Sausage and mushroom spaghetti

I love working near plaza sing. Shopping for groceries is so convenient.


I have some leftover dried spagetti from cooking in pesto, always looking for opportunities to cook pasta without having to buy huge bottles of expensive pasta sauces.

Chanced upon prego canned mushroom cream sauce on sale at $1.50. Grab it.

Saw beautiful white oyster mushroom in carefour, grab it.
Need meat, lazy to debone chicken, spotted raw sausage from the carefour freezer, grab a pack!


What do you need?
- Dried spaghetti for 2 pax (size of a 20cents coin)
- 4 white oyster mushroom (i use the whole pack, break big ones into palm size pieces)
- 3 raw sausage
- 1 canned cream mushroom sauce (Prego brand, blue wrapper)
- Garlic in oil
- Coarse pepper / seasoning pepper




How to do it?
Cook spagetti in pot of water with generous pinch of salt
Drain well and set spaghetti aside

Heat pan with cooking oil. Remove skin of sausage. Pinch sausage into ping pong ball size, rolling them in your palm to shape it a little, drop them into the pan and pan fry until brown on the outside, cooked inside. Use low heat, takes about 5-8 mins. Set aside.



Add garlic in oil into pan and fry until slightly brown.
Add oyster mushroom and fry until soft, careful not to break them.
Add 1/2 cup water to braise the mushroom for 2 mins (i like my mushrooms soft)


Add the canned pasta sauce into the mushroom, add 1/2 can of water, stir well.
Add coarse pepper to taste, turn off heat.

Add spaghetti into pan and mix well with pasta sauce.

Serve on plate, with sausage balls at the sides.


Saturday lunch is a hearty meaty mushroomy creamy pasta dish.

Fried Yam cake

The post is long overdue.
After i made Yam cake back in June, the rest of June is eating yam cake, yam cake amd more yam cake.

Though i 'dispose' of 2 trays by giving 1 tray each to my mum and MIL, i still have 2 trays i have to finish up. Gave 1/4 tray to a friend, remaing 1 and 3/4 i have to find a way to finish up.

On weekdays, i will simply microwave it and bring it to office for breakfast.
For weekend treats and for light dinner, i will make fried yam cake.

When i was in chinatown market to buy yam, i saw this 'fresh' preserved chye por (preserved raddish). Instead of the usual prepacked minced chye por u find in supermarkets, this one is sold in huge tubs. I asked for $2 worth and ended up with approximately 20 strips of finger sized chye por. When i was in sec sch, i remember my auntie always goes to Thailand and returns with chye por like these. They are sweet, crunchy and not saltish at all.

The ones in Chinatown tastes the same :) Delicious Chye por lost and found!

What do you need?
- Minced garlic in oil
- 1/4 pack of minced pork
- 4 strips of chye por (diced coarsely)
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 tray of yam cake (diced 1 inch cubes)

How to do it?
Heat pan without oil, fry the chye por until dry and fragrant.
Add minced garlic in oil, and minced pork.
Fry until garlic and pork is nicely browned.


Add a little more oil before adding yam cake.


Mix well, lay out the yam cake on the pan to brown evenly for 3-5 mins.

Crack eggs into a bowl, add a dash of soya sauce and pepper, mix well and pour into pan.

Turn over after 3-5 mins when underside is brown.


Cut into 4 large pieces and serve on plate.

Birthday celebration

This yr we have planned to celebrate hubby's birthday dinner with his family.

So the day before his birthday i cooked his favourite tenderloin, sausage and salad.



And on the morning of this birthday, i cook mee sua with red husk paste (with chicken and mushroom).

Not forgetting 2 hardboiled eggs for longevity! Thought i did very well but later that night realise that i am not suppose to peel the egg for him. The birthday boy is suppose to peel the eggs himself :(

ok lor, less work for me next yr!

Beans

Beans are suppose to be good for health.

1) Chickpeas (i call them 'kachang pu teh' peas)
I still remember i first bought them when i was doing part time near tekka market.
My mum and i will boil them for 1 hour in salt water and eat them for afternoon snack.

i guess its not very common cos after so many yrs, i see it in carefour and decides to buy it.
1 pack only $1 i think. Cheap cheap.

