Crabmeat & Laksa Pesto Linguine

busy-ness equals to quick fixes equals to pasta. i recently made two kinds and they turned out delicious, consider i don't hv an exact recipe to follow. presenting to you my rendition of the crabmeat linguine, made with a combination of chilli crab sauce & single cream. as you can guess, this is restaurant-inspired, again. call me a copycat but i simply love recreating restaurant & bistro food whenever possible. i guess the "calculative" soul in me isn't satisfied to just pay to eat at a restaurant and then forget all about it. i like getting ideas in return, recreating the food at home and then tell myself "i can do it, i don't even need to eat at a restaurant" and thats what i'm trying to do right now. few restaurants warrant a second visit anyway. i don't think my rendition is very close since i went easy on the cream, but still, its delish.

cooking pasta

the laksa pesto linguine turned out better than expected. i took a random pesto recipe and replaced it with laksa leaves. the pesto is so yummy i could just eat it on its own. for this i tossed the pasta through and served them with quail eggs & tiger prawns and you can also add in coconut milk if you like. i miss baking and once i'm done with the orders, i'm gonna reward myself by making a complicated multi-component cake. i miss french patisserie, and cheers to more baking haha.

pesto recipe adapted from lemon rocket pesto by whizz it, murdoch books

ingredients (makes 375ml or 1.5 cups) :

2 garlic cloves, crushed

50g roasted skinned hazelnuts

150g laksa leaves, stems removed

50g grated pecorino or parmesan cheese

150ml olive oil

directions :

1. put garlic & hazelnuts in a small processor fitted with a metal blade & whizz for 10 secs or until roughly chopped. add half of the laksa leaves, cheese & whizz for 10 secs.

2. scrape down the sides of the bowl & add in the remaining laksa leaves. whizz in 2-sec intervals until evenly chopped, but not fine. with the motor running, gradually add the olive oil. whizz until combined.

3. toss through pasta and refrigerate the remaining pesto covered in a thin layer of olive oil on top for 3-4 days.