Focaccia

Posted by Vivian in Bread, Italian

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Ingredients:

• 500gm bread flour
• 1 heaped tablespoon semolina
• 15gm active yeast
• 50ml olive oil
• Salt
• Leaves from 2 to 3 rosemary sprigs

Preparation:

• Add flour, semolina, yeast and generous pinches of salt in stand mixer’s mixing bowl. 
• Mix 320 ml of warm water with olive oil. 
• Gradually add water and olive oil mixture to dry ingredients while mixing with a dough hook. 
• Knead till dough is smooth, elastic and springy to touch (around 10 minutes). 
• Leave dough in a floured mixing bowl/container to proof for 30 to 60 minutes until double in size (or 18 to 24 hours overnight in fridge, and if dough was kept overnight in fridge, it needs to be placed on counter for around 2 hours to be soften and back up to room temperature before proceeding to next step). 
• Line and oil baking tray or dish (around 28cm x 20cm). Transfer risen dough to tray and prod out dough to edges of tray with well oiled fingers. Leave dough to proof for 30 minutes. 
• Drizzle olive oil over dough and using tip of fingers, poke dough all over creating dimples. 
• Mix rosemary leaves with a little bit of olive oil and scatter all over dough. Season with salt and drizzle with a little more olive oil. Can be replaced with other toppings including parmesan, olives, sunblush tomatoes, salt flakes or oregano. 
• Allow dough to sit for another 20 mins. 
• Preheat oven to 200 degree Celcius (or 190 degree Celcius depending on the oven). 
• Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown and crispy (may need to tent or reduce to 180 degree Celcius at the last 10 minutes to prevent it from browning too much). 
• Leave to rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting.

(Alternative method with starter dough)

Ingredients:

Starter (Poolish)

• 200gm bread flour
• 200ml water
• 1/4 teaspoon active yeast

Focaccia Dough

• 300gm bread flour
• 120ml water (can be increased to 160ml for a higher hydration dough)
• 1 heaped tablespoon semolina
• 1 teaspoon active yeast
• Olive oil
• Salt

Preparation:

• Mix ingredients for starter dough in a large bowl and whisk with a wooden spoon or spatula.
• Cover starter dough and leave on counter in room temperature between 8 to 12 hours. If starter dough is to be used the next day, it can be stored in fridge overnight but will need to be brought back up to room temperature before use (around 1 to 2 hours).
• Dissolve 1 tsp yeast in 120ml water in stand mixer’s mixing bowl.
• Add starter dough, remaining flour, semolina and mix with dough hook. Start at low speed to prevent flour with flying. Increase to high speed and mix for around 8 minutes until the dough starts to pull away from the sides.
• Mix 1 tablespoon of salt with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  Add into dough 
• Knead for another 3 to 5 minutes until the dough forms into a ball shape.
• Move dough over to a lightly greased bowl/container. Cover and let it proof for an hour.
• Line baking tray or dish (around 28cm x 20cm). Transfer risen dough to tray and prod out dough to edges of tray with well oiled fingers. Leave dough to proof for another 30 minutes.
• Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil over dough and using tip of fingers, poke dough all over creating dimples.
• Other toppings can be added at this point
• Allow dough to sit for another 20 mins.
• Preheat oven to 200 degree Celcius (or 190 degree Celcius depending on the oven).
• Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown and crispy (may need to tent or reduce to 180 degree Celcius at the last 10 minutes to prevent it from browning too much).
• Leave to rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting.

Other tips:

• Olive oil can be infused with some rosemary leaves a day before use for added flavour.
• Dried herbs to be added to dough instead as topping to prevent drying out while in oven.
• Powdered garlic can be added to dough during last stage of kneading.

