Veal & Olive Ragu with Pappardelle

One of our pasta nights with Rachael Ray's Look + Cook. Sometimes the mind goes blank just thinking about dinner! Pasta to the rescue!

So, I decided to cook Olive Ragu with Pappardelle for our dinner. This recipe calls for Ground Veal, Pappardelle and Pecorino Romano Cheese.  I do not have these three ingredients, I substituted with what I have, Ground Pork, Tagliatelle and Parmesan Cheese. I substituted the Beef Broth by using Homemade Chicken Stock. 

The family really enjoyed this tasty pasta meal. 

And I'm bringing this to a Cookbook Party, hosted by Louise of Months of Edible Celebrations. Louise is celebrating her Blogoversary by throwing a Cookbook Party, and October being the National Cookbook Month! There's a whole list of food celebrations just for the month of October! For full details, hop over to Months of Edible Celebrations. I'm submitting this Pasta under the list "Pasta Month"!

I'm sharing this with "Saturdays with Rachael Ray" at Taste and Tell.

Veal And Olive Ragu with Pappardelle
(adapted from "Look + Cook" by Rachael Ray)
Serves 6
salt
1 pound pappardelle or other wide, flat pasta
2 tablespoons EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil)
1 tablespoon butter
1-1/2 pounds ground veal
black pepper
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 springs of fresh rosemary, leaves removed and finely chopped
1 cup pitted large green olives, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup beef broth
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves (a generous handful)
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese, plus more for passing at the table

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt it, then add the pasta, cook to al dente and drain.
While the pasta is cooking, in a large, deep skillet, heat the EVOO over medium-high heat. Add the butter to melt, then add the veal and season with salt and a little pepper. Cook, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, until it's no longer pink, about 5 minutes.
Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and rosemary and cook for 2 minutes, then stir in the olives and heat through for 1 minute.
Stir in the wine, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan for 1 minute. Stir in the beef broth and simmer for 2 minutes. Stir in the parsley and lemon zest.
Add the drained pasta to the sauce and stir in the pasta and 1/2 cup of cheese. Serve hot with extra cheese.

Caramel Coriander Chicken

I just love stir-fry dishes. They are usually very easy, quick, simple and extremely tasty when eaten hot, right out of the wok onto the serving plate! Most of the preparations are just slicing and cutting, with the sauce premixed in advance before cooking time. Rice is the main food at meal times for us, with two or three dishes to go along with the rice. So I'm constantly looking for new ideas and recipes when it comes to stir-fry. We do have our favourite stir-fry dishes, but even cooking the same food  can be boring! 

I found this recipe in one of the cooking book, "Stir-Fry". This is really simple and easy to prepare. The recipe requires the chicken to be marinated overnight, but I just marinated it in the afternoon and cooked it in the evening. The chicken is first fried, and then stir-fried for a few minutes with the caramel sauce. Since it was only the four of us, I cooked half of the recipe, which was just the right portion. I'm giving the original recipe which serves 4-8, but I think that it is a big portion for 4!

It is sweet, salty with a hint of sourness from the rice vinegar. A lovely dish to go with white rice. This dish is a definite hit at our dinner table. There's no leftovers!

I would definitely cook this again, perhaps a spicier version. I think adding a tablespoon of coarse chilli flakes would be lovely! And more coriander leaves!

I'm sharing this with :
Cookbook Sunday at Mom's Sunday Cafe

And I'm bringing this to a Cookbook Party, hosted by Louise of Months of Edible Celebrations. Louise is celebrating her Blogoversary by throwing a Cookbook Party, and October being the National Cookbook Month! There's a whole list of food celebrations just for the month of October! For full details, hop over to Months of Edible Celebrations. I'm submitting this Caramel Coriander Chicken under the list "Eat Better, Eat Together"!

Caramel Coriander Chicken
(adapted from : Stir Fry)
serves 4-8
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
6 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons soy sauce
60ml (2fl oz/1/4 cup) Chinese rice wine or sherry
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 kg (2lb 4oz) boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into cubes
60gm (2-1/4 oz / 1/2 cup) plain all-purpose flour
125ml (4 fl oz/ 1/2 cup) oil
90gm (3-1/4oz / 1/2 cup) soft brown sugar
2 very large handfuls coriander (cilantro), chopped, plus extra leaves, to garnish
60ml (2fl oz / 1/4 cup) rice vinegar

1. Place the turmeric, 2 crushed garlic cloves, the ginger, soy sauce, rice wine, egg yolks, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon white pepper in a large bowl and mix together well. Add the chicken and toss to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
2. Pour away any excess liquid from the chicken, add the flour and toss to mix well.
3. Heat a wok until very hot, add 1 tablespoon of oil and swirl to coat. Add  a third of the chicken and stir-fry for 4 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the wok. Cook the other two batches of chicken, adding more oil as necessary. Remove all the chicken from the wok and keep warm.
4. Reduce the heat to medium, add the remaining oil, brown sugar and remaining garlic. Mix together and then leave for 1-2 minutes, or until the sugar caramelizes and liquefies.
5. Return the chicken to the wok, and add the coriander and vinegar. Stir gently for 4 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and well coated with the sauce. Garnish with extra coriander leaves.

