Fabulous Pasta with Ingredients So Simple It Blows Your Mind !

Aight, you know how you go to those fancy restaurants and you order them fancy seafood pasta and they taste soooooo succulent yummy, and there's just a hint of something that you know you cannot recreate it, i think i got it!  Yes, yes, butter plays a big role in making the yummy ..any yummy pasta sauce..but this one can go without and you won't be missing any bold flavors, but of course, you can definitely add butter in you're on a Paula Dean mode.  The second dish, was an inspiration by Mrs. MAS (shoutout), went over to her place for dinner and got inspired to create my own, such a seasonal fall dish>>  Roasted Rosemarry Buttnernut Squash Lasagna.  This lasagna recipe is slightly easier than Viking sister's previous post (http://foodieliciouslife.blogspot.com/2010/10/satisfying-lasagna.html), in a sense i'm not making a separate bechemel sauce, mine is a super lazy white sauce !

Dish 1: Shrimp linguine (or any pasta in your pantry) with Herbed White Wine Sauce:


Key to this dish is to get shelled in frozen shrimp (any size, but of course like anything else, bigger better:)
Do not thaw out shrimp during preparation, keep frozen.  Let the shrimp+shell and whatever frozen liquid in the bag thaw while in the pot, hence the juice creates the yummy seafood broth  like you've been collecting stinky shrimp shells and clam shells forever!

1 box / lb linguine or any type of your favorite pasta
1 box of standard frozen spinach (daily dose of vege is important!)
1 head of garlic (yes the entire head), minced
~1 lb of frozen shrimp (or more if its super cheap), the one i used was 24-26 count large shrimp
1 C any cheap or open bottle of white wine, mine was an opened bottle from a party from the previous night.
1/2 to 1 C of chicken broth (or water if you don't have it in hand)
Salt and pepper to taste (you will need a lot, don't be shy, it is afterall, a whole freaking pound of pasta!)
Dash of chili flakes (optional)
Chives and parsley (as much or as little depending on what you like)
~1/2 tbs Sugar (as with any of my cooking, you always need sugar to balance out your flavors!)
Butter >>> totally optional, but can't hurt the pallete

As standard pasta dish, boil your pasta the way you like it or base on the box directions.  It is important to have it Al dente as we want to pasta to finish cooking in the superscrumptious seafood "broth" and soak up all the flavors.

In a separate pot, pour a few tbsp of your favorite olive oil or vege oil and sautee a couple minutes the entire head of garlic.  Before garlic starts to brown, add in your frozen shrimp and the "juices" in the frozen packet.  It will take over 5 minutes for your frozen shrimp to thaw out, so stir on occasion to keep it moving in the pot.  Add in the spinach (semi thawed / drained) and start layering the flavor with a couple pinches of salt and pepper.  As the shrimps are getting semi cooked (based on turning red), add in your wine and broth and let simmer for another 6 minutes or so.  Add in your sugar and taste your sauce, add more salt, pepper, or sugar if desire.  Remember, you are adding a whole pound of pasta into this sauce, so its ok if its on the salty side!  Add in your pasta, and let it sit in your sauce to simmer, stir and mix well. You can always add more broth if things are cooking too fast and liquid is low in the pot. Add in your herbs, and or butter for a final touch.  This dish is best overnight as the pasta is soaking up the delicious seafood flavor.

(this dish takes less than 3 minutes to prepare >> mincing garlic, and less than 20 minutes to finish cooking. Boiling the pasta doesn't count, as you just throw the pasta in the pot, and go do whatever you like, and only 1 pot to cleanup!).

Roasted Rosemarry Buttnernut Squash Lasagna (Can't you tell i am in Autumn mode, Full swing!)
This recipe can be for 1 side dish, or as a main course lasagna. And did i say this dish lasted me 5 days, eating it 2X a day!! Great dish for entertaining guests and is super hearty!  Thanks for the inspiration Mrs. MAS!

