Lemongrass carbonera with radish, carrots, and pea leaves

Ah school is almost over!!! Meanwhile, the food and science class at UCLA has given a lot of inspiration and wayyyy expanded my cooking creations. I have been going to the farmer's market more often :). Good thing LA has so many farmer's markets.

Here's something I came up with after going to the farmer's market in Santa Monica.

Lemongrass carbonera with radish, carrots, and pea leaves

Ingredients
A batch of spaghetti (1 inch diameter)
1 cup Heavy cream
1 stalk Lemongrass
1 tsp Soy sauce
2 egg yolks
3 cloves Garlic
2 Carrots
1 Radish
1 Green onion
1 small bunch of Pea leaves with flowers
1 cm Butter
1 tbs Olive oil
Parmesan cheese

Prep lemongrass cream (can be done a day beforehand)

1. Peel outer layer of lemon grass
2. Cut lemon grass into little pieces
3. Heat up heavy cream until simmering.
4.Add lemongrass and let it simmer for 10 minutes and stir constantly not to let the cream burn.
5. Add soy sauce and stir.
6. Let it cool and let the lemongrass sit to infuse more flavor (I let it sit in the fridge for a day).

Prep work for main
1. Get water boiling. 
2. Cut carrots into as seen in picture.
3. Slice the radish into paper thin.
4. Slice the green onion.
5. Mince the garlic.
6. Trim the pea leaves to get rid of the thicker stalks.
7. When cream is cooled, add egg yolk and stir with the cream.
8. Blanch pea leaves in the boiling water or until the stalk is soft.
9. Leave pea leaves to dry

Instructions for cooking
1. Boil water
2. Add pasta
3. In a pan, add half butter and set for medium heat.
4. Throw in carrots and cook until semi soft.
5. Add radishes and cook until it still has a little crunch in it.
6. Add in blanched pea leaves and the rest of the butter.
7. Set aside in a warm place.
8. Remove pasta from water.
9. Add olive oil to a pan on medium heat.
10. Add pasta and garlic and stir until aroma of garlic comes out.
11. Turn off the heat and add cream and egg mixture.
12. Stir around so that the egg does not cook.
13. Add salt and pepper.
14. Plate as above and add cheese to the noodles.

Spaghetti with Miso Cream Sauce

Time for a post before finals begin...
About a week ago, I have been thinking about different ways to combine western and eastern cuisines together. I have always wondered how I can incorporate miso into Italian style cuisine. Heck, I'll make some Japanese-Italian pasta dish.

Spaghetti with Miso Cream Sauce (Chicken optional)

Ingredients
Spaghetti for two servings
1 Chicken breast
2 tbs Red miso
1 half inch slice Ginger
3 cloves Garlic
1/2 cup Sake
3/4 cup Heavy cream
1/2 cup Chicken stock (better if it is fresh and no salt)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup Basil
Salt and pepper

Prep
1. Boil water.
2. Mince ginger and garlic.
3. In a cup or bowl, mix cream, stock, and cheese.
4. Salt the cup (I give my Trader Joes salt mill 8-9 turns)
5. Slice basil into strips.
6. Slice chicken into stripes or bite size pieces.
7. Throw spaghetti in.

Time to COOK!
1. Heat up oil in a pan and saute the chicken until almost done.
2. Remove chicken and hold in a bowl.
3. Add ginger and garlic to the juices and oil.
4. Start browning those ingredients.
5. Add sake and cook off alcohol.
6. Add miso and cup mixture.
7. Stir fast so that the cheese gets incorporated instead of melting into a mess.
8. At this point your spaghetti should be almost at al-dente (test by eating a piece)
9. Transfer noodles and chicken into the frying pan.
10. Add basil and toss the spaghetti until each piece of spaghetti is evenly coated with sauce.
11. Transfer to a plate and enjoy
Note: You never ever dump sauce onto pasta and call that done. The noodles are supposed to absorb the sauce or else you'll just be eating a soupy mess. When you finish eating the noodles, there should be no sauce leftover.

Enjoy your meal! Now onto cramming for finals ><.

Chicken and Assorted Mushroom Alfredo

You know those days that you just don't want to eat out and just eat your own food.

