Hong Kong Trip Part I 香港游之出发日

Having been absent for three weeks, I hope to win your heart back with a series of FOOD entries from my 6 days in Hong Kong (Pardon me for including my travel photos here)!

protection for the soul

This trip has been one my friends and I had been looking forward to since last October. Due to a last minute unanticipated cancellation of our parties in Hong Kong (thanks to Swine Flu), Rachel is all I have left to accompany me on the trip! Thankfully we both have (loads of) shopping on my to-do list other than food.

We flew three and a half hours to Macau and were greeted with neon lights from casinos all over the little island despite the still bright and clear sky above our heads. Interesting 'sights' in Macau include a real Chinese-looking bus and a pretty restroom hidden beneath the most ordinary of all facade.

deceiving

the beauty behind the facade

I say 'sights' and not sights because we did not look around Macau for our hearts belong to Hong Kong and only Hong Kong. Inititally, we had planned to leave Hong Kong around noon for Macau on the last day of our trip. However, one thing led to the other and we missed our ferry so we loitered in Hong Kong till the very last hour before we miss our flight back home which departs from Macau.

real glad to be one step closer to Hong Kong

Upon our long-awaited arrival in Macau, we hopped onto the AP1 bus and headed straight for the ferry terminal. By the time we stepped off the ferry in Hong Kong, we were famished! Ironically, we had our dinner at 澳門茶餐廳 Macau Restaurant located in the Hong Kong Macau Ferry Terminal! When it comes to deciding on where to dine at, always go to the one with lots of locals. We were choosing between this Macau Restaurant and another modern Hong Kong eatery and we chose the former simply because it was packed to the brim!

柱侯牛腩麵 Beef Brisket Noodles

The beef brisket noodles I had was all good other than the over salty broth which I think is adapted to the Hongkongers' palates. I typically do not go for these yellow thread-like thin noodles in Singapore because most places overcook it and it becomes a sad soggy mess. However, the ones here were cooked just right - springy in texture! The beef was really tender too!

澳門炒飯 Macau Fried Rice

This was Rach's second choice seeing that her first choice was not available. It was a pretty big portion which she could not finish!

We were sharing a table with an arty farty man who must have thought we were from China when we conversed in Mandarin between the two of us. When we switched to speaking in English, he spoke to us in English too! Boy, did I tell you how much I adore the way the Hongkongers speak English?? It is on par with how much I adore the French (language!) He asked us the standard questions a local will pose to tourists - Is this your first time here? What do you plan to do during your stay? And the list goes on. He also asked if we were into anything Arts & Cultural. Unfortunately, shopping was higher up on our agenda! He then went on telling us it is a good time to shop because of the swine flu outbreak, stores are slashing prices etc! And all these while, I had been eyeing the food he is eating. When he sank his teeth into one Portuguese egg tart, I know I can't give it a miss!

葡式蛋撻 Portugese Egg Tarts - egg white & egg yolk

Never had I known that there are two variations of the widely known Portuguese egg tart. And the difference lies in the custard filling. Over here, you have a choice of the egg white or egg yolk filling. Personally, I prefer the egg white custard filling which isn't as sweet and heavy as the egg yolk version. These are best eaten HOT! I know it by gorging down three before my flight back home when they have already turned cold. (Portuguese Egg Tart - HKD 7.00 each)

I love the burned bits which remind me of crème brûlée! I believe we also had our first authentic Hong Kong drinks in this cafe/restaurant. In Hong Kong, I drank mostly iced 鴛鴦 yingyong which is a mixture of coffee and milk tea. Rach had 港式奶茶 Hong Kong-style milk tea. Less ice please!

love the burnt bits

With our stomachs well taken care of, we got back on the road and headed towards our hostel! En route, we had to hop off the Island line at Central station to get on the Tsuen Wan line. We were enthralled by the brilliance of installing computers within the station providing free internet service! However, this is an idea that will not work in my home country where people take advantage of all things free without sparing a thought to the poor souls in the queue behind their arses.

