RESEP MASAKAN ORIENTAL

If I suggested you make homemade butternut squash ravioli as an appetizer for your holiday meal, what would you say? You'd say no. That's because you would envision s ome long complicated process fraught with disappointment. People throw around the "best thing since sliced bread" line for all kinds of things, and rar ely do they deserve such a tribute. Ready-to-use wonton skins, however, are not only the "best thing since sliced bread," they are better than sliced bread…much better. Anyone can slice bread (except those cooks on Hell's Kitchen), but how many people make paper-thin, perfectly round wonton skins. Hopefully this video recipe show s you just how easy ravioli can be when using this easy-to-find, and very liberating product. I've used them for tortellini, pierogi, dumplings, ravioli, and yes, even wontons, all with terrific results. There are eight million known ravioli fillings, so once you get this simple technique down you have a lot of...

It only took about 300 food wishes before it finally came true, but here is my favorite lasagna. Since this is such a traditional Italian-American Christmas recipe, I figured what better time to post it? By the way, this is simply my rendition of Italian-American lasagna, and not intended to claim any type of superiority, authenticity, or other such nonsense. If your Nonna uses fresh pasta, or insists on a béchamel, then bless her heart, but that's not how this half-Italian rolls. There are only two things you need for great lasagna; a thick, rich, super-meaty meat sauce, and lots of it; and a ricotta filling where only the finest cheeses are welcomed. For the sauce I love a combination of half Italian sausage and half lean ground beef. I also like lots of sauce. If you use too much sauce, the worst that can happen is you have a plate of pasta with sauce, but if you don't use enough, you end up with dry lasagna, and there's nothing sadder than dry lasagna. For the cheese m...

I hope this video recipe for Spaghetti Aglio e Olio looks better than it sounds! A fairly minor cold led to a few days of semi-laryngitis, but I just couldn't wait any longer, so I summoned up my best Phyllis Diller impersonation and went for it. Like Phyllis always said, "the show must go on!" Spaghetti aglio e olio is about as primal a pasta dish as there is. This is easily the most popular spaghetti recipe in Italy, and if you'll pardon the probably-annoying-to-Italians analogy, the comfort food equivalent to our "mac and cheese." This is a very simple recipe – in fact, the recipe is much easier to make than pronounce. You know a recipe name is hard to say when you can't even come up with a respectable phonetic spelling. It's something close to "ah-leoh-oh-leoh." Give it a couple tries, and if you can't do it, feel free to just call it garlic spaghetti. Anyway, this is my version (no two spaghetti aglio e olio recipes are alike), and...

I like cheese, I love pasta, and I adore mashed potatoes, so you can imag e the pure bliss I e x perience when I get to eat pierogi. They very well may be my favorite non-meat food. Pierogi are a classic Eastern European potato and cheese stuffed dumpling traditionally made for festivals and celebrations. There are thousands of versions using different fillings, dough, and garnis hes, but this one made for an About.com assignment is fairly typical. Above and beyond the ingredients, there are also many different ways to engineer the dish. You can make a few big ones, or lots of tiny ones (guess which is easier). You can use lots of stuffing, or just a little. You can boil and toss in melted butter, or you can fry to get a crispy crust as I did here. My grandmother Sophie, on my father's side of the family, was from Poland, and every time we would drive to New York for a visit, the highlight of the trip was a big plate of her pierogi. T he fact that the trip was seven hours, in the ...

I realize that if you haven't seen the movie Zoolander, the title of this pasta e fagioli , aka pasta fazool, makes absolutely no sense. But, having recently seen someone perform the famous underwear extraction scene from the movie (see bonus video below), I just couldn't help myself. So, is this hearty winter soup really so good you'd spontaneously attempt to remove your underwear without taking off your pants? Well, possibly, but you'd really have to love soup. Really love soup. Regardless of whether you go Zoolander or not, no one will deny this is a super simple, very fast, and quite nutritional recipe. The addition of cheese tortellini in place of significantly less interesting macaroni, makes for an extra satisfying bowl of food. As I say in the video, this is an answer to all the people who claim not having enough time to cook after a long day at work. This entire recipe, start to finish, takes about 30 minutes. And, if your excuse is you don't cook at all, ...

I always feel a little apprehensive when I post a recipe like this minestrone soup. It’s the type of dish I never make the same way twice, and the fear is that someone will watch and assume that this is my “official” version. You don’t need a recipe for minestrone, just like you don’t need a recipe for a great sandwich, or an epic salad. To make minestrone soup precisely same way every time, using a very specific list of ingredients and amounts, is to trample on the soul of this Italian classic. Having said all that, what if you happen to make it so incredibly delicious one time that you want to experience the exact same shuddering soupgasm in the future? That seems like a perfectly sound reason for why you should write down the recipe…except cooking food doesn’t work that way. Your perception of how a recipe tastes involves so many factors above and far beyond the list of ingredients. Remember that time you made that super awesome whatever, and it was so perfect, and then you made it ...

