Recipe: Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Adapted from Women's Weekly foodbook: Issue 1

Ingredients:
3 medium-large potatoes
1 heaped tbsp butter
1 1/2 clove garlic, minced
Salt to taste
Dash of Parsley
1/3 cup Hot Milk (Optional)


1. Boil potatoes in hot, boiling water for around 20 to 25 minutes. For a quick way to peel the skin off potatoes, see this post. ;)

2. Mince the garlic and heat a pan to medium heat. Melt the butter and fry the garlic for not more than 3 minutes. Do not overcook the garlic or it will turn bitter! X(


3. Mash the boiled potatoes slightly and add the fried garlic oil.

4. Keep mashing the potatoes and mixing it with the garlic oil and fried bits. Add extra butter to make it more smooth/soft.

5. Add a dash of parsley, and salt to taste.







6. (Optional) You can add hot milk to make it even fluffier. Slowly pour in the hot milk, stirring and mixing the mixture to desired smoothness.

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Camemberu: Nigella's Mirin-Glazed Salmon

I was wowed by Camemberu's delicious photo of Nigella's Mirin-Glazed Salmon recipe, so I tried it out. And it turned out really well!

3 1/2 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp soy sauce
1 large salmon fillet
2 tbsp rice vinegar

1.Mix mirin, brown sugar and soy sauce in a dish and marinate salmon fillet. Meanwhile, set the frying pan on high heat.
2.Place the salmon on the pan for 2 minutes, turn over and add the marinade. Cook for another 1 minute.
3.Put the salmon onto the plate. Add the vinegar to the pan.
[I put the salmon back onto the pan again, flipping after 1/2 a minute. I removed the salmon onto the plate after a minute.]
4.Pour the glaze over the salmon and serve.

Note: I tweaked the recipe a little from the original.

Wondering what carbo I should cook to go with the salmon, I ended up making another batch of sauce and frying it with udon in some oil, and got... Mirin-Glazed Salmon Yaki-Udon!!

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Recipe: Spaghetti Pomodoro

My homemade Spaghetti Al Pomodoro

Blend onion and garlic together. Fry in olive oil. You may add minced beef (optional). Add canned tomato puree, paste and sauce. Simmer and add
bayleaf (foglia di alloro), nutmeg powder (noce moscata) and beef stock (you can add more spices/herbs). Add salt to taste. Simmer for half an hour on slow fire.

The rich red colour is really appetising, isn't it? The result of the recipe can really vary with the mixture and kind of puree/paste/sauce used. We had to experiment with different brands and mixtures. The best recipe was the one pictured, but unfortunately we forgot to record the mixture! ):




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