Lunch: Baked Pasta

Baked Pasta is one of my favourite party dishes to make. It was one of the dishes I cooked for Noah's recent party too. It's not too difficult, it's flavourful, and the kids love it. (So does my husband actually, but he is resigned to only seeing repeats of the dishes that the kids love!)

The "trick" to this - if you can call it that - is that the meat sauce is made not with minced beef or pork, but with Italian Sausages. I started using sausage meat after following a Jamie Oliver recipe and really loved it. I usually buy the Italian Spicy Sausages from Cold Storage for this, but if I'm serving this to kids, I've found that the Garlic & Herb Sausages are a good substitute.

The sausage meat really makes a difference! I sometimes mix some in with my bolognaise sauce too. Try it if you haven't! You might not go back to plain ol' mince again.

Baked Pasta
(Serves 6-8)

Ingredients:

400g Penne Pasta (about 3/4 of a packet)
1/2 tablespoon of Olive Oil
3 cloves of Garlic, peeled and sliced thinnly
1 small Onion, chopped
6 regular-sized/18 cocktail-sized Italian Spicy Sausages OR Garlic & Herb Sausages (1 package), meat squeezed out of skins
200g White Mushrooms, sliced
2 x 400g tins of Whole Peeled Roma Tomatoes
A small handful of Basil Leaves, torn
250g Mozzarella Cheese, shredded
150g Parmesan Cheese, grated
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 200ºC and put a large pot of salted water to boil.

2. Heat the olive oil in a good-sized pan. Add the onion and garlic and slowly fry on a medium heat until soft.

3. Add sausage meat and break up the meat with the spatula while frying. Fry for a few minutes until the meat starts to colour and the fat start to render, then break it up the meat further so that it resembles coarse mince. Cook till the meat becomes golden brown and slightly caramelised.

4. Add mushrooms and fry for a few minutes till they start to brown.

5. Add the tomatoes from the can, including the liquid. Using the spatula, break up the tomatoes and mix this with the rest of the ingredients that are already in the pan. Cook for about 20mins till the sauce starts to thicken.

6. Add the basil to the sauce and correct the seasoning with salt and pepper.

7. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the packet. Drain and mix in some of the sauce to coat the pasta.

8. Get an appropriately sized baking dish and rub it with a little olive oil. Then layer the ingredients in the dish in the following order: some of the pasta, followed by some meat sauce, followed by some mozzarella and parmesan. Repeat these layers till you've used up all the ingredients. Make sure you have a good layer of cheese on top.

9. Pop the dish into the pre-heated oven and cook for about 15mins or so till the cheese is golden and bubbling.

Cooking Notes:

♥ When I'm out of fresh basil, I've used fresh oregano, or dried versions of either herb with no problem. Just remember that the dried herbs are stronger in flavour so 1/2 a teaspoon or so should be sufficient.

Enjoy!

Lunch: Char Siew Noodles

Char Siew Noodles -- with homemade char siew -- is a relatively new dish that has made it into our lunch menu. I love char siew and I love making my own, even though it is so readily available in Singapore, because it just tastes best fresh out of the oven. Juicy and not dry, with tasty charred bits. Delicious.

I discovered a particularly yummy recipe for char siew at Rasamalaysia.com and this is the recipe I've been basing my char siew on. I've made a few modifications, mainly because I am lazy or could not find ingredients but it still tastes great! It really isn't difficult, though it does require some time because of the time required to marinate the meat. The recipe recommends marinating the meat overnight. I've tried marinating it for 4 hours because I was short of time and it still tasted good, though the colour didn't take as well. You just have to be more diligent about basting the meat.

Anyway, on to the recipe!

Ingredients for Char Siew (Serves 3-4):

500g pork shoulder/pork collar, cut into a long strip¹ (ask the butcher for 五花肉)
1/2 tablespoon cooking oil
Char Siew Sauce (see below)

Char Siew Sauce:

1 1/2 tablespoons maltose²
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rose wine³
3 dashes white pepper powder
1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients in for the char siew sauce in a small sauce pan. Heat and stir till all the ingredients are well mixed. When the mixture starts to boil, turn off the heat and let cool.