Well ... Sunday was just one of those days.

I decided to try to cook in Taipei.

You guys must think I'm crazy. There is like a million great places to eat in Taipei, and I decided to cook in my ghetto, bug infested apartment.

Yes, I was crazy to cook, but I think it was worth the experience.

I decided to venture and mingle with the locals at the market near my apartment.

Here is what I bought:

Chicken breast - freshest chicken ever! (literally, they killed it in the morning)

Shiitake mushrooms

King trumpet mushrooms

Garlic

The rest of the ingredients that I bought at Carrefour:

Parmesan cheese (MY GOD IT IS EXPENSIVE!)

Heavy cream ( MY GOD THIS IS EXPENSIVE TOO)

Spaghetti noodles (cheap)

Chicken and Assorted Mushroom Alfredo (4 servings)

Ingredients
2 Large chicken breasts
3 Large Shiitake Mushrooms
3 Large King Trumpet Mushrooms
125 g Spaghetti
10 Garlic Cloves
2 cup Heavy Cream
125 grams Parmesan Cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Diced up parsley to garnish

Prep Work in super clean Taiwanese kitchen (not really ...)
I had to prep in the dining room cause the kitchen was dirty.
1. Heat up water for boil
2. Slice shittake mushrooms into strips
3. Slice the king mushrooms lengthwise
4. Finely dice garlic
5. Grate the cheese into a bowl
6. Dry chicken with paper towel or cloth
7. Salt and pepper chicken
Note: (Stir milk occasionally so it does not burn).
8. Heat up milk until it is simmering (once it starts simmering turn the heat to the lowest setting )
9. Cook pasta while doing other cooking (take pasta out and pour a little oil and mix and set aside)

Cooking the Chicken
Preheat oven to 350 F or around 175 C (They use celcius in taiwan)
1. Heat up pan
2. Heat up the oil
3. Toss chicken in and sear for about 45 seconds or until one side gets tan crispy like.
4. Flip the chicken and do the same as step 3.
5. Toss chicken in the middle rack of the oven for 17-20 minutes.
6. Let chicken rest on a plate

Making the Alfredo Sauce
1. Under no heat or super reduced heat, quickly stir in the cheese a little bit at a time until the sauce gets thick like alfredo sauce.
2. Taste the sauce if it is good enough.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Add in parsley
5. Let the sauce sit there.

Putting everything together
1. Heat oil in a pan.
2. Throw in garlic and cook until aroma comes out.
3. Toss mushrooms in and cook until soft.
4. Throw noodles and sauce in the pan.
5. Coat the noodles with the sauce and toss around.
6. Plate and enjoy.

I got to say. Italian food costs a lot to cook in Taipei, but it was well worth it. The ingredients were soooo fresh. I almost wanted to make fresh pasta that day, but I think that would have took way longer to manually roll out the dough and cut noodles with a knife xD.

Pesto with Kale and Beans

As mentioned before, I got a large box of random vegetables from the local Community Sustainable Agriculture (CSA) something something .... What I do with all these leafy items is going to be a mystery and quite a challenge.

To start off with my CSA Box of Random Vegetables, I decided to first use kale because I am pretty familiar with that vegetable.

I don't know why, but I have held off on making pesto for the longest time. I was never a big fan of pesto because of the amount of oil that pools over on the bottom of the plate after eating a big plate of noodles. Due to its simplicity, my love for Italian food, and request from people who are hungry.

Pesto with Kale and Beans



Ingredients
3 cups Basil
2 cloves Garlic
1/2 cup Extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup Pine nuts
1/4 cup Romano cheese (Finely grated, powdery one)
1/4 cup White kidney beans
4 leaves of Kale
1/2 lb Noodles

Prep
1. Put basil and garlic in the food processor
2. Blend nicely until basil leaves are finely chopped
3. Add in pine nuts and finely chop in the processor
4. Mix oil and cheese together
5. Slowly drizzle the oil and cheese mix while processor is running (most food processors have a liquid drip attachment at the top)
6. Coarsely chop kale

Cooking
1. Throw in noodles in the boiling water
2. Remove noodles from water and throw kale into the water (cook kale for 4 minutes)
3. Heat up pan with a little oil and toss noodles in with pesto mix and kidney beans (cook for 5 minutes, constantly stirring)
5. Strain kale and mix with noodle and pesto mix.

