Pasta Salad, black olives, corn & fresh tomato slices

Today I going to prepare a nice juicy salad thats fresh in taste but full of flavor. I came upon the original recipe from the book " Pasta Bible ". Its my favorite read now :D , I selected this to modify as its very easy to prepare and fun to eat , great for snacking too !

1 whole lemon juiced

400g of Pasta cooked till al Denta ( 20mins in boiling water )

1 whole tomato

1 Can of Corn in salt solution ( no cream or sugar added )

10 to 15 pit Black Olives

2 table spoon of honey or maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon of table salt

1 table spoon of black pepper

1 teaspoon of finely chopped garlic

1 tablespoon of finely chopped shallots or onions

4 table spoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/2 table spoon of Mixed Spices ( theres dried dill , rosemary , thymes , basil , etc.)

Start by heating up the deep sauce pan with the oil . After 5 mins switch to medium low heat and add in the garlic and onions. Cook for about 5 mins and then add in the Pasta. At the same time switch to low heat. Add in the Spices and continue to stir the pasta. Add in the juices of the Lemon slowly to taste. Some like it more zangy then others. lastly add in the salt and pepper to taste.

Before Serving turn off the heat and add in the Honey or Maple syrup slowly to taste also. Serves up !

Stir the pasta in the hot oil mixture till its all well coated.

Gnocchi in Garlic Butter sauce

Last time we had Gnocchi in tomato sauce, this time we will try it in our all time favorite sinful garlic butter sauce. For those of you who haven't read my early post on Gnocchi making just refer to this link :)

http://www.nimamok.com/2007/08/gnocchi.html

Here are the ingredients for my garlic butter sauce.

1 tea spoon of finely minced garlic ( use a food processor :P )
1/2 a stick of butter
2 or 3 cups of full cream milk ( if you like a heavy sauce you can use cooking creams )
some salt
some black pepper
1 table spoon of mixed herbs ( as before you can get them from Cold Storage )
1 teaspoon of powder form Parmesan cheese

Now using low medium heat, start by melting all the butter in a large sauce pan slowly. Just before the butter completely melts and right before simmering, add in the milk or cream which had been microwaved for at least 4 mins. The reason is you don't want the butter to be cooled by the cold milk or cream. Now continuously stir gently while the butter and the milk or cream is brought to a slow light boil, make sure you maintain as light a heat level just enough to bring the solution to a light simmer.

Now add in the garlic in small portions to taste. The reason is its very selective how others like their "Garlicness" in their garlic butter sauce, some like it nice and strong while some like it mild and sweet. Well now was you gotten the level of garlic taste in the solution, add salt and pepper to taste. Finally add in all the mixed herbs to the sauce with the heat turned off and stir for about a min.

Now put your boiled and drained Gnocchi in a low serving plate. If you can I prefer to microwave the plate for about 1 min to warm it up before putting the Gnocchi on it. Then spoon as much of the garlic butter sauce as you like onto the Gnocchi, bathing it in the rich tasty sauce.
Sprinkle some freshly chopped Parsley on top and some grated cheese and serve !

Buon Appetito !

Pasta Stir fried in minced chicken, herbs & onions.

This recipe is all my own, no research no reference just take what ever thats available in the fridge and whip this up..and the result is my first real fushion cooking ....

300g of pasta
200g of minced chicken
100g of diced large onion
20g of mixed herbs
1 cube of chicken stock
1/4 cup of Olive oil extra virgin
10g of table salt
1 clove of diced garlic
1 table spoon of black pepper

Heat up the oil in a deep saucepan, add in the garlic and onion, stir fry for 4 mins in low medium heat till the onions starts to become transparent, add in the chicken stock cube and minced chicken, stir fry till the cube is completely dissolved.

Add salt and pepper to taste and also the spices and herbs. Add in the pasta that had been boiled for 15mins before of cause. Continue to stir fry to coat all the pasta in the friend

Next add salt to taste and the black pepper finally and stir fry a little more then 1 min and serve up while its piping hot !

Lemon Cheese Cake

This was the cake I made for my birthday party at home :) I choose this flavour as the citrus flavor helps the food along once my guests had finished off the heavy stuff hahaha... and washing it all down with a nice glass of table white wine :D To all my friends I love you guys sooo much !!

