Fresh Egg Pasta

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? That this plate of pasta looks strangely misshapen? That the strands are neither round like spaghetti or flat like fettuccine? 

Well, here's what happened. I decided to make my own pasta even though I don't have a pasta machine to roll the dough and cut it into shape AND knowing full well that I lack the patience needed to cut the dough, with a knife, into equal sized strips. It started out well, actually, but rolling and cutting pasta by hand takes some time and after about 30 minutes, my attention to detail was a little slack and my hands were getting tired. 

Since the pasta was an experiment and I wasn't cooking for anyone but me and R (well, hopefully), I wasn't too concerned about appearances. I was, however, worried that the pasta would not cook evenly. Still, I didn't think too much about it: I'd divide the strips according to size and cook the thin ones for shorter time and the thicker ones for a few minutes longer, I figured. Yeah, more work but what was I to do?

Buy a pasta machine, maybe? Well, maybe.

Making the dough was the easiest bit. There are different recipes for making pasta. I based mine on Mark Bittman's recipe which he included in The Minimalist, his column in The New York Times some time back. Here's a link to an article in The Guardian by Felicity Cloake who samples a few different recipes.  

What you need

250g Italian "00" flour: very finely sieved flour typically used to make pasta. 

3 eggs + 2 yolks

1/2 tsp salt

Water (only optional)

And here's what you do:
Whisk the flour and salt together in a bowl.

Make a well in the middle  of the flour mixture and add the eggs +yolks.

Using a fork, lightly beat the egg bringing in the flour from the sides into the egg as you go along.

Once the flour and the egg start to clump together, use your hands to bring the mixture together into a soft ball of dough. If the dough seems dry, add a tbsp or so of water.

Flour the surface of your work top and tip the dough onto the work space. Knead the dough: begin by folding the dough on itself, flattening it out and folding it again (top to bottom, flatten, turn, top to bottom). Once the dough starts to firm up, start kneading the dough. Add more flour onto the work surface if the dough starts to stick. Wetting your hands with cold water also helps, amazingly.

Knead until the dough forms a smooth elastic ball and, when cut down the middle does not show any or many air bubbles and when poked, gently, springs back easily (about 10 mins).

Place the kneaded dough back in the bowl, cover and let it rest for at least 30 mins. The dough can also be refrigerated and used later although, it has to be at room temperature before you roll.

Ready to roll

Once the dough has rested, divide it into 4 portions. Place one on a cutting board and leave the remaining three in the bowl, covered (pasta dough dries out pretty fast).

Roll the though as thin as possible. Turning, smoothing it as you go so as not to create any creases. Roll it paper thin, if possible and using a sharp, sharp knife, trim the edges until you have straight sides.

Again, make sure your knife is sharp. Cut strips, about 1mm thick (or slightly more) lengthwise. Try to be more uniformed than mine!

If you are planning on cooking your pasta immediately, just toss the cut pasta in flour and set them aside as you work on the remaining dough. If you plan on keeping the pasta for another day, you'll need to dry the strips. Hang them carefully on a hanger and hand the pasta to dry outdoors until completely dry and brittle. Store in an airtight container. Homemade pasta doesn't take all that long to dry.

Cooking time

Once you are done with the pasta and are ready to cook, boil a pot of salted water.  

When the water comes to a boil, place your pasta in. (If your pasta is evenly cut, add them together. If yours is as uneven as me, add the thicker pieces in first and 3-4 minutes later, the thinner ones). Add a tablespoon of olive oil in the water as the pasta cooks.

The pasta should take about 6 minutes to cook, al dente. Toss the pasta in a little olive oil. 

I decided to make my favourite pasta: with garlic, chilli and breadcrumbs that have been sauteed in butter. 

The end result was great. I like dried pasta quite a bit but I also love the flavour that egg brings to fresh pasta. And every once in a while, it's perhaps I'll got the extra mile and make my own pasta  .... After I but that darn pasta machine! :)

Broccoli Pesto Pasta

It's been an unbelievably tiring week. My body is weary, my mind's a blank. My plan for the weekend? Vegetating in front of the television, reading Paul Auster's Sunset Park (I started it four months ago and am barely past the third chapter. Shame!) and ... nope, that's it. That's my plan for the weekend.

