Spicy Chorizo Tomato with Fresh Mussels

What do you cook for a friend who you haven't been in contact for some time? Top it off with limited cooking time knocking off work before she arrives? I chose fresh seafood- spotting some mussels at our local seafood store.

I have often associated mussels with university life. The late-night-1am-I-want-a-feed-and-where-else-is-open-in-Perth? sort of food. Chili mussels with greasy oily garlic bread and pizzas at a
"Open till late" doggy place was what we ate mostly.

It really wasn't that doggy, it's still operating after that many number of years. Possibly survived by the number of night owl students who enjoy the hit of chili in the dead of the night.

Cleaning mussels wasn't too big a drama as well. Soaking it with fresh water for 20 minutes or so, then I pulled the beard off closer to the end of the shell rather than the opening. I scrubbed each shell with a little dish scrub buds and it was clean and shiny in a breeze. Keeping it fresh was another story, we placed a damped dish cloth over the bowl, emptying the water (Probably from the mussels) at the end of each day. Even so, I discarded any that have been opened in the process. From buying to cooking them- that was 4 days. I probably wouldn't leave it as long next time.

I learned that mussels isn't doggy. It can be classy too. Pairing with some spicy chorizo, fresh tomatoes, plenty of chopped celery and carrots, the sauce was delicious! I wish I had some bread to dipped into this rather than just pasta.

I had a smile when she asked for second helpings.

Spicy Chorizo Tomato with Fresh Mussels (Serves 6)
1 spanish chorizo sliced
1 tablespoon of garlic
1 onion diced
2 cans of diced tomatoes
4 fresh tomatoes
1 chili padi
1/2 bunch of celery diced
2 carrots peeled and diced
1 kg of cleaned mussels
300 grams of cooked pasta

Saute chorizo till cooked. Add garlic and onions and cooked till soft. When ready, pour in the cans of tomatoes and fresh tomatoes. Give it a good stir. Add 1/2 cup of water if needed. Toss in all the veges and seasoned. Simmer for around 15 minutes till vegetables are well cooked. Then, add in the fresh mussels. Cover the pot. Cook for a further 5-10 minutes till mussels are opened and cooked. Toss through pasta and serve

Creamy Corn and Chicken Pasta

Joanne from Eat Well with Others made Pasta with Fresh Corn Pesto recently. What an idea I say! So using that as an inspiration, I made a version of it on the stove top. Instead of blitzing it with the food processor, I used creamed corn instead. I took Joanne's advice, and used fresh corn. Amazingly good stuff. While I love a packet of frozen corn in the freezer for emergency situations, fresh is always best isn't it?

I had some dill left over from making the fritters, and decided to add some of that to it instead. And everyone knows about my addiction to chili. So in that goes. For protein, it was chicken.

Did it remind you of something?

Almost like a pasta version of chicken sweet corn soup! Ha!

Nevertheless, it made a simple and "whatever in the pantry" meal. Certainly, this has the creaminess without the added cream or fat.

Cream Corn and Chicken Pasta (Serves 4)
250 grams of spaghetti cooked in salted boiling water
2 cans of cream corn
1 tablespoon of garlic
1 corn with kennels removed
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of fresh dill
1 chicken breast thinly sliced
Parmesan cheese

Saute garlic will fragrant. Add cream corn and stir throughly. Add fresh corn kennels and 1/2 cup of the water. Simmer till corn is cooked. Quickly add chicken and dill and cook through. Add the remaining water if needed. Toss spag through it. Serve with cracked black pepper and parmesan cheese.

Roasted Capsium Garlic Pesto Spaghetti

 Using Jamie Oliver's 30 minutes cookbook has inspired me to make sauces for pasta myself. He opened my eyes to the kind of things I could do with my humble food processor. Having a jar of grilled capsicum on hand, I thought it would be pretty cool to blitz everything up and use it as a sauce base.

Further, my hubby bought 15 cans of tuna. Seriously. 15 cans. They were on sale, and it's the kind we like (John West) so he decided to purchase it for "rainy days". Now I like a good tuna sandwich and perhaps a tuna potato cake one day but 15 jars? woah!

So I used it in this pasta as well.

I made this with little intention to blog it, but when I did a taste test, I thought it turned out pretty well. A pasta sauce that is not tomato based or cream based! Pretty cool hey.

