Bolognese Pasta

Tags

basil leaves, bolognese, italian, mains, mince, Pasta, red sauce, sauce, shell pasta, sun-dried tomatoes, tomatoes, vermouth, western

Everyone loves pasta. There’s something comforting about all those carbs slippery in a creamy or a hearty red sauce. Another university favourite, where at the bare minimum we just cook the noodles and throw in ready to eat sauces. Ah the simple life.

I guess as we’ve grown up, our tastebuds will naturally progress so that we’d need something either more healthy/wholesome and more complex. (To be honest I’m still very happy with the noodles and sauce out of a can but that’s just me being lazy).

This is my version of bolognese, I’ve been using this recipe for many years but it could be better. This version is sourish and slightly spicy just because I like it that way! Will update as and when I try out new bolognese recipes 🙂

Ingredients (8 pax)

1kg minced meat (I use pork, but most people would use beef)

1 large green onion roughly chopped

1 can tomato puree (or 1 tube if you can’t find the canned version)

8 cloves of garlic or more if you like it garlicky, minced

1 bottle of dolmio red sauce (sometimes I use a can of tomato chunks instead)

1/2 cup of chopped fresh basil leaves

1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

3 tbsps dried oregano

50 gram salted butter

Salt and Pepper for seasoning

Optional: 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese and more for serving

Optional: 3 birds eye chillies, sliced

Optional: 1/2 cup dry Vermouth

Optional: 6-8 sun-dried tomatoes, sliced

Optional: Pureed carrots or sugar to offset the sourness from the tomatoes

Instructions

1. Melt the butter in a large wok. Fry the onions first and just when it turns slightly translucent, throw in the minced garlic and fry until the garlic is golden in color. If you opt to use the pureed carrots, add it now and cook til soft.

2. Season the minced meat with salt and pepper beforehand. Add the mince into the wok, breaking the mince into small pieces as it browns.

3. When the meat is browned, pour in the dolmio sauce/canned tomatoes, the vermouth, sundried tomatoes, oregano and birds eye chillies. Stir to incorporate and let it simmer.

4. Add Worcestershire sauce and stir. Let the sauce simmer until the consistency is chunky and there’s no excess water. The sauce should be thick and chunky but not so dry such that it sticks to the wok.

5. Stir in the parmesan cheese and basil leaves.

I love to eat this with shell pasta. It holds the sauce so well!

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Assam Chilli sauce

Tags

assam belimbing, assam chilli sauce, chilli, chilli sauce, condiments, dips, lemon juice, sauce

We Asians love our sauces! There are many varieties of dipping sauces, accompanying sauces and condiments at almost every meal. I like my udon soup with cut chilli padi and soy sauce while I love my pan mee with a sour-sweet ish chilli sauce.

Previously I blogged on how to make yam cake (Orh Kuay) but I completely forgot about the recipe for the accompanying sauce so here it is!

Ingredients

• 1kg tomatoes (hard)
• 1 kg red chilli
• 15 cloves of garlic or two whole bulbs
• 1 kg assam belimbing
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• Juice from 4 yellow lemons

Instructions

• Cut up your tomatoes into small chunks, slice the chilli, peel the garlic and chop the assam belimbing into halves. This is all put into the blender and blended into a paste.
• Pour out the paste into a large pot.
• In case you haven’t seen it, this is what an assam belimbing looks like. It gives the sauce its deliciously sour zing
• Squeeze the juice from the lemons and add to the paste.
• Add the salt and sugar to the pot.
• 
• Simmer on low heat for an hour, stirring every few minutes.
• 

The sauce should keep for about a month and goes amazingly well with yam cakes, chicken, lettuce wraps etc. Feel free to play around with your options!