Lamb Shank Pasta Reprise

I found this dehydrated pasta on sale at Foodie Market, and was really excited to see it retailing at less than $3. I had tried it some years back and found the texture to be very close to that of fresh pasta. Deciding what to cook wasn't too difficult, since the husband's favourite pasta ever had to be the lamb shank pasta.

 The pot - our new Le Creuset - bubbling with lots of amazing smells emerging.

Shrunken shank - fortunately I had bought about 5 shanks for 2 people.

 The dish was pretty amazing, if I do say so myself. 

Pasta and cheese

I got a Jones the Grocer hamper for my birthday last year from old friends, and we were really excited at trying out cooking some of the stuff.

Italian pasta - dried but not like the instant sort

Really pretty curves

I bought about $10 worth of clams from my local market.

Washed them and soaked them in salt water.

Chopped up leek, onion and garlic

In went the garlic

And in went the clams

Opening after a few minutes

Ready to eat!

The pasta was really yummy - tasted like fresh pasta

We had some meatballs that we mixed with a tomato paste

The hamper also had some exciting crackers

And the most amazing fig jam for cheese

We had some lovely brie from Hunter Valley as well as some other hard cheese that the husband bought (can't recall now what it was)

Almost perfect

Basil Leaves

One of my husband's favourite herbs is basil (did you know mint is also a type of basil?) which we use a lot of at home. I traditionally like to buy the pot from Cold Storage since it means I have a bit more time and don't have to use the entire lot of basil leaves at one go.

Over the recent long weekend, we went crazy with the basil. We found some really good buffalo mozzarella cheese and made a caprese salad with a few tomatoes. It was wonderful especially after drizzling some extra virgin olive oil.

We still had some leaves left over, so I went out and bought some more to make pesto. The pine nuts were ridiculously expensive, at $10 for 100g from Cold Storage (if anyone knows of a cheaper source, please let me know). I used 3 boxes of basil from Cold Storage (@$2.95 each) with 100g pine nuts, which I roasted for 10 mins on 180 deg heat, and blended it with EVO before adding grated parmesan cheese and salt. It was very very very simple and delicious, especially with fresh pasta - we used spinach and ricotta tortellini.

Mentaiko Udon

Most of my friends know that I have a sister living in Tokyo, which makes it so easy (and cheap) for me to visit Japan. I get a real kick out of going to random hole-in-the-wall eateries that are off-the-beaten-track and discovering yummy food, which is so easy to do in Japan since most of the eating places take pride in serving good stuff.

In October 2006, my sister arranged for an overnight trip to Kyoto via the Nozomi Shinkansen, which is the fastest bullet train in Japan. The rest of my family took a earlier train back to avoid getting home after dark, while I stayed behind in Kyoto to do more sightseeing.

I was alone for dinner, and while waiting for my train back to Tokyo, stumbled upon a small shop within the Kyoto train station near the JR trains that served Mentaiko Udon. It was simply wonderful - tasty, creamy and just what a hungry girl needed. See picture below extracted from my archives.

One day after work last week, I decided I simply had to make it using a really simple recipe that my sister gave me. I managed to find spicy mentaiko (辛子明太子, karashi mentaiko) at Isetan supermarket.

It was not a cheap dinner - 2 pieces of mentaiko set me back $14.80, and since I had to buy Japanese mayonaise ($5), mirin ($3.50), udon and seaweed as well, I decided to forego the negi (leek) and tobiko (flying fish roe).

For udon in Singapore, I've found that the frozen variety is the best quality. You can get a pack of 3 for around $8. Don't go for the cheaper refrigerated stuff, because it's really limp and textureless when cooked. You can also substitute with pasta - I've found spaghetti works quite well.

The spicy mentaiko was simply beautiful.

First, you have to slit the sacs and scrape out the roe bits.

I melted butter in a saucepan, and after adding the roe, I added a tablespoon of mirin and 2 squirts of mayonnaise.

I threw in the cooked udon (I defrosted it, and then cooked it in boiling water for 3-4 mins) into the mixture and tossed it until it even coated all the udon. The seaweed strips were used as a garnish, but also added texture and flavour to the dish.
Japanese chilli flakes help to spice up the dish.

It was so good I nearly cried

If you're feeling poor, or short of time, I've found this packaged alternative is a pretty good quality substitute. I always have this in my kitchen in case of emergencies : )