Carbonara

Trickiest thing about carbonara is the last 30 seconds.  Wrong move, wrong temperature, and you get a glom of gluey pasta or scrambled eggs.  You can find lots of posts on how to make it, but until I made this one change in technique, the perfect carbonara eluded me.

Ratios:

1/2lb pasta (spaghetti or linguini)

1/2 cup micro plane pecorino

1 egg yolk and 1 egg

1/2 lb bacon or pancetta

1. Fry bacon in a pan until just on the edge of crisp in a large enough pan to hold everything comfortably when done. Remove most but not all rendered fat and turn off heat to pan (see number 2 below for timing)
2. Cook pasta trying to time so it is done about 3 minutes after number 1 above.  You want bacon pan warm but not hot enough to scramble egg mixture.
3. During 1 and 2, prepare egg and cheese mixture, whisk together well.
4. When pasta is done, add pasta to bacon pan mixing with bacon and rendered fat.  I use tongs or a pasta hook to scoop right out of water into pan. You need the hot water for below.
5. Quickly add about 1/2 cup +/- of the hot cooking liquid to the bacon and pasta pan and mix it up
6. Add a couple table spoons of the hot cooking liquid to the egg and cheese mixture.  If too hot add 1 tbs of cold water first.
7. Add egg and cheese and water mixture to the pasta and bacon mixture adding more pasta water if too gluey.  It will set up in the next couple minutes so err on the slightly runny side.
8. Plate on hot plates
9. Garnish with fresh ground pepper and fresh parsley or basil if you have it

Steps 5 and 6 are the difference from the traditional carbonara recipes.  Most say to add water last.  I found that this was too late, you already had a blob of gluey pasta that wouldn't recover.  So this is my secret sauce.

I have also added vegetables to the cooking pasta for a one-pan meal like the green beans in the pic below, though I would opt for broccoli instead.

Pork Tenderloin with Mushroom Gravy

Sorry no pictures this round.  Trust me though...

1 Pork tenderloin cut into 3/4" thick medallions.

6-8 sliced cremini mushrooms

1 onion sliced

Cornstarch

Salt and pepper for seasoning

Salt for brine

2 cups chicken or mushroom broth

Oil

Butter

Brine pork medallions in a quick salt brine for 1-4 hours

Remove from brine, pat dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper (easy on the salt though since they were brined)

Dredge pork in cornstarch

In big frying pan, preferably cast iron, brown seasoned and dredged pork medallions in some oil, but don't cook through.  Make sure pan is hot enough to brown nicely.  Need enough oil so no cornstarch stays dry

Remove pork to plate or pan and hold in a 250 degree oven

Brown and caramelize onion and brown mushrooms in pan

Add broth and turn up heat so it starts to simmer and reduce, add pork back in, the residual cornstarch in pan and coating on the pork will thicken.  Turn pork several times to baste.  Turn off heat when gravy is right consistency.  Add a tablespoon of butter and/or cream to finish sauce

Serve with pasta, or rice or nothing.

Braised Beef Shank

Was looking for a full pork shank to braise ala oso bucco.  Alas, all PCC had was cross cut beef shank.  But it did look good, so I figured what the heck.  Basically I made it just like braised beef short ribs but a one day vs. two day process.  The end result was a lusciously syrupy sauce compliments of reducing the slow braise liquids, the marrow in the bone, and some cheating **.  Nice thing about beef shank is it is usually pretty economical.

Recipe can be scaled up for more servings.  Below made two servings.

INGREDIENTS

(2) Beef shanks, bone in, about 3/4 lb each

(1) Onion chopped

(2) Carrots chopped

(2) Celery stalks chopped *

1/2+ bottle of full bodied red wine

(3) + cups beef broth

Tomato paste concentrate

Anchovy paste concentrate

Bay leaf

Salt and pepper

Oil

Butter

Thick sliced mushrooms

[* full disclosure: I didn't have celery when I made this but would have used it if I did...]

INSTRUCTIONS

In a large dutch oven ala Le Creuset, sear/brown seasoned meat in oil on high heat.  Remove to a plate.

Turn heat down and saute onion, carrot and celery until translucent in same pot.

Add wine to vegetables and reduce about in half.  After reduced, add beef broth, about 2 teaspoons of tomato paste concentrate (or 2" from a tube), and one teaspoon anchovy paste (or 1" from tube), and bay leaf.  Stir and bring back to simmer, add beef broth, meat and any juices back and make sure liquid covers.  

