There are numerous ways to make carbonara and this is my first attempt doing it from scratch. How do I choose or design my recipe? Well, I went through dozens of Youtube videos and tried to imagine the flavours in each one of them. Couple that with my own imagination (and what’s available in the fridge) here’s Chan’s seafood carbonara for you.

The soul of the dish is of course, the sauce. This would require a block of cream cheese, a couple of eggs and some evaporated milk.

And here’s the sauce, all beaten up with a pair of chopsticks. Lots of wrist power involved here. You may want to consider using a blender.

Some mushrooms here. Button mushrooms work best, but if you happen to have some shitake mushrooms (fresh and not dried) in the fridge, why not?

Boil up some pasta. Don’t forget to add salt to the water. There was some broccoli going for $1, so I decided to toss some in for good measure.

Now for the exciting part – frying. As you can see, I’ve got chopped onions, butter and olive oil. Once the butter has melted, turn down the heat to avoid burning.

Next, toss in the mushrooms, stir well till the vegetables are coated with oil. Dump in the seafood. I had prawns and mussels in the freezer, so they were used. Once the seafood is cooked, add in the pasta and sauce. As I didn’t use bacon here, I’ve substituted it with fake “bacon” chips. Stir until everything evens out.

And here is my seafood carbonara – ingredients upsized. It takes a bit of time, but do try this at home. Your kids will love it.