I never film at night, since I don’t like the look of the video when I use artificial lights. Sure, I could actually learn how to use a real lighting kit, but it’s easier for my simple brain to just film during the day. However, once in a great while, I’ll starting making something, like this smoked ham and butternut squash spaghetti, that looks like it’s going to be so good that I don’t care about lighting quality, and film it anyway. Other than this less-than-subtle warning about the lighting quality, there’s not a lot to say about this simple and very delicious winter pasta. It will work with literally any type of ham or smoked sausage; and as I mention in the video, bacon would also shine. Despite the rich and decadent mascarpone, the sauce is actually pretty light when you consider much of the sauce is really just chicken broth and squash. By the way, I didn’t add it, but I think a squeeze of fresh lemon juice at the end would have been a great idea. I hope you give this hearty pa...

Manicotti, which means, “little muffs” in Italian, has to be one of the best ways ever for using up leftover Thanksgiving turkey.  The moist filling will bring the driest bird back from the dead, and you can literally add anything that can be chopped up. Leftover green bean casserole? Throw it in. Peas and Onions? You bet’cha. Cranberry Sauce? No, don’t be ridiculous. Anyway, thanks to the absence of cheese, tomato, and pasta on the usual Thanksgiving menu, this concoction will erase any connection with the aforementioned feast. One portioning note: The recipe below made six crepes, and if you make yours slightly smaller, the filling recipe will make six nicely sized manicotti.  I went low-carb and used all the filling to make four portions, but you should probably just fill all 6 crepes, or even double the recipe to get 12. I think you’ll want leftovers of the leftovers. So whether you make manicotti with the last of the holiday turkey, or just use the technique to recycle ...

When I tell people I don’t like gnocchi, I always have to clarify that I’m talking about the traditional, potato-dough style dumplings, and not the much easier and lighter, cheese-based versions, like this one featuring butternut squash and mascarpone cheese. Unless created by the hands of a true master, traditional potato gnocchi are too often dense, gummy nuggets of disappointment. However, as temperamental as the classic recipe is, these cheesier, low-starch versions are really quite simple. These are often made with drained ricotta, and you are welcome to substitute, but here we’re going with mascarpone, a very rich and luscious Italian-style cream cheese. Along with Parmigiano-Reggiano, all you need besides the cheese is some cooked squash, and just enough egg and flour to keep it all together. Once your mixture is done, and you let it firm up overnight, you have a few options as far as final service. You can follow the spoon-boil-fry-serve method seen herein, or you can do the sp...

Since everyone agrees that the best part of a macaroni and cheese is the crisp, crunchy topping, why not feature that as the star of the dish? That was the basic idea behind today's video recipe for crispy potato chip mac and cheese. There are all sorts of "favorite" casserole toppings, but the one that seems to excite people the most is the potato chip crust. Maybe it's the extra crunch, or the cheesy flair, or that very few unpleasant memories include potato chips. So, the concept here is simple. Make a batch of béchamel ( basic white sauce ) using the recipe below. If you need to watch the technique, here is a video recipe for it , but u se this post's measurements. To that add 12 ounces of really good cheese, and when it's melted, mix into cooked macaroni. That would make a great meal as is, but when you add a big spoon of this impossibly crispy, cheesy, crunchy, buttery love…well, damn. Not only is this delicious, but it's a triumph of textural perfec...

Merluzzo is Codfish in Italian, and I just thought it would look cooler in the title. In case you've never heard of a "Puttanesca" sauce before, it's Italian for "in the style of the whore." I know, it sounds appetizing doesn’t it? But, it really is a fantastic and fast pasta sauce that can be prepared and tossed on plain pasta, or used as a base for a more complex recipe as I have done here. I've taken the basic Puttanesca sauce and added fresh codfish and Arugula to create a very nice, and quite healthy seafood pasta. By the way, it tastes much better than it looks! The black olive tapenade I added makes for a sort of grey and muddy looking sauce, but when you dress it up with a little parmesan on top and more red pepper flakes, it suddenly becomes much more attractive (insert your own prostitute joke here). Now, as far as the story behind the Puttanesca sauce's origins, there are many stories, some more "colorful" than others. It is pre...

Last week, while looking at my traffic stats, I noticed an unusually large number of visitors from Singapore. I followed the trail to a blog called Xiaxu e , which had linked to my chocolate lava cake video. As I read the post, I was shocked to see the blog's author, Xiaxue, had sent me a comment, but that I never replied! Even worse, I noticed the website had received numerous awards as Asia's top blog, and that Xiaxue was a bona fide Internet superstar. As you know, I religiously answer every single comment and email I get (except for the ones I don’t), so I quickly emailed her to find out about her ignored comment. She quickly replied and said she wrote this long teary comment about how my recipe had aided in her quest to get hitched, and she told me to keep on blogging. I was so excited to get an email from such an important person for a change, instead of the usual stuff I get from you people. I thanked her, and offered to film any recipe she wanted. She asked for creamy...

