I'm so tired today, dari pagi tadi tak sudah2 menguap. Malam ni kenalah tidur cepat to catch up on all the sleep,hehehe..We had a late dinner tonite due to miss soon-to-be-9 soccer practice. When we got to the training ground, she was the only girl there with 7 other boys. She wasn't too happy with that but luckily 2 more girls turned up after that to join the training session. It's a mixed team for the junior players. Last year, there were 3 girls in her team which she really enjoyed. Hopefully, she will enjoy playing this year as well. Their first match is at the end of the month, not sure if they'll be ready by then though, hehehe...


Anyway, back to tonite's dinner. I made tonite's lasagna semalam. Lasagna ni lebih kurang kari jugak lah, it's easy to freeze or put in the fridge and reheated. And also I haven't made it for quite a while now, asik buat pasta yg lain, lupa pulak nak buat lasagna. It says that lasagna originated from Italy and there's quite a few versions of lasagna out there. The one yg I buat is a simple lasagne bolognese which is just layers of bolognese sauce, lasagna sheets and bechamel or white sauce. Mama Anis asked me quite a few days back for a simple lasagne recipe. This is the recipe that I used.

1. Bolognese sauce

-500g beef mince
-2 tbsp olive oil
-1 carrot, grated finely (carrot ni utk bagi anak makan veges without them noticing it)
-1 jar of ready made pasta sauce ( I just use bolognese pasta sauce)

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan. Add the mince and cook until brown, at the same time mash the mince so tak berketul2. Add the grated carrots and masak until layu. Pastu, add the pasta sauce and simmer for about 20 minutes.

2. Bechamel sauce

-60g butter
-1/4 cup plain flour
-450mls susu segar
-1 dried bay leaf
-a pinch of grated nutmeg/serbuk buah pala
-salt & pepper to taste

Melt the butter on medium heat in a saucepan until foamy. Masukkan tepung dan kacau menggunakan whisk for 3-4 minutes hingga pekat. Masukkan susu gradually sehingga habis sambil terus kacau the sauce. Masukkan bay leaf. Penting utk kacau selalu sbb nak elakkan dari hangus. Bila sauce dah agak pekat sikit dan simmering, matikan api. Masukkan nutmeg, garam dan pepper.

3. 200-250g dried instant lasagne sheets

4.100g grated mozzarella

To assemble the lasagne:

Can use any oven proof acuan. Selalunya mangkuk pyrex yg 4 segi tu yg best guna sbb cantik and boleh terus dihidangkan lepas keluar dari oven. Tapi I don't have magkuk pyrex that shape, so I guna acuan kek 4 segi yg non stick.

Step 1, letak 1 layer of bolognese sauce in the acuan. Ini utk elak lasagne sheets to melekat kat the bottom of the acuan.
Step2, letak 1-2 layers of lasagne sheets, patahkan the sheets if they don't fit into the acuan.
Step 3, put the bolognese sauce to cover the sheets. Then, put 1/3 of the bechamel sauce.
Repeat step 2 and 3 until semua habis. Make sure lapisan yg atas sekali adalah bechamel sauce. Dan pastikan semua lasagne sheets covered with the sauce, klu tak nanti dia keras.
Taburkan grated mozzarella on the lasagne. Bake in preheated oven 180ºC for 40 mins.

p/s a few people tanya apa 'porcupine balls' yg I cooked in the steamer semlm. Actually, nama sebenar dia rasanya steamed mince n rice balls but we called them procupine balls sbb bila dah masak rupa dia mcm landak. Photo yg kat bawah ni saje nak tunjuk rupa the balls sebelum di steam. Esok I'll post the recipe ok, sbb dah mengantuk sesgt skrg ni,hehehe...