Making Fresh Pasta & Black Pepper Chilli Cream Sauce recipe

I've been playing with my new toy lately! The Marcato Atlas 150 pasta machine that my husband bought me for my birthday! My husband and I have so much fun making pasta together. 

Just the other day, my husband was saying, "You know you're getting old, when you're more excited about making pasta than going out!" :)

Anyway, have you made fresh pasta before? It is so super easy! It's yummy too! There's nothing bad about eating dry packet pasta! But now that I know how simple it is to make fresh pasta at home, that's what I've been doing since!

Basics - for every 100g of "00" flour, you need 1 egg, feeds 2 people (average portion)

You need to use 00 flour because it is higher in protein, it is different to plain flour. When making pasta, you need to develop the gluten, that's where the 00 flour comes into play.

Come, let me show you how!

1- Put the flour in a bowl, make a well in the centre, crack your eggs in it. Mix it with your hands until combined.

2 - Pour dough onto a lightly floured surface, knead until the dough comes together. The dough will not be sticky, it will have a very nice pliable consistency.

3 - Once ready, divide your pasta dough into 2. Put through each dough into your pasta machine. My pasta machine setting starts with '0' - thickest. Roll your pasta dough through the machine without any flour. Make sure to change the machine setting a number at a time. Don't be tempted to rush it and jump a few numbers. It will cause the pasta dough to crack. Roll the pasta dough through the machine until your desired thickness. I roll mine until '7'. We cut our rolled pasta with a knife, because it gets very long in length. 

4 - Our pasta machine comes in 2 cutters, the Fettuccine and Angel spaghetti. Our favourite is the Fettuccine one.  

5 - Once you've cut the pasta into your desired shape, remove from pasta machine and quickly sprinkle some flour onto your pasta to ensure it doesn't clump up together, set aside to cook soon. No resting time required.

6 - Or you could dry your pasta on a pasta rack or as you can see we used a hanger, because we did not have a pasta rack. Only use this method if you're not going to cook your fresh pasta shortly. Store in seal ziplock or somewhere air-tight until ready to use. Use no later than the next day!

7 - Before you cook your pasta, make sure that your sauce is ready. So, time to cook, make sure your water is boiled. Add salt, it should be as salty as the sea. Add your pasta, boil until al dente, cooks in under 5 minutes. Mix it into your pasta sauce. Serve! 

I have made my own version of Black Pepper Chilli Cream Sauce! This version is for people who don't usually eat the creamy version, like me. The chilli and black pepper flavours are really pronounced in this dish.

All you need: 

(from L-R)

2 anchovies (soaked in oil) not pictured (you can omit this, just use regular oil)

500g mushrooms

1 large onion

300ml thickened cream

500g shredded ham

150g diced bacon

1 tablespoon dried basil

seas salt (to taste)

chilli flakes (to taste)

cracked black pepper (to taste) 

 All you need to do:

1 - Heat up pan, pour some oil from the anchovies, add in anchovies, fry until it's all mushed up. You can't really taste the anchovies in this dish. Add onions and bacon. Fry it until onions become translucent and bacon browns.

2 - Add mushrooms, sauté until all liquid evaporates. Mushrooms will shrink. Cook in pan uncovered.

3 - Add ham, stir fry. Add cream, dried basil, salt, chilli flakes, cracked black pepper. I add loads of chilli flakes and black pepper.  Heat up cream. Mix in pasta and make sure that all ingredients are well mixed. 

4 - Serve!

Buon Appetito! :)

Review: A taste of South America's - Alfrajores

Have you heard of Alfajores??!

I received a delicious parcel from Daniela - LatinPR. It was the delicious Argentine Alfajores by AlfaChoc! It is pronounced as (Al-fa-ho-res). It is a South American type of sandwich cookie that is filled with dulce de leche (caramel filling). YUM!

I received the AlfaChoc Dark - I like how the cookie is crumbly, the caramel filling is slightly gooey and how the dark chocolate ties everything together.

 It is nice as a gift! Who wouldn't want to receive Chocolates + Biscuits + Caramel all in one?!

These Alfajores are handmade in Sydney.

Premium ingredients like Belgian chocolate and fresh vanilla beans from Papua New Guinea are used.
There are no additives and/or preservatives.

images from Alfachoc.com

Priced at $23.40 for a gift box of 6 Alfajores. You can now buy them online, is it available Australia-wide - AlfaChoc

AlfaChoc Clasico: Cornflour cookies made with fresh lemon zest, vanilla seeds and hazelnuts liquor combined with the creaminess of dulce de leche.

AlfaChoc Dark: Flavours of rich cocoa powder, fresh vanillas and orange zest biscuits filled with dulce de leche and hand dipped in the finest Belgian 55% dark chocolate.

AlfaChoc White: Flavours of almond extracts combined with fine Belgian white chocolate, fresh vanilla seeds and dulce de leche... simply delicious!

AlfaChoc has been in the market since 2011, recognised among the top 10 biscuits in Sydney by TimeOut magazine.

Happy Monday! :)

Maggi Stir-Fry Creations

What do you do when you receive a whole bunch of Maggi Stir-Fry Creations in the post?!?

 

COOK them of course!