Roasted Capsicum Garlic Pesto Spaghetti (serves 4)
500 grams of spaghetti cooked in boiling salted water
3 cans of chili tuna
1 chopped yellow capsicum
1 cup of corn
1 cup of peas

To be blitzed
250 grams of roasted capsicum (You can roast it yourself but I got mine from a jar)
1 tablespoon of garlic
around 80 grams of basil leaves
1 tablespoon of olive oil
salt
3 chili padi chopped

Blitz everything up. Heat pan and blitzed ingredients. Saute all veges first. Toss through tuna for around 5 minutes. Toss pasta though. Serve with some cheese if desired.

Spinach Rocket Pesto Salmon Spaghetti

If you ask me, I prefer olive oil based pasta than creamy ones. Don't get me wrong, creamy pastas has its own place as well, but there is something very addictive about olive oil based pastas. It makes your tongue tingle and want more. The flavours seem to dance on your tongue and it lingers.

My experience in making pesto was.... mmm.. once. It was around 5 years ago, when we decided to grow our very own basil plant. It was very successful and soon we were proud owners of a basil... bush! I wish I have a photo to show you! That was when I tried making pesto. Soon after, winter sets in and the bush dwindle down to nothing. :(

Since then, I have never got back into growing our own vegetables and herbs. One day I am sure we will again!

For this version of pesto, I blended basil, spinach and rocket together with some olive oil and parmesan cheese. Instead of pinenuts, I used some pistachios that I had on hand. I love the herby nutty mixture in the end that went very well with smoked salmon.

I'm also happy with our budget for this meal.

Spinach Rocket Basil Pesto- $4
Smoked Salmon- $4 (On sale! yay!)
Pasta-$1

Total: AU$9

I'm submitting this dish to our monthly budget meals party with Cuisine Paradise. The theme this month is NOODLES! woohoo.

Spinach Rocket Pesto Salmon Spaghetti (Serves 4)
250 grams of Spinach, Rocket and Basil (around 4-5 cups)
2 tsp of grated parmesan cheese
1-2 chili padi diced
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup of shelled pistachios
100 grams of smoked salmon
500 grams pasta cooked and drained

Blend spinach, chili rocket, basil, cheese, oil and pistachios. Blitz it for 1 min.

Heat a pan up. Sauté the herb/vege mixture. Toss pasta and smoked salmon through. Serve with more cheese.

Macaroni Fishcake Soup

Here is another of our quick fixes. I tend to have some fish cake or fish roll stuffed in the freezer for "emergency meals". You know, meals when you get home at 8pm and realised that you are staving but have to put something on the table in 20 minutes?

I often associate macaroni with being sick. Now, I associate it with comfort and quick. Warm chicken soup with fish cakes and ham brings it up another notch higher.

It's no fuss food to the max!

Macaroni Fishcake Soup
1 or 2 fish cake sliced

100 grams of ham sliced
200 grams of macaroni
1 ltre chicken stock
chinese veges- such as bak choy or choy sum
spring onions chopped
pepper to season

Boil stock and cook macaroni. Put all veges, sliced fish cake and ham into the pot. Cook for around 5 minutes or so. Serve with spring onions and a sign of relief that dinner is done.

Jamie Oliver's "Pregnant Jool's Pasta"

So Jamie Oliver calls this "Pregnant Jool's Pasta". Seems that this is the pasta that she often craved when she was pregnant. Well, no one here is pregnant, I was simply intrigue by his use of sausages in the sauce. One thing I found was that Jamie Oliver seems to be addicted to the use of his food processor in this cookbook. In this dish, everything was blitz up (Including the sausages which was why I was intrigued!). In really saves time in preparation- just that the cleaning up takes longer than what it usually would. I can't wait for a dish washing machine in our next home.

One thing that got me hooked right away was the smell of fennel seeds. Oh, how come nobody told me that fennel seeds smells so good!?

The other (personal) achievement, was that I managed to sneak balsamic vinegar in this dish without hubby noticing. Yes, he dislikes anything vinegar- and thinks that salad should come fresh the way it should be.

I adapted this recipe-adding in more veges instead. I think it worked just as well!

It's meaty, hearty and tasty. That's alot of -ty. See, that book is really winning me over now.

Jamie Oliver's Pregnant Jool's Pasta (Serves a generous 4 portions and more to freeze)
a small bunch of spring onions (around 5)
2 carrots
4 celery stick
4 fresh chili padi (original calls for 2 normal chillis)
400 grams of italian sausages (or good sausages)
1 heaped tsp of fennel seeds
1 tsp of dried mixed herbs (or oregano)
1 heaped tablespoon of garlic
4-5 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
a few springs of basil

500 grams of rigatoni pasta

Cook pasta in salted boiling water. Drain.

