Luxurious Spaghetti with Pan Seared Scallops

Sometimes spaghetti gets boring, with the same bolognese, or carbonara so I decided to do something different. I wanted something fresh and light and yet luxurious. No heavy sauces for today. I took a stroll to Jaya Grocer ( of course not literally) to look for some interesting stuff. I found a pack of scallop( it cannot get more luxurious than this ) , basil, zuchini, cherry tomatoes and of lot of cheese to choose. And that's it- IDEA!

Get your pan ready, add in generous amount olive oil. The olive oil is gonna the sauce for the spaghetti so be generous. Put in some cloves of garlic and let it cook until your get the aroma. Then put in the zuchini that you have sliced thinly. Season with salt and pepper. When the zuchini is nicely cooked, add in the cherry tomatoes. And your sauce is ready. Lightly toss your spaghetti with the sauce and add in the basil. In the heat the basil will be slightly cooked. Top your spaghetti with generous amount of Parmesan.

Now, for scallops. Season with salt and pepper. Put butter in the pan and sear the scallop for about 2 min each side. Adjust your time based on the size of your scallop. Remember, never overlook scallops, or else it will turn rubbery.

There you, yet another luxurious meal from yours truly...

Rakuzen, My Favourite Japanese Restaurant

Without a doubt Rakuzen, is one of best Japanese restaurant in town. We chose Rakuzen to celebrate Mother's Day, as both dad and son knew mommy just love Japanese food. The restaurant is spacious and comfy and we get to sit in booths. The service is also excellent.

For a start,  we had the salmon belly sashimi. The dish was not only pleasant for eyes (as you can see) but luscious and fresh. It simply melts in your mouth.

Unagi, my Favourite Japanese was grilled to perfection. Anyway, you can never go wrong with Unagi.

Then came the Dragon Roll, which was filled with a plump prawn. It was definitely a fulfilling Dragon Roll, and they not stingy at all with the ingredients.

My son, of course, went for the Ebi Tempura. 5 pieces of fresh prawn, fried lightly with Tempura batter. It not at all oily, and very light and yummy.

After, having all that, I suggested to my hubby to tried their grilled Wahyu beef. I do not take beef, si I have no idea how it taste. Hubby, however, said it was really good, and melts in your mouth.

The above is what we had for dessert, which I totally forgot what it was, most probably, because the mains were amazingly memorable.

All in all, we had a superb time, the meal was fantastic, service was excellent, and I have no qualms to recommend Rakuzen for any special occasion.

Restaurant Style Panneer Butter Masala

Paneer Butter Masala is my most favorite gravy and we always order this whenever we visit any North Indian restaurant. I love it a lot and usually have it with Indian bread, like Kulcha or Butter Naan.This dish is ideal for parties and get-together so, dont miss preparing this restaurant style paneer butter masala at home. Paneer is basically cottage cheese, Indian version, and Paneer Butter Masala, is cottage cheese simmered in silky, creamy, rich tomate gravy, flavored by Indian spices. This dish is slightly sweet so make sure you mix and match it accordingly.

This recipe has a bit of fat and may not be ideal for calorie conscious but you can reduce the fat. For me though, I will not compromise the taste, thus I stuck to high fat milk and cream. Now, for the recipe : Blend 2 medium onion, 3-4 cloves of garlic and about one teaspoon of ginger. Cut the paneer into about one inch size cubes. I used about 250gm. Paneer is indian cottage cheese and taste a little bit like tofu. Slit 2 green chillies into have. 1/2 cup of fat filled milk and 2 tablespoon of cream is very important for this recipe, as well as 1 tin of tomato purée. As for dried ingredients, you would need fenugreek leaves (dried), 1 teaspoon of garam masala, red chilly powder and coriander powder.

Heat up your pan with oil and butter and the paste of onion, garlic and ginger and sautee until you sense the aroma. Then add on the tomato purée, and the dry ingredients. Let it simmer until you see the oil. Next add your chilly and milk and 1/2 cup of water in. Allow it to cook through until you are satisfied and then dunk in the paneer. Allow it to simmer, and of season it well with salt. Give it about 10mins and then stir in the cream. Look for silky consistency and take it off the stove. Here you 
go...restaurant style paneer butter masala.

