Gnocchi with Clams and Asparagus 義式蛤蜊芦笋麵疙瘩

After I success made the Gnocchi, I quickly use it to cook this Gnocchi with clams and asparagus. We tasted a similar pasta in a restaurant in Roma Italy near the hotel we stayed. We even went back the 2nd times and order the same gnocchi pasta.
It is easy for me to get fresh clams than fresh crabs in the wet market near my place. This lady selling fresh clams mainly sell the clams to restaurants. Sometime when I was late and no more clams, after I strong persuade her (amazing my bargain skill) , she will take the clams from the bag (reserved for those restaurants) and release some for me, hehehe..

 

Homemade gnocchi 

 

Even though I couldn't imitate the real taste of the gnocchi that we have tasted, but my version also tasted not bad ..

Gnocchi with Clams and Asparagus

(recipe source: by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover)

Homemade Gnocchi

1.5kg clams
100g asparagus, only use the green part, cubed

Butter

Olive oil
Garlic, slices
Chicken stock or water
Salt to taste
Parmesan cheese powder, to taste
Black pepper
Parsley flakes

 Method (Cook for one person at a time)

1. Prepare a pot of boiling water.
2. Heat butter and olive oil, sauté garlic slices.
3. Add in generous amount of clams (for one person) and asparagus, add in chicken stock, cover to cook.
4. Once clams are almost done, blanch gnocchi in hot boiling water. Once gnocchi float on top (take less than 1min), remove and add into clams.
5. Add in the seasonings salt,chicken stock powder and parmesan cheese powder, mix well, dish out.
6. Sprinkle with black pepper and parsley flakes, serve hot.

Six Threes Ice Cream 六个三冰淇淋

I am feel refreshing today as haze has almost gone, and I can see sky (still not that blue) and sun, so this is a good day to share with you this refreshing and full of vitamins ice cream that I made during the hazy day. It was gone too fast ,less than 2 days we finished 1.5lite of this ice-cream.
Why this ice-cream called Six Threes Ice Cream?

According to Barefeet in the kitchen's grandmother--> Six Threes Ice Cream is such an easy recipe to remember; once you make it a couple times, it will be in your memory forever. (3) bananas, (3) oranges, (3) lemons, (3) cups of cream, (3) cups of milk, (3) cups of sugar = Six Threes.
Thanks to Barefeet in the kitchen and her grandmother for sharing such a nice ice-cream recipe.

 

due to the size of my ice-cream maker, I made using 2 x 6 ingredients ...

Six Threes Ice Cream

(recipe source: adapted from Barefeet in the kitchen, with minor changes)
Yield 1.5 litre

2 bananas, mashed

2 orange juices
2 lemon juices
2 cup sugar
2 cups dairy whipping cream (I use Anchor UHT whipping cream)
2 cups full cream milk
A pinch of fine sea salt

Method

1. Stir together the fruit juices, sugar and salt until combined.
2. Stir in the milk and cream and pour, refrigerate the mixture until completely chilled.
3. Churn the mixture in an ice cream maker, according to manufacturer’s instruction.
4. Serve immediately for soft serve ice cream or transfer to a freezer safe container and freeze for several hours or overnight prior to serving. Enjoy!

By the way, I just has a mobile Instagram account not long ago (search for me at sonianll ) . If you like to know what am I cooking in my private kitchen, you may follow me. I am just sharing those photos taken from my home cooked foods, and not all are sharing in my blog here as due to time constraint and some are just simple home cooked dish.
Below is the latest photo I shared in my Instagram, homemade Lo Mai Kai (steamed glutinious rice with chicken) for breakfast this morning..

Chestnut and Pumpkin Bread Rolls 栗子南瓜麵包捲



In order to clear the leftover pumpkin and a pack of roast peeled chestnut that have been sitting there for too long and going to expire, so I bake this chestnut and pumpkin bread rolls the other day. After did quite a number of breads recipe, I am able to use the basic bread ingredients to come out my own bread recipe. I noticed that recently it is so fast to proof bread dough (about 30-45mins), due to recent hot and warm weather.