Roasted Rosemarry Butternut Squash (this can be your individual side dish, served as is or mashed)
1 butternut squash
1 tsp dried rosemarry (crumble them before you sprinkle)
1 tbs brown sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
and of course, olive oil

Quarter your butternut squash as shown in picture below, coat with just a little olive oil, salt and pepper and rosemarry.  Cover with foil and roast i oven at 350 deg C for about 40 minutes or until fork tender.  If you are serving this as is, then sprinkle some brown sugar and continue baking uncovered for another 10 minutes, ready to serve.  For my purpose, i scooped out my squash, mash them (to as fine or as bite size as you like for your lasagna) and then incorporate my brown sugar.  This can be served again as is for a side dish >>> mashed roasted butternut squash.  I will be using it as my lasagna layer.

Ingredients for lasagna:
1 box lasagna noodles
1-2 shallots
1-2 tsp butter (for rue / bechemel)
1 tbs flour
1/4 to 1/3 C milk
3/4 to 1 C of ricotta cheese (you could go low or nonfat as i do not find any taste difference between low and regular cheese)
1 box of frozen spinach
a pinch of nutmeg
Liberal amount of salt and pepper
About 1 C of your favorite red pasta sauce (or you can make your own sauce)
shredded mozzarella cheese for topping (optional)

Boil 1 box of lasagna noodles per box instruction, in salted water.  In a medium size sauce pot, add in olive oil sautee the shallots until translucent, push aside and add a couple pats of butter, and flour.  Stir for a minute and add in a couple rounds of milk.  This will be our quick and easy bechemel sauce.  Add in your spinach, salt and pepper, nutmeg and continue stirring.  If it is getting too dry from the rue, add a few more rounds of milk.  You need to liberally salt and pepper this as this is your flavor layers in between your plain noodles. How much salt and pepper you ask, man i tell you if you want to attempt to learn to cook, you gotta taste your food and add or subtract during the cooking process.  Everybody's taste pellet is different.  Dare to try your food, stick your fingers in and pick out your food and taste it.  Need more salt, add some more.  Too salty, remember, its a pasta dish, it will be blended out eventually, but for real too salty, add broth, water, and in our case, milk.  Ok enough rambling about salt and pepper.   Turn off heat, and add in your ricotta cheese and slowly incorporate by stirring.

Now you are ready to assemble your lasagna.  On your casserole dish, coat your pasta sauce at the bottom and place your noodles on top (about 4 noodles per layer, if you are using the same size casserole dish as i am).  Evenly spread a layer of your spinach/ricotta layer on the noodle, and place 4 more noodles on top of this.  Spread some red sauce on the noodle, and now place your mashed roasted squash on this layer (you can layer them liberally and make it a freaking hearty meal!).  Place another layer of noodle above this, do the sauce, spinach/ricotta and noodle layer again. Just keep repeating until you finish everything or your casserole can no longer hold its weight.  The final layer should be just the noodle, and sauce above it.  Sprinkle shredded mozzarella on this top layer (optional), or just leave as is with the sauce as the final topping.   Cover with foil tightly and bake for 40 minutes, and the result is just super super..gratification... its ...how do i say...super favoloso in Italian!!!  Enjoy!!

Thanksgiving spread ...yes...in September!!

Alright peeps, nothing like an early thanksgiving trial dinner.  Like i always say, there's company in town, its always thanksgiving day!  Last day of the IT guy in town before getting his grove in the Midwest, Cleveland, to be specific.  Minnesota viking goodiefoodie sista is also in town, and chocolate bear is here for the occasion too.  Most of the family is in the same city for ONCE! Thanksgiving dinner on a Sunday in midSeptember!! (shoutout to the missing skinny brother who is stuck in Boise Idaho)
On the menu: (bear in mind our thanksgiving meals are never traditional to start with, heck, the family is not even a traditional family)...French onion soup (this was a failure, viking's sista's recipe, so we will not even mention this until it has been revised), home made garlic bread (this too was over salted, will need revision), oven roasted spare ribs (too cold for outside grilling, but equally super delicious), lemmongrass chicken satay with peanut sauce, curried summer squash and corn pie, roasted vege (for recipe see previous post) and for dessert, spiced apples cream cheese brulee with vanilla ice cream.  OMG blogging this at midnight just makes me hungrier....this is impossible!

