Ricotta & Spinach Pasta

We are using a stir through sauce to make this pasta, named Ricotta & Spinach with Pecorino Cheese. Easy & simple, just follow the instructions printed on the bottle.

My suggestions are:

1. Do not overdry the pasta, reserve some pasta water just in case the pasta appear to be too dry.
2. At the end, add a few dash of extra virgin olive oil to smooth the sauce.
3. On top of the sauce, I fry some garlic to go along.

To cook pasta:

1. Do not alternate the hot & cold water to make it chewy.
2. Do not rinse the pasta.
3. Taste the pasta by picking out a strand and suck it into your mouth, it should be al dente, meaning firm to the tooth. Just follow the timing & instructions on the package. + or -, not the end of the world.
4. While cooking pasta, you should prepare the sauce. Fry some onions and garlic with tomatoes, mushroom, etc. Normally, when the pasta is ready, the sauce should be ready.
5. Toss them into the pasta sauce to coat them all together. Then you can see that the sauce is being soaked up by the pasta, well-coated.

Herbal Chicken Soup

I don't think that Chinese can live happily ever after without soups, seriously. I mean, it has so much nutrients and benefits that one is stupid to ignore. Haha...nevermind.

Speak sbout ignorance, just recently, I discovered that CY is a descendant of Peranakan, no wonder his grandmother cooks like Nyonya, steady like Nyonya, behaves similarly like one of the Ah Sohs inside the little nyonya show. Though 81 this year and still counting, she can cook for the entire Chee family of 50 people and after that, with her stylish hair and manicured fingers still intact.

Oh, also no maid or help.

My goodness, we should have known earlier.（有点迟钝......）I mean, I never thought about that cos they speak Penang Hokkien like machine gun.

OK, so from now on, CY is more inspired to cook peranakan food for me! Yohoo!

Today, I cook this cos I don't have much time these days to prepare for dinner. So, herbal chicken soup is the best choice. I packed 3 packages from my kampong last week, tried today. This reminds me of my childhood in Titi.

I always wonder why Ee Yan Shang's herb or others taste differently from Titi's? Now I know. As you can see from the picture above, the uncle who packed it in Titi also packed Cinnamom 肉桂, lotus seeds 莲子 & Danggui 当归， together with Dangshen党参，Huaishan淮山，Guiyuan桂圆，Gouqizi枸杞子，Hongzao红枣 ，Yuzu玉竹. You can try it at home, it definitely smells and tastes nicer than the normal one. :)

Alternatively, you can buy one packet herbs from any shop, add in half a stick of cinnamon, a few lotus seeds, danggui youself. Simmer for 1.5hour to 2 hours. Add salt in the end. Serve.

3-min Pancake

A pancake is a thin, flat cake prepared from a batter and cooked on a hot griddle or frying pan.

The batter can be a mixture of flour, milk & egg, or rice flour, milk, depending on what you like.

Pancakes varies from places to places and named differently, for example, it is called crêpe in French. In Ireland & Scotland, their pancakes are locally known as drop scones, pancakes or griddle cakes. German pancakes, on the other hand, are called Pfannkuchen (Pfanne translates to English pan, Kuchen simply means cake).

In Malaysia and Singapore, however, a pancake-like snack known as Apom Balik (in Malay) or Ban Chian Kuih (面煎粿 in Chinese).
I love pancake for breakfast. This is CY's version of pancake, consists of 2 cups of pancake mix, half cup of milk & 1 egg, serve with freshly made jam, butter, peanut butter & Nutella.

Braised Drumlets with Mushrooms & Figs

A few days ago, I read this article about food that effectively reduce the risk of getting cancers. After reading, I feel lucky that I am a vege lovers, take no pains to add vege into my daily diet.

For this recipe that my Mum taught me, I reinvented it to add in figs & carrot because a dish with pure meat ingredients does scare me a little bit. (I want to reduce the risk of getting cancers as well. :p) Also, I intended to braise it with chestnuts but couldn't find them in my fridge so figs came in. I thought that they would add some sweetness & layers of flavours into the dish and do the same job that chestnuts would.



Serve 4

Ingredients:
1 carrot, skinned and chopped in chunks
9 drumlets
16 Chinese dried mushrooms, soaked into water with sugar to soften and stalks removed (retain the water)
10 Fresh Figs, washed
1 thumb of ginger, peeled & sliced
some water
3/4 tbsp of dark soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce & oyster sauce
Oil
Cornstarch
small handful of wolfberry fruit, washed & drained
Parsley for garnishing

Marinate drumlets for 30 mins using:
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
some cornstarch
some white pepper
some sesame oil
a dash of oyster sauce
1 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine (绍兴酒)

Method:

1. Fry ginger with sesame oil till fragrant.
2. Fry drumlets, abt 2 mins.
3. Saute the mushrooms, figs & carrots for 1 min.
4. Add in the water retained from the mushrooms & additional water if required to cover the vegetables.
5. Add in the oyster & light soy sauce, simmer for 15mins.
6. The liquid in the pot should be lesser than half and is thick.
7. Add in light soy sauce/salt if you like.
8. Garnish with wolfberry fruit & parsley.
9. Serve with rice.

Figs & Health

Figs are one of the highest plant sources of calcium and fiber. According to USDA data for the Mission variety, dried figs are richest in fiber, copper, manganese, magnesium, potassium, calcium, and vitamin K, relative to human needs. Also, they have a laxative effect and contain many antioxidants.

In one study, a 40-gram portion of dried figs (two medium size figs) produced a significant increase in plasma antioxidant capacity.

Early Breakfast

Early morning, when the sunlight was still lingering in my kitchen, my breakfast was ready.

I took this photo to catch the tail of the morning as this was unusually early for us. :p

I like this photo because it reflects the energy of a morning kitchen and the taste of a refreshing breakfast.

It break-me-fast.
2 slices of bread, topped with baked beans, fried bacon and salad cream, a dash of black pepper with some fresh salad on the side. Have a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Read newspaper, I am ready to go.