Mong Kok is where we put up at for all six days of our trip

As we were on a cheap trip, we were game for budget ccomodation like a hostel which translates into a tiny room with a tiny bathroom, two single beds, a small LCD TV, a small side table, a stool, a wastepaper basket and a hangar rack.

two single beds

the tiny but adequate bathroom

the tiny LCD TV that suffices with the side table (with our shopping loot!)

The hostel that we put up at is Ah Shan Hostel which we were pretty pleased with in general! If you are in luck, you will get to meet this absolutely adorable boy like I did at the main office.

a smart and lovable four-year old

A double room like ours cost about S$50 per night. And it just so happened that the month of our travel coincided with Ah Shan's 40th anniversary celebration. We paid for four nights and got our fifth night free. Oh! What a steal! Again, it is pure luck that we booked our trip for 6 days 5 nights! Double cheers! At the end of it all, we spent only S$100 each on accomodation and with all that we have saved from it, it went into shopping, shopping and more shopping!

to be continued...

i'm out having fun

Peeps, Mrs Ergül is in a food and shopping haven right here right now. I'm in one of my favourite cities of the world - Hong Kong. The moment I stepped onto the bustling streets, I feel alive. I will love to make you drool with a photo of Portugese Egg Tarts I had yesterday. But, I can only blame myself for not bringing along my USB port to plugin my memory card. Till then!

Kidney Beans Stewed in Red Wine with Tomatoes and Herbs

The 500 grams package of organic red kidney beans I had purchased allows me to make this recipe twice. And each pot of this oven stewed beans make two lunches and one dinner for me.

The first time round I stewed this on the stove top for more than two hours which proved to be wrong. Even though it was simmered in low heat, doing so in the oven is much gentler. Hence, the gravy doesn't dry out. The second time I made it, I had ran out of red wine and went with white instead and there was no harm done.

A portion of this with two slices of crusty wholemeal bread makes a really substantial and healthy lunch!

Ingredients
adapted from Cooking Books' Kidney Beans Stewed in Red Wine with Tomatoes and Herbs

1 1/2 cups dried Red Kidney Beans, soaked overnight
Olive Oil (for the pan)
1 small Red Onion, chopped
1 small Carrot, diced
1 small Celery rib, diced
Salt and Pepper, to taste
4 tablespoons Tomato Paste
3 garlic Cloves, chopped
1/4 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
1/2 cup Red or White Wine
1 teaspoon Balsamic Vinegar
1 Bay Leaf
2 sprigs fresh Flat-Leaf Parsley
1 sprig fresh Thyme
1 sprig fresh Rosemary
Handful of minced Parsley

How to?

Combine the drained Beans and 4 cups of fresh Water in a pot over medium heat
Bring the Water to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer, partly covered, for one hour.
Preheat the oven to 275°F
Warm the oil in a dutch oven over medium heat and cook the Onion, Carrot and Celery, along with a pinch of Salt, for about 5 minutes
Add the Tomato Paste, Garlic and Red Pepper Flakes and cook for 5 minutes more
Be sure to stir once in a while so nothing sticks
Add the Wine, increase the heat, and bring the mixture to a boil
Add the Vinegar and Bay Leaf, and finally the Beans with their Water.
Tie a Bouquet Garni made up of the fresh herbs (see note) and add it to the pot
Also add any additional Water necessary to barely cover the Beans
Bring the mixture to a boil, then cover and place in the oven
Bake in the oven, covered, for 1.5 hours, then uncover for the last 1/2 hour
Remove the Bouquet Garni, and season with Salt and Pepper
Serve with minced Parsley sprinkled over the top

Fried Bee Hoon

This is a common and all-time favourite dish of Singaporeans, young and old. More often than not, this appears on the dining table together with Curry Chicken when people cook for a pretty big group. Spoon some curry over this bee hoon and you are set for a meal of comfort food.

A lot of people soak the dried vermicelli with hot water which is a no-no. You should be soaking them in cold water to soften them up. If you soak it in hot water, the noodles will break up when you do the frying and you will be left with a pile of short strands of vermicelli. Not pretty.

