Home made Pasta

We eat a lot of pasta at home. It's easy to finish 6 boxes of 500g of pasta in a month, sometimes more even. I've tried making pasta a couple of times but never left me wanting to do more.

I was reading an old magazine and came across a simple recipe.

600 g high gluten flour

5 medium eggs


Mix and knead.


Allow to rest for at least 25 minutes.



Roll flat and wide.

Roll them together and cut to the size required.


Nicely falls over the knife when lifted up.

Nice pile of Fettuccini.

Made some Lasagna sheets too.

Freshly cooked Fettuccine. Fresh pasta took less than 5 minutes to cook till al dante.


Can't wait to try the Lasagna sheets!

Nothing tastes better than fresh pasta!
I think Barilla just lost a loyal customer.

Fianally a food post

Finally managed to squeeze a food post in between rush hours.

Made this for #2 when she got back from College today. SASA had a Law talk today.
It's basically spaghetti topped with NATTO and a poached egg. I sprinkled some cut nori around the spaghetti. Yummy! Yummy!

#1 and I were at BVII and we bought our favorite carrot cake from Marmalade for #2's dessert.

Bento 283

I'm still packing bento.

#3 wasn't well the last couple of days and I've neglected taking pictures of the packed bento. Anyways, here's one of those which I did take a photo of.

This is banana topped with cinnamon sugar. This item has been 'missing' for a while because #2 commented that it would get wet and liquids from this spill out. I packed this again and so far another similar comment hasn't arise yet. *grins* There are two slices of banana cake I bought at a fund raiser in Church.


Her favorite 'ladies fingers' (Okra) and some spaghetti mixed with a blend of sun dried tomatoes, basil, cream, chopped onions, roasted peppers, salt and pepper. Yummilicious!

Bento 262

It's a long day of replacement classes today. It's the last of the delicious "long yoke" from one of the CNY food hampers. There is a mini Laugen again and some red cherry tomatoes.



There are four nests of spaghetti Aglio Olio to feast on together with the okra or "ladies fingers" as we call it locally.

There was a box of frozen oranges and an energy bar that went with the bento. I didn't have time to take a picture because we were running late this morning.

Bento 255

#2 has been talking about adopting a vegetarian diet during the upcoming Lent which begins on 17th February (during the Chinese New Year celebrations). Traditionally, we abstain from meat and maintain a seafood and vegetable diet over the 40 days. One year we tried to be a little more ambitious and thus tried to be completely vegetarian. Hahaha! I think, we didn't even last one week!

This morning's bento is bare of protein. There is spaghetti topped with furikake and some freezer stash of Ratatouille.



The right box has a mixed chopped veggie and a small box of frozen passion fruit pulp as dressing. Trying to keep the salad dressings healthy and thus resorting to fruits now.



Mum and I were busy baking yesterday.

Bento 251

Classes for both the elder girls begin mid morning today. I slept in and had time in my hands to think of making some vegetable rolls. I used the Vietnamese paper rolls to roll julienned kyuri, carrots, courgette and alfalfa sprouts. For the sauce, I simply used some sesame seed dressing.


For Carbohydrates and Protein, there was spaghetti aglio olio topped with last night's left over Roast Chicken. There was some Milanese Pennetone for dessert.

Bento 246

It's getting more and more difficult to pack #2 Bento. There are so many restrictions because of allergy reasons, a need to nurture and preserve supple vocal chords.

No cheese, no milk, no chocolates, no spicy or fiery flavors, no chicken, no rice (except when it's sushi time), no fried stuff, no food with sauces (sometimes it spills), no, no, no!

It's a challenge twice over to pack bento and sometimes I ignore signals of warning when I pack a certain type of "NO" food. Problem is, #2 would also ignore it and it'll be left in the box! Aggghhhhh!!!

Today's bento is as plain as it can get. Plain spaghetti Aglio Olio with some furikake and a box of peas in between apple slices and some plump baby tomatoes.

Bento 242

I am relishing this wonderful 'drive' for packing bentos. I was exhausted this morning because friends came by last night and we were up till past midnight. My wake up call for 2010 is at 6.15a.m but I couldn't drag myself up till 6.40a.m.

Whoa! So late! Thank goodness for my paranoid planning ahead habit. I already had a menu and layout sketched out for this morning's bento and I just had to put it together.

Yesterday's leftover spaghetti Aglio Olio from lunch came in handy and luckily I had the good sense to pull out a box of Bolognaise sauce from the freezer for use this morning.

I took fifteen minutes to put this bento together. There's chopped baby corn with some rollo rosa and julienne carrots, all tossed in some sesame seed dressing.


There is left over fruit cake from Christmas for dessert today and a mix of Spaghetti and Bolognaise sauce for a hearty lunch. Mmmm....college lasts for seven hours today with three back to back classes and a short break in between. I hope #2 has time to eat.

