Cooking Corner
For those out there with a little culinary interest, I thought I'd share a few brief thoughts today. I have been experimenting by just adding different spices each day to Conor's food to add variety and let him try new flavours. For his apple sauce, I tried cinnamon (an obvious choice), then I tried nutmeg, and my Chinese five spice which I brought back from Taiwan. I must say, the five spice powder was DEEELICIOUS in apple sauce. It is a great addition to chicken- adding an exotic sweet hint to it, but it fits right in with apple sauce.
However, I learned something. Nutmeg, when added to apple sauce, really gives that fruity flavour you get when you taste store-bought lemonaid. It's pretty neat, that citrus spice- it really perks of the applesauce. I encourage you for fun to try adding some ground nutmeg to cold applesauce sometime and see what you think (I, of course, am using the simple store-bought ground kind of sauce). This morning I tried mixing cinnamon and nutmeg and it was a very nice combination.
To get the feel for what nutmeg tastes like, add a good portion the first time- but after that, make sure not to add too much or the citrus type perk will become bitter.
Cook like a pro- easy style
First, let me make a recomendation. For Alfredo sauce that tastes like it was made by a restaurant (and not like it comes from a jar, which it does) use Bertolli. My Mom got us a three pack from Sam's, and I'm hooked. Good alfredo sauce is really a challenge to make- and a time investment, too. You also have to deal with consistency problems, at least I do (the cheese gets lumpy, etc etc). It's incredible to have a jarred sauce that you just pop open and throw in- that tastes like something you'd get from a restaurant.
So I took some stuffed, dried pasta Mom got us from Sams club, and used the jarred sauce, and created some pasta that is to DIE for. It's just... incredible. If you have some dried pasta you like, and get jarred sauce you like (like trying bertolli's) let me give you some tips!
Make it like a 'pro'
This is for alfredo sauce- you want to treat cream based sauce a LOT differently than tomato based. The two have very opposite flavours and need to be treated differently. Cream sauce you want to perk up and maybe spice up, tomato sauce you want to tone down, smooth out, and maybe complement a little. Remember, this is not to make your own sauce- but to transform a premade one into something that tastes gourmet and home made just to your taste.
Make sure the pastsa you choose is not a long noodle pasta. You want either something stuffed (tort's, for example, or ravioli- plain pasta, of course, no sauce) or something that will hold the sauce. So, good examples are bow-tie pasta, curled pasta, etc. You really want something that will catch the sauce and the other addition in this work.
Here's what I did, and some great compliments for a good alfredo sauce.
- Toasted pine nuts: cover the bottom of the large skillet (or use good pot) completely with olive oil. Preheat at medium to medium-low temps, then put fresh pine nuts in at a low temp (you can get them from most grocery stores, you just need to look a little sometimes- WARNING, if you are VERY alergic to pine trees or pollen, you might have issues with pine nuts. They are expensive, but you can't substitute for them- maybe sunflower seeds, but they are still inferior. Only use sunflower if you're allergic to pine). Let them sizzle gently and stir them regularly (no spattering or hissing, or it is too hot! You do NOT WANT TO BURN THEM or you ruin it! Better to go slower than too fast, they should gently brown over a period of several minutes). About a minute or so into it, add some chopped garlic (fresh garlic and go until the pine nuts are browned and starting to get a deeper, caramel-ish colour.Take out some of the nuts to add to each individual dish later.
- Add some pre-cooked meat (ie- pan seared chicken cut into pieces. I added medium-rare steak from the night before that was cool from the fridge and needed to be heated up. Steak is a NICE, rich contrast to the creamy sauce. Chicken works well too, but stands out less and is more traditional), maybe some canned artichoke hearts if you like them, and a really nice addition (worth the cost) is some sun-dried tomato (you can get them jarred in oil (best quality), or just dried). Chop it finely, and add maybe half of it at this stage. The rest you should add to each individual plate.
- Once you've done all this- you might need to remove the pot from the heat if it takes too long because you do NOT WANT TO BURN THE PINE NUTS. Add some white wine to keep the nuts and garlic from burning (again, burn the garlic or the nuts and you loose it all- no saving it, just start all over again. Pine nuts are epxensive, hint hint, so try to be careful. But do get them properly browned and the garlic lightly browned). Add enough white wine to cover the bottom of the pan in a light puddle of wine, enough so it won't boil away immediately but not so much that it will keep everything really wet after we cook it.
