carbonara

My first attempt to make authentic carbonara. A very simple dish when you have got nothing left to eat.

dungeness crab ravioli - part 2

Tonight I used up the remaining piece of dough and made a good batch of raviolis. Even with all this there is still some crab meat left. I took a few more photos of the work in progress.

steak and crab meat ravioli

This is just an easily prepared meal by using a few crab meat raviolis that I made yesterday.

dungeness crab ravioli

I needed some live clams to make fried taro cake so I drove across town to get some. Since I was at the fishmonger I thought it is such a shame if I took a drive to only buy one item. I decided to pick up a Dungeness crab too. I vaguely have the idea that I would make some ravioli using the meat harvest from it.

fresh fettuccini with Dungeness crab meat

On a whim I bought a container of Dungeness crab meat. I have never bought one until now. I prefer to harvest the meat myself from a freshly cooked live crab. For dinner I decided to make a fresh fettuccini with Dungeness crab meat.

fresh pasta with seafood

I am amazed how little flour you need to make a serving of a delicious dish with home made pasta.

home made char siu 叉燒 pizza - part 3

I didn't know about San Marzano tomatoes until I bought this can of Italian can tomatoes at Trader Joe's. Up until now I have been using domestic canned plum tomatoes also bought at Trader Joe's. I thought I would give the pricey Italian one a try.

home made char siu 叉燒 pizza - part 2

I made a third char siu 叉燒 pizza as I still have quite a bit of tomato sauce that I made scratch from one can of whole tomato. Even with this forth pizza, there is still enough left for a fifth pizza. This is the second char siu 叉燒 pizza that I feel that I really have gotten the recipe and technique down. I now just buy the pizza dough from Trader Joe and save so much time and effort. Their fresh dough is extremely good and cheap.

home made char siu 叉燒 pizza

I was at Trader Joe and I saw these prepared pizza dough. There are three kinds, an organic white, wheat, and white flour. The choice is easy and I picked up 2 bags of one made with white flour. I didn't have any plan as what kind of pizza I would make.

jazzing up a frozen pizza - part 1

In the past I would not consider buying frozen pizza. I either make my own dough or buy fresh dough from a store when making pizza. A while back I gave Trader Joe's frozen pizza a try and they are really quite good if you are not too critical of the crust. Frozen pizza can never have good crust compare to freshly made.

alaska king crab ravioli - 帝王蟹意大利餛飽

We just have the most unbelievably mild weekend here in Portland, Oregon. The day time temperature reaches around 60 F for both days, with fog covered nights. To enjoy the weather I went for walks many times a day to take it all in, and the best part, I didn't drive or ride in a car. No shopping, and no errant. 

alaska king crab and clam fettuccine - 帝王蟹和蛤意大利扁麵

Yesterday was a rare dry day here in the great Pacific Northwest in the normally soggy Oregon. I took advantage of it to go grocery shopping and my timing was great to avoid the worst traffic. I never plan my grocery shopping like most of my purchase, I let chance unfold and my instincts to decide what to buy. The truth is there are some exceptions, like the items that I use all the time, ginger, garlic, scallions etc. I usually go to the Portland East side because I can generally get what I need for the week with the least amount of fuss. I do shop at my nearby supermarkets but mostly for when I don't feel like driving across town.

lobster and goat cheese ravioli

Today I decided it is high time that I give my recently acquired new kitchen tool a go. The tool is one of the cheapest acquisition in recent time, but is one that puts a smile on my face.

lobster and jamón fettuccine 意大利扁麵和龍蝦火腿

For a very long time, I seldom buy lobsters. The price just seemed so expensive, and here in the Pacific Northwest we have very good alternative, Dungeness crab that is much cheaper. From what I heard the harvest of Dungeness crabs this year is poor. The price is high so in my recent shopping I decided to pick up a lobster at OM Seafood Inc. I really this store as the owner is very nice. She is never too uptight when I help myself in the picking. I am careful when selecting the live seafood as not to injure them. It is cruel to the animal and expensive to the store. I also avoid getting my hands into the tank water least I contaminate it.

my first real ragú

I am like a lot of people in North America, had wrong notions of what real Italian cuisine is. For me at least when it comes to many Italian pasta dishes, and especially spaghetti with meat sauce. Only very recently that I did some reading online on properly way to make ragú.

still more home made fresh pasta - 更多意大利扁麵和珍寶蟹, 烏賊, 蛤

I have made may be 4 batches of fresh pasta in this couple of weeks. I have now developed a work flow that is efficient and least fuss. Once you tasted good fresh pasta, it is very difficult to lower yourself to eat those made from dried, except for the reason of expedience. It will continue to eat dried pasta occasionally, especially when camping with Brunnhilde.

fettuccine with crab, cuttlefish and clams 意大利扁麵和珍寶蟹, 烏賊, 蛤

I've really gotten into making fresh pasta. Today I made some fresh linguine again. I wanted to make a meal out of some of the live seafood I bought going shopping yesterday.

linguine with uni and clams 意大利扁麵海膽和蛤

This is the second time that I encounter live sea urchin (uni) at my Asian fish monger. The ones that I bought last time was small, and worst yet, there was hardly any roes inside. This time they were bigger. Being gun shy from the last experience I bought only one, not thinking what I would do with it.

pizza my way 意大利比薩餅 - part 5

The last time I had pizza was back in April. It is high time my culinary roulette cycles back to pizza making. I made two this week, both from scratch down to the dough. The title of my blog post is inspired by Jacque Pepin's fast food my way.

clam and dungeness crab linguine 意大利扁麵和蛤蜊珍寶蟹

This weekend I went grocery shopping. I came across some big clams and i bought some. I decided to make a few meals of pasta dishes with them. I also bought a dungeness crab and decide to use that too, in a dish that is a fusion of East and West.