Seafood Bisque Spaghetti

I have been storing my prawn shells and heads in the freezer each time I cook prawns when I deshell them. So I have accumulated about 2 ziplock bags full of them. So decided to take one bag out today to cook seafood bisque spaghetti for the first time as I also had cooking cream, canned tomato paste and fresh herbs lying in my fridge since christmas party. It turned out unexpectedly tasty! I was amazed at how easy it was!

Ingredients:
-canned tomato paste
-onions minced
-prawn heads/shells
-mussels
-fresh herbs- thyme/mint to give freshness
-garlic minced
-cream
-white wine (optional) - I used white wine vinegar to cut through the heaviness of the bisque
-spaghetti - cooked it in salted boiling water
-butter
-olive oil
-salt/black pepper to taste
- bay leaf
-prawns

Steps:
1) Fry prawn shells/heads and mussel shells with butter/olive oil in pan till you can drop dead smelling the lovely fragrance.
(Note: Remember, you have to be generous with your shells for a tasty broth)
2) Throw in the onions and garlic. Keep mixing until translucent and fragrant.
3) Add water, tomato paste, bay leaf and herbs. Let it boil then simmer.

4) Once its tasty enough and after simmering for quite long, put through the sieve into another pot.

My 7 year old stirring the bisque after sieving

5) Taste it. Add butter to bind all together.
6) Add cream
7) Add salt/ black pepper to taste
8) Finally throw in the prawns and mussels (deshelled) to cook
9) Serve over spaghetti (I added peas for veggies. Yes, I am that mum who has to have veggies in a meal no matter what)
10) Topped with parmesan cheese and Italian Parsley.

Enjoy!

Una-Tama (Grilled Unagi Eel and Egg)

I have always been a big fan of Japanese food. There is so much variety that somehow, I will not get sick of eating. The only thing holding me back from eating it everyday is of course, the COST! Its so expensive to eat in Japanese restaurants. The usual one I would go to is within walking distance from my house which has a lunch promotion for only $10 which includes a main dish, a side, and a dessert.
Even the non-promotional items are cheaper than regular restaurants. So that's where I go to for my Japanese food cravings.

Anyway, I bought unagi (grilled eel) from Giant hypermart as it was on offer.

So because of that, I decided to try a dish which is sold in Japanese restaurants in Singapore. If you have difficulty in finding grilled eel, you can substitute it with salmon (cut into cubes).

Ingredients
- Grilled Eel (small pieces)
- Yellow Onion
- Eggs
- Unagi/Teriyaki Sweet Sauce - Available in supermarkets in the Japanese section
- Seaweed and Spring Onions for garnish

Steps
1) Add oil to the pan. I used my happy call pan for the grill effect. But of course, any frying pan will do. Throw in the onions.

2) Toss it and add a bit of the unagi sauce to the onions to sweeten and caramelised it up.

3) Then throw in the eel and toss it. Add more sauce if you like it.

4) Finally, throw in the beaten eggs to let it cover all the eel and onions. I do not like my eggs to be overcooked but slightly mushy. It's nicer.

5) Remove from pan neatly and garnish with spring onions and seaweed (I used my ready cut up seaweed from a packet)

This dish is great with rice! You can actually place this on top of the rice. You can also make miso soup to go with this meal.

Enjoy!

Pan-fried Squid with Miso Sauce

In my opinion, having a box of miso paste is a must-have in the fridge. Miso paste is very versatile. As and when I feel like cooking noodles soup, I add miso paste to the soup and it instantly taste nice. You can also use this paste for marination, like how I am going to show you in this post. Or even use this paste to cook Kang Kong Vegetables if you do not want the usual sambal belachan version since you have young children at home. So, do keep a tub in your fridge. It is quite lasting!

Basically, the Shiro (White) Miso is a milder type as compared to the Aka (Red) Miso. The Aka one is stronger in taste. So its your preference.

Apart from miso, I also have Japanese sauces in my fridge which I love. I use it when I fry salmon, marinate beef or pork slices if I feel like cooking Japanese. Below is actually a Yakitori sauce, but it works well. Basically I am going for the teriyaki, sweet sauce type of taste.

