Pasta Carbonara

Italian Ecstasy



A number of years ago I spent a week in Italy with my parents. We rented a villa outside of Rome and used it as a home base to explore Rome and southern Tuscany. One morning we visited the ruins of the Emperor Hadrian’s Villa and afterward had a late lunch at a restaurant there. I ordered Fettuccini Carbonara.

This dish had been a favorite of mine since college when I waited tables at a restaurant where it was a specialty. Over the years I’ve made it many times using a recipe based largely on what I remembered from watching the chef fix it. The version I had in Italy was a revelation.

Carbonara has been a favorite of mine since college when I waited tables at a restaurant where it was a specialty.

When it arrived it was a bright lemon yellow. The color turned out to be egg yolks — multiple egg yolks. My version included a single whole beaten egg. What I was served had at least two yolks in it with no whites and no cream. It was unctuously rich and luscious.

The version below is still basically what I’ve made for years, but I learned a lesson about the eggs in Italy.

Fettuccini Carbonara
Serves 4.

8 ounces fettuccini (or spaghetti)
6 ounces pancetta, 1/4" dice
6 egg yolks
2 tbsp olive oil
12 green onions, sliced 1/4" thick
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 c heavy cream
1 tsp salt
Additional salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a small bowl mix together egg yolks, cream, and salt.

Add olive oil to a large skillet or saute pan over medium heat. Add pancetta and cook, stirring frequently, for two minutes. Add garlic and onion and continue cooking and stirring for one minute. Remove from heat.

Cook pasta, drain quickly, return to pot and add remaining ingredients stirring constantly to prevent egg yolks from curdling. Serve immediately with a healthy grind of black pepper. Fresh asparagus is a wonderful side dish with this meal and a good Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc washes it down nicely.

If you can't get pancetta, you can use ordinary bacon, but ham is a better choice. And if you're feeling rowdy, I sometimes substitute country ham for the pancetta.

Try this Carbonara with...
Baked Baby Artichokes
Green Beans with Anchovies
Roasted Rutabaga

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | main dish | pasta | italian

Read more...

Buttercup Squash Soup

Makeover



Squash soup has been really popular this year — and no wonder, squash soup is a great idea, but too often it fails in execution. It's often banal, watery, and insipid. Something more like flavored squash juice than a true soup with soup's promise of savor, depth, and nuance. Some years ago I had a bowl of soup like that in cooking class and its lack of character irritated me. So I set out to create something more like what I imagined squash soup could be.

I scanned lots of recipes and I figured out why so much soup was watery — squash is watery. So I decided to drain it after it was cooked. So I roasted the squash the day before making the soup then scooped the flesh out into a large sieve set over a bowl. After a night in the refrigerator I had over a cup of liquid in the bowl. I suppose I could have reduced the juice and included it in the soup, but instead I just threw it out.

Horseradish has sort of a grassy flavor that I thought would draw a hard line against the soft flavor of the squash.

Next, I wanted to add a distinct edge to the soup. Cumin or curry powder were too obvious, too predictable. After some thought I hit on horseradish. Horseradish has sort of a grassy flavor that I thought, with it's bite, would draw a hard line against the soft flavor of the squash.

Maple syrup seemed like a sweetening agent that would complement the harshness of the horseradish and I thought buttermilk would add richness without ameliorating the effects of the horseradish and maple syrup.

The result, though not perfect, was mighty good. It was thick, rich, and full of flavor — a very long way from bland or insipid.

Buttercup Squash Soup
Serves 6.

1 butternut squash — 2 1/2 - 3 lb (butternut can be substituted)
1 leek — cleaned and cut into strips
2 tbsp. butter
3/4 c buttermilk
3/4 c chicken stock
2 tbsp maple syrup
4 tsp prepared horseradish
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 pinch ground nutmeg
salt to taste

Cut squash in half across equator, clean out seeds, and place cut side down in a baking dish. Add about 1 inch of water to baking dish and cook in a 400F oven until tender — 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Scrap flesh out of squash into a 2 qt bowl — do not mash — and refrigerate overnight. Drain accumulated liquid.

Melt butter in a 2 qt sauce pan over medium low heat and then sweat leeks until translucent. Add 1/2 cup of butter milk, 1/2 cup of chicken stock, and all remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer and heat thoroughly.

Puree squash mixture and return to sauce pan. Soup should be thick, but still then enough to require a bowl and spoon to eat. Add additional buttermilk and chicken stock to achieve desired consistency. Taste and adjust seasonings — in particular you may need a bit more maple syrup depending on how sweet the squash was.

Note: This is much better if soup is allowed to meld overnight in the refrigerator.

Try this Squash Soup with...
Rum- & Cider-Brined Pork Roast
Chicken with 40 cloves of Garlic
Braised Lamb Shanks

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | soup | squash

Read more...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Read more...

Wordless Wednesday

Recipe here...

Technorati: Food | photo | kevin d weeks | seriously good | wordless wednesday

Read more...

Holiday Pies

Holiday Pies



My family isn't big on the traditional holiday fare. We'll occasionally have a turkey for Thanksgiving or a rib roast for Christmas, but that's the exception rather than the rule. In fact this year my mother likes the idea of having paella. If so we'll probably have a flan for dessert. But if a flan doesn't strike you as the best choice for a holiday dessert, here are a few other sweets you might consider.

