Category: food fascination

Chicken is one of my favourite food to eat. Nasi Ayam. Ayam Penyet. I’ll whack them all, if only the ingredients to make them were more accessible

Here in Italy, practically every pizzeria al taglio sells roasted chicken. And the smell of a freshly made one is really tempting. I haven’t eaten one though, since its very difficult to find a halal restaurant here. Although, its not that difficult to find a halal butchery in Rome. So you just have to make it yourself.

My mum in law made me a chicken dish a while back and I loved it so much that I asked her to teach me and have been practically eating this for about once a week. It is called, Pollo alla Cacciatora which means, Hunter’s style chicken in Italian. Which probably means that the dish originated with hunters probably cooking this fresh on a pan over burning wood.

Anyway! Its so yummy and so easy to make. I dont have much pictures, but its quite straightforward

First clean and chop your chicken in small pieces and fry them in a bit of olive oil and garlic. You can slice the garlic so the oil gets infused better.

Then add some pieces of dried peperoncino which you break into small bits. Pepperoncino is Italian for small chilli. In Singapore, its more commonly known as Chili Padi

And when the chicken turns brown, you add a little bit of vinegar. And once its infused, you add one chopped fresh tomato then a sprig of rosemary. Once the tomatoes get cooked, its done and its time to eat!

Yummeh!

Sidenote : This is probably obvious to most but don’t rub your fingers in your eyes or put on contact lenses once you’ve cooked this. Personal experience.

There was some melanzane in the fridge and I was wondering what to do with it.

Melanzane means eggplants in Italian or as we Asians call it, brinjal. I would normally just slice and fry them to be eaten with sambal, or have it be made into Roasted Eggplant soup.

Roasted eggplant soup

I was reading a recipe on to make Polpette di Melanzane, and not too long ago I made Polpette Al Sugo, which is an Italian version of meatballs in tomato sauce, so I thought I’d give it a try with my own touch

First, take some melanzane, rinse and then slice them thinly. Some recipes want you to peel the skin but I left it on, on purpose as I think that it tastes just as good with the skin.

Next, arrange the slices and sprinkle salt on to them. Then repeat the step by adding another layer of the melanzane slices on top and sprinkle more salt till all the slices are gone.

Then put a plate on top of it and put something heavy to squash them. This is supposed to remove the eggplant juice which has a bitter taste. Then leave it be for some hours. And when you come back, indeed you’ll see liquid dripping out.

So at this time, boil some water in a pot. While waiting for the water to boil, rinse the melanzane slices thoroughly and then drop them in the boiling water. Let it to cook for a few minutes like less than 5 minutes. Dont let it get soggy.

Then drain the boiled melanzane slices. Get rid of as much of the liquid as possible. So I guess this is a great time to *ahem* fondle and squeeze them. After which, chop them up as finely as possible. Or dump them in the food processor.

This, by the way, is Pecorino cheese. Sheep cheese! It has a slightly stronger taste compared to cow cheese.

Grate some pecorino cheese and dump them in a bowl. Add a clove of mashed garlic, a couple of egg yolks, breadcrumbs, chopped fresh basil, salt and pepper to taste. Oh and not forgetting the chopped melanzane of course.

And then mix them all up nicely. If it feels too squishy, just add more breadcrumbs and leave it in the fridge to settle for a while 😀

By this time, your hand will smell like Parmigiana. Ooh! Another food that I like to eat!

In any case, then take a small bit of the mix and form a ball and roll it in your hand. Squash the middle as how you’d make begedil and then coat them with breadcrumbs

And then fry them in hot oil till its golden brown. I used olive oil, but other vegetable oils would be fine too. Anyway, this is what it looks like in the end!

It might look plain but trust me, its delicious! So much so that when Cart finished my freshly made batch, he turned into a zombie and bawled out, “Want MOARRRR!”

Uh oh

Sidenote : Feliza was asking that I have a link to all the food that I made. I do! Its right under the food fascination category

21st April is the Rome’s birthday!

2763 years ago, Romulus founded the city of Rome. That is after he killed his brother Remus, whom he grew up with, being taken cared of by a she wolf (not shakira). Sometimes I see these images in posters whenever I’m on the road, and as much as its part of history, its a little bit disturbing to me

Anyway! What better way to celebrate a birthday than with cake? Chocolate cake! Krysss, I hope you’re listening!

First you heat the oven to 180 degrees. And then mix 1 1/2 cup flour, 2 tablespoon cocoa powder, a bit of salt, 1 cup of sugar and 2 teaspoon of vanilla.