Meanwhile, roughly chopped all vegetables. Blitz them in food processor with chilis. Add chopped up sausages, fennel seeds and dried mixed herbs. Keep pulsing till well mixed.

In a hot pan, heat a tablespoon of oil. Add mixture. Fry it up and stir it as you go. Add the pasta to the dish. Toss. Tear basil leaves into the dish. Serve with parmesan.

Chicken and Leek Corn Soup

A simple chicken soup warms your soul. Hmmm..what if we load up the "simple" soup with leeks, onions and even a handful of orzo? What will that do to our souls? Heat it up real hot perhaps?

We are trying to create a new tradition this winter- a different kind of soup every weekend! I'm not sure how long that would last but I'm enjoying learning about all kinds of soups we can have. Hot simmering soup for winter- with a good dvd some candles perhaps...it could almost passed off as our new candle light dinner...


Almost.

Chicken and Leek Corn Soup
1 chicken breast-poached for 15 minutes till tender. shred.
1 ltre of chicken stock
2 cups of corn kennels
1 leek sliced
1 red onion sliced
1 tablespoon of garlic
2 eggs lightly beaten
spring onions
handful of small pasta of your choice. I used orzo here.

Heat a big pot. Add onions and garlic. Fry up the leeks till tender. Pour chicken stock over it. Simmer. Add corn. Continue to simmer for another 5 minutes. Add orzo and cook till pasta is done. Add in poached shredded chicken. Taste and season. Turn off the heat. Pour eggs. Stir. Ladle and serve with spring onions.

Tomato Basil Soup with Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli

As the colder weather sets in, I'm making soups weekly. It's a great one pot meal with little mess and fuss. As we like our soups chunky with lots of vegetables in it. It's our way to increase our vegetables intake too. Usually, I make a big pot-enough for a couple of meals which save time.

I recall reading in a magazine or perhaps through browsing a cookbook in a bookstore that we could use store bought fresh lasagne sheets to make ravioli. With that in mind, I decided to give it a go by stuffing ravioli with spinach and ricotta. This helps to bulk our soup up with some carbs.

Amazingly, 8 lasagne sheets produced around 12-14 ravioli. That's heaps for us! I themed this ravioli with a tomato and basil soup. The tangy taste of tomatoes and smooth basil was a hit for us.

Tomato Basil Soup with Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli (Serves 4-5)
1kg of tomatoes diced
1 can of diced tomatoes
few stalks of basil
1 ltre of vegetable stock
500 ml of water
1 onion chopped
4 chili padi chopped
1 tablespoon of garlic

a packet of lasagna sheets- around 8 sheets
1 egg whisked
200 grams ricotta
250 grams spinach
100grams smoked salmon sliced
cracked pepper

Fry garlic, chilli and onion till soft. Add in all tomatoes (including can). Simmer for around 3 minutes. Add stock and half of the water. Simmer.

Meanwhile, prepare ravioli filling. Quick blanched spinach leaves with hot water. Drain and squeeze all remaining water out of it (wait for it to cool down a little). Whisk ricotta till smooth. Combine spinach leaves and cracked pepper with ricotta. Set aside.

Take 1 piece of lasagna sheet, spoon ricotta mixture onto mixture (around 3 or 4 spoonfuls. Brush beaten egg around the mixture. Place another piece of lasagna sheet on top. Lightly press it so it seals. Using a knife or a pizza cutter. Cut them into pieces. Trim if needed. Repeat.

By that time, your soup should be boiling. Tear basil leaves into the soup. Taste and adjust accordingly.
Spoon soup into the blender. Blitz for a few minutes. Returning the mixture to the pot and return to boil.
Quickly add one ravioli to the soup for 2-3 minutes. Remove. Place ravioli into bowls. Repeat and cook ravioli as needed. Around 3-4 raviolis in one bowl is sufficient. Ladle soup onto the raviolis. Serve with basil leaves.

I'm serving this to my friends at Presto Pasta, founded by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast. This week, Trish is hosting from My Slap Kitchen.

Jamie Oliver's Trapani Style Rigatoni

The best thing about Jamie's Oliver 30 minute meals cookbook is that once you get the hanged of it, it's actually really easy to replicate his dishes. It's usually rustic, hence I don't have to worry too much how it looks. Again, I have adapted and tried one of his pasta recipe with great success. I'm beginning to be excited with trying more food from this book now.