Here's a miso soup with noodles recipe for you if you are interested- Egg Noodles with Chicken Miso Soup

Anyway, below is a recipe that is so simple yet tasty. I am sure everyone can cook this at home.

Ingredients
1) Miso Paste
2) Teriyaki/ Japanese sweet sauce
3) Squid
4) Yellow Onions
5) Dried Parsley or spring onions for garnish

Steps
1) Wash and slice the squid. Here's a step-by-step picture guide on how to wash and cut it! Very informative!

2) Then marinate it with miso paste.

3) Slice up the whole onion

4) Throw in the sliced onions into the frying pan with oil

5) While frying the onions, I squeeze in a bit of the Japanese Sauce marinate to let the onions cook faster and make the onions tastier.

6) Then I throw in the squid and toss quickly since squid cooks very fast. Be sure not to overcook it as it can become rubbery. At this juncture, you can also squeeze some Japanese sauce onto it for colour and taste.

7) Taste it and see if you are satisfied before switching off the fire.

8) Finally, garnish with dried parsley or spring onions

You can eat this with a bit of gravy or minimal gravy. It's up to you. Just make sure the taste of the gravy is to your liking before you off the fire.

ENJOY!

Ketchup Garlic Prawns

This is quite a nostalgic dish for me growing up. Whenever my mum prepares this, I would happily sink my teeth into the prawn heads, sucking them and licking up all the sauce from the prawn shells. Then I would peel up all my prawns one by one, add the sauce over the flesh and onto my rice, then gobble it all down.

So I cooked this dish to relive those memories as well as create good ones for my children. But sadly, they have not learnt how to enjoy prawns. Well good news is, I had the whole big plate of prawns all shared between me and hubby who happily slurped up everything!

There are some who prefer to remove the shell and head, just keeping the tail. But for me, I love it whole as its just heavenly sucking the prawn head with ketchup. Haha. oh well, your preference!

Ingredients
- tomato ketchup (lots!)
- garlic (used the whole bulb and chopped it finely)
- water
- 1 tomato
- oil / butter
- spring onions (garnish)

Steps
1) Heat oil/butter in wok
2) Fry garlic till fragrant
3) Add the prawns and tomatoes in and stir fry till almost cooked
3) Finally, add lots of ketchup and a bowl of water (bit by bit to see how much you need for your gravy)
4) Keep stirring and tossing so as to evenly cook the prawns
5) Garnish with spring onions
6) Serve this with steamed rice

Enjoy!

*Always remember to keep tasting your dish to see if you are satisfied before turning off the fire.

Oven Baked Seabass

Recently, my friend, Cheryl invited me over to her house together with Dorcas and Adelyn to learn cooking from Shawn who used to work in an Italian Restaurant with an Italian Chef. We all knew each other as we are from the same church. So it was a good time of bonding in the kitchen as Shawn teaches us 3 dishes which he learnt from his restaurant.

This recipe is so easy that I am sure anyone can do this! Its a recipe definitely for all the fish-lovers!

Ingredients
- FRESH Sea bass (which costs only about $5.50-$6 per fish!)
- fresh rosemary (about 7-8 stalks)
- garlic (3-4 cloves)
- salt
- black pepper
- olive oil
- onion (1/4)

Steps

1) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius
2) Clean the sea bass especially the belly area
3) Put the parchment paper on the baking tray and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper

4) Place the cleaned Sea bass on top of the paper and put in about 2 cloves of garlic (chopped) and 2 stalks of rosemary each into the sea bass belly. Top the fish with diced onions and rosemary as shown in picture. Season with salt and pepper on the top as well

5) Place the fish in the oven for 15 mins. Don't worry about overcooking this fish. Sea Bass is a hardy fish. It wont be overcooked so easily. You can leave in there for extra 5 mins if you want the top part to be slightly crispy

This recipe is so easy. So give it a try!

Grilled Shrimps with Pasta Salad

I have been a sucker for salads since about 3 months ago. I discovered the joy of eating them with my own homemade vinaigrette, rather than those bottled ones which can taste strange.

