Spaghetti With Mussels and Basil Pesto

Spaghetti with mussels and basil pesto.
The half shelled mussels were grilled with garlic butter

Spaghetti with Mussels and Basil Pesto

While the mussels are grilling in the oven as the appetizer, the main course is on the way as well.

Ingredients:

Fresh basil leaves (a good harvest from our tiny garden)
Olive oil

Spaghetti (good for 3 persons)
2 Tablespoons Vegetable oil
1 pc. Onion, finely chopped
3 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
1 pack mussel meat (about 500 g)
salt to taste
cheese

Cook spaghetti until al dente. Meanwhile, blitz basil leaves in a food processor, add olive oil and blitz further until combined. Season with salt and set aside.

Sauté onion and garlic, add mussels’ meat, stir occasionally until mussels are done. Add the prepared basil pesto.

Drain the pasta and add directly to the mussel mixture. Stir to combine. Sprinkle parmesan cheese. Serve hot.

Grilled mussels with garlic butter

Grilled Mussels with Garlic Butter

Craving for seafoods? That’s how I felt when I saw an array of frozen mussels in different packages.  One pack of large half-shelled mussels sparked an imagination of barbequing it. I didn’t hesitate to grab one and another pack just the meat if incase I want to compare the intensity of flavors preserved.  Just like I thought, the pack with shells on still got the fresh aroma from the sea. An instant thought was garlic butter on it and grill. But that’s just good as an appetizer since they weren’t enough.  To compliment with it, I made spaghetti with mussels and basil pesto. Hubby had a good harvest of fresh basil from our tiny garden. 

Grilled mussels with garlic butter

1 pack of frozen mussels

garlic butter

Ingredients: Garlic butter and a pack of half-shelled mussels

Add a pinch of garlic and butter paste into each mussel, place it on a baking tray and grill for about 20 minutes until the sides of the mussels turn brown.

Note: I used a ready made garlic butter because I just had it in the fridge for a while.  Otherwise, you may make your own garlic butter simply by crushing 2 cloves of garlic until paste consistency with a mortar and pestle. Add to 50g of butter, season with salt to taste.

 Did you know:

 Did you know that mussels is high in iron and protein but low in fat? and it contains Omega 3?

That's what the packet says...  Hmmm, should I call my sister who is a nutritionist to verify or should I wait for her to comment? :-)

Birthday Cake : Ben10 and Princess Doll cake

Schenker's and Samantha's Birthday


I haven’t made cakes lately until last week, I got a message from a friend Janet in Kuala Lumpur asking if I’m around to make the birthday cake for her son and daughter to be held in one occasion and she would like to have cupcakes as well. It was a huge celebration as they are celebrating with it their wedding anniversary as well as their parent’s. So there were 2 wedding anniversaries, 2 birthdays and other guests’ birthday. Her son likes Ben10 and her daughter likes Princess. Instead of making 2 cakes she planned to have combined motifs in one cake. This is how it turned out:

The base cake is Madeira Cake, which recipe I got from one of my books. I chose Madeira cake so that it has a solid base for the princess which would be towering above it. The princess cake itself is a plain madeira cake while the base is chocolate marbled madeira cake.


Madeira cake

Good for 12 inch round or 11inch square

Ingredients:

6 cups flour
4tsp. b.powder
2 1/4 Cups Margarine or butter
2 1/2 Cups sugar
10 eggs
4 T. lemon juice



Sift together the flour and baking powder.

Cream margarine/butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time.

Add flour mixture.

add lemon juice.

Beat until mixture is smooth and glossy.

Baking time, approx 2hours 15mins.




This cake is iced in fondant. I will have to make a separate post for fondant recipe that I used and how to dress up the doll. By the way, the doll is not edible. The cake part starts from the waist down.