'Noodle fest' archive

Penne with portobello mushrooms

I had never eaten portobello mushrooms before (it used to be hard to find them in local supermarkets) so when I saw trays and trays of the stuff at Shopwise, I bought a 220-gram pack. Six pieces in all. I minced three and mixed them with ground chicken to make burgers for last night’s dinner and, as I was eating my burger, the distinct flavor of the portobellos suddenly reminded me of the pasta at La Maison. Ergo, for lunch today, I boiled some penne and went about my attempt to recreate that wonderful creamy sauce that I enjoyed so much.

Chicken and mushrooms pasta

My younger daughter, Alex, woke me up on Saturday morning with an announcement that she wanted pasta for lunch. With pesto, she said, and chicken. I said, sure, and figured I might as well go all the way and add mushrooms and a medley of vegetables too. She helped with the cooking, grated the cheese, cut the mushrooms and tomatoes, and did some stirring, then it was on to a great lunch. Too bad the man of the house was out at work and had to miss the spaghetti with chicken, brown button mushrooms, vegetables and pesto.

Fettuccine Bolognese

Chunky, meaty Bolognese sauce made with red wine and served with spinach fettucine. There are so many variations of this pasta sauce that originates from Bologna, Italy and Wikipedia says the authentic sauce has very little tomato in it. Other versions do not contain red wine — mine does because red wine does something to tomato-based sauces that makes them incredible robust. Some recipes use more than one kind of ground meat; often, a combination of pork, veal and beef. My recipe substitutes smoked belly bacon for pancetta, the Italian dry cured pork belly that is often referred to as Italian bacon.

Lo mein in less than 15 minutes

… if there is no leftover stir fry, is there no other fast and easy way of cooking lo mein?

A month or so ago, my family went fish ball crazy. We’ve gotten tired of them now but it was a great food trip while it lasted. I’m not talking about the fish balls that are 99% flour and 1% MSG. I’m talking about the fish, shrimp, lobster, sharksfin and mushroom balls in various shapes and sizes that have become a staple in some supermarkets. I loved adding them to my soups and they are great with lo mein.

Baked macaroni for a Halloween party

Every year, when I celebrate my birthday, it’s like Christmas is just around the corner… There’s my birthday (I had my party on October 18), then Halloween, then my brother’s birthday… Then, it’s December and our wedding anniversary and, soon after that, it’s Christmas.

That means a lot of party cooking and, ergo, a lot of recipes that are good ideas for Christmas and the New Year. So I started updating the Noche Buena blog.

Carbonara, the (almost) traditional way

Personally, I have always preferred to cook carbonara the bastardized way. It’s habit. When the kids were very young, I wasn’t sure how safe raw eggs would be for them so I never used raw eggs. Then, the kids got used to the carbonara with cream and that was that. But a few nights ago, my husband and I were watching TV and he saw Nigella Lawson cooking carbonara the traditional way. Realizing how easy it was, he decided that carbonara was what we’d have for dinner on Sunday night.

Spaghetti with Chinese ham and peppers

They might not sound like the perfect pair but the salty and pungent Chinese ham is great with pasta. And you don’t need so much ham to make a flavorful pasta dish. With Chinese ham, a little goes a long, long way. Not that Chinese ham is absolutely essential. Any smoky, salty ham will do just as well.

This spaghetti dish, last Saturday’s dinner, has very few ingredients all of which are pretty much staples in any kitchen…

Yogurt in my pasta

Lunch last Wednesday was a pasta dish that made use of leftovers. I had excess yogurt from last Saturday’s chicken and mangoes in yogurt and there was enough grilled fish from the previous night’s dinner to make a decent number of fish balls. Yes, those are fish balls that you see in the photo. Flaked fish mixed with chopped onions, garlic, herbs, eggs and bread crumbs.

Where’s the yogurt? In the sauce…

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House On A Hill

Fish & seafood

• Clams spaghetti with white wine
• Fish fillets in white wine and cream-and-cheese sauce
• Fish fillet with corn sauce
• Tilapia fritters with honey-lemon sauce
• Oven-steamed whole fish
• Fish croquettes
• Fish fillets with pepper and thyme
• Bangus (milkfish) fritters, v. 2
• Pan-fried kitang with tofu-egg salsa
• Fried lapu-lapu with pineapple sauce

Superb soups

• Salmon and tomato soup
• Herbed chicken soup with assorted beans
• Macaroni soup
• Creamed broccoli and potato soup
• Chunky beef, tomato and eggplant soup
• Serving idea for store-bought siomai (pork dumplings)
• Fish head soup with coconut cream
• Real cream of mushroom soup
• Kalabasa (squash) soup
• Chunky Beef and Macaroni Soup