Tacos

It's taco day!! Taco brings me many months back where I was still on my so awesome exchange. I still can't believe it's over. Anyway, besides burgers and fries which I got so sick off after my first few weeks, I got to indulge in Mexican food.. The difference was I never got bored of it. Tacos, tortillas,chilli, nachos, chipotle, quesadillas, corn, cheese, salsa, beans omg beansssss.. Being such a huge fan of beans (red bean, green bean), I thought I wouldn't be able to survive those 5 months but boy was I wrong. It was a land of beans. Kidney beans, chickpeas, black beans, chill. Don't see much Mexican restaurants here in Singapore which is pretty saddening but anyway going to Holland V Cha Cha Cha for a meal now and then isn't sucha bad idea after all.

Soo on the menu today we have: 

My all time favourite appetizer- deep fried mushrooms

I remember I was doing alot of things at once while frying the mushrooms that I forgot to lower the heat and flip it and honestly, it was a SERIOUS disaster. The first batch of mushrooms turned out like a huge blob of charcoal. Thank goodness for helpers that came to assist at the right time. I tried deep frying portobello and white button mushrooms but as much as I really like the taste of portobello, they just didn't work. The latter was much juicier. Just the way I like. Juicy on the inside and cripsy on the outside.

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup water

1 egg 

whatever spices you like [ I put oregano, some garlic and herb salt, pepper, cayenne pepper ] 

breadcrumbs 

Mix the top four ingredients together. Dip mushrooms in it to coat and roll them in a generous amount of breadcrumbs and deep fry to see magic.  

Filling for Tacos:


Anything yummy goes with tacos. Can be beef, chicken, fish.. It's really up to your own discretion :).


About 350g lean mince beef
1 can black beans, drained
1 large red onion chopped finely
about 1 cup water
garlic
taco seasoning


The taco shells were store bought. I used the Old El Paso brand. Works out to be particularly crispy when baked in the oven. Nice! Plus it comes with taco seasoning and salsa sauce.

Tacos with lettuce, tomatoes and salsa sauce ;)) and ooh we made this tangy grapefruit and lychee ice blended drink to go with it but didn't manage to get a shot of it.

Tacos are not at all filling so we had 2 rounds of pasta to go alongside the tacos. Made a creamy based pasta as well as a pesto based one. Here are 2 ingredients I look for whenever I order pasta at a restaurant: Zucchini and eggplant! HAHAA. told you I was simple ;) 

This pesto based linguine is rather simple to do. Infact, pasta is the easiest to whip up when in a hurry. 

Linguine ( or you can use other kinds of pasta as well) 

parmesan cheese

sundried tomatoes ( totally love them as well) 

zucchini

eggplant

olive oil

salt and pepper ( to taste) 

I know you must be wondering what happened to the pine nuts?? I didn't add them in as I had none on hand but they sure go well with pesto based pasta. Arhh at least that's why I eat them for. 

Many of them preferred this creamy based one. I'm not a sucker for creamy pasta but I must say this is pretty darn good.. considering the massive amount of cheese I added to it out of experiment. hahaa

This serves 6-8 people:

Linguine ( or other)

18 raw prawns, deshelled and de-veined

2 tbsp butter

olive oil

Portobello/whitebutton mushrooms ( as much as you wish)

Bacon (Fried and cut into small pieces)

Oregano flakes

1 cup cream ( I only had 150ml on hand so I substituted the rest for milk) 

Peppery Jack Cheese ( Well, I added a handful.) 

and there you have it. Homemade Mexican food and pasta ;)) Stay tune for more random cooking and baking. I have alot ( and I mean a whole lot) of backlog.