Well enjoy! The pesto sauce can be made ahead of time and stored for about a week in the refrigerator.

Pork Loin Braised in Milk

TGIF! Week 1 of spring quarter has been hectic! Just when I thought my winter courseload was heavy, my spring quarter is going to probably be my worst quarter. Even though it is week 1, my stress levels increased significantly that I can start seeing white hairs xD, not really though.

Good thing I have my food blog. Without it, I would not know how to relieve my stress. Thank you to all my readers, if there are any xD.

The dish for today is simple and light. As you may have guessed, it is just pork loin braised in milk. I used very few ingredients and spent little time preparing my ingredients. This dish is also called maiale al latte in Italian and comes from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy

Pork Loin Braised in Milk



Ingredients
3 slices Boneless Pork Loin
1 1/2 cup Whole milk (2% works too)
1 tbs Butter
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Prep
1. Pat pork loin dry
2. Salt and pepper pork

Cooking
1. Heat olive oil in a pan
2. Brown all sides of the pork
3. Reduce heat and add in milk and butter
4. Allow milk to simmer on low heat
5. Cover and cook for 30 minutes, turning the meat occasionally and skimming off fat from the milk

Now that wasn't too hard was it?
Enjoy simplicity

Basic Meatball

Guess what everyone? The UPS man delivered my Canon EOS 20D. Ironically, this model is older than my SD1000 haha. Oh well, for d-slr cameras, the quality depends on the user. I am still trying to learn about all the features and how to take good photos. I am excited as the time I got the Starcraft 2 Beta.

I decided to make meatballs with rice. Who would have thought that meatballs go with rice xD. I have to apologize for the picture quality because I am still trying to get the hang of taking pictures with my camera. It is a bit blurry because my hand is not use to balancing and holding my camera steady. I might also have to adjust the shutter speed or get a tripod.

The basic meatball consists of ground meat, breadcrumbs soaked in milk, cheese product, seasoning. I shall give you what I added to my meatballs.

Basic Meatball



Ingredients
1 lb Ground beef (lean)
2 large Eggs
1 1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs
1/2 Milk
1/2 cup Romano cheese
5 cloves Garlic
1 tbs Extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs Honey
1 tbs Rosemary
Salt and pepper

Preparations
1. Soak Panko crumbs in milk
2. Dice garlic and rosemary
3. Lightly beat the eggs
4. Throw all the ingredients together and mix well
5. Shape meatballs from the mixture of diameter 1 inch

Cooking
Method 1 (pan frying --> baking) Preheat oven 350F
1. Heat up oil in an ovenproof pan
2. Throw in meatballs and rotate meatballs occasionally until all sides are brown
(about 5 min)
3. Put skillet in the oven for 5-7 minutes.
4. Remove and serve with favorite sauce

Method 2 (braising with red wine)
1. Heat up oil in a pan and sear all sides of the meatballs
2. Pour in about 1/4 cup red wine, cover, and allow it to simmer for 10 minutes
3. Check if the meatballs are done.
4. Serve with favorite sauce

The sauce I served the meatballs with is a balsamic strawberry sauce. It is quite tangy and sweet and contrasts nicely with the meatballs.

Basic Italian Meat Sauce

Well ... the time has come for the last night of spring break. Tomorrow, I revert back to college life by attending class, doing homework, and studying about civil engineering topics. Hopefully, this quarter I will learn something new and not get bored out of my mind in any of my classes.

To celebrate the last dinner of spring break, I've decided to go to basics and simplicity. I realized that the more complex I get, the harder it becomes for my readers to follow through and try what I make like how my professors go through all this theory for something unpractical at all, which causes me to fall into a long 2 hour slumber called lecture.

There are two parts to this recipe. The sauce without the meat and then cooking the meat.