Fried bee hoon is usually served with a light brown tint which, I guess, is from the soy sauce used to flavour the noodles. Instead of them, I ladle freshly simmered chicken stock into the wok for flavour. And my noodles are still white when served. I kinda like that! In my version of fried bee hoon, I added in cubed chicken breast and julienned carrot. Of course, I can't do without omelette.

Feel free to throw in any ingredients you fancy, be it greens or seafood! Do as desired.

Ingredients

1 bundle of Dried Vermicelli, soak in cold water until softened
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1 Chicken Breast, cubed
1 Carrot, julienned
1 to 2 cups Chicken Stock
2 to 3 Eggs, beaten
1 Spring Onion, chopped

How to?

Heat 1 tablespoon Oil and Garlic in wok until smoking
Add in Chicken Breast
Stir-fry until Chicken Breast is half cooked, dish out, set aside
Add another tablespoon Oil in wok
Add in drained Vermicelli and one cup Chicken Stock
Loosen Vermicelli around in wok
Add in Carrot and Chicken cubes
If Vermicelli is too dry, add in another cup of Chicken Stock on medium heat
Stir-fry mixture until evenly cooked
Dish out onto serving bowls
Heat another tablespoon Oil in wok
Salt and Pepper beaten Eggs
Pour beaten Eggs into wok on mefium high heat
Flip omelette over after two to three minutes
Cook flip side for another minute or two
Dish out onto chopping board
Slice omelette into strips

Top Bee Hoon with omelette strips and chopped Spring Onions

more omelette please

Chicken Samosas

I have been thinking about the Chicken Puff Samosas I have made from Kayotic Kitchen. While those have been wonderful, another thought had been nagging at me. Over here in Singapore, the kind of samosas we are accustomed to are those that are wrapped into triangles with spring rolls wrappers. The filling within usually contains potato as the main ingredient. And, of course, they are fried to golden goodness instead of baked.

I split each of the 215mm by 215mm spring roll pastry into three longish strips of equal width before topping it with filling before rolling them and sealing it with beaten egg. Fry them until they turn golden on both sides, dip them into Thai Chili and you will swoon!

I have made this version for three times now. The first two times I used chicken meat picked from the chicken breast bones which I used for my chicken stock. I was surprised by how much meat that was being picked from these bony bones! And I feel bad for wasting all those that I have discarded after making stock in the past. Well, thanks to my hubby for teaching me not to waste food! Now we have samosas every time I make stock.

Ingredients
adapted from Kayotic Kitchen's Chicken Puff Samosas

12 sheets Spring Roll Pastry (215mm by 215mm; more if using small sheets)
200 grams shredded cooked Chicken Meat
4 medium-sized Potatoes
2 tablespoons Pineapple Juice (from the can)
1 teaspoon Tomato Paste
2 tablespoons Yogurt
1 Pineapple Slice, diced
1/2 Bell Pepper, diced
2 Chili Peppers, diced
3 to 4 Shallots, diced
1/2 cup frozen Mixed Vegetables
Curry Powder
Paprika Powder
Salt and Pepper, to taste
Egg, beaten

How to?

Boil Potatoes until fork tender
Peel and dice Potatoes after it has cooled down slightly
In the meantime, split each Spring Roll Pastry into three strips of equal length; cover with cling wrap, set aside
Add a small drop of Oil to pan, throw in the Shallots for about two to three minutes and cook them over medium heat before adding your Bell and Chili Peppers
Cook for 3 more minutes and throw in the chopped Pineapple, Tomato Paste, Pineapple Juice and Yogurt
Mix everything up
Give it a taste to see if it needs a little seasoning
Simmer over really low heat for a minute or 5
Add shredded Chicken, diced Potatoes and Mixed Vegetables into the mix
Chop up a small handful of Flat Leaf Parsley
Stir it in with the Chicken mixture and turn the heat off
Now, on to wrapping the samosas:

Put about a 1 1/2 teapsoonsful of filling in the lower, upper right corner of the split Pastry

Fold the lower left corner of the Pastry over the filling
Now, you have a triangle jutting out at the bottom of your Pastry strip

Fold that triangle up like a mirror reflection

Now, fold up the triangle onto the other corner of the square
Repeat Step 3 and Step 2

Voila, your Samosa is formed!
Fry the Samosas until golden
Serve hot!