Marcella Hazan's Bolognese Sauce

Posted by Vivian in Beef, Italian, Pasta

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Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2/3 cup chopped celery
• 2/3 cup chopped carrot
• 1 pound ground beef (around 500 gm)
• Salt
• Fresh ground black pepper
• 1 cup whole milk
• Grounded nutmeg
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1-½ cups canned plum tomatoes, torn into pieces, with juice
• 1-¼ to 1-½ pounds pasta (preferably spaghetti), cooked and drained
• Grated Parmesan

Preparation:

• Heat oil with 3 tablespoons of butter and chopped onion in pot over medium heat.
• Cook and stir onion until it has become translucent, then add chopped celery and carrot. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring vegetables to coat well. 
• Add ground beef, a large pinch of salt and a few grindings of black pepper. Crumble meat with a fork, stir well and cook until beef has lost its raw, red colour. 
• Add milk and let simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely. 
• Add a tiny grating, about 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg and stir. 
• Add wine and let it simmer until it has evaporated. 
• Add tomatoes and stir thoroughly to coat all ingredients well. When tomatoes begin to bubble, turn heat down and let simmer. 
• Cook sauce uncovered for 3 hours or more, stirring from time to time. While sauce is cooking, it will begin to dry out and the fat will separate from the meat. Add ½ cup water as necessary. At the end of cooking, the water should be completely evaporated and the fat should separate from the sauce. 
• Taste and correct for salt. 
• Add remaining tablespoon butter to the hot pasta and toss with the sauce. 
• Serve with grated Parmesan on the side.

Pasta Carbonara

Posted by Vivian in Italian, Pasta

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I Don't deny that I have been having quite a fair bit of "mishaps" in the kitchen lately.  For some odd reason I seem to over-season my dishes these days making it way too salty to swallow.  The worst case was that I mistook salt for sugar 2 weeks ago and added 1 tablespoon of salt to my stir-fried macaroni when it should have been sugar.  At that point I couldn't figure out the reason why it was so salty until 2 days ago when I was trying to refill my salt and whipped out the container which actually contained sugar.  As I opened the lid and took in a sweet whiff, it hit me that I had added salt instead of sugar by accident.

After a few weeks of disappointment, I finally started to regain faith in myself all thanks to this sunny-looking pasta dish.  Not only did the taste made me happy, peering through the camera lens when I took photos of it added on to the level of ecstasy.   The only reason that made me really excited about wanting to put this post up as quickly as possible is the golden hue of this dish... so pretty and eye-catching.  The speckles of green from the parsley brings the colour out even more.

The only mistake I made was to turn up the heat at the last minute because Elaina was whining and demanded lunch to be served immediately because she was hungry.  The egg yolk started to set too quickly and turned out a little scrambled.   Well... I guess it is hard to function under stress.

Ingredients:

• 400 gm penne pasta or spaghetti (cooked to al-dente, drained and set aside)
• 200 gm bacon (cut into strips)
• 4 egg yolks
• 175 ml heavy cream
• 175 gm grated parmesan cheese

Preparation:

• Heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil and fry bacon for 5 minutes until crisp and brown.
• Remove bacon and drain away excess oil.
• Mix egg yolks, cream and parmesan cheese well in a large pot.
• Cook pasta till al-dente and once done, immediately transfer over to egg mixture in a few small batches, stirring it well each time to allow heat from pasta to warm up the egg mixture slowly to prevent it turning into scrambled egg. 
• In case of doubt that egg mixture is undercooked, simmer pot of pasta over low heat as a final step.

Number of Servings: 4

Spaghetti Bolognese

Posted by Vivian in Italian, Pasta

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I have been ignoring my blogs for the past few weeks because I was doing a 3-week non-stop "dramathon".  129 episodes of Korean drama, Cruel Temptation kept me busy every night after the kids had gone to bed.  It is very unusual of me to get hooked to the television.  On an average I only watch one drama a year.  Shan't go into the detail or make a full review here of why this show can keep me a non-tv addict up to 2, 3 am even on a weeknight.  It is probably the same reason why this show can beat another Mediacorp drama airing at the same time belt.