If you look closely, you could even see Elvis Presley in your batter.

But as much as I’m all shook up with the king, its time to add 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup vegetable oil and 2 eggs and mix them all well till you have a lovely chocolaty batter like this 😀

Now it time to line the cake tin with baking paper and transfer the cake batter in. Let it bake for about 35 minutes till the cake is done. You could tell that its cooked by poking a toothpick in and it comes out clean.

If its not, just pop it into the oven a few minutes longer.

Leave it to cool and now its time to make the frosting! Its very very easy.

Just take 2/3 cup of cream and about 260 grams of dark chocolate and melt them in a pan, on a gentle fire and stir gently. Don’t worry if they look runny at first, because the batch will stiffen not too long later.

And just like that, now you have frosting!

If the cake is cool enough to handle, its time to spread the frosting all over. And don’t worry if its looks a little messy now because it’ll be fine in the end 🙂

Leave it in the fridge for the frosting to solidify more and when you cant wait any longer, cut a slice for yourself.

Whee!

There! Cake! And with ice cream, its my favourite combination

Sidenote : Is it just me, or there is an increase in food related posts lately?

I love eating burgers. When I was back in Singapore, I’d usually sink my teeth in one about once a week. Its probably not very healthy, but its such an instant gratification for me.

However, since moving to Italy, I haven’t touched a burger here, being that its close to impossible to find a halal fast food restaurant. But finding a halal butchery wasn’t that difficult in Rome. Thus all I had to do was to make them myself when the craving comes.

The irony is that while Cart and I were in Dubai airport waiting for our transit flight, I was excited to see one of my favourite fast food restaurant. I ordered a burger and almost perversely unwrapped the waxed paper.

Unfortunately, eating it, it was unsatisfying to me. I guess after a year of abstaining, my taste buds changed and I could actually taste the overly processed meat. I guess subconsciously, that’s the reason why I did not even consume one burger while back in Singapore.

In any case, I was making a batch of burgers not too long ago, when Cart was looking at me in astonishment. He shook his head, cringed and asked me, “Why don’t you make polpette instead? Its one of the foods that made me think long and hard before I became a vegetarian. Its so much better than burgers”

I looked back at him. But I like burgers! Fine! I’ll try to make them with my next batch of meat.

And since I just bought some at the butcher’s last week, here is my attempt at making Polpette Al Sugo, or Meatballs in Tomato Sauce for lunch. Not sure if its the best, but here goes 😛

First, I soaked some day old bread with some milk. Here I’m using stylo bread but any bread will do. Squeeze the excess milk and scrape the white from the crust and put it in a mixing bowl.

After that, I added with the soaked bread, the minced meat, a clove of mashed garlic, some chopped parsley, salt and pepper, parmigiano cheese, an egg and some chopped onions. It was only later through msn that Cart told me that it wasn’t necessary to add in the onions here. But oh well, too late. It’s mixed already! 😛

Mix them up well and then shape and roll them up into balls. Ooh! They look so pretty!

And then leave them aside to relax one corner or put them in the fridge for a few minutes.

Now its time to make the sauce! In a pan of olive oil, fry some chopped onions and basil

When the soffrito looks cooked, add in the tomato sauce and add salt to taste and leave it to simmer a while.

Then in another bowl, wake up the well rested meatballs and roll and cover them with some breadcrumbs and then lightly fry it.

And then add it gently to the tomato sauce and swirl the pan. You have to be careful here and take care not to break your balls 😛

Add a bit of water to loosen it, cover the pan with a lid and leave the meat to cook for about 15 minutes. Swirl the pan every few minutes or so.

And presto!

Now you have Polpette al Sugo!

Its actually very good, so good that I ate like 6 polpette at one sitting … Probably not a good idea for someone who is watching her weight

In any case, its strawberry season here in Italy. And you’d see loads of them being for sale in the wet markets. And they are so sweet!

Its pretty easy to guess what I had for dessert, yes?

Diet? Oh well! I can always exercise these calories away!

Happy Easter Monday!

I don’t know about you, but every time its Easter time, it really feels so much like hari raya to me. Moreover seeing the Via Crucis and then the pope giving his sermon with a huge mass of people, the feel is so much like back in Singapore when my family would get ready for Hari Raya, watching the mass prayers being broadcasted.

And then I started to ask Cart :

Me : Why do the people look so sad? Some of them are crying even

Cart : Oh, thats because Jesus is going to die soon.

