Spaghetti Aglio Olio

I love aglio olio. I almost only order that whenever I'm at a pasta cafe/restaurant. I've been trying to make it on my own at home but i always end up making it too dry or sometimes too oily. Finally got it right this time! well, at least, I like my version:) The amazing thing about aglio olio is u can add in any accompanying ingredient and it still tastes gooooood. The power of GARLIC! haha. But you still want to be careful. If you are adding in prawns or scallop, you should fry it in the garlic olive oil FIRST before doing the pasta and the rest of the stuff. Set it aside and serve it with the pasta at the end:) This prevents the prawns or scallops becoming too overcooked and tough.

Ingredients:

Pasta enough for one person(boil it in salted water)
3-4 cloves of garlic(yes, be generous with the garlic)
Olive oil(enough to cover the pan, but if u like it oily u can add more)
Italian herbs( i bought the dried Masterfoods Italian herbs, use fresh ones if u can, might turn out even better)
Chilli padi(deseeded and sliced)
asparagus(my fav)
prawns or whatever u like in your pasta.
Parmesan cheese

Fry the garlic in olive oil and add in your food ingredients.Add the chilli padi and salt. Toss.
When food is ready, add in the pasta. Toss it well.

Lastly, add in the italian herbs. Mix parmesan cheese in the pasta before serving. Quick and simple:) But takes a bit of practise to get the heat and tossing right. Go experiment:)

Butter Cookies

I made these with my very own recipe. Its a really quick and simple recipe. You can make the dough and keep it in the refrigerator for the next few days if you're too lazy to finish baking everything. Just let it thaw for a while when you take it out of the refrigerator.

Here's the recipe...

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup(225 gm) salted butter(soften)
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat the butter till it is smooth and then add the sugar and beat for another 1-2mins. Add the vanilla extract. Add the flour bit by bit.
Wrap the dough with a plastic wrap and refrigerate it for an hour/more.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180 deg Celsius. Roll the dough on a floured surface. Use cookies cutters to cut out the shapes you want:) Try to be as quick as possible. If your cookies turn soft or it goes out of shape easily, put them back in the refrigerator for another 5-10mins.

Bake for 8-10mins.

Pandan flavored bingpi rainbow mooncakes:)

Ingredients:
100g kou fen
100g icing sugar
4/3 cup milk
4 tbsp shortening
Pandan essence
Pink food colouring
Green food colouring
Yellow food colouring
Lotus paste with melon seeds

This recipe was adapted from a mooncake recipe book. The original ice cream soda rainbow mooncake recipe required ice cream soda instead of milk.
I first made 4 separate doughs( four different colours: Pink, Green, Yellow and White)
Use 25g of kou fen, 25 g of icing sugar, 1/3 cup milk, 1 tbsp shortening, a little pandan essence and the respective food colourings to make each dough. For the white dough, just leave out the food colouring.
Next, roll out each dough on a plastic sheet. Stack the dough together and roll them up like you're making a swiss roll. Discard the ends of the roll and cut the roll up into 5 portions.
flatten each portion and place a ball of lotus paste in the middle. Wrap it up and push into the mooncake mould. Knock the mould on a hard surface to remove the mooncake from the mould.

Refrigerate mooncakes for at least 20 mins before serving.

Tip: Try to work fast when making bingpi mooncakes. The dough turns hard and dry when left out too long.

Citronstänger (lemon bars)

I got this recipe from a swedish cookbook (sju sorters kakor-seven varieties of cakes). Its a real simple recipe and you can't really go wrong with it. Lemon zest is used instead of artificial lemon flavoring so the lemon bars will turn out really fragrant:)))

Recipe:

2.5 dl white flour

1 dl sugar

0.5 tsk baking powder

lemon zest(1-2 lemon, i used 2)

75g butter or margarin

1 small egg

for brushing: use one egg

Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest and butter. Add egg and work the dough quickly. Let it cool for 1 hr( I left it in the fridge for 30 mins)

Cut the dough and roll them into 5cm bars. Place them on a baking paper and brush them with egg. Bake them at 160-180 degree celcius for 8 mins. ( Remember to keep watch of the time!)

Hi!

Hi everyone!

I'm not a fantastic cook or baker but i do love cooking and baking! I'll update my blog with pictures and recipes really soon:) STAY TUNE!!