Spaghetti alle Vongole (Spaghetti with Clams)

Today I had so much supply of clams. My husband got them from his brother who brought the clams back from Nenasi. Nenasi is a fishing village in Pahang. I have never been to Nenasi, but I hope to make a trip there some day. Anyway, back to the extra supply of clams. He asked me what to do with them? I just smiled because I knew he expected me to make some Chinese style dish like what we normally had outside. To be honest, I have no idea making Chinese dish out of those clams, I must admit that I am still noob in cooking Chinese cuisine, especially seafood.

Without having to crack my head, I decided to make some Italian dishes with those clams. I used half of the clams to make clams oreganata and another half for spaghetti alle vongole or spaghetti with clams. Today I am going to share the recipe for spaghetti with clams. The recipe I used is adapted from Jamie Oliver's, and I just adjusted it accordingly to my preferences. I guess it is an easy dish to make, spaghetti alle vongole in wine and garlic sauce. No hassle, cooking and cleaning at the same time, and it turned out very delicious.

Spaghetti with clams, more clams in the pan

Ingredients:

Spaghetti, enough for two portion

1 bowl of clams, soaked in salt water an hour prior and clean the shell

2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 medium onion (optional), chopped

1 medium tomato (optional), seeds removed and chopped

A bunch of parsley, chopped

1/2 cup white wine

1 dried chilli, chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Olive oil

Preparation:

1. Cook the spaghetti according to the package instructions until al dente.

2. Meanwhile, heat a pan. Add olive oil into the pan, and then the onions and garlic.

3. Saute for a minute or two, then add the tomato, and dried chilli.

4. Stir constantly until the garlic starts to color. 

5. Then add the clams, and pour the wine in. Give a quick stir so everything mixed well.

6. Increase the heat to high. Cover the pan with a lid for about five minutes. The clams will open and removes their juices.

7. Once the clams have opened, remove the lid and give a quick stir. Turn off the heat.

8. By now, the spaghetti should be ready. Drain the spaghetti. 

9. Add the spaghetti and chopped parsley into the pan. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste and give them a good toss.

10. Serve immediately. Best eaten when it is hot!

Simple pasta with clams prepared with just these ingredients - clams, olive oil, garlic, parsley, chilli and some splash of white wine, yet simply delicious. I added onions, yes I love onions in my pasta! Good meal for dinner with easily available ingredients from the kitchen (except the clams of course!).

Tomato Basil Spaghetti

One of my favourite 'fast food' to make at home is tomato basil pasta. Okay, why do I categorized this meal as fast food? To me, it is an easy and express dish to make in under 30 minutes. Imagine, time from cutting the ingredients until cleaning up the mess, it only took less than half an hour for a plate of tasty pasta. I would say it is better than to eat instant noodles. Oh, and also I can just pick the basil fresh from my garden. If basil is not available, well then just omit the basil and make tomato garlic pasta. Good for lazy day lunch, or perhaps dinner. I am using spaghetti for this, other pasta variation like pasta penne is also a good substitute for this recipe.

Viola! Here goes my delicious express lunch!

Ingredients:
(Make: 1 serving)
Spaghetti (enough for one portion)
1 big tomato, chopped
1/2 onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

Few drops of balsamic vinegar

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Preparation:

1. Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Cook the spaghetti according to the packet instructions, until al dente.

2. Meanwhile, while waiting for the spaghetti to cook, heat olive oil in a sauce pan. Add onions and garlic, saute for few minutes until the onions look translucent.

3. Stir in the chopped tomatoes, and tomato paste. Cook over medium heat, stir occasionally for about 5 minutes so that nothing burns. Season with salt, freshly ground pepper and few drops of balsamic vinegar

4. Reduce heat to low, and simmer the sauce until the spaghetti is ready.

5. Add the basil to the sauce pan, and give a quick stir.

6. Drain the pasta, and then mix into the sauce.

7. Serve hot. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese, if prefer.

I like to remove the skin and seeds of the tomato before chopping. To peel off the tomato skin easily, put the tomato in a pot of water and bring just to boil. After that, turn off the heat, pour out the hot water and cover the tomato with cold water. Then, you can just easily peel off the skin by hand. And, if the sauce is too thick when put on simmer while waiting for the spaghetti is ready, I just add the salted water which I use to cook the pasta into the sauce mixture.

