Penne with Vodka Sauce

Vodka sauce is a pinkish sauce made from a red sauce, vodka, cream, cheese and butter. The vodka added to the sauce brings out flavor in the tomato in a basic red sauce was first used in the 80's. At the time it was all the rage.The taste the alcohol evaporates in cooking, but gives the sauce a peppery taste that tickles the tongue. Most recipes pair it with penne pasta. Personally I love it with the addition of either Italian sausage or meatballs

Ingredients:

• 1 quart Simple Tomato Sauce, or store-bought marinara sauce, blended until smooth
• 1 cup vodka
• ½ cup heavy cream, at room temperature
• ½ cup grated Parmesan
• 1 pound penne pasta
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened butter

Preparation

1. Simmer the tomato sauce and vodka in a heavy large skillet over low heat until the mixture reduces by ¼, stirring often, about 20 minutes.
2. Stir the cream into the tomato and vodka sauce.
3. Simmer over low heat until the sauce is heated through.
4. Stir in the Parmesan cheese and butter until melted and well blended.
5. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm, stirring occasionally, about 8 to10 minutes.
6. Drain the pasta and add it to the pan with the sauce.
7. Toss to coat.

Simple Tomato Sauce

A good simple marinara sauce is always a good thing to have at hand for quick dinners. Yes you could buy a jar of pre-made sauce, but why not give your guests or family a sauce with a little love in it? Make this recipe for tonight's dinner, and save some back for use in Vodka sauce, quick pasta dishes, or chicken or eggplant Parmesan.

Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 2 (32-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 4 to 6 basil fresh leaves
• 2 dried bay leaves, whole
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, or less

Preparation

1. In a large heavy pot, heat oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add onion and garlic and sauté until soft and translucent, approximately for 2 minutes.
3. Add celery and carrot and season with salt and pepper.
4. Sauté until all the vegetables are soft, approximately for 5 minutes.
5. Add the red wine to the vegetables.
6. Add the tomatoes, oregano, basil leaves, and bay leaves and reduce the heat to low.
7. Cover the pot and simmer for 1 hour or until the sauce is thick.
8. Remove bay leaves and taste for seasoning.
9. If sauce tastes too acidic, add unsalted butter, sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time,until you have rounded out the flavor of the sauce.
10. Pour half of the tomato sauce into the bowl of a food processor.
11. Process the sauce until it is smooth.
12. Add the remaining tomato sauce to the pureed sauce mixture , stir well.
13. If you are not using all the sauce, allow it to cool completely
14. pour 1 to 2 cup portions into plastic freezer bags.
15. Freeze for up to 6 months.

Talking Turkey

The holidays are upon us so I am posting a few links for anyone facing the task of cooking a turkey.

• Thanksgiving Survival Guide

  How to roast a stuffed turkey

  Good no nonsense advice.

• Turkey Basics: Safe Cooking

  Food Safety: United States Department of Agriculture

  Everything you need to know to have a safe holiday dinner.

• Roasting a Turkey

  Roasting a Turkey - Hormel Kitchens

  A well organized and informative site with a lot of tips.

Kitchen Bootcamp Number 1

This series is about getting back to basics in cooking. Tips and tricks for people wanting to roll up their sleeves, throw away the box and do some real cooking. Please feel free to share any questions or tips you may have in the comments.

Basic Pasta Dough

Fresh pasta is something that is so easy and cheap I wonder how they got people to eat the dried stuff. I got this recipe from my grandmother. The recipe is easily scalable so you can make large batches and store it in the refrigerator or freezer. I usually roll and cut mine as needed. It is still is faster than cooking dried pasta. Personally I like my Italian made pasta mill but roll and knife cutting works ok for a more homey feel. This dough makes great ravioli and lasagna noodles too.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of hard semolina wheat flour
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• a pinch of salt

Preparation

1. pour the flour on a clean work surface
2. make a depression in the middle of the mound
3. widen the "well" so you have room for the wet ingrediants
4. break the eggs into the well
5. add the salt. water and oil
6. use a fork to mix the eggs water and oil
7. begin pulling flour into the liquid as you stir
8. keep working the flour into the center till you have a ball of dough
9. dust the ball with flour and cover with plastic wrap.
10. let the dough rest for half an hour
11. roll into a thick sheet and cut into squares.
12. Dust with flour and stack them up
13. Seal the pieces in a plastic bag for storage

Ok, What Can I Do With All This Dough?

