Put to good use, No waste

Lessons learnt from my mum always stays with me. My mum never let me waste food. She would make sure I finished every bit in my bowl. I was taught to take what I can eat only and leaving food and let it waste is totally unacceptable. She even scared me by saying if I leave a grain of rice in my bowl, I will marry a husband who have a face full of scars. LOL!

Nowadays, children are raised in an environment where parents rushed to fulfil their desire so they grow up to be indifferent towards what they get or own, including food. My mum said, it is the parents’ doing that they developed this behavior. I think she is right. So it is the parents’ responsibility to eduate their children that they must not waste food.

So under the training of my mum, I could never stand leftovers food starring at me when I open my refrigerator. I had this Tupperware of left over pulled pork which I could have make pulled pork burgers again but then I wanted to do something different with it. What I came up with is this.

Pulled pork and spinach penne

Largely adapted from epicurious.com

Ingredients:

1 cup left over pulled pork

1 tbs unsalted butter

2 medium leeks, white and pale-green parts only, diced

sea salt to taste

3/4 cup heavy cream

2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary

2 cups penne

½ cup shaved Parmesan

parsley for garnishing

Method:

Heat butter in pan over medium heat. Add leeks and season with sea salt. Increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring often, until leeks begin to caramelized. Add pulled pork. Add cream and chopped rosemary. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thickened and coats the back of a spoon. Meanwhile, cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until al dente. Drain pasta, reserving 1cup pasta cooking liquid. Add pasta and 1/2 cup pasta cooking liquid to sauce and stir to coat. Increase heat to medium and continue stirring, adding more cooking liquid as needed, until sauce coats pasta.

My first cooking video

When Chef Mario Batali introduced a new dish called Uova da Raviolo (ravioli with a soft egg yolk inside) many home chefs may have been persuaded that it was almost impossible to cook at home. In fact, it can be done and it is not as difficult as I thought. My kitchen is very basic and I have no special kitchen utensils, just the usual ones, but with a little attention to detail even in a modest kitchen it can be done with stunning results.

In the following video, you will see my recipe and the steps.  The video was sponsored by Nutriplus, and produced by Nourish magazine, in preparation for the upcoming Think Out Of The Shell - Vol. II cookbook launch and the Nutriplus Pastry Challenge. 

You may pause whenever you want to look at the recipe and directions, which tend to flash by too quickly. All instructions are in text on the video.  

Uova da Raviolo (ravioli with a soft egg yolk inside) 

by Quay Po

You can serve the Uova da Raviolo with sauces, puree or soup of your choice. Think out of the shell, let your creative juices flow and most importantly, have fun. LOL!

By the way, I would like to remind all interested home cooks and bakers to submit your entries for the Nutriplus Pastry Challenge. Don't be shy or afraid. If you have the passion in cooking and baking you will have a wonderful time and have the chance to show off your baking skills. Why not?

I am not a Foodie, I am a Food Blogger

Have you seen penne casserole with sambal belacan tomato sauce and served with chilli padi?  That is the beauty of fusion food. My Quay Lo made this penne casserole with my sambal belacan tomato sauce and served it with chilli padi for me!  Even when we dine out at restaurants that serve Western cuisine, I am not shy to ask for chilli padi or even sambal belacan. I have received a blank look on some of the waiters or waitresses’ face but I don’t care what they think about me, I still want my chilli padi or sambal belacan! When I am lucky, some waiters or waitresses were kind enough to get the chilli padi or sambal belachan from the cafe or Chinese Restaurant in the hotel for me.  In that sense, Quay Po can never said to be a real foodie. To me, real foodies have brains in their taste buds. Normally, when they eat, they don’t add something like sauces that changes the taste of a dish. They are also very objective and won't let their judgement of food served to be influenced by how many Michelin stars a restaurant has, or how famous the celebrity chef is in the kitchen. From an article I have read, the author (forgot his name) said:

"Real foodies:
 don't indulge in pretentious smiles and nod bullshit based on how much something costs versus how it tastes.

Even when they are eating at a high end restaurant, they are objective about what is good versus what is mediocre rather than letting social halo effects override their biological response.

Don't eat at a restaurant primarily for the purpose of posting gastro vanity pictures just to show that they have been there.

Experiment with a lot of different places and foods from different cultures and geographies to develop a well calibrated sense of taste.

Pay very little attention to the service, decor or food presentation at a restaurant and emphasize food quality above everything else. They can appreciate good food at even a hole in the wall restaurant.

Don't eat at a restaurant out of obsessive compulsive completionism to be able to write an online review.

