didally.com
Of Food and perhaps a little about me
Archive for Recipes: Pasta
August 20, 2007 at 2:14 am · Filed under Recipes: Seafood, Recipes: Pasta
Lemon-flavored pasta? As promised, more pasta recipes. I was searching for a recipe for my garlic prawn pasta and it occurred to me that I ever saw recipes calling for lemon juice. I wonder if the pasta will turn out be a plate of salad instead. Curious and adventurous, I dared myself to try out the recipe I’ve found.
This yellow citrus fruit serves us wonders. Lemons are valued for their many uses in flavoring the food we eat, as a garnish, and for household purposes.
Selection
Choose lemons that are firm and have a bright yellow color. Avoid soft, wrinkled lemons with spots. One medium lemon has about 3 tablespoons of juice and 3 tablespoons of grated peel.
Storage
Store lemons at room temperature for about two weeks. They can keep for up to six weeks in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Use lemons as quickly as possible after cutting.
Some Quick Tips
Freeze lemon juice in ice cube trays for later use.
Add a twist of lemon to the water in ice cube trays for added zip to beverages.
Use juice on fruit or white vegetables to help them keep their color.
Remove odors, such as fish, onion, or bleach by rubbing with fresh lemon.
Lemon and salt can be used to treat rust spots, and to clean copper pots.
Get the most juice out of your lemon by warming it in the microwave for 15 seconds or rolling it with your hand on the counter if it is at room temperature.
Add a few drops of lemon juice to whipping cream if it doesn’t stiffen.
Use lemon to replace salt in your recipes….you’ll have less sodium.
Halved a lemon and place them in your new fridge before putting any other things in. It will remove the odor from the new fridge.
You can use lemons to marinate your food like what I did for my rosemary roast chicken, as well as fish and other meats. Toss your salad with some lemon juice instead of vinegar. Freshly grated lemon peels add that zest to your baked goods, fruit salads, desserts, and sauces. Or simply just drop a slice of lemon into your glass of water.
I made a mess when grating the lemon peel for this pasta and it took longer than I expect. Why? Because I grated it the wrong way, the peel went flying out from the grater and all over my work area. How embarrassing.
Pasta with Garlic Prawns and Lemon
Recipe from www.taste.com.au (serves 2)
180g dried pasta
1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to toss
2 garlic cloves, crushed
12 medium-sized prawns, peeled, deveined, tails intact
½ bell pepper, medium sized
chilli flakes
1 tsp dried parsley or 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Juice and zest of 1/2 large lemon
1/2 cup (125ml) white wine
50g unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces
Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain and toss with a little oil. Set aside to keep warm.
Place remaining oil and the garlic in a pan and heat gently over low heat. When the oil is hot, add bell pepper and saute for 2 - 3 minutes. Then add the prawns, chilli flakes and half the parsley, increase heat to high and cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove the prawns, bell pepper and set aside, then add the lemon juice and white wine to the pan and allow to bubble and reduce for 2 minutes.
Briefly stir in the cold butter and lemon zest until you have a smooth sauce. Return the prawns to the pan to heat through, then add the pasta. Toss together well and serve garnished with the remaining parsley.
I love this zesty prawn pasta! It’s surprising refreshing and tangy. I was afraid it might be too sour. But the lemon flavor blends really well with the prawns and pasta, at least for me. Something different from the usual savory style.
Lemon curd is in my list of to-make items. I’ll see when I can get some time to try my hand on this. I saw this Lemon Curd with Chocolate at Gastronomia. Everything there looks good and of course, sinful. I wish I can bring them all home. LOL. Meanwhile, stay tuned for the next post which will be related to lemons as well.
June 7, 2007 at 3:31 am · Filed under Recipes: Pasta
I’m back after a short hiatus from blogging. Not that I’m out of town. It’s just that I’m a little hooked on my DS Lite. *grin*
Yes, we’re in a frenzy. Mushroom frenzy!
