Category Archives: Home Cook Food

Roast pork wraps

28 Thursday Mar 2013

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I thought my work will tone down after a month or 2 of peak period. But, it’s now stretching to almost 3 months already. And I don’t foresee it lightening for April either. Sob sob.

Even with tiring hectic schedule, I try to cook whenever I can. Why? Because it helps me to de-stress. LOL… I know it’s weird. The only thing I hate is the washing up. But, hubby generously offers to wash up after dinner because he knows I am stressed out. Thank dear!

Since I am quite tired myself, I try to keep the cooking to a very simple meal. The Roast pork wrap is simply one of my favourite. It’s so easy, it only took less than 15 minutes to prepare, cook and serve.

Ingredients

  • 2 shallots
  • 8 cloves of garlic
  • 3 bird eye’s chilies
  • 1 box of Roast pork (about 2 servings)

Sauce

  • 1 tablespoon miso paste
  • 1 tablespoon sweet sauce (hoisin sauce)
  • 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

Diced finely the shallots, garlics and chilies and fry them until fragrant.

Stir Fry the condimentsThe main STAR of the nightAdd the roast pork and stir in the sauces (I usually mix the sauces together first) and give it a good stir-fry until every piece is coated evenly. le Sauce Just prepare some big leafy salad (I prefer to use green coral) and cucumber ribbons (Just use the vege peeler and slice across). It’s ready to be served. Dinner !!!

Salad, Cucumber and PorkRoast Pork Wrap

Plopped in front of TV and enjoy a good comedy while chomping down my dinner and sipping on peach cider. Great way to unwind… after a long hard day.

Fresh Pasta with my Atlas 150

25 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in Gastronomy, Home Cook Food, Kitchen wares, Shopping

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Lesson one – DO NOT WASH your Atlas 150 !!! sob sob… being an OCD, I can’t help myself. I washed it… sigh. AND, I found some rusty bits on the cutter wheels. But, if you do get some rust, don’t worry. This is what me and my bro did to clean it up. We made a batch of dough with cheap flour and water only into very dry and hard dough. Using that, we ran it thru the cutter a few hundred times (me – exaggerating) and thank God the dough manages to pick up all these rusty bits… So, I’ve learned my lesson. Just use a slightly damp cloth to wipe everything and leave it at that.

I whipped up a batch of dough using 300gm of flour and 3 eggs with my trusty Kenwood Kmix. It’s my first time using my dough hook. It’s fun and so easy to use. After mixing everything into a ball, I let the machine knead it for about 2-3 mins before kneading it with my hand. Let the dough rest for about 30mins and it’s ready to be churn into pasta. Yippee… Dough PreparationLet me tell you – Pasta making is NOT a job for one person! You need at least 2 people. One to row the pasta and one to cradle it as it roll out. Thank God I had 3 other people helping. One to roll, one to cradle, one to lay them out to dry and mum for helping to wash up the mess we made. Lol. Hehehe…

Flattening the dough

The Atlas rolled out the pasta perfectly. It was really easy to use. First we rolled the dough using the ‘0’ setting a few times until we get the basic shape we want. Then, we start going up the dial. We made 2 batches, one up to ‘8’ and another to ‘9’. It’s too thin for fettuccini. Sigh. I think I would prefer it thicker. The next time, I’ll stop at ‘5’ or ‘6’. Dial on pasta maker

Very important to allow your pasta to dry sufficiently before throwing into the boiling water. I don’t have a drying rack… so we had to find a innovative solution. hehehe. Don’t worry, it’s clean. I glad-wrap the whole table surface. Drying Pasta

Fresh pasta cooks really fast. So, be very careful to test your pasta from time to time until you get the bite you want.

Tada… 2 flavours for the night.

Carbonara Fettuccini

Cabonara Fetucini

And Smoke Salmon and Saute Scallop Fettuccini

Pan Fry ScallopSalmon Scallop pasta

Can’t wait to try another batch…

Honeyed wine poached pear

14 Monday Jan 2013

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I have always wanted to make poached pear but never found the motivation to try. Hence when I saw some really amazing big brown pears in the grocery recently, it was all the push I need. I quickly grab 4 of the biggest and prettiest I can find.

After ransacking online, I found a few recipes which provide great insight on how to poach pear and start preparing my own version. Lol… Luckily, I had quite a few of cheap red wines lying around (for cooking). So, it was without pain that I filled the pot with one bottle. In it, I add 1/2 cup of honey and 2 tbsp of brown sugar. Bring all these to boil and taste it. The sweetness really depends on individual. So, adjust accordingly. I like some tartness in the wine, so, I decided to add in 1 apple which I peel and cubed. Now, it kind of reminds me of Glühwein. (I was super addicted to this at one stage when I was in Germany during Christmas)

Lowered the pears gently into the pot and allow it to simmer for about 2 hours. Rotating the pears from time to time to ensure the color is well-coated all around the pear. After that, I turn the flame high and allow the wine to thicken into almost syrup-like for 1 hour. After that, I took those pears out and allow them to cool down. Then, I use a hand-blender to mash up the apple cubes with the red wine syrup. It was really nice and thick.

Poached Pear 1Poaches Pear 2 Serve it with vanilla ice cream drizzled with the sauce. Absolutely delicious ! yumz…

Drizzle with sauce