Express Baked Chicken & Mushroom Pasta!

Yup, you read that right... Express version. LOL! When I was trying to figure out how to make this chicken pasta, I searched over the Internet and found some useful recipes. But I thought, I'll try to keep it simple lah! Instead of creating my own white sauce, I've replaced with canned mushroom soup ^_^

Alright, so here's my cooking experiment...

First, slice up some onions and chicken meat. You can either buy canned mushroom that has been sliced, or the whole mushroom. If it is whole, just slice them up too! Marinate the chicken with some pepper. I used grounded black pepper but I think white pepper is fine. Just use whichever type of pepper you have okie?

Boil the pasta until it is al dente. If it is very soft, it might break into small pieces when we mix our ingredients. While the pasta is being cooked, in a separate pan (or wok), stir fry the onion until fragrant. Then tip in the chicken and fry them until they are quite cooked. Add some herbs - mixed herbs or thyme / basil are fine. I prefer stronger herbs so mixed herbs or oregano are okay for me. Remember to pour in the mushroom when the chicken is about 90% cooked. The canned mushroom is already cooked so that sort of saves time for me. 

Once the pasta is ready, drain them and pour them into the wok. Add in the mushroom soup into the mixture. Pour in some water in the can, maybe 1/3 in order to clean out the remainder that is stacked in it. Stir stir and mix mix everything until all ingredients are well coated. Yum! 

Oh yes, remember to heat up the oven before you use it. Turn it up to Gas 5 / 180c.

Last but not least, taste your pasta. Add some salt for seasoning... And taste again before you scoop 'em up into a casserole dish. Or a deep plate that can be placed in an oven.

Sprinkle on some grated cheese or cheddar cheese slices. Then place the dish into the oven for about 5 minutes or until the cheese has melted, or slightly brown. Ready to serve!

Sorry folks, I didn't manage to take a photo once the pasta is ready to be served. Had to put LittleMissPoochie to sleep because she was tired. Plus we were so hungry that we started to dig in : P

Nonetheless, I think it came out quite good. The pasta was well coated with the sauce. Perhaps a little more sauce would've been nice. Then it would give a creamier texture. 

TheLoyalFan says: "Really liked the mushroom taste. Cheese could be a little less strong though."

Hmmm, I think the cheese I used was a Parmesan. Not too sure myself. The block of cheese has been sitting in the fridge so I use it lor... I think my experiment turned out quite OK. The mini research that I did online helped me also - just to make sure what I have in mind on the methodology is reasonable (methodology... Bombastic lingo :P)

OK, tata everyone! Have a good week and keep cooking!

The Western Week - Day 4

Spicy Garlic Mushroom Spaghetti! Finally, something different : )

This is a new recipe I found on the Internet and thought of giving it a try since it is quite easy. So here goes...

First, fry some garlic, onion, dried chilli and mushroom in a pan with some cooking oil. For budgetary experimental purposes, I bought sliced mushroom in a tin. Hahahahahah! Plus, this can save some slicing time for me too! Once the onion & garlic are fragrant, pour in carrots and other vegetables that you'd like it in your sauce. Celery and olives should taste great and add colour in it as well.

While frying these ingredients, remember to boil the spaghetti too!

After frying for about 5 minutes, pour a tin of chopped tomatoes and give it a good mix. Add in some herbs such as parsley or... mixed herbs. However, I'm out of mixed herbs so I used basil instead : P  Season the sauce with salt and pepper. Let the sauce simmer in low or medium heat until the sauce has been reduced and thicken. Pour in the drained spaghetti and give it a good toss!

Done!

Toss Toss Toss!

Ready to be eaten, with some cheese! Yummie!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Tasted alot like Puttanesca. It has a more fusiony Asian twist though. I liked the spicyness... noms!'

"Fusiony Asian Twist"? o.O!!!

Well, I think it turned out quite nice. Wish there were more mushroom and more of it! Hehehehe.

Cost for Day 4: GBP 1.70 for 2 pax

Spaghetti Cabonara

Back home, I always remember that we would order this at Italian restaurants to eat this creamy, fragrant and rich dish. The price of it is quite expensive and at times some restaurants doesn't do a good job. Hence, it either tasted too rich or too bland - not very balance.