 

Nowadays it is easy to get this type of roast peeled chestnut in our local supermarket here. I plan to use this store-bought chestnut to make Bar Chang (rice dumpling) next time, no more hard time to prepare chestnut at home.

 

I bought this small piece of handmade lace dolly from a market at Firenze Italy , very expensive after converted, so was able to buy a small piece like this..

 

Making the rolls...

 

This bread rolls still maintained soft till the next day due to addition of pumpkin. But it just turned a bit dry due to no addition of sponge dough. Nowadays I like to make bread using direct method, lazy to make sponge dough or overnight sponge dough method. Also because we have to consume homemade bread very fast as no preservative is added.

 



Chestnut and Pumpkin Bread Rolls 栗子南瓜麵包捲

(recipe source: inspired from the cookbook Home Baking with my own twist )
*makes 9 buns using a non-stick square pan 24x24cm

Ingredients

250g high protein flour or bread flour
50g mashed pumpkin
1tsp + 1/4tsp instant yeast
1/2tsp salt
50g egg (medium size egg)
50g sugar
60g milk or adjust accordingly
20g unsalted butter, room temperature

120g roast peeled chestnut (store-bought), chopped

10g unsalted butter, for brushing
Egg wash

Method

1. Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl except milk and unsalted butter.
2. Using a stand mixer, slowly pour in milk (don’t pour all at one go, adjust accordingly) and knead till smooth. Add in butter, continue to knead till elastic and smooth. Cover with plastic wrap or cloth and set aside to proof until double size (for me this took about 45mins).
3. Punch down the dough and set aside for 5mins.
4. Using a roll pin, roll dough into 24x24cm, using a silicone brush, brush butter on top of the dough.
5. Sprinkle chopped chestnut on top, roll it up like a swiss roll, divide it into 9 pcs.Place them on the prepared baking pan. Set aside to proof until puffy (for me this took about 15mins).
6. Apply egg wash on the dough, bake at pre-heated oven at 180C for 20mins or until golden brown. Cool briefly before serve.

Choon Pniah ( Nyonya Egg Spring Roll ) 娘惹春餅

Thinking to join Alan Travelling Foodies's MFF Penang event, but I have cooked few Penang foods before like Penang Assam Laksa , Penang prawn noodles (a very old recipe, will re-port if I cook this again) and Ju Hu Char ( never post this before), so I don't want to sharing the same recipe..
I went through the old Flavours food magazines and I found this Choon Pniah (Egg Spring roll) recipe shared by Theresa Goh. The earlier yummy crab laksa recipe is from her too. She is come from a Peranakan family in Penang. I like all recipes shared by her, going to try out more her recipes in the future.

 

The filling is similar like the normal spring roll which use yambean

But the homemade egg spring roll make this spring roll special, unlike using the store-bought spring roll wrapper, very crispy like eating biscuit. This homemade spring roll has slight chewy texture and has slight egg aroma.



 

Wrapping Choon Pniah

 

We also like this special homemade Worcestershire dipping sauce. It taste sweet, sour, salty with spices aroma, yum!

 

I found to enjoy with daun Kadok also taste nice..

 

In this hot and heavy haze day, we enjoyed this Choon Pniah with a bowl of mung beans and barley dessert soup, simply perfect!

 

Original recipe required to place cooked crab meat on top of filling before wrap the spring roll, since I couldn't get crab meat, so I replaced with fresh prawn meat.

Choon Pniah ( Nyonya Egg Spring Roll ) 娘惹春餅

(Recipe source: adapted from Flavours Food magazine, recipe by Theresa Goh, with minor changes)
*makes 9 spring rolls, with some leftover filling

Filling

125g chicken, diced (mix with 1/2tsp cornstartch)
100g fresh prawns, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 onion, chopped
30g carrot, shredded
400g yambean (sengkuang), shredded
2 soaked Chinese black mushroom, shredded
1/2tbsp soy sauce, or to taste
1/2tbsp sugar
1tsp salt or to taste
Pepper to taste
Cooking oil
water
dark caramel soy sauce for colouring,optional

Method

1. Heat oil in a work, fry garlic and onions till aroma but not browned.
2. Add in chicken and prawns, fry until aromatic.
3. Add in carrot, yambean and mushroom, fry for 1min before adding water. Allow to cook until yambean is translucent and dry, about 15mins. Set aside to cool.