I saw a great looking butternut squash today at the market, but for whatever reason I didn't buy it. Later in the afternoon I was checking some files on YouTube when I came across the pasta recipe below – my video for butternut squash ravioli! There it was, mocking me and my lack of butternut squash with which to make it. So, I decided to do the next best thing and repost it. It's a great recipe and perfect for this time of year. By the way, you freakishly small wooden spoon fans will be happy to know le petit bois makes an appearance. Enjoy! Here is the link to the original post complete with ingredients !

Way back when, the only way you would’ve found out about a regional recipe like Chicken Riggies, would have been to eat it while traveling through Central New York.  You would’ve loved it (because there’s nothing not to love) and maybe even tried to recreate it when you got home, but more likely it would have ended up fading into nothing more than a pleasant memory; referred to as “that rigatoni we had in Utica.” I’m sure you’ll plan a trip through the lovely Utica/Rome area of New York State eventually, but in the meantime, I offer up my take on this thoroughly enjoyable plate of pasta. I think it’s fairly authentic, with two notable exceptions. I use Marsala instead of the standard white wine, and use roughly chopped thigh meat, instead of the more popular chicken breasts. This results in a sauce that seems much richer than it actually is, and I think you’ll love the subtle sweetness the wine imparts, which works wonderfully with the heat from the peppers. Of course, as I joke a...

Today's post was supposed to be the Seared Scallops with Orange Supremes and Jalapeno Vinaigrette recipe I teased a few days ago, but then I realized the deadline for a tuna recipe contest I had entered was just days away! This "Tuna Ventresca" stuffed shells recipe is my entry in the Tonnino Tuna Chef Challenge . As you'll hear in the video, " Tuna Ventresca " is the crème de la crème of the canned tuna world. You can check the Tonnino website for more details on why this wild-caught, hand-picked, Yellowfin tuna belly is so yummy, but I'll just say it made for one incredible casserole! What I was trying to do here was gourmet-up the good old tuna noodle c asserole . While it may seem counterintuitive to "cook" such an expensive, premium q uality tuna, I'm so glad I did. The flavor of this particular type of tuna is outstanding, and while I do usually enjoy it cold, as-is, I have no problem using it like as well. A regular chuck burger i...

Today's recipe video is a very simple broccoli "alia olia," but it's also a good example of the proper way to use vegetables in pasta. I almost never order veggie pasta in a restaurant. The main reason is that the vegetables are almost never cooked properly, or I should say prepped properly. Take this broccoli pasta as an example. In a restaurant the same ingredients would be used, but all broccoli pieces would be added at the same time. So, by the time the stems were tender the tops would be mush, or even worse, the tops would be perfect and the stems hard and crunchy. You have to have a game plan when doing a vegetable pasta. If you are using vegetables that have different cooking times, you can't add them all at the same time, yet that's what most people do. One strategy is to cut the longer cooking veggies smaller and leave the more tender veggies larger, so they all cook at about the same time. Another trick is to precook the denser vegetables, like c...

When it comes to this penne pasta with spicy sausage ragu recipe, we aren't just cheating a little, were cheating all over the place. Thanks to two simple shortcuts, this recipe is nothing more than a basic "brown and simmer." Really, that's it – brown and simmer. Oh, you do have to boil some penne pasta, but I think you can find a way to work that into your busy schedule. First of all, we're using ready-made marina sauce . Ideally, this is from a batch of homemade you whipped up after watching this video , but if not, I used a jar of Barill a, and you are free to do the same, guilt-free. Using a prepared sauce excuses you from the kind of mincing and dicing that can often turn a meal like this into a call to the local pizzeria. The second, and most ingenious cheat is using spicy Italian sausage instead of plain old ground meat. Any decent brand should be packed with an array of spices, herbs, and garlic that traditionally accompanies the pork into the casing. Thi...

The first time I had a spicy, cold rice noodle salad, it wasn’t the bold flavors that caught me by surprise, but the strange and addictive texture. It was so different to any pasta salad I’d ever had before, that I was kind of bummed I hadn’t known about this stuff sooner. Makes me sad to think about all the time back I wasted on those stupid, tri-color fusilli salads. Anyway, this is pretty easy and delicious stuff. I’m not even sure these noodles are technically cooked, but simply softened in very hot water to your personal preference of tenderness. You can, and many do, boil this stuff like pasta for a couple minutes, and have what’s much closer to a proper al dente angel hair, but I much prefer the toothsomeness you get using the hot water method.  Unlike undercooked wheat flour pastas, this isn’t a gummy, crunch, but much more of a “pop” or “snap” as your teeth break through the almost tender noodles. Once soaked with the vibrant dressing, and topped with the optional, but hi...