Tagliatelle Fresche al Prosciutto Crudo
The fabulous Monday Pasta continues.
Tonight we had another hand-made pasta. Tagliatelle. Feather-light tagliatelle. Perfect ribbons of silkiness...
I'm in love.
Victor has mastered the art of pasta-making. Totally and completely.
Personally, I think everyone needs to go out and buy a pasta roller. You can't buy pasta like this. You just can't.
Tagliatelle
Serves 4
Making fresh pasta is easier and quicker than you may think, and the results are well worth the extra effort. Tender and supple, this hand-cut tagliatelle readily absorbs the flavors of the sauce it's tossed with.
Ingredients
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 large eggs
- 2 large egg yolks
- Coarse sea salt
Instructions
On a clean work surface, mound flour and form a well in the center. Add eggs and egg yolks to the well. Using a fork, gently break up yolks and slowly incorporate flour from inside rim of well. Continue until liquid is absorbed, then knead for 10 minutes. Wrap dough tightly in plastic and let rest for 30 minutes.
Divide dough into 3 pieces. Cover 2 pieces with plastic wrap. Flatten remaining dough piece so that it will fit through the rollers of a pasta machine.Set rollers of pasta machine at the widest setting, then feed pasta through rollers 3 or 4 times, folding and turning pasta until it is smooth and the width of the machine.
Roll pasta through machine, decreasing the setting, one notch at a time (do not fold or turn pasta), until pasta sheet is scant 1/16 inch thick.Cut sheet in half widthwise; dust both sides of sheets with flour. Layer sheets between floured pieces of parchment or wax paper. Cover with paper and repeat with remaining dough.
With the short end of 1 pasta sheet facing you, loosely fold up sheet, folding sheet over two or three times from short ends toward the center. With a large chefs knife, cut folded sheet into ribbons, a scant 1/4 inch wide. Unroll strips and lightly dust with flour; spread on a lightly floured baking sheet. Repeat with remaining pasta sheets.
To cook the tagliatelle, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Drain pasta, transfer to a large serving bowl and toss with sauce.
Three ingredients. That's it. Three ingredients. No gums, stabilizers, or dough conditioners. Flour, eggs, and salt.
The sauce is the same.
The recipe tonight called for prosciutto, shallots, and cheese. Three ingredients. Four if you count a couple tablespoons of wine. Simple, basic, and exploding with flavor.
I really love complex dishes where a score of ingredients compete and blend. But there is another side of me that really loves the simplicity of a dish - where there are three ingredients and I taste each one individually and collectively.
Tonight's pasta was just that. Each ingredient stood out, yet complimented and balanced the others.
Having grown up with - and cooked - Americanized versions of Southern Italian food, I'm really enjoying the more authentic and simpler foods Italy has to offer. A couple of good ingredients is all it takes.
Tagliatelle Fresche al Prosciutto Crudo
4 servings
Ingredients
- Fine sea salt
- 5 ounces 1/8-inch-thick slices prosciutto
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced shallot (1 to 2 large)
- 2 tablespoons dry white wine
- 14 ounces fresh tagliatelle
- 3/4 cup freshly grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Instructions
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, cut fat from prosciutto; finely chop fat. Cut remaining prosciutto into
1/4-inch cubes. Combine prosciutto fat and butter in a large nonstick skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes. Add shallot and cook for 1 minute more. Add cubed prosciutto and cook for 1 minute more, then add wine and ¼ cup of the boiling water; cook until liquid has evaporated, about 3 minutes, then remove from heat.Add pasta to the boiling water and cook until al dente (about 3 minutes for fresh pasta). Reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking liquid, drain and immediately transfer to a large bowl.
Return skillet with prosciutto to medium-low heat. Add cheese and stir to combine. Immediately add contents of skillet and 1 tablespoon of the pasta cooking liquid to pasta; toss to combine. Add more pasta cooking liquid to moisten, if desired. Serve immediately.
And for dessert, I made a Spongata...
Clean-Out-The-Refrigerator Risotto
The end of the culinary week is here. Grocery shopping (and Pasta Monday!) is tomorrow. That means I should really use up the things that are in the house...