Think of it as play time. The choices are nearly limitless. For starters you can make your own home-made lasagna noodles.The beauty of home made pasta is you roll and cut the noodles as needed. It's faster and easier than you may think. Fresh pasta cooks much faster than dried. The amount of time required for preparing fresh and dried pasta is the same.

Maitake Mushroom Facts

Hen-of-the-woods or Maitake Mushroom

scientific name: Grifola frondosa

AKA Sheep's Head or Dancing mushroom

The Maitake mushroom has been cultivated for many years in Asia, especially Japan, where it originated. Maitake means "dancing mushroom," because they were so valued that whoever found them would dance for joy. It's a very versitile and delicious mushroom. Freshly picked and cooked Hen of the Woods are wonderful

Season and Habitat

Grifola frondosa fruits anytime from early September to late October and seems to be triggered by the first cold nights of the end of Summer. It is found mostly with dead or dying Oak trees, though some regularly find clusters under a dead Maple

Description:

Widely variable in color, from pure white to tan to brown to gray. It appears to get darker depending on direct sunlight. Large overlapping leaf-like fronds grow in bushy clusters that get larger with time. Each frond is from a half to four inches across and is usually darker to the outward edges. The entire fruiting body can be as big as several feet across. The underside of individual caps consists of a pure white pore surface. Grifola frondosa is a polypore, a mushroom which disperses its spores from pores as opposed to gills. The pores are close together and tiny, almost difficult to see. The caps are firm and juicy. The stem is thick firm, white and branched. The spore print is white.

Flavor:

Maitake mushrooms have a distinctive aroma with a rich, woodsy taste.

Cautions:

Many gilled mushrooms grow in large clumps-remember that hen-of-the-woods is a pore fungus. This mushroom has no poisonous look-alikes, but there are some similar species of pore fungi that are tough and inedible. If what you have tastes leathery or otherwise unpleasant, you probably didn't pick a hen-of-the-woods.

Shelf Life:

Maitakes usually last 7-10 days. Keep refrigerated in paper bags.

Some Serving Suggestions:

• Sauté lightly in butter or oil.
• Adds richer taste to any cooked recipe calling for mushrooms.
• Goes well as main dish ingredient, in side dishes and soups.

Storing The Hen of the Woods Mushroom

Hen of the Woods Mushrooms as big as forty or fifty pounds are not uncommon, I have tried numerous ways to store them for use all winter. Some people dry or can these mushrooms, but freezing is the best method of preserving them.

All you need to prepare for freezing is a knife, a towel, a bowl and lots of freezer bags. It is simply a matter of cleaning and bagging them, then popping the bags directly into the freezer. That's all there is to it, sweet simplicity. No pre-cooking or par-boiling is needed. Once frozen the mushrooms can last up to two years. Chop the mushrooms into different size pieces in different bags to use different ways. I also shred it like you would string cheese.

The cleaner the mushroom the better when bagging because you'll want to defrost right in the pan. If the mushrooms were growing under a rotten tree, the mushroom can actually grow around the wood particles and they'll be embedded in the mushroom flesh. Those mushrooms may not worth cleaning unless you have no choice.

Some Thoughts on Brining

I have been busy recently doing some research into brining meats. This new mania started out with an experiment on brining wild game. Some of the most well known brined meats are corn beef and pastrami. For lean meats such as pork and venison it can add a lot of juiciness to the cut of meat.

