Ohana Pasta Poké Bowl
Our local gastronomic scene seems to have been taken by storm with a new wave of “inventive” and somewhat “avant garde” kinda culinary styles where anything goes as long as it looks really appetising, tastes pretty good, seemingly healthy and most importantly, Instagram worthy. I don’t dig most of these “experimental” culinary concepts well but I must say some of them are really quite delicious, so much so that I would go through the trouble of garnering all of my favorite ingredients to make a portion at home just to satiate a craving. The poké bowl is one such recent craze.
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Marmite Pasta ver.1 2017
The heat is excruciating to the point of being unbearable. But when one’s gotta eat, one’s gotta eat. There is of course the easy way out of running downstairs to the nearby coffeeshop to “tapao” but I seriously don’t wanna move an inch out in the sun. A few ingredients from the pantry and less than 30 min later, I have a quick and easy meal and for today its gonna be marmite pasta!
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Simply Pasta! – Seafood Spaghetti Aglio e Olio
Pastas are my absolute “to-go-tos” whenever I need a quick lunch. I think that is the same for many of us. I love doing Asian fusion pastas, incorporating elements of the traditional Asian cooking into the traditional Italian dish. But once in a while, I like to go back to the neopolitan classics and whip up simple recipes of cabonara, alfredo, ragu etc. The simplest of them all must surely be the Spaghetti Aglio e Olio. So fast to prepare and accompanied with fresh seafood which takes just seconds to cook, it makes probably the most gratifying meal cooked in less than 15 minutes!
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Spaghetti Rendang Bolognese
I made and blogged about my “Pulled Beef Rendang Pasta” two years back, a good way to enjoy a pot of rendang besides the traditional way of eating with rice or even ketupat. But when one craves for a plate of rendang pasta, one can’t wait for a good day or two for the rendang to mature sufficiently yeah? So here comes the solution… Spaghetti Rendang Bolognese!
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Tom Yum Goong Pasta v. 2015
I’d done a number of fusion pastas in the past, marrying the famous Italian dish with Asian elements like mentaiko, pulled beef rendang and even laksa pesto. Then again, a school of thought believes that Italian pasta originated from China when Marco Polo travelled to more than half a millenium ago and brought it all the way back to the boot-shaped peninsula, making the noodle’s beginnings Asian in actuality! But others argued that that Marco Polo’s fabled travels to the Far East was nothing but an incredible tale and didn’t really happen. Well, I’m not about to open a can of worms here to debate the origins of pasta but whichever the case is, fusion pastas work well which is the only important thing here!
I was enjoying Tom Yum Goong just yesterday and with a small selection of other Thai dishes and just as I was thinking of cooking the remnant soup with some khanom jeen, an online pasta cooking and sharing event quickly initiated a change of plans and made me create this fusion pasta instead. Lead entirely by instincts, the recipe was forged within minutes, not wanting something too complex and elaborated. Pasta dishes are afterall meant to be quick meals with ease and simplicity being the main cause. Thankfully, the recipe worked reasonably well, though not without room for improvement of course. I’ll revisit it again when time permits me but for now, allow me to indulge in the 2015 version of tom yum goong pasta. Ideas and brain-storming from like-minded foodies for future renditions are more than welcome!
Fridge Drama, with Mentaiko, Ikura, Shrimp Roe and Poached Egg Pasta
There are those days when I feel so lazy to get out of the house to do anything. Well, make that most of the time *chuckles*. Yet we all have to eat yeah? So to compensate for those “lazy days”, I make sure that my fridge and pantry are well-stocked with ingredients which I may need to whip up something fast yet no less gratifying. As such, my fridge is always packed with food, and I often tell my friends that it is so stuffed that I have to be careful whenever I open it, or something would just drop out from somewhere. Friends laugh, dispensing it as a silly joke which I’d spun up but it’s true you know. Being a food hoarder comes with its own set of problems and fears. Some stuff are buried so deep within the abyss of other produce that they have to excavated. These “archaeological findings” usually take weeks and at times, months to be uncovered. Things which were once fresh turn stale and had to be binned. Wastage… But the greatest fear any food hoarder has is the day when the fridge decides to kick the bucket. That is sheer armageddon I tell you. And that happened to me just two weeks ago!