Nasi Goreng Kampung Simple

Fried rice is best cooked using overnight leftover rice from the fridge. Normally we do not use freshly cooked rice to make fried rice because it will end up clumped into pieces and taste mushy.

Last night, I had some leftover rice which the amount is just nice for two people, and kangkung in the fridge. So, I decided to make simple kampung style fried rice for dinner. The recipe is so easy that I only make use of the available ingredients in my kitchen.

Simple kampung style fried rice

Ingredients:
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp sweet soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 1/2 cup leftover rice
Small bunch of kangkung (chinese water spinach) about 50-60g
30g fried anchovies
2 tbsp chili paste (*I already made the chili paste earlier, see below for the chili paste I use)
Salt
Sugar

Vegetable oil

Preparation:
1. In a bowl, mix together light soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt and sugar (to taste).
2. Heat vegetable oil in a wok and slowly stir-fry the chili paste in low to medium heat, until the chili paste is fragrant.
3. Add the sauce mixture into the wok and quick stir for a few seconds.
4. Then add in the rice, and continue stirring for a few minutes in high heat until the rice is all well-coated.
5. Add kangkung and fried anchovies. Fry until the kangkung is cooked.
6. Serve immediately.

Chili paste preparation:
12 dried chillies, soaked
5 shallots – peeled
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 tbsp dried shrimp, soaked
1-2 tsp belacan (shrimp paste), toasted

1. Put all the ingredients into a blender.
2. Add some water (not too much) and blend them until become fine paste.
* If there are extra chili paste, it can be kept in the fridge for other uses.

Easy meal for dinner, and my hubby did not complain, instead he gave five stars to the fried rice and asked for more **clap clap** :))

Algerian Chtitha Djedj

Out of a sudden, I craved for Algerian food. I used to work in Algiers, the capital city of Algeria for three years. Living there for years means I got the chance to taste many new dishes which I never eaten before in Malaysia. In fact, I could hardly find any Malaysian food or Asian food in Algiers. The only Asian cuisine available there are Chinese and Indian cuisine, and they are very expensive! Many times, my friends and I would only go to the Chinese or Indian restaurants during special occasions. So, most of the time I had to eat like the locals. There are a few Algerian dishes that I particularly like and I even learn to cook them. One of them is chtitha djedj. This dish is actually Algerian stewed chicken with red sauce. Why red sauce? Simply because it has a bright orange-reddish color. This dish is slowly cooked to achieve the tenderness of the chicken and the flavorful combination of spices that bring out the perfect deliciousness. The texture of meat is so soft and tender, where the meat can actually fall off the bone easily. The dish is normally served with bread or baguette, but this time I serve it with rice and guess what, it goes well with rice!

This dish is very easy to cook. All I need is to get the right ingredients, and most important, the secret spice for this dish 'ras el-hanout'. This spice is a special spice from North Africa, and it has a combination of many different spices blended into one. Some regions may even have over hundreds combination of spices in it! I searched over many places for packaged ras el-hanout in KL, but I cannot find it. So, I substitute it with Indian garam masala and some other spices available in my kitchen. Anyway, despite not having the secret spice in this recipe, the taste turned out to be what I want, I would say very Algerian taste! 

Food is like music, the key is the ingredients... ~ my quote for the day :)

Home cooked Algerian chtitha djedj

Ingredients:

2 pieces whole chicken thighs

1 cup chickpeas (soaked overnight)

3 cloves garlic chopped

1 onion chopped

1 tablespoon tomato puree

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground tumeric

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground paprika

1 teaspoon garam masala (Original chtitha djedj uses ras el-hanout but I cannot find the spice here, so I substitute with garam masala and added some other spices above)

Salt

Black Pepper

Olive oil

About 500ml water (or chicken stock)

Preparation:

1. Clean the chicken thighs thoroughly. Season them with salt and pepper.

2. Rinse the chickpeas and dry them using a colander.

3. Heat olive oil in a pot. Add the chopped onions and garlic, cook them for few minutes or until the onions are translucent.

4. Put in the chicken thighs, and mix in all other ingredients (tomato puree, pinch of salt, cumin, tumeric, paprika, cinnamon and garam masala).

5. Cook for 5 minutes in medium heat, after that put in the water, enough to cover the chicken thighs.

6. Add in the chickpeas. Simmer in low heat for about 40 minutes or until the sauce has reduced to thicken.

7. Garnish with chopped parsley (optional), and serve hot.

So that is our dinner for two - me and my hubby. Good food for a great weekend! Bon appétit!

