The Chinese have a clay crockpot which is heated over a fire (coal or gas) with rice and any variety of food eg. marinated meat or seafood, with vegetables, and condiments. The rice is usually pre-cooked and then put into the crockpot, with the meats and vegetables added, and usually topped off with a sweet, dark soy sauce. I used to create my own versions of this "sa-poh-fun" when I had a gas cooker (not guest cooker, as I would have liked that more), but changing to induction did mean also having to change the way I cook, and eat.
But the convenience of having an all-in-one meal is just too easy for any bachelor to avoid. It doesn't always look glamourous, but it is usually between yourself and your food, your appetite and whatever nutrition you have whipped up from the grocer's. So, you tend to be happily biased even if it tastes less flavoursome than Pizza Hut or Il Lido. But the upside is always that you known precisely what has gone in.
I just liked the idea of pasta all-in-one, and as Italian as you want to make it, this is Singapore and the Far East. So, in went the garlic on the olive oil on a low heat. I can hear it crackling so slowly, I imagined the garlic bleeding out its essence to the oil. Then I put in three finely sliced shallots (instead of the English onions), and these cook very slowly on the low heat, with an occasional toss of the pan to ensure they don't burn. They caramelise very slowly and I can smell the sweetness emerging from the heat, in fine wisps of steam.
The minced beef has been marinated earlier, from the chiller, for about 40 mins, a tad too short for me, but beef is a sensitive meat. Ground black pepper, salt, and a generous dash of ground, dried paprika, completed with Italian herbs - Oregano, Thyme, Basil, and some rosemary. It is all minced and ready.
Into the pan it goes, and you spread it out over the shallots and oil, so it doesn't get burned as beef heats up fast and quickly turns brown. To get it golden and crumply, I have to spread it out and turn it often. Now, it seems like a different dish altogether and already I almost just want to end there and start eating off the pan.
But the better part is to start, and this happens with the tomato pesto being poured in, over the ground beef, in the pan. I think of all the lycopene and sweetness, edged with an unforgetable saltiness. It needs some water and I sprinkle some freshly boiled (airless) water into the sizzling pan.
It is all heating up nicely and not overly boiling or saute, then I get the vegetables ready to be added. For this round, I had French beans (not so Asian?), all finely chopped, carrots finely diced, and Chinese cabbage thinly sliced, all poured into the Bolognaise. It is immediately slowly turned so that the whole sauce is mixed with the vegetables to cook it together.
Now, for the pasta, I like the firmer Wholemeal Wheat SPIRALS and these have been cooked in hot boiling water for 8 minutes, and sitting in its pot, they have soaked up some water and now looked like fatten sheep in a pen, huddled against a winter blast. Drained into a coriander, I give it a toss to flush out the extra water and ready this for the pan.
After the Bolognaise a la Chine is all hot and well mixed, I put the pasta spirals into it and mix it well. Then once this is heated uniformly, I turn off the cooker and let the pan it, putting the lid over it for a few seconds to heat the lid up.
I get out my mixture of sliced mozarella and red cheddar cheese and sprinkle these over the Bolognaise, and then replace the lid. It is ready. The cheese melts on to the top of the Bolognaise and makes it perfect.
To keep warm, I pre-heat my oven to about 60-80 degrees Celsius and put the whole pan into it with the lid.
After I am done, the balance I transfer into a Pyrex casserole and put it into the oven for a while at about 120 degrees, just to firm it up and get rid of any excess moisture from the air. It burns the top slightly and gives it a rosta-like look, as if I dropped it into the Tandoor. It is a lot better than I expected!
With a lid on, I keep it in the oven until it cools for the fridge where I keep it for the next day, not expecting to have left over, but because I had a dinner invite for the last day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, with friends at their porch. It will be Chinese steamboat and I hear that the caterer is one of the best.
Now, I think I am all warmed up again, and "cooking"!
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