Category: Homemade Recipes

Easy peasy onion and chilli angel hair pasta with crabstick

This was actually adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s Angel Hair Pasta with Crab, Chilli and Lime. I made his original version many times and it always turns out absolutely delicious! This afternoon, I thought of making it for lunch but realised I had no lime, no parsley and not crabmeat :(

So what I did was substitute lime with lemon, parsley with onions and crabmeat with…well, crabsticks :D The result was a fresh, light, sweet (from the onion) and lemony pasta, perfect for a satisfying lunch. And the best thing about this dish? It’s so easy to cook!

# – You may notice that my lemons look a bit ghetto, that’s because they were zested a couple of days ago. No wastage in this kitchen! Hehe.

The ingredients:

  • 140 grams of angelhair pasta
  • 4 pieces of crabsticks
  • 1 chilli, sliced
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped roughly
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • Around 6-7 tablespoons of vodka
  • Salt for season

# – First, boil the angelhair pasta according to instructions on the package. Then drain, toss with olive oil and set aside.

# – In a large saucepan, heat up some oil and fry the garlic.

# – Dump in the chillies.

# – Followed by the chopped onions.

# – And then, the chopped crabsticks.

# – Stir everything for a bit till the crabs are slightly browned and the onions have wilted slightly.

# – Then you pour in the vodka, w00t!

# – Season with salt and stir…

# – After the vodka had reduced a bit, remove pan from heat. Dump in the drained angelhair pasta. Mix and toss till everything’s combined.

# – Serve on a plate and lightly drizzle with olive oil. This recipe serves 2, by the way.

# – And finish it off with juice of half a lemon for each plate.

# – Easy onion chilli angelhair pasta with crabstick.

This is perfect for when you don’t have to cook for so many people. Portions are easily controlled and ingredients are easily available. Most of them are probably in your pantry already.

You can always substitute crabsticks with fishpaste or fishballs or better real crabmeats. I guess you can probably use chicken or pork too, but make sure they are tenderised properly (try marinading them in lemon juice with a drizzle of olive oil) otherwise they might not go so well with such a light tasting pasta.

Happy cooking!

A kickass beef lasagna borne out of true love.

I tend to avoid ordering lasagna when I’m eating out because they often turn out to be too try, too tart or just downright nasty. So my BF has decided that the only way to get me to appreciate Garfield’s favourite food is to make them at home.

And what do you know….he makes the meanest lasagna in town! It’s so delicious and so cheap (compared to eating out) that it really doesn’t make any sense for us to eat lasagna outside.

I know how some people might find making lasagna quite a daunting task. But truly, it’s really simple! The secret is…COMPARTMENTALISATION! Just file all the lasagna making steps into 3 categories:

(1) Cooking awesome minced beef
(2) Making white sauce
(3) Assembling lasagna.

I find that once you’ve compartmentalised cooking tasks like that, the steps would become much, much simpler and straight forward. It’s also easier to know which ingredients to prepare or take out first, which utensils to use and generally, it keeps the stress level down! Okay, it keeps my stress level down!

So here’s the recipe to my BF’s meanest lasagna in town, with step by step pictures of the man doing the works ;)

p/s: Mom, these are not my fingers…don’t freak out please.

(1)For the awesome minced beef:

  • 1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
  • 1 carrot, grated
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 300 grams of minced beef
  • 1 tablespoon of tomato puree
  • 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 1/2 tin of tomatoes
  • 50ml milk
  • Oregano
  • salt
  • coarse black pepper

(2)For the white sauce:

  • 25 grams of butter
  • 25 grams of all-purpose (plain) flour
  • 300ml milk
  • black pepper
  • salt
  • ground nutmeg
  • 90 grams of cheddar cheese

(3)For the assembling

  • Lasagna sheets
  • Oregano
  • salt
  • coarse black pepper
  • 2 tomatoes, sliced
  • 2 handfuls of grated parmesan cheese

Lets begin with………(1) Making the awesome minced beef:

# – First of all, dump the grated carrots, minced onions and minced garlic into a well-oiled wok or a big pan. Stir a bit.

# – Add 2 bay leaves.

# – A dash of oregano. You can use fresh herbs of course!

# – And a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce. Personally, I think Worcestershire sauce makes everything tastes better!

# – Don’t forget a dash of salt to bring all the taste out.

# – And finish of with black pepper. By now, you should probably have the the best damn tasting carrots and onions in the world!