While I generally find cooking and baking quite relaxing, I really couldn't muster up the energy to cook an elaborate meal this weekend. Forget about an elaborate meal; I didn't even want to peal and chop an onion. And, don't be shocked but I didn't even feel like brewing m own tea — I used a three-in-one mix (where you just add boiling water to a premix of tea, milk and sugar).

Lazy, lazy weekend.

Now back when I was living on my own, this wouldn't have been a problem — I'd be content to just eat a bowl of cereal for dinner or a tub of yoghurt. Or a bowl of nuts. Or some instant noodles. Or just a bag of nuts. But I don't live alone and, tired as I am, I'd feel incredibly guilty if I served my husband a bowl of muesli for lunch.

So, I settled on the next best thing: I decided to make a dish that looked impressive and tasted phenomenal but took hardly any time or effort.

I made pasta. And for the sauce, I made pesto. I seriously thank God for pasta and I thank the Italians, particularly the Genoans for their pesto.

I find pesto to be the most incredible sauce ever created. Ever.  Its simply mind-blowing how much flavour you can get from simply crushing basil leaves, garlic, Parmesan cheese, toasted (pine) nuts and mixing the paste with olive oil. Mind-blowing.  And, you can use a blender to get this done although I've been told that to get the best out of your pesto, you have to chop/pound the ingredients by hand, this way yielding a slightly chunkier paste. I used a blender, of course. 

Traditional pesto is made with basil leaves but there are numerous variations: from sun-dried tomatoes to parsley to spinach ... you name it. Pesto incidentally means to pound or crush and therefore these variations may feature different main ingredients but the process is the same and they almost always incorporate the garlic, cheese, nuts and olive oil that are part of the original recipe. So far, I've stuck to making herb-based pestos: basil, parsley and coriander are my favourites. Oh. And once, when my friend bought me a tub of sun dried tomatoes from Italy, I made a sun-dried tomato pesto. Twas delicious, of course.

Today, I made broccoli pesto. Yeah, I balked at the idea too at first but I was eager to give it a go. I wasn't disappointed, let me tell you, If you ever want to trick someone into liking broccoli, this is the way to go. The pesto was delicious. Broccoli has a very distinct taste (which I love) but it is hardly overpowering in this pesto, despite it being the main ingredient. 

All in all, it took me 15 mins to cook lunch. That wasn't too painful... 

Broccoli Pesto Pasta

1 cup broccoli florets. steamed until soft (but not mushy)
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley leaves
1/3-1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 tbsp toasted pine nuts (or walnuts, sunflower seeds, peanuts, etc)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Pasta

Blend (or pound/chop extremely finely) the broccoli, parsley and garlic until finely minced. Add the cheese and pulse a few times. Gently let the oil stream in as you blend until the oil is incorporated and pulse a few more times to incorporate the oil with the paste. Season.

Cook the pasta. Toss it in some olive oil and then coat as generously as you wish with the pesto. Garnish with some chilli flakes.

Spaghetti Not-Bolognaise

The Bolognaise or Bolognese sauce is a beef-based sauce (some variations use pork, chicken or turkey much to the displeasure of gourmands) that originates from Bologna, Italy. The sauce dates back to sometime before the 5th century. Italian chefs have dubbed the spaghetti Bolognaise to be the most abused Italian dish in history. In the first place, they say, the Bolognaise was supposed to be eaten not with spaghetti but tagliatelle. Also, the many variations to the sauce itself — the use of anything other than beef mince as well as the addition of alien ingredients like cream or butter — has made the original Bolognaise sauce a real rarity.

As a result, although my mushroom sauce was made to look like the Bolognaise, I wouldn't dare to deem it a mushroom Bolognaise. No, that would be ridiculous and unacceptable. So instead, let's just call this a mushroom sauce or, if you want some comparison to the original from which it is inspired, a mushroom not-Bolognaise sauce.

Nah, I think I prefer to call it a mushroom sauce. 

The base ingredients of this mushroom sauce are similar to the Bolognaise: finely chopped onions, celery stalk and carrots. Of course, since this is a vegetarian sauce, there is no pancetta or minced beef. Instead, I used minced mushrooms: shitake and portobello. 

