Pasta Alfredo

I adapted my recipe from OnePotChefShow called easy pasta alfredo. Mine's probably not very authentic but since I didn't want to use cream, I had to improvise by using a white sauce and cheese to thicken.

Ingredients
2 l milk, at room temperature
50g butter
4 tbsp plain flour
1 cup grated cheese (use any type you like)
1 cup chopped parsley
250g proscutito, chopped
1 tsp garlic, minced
500g dry pasta (again, use whatever type you like)
Salt
Pepper

Method
1) Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet. Drain and set aside.
2) In a pot, fry the proscuitto in a little butter. Once the fat on the proscruitto has melted, fry the garlic for a few seconds until fragrant, then melt the rest of the butter. Add in the chopped stalks of the parsley.
3) Add the flour and stir quickly until well incorporated. Pour in about a cup of the milk and stir in quickly to ensure that there are no lumps. When the mixture has thickened, add in more milk, a cup at a time whenever the sauce thickens, until you have finished all the milk.
4) Add in the grated cheese. Stir till well combined and till all the cheese has melted.
5) Toss in most of the parsley, leaving a bit behind for garnishing.
6) Pour in the drained pasta and quickly stir through the sauce through till well incorporated.
7) Garnish with the reserved parsley and serve immediately.

Jamie's crumbliest scones

http://rasamalaysia.com/crumbliest-scones-recipe/2/

Another scone recipe.

Ingredients (makes 6):

75 g dried fruit, such as sour cherries, raisins, sultanas, chopped sour apricots, blueberries, or a mixture
Orange juice, for soaking
75 g cold unsalted butter
250 g self-raising flour, plus a little extra for dusting
1 level teaspoon baking powder
1 heaped teaspoon golden caster sugar
Pinch of salt
1 large egg
2 tablespoons milk, plus a little extra for brushing

Roll to 2-3 cm thick, 6cm rounds, bake at 200 deg C for 15-18 minutes.

Place upside down (bakes better?)

Sago gula melaka

From my cousin's email

I don't really have a proper recipe but gathered bits and pieces of tips on how to make pudding. I had made few failed attempts before. 
Here's what I did this time. 

1) use large pot. 270gm (1 packet) of sago.
2) fill the entire pot with water to cover sago (important to ensure the pot is full and you can barely see the sago underneath or the washing stage later will be laborious)
3) over medium fire, boil sago stirring constantly. 
4) change over to other hand if started with right hand. 
5) keep on stirring till mixture thickens and you don't see white spots in the middle of each bead. Don't stress it will look like glue but this is normal!!
6) pour thick starchy mixture into colander and run COLD tap water over starchy mixture to wash excess glue-yness from sago. 
7) you feel guilty for using so much water. But keep going. 
8) you are flushing starch away. 
9) Lo and behold, you see little individual pearls appear. 
10) Drain off water and scoop pearls into mould. Leave to set in fridge.
11) when ready to serve, drown set sago in coconut milk. Drizzle with Gula Melaka according to sweetness you want. 
12) Yay! 

Nutella mini croissants

I have some left over puff pastry in the freezer from the last time I made sausage rolls for a picnic. I didn't relish doing sausage rolls again, so thought I'd look for some quick and fast recipe. Since I have 1.5 bottles of Nutella in the pantry, et voila, this is perfect!

I can't stand the way the chef pronounces "Nutella" as "Neu-tella" but hey, whatever floats her boat, right, especially if she's trying very hard to be faithful to her Italian (Brooklyn?) heritage.

She uses 425 deg F (220 deg C) for 10 to 12 minutes.

Here's another recipe that uses chocolate buttons (which I also have lurking around in my pantry) instead of Nutella, and bakes it at much lower, only 350 deg F (180 deg C) but for 20 to 25 minutes. I guess it takes longer to melt the buttons than the Nutella, which is already kinda liquid.

http://www.inspiredtaste.net/20300/sinfully-easy-chocolate-croissant-recipe/

http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/3-ingredient-nutella-croissants-recipe/

Basic recipe is as follows:

1) 1 sheet of pastry, rolled out another another inch on all sides. Cut into 8 rectangles, then cut each rectangle diagonally to make 16 triangles.