Double Chocolate Bundt Cake

With the past few posts all revolving around my husband's birthday party, I don't blame you if you assumed this is his birthday cake. Only it isn't. This dude doesn't fancy chocolate. He doesn't fancy anything too sweet. Apparently his threshold of sweetness is an elastic band. All turks love syrup laden baklava! Double standard.

who wouldn't be tempted?

As chocolaty as it looks, it ain't sweet. I ensured that by almost halving the amount of sugar and using good old Belgian dark chocolate! Even this dude agreed. And no. I did not put a knife at his throat.

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that the recipe uses Toblerone and it just so happened that I had purchased two small bars the previous evening. Since I did not have enough to make up 7 ounces, I made up for the discrepancy with my good old Belgian. That worked out perfectly well.

a bundt

Technically, the only problem I had emerged from not heeding the recipe's explicit instruction to use a 14-cup pan. There and then, I had only one bundt pan. After a simple measurement, I learnt that it is a 9-cup bundt pan. Being hardheaded, I proceeded with a 9-cup bundt pan with a 14-cup cake recipe. Nothing much happened except a volcano erupted. Still, it isn't a bad thing! I trimmed off the volcano portion of the cake and I still have a bundt. And I was thinking, if I ever have a confectionery I will bake this recipe in this same pan, sell the bundt cake as a Double Chocolate Bundt Cake and sell the volcano side of it as a Double Chocolate Volcano Cake! With the glaze flowing out of the well, it sure resembles a volcano!

Double Chocolate Bundt and Double Chocolate Volcano cakes

Ingredients
adapted from Cafe Fernando's Double Chocolate Bundt Cake

2 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
1/4 cup Cocoa
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
3/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Buttermilk
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
100 grams Toblerone Milk Chocolate, chopped
100 grams Bittersweet Chocolate, chopped
8 ounces Butter, plus more for pan
3/4 cup Sugar
4 Eggs + 1 Egg White
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

volcano eruption

Chocolate Ganache Glaze
4.5 ounces Bittersweet Chocolate (70%), chopped
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
2 tablespoon Butter
2 tablespoons Light Corn Syrup (optional)

How to?

Preheat your oven to 170°C
Butter a 14-cup bundt cake pan and set aside
Sift Flour, Cocoa, Baking Soda and Salt into a large mixing bowl
Whisk and set aside
In a small saucepan, bring Cream to a boil
Place both types of chopped Chocolate in a small bowl and pour hot Cream, through a sieve, over the chopped Chocolate
Stir until smooth and creamy in texture
Add Buttermilk and place in the refrigerator until cool (room temperature is enough)
Cream Butter and Sugar with a mixer until fluffy
Add the Eggs (and the Egg White) and beat until combined
Stir in Vanilla Extract
On low speed, add the Flour mixture in three equal amounts alternating with the Chocolate batter, ending with Flour
Pour the batter into the bundt pan and bake for 55 to 60 minutes (or until a wooden toothpick insterted in center comes out clean
If the toothpick is wet, bake 5 more minutes and check again
Let cool in pan, invert onto a serving plate and start preparing the Chocolate Ganache Glaze

In a small saucepan, bring Cream to a boil

Place chopped Chocolate, Butter and Corn Syrup in a small bowl and pour hot Cream, through a sieve, over the chopped Chocolate
Stir until smooth and creamy in texture
Let stand, stirring occasionally until slightly thickened
Pour over the cooled cake, slice and serve

Seafood Tarts

Another of the finger food I made for my husband's party. As pretty as it might look, it did not go very well with the guests. Mostly, the flavour did not gel very well with the Asian palate. The cream cheese based filling is a tad too creamy to most of our liking. Ironically, my husband is the only person who likes this and this is his favourite dish of the day. Have I mentioned that he has the most exotic palate of everyone I know?