I goggled Trapani Style and found out that it represents a city in Sicily. What I like is that it has NO cream but yet it tasted creamy. The almond, fresh cherry tomatoes certainly did the trick. It was very tasty and addictive. I could finish that whole bowl by myself.

You can probably omit the anchovies as I didn't think it gave it any kick-maybe even substitute it with olives if you want it vegetarian.  I do love the taste of basil and fresh chili which certainly lifts the dish to another new level.

Silly me bought only 200 grams of cherry tomato and substituted it with a can of diced tomatoes on hand. It did the trick but left me wondering how much sweeter can this get if I used cherry tomatoes all the way.

Jamie Oliver's Trapani Style Rigatoni (Serves 4)
400 grams of Rigatoni
40 grams of parmesan cheese
100 whole blanched almonds
3-4 cloves of garlic 
2-3 fresh chili padi
2 large bunches of basil
5-6 anchovy fillets
200 grams cherry tomatoes
1 can of 400 grams diced tomatoes

Cook Rigatoni till nearly done.

Meanwhile, blitzed Parmesan cheese, almonds, garlic and chili till fine. Then add basil, anchovies and cherry tomatoes. When it turned into paste, add a dash of olive oil. Season. Heat a pan up and saute the paste. Add the tin of diced tomatoes. Add some water if it is too dry. Toss pasta through the sauce. Serve warm.

Prawn Pad Thai

We attended a dinner bbq party recently and met a Thai style cooking chef there. He was kind enough to give me a verbal run down on how he cooks Pad Thai. It seems easy enough, and given that I have tried it before, I thought I should give it another go. I felt that this version did not have enough gravy. It seems that each time I made pad thai, I will run out of something. The last time, it was fish sauce, this time, I realized I did not have brown sugar on hand! What a waste.. grrr.. I really have to be a more organize cook.

The chef also gave me a tip on presentation. He said that by adding a little cornflour/water mixture into the beaten egg, it provides a better "spring" to the omelette, allowing it to stretch and accommodate the noodles without breaking. I lined a bowl with the omelette and place some noodles in it. I fold the egg, pop a place on top of the bowl, flip it over and ta dah, a nicely omelette wrapped noodle dish. I scored it and sprinkle some peanuts in it.

The alternative method, is to make the omelette, roll it up and sliced it. I find this way much simpler but it was always interesting to try something new! 

Prawn Pad Thai (Serves 6) 

200 grams prawn meat 

sauce
around 6-8 pieces of tamarind
500 ml of water 
1/4 cup of brown sugar

pad thai noodles soaked in normal tap water till soft

Seasoning- mix together in a jar
1/4 cup of fish sauce
1/2 lemon juice
1 tsp of sugar

1 tablespoon of garlic
1./2 red onion
few bunches of spring onion sliced.
2 cups of bean sprouts
roasted peanuts

Cook sauce first. Simmer ingredients till it becomes thicker. Do a taste test. Adjust accordingly.

Fry garlic, onion and prawns. Remove prawns from pan. Fry noodles and veges. Add simmer sauce ladle by ladle till absorb. Continue to do so for around 10 mins or so. Add the fish sauce/lemon juice/sugar mixture. Do a taste test and adjust. Add the prawns back. Toss and serve quickly.

Omelette (For one-repeat if needed)
2 eggs 
1/2 tsp of corn flour mix with a little water

beat eggs with corn flour mixture. Cook omelette on a oiled pan. Flip after around 3-4 mins.

Presenting this to the great people at Presto Pasta organized by Ruth from Once Upon A Feast. This week, it is hosted by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours. It's the 200 presto pasta bash this week!

Teriyaki Lamb Macaroni

It's getting harder and harder to come up with bulk meals. When in doubt, I always turn to ready made sauces. Something to jazz an old boring stir fry. I theme this teriyaki up with heaps of veges and actually quite like the turn out of it! The crunch and sweetness of red capsicum and celery seem to does it. Very spring.

I sincerely believe that stir fries are not completed without chili, garlic and onions. I wonder why I have this rule? Maybe it is to bulk the dish up more. 

Teriyaki Lamb Macaroni (Serves at least 6)

400 grams lamb mince
1/2 cup of teriyaki sauce
1 red onion chopped
2 red chili chopped 
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
2-3 stalks of celery chopped
1 cup of chopped mushrooms
few stalks of spring onions chopped
1 cup of garden peas
300 grams of cooked macaroni

Fry onions, garlic and chili. Add mince, breaking it up as it cooks. Add sauce and rest of the veges. Adding 1/2 cup of water if too dry. Toss macaroni through. 

