Perfect Spaghetti al Pomodoro

Unfortunately I haven't had time to cook these past few days. I've been so busy that I'm actually forgetting meals -- shocking, I know. But as I am dedicated to this blog I must update -- even if there are no photos and obviously it's a lot less appealing but it's okay!

Here is how to make the perfect Spaghetti al Pomodoro. You can use the same tomato sauce for dozens of things. Eat it with meat balls, with stuffed vegetables, put on top of pizza. It's incredibly versatile. Add some anchovies and sun dried tomatoes with the soffritto in the beginning. Add cream or chopped mozzarella in the end. But here is the basic, classic, traditional, fool-proof recipe for the best Spaghetti al Pomodoro.

My father loves Spaghetti al Pomodoro -- he could eat it all day long. Because of his work, he mainly eats Chinese food (living in China and all that), and so whenever he is home, all he wants is this. Now, my father may not be able to cook many things, but his pastas are sensational -- I never order this dish outside, ever. Italians are often very conservative with their foods, and I'd like to think that I'm slightly more open-minded, but with some classic dishes... I don't like making changes. I feel like changing it would insult my family in a way, as these dishes are much more than just delicious food -- they're memories. Memories of my father making pasta in the middle of the night, memories of seeing strands of spaghetti tangled up in a vibrant, thick sauce with sparks of green basil on a plate too large for me, yet still insisting on eating it all with my fork and hands and savoring the perfect balance of sweet, sour and salty.

Vegan Tofu Cheesecake

Thinking back to the two-week break I just had, I think I've learned a couple of lessons:
1.  The public transport system in London is far from perfect
2.  Check which airport you're going to
3.  Don't trust easyBus

Learned all  these the hard way.

Anyway, other than the ridiculous amount of money I've lost, I've also basically just sat in front of a television and binged for two weeks straight.  Now as life is back to normal tomorrow, it's time for the cleansing diet.  Here's a tofu cheesecake I made sometime ago -- something to set my mind back on the right track.

It was a real experimentation -- I quite liked the texture of the filling, it was, as expected, silky smooth and ever so soft.  Flavor wise, it was satisfactory, but perhaps next time I'll add more peanut butter, or use other stronger flavors to mask the slight hints of tofu.  Some cocoa, vanilla or spices perhaps.  The crust was pretty much identical to the lemon thyme souffle cakes .

Ingredients
Filling
300g silken tofu
2 tbsp peanut butter
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp corn flour

Crust
1/2 cup dates
1/2 cup nuts

Method
Preheat oven to 180C.  Make the crust by combining the dates and the nuts in a food processor and pulse until it comes together as a dough.  Butter two small ramekans and line the base with the crust mixture.
Make the filling by putting all the other ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth.  Fill in the ramekans and bake for 30 minutes.  

Chocolate Yeast Bread

You're seduced from the first moment you feel the beautiful soft dough with your hands.  Then as it enters the oven, the aroma wafts gently from the kitchen to the rest of the house -- imagine the combination of the smells of chocolate and fresh bread -- thank you, David.

The recipe unfortunately isn't mine.  This is David Lebovitz's chocolate bread.  He's an American that lives in Paris and makes all these wonderful creations.

Should've left it in the oven for a bit longer but it was a bit difficult to wait any longer.  Please try this at home as it's very different from your average muffin-like chocolate quick bread.  This is almost like a chocolate brioche as it's made with yeast.  Mmmm.

Easter Goodies

All my favorite holidays are marked by some food item.  For Easter, it's chocolate eggs.  Growing up in China in the 90's meant that there wasn't the atmosphere and the excitement around Easter time.  There weren't aisles miles long of chocolate easter eggs in supermarkets; no giant statues of rabbits and baskets in shopping malls; no special Easter Sunday menus in restaurants.  When I think back to Easter as a child, only vivid memories of chocolate eggs come to mind -- two types of chocolate eggs.

Large chocolate eggs, the size of my little head, wrapped in bright gold foil with a big colorful bow, barely holding its shape after the long journey from Italy to China. Behind the wrap there were thin and fragile broken egg shells that revealed a tiny little plastic toy inside -- unfortunately the size of the egg was not at all representative of the size of the toy.

Then there were the bags of mini Lindt chocolate eggs from my parents' friend, Giovanni Di Pasquale. He'd always come around Easter time. Unlike other family friends whom we'd had to unwillingly entertain by being present at the dinner table and smile and nod along their meaningless adult conversations, the guy was wonderful -- he cooked and gave us chocolate. Every year was the same bag of assorted colorful Lindt chocolate eggs. Colors and chocolate, it was like a small bag of edible rainbow droplets that gave so much more satisfaction than just a sugar high.

I open the bag and try to take one of each color out without pouring all of the eggs out. Then I examined them, carefully deciding which to eat first before putting everything neatly back and saving them for the future gluttony.

With time, grandparents stopped sending chocolate eggs, and the friend started coming around without chocolate eggs. Easter's sole excitement was that it meant a couple of days off school.

Nonetheless, even though my Easters were marked by solely Chocolate eggs as a child, many countries, including my own, celebrate Easter with proper traditional breads and cakes.  In Italy, we obviously have La Colomba Pasquale (Easter dove).  

The dough is similar to that of a panettone, but contains no raisins, topped usually with pearl sugar and almonds, and is shaped into a dove (kind of).  Like panettones, it's usually bought rather than homemade as it's quite a complicated process. But if you fancy making it, there are lots of good recipes out there (like here).  Do tell me if you succeed.

In the UK there are these wonderful Hot Cross Buns.  Soft, light and spongy square breads marked with a cross. Like many other British cakes and breads, it's flavored with dried fruits and spices.   

Here's quite a good recipe of it.  This can be easily made at home.  

Tsoureki is a rich, brioche-like sweet bread eaten at Easter in Greece, but it has its close relatives throughout Eastern Europe.  It's similar to the Armenian choreg, the Bulgarian Kozunak, and the Czech Houska. They all have the similar dough but they're flavored with different ingredients and topped with different nuts.  It's braided and then baked with a pretty colored egg in the middle.  I recommend this recipe.  

Then there's the Dutch Paasbrood.  Sweet bread with candied fruits and stuffed with almond paste, similar to a stollen.

So I hope you do some home baking this Easter, if not you could always go and buy yourself some packaged ones in a store -- either way, make sure you eat some delicious and traditional baked goods this Easter.

Orange and Green Tea Poached Chicken Salad

I love salads.  There's so much more to salads than just some tossed lettuce with oil and vinegar.  It's a wide variety of dishes -- you can have your leafy greens and vinaigrette, or you can have legumes, grains, seafood, meat, roasted veg, fruits with an endless possibility of dressings and sauces from creamy blue cheese to zingy Thai dressings.   

It's springtime, salads are a must to accompany the great weather.  The chicken has delicate flavors with hints of smokiness coming from the tea leaves, accompanied by sweet and tangy notes from the orange juice, and then you get the contrast of zingy sharpness from the zest and ginger. Please do toss it with some julienned vegetables/serve on top of a cold noodle salad/with some legumes.  I had nothing else in the kitchen so it was just pure protein for me.