Some time back, Chipmon introduced me to Mycofarm Mushroom Farm. She got me really interested. I’ve only ate dried shitake mushrooms and canned button mushrooms my whole life. SM organized a steamboat session at her place so we bought some willow mushrooms and oyster mushrooms from Mycofarm. And the mushrooms didn’t disappoint me. They were really fresh and delicious.
Needless to say, B and I went back again to buy some for our pantry. Bought our favorite white button mushrooms and again the willow and oyster mushrooms. The only down side from buying direct from the farm is that they sell in large quantity.
These delicious fungi grow by attaching themselves to naturally decaying barks and soils and can be cultivated under controlled conditions. Gourmet mushrooms can be found in all supermarkets. But you probably get them with minor bruises. I mean, let’s face it. I am also guilty of going grocery shopping, pressing to test if they are fresh even if there isn’t a need. All the touching and pressing will not happen if you get them straight from the mushroom farm.
The myth about mushrooms, as having no nutritional value is absolutely incorrect. However, you can only gain its nutritional benefit upon cooking. Fresh mushrooms are of the high nutritional value of mushrooms, which are an excellent source of high quality, digestible protein greater than most vegetables and only slightly less than meat and milk. They are also high in low caloric dietary fiber, all the essential amino acids, and very low in calories and fat! Plus the goodness of vitamins thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, biotin and ascorbic acid. Mushrooms are among the oldest examples of foods containing disease-fighting nutrients, for example, they have a very high concentration of antioxidants. Antioxidants are thought to be helpful in reducing allergies, heart disease, cancer and aging effects.
Preparing the mushrooms
When cleaning fresh mushrooms, do not soak them in water as they will become soggy. To clean, just brush off the dirt from the mushrooms. If you have to, rinse them quickly under running water.
Storing them
Store mushrooms wrapped in kitchen towels before you put them into the plastic bag. A brown paper bag would be good. Do not put them in containers or plastic bags as the mushrooms will get in contact with water and turns soggy.
Ways to cook them
What I love about mushrooms is you can cook them in so many ways. Saute them with butter. Braise them with meat. Toss them with your favorite pasta (yes! my favorite). Oh, and how can you do without the lovely morning scramble eggs with mushrooms? Fry them with your daily veggies. Throw them into your hot soup. The possibilities are endless!
Pasta is kind of a staple lunch for me. It’s easy to prepare and cook. And you can mix them with so many types of ingredients, like meat, vegetables, seafood. It can be served as the main entrée or as a salad. I am getting abit sick of having a tomato-based pasta. I would love to have creamy ones, but it’s too rich for me. So I’ve been doing the simple fry-and-toss pasta. And of course, I’m gonna share one of my favorite pasta recipe.
You can use any pasta of your choice. Spaghetti, fusilli, penne.. etc. As for the mushrooms, any will do. But I prefer button mushrooms and shitake.
Butter Sautéed Mushroom Pasta
180g dried pasta
100g fresh mushrooms of your choice (I like it more, and mushrooms shrinks a lot after cooking)
½ medium size bell pepper (I am crazy over the red and yellow ones)
1 medium size tomato, diced
½ cup white cooking wine (optional)
50g butter
3 garlic cloves, chopped
½ tsp chilli flakes
½ tbsp dried parsley (if using fresh parsley, you can double the amount)
- Cook pasta till al dente. Reserve ½ cup of pasta water. Drain the pasta and set aside. You might want to toss them with some olive oil so that they won’t stick together.
- Heat pan, and add the butter to melt.
- Saute the garlic till fragrant or till they are slightly browned.
- Add mushrooms and bell peppers and fry for about 2 to 3 mins.
- Add white cooking wine and the reserved pasta water.
- Add chilli flakes and parsley.
- Add the tomatoes last.
- Turn off the heat, throw in the pasta and toss quickly.
- Serve on plate and add some parmesan cheese if you like.
Serves 2. More pasta recipes to come!