250g Ricotta Cheese
400g Cream Cheese
1/2 cup of butter
3 table spoon of Lemon Zest
1 teaspoon of Pure Vanilla extract
3 cups of sugar
2 cups of Sour Cream
5 egg whites
1 whole egg
enough digestive biscuit for the bottom layer of the cheese cake

First take those digestive biscuits and put a hand full of them into a ziplock bag, make sure there's not too much air trapped inside when you zip it up and crush the biscuits inside real good. The reason I choose to use a large ziplock bag cause not only they are tough, but also allows you to see where are the larger chunks within and pinpoint crush them up :)

Now use some butter and grease a 9" spring form pan and start filling the crushed biscuits in to form a roughly 3 mm thick layer of biscuits. Use any flat flexible plastic lid like those that comes with plastic lunch boxes, to press and pack in the biscuits at the bottom of the pan.

Now mix the 2 types of cheese in a large mixing bowl. Make sure they are room temperature so its easier to hand whipped. Yes ! you heard right .... using a hand whip is the best as you can control the size of the rotation and the single direction you start and end with. That means if you started with a clock wise direction please try to maintain that direction all the way till the end.
Reason is something to do with aligning the food fibres within the mixture to 1 single direction :P

Now add in 1 whole egg and whip. Next make sure the mixture is blend well and start adding in 1 egg white at a time, continue whipping until each egg white added is completely blend in before the next egg white is added in. After the 5th egg white has been blended in then add in the vanilla extract, half the lemon zest ( grated skin of a nice fat lemon ), 1/2 cup of Sour Cream and enough sugar to taste. Now pour the whole mixture into the spring form pan on top of the pressed biscuit layer slowly. Level the top out evenly and back for 45 mins at 175 degrees C. After that lower the temperature to 150 degrees C for another 10 mins or so or until the center of the cheese cake is set. Now take it out and leave it out in the table to cool for 10 mins.

Now take the 1 and 1/2 cups of sour cream into a mixing bowl, add in the rest of the lemon zest and sugar to taste. Once you have whipped all of that to a nice clean mixture just slowly pour it over the baked cheesecake which is still in the spring form pan. Now lower the temperature of the oven to 125 degrees C and bake for another 15 mins.

Take the cake out of the oven and let it cool for about 1 hour to 2 hour till its at room temperature before you cover the top with some light flat material like cupboard or a flat dish and set it inside the fridge for at least 8 hours but 12 hours is best ! When read serve with a nice glass of white wine :) bon apatite :D

Daube of Mutton

The thing about the taste of mutton, it can be very tricky to get the right blend of seasoning to bring out its most attractive flavors and decrease the undesirable ones. Although many cultures has found their own unqiue ways to do that, I would like to share just one of the many delightful ways to prepare mutton and enjoy its wonder aroma and taste :D

500g of cubed lean mutton
60g of cornstarch
60ml of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 or 2 Large Onion chopped
1 or 2 cloves of fresh garlic chopped
500ml of broth ( I used Brovil instant broth )
200ml of Red Wine
5g of Dried Mixed Spices ( you can get a bottle of these from ColdStorage Supermarket)
Adequate black pepper
Some rings of orange skin ( optional )
2 whole zucchini either chopped large chunks or you can slice it thin
300g of Sweet Potato ( I used the yellow kind )

First trim off any visible fat you find on the mutton, as to prevent when you bake it the fat would melt and increase a layer of unsightly oil over it. Next use a large frying pan with enough Olive oil and fry the mutton cubes until brown or for no more then 4 minutes per batch. Remove the mutton from the pan but keep the oil.

Next add the remaining oil in and heat it up. Now throw in the garlic and onions and stir fry it till nice light golden brown. Now add in all the vegetables to stir fry for about a minute or 2. Now add in the wine , broth, herbs and black pepper to taste to the mixture and keep stirring till it starts to boil again. Now add the mixture together with the Mutton into a large 3 inch deep baking pan or large cassrole bowl. Now Preheat the oven first to 410 F or 210 C degrees and place the whole thing in to be baked for 1hour to 2 hours max. This is also be shortened if the mutton is tender and ready.

Finally add in the sweet potatos and the Zucchinis and bake no more then another 30 mins.

Serve this great dish with either bread or white rice cooked in a little bit of white vinegar and dill spices.

Enjoy !!!