It's actually pretty easy to do. If it's hot out, I make salads. If it's cold, soups and casseroles. It's really nothing more than taking a disparate bunch of items and uniting them with a common item, be it a salad dressing, a spice, a broth, sauce, or gravy.
And yes, it really is that basic.
Risotto, at it's most basic form, is rice and liquid. Add some cheese. Add some vegetables. Add some meat or seafood. Add all of them. The end result is still rice and liquid - sometimes with stuff mixed in with it, as well.
And that is how I approached tonight's dinner.
I started by dicing a couple of carrots and about 8oz of mushrooms. Into my most-favorite Le Creuset braiser with a bit of olive oil. The pan is getting close to 30 years old. It is perfect for so many things, but it is stellar for risotto. It's flat-out one of my most favorite cooking utensils.
Next into the pan was about 10 ounces of diced ham. I added a pat of butter and a cup of Vialone Nano rice. I had heard that both Vialone Nano and Carnarioli rices were superior to arborio in making risotto, so I picked up a box of each to see. I've only used the Vialone Nano thus far, and yes, it's really good - but not worth three times the price of the arborio. Granted, I haven't made a classic risotto dish with it, yet, but my discerning palate isn't discerning three times the price.
I stirred the rice, cooked it until it was translucent, and then started adding broth. I made it the traditional way, adding a ladle of broth, letting it absorb, adding another... It took about 25 minutes. I added a cup of frozen peas, an ounce of grated parmesan, and a couple ounces of grated cotija cheese. As I said earlier, this was a clean-out-the-refrigerator dish.
It was all the things it was supposed to be... creamy and flavorful with lots of different textures. It was definitely a good cruise-into-fall dish.
Tomorrow is Pasta Monday. Victor has already made a fresh pasta - tagliatelle - for tomorrow's dinner.
Maybe I'll bake some bread.....
Cranberry Pumpkin Pork
The curse of being a cook. Or, rather, of having a knife and three minutes of time. And an active imagination.
The basis for tonight's dinner came about after seeing bags of diced butternut squash. They looked beautiful - bright orange, fresh-looking... The mind started playing all sorts of recipe-games. It's fun to play the "what if I did this..." game. The mind can really start racing with ideas. As I was contemplating what I could do, I espied whole butternut squash. Immediately I knew I was bringing home a whole squash. Try as I might, I just can't justify someone else cutting my vegetables for me. I know that packaged, pre-packaged, pre-cut/chopped/diced everything is the wave of the future. I know that there are many people out there who believe that pushing a button on a microwave is too much work. And I know that not everyone likes to cook.
I just don't happen to be one of them.
I plan on being a cranky old man when I grow up spouting things like "When I was your age I used to get lemon juice from a natural container - a lemon!" Or... "I remember when we used to buy fruits and vegetables that looked like fruits and vegetables. Before they were all genetically modified."
I think it will be fun.
But back to dinner tonight...
The squash was easy. I peeled, seeded, and diced the squash and drizzled it with maple syrup, sage, salt, and pepper. Into a 375° oven it went for 20 minutes. I used the same timer for the rice.
I heated the pumpkin puree (I still have lots!) and then added a handful of fresh cranberries, salt, and pepper. Very simple. I wanted the flavor of the pumpkin to predominate.
I cut a small pork tenderloin into about 1/2" slices and covered them in a mixture of flour, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. I sauteed them in a bit of olive oil, and after flipping them over, added the pumpkin and cranberry mixture and simmered everything for about 6 or 7 minutes.
The timer went off and everything was ready!
Butternut squash with maple syrup is a natural combination and a hint of sage balanced the sweetness. The tart cranberries balanced the sweetness of the pumpkin and the garlic in the flour added that little bit more of a savory edge.
It worked on every level.
I love Fall.
Planning the Christmas Baking
It's November 11th. The perfect date to start planning the Christmas baking!
Christmas cookies have been a tradition with us since Christmas One. We have baked thousands of cookies a year. Tens of thousands since getting together. It's been a lot of butter, flour, and fun.
But the past couple of years it hasn't been as much fun. It's been almost mechanical. The bright spot has been having Gino and Elizabeth come down and help with the special family cookies, but the others have been... well... The Same.
We've just made the same cookies for too many years.
So this year, we're doing something completely different.
First is, we're not baking as many cookies as we have in the past. We're doing the family traditions with Gino and Elizabeth but everything else is going to be fresh and new.
We have a recipe for German Springerle cookies. They are cool. Made with carved cookie forms that are pressed into the dough and allowed to dry over night before baking. They're leavened with Hartshorn - bakers ammonia. I have it in the cupboard.
And we're making Torrone - Italian nougat. I've just ordered the edible rice paper. We also have a recipe for a chocolate version. And we're going to make a trio of Italian nut brittles. And authentic English Plum Pudding. And German Stollen. Pinenut Pie. Spiced Nut Tart.
We're going to make a goodly amount of candies - something that I've always wanted to do, but have always shied away from.
Candy-making is just outside of my comfort zone. It's just not something I've done as much of or done as well as other things. It really is the least-forgiving of all cooking.
But what the hell. We're going to go for it! This ain't brain surgery. The absolute worst that can happen is we screw it up and throw it out and start over again. I did that the first time I made the Stollen. Totally screwed it up. And remade it perfectly. I'm getting pretty psyched about the whole idea!
As the new recipes are finalized I'll add them to the Christmas Cookie pages. And we'll take pictures and blog about them as we make them.
I can't wait to start!
French Onion Soup
It's fall. daylight savings time os over. It's been really cold. I decided it was time to make a big batch of French Onion Soup.
Sunshine, blue skies, and otherwise glorious weather.
Go figure.
But I made the soup, anyway. I like onion soup. Besides, I had almost 10 pounds of onions.
It's a rather easy soup to make. I make it as a beef and onion soup. Very non-traditional. I'm not sure why or when that happened, but it's been going on for years.
First, you start with the onions. This batch was the aforementioned 9 1/2 pounds of onions.
Slice them and put them in a big pot with a stick of butter.
Cook, stirring occasionally, until they brown and caramelize. This batch took about 1 1/2 hours to reach the right color.
At this point you need to be stirring a lot more often and really scraping the bottom of the pot to get all that good caramelized flavor.
Meanwhile - and this is where I defy tradition - I brown beef cubes (today I used about 1 1/2 pounds of tri-tip I cut up) and after it was browned, deglazed the pan with about a half-cup of sherry.
All of that went into the pot with the onions.
I then added 2 quarts of beef stock.
I added a bay leaf, about a teaspoon of French herbs, salt and pepper. I then brought it to a boil and covered and simmered it for about 45 minutes.
Neither of us are crazy about cheese-encrusted croutons floating (or glued) to our soup bowls, so I just added some grated cheese to the top. They are really a pain-in-the-ass to eat. I'd rather just dunk some french bread.
I used a blend of onions; 6 pounds of Mayan sweet onions and 3 1/2 pounds of white onions. The soup was definitely on the sweet side. In a good way, though.
And there's lots of leftovers. A bunch for us and a big container to bring over to Victor's mom tomorrow.
She really likes my onion soup!
Apple Cranberry Phyllo Rolls
This one got away from me. I really didn't plan to make two huge phyllo rolls. But when you have a one-pound box of frozen phyllo dough thawed, you use it. It's not like it's going to be any good next week.
So... I made two huge phyllo rolls.
And my-oh-my did they come out good! We're definitely set with desserts for a while.
I love phyllo but just don't use it enough. It's good savory, it's good sweet. You can fill it with absolutely anything.
This recipe came about because I had just picked up a couple of apples at the store and had a bag of cranberries sitting in the 'fridge. The phyllo has been in the freezer for a couple of weeks. Time to use stuff!
Buttering every other phyllo layer gives it a bit more substance - and actually cuts down on the calories considerably. Not that I did it for that reason... I wanted a bit more chew in the center and a bit less crumbly. I should freeze one for Thanksgiving...
Cranberry Apple Phyllo Rolls
Makes 2
- 1 tbsp butter
- 5 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
- 1 cup fresh cranberries
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1 1/2 cups finely-chopped walnuts
- 1/2 cup demerara sugar
- 1 stick butter, melted
- 16 sheets phyllo dough
Preheat the oven to 350. Combine the apples, cranberries, brown sugar and spices in a heavy covered skilletand cook for about 10 minutes or until tender. Cool to room temperature.
Mix walnuts and demerara sugar.
Layer 2 sheets of the phyllo on table and brush with butter. Sprinkle with walnut and sugar mixture. Repeat three times for a total of 4 2-sheet layers per roll.
Heap the apple mixture along (one end if square, long end if rectangular) of the phyllo dough. Carefully roll up, enclosing filling. Place seam-side down on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Brush top with butter and sprinkle with additional demerara sugar.
Bake for 35-40 min minutes. Cool and slice.
Seriously. I have two. I need to freeze one!
Campanelle con Salsa di Olive
It's La Cucina Italiana Pasta Monday! Victor would have been in the kitchen cooking tonight, except he was at the doctors office. He threw his back out making the bed yesterday. 30 hours of excruciating pain later, he went for the drugs. Perfect. It means I will be able to sleep tonight, as well. We've both had back problems over the years. The first time I hurt my back was in a car accident when I was 18. A guy ran a red light on Van Ness as I was crossing on Geary. In the ensuing 40 years, I've managed to screw it up every few years. It's been a while. I'm probably due.
But I digress...
My first two thoughts when seeing this recipe were how wonderful it sounded and how much Ruth would hate it. (It was fabulous. You would have hated it.)
Gaeta olives can be either brine-cured or dry-cured. I found the brine-cured. (Brine-cured Kalamatas can substitute for brine-cured gaetas.) I also found pitted picholine olives. I have a pitter, but if I don't have to use it..... It made for easier work.
The only actual change from the printed recipe is I used the food processor to make the olive paste. I know the arguments for mortar and pestle. I'm neurotic enough to use a burr grinder for my coffee beans at home instead of chopping them with a little Braun. I fully understand the benefits. The mortar and pestle got sold a year or so ago at the yard sale.
Food processor worked just fine.
The recipe made a goodly amount. We used about a third of it for our two generous portions and the rest is going to become bruschetta or something. Maybe a Thanksgiving appetizer...
Another cook note: I did not salt the water for the pasta. The unsalted pasta balanced the olives and the cheese .
Campanelle con Salsa di Olive
4 servings
Olive pesto, delicious over pasta, also makes a great spread for crostini and pizza.
Ingredients
- Coarse sea salt
- 1 cup Gaeta olives, pitted
- 3/4 cup Picholine or other mild green olives
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced (white and light green parts)
- 1 small fresh red chile, thinly sliced, or pinch red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon roughly chopped fresh marjoram leaves
- 1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh thyme leaves
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup freshly grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese plus more for sprinkling
- 1 pound campanelle
Instructions
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
Meanwhile, put olives, scallions, chile, marjoram and thyme into a mortar. Using the pestle with a rotary movement, grind mixture against wall of mortar until combined. Working with 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time, drizzle in oil, grinding and mixing to incorporate as you go, until pesto is combined and smooth. Add cheese and grind to combine.
Cook pasta in the boiling water until al dente. Reserving ¼ cup of the pasta cooking liquid, drain pasta and return to pot. Immediately add pesto and toss to combine, adding as much of the pasta cooking liquid to moisten as desired. Serve immediately with a sprinkle of cheese.
Moroccan Beef Meatball Tagine
I planned on making hamburgers tonight. Somewhere along the line, I got sidetracked.
Actually, my thought process was quite simple. Burgers mean potatoes, whether they be fries, chips, or salad. I didn't have any potatoes and wasn't about to leave the house to get one.
I had rice, couscous, polenta, and just about every other grain imaginable, so I thought I'd find something that would go with one of them.
A Bon Appetit magazine came to the rescue. A cold day calls for something saucy and out of the oven. Besides, I had most of the ingredients and figured I could fake it with the ones that were missing. I didn't have the spinach or any fresh cilantro. I added parsley and a pinch of coriander.
It worked.
The meatballs themselves were nice and spicy. The half-teaspoon of cayenne was a perfect amount. Anything more would have been too hot. I also added a bit of harissa paste to the sauce. The sauce was slightly sweet with a hint of heat that offset the meatballs perfectly.
I had couscous but decided on serving it over white rice. It would have gone well with anything!
Moroccan Beef Meatball Tagine
Meatballs:
- 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
- 1/3 cup coarsely grated onion
- 1/3 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 large egg, beaten to blend
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Stew:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 1/2 cups chopped onions
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/8 teaspoon saffron threads, crumbled
- 2 cups beef broth
- 1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
- 1/4 cup golden raisins
- 2 cups 1/2-inch-thick carrot slices (cut on diagonal)
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro plus additional for garnish
- 1 5-ounce package baby spinach leaves
preparation
For meatballs:
Line large rimmed baking sheet with plastic wrap. Gently mix all ingredients in large bowl. Using moistened hands and scant 2 tablespoonfuls for each, roll meat mixture into 1 1/2-inch meatballs. Arrange meatballs on sheet.
For stew:
Heat oil in heavy large ovenproof pot over medium heat. Add onions; sauté about 15 minutes. Add garlic, cinnamon, turmeric, and saffron; stir 2 minutes. Add broth, tomatoes with juice, and raisins.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Bring stew to simmer. Stir in carrots. Carefully add meatballs to stew; gently press into liquid to submerge. Sprinkle 1/4 cup cilantro over. Cover pot; place in oven. Bake until meatballs are cooked through and carrots are tender, about 35 minutes. Sprinkle spinach over stew. Cover and bake until spinach wilts, about 5 minutes longer. Gently stir to mix in spinach, being careful not to break meatballs. Remove cinnamon sticks. Season tagine with salt and pepper. Spoon couscous into bowls; top with tagine. Garnish with cilantro and lemons.
Crispy Gnocchi with Peas and Bacon
This was a two-person-in-the-kitchen dinner! My favorite kind.
Victor was perusing the internet looking at different gnocchi ideas when he came across a recipe for Crispy Gnocchi with Fresh Peas and Bacon. The minute I heard about it (yesterday) I knew I had to have it (today.) I shopped on a Saturday afternoon - stood in line - just to bring home the bacon.
We're talkin' dedication. Or something.
It was worth standing in line. I'd do it again.What a great idea!
Victor used gnocchi he made and froze last month. The recipe is really simple - and you can cut back on the butter considerably!
Crispy Gnocchi with Peas and Bacon
- ¼ pound bacon or pancetta, diced (1 cup)
- 1 shallot, thinly sliced
- 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 cups shelled fresh peas (frozen works in a pinch)
- 12 fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves (left whole)
- 6 tablespoons butter, divided
- 1/3 cup grated parmesan
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1lbs gnocchi fresh or frozen
For the sauce, cook the bacon in a large sauté pan over medium-low heat until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crispy, about 5 minutes. (Pour off some of the fat if your pork is especially greasy. You’ll want about 2 tablespoons of fat.) Add the shallot and garlic, sweat for 1 minute, and then add the lemon juice.
Increase the heat to medium, add the peas, and sauté just until the peas brighten in color. Remove the pan from the heat and fold in the parsley and 2 tablespoons butter. Taste for seasoning and add salt if necessary, though you shouldn’t need much, if any, because the bacon adds a natural saltiness to the sauce. Turn off the heat and set aside while you sauté the gnocchi.
To finish the gnocchi, heat 3 tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat in a sauté pan large enough to accommodate all of the gnocchi without crowding. When the butter becomes brown and fragrant, add the gnocchi to the pan and cook, turning as necessary, until they’re browned and crisp on all sides, 5 or 6 minutes.
Pour in the pea and bacon sauce, turning to coat. Add the remaining tablespoon butter, the parmesan, and the 2 tablespoons of water while turning the gnocchi. Allow the sauce ingredients to emulsify and form a silken coating, 1 to 2 minutes. The sauce should cling to the gnocchi. Spoon the gnocchi and sauce into shallow bowls and serve immediately.
I made a swiss steak of sorts. Beef round steak sliced thin and pounded, floured, and sauteed with onion and mushrooms. A bit of beef broth and the final container of mushroom soup.
I covered it and put it into a 275° oven while Victor made the gnocchi.
So...
Did you notice the plate that tonight's dinner was on? It's from Teatro Zinzanni - a show that plays in Seattle and San Francisco.
The concept pretty much is a 5-course dinner served in a circus tent - and the diners being a part of the show. It's non-stop fun and possibly one of the best three hours you'll ever spend. It's fantastic.