Chicken Rendang Pizza/Thousand Island Tuna Pizza : Free and Easy Bake-Along #11, Theme - Pizza Nite-In

I have made these two same pizzas for the last couple of times, repeated requests from my kids. Each time when I asked them what pizza they would like me to make, my daughter would request for Rendang Pizza (her favourite) and my son would asked for Thousand Island Tuna Pizza (his favourite). Yes, I did make these a couple of times but never did a post on these pizzas.

So when our baking group's theme for this Bake-Along is "Pizza Nite-In", I find myself baking these again! Both my kids have agreed that on the next pizza baking day, I will decide on the flavour, mommy's turn to choose! Hahaha!

I use the packaged pre-made rendang sauce, and I always use the brand above for making my homemade Rendang Pizza. It is really good, cooked with minced chicken and some sliced onions as a Pizza topping. Over here, in Malaysia, Pizza Hut does serve Rendang Pizza in their menu, which we seldom order, again, the kids get to pick their flavours, and this is not one of them. They have their own favourite flavours over at Pizza Hut!

My homemade version of Rendang Pizza, my family's favourite.

It is really nice!

You would not stop at just one slice! 

Thousand Island Tuna Pizza

Canned tuna in oil is drained and mashed coarsely. Mix with some Thousand Island Sauce, Mayo and Black Pepper. Top with some sliced pieces of canned pineapples, crab stick and onions, scatter generously with Mozzarella cheese, bake and enjoy!

Let's go over to see what my two baking buddies, Lena of Her Frozen Wings and Zoe of Bake For Happy Kids, are having for their "Pizza Nite-In". 

Wai Kitt from hellowaikitt has join us in this Pizza Nite-In Bake-Along. Hop over to see her delicious crispy pizza, a lovely snack anytime of the day!

We will be baking based on another theme "Chocolates and Cherries" next. Feel free to bake anything with Chocolates and Cherries, either fresh cherries, canned cherries, dried cherries, any kind of cherries! We will post that on 20/10, just mention our links in your post and leave a comment in any of our "Chocolate and Cherries" post (mine, Lena's or Zoe's), we will visit you right back! 

I'm sharing this with :
Cookbook Sunday at Mom's Sunday Cafe

And I'm bringing this to a Cookbook Party, hosted by Louise of Months of Edible Celebrations. Louise is celebrating her Blogoversary by throwing a Cookbook Party, and October being the National Cookbook Month! There's a whole list of food celebrations just for the month of October! For full details, hop over to Months of Edible Celebrations. I'm submitting these Pizzas under the list "Pizza Month"!

Pizza Crust
(adapted from : "Bread Machine Kitchen Handbook" by Jennie Shapter)
Makes two 30-cm/12-in Pizzas
280ml/10fl oz/1-1/4 cups water
30ml/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
450gm/1lb/4 cups unbleached white bread flour
7.5ml/1-1/2 tsp salt
2.5ml/1/2 tsp granulated sugar
5ml/1tsp easy bake dried yeast

1. Pour the water and olive oil into the bread machine pan. If the instructions for your machine specify that the yeast is to be placed in the pan first, reverse the order in which you add the liquid and dry ingredients.
2. Sprinkle over the flour, ensuring that it covers the liquid. Add the salt in one corner of the bread pan and the sugar in another corner. Make a small indent in the center of the flour, then add the yeast.
3. Set the bread machine to the dough setting; use basic or pizza dough setting (if available). Press Start. Lightly oil  two pizza pans or baking sheets.
4. When the dough cycle has finished, remove the dough from the machine and place it on a lightly floured surface. Knock it back (punch it down) gently. If making the larger quantity divide the dough into two equal pieces. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.
5. Roll out the pizza dough into two 30cm/12-in rounds. Place in the prepared pans or on the baking sheet. 

(my notes : recipe does not require the crust to be baked before adding the filling. But I prebaked the crust for about 8-10 minutes first, then add on the filling and baked for a further 15 minutes. I made 2 pcs of 10.5in pizzas with this recipe)

Rendang Pizza Topping

(by kitchen flavours)

1 packet (about 200gm) rendang sauce

400gm minced chicken

1 medium onions (cut into thin wedges)

2 tbsp cooking oil

mozzarella cheese (as much as you want!)

Heat oil in non-stick cooking pan. Add in the minced chicken and stir until chicken is no longer pink and cooked, about 8-10 minutes. Add in onions and rendang sauce. Stir for  about 5 minutes. There is no need to add any salt, as the rendang sauce is already salty. You may taste and add some salt, to your preference.

When prebaked crust is ready, scatter rendang chicken all over. Top with mozarella cheese and baked in preheated oven at 220C for about 15 minutes, until crust is golden brown and cheese melts. Enjoy!

Thousand Island Tuna Pizza Topping

(by kitchen flavours)

1 small can (about 180gm) tuna chunks in oil, drained and mashed coarsely

3 slices canned pineapple rings (cut into chunks)

5-6 pieces crabsticks (cut each into 4 pcs)

1 small onions (cut into big chunks)

4 tbsp Thousand Island Dressing

2 tbsp Mayonnaise

dash of coarse black pepper

3 tbsp tomato puree

Mozzarella cheese

Mix tuna, Thousand Island Dressing, mayonnaise and coarse black pepper into a medium-sized bowl. When prebaked crust is ready, spread crust with tomato puree. Scatter tuna mixture, pineapples, crabsticks and onions all over. Top with Mozzarella cheese. Bake in preheated oven at 220C for about 15 minutes until crust is golden brown and cheese melts. Enjoy!