Baby Portobello Spaghetti

Finally my kitchen renovation is completed. I managed to clean it up and started cooking a quick meal at home yesterday. There are still some kitchen utensil awaiting for my direction before they get a space in the cabinet. Haha...Means my job has not done yet.

I'm back to cooking now. Yoohoo~~ I longed to cook for so long. Even cooking a simple meal like spaghetti can cheer me up. I love home cooked meal. It's less painful to our body and to our wallet. Don't you think so? The first dish that dedicated to the new kitchen is my Baby Portobello Spaghetti. A fast meal that turned up in just 20 minutes. The spaghetti with just baby portobello, broccoli, onion and tomato pasta sauce can be a palatable vegetarian meal.

This dish is submitted to PPN#156 founded by Ruth and hosted by  Our Taste of Life.

Baby Portobello Spaghetti

Serves 2

Ingredients:

200gm baby Portobello, cleaned and sliced
1 yellow onion, peeled and sliced
200gm broccoli, cut into florets
spaghetti, portion for 2
1 can of Prego mushroom pasta sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
20ml water
1/2 tsp of salt

Method:

1. Bring a wok of water to a boil. Add 1/2 tsp and salt and few drops of olive oil. Blanch the brocolli and set aside. In the same wok of water, cook the spaghetti as per the instruction on packaging until al dent. Set aside.

2. Heat olive oil in a wok, saute onion till translucent. Add broccoli and mushroom to stir-fry a while. Pour in the pasta sauce and 20ml of water. Leave it simmers a while. Toss in the spaghetti to mix well with the sauce. Serve hot.

Minced Meat Noodle

I just realized that I've not cook for more than 2 weeks. Apart from a small nose surgery that I had about 2 weeks ago, my kitchen is currently under renovation. The window, the compartment, the kitchen top, the concealed wiring, the wall painting were done except the built in kitchen cabinet. So, at this moment, still no home cooking yet until everything is done. I told myself be patient and treat it as a long break. :)

Just before the kitchen renovation, I cook this minced meat noodle to clear the stock in my fridge. I saw quite a number of bloggers cook this when I visited their Chinese blogs. So, I just copied their idea and cook it in my most convenient way. The minced meat sauce with mushroom and hard-boiled egg goes well with either noodles or steamed rice. Enjoy!

Minced Meat Noodle

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 pieces of dried egg noodle
250gm minced pork/chicken
6 dried mushrooms, soaked, drained, stalk removed and quartered
4 hard-boiled egg, shelled
2tbsp of olive oil
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
800ml water
1tbsp corn starch mixed with 3 tbsp of water

Seasoning:

3tbsp light soy sauce
2tbsp oyster sauce
1tsp sesame oil
1tbsp dark soy sauce
dash of pepper

Method:

1.  Marinate the meat with seasoning and leave for 1 hour.

2. Heat some olive oil in a wok, saute the garlic and add the marinated minced meat and mushrooms. Stir fry till the meat is cooked. Add water and bring to a boil. Add in the hard-boiled eggs. Cover the lid, turn to low flame and simmer until the sauce thickening. Stir it from time to time.

3. Bring water to boil in a pot. Cook the egg noodle as per the instruction on the packaging and set aside. 

4. Lastly, pour in the corn starch mixture to the sauce, stir well and off the fire. Pour the sauce over the noodle and garnish with chopped spring onion. Serve hot.

Sawara Restaurant @ Pulau Tikus, Penang

Restoran SAWARA 

Noodle and Surimi

393, Jalan Burmah, Penang.
604-226 0516
Business Hour: 11am to 10pm

Non Halal

Initially when this restaurant started their operations, they serve steamboat and yong tau foo. But they stopped serving yong tau foo since a year ago. So now, you can either dine in for their steamboat, noodles, or some of their fish delicacies.

Sawara Noodles @ RM5.50

The pan meen alike noodles are served in dark soy sauce, top with mushroom, minced pork and choy sum, and garnished with chopped spring onion. Initially I thought this was their home made noodles, but the waitress proved that I was wrong.

Fish fillet soup with add on fish balls @ RM25

The soup base is kind of milky with very mild of black vinegar fragrant. I discovered that certain amount of chopped water chestnuts were added to the soup. The fish fillets in the soup was not much, but just nice for 2 of us. Between the fish fillet and fish balls, I prefer the latter. As you can see, their home made fish balls are not in round shape. In fact, it is made into flexi-shapes. It is not smooth as normal fish ball. Even though it is rough, but I just love the texture. I can taste the springiness and freshness.

Without this chili sauce, the meal will not be perfect. Their home made chili sauce with white sesame and Chinese parsley, hmm...sweet and spicy! Love it!

SOHO Country House @ Autocity

SOHO Country House
1832, Jalan Perusahaan, Highway Auto City, 13600 Penang, Malaysia.
Tel: +604-507 0079

Housed in a English style building, SOHO Country house is not a new place in Autocity. In fact, it is a popular bar to hang out for drinks. We don't quite enjoy night life,  so we just dined in for a simple dinner.

Pineapple juice RM7.80++ and mint tea RM4.30++

SOHO's Chicken Burger, RM7.80

A succulent chicken burger, lovingly marinated and served in sesame seed bun. The bun's toasted with butter, nice. Side lines included salad and French fries. This is one of the value for money meal. Not only that, it's yummy too.

Chicken Cordon Bleu, RM16

Gold medal fried chicken breast, stuffed with turkey ham, cheese, and served with crisp green side salad and French fries. Don't be fooled by the chicken, the portion is easily fill up your hungry tummy.

After the main dish, our stomach were full. No more space for desserts :P . We'll definitely go back for its famous Shephard's pie and other valued meal soon.

Pumpkin Muffin

I bought a huge pumpkin at a very low cost, so I decided to give myself a sweet treat. Here's my second batch of muffin hot from the oven. I baked a total of 18 mini muffins.

When the mini muffin were taken straight out from the oven, it tasted so soft and moist, but it turned harder the next day. Did I over mix the dry and moist ingredients? Too little butter? Anyone can help me on this? 

Pumpkin Muffin
Yield for 18 mini muffins

Ingredients:

1.5 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

50gm of melted butter
1/2 cup of milk

200gm of pumpkin

2 large eggs

slightly less than 1/2 cup white fine sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp salt

Method:

1. To prepare the pumpkin puree, cut the pumpkin into wedges.  Steam it over high heat for 5 minutes. Leave it cool and mash it. Set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Paper line the muffin tin.

3. In a small bowl, combine butter, milk, vanilla essence and egg. Beat lightly. In a large bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. Add pumpkin puree. Pour in milk mixture and stir together.

4. Fill muffin cups. Bake at 190 degrees C for 25 minutes.

5. Take out the muffin and leave it cool before serving.