Also, instead of beef stock, I used vegetable stock — homemade for the absolute fullness of flavour. 

Add to that some tomato paste.

Simple but delicious. The sauce tastes good warm but, to me, it tastes a whole lot better after it has rested for a couple of hours. So let your pasta be hot and your sauce cool. And this you must not forget: serve with a generous portion of grated fresh parmesan. 

Rich Mushroom sauce

(adapted from the Los Angeles Times)

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup finely chopped celery stalk

1/3 cup finely chopped carrots

1/3 cup finely chopped red onions

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 cup minced shitake mushrooms

1 cup minced portobello mushrooms

1/4 cup tomato paste

1 cup vegetable stock

1/4 cup red wine

2 bay leaves

salt and pepper for seasoning

Head the olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Add the onion, garlic, celery and carrots and cook until the onions start to caramelise, about 8 mins. Keep the heat low.

Add the mushrooms and stir together with the rest of the ingredients. Cook until the mushrooms sweat and start to get brown, about 5-7 mins.

Add the tomato paste and stir well. Cook until a thin layer of tomato begins to appear at the base of the pan, mixed with the oil. 

Add the stock, the red wine and the bay leaves and cook (low to medium heat) until the sauce thickens. Season and remove from the heat. Allow to cool. 

Serve generously on pasta with a huge portion of parmesan. No compromises there!

Pesto Pasta: A Green Dream

I recently visited a dear friend in Cham, Switzerland.

It was a dream vacation. Though only there for five days, I had a fantastic time. How could I not? Switzerland is postcard pretty and my friend JY,  her husband R and their dog Umbria were the perfect hosts. And the weather was refreshing cool ... ok, cold at times but a welcome reprieve from the typical year-round heat here in Malaysia. 

It was the perfect holiday. We roamed during the day and lazed at home in the evenings, after some very good home-cooked meals (accompanied by copious amounts of alcohol), of course. JY and R took turns cooking and I ... well, I scoffed down whatever was put before me, of course. 

I've been back almost a week now and I've been craving pasta (we had that quite a bit) since. Particularly pesto pasta which J made to perfection one evening. It was well and good to load up on carbs in Cham (I rationalised that I needed carbs to help me deal with the cold; plus we walked a whole lot). Back home, I usually stay away from too much carbohydrates. 

But, that pasta dish kept haunting me (thanks JY!). After fighting off  the urge to carbo-load for a couple of days, I gave in tonight. I needed pasta. I needed pesto pasta. 

What did I do? I bought a whole bunch of basil (unlike J who grows her own basil, I had to buy mine) and made myself a mother-load of pasta — I have foresight. I know that my craving won't be quelled so easily and so I made enough for a couple more meals.

Great pesto is truly magical. Traditionally, pesto is made with basil, cheese, olive oil and pine nuts. Garlic is almost always used too, with restraint. Time has seen many variations of the original basil pesto — coriander, parsley, sun-dried tomatoes have been used as the base ingredient; walnuts are often used as an economical substitute for pine nuts and Parmesan isn't necessarily the only cheese used in pesto anymore. The ONE ingredient that is never tampered with is the olive oil. 

I've made coriander and parsley pesto before — both delicious — but I wanted to do the original tonight. Basil. Pine nuts. Parmesan. Garlic. Olive Oil. 

However you choose to make your pesto — blender/mortar and pestle; coarse/fine; garlic, no garlic; etc — you will undoubtedly end up with a winner. You may, however, want to read this article that appeared in the Guardian ... just for reference.

My dinner was so satisfying. And, I have lots of pesto in my fridge for the rest of the week. Haven't figured out what I'll do with it next but till then, here's the how to for this Pesto Pasta!

Pesto Pasta

For the pesto

2 handfuls fresh basil 

50g pine nuts, toasted and lightly crushed

50g Parmesan, grated

1 garlic clove, roughly chopped

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil/olive oil

salt, pepper and a just a couple of drops of lemon juice

In your blender/processor, add the basil (you can roughly chop it) and pine nuts and blend in several short bursts till you have a thick paste. Add the cheese and garlic and gradually add in the oil through the feeder tube/hole as you blend. Add the seasoning and lemon juice just before you're ready to remove your pesto (you decide on the consistency)

Cook your pasta as per usual (boil in salted water till al dente), drain and toss with a little olive oil. Mix in the pesto. Garnish with some grated Parmesan.

