Reunion with Dad

Last Monday signalled the arrival of Dad in Perth and what better way to reunite with him than to whip up a simple yet delicious home-cooked meal in the comfort of a cool room amidst the sweltering heat of the nasty summer.



My pesto spiral salad. Well-drained fusilli tossed with dollops of basil pesto, cherry and sundried tomatoes, peas and corn kernels, then drizzled with the simplest of olive oils. This is a real summer delight, sophisticated-looking but yet, so quick and easy to prepare. Eaten cold or warm, the pesto itself is the centre of attention. Pasta salads are equally flexible, so if you don't fancy peas or corn, feel free to substitute it with any garden vegetables that you like or maybe even capers or anchovies. For my salad, I love to use sundried tomatoes as the subtly scented infused oil tends to give the flavour an added boost.



Lemon honey chicken. I have to admit this fell short of my expectations. Using a mixture of lemon juice, golden syrup and rosemary to marinade the chicken, I should have used less lemon juice, while increasing the amount of honey to sweeten the meat. Well, one has to fail in order to succeed doesn't it? Nevertheless, despite the less than exciting flavour, the chicken was cooked perfectly with no pinkness in sight.

Overall, it was a good meal with Dad's safe and blessed arrival. Good food, great company, what more can i ask for?

Sis Comes A-Knocking!

Staying in an apartment without my family gets me missing times when me and my sister used to rule the house back in Singapore. As for my sister, staying in a hostel without a proper kitchen isn't the sort of environment one would like to cook in.

Therefore, Sam came over to my house today to cook spaghetti bolognese, an utterly simple but favourite dish for both of us. According to wikipedia, bolognese sauce is a meat-based sauce for pasta. However we twisted the recipe a little and threw in some mushrooms with our minced beef as well.



I love red onions. Sweeter than brown and white onions, they impart the most incredible sweet fragrance to the bolognese sauce.



Button mushrooms are fantastic. Perfect for salads, soups and stews, this thing we term a fungus just goes to prove how important and flexible it is.



Our lip-smacking result. The flavours of the tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and beef simply combined together like they were made for each other, producing a glorious beefy stock. Common ingredients in every supermarket and absolutely easy to prepare, spaghetti bolognese is a winner with everyone, from kids to full-grown adults.

Tuna Saves The Day

One of the more common fishes around in supermarkets, canned or otherwise fresh tuna is low in fat, doesn't increase your cholesterol and mighty rich in omega-3 fatty acids (which are the good kind of fats).

I didn't used to like tuna when I was a little girl. Whether it was a tuna sandwich/bun or anything tuna-related, my mouth wasn't that enthusiastic about it. I suppose the only meal that had me eating tuna out of my hands were weekly tuna paninis at Coffee Bean. Man, those guys really know how to make picky little food eaters (like me) eat their fish. Anyway, that feeling hasn't gone, which is rather ironic that tuna saved my day. Maybe one of the reasons why I wasn't really fond of tuna was how grainy it was coming out of a can. They weren't soft and tender like cod or other white fish. Rather abit like salmon, another fish with a sort of grainy texture.

To cut a long story short, I got inspired by Jamie Oliver's recipe, 'Jools' Favourite Saturday Afternoon Pasta '(Jools, being his wife). The thought was if his wife's favourite pasta had tuna in it, there couldn't be any harm could it? Besides, the ingredients could be easily manipulated and more importantly, only simple ingredients were required.

And?



The result was fantastic. The aroma of good quality tuna with that hint of olive flavour after being canned in olive oil was unmistakable. Canned tomatoes and canned tuna make an absolute perfect pair. Using red onions instead of white/brown allowed instant sweetness to permeate through. It was by far, and I do not exaggerate, the best and simplest spaghetti I have ever eaten yet.



Supper was another affair. I made onigiri and sushi while using leftover tuna pasta sauce and tuna flakes in oil. Cooking the sushi rice in a pot was quite a disaster, something which I will definitely never attempt again. I suppose it was bad karma on me for forsaking my good old buddy - rice-cooker. The rice grains were still a touch hard in the middle, leaving me to microwave the rice for about 3 minutes. This is the first time I made an onigiri (without a mold) and I'm pretty proud of my result!



Kawaii!! ^_^

Real Quick Mussels Spaghetti

After 2 'shop till I drop' weeks in Singapore, it was back to good ol' Perth.
So for dinner, I decided to snag a recipe from Jamie Oliver's latest cookbook (Cook with Jamie). Mussels with spaghetti! Boy, was it as quick as it was named. The cooking process was really easy, except for the part of the prep when I had to debeard my mussels (took a bit of work, I might add). The white wine & basil oil easily summed up the sophistication of this dish. Though I wished I had chosen another bottle of wine (the one I chose was really too strong), and for the mussels to be a teeny bit larger, it was pretty good for a first attempt!

Taste-wise, I loved how the broth had an oomph of wine power. The juices were really clear & flavourful, a delightful change from the heavy, tangy, common tomato-based pasta. With a few minor changes here & there, I'm sure the next time mussels with spaghetti arrive on my dinner table, it'll be uncontrollable with an even better broth to go!