Reattempting Salmon Spaghetti “Carbonara” style
Reattempting Salmon Spaghetti “Carbonara” style again for dinner today. Taking in the feedback plus my “after action review”, here’s my findings:
1. Soft-boiled eggs would make good “carbonara” sauce (which I’m going to try today)
2. The vegetables I used the last time are rather bland, so I trying out other vegetables this time
3. My spaghetti taste bland the last time, so I’m going to try adding in seasoning in the preparation stage
4. Similar to Point 3, I planned to use seasoning more freely
5. My vegetables were quite big the last time, so cooking everything on the pan could be difficult, so I shall cut them up more this time
Ingredients:
1. Salmon
2. Spaghetti
3. Bell pepper (red) x 1
4. Cabbage
5. Potatoes x 2
6. Eggs x 3
Cooking the spaghetti
Preparation done
As usual, the first task at hand was to cook the spaghetti before preparing the rest of the ingredients. The salmon was cut into smaller pieces compared to the other time. Same applied to the cabbage, cutting into slices. Potatoes preparation remained the same as before. As for the bell pepper, it was cut and deseeded, before slicing into thin slices while a small bit was diced.
Seasoning the salmon
My only seasoning – Lemon Pepper
While the frying pan was heating up with olive oil, the salmon was rubbed in with olive oil too. This time, I also added in lemon pepper too. Once done and the pan was hot enough, the salmon was added in to fry while I went to prepare the eggs.
Putting all the vegetables in
Beating the eggs up
Didn’t use all 3 eggs. I just beat 2 up, adding in diced bell pepper and lemon pepper while beating. Once done, I put the rest of the vegetables into the pan, stir frying them with the salmon. When the ingredient in the pan looked cooked, the spaghetti was drained and added into the pan immediately, the beaten eggs added shortly after.
Done
Quickly prepared the pot to boil water before attention was focused on the pan, stirring the contents until the beaten eggs was cooked and stick to the spaghetti. Serve onto the plate and left to cool though I did a quick taste. It taste better this time, less bland though I think I know where did I went wrong. Hahaha..
Adding soft-boiled egg on the spaghetti
With the water in the pot boiling, the heat was turn off, the last egg added in before putting the lid on. Waited about 3mins 30 sec before taking the egg out and breaking the soft-boiled egg over the dish. Despite the time the egg was immersed, some of the egg white was quite well cooked, so the egg was reaching hard-boiled stage soon. LOL.
After eating, my conclusion was, yes, soft-boiled egg made good “carbonara” sauce, the runny yolk and white mixed together with the spaghetti felt so good in my mouth. Hahaha… Bell pepper was a good vegetable to use as it added its own taste to the dish. I need to work on my seasoning. LOL. While it was definitely better than the previous one, it still comes out a bit bland. I used too much spaghetti in my cooking. I believe I’m preparing a meal for 2 people as my plate was so filled with spaghetti, it started to spill out. That may explain why it tasted bland because my eggs couldn’t coat all the spaghetti. Well, let’s see how I fare next time. Hahaha…
Musings from Aotearoa 
Ahhh… I should also have said to mix in the egg before taking the photo.. Haha..
The feeling of that gooey egg yolk and the bland white on the pasta (methinks urs is called fusilli?) is, so good?
Another idea for u. You’ need boiled fusilli, potatoes, bell peppers, salmon(boil or fry it with loads o salt) and mayonaise. Boil the fusilli and diced potatoes together. Wash the bell peppers and slice them thinly. Then mixed the drained carbs with the peppers and shredded salted fish. Enough mayo to taste, viola! Pasta salad done. You can also mix in any vegetables that you’d think taste good as well.
Lol. Well, it was fun letting the runny egg dipped over the pasta. hahaha… Ya, it feels shiok eating it but given that I like soft-boiled eggs a lot, so my judgment could be biased. hahaha..
I’m not sure about making a salad because it’s hard for me to buy a lot of fresh vegetables since I’m only cooking for 1 person but I could get those salad pack. Would have to see how since I ate all my salmon liao. Think I’m going to stick with beef or whichever meat is on offer for my next recipe. 😉
I mentioned previously to you that I learnt that a source of saltiness was essential for food to be basically tasty enough.
