Presto Pasta Night #91

What an exciting week. PPN 91 was such great fun to host. I truly enjoyed jumping into different food blogs and was amazed (once again) with the wide variety of recipes that we can do with pasta or noodles.

So prepare a cup of tea/coffee, sit back and enjoy the fantastic range of dishes (20 in total!) on PPN 91!

Jin Hooi from Taste Smell and my Memory was inspired by Morimoto to create this fusion Daikon Fettuccine with Tomato Basil Sauce. Although she was unsure about the texture of daikon in her pasta dish, it was great that she took the plunge and gave it a go!

oooo.. With Christmas around the corner, Turkey, sausage, spinach, and nutmeg is a pasta dish that got my attention straight away! Kitchenetta from Got No Milk did such a great job utilizing turkey ground meat and Italian sausage to create an amazing dish!

I enjoyed reading the creations of this blogger because she is so creative in her home kitchen! Little Inbox from Makan King and Queen submitted THREE entries for this week’s PPN! WOAH! That’s wonderful!! Her first dish is Stir fry Angel Hair with Black Pepper that is full of flavour.

Her second dish featured a bargain that she picked up in the markets! RM$2.50 for 12 prawns-wow! That’s less than AU$1.25! Love how the sauce on the Prawn Noodles looked so rich.


Meaty Fragrance Noodles was the third dish-and I bet AR would love this one. It’s saucy and meaty!

Hannah from The Lay Gastronomer served up an amazingly healthy and interesting dish recently. Her salmon head with buckwheat noodles looks simple, healthy and summery to do. Pop over to her blog to have a closer look!

I have a weakness for Thai food. To my pleasant surprise, Kelvin from Closet Cooking did an amazing version of pad thai, following the recipe from Chez Sim. Look at those juicy fat prawns! On a side note, Kelvin is one of my favorite food bloggers-I head to his blog when I need extra inspiration for meal ideas!

Check out Sharon’s Greek Spiced Baked Shrimp with Lemony Orzo. Doesn’t it looked refreshing? I have still learning about orzo so it’s lovely to see more recipes utilizing this type of pasta. This certainly got my attention! There seems to be a theme with shrimps this week-not that I’m complaining because they looked and taste pretty! Check out Sharon’s blog Culinary Adventures of a New Wife-her write up is fantastic.

Are you hungry yet? Next we have first time PPN Mikky from My finds! Her Tomato Herb and Sausages Pasta was cooked by her husband and child! What a great way to bond by cooking!

Rita from Mochachocolata-Rita did an amazing job with black pepper, beef and fusili. Her sous chef is on an low iodine diet so she has been pulling recipes out from everywhere! This delicious Black Pepper Beef and Mushroom Fusili caught my attention straight away as it looks so appetizing. This shows that tender loving care extends to food as well.

CY from Eat First Diet Later is another fellow Perth Blogger!!! WooHOO! Her baked sausage pasta was inspired by the up coming Christmas! I think this will be a winner with everyone. I’m looking forward to trying this out.

Ben from What’s cooking did an awesome job with Pumpkin Lasagna. I love the way how he used puree pumpkin. If you are looking for a vegetarian idea why not try this? It certainly looks nutritious!!!

Happy Belated Birthday to Gay’s sister from Scientist in the Kitchen!! It is tradition from Northern Mindanao to serve Bam-i on birthdays. Judging from that photo, Gay’s sister is so lucky to have those delicious noodles served on her birthday!

Creamy pasta is always a favourite. Mary from One Perfect Bite cooked ravioli to perfection with her Ravioli with Cream, Bay Leaf and Sage. Mary said that it is suitable for an entree but I think I can have it as my main instead!!!

Fancy something heartwarming? Hop over to Heart and Hearth. Ning whipped up Clams in Noodle Soup for her husband-isn’t she sweet? I would probably slurp up the soup in a minute!

The founder of PPN- Ruth from Once Upon a Feast cooked up a storm with her Chili Mac to serve with some pasta. Ruth is awaiting the arrival of her 2nd grandchild! Advanced congratulations Ruth!

Last week, Nimandra did a fantastic job with the PPN round up 90. This week, she is back full force with her Tuna Pasta with Sundried Tomato. It’s such a summery dish-perfect for one of my work lunches! Soy and Pepper features really easy to read and lovely ideas for meals so be sure to check it out.

