Pasta with minced meat and dried oysters
Posted in Chinese, Featured Articles, Italian, One-dish meal, pasta, pork, vegetable, Western
It’s almost three weeks since my last posting. We went back to my hubby’s hometown to celebrate this Lunar New Year and reunite with our family members and relatives, catch up with old friends and ex-colleagues, as well as to indulge in those “bad for health, hard to resist and once a year not-to-be missed” festival dishes and goodies (feeling guilty now after gaining weight 
). Even though we had a shorter holiday break as compared to the previous year, it still took me quite a while to tune back to my “wokking” mode. Anyway, that’s quite usual of me after a holiday break. 
Sorry to keep you waiting for my update.
During this Lunar New Year, most of the stalls in the wet market were closed for as long as a week. As for the remaining stalls that operated as usual, the vegetables they sold were not fresh at all. Without much choice, I had self-improvised with whatever I could salvage from my fridge to prepare a quick and easy one dish meal for my family. Thus, it led to the creation of this “East meets West” pasta dish. It’s based on my mother-in-law’s signature dish “braised dried oysters and minced meat ” (蚝豉松) which I had posted earlier.
Dried oysters (蚝豉) are commonly found in Cantonese cuisine during Chinese New Year because this ingredient sounds auspicious in Cantonese pronunciation. Dried oyster (蚝豉) means good business (好市). Usually the dried oysters are mainly imported from Japanese and Korea. I personally prefer Japanese dried oysters because the texture is chunkier and tastier as compared to those originating from Korea.
To make this meal more wholesome, I added pressed tofu (tau gua 豆干) and edamame (salted soy beans). You can substitute edamame with green peas. Though I served it with durum wheat spaghetti, you are free to choose any kind of pasta you like. If you are not a fan of pasta, serve it with Chinese noodles, rice or congee are equally delicious as well. As you can see, there are many ways to recreate a dish. So put on your thinking cap and be creative!
There are still two more days left before the Lunar New Year celebration ends. May you and your family have a bountiful of Luck and Joy in this Year of Rabbit!
I am submitting this dish to Presto Pasta Night, founded by Ruth of Once Upon A Feast , and hosted by Pia of Cook with Pia this week.
>>>> Click on PAGE 2 BELOW for pasta with minced meat and dried oysters recipe…………….
Wow I really wasn’t expecting minced meat to look so wonderful! Great presentation and I like the beans for a bit of healthy veggies and fiber, too!
Xiaolu: Thanks!! 😉
oh my, looking at your noodles and looking right now at my beehoon for lunch makes me want to throw the whole pack away and grab yours! looks so delicious!
j3ss kitch3n: Hahaha! You made my day! Thanks for your compliment! 😉
I like this type of pasta or noodle but must minus away the dried oyster, I afraid of the smell and taste 😛
Jess: If you use my mother-in-law’s recipe to braise the dried oysters, the smell and taste of the chopped oysters will be milder (in fact, tastier) as compared to those whole oysters served in CNY dishes. Do give it a try! 😉
Looks really good!I would love to try it with noodles!
The Sudden Cook: Thanks! Noodles is another great choice. Hope you will like it. 🙂
Love this Chines-style pasta dish, looks very yummy!
Noobcook: Thanks! 😉
Welcome home! I’m glad to hear you had such a fun trip!
What a delicious pasta sauce…I bet the oysters give it such a great flavor!
Joanne: Thanks! Yes, oysters are the key ingredients to this pasta dish. 😉
I love this pasta.. looks very appetising!
Lee Mei (MCH): Thanks!! Do give it a try! 😉
I cooked a minced meat dish recently too and have my own take on the “secret” ingredient: not dried oysters though. Totally love the sauce with steamed rice. Am cooking again soon. Maybe next round, I can toss them with pasta.
Tigerfish: Can’t wait to see your “secret” ingredient in your upcoming post. 😉
Yummy! This reminds me the 炸酱面 I recently made, will use pasta the next round 🙂
Anncoo: Thanks!!! Love your creation too!
this is truly awesome, a fusion pasta!
Big Boys Oven: Thanks!! 😉
Looks so yummy! Great food for lunch! *drooling*
Alice: Thanks!! It’s great for dinner too!! 🙂
It is great to see you back and posting delicious recipes. The dried oysters sound and look awesome with this pasta.
Marla: Thanks! Nice to see you dropping by too. 😉
wow! I’m lovin’ the looks of your pasta dish!
Peachkins: Thanks!! 🙂
CNY is a great time to reunion with our family. Welcome back. Thanks for bringing us this intriguing pasta!
Christine: Thanks!! 😉
Looks so delicious! What a treat with dried oyster.
Ching: Thanks!! It’s our all-time favourite too. 😉
LK, what a perfect east meets west dish! Wish I could have a large plate of this right now hehe
Jen: Thanks!! It’s a dish that you can easily whip up. 😉
Yum! It kinda looks like spaghetti bolognese minus the tomatoes and plus some oysters! What a unique recipe! I’ll have to try this.
Kathryn: Hahaha!! That’s right! Hope it suits your palate. 😉
A great looking pasta! Love that you have added dried oysters in it.
Angie: Thanks!! 😉
Happy Chap Goh Mei! this really sounds good, i love the aroma of the dried oysters in cooking, even without the salted soy bean is good enough for me.
Lena: Happy Chap Goh Mei to you too!! Thanks!!! Glad you like it. 😉
This is very creative of you! Who would have thought of pasta with dried oysters. 😉
I’m forwarding 2 awards to you, ‘One Lovely Blog’ and ‘Stylish Blogger Award’. You can read the details on my blog. 🙂
KY: Thanks a lot for these two special awards!!! Really appreciate it. Will check out the details. 😉
Hello LK! I thought I had commented on this but apparently not.. Such a clever way to use dried oyster! I’m pretty sure I have an unused packet lurking about someplace…
Clare: Hahaha! Dig it out now and give this recipe a try. 😉
Hi, Thanks for this recipe I tried it on Saturday night and my partner loved it. I use shanghai noodles instead and it still tasted fabulous.
Kana: Thanks for your wonderful feedback. So glad that it suits your partner’s taste bud. I love Shanghai noodles too and will try to use it when I make this recipe again. 🙂
I think this has to be one of if not the worst recipe I’ve seen. I can’t imagine all those ingredients singularly much less altogether assaulting my pallet with such shiver me timbers shuddering blecch!
Rrichnow: Thanks for dropping by and your sincere comment. I’m sorry that the ingredients sound weird to you, but this recipe was tried and tested (and well accepted too!) by Ms Kana who dropped me her positive feedback on 20 March 2011.
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