Appetizer: Satay and French Onion Soup


Chicken (or beef) Satay with Peanut Sauce:
1.5 lbs or so Boneless Chicken thighs or breast, depending on your preference for the meat type
2 stalks of fresh lemon grass
3 shallots
1 bulb of garlic
1 inch of fresh ginger
3 or more thai chili or serano or whatever spicy pepper of your choice, amount to be added to your personal taste
1 tsp tumeric powder
2 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp coriander and cumin each (these are optional)
Everything else, you must have the ingredients, otherwise the taste, man it just wouldn't be satay!

Rough chop whatever that needs to be processed, ie. shallots, garlic, lemongrass etc, and throw everything in the food processor. If you don't know by now, i try not to use a lot of oil in my cooking, hence we get be stay to be skinny bitches! But we substitute fats with powerful flavors...KAPOW! so, if your food processor is not spinning due to the lack of liquid, you can add some oil to it, or just substitute with some more soy or fish sauce, or just add a little broth or water to it to get the motor going.

slice your chicken in strips, and marinate the blended spice with your meat for 2 hours or longer.  Safe about 1/4 of the blended marinade for the peanut sauce later on.  Skewer your meat and throw them on the grill.  I did mine in the oven, standard, 375 for bout 20 minutes. Voila, super yummy appetizer. Serve it with or without peanut sauce, its equally yummy.

Peanut Sauce:
Warm up a small skillet or sauce pot with a little oil, and sautee the leftover blended spice for a few minutes, add some stock (less than 1/4 cup) into the mixture, and proceed to add a couple tablespoon (heapsfull) of chunky peanut butter into the mixture, and continue to heat it until thickens. Add sugar to balance the saltiness out, and add some more spicy chili flakes if you want.  The sauce will look watery and running while boiling and warm, but when it cools, trust me, it will thicken up.

French Onion Soup:
For the most part, this recipe needs a little bit more tweaking, but we have much hope for improvements, so wait for take 2 of this recipe (the error here is that we overdid our Guinness stout...yup..lesson learned.more is not better).  But here's a picture of the lovely brioche and fontina cheese topping.  The same with the attempt to make home made garlic bread, it was good, but tooooooooo much salt!! Will re-post once i perfect it.

ps: i even bought 6 ramekins for this occasion too.  While i'm at it, i will give a shout out to Crate and Barrel, my first fancy purchase from that store.  These ramekins are AWESOME! Super cheap, i thought everything from Crate and Barrel are for hoity toity people and is out of my budget, but these are 10oz and only cost $17 for 6 of them !! And if you're looking for a smaller size that fits your wallet, this one is AWESOME too:
http://www.crateandbarrel.com/kitchen-and-food/individual-bakeware/stockholm-ramekin/s320676

hmmm, my first promotion / advertisement for a product, i wonder if i get any freebies or commission?

Spare ribs:
1 rack of pork ribs (good size, probably had 20 ribs).
1/2C brown sugar
a squirt of honey
1/2C BBQ sauce, any flavor (we used a mixture of honey and mesquite, yes, you can mix!)
1tbs curry powder
1 tbs dried rosemary (NOT OPTIONAL!)
1/4C sweet asian chili sauce (if you can't find it, i suppose i should say its optional)
liberal amount of garlic salt, regular salt, a lot of pepper, and some more chilli flakes in the mixture to satisfy your spice buds.

rub all things together with the meat, cook in oven at low heat at 250-300 deg for 3 hours, at least, longer is encouraged, and crank it up to 350 for the last 30 minutes, and..voila, fall of the bone meat..yummy...

i wished we had taken a classier picture of the spare ribs. What the heck, its ribs, 'spose to be messy!

Summer Squash Pie:
This is an awesome recipe for those out there that loves a one dish entree meal. Super easy to make, and goes a long way (not for me, as i eat at the equivalent of 3 men), but for you skinny models out there...this dish will go a long way.

4-6 yellow and green zucchini (depending on how fat or skinny they are)
2 cloves garlic
1 shallot or 1/2 onion
1 egg
1 -2 tbsp curry powder
1 can cream corn (or regular corn, whatever thats in your pantry)
1/2 to 1 C of shreded mozzarella
Pie crust, one pair, dos, top and bottom.
Salt, pepper  and sugar to taste  (by now you should now that salt, pepper and sugar always go hand in hand when balancing out your pallet!)