During our stay here in Manchester, we decided to learn some simple western dishes in order to adapt to the local taste and cuisine. This is to keep our cost of living lower and at the same time, enjoying what the 'Gwei Lous' eat : )

One of the simple western dish was this - the Cabonara. Again, at first, we thought it was a difficult dish to prepare. But when we first tried it out, it was so simple that I remembered we made this twice a week. LOL!

So, here goes...

First, slice up some onions and 2 cloves of garlic. Then slice up smoked bacons and mushrooms. The reason of using smoked bacon is that it gives more flavour to the dish and your mushroom will be tastier too!

In a separate bowl, beat an egg and add equal portion of single cream. Add in some finely grated cheese into the bowl and give them all a good whisking to combine all goodies together!

Before you start frying the ingredients, boil your spaghetti - very important : P

Next, heat up your pan with a knob of butter. Cooking oil would be just fine too! Fry the onion and garlic until it is fragrant then pour in the bacons and mushrooms. Give it a good 3-5 minutes fry, until the bacons and mushrooms are thoroughly cooked. Season some pepper and salt during the stir-fry. Once your spaghetti is ready, drain the water and pour the spaghetti into the pan. Remove the pan from direct heat and pour in the creamy mixture into the pan. Give it a proper toss until everything is evenly mixed.

Et voila! C'est tout!

Spaghetti Cabonara with cream. The cream is starting to have tiny lumps.

Spaghetti Cabonara with milk.

Mmm... Cabonara... yum yum! The cream gives a very rich texture to the dish. However, I would prefer using milk instead because I like to enjoy my Cabonara without feeling all stuffed and bloated.

Oh yes, another thing I noticed is that when you use cream, one must toss it quickly and remove it from any heat! This is to avoid the cream mixture from splitting. When it splits, you'll notice that the egg is starting to cook and there would be lumps.

TheLoyalFan says: 'Cream makes all the difference! Silky and creamy, and aromatic from the smoked bacon... ooo yums! Made me remember why carbonara was among my favourites!'

Cabonara checked!!! Trust me, if I can do it, so can you!

Have fun!

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Alrightie, time to try out some western recipes : )

We have decided to give this recipe a go because we were watching one of those cooking shows from the Internet and thought, 'Wow, doesn't seem too complicated for a mushroom soup, isn't it?' And so, mushroom soup we decided to try. LOL!

First, we diced up the mushrooms. We bought some chestnuts and some buttons for our simple soup. According to the recipe, you can use ceps and/or porcini as it gives a fuller flavor in the soup. Dice some onions as well. Once the dicing is completed, fry the onion and mushroom with a knob of butter! Mmm... very fragrant!

Remember to fry the mushroom until it is completely brown. I think about 5 minutes or more. Otherwise, you will get 'half cooked' taste mushroom which not many people like the funky taste, especially me - NO LIKES! When the mushrooms are ready, pour in your chicken stock into the mixture and let it simmer away! Oh yes! Herbs! You'll need some thyme (I think) for your soup. For me, I have a bottle of mix herbs so I just pour some in lah! : P

After 15 minutes of simmering, pour in some crème fraîche a.k.a. fresh cream. I would strongly recommend that you slowly scoop dollops by dollops to mix into your soup... Otherwise, your soup would taste very rich. And the final step - ready to serve!

The soup supposed to look a little more on the brown color side... hehe. For this dish, there were a couple of mishaps in the kitchen : ( First, I accidentally put in too much butter. Therefore, if you look closely at the photo above, you'll notice there's a lot yellow droplets. Secondly, I didn't fry my mushrooms long enough and so, it tasted a bit raw, in which I didn't like the taste of it. Thirdly, I put too much of cream!!! Aaarghh!!! I got a little bit over zealous when pouring the cream. Hence, I recommend the 'dollops by dollops' method.

With all these mishaps happened, the soup still tasted quite OK although it was rich with the cream. However, with a little tweak for the next round, I'm sure that it would turn out just fine and tasty!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Never knew it was so easy to make. First attempt was yums! But will need to go easy on the cream the next time though... hehe'


And there you have it... my first attempt of the Cream of Mushroom Soup : P

Till then, keep nomming!