Basic Italian Meat Sauce



Ingredients for sauce (vegetarian portion)
1 lb Roma tomatoes
2 cups Mire poix
5 cloves Garlic
1/4 cup Butter
1 tbs Dry oregano
1 tbs Dry marjoram leaves
1 tbs Dry basil
1 tsp Thyme powder
t tsp Sugar
Ample amounts of salt and fresh ground black pepper

Prep
1. Dice tomatoes
2. Peel garlic

Cooking the sauce
1. Melt butter in pan
2. Add in mire poix and garlic and saute until onion is translucent and carrots are soft. Careful not to burn anything!
3. Add in tomatoes and its juices, and then add in herbs, salt, and pepper
4. Stir around until tomatoes are soft
5. Cover and turn heat on medium low and simmer for 15 minutes
6. Put everything in a blender and blend until smooth
7. More sauce to a sauce pot to keep warm on the stove top
8. Taste for salt or pepper

Now the meat section

Ingredients of meaty goodness
1 lb Ground beef (leanest you can get)
2 tbs Butter (less if you have fatty ground beef)
1 tbs Fennel seeds (chopped)
1 tbs Garlic powder
1 tbs Dry marjoram leaves
Salt and Pepper

Directions of manliness meat
1. Melt butter in pan
2. Add ground beef and cook until half of it is cooked
3. Add in seasoning of various ingredients
4. Taste for enough salt and pepper when no more red is showing
Note: Do not burn it like my apartment mate. Keep the heat steady on medium and wait for the oil to get just about right for hotness. If the oil is way too hot, the meat will burn quickly!

Combination of ultra combo fight moves
1. Combine meat with sauce
2. Add meat to cooked noodles

Enjoy this simple dish. Well goodnight everyone ... school begins tomorrow yay!... -_-

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

I got to say... spring break passed pretty quickly. In two days, I will be back to crunching numbers away and learning about how earthquakes will destroy everything in the world as in the horrible movie 2012. Well, as a civil engineer, I'm supposed to prevent that from happening.

Putting those thoughts aside, I encountered spaghetti alla carbonara in one of the Italian cookbooks I've been reading over break (hence the load of Italian food posts). This dish is extremely simple and hard to mess up. All you need is cheese, eggs, bacon, and hot spaghetti.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Ingredients

5 slabs Bacon

2 Eggs

1 Egg yolk

1/2 lb Spaghetti

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup Romano cheese

1 tbs Combination ground Green pepper, white pepper, black pepper (you can exclude green if you can't find it or you can also use medley of peppercorns from your local supermarket)

Salt

Preparation for simplicity

1. Beat the egg, egg yolk

2. Mix in cheeses, peppers, and salt

3. Boil water with salt in it

4. Warm up a bowl by putting it in the oven (use thermometer and check if 80-100F range)

*Note before cooking: Make sure when you mix the pasta the egg does not curdle or be too liquidy. Temperature control is key.

Cooking*

1. Throw in noodles to cook for 10-15 minutes

2. In a pan heat up a little oil and cook bacon until crispy

3. Chop bacon into bits

4. Remove noodles and add to bacon fat/oil and toss around quickly.

5. Remove bowl from oven and throw in bacon and noodles

6. Slowly drip the egg mixture while stirring quickly until noodles are evenly coated.

Well, I guess I am almost at the end of my Italian cooking journey for spring break. I only have one last thing to make ... lasagna.

Chicken and Bacon Ravioli

After going through a long day of work, I was going to make lasagna for my friend, Cynthia, but I found out that I did not have a baking dish : (. As a result, I rolled out my pasta dough to make ravioli. Spring break is coming to a close -_-. I guess it shall be back to my studies of a civil engineer. While I was making my pasta dough, I was already thinking about the structural integrity of my flour well, and how well it can support the pressures exerted by the eggs and my mixing motion.

Chicken and Bacon Ravioli

Ingredients

Filling

1 Chicken breast

5 slabs Bacon

1/2 cup Ricotta cheese

1 tbs Maple agave syrup

Salt and pepper

Ravioli

1 lb Fresh pasta

Filling from above

Egg wash

Directionals of filling
1. Finely chop or ground the chicken
2. Add oil in a pan and cook the bacon
3. Remove and pat the bacon dry and finely chop
4. Add chicken in the same pan with minimal salt and pepper
5. Remove chicken and mix all the filling ingredients together.