After the 3-week "dramathon", I took the following few nights to catch up on my sleep.  I noticed that in the last 3 weeks, my concealer wasn't doing its magic every morning because the dark eye rings were so bad due to the lack of rest (but hack, I had to press on and get to the end of the show).  Plus I needed to recoup the sleep that I lost before we fly off for our family holiday in Japan next week.

The good thing that came out of the "dramathon" is that I managed to wean off my nightly addiction to the Bejewelzed game on Facebook.  One addiction in exchange for another?  Hmmm....

Back to food... this was what I made for the family weeks ago (ermm can't remember when exactly).  Instead of making the tomato paste from scratch I relied on the ready-made jar type.  Till now I still don't think it is worth my time and effort to whip up one pot of sauce just for our occasional pasta fix.  Cream sauce on the other hand is comparatively less of a hassle.

Ingredients:

• 500 gm spaghetti (pre-cooked)
• 2 garlic cloves (finely minced)
• 1 large onion (finely chopped)
• 1 carrot (finely chopped)
• 1 stalk of celery (finely chopped)
• 50 gm bacon (finely chopped)
• 500 gm minced beef
• Tomato based pasta paste

Preparation: 

• Heat oil in large deep saucepan.  Add garlic, onion, carrot, celery and bacon and cook.  Stirring occasionally over medium heat until ingredients soften.
• Add minced beef to saucepan, breaking up any lumps.  Cook until the beef browns.
• Add in tomato paste (to desired consistency) and allow sauce to simmer.
• Serve sauce over pasta.

Number of Servings: 4 

Pizza

Posted by Vivian in Italian

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The "recipe" for the above is really simple - one Fisherprice linka-doo with a watering can cover stuffed right in the centre. Voila, and we have a "pizza" ready to be served. The kids and I came up with this "recipe" long time ago in the bathtub while I was washing them up. Matty even added that the little holes of the watering can cover are pepperonis. Though the "pizza" is unlikely to score any points in the taste department, we definitely deserve a distinction for creativity.

Anyway, back to some real pizzas!!

2 weekends ago while making some plastic pizzas in the bathtub, Matty asked if I could make him a real pizza. The last time I attempted putting pizzas on the kids' plate was almost a year ago and it wasn't well-received by Elaina. I stopped whipping it up again. After slogging hard in the kitchen to cook up a meal, the last thing I want is a child who pushes the food around the plate. It was with a lot of courage that I promised Matty we will have pizzas for the following weekend.

Pizza is a really versatile dish and almost anything can be used as a topping. Even the base can be either freshly home-made, frozen crust from the supermarket, pita bread or simply sandwich bread.

My dad once told me that if the base is freshly made, I should bake it slightly first before adding the toppings. This way it will prevent the toppings from burning (since it will take longer for the base to cook as opposed to the toppings). This will have to be a mental note for now. I wasn't prepared to knead the dough without the help of a bread making machine or mixer. Time is precious in my case.

A question sparked late last week while I was picking up the frozen crusts. The instructions on the packaging said to spread the tomato paste first and then cheese. Other toppings to follow. In the past, I have always had the cheese last. So which should be the way? I did a search on the internet (my guru for everything!) and came upon this site that talked about nothing but pizzas. Apparently, this is the right order:

1. Tomato paste
2. Cheese - to hold the toppings down and to keep the base moist
3. Other toppings
4. Cheese - to cover the toppings and keep them moist

I took the advice. I had mozzarella cheese as the first layer of cheese and lastly I topped the pizzas with cheddar cheese. Of course, common sense told me that after the first layer of cheese, toppings like ham and pepperoni went next since they are flat and other toppings which included the mushrooms, onions and pineapples came after that, intricately balanced on the ham and pepperoni.

This was the final product that made it to our dining table (and fortunately Elaina had no issues this time round) ...

Chicken and Pasta Casserole

Posted by Vivian in Italian, Pasta

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Attempted this the 2nd time today and definitely think that it tastes much better.  Not sure if it is because I adjusted the amount of sour cream down, or because I had used the Campbell's premium cream of wild mushroom as opposed to the normal cream of mushroom, or maybe because I was less pressed for time and could do a better job.  But I have to say that a rush job (including cooking) usually delivers result less than satisfying.