I served mine with carrot pilav, made basmati rice and ghee and of course carrots, cucumber-tomato-chilly raita and spicy mint chutney, for a little bit of kick. No need to frequent the North Indian restaurant, no more...just DIY!

Street food in some random stall in Bangkok

As promised, I am supposed to blog about Thai food. I was in Bangkok and everyone know Bangkok is a shopper's haven. Lots to buy at affordable prices.After walking for a bit, we got hungry and we decided to eat in a random stall. Nevertheless,  we did not regret.

We had oyster omelette, chicken satay and padthai, which is stir fried flat noodles with seafood. It was slightly sweet and slightly spicy.

Padthai is a flavourful combination of stir fried noodles, which has crispy bean sprouts, crunchy roasted peanuts, chives and egg and prawns. Though it was just a random, the padthai we had was simply superb. I am now looking forward to my next trip to Bangkok to simply savour this again ! 

Fish and Spinach pie

This is yet another Jamie Oliver's recipe, with a cheat sheet. The filling for this fish pie is a tasty blend of spinach, salmon,  hard boiled eggs and baby potatoes . Add in any type of veges if you wish.

I cut the salmon into edible sized cubes and slowly stir fry the salmon, mushrooms and spinach in olive oil. Then add the milk and let them simmer for a while. Season accordingly. In another pot, boil the potatoes and 2 eggs. Cut the eggs and potatoes into quarters.

Prepare your pie dish. To make my life simple I used Kawan Puff Pastry. That definitely reduced the hassle of kneading the dough to make a fluffy pastry.

Assemble your dish with 4-5 pieces of these squares. Then put in the mixture of fish and veges. Then assemble in the eggs and potatoes. The is no need for an order here, just go with the flow. In a separate bowl beat in an egg and little bit of milk. Pour the mixture in. Finally sprinkle in grated cheese. I used sharp cheddar but the choice is yours. 

Then assemble the Kawan  Puff squares  on the top. Make air holes using a fork. As I was too busy, I did not do a egg wash for the top, but you can do that to get that shine. Set your oven to 220 Celsius and bake fir about 40 mins. You should get a beautiful golden pie with flaky crust, which is really wholesomely good and yummy. 

                 

To try another pie recipe, please to go  http://rr-foodtravel.blogspot.com/2011/07/easy-peasy-pie.html?m=1                                                

Mak Man Kee Wan Tan Noodle - Hong Kong

One of the things we should not miss in Hong Kong is their won tan noodles. Do not expect it to be the same as what we have here in Malaysia. We did our homework before leaving to HK, and one of the blog recommended we try Mak's noodles in Jordan street.
The Hong Kong wonton noodle is a simple dish: dumplings are made with several shrimp held together by a delicate flour wrapper and served with chewy egg noodles in a savoury broth.

To your surprise Mak's noodles is on Wikipedia and serves one of the best wonton noodles in HK.

Some may be turned off with it controversional serving size.  Mak’s insists that the small serving size prevents the noodles from sitting in the broth too long and turning soggy. But they charge the market price (HK$30) for their petite bowls.

Whatever it may, for experience sake, I would say...try it.

Dedicated to Thai Food

I am going to dedicate my blog write up this week to the "mother of all cuisine"( well at least for me it is)..the most favoured, delectable Thai cuisine. How can it not be one of the best..when it has some many flavours to play with..we have the fish sauce, palm sugar, lemongrass, kaffir lime and its leaves, coconut cream, birds eye chilies and the list goes on and on...

I pay tribute by starting of with a write up on what I prepared for my very own family...trying to be a Thai cook. This was my attempt for a full blown Thai meal.

Thai Green Curry Chicken

Steam Fish Thai Style

Minced Chicken with Basil Leaves

I was happy with the outcome of the dishes (you can find the recipes too in other post). The family was happy and therefore I was happy too.

Stay tuned tomorrow for my food adventure in Bangkok.