According to wikipedia, its provides calcium which is good for ladies and low in fat.

i soaked it in water in the morning and by noon, it ballooned into twice the size and only takes 15 mins to cook in salt water.

Brought this to the Liverpool vs Singapore match at Kallang stadium.
Hubby and I can't stop munching on them!



2) Green beans
Tried Wiki-ing for 'green beans' and didnt get what i expected.
Surf around and realised its call Mung Beans

I started cooking green beans using rice cooker after reading a copy of the Chinese Reader's Digest on the plane back to Spore from Bali.

There is this article written by a lady and how she enjoys going to her grandma place for green bean soup. Whats so unique and special about her grandma green bean soup is that the beans are whole, the soup is clear and the beans has a bite to it.

I never had green bean soup like that. Green beans usually crack open when boiled.
So i experimented with the method mentioned in the article.

Soak the green bean (i soak in the fridge overnight) and cook using rice cooker.

The result is a tasty bowl of green bean soup, beans whole but the soup has a nice olive green colour and is rich and fragrant.

Gave some to Mother in law and she said that hubby's grandma also likes her green bean soup whole. How she achieves that is to monitor the cooking of the soup very closely and turn off the flame immediately once the beans starts to crack.

Looks like using a rice cooker does the trick very well and ensures that the beans are cooked thoroughly (shell intact, soft on the inside)

Yum. Cold green bean soup is a great afternoon snack on a hot and sweltering afternoon.

Otah bun

This is my first attempt at making bread.

My mother in law always have boxed frozen otahs to give me.
First time she gave me 2 boxes, ate 1 and another box went bad.

Second time she gave me 1 box. So i made an effort to cook and ate it before it went bad.

This is the third time and this time, she gave me 2 boxes.

Hubby went to serangoon gardens for lunch one day and bought many traditional buns from a apparently famous bakery. He bought buns with red bean, peanut and yam fillings. I am very disappointed that he didnt buy any otah buns cos otah bun is my favourite!

And then i remembered i have 2 boxes of otah in the fridge so i decided to go in search of the sweet bun receipe and make my own otah buns!

What do you need?
Ingredients A:
- 480gm bread flour
- 120gm all purpose flour
- 110gm sugar
- 10gm salt
- 20gm coffeemate (or milk powder)
- 4tsp Instant yeast (i used approx 8gm)

Ingredients B:
- 1 Egg
- 300ml water

Ingredient C:
- 60 gm butter (soften)

How to do it?
Place ingredients A into a bowl. Mix well.

Add ingredients B (first add the egg and slowly add the water. Pour water in a slow and steady stream as the mixing takes place) into A and knead in mixer using the hooked attachment until a dough is formed. This takes approximately 10 mins.

Add ingredient C and continue to knead the dough until the butter fully incorporated.

Brush a big dry bowl with olive oil or butter. Turn dough into the bowl and flip dough in the bowl so the dough is covered with oil all over. Cover with cling wrap and let the dough proof for 50 - 60 mins


After 60 mins, the dough will double in size.

Divide dough into 80gm each (receipe recommended 60gm) and i derived 14 portions.

Place the mini doughs onto a tray (coated in oil as well to prevent sticking) and let it rest for another 10 mins.

Cut the boxed otah into 6 pc each.

Wrapped 1 pc of otah into 1 portion of 80gm dough. i flatten the dough on my palm, place 1 pc of otah in the centre and fold the sides up and around the otah. Pinch and seal the dough.

As i have 2 pc of dough left, i wrapped them with chicken franks. Tried rolling out the dough into a long rope and curl it around the hot dog. The result is a slightly different pattern, though not too evident cos my 'rope' is too thick :D

Cover the dough again with cling wrap and let it rest for another 50 - 60mins. This is because in the course of handling / wrapping the filling into the dough, the dough is being compressed so we need the dough to proof again for the 3rd time.

After proofing, the dough becomes 20-30% bigger. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle sesame seeds.

Bake at 170 - 180 degree for 12 - 15 mins.....

Not bad for a first attempt huh?
*Proud*