Salmon with Linguine and Leek Pesto

I was looking for a springtime pasta recipe and came across this recipe for salmon with linguine and ramp pesto. I'd never heard of ramp but according to Wikipedia the allium tricoccum is known as many things, including ramp, spring onion and wild leek. I don't think it's actually the American word for spring onion though as that's scallion. I had some leeks in my fridge and decided that would be close enough and I would give it a go!

I didn't have Asiago cheese (whatever that is) but did have parmesan in my fridge, and a packet of sliced almonds that needed using up. So I decided to throw the whole lot together and make my own springtime pasta!



To serve 3-4, you need:

1 leek, sliced

2 tbsp. oil

30g grated parmesan

30g flaked almonds

handful of fresh parsley

approx. 4-6 tbsp. oil

to serve: linguine

salmon fillet



Cook the pasta according to pack instructions and cook the salmon fillet in whichever manner you prefer - pan fry, poach, oven roast or even microwave. This is really just the recipe for the pesto...



Slice the leek and add to a large pan with 2 tbsp. oil. Heat until the leeks are softened but not browned.



Transfer to a food processor along with the parmesan, almonds and parsley, and pulse for a few seconds. With the motor running, slowly add the oil until it reaches your preferred consistency.











Toss through the cooked pasta and top with the salmon. Enjoy!



This had a different flavour (obviously) to pesto I'd had before but thanks to the parmesan and nuts it was still definitely a pesto, and I really enjoyed it.

I'm sending this to Credit Crunch Munch, hosted this month by Jo's Kitchen on behalf of Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla at Fab Food 4 All. Parmesan isn't cheap but I'm sure a lot of people like me have half a packet hanging around to be used up, and as this recipe only used things I already had open in my fridge, hopefully it counts!

This recipe is a good way to sneak in some veg so I am sending this to the Extra Veg challenge, hosted by Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. The challenge was started by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle at Utterly Scrummy.

Leeks are in season so I am sending this to Simple and In Season, hosted by Ren Behan.

The recipe uses fresh parsley so I am sending it to Cooking with Herbs, hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage.

Finally I am sending this to Pasta Please, hosted by Family Friends Food on behalf of Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes as the challenge this month is for springtime pasta recipes.

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Tinolang Manok with Malungay and Sotanghon

Tinolang Manok with Malungay and Sotanghon. One of my favorite version of tinola is with sotanghon. I have posted a couple of tinola dish before, Tinolang Manok with Sotanghon and Chicken with Ampalaya Tendrils and Sotanghon. The addition of sotanghon noodles in a tinola soup make the dish a complete meal, however it is still best eaten and enjoyable with a lot of rice. Malungay and green

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Chicken Arroz Caldo with Salted Egg

Chicken Arroz Caldo with Salted Egg. I have been always thinking of salted egg on my Lugaw every time I have an Arroz Caldo or Lugaw meal. Today I have a change to try one, Chicken Arroz Caldo with Salted Egg. Egg in toppings on a Lugaw or Porridge is not extraordinary. We Pinoy always have it in our lugaw in place of the meat ingredients, some Chinese porridge are topped with salted egg or

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Pansit Miki with Patola

Pansit Miki with Patola. This recipe is an adaptation of my Pansit Miki with Upo dish. Patola is a versatile vegetables that can be used on a lot of Pinoy dishes. I love using patola on my misua and lomi soup dishes. This is the first time that I tried cooking miki with patola and it did turn out very good. Cooking Pansit Miki with Patola is fairly easy, there are no special step, and it is

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Pakbet with Bagnet, Pinakbet Ilokano

Pakbet with Bagnet, Pinakbet Ilokano. Pinakbet or Pakbet to Ilokanos is totally different from the Tagalog Pinakbet. The Ilocano Pakbet that I grew up is made up of mostly native vegetable ingredients like ampalaya and eggplant they are smaller in size. Other ingredients that are used are patani seeds and sweet potato or kamote this will add some sweetness. Cabbage is also added when in season. Instead of the using bagoong alamang, the Ilocano Pakbet uses generous amount of bagoong na isda extracts which make the dish on the salty side.

Cooking method is also totally different, Tagalog Pinakbet usualy cook by sautéing the ingredients with garlic, onion and tomato where the vegetables are stir cooked, making sure that the vegetables are just cook or half cooked. While the Ilokano Pakbet the ingredients are arrange in layers in the cooking pan, where vegetables that cook quicker are placed on top. The vegetables are the simmered with the bagoong solution at low heat, this will steam cook the vegetables until they shrivel and wilted or kebbet in Ilocano.



