“When East meets West…”
I think Macaroni is one of the most versatile pastas. It can be cooked in Italian cuisine, in Chinese style, and now, even a Thai dish!
Impressive?! I am not sure, but if you are a Thai food lover, I am sure you’ll like this! I loved its spiciness as well as sourish flavour. It’s definitely worth spending time to make this dish for your loved ones! Moreover, with the abundance of toppings to favourite pasta, where can you get this besides your own home-cooked?! (Laughing)
Ingredients
400 grams of Macaroni
200 grams of minced pork meat
1 cup of button mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 medium tomato, diced
2 tablespoons of Tom Yam paste (40 grams)
5 Kaffir lime leaves
2 cloves of garlic, minced
½ tablespoon of coconut milk
¾ cup of water
2 tablespoons of olive oil (and 1 more tablespoon for coating macaroni)
If required:
½ teaspoon of corn starch, made into 2 tablespoons of slurry
Optional:
2 bird’s eye chilli (chilli padi), julienned
Method:
1) Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add pinch of salt, and macaroni pasta into the boiling water. Cook for 8 – 10 minutes, or until al-dente. Stir occassionally to avoid macoroni from sticking together. When done, drain and mix 1 tablespoon of olive oil with macaroni. Set aside.
2) Heat wok/ large sauce pan with oil over high heat. Add garlic (and chilli padi, if desired. Beware of pungency when stir-frying it), and stir-fry till fragrant. Reduce heat to low-medium fire. Add Tom Yam paste and minced meat, stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add tomato and button mushrooms, stir-fry for another 1 minutes.
3) Add lime leaves and water. Reduce heat to low fire. Cover wok with lid, and simmer for 3 minutes.
4) Add in coconut milk. Stir to combine well and thicken the Tom Yam gravy.
The gravy should not be too dry as you need more gravy to top the pasta completely. However, its watery consistency should consist light resistance, still. If the gravy is watery without any resistance, add in 1 – 2 tablespoon of cornstarch slurry to further thicken it. Heat off.
5) Divide Macaroni into serving dishes, and top with adequate amount of Tom Yam gravy. Serve immediately.
You may get readily made Tom Yam paste, often available at Asian supermarkets or some grocery shops which sells Thai products. I used “Adabi” brand which comes in small packet of 40 grams. This is good to be used in soups or stir-fries. I used it for my pasta recipe (smile). It is available in many neighbourhood mini markets and NTUC Fairprice supermarket. I think I got it at mini market, costs less than S$2 per packet.
A regular portion of Tom Yam Macaroni pasta counts about 390kcal.
Variation: Seafood toppings. Add prawns, squids, crab sticks and fish slices instead.