Happily Home Cooked Italian meals

I have been on blog hiatus so long that I can't even remember my last post on this blog. While Brain has been keeping readers entertained with mainly photos and travels on our family blog, Pinkythots, I have been busy sorting out our new home which we moved in late last year after a 3years of hectic planning, designing and building. It was relief finally to be able to move into a home we conceptualised with the help of an architect. I thought that day would never come. To be honest, it was gruelling and stressful three years given the details that go into the project, glitches that one encounter when embarking on a project this size and decisions that need to be made. But thanks to a very competent team ( architect and home-builders), our house was finally a home. Yippee!!!

On the home front, while I busied myself furnishing the home to a comfortable and liveable state based on the best of my ability and resources available, I still have to juggle a job on flexible hours and caring for my two tykes who are getting

into all sorts of mischief in the new home.

With the spanking new dry kitchen in place with top of the range appliances, Brain has been pestering me when I would utilise them given the money and time that we have spent on the area. My wet kitchen is fully utilised for sure - it is just that I haven't come around to using the ceramic hobs on the island and the built in oven in the dry kitchen.

Therefore I decided to embark on a culinary adventure on my first attempt in utilising the area and its applicances. My first foray into the coo

king world after 3 years of not fixing a decent meal for Brain and myself took place during the long string of public holidays in early February 2012. Since I absolutely love Italian Food - I decided to try out a few recipes of my favourite food but varied the taste to suit my Asian taste buds.

I prepared a three course meal consisting of Tomato Caprese ( Appertiser), Penne Arrabbiata (Mains) and home-made tiramisu.

ROASTED TOMATO CAPRESE

Ingredients:-

• 4 large ripe tomatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 1 pound fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 3 cloves of garlic finely minced
• 1/3 cup fresh basil leaves
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• fine sea salt to taste
• freshly ground black pepper and lemon juice to taste

Directions:

1. Put the sliced tomatoes on the baking tray and sprinkle the minced garlic on each slice. Roast in the oven at 220 c for 10-12 minutes to allow the garlic to permeate the tomatoes with flavour.

2. Once roasted, transfer to a large platter, alternate and overlap the tomato slices, mozzarella cheese slices, and basil leaves. Drizzle with olive oil. Season with sea salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste.

Time taken: 15-20 minutes

PENNE ARRABBIATA (SERVES 2)

Ingredients:-

1 can of chopped tomatoes
3 tbsp olive oil
half an onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tsp chilli flakes
salt and black pepper
pinch of sugar
grated parmesan, to serve

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, gently cook the onion and garlic in the olive oil until the onion has softened. Add the chopped tomatoes, chilli flakes and sugar.
Season with salt and pepper and simmer for 25-30 minutes until thickened.
2. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in plenty of salted water until cooked and then drain the pasta.
3. Add the pasta to the sauce and mix in well. Serve with grated parmesan.

Time taken: 25 minutes

TIRAMISU ( For this I used Giada De Laurentiis's recipe as it was so easy and I have to hand it her for coming up with such a simple recipe that taste really good)

Ingredients

• *6 egg yolks (I used pasteurised eggs )
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 pound mascarpone cheese
• 1 1/2 cups strong espresso, cooled
• 2 teaspoons coffee liquor ( I used this instead of rum)
• 24 packaged ladyfingers
• 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate shavings, for garnish

Directions

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer with whisk attachment, beat egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale, about 5 minutes. Add mascarpone cheese and beat until smooth. Add 1 tablespoon of espresso and mix until thoroughly combined.

In a small shallow dish, add remaining espresso and rum. Dip each ladyfinger into espresso for only 5 seconds. Letting the ladyfingers soak too long will cause them to fall apart. Place the soaked ladyfinger on the bottom of a 13 by 9 inch baking dish, breaking them in half if necessary in order to fit the bottom.

Spread evenly 1/2 of the mascarpone mixture over the ladyfingers. Arrange another layer of soaked ladyfingers and top with remaining mascarpone mixture.

Cover tiramisu with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to 8 hours.

Before serving, sprinkle with chocolate shavings.

Time Taken: 25 minutes.

I am no culinary expert or kitchen goddess but the above experiments have certainly ignited my interest in cooking more for the family!

The weasel abides.

The weasel abides.

Book Review: Battle Hymm of the Tiger Mother

This must be the "Mother-of-all-books" for 2011, in the sense that the author, Amy Chua has managed not only to ignite controversy and heated debate in the US but in doing so she has help to propel the book onto the best seller list of the New York Times and Amazon.com. I first heard about her from a colleague of mine and read her intriguing but yet controversial "Why Chinese Mothers are superior" article on the Wall Street Journal. The resulting controversy and debate surrounding her comments piqued my interest considerably and I decided to hunt for the book in Malaysia which was unfortunately not available in the major bookstores until mid February 2011. Being somewhat of a bookworm, I was determined to obtain a copy of the book before the Chinese New Year break and decided to order it from bookdepository.com which offered free shipping.

Once I got my hands on the book, I couldn'tput it down. With two young children to care for, the only time I could read it was after they had gone to bed. It took me 7 days to finish the book and while I found the book intriguing however the methods that Amy used to push and prod her daughters to succeed a bit to stiffling for my liking. I do agree that a certain amount of discipline and structure is necessary for young children who rely on their caregivers or parents to point them in the right direction but to control their choices is another thing altogether. However insane her methods might be,it appears on the surface at least that her eldest daughter thrived. She managed to maintain excellent academic results at school and the rigorous practice sessions that her mother put her through to ensure that she maintained a flawless performance as a concert pianist. Of course, her parenting methods and tactics did not work on her second daughter whose rebelliousness spiralled into violence. And this caused Amy to take a step back and let her younger daughter make her own decisions.

Overall, I think nobody should take her book too seriously. After all it is as she has said, a memoir and not intended to be a parenting guide. She is merely poking fun at herself as a parent and not encouraging anybody to emulate any of her methods. So for all the controversy that the book has generated, I think that at the end of the day, the parenting methods that you adopt would depend on what you as a parent think is best for your own childre. No one method works and I think parenting styles will also change as the child grows older and becomes more mature in her/his outlook of life. So there you have it - my 2 cents worth of thoughts on this!