Here the recipe of my Pakbet with Bagnet, Pinakbet Ilokano.

Ingredients:



1/4 kilo bagnet, cut into big cubes

4 small size ampalaya, seeded, quartered

4 small size eggplant, slit half

1 small head cabbage, quartered

2 small size sweet potato, kamote, quartered

1 bundle okra, trimmed

1 medium size onion, quartered

1 medium size tomato, quartered

2-3 thumb size ginger, sliced

1/2 cup bagoong na isda

3-4 green long chili

1/2 cup cooking oil

Cooking procedure:



In a sauce pan pour 2 cups of water and let boil. Add the bagoong diluted in 1 cup of warm water, pass thru a sieve to filter out the fish bones from the solution. Add in the ginger, reduce heat and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes and remove all scams that rises. Add in the cooking oil, kamote, and all the other vegetable ingredients. Leafy vegetables, onions and tomato on top. Cover and simmer at low heat for 15 to 20 minutes or until vegetables shrivel and wilted and liquid has reduced to half. Top with bagnet and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. Serve hot with a lot of rice.





Check out our other pinakbet recipes;



Pinakbet, Overseas Pinoy Version

Pakbet Ilocano

Pinakbet

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Red Sinigang na Maya-maya sa Miso

Red Sinigang na Maya-maya sa Miso. This is not new there are already similar recipe in the net. I just want to share our Pinoy version of the recipe. Sinigang sa Miso recipes are basically the same. The fish is first sautéed with garlic, onion, tomato and the main ingredient miso paste. In Metro Manila I have observed that there are at least 3 colors of miso paste that is from my favorite supermarket I am not too sure about the type of beans used. These are white, brown and yellow. In fact I have already made a post using the yellow miso paste, Sinigang na Panga ng Bariles Sa Miso. The broth color turned out to be really bright orange, I suspect it may be because of some food coloring used in the miso. But for our recipe today I used similar yellow miso paste and one small sachet of Pinoy style tomato sauce. The dish turned out great.





Here is the recipe of my version of Red Sinigang na Maya-maya sa Miso.

Ingredients:





1 large medium size whole maya-maya, sliced to serving pieces

1 medium size onion, quartered

2 medium size tomato, quartered

1 cup miso, yellow

1/4 head garlic, chopped

1 bundle kangkong, trimmed

2 bundle mustasa, stem trimmed

100 grams unripe sampalok, tamarind fruit

4-6 pcs. long green chili

1 packet 250 grams Filipino style tomato sauce

salt

cooking oil

Cooking procedure:





Ask the fish monger to slice/cut fish into serving pieces including the head. Wash fish thoroughly, drain and keep aside. In a saucepan, boil tamarind in 2 cups of water until soft, mash tamarind to extract juice and pulp. Set aside liquid, discard seeds and skin. In a large pot sauté garlic, miso, onion and tomato add in 8 to 10 cups of water and the tamarind juice, bring to a boil, and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes. Add in the tomato sauce, fish head and simmer for 8 to10 minutes or until fish head is just cooked. Season with salt to taste. Add in vegetables and siling haba, cook for another 2 to 3 minutes or until the vegetables are just cooked. Serve hot with patis, kalamansi and sili dipping sauce.

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Snowboarder Birthday Card

I made this card for a friend who likes skiing and snowboarding; I bought an A4 page which had circles in varying sizes of the same picture, but with a smaller circle showing only part of the picture each time. The idea is to layer these up with sticky pads to give a 3D effect. I mounted them on a piece of blue swirl backing paper which I thought gave the idea of snowboarding and the finishing touch was a 'happy birthday' label from the same set.

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Lady and The Tramp-Inspired Oven-Baked Meatballs with Goat's Cheese

This month's Food 'n' Flix is a lovely Disney film: Lady and the Tramp. It was chosen by Elizabeth at The Lawyer's Cookbook and is perfect for Valentine's day. I must have been quite young when I first saw this film and thought it was lovely, and was particularly taken by Lady (less a fan of the scruffy Tramp!) but I remember cringing when they kissed, in a 'boys are icky' sort of way!



