Biltong, Mushroom & White wine cream sauce pasta

LET'S COOK!!

I have been such a fan of Masterchef lately, watching every possible series of every possible country I could lay my hands on, with this my husband and I decided to do a Masterchef cook off with things we had in the house.  I decided to do a Biltong, Mushroom & White wine creams sauce pasta and he decided to make a Cheese, Garlic & Ginger filled Rump steak.  I personally think I won the challenge as his was great tasting but mine was just so much better....(hehehehe)

 

Now you don't necessarily have to use Biltong (South African Dried Spiced meat) you can use Bacon or even Panchetta, which ever you fancy, or leave out the meat completely for a vegetarian meal.  I added cashew nuts to the plate at the very end, and wow, it was a great feature....try it trust me.

It's really plain and simple to make.


So here we go:

Ingredients

Printable Version

250g of Biltong (Bacon, Panchetta or even chicken)
1 x Punnet of Mushrooms
1 x small onion - chopped
Butter
1 to 2 tubs of cream (373ml)
125ml to 200ml white wine (I used a sweet wine)
1/2 packet of spaghetti or any pasta you want to use
Cashew nuts (a handful)
Garlic
Herbs
Salt
Flour (to thicken the sauce)


How to:

1. In a big pan melt the butter and then add your chopped onions in and saute until it's a nice golden brown.
2. If your adding bacon or any other meat add it in now, and cook until they are nice and crispy.  if you are using Biltong only add it in later.
3. Now to add the mushrooms, in this recipe I only halved them, it's a tasty way to eat fork-fulls of mushrooms...yum.  Don't let the mushrooms cook to long before continuing on with the saucy part of this recipe, we don't want the mushrooms to be soggy.
4. Add your 1 or 2 tubs of cream, I love a lot of sauce so I added both tubs.  Keep stirring and then add your wine gradually.  Turn the heat down and keep mixing. 
5. Add some garlic, herbs & a very little salt at this stage.  I sometimes scoop some of the sauce out into a small glass and then add 2 or 3 table spoons full of flour.  Mix the paste with your sauce and keep stirring. The reason why we add the flour outside of the pan is not to make any lumps.
6. When your sauce is completely finished you can add the Biltong, that's if you are adding Biltong.  Now set the sauce aside.

1. Boil the water for the pasta and add a about a tablespoon of salt to the water, when it's boiling add the pasta and let it cook.  The salt in the water make a huge difference to the taste of the pasta.  That is why we should had to much salt to our sauce.  And you should always cook your pasta at the end, so that they don't stick together.

And then you are ready to dish up, don't mix the two together rather dish them in the plate separately, add the cashew nuts and sprinkle a bit of  Parmesan cheese over to finish it off. 

Enjoy and let the taste move you.

Review: Jackies Eastern Kitchen

 

I LOVE SUSHI!!! 

I have absolutely fallen in love with sushi & Chinese food, no I don't think that's a strong enough statement.  I have become addicted to sushi.  I know there's lots and lots of people that just doesn't like sushi or even Chinese food and I used to be one of them about two years ago.  I owe my love for sushi to Jackies Eastern Kitchen, they are situated in 2851 Paradys St, Paradys Park Centre, Arauna, Brackenfell, Cape Town.  Now what's great about this little restaurant is the special that they have of R99 "Eat as much as you can", for that price you can eat as much sushi & Chinese food, from a selected menu, as you can handle.

About two years ago my husband took me out for dinner and we decided we were going to try some sushi and see what is all the fuss about.  I hated it (can you believe), didn't like the seaweed taste etc...but then a couple of months later we went out for dinner with our best friends to Jackies Eastern Kitchen and wow oh wow...I fell in love with this restaurant and with the great sushi & Chinese food. 

I of course started it safe, with some sweet & sour pork and their Crispy pork which is to die for.  I then tried the Deep Fried California rolls and I was hooked.  They were full of flavour, crunchy on the outside and dipped into Soya sauce, one of the best meals I have ever enjoyed in my life.  

Below is a picture I took, at the top left hand corner is their Crispy Pork, then as we come down, right here at the bottom of the picture is my favourite Cashew Nut Chicken, the flavours are really amazing and food is freshly made.  In the middle you'll see my all time best Deep Fried California rolls with bits of sweet chili sauce and mayo.  Since we usually make use of the special the photo's show the plates that you receive which are not the full portion plates, they are smaller portion, which is great, so you can order any amount of times you want and you can try many different items.

As you can see they have a wide variety to choose from, from Tempura Prawns California rolls to Philli California rolls.  They can even do your selection with rice paper and not seaweed.

I've even had the Vegetarian California rolls, such a clean taste, almost like a pallet cleanser.

I would absolutely recommend anyone to go and eat at this restaurant, their food is absolutely fabulous, where they sometime loose a couple of points is the fact that they are always busy (if that's such a bad thing), but that would mean that food could take some time to come out of the kitchen.  I would suggest if you are in the area BOOK a table, we always book, since they have become so popular you might just wait for a table.

Jackies Eastern Kitchen gets 4 Sushi stars out of 5

Disclaimer: No one was paid to write a review about this dinner and the opinions expressed in this post are voluntary and mine entirely.