This amazing blogger managed to cook up macaroni for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Wiffy from Noobcook fried up Stir Fry Macaroni with Basil, Chilli and Garlic. Even the title sounds delicious. I’m a big fan of one pot dish, so this one is a winner to me!

And I submitted two dishes this week! I love my pasta and salmon-Creamy Honey Salmon Pasta featured the use of honey in pasta and on salmon.

Then I re-created a simple stir fry noodles with peanut, pad thai noodles and eggs. Peanut Eggy Stir Fry Noodles was cooked during one of those days that I have practically nothing in the house! It kept my tummy full though.

Don’t forget that next week’s host will be the amazing Ruth from Once Upon a Feast! Send your entries to ruth(At)4everykitchen(dot)com

Peanut Eggy Stir Fry Noodles

I’m so excited about receiving entries for this week’s Presto Pasta event! Have you submitted yours yet?

My second dish is a quick and easy stir fry one. Who says pad thai noodles are only for pad thai?

err..

Ok.. i confessed, I wanted to make Pad thai but ran out of sauces so I have to improvised! But hey, sometimes it’s good to have meals that are “light” in taste as well.

Peanut Eggy Stir Fry Noodles (Serves 4)
1/2 packet of Pad Thai Noodles
3 eggs (beaten)
1 cup of chopped mushrooms
1 cup of frozen peas
2 carrots chopped
1/2 cup of roasted peanuts
3 tablespoons of fish sauce
1 tsp of sugar
1 tsp of soya sauce

1) Blanched pad thai noodles till slightly soft and set aside.

2) Heat work till hot and add oil. Quickly stir fry all veges. Add sauces. Add in beaten eggs and cook till done. Add noodles and toss it through with roasted peanuts. Serve with more nuts on top!

Another noodle dish for Presto Pasta nights founded by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast and hosted by myself this week! Check out previous posts for entries details.

Creamy Honey Salmon Pasta

To kick start the week of Presto Pasta, my first dish is of course..pasta! Here, I have used honey to marinate the salmon and I’m surprised that it gave a bit of the sweet but not overly sweet taste. It reminded me of my maple smoked salmon salad in Marion Bay!

I love how creamy yet non-sinful this dish is. Salmon makes me feel good anytime!

Creamy Flaked Salmon Pasta (Serves 4)
1 fresh salmon portion (200+grams)
olive oil
seasoning
pinch of cumin
1 tsp of honey

250 grams of spaghetti
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of flour
1 cup of skim milk
1 tablespoon of honey
1 cup of frozen peas
1 cup of fresh baby spinach

1) Marinate salmon with honey, cumin and cracked pepper/salt. Heat grill to very hot. Drizzle olive oil over salmon. Grill salmon till done. Set aside. Flaked it when it cooled.

2) Mean while cook pasta in pot of boiling hot water. Drain.

3) Melt butter in deep pan. Add flour and cook till golden brown. Slowly add milk and whisk it till it becomes thick. Add honey and stir well. Add peas and spinach and cook till done. Add abit more stock or milk of it appears too little or dry. Toss pasta and flaked salmon through. Season if needed. Serve!

Serving this up for Pasta Presto Nights founded by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast and hosted my yours truly this week!.

Send your entry to daphnesu16(at)yahoo(dot)com!

Presto Pasta Nights #91

I have been looking forward to hosting Presto Pasta Nights#91!!! Presto Pasta Nights is one of my favorite events to participate in and I’m really glad I get to host this time round! The versatility of pasta and noodles cannot be denied by the number of entries I have seen from bloggers around the world. Thanks to Ruth from Once Upon a Feast who organized this event.

There are no rules, except it has to be a pasta or noodle dish. Be creative and chomp up with something new!

Email me your entry at daphnesu16(at)yahoo(dot)com

1) Name
2) Blog
3) URL of dish

Please also link your entry to More Than Words and Once Upon a Feast.

So come join in the fun and send me YOUR presto pasta dish by Nov 27th Thursday Night. One more thing, I’m operating on the GMT +09:00 Perth Time-so chances are, I will round it up slightly later than what you may expect to cater for time differences.