March 30, 2007 at 10:54 pm · Filed under Recipes: Seafood, Recipes: Pasta
Well, well, finally I’ve kicked my butt to write the first post that is long overdue since last year. I’ve taken many pictures of the food I’ve created, so I will post more as I go along. I will be sharing recipes of which some are sourced from the internet and cookbooks, and some of my own. The purpose of this blog is to share the simple and yet tasty recipes with my friends whom most of them have just started a new home or those just started out to learn cooking and baking.
I’ve yet to customise this blog. So stay tuned as I will change the look bit by bit.
Eat more mussels to flex my muscles? Yes? Of course not. But if it can really help build up more muscles, I’ll be glad to eat more. Hee. Ok, enough nonsense.
Mussels are one of the popular shellfish used in many seafood dishes due to it’s nutritional value and excellent taste. And best of all, they are relatively cheap. I bought a whole pack of some 2½ dozen for just $1.60. This feeds 2 person for 2 meals. Sounds economical right? You can either cook them simply by just steaming or boiling, or cook them with flavourful sauces like tomato-based tomato sauce. Eat them with pasta, or served them steamed as an appetizer with some crusty bread. They can also be included in pastas or just topped them on top of paella.
My first attempt of cooking mussels was a success and it tasted really good. And since it’s so delicious, I want to cook it more often but worried about eating too much and having a higher cholesterol. That’s what people always tell us, shellfish like prawns, cockles, clams and mussels are all high in cholesterol. So I surfed around to look at it’s nutritional value.
Upon some research, I found out that mussels are an extra-lean meat, low in sodium, low in fat and cholesterol free, high in protein and heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. And that when it comes to omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, mussels have more of it than any other shellfish. Mum visited the doctor recently and he said that mussels can lower our cholesterol blood level.
Fat Facts - the Cholesterol Dance from The Epicurean Table.
True: Crustaceans such as prawns, mussels and oysters have high flesh cholesterol. However, this does not raise your own cholesterol levels, and in fact can help lower it. Cholesterol in crustaceans is poorly absorbed anyway and the extreme low fat is a great advantage over other food choices.
False: Prawns, mussels and oysters must be avoided by persons who have high blood cholesterol.
True: What should be avoided are the hydrogenated polyunsaturated fats found in industry food such as margarine and animal fats. Hydrogenated polyunsaturated oil is an industry mask for what it really is - saturated fat created from vegetable oil.
So we can have our mussels and eat it!
Preparing Mussels
Inspect mussels to make sure they are tightly closed. Just before cooking, clean wild mussels by scrubbing with a stiff brush and pulling off the beard with a quick tug. Cultivated mussels need only be rinsed in cold water. To remove meat, either steam open or pry shells open and pick out meat. Those sold at the supermarket are already clean and ready to use.
Buying and Storing Mussels
Fresh mussels smell clean, like the ocean, and the shells of live mussels are tightly closed. If the mussel is slightly open, tap the shell, and a healthy mussel will close it within 30 seconds.
Refrigerate mussels in a bowl, and cover with a damp towel. Never store mussels in water or in an airtight container—either method will kill them. Mussels should be cooked as soon as possible, but keep for up to a week.
We had some prawns, so they goes into the pot with the mussels.
Garlic Steamed Mussels
1 dozen mussels
3 cloves garlic, chopped
½ tablespoon of fresh parsley (halved it if using dried parsley)
a pinch of chilli flakes or some chopped chilli (optional)
½ capsicum (bell pepper, any colour), diced
1 medium tomato, diced
30ml cooking white wine
½ cup of water
1 tbsp olive oil
- Heat olive oil in a saucepan or skillet, saute the garlic until it starts to brown a little.
- Add in the tomato, parsley and chilli flakes.
- Add in the mussels.
- Add water, and lastly the white wine.
- Cover the pan and steam for 5 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and remove the cover.
It was so good that we had it with pasta the next day. Simply just add them to the pasta, toss and serve.
