Fried Linguine With Spring Onions

I am sure many of you who regularly drop by here will know that I loveeeee pasta.    It can be fusion style, western style or asian style I love them all :)  I am happy if WB agrees that we eat pasta for dinner.  Firstly , it is easy to prepare and not much washing up involved , secondly it is taste better than rice and thirdly it is a versatile noodle dish.  Though both are carbo , I still prefer pasta anytime ;p.  And at times when one is lazy and when I have a hectic weekend, this is the solution to a quick and easy meal.   I have homegrown spring onions and this solve many of my emergency need for greens LOL!  I add lots of spring onions to my stir fry pasta.  Carrots and meat (pork) slices does the rest of the work of making the bland pasta into a delicious and tasty pasta dish :)

see my homegrown spring onions :)

Fried Linguine With Spring Onions  - from WB's Kitchen

Ingredients:

Cooked linguine for 2 persons
a bunch of homegrown spring onions - cut into short lengths
1 carrot - juliene into strips
2 cloves of garlic- chopped

meat slices ( chicken /pork)  - marinate with 1/2 tbsp of oyster sauce ,
a dash of  ground white pepper, 1/2 tsp of sesame oil and 1/2 tsp of corn flour

a tbsp of olive oil
sea salt to taste

Method:

Heat up wok with 1 tbsp of olive oil. Saute garlic till fragrant. Add in carrots and marinated meat slices and continue stir fry till cooked.  Add in the cooked linguine and stir fry till well combined. Add in cut spring onions and stir fry till  well combined into the linguine.  Add sea salt to taste. Dish up and serve hot.

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Steamed Stuffed Luffa

I normally stir fry luffa with wood fungus and shrimps but for this once, I stuffed them with minced meat and steamed them with chinese herbs.  Chinese red dates, yuk chok , white snow fungus and goji are excellent ingredients for a soup base for these steamed luffa.  Young luffa is ideal for stuffing.  It is so yummy good that it is a keeper .  Most important it is easy to prepare and taste good.  I saw this recipe in one chinese magazine and tweak it to suit my taste :)  I used chicken meat and shrimp meat for the stuffing.  Add a dash of black pepper and homegrown  spring onions. Boil a soup base with mentioned herbs above and steam the stuffed luffa for 25 mins on high heat. As easy as ABC :)

you can cut them in rings or lengthwise

Steamed Stuffed Luffa  

Soup base - boil the ingredients below in a deep pot for 30 mins under low heat

1 tbsp of goji
5 strips of yuk chok
4 chinese red dates
1 piece dried snow fungus - soak and cleaned
500 ml chicken stock

Stuffed Luffa

1 young luffa - cut into rings or lengthwise - removed seed

minced meat - stir below ingredients with a pair of chopsticks till sticky

200 gm minced meat of your choice ( I use chicken meat )
100 gm minced shrimp meat
1 tsp of sea salt
1/2 tsp of corn flour
1 tsp of sesame oil
1 tbsp of chopped spring onions
1/8 tsp of ground black pepper or white pepper

Method:

Stuff luffa with the prepared minced meat .  Arrange the stuffed  luffa neatly in a deep plate for steaming. Pour in prepared  soup base and steam in a boiling steamer for 25 mins.  Served hot.

Enjoy !

Braised Spare Ribs With Bittergourd

This is a simple braised spare ribs dish that everyone in the family loves.  Flavors packed and the ribs are tender and juicy.  When served at the table, WB will attacked the ribs first while I attacked all the bittergourd for myself :p  When you put a carnivor and a herbivor together ..this is what will happen at the dinner table :)  I will normally marinade the ribs first with light soy sauce and corn flour.  I bought the fresh fermented black bean paste specially concocted for this kind of braise dish.  You can either use it for braised chicken dish or spare ribs.  For Ipohans in case you do not know this , this stall sells homemade tom yam paste, curry paste and ginger paste and many other special paste besides this fermented black bean paste and is located inside the Kg.Simee market. This has made it easy for working mothers like us :)  

a delicious dish and 

I can havea hearty dinner with just this one dish :)

lip smacking good 

Braised Spare Ribs With Bittergourd  - WB's Kitchen

500 gm spare ribs - marinate with 1/2 tbsp of soy sauce and a tsp of corn flour

1/4 cup of store bought  fermented black bean paste 

( made up of fermented black beans, fermented soy bean, garlic and chilli paste )

1 bittergourd   - cut into 1.5 inch sticks

1 tbsp of vegetable oil

garnishing

red chilli slices

organic spring onions

Method:

Heat up oil in a deep pot and when the oil is hot, put in the marinated ribs and lightlyesear the ribs till it is brown on both sides.  This is to lock in the meat juice.  Add in the bittergourd and the store bought paste . Stir till well combined and the bittergourd and ribs are well coated with the paste.  Pour in 1 cup of water and under medium low heat, simmer the ribs till soft and tender.  Off heat ,dish up and serve warm. Garnish with cut chillies and spring onions.

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Stir Fry Green Dragon Vegetable/ 青龙菜 With Garlic

I bought some Green Dragon Vegetable from Tesco the other day. It was young and it would be great to just stir fry with sea salt and garlic.  A simple stir fry would do for this vegetable.  This green dragon vegetable is from Cameron Highlands . They look like garlic chives yet they don't have the strong taste of garlic chives.  

