Seafood Pasta

Ingredients

· One serving (about 375g) of Pasta
· 2 tbsp of olive oil
· 300g seafood marinara
· 2 garlic cloves, crushed
· 1 fresh red chilli, finely sliced
· 1 tbsp White wine
· 5 cup mushrooms, thinly sliced
· A few pieces of chopped broccoli
· Salt

Method

1. Cook Pasta in a large saucepan of boiling, salted water. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large frying pan on high, once hot add the garlic and chilli and stir-fry for 10 seconds. Put the seafood in and stir-fry for 2 minutes, and then add salt, white wine and sliced mushrooms, simmer for 3 minutes.
3. Place the pasta in the pan and mix them with the seafood and stir-fry for a couple of minutes. Before the dish is done, put the broccoli in the pan and simmer for one minute and it’s ready to serve.

It usually takes me one and a half hour to get home from uni, so after a long journey I'm usually starving which means that ill be trying to make an easy dish without too much preparation. This dish is really easy to make only taking about 20minutes and doesn't taste too bad. The only concern is that it looks more like chow mien than pasta. My goal in the future is to try improve the aesthetics for my dish.

Spring Roll

 

Ingredients

• About 14 edible rice papers
• About 1 cup fresh mint leaves
• About 7 oz cooked shrimps, peeled and sliced in half lengthwise (I weighted them before peeling them)
• About 14 lettuce leaves
• About 2 cups cooked rice vermicelli, cold
• About 3 cups fresh bean sprouts

Sauce

• 4 tbsp rice vinegar
• 4 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 garlic clove, crushed (optional)
• 1 tbsp grated carrots (optional)

 

1. Start by softening the rice papers. I like to use two rice papers per roll, just to make sure they don't break. Fill a large bowl with warm water. Dip two rice papers (or one) very carefully and gradually for about 1 minute, until totally soften. Lay rice papers on a clean cloth.

2. Arrange about 4 beautiful mint leaves at the bottom of the rice paper, then about 4 shrimp halves. Top with a lettuce leaf, a small handful of vermicelli and a small handful of bean sprouts. Add additional mint leaves. That's the moment when you can actually add pretty much anything you have in mind -and in you fridge- (think cilantro, peanuts, chicken, parsley...). Top with a second lettuce leaf. Always keep about 2 inches uncovered on each side.

 

3. Now the rolling part. Fold uncovered sides inward, then tightly roll the rice paper, as shown on the pics. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

 

4. Prepare the sauce. In a sauce pan, combine rice vinegar, fish sauce, water and sugar. Heat until sugar is dissolved, then let cool completely. Add garlic and carrots. It keeps about a week in the fridge.

Review and Recommendation:

Spring Roll is a cool, easy, and an efficient process that yields a delectable prize. Did you know that Spring/Summer Rolls are Egg Rolls that are not fried? Because they are not fried, they are very low in fat and calories! Not only are these Rolls tasty, but they are also healthy. These are good as a starter or a main course.

Secrets of great Spring/Summer rolls are to use the freshest ingredients available, to moisten the rice-paper wrappers until they are pliable but not too wet, and to roll the bundles tightly. The beauty of spring rolls is that you can you just about any ingredients you like. Pre-made wrappers and bottled dipping sauces are readily available in Asian markets and the Asian section of most supermarkets.

Melting Moments

Melting Moments

I thought for my first recipe I would try and conquer a classic. I've never eaten or made a melting moment so it’s a first for both! I’m hoping this simplistic recipe will give me enough time to study for Business Law and provide a delicious snack to get me through it.

Wish me luck!

(This is what I am expecting them to look like!)

Ingredients

• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 200g soft icing sugar mixture, sifted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1½ cups plain flour
• ¼ cup cornflour
• 4 tsp lemon juice
• Extra soft icing sugar mixture, for dusting

Method

1. Preheat oven to 150°C. Line 2 oven trays with baking paper. Put 200g of the butter and 60g of the icing sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on high, using paddle attachment, for 5 minutes or until pale. Add vanilla and beat. Sift in flours and beat gently.

2. Form dough into 32 pieces about 2 heaped teaspoons large. Arrange 3cm apart on prepared trays. Flatten lightly with a glass, then press with a lightly floured fork. Bake for 20 minutes or until undersides are golden. Cool on a wire rack.

3. Put remaining butter and icing sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and whip on high, using whisk attachment, for 5 minutes or until pale. Add lemon juice and whisk. Use lemon icing to sandwich biscuits. Serve dusted with extra icing sugar.

Recipe & image taken from: http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/food/recipes/recipe/-/18467464/melting-moments/

Review

As expected this recipe was super EASY! I had enough time to make 2 batches and still study for Business Law. After the biscuits cooled down it was time for the best part; tasting.

They really do ‘melt in your mouth’ and the lemon adds an extra kick!

It’s definitely worth making them for any party or to get you through that study/work you’d rather not do.

Recipe Amendments/Recommendations

I would suggest only using 1 ½ heaped teaspoons and making the biscuits smaller, this will stop them from being dry; OR a better recommendation would be adding extra icing in the centre.

In a fan forced oven that has been preheated the biscuits will take around 10-15 mins to go golden. Leaving them in any longer will dry them out.

