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Creamy Pasta with Broccoli, Almonds and Soy Milk

3 October 2009 – 9:39 am

When the going gets tough, some people go shopping. I go eating.

Ok, I should confess that I occasionally do retail therapy shopping too, but in the most dire times when I’m trying to scrimp on money and stay on budget, there’s nothing better than cook up something really random that eventually becomes something special.

Last night, I came home and was grateful that the week of hell at work is now over. Oh no, don’t get me wrong, I love my new job. Everything about it is still eelectrifying and eelating (please note my references to the Parramatta Eels on the eve of the NRL Grand Final game – yes I’m a proud blue and yellow supporter so bear with me…). But the week has just been tiring both physically and mentally and I needed Friday to come. I needed to get away from it all, relax, and enjoy the long weekend.

So, I got home from a catch up session with some girlfriends and a few trips to people’s houses collecting donations for typhoon Ondoy that ravaged the Philippines and left hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands more homeless. I wasn’t hungry, but knew I had to eat something adequate enough to last me until breakfast the next day (I get hyperacidity when really hungry and that’s not cool at 2am on a Saturday morning).

So, one quick look at my recipe books and I knew I had to try out Jules‘ cookbook And the Love is Free: Mum – A Life with Recipes. I got this (autographed!) recipe book from Jules’ hot hands herself during the Good Food & Wine Show here in Sydney a few moons ago, and I must say I’ve been quite scared of trying out the recipes. I don’t know why… I think I’m just a big fan of Jules and The Stone Soup and trying out the recipes would be like being on MasterChef and creating Adriano Zumbo’s chocolate mousse cake – both great feats that I can only dream of!

The breakfast table: coffee, plate of what was once waffles, recipe book & Twittering and blogging in the laptop

The breakfast table: coffee, plate of what was once waffles, recipe book & Twittering and blogging in the laptop

But no sooner did I realise that all that worrying was for nothing – they’re good, Aussie homecooked meals with ingredients that are easy to source and easier to cook. Thanks Jules!

This dish also uses cream, but since this was a total fridge raid and I don’t usually stock cream unless for instant cooking and baking purposes, I used a can of Carnation Soy Milk instead. The results? FANTASTIC FABULOUSNESS!

Creamy Pasta with Broccoli, Almonds and Soy Milk

Makes approximately 2 servings

200g pasta spirals, cooked until al dente

3 cloves garlic, minced (2 cloves of garlic for those non-garlic fans)

1 tbsp butter & swirl of olive oil

1/2 cup cream (or 1 can of Carnation soy milk)

1 small head, broccoli

60g sliced almonds

Parmesan cheese

Salt & Pepper

  1. Steam or poach the broccoli in plain boiling water for a few minutes until softened but still crunchy. Drain and set aside.
  2. In a pan, melt butter and oil together.
  3. Lightly brown the garlic in the butter, and add the almonds.
  4. Add the milk, salt and pepper and let simmer for a few seconds.
  5. Remove from heat, and add the cooked pasta and broccoli. Mix with half of the parmesan cheese.
  6. Serve with the remaining parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

This was the perfect comfort food eating on a Friday night – it’s cold and wet outside, and warm and cosy inside the house. I had a stack of DVDs to keep me company, a plate of delicious food, and the promise of a beautiul long weekend ahead.

All work troubles, begone!

…

Thanks to Clare of Mark Communications for the Carnation Soy Creamy Cooking Milk and the recipes! I shall try them all out soon!

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Pasta

Baked Lemon Pasta

14 May 2009 – 6:46 pm

Growing up in the Philippines, I have been accustomed to eating really sour dishes. There are a number of sour Filipino dishes that I can think of at the top of my head, but the king (or queen) of all sourness is the tamarind-based soup known as sinigang. Chicken, pork, fish, even beef – sinigang is one of those dishes that gives you a warm feeling of home and mum’s hugs and tropical breeze and everything that Philippines stands for.

So whenever I reminisce about Filipino sourness (the food, that is!), or whenever I crave for something sour, I snack on lemons.

Yep – big, fat lemon wedges. With salt. Lots of it.

Or sometimes when there’s no lemons around, I opt for lime. Or the smaller, more sour version we call calamansi. I snack on about half a lemon… and then a few minutes later I get an upset stomach. Such is the story of my life!

Ah but I digress.

Filipino food isn’t as popular as Thai, Malay, Chinese, Indian, and even Indonesian. I really don’t know why the popularity hasn’t grown much – maybe because Filipino food is a fusion of many different food bases that it somehow lost its origins and uniqueness along the way? Maybe.

I plan on featuring a few Filipino dishes here to introduce the wonderful, likeable, even loveable Filipino dishes that has graced my dining table the past 24 years of my food-filled life. But for the meantime, let me show you the lovely dinner I had last night…

Ta-da! Pioneer Woman’s Baked Lemon Pasta!

This is the ultimate in speedy, speedy meals. Meals on wheels! Meals on turbo charge nitro! Meals on.. never mind.

Yesterday at work I was knacking my brains out on what I was going to cook for dinner. I didn’t want the usual salad, pasta, Chinese, nutella sandwich…. I wanted something different. With an extra kick of.. something. So I go to the one trustful website for all your meal problems and voila! Pioneer Woman saved the day.

Garlic, lemon, parsley, butter, cream, pasta, parmesan. That’s all you need. How easy was that?!

Baked Lemon Pasta

Adapted from Pioneer Woman’s Baked Lemon Pasta

Makes 2 – 3 servings

250g spaghetti

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil

Juice and rind of half a lemon

3 cloves garlice, minced

1 cup thick cream (the recipe called for sour cream, but I only had thick cream at home so I substituted it)

Pinch of salt

Chopped fresh parsley (I only had continental parsley at home, but flat leaf parsley would’ve been better)

Grated parmesan cheese

  1. Pre-heat oven to 175 deg C.
  2. Cook spaghetti until al dente (mum taught me to add a pinch of salt and a drop of olive oil in the pasta water for flavour and so the pasta won’t stick – so that’s how I cook my pasta).
  3. In a pan, melt butter with olive oil. Add garlic and the squeeze the juice of half a lemon.
  4. Remove from heat and add the lemon rind and cream. Stir until combined. Add salt to taste.
  5. Add cooked spaghetti to cream sauce and stir stir stir! Transfer to baking dish.
  6. Cover dish with foil, and bake for 5 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 5 minutes.
  7. Add chopped parsley, parmesan cheese and squeeze a lemon wedge before serving. Enjoy!

Serve with a slice of buttered toast for that finished touch (I cut my toast in triangles – just like what mum used to do!). If you want an amalgamation of all the different flavours of garlic, parsley, and lemon, then this dish is for you. Seriously. This is that one dish that you need to have in your winter menu. It’s seriously addictive – so much that I had to force myself to leave some to take to work the next day (which is today!).

Mmm I predict a yummy lunch at work today. Beats buying food any day (saves me money too!).

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