客家板麺 Malaysian Hakka Pan Mee
Comfort food is often what one truely yearns for when one gets home after a long day, It could be after laborious ploughing through streams of data and figures, in an almost hypnotic trance-like fashion in front of the computer hours at ends, and dinners made frugal. Or it can be after endless evenings of socialising, over martinis and cocktails amidst cosmetic conversations and superficial banter, and real food made little. When one finally gets home, and all that pomp and makeup shed off like a second skin, one can finally be oneself. That is when the cravings set in. It can be as simple as a classic Croque Monsieur with freshly toasted bread over old cheese and good ham, or a bowl of cereal with creamy full fat milk and crunchy homemade granola. Satisfying the insatiable, as one becomes overwhelmed by routine and the mundane, comfort food despite its simplicity, transcends and becomes a luxury.
For me, nothing can be more comforting than a bowl of freshly cooked noodles. Those who know my blog well would know that I feature noodle recipes to a great extent and often to great detail as well. From 炸酱面 to Mentaiko Pasta, from Spaghetti alla Bolognese quite long ago to Spaghetti alla Laksa Pesto most recently… in short, I’m a sucker for noodles in all forms, and quite literally so. For me, the sheer act of slurping strands of noodles, be it ramen, pasta, beehoon or kway teow is profoundly therapeutic. Slurping unleashes an avalanche of flavours into the mouth, setting forth a plenitude of palate profiles and aromas that stimulate one’s senses all at once. Slurping is considered part of good table etiquette in the Asian context, and most rightfully so. Surely it is one of the most resounding ways, and the least one can do as a display of appreciation for a good noodle experience.
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Spaghetti alla Laksa Pesto
I’m usually not a big fan of fusion food. Call me archaic but I prefer to keep the flavours of the dishes I prepare “clean” and true to their roots and origins. French is kept as French as possible while Chinese remains distinctively Chinese. Save for a few exceptions in pastry making, crossovers ain’t exactly my thing. That said, the devil’s advocate in me would sprout the occasional what ifs, curious what the dish would be like when it is totally taken out of context or juxtapose with another cooking genre. And of late, these previously occasional episodes of what ifs are beginning to haunt me more frequently.
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Linguini con Linguiça Balsamico
Yet another lazy man’s pasta recipe to share and if I may say, a rather ad hoc one. That’s one thing I love about having pasta for meals. It really depends on what is available and what is good in my fridge. Linguiça is basically Portuguese spicy pork sausages. Heat comes from paprika used in its curing process and that I love. In some ways, it likens the Italian pepperoni but yet the flavours are quite distinctively different.
一个人的午餐 – Linguini con Salsiccia e Porcini Balsamico
Lunch at home alone is usually very simple fanfare. One-pot meals are even too much of a hassle and takes too much time sometimes so its usually down to a simple fried rice or noodle dish with pantry or freezer available ingredients. Pasta is one of my all-time favorite options, effortless to prepare and require almost no time at all. And on today’s lunch menu, Linguini con Salsiccia e Porcini Balsamico… a very long name for an extremely simple dish 🙂
一个人的午餐 – Linguini con Funghi Porcini e Bacon
Another rainy day, means another pasta day! It seems uncanny, but I enjoy making pasta when it is pouring outside and too lazy to go out. Simple recipes for simple lunches on a simple friday afternoon. 🙂
Linguini con Funghi Porcini e Bacon, something I whip up when I’m in the splurging mood. I love the woodsy aroma of porcini mushrooms, which is much more pungent than the usual brown or white buttons. I’d tried with the latter varieties as well as shiitake but the effect is just not quite the same. The flavours gel so well with bacon and butter, so rich in taste and aroma but definitely not so good for the calorie count! And hence the splurging mood!
一个人的午餐 – Salmon, Shrimp and Dill Pasta
Yet another rainy day… a macaron failure day. With eggs separated, some macaron action was in planning but had to be shelved. Previous experience tells me that macaron shells are more prone to failure on rainy days. Excess humidity in the air hinders the drying of the mac shells which would invariably cause them to erupt into small biscuit volcanoes during baking. Of course one can always dry the shells in an aircon room or in the oven itself, but me aint taking chances. Turned to making pasta instead, for a simple 一个人的午餐 on a rainy friday afternoon.
Simple Eats – Spaghetti alla Bolognese with Swedish Meatballs
I love pasta! Incredibly easy as a one-meal dish and but yet, immensely gratifying!
travellingfoodies 