Spaghetti Aglio E Olio

 

This is a easy dish to prepare. Watch this very useful video and you will be able cook Aglio E Olio for your friends in no time.

Ingredients (serves 4 pax)

50g garlic cloves 

240g spaghetti pasta

5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

fresh parsley (optional)

parmasen cheese (optional)

chilli flakes (optional)

your choice of protein e.g. sausages, bacon (optional)

Method:

1. Slice the garlic thinly and put into a skillet. Add extra virgin olive oil into the skillet and saute the garlic over low heat until the garlic is light golden in colour (it took about 15 minutes). Stir occasionally to brown the garlic evenly. If using chilli flakes, sprinkle them into the skillet and saute together with the garlic.

2. At the same time, bring a pot/wok of water to boil. Add some salt in it and cook the pasta according to the package instructions. Drain the pasta and apportion into serving plates.

3. Once garlic is ready, remove the skillet from heat (note that the garlic will continue to cook and turn brown, so make sure you do not over-saute them). Pour the olive oil and garlic over the pasta. Toss the pasta and garnish with fresh parsley and parmasen cheese.

4. Enjoy! Below picture shows a plate of Aglio E Olio with sausages and garnished with dried green laver seaweed (aonori).

Pizza Crust (Improved)

Pizza 

This pizza dough will yield a pizza crust that is crispy on the outside and soft inside. As the amount of liquid is high, it is best made using a stand mixer with a dough hook. Of course you can knead by hand too.

Ingredients:

500g bread flour

10g semolina flour

1 tsp yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

15g olive oil

1 tsp salt

340g / 350ml water (room temperature)

1. In the mixing bowl, combine the bread flour and semolina flour, add the salt on one side of the bowl and yeast and sugar on the other side. Pour water and olive oil into the bowl and start to knead on slow speed until the dough comes together. Then increase the mixer speed to medium and knead until the dough comes away cleanly from and flaps against the sides of the mixing bowl.

2. Turn the dough onto the table. Use the scrapper to quickly gather the dough together, then work the dough by stretching and folding a few times to trap as much air as possible inside the dough. Use the dough scrapper to gather the dough into a ball.  Lightly oil the mixing bowl and place the dough ball into the mixing bowl, cover the bowl with a plastic/cloth and let the dough rest for 45minutes or until double in size. For better crust and flavor, rest the dough in the fridge and leave it overnight (or up to 48 hours - bring the dough to room temperature before using it). 

3. Mix a tablespoon of bread flour with a tablespoon of semolina flour. Turn the dough (weight, around 830g) onto the table. Divide into 4 (around 200g each), roll into a ball and lightly coat each ball with bread and semolina flour mixture. Cover the dough balls with cloth/plastic and rest the dough balls for up to 1 hour (or overnight in fridge - bring the dough to room temperature before using it). 

4. Preheat oven to 230 deg celcius (or as high as it will go).

5. Lightly dust the baking tray with bread and semolina flour mixture, and place one dough ball on it. Shape the dough by using your fingers to push/stretch the dough from the center towards the rim until you have a rough circle of about 20cm in diameter with a 1 cm rim.

6. Drizzle a little olive oil over the pizza and spread one tablespoon of tomato sauce evenly over the pizza. Bake the pizza for 5 minutes. Remove the pizza from the oven and add toppings. Then continue to bake the pizza until the edges become golden brown and crispy.

Pizza Crust (Basic)

比萨

If you are like me, you will not be buying pizzas anymore once you learnt to make your own pizzas. Here is the recipe to make pizza base so that you can have delicious pizzas with your favouite toppings any time of the day/week. 

Ingredients (males two 8" round pan pizza)

200g bread flour

1 teaspoon instant yeast

2 teaspoon sugar

2/3 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

140ml warm water

Method

1. Put bread flour into mixing bowl, instant yeast and sugar on one side of the bowl, salt and olive oil on the opposite side. Pour in warm water into the yeast. Reserve 10 to 20ml of water, do not pour all in at once. 

2. Use dough scrapper/cutter to mix, turning the mixing bowl at the same time.

3. Once the dough comes together, use hand to knead until you get a pliable dough. The dough will be sticky at first but will become smooth as you knead. Your hands should be clean once you are done kneading.