2) Try to make the triangle equilateral by stretching out the dough. Then starting from the longest side, put 1 tsp of Nutella or 1 tsp of buttons. Brush egg wash on the sides and then roll towards the other end (watch the video), making sure to tuck in the filling so it doesn't spill out. Then like a croissant, turn in the ends towards the centre.

3) Place on baking sheet with parchment or baking paper, then brush the tops of each croissant with egg wash (1 beaten egg with dash of milk).

4) Bake away and serve dusted with powered sugar if using.

Sausage rolls

Jaime Oliver did a simple sausage roll recipe in his 30 minute meals series, and received rave reviews from cooking blogs so I thought for my upcoming picnic, I'd be able to whip this out on the morning of the picnic in under 30 minutes (plus baking time!) I was so wrong - it took me 1.5 hours, because I made an error and had to undo the first batch, and also because I was going really slowly so as not to spill stuff here and there and then have do a huge clean up afterwards! He's got a clean up crew - I don't!

I found the best pictoral preparation blog entry was this one: Dine at Mine http://dineatmine.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/sausage-rolls.html

I didn't exactly follow the blog so here's my interpretation.

Ingredients (I made 24 out of this but the recipe says you can make 20)
1 packet of chipolata sausages (12 inside)
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 egg and splash of milk
2 sheets of store bought puff pastry, thawed
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 tbsp sesame seeds

Method (best to refer to the Dine at Mine's photos)
1) Unroll the puff pastry sheet and place on a lightly floured surface. Cut 1 sheet of puff pastry in two.
2) Near the edge of 1 sheet, place 4 sausages diagonally (I only used 4 because I found it too full to close up if I followed the recipe and put 6).
3) In a pestle and mortar, pound up the coriander and fennel. Sprinkle over the sausages.
4) Sprinkle the cheese over the sausages.
3) Fold over the pastry and seal the edges with a bit of egg wash and use the twines of the fork to crimp them down.
4) Brush with egg wash and scatter the sesame seeds on top.
5) Cut each roll into about 5 or 6  x 10 cm pieces.
6) Transfer each sausage roll onto a parchment paper and bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 220 deg C or until golden brown.

Five spiced orange pork chops with sweet potato

Suddenly inspired to come up with this recipe based on the sheer number of fortnight old oranges we have lying in the fridge!

Ingredients

500g pork chops or pork rashers

1 tbsp ginger, minced

1 tbsp five spice powder

1 tbsp garlic, minced

1 white onion, chopped

2 oranges, zest and juice

1 tsp rock salt or more to taste

Cracked black pepper to taste

3 sweet potatoes

Method

1) Marinade pork in all the ingredients except the sweet potatoes and oranges for at least half an hour, best overnight.

2) Peel and cube the sweet potato.

3) In a roasting dish, assemble as follows: 

Place sweet potatoes cubes at the bottom. On top, place the pork. Drizzle over the zest and juice of the oranges, I even stuff the used orange peels in between the sweet potatoes to provide fragrance as their oils are released in the heat.

4) Roast at 220 deg C for 15 mins if the pork has skin to form crackling before turning down to 150 deg C to slow cook for another 35 to 45 minutes or till cooked. If the pork has no skin, start at 200 deg C for 10 mins then turn down to 150 deg C for another 45 to 60 mins or till cooked.

5) Serve on a bed of cous cous.

Crab cakes

I saw a tin of crab meat in the supermarket and thought to myself - I had to have it! I've often seen Nigella and Jamie and other chefs using it in their cooking to make crab cakes, crab pasta, etc but was always dismayed that I didn't know where to find it in Australia or Singapore. In the UK, it's available in gourmet shops which our chefs undoubtedly would know the locations of. Me, I don't know any fancy smancy gourmet shops here, or even if I did, they usually stock the usual (boring) stuff like cheese, olives and other preserved vegs, and if lucky, more exotic things like Mediterranean sauces. After trawling the internet for ang mo and Thai versions, here's my version of an East-West crab cake.