Directionals for wrapping
1. Roll dough into a very thin sheet
2. Square off the sheet
3. On one half of the sheet, spoon 1 tbs of filling evenly spaced across the length of the sheet
4. Brush non-filling area with egg wash
5. Fold the pasta over in half and press down on the edge
6. Use a knife or pasta roller to cut the ravioli squares
7. In a pot of boiling water, cook for 7-10 minutes.

The ravioli is done! Now add your favorite sauce. I used a red wine balsamic sauce. This sauce complemented nicely with a nice sweet and tangy taste. Well time to enjoy the rest of my spring break watching more anime ^_^.

Balsamic Braised Chicken

My spring break is coming to a close. I have decided that my blog looks too plain and needs some cool new background. I guess I'll be working on that this weekend with my artsy friends at school. Meanwhile, I watched Alice and Wonderland and found it to be quite exciting because I have always wondered how Disney would portray the future Alice. On a side note ... this movie was far better to watch than the animated one because there weren't so many colors to make your head spin.

For yesterday's lunch, I made balsamic braised chicken after reading my new Italian cookbook, Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Italian Cooking. Quite a simple and delicious dish to be served with asparagus and rice. The sauce itself is sweet and tangy due to the balsamic vinegar and red wine mixture. I would recommend this dish if you are serving a crowd for a party because of its simplicity.

Balsamic Braised Chicken



Ingredients
1 chicken breast
2 cloves garlic (unpeeled)
2/3 cup red wine
2 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 tsp Rosemary
Salt and white pepper

Prep work
1. Pat chicken dry
2. Salt and pepper the chicken

Cooking
1. Heat up moderate amount of olive oil in a pan
2. Throw in garlic and chicken and cook on medium-low, flipping occasionally for 10 minutes to slowly brown the chicken
3. Add in rosemary, vinegar, and red wine and stir chicken around and cover for 5 minutes on low heat to allow liquid to simmer slowly and cover
4. Turn chicken over and simmer for 5 minutes until liquid is reduced to a sauce (do this uncovered)
5. Serve with rice and asparagus

Note: If sauce is too acidic, add water and cornstarch mix.

Tonight, I am debating whether I shall make lasagna or make something with my wasabi powder.

Fettuccine Chicken Alfredo

Watching the LA Marathon at the finish line was awesome! Man, those elite runners are fast! I was also amazed at how many people ran the marathon. I think that I'll start training for next year's marathon because I gotta say, it is quite an accomplishment.

In addition to handing out fliers today, I got several boxes of cheese and some free Naked Coconut Juice because they were giving them away at the marathon along with several other items. For the next few days, I'll think about what I am going to do with 5 lbs of cheddar cheese.

As for today's menu, I made fresh fettuccine noodles and Alfredo sauce with bacon and chicken. Quite a delicious and filling meal, but the bacon does add a bit of saltiness to the dish.

Fettuccine Chicken Alfredo



Ingredients
1/2 lb Fettuccine pasta
5 slabs Bacon
1 Chicken breast
3 Cloves garlic (crushed and sliced)
1 cup Milk
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup Romano cheese
2 tbs Butter
1/2 cup White wine
Salt and pepper (salt use only a little)
Corn starch (for coating)

Preparations
1. Make the fresh pasta

2. Cube chicken
3. Coat chicken in corn starch, salt, and pepper
4. Mix the cheese together with a some pepper

Cooking the meats
1. In a pan with some olive oil, cook the bacon until crispy (Note: I pan cooked it for 5 minutes and stuck it into a small oven for another 5 minuets)
2. With the same oil throw in the chicken and toss until most of the sides are white (3 minutes)
3. Put in enough white wine to cover 1/2 of the chicken and cover
4. Cook covered for 5 minutes
5. Remove chicken into a bowl

Cooking noodles (5-7 minutes)
1. While the chicken is cooking begin boiling, salted water in another pot
2. Throw in the pasta when you are ready to make the sauce

Cooking sauce (5 minutes)
1. In the pan that cooked the chicken, use the residue in the pan (white wine mostly)
2. Turn heat on low and stir in the butter until all incorporated
3. Stir and add the milk and garlic
4. Wait for a simmer (not full on boiling!)
5. Add in cheese 1 tsp at a time and stir with a whisk rapidly
6. Add in enough cheese to thick sauce consistency and bring to a boiling simmer
7. Strain sauce in a mesh strainer and transfer to a bowl

Combining everything together!



