Browned butter pasta

I think you guys are going to say, jeez Tammy! So many posts! What can I say? This blog is fun. =)

Yesterday I made pasta with mushrooms, broccoli and browned butter. Browned butter gives the pasta a nutty flavor. This pasta is versatile...choose whatever kind of pasta you want. This time, I used linguini. You can use whatever meat and vegetables you'd like.

Ingredients:

1 head of broccoli
1 pint of mushrooms, sliced
1 clove of garlic, minced
10 ounces pasta of your choice
6 tablespoons of unsalted butter
salt and pepper


1. Cut your broccoli into smaller pieces. Here are step by step pictures for you, Lien:








I also try to use some of the stems to reduce waste. Slice the stem very thinly and discard the thicker trunk of the broccoli.

2. Cook the broccoli. I cooked them by microwaving in a covered container for 1 minute. You know when the broccoli is cooked because it will turn a darker, deeper green. Or you can just eat a piece...that's what I do.

3. Wash your mushrooms. I do this my wash each one by running it under water while I scrub it. Then I place the clean one in a strainer, or something to drain excess water.

4. Cut off the tip of the mushrooms stem and discard it. Turn the mushroom on its side and slice.


5. When are you almost done slicing the mushrooms, heat a pot with some olive oil on medium-high heat.

6. When the oil is heated, cook a little bit of the mushrooms at a time. Make sure that each mushroom has contact with the bottom of the pot. If you cook too many mushrooms at once, a lot of water is going to come out, and the mushrooms won't brown.



7. When your batch of mushrooms have brown, place them aside (you can add them with the broccoli). Continue to cook the mushrooms in batches until browned.



8. I used the same pot to boil water for my pasta. Remember to add some salt into the water to flavor the pasta. Then, cook your pasta for around 8 minutes.

9. While you are waiting for the water to boil, mince your garlic. Here is one way to mince garlic. Make slices into the garlic clove that are parallel to the board. Don't slice all the way through the garlic clove.


10. Then make slices into the clove perpendicular to the board, again not slicing all the way through.


11. Run your knife through the clove and taa-daa! it's minced.


12. Take your butter and cut into cubes to speed up the melting. Heat on medium heat until melted.


13. When it is fully melted, add your garlic.


14. Heat until the butter is nutty and browned. You may need to stir occasionally.


15. After you drain your pasta, mix everything together in the pot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Yummo (and sorry the final picture is blurry)!

Flan

I attempted to make flan the same day that I made lasagna. Cindy wanted flan, so I made some. I tried out a new recipe, but in the end, the texture was too dense. The original recipe I'm posting is the original one that I used, but it needs tweaking.

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream (this was in the original recipe, but maybe 1/2 cup milk and 1 1/2 cups heavy cream will make a better flan)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 - 1/2 cup caramel, depending on how much caramel you like

1. Take out four or five ramekins (I took out six because I wasn't sure how many I would need). You could also use a pan instead of ramekins. Or mugs, I suppose. Place them in a baking dish and pour caramel on the ramekins.


2. Preheat your oven to 325. Boil 5 cups of water in a kettle.

3. Place heavy cream in a small pot. Heat on medium until it barely starts to bubble, then remove from heat.

4. In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs until mixed. Add the sugar and whisk until the sugar is fully incorporated.


5. Use a ladle to slowly add the hot cream into the egg mixture. Make sure to keep whisking, otherwise the eggs will start cooking and scrambling. When the bowl feels warm, it's okay to dump the rest of the hot cream into the mixing bowl. Then, add the vanilla.



6. Ladle the mixture through a strainer. Pour slowly to minimize bubbles. I try to pop any bubbles that I see.


7. Pour the hot water into the baking dish, around the ramekins. This is the water bath to help cook this evenly.


8. Bake in the oven at 325 for about 45 minutes. Test for doneness by inserting a knife halfway between the center and the edge of the circle. If the knife comes out clean, it is done.


9. Let the flan cool completely before chilling in the refrigerator.

10. To plate the flan, run a knife around the edges (my sister doesn't do this, so that makes this optional).


11. Turn a plate upside down, then put the upside down plate on top of the ramekin. Flip the ramekin over so that the flan ends up on the plate.


It tasted good, but the texture was off. It was way too dense, which is why I'll try it with some milk next time to thin out the mixture.

Lasagna

Hey, it's Tammy! I made this lasagna a few days ago with Lionel and my sisters. It's a lasagna with meat sauce and spinach-ricotta layers. This lasagna takes a while, but you have a lot helpers, the prep work takes about 30 minutes.

Ingredients:
9 - 12 lasagna noodles (depending on how many layers you want)
8 ounces shredded mozzarella

Spinach-ricotta mixture:
2 eggs
2 cups ricotta cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 ounces of frozen, chopped spinach that has been thawed
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Meat sauce:
3/4 - 1 pound ground beef or turkey
32 ounces canned tomato sauce (or puree)
1 small onion, chopped
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon chili flake (optional)
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano

To make the meat sauce:

1. Chop the onion. Here are some step by step photos on one way to chop an onion:






2. Heat a pot on high or medium heat. Add olive oil. When you can feel the heat with the back of your hand, add in the onions. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to spread the onions evenly. Stir the onions around every minute or so, until it browns.
3. Add your meat. In this case, turkey. Once the meat is in, break it up into smaller pieces. Every minute or so, stir the meat around until browned.


