Quick and Easy Alfredo Sauce

I didn't totally followed the recipe. I had to adjust and improvise on the ingredients. I used heavy cream, mozz cheese, butter, pepper, and chives, not very good.

Heavy Cream Alfredo Sauce:
1/4 cup butter
1 cup heavy cream
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium low heat. Add cream and simmer for 5 minutes, then add garlic and cheese and whisk quickly, heating through. Stir in parsley and serve.

Cream Cheese Alfredo Sauce:
1/2 cup butter
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 cups milk
6 ounces grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 2/3 cup)
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Melt butter in a medium, non-stick saucepan over medium heat. Add cream cheese and garlic powder, stirring with wire whisk until smooth. Add milk, a little at a time, whisking to smooth out lumps. Stir in Parmesan and pepper. Remove from heat when sauce reaches desired consistency. Sauce will thicken rapidly, thin with milk if cooked too long. Toss with hot pasta to serve.

Pesto Sauce recipes

Made this at volunteering in kitchen. Its actually very simple if you have the ingredients and a food processor. All we used is:
4 cup fresh basil leaves, don't need to chop
1 cups grated Parmesan cheese
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp salt
1/4 -1/2 cup oil

Add basil, salt, and garlic into the processor and process it a bit then steadily pour the cheese in and then the oil. The consistency looked like the first picture below. 


I found a few different pesto recipe. I wasn't instructed to add salt and pepper so I didn't add any. And I just peeled the garlic and pulsed it in blender to chop it up.

The pesto I made looked like the 2nd picture. It was a bit chunky and I think it looked unpleasant but the chef said it's ready, done.


Pesto sauce with pine nuts:
2 cup fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese grated
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

To make pesto sauce, put basil, pine nuts, garlic, and parmesan cheese in a food process. Pulse them together as you drizzle the olive oil through a tube until well blended.Season with salt and pepper

Pesto sauce with walnuts:
3 cups fresh basil leaves
 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
 4 cloves garlic, peeled
 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
 1 cup olive oil
 salt and pepper to taste

In a food processor, blend together basil leaves, nuts, garlic, and cheese. Pour in oil slowly while still mixing. Stir in salt and pepper.

Cilantro Pesto:
2 cups, packed, of cilantro, large stems removed
1/2 cup blanched almonds
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/2 teaspoon chopped and seeded serrano chile
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/4 cup olive oil

In a food processor, pulse the cilantro, almonds, onion, chile, and salt until well blended. With the food processor running, slowly add the olive oil in a steady stream. Add more oil as needed for your use.

Baked Blooming Onion - pretty

LINK: http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/baked-blooming-onion/

Doesn't this photo awesome and pretty? It totally reminds me of a flower. I think it's very artistic and creative.

LIST:
For The Blooming Onion:
1 large Vidalia onion
2/3 cup Panko breadcrumbs
1 Tbsp. Cajun or blackening seasoning or italian seasoning
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs
optional sides: ketchup, spicy dipping sauce (see below), ranch dip, or honey mustard

For The Spicy Dipping Sauce:
1/2 cup Greek yogurt (or mayo)
2 Tbsp. ketchup
2 tsp. horseradish sauce
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. smoked paprika
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. oregano

HOWTO:
To Make The Blooming Onion:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

On a cutting board, use a knife to cut off the top (not the root) 1/4-inch of the onion until a few of the inside layers are exposed. Peel the outermost layer of the onion down to the root, but leave the root intact.

Lay the onion on the cutting board so that the flat side (that you just cut) is facing downward. Then use a knife to section the onion into 16ths, beginning with your knife 1/8-inch away from the root and cutting straight down. Once all cuts are complete, turn the onion over and set on a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Then use your fingers to gently spread apart the petals. If any of your cuts did not go all the way through, you can use a paring knife to be sure that the entire onion is cut into 16ths.

In a separate small bowl, whisk together the Panko, Cajun seasoning and salt until combined.

In a separate (additional) bowl, whisk the eggs until combined.

Beginning with the lowest (bottom) layers of the onion, brush the top of each petal with the egg mixture until coated, then immediately sprinkle with the Panko mixture. Repeat until all petals are coated. It is kind of tedious, but worth it!