So let’s stop talking and start cooking PASTA!/Noodles!!

Creamy Peanut Chicken Stew

What else can you do with a jar of peanut butter?

Recently, I attended a talk on Generation Y. Contrary to what the media portray Generation Y to be (i.e. spoilt brat, wasteful..etc), the seminar spoke about how we are shaped by our environment and Gen Y shouldn’t be pointed out as “impatient/selfish ones”.

For instance, if you are born in born as part of Generation Y, you probably would have chuck the jar of peanut butter when u r done with it.

BUT, your grandmother/grandfather, would probably pick the jar up, scrap ALL the peanut butter out (like at least 3 more spreads) and then…..

wash the jar out to use it as a container/vase/cup…

Is it because they are environmentally friendly?

Maybe.. but most likely it’s because as they were growing up, it was war time! And you HAVE to learn to be careful with what you have during war time. The Y-generations however, were brought up in a disposable culture-hence their behaviours were shaped by their environment. Same thing as why Gen Ys are more tech savy than the baby boomers or builders.

As for me…. well, I’m definately scrapping the end of my jar to make this creamy stew!

Creamy Peanut Chicken Stew (Serves 5)
500 grams of diced chicken thigh
2 carrots peeled and chopped
1 cup of snow peas
1/2 a sweet potato peel and chopped
1 cup of chopped button mushrooms
1 cup of nutty peanut butter
1/4 cup of chicken stock

Heat wok or pan till very hot. Add chicken and stir fry quickly till brown. Lower heat and add veges and stock. Cook till done. Add creamy peanut butter and stir will well combined. Taste to see of require seasoning. Serve with hot rice!

Strawberry Dark Chocolate Forest Berries Cheesecake

I bought a sandwich off the little cafe around the corner from where I worked and guess what I found on the lettuce? WORMS!

Imagine my ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Anyhow, I brought the sandwich back to them and they refunded me. Oh, and they gave me a hot drink as well. The problem is that I ate most of the sandwich already. I’m sure I will be ok but an episode like that spark a discussion with our admin lady on food hygiene and how it has become more common. Is it true?

Anyhow, I meant to blog about this cake today. It’s one of my favourite cheesecake that I have recently made for a 21 birthday (for a friend obviously…haha). I love the tangyness and the dark choc on it.

It beats looking at worms on your sandwich anyday!

Strawberry Dark Chocolate Forrest Berry Cheesecake

Base
1 packet of ginger nut cookies 200grams crushed
125 grams butter melted
1 tsp mixed spice

Cheesecake
500 grams cream cheese (room temperature)
60 grams caster sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract
40 grams corn flour
4 eggs beaten
300 grams of light sourcream
150 grams of mixed berries

Chocolate ganache
200 grams dark chocolate buttons
1-2 tablespoon of butter

1) Base- Combine all dry ingredients. Add in melted butter and mix till combined. Press firmly into base of 9inch lose based cake tin. Bake in 180C oven for 10-15 minutes. Cool.

2) Lower oven temp to 150C

3) Beat cream cheese till smooth. Add in sugar, vanilla and cornflour. Beat till combined and creamy, Add in cream and beat till thickened. Add in eggs.

4) Spoon half mixture onto the base. Place berries randomly onto the mixture. Top it off with the rest of the cream cheese mixture. Place cake tin in hot water bath and bake for 1 hr till set.

5) Turn off oven, leave cake for around 1 hr with door ajar. Pop cake into the fridge once it is cooled outside as well.

6) Melt chocolate and butter in a glass bowl on top of a saucepan of hot water. Once slightly cooled, spoon it over cheesecake. Ganish with strawberries. Serve!

Spicy Mango Beef Pasta Bake

If someone asks me if I dreaded heading back to work yesterday after 1 week of hols, I would have to say I didn’t. Strange as it might sound and busy as I was yesterday, it felt good to be back. The people makes the difference I suppose and since my buddy clinician has to take over my cases, that would explain why she welcomed me back with open arms. LOL

A question-do you usually follow recipes from magazines or books? I use them as references but it is rare that I follow through a recipe exactly (unless it is for baking). This is a recipe adapted from Good Taste Magazine (Woolworths) but I did my own twists and turns with it. Since discovering mango chutney, I have been putting a couple of tablespoons in stews and curries and boy did it makes a difference.

