Nicquee's Nook

Spaghetti in Malunggay Pesto Sauce with Tuna

This is the second way I used the Malunggay Pesto sauce I made.

Spaghetti in Malunggay Pesto Sauce with Tuna

What you’ll need:

  • 1/8kg Spaghetti cooked al dente
  • 1-2 cups Malunggay Pesto sauce
  • 1 can Hot and Spicy Century Tuna
  • 3tbs Grated Parmesan Cheese

The procedure:

While your cooked pasta still still hot, pour it in a bowl then add the Malunggay Pesto sauce until all strands are covered with the sauce. Add the tuna, do not throw the oil of the tuna yet. If you want, you can make the tuna slices smaller. Add the cheese and mix well. If your pasta looks dry like the above because of the Parmesan cheese, add more oil from the can of tuna. Serve with crackers or toasted bread.

Malunggay Pesto Sauce

Lately, I did a lot of cooking and experimenting and here is one of them. We all know how nutritious and beneficial Malunggay is specially to lactating moms. Did I mention it is easy to find too? This is the main ingredient of my latest experiment.

I first heard of the Malunggay Pesto Sauce in a TV show where they boiled the leaves first and used the broth as tea; and the boiled leaves were used to make the Pesto sauce. How healthy and cheap could that be?! This is a super saver specially when you have a Malunggay tree planted in your backyard or near your place like us. Without further ado, let me share with you how I made this fantastic Malunggay Pesto Sauce, which you can use in a lot of ways. I used it in different ways already.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup fresh Malunggay leaves
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
  • 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 3/4 cup extra virgin Olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste

Procedure
Malunggay Pesto Sauce

To create this flavorful sauce, you can use a blender osterizer or food processor. In this case I used MIL’s osterizer since we don’t have a food processor.

Put the fresh Malunggay leaves in the osterizer and then grate it. When I was doing this, I had a hard time crushing the leaves into pieces because it was all dry. After a few tries and mixing, the leaves were already small. This time I included the garlic inside and do some more grinding and grating.

While the osterizer is still running, I slowly pour the olive oil into the mixture through the opening in the cap. And instead of grinding, I press puree. This time it was so much easier because of the liquid. I stopped the processor to get everything mixed together and pureed some more.

When I was happy with the consistency, I added the salt and pepper into the mixture, pureed a little more then I was done.

I transferred my Pesto sauce into a microwaveable container, tasted it and then placed it inside the fridge. Important: Do not add the Parmesan cheese if you intend to store your Malunggay Pesto Sauce. Simply add it before you use the sauce.

I brought some here at the office and let my friends taste my latest experiment thus the photo above. I don’t know where to buy crostini here so we settled with Rebisco crackers. It was like a tornado passed in my cube. We were able to finish 3 packs of crackers in a matter of five minutes with 4 people eating.

Some of the remaining sauce, I already used for spaghetti yesterday but I forgot to take a picture of my lunch as I was super excited to eat it. I’ll post it here hopefully next week.

Cream Dory in Garlic Butter Sauce

This is what I prepared this morning for our packed lunch. I’ve been buying my lunch for a couple of weeks now and this week, our used to be lunch place is closed. I was trying to have a fish diet for lunch (because there’s no way we’ll probably have this kind of diet at home right now) and the choices I have left are not quite in line with this diet. So last night, I decided that I’ll wake up earlier than usual to prepare this dish personally. (You know we have a super helper and it’s so easy to just tell her what to do but I just feel like cooking)

Ingredients

  • 2pcs Cream Dory Fillet
  • 1/3 butter
  • 1 clove garlic
  • salt
  • pepper

Procedure

  1. Make sure that your Cream Dory is not frozen.
    The one we bought from the grocery is super frozen that’s why I had to remove it from the freezer last night.

  2. Cut the fillet into two.

    I did this because I think it is easier to cook it that way.

  3. Marinate the fillet in salt and pepper.

    I cannot tell you exactly how much pepper and salt to put. The first time I did this, I forgot this step. I ended up having a fish with semi-bland taste since there’s butter. This time around, I put too much salt. Probably on the third time, I’ll just have it right.

  4. Finely chop the garlic.
  5. Heat your frying pan in low-medium heat.

    This will help in melting your butter fast but prevents your garlic from being cooked too soon. I over-cooked the garlic this time before I placed the fish so by the time I put in the second batch, my garlic are already toasted. During my first try, the garlic are just golden brown, not like the one above. They tasted really good! This one tastes bitter.

  6. Put in your butter and just before everything is melted, put the garlic.
  7. When your garlic is semi-cooked, put the fish.
    When the fish no longer sticks to the pan, you can already flip it to cook the other side. You should notice that the first side you cooked is already light brown in color. Do this for all the fish.

  8. Serve hot.