2. Marinate the pork meat with 2/3 of the char siew sauce overnight. Add the 1/2 tablespoon of cooking oil into the remaining char siew sauce, mix well and keep in the fridge.

3. The next day, preheat the oven to 190°C. Place the pork in a roasting pan and drizzle the marinating liquid over it.

4. When the oven is ready, put the pork in the oven and roast for 15 minutes.

5. Turn the pork over in the roasting pan and drizzle/brush some of the reserved char siew sauce over it. The underside of the meat (that was resting on the surface of the pan) would have been charred in spots by the pan. Return to the oven for another 15 minutes.

6. Turn pork over again (if required), and drizzle/brush on some of the reserved char siew sauce. Broil the pork on high heat till it is slightly charred on the surface. This should take 2-3 minutes. Repeat on the other side if necessary.

7. Remove pork from the oven and slice into bite-size pieces. Serve with remaining char siew sauce.

Notes:

1. You can get the local butcher to cut the pork into a strip - just tell him you're making char siew and ask him to cut up the meat accordingly. If not, you can just cut the pork into 2-3 strips yourself.
2. If you can't find maltose, double the portion of honey. Do try to find the maltose if you can though, because it's a quintessential ingredient of Chinese roast meats and I believe it caramelizes better.
3. I have not been able to find this Chinese Rose Wine and I substituted it for some Chinese cooking wine (Hua Tiao Chiew). However, as the original recipe identifies this as a key ingredient, I have retained its reference in this recipe.

For the Noodles:

Cook each portion of noodles by blanching them in boilling water till cooked, but yet firm. This takes about 3-5 minutes. Remove with a wire mesh strainer and transfer immediately into a bowl of cold water. Shake to loosen and rinse, transfer the noodles back into the boiling water for about 10 seconds  before transferring onto individual serving plates.

For tossing with the noodles, for each portion, I like to mix:
1-2 teaspoons of fried shallot oil
1 teaspoon of oyster sauce
1 teaspoon of light soya sauce
1/2 teaspoon of sweet dark soya sauce
ketchup/chilli oil to taste

I went by feel for this so do go ahead and experiment with your own mix!

Noey spontaneously giving me the thumbs up the first time I made this dish. That's how much he likes his lunch!

Lunch: XO Fish Bee Hoon Soup

I just realised that I forgot to post this! The only reason I remembered was because we had this for lunch yesterday. Hah.

I decided to try to cook Fish Bee Hoon Soup because DD really loves it, and I was running out of soupy meals to cook at home for those days when we all need something light and (somewhat) healthy. Before this, I only had 2 real options, which are also our perennial favourites: (1) Chicken Macaroni Soup and (2) Fishball Noodle Soup. I needed more variety!

I shopped around for some recipes and came up with my own and I'm glad that this dish is fast becoming a new family favourite. Honestly, it's still a bit of a work-in-progress because I keep tweaking it. Also because I am one of those cook who likes to agar-agar her way through dishes. I taste and adjust as I go along. So if you do decide to try this out, use the proportions more as a guide than as absolute measurements. At the end of the day, it's also about what tastes good to you!

Ingredients (Serves 2-3)
2 small red onions
3-4 cloves garlic
1 thumb sized knob ginger
300-400g firm fish (Snakehead/Garoupa/Snapper Loin/Cod)
Oil for deep frying
400g fish bones
1 cup dried ikan bilis
2 tomatoes, quartered
5-6 bunches of green vegetables (Chye Sim/Xiao Bai Chye)
1 litre fish stock
1 tablespoon sesame oil
150-200ml evaporated milk
1 packet thick bee hoon noodles
3 tablespoons XO (optional)
Salt and Pepper

