Casual Lunches

 

Here's a plate of lunch that I randomly threw together with ingredients I had left in the fridge. I just got hungry so I figured, why don't I cook something instead of starving? So I scavenged some carrots, leftover parsley and lightly pan-fried them. The omelet was thrown into the mix simply because it's just so easy. 

This is actually quite a pretty sandwich. I had some leftover ingredients from making the burgers (previous post) and decided to use the roasted ham bought from the supermarket too. The slices of bread used in this sandwich was also from that local bakery I mentioned before. For any sandwich, I always add a little of pepper to the inside for an extra tang. If you look closely in the photo, you'll see a small speck of yellow. That is actually some yellow mustard (well some sort of mustard). When I was in Moscow in February, my family and I had bought this spicy but yet flavorful Russian mustard. It tasted like normal mustard but gave off the sensation of wasabi. Strange but very delicious.  

This 'casual lunch' dish was yet another meal that was thrown together with whatever was left in the fridge. I had just came back from the US and bought these Cajun spices. What better way to use them than on shrimp! I had mixed the shrimp in the Cajun spices and also dashes of paprika. I seared them with a little olive oil and finished them with a dried parsley garnish. As for the vegetables, they were very delicious. I lightly cooked the baby corn also in olive oil and later added on the cherry tomatoes with a gentle sprinkle of pepper and salt. Cajun shrimp and colorful vegetables. 

Homemade Hamburgers

Here are two, surprisingly, well presented hamburgers. I had watched a YouTube video just the day before on how to make homemade hamburgers. The ingredients and process was extremely easy and I thought it would be fun to try it out. I first bought two buns from a local (kind of local, within the city I guess) bakery that had freshly baked bread. I also bought some tomatoes, onions, lettuce, minced beef, bread crumbs and unfortunately processed cheddar cheese. I wanted to get some better chunks of cheese like Emmental or Irish cheddar but they were so expensive! I remembered that in the video I had watched, it said to season the minced beef and also mix it with bread crumbs for a better structure (so it won't fall apart as easily). I also added some finely chopped onion into the mix for better flavor. I think I didn't mix it well enough or something of that sort because my patties, in the end, weren't as tough and as woven well together as I thought it would be. After the patties were all cooked and 'well done', I put the squares of cheese on top of the two buddies for it melt. Finally, I plated it all up together with the other condiments and voila, I had two burgers. It's a very simple process and probably healthier too because you know what you're putting in your food! 

Casual Pastas

This dish was very enjoyable. It had multicolored farfalle pasta that was tossed in this concoction of onions, tomatoes, garlic and also my personal favorite seafood, razor clams. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to get razor clams in Malaysia but luckily, my dad is a avid buyer of can foods from foreign countries (occurs whenever we go traveling) and he bought these from Spain a year or two ago. These 'navajas' were extremely delicious, especially for a canned food.  

This bowl of pasta (fusilli) is full of good memories. I actually cooked this at my very best friend's house (Mauro C.)  when I was sleeping over. We just simply tossed the sauce together by cutting up some onions, carrots and garlic with the mix of a can of plum tomatoes. The carrots were added mainly to balance the acidity taste in the tomatoes and in the end, it was quite good! My other friend David S. came over just minutes after finishing and we all enjoyed it together. Good old memories with good old friends.

Different Pastas

Here is a one dish that was completely experimental. I had a sort of dark pasta which I can't quite recall if it was the squid ink or some type of brown wheat. I think I may have put the other obvious ingredients underneath the pasta and laid the pasta itself on top. I garnished it by sprinkling shredded Parmesan on its surface. I remember I over seasoned this with an assortment of Italian herbs that contained high levels of chili peppers (chili flakes) and therefore made it spicy. Sure didn't turn out too well! 

This is one dish that I am actually satisfied with. The texture, flavor, fragrance and overall enjoyment of cooking it made it a favorite. Instead of traditional spaghetti this time, I had used a bundle of mixed color fettucine. The ingredients included cucumbers, peppers and some shrimp. It retained quite the spring season feel with all the whole, green (and yellow) vegetables I have used which I usually don't with pasta. 

When I first completed this dish, I was so enraged. The pasta I had been working with was also fettucine but it was made of brown rice. This was a first working with it and I even followed the instructions on the package. It stated that I was to bring the water to a boil and let the pasta sit in there for 1-2 minutes and after that to let it sit for about 17 minutes with the heat off (lid on of course). The moment I lifted the lid up, most of the pasta was stuck together! There were normal pieces of pasta floating around but there were these massive, grotesque and just ugly pieces of pasta stuck together in. The mutants floated around in 5-10 strands and it just irritated me. I moved along, however, to the sauce of the meal which was a prime essential. It's not under any type of recipe I found online but really a recipe I have developed over the years of trial and error. I had added diced tomatoes, onions, fresh sweet basil leaves, garlic, olive oil and a dash of pepper, salt and a bit of sugar (to balance acidity). I also lightly peppered and salted the pasta with the mixture of fresh sweet basil leaves for the obvious flavors to stand out. If I hadn't messed up on the pasta, I think this would have been a quite enjoyable dish.  

Casual Salads

Here's a sketchy salad I threw together on a very hungry afternoon. It has cucumbers and a some lettuce that is sprinkled with pepper, dried green onions (chives, spring onions, scallions) and drizzled with a little bit of olive oil and soy sauce (weird right?) but I like it. 

This salad wasn't for me but for my dad (father, pops, pa). I made it for late breakfast or brunch if you will and I think the presentation was much more scrumptious than the one above. It had chicken breast that had been marinated in a little peri-peri hot sauce, mixture of dried herbs, olive oil and some chicken seasoning (because I'm perezoso) the day before. I threw in some sweet basil leaves in that mix of romaine lettuce. To really top it all off I had sprinkled (assuming you can do that with liquids), the homemade balsamic dressing I had posted earlier onto this very salad. Sounds appetizing doesn't it?

Homemade Balsamic Dressing

This little jar of Balsamic dressing was threw together purely out of experimentation. There was a time where I ate salads every other break time for school and it hit me, why not make my own balsamic dressing? No offense to Connie's salad dressing but it was just too acidic for me! So for my little bottle of flavor, I had gone out to buy a bottle of Italian (Basso) Balsamic Vinegar. I had just glanced at a couple of videos on YouTube on how to make this dressing and adjusted the ratios of oil to vinegar. Once that was settled, I cut up some garlic, added sugar, salt, pepper, dried parsley and I was done! There it is, my very own bottle of Balsamic Dressing, as homemade as it gets.

Aglio e Olio con Gamberetti

My first attempt at Aglio e Olio with Shrimp (Gamberreti), that's the full extent of my Italian. Chao.

My second attempt turned out much appealing and somewhat tastier. I need to watch out on the chili flakes, piccante! (That's also Italian)

I don't think these are very traditional recipes for Italian spaghetti but a little fusion here and there would not hurt.