Cover with lid and put in 300 degree oven for about 2-3 hours.

Remove from oven, remove meat to a plate and cover and keep warm in oven now turned off.

Strain braising liquid of all the veggies, squeezing out liquid from veggies through strainer.  Return to pot and reduce until it starts to get a little saucy.  [** Sometimes I help this kind of sauce along by adding about 1/2 packet of unflavored gelatin to thicken.]

Add mushrooms to large preheated pan on medium high heat and brown in butter.

Add meat and any juices back to sauce and baste with the sauce frequently until it gets really saucy.  Add browned mushrooms during this process, but not before.

Once reduced to (almost) perfect saucy goodness turn off from heat and let sit for about 5 minutes in warm pot continuing to baste and the sauce will finish thickening.  Serve either by itself or over rice or a mash.

Fluffy Egg Casserole

I wanted eggs light and fluffy, ala Prince Omelette of Vegetales fame.  So of course I googled “fluffy egg casserole” and came up with this eggscellent recipe:  https://www.crazyforcrust.com/cheesy-egg-casserole/

I substituted sour cream for the cottage cheese called for due to a shopping failure, but actually liked the slightly tangy result.  Added mild green chilies and PCC pork sausage bits (pre-cooked so the fat was already rendered and it was a little brown).  Our convection oven seemed to brown it too fast at the recommended cooking team, so I reduced it part way to 325.  Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
 1 16 ounce package cottage cheese (or sour cream)
 2 cups shredded cheese (I used mozzarella but wanted to use pepper jack)
 1/4 cup all purpose flour (GF or regular)
 1 teaspoon baking powder
 1/2 teaspoon salt
 10 eggs — lightly beaten

INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 400°F.  Use a non-stick pan or pre-grease or spray a baking dish.

Stir together butter, cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, flour, baking powder, seasoning or add-ins, and salt. Whisk in eggs to mixture until combined (result will be lumpy).

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or until browned and set in the middle. Cool 5-10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Meat Candy (aka crack)

Smoked, Braised and Caramelized pork belly.  Inspiration taken from here:  Vindulge

Took about 4 lbs of fresh pork belly purchased from butcher shop, center cut.  Scored the fat side about 1/2" deep and rubbed with pork rub the night before and wrapped with plastic and refrigerated over night.  Smoked with apple wood fat side down for about 4 hours then flipped over and smoked for another 2 hours until it got brown and internal temp was close to 180.  Cut the cubes all the way through and transferred to aluminum pan and coated with some honey/sugar rich BBQ sauce.  Covered with foil and braised in the oven at 300 for a couple hours. Uncovered and drained fat off, added a little more BBQ sauce and then caramelized in the oven for another couple hours.

Finished Product

Braised before caramelizing

Smoked and cubed, ready for braising

Pork belly fat side down with rub on

Lasagna and Home Made Ragu

I did a bunch of lasagna research and found that béchamel based lasagna is Northern Italian and Ricotta based is Southern Italian.  I found one Giada recipe on Food Network that had both which I didn’t find anywhere else.  One day I will try doing a béchamel lasagna, but so far I always punt on that cause I am tired of cooking by assembly time. Instead of making separate tomato sauce and then sprinkling on the meat, I make a ragu.  And instead of layering the ricotta and spinach separately, I mix them together first.  The quantities below make either two medium size lasagnas or one really big one and will feed 12 adults. 

Ragu sauce (make day ahead or some other day and freeze)

• 1.3 lbs of mild Italian sausage
• 1.3 lb of ground chuck
• 2 cans 28 ounces diced tomatoes (good ones will make a taste difference)
• 1 can 28 oz crushed tomatoes
• Chicken broth
• Garlic
• 1/2 tsp cayenne
• Red pepper flakes
• 2 medium yellow onions chopped
• 2 carrots finely chopped
• 2 celery stalks finely chopped

I used a big Le Creuset for all of this:

Cook and render the meat slowly, and then drain the meat. I recommend not browning, but keeping the meat soft.  Make sure to cook and drain thoroughly or you will end up with greasy lasagna. Remove to a paper towel lined bowl.  Saute the veggies in the same pot in some olive oil until soft (add chopped garlic at end).  Add the meat back and all the tomatoes, some black pepper (the sausage usually is salty enough) and a couple bay leaves and cayenne. Add broth if it seems too thick.  Cook covered in the oven at 275 for 3-4 hours.  When done, it will have a totally different consistency, everything blended together and actually not very saucy.  If you don’t cook it this long the flavors just don’t happen and it will taste like raw tomatoes with some meat and very bland.  This is great for just topping pasta BTW.

