#434 : Mac and cheese : recipe #237

My children love this. A very quick recipe and doesn't require a lot of Ingredients. The usual recipe uses a variety of cheese but I just used whatever I had in my fridge.

Ingredients :
1cup macaroni: boiled in water , seasoned with salt and oil; drained.
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 cup-1 cup full cream milk.
cheese; whatever is available
chicken stock powder
cracked black pepper
a pinch of dried thyme.

Steps:
heat butter in a pan, then add the flour, stir to mix.
after 2 minutes, add in the milk , chicken stock, black pepper and thyme
stir until the mixture thickens and add the boiled macaroni.
adjust the seasoning and add in the cheese.

~ bon appetit~

p/s : SELAMAT HARI RAYA :)

#294: Tagliatelle with pastrami and sun-dried tomato :recipe#194

Tagliatelle is the classic pasta of the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Individually, they are long, flat ribbons, similar in shape to Kway Teow, but typically about 0.65cm to 1cm (0.25 to 0.375 inches) wide. I bought these the other day at Batu Bersurat and totally forgot about it until today. So, its tagliatelle for dinner tonight.

Ingredients
Tagliatelle- for 4 persons: boiled in water seasoned with oil and salt, drained
2 garlics-chopped
20 slices of pastrami-sliced thinly
basil leaves-chopped
4-5 pieces of sun-dried tomato - thinly sliced
3 slices of cheese-sliced thinly
a little milk

seasoning:
salt
white pepper
chicken stock

steps:
1. In a pan, heat a little olive oil and add in chopped garlic. Fry till the garlic is light brown in colour
2. Add in the pastrami, tomatoes and basil leaves, stir to combine and fry for about 2 minutes.
3. Add in the pasta, stir and fry for another minute or so.
4. Add in the milk and seasoning, stir.
5. lastly add in the cheese and dish up

#217 : pasta shapes and potato salad: recipe #144

A quick fix for breakfast this morning. Auni loved it, Abang brought it for his lunch at school and as usual Dayini, the non-adventurous one, resort to eating the oreo muffins.

Ingredients:
1 bowl pasta shapes
1 bowl potato cubes- boiled in salted water
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1/2 packet instant powder of cream of mushroom soup ( campbell's) + 1/2 cup hot water
pepper, salt and salad herbs.

steps:
- In a pot boiled the mushroom soup, add in the mayonnaise, stir till the mixture thickens.
- In a large bowl, combine the pasta shapes, potato cubes, the mayonnaise mixture and all the seasonings. Adjust the taste and dish up.

#124 Kolo Mee with chicken sausage : recipe# 88

It has been quite sometime I didn't cook Kolomee, so when I went to Hua Ho with hubby this afternoon, I "snatch" a packet of Kolo Mee and put it into the trolley...so people here is my version of Kolo Mee:

Ingredients:
250g Kolomee,blanched in boiling water, drained and rinsed with cold water
steamed vegies of your choice- I used sawi

sauce:
1 spanish onion -chopped
1 clove garlic-chopped
1 tsp chopped ginger
1 large sausage - diced: I used the Royal Brunei's catering sausage, you can use minced beef or minced chicken.
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 dsp Maggi chilli sauce
1 dsp rice vinegar
1 tsp cornflour- made into slurry
water

steps:
1. heat oil in wok, add the onions, ginger and garlic. Fry till fragrant
2. Add in the sausages, fry till cook.
3. add in the sauces, sesame oil, vinegar and 1/2 cup water. fry for another 2 minutes
4. lastly, add in the corn flour slurry, cook till gravy thickens, adjust taste and dish up.