Finally if you don’t like too much lemon I suggest putting 2 teaspoons of lemon juice (this is what I did and for me it was just enough lemon to be enjoyable instead of too sour). 

All in all I’m happy to say this recipe was a success!

- Adelaide

(How they really turned out! Not too bad if I may say so myself!)

My Pizza Recipe- Lisa Alhage

Today, I decided to make a pizza to help me procrastinate for my long day of planned study. I wasn’t sure at first what I should make. I saw some pastry sheets lying in the freezer and I do remember they had some serving suggestions to make pizzas using the puff pastry as a pizza base.

I wasn’t sure if it would work and taste as nice as a pizza. I found all the toppings I wanted to put on my pizza and went for it.

This is the recipe I made. Hope you enjoy it.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 sheet of puff pastry
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp of tomato paste
• 2 tbsp of garlic sauce
• Mozzarella cheese
• Boiled chicken breast
• ¼ of an onion sliced
• ½ of a tomato
• Black olives
• Oregano
• Salt and pepper

Method

1.  Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees celcius.
2.  Thaw the puff pastry to room temperature.
3.  Fold half a cm on the side of the pastry to create a crust.
4.  Spread out the tomato paste and garlic sauce on the base of the pizza.
5.  Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese over the sauce.
6.  Open up the chicken into smaller pieces and place them over the base of the pizza.
7.  Place the olives, onion and tomatoes over the base aswell.
8.  Sprinkle some oregano, salt and pepper as wanted.
9.  Brush some egg on the sides of the pizza to give a golden touch when cooked.

    10.Place the pizza in the oven and cook for 20 minutes or until the ingredients are fully cooked.

Reviews and alterations

This recipe was really quick to make which could be made in half an hour. I do love making pizzas but usually don’t because it takes too long by having to make the pizza base. This time the puff pastry was the base. It turned out what expected with a couple of things I would change though.

Like first of all I would put less garlic (even though I’m middle eastern and we love our garlic) as the garlic taste was over powering the pizza.

Another thing I would change would be to mix up the cheese a bit and not put only one type because the cheese became too stringy when biting into the pizza.

I think the pizza wouldn’t have tasted as good if there were no oregano herbs. The oregano gave the pizza a wonderful taste.

Over all, I liked this idea of using puff pastry as the base of the pizza and it did taste wonderful and would be even more if the alterations were made.

I would rate this recipe 7/10 and I would make this recipe again.

By Lisa Alhage

Our blog storyboard

This is our Storyboard which is the rough draft of how our blog should look like and how each blog post will look like. It shows the format of each blog post and the gadgets that are added on.
I hope all the viewers enjoy our recipes and everyone can relate to our successes and disasters.

Introduction

Recipe Successes & Disasters: Introduction

Recipe Successes & Disasters is written by 4 Macquarie University students who either procrastinate from studying by cooking or are willing to give procrastination via cooking a go!

We will be posting recipes, pictures of how the food is supposed to look and how it really turns out. We’ll review the recipe, make amendments or recommendations (if you wish to make the recipe yourself) and rate its difficulty level.

Each post one of us create a sweet or savory dish and seeing as our group is culturally diverse you can expect the food to be too.

We aim to come out with some recipe successes but if not you’ll be able to laugh at our disasters! 

We hope you enjoy our recipes and their stories, and hopefully we can inspire you to put down the textbook, close the laptop lid and focus on enjoying a simpler thing in life - food!

The Amateur Chef’s

Adelaide Dias (42863872)

I’m currently Commerce, majoring in Marketing and Commercial Law and this is my second year at Macquarie. Despite loving my course sometimes textbook readings aren't as motivating as icing on a cupcake! I love to make desserts and I often bake to get my friends and myself through the chaotic and full on semesters at university. Whilst desserts often look appealing and easy, there are so many things that could go wrong -so prepare for some recipe disasters!

Lisa Alhage (43267696)

I’ll be contributing to this blog with my fellow group members. I do have a hobby for cooking usually when I’m supposed to be studying, a sign that I’m procrastinating. I like cooking varieties of different cuisines depending on my taste for the day. I am surely not a professional chef so I do make mistakes. This blog is for us to share what we make and how we feel towards it; the taste, the mistakes and the successes.

Richelle Zhu (42719941)

My diet consists of mostly Asian food, as I grew up in China it's just a matter of habit. As a result, most of the dishes I make are Chinese, however lately I have taken on the challenge of making my own western dishes, despite my lack of experience in making western food there were cases of miraculous success at least according to my taste test volunteers. In my blog I will show you my favourite Chinese dishes as well as my brave attempt at fusion cuisine featuring the art of orient with the finest of the west. 

Chenxi Wang (42496497)

I have been studying in Australia for almost three years. Apart from studying, I have always enjoyed cooking and it is also a part of my daily life as I am an international exchange student. I learnt to cook at a young age from my mum and ever since then, I always enjoyed cooking and learning to cook various types of foods. Learning to make different sorts of soup is my favourite cooking skill. I do not consider myself as a professional in cooking, but I enjoy learning and trying out new things. Here I will share my soup cooking experience and recipe.

We look forward to sharing our successes and laughing off our disasters!