My first one-pan pasta

Been trying to use the kitchen in the new place more. After all, it was half the renovation cost and the kitchen next to the entry way turned out nicely :) Quite ironic for someone who does not cook and lives to eat. LOL.

There's a first time for everything. So today, I made my first one-pan pasta and tried this one-pan pasta recipe by Martha Stewart which I read in The Straits Times a few months back. Quite an easy recipe and pasta turned out quite tasty too. Did not read that it was a recipe meant for four though. Cooked too much although I halved the ingredients. What a waste of food! Lesson learnt - got to read the recipe more carefully next time.

News clipping of the recipe for reference and keepsake.  

Other lessons: for some reasons, it took more than 9  minutes to cook till al dente and the water did not evaporate. Maybe too much water or the pot was too small.  Well, practice makes perfect!

Appetising colours!  

Prepared a mini salad too. That was easy and the third time I did it. Just a toss of some greens, corns, cucumber, honey ham, sesame dressing together. I like the $2 sesame dressing from Daiso - really value for money. Today, I decided to put the honey ham (frozen) into the pot pasta and it tasted much nicer than when it was 'raw'. Maybe cooking it enhanced the taste of the honey? Lesson learnt : Cook the honey ham in future.  

Cooking for one can be quite challenging. Ingredients are usually sold in bigger portions. Take for instant, the basil leaves bought more than a week back. It has turned brown by the time I got down to cooking the pasta. The bag of mini cucumbers are turning mushy too. So perhaps need to pack a homemade salad to office on a weekdays should I decide to cook over 2 weekends...

Popiah ~ Chinese wrap? :)

Come weekends, I try to stay home at least one day (usually Sundays) - to either 'work' personal stuff or just do nothing or anything I feel like doing :) After 5 days at the real work, it feels really good to have time for yourself and recharge!

And one of the weekends, we had home-cooked popiah! :)



Ingredients that go into the popiah... the good thing about home-cooked popiah is you can choose the ingredients you like :)

In the making. I love the peanut :)

Ready-to-eat popiah :)

And here's a video of my brother making the popiah - not really the way Singapore hawkers do it. But well, that's home-cooked style, right? :)

And I grabbed some videos from you-tube on how popiahs are wrapped, in case you are wondering :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZgI4UsHTvY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZaEXyhPi5M

Now I'm reminded that I have blogged about what I tried to cook at home - check them out! :P
-Make your own Japanese Curry
-Baby potatoes with herbs and a Merry Christmas!
-Topokki Rice Cakes

Happy Sunday, everyone! Guess I'm just going to do nothing today - maybe blog. Haha.

Make your own Japanese Curry

Do you have the habit of clipping articles? Well I kept a recipe to make Japanese curry for many years. If I remember right, it originated from the Straits Times contributed by Ms Kuniko Shimada.

 

In early April, I went to Liang Court which I have not visited for a long time, spent some time in the MEIDI-YA Supermarket and was inspired to make Japanese curry which I have not cooked for a while. Here is the recipe - ingredients to serve four and the method.



Bought the curry roux brick from the supermarket. There are many different sauce mix you can choose from.
Ingredients:
60g curry roux brick, mild
60g curry roux brick, hot



Ingredients:
2 medium onions, diced
2 medium potatoes, cubed
2 carrots, cubed
 



Dicing onions is hard work. But I love the layers of colours and patterns! :)

 

Ingredients:
250g chicken, pork, beef, cubed
0.5 Tbs olive oil
700ml water

 

Method:
1) To a heated pot, add olive oil and fry the onions for about 2 minutes until they are fragrant.
2) Add the potatoes, carrots and meat and continue stir-frying for about 5 minutes until the meat is cooked.
 

3) Add water and bring the mixture to a boil before cooking it on medium heat for 20 minutes until the meat is tender.
4) Remove the pot from the flame, add the curry roux bricks and stir until the curry is well mixed.

5) Stew the curry over low heat for another 20 minutes until it thickens.

Yummy Japanese curry rice :)

It's a really simple and delicious recipe. If I can do it, so can you! :P

Baby potatoes with herbs and a Merry Xmas!

Stole an easy recipe for baby potatoes with herbs for xmas eve lunch (from British Council Cooking to a degree Second Edition)...and wants to share it with everyone! :)

500g baby potatoes, peeled
2 gloves garlic,finely chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
2 tablespoons cooking oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Boil potatoes in a pot of boiling water for about 15 minutes until they are soft. Drain potatoes and set aside
2. Heat oil in a frying pan and fry onion and garlic until slightly brown. Add potatoes and stir-fry for about 3 minutes
3. Add parsley, salt and pepper and stir-fry for another 2 minutes
4. Serve immediately with grilled sausages or on its own

Served with pasta cooked by my sister :) And this is our simple xmas lunch!
 

It's funny because I got the book many years back during my MSC days but only decided to try out the recipes these days - wanted to share with my brother who is studying in Stockholm and also partly because I have time these days...

Topokki Rice Cakes

Been a good weekend.

Read a few chapters of 告白.

Installed SCV (free for 3 months!) and explored the programmes.

Jogged 3 KM, with solid cool down.

Tried my hands at making Topokki Rice Cakes!Turned out to be easy(although it does not taste as as good as the korean version. YET)

 

Add 100cc of water and 500g Toppoki rice cakes to a frying pan and boil. As it starts to boil, add 150g of Toppoki marinade. Wait for the rice cakes to cook while adjusting the temperature accordingly. May add cabbage, fish cake, scallion, glass noodle or egg to your preference.

:)