Simple Spaghetti Aglio Olio

I’m a firm believer in the motto ‘less is more’. I like everything simple, so here’s a simple recipe for Spaghetti Aglio Olio that can be whipped up in under 10 minutes.

Ingredients (Serves 2):-

• 125g Spaghetti (or a grip full)
• 4 cloves garlic (grated)
• 50g butter
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp chilli flakes
• Salt & pepper
• Parmesan to serve

Method:-

1. Cook spaghetti in salted boiling water for 7 minutes or till al dente.
2. Drain spaghetti and reserve about 2-3 tablespoons of salted spaghetti water. Leave spaghetti aside.
3. Heat oil and butter in a pan and add garlic and chilli flakes. Lightly stir the garlic until fragrant but not brown.
4. Add spaghetti and the reserved salted water to the pan. Mix and remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve with parmesan.

Spaghetti Aglio Olio

Yee Ling

My Own Version of English Cucumber Sandwiches

This is a snack that I made during one of my vegetarian days. I know its just a simple sandwich, but I did try having it with, and without vinegar and the one with the cucumber soaked in vinegar just taste so much different. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Half an English cucumber. This MUST be english cucumber, we don’t want to be using chicken rice local cucumber.
2. Cream cheese. I use the lightsmiling  moo cow brand one.

3. Bread. Any sandwich bread will do.
4. Soft butter.
5. White vinegar (Preferably white wine vinegar, but I used normal white vinegar since I do not have white wine)

Instructions:

1. After washing the english cucumber, slice it into roud shapes very very thinly.
2. In a plate, splatter some salt across the sliced cucumber. After about one minute, all the juices should have started to come out of the cucumber. Grab a bunch of cucumber in your hand and squeeze it dry. The cucumber should now look slightly transluscent. The reason we do this is so that the vinegar can absorb easier into the cucumber since there are less liquid now.
3. On the same, dry plate, sprinkle (not sure if this is the right word!) some vinegar over the cucumber to make sure that each and everyone of them are covered with vinegar. Soak for one hour.
4. Squeeze the cucumber dry again after one hour. And then pat the cucumber dry with kitchen paper.
5. Cut the skin off the bread and apply butter to both the inside area of the bread. Then continue to apply cream cheese as a second layer.
6. Arrange the cucumber neatly on the bread on one side. Two layers will do. Too many will make the sandwich very hard to handle when eating. Cover with the other half of the sandwich.
7. Enjoy this sandwich with english tea!

Awesome Pasta with Spicy Sausages and Bacon

I was craving for pasta again. Another heartwarming food I must say. For pasta, my favourite ones are the tomato based ones. And one thing good about making it at home is, you can really ‘tune’ the pasta according to your taste buds. You know how when you eat out, sometimes the pasta sauce is too sour, or too bland. I really can’t stand it when the pasta is too sour. So that’s why making it at home eliminates all these uncertainties! I got this recipe from Yee Ling. Only made minor changes but I think this sauce rocks!

Ingredients (Makes 4 servings):

3 Spicy sausages (those italian ones that they sell in the supermarket) – Skin removed
1 Brown Onion (Medium Size)
3 Rashes of Bacon (Lean)
1 Can of Button Mushrooms
1 Can of Diced Tomatoes (400g)
1 Can of Tomato Paste (The smallest can you can get)
1 Handful of spaghetti
Sugar and salt to taste

Instructions:

1. Cut the onion into small bits, and the bacon into chunks. Then heat the pan up with some oil, and sautee the onions with the bacon until both are brown.
2. Cut the sausages into big chunks and sautee together until all ingredients are browned and there is a very nice fragrance.
3. Add in mushrooms, sautee for about 2 minutes.
4. Add in 2/3 of the tomato paste and mix with the ingredients.
5. Add in diced tomatoes.
6. Add the remainder of the tomato paste with one tea cup of water. This depends on how much sauce you want. You can use between one to one and a half cups of water. Too much will dilute the sauce.
7. This is the point where you add sugar. And to me, this is probably the most important step. Because adding sugar determines the sourness level of your sauce. I add in quite a bit because like I mentioned, I don’t like sour sauces! Add also a pinch of salt.
8. Simmer for another 6 minutes and the sauce is done! Mix it with the pasta.

For pasta, before cooking the sauce, boil some water in a pot and add in a lot of salt. Then cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet.

Gourmet Beef Burger Patties

There’s this favourite gourmet burger shop of mine in Melbourne called Grill’d, which serves healthy gourmet burgers. I know Malaysia’s famous for it’s roadside Ramli burger stalls but I do sometimes crave for a big fat juicy beef burger. Obviously, it’s not easy to replicate the burgers from Grill’d (or else I would’ve opened my own burger restaurant), but I’ve tried a burger recipe from the Australian Better Homes and Gardens magazine while I was in Australia and it was pretty darn good. Now here’s a version (mine) I tried in Malaysia. Note: I reckon the ‘Aussie’ beef mince here in Malaysia seems to be somewhat different.

Ingredients:-

• 550g premium beef mince
• 1 medium brown onion, finely chopped
• 3/8 cups fresh breadcrumbs (1/2 cups to make it easier)
• 1.5 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 egg
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley (optional)
• Oil

Method:-

1. Combine mince, onion, egg, breadcrumbs, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce and parsley in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper.
2. Mix well with clean hands or spatula and leave in fridge for 1-2 hours. You can omit the fridge step if you are pressed for time.
3. Using damp hands, shape into patties. Makes about 8 or 7 big, plump ones.
4. Heat oil in frying pan and pan fry the patties until evenly browned or well cooked. Press patties lightly while frying.
5. Serve beef patties on burger buns with salad of your choice, cheddar cheese, tomato sauce and mustard.

The Raw Ingredients

Uncooked Beef Patties

Gourmet Beef Burger

Yee Ling