 

I was lucky to taste them.

 

Seriously, I was pretty impressed with the flavours of these sauces.

 

My favourite has got to be the Sweet Chilli, Ginger & Lemongrass.

 

I love Lemongrass, so this was the 1st I wanted to taste.

 

The Maggi Stir-Fry Creations is a 2 step process; first the Infusion Paste and the Finishing Sauce

It only takes 10-15 minutes to marinate the meat before it's ready to cook. Pretty fast ay...

 

Overall, I was pretty happy, it was easy, quick and delicious! Can't get any better than that.

 

 

You can find them in your local and independent supermarkets at $3.29RRP.

 

It comes in 5 different flavours:

Honey Soy and Garlic

Teriyaki and Sesame

Sweet Chilli, Ginger and Lemongrass

Chinese Five Spice and Soy

Garlic and Ginger Chicken

 

I have also tried the other flavours but the Sweet Chilli, Ginger and Lemongrass is definitely my favourite.

 

Check them out! :)

 

This was part of the Product Talk by Nuffnang - I have received this product in exchange for a review.

Lesson 3 : Fish, Chicken & Puff Pastry

Guess what?! I forgot my camera again. Shame on me :( But the good thing is I brought my camera to the following classes and I've got some photos to show you all in the next posts.

Practical
We roasted a whole chicken, we made some chopped vegetables with it. The chicken was roasted with some seasoning, herbs and oil. We were taught on how to tie the chicken legs and wings to ensure it isn't all over the place. By tying the legs and wings close to the chicken body helps to keep the chicken juicy and avoid it from drying out. It is important to turn the chicken to the other side to make sure that it is roasted properly. Some water was added to the tray to make more sauce, it was only added towards the end. Once roasted, we got to have a little taste. It was so juicy and delicious.

I did this in my Full time class again in Lesson 7, and the good thing is I brought my camera for this. So here's some photos. We had to prepare the Mirepoix first. 
Mirepoix is roughly chopped vegetables about the same size to be roasted together and also can be made into a jus (as shown below).

My roast chicken with vegetables, roasted pumpkins and turned potatoes. 

Next, we learnt how to scale, fillet, clean and cook the fish. It was lightly coated with some flour/crumb also known as Chapelure in french and pan-fried in some clarified butter. Clarified butter is melted butter left to set, so that the liquid and heavier substance separates and the top layer is used to cook the fish. Clarified butter has a higher smoke point than regular butter, therefore is preferred in cooking as well as it last longer than regular butter.


Finally, some pastry work. We did our own puff pastry from scratch. Remember in Lesson 2 where I told you that our pastry teacher gave us a sneak peek on how to make it. This time we actually made it. It involves a simple folding technique. Though it seemed easy, it was important to make sure that it was done properly. *At last, I finally got to make my own puff pastry.* The butter used in the puff pastry has 8% of water content way lesser than the ones we buy from the supermarket for domestic use. So it might be better to use margarine, as it is more pliable.

Theory
We learnt about cross-contamination and how to avoid it from happening. There are 3 types of contamination. Physical, Chemical and Biological contamination.

For example:
Physical contamination - when food contains foreign matter such as glass, hair, nail varnish.
Chemical contamination - when food is in contact with pesticides, toxic materials or chemicals. (If you don't rinse the lettuce properly)
Biological contamination - arises from disease-causing micro-organism such as bacteria, mould, yeasts, virus or fungi.

I'll see you in the next lesson! :)

Are you handling it well?

Getting all stressed up can be very harmful for your body especially if it isn't handled properly . I for one, am a person who gets pretty stressed up about so many things. It might be things that it so not worth me getting stressed up about, but yet I still get stressed up.

I am still trying to manage my stress level because sometimes I can get really crazy. Feeling like my head is about to explode, I will get very irritated and agitated about everything, my head will feel so heavy and a massive head-throb to go with...Doesn't sound all too good right??!

Like this illustration below, doesn't it make you feel stressed up or sympathized on the things she needs to handle all at a time..Oh boy, that looks stressful.

Many people usually resort to smoking and drinking, or some even worst, losing themselves. This isn't a healthy or good way to manage your stress level.

The more you get stressed out, you're actually unable to focus or think rationally or logically.

Yes, I know, I'm not one to speak, but this is what I am trying to learn to manage.

One should take deep breaths, close your eyes till you stabilize first and able to hear your heart-beat. Then think, what is the issue here, how did it start, how am I going to solve this.

By putting things in perspective and managing your situation when you're in a calm and stable self will definitely help you solve your problem or at least it will help manage your stress level better.

But yes, we are all human, and sometimes when we're stressed up, we can't think properly and we tend to let it out on people that we love, and hurt them and saying things that we did not mean in the first place (That's bad, I know), and sometimes our family and friends are only there just because they are trying to help us with our situation but we snap at them.

Sometimes, to release stress, I occupy and do things that usually puts a smile on my face or something that is relaxing.

Such as

1) Listening to music :)

(aww soo cute, I miss my doggie)

2)  Playing with your pet

3) Dancing

4) Cooking/Baking

5) Shopping

(I know most girls would love this :) )


6) Reading a good book

7) Working out



I hope you're doing better now with your stress level :)