He said he liked it because it is similar to something he ate at a French restaurant once. So long as he likes it.

I had intended to acquire some mini tart moulds for this. Since I had happily chuck that task on the back burner, I did not realize I was not equipped with it till the very last minute. So, I looked through my tiny collection of bakeware and decided on using my silicon muffin cups. Not only because I have enough to generate 16 tarts of a uniform size, the tarts will not stick painfully to the tart moulds. This is a problem I have always had with my tart moulds. Allow me to credit myself here!

I also left them in the muffin cups for they cheered up the dining table with all that pastel colours! Another point scored there.

The recipe made the tart dough with a food processor. But this was before I acquired my Kenwood. So, I did it by hand by cutting the cubed butter into the flour with my fingertips until they resemble coarse breadcrumbs. I used far lesser water to bind them together too!

I then substituted light mayonnaise with homemade yogurt. My husband suspect this could be another reason why it did not go very well with the guests. The homemade yogurt made it a little too tang.

Ingredients
adapted from My Kitchen Snippets' Seafood Tarts

Tart Pastry
2 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 sticks or 3/4 cup (12 tablespoons) cold Unsalted Butter, cubed
1 teaspoon Salt
3 tablespoons Ice Water (more or less)

Filling
2 cups cooked Shrimps, roughly chopped
1/2 cup artificial Crabsticks, roughly chopped (omitted)
1 stalk Celery, cubed
3 Spring Onions, finely chopped
1 Egg
1/2 cup Low Fat Cream Cheese
1/2 cup Light Mayonnaise or Yogurt
1 teaspoon Chili Powder
1/2 teaspoon Sugar
2 tablespoons Lemon Juice
Salt and Pepper, to taste

How to?

By Machine
Pulse in a food processor the Flour, Butter, and Salt just until the mixture resembles a coarse meal with some small (pea-size) butter lumps
Drizzle 2 tablespoons Ice Water evenly over the mixture
Pulse until incorporated
Squeeze a small handful of the dough, if it doesn’t hold together, add more Ice Water, 1/2 tablespoons at a time, pulsing until combined
Do not overwork the dough, or the crust will be tough
Turn the dough out onto a work surface
Gather the all dough together then divide it in half
Flatten each half into a disk
Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least 1 hour

By Hand
Mix Flour and Salt
Cut cubed Butter into Flour mixture by rubbing Butter into the Flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse meal
Drizzle 2 tablespoons Ice Water evenly over the mixture
Mix dough by hand until just combined
Squeeze a small handful of the dough, if it doesn’t hold together, add more Ice Water, 1/2 tablespoons at a time, mixing until combined
Do not overwork the dough, or the crust will be tough
Turn the dough out onto a work surface
Gather the all dough together then divide it in half
Flatten each half into a disk
Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least 1 hour

In a mixing bowl mix all the Filling ingredients together until well combined
Set it aside
Roll the dough to about 1/8” and line the pastry into little tart moulds or silicon muffin cups
Fill it up with the Filling and bake in a pre-heated 350°F for half an hour or until the crust is golden brown
Serve warm or at room temperature

Caramelized Onion and Olive Croustades

"A Croustade is a French culinary term meaning a crust or pie-crust of any type. They are usually made of flaky pastry or puff pastry, but there are also bread croustades (croustade de pain de mie), potato croustades (petites croustades en pommes de terre duchesse), rice, semolina and vermicelli croustades, among others.

referenced from Wikipedia"

When my friends saw me making this for the party, they asked what cuisine does it belong to? There and then, I had no idea. I only know it is fit for a party as a finger food. It looks cute, it is bite-sized and I wanna try making it!

But now, I know it is French. In fact, I guessed correctly!

Other than the onions taking pretty long to get caramelized, it came together pretty quickly. Thankfully I had friends to watch the pan for me while I busy myself preparing other food!