Anyway, Cart and I spent our weekend, spending time with his family over lunch and of course, devouring chocolate eggs!

If you are ever in Rome around Easter time, you’d see heaps of chocolate eggs being sold. It’s mind boggling the variety of the eggs on sale. There were Hello Kitty eggs, High School Musical, Disney Eggs, Spiderman and practically every other TV show under the Italian sun.

While most of them were the size of footballs wrapped up in decorative wrapper, there were also intricate ones, decorated with coloured sugar pipings.

Cart and I got a couple for our niece and nephew and of course one for ourselves each.

Cart got me the one with the bunny plushie, so that I could keep it for a longer time as opposed to a chocolate bunny. Whereas he had a Marvel Heroes egg.

If you are curious to see what the chocolate eggs look like, here is what to expect.

After the wrapper is taken out, you’d see a chocolate egg, as big as a football, already on its plastic stand. Squeeze it gently and if you’re careful enough, you’d have two neat halves.

And inside, you’d usually have a little toy, depending on the theme of the egg. Cart had this shooting toy.

While my egg contained this.

It was a playing card where the colour of the cover matches my fingernails!

Right now I think I’m getting a chocolate overdose. One egg at home and then another one with my in-laws. Hopefully I don’t get a migraine from eating too much chocolate.

After returning back from Singapore, Cart and I had dinner together with his friends at a place called the ‘Antica Schiacciata Romana’. It was said to be be an authentic Roman styled food and seemed to be very popular, judging by the crowds that they had that night.

While there were quite a variety in their menu, this was the speciality of the restaurant. The schiacciata.

At one glance it looks like a regular pizza. But its not quite. Because in Italian, schiacciare means to squash so these pizzas were actually squashed instead of being shaped in its traditional round shapes.

The schiacciata I has was a Napolitana – tomato based with cheese and some anchovies baked together on top.

As you could see, the schiacciata is thicker compared to a Roman styled pizza.

However, it was very tasty chewing through my food with the different flavours in my mouth. The dough, being allowed to rest for 48 hours turned out very soft, thus it was a delight to eat it.

Initially I was feeling a little disappointed that there were so few anchovies in my food, but eating it makes me realise why there were so few. It was extremely salty! Putting more would be an overkill.

Cart had a pizza with mushrooms and gorgonzola cheese.

I’m not that fond of gorzonzola mainly because of the strong smell and taste but Cart loves it. I could eat a little, but overly cheesy food is too cloying for me.

And then recently, Cart had the schiacciata with artichokes and gorgonzola cheese again.

While I had the one with zucchini blossoms and bottarga.

Bottarga is actually fish eggs, kind of like caviar only dried. If you could see the brown rectangular flakes in the picture up there, those are the bottarga.

And as dubious as how it looked like, it was actually very tasty. I loved it. The delicate taste of the zucchini blossoms mixed with the shapness of the bottarga went very well together.

In any case, despite of how small the schiacciata appeared, it was actually very filling. Indeed, it was easy for me to feel full halfway through eating my schiacciata. But in spite of that, I always have room for dessert.

This is my nutella mousse with pine nuts. It might not look much but its to die for! The soft and creamy nutella is so orgasmically delightful that I feel so happy after eating this.

Cart can keep his Crema Catalana

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• Did I just ate the worst pizza in Rome?

Ask any Italian about pasta and you’d see how passionate they become. And there are so many different types of Pasta, its quite mind boggling. Like this Pasta Al Limone. Have you ever had lemon in your pasta before?

The first few times when I cooked pasta, though it tastes fine to me, Cart would then give it a try. The gentleman that he is, he never complains but gently shares with me tips on how to make it better. So I’m sharing some of the few crucial points with you 🙂

Here are a few basics when making pasta.

1. Dont overcook the pasta.

Italians immediately delete points on a pasta if it is not al dente. Al dente basically means that it is cooked just right with a bite to it and pasta which is cooked too long will be soft and loses this bite.

To cook the pasta, you take a pot of water and add some salt. Wait for it to boil before adding in the pasta. While there are many different types of pasta, most pasta packs would have a recommended cooking time.

Like this Vermicelli cooks in 11 minutes

But if there isnt, you could take a piece and bite on it to see if it is cooked or not. And then serve it immediately with your pasta sauce. Never leave your cooked pasta by itself for too long. It’ll get soggy.

And do not throw your cooked pasta on the wall. It’ll be a hassle to clean up afterwards.

2. Pasta sauce basics

After observing how Cart cooks his pasta, while there are many variants in the sauce, there are basically two different bases. And these starts with the soffritto.

