Spaghetti Carbonara, ahem ahem...

It's really difficult writing a post during this fasting season, especially since A Tale of Two Superheroes is a foodie blog. Haha. Even though Superhero S is not officially required to fast, she still decided to do it along with Superhero W since he's the one who is officially fasting (I'm cheating anyway, 'cos I still drink water! Shhhh.... Haha.) Anyway, here goes yet another foodie experiment by the two superheroes.

On one fine day, Superhero S had this craving for spaghetti and really wanted to have some Spaghetti Carbonara. Since she has not tried cooking spaghetti dishes before this, she decided to play it safe and go with the ready-made sauces first before exploring any further. Haha. And so, we went over to a nearby mini mart and bought the necessary ingredients. Nothing much, just the packet of spaghetti, the big bottle of carbonara sauce and a pack of Ayamas chicken sausages.



We went for Campagna "Pasta of Durum Wheat" and this big bottle of Leggo's Alfredo Pasta sauce "A traditional creamy Italian style sauce with fresh cream and cheese".



Only half of the packet of the spaghetti is used at one time, and off they go, straight into the boiling water. I still remember our good friend, Ting used to say that if we want to know whether or not the spaghetti is cooked, just take out a small strand and throw it onto the wall. If it sticks, it means that the spaghetti is ready. Otherwise, you can also sample it bit by bit, biting on the strand to see if it's cooked well enough. Once it's done, just drain the hot water.

As for the sauce, all that was needed to be done is to heat it up. Decided to add a little water since it looked pretty thick. Almost like something out of a Campbell cream of soup. Haha.

In the meantime, boiled some sausages, cut it into smaller pieces (which we didn't the first time around). The packet of spaghetti and the bottle of sauce is actually good for 4-6 servings. But since there were only the two of us, we cooked twice on separate occasions. *grins*

first try...

second try...

The taste? Hmm... the cream is pretty rich actually. Very very creamy the first time around, which was why we decided to dilute it further on the second try. Overall, it's not too bad really, a little sourish. Added a little sprinkle of black pepper as well. But the spaghetti was just perfect! Nicely done and still springy... But I suppose the next time I'm actually cooking the carbonara, I would like to cook everything by myself, meaning no cheating by using readymade sauces! Haha. *blushing*



But, anyone can tell me the difference between the many different brands of spaghetti? Are they all the same? Because the price surely isn't. Haha. :p

Dumpling Mee Suah Soup

After such a long merdeka weekend back home in Malacca, the two superheroes were so reluctant to fly back to KL to carry on life as usual. Haha. It was a foodie marathon at home because Superhero Bro was back from Florida and his great adventure across Las Vegas, San Francisco, California, and more. So we were all excitedly bugging with for the gifts that he had bought for us all. More about that later! :p

For now, back to more foodie!
So just before the long break, Superhero S decided to experiment with some gyoza skin to make dumplings. So instead of using the usual "sui kow" skin, she wanted to see how the gyoza skin would actually differ. Not knowing that the gyoza skin would be thicker than the sui kow's, she started making the fillings for the dumplings. Haha. Expecting disaster eh? *wink wink*

This time around, I decided to marinate the chicken+prawn filling with light soy sauce, sesame oil, maggi seasoning, white pepper and salt. Yes, call me crazy but I was in full adventurous mode and decided to experiment with the different concoction of tastes! Added some finely chopped carrots and fungus to add to the sweetness and crunchiness. Haha. Hope the dumplings are still edible! *sweating*

Here they are, just before it goes into the boiling pot of water...



Cooked some mee suah with chicken soup base and some bayam (or spinach) to go compliment the dumplings. Admitedly, the gyoza is actually supposed to be fried a la Japanese gyoza style but Superhero S figured that since gyoza is in her opinion, just a different version of the dumpling, the same skin can be used for making those delicate dumplings. Haha.

a little flashback of my first sui kow...

The skin was obviously less delicate than the sui kow she has made previously, which was why she couldn't make those little pleats in the first place and had to settle for the plain version. But it still tastes good! Albeit a bit thicker, but still delicious and the good thing is, the skin is far less vulnerable to break. Haha. Good... :p



I decided to make only a handful of dumplings, 8 to be exact (4 for Superhero S, and 4 for Superhero W) for this soupie version. I made another 13 for the fried version, which I had actually forgotten to take some pictures of its results. Haha. Sorry about that. The fried dumplings obviously tasted better as it's thicker skin lent a super crunchy bite to it.



So probably for the soupie version, I'll stick to the sui kow skin; but for the fried version, I'd most probably go for the gyoza skin instead! Haha. But hey, I'm actually pretty happy with the results from this experiment really! Haha.