Pasta in Tomato Sauce with Capers and Chicken Hotdog

I have many recipes of pasta sauces before and this is by far one of my favorite. I learned this from cooking class in First Gourmet Academy.  I loved it so much that I made this at home and made my own version on it. I added hotdogs! Sometimes I use tuna or anything available but hotdogs are the best one for me. Here's my recipe and I hope you guys like it!

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/2 cup red wine
2 cups crushed tomato in can
25 gms. capers
35 gms. black olives
35 gms. green olives
2 tbsp. basil leaves, sliced
1 pc. micned red chili
chicken hotdogs, fried separately (as many as you like!)
500 gms. pasta (cooked according to directions)
Procedure:

1. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until translucent.

2. Add reed wine and let reduce until almost dry.

3. Add the crushed tomatoes and let simmer for 5 to 10 minutes on low heat.

4. Add the olives, chili and capers. Bring to a boil and add basil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

5. Serve it with pasta and chicken hotdogs.

This is so easy to do and you can use chicken or tuna. Here's a picture  I took with the ingredients I use for this type of sauce and I used tuna as the meat of it.

I also made one just as it is without any meat and it still taste good!

I hope you guys like my pasta dish!


Keep on eating and blogging!!!

First Gourmet Academy 8th Cooking Session

The last cooking session is probably the most memorable and enjoyable for me. I guess by this time I still can't believe I enjoyed so much in cooking class and because of this class it has confirmed for me that I do want to be a chef. In the past I always have doubts and have low self esteem about this. I was always worried that I may not be good enough for this or that I will fail having a culinary career. But how can you feel like that when you are doing something you love? I was having some personal problems during my cooking sessions but I always forget about my problems and I felt a lot better every Thursday night in cooking class. I always look forward for it and I feel like it saved me from being depress. When you do something you love and you feel like you are meant to do it, those problems don't matter anymore. You feel something that most people haven't' experienced yet. It's called bliss....

For this last session we made some European cuisine and I enjoyed it. There were new dishes that I tasted and that really surprised.

Herb Meatball with Mushroom Risotto and Tomato Sauce. This is my favorite dish in cooking class. This is also the first time I ever tasted risotto and how to cook it. I always read about how it tastes but never have the chance to do it because it is not a common ingredient here in the Philippines. I liked it. It does taste like rice although it was more creamier. It was hard cooking it though because I have to stir it constantly and pour a ladle of stock one by one. It was worth it thought because I love how it turns out. And I love meatballs and anything that has tomato sauce in it! This is one of the most memorable dish I cooked at this cooking class.

Leek and Potato soup. Okay, I have to admit. I forgot how this taste like so that means it wasn't memorable and it was probably a blah for me. It was an okay dish.

Vanilla Pudding with Mango. I love this! Who hates pudding???? Seriously who ever hates vanilla pudding???? No one!!!! The mangoes are a great touch for it though.

When you want something but afraid to do it, you should try it out first. That way you'll know if it is for you or not. This is why I took up this cooking class because I want to experience working in a kitchen. And so far it has awaken my dream and pushed me to go after it. I am forever grateful for this and I know this is a step in my goal in life.

I hope you guys enjoy my posts about First Gourmet Academy and I highly recommend to people to try out this school. You can learn a lot and have fun along the way. I am happy that I met my cooking classmate and had the experience cooking with Chef Mats Loo. I really learned a lot.

Keep on eating and blogging!!! 

First Gourmet Academy 7th Cooking Session

It was 7th session of cooking class and at this time, it was more fun for us all. We all know each other and it felt like me and my cooking classmate are long time friends. This cooking session is about American cuisine and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Even if we made a small accident! We put salt on the apples instead of the sugar! It was fixed afterwards though by one of the Chef that was helping us. I realize with that accident that being a chef means you have to fix your mistakes in cooking. No time to panic or to regret because time is important.

The salted apples... LOL

Anyway, here are the dishes we made that night.

Caesar Salad with Chicken. We made the dressing from scratch and I love it! It tastes way better than those bottled dressings you buy from the grocery store.

Fried Pork Chop with Caramelized Apples and Onions. I admit. This would tasted a lot better if we didn't salted the apples! It was still great though, the sauce goes perfectly well with the pork.

I forgot to take a picture of the blueberry cobbler! It was one of the best dessert I tasted in cooking class and I'm gonna recreate that dish soon! 

Overall, I had a great time with this session and I had leftovers for home. My parents love the Caesar salad!

Chef Mats signing autographs of his cookbook.

Hope you enjoy my post!

Keep on eating and blogging!!! 

First Gourmet Academy 6th Cooking Session

In this cooking session, we learned about cooking Asian cuisine. This is something I am very familiar with being asian and all but I must say I learn some new things. Like the different way Chef Mats cooked rice. He puts salt on it! It was different and yeah I can eat it but I prefer my old way of cooking rice. I also had fun with my cooking classmates. Cooking is something to you can enjoy, and I'm glad that my cooking classmates here are really fun and great.

These are the following dishes that we cooked...

Chicken Curry in Peanut Sauce. This was not your typical chicken curry that we cooked at home. It actually tasted more like kare-kare because it has peanuts on it. It wasn't bad but it wasn't that good either. I think we overcooked the chicken and the sauce was a little off (don't blame us amateur cooks! LOL).

Beef Teriyaki. I actually like this version of Beef Teriyaki. My mother often buy the bottled version of the sauce so it was great that we made this Beef Teriyake from scratch. This is perfect with the rice we made.

Green Papaya Salad. This one was a big surprise to me because I really like it. I thought it would taste like atsara but it was different. And this one tasted better because we left it inside the refrigerator.

Sweet Potato Soup. Your typical soup. Perfect with crackers.

Overall we had an okay class. I actually liked the conversations we are having during this time because me and cooking classmates are closer than before. They really are a bunch of great people.

Well, I hope you like this post!

Keep on eating and blogging!!!

By the way, yes I brought the leftovers home. No wasted food here! LOL

First Gourmet Academy 5th Cooking Session

This cooking session is probably my favorite. Why? Because I love to bake and I want to be a pastry chef.

There's a science to baking that I really enjoyed. I guess it is because you need to be precise when baking. I love how you can bake and you can create something out of flour. This is why this cooking session is my favorite.

We had so much fun baking and even though it was tiring, the end result was fantastic! i love the bread, cake and cookies we made!!!

That's me trying to be a pastry chef/baker. Hahahahhahahahhahaha.

Basic Lean Dough for Bread. We enjoyed eating this while we dip it to balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Pound Cake. I love eating this with coffee for breakfast!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. Simple yet so good. I think the whole family ate all of the cookies I took home..

Well that's all! I think the pictures explain it all. It was a great lesson in cooking class that I know I'll treasure forever.

Keep on eating and blogging!!!