Cajun Smoked Salmon/ Pork Bolognaise Fusilli Pasta

It been a long while, I finally got the chance to try out the Wright's smoking liquid to create culinary cuisine you can prepare easily at home. Therefore, I proudly brought you Cajun Smoked Salmon served with Pork Bolognaise Fusilli Pasta.

Smoked Cajun Salmon

1. Salmon 2 Slices (With/Without Skin)
2. MasterFoods Cajun Spice
3. Fresh Grind Black Pepper (Normal Pepper will do as well)
4. Wright's Hickory Liquid Smoke

The salmon I bought is frozen solid. Therefore, I thaw it overnight in the lower fridge cubicle. On the big day, drain the salmon of any excess water that is left after thawing. If you using salmon that you bought directly from the supermarket, you can skip this step.

Sprinkle MasterFoods Cajun Spice onto the salmon ensure both sides are covered lightly with the cajun spice. Take note that MasterFoods Cajun Spice contains salt granulates, therefore take care not to over apply if you're sodium intake conscious. Grind some fresh black pepper to cover both side of the salmon, take care not to apply too much and in the end it became black pepper salmon instead of cajun.

Apply 2 teaspoons of Wright's Hickory Liquid Smoke onto the salmon. With clean hands, ensure the liquid smoke is throughly rub into the salmon. Next it sprinkle some cornstarch (about 2 teaspoon - 1 teaspoon for each piece of salmon) on both side of the salmon and ensure it is even coated. The cornstarch will acts as a binding agent to hold the liquid smoke and cajun onto the salmon. Let the salmon settle in the fridge for 2 to 3 hours to let the flavour to fully seep into the salmon. You can skip that if you are the impatient kind, but the taste will differs though.

You can baked or pan fry it. For my case, I pan fry it on a frying pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Fry until both side turn golden red then you can serve it with rice or pasta.

Pork Bolognaise Fusilli Pasta

1. Barilla Fusilli Pasta
2. Leggo Pasta Bake Sauce - Creamy Tomato & Mozzarella
3. Beef Stock (Chicken Stock is fine as well)
4. Pork Collar Meat Shabu Shabu Slice
5. Fresh Grind Black Pepper

I decide to cook the fusilli first as it need about 8 mins as indicated by the cooking instruction in the pasta box. Boil a pot of water (half full) with a dash of salt. Here the guide on how to proportion the amount of fusilli for single consumption. Use a small bowl as a measuring device and fill it with raw fusilli till you have a finger nail allowance. This will prevent you from cooking too many and in the end stuffing yourself like a turkey. After that throw in the fusilli into the boiling water. You might need to stir occasionally to prevent the fusilli from sticking. While the pasta cooking, we move to cooking the meat sauce.

The pork collar meat was purchased from Shop`N'Save. As it is thinly sliced, it is easy to cook without worry the meat under cook. I've used about 4 slice of pork collar meat sprinkle salt and grind black pepper and marinate them throughly. I didn't use other marinate as I want to retain the pork original flavour that will release when you pan fry it. Fire up the frying pan with a tablespoon of olive oil, throw in the pork collar and pan fried until it start to partial cook remove the meat from the pan.

Next is add 1 to 2 tablespoon Leggo Pasta Bake Sauce into pan and spread it evenly. Next, add in 2 scoops of the beef stock prepared earlier to reduced the pasta sauce thickness. The pasta should be cooked by now, drain the pasta then run it over cold tap water to keep it el dente. After that, throw the pasta into the sauce and cook until the sauce start to thicken then add back the partial cook pork collar into the pan and shut off the stove to let it simmer. Serve it on a plate. Buon appetito!