This is a very easy to prepare dish. You don't need a recipe.  Just heat up a wok with vegetable oil and sea salt , when the oil is hot, add in the garlic slices and stir fry till fragrant, add in the green dragon vegetable which has been washed, cleaned and cut into 1.5 inch lengths and continue to stir fry till it is cooked. It takes 5 mins and it is ready to be dish up.  Easy as ABC ! :)  I love this vegetable.  

excerpt is  from this blog

" It is grown in Cameron Highlands by a man named Lau Kuan. There is an article in the Star newspaper dated Monday May 16, 2005 entitled "Farmer rejects pesticide use in growing chives" that explained why this green dragon vegetable does not have a strong taste like the normal garlic chives.

Below is an extract from the above article that describes the method used to grow this green dragon vegetable:

"He lets his chives grow for six weeks before chopping off the top half of the leaves to be used as mulch and fertiliser. He then covers the remaining chives with a thick nylon netting for 10 days in a process known as blanching before harvesting them. Limiting sunlight made the chives more tender and delicious as they contained less fibre, Lau said."

This method is a slight modification of the method used to grow yellow chives (韭黃 - Gau Wong in Cantonese). To grow yellow chives, normal garlic chives are harvested by cutting them about a few inches above the ground, leaving the roots in the ground to grow again under cover without being exposed to the sunlight at all.

You get yellow chives by covering the remaining roots totally to let them grow in complete darkness whereas by covering them with nylon nettings and letting them grow under limited sunlight, you will get this green dragon vegetable "

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Creamy Asparagus, Lemon, and Walnut Pasta

Pasta ! I love pasta compared to rice.  Pasta is such a versatile noodles that we can cook it in any style we want.  When I had my operation done, I survived mostly on pasta with soup.  But for today, I cooked it in a simple manner with baby asparagus and walnut and lemon zest.  Awesome taste and healthy too ! Love it and I can survive on pasta...slurp !

the asparagus puree gave the pasta a creamy smooth feel

and the lemon keeps things fresh and zesty and the toasted walnut

gave it the crunch ....yummy

the nutty flavor from the walnuts gave this pasta dish the oomph it needed :)

Creamy Asparagus, Lemon, and Walnut Pasta - adapted from here

Linguine for 2 persons - or pasta of your choice- cook till al dente

300 gm pound asparagus spears

1/4 cup walnuts, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic- chopped

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Zest of one lemon

Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

1.       Bring a large pot of water to a strong boil. Season with salt, then add pasta. Cook according to package directions for "al dente." Set aside about 1 cup cooking water, then drain pasta.

2.       While water is coming to a boil, cut off and discard the tough ends of the asparagus. Cut the remainder into 1/3-inch rounds, leaving the tips intact. Heat olive oil and garlic in a large pan over medium heat for five minutes. Add asparagus, salt, pepper, and 1/3 cup of the reserved pasta water. Cover pan and cook asparagus for 4 to 8 minutes, until tender to the bite. Turn off heat and discard garlic.

3.       Once pasta is done, purée 1/3 of the cooked asparagus and 1/4 cup of the reserved cooking water in a food processor, blender, or immersion blender until smooth. Try to avoid blending the asparagus tips, for aesthetic reasons.

4.       Add puréed asparagus back to pan, along with sliced asparagus. Mix in cooked pasta, lemon zest, and more pasta water as needed to keep the sauce loose. Heat on low for a minute or two to allow pasta to absorb some of the sauce. Serve immediately, topped with chopped walnuts.

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Stir Fry Lotus Root, Long Beans And Stink Bean

I was browsing through a chinese magazine and saw this delicious recipe - Stir Fry Lotus Root With Long Beans And Stink Beans....it sure looks mouth-watering and I know I have to try it out.  Sure enough it tasted so good that I am cooking this again soon.  It is indeed a flavorful dish , easy to whip up and doesn't take much time to prepare.

the dried shrimps add flavors to th dish...yum yum !

Stir Fry Lotus Root, Long Beans And Stink Bean

Ingredients:

(A)
1 young lotus root- cut into 1/16 inch thick
150 gms stink beans - halved
few strings of long beans - cut into 1 inch length
4-5 red chillies - sliced
(B)
3 tbsps of dried shrimps- soak, washed and chopped
4 tbsps of minced meat ( pork/chicken)

2 cloves of garlic - chopped
1 shallots- sliced
2 tbsps of vegetable oil
1 tbsp of fermented soy bean paste ( tau cheong )
a pinch of sea salt * if required

Method:

Heat up 2 tbsps of vegetable oil in a wok, add in shallots and garlics . Stir fry till fragrant, add in fermented soy bean paste and (B) stir fry  till the dried shrimps lightly browned .  Add in (A) and stir fry till well combined.  Add in 3 to 4 tbsps of water and cover with lid for 10 mins.  Open lid and continue to stir fry for another 5 minutes till all veggies are cooked, the long beans and stink beans still maintain their green color . Add a pinch of sea salt if required. Dish up and serve hot rice.

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