I’m going to Japan in a week! I made Jason promise he would only eat Yong Tau Foo (no carbs!) for lunch every day, so that he can eat his ramen, tempura, sushi and tonkatsu during the trip without worry.

His reply? Even if he doesn’t eat Yong Tau Foo every day, he will still eat during the trip without worry. How can?! His face looks like it’s going to explode. If it does then how? I gotta clean the floor! I cannot let that happen.

So we’ve come to a compromise. He will eat Yong Tau Foo or Fish Soup with half a bowl of rice every day. Once a week, he can have his Laksa Yong Tau Foo but cannot drink the gravy and if he opts for Laksa, he cannot eat rice. We’ll see how it goes.

For me, I HAVE TO LAY OFF THE SNACKING. I love Muruku, but I love tonkatsu more. That only means more low-carb options these days.

Today I have a recipe for Low Carb Pappardelle in Light Cream Sauce. How can pasta be low carb? Well it sure can, if we’re using tofu in place of pasta. These are actually Baiye Tofu, sold in folded sheets, hygienically-packed for sale in the chiller sections of major supermarkets. I found mine in Giant for about $2.55 a packet, good for three servings. These weren’t available before – I’ve only started noticing these a couple of months ago and thought they would make a great carbs substitution. Apparently, this is really popular with the Chinese from China (this is a factual description) and you can find these in Mala Xiang Guo too. This is what the packaging looks like:

I was quite apprehensive that the husband wouldn’t like it but he surprisingly was very receptive and said he would ‘order’ it again! Small win here. Slicing into broad strands, like Pappardelle:

The best thing about these is that you can slice them however way you want them – as angel hair spaghetti, No. 5 spaghetti, fettucine, tagliatelle or even use them as lasagne sheets. In the local context, that means you mian, mee pok, kway teow or mee hoon kueh – you get the drift.

Ok so, verdict. Texture wise, these tofu noodles are slightly chewy with a nice bite. They aren’t doughy or heavy, so don’t expect them to satiate your carb cravings. Taste wise, they don’t taste overwhelmingly of soy and don’t absorb the taste of other ingredients – quite a neutral tasting ingredient, which isn’t surprising at all. I actually think they will be best as fried noodles. For this recipe, I made them in pasta form with sliced Portobello, baby asparagus and ham in a light cream sauce. I also tried them in clear Chinese soups (like fish ball noodles soup) and liked them that way too. Quite positive I’m gonna cook Tofu Fried Noodles soon. Check back for the recipe! For now, I hope you like these in cream sauce. You can technically use any ingredients you want, but I find that this goes well with mushrooms and asparagus.

The post Low-carb lunch idea: Tofu “Pasta” – Pappardelle in Light Cream Sauce appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

I’m sorry I don’t have a picture with better table styling, because this was cooked over the stove without any planning and that evening, I was quite frustrated! Having cooked the awesome-nest risotto I’ve ever cooked (I’ve only cooked it once) last year, I was dying to go at it again but wasn’t quite prepared to ladle boiling stock over rice every few minutes until they were cooked.

And so I set out to do what I thought was a clever thing. MAKE RICECOOKER RISOTTO. I had everything planned. The amount of rice, the stock, the asparagus, the mushrooms, the timing. Everything. Except the ricecooker.

I have an old-school ricecooker that has none of the other functions of a 2014 ricecooker. My old school ricecooker dictates that rice should cook in 13 minutes. When 13 minutes are up, you can’t cook them anymore no matter how hard you depress the button. It just won’t stay down. There was just no way.

I started my “adventure” merrily. I even have pictures to prove:

I switched on the ancient thing to preheat it, and started frying the onions, garlic and butter after a few minutes. And then when it was time to coat the rice in the butter, disaster struck! The “Cook” button automatically changed to “Keep Warm” and there was no way I could continue my time-saving (the irony!) rice cooker risotto. Why didn’t I stop to think that not all rice cookers were created equal?

So how, like that? The hubby needed to eat! Being a very adaptive woman (ehem), I did the next thing I knew. Transfer the rice to the frying pan and google for “budgetpantry risotto”. Yes, I google my own recipe. What? I can’t remember everything ok? What I did differently this time was blanch some asparagus, leave out the shrimp and use seafood stock instead of pork bone stock.

Thankfully. Still good. Oh, and one tip: you would never have guessed, but my secret weapon in making really flavourful seafood risotto is this:

Try making it, you might surprise yourself!

The post Easy Mushroom and Asparagus Risotto in Seafood Stock appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.