Homemade Recipes: $15 Carbonara Vs $1.45 DIY

I receive quite a number of questions on packing my own lunches to work and cooking at home, so I thought I'll finally start on a series of budget homemade dishes to share this with everyone!

Now, I'm not the best cook alive, but I do know how to cook up a fairly decent meal. Also, no one has ever died or gotten food poisoning from eating something I made, so that should count as a successful cooking journey right? :P

If you guys are familiar with Yomenya Goemon, you should know how yummy their pasta dishes are. I'm a huge fan, but eating with them too often causes my wallet to be unhappy, so I decided to make my own!

I opted for a more runny, soup-like pasta in my version, and took out the butter and cream in the sauce as I wanted the dish to be slightly healthier, but feel free to use it in place of the olive oil if you like. If you prefer it drier, you can also reduce the number of eggs and water level.

Recipe: BB's Japanese Spaghetti Carbonara

Back bacon (300g)

Eggs (3)

Angel hair pasta (90g)

Organic olive oil (1 teaspoon)

Mixed herbs condiment (3 teaspoons)

Cheese slices (3)

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves: 4 pax

Total cost: $3.60 + $0.60 + $0.50 + $0.05 + $0.15 + $0.90 = $5.80

or $1.45 per person.

Instructions:

1. Cut bacon into squares.

2. Grate or cut cheese into thin strips.

3. Whip 2 egg whites and 3 egg yolks and transfer to the mixing bowl.

4. Heat up olive oil and 1 teaspoon of the whipped egg mixture in pan.

5. Fry bacon in mixture and  and cook evenly for about 5 minutes.

6. Cook pasta in boiling water.

7. Remove cooked pasta and drain water until there's about 20ml left in the pot.

8. Combine pasta, bacon (and the olive oil egg mix), cheese and the whipped egg all in mixing bowl. Mix for about 30 seconds or until all the cheese has melted. The sauce should look less yellow than it did originally.

9. Add mixed herbs as garnishing and mix again.

What do you think? Does it look similar to the Yomenya Goemon version? 

I'll add in the egg yolk next time, but for now, the 3 other people who tried this dish all commented that it was delicious - the sauce received high praise - so I consider it a success!