Ingredients:

• 200 gm spiral pasta (pre-cooked) 
• 300 ml can cream of mushroom 
• 200 ml sour cream 
• 6 chicken fillet 
• 250 gm broccoli (cut into small pieces) 
• 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs 
• 1 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese 

Preparation: 

• Roast chicken fillet at 200 degree Celsius for 20 minutes. 
• Roughly cut chicken into smaller pieces. 
• Mix cream soup with 100 ml of water to thin consistency. 
• Combine pasta, broccoli, cream soup, sour cream and chicken. 
• Transfer mixture into an oven-proof dish and top with breadcrumbs and cheddar cheese. 
• Bake at 180 degree Celsius for 25 minutes or until cheese has melted and top is golden brown. 

Number of Servings: 4

Italian Omelette

Posted by Vivian in Egg, Italian

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Not too happy with 2 things today... one, the cheddar cheese which I bought last week had gone moldy even though the expiry date stated on the packet says "14 June 2009".  As a result I had to live without the topping for this dish.

Second thing that upset me was the photo selection which took me less than 10 minutes - simply because none of the photos turned out well enough to do justice to this savoury dish.  They all look like a blob of mess!!  For now, I will have to make do with this photo until the next time I cook this again.

Ingredients:

• 1 onion (finely chopped) 
• 125 gm ham (sliced) 
• 6 eggs 
• 3 tablespoon of milk 
• 2 cups of cooked fusilli (yielded from 150 gm of uncooked dried fusilli) 
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley 
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil 
• 1/2 cup grated Cheddar cheese 

Preparation:

• Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan. 
• Add onion and stir over low heat until tender. 
• Add ham and stir for 1 minute. Remove from heat and transfer to a plate. 
• Whisk egg together with milk, salt and pepper. Stir in pasta, Parmesan, herbs and onion mixture. 
• Preheat grill to hot. 
• Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in the same pan. 
• Pour mixture into pan. Sprinkle with Cheddar and cook over medium heat until the omelette begins to set around the edges. 
• Then place pan under grill until lightly browned on top. 
• Cut into wedges and serve hot. 

(If pan is not oven-proof, transfer the mixture from the pan to an oven-proof dish then sprinkle with Cheddar before putting under grill.)

Number of Servings: 3 to 4

Baked Pasta

Posted by Vivian in Italian, Pasta

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An extensive "research" for a great and easy baked pasta recipe was done a while ago and the truth was that it didn't seem like there was a definite way to put this dish together. The key was probably to make sure that the ingredients blend well with each other. And hence I concocted this recipe by adapting it from various sources.

The photo showed that I had used the big shell pasta because the supermarket ran out of penne the other day. I personally felt that penne will be a better choice with a baked pasta dish.

Ingredients:

• 200 gm penne pasta (pre-cooked) 5 sausages 
• 200 gm swiss brown mushroom (thickly sliced) 
• 1 big yellow onion (roughly chopped) 
• 1 big bottle of tomato based pasta sauce 
• Mozzarella cheese 
• Cheddar cheese 
• Dried parsley 

Preparation:

• Heat up cooking oil in frying pan. 
• Add in sausages and lightly brown it. 
• Set sausages aside to let it cool and slice diagonally. 
• With the same frying pan, add in a little more cooking oil and stir-fry the onion until almost done. 
• Add in mushroom and stir-fry until the juices start to run. 
• Remove the mushroom and onion mixture and set aside. 
• Mix the pasta, sausages, onion, mushrooms with 3/4 bottle of the tomato paste. 
• Add in mozzarella cheese (amount to personal liking) and sprinkle with a generous amount of dried parsley and mix well. 
• Put mixture into an oven-proof dish and top with with more tomato paste to cover. 
• Add cheddar cheese on top. 
• Bake in pre-heated oven at 200 degree Celsius until the cheese melts and top browns. 