Dishing out my love to friends at Presto Pasta. This week, it is hosted by Claudia from Honey from a Rock.

Tom Yam Seafood Pasta Stir Fry

I have certainly been trying to clear my fridge lately. I found this jar of tom yam paste-with only about 1-2 tablespoon left. Since I was in need for a pasta idea, I thought a quick stir fry with some seafood marinara and veges will make a quick and easy meal.

I had a few pieces of kaffir lime leaf and added that in. Oh and birds eye chili of course. The tangyness stimulated my taste buds straight away and I couldnt help but eat more!!

Tom Yam Seafood Pasta Stir Fry 
250 grams of cooked pasta
500 grams of seafood marinara
1 tablespoon of tom yam paste
1 onion sliced
2 birds eye chili chopped
baby corn
mushrooms
peas

Saute onion till soft. Add paste and chili. Cook seafood till done. Toss in veges first then pasta. Toss for around 3-4 minutes. Serve hot!

Sharing this dish with my friends at Presto Pasta. This week, the awesome Ruth from Once Upon A Feast is hosting!

Black Bean Beef Soba Noodles

A true cantonese girl, I like my soups. I grew up with them you see. Especially clear soup. In fact, I was told that as a toddler. I saw my uncle enjoying his huge bowl of soup-being jealous, I threw my ball into his bowl. Yup! Right from my cot (We stayed in a 2 bedroom small apartment so my cot was in the living area near to the dining table).

Alas, that aim has never been replicated.

My eyes twinkled when I say 200 Soups for sale at my work place (the have the book people come in every fortnight, some proceeds go to charity). For $6, that's a bargain!

So here comes my entry for this week's Presto Pasta. Black Bean Beef Soba Noodles caught my eye because it looks simple and hearty for a quick week night dinner. I was also intrigued by the addition of raw peanuts, which certainly add a texture to the beef and noodles. The 2 chili padi was also enough to give you the heat without a punch.  Ahh.. I think my $6 was well spent.


Black Bean Beef Soba Noodles (serves 2)
100 grams of soba noodles
around 600 ml of beef stock with 1 cup of water
200 grams of lean beef-sliced thinly
around 1/2 cup of raw peanuts
2 cups of bean sprouts
2 tsp of black bean sauce
1 tsp of garlic
1 knob of ginger sliced
1 chili padi chopped finely
1 red onion sliced
chopped spring onions
Seasoning

Saute garlic, chili, ginger and onion. Add in the black bean sauce. As it bubbles, add stock and water. Simmer for around 5 minutes and you have your stock base. Add raw nuts in first. Followed by noodles. Cook for around 3 minutes. As it boils, add the beef. Once the beef is done, taste and season. Serve with spring onions.

My entry to Presto Pasta. I'm the host this week! Send me your entries to daphnesu16(at)yahoo(dot)com and cc to ruth(at)4everykitchen(dot)com

Roasted Pumpkin and Capsicum Pasta with Pinenuts

From time to time, I like to organise my meals for the week in such a way that it takes less than 10 minutes for dinner to be ready. In this case, I roasted my vegetables on the weekend, so that by the time Monday/Tuesday roll along, all I needed to do was to cook pasta, warm the roasted veges up, toss them together-add some cracked pepper and fresh chives, and I'm done.

I am a big fan of roasted pumpkin because it adds bulk to food without the cost but with the taste. Also another way to add 1 more serving of veges into our daily diet. It is however, slightly higher on the sugar side and perhaps not the "lowest GI" food around. Hey, but I bet it is better than eating red meat every day right?

If this recipe sounds familiar to you, that's because I turned the same mixture into a warm salad before. The difference? I toasted some pine nuts, added some goats cheese and chives to it.


Roasted Pumpkin and Capsicum Pasta with Pinenuts 
1/2 butternut pumpkin chopped in cubes
2 red capsicums cubed
2 tsp of paprika
1 generous tablespoon of honey
1 tsp of dried chili flakes
some cracked black pepper

handful of pine nuts
chopped chives
30 grams of goats cheese
250 grams of cooked pasta


olive oil spray
Pre heat oven to 200C. Mix all the above together and spread them on a baking tray. Spray with oil and roast for around 20 minutes, checking after 10 minutes or so. Cool and store.

Toast pine nuts and add it to mixture. When ready, warm roasted veges and toss them through cooked pasta and pine nuts. Serve with crumbed goats cheese and chives.

Sharing this with the Presto Pasta gang organised by Ruth. This week, Sweet Kitchen is hosting. Be sure to check the round up on Friday!