The Kuala Lumpur Traveler

Kuala Lumpur is Home will be featuring regular online home cooking demos showing how I cook my favourite dishes. Since I am not running a recipe site here, there will be no recipes provided, instead I will just provide pictures and videos of what I use in my cooking which I just estimate anyway… I hope you will get use to estimating the quantity of each recipe as you develop your culinary skills. If you are not sure, there are thousands of recipe sites available on the internet… find them and combine those with what I show here, you will have created your own styles and recipes which you can also feature in your blog if you have one..

This entry will be a long one but if you enjoy cooking, you will love reading it as much as I did preparing them and blog about it here… its a long process but I really had fun doing it.

I would also like to dedicate this home cooking demo to my foster-sister Kak Zan whom had sent me a text message a couple of weeks ago asking for my lasagna recipe which she would like to try during the school holidays… so here you go Kak Zan… I wish you have as much fun as I did in the kitchen with this online cooking lesson.

In this first online cooking lesson series I will show how I cook my favourite Italian dish Lasagna, which I was forced to learn when I was studying in Australia because I could not find halal lasagna available in Italian restaurants. The quantities used in this lesson are huge because the sauces that I am going to use for the lasagna will also be used for spaghetti bolognese, both beef and chicken flavours. Because of the long time it takes to prepare this dish, I normaly cook lasagnas and spaghetti sauces in large quantities and then keep them frozen so that I and my family can always enjoy them anytime we crave for lasagnas and spaghetti later on…

These are all the ingredients I use for the lasagna. The following pictures show closer view for some of these ingredients so that you know the brands used.. especially for the Mozzarella and Cheddar cheese, pasta sauce and the lasagna sheets… no I am not promoting any brand but just to show you what brands I use…

Also take note, I have modified the lasagna to include the Asian taste by using some curry powder in the ingredients. The Italians must be laughing when they find this out..

I use two bottles of ready-made pasta sauce as a base for my lasagna and spaghetti sauces, then I add more spices and other fresh ingredients to make up for larger quantities that I want.

White cream sauce is quite expensive item to buy especially in large quantities so I am going to prepare my own white cream sauce here that’s why you see a bottle of fresh milk here together with butter (or margarine), plain flour and cheese singles which are the main ingredient for the white cream sauce.

As I mentioned before, these additional fresh ingredients, tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger and fresh parsely, are to be added to the base sauce that I bought ready-made to make up for the larger quantities I need to feed my large and growing children who are now on school holidays… so there must be a lot of stocked-up food ready in the freezer to keep them sane…

The picture above shows the fresh ingredients. Going clockwise from top left…. I have shallots, garlic, onions and galangal (ginger) … all four to be finely-grounded. Tomatoes cut to pieces are also to be coarsely gounded. The beef/chicken curry powder is already mixed with water and finally some chopped onions.

Here comes the action…. heat up the olive oil and fry the chopped onions until fragrant and brownish. If you hear funny voices in the background, that is my youngest daughter trying to get our attention while I and my wife were busy with the cooking..

Then add the finely chopped ingredients followed by the curry powder that is already mixed with water. Fry until the curry powder is cooked… you know what I mean..

If you are wondering how much curry powder you should add, the rule is simple… the more the spicier… but not too much as you must maintain the original soury, tomato taste which is the trade mark of Italian cooking in this dish…. if you try often enough, you will know how much curry powder to put according to the quantity you want.

Add the coarsley grounded tomatoes. Also add some finely cut tomatoes that will give chunky feeling when you enjoy your lasagna or spaghetti later. Cook for another 10 minutes or so.

Add the ready-made pasta sauce

Add the ready-made tomato puree. I still use the tomato puree because it gives a distinctive soury tomato smell and taste on top of the fresh tomatoes that we added earlier.

Add more Italian herbs (oregano, mixed herbs) to make up for large quantities.

In the mean time, you should already prepared the minced meat and minced chicken for the sauce. I am using the ready made frozen minced meat and minced chicken here but it is definitely better if you can prepare freshly minced meat and chicken for your lasagnas.

Add finely chopped fresh parsley.

When the sauce is cooked, I divided the sauce into two portions. One will be used for beef pasta sauce and the other one will be used for chicken pasta sauce.

Add minced beef into the sauce and immediately stir the meat in the sauce to avoid the minced meat being cooked into large chunks.

Now that the sauce is ready, its time to prepare the white cream sauce next. Melt the butter using medium heat and add plain flour, mix well and fry for a couple of minutes while stirring continuously.

When the flour is cooked, add fresh milk and keep stirring the sauce.

Add cheddar cheese singles. Keep stirring the cream cheese sauce. Cook for a few more minutes until the sauce comes to a boil.

Add black pepper last and stir well. If you follow the instructions right, here is what you should get. It would be better for your health if you choose light cheese singles as it containes less salt. My kids love cream cheese that we never had any left over when we are done with the cooking… the eat it just like that..

Ok.. here is what you should have got to make your favourite beef and chicken lasagna.We have both the beef and chicken pasta sauces ready. We have the cream cheese. We also would have prepared the ready made grated/shreded cheddar cheese and grated/shredded parmesan cheese (in the bowls). The lasagna pasta sheets should have been soaked in water for a while to let it softten.

Now we are ready to start assemble the lasagna from the cooked ingredients.

1. Apply a thin layer of cooking oil at the base and inside of the square aluminium pan.
2. Put in enough beef sauce and spread evenly to cover the bottom of the pan
3. Apply a layer of shredded mozzarella cheese on top of beef sauce
4. Apply a layer of shredded cheddar cheese on top of mozzarella cheese
5. Sprinkle grated parmesan cheese on top of cheddar cheese (not shown in the video)
6. Line up a layer of lasagna sheets on top
7. Repeat step 2 until 5 twice, creating a three-layer lasagna

My wife did the first layer….

I did the second layer…

The third layer?… Why not you do it? When you are done, here is what you get. I have completed assembling two lasagnas, one beef lasagna and another one chicken lasagna. Oh by the way, I almost forgot, you should also sprinkle grated parmesan cheese on top… I couldn’t show you here because I didn’t manage to get any at the supermaket I was doing the shopping.

Bake the lasagna in a pre-heated oven at around 350 degrees Farenheit for about 30-45 minutes, or until thoroughly heated and bubbly. Let it cool for 8 to 10 minutes before cutting and serving. Trust me you won’t regret it ..

Voila…. my beef lasagna and chicken lasagna are ready…yummy!! If you have created your own version of lasagna… please share it with us in the comment area….it would be interesting to try… hmm I am hungry!!!

[tags]lasagna, pasta, Italian food, beef lasagna, chicken lasagna, home cooking[/tags]

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