I used a 1 1/2" fluted cookie cutter to cut out round puff pastry shapes. Of course, the fluted design dissolved into cute little circles as it puffs into the oven. 1 1/2" is just about the right size. After the magic in the oven, the puffs came out in a size that slides right into your mouth. Perfect.

Ingredients
adapted from La Table De Nana's Caramelized Onion and Olive Croustades

¼ cup Olive Oil
1 small clove Garlic, thinly sliced
2 large Onions, thinly sliced
2 sprigs Thyme
fine Sea Salt and freshly Ground Pepper
2 sheet frozen Puff Dough, defrosted and trimmed to 1 1/2-inch rounds
½ cup Black Olives, pitted and halved
freshly grated Parmesan

How to?

Preheat oven to 450°F
Heat Olive Oil in a large skillet over medium heat
Add sliced Onion, Garlic and Thyme
Cook Onion, stirring occasionally until the Onions are soft
Reduce heat to medium low and continue cooking for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until well caramelized
Season to taste with fine Sea Salt and freshly Ground Pepper
Place the Puff Dough rounds on a parchment lined baking sheet
Spread the caramelized Onion, leaving about a small allowance around the edges
Top the Onions with Black Olives and Parmesan
Bake the croustades in the oven about for about 15 to 20 minutes until the crust is golden brown and puffed
Serve warm

Irish Beef Stew

This is one recipe I am very sure will go into [The Ergül's Family Favourites] recipe box. I will officialize this once I made it again with some tweaking to the recipe. But that is not to say that the recipe isn't perfect. I will just like to adjust it to our preferences.

The photos you are seeing here is the leftovers when some of the potatoes have been pretty mashed, causing the stew to be a little too thick.

I used about 1 1/4 pound Australian Shin Beef for this and tossed it another 1/4 pound of Chunk to make up 1 1/2 pounds. In future, I will use 2 pounds of beef. I had intended to get canned or carton beef broth. Unfortunately, that slipped off my mind and had to resort to using stock cubes. While the stew is good the way it was, it would have benefited from homemade beef stock. Since, we have never had any beef bones around, I had no intention to make my own beef stock. I will also use about 1 more cup of beef broth as the stew has a tendency to thicken if left overnight for leftovers. Or you add add add some broth when you are heating up the leftovers to the desired consistency.

As we were finishing the stew over the next two days after the party, I realized that the stew gets sweeter each time I eat it. Most likely this came from the carrots and/or tomato paste. So, I will simply omit the tablespoon of sugar in future. On top of the dried thyme, I used quite a few sprigs of fresh thyme since I happen to have them around. This definitely helps bring forth the flavour of this herb.

The recipe requires you to brown the potatoes, carrots and onions in butter. If you will like to do this, using a big pan with a bigger surfaced than your pot would be more desirable. I used a 22cm (diameter) pot and had a lot of vegetables not in contact with the butter. Either I toss them straight into the stew or I will brown them in batches with a frying pan.

Because we had other courses that were rich in starch, I believe this stew will benefit from lesser potatoes. I will use about 2 pounds, maximum 2.5 pounds.

This stew is a huge hit at the party, there was even request for the recipe! You should really give this a try. I have briefly mentioned how we will like it. But please feel free to adapt it to your preference. For the original recipe, please check out the link below.

Ingredients
adapted from Simply Recipes' Irish Beef Stew

1/4 cup Olive Oil, or more (add by the tablespoon)
2 pounds well-marbled Shin or Chuck Beef Stew Meat, cut into 1-inch pieces (NOT extra-lean)
6 large Garlic cloves, minced
7 cups Beef Stock or canned beef broth
1 320ml can of Guinness Beer
1 cup fine Red Wine
2 tablespoons Tomato Paste
1 tablespoon Dried Thyme
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
2 Bay Leaves
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) Butter
3 pounds (about 7 cups) Russet Potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large Onion, chopped
2 cups 1/2-inch pieces peeled Carrots
Salt and Pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons chopped Fresh Parsley

How to?