Ingredients
1 tin (250g) crab meat, drained
1 potato, peeled and grated finely (squeeze out any juice that comes out)
1 egg, beaten
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 tbsp mayo (I like the Japanese version)
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cracked black pepper

Method
1) Combine the crab meat, potato, egg, mayo, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, salt and pepper in a bowl. Mix well. Pour in the beaten egg and 1/2 cup of the panko bread crumbs and combine well. Set aside in the fridge for about 1/2 hour to harden up, otherwise it will break apart when handling.

2) Take tablespoons of the mixture and form into a ball. Transfer into a plate of panko breadcrumbs and press down the ball to form a patty. Coat each side of the patty carefully and transfer onto a non-stick baking sheet. At this point, if you want, you can put the whole baking sheet into a freezer and freeze the patties for later use. These can be baked or fried from frozen at a later date.

3) As soon as you have coated all the patties, heat up a pan with a little oil. The coated patties shouldn't be allowed to sit out too long, otherwise, the newly coated panko will absorb all the moisture from the mixture and get soggy. These crab cakes don't need a lot of oil (they're pan fried, not deep fried). When the oil is hot, fry each patty. Fry each side for approximately 2 minutes per side, till golden brown. Serve immediately with Thai sweet chilli sauce.

4) The patties can also be baked. Spray a little cooking oil spray onto each patty and baked them on the baking sheet in a pre-heated oven for approximately 10 minutes at 200 deg C. Remember to flip halfway and spray the top with cooking oil.

Bur bur pulut hitam

One of my favourite desserts but I've only made this twice in my life, because the rice is quite difficult to find, so was very pleasantly surprised to find it in Australia WMD showcased in Better Homes and Gardens! But of course, ang mo cooked it western style as a savoury rice when it really is meant as a dessert.

Ingredients:

1 packet of rice, approx 250g or 3 cups

18-20 cups of water: this rice is thirsty!

100g rock sugar (add more to taste)

Method

1) Wash the rice by rinsing at least 3 times. This rice seems more sandy than normal rice, or maybe it's my imagination.

2) Put the rice and water into the pot and bring up to a boil, then turn down to simmer. Keep pot uncovered or half covered as it will boil over. Skim off any scum.

3) When the rice has softened, approx 40 mins, add in the sugar. Continue simmering till sugar has dissolved. 

4) Turn off the flame and cover with the lid to allow the rice to rest. It never really breaks down to a gruel unlike normal rice, but it will break up the more it's simmered.

5) Serve with a dollop of coconut cream or some coconut milk.

ABC soup

A long time favourite, there are so many combinations on the web. What does abc stand for? The variations I've seen are:

A = ang mo kio

B = bawang

C = carrot or corn or (c)kandang, or sometimes, celery

Which one is correct? Answer: whatever you like! I chose whatever was in my fridge, so it turned out to be tomato, onion, carrots and potatoes. I even threw in giam chai for more sourness!

Ingredients

1.2 kg of chicken thighs or drumsticks

3 carrots

2 tomatoes

1 onion

1/2 sio bak choy of giam chai

2 potatoes

1 tsp ginger

Black pepper

1l water

Method

1) Peel and chop everything into roughly equal sized cubes.

2) Blanche the chicken in boiling water, drain.

3) Put everything into a stock pot or slow cooker and crack in some black pepper.

4) Bring to a boil, and skim off the scum and fat. Then turn down the flame and simmer for approximately 40 minutes to 1 hour. Periodically return to skim off the fat for a clearer soup.

5) Add salt if desired. Serve immediately with steamed rice.

Nutella brownies

From this link

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=584498794915766&set=a.577027822329530.1073741826.100000669513646&type=1&theater

Ingredients:

1 cup (280g) Nutella

2 eggs

10 tbsp (62g) flour

Directions:

Put it in a bowl. Mash it up. Pour into a pan or muffin tin. Top with hazelnuts if you're feeling extra fancy. Bake at 350F (180C) for around 30 minutes (less time for cupcake form, more time if the centers aren't baked through).