4. Add your tomato sauce or puree. Stir to combine everything, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to incorporate any yummy browned stuff into the sauce.

5. Season the sauce. If you don't have all of those spices on hand, it would probably still taste good with just salt, pepper, and sugar.

6. Let the sauce simmer for 15 minutes to let all of the flavors mix. Keep a lid on the pot, but tilt it slightly so that steam can escape. There's your meat sauce! You could also use this to have plain spaghetti, or dip with bread.

7. At this time, you can shred the mozzarella if you bought block cheese.


8. Start a pot of water for the lasagna noodles. I grab a large pot, fill it 2/3 of the way, and add salt. The pasta will absorb the salt while it is cooking, which enhances the flavor. I keep the lid on until the water is rapidly boiling, then I add in the lasagna noodles. Since these are long noodles, you have to stir it for a while until all of the noodles are submerged. Then, leave the lid off and cook for about 10 minutes. Test the noodle too see if it is nearly cooked. It will cook the rest of the way in the oven. (Sorry to hear you don't have an oven Lien!)
Preheat to 350 sometime around here.

To make the spinach-ricotta mixture:

1. Squeeze excess water from the thawed spinach.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk the two eggs.

3. Add the remaining ingredients.


Assembly:

1. Place a small amount of sauce at the bottom of your baking dish to keep the noodles from sticking.
2. Add your first layer of lasagna noodles.
3. My next layer was the spinach cheese. I added all of the spinach in this layer, but it's probably better if you split it in half. Add some mozzarella cheese.



4. Add more lasagna noodles, then half of your sauce, then some mozzarella cheese. Continue to layer your lasagna, alternating between meat sauce and spinach-ricotta.


5. Top the lasagna with the rest of the mozzarella cheese. Lionel seasoned the top with black pepper and salt.

6. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until it bubbles. Then, change your oven to broil and brown the top for 5-8 minutes.


All done! This makes for a great meal by itself. All that you're missing is a piece of fruit to balance the meal (that's the nurse in me, haha).

Rachel's Made up Chicken and Potatoes

Well, Katie and I decided to have dinner with Chris and Sean one night this summer since Chris was coming to visit before he went off to Japan with Sean and Kevin. So on Katie and mine's traditional "date night" (Wednesday) I decided to cook since we still had left overs from our 4th of July bbq. And this recipe is pretty much what ensued after I got the ingredients to make something completely different. :D

Potatoes:
2 brown russet potatoes (or since I don't know what kind of potatoes you will have access to Lien, it does not really matter what kind of potatoes they are just get as many as you would like to eat)
1 teaspoon minced garlic (3-4 cloves whole garlic)
4 teaspoons olive oil
seasonings (I used Cajun seasoning this time, carne asada seasoning the last time, and Lien I know you will just want salt and pepper)

Chicken:
1 head of garlic
3 teaspoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion
4 teaspoons of olive oil
2-3 chicken breasts
salt and pepper
1/3 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup cream
seasoning as you like (I used bay leave, chili powder, pepper corns, and parsley this time)

Vegetable of your choice

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Take your head of garlic and chop off the top of it, so that you are starting see the tops of the raw garlic (the ones in the middle that is). Then place in the center of a square of aluminum foil and begin to bring the foil up around the garlic. Then add the 3 teaspoons of olive oil. Crumple up the foil at the top so you have foil covered head of garlic. Place in the oven for about 30-40 minutes. You can tell the garlic is ready when you can really smell it and also the tops of the garlic cloves are rather squishy when you touch them. It will look like this:



Then slice the potatoes into about 1 inch or a little smaller cubes and place into a baking pan.



Add the 4 teaspoons of olive oil to the potatoes and then your seasoning choice. Then mix it around with your hands to coat the potatoes and place in the oven (still at 450) for about 20-30 minutes, or until the potatoes can be pierced with a fork quite easily. The garlic should also be out of the oven by now. Potatoes in the oven will look like :



Take the garlic out of their skins and place in a pan with another 4 teaspoons of olive oil. Turn the skillet on to medium heat to get the flavors to start blending. Here is the garlic out of its skins and what the skins will look like after you've taken the garlic out (you don't want to skin Lien!).




While the garlic flavors are mingling slice the onion into strips and add to the skillet.




Cook the onions until they are starting to get clear. Then take the chicken and slice it in half or smaller, as smaller pieces will cook faster. Place the chicken in the skillet with the onions. Then season the top side of the chicken with salt and pepper and cook until the bottoms begin to brown. About 5 minutes at least.





Cook the chicken for another 5 minutes on its other side so both sides are browned. Lastly add the chicken broth, cream, and other seasonings. Then cook for another 10 minutes (this is with the chicken cut in halves) or until the chicken is full cooked through (so not pink or clearish in the middle).



Then take everything and serve. (oh yeah make your veggies too!)






Enjoy!