Freshly Made Pasta Sauce

I was first inspired to make my own pasta sauce when I had dinner over my friend's place. I have never felt so good after eating before (even after eating so much). Because it was healthy and clean food with no processed meats or preservatives (even though we had homemade pizza and fried and chips for dinner with homemade pasta sauce for the pizza base, fresh fish just caught, homemade chips from potatoes, and the best batter I have ever tasted which was light and crisp!). My friend even used chicken breasts for the pizza instead of the usual sausages,pepperoni or ham.

Since that dinner, I am utterly convinced that eating healthy can be tasty and it makes you feel good! So, I have drastically cut down on any canned food or processed meats since then and also after watching this video!


Making your own pasta sauce is so "easy peasy lemon squeezy" (I learnt this phrase from my children) that you just have to make it. There are no excuses not to. Its not only healthy, fragrant, tastier, much cheaper and its simple to make! (By the way, cost price for this sauce is about $2! )

Here's the ingredients (all roughly chopped)
- 3 large tomatoes
- one large yellow onion
- about 5 garlic cloves
- olive oil
- salt and sugar to taste
- dried herbs (I used basil)
- flour to thicken if you like

Basically, the fun thing about making your own sauce is that you can mix and match. So basically add whatever you like in your pasta sauce and throw all in a blender! I will probably throw in mushrooms next time!

Steps:
1) Throw the chopped up tomatoes, onions, garlic and a bit of olive oil all in a blender and start blending!

2) After blending, put salt and sugar to taste and dried herbs.

Don't worry if it tastes spicy from the onions. Initially, I was also worried as I am sure my children wouldn't like it but I realised that after cooking the sauce, the 'spiciness' from onions just goes away and becomes sweet thus making the sauce so much yummier! So don't be afraid to add the whole onion in!

3) Heat a pot and throw in the sauce to cook it. If you want to use this sauce for spaghetti/baked pasta, I added minced beef first. Fry it up a little before throwing in the sauce. Cook until boiling or when you feel the taste and fragrance is out!

4) You can add flour to thicken the sauce if you like. But I feel its not necessary as if you are doing baked pasta, the oven will make the sauce disappear into the pasta.

Then, you are DONE! Easy yah? I am sure you can do this! To be honest, the sauce reminds me of the escargot herb garlic butter which I SOOO missed! That's probably why I am in love with this sauce.

As you can see the colour is not those dark red ones you find in the cans or bottles sold in supermarkets. That means how much preservatives they must have added to the pasta sauce as if its freshly made, it should be orange in colour. So that really scared me and convinced me that all the more, I should start preparing it fresh!

I used the sauce for baked pasta as me and my children loves melted cheese with the crispy bits at the sides!

 

 

Ngor Hiang- Sweet and Juicy

This was my virgin try on preparing ngor hiang and it was a success, except maybe for the art in wrapping it which I have yet to master.

Decided to cook this as my hubby loves eating ngor hiang. I guess it is probably his comfort food since growing up with it as he is a hokkien and his mum cooks that a lot!

This recipe was shared by my facebook home cooking group which I joined. Enjoy!

Picture adapted from the Facebook Cooking Group

Ingredients
- 1 kg of minced meat
- 300g of water chestnut
- 1/2 kg of prawns
- 2 big onions
- $2 worth of fish paste
- bean curd skin (the soft ones)
- 1 egg

Steps
1) Use a damp cloth to clean the bean curd sheets if not it will be very very salty
2) Steam the bean curd skin by covering with the cloth so that the water doesn't drop onto the sheets
3) Prepare the paste - minced the prawns, onions, and water chestnut. Add the minced meat and fish paste. Crack and egg and mix it altogether. Season with pepper and corn flour. (no need salt as the skin is salty already!) I added spring onions to give the colour and because I had it in my fridge and didn't know how else to use it before it withers beyond its of use.

4) Wrap the paste with the bean curd skin

5) After wrapping all up, deep fry them and voila, nice and crispy sides to go with for your lunch or dinner!

Bacon-Nutella Puff Pastry

When my friend, Esther first posted this dish in Facebook, immediately I thought," What a brilliant idea to add nutella to bacon!" (As I know it will surely go well) The saltiness of the pork compliments well with the sweetness of the nutella and who doesn't like nutella??

I know of recipes like bak ku teh (herbal pork rib soup-local dish) with chocolate risotto suggested by a British Michelin star chef.

Anyway, here's the recipe which Esther shared with me! It is easy and make a great snack for bacon and nutella lovers!

Ingredients
- frozen puff pastry. Leave in overnight in fridge to defrost or leave it out at room temp till soft
- nutella
- bacon (fried in small strips)
- 1 egg
- sea salt
- cinnamon powder

Steps
1) Fry the bacon till the way you like it. I like mine crispy

2) Roll out the puff pastry till thin

 

 3) Cut them into rectangles with a sharp knife. Depends on how big you want your pastry to be. I like it bite-sized. So its entirely up to you!

 

4) Lay out the bacon (about 2 pieces each) into the pastry

 

5) Add a dollop of nutella onto the bacon

 

6) Sprinkle sea salt and cinnamon powder on it

 

 

7) Seal it with egg and use the fork to surround it with the pattern lines. Then use your fork to poke holes on it

8) After all done, put in over at 200C for about 10-15 mins or when it turns brown.

Enjoy!