[2022/23 update:  This Ragu comes out really thick and not at all “saucy”, which is intentional.  What I have found however is that it is hard to “stretch” it enough for all the layers.  I have started using some puréed italian tomatoes with some light italian seasoning and salt and pepper and brushing that on the noodle layers before the Ragu]

I mixed two packs of chopped spinach (after thawing and squeezing all the water out) with two 16 oz containers of ricotta and 3 lightly beaten eggs. 

Olive oil sprayed the baking dish then layered:

1. Thin layer of the ragu on the bottom of the pan [2022/23 update: use the sauce noted above instead for this base layer.]
2. Single layer of noodles (regular or GF)
3. 2022/23 update thin layer of the sauce brushed on
4. Ricotta and spinach layer
5. Shredded mozzarella cheese
6. Ragu (with a very light sprinkle of red pepper flakes)
7. Noodles
8. 2022/23 update thin layer of the sauce brushed on
9. Ricotta and spinach layer
10. Ragu (with a very light sprinkle of red pepper flakes)
11. Shredded mozzarella cheese
12. ¼ cup of grated parmesan or Romano.

Cover loosely with foil (I kind of tented it so the moisture could escape) and bake at 375 for somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour + till all bubbly, then uncovered for about 15 minutes to brown.  I put a foil covered baking sheet under it, which protected the oven and made it easier to take out. Then let it rest for a full 30 minutes.  

A few tips:  if you spray the foil it isn’t supposed to stick to the cheese. The resting time is essential or you will end up with soupy lasagna.  Make the Ragu a day or more before, otherwise it will be really hot when assembling and your lasagna dinner it will take All. Day. Long. I haven’t got the thick chewy noodle layers I like in good lasagna yet - I suspect the oven ready no boil noodles. 

*** 2023 “Quick and Smaller Lasagna” 

I am trying to perfect a decent lasagna that you can get in the oven in 30 minutes total.  Below is first attempt with my notes for next time:

Smaller lasagna dish that perfectly fits 3 noodles un-trimmed in each layer.

32 oz jar of Rou’s sauce, preferably bolognese.  Don’t go cheap on the sauce, this is where the flavor comes from.

1lb of mild italian sausage

24oz of ricotta + 2 eggs

Frozen spinach

Shredded Moz

Grated parm

Cook the meat, drain it, and add the jarred sauce but reserve a little

Do layers like above, but use the jar sauce for the first thin sauce layer

Instead of thawing out the spinach and then draining it, sprinkle frozen bits on the ricotta layer

I would add some heat next time like cayenne pepper to the sauce.  Didn’t have enough punch.

I was able to assemble from a “clean counter” to putting it in the oven in 30 mins.  Not as good as using home made Ragu, but sometimes you just want Lasagna. 

Ragu and lasagna pictures at different stages:

Personal Size Apple Crisp

Post Thanksgiving, tragically we had run out of apple pie.  But I had a leftover peeled Granny Smith apple in the refrigerator so I decided to improvise a personal size apple crisp suitable for the application of appropriate amounts of vanilla ice cream.

Referencing an online recipe for crisp topping, I approximated the ratios.  The filling I eyeballed, so some adjustment may be necessary.

Ingredients:

• 1 large ramekin
• white sugar
• brown sugar
• cinnamon
• oatmeal
• flour
• salt
• butter
• 1 large Granny Smith apple peeled

I thinly sliced the apple and in a mixing bowl, combined the apple slices, some white sugar (about 2 tablespoons or so), some cinnamon (about 1/4 tsp) and a dash of salt until well coated.  I put this in the ramekin with enough left over for a small ramekin.

In a 2 cup pyrex measuring dish, I melted 2 Tbs of butter.  I added to that 2 Tbs oatmeal, 2 Tbs flour, 3 Tbs brown sugar, about 1/2 tsp cinnamon and a dash of salt, combined and pressed on top of apple mixture in Ramekin.  There wasn’t enough for the small ramekin too, so it went “naked”.

In a rush to get this goodness in me, I decided to use the combination cook setting on our microwave/convection oven after preheating it to 400 degrees.  In about 15 minutes the apples looked done but the topping not quite.  I changed the oven to convect only at 400 degrees and gave it another about 7 minutes.

After cooling slightly and with the requisite ice cream, it was as good as anticipated.  Yummm.

Before cooking:

After cooking: