-fairytales are beyond stories--they are written dreams-: .::Creamy Ham & Mushroom Spaghetti::.

Was in the mood for cooking 2 weekends ago and roped in the bf to help. Decided to cook pasta as we have limited cooking time and looking for a fuss-free recipe. This is not my own recipe, you can find the original recipe here, I made some tweaks along the way due to lack of ingredients haha

Got our ingredients at cold storage as some of the items look exotic and I think my friendly neighbourhood FairPrice will not have them hehe.

Recommended Ingredients: (extracted from original recipe)

250g ham (of your choice)
120g shitake mushrooms (or brown mushrooms)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon chicken stock granules
1 cup liquid cream (don’t use milk, it’s not the same)
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons finely grated fresh parmesan cheese
200g spaghetti
salt and pepper to taste
chopped parsley to garnish

What I used:

250g honey baked ham --- recipe called for 1 cm thick ham but Cold Storage’s butcher on leave that day so we only have pre-cut thinly sliced ham to choose from -_-

5 medium-sized dried Chinese mushrooms --- I thought what I have at home is shitake mushrooms but it turned out to be dried Chinese mushrooms. Lol. Turned out a tad too hard =p on hindsight, should had used button mushroom instead

1 tablespoon minced garlic

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil --- Borges brand, very expensive though, $10 for 1 bottle =p for cheaper option, can get virgin olive oil but extra virgin olive oil is more flavourful and healthier

Swanson’s liquid chicken stock --- used this instead of solid granules as my mum swears by this brand and always have 1 packet at home. liquid version works fine, amount-wise agar agar just add a bit, too much will make the sauce too watery and salty

1 cup liquid cream (don’t use milk, it’s not the same) --- mine was not really liquid-liquid but semi-solid. I tried shaking the bottle but most brands are quite viscous so I just bought the brand (Bulla) that the recipe creator recommended. Bulla fresh cream comes in a cup form so no need to measure, just throw all in, my liquid chicken stock did help to make it more watery though

finely grated fresh parmesan cheese --- lazy to grate myself so I just bought pre-grated parmesan cheese, add as much as you like

200g Barilla Spaghetti N.5 --- this brand and pasta type is recommended for its texture

salt and pepper to taste --- didn’t add any salt because the ham itself is already salty, some ham can be very salty so take note! Test your sauce first before adding salt

chopped parsley to garnish --- don’t like parsley so didn’t add this

Cooking Time!

Cut the ham. We are not able to get 1 cm thick ham so we cut our thinly sliced ham into strips for easier eating instead of cubes. Use about 5-6 slices of ham to serve 2 pax.

Cut the mushroom into strips. We used dried mushroom so I had to soak them in hot water for 10 mins to soften them first. But, end up still not soft enough so maybe soak for 20 mins. No soaking required if using shitake or button mushrooms.

You can cook the spaghetti and fry the ingredients at the same time. The timing for both to be done is almost the same (10 mins) so you can save time if you do it simultaneously. Break the spaghetti into half so that it can all submerge in the water nicely. Add a bit of salt. We used about 1/3 of the box of spaghetti and managed to polish off everything =p Johnson is a big eater though hehe, his stomach is bottomless pit!

Add 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil to hot frying pan.

Throw in the ham when pan is hot and fry till golden brown.

Add the minced garlic to one side of the pan and stir fry it evenly before mixing with the golden brown ham. Add in the mushroom. Stir fry all ingredients till mushroom is soft. Add in chicken stock and the liquid cream. My suggestion is to add the liquid cream first so that you can gauge if the sauce is too thick and use your chicken stock to dilute it accordingly. Our cream is not liquid enough so we had a sibeh gao sauce. We can't use too much chicken stock to dilute it (will be too salty) so we added hot water instead.

Cook till mixture is bubbling. The longer it cooks, the thicker the sauce become. Hence, make sure your ingredients are already 7/8 cooked before you add in the cream so that you do not need to cook it longer than necessary.

Add as much grated parmesan cheese as you like when mixture is bubbling. Taste the sauce after adding the cheese to see if it's too salty. Add chicken stock if it's not salty enough. If it is too salty, add some sugar to neutralize it.

Drain your pasta and put it on a big plate. Add 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and toss the pasta evenly so that the oil can coat the pasta.