Number of Servings: 4

(The one thing I learned is that the oven settings can be played around with even during cooking to attain the desired results. Of course this is usually learned through trial and error for different types of dishes. For this dish I started with fan-forced conventional oven to quickly melt the cheese and then up the temperature to 220 degree Celsius and changed the setting to fan-forced grill which helps to brown the top very quickly and nicely.)

Fettuccine with Prawn and Saffron Cream Sauce

Posted by Vivian in Italian, Pasta

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This recipe is adapted from a book titled "Pasta. Best-Ever Pasta & Sauce Recipes".

Why do I say that it is adapted rather than lifted from the book?  It is because I changed one of the major ingredient of this dish - lobster tail meat.  I don't really think that I can find lobster in a supermarket and even if I can it will burn a big hole in a pocket.  The book suggested that raw bug tail can be used as a replacement.  That sounded very foreign and exotic to me.  Again I doubt that I can find it in the supermarket.  Hence, prawns were added instead.

Ingredients:

• 400 gm fettuccine (pre-cooked) 
• 4 large garlic cloves (diced) 
• 250 gm Swiss brown mushroom (sliced) 
• 400 gm prawns (shell removed and deveined) 
• 1/2 cup white wine 
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads 
• 700 ml thick cream 
• 2 egg yolks (beaten) 

Preparation:

• Heat olive oil or melt 60 gm of butter in a large deep frying pan. 
• Add garlic and mushrooms, and cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until mushrooms turn soft. 
• Add in prawn and cook through. 
• Remove mixture from pan. 
• Add in wine and saffron threads to the pan, scrapping the bottom to collect any bits. Bring to boil and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until reduced. 
• Add in cream, reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. 
• Add in some salt to taste. 
• Whisk through the egg yolks until thickened. 
• Return the prawns and mushrooms to the pan and stir well. 
• Serve hot with sauce over fettuccine. 

Number of Servings: 4 to 6

(Tip: To prevent the sauce from turning into an egg-drop soup, I read somewhere before that a little of the sauce should be added to the beaten egg first, stir to mix well and then repeat this step at least 2 to 3 times before adding the egg into the pan. By doing so, it slowly increases the temperature of the egg and prevent the egg from being cooked too fast. This ensures that the egg will mix thoroughly with the sauce.)

Creamy Mushroom Pasta

Posted by Vivian in Italian, Mushroom, Pasta

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This is one of the dishes that I attempted when I first started trying my hands on cooking. The recipe came from Wokking Mum (http://wokkingmum.blogspot.com/) and I have to admit that it is indeed idiot-proof - minimal skills required and the dish will never taste horrible. Most importantly everyone in the family loves it.

I can’t quite remember how many times I have cooked this but it will always show up in the menu if I am feeling lazy, tired and or when I don’t have much time to waste in the kitchen for whatever reason. The unfortunate part is that this dish must be consumed within the same day and do not keep well… or else the cream sauce will turn into a pool of oil slick whether you warm it up using the microwave oven or over the stove.

To make the meal a little more "rounded", I will usually add in some shredded ham. Loads of freshly grounded black pepper gives this pasta dish that added kick!


Ingredients:

• 2 palm-sized portobello mushroom, diced 
• 8 brown cap button mushroom, sliced 
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic 
• 200ml whipping cream 
• 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese 
• 1 tablespoon butter or olive Oil 
• Salt and pepper to taste 
• Pasta for two, pre-cooked 

Preparation:

• Heat wok and add olive oil or butter. 
• Add garlic and saute . 
• Add portobello mushroom and saute till well-cooked. 
• Add button mushroom and saute well. 
• Add in the cream and bring to a simmer. 
• Add half of the Parmesan cheese, cooked pasta, salt and pepper to taste. 
• Simmer till sauce thickens. 
• Dish and top with remaining Parmesan cheese. 

Number of Servings: 2