pot, add in sufficient water, scallop water, washed rice and drumsticks.  Let it boil.

2.  When boiling, add in dried scallop, cauliflower and carrot.  Turn the heat to low, covered and let it simmer.  About an hour.

3.  Keep stirring occasionally.  Add more water if dry out.  Simmer until the porridge is formed.

4.  Add in pieces of salmon and covered.  Let it cook the salmon.  Season to taste with salt.  Lightly stir the porridge.

5.  Add a dash or two of white peppers powder before serving.

Braised Five Layers Pork with Extra Firm Tofu

I made the above to bring to a friend's potluck gathering.  I took a chance and bought the Five Layers Pork to make this.  Honestly, it was the best thing to do as the fat would melt-in-your-mouth and blended so well with the meat and oh so good.  Yes, I know it was sinful but I never buy this for our own family consumption so this was just an indulgent once in a blue moon.  I actually threw away some extra fat while slicing the meat which I kind of regretted because the other party really liked it.  Oops!

I used the extra firm tofu to braise with the sauce and it turned out so well marinated as the flavor of the sauce all went into the tofu.  Since I simmered the tofu in the sauce, it turned soft and oh so flavorful.

The recipe of this braised dish can be found here.  I had made this numerous times and it was all good.  I started to miss this dish already.

Oven Steamed Tom Yam Salmon

I loved to use my oven to steam fish.  It was fast and cleaning up was easy.  That's why I named my fish oven steamed tom yam salmon.  I always oven steamed my fish with Teriyaki sauce, miso paste, Chinese soy sauce,  yellow bean paste and I wanted a change.  I was getting bored with the same old way of steaming fish after a while.  And I thought I could try it with Tom Yam paste, but not just the paste alone as I wanted some kick.  So, I added an extra sauce in there to make it better.  Read more to find out.

I likes this as it was a little spicy, a little sour and went really well with rice.  Took less than 15 minutes and you would have a delicious dinner waiting for you. 

Ingredients:

2 pieces of salmon fillets

2 Tbsp. of tom yam paste

1 Tbsp. of chili paste with soy bean oil

1 Tbsp. of hot water

1 Tbsp. of key lime juice

Cilantro leaves for garnish, cut cilantro stem for steaming together with fish

Method:

1.  In a bowl, mix together tom yam paste, hot water, chili paste in soy bean oil.  Set aside.

2.  Rinse salmon.  In a baking pan, line a piece of aluminum foil, big enough to cover the salmons.  Add two pieces of salmon fillets on the aluminum foil, spread the top with the prepared paste and cilantro stems.  Add the lime juice.  Then, wrap the foil to seal the fish.  It has to be completely sealed.

3.  Put into a preheated 450'F oven and bake for 10-15 minutes.  How long depends on how thick your fillets are.

4.  When done, take it out of the oven, carefully open the foil and garnish it with cilantro.  Serve hot!

Healthy Wheat Oatmeal Waffles

As you know, I just bought a waffle maker.  With the new toy, of course I got to create healthy recipe to serve my girls.  I have a bag of instant oatmeal that no one wants to eat.  So, making waffle is the way to go as I don't like to waste food.  Again, I am making this sweeter as I am going to serve it plain and as a to-go breakfast.  After I added the flour and instant oatmeal, the batter was a bit watery so in some whole wheat flour.  I also wanted to incorporate some fruit into my girls breakfast, so I thought of dried cranberries.  I can say one piece of this waffle is pretty healthy because it has oatmeal, whole wheat flour, milk, dried cranberries, honey and eggs into the mix.  What's best is it is homemade!  When I was done with the waffles of course it was the taste test time.  Quickly gathered my girls and asked them to try.  My girls loved it!  Great news for me as this is way healthier than the basic waffle.

This wheat oatmeal waffles actually crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside when still warm.  Just remember to cook it until brown.  This recipe is for those who prefer healthier recipe and with adaptable taste.

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup instant oatmeal/ quick-cooking oats

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon 

1/4 tsp. salt

4 Tbsp. brown sugar

2 Tbsp. honey

1 3/4 cup 1 % milk

1/2 cup canola oil

Dried cranberries, as needed

Method:

1.  In a big bowl, hand whisk the two eggs until fluffy.  Add in the rest of the ingredients except dried cranberries and hand whisk until all is blended.  Set aside.

2.  Preheat your waffle maker.  When preheated, spray with buttery non-stick spray and scoop some of the batter onto the waffle iron.  Spread some dried cranberries on top.  Then, cover the top and side with more batter.  Cover and cook until brown.  For mine is about 6 minutes.  Exact time depends on your waffle maker.

3.  Take it out with a spatula and chopstick and serve hot.

Or cool on wire rack and put in a zip lock bag and freeze for future use.  Toast in a toaster to heat it up.