Heat up your skillet with some oil, sautee onions and garlic (don't brown them, this is not chinese stir fry where you brown your spices, just until they turn translucent is good enough).  Throw in your veges, spices, and seasoning, let them simmer and brown the zucchinis for a little while.  Add in cream corn, and stir in egg to thicken up.  Veges, done.  Let it sit at room temp for a moment so that all liquids evaporate.  Grease a square pyrex (standard size, i cant remember how many inches, see picture and you will know what i am talking about), put in bottom of the pie crust, set in the oven for 15 minutes at 350 degrees to set the bottom crust.  Proceed to throw all your sauteed veges into the pyrex with bottom crust, and top it with cheese (optional).  Fold in the top crust and nicely crimp the sides (or if you're me, you just randomly crimp it as you go).  Oven the entire thing per pie crust's manufacturer's suggested temperature.  I think it took 40 minutes for the pie go brown.  You can always check your oven and see if the pie crust browned or not, you know...;)

Again, viking foodie forgot to take a picture of a nice, sliced pie to show, so this will do.

Roasted Veges:
See previous post by viking foodie, pick any hardy, woodie veges like brocoli, carrots or cauliflower. Yummy as is...

Dessert: Spiced Apples cream cheese cake.
What is the start of Fall without some apple dessert?!?! and some good quality french vanilla ice cream... oh writing this just makes me hungry!!
Prepare your apples with your favourite apple crumble recipe, and here is mine:

4 gala or red delicious (sweet eating apples) i know this goes against convention, but i love the natural sweetness.
1 or 2 tart granny smith apples
3 tbs sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger each
a dash of salt (remember..balancing salt and sweetness, mui importante!)
a squeeze of lemon juice, and some lemon peel if you so desire.
Mix all above, and set into your buttered / greased pyrex baking pan while preparing for the best part of the dish..the cheesecake topping!!!

1 block of cheesecake (no fat free ones please!)
1 stick or 8 tbsp butter, softened
2 eggs
3/4C sugar (you can go up to 1 or 1 1/4C if you are on the sweet side, 3/4C does fine for me)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 C of flour

In a mixer,  cream the butter and sugar. When it's nice and fluffy white, beat in the eggs, then the softened cream cheese and vanilla extract. Fold in the flour by hand.  Pour this thick batter mixture onto your apple, it won't cover evenly, don't worry. The outcome will be fine.  Remember to preheat your oven (i knw i should've mentioned this before hand, but you'll survive this round), and bake your apple cheesecake at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes.  This is super yummy paired with vanilla ice cream, or as is.  What a great recipe, if i may say so myself, for the Fall.  Can you imagine, cheesecake and apple pie hybrid!?!?!

And to top of the wonderful meal, some lovely bubbles..and some aperitif supplied by the neighbor guests..no pic though. 

And Voila, the spread.... Happy September Thanksgiving!!!!

Easy Vegetarian Pasta

Greetings from the Land of Vikings-
In case y'all haven't noticed, most of our recipes have been of vegetarian, not that I am a vegetarian, just that it's easier for busy people like us to prepare, plus, I often forget to thaw my meats. I promise will be posting some meat recipes soon (when the meats are on sale hehhe!)
I made this dish because I realized I haven't used any of my Must Try Slow Roasted Tomatoes slow roasted tomatoes that I made a couple of weeks ago, and this recipe only takes 30' to whip out!

Ingredients (serve 4)

• 2 T Olive oil
• 15-20 pieces of slow roasted tomatoes 
• 1 box of pasta (any kind)
• 1/2 cup of parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 t of salt
• 1 t black pepper
• 1 jar of artichoke hearts with peppers and olives + save 1/2 cup of the marinade juice (from aldi)
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 5 cloves garlic, minced

Direction

Boil pasta with salted water. While boiling the pasta, start heating a skillet with olive oil.

Sautee garlic and red onions until tender, then add the slow roasted tomatatoes. Next, add in the artichoke mixtures until heated. Lastly add in the saved marinade.

Cook pasta until al dente and save 1/2 cups on pasta water. Add pasta into the artichoke sauce and mix until the pasta is fully coated, add the remaining pasta water and mix well.

Lastly add in the chopped parsley.

Enjoy!!!!!

