Baked Spiral Pasta w/ Pepperoni & Salami

Pasta....the many variations, how can you go wrong? Actually there are many ways, but let's skip that. ;) With this dish i made, everything was right and was even on time for dinner. I did this last Father's Day, and while i did get a lot pampering that day, i still wanted to do what i love doing, so they relented and let me cook for them. I opted to use Spirals since i always use spaghetti or other forms of it.

To do this, i used 5 minced cloves of garlic, 1 large onion, 1 large tomato, 1 large bell pepper (all three chopped), a can of sliced button mushrooms, 300 grams pepperoni, 300 grams salami, 1/2 kilo of ground chicken, 1 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp of dried basil, 1/2 tsp of dried thyme, 1/2 tsp of ground pepper, 1/2 tsp of paprika, lightly fried sliced hot dogs, sweet spaghetti sauce, a can of heavy cream, lots of cheese and chopped spring onions.

In hot oil, i cooked the garlic till fragrant, added the onions, the tomatoes, bell pepper followed by the mushroom, sliced pepperoni and salami (about a 100 grams each) then the ground chicken. Let this cook till no longer pink then add the ground black pepper, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, basil and thyme. After a few minutes, it really started to smell really good. I then added the spaghetti sauce and sliced hot dogs. Lightly simmer for a few minutes then turn of the heat then add the heavy cream and mix well.

Mix this with the pasta and place in a baking dish. Cover with pepperoni and salami ( i lightly fried mine or you can use an oven toaster). Top with lots and lots of cheese. Ideally, parsley should be used to finish this off, but since i forgot buy it, i used spring onions. I loved the way it turned out! Smelled great!

That's it! An instant hit, from the home to the office. A delicious Father's Day meal!

Chicken in Black Bean Sauce

This is favorite of mine when eating at Chinese restaurants though the taste tends to be inconsistent. Well, when faced with dissatisfaction -- make your own. I didn't follow a recipe for this, i just used ingredients i thought they would use and let my taste buds guide me.

I started by marinating the chicken (mostly thigh fillets) in corn starch, Chinese cooking wine, cracked black pepper, 1 egg white and a few tablespoons of bottled garlic black bean sauce. I left it for about 30 minutes then proceeded to saute garlic and onions followed by a sliced bell pepper. I then added the chicken, some some soy sauce and let it simmer till the chicken was cooked. As i always want this accompanied by some veggies, i blanched some Chinese kangkong and place it a plate and covered it with the chicken.

Another way of doing this is coating the chicken in flour and deep frying it, extra black bean sauce is added onto the sauteed garlic, onions and bell pepper. Pour over the chicken when done. Either way, is good!

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Didn't know that i could make cheese on my own. Some online research showed me the way and this is one thing that I'll try with different kinds of milk and herbs. Amy from Eggs On Sunday, provides a good step by step procedure on how to do this. For this, i used cow's milk and added fresh sweet basil to some. This and hot bread go well together. I'm really curious of what the results will be if i use it on pizza. I guess, that's going to be another post. :)

Asparagus & Kailan Leaves in Mushroom Oyster Sauce

Coming up with a name for this dish apart from describing its contents was more difficult that cooking the dish itself. I'm not a big fan of vegetables, but it's essential for someone my age and I'd like to set a good example for my daughter.

This is good on its own, but for meat lovers, this can serve as a side dish. Just saute some minced garlic and chopped onions in butter and oil followed by you choice of mushrooms ( i used sliced button mushrooms) then add oyster sauce. Let this cook for about 5 minutes. Boil some water and blanch the asparagus and kailan leaves. Transfer the blanched asparagus and leaves onto a plate and cover the mushroom and oyster sauce mixture. Done!