Method
1. Roughly chop the red onions and garlic. Cut/Shred the ginger into thin slices. Rinse the cup of ikan bilis.
2. Cut the fish into bite-size chunks to your liking. Pat dry and season with salt and pepper.
3. Heat oil in a wok and deep fry the fish till golden brown. Remove, drain and set aside.
4. In a stock pot (for the soup), heat 2 tablespoons of oil till hot.
5. Add onions, garlic and ginger and fry until onions are slightly translucent.
6. Add fish bones, dried ikan bilis and a splash (about 1 tablespoon) of XO, if using, to the mixture and fry until fragrant.
7. Add fish stock and tomatoes and bring soup stock to a boil.
8. While waiting for the soup to boil, bring water to the boil in a separate pot and blanch the bee hoon noodles until soft. Remove and drain, and divide into serving bowls.
9. Blanch vegetables in boiling water. Remove and drain, and add to serving bowls.
10. Return to soup stock and add the evaporated milk and sesame oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add remaining XO and simmer for 3 mins, if using.
11. Ladle soup into serving bowls.

Tuck in!

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Click here for the earlier post in this Lunch series

Lunch: Charbeck Mee Sua

One of the bad things about being at home is the fact that I get very bored with eating the same food at home day in day out. The good thing that comes out of that is that it gets me off my butt and gets me hunting down new recipes to try.

My husband would tell you that my western meals are much, much better than my Chinese food. Partly because having grown up on my Teochew grandmother's cooking, I like cheng soups and steamed food. Especially steamed fish. The husband? Not such a fan of what he deems bland food.

I've therefore been on the lookout for more dishes to add to our dinner menu for more variety, and also one-dish soupy meals to add to our lunch menu. To remind myself of the good ones, I've decided to start posting some of the recipes here. This is the first of the Lunch Series.

I tried a recipe for Charbeck Mee Sua in The New Mrs Lee's Cookbook, Vol.2 a couple of weeks back, and I really liked it. It is a tasty soup dish, and I love mee sua. I share this with Noey, but he isn't too fond of mee sua, so I use bee tai mak (which he loves) instead and pour the same soup over. Also, I pick out most of the taucheo from his bowl because it does taste a bit strong. It is quite the defining flavour to this dish though, so I do not leave it out. Also, in a bid to make it a more balanced meal, I usually add some greens, like chye sim or xiao bai chye to it.

Altogether a rather tasty afternoon meal that isn't too difficult to put together!

Here is the recipe, with some of my own modifications. The original recipe also involves pork kidney, which is soaked in brandy, but I don't like kidney and have omitted it.

Ingredients (Serves 2-3)
160 minced pork
160g pork liver (Optional)
2 tbsp salted soy beans (taucheo) (I use the knife brand bottled version)
½ thumb sized knob ginger
2 tbsp oil
700ml water
½ tsp salt
4 bundles fine rice noodles (mee sua)
A handful of greens, eg. Chye Sim or Xiao Bai Chye

Garnishes
6 cloves garlic
2 spring onions
2 sprigs coriander (Chinese Parsley)

Method
1. Rinse then cut liver into thin slices, if using.
2. If whole salted soy beans are used, pound the beans.
3. Peel then finely shred the ginger and mince the garlic.
4. Heat a wok over a high flame till it smokes. Add the oil.
5. Lower the flame then add the garlic. Stir-fry until light golden-brown. Remove and drain. Set aside.
6. Stir-fry the ginger in the garlic oil then add the salted soy beans. Sprinkle some water to prevent it from burning.
7. Add the minced pork. Continue to stir-fry for 3-5 mins
8. Once the pork is cooked, add the liver and water.
9. Bring to a boil then simmer. Add salt to taste.
10. In another pot, blanch the rice noodles in boiling water for about 1-2 mins. Remove and drain.
11. Blanch the greens in boiling water. Remove and drain.
12. When serving individual portions, place the rice noodles in a bowl with the greens on top, then pour the soup over. Garnish with the fried garlic, spring onions and coriander.

Enjoy!