White Mushroom Spaghetti

This was my first attempt at making a pasta dish that didn't have any tomato related ingredient in the sauce. It sauce pretty much consisted of white mushrooms, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper, oil, and butter. It's a shame I'm not old enough to get some white wine, it would have been perfect.

The mushrooms looked amazing so I decided it would be a good idea to get some. Sorry, but I forgot to take pictures of them before I sliced, diced, and cooked them.

White Mushroom Pasta:

12 oz. of White Mushrooms, about (or more if you like)

5 cloves of garlic, minced

Quarter of a small-medium onion, diced

1 tsp dried oregano

2 tbsp of Olive Oil (or any other kind you have)

4 tbsp of butter

1 tsp, or more, of salt (to taste)

1/2 pack of regular length spaghetti, roughly

Black pepper (optional/to taste)

Basil, roughly chopped (optional)

Rinse and wash the mushrooms under cold running water. And set aside to dry, or you can pat dry. Then slice them into thin, approx. 2-3mm, even slices. Set aside. (The slicing can all be done while you wait for the water to boil)

Bring a large, covered, pot of water to boil. Once boiling, uncover and throw in the dried spaghetti. Stir in and let cook as package directs. Stir occasionally.

While the pasta is cooking, heat oil in a large, raised sides, pan. When heated, cook garlic for about 30 secs or until fragrant on medium-high heat, then throw in the onions and oregano and cook until browned and softened slightly, maybe about 3 minutes on medium-high heat.

Once onions are browned and softened, throw in the sliced mushrooms. Saute for a a minute or two and then cover, turn heat to medium, and let the mushrooms release their moisture. After about 5-7 minutes, check and stir. They should have lost a lot of their opaqueness. Now uncover, turn heat back to medium-high, add salt, and saute untill some moisture has evaporated, but not completely. Add the butter and stir in until all melted. Lower heat to medium-low.

At this point the pasta should be done. Drain and add pasta to the sauce. Mix well until the pasta is well coated. Add basil, and pepper (if using). Serve immediately.

Serves ~4

Enjoy!

Easy Dinner ('Cause I'm Lazy)

XO Sauce Noodles （XO 拌麵）

Okay, so my sister, who is also my roommate, didn't do the dishes last night like she was supposed to so I had no space to really work on something for dinner. Such the case, I just decided to make an easy dry noodle thing for the two of us.

Nothing can be simpler than this (of course, exaggerating a little bit since cereal is way easier than this, lol). Fast, easy, and delicious.

So this XO Sauce is this really tasty Cantonese seafood sauce. I'm not talking about fish sauce! You might have seen this before at some dim sum restaurants (the ones that have it) when they have the small plates of soy, mustard, sauce condiments on the table. Its comprised of dried baby shrimp, scallops, and...peppers I'm sure marinated in an oil of some sort. I like Lee Kum Kee's brand of XO sauce (according to my mom, its also the #1 brand for XO sauce, though I'm not sure if thats really true or not ^^;).

The base sauce for the noodles is just a little light soy sauce, light black vinegar, how ever much chili oil you like, diced green onions, minced garlic (I add them when I really don't plan to go out for the rest of the day), a nice tsp or so of XO sauce, some cilantro, and anything else I feel like adding that would, I feel, taste pretty good in the mix (like julienned marinated tofu, you know those darker block type tofus).

I like cilantro so I added some in mine, and since this is supposed to be easy I just ripped them up into the sauce instead of pulling out my cutting board and mincing them. My sister doesn't like the herb as much as me...if fact, I think she detests it, so hers is the white bowl with none in it. Seriously, she is so picky. Sometimes makes me wonder how she ever grew up.

The noodles are just your everyday, regular dried noodles you can get in any Oriental or Asian supermarket. I used oil noodles (油麺) this time, but ramen (拉麵) or any other dried noodle you like works just as well.

Yummy noodles!
Recipe:

This is mostly about ratios, so...the main thing here is

• soy sauce : vinegar --> 1:2 (I sometimes prefer going a little under the 1:2 for the soy and make it 1:2 1/2 since the type of vinegar I use has a nice sweet and sour taste to it. Also, I think the noodles taste better when they have more tang to it)
  

Now, the amounts I usually use for 1 serving is more or less:

• ~2 cups of cooked noodle.
• 2 1/2 tsp of soy/vinegar mix (I usually just use the spoon I have on hand to measure it out into the bowl)
• 1/4~1/2 tsp or chili oil (I find it pleasantly mild which just enough of the chili oil flavor)
• 1 1/2 tbsp of diced green onion
• 1 1/2 tsp (or more) or so of XO sauce (I don't use a lot because this amount, to me, is just enough to flavor the noodles with all its wonderful seafood goodness ^^)
• + Anything else you want.
  

Anyway, these are really just guidelines. You can play around with all the ratios as much as you like.

I'll put the actual ratios of stuff I used later on. Now, it is time to do calculus!