But the scene where Lady and her beau eat the plate of spaghetti and meatballs, and find they are sucking up the same strand of pasta when their mouths meet in a kiss, is iconic. It's been parodied so many times but is actually very sweet. So I couldn't really make anything else for Food 'n' Flix!



I have made spaghetti and meatballs before so wanted to do something a bit different this time. I found a recipe in Slimming World magazine for oven-baked meatballs with cheese melted over the top, which was something I hadn't tried. I adapted the recipe, leaving out the courgette and aubergine as I don't like them.



To serve two, you need:

1 onion, finely chopped

250g lean beef mince

1 tsp dried oregano

1 garlic clove, crushed

salt, pepper

200g tin chopped tomatoes

1 tsp sweetener

200g passata

75ml vegetable stock

100g goat's cheese

pasta to serve

Preheat oven to 180C. In a large bowl mix half the onion, the mince, oregano, garlic and seasoning and roll into balls. In another bowl mix the tinned tomatoes, sweetener, passata and vegetable stock. Place the meatballs in an oven proof dish, pour over the tomato mixture and top with goat's cheese. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes depending on how big you've made your meatballs.

While the meatballs are cooking, boil the pasta according to pack instructions. Serve the meatballs and the sauce over the pasta. I used fusilli but for a true Lady and the Tramp experience you should of course use spaghetti!

As mentioned above I'm sending this to Food 'n' Flix.

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Meal Planning Monday 2015 Week 5

I've been rushed off my feet at work and had unexpectedly busy weekend - on Saturday we drove from Surrey to Edinburgh and part of the way back as well! My boyfriend has been looking for a new car for a while and had an exact model in mind, but needed to find one with a low mileage and in his price range (second hand, but still a lot of money for a car). He also wanted to only buy one from an official dealership and eventually found what he was looking for - but the only place that had the right one was in Edinburgh! So I came home from work on Friday night to find he had put down a deposit and was planning to drive there the very next day!



We left at 4am to beat the traffic as it was a 7-hour drive, and made it to Edinburgh (including stopping for breakfast) at about midday. My boyfriend traded in his car, did all the paperwork and paid for the new one and we roared off home in a shiny new (well, second hand but new to us) Aston Martin. I'm really not a spontaneous person so can't quite believe we decided to do that on pretty much the spur of the moment and went all that way just for a day!



By the time we got home on Sunday afternoon - it would have been earlier but we stayed the night near Manchester then stopped at Bicester Village on the way back and my boyfriend bought me a nice little present, if the words Kate Spade mean anything to you - most of the weekend had gone. So the meal plan had gone out of the window but unfortunately so had the grocery shopping I planned to do this weekend! So instead I am going to make do with what we have in the freezer and pick up a couple of bits and pieces during the week then do a big shop next Saturday as we have friends visiting on Sunday.

So here's this week's plan

Monday

lunch: jacket potato with chicken (on the meal plan a couple of weeks ago but didn't have it). I want a hot lunch as I'm out in the evening at a talk about making money from your blog (I can dream!).

dinner: sandwich

Tuesday

lunch: tuna pasta, again as I'm out in the evening

dinner: sandwich as I'm at my cake decorating course

Wednesday

lunch: sandwich

dinner: BBQ chicken

Thursday

lunch: sandwich unless I have time on Weds night to make anything else, but it's going to be a busy week

dinner: my boyfriend is out at work drinks so I'll have salmon and veg

Friday

lunch: sandwich

dinner: out for a friend's birthday

Saturday

lunch: bacon sandwich for him, Quorn sausage sandwich for me

dinner: Slimming World fish and chips for me, sausage in batter and chips for him (on the meal plan for the past 2 weeks but still haven't made it yet!)

Sunday

lunch: friends visiting so I'm going to make Persian roast chicken with walnut pomegranate sauce followed by Nigella's ice cream cake

dinner: something light eg beans on toast

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Goat's Cheese Filo Pastry Parcels

These goats cheese parcels are delicious and easy to make. We had them as our starter on Christmas day but they would also be a nice idea if you were cooking a romantic Valentine's day meal perhaps. The recipe came from the AllRecipes website and you can find the full recipe by clicking on the link.

Preparing the red onion filling:

Lay out the red onion filling and a slice of goat's cheese on some oiled filo pastry

Gather up like a parcel and secure with a piece of spring onion

Ready to go in the oven

Lovely golden brown, our starter for Christmas dinner

When you cut into the parcels, the goat's cheese is beautifully soft and slowly oozes out. The red onion is a sweet but tangy contrast that works perfectly - I really enjoyed these and am sure you will too!