1. Dice the bacon
2. Combine sauce, bacon, chicken, and salt (if necessary) in a bowl
3. Toss in the noodles and serve

Enjoy! On a side note ... I feel that spring break is going to be really short : (.

Fresh Homemade Pasta

What a long fun-filled day! Circle K of UCLA went to Santa Monica to flier for the LA Marathon. The LA marathon is going to start in a few hours, and I will be at the finish line volunteering by handing out more fliers about the marathon.

On a side note ... I went to Chinatown today because my friend, Luke, wanted to get some Chinatown food ><. He was nice to get me, Nguyet, and Nhat some skewers. Though that was nice, the meat was not fresh and tasted rancid. I guess that is Chinatown food for ya ... cheap at the expense of quality. Now onto the main topic: pasta... All of winter quarter, I have been dying to make fresh pasta. Noodles that are fresh have a nice springy texture when you eat them, and their dried, boxed counterpart is always bland and falls apart easily.

Homemade Pasta (adapted from Essential of Italian: Michele Scicolone)


Ingredients
2 1/2 cups Flour (380 g)
4 Large eggs
1 Tbs Olive oil

Directions (Several notes to follow)
1. Measure the flour carefully
2. Mix all the wet ingredients in a bowl
3. Make a well in the flour and pour in the mix

4. Now is the hard part ... Incorporating the wet and dry together. In order to do this consistently, you must slowly use chopsticks, a fork, or a spoon to slowly stir slowly along the edges of the well and slowly make the flour come into the egg mixture.
5. Once you start getting gooey consistency, start moving more flour in until you form dough that is similar to bread dough. At this point, start kneading the dough and add more flour and folding it in half and pressing your palm forward and rotate. Do this until the dough feels firm and can stretch without breaking.
6. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough sit for an hour.
7. Take the dough out and flatten with a rolling pin and split into two parts
8. Run the dough through the pasta machine to flatten it out some more.
9. Run it through the pasta cutting mechanism
10. Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until done.
11. Enjoy with your favorite sauce!

Simple olive oil pasta!

Pasta with Sausage and Mustard Sauce

Man it is Friday already! That means finals are coming up and then spring break! I plan to have my spring break filled with Italian food after I get my pasta maker. Today was rather uneventful day with my meetings and lab work.

My friend Jeannie decided to make some pasta with spicy sausage and mustard cream sauce. Here is my modified version of the recipe.

Pasta with Sausage and Mustard Sauce



Ingredients
1 cup Pasta shells (depending on how much you want)
4 Italian sausages (spicy ones)
4 cloves Garlic
1 Shallot
1/4 cup Red wine
1/4 cup Heavy cream
1 tbs Whole grain dijon mustard
1 tsp Chili pepper
Chopped parsley (garnish)

Prep work
1. Smash garlic and dice
2. Dice the shallots
3. Chop the sausages into slices
4. Boil water

Cooking section
1. Heat up pan and add sausages to cook for about 2 minutes (brown them)
2. Throw in pasta into boiling water while the sausage is cooking
3. Add in garlic and shallots until translucent and cook until sausage about done
4. Remove sausages and place on top of paper towel to soak up the grease and keep warm.
5. With the same pan, deglaze with red wine and reduce about 2/3 of the liquid
6. Stir in the heavy cream, chili, and mustard
7. Reduce until sauce-like and check if your pasta is done, taste sauce if salt is needed (probably very minimal because the sausages are salty)
8. Plate pasta then sausages and use a strainer to strain the sauce into the dish
9. Sprinkle parsley on top

Enjoy eating this spicy pasta dish. Now time to clean up and work on my lab report ... fun stuff ... along with editing my group report and essays, which people need to learn how to cite their sources properly -_-.