Pesto Pasta

Today I made basil pesto pasta. It was actually my first time making a pesto. I recently saw the dish on Masterchef class and it appeared to be such a simple and tasty dish, that I was driven me to recreate the recipe. Since I had all ingredients on hand, the only thing left was to cook it.
I think the pesto gives such a nice flavour with the pine nuts. I only discovered that nut recently and it tastes wonderful. Anyway, have a look at the pictures:

My pesto

On the plate

Unfortunately I believe I cooked too much pasta, so the colour get lost in the mixture. Nevertheless, it is a lovely dish.

Bacon Zucchina Pasta bake and Pumpkin Gratin

Last week, I was high and pumped on baking. I decided to make a pasta bake and pumpkin gratin. It seems like zucchini and pumpkin are in season. I can see them everywhere, in  markets and supermarket, which is great because you can create so many dishes with those nice vegetables. As a side note, I finally decided I like eating pumpkin and zucchini. Believe me or not I was not a great 'veggie-eater' before. I had the strangest thought that I would never taste pumpkin because it looks eww to me (seriously).  Anyway gone is this thought. Now I realise what I have been missing. I like that sweet taste and softness when cooked. I like zucchini, they have that great flavour and goes so well with anything.

So I decided to make that pasta bake using the recipe from healthyfoodguide.com.. I used spiral macaroni. I top it with cheddar cheese and bits of feta cheese. Surprisingly I ended up with two dish instead of one, which I am not to complain about because it was really yummy, cheesy and creamy. A definite like.

My pumpkin gratin was good. The only hiccup was that I did not let the pumpkin tender enough. So my gratin  ended having little chunks of pumpkin.

Pre-oven, not yet topped with cheese

Baked :)

Fooyang

This is another typical Mauritian dish. It is called fooyang (forgive my spelling- I am writing the way it is pronounced). It is basically an omelette-like dish, with carrots, bamboo shoots, shiitake mushroom and seafood. I think that it is fairly easy to appreciate this plate. To create the dish I used seafood mix (you can find them from the deli). As for bamboo shoots, I use winter ones.

This is my cooked seafood mix

Mushroom, carrot and bamboo shoot cooking

Serve with rice

Ta-da, ready to be served

More picture

Buns

I have always like to eat buns. In Mauritius, it is called 'Brioche' and is quite similar to cross buns without the filling - raisins or chocolate.

Here I came across a different kind of buns but equally delicious. There are different kinds and flavours. There are coconut ones, red bean, pork, sausage and custard, amongst others.
My favourite is the pineapple custard bun. It is so-called because of the crust which is made of pineapple syrup and after it cooks, it forms like the outside of a pineapple.

Don't they look yummy?

To be honest, I would rather not try and make them because it seems much easier to buy them from the shops. Yes, sometimes it is much simpler to buy from the shop. Haha if not there will not be bakery to sell them.

Healthy and easy broccoli fettuccine

It seems like this week is broccoli week in the kitchen. Well, it is in season and it is always best to eat fruits and vegetables of season as they are fresher and cheaper (usually). This is an easy dish which I make; it is basically broccoli combined with pasta (I used fettuccine), olive oil and cheese. Simple as it sounds. It also makes a good vegetarian dish.