Heat Olive Oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat
Lightly salt the Beef pieces
Working in batches if necessary, add the Beef (do not crowd the pan, or the meat will steam and not brown) and cook, without stirring, until nicely browned on one side, then use tongs to turn the pieces over
Continue to cook in this manner until all sides are browned, about 5 minutes
Add Garlic and sauté 1 minute
Add Beef Stock, Guinness, Red Wine, Tomato Paste, Sugar, Thyme, Worcestershire Sauce and Bay Leaves
Stir to combine
Bring mixture to boil
Reduce heat to medium-low, then cover and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally
While the Meat and Stock is simmering, melt Butter in another large pan over medium heat
Add Potatoes, Onion and Carrots in batches
Sauté vegetables until golden, about 20 minutes
Set aside until the Beef stew in the previous step has simmered for one hour
Add Vegetables to Beef stew
Simmer uncovered until Vegetables and Beef are very tender, about 40 minutes
Discard Bay Leaves
Tilt pan and spoon off fat
Transfer stew to serving bowl
Add Salt and Pepper to taste
Sprinkle with Parsley and serve
(Can be prepared up to 2 days ahead. Cool slightly. Refrigerate uncovered until cold, then cover and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before serving.)

Darling Pasta

I will be submitting this recipe up to Presto Pasta Nights. This week's host is Sara of I'm a Food Blog. Thanks to Ruth - the founder of this community for always making me feel welcome :)

Every single time we throw a party, we will have leftovers enough for both of us for two days. Not exactly a bad thing since I will most likely be tired out from the intensive hours I put in the kitchen for the parties. A break from having to make labour-intensive meals for a day or two seems to be what I need the most after a party.

As such, I made spaghetti to go with the leftover pesto, sundried tomato chicken sauce. A real quick dinner fix the following day. And the flavours melded much better after sitting for a night in the fridge.

For the party proper, I used a 500 grams bag of tri-colour rotini, just like what Jen used in the original recipe. The troughs between the ridges of the spirals holds the chunky tomatoes and peppers just right. I used a little more than half a cup of pine nuts in the pasta sauce and totally enjoy the unexpected crunch in each mouthful.

I roasted four red peppers of mixed sizes for about one cup of roasted peppers and a sweet fragrant lingered in the oven. For the sundried tomato, I used those that originated from Turkey, soaked them till they are rehydrated before slicing them. Of course, yours truly blended her own pesto sauce too.

My dear friend Evon rescued a damsel in distress in the nick of time. Already behind schedule, I was armed with only a mini chopper to blend my pesto! I really needed that extra pair of hands to work the pesto! But I just bought a Kenwood Multipro Compact food processor yesterday (I paid about S$160 for something that will usually cost around S$220), so I will have no problems with blending pesto in a matter of minutes. While I will have love to own a Cuisinart, I make do with a Kenwood.

cooked tri-coloured rotini

When I was at the supermarket buying beef for the beef stew, I saw that they sell pesto in the refrigerated section and was contemplating if I should buy this ready-made pesto instead. However, I have four boxes of basil leaves sitting in my fridge waiting to be transformed into pesto. On hindsight, I am glad I did make my own because the final product is gorgeous.

Ingredients
adapted from Use Real Butter's Darling Pasta

1/2 lb. Chicken Breast, diced
1 lb. Rotini or Cheese Tortellini, cooked
4 cloves Garlic, minced
1 cup Sundried Tomatoes, rehydrated and cut into strips
1 cup roasted Red Peppers, diced
1 cup Pesto
1/2 cup Pine Nuts, or more
2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil
Parmesan, grated

How to?

Heat Oil over high heat in a large sauté pan
Add Garlic when Oil is hot and stir until fragrant
Add the Chicken and sauté until just cooked
Stir in the Tomatoes and Peppers
Mix in the Pesto and Pine Nuts
Toss the drained Pasta into the pan and stir together
Remove from heat and serve with grated Parmesan

Tomorrow, I share with you the recipe I used for the pesto sauce used in this pasta dish.