So I have joined Pinterest, out of a moment of boredom (I’ve been having a lot of that lately). As predicted, Frank’s reaction: “One more social media site? Haven’t you already joined about a million?” Right, right, I’m a sucker when it comes to these. I’m also who you’d call a marketer’s dream. But that’s another story to tell.

What is Pinterest, exactly? Basically, it’s a virtual pinboard that you share with the community of other Pinners, or Pinheads as Frank calls us. You could upload your own pictures, or you could repin the pictures you like uploaded by others. There are many categories but no prize for guessing what the most popular one is: food.

Initially I’ve signed up and thought to myself: “Just people pinning pictures of everything…” *Yawn*… But after a while I found myself pinning every second picture I see. Needless to say, I’m getting a lot of inspirations and will be utilizing some of the recipes I’ve found. Like this one.

This dish is inspired by A Small Snippet. An Asian pasta dish. What a clever idea. It’s also made ingredients that you would already have in your pantry. I’ve adapted it to suit my palate and this is what I’ve come up with:

Ingredients:

Enough linguine for 2 person
1 carrot, julienned
1/4 cup chopped scallion
1/4 cup chopped coriander
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds

Sauce:

1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons Shoyu or Light soy sauce
2 tablespoon Crunchy peanut butter
1 tablespoon honey
A little over 1 tablespoon sesame oil
Juice of one small lime (Calamansi would be perfect)
Ground black pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon Cayenne pepper (or Chili Powder, or Chili Flakes)

Cook the linguine in salted water until Al dente (although since this is Asian maybe just a little bit more than Al Dente, up to you) Add the carrot in for the last minute, just to soften up.

Mix all the ingredients for sauce except for lime juice in a saucepan and bring it to boil. Once the pasta is done, drain, reserving about 1/4 of pasta water. In other words, don’t over drain it.

Add the scallion, coriander and sesame seeds to pasta and pour the sauce over, toss well. Squeeze the lime juice over. Serve warm. I also added extra sprinkle of cayenne pepper because I like it hot!

I’d imagine this would be lovely with some poached chicken too. Or some prawns. Throw in other veges like bean sprouts, even. But it’s perfectly fine just on its own. The sauce, creamy due to the peanut butter and delightfully Umami. Combined with the fragrance of Coriander and lime juice to lift the dish. Perfect balance of sweet, salty, sour. Trust me, you’d have to try it to believe how good this is.

Oh, follow me on http://pinterest.com/kellysiew/ if you have Pinterest!