Below is the recipe for my grilled shrimps with pasta salad which I made to go with my steak. Simple and healthy!

Ingredients for 2:
- cherry tomatoes (sliced in halves or wholes. Your preference)
- cucumber (diced)
- fusilli pasta
- canned corn or you can use frozen/fresh corn
- shrimps (or we usually call it prawns here. I used tiger prawns. Bought it frozen and cheap from Foodie Market Place in Tiong Bahru)
- olive oil (3 TB)
- dijon mustard (1/2 TB)
- salt (1 tsp)
- 1/2 lemon/apple cider (1TB)

Steps
1) Cook the fusilli in boiling water with salt and put it aside to cool down. After sieving the water out, quickly wash it with running cold water so as to stop it from overcooking the pasta.

2) Mix the cucumber, cherry tomatoes and corn in a mixing bowl

3) In a small bowl, put olive oil, dijon mustard, salt and either lemon or apple cider to make it acidic and sour. Mix it well and dissolve the mustard

4) Set aside the dressing

5) I grilled my shrimps with my homemade garlic butter with herbs. I will teach you how to do it another time. If you dont have, you can just fry with minced garlic, put in some herbs or just season with salt.

6) Finally, assemble everything. Pour the dressing on top of the salad and mix it evenly. Then top it with the grilled shrimps.

This dish is great on its own for lunch or even as a side!

Enjoy!

Basic Pizza Dough Recipe

I have had numerous pizza dough recipes in my file and after reading so many of them and being so confused as to which one I should follow, I decided to take a bit of everything and construct my own which eventually tasted really good and crispy! *Phew

The following recipe will be to make 2 medium size pizzas- enough for a family of 4 adults

Ingredients:
- 3 cups of bread flour
- 1 cup of warm water
- 2 tsp of dried yeast
- 2 tsp of salt
- 3 tsp of olive oil
- dried oregano (optional)

Steps:
1) Place flour, yeast and salt in bowl and mix
2) Gradually add warm water and olive oil. Knead by hand for about 10 mins until the dough is smooth. Great activity for the children to help out and have some fun in the kitchen.

3) Place dough in lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling wrap or kitchen towel. Set in warm place. I placed mine in the oven. Let it rest for 1 hour.

4) After an hour, I sprinkled some plain flour on the working surface to knead the dough. Do it gently and divide them into 2 to get 2 medium pizzas.

That's it! Not difficult at all!

What I love about pizza making is that it is fun especially when dressing up your pizza to whatever ingredients you like. This is what I had.. white button mushrooms, ham, mussels, green bell peppers, onions, prawns, squid, garlic and tomato paste

For my son, he added tomato paste, garlic herb butter mushrooms, ham and cheese. This was his pizza!

My daughter simply preferred only tomato paste, ham and cheese...and cheese and more cheese!

The pizza came out to be crispy which was very enjoyable with the melted cheese!

As for the adult's pizza, I made one 2-way pizza which was garlic herbed butter mushrooms with raw garlic and lots of cheese on one side and the other side, I added tomato paste, onions, green bell peppers, ham first into the oven for a while. Then at a later part, I cracked in the egg and spread the cheese over. I was afraid to overcook the egg that's why. I always enjoy ham and egg pizza as its very refreshing and light. Would recommend you making that for breakfast!

The other pizza, I made seafood marinara which was basically, tomato paste, with mussels, squid, prawns, onions, raw chopped garlic and sprinkled dried oregano over it.

This turned out very tasty and expensive-looking as I love seafood especially when the mussels and prawns is presented as a whole and not all chopped up. Thee only criticism about this dish is that the pizza was a bit soggy due to the moisture from the seafood. So I would have left it longer in the oven to dry out a little bit more before serving

Overall, the pizzas turned out better than I expected. I would definitely not order pizza delivery ever, since this taste so much better and it's also cheaper! I would also think of doing this for a party! But remember to cook this and serve it when its straight from the oven- hot and crispy with the melted cheese!

I also grilled chicken wings for dinner. So, you can imagine how full we were after dinner!