While I am not a foodie per se,  I do know if fusion food is done well.  Fusion cuisine truly can be excellent and innovative. Good fusion cuisine combines ingredients and cooking techniques from several cultures and creates a new fresh dish, even if the dish is simple like the one below that Quay Lo and I made together. All cultures have their own culinary traditions, and combining these cooking traditions can result in breath taking dishes. Fusion in the new modern cities of Asia is almost in a class of its own. Some of these creations, by bold and adventurous chefs, can be quite complex.  Still, somehow, I feel like Quay Lo and I are "down in the trenches" of this movement and doing so with simple dishes.

Fusion Penne Casserole

This recipe was featured on The Asian Food Channel (Official) 

Facebook page on 6 December 2012

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups uncooked penne pasta

½ cup Quay Po fusion tomato sauce

2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup grated Romano cheese

Method:

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain pasta; toss with Quay Po fusion tomato sauce. Spoon the mixture into a greased 2-qt. baking dish. Sprinkle with cheeses. Cover and bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Uncover; bake 15-20 minutes longer or until heated through. 

Quay Po fusion tomato sauce 

(click on the pic to get the recipe)

Speaking of LOVE

We went to Rome for a holiday in 2000 and we had a great time there. Time flies and eleven years just passed by!

Famous saying, "In Rome, do what the Romans do" just did not apply to me as far as food was concerned when we were there. I remembered I survived my whole trip on bread and pasta. I ate penne pasta in spicy tomato sauce with lots of chilli flakes and NO cheese, for almost every meal.  We found this little family Italian restaurant that we both like. It was a cosy little place with friendly faces. Each time, we were there I ordered the same thing and always reminded the waiter to tell the chef that I want extra spicy hot. I guessed the chef got curious about this customer who always asked for more chillis. He finally came out to greet us and see who this hot stuff is. I am sure he was disappointed when he saw this little, very ordinary looking"Kampung" Chinese lady. LOL! He was such a friendly guy and he chatted with us like old friends. No wonder Italians are reputed to be very expressive and warm people. So this is not just in movie but in real life too. Then, the last night, before we returned to Malaysia, we went there for dinner for one last time. After our dinner, the boss of the restaurant and his manager came to greet us and gave us a big hug. They even walked us to the door and ordered a taxi for us when it was time to leave. They wanted us to take a photo with them and we did.  

The memory of how easy a hug was given by a stranger makes me want to share with you the speech from the late Italian doctor, Dr. Leo Buscaglia. My Quay Lo sent me this link a few days ago.  I did not expect to watch the whole series at one go but I did. Here is a link to Part 1 of 6.

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Leo Buscaglia -Speaking of Love pt 1 of 6

By KathyN

YouTube

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I enjoyed his speech very much so I was hooked on it until I finished all 6 parts of the series. I could feel a lump in my throat and tears welled up in my eyes throughout listening to what he said about love. He had also written a book called LOVE.  From an article I read, A young reader of the book, Silvana Rosati-Capizzano wrote, “Leo was a University professor by profession. He had an idea for a new class to add to the curriculum. He wanted to introduce a university class on "LOVE". When he pitched his idea to the dean, and with much discussion it was accepted, (after much criticism), but only if he did it on his own time, without load credit and without a salary. The idea seemed ridiculous to the other professors. He ignored the ridiculing and forged ahead with this great idea. The idea was not embraced by many students but slowly and steadily, enrollment increased. It had to be eventually capped at 100 students.

These were students of all ages interested in "Love Class". They shared ideas, feeling and observations that was relevant to the human condition. Although they were never really able to define love, one student did come up with a wonderful explanation:

"I find love much like a mirror. When I love another, he becomes my mirror and I become his, and reflection in each other's love we see infinity!" Isn't this definition beautiful?

There are those that dismiss love as a naïve romantic concept while others find love all encompassing and the greatest, deepest feeling that is meant to be given away. Which one are you?

Did you listen to at least the 1^st part of his speech? Isn’t he amazing?

There is so many ways to share love and I know one sure way is through food.  I did not replicate the spicy penne pasta I had in that family restaurant in Italy but I made my own version. I used my fusion spicy tomato sauce.  Mine is super "All'arrabiata"!!  In Italian, it means "angry style" because of the heat of the chillis. I shared my love through food and even in an "angry style", there is lots of love in it. Enjoy!

Penne Pasta in Quay Po's fusion pomodoro sauce

Ingredients:

penne pasta

pamesan cheese to taste

fusion pomodoro sauce (click on the picture for the recipe)

Method:

Add a teaspoon of  salt to a pot of water and bring to boil. Cook penne pasta till el dante about 9 minutes. Drain water and pour fusion tomato sauce over it. Add parmesan cheese and serve with freshly baked crusty bread.

