Ever since coming back from Italy, I have been spending my weekend trying to create Italian food at home. Mainly because I wanted to cut down on going to the restaurant cause they are expensive, and also, cooking at home also gives you the freedom and control on how you prepare your food. The only down side is cleaning the kitchen after that. But if you compare it with the cost of a meal in the restaurant vs 10 - 15 mins of dish washing, it really isn't that bad if you want to save money.
Actually, all I wanted was to cook squid risotto, but when I went to the market to look at the seafood, I couldn't help asking the aunty how much clams cost. At SGD$3+ per kg, I ask her for 1kg just to try since I've never actually cooked clam before. I don't know why, I have a craving for clam cooked in garlic. Anyway, I came home with half a kg of prawns for SGD8, one squid and half a kg of clam for another total of SG4. So grant total of SGD12 for all the seafood. I also grab SGD0.50 cent worth of spring unions cause I'm a spring onion junkie.
So here are the ingredient for the first one: Clams, Spaghetti, oil to fry and fragrant the shallots, garlic and dry chilli, and spring onion. I didn't use any of the truffle flavouring as the end product was already tasty by itself, so I skipped it. Even the parmesan cheese was just there for decorative purposes as I didn't really needed it. Oh yeah, I did add some miso paste to it for flavour. I've been addicted to miso mushroom spaghetti recently and thought I'll just add some. And Oh yeah, I also add some Chinese wine cause I don't have ang moh wine at home....
Cooking was rather straight forward: Heat pan, add oil. Stir fry the garlic, chilli and shallot. After which I dump in the clams, and add some spaghetti water. Wait a while till most of the clams are open, then add spring onion and cooked spaghetti and stir around a while. Voila. Done. Transfer to a serving plate that has half a tea spoon of miso paste in it and mix. Add parmesan cheese if required.
Done! Beautiful isn't it. It's going to be hard for me to order clams in a restaurant again knowing how cheap I can get them from the market. You do have to wash them throughly. Just soak them in water, sprinkle some salt, and change the water once or twice.
I serve these for lunch today, a light lunch as I was headed to the gym. I also pair it with rose flavoured wheat beer. Lovely. This meal probably cost lest than SGD5 to make, and it serves 2 person! It probably cost SGD10 at least in a restaurant for one plate! And it may not be as healthy or tasty!
Next for dinner is squid risotto! I've always thought risotto was difficult to make before, until I went to Italy and saw instant risotto packaging, and I've hardly ever order it in a restaurant after that again.
So here are the ingredient for dinner: One Risotto Instant Pack (this one cost me more, around EURO4), 1 Squid, Spring Onions, some butter, and that is it. I have prawns here just for extra snacking.
Again cooking was rather straight forward: Heat pan, add oil, add risotto mix and stir fry for one minute. Add Squid and fry. Add half a cup of water and fry till water evaporate, then add 700ml of water and let it cook for at least 15 minutes. Add in spring onions at the last 5 minutes, and also some butter to taste. Again, parmesan is optional to taste.
I also baked some prawns for 30 mins, the last 10 minutes mainly to brown the top part of it. Aren't the colors just beautiful? If there are extra juice from the prawn after you bake them, throw them into the risotto and mix it, yummy!
So below is the end result: Squid Risotto!
And I pair it with pear cider for dinner! This meal is more expensive mainly due to the prawns. But still more affordable than dining in a restaurant! Plus, I get all my alchohol duty free whenever I come back from business trip. We also share one bottle for each meal cause, well, alcohol and health.... This was probably my 3rd drink of the day! I also had a Yuzu Choya for breakfast.....
Anyway, hope you enjoy reading this post. I really enjoyed creating it! Especially the cooking part, the taking photos part, especially the eating part, and now the posting part. Best of all is, it will forever be on my blog and I can always look back with happy memories of these wonderful meals that I've created. These are the simple things I enjoy in my life. It doesn't really cost that much, and they bring me so much joy! I hope to do more of these as I settle into my retirement life mode :)
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