comfort food of the day - spaghetti alla carbonara

what is comfort food? what kind of food is considered comfort food? well, the content of comfort food changes with each and every person.  have you ever felt depressed or disappointed, and nothing seems to make you feel better... unknowingly, you find yourself tuck in bed with a pint of your favorite ice cream and each mouthful melts away the pain, that is one kind of comfort food. in general, comfort food are food that makes you feel good, food that lightens you up, food that makes you happier and such.

personally, my range of comfort food is beyond numbers! and for the day, spaghetti carbonara hits every single spot, i was feeling lazy... all i wanted to do was savor a big plate of creamy spaghetti and the carbonara that i managed to whip up was simple yet so good... =)

 

the crispy bacon bits complemented the creamy yolk sauce perfectly, every strand of spaghetti was coated with the rich sauce leaving no room for mistake, each mouthful burst with flavor which leaves me longing for the next... this recipe is definitely in my 'keep' list!

nigella's spaghetti alla carbonara (serves 1-2)

250g spaghetti

150g pancetta (i used normal bacon)

1 teaspoons olive oil

25g grated parmesan

2 eggs

2 tablespoons double cream

dash of black pepper

freshly grated nutmeg (if available)

1. Boil spaghetti in a pot of water with salt till al dente. Make sure to keep some of the pasta water before draining, just in case you need to thin the sauce or such.

2. Pan-fry bacon in olive oil till crispy. If preferred, white wine or vermouth can be added for flavor. (I removed most of the oil after the bacon turned crispy as the oil tends to make the pasta too salty.

3. In a bowl, mix the eggs, parmesan, cream and pepper. Toss the drained pasta with the bacon bits and remove the pan from the heat. Make sure the pan is not too hot, add the egg and cheese mixture, swiftly toss and mix. Add a little of the pasta water to lubricate if necessary, grate nutmeg over pasta for the extra oomph!

another one of my comfort food - potatoes! this dish is just simply numerous layers of thinly-sliced potatoes with dashes of sea salt and black pepper, finishing with a touch of cheddar cheese.

and all time favorite - tiramisu. it is a dessert that takes away all my worries and brings happiness back!

a failed attempt at making pudding but nevertheless, i will keep trying since i love the taste of of it and of course, it falls into my category of comfort food too *chuckles*

a simple but yet... so... so good snack, dried beef or prosciutto with mozzarella cheese on a slice of baguette, finish with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil... trust me, it is good!

The Puffs of Encouragement

Through the door of my room, I could hear the voices of my parents as they got ready to leave. They were heading to the doctor's first for my dad's check up and to the office where my mum had to go for a briefing for the upcoming new surveys. It was still early in the morning, around seven, I was still sleeping quite soundly in bed, wondering how I should spend my day today. Should I try to finish my book today or should I cook or bake something?

As I laze in bed thinking, time seems to run past me and it was almost 9 when I got up. I messaged my mum asking her to keep me updated of my dad's results. And within a minute, i got beeped, she told me no change. No change in the dad's blood glucose level, I thought it was good but my mum replied saying that my dad was disappointed as he was so sure that his blood glucose level would decrease but it seems that his new diet needed some time before the results can be seen.

I knew how disappointing it can be when you thought that something was bound to happen in a certain way but turn out the other way instead. So I messaged telling him not to be disappointed and continue working on his new diet, one day, we will see the difference. And I thought it would be a good idea to come up with something he enjoys eating since he has been curbing his appetite, something to encourage him before he goes back to his diet.

Hmmmm, my dad is definitely a fussy eater (now you know why I am one too), it would be tough to make something he really enjoys... oh! Curry Puffs!!! He loves them and I could make use of the puff pastry in my freezer. 

Well, as we most Asians know, curry puffs are snacks made of pastry puffs containing thicken curry chicken, potatoes and sometimes eggs. So I made a list of ingredients I needed to buy and ran to the market just opposite my block. 

Chicken drumsticks... check, coconut milk... check, potatoes... check... onions and shallots... check, why am I checking my list so carefully? That is because it irritates me to stop what I am doing just to get the missing ingredient and I have done that a few time and it is not fun every single time.

Peel and dice the potatoes, that is easy. De-bone the drumsticks and cut the meat into small pieces, I could have made things easier by getting breast meat instead but I have no love for breast meat since it dries too easily. De-boning can't be that tough I though... it wasn't tough but it took quite awhile before I managed to have my little pieces of chicken meat since I did remove all the skin and fats as well... healthy living... hah.

Brown the onions and shallots, add the curry powder and chili paste, before I could react, my hands poured the uncooked potatoes into the mixture. Oh no... I was supposed to boil them first... now it would take me ages to cook them with the paste... After nearly 45 minutes of simmering which means I had to keep adding water and watch over the fire to prevent the mixture from drying up, I finally had potatoes that was soft enough to be digested. In goes the chicken, 5 minutes later, the coconut milk too. Smells good!

I though the puff pastry would be able to hold its shape when the curry mixture was being place in it but I was so wrong. It tore and went out of shape horribly, so I had to make my puff into a pie... a curry pie. 

Although its not a puff, but the pie was good too. The puff pastry did not taste as good as I would like it to be but the curry mixture was heavenly, the tender chicken and soft potatoes were coated perfectly by the curry giving a creamy and moist texture, every mouthful had a tinge of  spiciness and wonderful aroma of the coconut milk. It was a good pie, good enough as a source of encouragement =)