# – Next, dump in the minced beef…

# – Some tomato puree for colours.

# – Followed by whole can of chopped plum tomatoes and a bit more….

# – Don’t forget the milk.

# – And lastly, a dash of Tabasco sauce for a good kick.

# – Stir till all the minced beef are cooked. Then, set aside.

Now, it’s time for for………(2) Making white sauce:

# – Melt the butter in a saucepan.

# – Then dump the flour in and beat with a wooden spoon….

# – Till it looks like sticky yellow dough!

# – Add 1/3 of the milk and replace the wooden spoon with a whisk.

# – Whisk till smooth.

# – Then add more milk and whisk till smooth again. Repeat till milk’s finished.

# – Now add some nutmeg for taste.

# – And cheese and black pepper. Whisk, whisk, whisk, till smooth…

# – Till it looks something like this. Smooth and smells so delicious! White sauce, DONE!

Now that we’ve gotten (1) and (2) out of the way, it’s time for………..(3) Assembling the lasagna:

# – Very importantly, remove the bay leaves from the minced beef so you won’t bite into a tough piece of leaf while eating your lasagna…

# – Then pour half of the minced beef into a 10″ roasting pan or a deep baking tray

# – Flatten the minced beef down so that the entire bottom of the pan is covered.

# – Then lay the lasagna sheets over the minced beef. Try to keep all the minced beef under the sheets.

# – If you have exposed minced beef, just break the sheets into the desired sizes ;)

# – Next, pour 1/2 of the white sauce over the lasagna sheets.

# – And spread it out till it covers everything.

# – Followed by the rest of the minced beef. Spread it out to cover everything.

# – And more lasagna sheets.

# – Now pour in the rest of the white sauce & spread it all around.

# – Slice 2 tomatoes and lay them out over the white sauce like this.

# – And NEVER EVER forget the cheese! Top off with some salt, oregano and black pepper. Stick it in a pre-heated oven at 225 degrees celcius and bake for 25 minutes.

25 minutes later….

# – A delicious looking, oh so gorgeous lasagna for 9 people!

# – Serve with homemade garlic bread.

# – There were only 4 of us, but we ate 7 portions of lasagna among us hehehe.

# – Juicy, beefy, cheesy lasagna…

# – Simply superb.

To my BF: Thanks for such a beautiful lasagna! <3 And that...is how we roll it. Happy lasagna making!

Chilled potato salad, just the way I like it.

We love potatoes in our household. Unless we’re having rice, we’re surely having potatoes. Sometimes, I even serve potatoes with rice, hehe.

There’s just something really satisfying about eating potatoes. It makes me happy. It makes my toes curl. It makes me sing happy songs.

And potatoes are so versatile, you can turn them into so many different types of dishes, it’s quite mind boggling really. My most favourite potato dish is layered potatoes, but the truth is, I’m also a not-so-secret potato salad fiend.

I have few requirements when it comes to potato salads. They are:

1. The potatoes should be cooked through but not overcooked.
2. The salad should be well-seasoned.
3. The salad should have onions.
4. The salad must have a mixture of mashed and chunky potatoes.
5. The salad MUST be chilled.

There are few dishes that should strictly be eaten chilled and potato salad is one of these dishes. Sorry, I am autocratic when it comes to the temperature of my potato salad….

So now lets make some potato salad, just the way I like it!

Ingredients:

  • 2 large potatoes, peeled and chopped
  • 1 red onion, finely chopped
  • 1 stalk of spring onion, finely chopped
  • 3 tablespoon of mayonnaise
  • 2 eggs
  • salt and black pepper to taste

# – First, peel and chop up the potatoes.

# – Then finely chop up both spring onion and red onion. Yeah, baby I love my onions!

# – Put the chopped potatoes to boil in slightly salted water. I’d say about 15-20 minutes, but do check with a fork…when you can poke it all the way through, it’s done!

# – In the meantime, put the 2 eggs into a pot of water. Turn on the flame and let the eggs cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the flame and let it sit for 5 minutes. Then remove eggs from water and let them cool down.

# – After the potatoes are done, drain them.

# – Throw the drained potatoes into a mixing bowl together with the finely chopped red onion and spring onion. Ideally this should be done while the potatoes are still quite hot because the heat will cook the onions a little bit, making them taste less harsh.

# – Next, stir them around till it looks like the potatoes are coated with the onions.

# – Then with a potato masher, mash lightly till you get some mash with chunky bits.

# – Now throw in 3 big dollops of mayonnaise. Stir to mix.

# – Some salt to taste. Don’t be too heavy handed with salt….taste as you go!

# – And some black pepper.

# – You eggs should have cooled down by now. Peel the eggs and cut into bite-size.

# – Throw them into the potatoes. Mix gently without bruising the eggs too much. The reason why I put in the eggs so late is because I don’t like the idea of stirring my eggs too long…I want the yolks more intact ;)

# – Transfer them into a container that can fit into your fridge.
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# – Have a taste. You know you want to…

# – Wrap the container with clingwrap and stick it into the fridge for at least 2 hours.

# – Serve with your favourite main dish. I made the salad for our dinner of pan fried dory with lemon oil sauce.

And there….chilled potato salad, just the way I like it. The cold, creamy potatoes with perfectly boiled eggs, punctuated by crunchy onions….my kind of comfort food. Get some potatoes in the system, now!