4. Shape into a ball and lightly grease the mixing bowl with olive oil. Place the dough ball (seam side down) into the mixing bowl, cover with a plastic sheet and place the mixing bowl in a warm area for fermentation, around 30mins. Fermentation is completed when the dough has doubled in size. This website has a clear writeup on how to check whether the dough has risen enough for shaping.

5. Punch down the dough and divide into two (to make two pizzas of 8" diameter, the size of a personal pan pizza). Roll each dough into a small ball. Place one dough ball on a baking pan (lightly greased with olive oil) and press the dough with both hands into an 8" round. Repeat for the other dough ball.

6. Brush pizza with olive oil (to prevent dough from becoming soggy). Add tomato sauce and bake the pizza base @ 250C for 5 mins, or until the edges (as well as the bottom of the pizza base) are light golden. Transfer the baked pizza base to a cooling rack to cool. Once cooled, wrap the pizza base with cling wrap and store in freezer. Try: Oven top grill with fan mode at 200C for 15mins.

7. When ready to serve, take the pizza base from the freezer. Add more tomato sauce, your favourite toppings and bake the pizza @250C for 10 mins.

 

Try: thin crust pizza

600g bread flour

1 tsp yeast

30g sugar

100g oil

300g water

1 tsp salt

Mix flour, yeast and sugar

Add veg oil and water, knead until half smooth, add salt, knead again until smooth

Divide into 3, roll over pan (25 x 38), pierce the dough with a fork,

apply olive oil, sauce and toppings

leave for 15mins

bake in 220C oven 15mins until done

Spaghetti Bolognaisse

 意大利面

This recipe serves 4

Ingredients

300g spaghetti noodles

250g minced beef (you can mix in minced pork. Recommended quantity is 25% of total minced beef, e.g. for 200g minced beef, addd in 50g minced pork)

1 bottle of spaghetti sauce (Barilla brand)

2 medium size tomatoes (I like to use fresh tomatoes to make the sauce more flavorful - skip step 2 if you are using only bottled spaghetti sauce.)

1 medium size large onion

1 tablespoon mixed herbs (oregano, basil, thyme)

1 tablespoon butter (to make the sauce creamy)

Method

Cooking the sauce

1. Dice the onion for frying with beef later.

2. Core each tomato (i.e. remove the spot where the stem used to attach to the tomato) and cut a cross on the bottom of each tomato. Boil the tomatoes in a small pot of water for a few minutes until the skin peels away from the tomatoes. Drain the tomatoes and set aside to cool. Once cooled, slice the tomatoes into half and remove the seeds. Then, cut the tomatoes into small pieces and set aside. 

3. Heat 1 - 2 tablespoon of cooking oil in the wok. Add the diced onions and saute under low heat. Stir fry the beef, breaking them up as you cook. Transfer the beef to a plate and set aside.

4. In the same wok used for cooking the beef, add in the tomatoes and stir fry for 1 minute. Then pour in the whole bottle of tomato sauce. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of mixed herbs and stir to mix. Add the beef to the tomato sauce, mix in and simmer for 15 minutes. Finally (optional step), add 1 tablespoon of butter to the sauce and give it a good mix. The spaghetti sauce is ready!

Cooking the pasta

5. Bring a pot/wok of water to boil. Add some salt in it and cook the pasta according to the package instructions. Drain the pasta. Note: If you are not serving right away, drizzle some olive oil over the pasta so that the pasta will not clump together. 

6.  Scoop the spaghetti sauce over the pasta and serve. Enjoy!

Creamy Mushroom Pasta

 

This recipe serves 2.

Ingredients:

90g brown button mushrooms, thinly sliced

100g heavy cream

15g parmesan cheese

2 garlic cloves, diced/thinly sliced

2 shallots, diced

Pinch of salt

Dashes of black pepper

Dashes of oregano

Method:

1. Melt butter and olive oil, saute garlic and shallots until fragrant.

2. Add mushrooms and mix in. Cook for 6-7minutes, stirring frequently. The mushrooms will release some liquid. Add a pinch of salt

3. Pour 1 tablespoon white wine to deglaze the pan and cook for 1 minute.

4. Add herbs and stir in.

5. Add heavy cream and bring to boil. Then simmer for 10 minutes, stiring frequently, until sauce has reduced to about half. Turn off heat, season with salt and black pepper.

6. Serve hot with pasta.