Ok... So just what is the difference between brining and marinating? Both are a wet precooking process; each method has it's special usage. So I counted off the various items that are needed for each method. In the end it looks like a question of Ph whether you use an Acid or a Base.

Brines versus Marinades

Brining

Is the process of soaking meat in a saline solution. The brine solution permeates throughout the meat to enhance moisture. Other spices can be added to the saline solution to impart flavor. Whether or not the spices impart any significant flavor is debated by some. The primary ingredients used for a brine are water, salt, sugar, and spices.

Marinating

Is the process of soaking meat in an acidic solution, typically a vinegar and oil solution. Other spices are usually added to the solution to impart flavor. The meat is tenderized by the acid breaking down the cell structure of the meat. The primary ingredients used for a marinade are an acidic liquid, oil, sugar, and salt.

Brining Information Sites

• http://bbq.about.com/od/brinerecipes/
• http://www.bbq-porch.org/brining00.asp
• http://www.bbqlodge.com/brine/brine.htm
• http://www.moscowfood.coop/archive/brine.html

Thai Curry Pastes

When most Westerners hear the word curry they think of a mild yellow Indian-style seasoning. However, in Thai cuisine it has many colors and levels of fire. There is a distinct Thai identity in it's lemon grass, shrimp paste, dried chilies and shallots.

Cardamom and Cinnamon were brought to Thailand by Indian Muslim traders and dishes using these are referred to as Mussaman or Muslim curries.

• Thai Green Curry Paste

  The cool jade green color of this type of curry is very deceptive for the uninformed diner. The green variety is the hottest of all the Thai curries.

  Ingredients

  • 15 Green Chilies
  • 3 Tablespoon Chopped shallots
  • 1 Teaspoons Chopped Garlic
  • 1 Teaspoon Chopped Galangal
  • 1 Teaspoons Chopped Lemon Grass
  • ½ Teaspoon Chopped Kaffir Lime Rind
  • 1 Teaspoons Chopped Coriander Root
  • 5 Peppercorns
  • 1 Teaspoons Coriander Seeds
  • 1 Teaspoon Cumin Seeds
  • 1 Teaspoon Salt
  • 1 Teaspoon Shrimp Paste

  Preparations

  1. Put the coriander seeds, and cumin seeds in a pan over low heat.
  2. Dry roast the seeds for about 5 minutes.
  3. grind the roasted seeds into a powder.
  4. Put the rest of the ingredients except the shrimp paste into a food processor.
  5. Blend them together until mixed well.
  6. Add the coriander-cumin seed mixture and the shrimp paste
  7. Blend this into a fine-textured paste.

  You can make a large batch of paste, portion out 3 Tablespoon size mounds on sheets of plastic wrap. Place the wrapped portions in a sealed container and freeze it for later use. The paste can be stored for 6 months

• Thai Red Curry Paste

  This is a moderately hot Curry paste. It is a complex mix of many flavors that goes well with meat, fish, or vegetables. Red curry paste is used in several other dishes that are not considered as curries including Thai Satay sauce.

  Ingredients

  • 9 Dried Red Chillies
  • 5 Shallots
  • 1 Teaspoon Shredded Galangal
  • 1 Tablespoon Sliced Lemon Grass
  • 2 Tablespoon Coriander Root
  • 1 Teaspoon Kaffir Lime Peel
  • 1 Teaspoon White Pepper
  • 1 Teaspoon Salt
  • 2 Teaspoon Coriander Seeds
  • 1 Teaspoon Caraway Seeds
  • 2 Teaspoon Sliced Shallot
  • 2 Tablespoon Garlic
  • 1 Teaspoon Shrimp Paste
  • ½ Teaspoon Kaffir Lime Skin
  • 1 Teaspoon Coriander Root
  • 5 White Peppercorns

  Preparations

  Blend all the ingredients in a food processor until you have a smooth paste. You can make a large batch of paste, portion out 3 Tablespoon size mounds on sheets of plastic wrap. Place the wrapped portions in a sealed container and freeze it for later use. The paste can be stored for 6 months

• Thai Panang Curry Paste

  This is a perfect example of what Thai cooks aspire to, having many distinctive flavors held in a beautiful balance, with no single taste predominating over the others.