My Aquaponic Lobsters Kickstarted!

Last few days, my husband and I finally attended the half-day training for the aquaponic lobsters breeding and brought home the startup set, which includes a full set of the CLAW system, and 30 lobsters to start off with. We were given fifteen male lobsters and female lobsters respectively.

Our lobsters

Six of the lobsters did not survive the journey. When we reached home, they were already dead. Some of them had lost their claws, I knew the lobsters fought among themselves during the journey home because I can hear cracking sounds coming from the container. Anyway, it is their nature to fight among themselves, according to Mr. Effendy.

First batch of the non-survivors - All are female lobsters

Okay, the lobsters above become like the ones below after we separated them out from the rest of the living lobsters. We did not throw away the dead ones because it is not good to waste food! They are organic freshwater lobsters without any chemicals.

Fresh lobsters for supper!

During the training, we were taught how to set up the system. We transferred the lobsters to smaller containers because we had to use the big container for set up. So this is how my system looked like initially.

Initial set up for system

We had to let the system stabilized by keeping the water filter pump and air pump running to filter the water for the first time. This is important because the pipe water from the house is not ideal for the lobsters to survive due to that our household water is treated with chlorine. These lobsters are very sensitive to their surrounding environment. Ideally, the optimum water pH level should be around 7.4 to 8.2. They cannot survive if the water is contaminated. The water looks a little muddy when the system for the first time, this is normal because of the hydro korrels. After one day, the water will turn clear.

Temporary shelter for the surviving lobsters

After keeping the system stabilized for one day, we started to transfer our lobster to their new home. The night before, another five lobsters did not survive. And one 'curious lobster' escaped from their temporary shelter and hence died. I was so shocked to see them lying near the doorstep! After all the surviving lobsters moved to their new home, I then transferred a few of my spinach to the aquaponic system. I shall see if the spinach will survive and grow in their new home. Oh, not forgetting to feed the lobsters too because they also need to eat.

Arial view of my plants

My aquaponic system is now working and filled with life :)

I am so happy and excited that everything is fine despite so many lobsters did not survive throughout the night. I am looking forward to see the progress day by day.

My First Aquaponic Project

Today is the first day of my aquaponic project at home. It is not a real big project anyway, just a new hobby because the idea is really interesting. The idea is to breed aquatic animals in aquaculture system, and recycling the water waste to the plants in the hydroponic system. Before this, I have no idea about the existence of aquaponic. Previously, I got to learn only about hydroponic. So, what is aquaponic in general? Aquaponic is a combination of aquaculture and hydroponic system. This means that aquatic animals and plants are grown in an integrated system, creating a symbiotic relationship between them. The waste produced by the aquatics animals becomes nutrient to the plants, and the plants in turn become a 'filter' to purify the waste water and giving clean water for the aquatic animals to live in. The recirculation of this system is continuous, thus benefits the growth of the plants and aquatic animals with minimal consumption of water and fertilizers. Also, the plants are organic because the system removes the dependency of pesticides.

Aquaponic lobsters breeding caught my interest when my husband and I saw it in the television advertisement promoting government's National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) day which was held from 23 May to 24 May 2015 in Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC). My husband is more interested in how to breed the freshwater lobsters at home, while I am more interested and curious how the system can be utilized for my plants. So we went to the exhibition and we met the owner of this aquaponic lobsters breeder, Mr. Effendy Halily. Mr. Effendy started his project in year 2011 and he has won two innovation awards for this system of breeding freshwater lobsters using aquaponic concept. This system is also called 'Container Lobster at Work' (CLAW). As we can see, the set up does not require expensive equipments. He only uses normal storage boxes to breed the lobsters.Very cost effective!

This is the simple aquaponic setup for breeding lobsters

We got a lot of information from him and in the end, my husband and I decided to attend his training in Alor Gajah, and we purchased the starter kit from him.  In fact, what excites me the most is that now my hubby can breed lobsters at home, and at the same time I have alternative way to plant my vegetables! Oh, did I mention that I am already dreaming to cook the lobsters when they are mature? This shall be our first aquaponic project at home, or probably I should say the first hobby which both of us can do together at home :) We definitely have a lot more to learn about understanding the system and taking care of the lobster.