Spicy Mango Beef Pasta Bake (Serves 8-10)
500 grams of pasta
400 grams of lean beef mince
2 carrots chopped
2 cups of peas
2 cups of chopped mushrooms

1 tin of chopped tomato
2 generous table spoon of spicy mango chutney
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tsp of chilli powder

2 cups of mixed cheddar and Parmesan cheese

1) Preheat oven 200C.

2) Cook pasta in pot of salted boiling water.

3) Meanwhile, heat deep pan with oil. Fry beef mince till it breaks up. Add tin of chopped tomato and mix well. Add all veges. Simmer-add a couple of tablespoons of water or stock if dry. Add chutney and chili. Taste. Add seasoning. Cool slightly.

4) Place mince mixture at the bottom of an oven proof bowl/tray. Spoon pasta on top. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 45 minutes or till golden brown.

Serving this up for..

Founded by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast and hosted by one of my favourite blogger- Soy and Pepper this week for Presto Pasta Nights !

Smoked Salmon Toastie

One of life little’s luxury: Smoked Salmon. As we were on a really tight budget beforehand, smoked salmon stayed out of our grocery basket till recently. Even so, I relish every bite. It’s funny how you cherish food or items so much more when you haven’t tasted any for some time. Well, in this case, this particular smoked salmon toastie tasted even better.

I kept it simple. Fresh bread and cream cheese + smoked salmon. Paired with some chips..a light green salad, it’s simple food to the finest.

Cream Cheese Smoked Salmon Toastie
100 grams of smoked salmon
2 fresh turkish bread pockets
2 tablespoon of cream cheese spread

Slice bread horizontally. Spread cream cheese and then place smoked salmon on it. Toast bread for few minutes.

Serve with hot chips and salad.

Ps- alternatively, avocado and smoked salmon, or even mushroom pate (or spread) + smoked salmon and spinach leaves is another combi that I love!

Crispy Tuna Salad

Greetings from Adelaide! AR and I travelled to Brisbane and Gold Coast, Queensland over the weekend and then over to Adelaide visit  one of my closest friend in Adelaide. Amazingly, it is a warm 32C here-I wonder what is it like in Perth?

Days like this makes me crave for cool salads. Might as well because my brain seems to stop thinking when I’m on hols. Much as I try to eat healthy, that seems to be thrown out of the window. Darn!

I discovered this recipe in a recent issue of Better Homes and Gardens. I love the crispy bits of the flat bread toasted over a hot frying pan. It adds alot of texture to a salad. I have a weakness for carbo and chips so this flat bread makes a good subsitution. I used chilli tuna in this version but I have also tried tuna in spring water/mayo and semi-sundried tomato for a bit of a change. It’s a good dish to bring to a bbq!

Crispy Tuna Salad

2 pieces of flat bread
2 cans of chili tuna
2-3 cups of salad leaves
1/2 a cucumber
1 avocado sliced and chopped
2-3 tablespoons of good olive oil (and more!)
1 tsp of chili powder

1) Heat large pan. Drizzle flat bread with olive oil and chili powder. Grill it till it becomes crisp. Tear it apart!

2) Assmble salad. Salad leaves, avocado, cucumber and tuna. Pile crispy bread on top. Drizzle more olive oil. Serve!

XO Stir Fried Noodles

For some odd reason, it’s cold and windy on a Spring day. Where did the sunshine go? hmm..

I think I saw this idea from little inbox or perhaps even jin hooi? I bought a bottle of XO sauce (full of seafood!) and used the whole jar up for fried noodles! If you like strong tasting food, this is one sauce you have to try!

XO Stir Fried Noodles
2 sticks of rice noodles
1 jar of XO sauce
1 cup of snow peas
1 cup of sliced cabbage
sliced carrots
1 cup of shrimps
garlic
3 eggs

1) Blanch rice noodles. Set aside.

2) Heat wok till very hot. Fry garlic. Quickly saute vegetables and shrimps and toss noodles with it. Add jar of XO sauce. Push noodles aside and add beaten eggs.

Dishing this up for Pasta Presto organized by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast!