Holiday 2009

Okay, I know I haven’t posted in the past several weeks, though I have been cooking up a storm.  Unfortunately, I didn’t remember to bring my camera along with me over the holidays, so I you only have my word for it that my cooking was any good 🙂

As I’ve mentioned before, my fiance and I enjoy cooking together, so whenever we have a few days together we’ll choose something to cook.  He only has one cookbook (the updated Joy of Cooking), so we’ve done several recipes from there—even though the way Rombauer wrote her recipes are rather convoluted.  I prefer being able to have all the ingredients listed first, rather than boldface within the process narrative.  Oh well.  I was just impressed he voluntarily bought the cookbook when we were first dating, even though he didn’t know much about cooking, though I initially thought it was just to impress me 😉  (He confessed to me last week that he hadn’t been reading my blog…this is what happens—he gets talked about!)

Anyway, here are the last few recipes we’ve made together:

Spaghetti Carbonara, p. 329 in the 2006/7 edition of Joy of Cooking

(I won’t write the recipe here, as it’s easily available in that text.  Plus, the cookbook is an excellent basic reference to have, as it really is comprehensive.  It’s not as easy to follow as other cookbooks, but it is a useful resource.)

We tried this because we love bacon.  If you’re not familiar with it, it’s pretty much bacon and cheese folded into hot spaghetti that’s already been mixed with eggs, and the eggs have cooked when they came into contact with the hot pasta.  It was a very quick recipe—actually too quick, as we had to re-heat the pasta to make sure it was the right temperature in time for the eggs.  What slowed us down was the bacon—we chose thick-cut bacon, and I hadn’t figured on the extra time needed to fry it.  It takes about twice as long as regular bacon, but I didn’t notice a taste difference.  I think I would choose thick-cut bacon if I were to use it as a wrap covering a roast or a meat loaf, since it wouldn’t cook nearly as quickly as regular bacon does, and wouldn’t burn as fast.  But anyway, spaghetti carbonara is really easy, and it’s one of those recipes that after you do it, you don’t need the recipe anymore.  It’s pretty much (1) cook bacon, (2) cook pasta, and (3) mix raw eggs into pasta until cooked, then (4) toss bacon and cheese into pasta.  Plus salt and pepper, etc.  I’d do it again.

Chicken Rice Soup, p. 135

I really like chicken and rice in soup, and this recipe sounded good.  However, next time I would make the following changes—first, I’d use chicken stock instead of water, as that would help to give much more flavor.  Plus, cooking the chicken separately helps to avoid fat/grease in the soup liquid.  This recipe asks you to cook the chicken in water in the soup, but separating those steps would help to give it a better overall flavor.  Also, I’d add much more stock, as the 6 cups of water it called for wasn’t near enough to handle the measly ½ cup of rice added to the soup.  Now, we used regular white rice, not the long-grain white it called for, and so I’m not sure if that makes a difference.  I don’t know that much about rice so I can’t say if long-grain would take in less liquid than regular grain, but I’d both add more stock and add in the rice later on, not cooking it for 20 minutes.  Oh, and if I had wanted to splurge (I usually cook cheaply) I would have added in some green onions with the regular onion.  I added extra garlic, but it could have used more.  Of course, I always think things could use more garlic.  (This might be why I’m praised more for my writing than my speaking.  Huh.)  Overall I think I’d try this recipe again, with my modifications, or just find another chicken-rice soup recipe.  Kind of neutral on it.

Penne in Vodka Sauce, p. 328

We changed up several things about this one, such as switching spaghetti for the penne (again, I cook cheaply, and that’s what we had).  We also used regular milk instead of the cream it called for, and I think that next time I’d want to try it with cream instead, as this time it was too runny a sauce.  Either that, or use more diced tomatoes in it—it called for one can, but it didn’t seem as tomato-y as it should have.  Possibly adding a couple tablespoons of tomato paste would help with that.  Also, I couldn’t taste anything vodka about it either—not sure if that was the recipe, our ingredients, or what.  I might look for another recipe of this, because I’ve had it in a restaurant before and liked it.

We’re trying another recipe tonight for New Year’s Eve, spaghetti pie, so later on I’ll let you know how it turned out.  Happy New Year!

Recipe: Spanish Rice

[A good and easy side dish. I’m sure the tomatoes could be substituted as well for other vegetables… From Simply Recipes. –EJF]

2 tablespoons olive oil (can use up to 1/4 cup)
1 onion, chopped fine
1 garlic clove, minced
2 cups of medium or long-grain white rice
3 cups* chicken stock (or vegetable stock if vegetarian)
1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste or 1 cup of diced fresh or cooked tomatoes, strained
Pinch of oregano
1 teaspoon salt

*Check the instructions on the rice package for the proportions of liquid to rice. They can range from 1:1 to 2:1. If your rice calls for 2 cups of water for every cup of rice, then for this recipe, use 4 cups of stock for 2 cups of rice.

1 In a large skillet brown rice in olive oil, medium/high heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook onion rice mixture, stirring frequently, about 4 minutes, or until onions are softened.

2 In a separate sauce pan bring stock to a simmer. Add tomato sauce, oregano, and salt. Add rice to broth. Bring to a simmer. Cover. Lower heat and cook 15-25 minutes, depending on the type of rice and the instructions on the rice package. Turn off heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

Serves 4 to 6.