Notice I did not give you the measurement for the penne pasta?  I don't think it is necessary.

Gnocchi knew me in 2006 but it's only now that we became friends

The first time I saw how gnocchi was made was when I went to a cooking demo with my girlfriend ,Kam at an Italian Food Demonstration in 2006 at an Italian Restaurant in Bangsar called The Mango Tree. The chef is a friend of ours. This restaurant no longer exist. The chef and his family has moved to Ipoh. 

After the demonstration I never followed up and made any gnocchi at home. That is because back then, I was really not interested in cooking at all.  To be honest, I was not a big fan of gnocchi but after I tasted the gnocchi from this recipe that I am about to share with you, I would say I could even have a craving for it.

It has now become a trademark dish for me. So I will share with you this wonderful recipe of spinach ricotta gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce. I urge you to try it because the delightful smooth texture of gnocchi, with the  edgy flavor of the creamy sauce, is insanely pleasing to the palette.  I poured myself and my Quay Lo a glass of white wine each and we enjoyed the meal. We both said at the same time after our bite of the last piece of gnocchi on our plates… Aaah…DIVINE!

Spinach Ricotta Gnocchi with Gorgonzola sauce

Largely adapted from simplyrecipe.com

 Making the gnocchi

This recipe was featured in Asian Food Channel (Official) Facebook page on 5th September 2012

Ingredients for Gnocchi:

3 ounces fresh or frozen spinach

1 egg

2 tsp salt

1 1/2 pounds whole milk ricotta cheese, drained of excess moisture

1/3 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

Pinch of nutmeg

Method: 

1 Fill a medium saucepan halfway with water and heat until bubbles just begin to form. Add spinach and cook until tender, about 1 minute. Drain. Let spinach cool enough to touch, then squeeze as much moisture as you can out of it. You can also use a potato ricer if you have one to squeeze the excess water out of the spinach.

2 Add the spinach, egg, salt, and half of the ricotta to a food processor. Pulse until completely blended. Transfer mixture to a large bowl, mix in the remaining ricotta and the Parmesan cheese. Stir a pinch of nutmeg into the flour. Add the flour in by hand, starting with a half of the flour. Mix everything with your hands until the mixture holds together as a pliable dough.

3 Put the dough out on a lightly floured smooth, clean surface. Knead gently for about a minute, adding additional flour if needed, if the dough is too sticky. (At this point, if you wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for an hour, it will be easier to roll out.) When the dough is smooth and pliable, and still just a little bit sticky, divide it into 4 portions, each the size of an orange.

4 Flour your hands lightly. Using both hands, and a light touch, roll the dough out with a back and forth motion, starting at the center and stretching the dough out, to form a roll. This is the tricky part. You don't want to put so much pressure so that you compress the dough, but you do need enough pressure to create a rope of dough. The trick is to stretch the dough sideways as you are rolling. Once the segment you are working on gets to be about a foot long, you may find it easier to cut it in half, and then start working on each separately.

Roll the dough out until the roll is about the size of a middle finger. (Note that if your hands or the board is a little too floured, you may not have enough traction between your skin and the dough to easily stretch it sideways.) Cut each roll into 1-inch pieces.

5 Hold a fork at a 45% angle with its tines facing down on the work board, the curved part of the fork facing away from you. Starting with the curved outside bottom of the fork, press each piece of dough up along the length of the tines. Let the gnocchi fall back down. This is a pretty quick motion, the result is an indentation of the fork tines on one side of the gnocchi, and an indentation of your fingertip on the other side.

Place the gnocchi on a lightly floured cookie sheet. At this point they can be cooked, or kept in the refrigerator several hours or even overnight for prep minded chefs.

6 To cook the gnocchi, fill a large wide pot half-way with water. Bring to a boil, add 1 teaspoon of salt for every quart of water. Once the salt has dissolved, gently drop the gnocchi in the water, one by one. Try to do this in a way that the gnocchi are not falling in on top of each other, but rest on the bottom of the pan in a single layer. As the gnocchi cooks, they will rise to the surface of the water after a couple minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the risen gnocchi from the pot, place in a serving bowl. Sometimes the gnocchi can stick a little at the bottom. If you suspect this, nudge them a little to unstick them. As you remove some gnocchi, you can add a few more to the pan.

Gorgonzola Sauce

Ingredients:

½ C whipping cream

100gms gorgonzola cheese, cut into cubes

¼ C chives, chopped

¼ tsp ground black pepper

Method:

Bring cream to near boil. Add cheese a bit at a time while stirring until well blended. Pour over gnocchi and finish with black ground pepper and chives.