I admit that Singaporean Chinese upbringing makes light soy(a) sauce and sir-fried veggies the most convenient and delicious way to handle them.
Since you’re living as frugally as possible, then salt alone is typically cheap and universally available everywhere.
I suppose it costs even less than your salmon and vegetables?
Now that you’ve got your lemon pepper, perhaps you’re but one step away to connect the dish to your stable satisfaction. 🙂
Adds simple yet profound meaning again to the cliché ‘salt and pepper’.
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Eggs are very versatile ingredients, and by this very nature they would taste very different when cooked differently.
I’ve found that while salt goes well directly into omelette, sauces go better with sunny side up, soft- and hard-boiled.
Tasty broths (thin soups) bring out poached eggs (e.g. cooking in beer!), while steamed eggs draw flavour from strongly salted foods e.g. sausages.
I also find that anything less than butter or full cream milk does not bring out the best of scrambled eggs.
Oh ya, I totally forget I do have salt with me. hahaha.. I bought it a while back for my spaghetti as I need to salt the water before I can cook it. Well, so that’s mean I do have 2 seasonings to play around with.
It’s true about the soya sauce and stir fried vegetables. Before I left Singapore, this was one of the simple recipe my mom told me about but then, to make a meal out of this, it would mean most prob I need to have some rice. hahaha…
Well, it’s does fit in the cliche ‘salt and pepper’ since I have to live frugally over here until I find a job.
Hmmmm.. Interesting… Thanks for the tips on eggs. It gives me some ideas for future cooking. hahahaha
Quote from Mum: Please do not consume so many eggs at one go, 3 eggs are way too many…and do go and exercise…
Ya I know but it’s not a everyday thing, so it’s still alright lar. As for exercise, ya I’m going to need it. hahaha
Throughout much of 4 decades in my life, I get lots of often contradicting advice about what I should or should not eat, how I should exercise, or not unhealthily live my life.
The shocking outcome of it is all that ‘best’ advice has ended up not working, especially since all that advice nudged me around in all directions, until I came back to square one.
The tragic irony of it all was that much of the advice came from my healthy mother, who then died quickly from an aggressive brain cancer, which none of her health wisdom had any defence for.
Sadly, what she did for herself at the end more quickly worsened her condition: she starved herself of the essential carbohydrates and protein (including meat), despite doctor’s strong advice, while not really succeeding at being vegetarian/vegan.
This was at a time when she most needed basic nutrients in her body, in the ongoing fight inside her body, after chemo and radio.
I quietly think of her a lot still, even dream of her, in the 7 years since her passing.
I eat and live much more healthily now, NO THANKS to her original advice, and DESPITE her past advice.
And in the ultimate twist of all: I’m willingly doing more and more of those things she kept pushing down our throats, and enjoying them, but NOT because of all that pushing.
I enjoy my veggies and fruits much more now, especially because I’m not pushed to eat sliced raw tomatoes in hot soup, or eat green apples.
And I DON’T keep on pushing and pushing my family to do so, as she did.
It seems they see me genuinely enjoying myself, they get curious, and sometimes they find it fun.
A recent example with eggs.
In the past, we were told, no more than 3 eggs weekly.
In recent years, no more than once daily.
Last month, to save money, I bought 30 eggs in bulk for the family.
Then I found out to my dismay, that they were much smaller than the average 55g with shell, and expired in less than a month!
So I helped by finishing on average TWO small (45g) eggs daily: poached, omeletted, diluted with water then steamed, etc.
Right now?
Had enough of eggs, so I don’t specially order them in any form; otherwise, I’m back to typically that one daily egg, if at all.
I don’t have Mum over my shoulder now.
But I don’t know why I naturally behave better.
Well, I can understand. Sometimes I also get frustrated over the irrational thoughts from my parents which I have to conclude as a big generation gap.
For me, I think all things should be eaten in moderation and in suitable quantity over a period of time. I guess in the end, it all depends on one’s lifestyle and one’s diet. I do heard of people going on an egg diet trying to slim down and to build muscle. As long as one can burn off what one takes in, I think it’s perfectly fine.