Sunday, March 27, 2011

I cooked crepe today

Sunday morning... ah~~ once I open the door and I quickly closed it back.. damn.... HOT!! really really hot outside.. Suppose every Sunday morning me and Brandon will prepare ourselves and move our butt out from the house and drive to SEA Park wet market to get our stuffs (Puchong Market everything also expensive.. Buy Roast Pork also use scale..).  But since the sun scare me back into my comfort zone (yes.. I call my house my comfort zone), I decide to make something Brandon has been bugging me to make for a while.. Crepe Ala Louise...

Start with:
Flour - 1 cup
sugar - 1 1/2 table spoon
milk  - 1 1/2 cup milk
egg - 1 large egg
You put the 1 cup of flour and approximately 1  to 1 1/2 table spoon of sugar together in a bowl.  Mix it well then add in 1 1/2 cup of milk and an egg.  Mix it well and smooth.  

- Heat your non stick pan in medium heat.
- Add in a small cube of butter and let it melt then use the kitchen tissue and wipe the access butter away.
- then pour in a half cup of  the crepe batter into the hot pan, tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly. Then wait till it cook.
- Loosen edge of crepe with a rubber spatula, then lift the crepe with your fingertips, quickly flip.
- add your tuna mix (simple tuna and mayo miz together) and a slice of sandwich cheese, then fold the crepe to semi circle then cook for 1 minute more to let the cheese melt.
- Slide crepe out of skillet and repeat with remaining batter. (Coat pan with butter as needed.)


Tuna Mayo and Cheese Crepe







You may also add different type of filing if you want to.  like chicken salad, just cheese, stir fry sliced button mushroom, canned sardine with tomatoe sauce or you may even eat a plain crepe with just spreading a little butter and add some maple syrup.


Saturday, March 26, 2011

My Homemade Fettuccine Carbonara


I always love Italian pastas.. It begin since the day I watched Lady and the Trump (Disney Cartoon) and the moment they ate the same string of Spaghetti and kissed... Aw~~ Yes.  

Those years you may not even get to find Pizza Hut or Shakey's Pizza in Malaysia until quite late 80s. And the first taste of Pizza was from a girl (I think now she is a auntie) brought back from her first visit to Shakey's.. Yum Yum... the cheesy gooey Mozzarella, slices and slices of Beef Pepperoni with button mushroom and tomato puree base...and never forget the little box of leftover spaghetti bolognese... OMG..needless to say more and I bet you should know how it feels. 

All these years I have been trying to master the basic and common which I guess most of the Malaysian love.. Spaghetti Bolognese. Which I did..I guess.. Well at least to all who tried my version of Bolognese (ha ha). But I never dare to try to cook pasta other than Bolognese, Stir fried Pasta with simple Olive Oil with Garlic and Dice tomato, Fusion Style by creating a own style Spaghetti Friend with sausage, onion, dice tomato, fine chopped garlic, with tomato sauce, oyster sauce, pinch of sugar and egg.. and the list goes on..

Until recently (about 2 years back).. I suddenly challenged myself cooking grill salmon with white sauce.  And then I find the making of the dish's white sauce somewhat tasted like a pasta sauce..yea~.. the infamous Carbonara sauce base..And so I start searching for some recipe online and hope to find ingredients that are similar to what I have left with cooking a main course Grill Salmon with White Sauce. And viola!!! it is 80% of what I have.. I so I asked Brandon to drove to the nearby local grocery stall and grab a bag of Fettuccine and quickly drive back so I can start my experiment..

That was quite a success for the first tryout. And I never stopped trying till I perfect to the version I want.  

2 days back I have some ingredients from the local supermarket and in addition, Brandon recalled to purchase a small sachet of fresh Italian Parsley to jazz up the taste of the sauce (he got that tips from a cooking demonstration in Bangsar Shopping Centre) and I said why not? lets do it.

And so the ingredient are as below: (bare in mind.. this is Ala Louise's Fettucine Carbonara)
(Below portion is for 2 -3 person only)

Carbonara Sauce Base:
1/4 Slice of Butter
1 table spoon of Olive Oil
3 cloves of Garlic (finely chopped)
1/2 box of Whipping Cream (small box type)
1/2 cup of Full Cream Milk
1 slice of Cheddar Cheese
1 1/2 table spoon of Mozzarella Cheese
a pinch of Salt (my one pinch is about 1/2 tea spoon)
1 tea spoon of Italian Mix Herbs ( it comes in a bottle of McCormick's Spice and Seasoning)
I pack of Fresh Italian Parley - chop finely ( you can get it in Cold Storage or any local supermarket)
4 White button mushroom and 4 brown button mushroom ( you can also try putting shiitake mushroom) 

Meat in the sauce I've chosen: 
6 slices of Streaky Bacon (for halal version you may choose chicken sausage or chicken ham to replace the bacon) - cut about half inch width
2 slices of Pork Ham (sometimes I put 2 stick of pork sausage) - cut like rectangular shape

Boil water till it simmer and throw a pinch of salt into the water to add some flavor to the pasta.  Put half bag of pasta in and let it boil for about 4 mins.. to test your pasta you simply have to pick one slice up and eat it.  make sure not to over cooked the pasta.  Best is when you tasted the pasta it still have a bit of hard in the center (means is 80% cooked only). drain it and put a 1/4 block of butter and mix the pasta together with the butter. This process is to make sure your pasta will not dry out and stick all together like a lump of ball.  
Now heat your pan, add in the Olive Oil and the Butter.  Once the butter melted, add half portion of your garlic and your meat into the pan... cook in medium heat till you see your bacon and ham starts to releasing the meaty aroma and color starts to turn to golden brown. Drain and remove the meat ingredient out from you pan and now put in the remained garlic, mushroom into the pan.. stir fry till you smelled the aroma from the mushroom come out.  

Then add the Whipping Cream, Full Cream Milk and turn the fire to low heat.  throw in all the Italian Parsley and Herbs add the salt (make sure the saltiness suits your taste). simmer the sauce for about a minute or 2, then put in all the cheese and stir fast.. at this point you may see your sauce starts to go thick and the aroma and getting much heavier.  

Put your Fettucine into the pan, mix it with the sauce.  turn of the fire and viola! your very own Fettucine Carbonara is done.

Let me show you my complete master piece (hahahaha.. I just love to praise myself sometimes)

Lovely isn't it?

Close up of my Fettucine Carbonara
I made Brandon posing for my Pasta.. Half Naked hahahahaha
Will I hope my version of Fettucine Carbonara suits your appetite.  For now I shall end here and start cooking my weekend dinner.  Tonight I shall be cooking Stir Fried Roast Pork and Luncheon Meat Omelet and to top up I will open a can of Chili Tuna..