Recipe: Mushroom Mentaiko Baked Pasta

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Recipe: Mushroom Mentaiko Baked Pasta

Sharing an om nom nom recipe that me and pok thought of!

This came up from my crazy obsession with mentaiko. Hehehe

Mentaiko is spicy marinated pollack/cod roe, commonly used in Japanese dishes.

I fell in love with it when I tried Five & Dime's Mentaiko pasta.

Slightly spicy, still salty, and just has that kick. Nommmmm.

The cost of mentaiko is slightly high.

You can get it around $7.90 from Japanese marts, located in Parkway Parade/ Liang Court

However, you have to scrape it from the sac so it can get kind of messy.. and the yield is not much.

One box was only enough for two

I'd strongly recommend IKEA's mentaiko sauce in a tube!

$14.90 for so much, and without the mess. :D

The flavour is not as strong as with actual mentaiko of course,

which might be good for those who dont like strong taste.

Ingredients you'll need:

- Cream cheese

- Parmesan cheese

- Brown button mushrooms

- Heavy cream

- Chopped garlic

- Fusilli

- Mentaiko

Chop up the mushrooms into tiny cubes.

Please remember that mushrooms shrink upon cooking!
AND they tend to produce some amounts of water if you wash and cook them; especially for shiitake.
Just wipe the dirt off them with a paper towel, and it would suffice.

Tip: You can replace this with other ingredients, eg. minced chicken, salmon, etc.

Making the pok do the work. Hehehe.
No la actually he volunteered. :D

While the slave is chopping up the mushrooms, I cooked the pasta!
You dont have to cook it completely, just till it is al dente; cause its going for a second round in the oven.

Tip: After draining the hot water, soak the pasta in ice water to prevent the heat from 'cooking' the pasta further.
Do this especially if you need more time preparing the ingredients!

Preparing the sauce.

As I'm preparing the portion for 4 people, I used the whole can of heavy cream.

Added about a teaspoon of salt, pepper, and a dash of cajun flavouring.

If you prefer herbs, you can add that too.

Crack an egg into the mix and whip your hair.. I mean the mixture till smooth.

Add 2 teaspoons of butter into the heated wok.

Throw in 3 teaspoons of chopped garlic and fry till slightly golden.

Throw in the mushrooms!

Fry till the garlic is golden brown and the mushrooms are nicely cooked.

You can tell by the color; the white portions become more browned.

Transfer the mushrooms into a bowl.

Mix in 2 tablespoons of cream cheese and stir well.

"If you want to eat, you've got to work for it!"

#slavedriverGF HAHAHA.

Prepare your baking trays!
Drizzle olive oil to prevent the ingredients from sticking to the tray.

Tip:If you dont want it to be so oily, you can also use a cube of butter to rub and line the tray too.