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Stripey Sticker Name Birthday Card

I haven't had time to any crafts for the best part of this year - I put my house on the market in February and we wanted to declutter for the estate agent photographs so all my card making and craft supplies went into storage. I secured a sale on my house quite quickly and we found our dream home almost right away - it was only the second house we looked at! But as regular readers will know, what should have been a straightforward process was held up by our council taking 10 weeks to do the local searches because they were short staffed (they normally take a week to ten days) and our vendors dithering, changing their minds about the place they were buying and 'forgetting' to do any of the necessary paperwork, so in the end we didn't move in until August 28.



We then redecorated the entire house, from getting new wood floors to repainting to buying and building new furniture, so while I have unpacked my craft stuff, I still haven't got time to use any of it! I am very excited though that I have a 'craft room' - a spare room with a futon, desk, and cupboard for my craft supplies, plus a whole wall of bookcases, my dressmaker's dummy and sewing machine. Unfortunately I can't fit all my craft supplies in the cupboard so will have to rationalise them down, or sneak them into the garage and hope my boyfriend doesn't notice!



So while I haven't made any cards in a long time there are still a few I haven't posted on here. This one was very quick to make but I quite like the jazzy style. I used a pre-printed card from a mixed box and some alphabet stickers I got very cheaply from the Works; the pack had letters and numbers so I decided to spell out the recipient's name, the word 'birthday' and his age. It's hardly the most sophisticated looking card but I think it looks quite fun, and this style might be a good idea if you are struggling for ideas for cards for men!

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Viennese Apple Strudel

When I visited Vienna in November we went to the Schonbrunn Palace. As part of our Winter Pass ticket, we got entry to the Apple Strudel Show: a demonstration of how to make apple strudel with a piece to try.



Apple Strudel is said to originate from Austria and is a Viennese speciality in particular and the oldest known copy of a strudel recipe is a library in Vienna.



The demonstration was entirely in English which was lucky as though I speak German my boyfriend does not. As it was winter there were only a few of us watching; I don't think the other people were English and there were a couple of children who probably wouldn't have understood anything so I think we were quite lucky!

The demonstrator showed us how to make the pastry from scratch and after rolling it out, she used her hands to spread the dough further, much as people do when they are making pizza bases. She even threw the dough into the air and caught it a few times!

She explained that the dough needed to be thin enough that you could read the recipe through it, and proceeded to show us, which was amazing!

The filling was already prepared in a large bowl; she explained that it included apple, raisins, breadcrumbs and sugar, and then we watched as she placed some of the filling along one side of the dough and rolled it up using a tea towel. Part of the reason for this is that you end up with the rolled up strudel sitting on the tea towel, which makes it much easier to lift and transport to your baking tray.

The strudel went in the oven and I was expecting her to do a 'here's one I made earlier' and take the strudel from the previous demonstration out of the oven, but she didn't and the demonstration ended as the strudel went in the oven, so we didn't get to see it when it was cooked. We did get a piece to eat from a strudel which had been made earlier, served cold, which was really delicious.



We were also given a copy of the recipe to take home and since my boyfriend doesn't like apple, I decided I would make an apple strudel to take to his mum's house on Boxing Day as there would be plenty of people there to help eat it. I made the strudel on Christmas Eve as I knew I would be too busy after that!



To make the pastry, you need:

250g flour type 700 - I'd no idea what this was so used plain flour

2g salt

1 egg

100g lukewarm water (note that is grams, not millilitres)

20g oil



Preheat the oven to 190C. Mix all the ingredients and knead until you have a soft dough - I used my Kitchenaid. Form into a ball and "let it rest in vegetable oil for 30 minutes". I wasn't sure if this meant literally put the dough in a bowl of oil as that seemed like a lot of oil, so instead I rubbed oil all over the dough. My dough had been very wet and sticky but surprisingly the oil took away all of the stickiness.

Heat 50g butter in a pan and fry 100g fresh breadcrumbs until they are golden brown.

To make the filling, mix the breadcrumbs with 140g sugar, 10g cinnamon, 170g raisins, 10g lemon juice and about 1 kg peeled and thinly sliced apples, and a shot of rum. I used about half that amount of apples as it looked like an awful lot, and I knew I wouldn't be able to stretch my pastry out as big as the demonstrator so I didn't think I would need quite as much filling! I also left out the rum.