Carefully form a tent with aluminum foil over the baking sheet until the onion is completely enclosed. Bake for 5 minutes, then remove tent and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until the onion is soft and the tips are lightly crisped.

Remove and serve with desired sauces.

To Make The Spicy Dipping Sauce:
Whisk all ingredients together until combined. Serve immediately or refrigerate in a sealed container for up to 1 week.

Ginger and Spring Onion Dipping Sauce

This is a dipping sauce for boiled chicken. Chinese people like to eat there chicken parts boiled. They also dipped the chicken in soy sauce too. But I was feeling in have this as the dip. Making it once in awhile, it tasted fabulous. It was really cool watching it sizzle.

My mum said that I added to much oil but it seems the right amount to me.

List:
Ginger
spring onion
oil
salt
chicken granule bullion or pepper

1. Finely randomly chop ginger. Do the same with spring onion. Both about the same amount. In a ceramic or glass bowl add salt and chicken gran. bull. with the chopped ginger and spring onion. I stirred them and tasted it if I need more flavor. you can also tasted it after you pour the oil and add more flavor as needed.
2. In pan heat up oil until you see that the oil start to smoke a bit. then our the oil directly into the bowl of ginger and spring onion. Be careful it will boil viscously when you pour the hot oil.

Homemade Red Curry Paste with Cashews

BY: Taste Hong Kong

Ingredients
1 tsp ground coriander seeds
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp red chili coarse
1 tsp shrimp paste
3-4 cm knob of galangal
1 tbsp chopped shallot, ~2 pieces
2 tbsp chopped garlic, ~6-8 cloves
2 lemon grass / lemongrass stalks
40g roasted cashew nuts, ~20pcs
5 sprigs coriander / cilantro roots with some stems (~2-3 cm) attached
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method
Remove dry outer layer(s) of the lemongrass. Cut off the greener upper sections, the bottom root, and reserve the bulbous pale yellow lower stalks, about 5-6cm. Slice them crosswise as thin as possible.

Dry-fry ground coriander and ground cumin in a pan till fragrant and let cool.

Before chopping the galangal or cutting the coriander root, scrape off any dirts and ragged bits, rinse them and pat dry. Then, put all ingredients including the lemongrass in a food processor and pulverize. To achieve a creamier paste, rest every one-to-two second pulse, and scrape down the mixture from the side of the container. Pulse again, (repeat scrape-downs if needed) until the desired consistency is formed. Store the paste in an air-tight glass container and keep in fridge for up to a month. And, feel free to multiply the amount of the ingredients, the quantities here yield about half cup of paste.

Note
This red curry paste is good for cooking with seafoods, meats and even vegetables. A simple dish I like very much is stir-fried green beans with this paste, to which I often add some paprika and coconut cream.

I have also tried a variation with one onion replacing the cashews, and it is still hard for me to decide which one is better.

Homemade Sesame Paste from Scratch

BY: Taste Hong Kong

Ingredients
200g white sesame seeds
5-6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method
You may or may not need to pick through and wash your white sesame seeds, but in case you have doubt if there is any dirts or impurities, clean it. That is, wash the seeds thoroughly in a fine sieve under running water. Or, nest the sieve in a large bowl, and wash seeds thoroughly in several changes of water.

Drain sesame seeds until no more water drips off or dry completely (frying very wet sesame seeds takes more efforts and time).

Heat a large heavy-bottomed pan over low to medium flame, without any oil (this is what we called ‘white wok’); put in sesame seeds, stirring constantly. As their color turns from pearl white to golden brown, about 10 minutes (when you shall also hear some crackling sound). Remove from heat, and let cool.

Put roasted sesame seeds in a food processor with two table spoons of olive oil. Process on medium speed, stopping the machine to scrap down the paste from the side in about 15 seconds. Add another spoon of oil and process again. You may again need to stop the processor every 5 to 10 seconds until it reaches your desired consistency (add 1 or 2 more spoons of oil if required), about a minute.

Serve immediately or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator . It should last a couple of months.