  Ingredients

  • 5 Dried Chilli
  • 5 Shallots
  • 10 Cloves Garlic
  • 1 Teaspoon Galangal
  • 1 Teaspoon Lemon Grass
  • ½ Teaspoon Kaffir Lime Skin
  • 1 Teaspoon Coriander Root
  • 5 White Peppercorns
  • 1 Teaspoon Salt
  • 1 Teaspoon Shrimp Paste

  Preparations

  Blend all the ingredients in a food processor until you have a smooth paste. You can make a large batch of paste, portion out 3 Tablespoon size mounds on sheets of plastic wrap. Place the wrapped portions in a sealed container and freeze it for later use. The paste can be stored for 6 months

• Thai Mussaman Curry Paste

  This is the spice paste which you use for Mussaman Beef. Spices such as cardamom nutmeg and cinnamon were brought to Thailand by Indian Muslim traders and dishes using these are referred to as Mussaman (Muslim) curries.

  Ingredients

  • 7 small dried red chillies
  • 2 pieces dried galangal
  • ½ Cup warm water
  • 1 Teaspoons coriander seeds
  • 1 Teaspoon cumin or fennel seeds
  • 1 Teaspoon whole cloves
  • 1 stalk lemon grass
  • 2 Tablespoon finely chopped garlic
  • ¼ Cup finely chopped yellow onion
  • 1 Teaspoon shrimp paste
  • ½ Teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1 Teaspoon ground nutmeg

  Preparations

  1. Remove the stems and seeds from the chillies.
  2. Soak the chillies and galangal in the warm water from 20 minutes.
  3. After soaking, drain and discard the soaking water.
  4. Put the coriander seeds, and cloves in a dry skillet over medium heat.
  5. Roast them for about 2 minutes until the cumin seeds have darkened, the cloves are a green-gray color, and the mixture is very fragrant.
  6. Chop the chillies, galangal, and lemon grass finely.
  7. Combine with the remaining ingredients
  8. Grind to a smooth paste in a blender with a small amount of water.

  You can make a large batch of paste, portion out 3 Tablespoon size mounds on sheets of plastic wrap. Place the wrapped portions in a sealed container and freeze it for later use. The paste can be stored for 6 months

• Thai Yellow Curry Paste

  This curry paste is closet in taste and color to what Westerners think of when they hear the word curry. That’s because this mellow, sweetly spiced paste is based on Indian-style seasonings

  Ingredients

  • 3 Dried Chilli
  • 5 Shallots
  • 10 Cloves Roasted Garlic
  • 1 Teaspoon Galanga
  • 1 Tablespoon Lemon Grass
  • 1 Teaspoon Ginger
  • 1 Teaspoon Curry Powder
  • 1 Teaspoon Roasted Coriander
  • 1 Teaspoon Roasted Caraway
  • 1 Teaspoon Salt
  • 1 Tablespoon Shrimp Paste

  Preparations

  Blend all the ingredients in a food processor until you have a smooth paste. You can make a large batch of paste, portion out 3 Tablespoon size mounds on sheets of plastic wrap. Place the wrapped portions in a sealed container and freeze it for later use. The paste can be stored for 6 months

• Sour Curry Paste (Nam Prik Kaeng Som)

  This is a simple curry paste that goes well with fish and vegetables.