#93: MEATLESS VEGIES NOODLE: recipe #69

Welcome back to my humble blog. As promised , It's blogging time again. Thanks for all the support I received . Truthfully, I was drained emotionally and physically. My maid is back again, my back pain is 95% gone , what more could I ask? Alhamdullilah.
My schedule is very hectic at the moment. I have tight teaching schedule, I am in-charge of allowance this year and this week the school is very busy with the new form six admission. I do find that teaching nowadays is more demanding than when I first started 14 years ago.
The Myth " Teachers work half day" need to be removed from the mind of our society. Teachers nowadays have a lot of other side jobs and we do work till late afternoon or even till night time. We work Fridays and Sundays too! . We bring work home and have to work until late at night to early mornings. The bright side of being a teacher is that I see a lot of young faces every school days. For me, I love working with young people and I try my very best to bring the best out of them.
BTW, here is a very simple, easy peasy recipe especially meant for vegies lovers~
Ingredients:
300g yellow noodles
1 handful snow peas
3 stalks mustard greens- cut into small pieces
1 handful pickled bamboo shoots
1 egg- beaten
1 red chili-julienned
1 green chili-julienned
2 garlic-sliced
1 dsp chopped ginger
1/2 spanish onion-sliced
seasoning:
Oyster sauce
Spicy soya sauce
Sweet soya sauce

Step:
1. Heat oil in wok, fry in the egg, when cooked, set aside
2. Adjust flame to high, Add a little oil into the wok, fry in the onion, ginger and garlic, fry till fragrant.
3. add all the vegies and seasoning.
4. add in the noodles and taste the noodle , adjust seasoning according to your taste.

#82 FRIED KWAY TEOW WITH BEEF: recipe #60

Kway Teow is culturally Chinese. However, this kind of noodles are popular to other ethnic groups including Malays as well. I've not buy Kway Teow from restaurants for quite sometime now, but I remembered Hj Omar Keeboys' at Medewa and Hj Metali's Firdaus restaurants served good quality fried Kway Teow. I hope they still do.

Ingredients:
300g Kway teow
50 gram beef-sliced to thin strips
2 green chilis - sliced
1 handful bean sprouts

seasonings:
2 dsp soya sauce
2 dsp sweet soya sauce
1 dsp sushi vinegar
1/2 tsp chicken stock powder
2 dsp chili sauce- I used "singapore" chili sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp white pepper

steps:
1. Heat wok using high flame, add in the oil
2. fry in the shallots and gralic till fragrant
3. add in the meat, when meat tender , add in the seasonings except the sweet soya sauce
4. add in the noodles and the vegies
5. lastly add in the sweet soya sauce
6. Adjust the seasonings.
Bon Apetit~

#63 Fried Udon with Clam : recipe #42

This is another simple version of what you can do with Udon.
Ingredients:
Udon 400g
1 can roasted/fried clams
1 shallot-sliced
1 clove garlic-sliced
green "sawi"- cut
chicken stock, The popular " sos cili singapore" , dark soy sauce and sweet soy sauce to taste.

steps:
Heat oil in wok
fry shallots and garlic
add in the seasoning and the green " sawi".
when the sawi is half-cooked aldd in the udon and clams, cook till udon become soft and starchy.
adjust seasoning... according to your taste

#49 FRIED TOM YAM UDON: recipe #28

Dayini loves udon, and it has been sometime that I haven't cooked Udon for the family. On top of that fresh udon are only sold at a few supermarkets.

Ingredients:
400gm Udon
10 prawns -shelled and deveined
2 shallots -sliced
2 garlic -sliced
bak choy - "sawi Hijau"- cut into small pcs
sprigs of spring onions
1 and 1/2 cubes Maggi Tom Yam stock
dark soy sauce

steps:
heat oil in wok
fry onion till fragrant, add in the prawn
add in the Udon and bak choy-add 1 tbsp of water-keep stirring
add in the Tom Yam
When Udon softened add in the soy sauce and spring onions.

#23 MEE MAMAK : recipe #14

I feel a bit better after resting the whole afternoon, so as usual , the appetite to eat increased. So, at about 5.00p.m I went to the local supermarket to buy the fresh ingredients for my "Mee Mamak". But off course, it is nothing like "Mee Si Ali of Maktab Sains" which was popular back in the 1980's. I do find though the Mee Mamak nowadays are not up to my tastebuds as they used too much tomato sauce. I learnt this recipe through "words of mouth" from a dear friend of mine, Annie or better known by our students as Miss Annie ( Thank you Annie!!).

Ingredients:

Yellow mee ( I used fresh mee in this recipe 0.5kg)-you can cook the dry ones as well.

3 medium size tomatoes cut into wedges

2 chicken breasts ( or meat /fish cakes etc)

3 stalks sawi hijau (mustard green? not sure)

1 green chili-sliced

1 red chili-sliced

1 potato-diced and fried ( oops! I forget to put this in today!!)