Vegetarian lasagna, baby

I've been on the hunt for a recipe for vegetarian lasagna for a very long time. It's not that there aren't any around; it's just that none appealed to me. Looking for a good recipe is like looking for a life partner: lotsa good men around but mostly there's just no chemistry. Know what I mean? 


Then along comes Nigel Slater. I bought Kitchen Diaries about a month ago and have been devouring the pages of his cooking journal almost non-stop. I take it with me to the gym (imagine if you will the hard-cover book propped against the counter of the cross trainer as I sweat it out!), to work (I read it as I wait for and  ride the lifts), to the post office (waiting around has never been so pleasant) and to the coffee shop (forget about having a conversation; I'm with Nigel). I am sure that the little gasps,  the oohs and aaahs that escape me uncontrollably as I read  the book make it seem like I'm reading a great book of fiction A romance novel or perhaps.a captivating mystery. 

The book is fantastic. I've come to one conclusion: this man eats really tasty meals. It isn't often that you want to try every single recipe in a book right away but that's kinda what's happened with me and the Kitchen Diaries.  

I decided to review the book for the column (Don't Call Me Chef in The Star: out tomorrow today) and was really spoilt for choice deciding the recipes to include in the review. Everything looked and sounded delicious. EVERYTHING. The desserts will make you want to throw off your diet with nary a thought. Even his take-out dinners (yes there are times he doesn't feel up to cooking) sound divine.




I settled on Slater's brownie (the best I've tasted)  and his zucchini cakes with feta and dill (see pic below). for the review. Superb.  

But what I really wanted to make was his lasagna. And his lime tart. And the no-tears onion soup. And a whole lot more.


Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries isn't a vegetarian cookbook. Hell, no. But it's a very inspiring, easy-to-read, joyful book that charts  Slater's culinary adventures every day in a particular year. There's plenty for vegetarians and plenty more for vegetarians who love to cook. 


So anyway, back to the lasagna. I am not very fond of  lasagna (or pasta, for that matter) that is bathed or tossed in tomato-based sauces. I much prefer white sauces or no sauce at all. Good old olive oil is what I want for my pasta, thank you very much. 


Slater's lasagna is doused with bechamel sauce (milk, flour, butter) and filled with mushrooms-- delicious, plump portabellos and topped with a basil pesto. Are you drooling yet? Are you?

Not a 30-minute meal, this one. There are  three components that make up Slater's lasagna with pesto and mushroom. First you have to make the bechamel sauce. He says store-bought bechamel sauce is fine but I haven't come across any here so I made it myself. Next, the basil pesto. Then you have to cook the mushroom (with onions, garlic, cream and parsley) and of course, you have to cook the lasagna sheets in boiling water .

With a 50-minute baking time, it takes at least an hour-and-a-half to make the lasagna. But it's worth it. Slater combines dried porcini mushrooms with some plump portobellos but I didn't have the former so I used some button whites instead.    

Let's start with the  Bechamel Sauce

500 ml whole milk

2 heaped tablespoons flour

2 bay leaves

5 black peppercorns

45g butter

Heat the milk, bay leaves and peppercorns in a pan until it starts to boil. Take off the heat and let the ingredients sit in the milk for about 30 mins. Strain. Melt the butter and add the flour. Whisk till smooth: low fire, remember. Take off the heat and whisk in the milk. Return to the heat until the sauce begins to thicken. Remove.

For the pesto:
1/2 cup pine nuts
3-4 handfuls of  basil
3-4 tablespoons grated parmesan
olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled

I used my mortar and pestle but you can use your food processor/blender. Bash the garlic with some salt. Add the basil and pound till it's a paste. Add the toased pine nuts, cheese and olive oil till it becomes a nice gooey paste.

For the sautéed mushrooms:

A thick slice of butter

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

500g mushrooms, sliced

1 handful chopped parsley

10g porcini mushrooms

1/2 cup cream

2 tablespoons grated parmesan

Sauté the onions and garlic in the butter over a medium heat for around 15  minutes until they get transparent and really soft. Once the onions have softened, add the mushrooms and cook till they change colour and get nice and soft. Add the parsley, cream , and  parmesan. Cook for around 15  minutes, until the sauce has thickened. 

