I realised that my blog has been neglected greatly. (cry!) My last posting was almost a year ago. Seems like nowadays I have to schedule my time around my son’s exams in school. Just when you thought you have a bit of spare time, something always comes up or the next exam is coming soon and all free time will be used up doing studies and revision. If it’s not exam month, it’s extra income work, making sure you spend enough time with your kids (although they’re very happy just watching Nickelodeon) house cleaning and sorting out tons of items on your to-do-list that had been stagnant for months.
Cooking also had been catering more to survival rather than experimental. There’s still lots of recipes that I wanna try out but when I think about how I have to make it look presentable for pictures and then what if my experimental dishes does not entice my kids, who’s going to eat all that hard work, working out the recipes and writing about them…it starts to get bothersome. But I realise this is all in my own head.
When I look at my previous pictures and dishes, it does fill me with a sense of pride and joy and I shall try to say this in the most humbling manner…..when I look at my pictures, although I am not the best or the most savvy at photography (meaning I just choose and edit them based on how nice they look, I know squat about lighting, colour, ratio etc)…I go ‘wow….I did that. I can do that’.
I want to get back to feeling that again. Screw all the steps. I like doing this and want to do it more often.
CHICKEN ALFREDO BAKE
A good baked dish is always good to have when you have kids to feed. The portion is big enough for the whole family and best thing is, you have leftovers.
3 cups of rotini pasta (cooked)
2 chicken breasts cut to cube chunks
3 rashers of bacon (chopped)
1 onion (chopped)
1 garlic clove (grated)
Shredded mozarella cheese
Chopped Parsley for garnish
100 gms brown mushrooms (chopped)
Olive oil
ALFREDO SAUCE
125 gms butter (melted)
2 tablespoons flour
200 ml cream
200 ml milk
1/2 cup shredded parmesan
1/2 cup shredded cheddar
salt
black pepper
Cook your pasta according to instructions. Drain and toss it in a little olive oil to avoid it sticking together.
Pre-heat your oven to 180C. In a pan, heat olive oil. Add chopped bacon and onion. Cook it together. You don’t need the bacon to be crispy.
When onion has soften, add the chicken chunks. Brown them on all sides. Add the grated garlic, if you added it earlier, you could burn it.
Add the mushrooms and cooked pasta to the onions. Toss it together. Season with salt and pepper.
To make sauce, melt the butter, when butter has melted add the flour, stir until you no longer see any raw flour.
Mix the milk and cream together. Add it to the flour roux a little at a time, stirring each time.
When you have gradually add all the milk and cream and you have a thick sauce, add the cheeses. Stir until it has melted.
Spoon 3/4 of the sauce into the rotini and toss everything together.
Transfer the rotini to a baking dish. Pour the rest of the sauce on top and cover with shredded mozarella cheese.
Bake for about 20 mins till it bubbles on top. Or you can turn on the top grill for some charred bubbles.
Enjoy!
