Stir-fry vegetables with oyster sauce

Chinesy dish for today.

The ingredients:

• 1/4 kg medium size fresh shrimp, shell pealed, deveined
• 1/4 kg squid, skin removed and sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, cut into about 1-1/2 triangular shape
• 1 carrot, sliced diagonally into a quarter inch thickness
• Button mushrooms, sliced
• 1/8 kg fresh snow peas
• 1 head onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 of a vegetable bullion cube
• 2 tablespoons EVOO (Extra-virgin olive oil)
• 5 tablespoons Mama Sita’s vegetable oyster sauce
• Salt & pepper

The procedure:

• In a non-stick pan, with a bit of olive oil sauté the garlic and onions till translucent.
• Set the fire on medium level.  Drop the shrimp and squid. Sauté for about a minute.
• Add in the vegetables, the oyster sauce, bullion cube, dash with half teaspoon ground pepper. Stir till all vegetables are coated with the sauce. Cover to cook for about 5 minutes.
• Taste check. Add salt if necessary till you achieve desired taste.
• Serve right away with jasmine rice. 

Roasted chicken with vegetables

I have been planning since long time to do a trial of this recipe, and last week, even though I was not quite feeling well, I managed to carry out my first experiment.

Don’t have fresh chicken in the house, so I asked hayati to buy one in the nearby supermarket. Sad to say, without much clear instruction from my side, the vendor had cut the chicken into pieces.

Yet I decided to push through with roasting method, but instead of the whole chicken, I have it in pieces.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 kg chicken, skin removed
• 1/2 kg potatoes, cut into chunks, almost same size as the chicken
• 2 carrots, sliced into chunks
• 2 medium onions, cut into quarters
• 3 cloves of garlic
• Salt & pepper
• Extra virgin Olive oil (EVOO)

Put all the vegetables and chicken in a roasting pan. Dash with some salt, pepper and around 2 tablespoons of EVOO. Toast until all gets coated with the oil.

Cook in a 220-250 degrees C preheated oven for an hour. Serve & enjoy.

My roasting lesson actually turned out okay, but will do it again some other time with a whole chicken instead.

Pasta with Peas & Mortadella

To go with my pika-pika asparagus wraps I’m making simple pasta noodles with peas and mortadella.  This is my dinner tonight.

• 100 grams spaghetti noodles
• 2 tablespoons EVOO (Extra-virgin olive oil)
• 2 cloves of garlic, sliced
• Grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 100 grams mortadella (I’m using with olive flavor), cut into bite-size
• Pepper & salt to taste
• Sage leaves (No fresh sage available in the pantry so I’m using dried sage)

Direction

• Boil water in a large saucepan, add salt and cook the pasta for about 8 minutes (check package for a more specific minutes required).  Plunge the peas into the pan and bring to boil for two more minutes till the peas are tender and the pasta is al dente. Drain well. Reserve some of the cooking water.
• Meanwhile, in a non-stick pan, heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil and brown the garlic. Add the mortadella slices, sage, season with some pepper and salt.  Stir fry in a low fire for around 5 minutes.
• Add the drained pasta and peas into the pan. Add about 4 teaspoons from the pasta water, mix to incorporate all the flavors and cook for another 2 minutes.
• Serve with grated parmesan cheese on top.