3 tbsp LINGHAM chili sauce ( very important ingredient)

1.5 tbsp tomato chili sauce

Soya sauce to taste

1 egg ( I omitted this today)

3 cloves garlic

3 shallots

steps:

heat oil in a non stick pan

fry onions and garlic

add in the meat until cook

add in all the sauces and all the vegies including potato

add in the noodles

mix well

adjust the taste... add in more of the sauces to suit your tastebuds

If you use egg, make a well at the centre, put a little oil, add in the egg, when the egg is half cooked, mix the whole mee again.

Wa~laa people you'll get your very own Mee Mamak !!!

#19 LAYERED PENNE : recipe #12

MY "LABORATORY"

At home, if I mention the word "laboratory", it has to be my kitchen. My kitchen is a simple kitchen. I don't have dry/wet kitchen, but just a kitchen. In this kitchen, I created a lot of delicious simple recipes. I spend a lot of time in this special room , to prepare food for my loved ones...

Today , I made penne layered with beef sauce and white sauce.

LAYERED PENNE

Ingredients:

500g Penne or any other shaped pasta (boiled)

Beef sauce

* 450gm minced beef

* 1 onion-diced

* 2 cloves garlic-minced

* 1 can diced plum tomatoes

* 3 tbsp Maggi tomato sauce

* 1 tsp Italian herbs

* a dash of cracked black pepper

* salt/ chicken stock

white sauce

* oil

* 2 tbsp flour

* milk- adequate amount

cheese

Method:

1. Simmer the ingredients of the meat sauce for about 25 minutes.

2. for the white sauce,: heat oil in a pan, add in the flour, add in the milk until thick gravy is formed. Add a little amount of salt for taste. If you happen to have the cheese granules you may add them to this as well.

3.To layer : place 1/2 the amount of penne into a casserole, place 1/2 of the beef sauce as the second layer and all of the white sauce as the third layer. Place the rest of the penne as the fourth layer and cover them with the rest of the beef sauce. To finish off, add a generous amount of cheese. ( I used the individually wrapped cheese slices :) )

4. Bake at 100 degrees for 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted ( use grill function)

#8 HOMMUS AND PASTA SALAD: recipe #5 and #6

Sunday Breakfast
After 2 weeks of never-ending makan and endless invitation to "open-houses" , My hubby said he wanted to have a healthy start for today. You see,just after puasa he lost about 3 kg and he's gaining...more than 3 kg. :)
As a biologist, let me explain why this happens. During puasa, for most of us, especially those who do lots of work outs and didn't do it during puasa, our body experiences 2 "things" . 1- lowering of metabolism... meaning our body has a lower tendency to burn the fats into energy due to lesser activities. 2- our cells which have been deprived of "food" as a result of lesser intake of food during puasa become an efficient storage for fats when puasa ends. So as a result, if we are not careful, we'll gain double what we've lost.

Back on today's topic...
So today I prepared My hubby His favourite snack vegies with Hommus dip and green tea. Whereas My Kids and I had macaroni salad. Here are the recipes:

Hommus dip ( Arabic dip)
1 can chick peas ( kacang kuda)
3 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup tahini ( sesame paste: sesame seed soak in water for a day, crushed to seperate bran, soak in salted water for an hour, toast and grind to make paste)
1clove garlic
4 roasted garlic
1/2 tsp salt
a pinch of white pepper

steps: blend everything to form a paste.

PASTA SALAD

Ingredients:
1/2 pkt pasta ( macaroni, fettucini, shells, spaghetti)
1/2 onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup milk ( can be replaced by 1/4cup cream or1/4 cup mayonnaise)
patsarami ( smoked beef can be replaced by tuna or chicken slices)
1/2 tsp mixed italian herbs
cracked black pepper
salt to taste or use chicken stock powder
capers ( optional) but I love them!!
tomatoes

steps:
1. Boil pasta with salt and oil. drain
2. shallow fry the garlic and onion till soft add the milk the meat, herbs,pepper
3. Add in the pasta , tomato and capers....


and... for me I end my breakfast with this.... coffee and I put cinnamon stick in it....mmmmmm... heaven.