Spaghetti Bolognese Recipe

Yesterday night dinner, I cooked spaghetti bolognese, one of the simplest and tasty western food. Here is the recipe to share. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups minced (ground) chicken or beef
• 1 big onion, chopped
• 3-5 garlic cloves, chopped 
• 1 tomato, cubed
• 1 small size carrot
• 2-3 shitake mushrooms
• A bunch of spring onions, chopped
• A bunch of parsley, chopped
• 1 small can tomato puree
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tbsp sugar (add more if you like the paste to be sweeter)
• 250 g/a bunch spaghetti
• Grated Parmesan cheese

Method

1. Put the meat, onion and garlic in a saucepan. Add in bay leaves and oregano. Cook, stirring, until the grains of meat are brown and until you can smell the herb aroma.
2. Add in carrot and stir about a few minutes, follow by tomato and shitake mushroom.
3. Pour in the tomato puree and stir well. Bring to boil, reduce the heat, half-cover and simmer gently for 15-20 minutes until a rich sauce has formed. Stir gently from time to time.
4. Add in spring onions and parsley. Stir well.
5. Add in salt, black pepper and sugar. Stir well and taste accordingly.
6. Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti separately according to the packet directions. Drain and add in a tablespoon of butter in order to avoid the spaghetti sticking. 
7. Pile on to serving plates. Spoon the sauce over and top with lots of Parmesan cheese. Serve hot.

Butterless Pandan Kaya Swiss Roll

Yesterday I baked butterless pandan kaya swiss roll. After a few attempt of baking swiss roll, finally I am kind of happy with the result. This time I adapted the recipe from Amy Beh. I used the pandan kaya I have made earlier. You can find it in my earlier post. The previous I had tried was strawberry swiss roll, but the cake cracked after rolling. Swiss roll is a simple yet difficult to accomplish. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

4 eggs (A size)

100g castor sugar

1 tbsp hot water

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Pandan kaya

Icing sugar

Sift:

100g superfine flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

Method

1. Preheat oven to 220 ºC. Line a 33 x 23cm Swiss Roll tin and line with grease-proof paper.
2. Whisk eggs with an electric beater in a small mixing bowl for a minute. 
3. Add sugar and continue to whisk until thick and pale. 
4. Gently fold in the sifted flour and stir in the hot water. 
5. Pour and spread the mixture into the prepared tin.
6. Bake in a preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes until sponge is risen and firm. 
7. Turn the sponge onto a clean tea-towel sprinkled with icing sugar.
8. Peel off the lining paper. Place another piece of grease-proof paper on the surface of the sponge. Turn to the sponge over and start to roll up.
9. Leave to cool slightly on a wire rack. Unroll sponge, spread with pandan kaya and roll up again.

* Note

• Do not over-bake the sponge or the roll will tend to crack when rolled. Roll up the sponge as soon as it is cooked. When cool, it will tend to crack when you roll it up.
• When cooked, the sponge will come away from the sides of the tin and it should spring back when lightly pressed in the centre.
• An under-baked roll will be sticky and will be easily damaged in the process of rolling and unrolling.

Pandan Kaya

I always have passions in cooking and baking.  I wish to share some of the recipes I've tried with everyone. Sharing is caring! :-)


Today I have tried the simple pandan kaya recipe which is not only my favorite but also many Malaysian's favorite. Here is the recipe.



Pandan Kaya Recipe (Pandan flavored coconut egg jam)

Ingredients

• 10 Eggs
• 450g sugar
• 40g freshly blend pandan (pressed out the juice)
• 500ml coconut milk

Method:

1. Beat the eggs and sugar together with a whisk, mix in the coconut milk & pandan juice.
2. By using a double boiler , add in the mixture into the pot, constant stirring until the mixture reaches into a smooth consistency.  
3. After about an hour, the mixture is ready.
4. Let it cool and bottle up. (it is advisable to keep the pandan kaya in fridge on the next day to maintain freshness)