Roll out the dough on a floured tea towel. Use your hands to stretch it as thinly as possible. I wasn't quite throwing mine in the air and catching it like the demonstrator did, but it was a surprisingly pliable dough and easy to stretch.

I even tried the 'can you read the recipe through your dough' trick and I could - I was amazed as I'm not normally very good at making pastry!

Place the filling along one side of the dough, and use the tea towel to help you roll it up

It just fit into my grill pan with the grill part removed - none of my actual baking trays were big enough!

The recipe said to bake in the oven at 190C until golden brown - it didn't actually give a cooking time. I think I baked mine for about 25 minutes but you really do just need to keep an eye on it. Here's what it looks like from the inside: I can't wait to try it later today!

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Pork and Mushroom Adobo

Pork and Mushroom Adobo may not be new but I have to try it. Every time I visited supermarkets and groceries here in Australia I am always overwhelm with the availability of mushroom in the fresh vegetable sections. I like mushrooms and I have been picking some of it every time or most of my visits. I usually end up thinking what to cook out of them. Below is the list of some of the mushroom dish that I have cooked all these years, click link to check them out.

Vegetrable Stir Fry, Oyster Mushroom

Oxtail with Mushroom Sauce

T-Bone Steak with Mushroom and Oyster Sauce

Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

Pork Chop with Mushroom Sauce

Egg Noodles with Mushroom

Asparagus and Mushroom Spaghetti in White Sauce

Mushroom with Dried Fish Fettuccine Carbonara

Fettuccine with Mushroom and Mushroom Sauce

Mushroom Sotanghon Noodle Soup

Adobong Kabute

Mushroom and Tofu Pinoy Bistek Style

Pinoy Garlic Mushroom

Today I had this beautiful button mushrooms, I just can’t think of anything to cook it, in the end I cooked it the mushroom adobo style with some pork belly.

Here is the recipe of my version of Pork and Mushroom Adobo.





Ingredients:



1/2 kilo pork belly, cut into large cubes

100 grams fresh whole button mushrooms

1/2 head garlic, peeled, crushed, chopped

3-4 pieces bay leaf

1-2 tsp. crushed peppercorns

1/4 cup dark soy sauce

1/4 cup white vinegar

salt

Cooking procedure:



Place the pork in a sauce pan, add all the ingredients except the mushroom and salt. Pour enough water to cover at about 2 inches over the pork line. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes or until the pork are tender, add more water as necessary. When the liquid is reduce to about half add in the mushrooms and continue to cook for 5 to 10 minutes until the liquid is reduced to an oily sauce, correct saltiness if required. Serve hot with a lot of rice.

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Dairy-free Vegan Frozen Cupcakes - Golden Syrup Flavour

I love Frozen - and I'm clearly not the only one! In my opinion it's the best Disney movie in years with a strong feminist message and a brilliant song from Idina Menzel. Judging by the amount of merchandise available in the shops, from fancy dress costumes to Frozen shampoo and showergel at Poundland, not to mention all the Frozen-inspired birthday cakes I've seen online, children everywhere are captivated consumers of all things Elsa, Anna and Olaf.



My friend has a lovely daughter who just turned 6 at the end of November and I wanted to make some cupcakes when they came to my house a week or so later. My friend is vegan so I wanted her to be able to eat the cakes but I also wanted to decorate them in the Frozen theme. I didn't have time to do anything massively elaborate so I bought some rice paper Frozen pictures to use as cupcake toppers from Amazon. I already had some snowflake sprinkles at home which I thought would be perfect to add on top. Icy blue is the colour most associated with Frozen - it's the colour of Elsa's dress for instance - so that had to be the colour of the icing.

For the cakes themselves, I used the golden syrup cupcake recipe from Ms Cupcake's The Naughtiest Vegan Cakes in Town. I didn't alter the recipe in any way so can't really reprint it as it isn't my own. Suffice to say if you are interested to know what goes in to vegan cupcakes, you replace the butter with oil, and use a little white wine or cider vinegar mixed with soya milk as a sort of egg substitute. These cakes contain golden syrup and are also drizzled with a little golden syrup while still warm which is lovely.

I made some vegan buttercream by using Pure margarine substitute, icing sugar and a little Sugarflair gel colour paste in baby blue, which I piped on top of the cupcakes.

I then added the snowflake sprinkles and the Frozen cupcake toppers.

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