  Ingredients

  • 10 Dried chilies
  • 5 Shallots, chopped
  • 1 Tablespoons Shrimp paste
  • 1 Tablespoons Salt

  Preparations

  Blend all the ingredients in a food processor until you have a smooth paste.You can make a large batch of paste, portion out 3 Tablespoon size mounds on sheets of plastic wrap. Place the wrapped portions in a sealed container and freeze it for later use. The paste can be stored for 6 months

Chocolate Ganache

Ganache is a rich, silky, chocolate mixture that is a delicious filling for candy, chocolates, truffles, cakes and other confections. Ganache is made with only two ingredients: heavy (whipping) cream and chopped semisweet chocolate. Butter can sometimes be added. You can create various textures of ganache by varying the proportions of cream and chocolate. Fruits, spices and liquors can be added if desired.

For best results, you will want to use an excellent quality chocolate. Chocolatiers like Valrhona, Schokinag and Callebaut are known world-wide for their couvertures and mixing chocolates. (The high quality chocolate used for melting is referred to as "couverture"). The couvertures from various chocolatiers produce a different taste and texture in the finished ganache. Experiment to find the ones that you like best. A friend of mine said she would definitely go with scharffen berger chocolate. She's made truffles with it using both the semisweet chocolate and cocoa powder components and it's the best she had used.

Warning!

Chocolate can easily scorch during the melting process. This is especially true when melting the chocolate in a pot or microwave. But there’s good news. When you are making a ganache, you can melt the chocolate safely by stirring it into hot cream.

Water and melting chocolate do not mix! Make sure your utensils are very dry. Even a small amount of moisture, will ruin the chocolate. You will get a nasty gritty mess. When you see it happen once and you are not apt to make the same mistake again.

Ganache for Truffles

Ingredients

• 8 oz. heavy cream (unwhipped)
• 8 oz. milk baking couverture, chopped
• 8 oz. vanilla couverture, chopped

Preparation

1. Bring the heavy cream to a boil
2. Remove hot cream from heat.
3. Pour hot cream into chocolate, stirring constantly.
4. Add butter and stir till smooth.
5. Cool uncovered.
6. Refrigerate when cool.

Ganache for Cake Frosting

This is a softer ganache made with equal portions of cream and chocolate. It is ideal for use as a filling for cookies, cakes or other confections.

Ingrediants

• 8 oz heavy cream , unwhipped
• 8 oz good quality couverture (semi sweet)

Preparation

1. Chop chocolate into small pieces.
2. Heat cream in saucepan.
3. When cream boils, remove from heat.
4. Place a damp cloth on your counter top,
5. Place the pan of hot heavy cream on the cloth.
6. Add the chocolate to the hot cream
7. Beat the mixture with a Dry spoon until mixed.
8. Cool the ganache, uncovered.
9. The ganache will solidify as it cools.
10. It is ready when it reaches spreading consistency.

Crawfish Etouffee

• 2 sticks butter
• ½ cup flour
• ½ cup chopped onion
• ½ cup chopped bell pepper
• ½ cup chopped celery
• 2 cloves garlic -- minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon thyme
• 2 cups fish stock
• 2 pounds crawfish tails, peeled
• 1 cup chopped green onions, with tops

1. Make a roux of 1 stick of butter and flour
2. Stir constantly over low heat until flour is dark brown.
3. Add the chopped vegetables and seasonings
4. Cook until vegetables are softened
5. Gradually stir in stock
6. Simmer 15 minutes or until thickened.
7. Add crawfish, green onions, remaining butter.
8. Bring to a simmer.
9. Simmer 4 to 5 minutes, cover, remove from heat
10. Let sit 15 minutes.
11. Serve hot around a mound of rice.

Serves 4.

Shrimp Jambalaya

Jambalaya is one of the most versatile dishes in Southern cuisine. Jambalaya is pronounced jum-buh-LIE-uh or jahm-buh-LIE-yah.