Sun dried tomatoes

I had a bottle of sun dried tomatoes in the fridge which I originally bought for making bread. I was in a hurry to make a quick meal for the kids and a pot luck at Church.

I blended the whole bottle of sun dried tomatoes, roasted some peppers, slivered some garlic and chopped a bunch of fresh basil from my garden. Tossed them all in olive oil and poured a box of cream and set to simmer for 10 minutes.

Result of this easy peasy recipe was awesome!!! I cooked 2 X 500g of pasta, one fettuccine and one spaghetti. I brought the fettuccine one to church and it was a hit.

Had some leftovers and had it for lunch, topped with some fresh herbs. The mint added a wonderful flavor to it!

Bento 237

I had to get my maid's passport renewed today so we were out of the house very early this morning. Got this bento ready bright and early.

Spaghetti tossed in the balance of the oil from the pan, after frying the prawns. #2 enjoyed this!



Quick blanched baby corn and baby 'sawi', topped with a squeeze of mayo. I added two muesli bars for 'just in case'.

All went well at the Indonesian embassy despite hearing and reading about un-settled disputes.
God is good!

Frist cooking lesson for #3

It's Saturday and all the kids were home, so lunch had to be served! I was amidst spring cleaning the cupboards and house was in a total mess.

My ten year old was reluctant to practice her piano scales, so I cajoled her by inviting her to "help mummy to prepare lunch." She was very excited and so was I. Our lunch menu was Spaghetti Aglio Olio and Italian Seafood stew.

Item 1: Spaghetti Aglio Olio.

Step 1: Fill a wok half full of water and add 2 tsp of salt.
Step 2: When water boils, add 350 g of spaghetti in a 'spread out circular motion' (shown below).


Step 3: Peel about 10 pips of garlic. (Here, you can see #3 peeling the garlic under supervision).

Step 4: Add 2 tbsp of EVOO into a pot and toss in the sliced garlic. Add 1/3 tsp of salt. Keep fire low and once the garlic is soft, it is ready. Do not cook till brown or it will taste bitter. Turn off the fire.

Step 5: Once the spaghetti is cooked, toss it into a sieve till dry. Toss it into the EVOO and garlic combination and mix well.


Step 6: Mix and toss well so that the spaghetti is well coated with the garlic EVOO.



Step 7: Spaghetti Aglio Olio is ready to be served. Congratulations #3! You cooked this dish almost completely by yourself, under mummy's supervision.



Item 2: Italian seafood stew. This was from my frozen stash. It's a vegetable base and I can add whatever which is available from my freezer. My elder two loves seafood so it's been like that for a while.

I took the box of frozen vegetable base and added a piece of Sole fillet and some fishcake which I bought from the market. It was near expiry and I wanted to use it up quickly.



This was lunch today. The two elder girls had a great time tucking in. #3 had her spaghetti aglio olio with Kewpie mayo as usual. All the dishes were empty and that was a good sign.

While all of that above was happening, I had two loaves of bread proofing.

This time, I sprayed water on top of the bread before baking instead of salt water and the finish was slightly different.

When #2 ate it she exclaimed that it was delicious and tasted even better than the last. This girl has amazing taste buds.

Yesterday, when I was shopping for high protein flour at a nearby grocery store, I splurged on a bag of organic unbleached flour which cost me RM18/kg and a bottle of Organic active dry yeast. My regular high protein flour only cost RM3.50/kg.

I didn't even say anything about my excessive splurge and #2 could immediately taste the difference! She never fails to surprise me!

Finally, after a delicious and leisurely lunch at the terrace, #3 began practicing her piano scales. She spent about 3 hours practicing but also resting in between, to reach "an acceptable level of competency." Next stage is to work on the speed.

Bento #14

I think I need to improve my photography skills. Lately the photos are getting really 'cacat'.

Today's bento is really too Yellow!
On the left is Pita bread with butter and Strawberry Jam. Some Japanese biscuits.

On the right: I friend the balance of the leftover spaghetti with soy sauce, pepper and top up with fishcake, cabbage and egg.
Packed the bento into this polka dot bag. Added a pack of Japanese Strawberry biscuits and the very 'potent' Sabah chilli.


[Bento]

Bento #2

This morning's Bento looks too yellow/brown. Still sick so didn't have time to get some fresh food supplies. Probably have to do so today.

On the left is YCK (Yau char koay) courtesy of Mum - she made Bak kut teh last night for dinner and bought about 10 pcs of YCK from the seller at Chow Yang, SS2 -very famous stall for YCK. Didn't have vegetables that the children liked so I simply opened a can of corn.

On the right Bento box is spaghetti Olio e Aglio (Olive oil and garlic). My children love this basic and plain. Added some fishballs, carrot and tomato for color.