Tik tok pasta with baked goat and boursin cheese, asparagus, tomatoes and olives

I only recently learned about this tiktok pasta craze ! It was made popular by a Finnish blogger in 2019 and called uunifetapasta .  I am quite late to the game :) My sister told me she had made variations of it with Boursin cheese and Trader Joe’s spinach artichoke dip as a base for the sauce. 

I decided to give it a try since I had recently bought some goat cheese and new type of pasta I wanted to try. It was called Ronzoni and was made with rice/corn/quinoa. 

Ingredients:

Ronzoni rotini - cooked according to the directions on the box ( cooked for 14-15 min) - al dente - 2 cups 

A block of plain goat cheese - 8 oz

Herbed Boursin cheese - 1/2 package 

Asparagus - 15 spears - cut into three pieces ( discard the bottom third and use the top 2 pieces )

Tomato- 1 box cherry tomatoes- since I didn’t have these I used half a large tomato and cut it into cubes 

Olives - small 1.2 oz cup sliced into halves 

Olive oil- 1/4-1/3 cup 

Garlic cloves - 2 chopped into small pieces 

Fresh basil (or dried italian seasoning)- a bunch 

Salt

Pepper 

Instructions

1. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the box. Drain it and save 1 cup of the pasta water ( to use later) 

2. Preheat oven to 400 F

3. Take a large oven safe dish and drizzle two tablespoons of olive oil.Place the asparagus, olives, tomatoes, garlic cloves in the periphery of the dish and drizzle olive oil on top and heat it in the oven for 15 min.

4. Place the cheese in the middle of the dish. 

5. Cook the cheese and the vegetables in the oven for 20 more minutes until the cheese is bubbly.

6. Take the dish out of the oven. Add the pasta little by little into the dish and mix the vegetables, cheese and pasta together. Add a little pasta water to make the pasta creamy. 

7. Add salt, pepper and herbs. 

8. Pasta is ready to serve !!

Vegetable tempura

In keeping with my Japanese theme I decided to make vegetable tempura to go along with my sushi. I followed a food network  recipe for the batter and went rogue on the vegetables/ fruits I used to make tempura. I’ve always thought that tempura was similar to Indian pakoras without the heavy batter on the vegetables. Looking at the history I noted that tempura was introduced to Japan by the Portuguese living in Nagasaki in the 16th century. Per my Wikipedia research - ‘The name "tempura" originates from the Latin phrase quatuor anni tempora, which refers to the Ember days, during which no meat is consumed’ 

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 cup 

Cornstarch - 1 tbsp 

Seltzer water - 1.5 cups 

Salt - to taste 

Vegetables: any cut into desired thickness and length 

I used : onion, carrot, sweet potato , avocado, green beans , asparagus, broccoli , mango and pomegranate

Vegetable / canola Oil 1 cup - 2 cups for deep frying 

Sauce :

Soy sauce - 3 to 4 tbsp

Brown sugar - to taste 

Apricot jelly - to taste 

Water - to dilute to desired consistency 

Instructions 

1. Mix all the ingredients of the batter together in a large mixing bowl 
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Dip the vegetables or fruit in the batter to coat them thinly and then deep fry them until golden brown. 
   
   
   
3. Tempura is ready to serve. I made a quick sauce with soy sauce , water, brown sugar and apricot jelly mixed together to use as a dipping sauce which was quite tasty 
   
   

Tip: if you have left over tempura you can heat it up in the air fryer at 350 for about a minute to two to get tempura that tastes just like when you pulled it out of fry pan ! 

Vegetable Hakka noodles

There is a style of cooking called Hakka which belongs to the Hakka people of China. Hakka noodles however is an Indian adaptation of Hakka dishes. Hakka noodles are one of my favorite dishes. It is easy to make and very tasty. My sister searched for recipes and found a good one on the chutney life . She set out to make it and it turned out really well. 

Ingredients: 

Shredded cabbage - 1 cup

Red Bell pepper julienned (cut into thin strips)  - 1 cup 

Green bell pepper julienned  - 1 cup

Carrot julienned - 1 cup 

Scallions ( green onion) cut into small pieces - 1/2 cup

Sambal paste (indonesian chili sauce vegetarian version)- 2 tbsp

Soy sauce - 3 tbsp

Minced garlic - 2 tbsp

Minced ginger - 2 tbsp

Rice wine vinegar- 1 tsp

Green chillies ( deseeded and cut into small strips ) - 1-2 (optional)

Ching’a secret veg Hakka noodles - 1 packet 

Salt to taste - 1/2 tsp ( with soy sauce it may become salty- taste before adding)

Pepper - 1/2 tsp 

Oil - vegetable oil 4 tbsp

Chili oil - optional ( you can put some crushed dried red chilies in oil and heat it up on low Heat for 5-10 minute and then strain out the red chilies. Then you can save the oil in a jar for cooking) 

Instructions :

1. Cook the noodles according to package instructions. Once done cooking drain it in a colander and run cold water on it to stop the cooking process . This will help keep the noodles from getting mushy. Place in a bowl and add a little oil to it and toss it so that the noodles don’t stick to each other 
2. Place a large pan on the stove on medium heat and add 2 tbsp of oil.
3. Once oil is hot add green chillies and sauté , then add the bell peppers and sauté until slightly soft.
   
   
4. Next add the ginger and garlic and sauté. Then add the carrot and cabbage and sauté for  under a minute . We want these vegetables to be cooked but still be crunchy and not mushy.
   
   
5. Reduce to low heat and now put the noodles in the pot and toss. 
   
6. Add the soy sauce , Sambal paste, vinegar and pepper 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Toss the noodles so everything is mixed in and let cook for a few minutes so that you don’t have the raw vinegar or chili paste taste 
8. Then add salt to taste and a little chili oil ( 1 tsp - optional ) and then add green scallions for garnishing and toss and serve.
   
   
   
   
9. 
   
10. We typically eat Hakka noodles with ketchup in India. You can even get the maggi hot and sweet sauce to add a little kick