They bill themselves as Love, Chaos, and Dinner. They are so right. We were so enthralled with everything that after the show, we went into the gift shop and bought 4 plates - two oval and two round. I think they were something like $40.00 a piece. We were flush back in those days.
Go to the website and click on the videos to see some of the show in action.
And then... if you're ever in San Francisco or Seattle - GO SEE IT!
Mushrooms and Cheddar
The concept for this sandwich was a mushroom, caramelized onion, and cheddar sandwich at one of the local pubs - Kildares, I think. Ruth made it up using mushrooms and a caramelized onion cheddar cheese. On ficelle rolls.
I have made it a score of times, sometimes playing with it, and other times making it as it was originally intended. It pretty much rocks the casbah no matter how it's made.
The concept is quite simple - and pure brilliance. Sauteed mushrooms, caramelized onion cheddar cheese melted into them after they're browned really well, and then stuffed into a roll.
Did I say brilliance?!?
Two variations on a theme have been cooking the mushrooms with some ground beef, and adding in some slices of chicken breast as I did last night.
With sweet potato fries.
It really is a simple dish and the mushroom and cheese combination with the onions just makes everything right with the world.
If you don't have a cheddar cheese that already has the caramelized onions in it, just cook up a handful and add it in with the 'shrooms.
Rock your casbah.
Beef Stew and Stormy Weather
I love cold, gray, wet, and dreary days. They're the perfect excuse to bake some bread, make a soup or stew, light a fire in the fireplace, and, generally, be a slug. All of my favorite things to do. Especially the slug part.
And today was the perfect cold, gray, wet, and dreary day to do a couple of the above. I got home too late to make bread, but I had plenty of time to make stew and be a slug. And the fireplace is being lit as I type.
Life is good.
When I make soups and stews, I somehow think I'm still cooking on an aircraft carrier. I don't know what it is, but small amounts just do not compute. There are two of us. I do not need several pounds of meat, and even more potatoes, celery, carrots, etc... But I break out the pot and need to fill it. And we then have enough to feed the neighborhood.
My solution tonight was to just use a smaller pot. (I know... what a concept, eh?!?) I've tried it before with other pots - and ended up dumping everything into a larger pot. I decided to make a go of it one more time. And tonight, it worked! A manageable amount!
I also cooked the onions in bacon grease - and then because there just happened to be three slices of bacon in the refrigerator - I sliced up the bacon and added it to the onions, then browned the mushrooms and the beef. I generally don't use bacon in my beef stew - I save it for making Julia’s boeuf bourguignon - but it was there. And I'm really glad it was.
I wasn't vying for the complex flavors of boeuf bourguignon. I just wanted to add a bit more flavor to a Thursday night beef stew.
It worked.
Potatoes, celery, carrots, a quart of beef broth and a pinch of herbs d'Provence.
That was it.
Another thing I did differently was thicken it with rice flour. I picked up a box of it a while ago because it is especially good at thickening things that are going to be frozen. It keeps things from separating when they thaw. I added the same amount nixed with water as I would have with wheat flour and it worked just fine.
And warm cheese focaccia to dunk.
Time to slug.
Chicken and Pumpkin
What to do when you have lots of pumpkin puree in the house? Start using it in fun and creative ways! Like a Pumpkin BBQ Sauce.
I really went international with this one... I started with the pumpkin puree and added a bit of Banana Sauce from the Philippines and Matouk's Calypso Sauce from Trinidad and Tobago. To round things out, I added a bit of Gate's BBQ Sauce from Kansas City.
It was spicy hot. The Calypso Sauce is a scotch bonnet mustard sauce, the Banana Sauce is a sweeter-than-ketchup sauce but with a similar flavor profile, and the Gates BBQ Sauce is just good BBQ. It made for a great combination.
I schmeared it all over the chicken and then oven-roasted it for about 30 minutes at 425°. They were big breasts.
Brussels sprouts - the last of the stalk - were oven-roasted with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. They were perfect in their roasted simplicity. Red whole-grain rice finished the plate.
The sauce really was good. Even with the heat of the calypso sauce, the pumpkin came through.
It's given me an idea about a pumpkin chipotle bbq sauce.
Stay tuned.