Sweet Potato Buttermilk Pie: I got this recipe from the Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook and it's one of the best sweet potato pies I've ever eaten — and I think it's far superior to pumpkin pie. The buttermilk adds a nice, subliminal tang to counteract and set off the sweetness. It's also quite light because the egg whites are whipped before being folded into the pie.

Pear/Raisin Pie: A few years back my Thanksgiving cooking tasks were squash soup, rolls, and dessert. The pears that year were exceptionally good, or perhaps I was just in an exceptionally pear frame of mind. But whichever it was I'd been eating a lot of them and as I considered desserts for Thanksgiving something involving pears was the first thing that popped into my mind. I found this recipe at Epicurious and it was distinctly odd — mainly because it looked like it would be good but I couldn't figure out what it would taste like just by reading the recipe. Orange marmalade and vanilla extract? I just had to give it a shot. It was great!

Pumpkin Pie with Rum: Some people insist on pumpkin pie, however much you try to convince them that sweet potato is a better idea. This recipe is one I developed a few years ago, although my original recipe wasn't perfect, the recipe listed here was tweaked to make up for the original's flaws — and I've made it to great success since that first attempt. The rum is really a nice addition and complements the pumpkin.

Dutch Apple Pie: It just occurred to me that I haven't made an apple pie this year and I do love apple pies. My favorite form is the Dutch Apple Pie with it's streusel top. I suspect that a Dutch apple pie isn't really Dutch, but instead was developed by the so-called Pennsylvania Dutch who were actually of German (Deutch) extraction. But whatever the origin, this version is excellent an includes my secret apple pie ingredient.

Buttermilk Pie with Lemon Mint Sauce: When I was researching buttermilk pie one of the blogs I ran across said that the vanilla-flavored version was more Southern while the lemon-flavored version was Northern. The lemon intrigued me because when I'd had it at Miss Bobo's I'd been vaguely reminded of Shaker Lemon Pie, but I figured I should go with the Southern style an use vanilla. Nevertheless, I couldn't get that added lemon bite out of my head, so I decided to make a lemon sauce as a topping.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | dessert

Read more...

SG Archive: Beer Bread

Breaking Bread



Some months ago I made a loaf of beer quick bread. It was mighty tasty but had the drawback of all quick breads — no real structure. This made it unsuitable for uses like sandwiches because it would fall apart. Nor was it a candidate for rolls, although muffins would have been doable. At any rate, what I wanted was a yeast-based beer bread.

When Thanksgiving came rolling around I decided beer rolls would be good with dinner as well as for making marvelous turkey sandwiches so I set out to craft a such a bread.

The rolls made great little turkey sandwiches the next day.

I wanted a whole wheat bread because I thought it would play best with the beer. But it's sometimes tricky to get a good rise out of 100 percent whole wheat (the fragments of bran tend to cut the gluten strands) so I needed to add some bread flour to increase the bread's lightness. I added sugar because beer and whole wheat tend to be a somewhat bitter and I chose a nut brown ale as the beer thinking it would be hearty enough to stand out and yet not overwhelming. Here's the recipe I came up with:

Whole Wheat Beer Bread
Makes 1 loaf or 16 rolls.

2 tsp instant yeast
1 tbsp sugar
12 oz warm nut brown ale
2 1/4 c whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c bread flour — separated
1 1/2 tbsp butter — melted
2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt

Using the paddle attachment thoroughly combine yeast, whole wheat flour, 1 1/4 cup bread flour, 2 teaspoons salt, and sugar. Add butter to warm beer and, with mixer running, pour beer into dry ingredients. As the dough forms swap paddle attachment for dough hook.

Knead for six minutes at medium speed. The dough should be slightly sticky but should clear the bowl. Add additional flour if needed. Dump dough onto a floured board and knead another minute or two until dough is fairly smooth (it won't be as smooth as a white bread) and resilient. Allow to rest 5 to 10 minutes.

Clean and dry mixing bowl and spray with a nonstick spray. Shape dough into a ball and place seam-side down in bowl. Spritz top lightly with cooking spray and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in bulk — 60 to 90 minutes.

Punch down dough and turn out onto floured board. Lightly knead dough and form into a flattened ball. Allow to rest five to 10 minutes.

To make a loaf, shape dough into a rectangle that will fir in a 9" x 4.25" greased loaf pan. Cover and allow to rise until doubled in bulk.

To make rolls, using a dough scraper cut dough in four equal quarters. Set three quarters aside and cover. Shape remaining quarter into a flattened ball and divide into four quarters. Shape each quarter in to a ball and place on a parchment-covered baking sheet. Flatten each ball. Repeat for remaining dough, cover, and allow to rise until rolls double in bulk.

Heat oven to 425F for loaf or 400F for rolls.

In small bowl, beat together egg and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Brush loaf or rolls with egg mixture and bake on middle oven rack. Rolls will need about 25 minutes, the load will need about 40 minutes. Monitor closely to avoid overcooking.

Cool on a wire rack.

The rolls turned out beautifully and were good with dinner as well as making great little turkey sandwiches.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | bread

Read more...