Portuguese Paella

After experiencing paella at Don Pepe II for the first time, I always wanted to make my own. Rama, a good friend from the MBA program, gave me some saffron as it is a common ingredient in Indian dishes (I am trying to venture into the Indian cuisine), and I just couldn't resist the temptation to try out paella. However, I diverted away from my original plan of making a Spanish seafood paella, because I am trying to use up drumsticks that have been in my freezer. Therefore, I stumbled on the perfect recipe - Portuguese paella! It involves cooking chicken thighs (which I substitute for my drumsticks) and then add seafood on top of that (also have those sitting in my freezer). 

The cooking process was a little hectic - I had to stop in the middle after cooking the drumsticks, seafood, vegetables, and chorizo to run to school really fast. I also already added the rice in the mixture, so I was afraid the rice would turn out too soft and the seafood overcooked. However, despite the disruption, the paella turned out very delicious! Also, this is the first time I used the Arborio rice, and I love it! It's much more chewy than the regular Chinese rice (I believe that's Jasmin rice), with a texture that resembles barley. I will definitely use this type of rice again, as well as the paella recipe!

Asiago Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta

"Best Pasta Ever!" Marc exclaimed as he put a spoonful of this Asiago sun-dried tomato pasta in his mouth. I think because of the multiple ingredients that goes into this dish, plus the delicious Asiago cheese, this pasta has a very rich and savory taste. This pasta took a decent amount of prep time, but thanks to my light semester, I managed to prepare a lot of the ingredients the day before so that cooking this pasta did not seem very tedious. However, I have to say that working with very dull knives do slow down the prep time. Cutting an onion takes almost 5 minutes, because I can't cut through more than a couple of layers of onion at a time without chopping off my fingers. Therefore, I have to cut almost layer by layer. Good thing I am not the type to shed tears while cutting an onion, or else I think I would feel very dehydrated after prepping this dish!

Garlic White Lasagna

I never made lasagna before because of how time-consuming the prepping process is. However, the temptation settled in when Matt & Jackie gave us some lasagna noodles as they went on their diet and cleaned out the cupboard. On a mission to try cooking all kinds of recipes, cooking lasagna is a must.

I decided on a white lasagna with Alfredo sauce instead of the traditional lasagna with tomato sauce. I have to admit, although it took early an hour for me to assemble all the ingredients, making lasagna is fun! With only 6 noodles on hand, I made a 3-layer lasagna. The ingredients in each layer include spinach and ricotta cheese, and Italian sausage with chopped onions and roasted red peppers. Oh, and of course, lots of mozzarella cheese in each layer as well as on top of the top of the lasagna.

The cooking time was 1 hour, but the long time is necessary to cook the lasagna noodles all the way through. The recipe did not call for boiling the noodles before layering and putting the dish in the oven.

I was surprised at how well the lasagna held its shape as I cut it and served it. The layers complement each other very well. Therefore, I would count my first attempt at cooking lasagna ... a success!

Slow Cooker Thai Pork with Peppers

Apparently, putting pork chops in the slow cooker is not a popular cooking technique. However, I have bought 8 pork chops and I have no recipes in mind for them. I blame this on the "buy more, save more" deals that entice me to purchase much more meat than I need. Furthermore, I have been itching to use my slow cooker. Because of my schedule of trying to hit at least two gym classes a day, plus classes, plus meetings, I have not been home enough to use my slow cooker. And although people say that it's safe enough to leave it at home to cook for 6-8 hours, especially if you are cooking on low heat, I still don't feel safe leaving my slow cooker on for more than 2 hours without me being home to peek at it once in awhile. Therefore, I searched for a slow cooker recipe that involves pork chops! I was pleasantly surprised when it led me to a Thai recipe, and besides adding one more scoop of peanut butter than the recipe asked for, I followed the recipe exactly. I really enjoyed the flavors and the textures, and it went very well with rice.