The origin of the name is uncertain, but as with many dish names, there are a few good guesses along with a bit of folklore. Most believe the name came from the Spanish word for ham, jamón, a prime ingredient in the first jambalayas of the eighteenth century. John Mariani in "The Dictionary of American Food and Drink" offers a more colorful origin of the name: A gentleman stopped by a New Orleans inn late one night to find nothing left for him to dine upon. The owner thereupon told the cook, whose name was Jean, to "mix some things together" --balayez, in the dialect of Louisiana -- so the grateful guest pronounced the dish of odds-and-ends wonderful and named it "Jean Balayez." The first reference to the word in print was in 1872, and "The Picayune's Creole Cook Book" (1900) calls it a "Spanish-Creole dish.

Rice has been an important crop in the South for several hundred years. Rice production in the South began in North Carolina in the late 1600s, with great success. By the late 1800s, after a series of problems from labor to weather, the Southern Atlantic states production faltered. Rice production in Louisiana began late in 1889. Louisiana is now one of the major producing states, along with Arkansas, California, and Texas.

The following excerpt from "Bill Neal's Southern Cooking" sums up Louisiana's success in the production of rice and its creation of Jambalaya: "In Louisiana, rice achieved its American culinary apotheosis. In a great variety of jambalayas, it became the central element around which a number of complex combinations were arranged. Rice was no longer a bland foil for setting off exotic flavors but the featured item absorbing, reacting with, and defining other ingredients."

Jambalaya is a rice dish where the rice is cooked with a meat or seafood and vegetable mixture. Jambalaya is prepared with just about any meat, including chicken, sausage, pork, gator, rabbit, beef, or seafood. Often several different meats are used in the same jambalaya. You can also use left over meat and gravy from a roast or rice and gravy. The meat is browned, the vegetables are sautéed, then rice, water and stock are added and cooked until the rice is done.

Jambalaya may have had its origin in paella. Jambalaya; it is easy to make and tastes great. I have read about cooking jambalaya in an automatic rice cooker. The rice cooker automatically cuts off when the rice is done, so you never burn the rice and the jambalaya is always cooked just right. I like anything I can put on autopilot and get on with the next dish on the menu.

Shrimp Jambalaya

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lb shrimp
• 1/2 stick butter (not margarine)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 2-3 stalks celery, chopped
• 3-5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/4-1/2 cup parsley, chopped
• 1/4-1/2 cup green onion tops, chopped
• 1 tbs. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp. roux
• 1 14-oz can diced stewed tomatoes, or
• 1 10-oz can Rotel tomatoes/green chilies
• 1 cup uncooked white rice
• 1 cup water
• 2 tsp. cajun seasoning mix (homemade, Chachere's or Zatarain's)

Sauté shrimp

1. Peel the shrimp and remove the vein. Cut the shrimp in halves or thirds. Buy the smaller shrimp; they're cheaper and I cut them up any way.
2. Sauté the shrimp in the butter just long enough until they are firm. Use a heavy walled cast iron or aluminum pot. Shrimp have a delicate flavor, hence I prefer to use butter and not margarine.
3. Remove the shrimp from the pot and set aside.

Sauté vegetables

1. Sauté all the vegetables together until the onions are clear.
2. Add the diced tomatoes or Rotel. Use Rotel diced tomatoes with green chilies if the want the dish to have a hot flavor.
3. Add the Worcestershire sauce, roux and seasoning. The small amount of roux adds a bit of body to the flavor.
4. Simmer for 5-10 minutes or so.

Mix and cook the jambalaya

1. Mix the shrimp, uncooked rice and water into the vegetable mixture.
2. Make sure there is enough liquid to cover the mixture. If necessary add water.
3. Add the mixture to the rice cooker and cook until the rice is done.
4. Cook the dish on the stove until the rice is soft, but not mushy. Make sure you do it in a heavy walled aluminum or cast iron pot, or else you are sure to burn the rice at the bottom. Keep the lid on the pot, especially once the mixture comes to a boil, and do not stir the pot.

Serving 4

Jambalaya is moist and best served and eaten right after it is finished cooking. Upon sitting, the rice absorbs the moisture and jambalaya becomes more dry.