A) The first soffritto is in a pan with olive oil. You stir fry some chopped onion, carrot and celery.

Once it softens, add your bottled tomato sauce or fresh cut tomatoes and some salt for taste. Never use tomato ketchup because it has additives and it changes the taste. Tomato sauce should only contain tomatoes.

When its cooked, you scoop the sauce on to your pasta, add some parmiggiano cheese on top and mix well.

With this basic step, you could add some ground meat while frying the soffritto and you’ll end up with Pasta al Ragu. And you could even use this sauce to make lasagna!

B) The second soffritto is to fry some garlic with a little bit more olive oil. When the garlic is brown and the oil has been infused, you add the cooked pasta in and chopped parsley on top. Mix well and you get Aglio Oglio!

Or if you like, while frying the soffritto, you could add some chilli and add tomato sauce for Arrabbiata!

Penne Arrabbiata. Death by tray.

Seafood works very well too for this soffritto. You could add salmon, clams, mixed seafood, prawns … what ever you like 

But just remember never add cheese for the second soffritto because the flavours clash together.

Buon Appetito 🙂

I think that’s all for now in the basics of cooking pasta. If you have any other tips to share, or have any questions please feel free to comment below 🙂

Cafe world was one of the games that I liked to play on Facebook.

It’s a cute but mindless game where you manage your own cafe by deciding on what to cook. Some of the food could take as fast as 3 minutes and some would be as long as 2 days.

But normally the longer it takes, the higher the profit and you could use the money to decorate and furnish your cafe. But the faster cooking ones lets you have more food servings so that the customers will not lower the cafe rating and ensure that the traffic keeps on going.

One of the first few times that I played Cafe world, I was quite amused mainly because of the time it takes to cook the item. Cheesecake takes 12 hours to cook? Halibut takes a day to cook? Really?

But regardless of of the unrealistic cooking times, I find myself drawn to the food. It might be a cartoon, but it sure looked yummy! And who could turn away from a face like that?

I was intrigued enough to try to make it on my own and since I had most of the ingredients, I decided to make my own Smoked Salmon Latkes.

And its quite amusing to see friends on twitter quickly assume that I’m playing Cafe World!

Anyway, back to the recipe.

First you take two potatoes, peeled and sliced and then placed in the food processor and blend it roughly. Remove excess liquid and then put it in a bowl. Do the same thing to one onion. Drain the excess liquid and combine it with the potato.

With that, you add two whipped egg, some salt and pepper and three tablespoon of flour and combine together.

And then you take a small scoop and flatten it thinly in a pan of hot oil and let it fry till it’s cooked. If you like, you can leave the cooked pieces in the oven to keep warm while waiting for the rest to be fried.

Once the latkes are cooked, you could garnish it with anything you like like sourcream or even applesauce. Here I put some smoked salmon pieces. I wish that I had some creme fraiche and some caviar to add on top of the salmon but I don’t have them at hand.

Not sure if its the real thing but I like it anyway 🙂

But I don’t think that I’d be making it too frequently though, I don’t think it’s very healthy!

It was not up to standard to what you’d have at the prata shop, but I’m quite proud at how my experimentation turned out 😀

Roti Prata is one of the food that most Singaporeans love to eat. Since I was a kid, I would patronise hawker centers and order a nice plate of Roti Prata, accompanied with some curry – it was an affordable, delicious and comforting food. The smell of freshly made prata is wonderful.

Nowadays in Singapore, there are many varieties of prata – Cheese prata, Honey and butter prata, Banana Prata, even rolled up paper thin ones. But I still prefer the original and the egg variety though. Prata has been popular for as long as I can remember.

However popular prata may be in Singapore, I’ve yet to find freshly made prata in Rome. My friend Lynn has been craving for prata, so I thought that I see if I could try to make one myself. I found a prata recipe online. It looked easy enough.

First put 3 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon salt and 5 tablespoon of ghee into a bowl and mix.

Then add in warm milk and then knead.

When you have a dough of a good consistency, divide it into 8 balls and put it under a damp cloth and let the dough rest.

Once the dough is rested, flatten it with a rolling pin or with your fingers.

And then finally put it in a hot pan with some ghee and fry it. And soon you will have home made prata.

Of course, my prata wasn’t perfect though. I need to tinker with the recipe a little bit more. Maybe knead it longer and add more ghee so that the texture becomes more sturdy – which is the reason why prata makers could flip and throw it around!

Impressive!