Recipe: Spicy Kani Linguine

Posted by FrugalPinoy on Apr 6, 2009 in Food | 1 comment

My partner and I celebrated our 29th monthsary the other day, which called for a romantic dinner for two. She was craving a cream-based pasta with crab sticks, so she “invented” the Spicy Kani Linguine, which ended up being really, really good. I’m posting the recipe here as it’s a relatively cheap dish that is easy to prepare.

This recipe serves 2 to 3 people.

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• half a pack of kani/crab sticks – Cost: P42.50 (a whole pack costs P7o to P85)
• 100 grams Mushrooms – Cost: P30
• 200 grams of linguine – Cost: P28 (P60 to P70 for a 500 gram pack)
• 250 ml cream – Cost: P37
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 3 to 4 pieces of red chili peppers – Cost: Free from garden
• garlic
• salt and pepper
• parsley – I got this free from my garden as well.

Remember that you can change the quantities of the mushrooms, pasta, and crab sticks based on your preference.

Estimated total cost of meal: P140 to P260. Not bad, considering that pasta dishes for 2-3 people can cost more in restaurants.

Directions:

1. Boil the pasta in water with oil and salt.
2. Mince the garlic and slice the kani sticks crosswise.
3. Saute the garlic, butter, and  chopped kani in 1 tablespoon of butter. Set aside.
4. Finely chop the red chili peppers.
5. Heat the cream in a sauce pan and gradually mix the remaining butter in. Throw in the chopped chili peppers. Salt and pepper the sauce according to your taste.
6. When the pasta is done, mix it in with the cream sauce and the sauteed mushrooms and kani. Top the dish with chopped parsley.

Notes:

• The mushrooms and kani are sauteed separately and then thrown in with the pasta in the end to avoid the dish from tasting too monotonous. If you throw in the kani too early into the sauce, the seafood taste will dominate the sauce, making the dish predictable and flat.
• If the cream sauce tastes too sweet, add a bit more butter until it has the “saltiness” you need.

Recipe: Chive Butter Toast

Posted by FrugalPinoy on Feb 24, 2008 in Food | 0 comments

These slices of Chive Butter Toast accompanied my Valentine’s day dinner with Scout.  It was yummy.  Here’s the recipe (again, not exact measurements).

Ingredients:

• 3 slices of bread, cut in half
• 3 onion leaves (chives), cut into 1/2 centimeter pieces
• 1 small clove of garlic, minced
• 1/4 of a block of butter

Directions:

1. Slightly melt butter (in a microwave, saucepan, whatever) but take it out of the heat while it’s still a bit lumpy.
2. Add the chives and garlic in the partially melted butter.  Mix well.
3. Spread butter mixture onto bread slices.
4. Toast bread slices until light brown.

This is great when eaten with soup or pasta, or used as croûtons in salad.

Pasta with Tomato, Basil, and Mushroom Sauce – a valentine treat

Posted by FrugalPinoy on Feb 24, 2008 in Food | 1 comment

For Valentine’s Day, Scout and I had pasta in tomato, basil, and mushroom sauce accompanied by chive butter toast. It was obviously delicious, as there was none left over. Here’s the recipe along with the approximate price of each ingredient.
(Note: Since some ingredients were “cut” from a bulkier amount, I’ve reduced some of those prices according to the portions we took. Halimbawa, kung kalahati lang nung pack yung ginamit namin, kalahati rin lang yung presyo.)

Ingredients:

• 1 pack tomato sauce (P 14.00)
• 1/2 can of mushrooms (P 19.00)
• roughly 90-100 grams of cut macaroni (P 14.00)
• a handful of crushed fresh basil (P7.00, would’ve probably cost less if I had my own plant)
• some butter
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• salt, dried oregano, pepper (preferably the course type – yung di masyado durog)
• cheese

To be honest, these measurements aren’t precise – I’m not that kind of cook. I just go with my tastebuds and come up with the measurements on the spot. I don’t follow exact recipes, and I encourage you to add/subtract the measurements of the ingredients as you please.

Also, you may omit the mushrooms for a minimalist sauce.

Directions:

1. In a pot of water, boil pasta with a tablespoon of oil and some salt.
2. In a saucepan, saute the garlic in butter until light brown.
3. Stir in the mushrooms and fry them until they’re a little crisp on the edges. Add some salt and pepper in desired measurements. I add some of the oregano in this stage, too.
4. When the mushroom, butter, and garlic mixture is hot enough, slowly add the tomato sauce. I said “slowly” because it’ll be harder to mix it with the butter if you dump the tomato sauce all at once.
5. Wait until it boils then let it simmer for 5-8 minutes.
6. Stir in the basil.
7. Taste the sauce. If it’s too sour, then add some butter until it suits your taste. See, the sourness comes from the tomato, and the butter counteracts that. If it’s too bland, add some oregano and basil. If it lacks “oomph”, add pepper.
8. When the pasta is done, take it out of the pot, drain it, and mix it with the sauce.
9. Serve on a plate and sprinkle with cheese, according to your preference. For this particular meal, we used grated parmesan (the affordable but ok kind, not parmigiano reggiano from Italy).

Total cost of dish: Main ingredients cost P54.00 You can add an additional 10-20 pesos for miscellaneous side expenses such as the salt, pepper, garlic, butter, water, oregano, cheese, and the gas that was used. So the total cost is roughly P64.00 – P74.00

Not bad, especially since it got to feed 3 people with really generous servings.

If you notice the toast next to the pasta, it’s chive butter toast, but it merits its own blog entry. Click here for the recipe of the chive butter toast.

Did you have a special meal with a significant other (or by yourself) this Valentine’s Day? If so, what did you have and how much did it cost? Share it with us in the comments.