- Stir it all up well, and then add the SPICES! Woo! This is the fun part. I added some onion powder, some garlic powder, and some dried thyme to go with the steak (you can use onion salt or garlic salt, but I add the salt seperately to control the level of salt in the dish and let people add their own salt later). I also added cayenne pepper- I wanted this dish to be spicey. Not REALLY spicey, but spicey- and my cayenne pepper is the lower heat rating. Make sure everyone who will eat this is okay with spicey, otherwise you can add cayenne later inidivudally as a garnish (the red colour looks really nice). Add some freshly ground pepper if you have it, or just some normal pepper (not nearly as nice, and don't add as much).
- Stir it up and get it nice and toasty. Once the wine has cooked away a little but everything is still a bit wet and before anything is at the point of 'sticking' to the pan (you don't want it to cook that much!) then add the alfredo sauce! Stir it up and let it warm up nicely at medium temps. Stir it regularly- it should heat up over a minute or two, and if not, then warm it up just a tad faster.
- Put in the boiled pasta you plan to use, and toss it up nicely! You want to not add ALL the pasta- just add pasta and toss it until everything is coated and there is not a lot of excess, but each piece is still decently covered.
Make the individual plates with pasta on them. Garnish by sprinkling lightly with dried parsley (or fresh, minced parsley if you like- either gives it a fresh flavour and a beautiful green look), gently sprinkle with chilli powder for a deep red (and/or cayenne- chilli gives it a light kick of spice to start with, cayenne doesn't kick you with it .. .but it leaves a slow, building spice as you eat). Add your saved pine nuts (just enough to make it look nice and taste good) and finely chopped sundried tomatoes.
Finally, if you REALLY want to give this dish a fresh, living flavour and make it look professional, garnish not only with parsley but also some roasted red (or, for colour, yellow or orange) bell pepper.
(I make my own roasted bell pepper. The easiest way is to set the oven rack near the broiler (the heating element at the top of the oven) but far enough away a bell pepper could sit on it without touching it. Pre-heat the oven on "broil" setting for at least five minutes or more. You HAVE to pre-prepare for this- leave the bell pepper(s) out on the counter for at least fourty five minutes to an hour ahead of time. The reason is, if they are cold inside they won't do this as quickly or properly. Once all is ready, using oven mitts and a spatula (tongs are great if you have them) put the bell pepper on the grating (you might put a pan below to catch the drippings). Set a timer for two minutes (it'll probably be four minutes at least the first go, but just in case- always watch your broiling closely!).
Your goal is to get the topside WELL blackened- once the blackening spread over a lot of the skin (we're talking burned looking), turn it to the opposite side. Start with two minutes, but you might want to check every minute once the blackening starts until you get a feel for how fast it goes. Turn it to get all four 'sides' blackened- try to avoid too much unblackened skin.
When you take it out, put it under cold water and after (or as it cools) use a fork to just brush off the outer skin. Cut the sides of the pepper off when you finish getting all the skin off (in slates, so you can cut strips of it) and then cut it into fine strips. Whala, roasted bell pepper that is delicious for using to garnish your pasta. Make sure to heat it a little in the microwave before you garnish!
Extra tips
- Some other things that go well with an alfredo like this include the famous, thin sliced Itallian hams (like proscutto (sp?)) cooked up along with the meat you throw in here (it doesn't need to be pre-cooked). Capers, roasted garlic, even crumbled/small pieces of bacon.
Wine tip- NEVER cook with anything that calls itself 'cooking wine'. For anyone who can use Sam's club, I can get a $7 bottle of white wine (use white wine for alfredo sauces- red wine is best for tomato sauces) at Sam's that is large, but good tasting. NEVER cook with wine that someone who likes wine could not drink. Bad drinking wine = bad cooking wine. The people who make those gourmet dishes with wine sauces that you may have tasted make them taste that good because they use top quality wines in them. Also, getting large bottles of wine and using them over a period of time tends to lower the quality of their taste. If you're doing a particularly special dish, and want the best results, open a fresh bottle to cook with. It doesn't have to be expensive- just decent.
PS- If you drink wine, then it doesn't hurt to use the leftover wine from a normal sized bottle to drink alongside the dish. I will recommend creativity and contrast. For example, I used a red zinfendel wine to cook my steak- but could have had it to drink with my Alfredo for good results. Likewise, my white wine would have worked as an interesting contrast to the rich steak. It breaks the "red wine with red meat or rich flavours, white wine with white meat or light, creamy flavours" rule but I've seen good chefs break it with good results.
Hope you enjoyed reading and I hope I gave you some good ideas!
(I don't think I have to say it, but since I DID create this from scratch, the above is copyrighted Patrick Flanagan 2006. 
All rights reserved, please get permission before displaying it publically or sharing copies of it beyond personal use)