Prepare the lasagna sheets:

Cook the sheets in a pot of salted, boiling water till al dente: about 12 mins.

Heat up  the oven: 180C

Get you baking dish ready. Spoon in a bit of the bechamel to cover the bottom and then place  a layer of lasagna sheets on top of the sauce. Pour out half the mushroom mixture onto the sheets, sprinkle with some parmesan and then follow up with another layer of the bechamel sauce. Now place another  layer of pasta, the rest of the mushrooms and then the pesto. Top it with the rest of the bechamel. Right on top, shave or grate some parmesan and you're good to go.

Bake for 40-50 mins or till the top is nice and golden brown and the sauce is bubbling over.

Make your own pasta

January is the month to put all resolutions to practice, right? Well, I made quite a few resolutions for 2011 (I must have been drunk) and unfortunately I haven't been very successful in keeping many of them so far. So far, I say, because I will persevere.

One of  my many resolutions was to finally get down to making my own pasta. I've been wanting to do it for at least a year. In fact, it was about six months ago when my friend Shirley challenged me to make ravioli from scratch. I took up the challenge quite willingly when she posed it.

"Sure," said I, "I'll do it. Next week, I'll do it!".

Many weeks have since gone by and I've yet to make my home-made ravioli. My excuse? Well, it's a lame one but it is that I don't have a pasta machine! I know I could easily buy one (after all a basic, no-name-brand machine really doesn't cost much at all) but I don't make pasta often enough to warrant buying (another) gadget to clutter up my already cluttered kitchen. Plus, making pasta is just soooo messy and I had visions of me with flour in my hair, egg yolks splattered on my apronless shirt, etc. Not a pleasant vision, I promise. So many excuses, I mean reasons why I kept procrastinating.

And then I went on Diner's Journal (Mark Bittman's column in the New York Times) last week and I had no more excuses. Damn you, Mr Bittman. (No, no, I really don't mean that).  With a video to for illustrate his point (that its really easy to make pasta at home) Bittman shared his super fast way to make pasta -- where you don't have to get your hands (and body, as in my vision of myself) all floury and eggy. He used a food processor.

I don't have a food processor but, hey,  I wasn't going to use this as yet another excuse. Not anymore because Bittman made the whole process look like child's play. [You have to read his piece HERE and watch the video too].

I used my stand mixer to do the job of the food processor: mixing the flour and the eggs together. Bittman made Fazzoletti (handkerchief pasta) with his dough but I decided to cut the dough into ribbons - ala fettuccini.

Bittman was right. It wasn't difficult. And though dry pasta is fantastic, nothing beats the taste of fresh pasta. And homemade fresh pasta tastes even better because, heck, you made it yourself. There is something to be said about personal satisfaction.

Fresh Pasta

2 cups of flour

3 egg yolks + 2 whole eggs.

Some water (just keep aside a half cup

A pinch of salt.

* The egg yolks (that would be five in all) give the dough a nice yellow colour and the whites give it some elasticity

Put the flour + a pinch of salt in the bowl of your stand mixer. Add the yolks and the eggs and (using a paddle attachment) mix the ingredients together (low speed) just until they come together.

Transfer onto a floured surface and knead the dough for about 5 mins. Form into a ball, flour the ball lightly (all over) and wrap in cling flim. Let the dough rest for about 30 minutes.

Once rested, cut the dough into quarters. Time to roll the dough, one quarter at a time. Flatten the quartered dough into a thick oval dish using the palm of your hand. Lightly flour your rolling pin. Starting from the center of the disc, roll outwards till the disc becomes a very, very thin sheet. Make sure the dough/surface on which youa re rolling and your rolling pin are all always slightly floured so that nothing sticks.

Now cut the edges of the rolled out dough so you get a rectangle. Now you can start cutting the strips from the rectangle. Once the strips have been cut, pile the noodles on a floured baking sheet/plate and sprinkle with more flour and cover loosely with a cloth or clingfilm.  Do the same with the remaining dough. 

Now it's time to cook the pasta. You cook fresh pasta cooks the same way you would dry pasta but the fresh stuff cooks faster. Plonk the pasta into a pot of salted boiling water and cook for about 5 mins. How you serve the pasta is, of course, up to you. I tossed it with sauteed garlic, breadcrumbs and chilli flakes. And also, because I couldn't resist, some parmesan. 

  

Baked Macaroni (or not) and Cheese

Can you believe that Macaroni and Cheese was the favourite dish of the President of the United States? No, not super-dapper-but-somewhat-aged Obama, but Thomas Jefferson, the third US president. Well, that's how the story goes and even though it is reported all over the place, it may just be an urban legend. But then again, Mac N Cheese as it is fondly referred to is well known to be close to if not the #1 American comfort food and one would imagine the president craving comfort food after a long hard day's work. Drafting out the Declaration of Independence -- a little challenging, I assume.

Well, anyway.

Mac N Cheese has never been my comfort food. In fact, I think I've only had it twice my entire life, and neither of those times did I make it. I like cheese and pasta's kinda cool but perhaps I always thought the dish a little mundane. 

So, tasked with reviewing Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything Vegetarian for Monday's Dont Call Me Chef column (will post the link up on Monday), I decided to test out his Macaroni and Cheese recipe. Bittman is my favourite go-to guy for lots of recipes and I figured if I were to try and make the dish for the first time, he wouldn't let me down. 

 I was right. Mark Bittman, you da man. Baked Macaroni and Cheese was the recipe I tried: page 460 of the 900++  paged book. A self-taught home cook, Bittman reckons any kind of pasta that can "grab" the cheesy sauce in this dish can be used in this dish, not just Macaroni. I used Conchiglie (shell shaped pasta). He also recommends varying the cheese used: blue cheese, goat cheese, smoked Gouda or even mascarpone in addition or instead of the standard cheddar and parmesan. 

I quartered the pasta in Bittman's recipe but only halved the quantity for the cheese and sauce as I wanted my pasta really soaking in cheesy goodness. Here's my adaptation of Bittman's recipe

250g pasta

11/4 cup milk

2 bay leaves

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp all purpose flour

1 cup grated sharp cheddar

1/2 cup grated parmesan

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

 Pre heat the oven to 200C

Boil a pot of salted water and cook the pasta till its almost done (when you think maybe it needs another minute or two till its cooked). Drain and flush with cold water to stop the cooking process.

Heat the milk and bay leaves in a small saucepan. When small bubbles begin to appear along the sides, let it boil a bit more for say, 3 mins. Turn off and let it stand.

Heat the butter in a saucepan and when it gets frothy, add the flour and stir with a whisk till the mixture browns. Add the milk (remove bay leaves) gradually, stirring with the whisk all along until the mixture is thick and smooth. Add the cheddar and removed from heat.

Pour the sauce on the pasta, season with salt and pepper and toss in the Parmesan. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs. 

Grease a baking dish (size appropriate) with butter and transfer the pasta in. Bake for about 15 mins or until it starts bubbling. 

Remove and eat it piping hot. Yummmmm.

OK. I loved it. Mac N Cheese is still not my favourite dish but the cheesy-ness of the dish won me over. It's really filling though and I only managed to finish less than half the pasta.Of course, I finished up the cheesy sauce quickly, which was also a reason I couldn't finish the pasta. Ha ha, the sauce was gone!! 

All the cheese is gone!

Bittman also offers several alternate ways to prepare the dish. For example, adding sautéed wild mushrooms and sage and using mascarpone instead of the grated cheese. He also suggests adding nuts + blue cheese or goats cheese + roasted red peppers. Or, check this option out: chipotle or green chillies + cheddar + cilantro. 

See, I told you the man rocks! Other Bittman recipes I've successfully executed are Pasta with Breadcrumbs, Garlic and Chilli Flakes and Homemade Crackers.

Meanwhile, word is that Obama's favourite food is Chilli... not padi, but the meat+bean stew!

Cloudy with NO chance of meatballs.

Neatballs? I went online to see the kitchen exploits of fellow vegetarian cooks and came across several sites featuring recipes for Neatballs. One click later and I realised neatballs is a term that's been coined for vegan meatballs.

Why "Neat"?  Well, the "N" represents the "normal" ingredients that go into a neatball. Normal as in common, everyday, easy to find ingredients. Seriously?

A neatball is really a new-fangled way of saying vegetarian or vegan koftas. Instead of ground meat as the base, vegetarians use beans, tofu, nuts, mushrooms, eggplant or pulses as the base for their balls/cutlets. The different base ingredients determine not only the taste of your cutlet but also the texture. Using eggplant, for example, will yield you a smooth, soft cutlet while a nut-bean combo will give you a rough, crunchy texture. Mushrooms, of course, make anything taste good :)



Mushrooms are my favourite base ingredient for vegetarian koftas. And, unlike most recipes using mushroom, with koftas, I find the stems more useful than the caps so I buy the king oyster mushrooms (the one where the stems are at least a couple of inches thick and the caps are tiny and pale) and mix them with some shitake (stems and caps). The stems give you the koftas a kind of toughness you won't find with most vegetables.

I drained the mushrooms (about 2 cups)  and roughly chopped them up. Next, I seasoned them with just salt and pepper and dry roasted them for about 30 mins (150C). Let them cool.

Once cool, mix the caps with other ingredients of choice: I used walnuts (1/4 cup), some carrots (1/2 cup), parsley (a handful, chopped) and eggplant (1/2 cup, lightly roasted) and blend them till they are slightly pureed -- allow for some chunkiness. Add some mash potato (1 potato) and breadcrumbs (just 1/2 cup, optional) and season with oregano, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Roll into balls, and you're set.

Bake at 180C for 20 mins or till they're nice and browned. I cooked my koftas in a tomato-based stew and ate it with spaghetti but I kept several aside to eat on their own for my dinner tomorrow. They're that tasty ..

You had me at Aglio Olio

My friend Premah asked me a couple of days ago if I had a recipe for Pasta Aglio e Olio. Unfortunately, I didn't, although the Angel Hair pasta with garlic and breadcrumbs I often make is a variation of the classic Aglio e Olio. Well, it's been two days and I haven't been able to get Aglio Olio out of my mind. Not that I was particularly craving for it, but I was itchy to try and make it. It isn't complicated and it's essentially vegetarian; vegan even as it  doesn't have cheese.

Aglio Olio has neither a tomato base nor a creamy base. It's a simple, straightforward, rustic pasta dish but that really doesn't mean it's a no brainer.

Aglio Olio is Italian for garlic and oil. And that's basically what it takes to make this dish what it is. Parsley is also an essential ingredient as is chilli flakes or dried chillies while seasoning is salt and pepper.

Linguini is supposed to be the original pasta of choice for Aglio e Olio but I had angel hair so I didn't have the luxury of choice.

Cooking the pasta: I decided to cook the pasta in vegetable stock to add flavour. At the World Gourmet Summit I attended in Singapaore a month or so ago, I attended a cooking masterclass by Italian Chef  Andrea Berton who cooked his pasta in stock to wonderful results. So I decided to follow suit. It was a great tip as the pasta soaks up the stock well. I would think a thicker noodle would perhaps be better but I made do with what I had.  As usual, cook in al dente.



In a skillet, heat about 4 tbsp of olive oil and add the garlic (8 cloves, squished and minced) and chilli flakes (2 tsp) and 2 tsp chopped flat leaf parsley (opt for the Italian flat leaf parsley as it's more flavourful).  Toss the ingredients around and make sure you don't let the garlic burn.

When it's all toasty and fragrant add the cooked pasta. You can add the pasta straight from the saucepan or stockpot you boiled it in so that it's still moist. Also add 3-4 tbsp of the stock in with the pasta. Season with salt and black pepper. Toss the pasta so it's coated with the olive oil, garlic, chilli, parsley and the seasoning.

Cook on low heat for a few minutes, adding a little more  parsley. The pasta will be a little wet, but it should never be soupy.

Remove and serve.

Now, this is the basic Aglio e Olio and you will find variations like  adding seafood like  prawns or mussels, tomatoes and sometimes even minced meat. I tried it with some sauteed mushrooms -- it tasted good but honestly, I preferred it plain with no frills.