My version of lasagna

Did you say dish? Lasagna's not a dish, windbag. It's a way of life. A state of being one's perfect achievement. What did the Indians serve to the Pilgrims? Lasagna. What did Marie Antoinette scream to the rebel? "Let them eat lasagna." What did Neil Armstrong say when he landed on the moon? "That's one small slice of lasagna." It's not a dish. It's the stuff of dreams. It's the food of the gods. It's what's for lunch.

-Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006)-

Why I called it “my version”?

First of all, I’m not Italian. Second of all, I truly don’t know how the “real” lasagna should be. It might be offensive for Italian if I called this “Lasagna”, coz the real deal can be different from this version. I forgot where I got this recipe from, so it’s only depends on my memory, which not very good, but the good news is my “tongue measurement” is working pretty good …. ;p

This recipe is for 20x20 cm aluminum foil pan ….

For the Bolognese sauce you’ll need:
200 gram of minced beef
75 gram grated carrot
300 gram of tomatoes puree
1 chopped onion
2 chopped garlic
2/3 can of tomato paste
2 table spoons of barbeque sauce
2 teaspoons of dried oregano
1 teaspoons of dried basil
1 table spoon of sugar (if you don’t have issue with alcohol use red wine)
Salt & pepper to taste
3 table spoon of cooking oil
In a large sauce pan heat cooking oil, stir fried onion & garlic until it goes fragrance. Add mince beef, cooked until it change color. Add the rest of the ingredient except for sugar. Let it cooked for about 45 minute add water if it goes too dry. Add sugar, let it boiled once again.

For the béchamel sauce:
500 cc of warmed milk
150 grams of grated cheddar cheese
1 tea spoon of fresh grated nutmeg (you’ll need more if you use powdered nutmeg)
1 tea spoon of white pepper
3 table spoon of butter or margarine
3 table spoon of flour
Salt for taste
In a sauce pan melt butter/margarine, sift flour, stir constantly for about 2 minutes. Add milk, whisked it, add the rest of the ingredients. Continue to stir until it comes to a boil.

8 lasagna sheets, half cooked.
Mozzarella cheese if you like

Preheat oven to 180 Celsius.

Put a layer of lasagna down first. Layer on a third of the bolognese sauce, then a third of the bechamel sauce. Repeat two more times. Top with a final layer of lasagna and sprinkle with grated mozarella. Bake for 20 minutes.

Spaghetti Bolognese my way

I don't think this is the right recipe, but it's absolutely satisfy my Indonesian tongue. We Indonesian, like most asian loves food with the strong taste. & as a moslem I don't use any wine ... Most of the people that ever taste my bolognese sauce loves it .... & really I don't think of showing of .... ;p

300 grams of minced beef
100 gram grated carrot
1/2 can of tomato paste
300 cc of tomato puree
1 chopped anion
1 chopped garlic
1 tea spoon dried basil
2 tea spoon dried oregano
1 table spoon sugar
3 table spoon salad oil
250 grams of spaghetti, cooked till aldente

Heat the oil, add chopped anion, stir until it goes translucent than add garlic continue stirring. Add minced beef, cooked until meet goes brown. Add tomato paste, tomato puree, carrot, basil, oregano & salt. Bring all in boil, turn the heat down & simmer, for about 45 minutes. Add sugar.

The key of this sauce are first the addition of carrot, it's not to give more volume but to give some kind of "sweetness", second it's the 45 minutes of simmering in low heat. Without this two the bolognese sauce will not taste good....

Serve the spaghetti with the bolognese sauce , springkle with a bit of parmesan cheese ... & of course for Indonesian you cannot leave the chilli sauce behind ...

Pizza Frenzy : Mini Pizza

Who doesn't like pizza ... most people love this Italian dish. So why don't we try to make it our self, make it in small size, & serve it in small family party ... hmmm ..

Recipe:

Pizza dough:
2 teaspoon sugar
125 cc warm water
250 gram bread flour
6 gram of yeast
1/2 tea spoon salt
25 cc of olive oil/salad oil

Topping:
Bolognese souce
Cucumber pickle, cut in to small cube
Smoked beef, sliced to small strips
Mozzarella Cheese, grated


(1) Mix together water & sugar, set aside
(2) Mix flour, yeast & oil.
(3) Add water to the flour mix, mix well until the dough are not stick in your hand
(4) Knead briefly with your hands until the dough becomes soft & smooth.
(5) Rest the dough for 30 minutes, cover with plastic wrap
(6) Roll the dough & cut with a 7cm ring cutter
(7) Bake for 10 minutes on 180c oven
(8) Put the topping, cheese is the last
(9) Bake again for 10 minutes or untill the crust is light brown