Tomato-Spinach with Brie Cheese Pasta

When some of my Italian friends have left the country, they left behind some things in our fridge that they couldnt take with them. One of these things were 1) this big wheel of President Brie Cheese that I didn't want to see go to waste 2) Leftover fusilli good for 1 hungry person.

I searched for recipes online on what I could do, and I found this video on youtube where the sauce ingredients were only olive oil, fresh diced tomatoes, garlic oregano, and brie cheese.

I didn't have oregano or any kind of herbs, so I ended up putting spinach instead (for greens). A friend suggested I should have put tuna so it has some protein in it... which I did later on for a salad with brie cheese (the salad didnt turn out very well).

Ingredients (good for 1 hungry person)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 clove of garlic chopped but not too small
- 1/2 cup of diced tomatoes (or more)
- 2 handfuls of fresh spinach
- a big tablespoon chunk of brie cheese
- cooked leftover pasta good enough for one!

Steps:
1) Saute the tomatoes and garlic first in olive oil
2) Dump in the cheese and wait for it to go all melty
3) Put in the spinach (although in hindsight, I should have put the spinach first so they'd wilt further before I burn the cheese).
4) Put in the cooked pasta!

5) Then just eat off the pan. Saves time cleaning dishes. Yum.

Vegetarian... and then Not-Vegetarian Chilli

I had an American friend who told me she was going to cook Vegetarian Chilli for me. However, I didn't get a chance to try it because of time constraints. :-/ I was craving for it the other day and then my boyfriend's birthday potluck was coming up and asked me to bring veggies (because everyone was bringing meat) so I ended up making it!

This blog entry starts off with making the vegetarian version... and then later on mixing it with leftovers so it wasn't vegetarian anymore. According to one of my food-critic friends, he thought it tasted delicious, but his mind was still searching for that "bite of meat".

How I made the Chilli, the summarized version :)

Vegetarian Version

The ingredients! Lots of beans, tomatoes, corn, herbs... don't mind the photo-bombing banana.

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of mixed bean
• 1 can of red kiney beans
• 1 can of whole kernel corns
• 2 cans of whole peeled tomatoes, blended but still keep some chunks
• 1 can of chicken broth
• 1 medium red onion, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground chilli powder
• salt and pepper
• a spring of rosemary -- just because I had it. be careful not to add too much!
• a little bit of maple syrup - why? because I wanted it a bit sweeter

Steps:

1.) Drain and rinse the beans and corn. We need to get rid of the icky chemical-tasting liquid. Chop the garlic, onions, and bell pepper.

Drained and rinsed the beans and corn, chopped the onions, garlic, and bell pepper

2. Saute first the onions and the bell peppers in olive oil until soft. Then add the garlic and saute until golden brown.

Sautee the bell peppers, onions, and garlic

3. Pour over everything else, and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. The liquid will have reduced by then and the flavors would seep into the beans and corn.

Everything's in the pot, then boil

4. This is what it looks like reduced after simmering for half an hour.

Boiling for quite some time already

5. Serve it into a bowl. :D Eat with rice or with bread.

Served in a bowl

With Leftover Meat Version

As for the non-vegetarian version... I had some kesong puti (white cheese) from Mr. Moo in Tagaytay and we had some leftover Deli Mondo Spicy corned beef (favorite!!!). I combined everything together and nuked it in the microwave.

Leftover Chilli, Kesong Puti, and Corned Beef

The cheese got all melty and I swirled it a little bit around. I had this marbly thing going. :) I'm no vegetarian, so I definitely liked this one better!

The Instagrammed Version

Fishing for Shrimps in Shilin Taipei 釣蝦場

Last week when I was in Taipei, I was brought to this shrimp-fishing place in Shilin (釣蝦場). You fish for shrimps and you cook them later on. We had to go by car because there's no MRT nearby.

The rent for 1 fishing rod for 1 hour was 350 NTD, while for 2 hours it was 600 NTD. We used the fishing rods to fish for shrimps in this murky pool. As for the bait, my friend bought it for us.

釣蝦場 - Shrimp Fishing Place

There's a certain "art" to catching a shrimp. You have to move the bait slowly around, as if it was moving like a fish. I had to be reminded several times - "that's not how a fish moves!". The bait movement needs to be slow and steady. According to my friend, the shrimp will first test the bait for danger by using its claws (I only found out this day that shrimps actually had claws!). After testing, it will start to nibble the bait and pull at the hook. When it does, I jerked the fishing rod and the shrimp gets hooked! (Ouch). Then I pull out the fishing rod.

My friends, posing with the shrimp they caught

After catching the shrimp, my friend had to pull out its claws (double-ouch! :( poor things). If he didn't pull it out, it would be hard for him to remove the hook from the mouth. I didn't take photos, but there's a bunch of shrimp claws/arms all over the floor. I only tried pulling out the shrimp's claw/arm once.

This is me, posing with the shrimp I caught

For the 2 hours that we've been fishing, I managed to catch 8. Not bad for a first-timer. At the earlier parts, a lot of them managed to get away, along with the bait from the hook (waited for too long before jerking or pulling too slow).

I cleaned those 8 myself. By cleaning, I mean pulling out its legs and the long thing from its snout. I felt really bad doing it... it must be torture for them.

Ready for skewering

After the shrimps have been cleaned, the next step is to skewer them with the BBQ sticks from the tail up to the head. While I'm excited to eat grilled shrimps, I just feel really bad for them. After skewering them all, we lined them up and poured salt to coat them.

Grilling shrimps

After this, we grilled them! I think we overcooked some, but majority of the shrimps were grilled correctly. Of course, the shrimps were fresh. We bought drinks, rice, and other food after this. For the shrimp sauce, they gave us soy sauce and wasabi. For me, I had my shrimps with Heineken.

Cooked Shrimps!

Overall, I had fun! Mixed feelings of excitement over the fishing activity but guilt for torturing shrimps (according to scientific studies, shrimps do feel pain). If I were to do this again, I would probably just behead them from the start and then bring over some pesto, chopped garlic, and lemon for marinade prior to grilling. Yum.

Quick recap of the whole thing!