Carbonara - by Eric Liftin of Food52

Greetings from the land of vikings-
Ha~ It's Sunday again, which means time for me to cook in bulk for the upcoming week! I have been so busy in the lab this weekend working full days and I am definitely not feeling making anything complicated. So, I happened to stumble upon this very simple recipe on my favorite food blog at food52.com. I decided to give Eric's "Daddy's Carbonara" a try since it was voted recipe of the week. However, I made a little twist to this dish by adding some sweet red onion (my friend Krista Bledsoe makes hers this way)...absolutely love it!

All you need are a few relatively inexpensive ingredients: (serves 6)

• 1lb spaghetti 
• 1/4 lb bacon (the original recipe calls for 1 lb- i think this is a little to much for us skinny bitches), if you are vegetarian- omit the bacon, if health conscious- sub with turkey bacon
• 10oz frozen sweet peas
• 1 cup freshly grated parmesan 
• lots of black pepper
• 4 eggs (beaten)
• 1 red onion, chopped finely (the original does not call for this, but i think it makes the pasta tastes better)

1. Boil the pasta until al dente
2. Cut bacon across the slices into 1/2" wide blocks. Cook in a skillet over medium heat until bacon turns brown and crispy
3. Steam peas with a little water and microwave 3-4 minutes, until they are warm, stirring halfway through.
4. In a large bowl, mix the egg, parmesan, and pepper. It should have the consistency of thick batter.
5. When the pasta is done, drain it quickly. Don't linger, as it's good to capture some of the water. Dump the steaming spaghetti into the egg mixture, and quickly mix well with a tong to cook the egg. Mix in the bacon, peas, and red onion.

Malaysian Char kuey teow

almost taste like malaysia!

yo yo yo holler from B'more. Here's a southeast asian delicacy, SPECIFICALLY Malaysian (sorry you Singaporeans out there). A simple flat noodle stir fry with stinky but oh sooooooo yummy "belacan", aka dried shrimp paste.  If you're making anything with shrimp paste, best be making it in a well ventilated location, and that's a warning!
a'ight, basic pantry must have to stay true to the Malaysian char kuey teow (fried flat noodles):

-oil for stir frying, of course
-1 packet of dried flat noodles, or fresh, whatever floats your boat
-2 eggs
-a bunch of bean sprouts or your favorite crunchy veges, such as bell peppers
-LOTSA garlic, at least 6 cloves
-soy sauce, enough to coat all noodles brown (a great cook can't tell you exact measurements sometimes!)
-sugar, by taste
-your choice of meats, shrimp or hard tofu >>> depicted in the picture, and no, not the grocery store type firm tofu, you have to go to special asian store to get the "fake chicken" tofu>> TASTE LIKE CHICKEN!
-Spring onion (scallions, if you don't already know they are interchangably used)
-Cilantro

Basic sambal sauce: if you can make a big batch once and store it, this would just create the stink only once!
-3 tbsp stinky shrimp paste
-2 shallots
-3 tbsp sambal oelek 2 tsp sugar
- vege / corn oil for stir frying (again, its a guestimate >2 tbsp?)

Start out with the sambal sauce, coat pan with oil, add in shallots and fry on med/high for a few minutes, throw in sambal and shrimp paste, simmer on low heat for 5-10 minutes, then add sugar and simmer for another 3 minutes.

On a separate pot, boil flat noodles until  Al dente (asians are just like italians!), drain and keep the boiling water in a reservoir, and throw in noodles to continue cooking outside of heat > this is the trick to not let the noodles stick and overcooked while you are still getting your other shit together! no other recipes tell you that, and i am giving you the chef's tip!

Coat wok, pot, whatever you have, with oil, and throw in your loads of garlic, before it turns brown, scramble in 2 eggs, then add your meats, cook till almost done, add in the rest of your veges, cook till soften, then ...at this point, you should add some salt to taste to all the ingredients >> you need to layer in your salt flavor!

Then, add in your flat noodles, toss in your sambal mixture and stir fry GENTLY so you don't kill your noodles.  Add in more soysauce to coat your noodles, and also SUGAR >>> a very important ingredient to balance out the taste. I can't tell you how much to add, man you just gotta get down and dirty and experiment with your own palate!  Trust me, the end result is a very fulfilling accomplishment when you cook a great dish!
Lastly, add in some scallions and cilantro (or not, if you hate those 2 flavors).

and.. Voila..