You can serve your gnocchi with a meat chop of your choice, such as a small beef steak, or chicken, or as the "primo" course in a full multi course Italian meal. I have served it with a fried chicken chop and garnished with truffle balsamic in these pictures.

Ravioli with spinach white wine creamy gravy

This dish comes from a combination of few recipes that I found on the web sometime ago and I forgot to write down the url addresses so I could not credit the owners of the recipes.  A thousand apologies.


When I was making this, my mum walked into the kitchen and she stayed and watch a bit. She asked me for the name for what I was making, I told her "Ravioli". This is her reply in Cantonese which I have translated into English.  "Why so hard to pronounce?, Haiyah, nevermind lah, I call it Quay Lo wantan." Isn't she a piece of work?

The good thing about ravioli is that you can make a big batch and freeze whatever the balance that are not used. You can use different kind of gravy to create a new taste each time.  I used spinach white wine creamy gravy for the first batch of ravioli. Then, few nights ago, Stitch suggested that I put the ravioli in minestrone soup and he said it was fantastic combintion and he loved it.  That is so easy, just heat up a can of minestrone soup and throw in the cooked ravioli.

For the benefit of those who are new to making ravioli like me, I have also made a short video on "how to".  I hope that makes it easier to understand the method better. Please bear with me for the poor production of the video for I am a beginner. I welcome advice for improvement. 

Make 30 - 35 Ravioli (2in x 2in square)

Ingredients:

3-1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt 3 whole beaten large eggs 


2-1/2 tablespoons cooking oil 


1/2 cup of lukewarm water 



Sift flour in large bowl, make a well in center and add salt, oil, eggs and water. Mix liquid and flour gradually until absorbed. Place dough on floured board and knead dough thoroughly for 3 to 5 minutes until dry and smooth. (Add more flour if dough is still sticky). Cover and set aside 10 to 15 minutes.

For ease of mixing and kneading your dough, use an automatic bread maker or dough mixer.

Method to assemble the Ravioli:

Divide dough into 4 balls.   Refer to video on how to make the ravioli.

Method to cook the Ravioli:

Boil a big pot of water with salt and a tsp of olive oil.  When water is boiling, put in the ravioli.  When they float to the top, it should be cooked. Drain off the water and put them in the serving plates to be ready for the gravy.

Filling – Option 1

Spinach and ricotta cheese

1 lb (450 g) fresh spinach

1 lb (450 g) ricotta cheese, thoroughly drained

4 oz gouda cheese, freshly grated

salt and pepper

¼ tsp of nutmeg

Filling – Option 2

Capsicum, black olive, tomato and blue cheese

½ green capsicum finely diced

1/ 2 cup black olive, sliced into thin rings

1 medium tomato, remove seed and finely diced

¼ cup thinly sliced sundried tomatoes

¼ cup blue cheese

1 tbs olive oil

½ tsp paprika

salt and pepper to taste


Garnish:
brocolli, steamed
rocket

Method to make the filling Option 1:

Boil the spinach in lightly salted water. Place the boiled spinach in a cheese cloth and form a small sack. Squeeze the sack to expel as much water as possible. Chop the spinach finely. Place the spinach in a bowl. Combine the drained ricotta, gouda cheese, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.  Taste and adjust the salt, pepper, and nutmeg if necessary.

Method to make the filling Option 2:

Heat olive oil in pan and add capsicum and sauté for a minute. Add black olive, diced tomatoes, sliced sundried tomatoes, paprika, salt and pepper and mix well. Turn of heat and blend in blue cheese and set aside.

Ingredients for Spinach white wine cream gravy:

200 gm spinach

1/2 small onion, cut into small pieces

3 roasted garlic cloves

2 tbsp butter

2 tsp chopped thyme

1 tbs butter

¼ cup white wine

1/4 cup whipping cream

salt & pepper - to taste

Method:

Wash spinach and steam for 15 mins till soft. Add spinach, onion, garlic, to the blender and make puree.  Melt butter in pan and add puree and let it boil on medium-flame. Add the chopped thyme, salt and pepper, and let it simmer. Reduce flame to low and add white wine and whipping cream. Mix well and pour it over cooked ravioli. Garnished with steamed brocolli and fresh rocket and serve.

TIPS:

* Drain the filling ingredients very well to prevent the ravioli from breaking while boiling.

* If you would like the stuffing to be aromatic, add more freshly grated nutmeg.

* Sometimes the dough will dry too much while you are working, which prevents the pasta sheets from being “gluey” enough to stick to each other. If this happens, brush the surface of the bottom pasta sheet with egg whites. To prevent the pasta sheets from drying too much, cover them with plastic wrap.