Homemade Worcestershire Sauce

 2 cloves

1 pc small cinnamon
½ star anise
3tbsp water
1tbsp dark soy sauce
1tsp light soy sauce
1tsp mustard ( I use dijon mustard)
1 and 1/2tbsp white vinegar
1 and 1/2tbsp caster sugar
1/4tsp salt or to taste

Method

1. Mix all ingredients in a small saucepan, bring the sauce to boil and lower the heat, simmer uncovered till sauce turned thick, took about 10mins.

Wrapper

150g plain flour

1 tbsp corn flour
1 egg
1/4tp salt
300g water

Method

1. Combine the flour and cornflour in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add in the egg, salt and water, mix well.
2. Lightly grease a 7” non-stick pan over low medium heat. Place a scoop of the batter onto the centre of the pan and swirl to coat the pan to make a thin crepe.If batter is too thick, add water to thin it down.
3. The crepe is done when the sides start to curd. Remove from pan and make another crepe. Stack crepes on a bamboo basket.

To assemble and fry-place some filling on a crepe and roll up to enclose the filling completely (seal with glue (1tbsp plain flour + 1 1/2tbsp water). Heat enough oil in a wok for deep frying. Slip in the rolls, several at a time, and deep fry over a medium flame until golden and crisp. Drain on paper towels.

To serve – Cut spring roll into 3 segments, serve with cut chillies and homemade Worcestershire sauce.

I am submitting this post to Malaysian Food Fest, Penang Month hosted by Alan of Travellingfoodies

Vatican Museums 梵諦岡博物館, Sistine Chapel, Rome Italy 2013 羅馬意大利自由行

After we left St. Peter's Basilica, we went to Vatican Museums which is just located beside the St.Peter's Basilica. And we experienced the long waiting time (1 and 1/2hr) to enter this museum (I heard if booked online will be faster).
There are many famous statues, frescos (is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid lime plaster ) and tapestries(textile art) in this museum. Even though I am neither an art person nor a Christian, but still find them awesome !! This is famous "The Creation of Adam " fresco painted on the ceiling of  Sistine Chapel (this photo taken from a postcard as we were not allowed to take picture in the Sistine Chapel ^_^).

 

very long Q under hot sun !

 

you can skip from the long Q by joining this type of  "Skip the line" Vatican tour. I did not ask the fee since we don't want to spend money on this kind of tour..but I know the fee is high!

 

Luckily we spent the 1/1/2 hrs waiting time with a couple from Argentina (from the left) and two guys from Brazil . We were non-stop chatting from their experience on backpacker trip, politics, shoes, watches, taxes & etc. It was nice to know them as they are friendly and cheerful . They were also invited us to visit their country ^_^..I think I will go to Argentina since I had been to Brazil before..

 



View over the courtyard of the Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani), looking towards the dome of St. Peter's Basilica and the peaked roof of the Sistine Chapel (right)

This is spiral staircases leading us up to museum (check below for another spiral staircases, it is beautiful than this )

 First we entered to gallery of sculptures

 

prepared to jam with this kind of crowds

Apoxyomenos , I prefer to take a picture from behind, sexy man , hehehe..

 

this is very unique sculpture !

Sculpture of Laoco



 

wall painting gallery

 

This is textile art of, but I am not sure is this "The Last Supper" ?

The view of outside of the museum

 

more ceiling painting

 

Before we exit, saw this mini version of Vatican city 

 

This is a most amazing staircase that I have ever seen, a spiral staircases that leading us down..

 

Still long Q but better than morning time that we have gone through, so advise to visit in the afternoon