Chayote Squash

Surprising Steps to Perfect Pasta

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Use a Pan Instead of a Pot and 9 Other Surprising Steps to Perfect Pasta

• by bon appétit magazine, on Fri Apr 22, 2011 7:44am PDT

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Pasta with Sun Gold Tomatoes

By Oliver Strand, Bon Appétit

The BA Pasta Manifesto

1. Forget the pot. Use a pan. Ever notice that the pasta you get at top-flight restaurants is different from what you make at home? It's glossy and luxurious, each strand of pasta coated with sauce. The key to pasta this transcendent is a sauté pan. That's what the pros use to cook almost-done pasta and sauce together—until there's pomodoro clinging to every bite of bucatini, until each raviolo is lacquered with sage-flecked brown butter. It's a unified, flavor-packed dish, not a bowl of noodles with a bunch of sauce dumped on top. To make your own restaurant-worthy pasta, grab a sauté pan (use one that's either 10" or 12" in diameter) and get started.

2. Build the Foundation. At its most basic, a pasta sauce requires just a handful of ingredients and 20 minutes of cooking time. To make a classic pan sauce, heat olive oil, sauté garlic, add a vegetable or two and then—here's the important part—a generous amount of pasta water. The starchy water and oil simmer together, forming the foundation of a sauce. We love a long-simmered ragu, but this is the technique we return to again and again.

Related: Bon Appetit's Favorite Pasta Recipes

3. You're not using nearly enough salt. Add a small handful of kosher salt to a pot of boiling water, then drop in the pasta. The noodles absorb water as they cook, so you're actually seasoning the interior of an otherwise bland starch. Mark Ladner, executive chef at Del Posto in New York City, says the water should taste "almost as salty as seawater." For Ladner, that's about 1 Tbsp. salt for every quart of water, but you don't have to be so particular—just throw it in there.

4. Don't dump the pasta water. Starchy, salty pasta water is the secret ingredient in most sauces. Scoop out some of the cloudy water (it's supposed to look like that) with a coffee mug or measuring cup, and pour a few splashes into the sauce. Save the rest; you might need more than you'd expect. Then simmer until the water and oil emulsify and begin to form a slightly creamy sauce. It's a little like deglazing a pan with stock or wine, a simple step that gives a dish body and flavor.

5. Trust the Tongs. While the pasta is cooking, grab a pair of basic metal tongs (12" ones are best for pasta prep). They are an indispensable tool: Use them to pick up a noodle to test for doneness, to transfer long noodles from pot to pan, to toss noodles in sauce, and, finally, to plate it all beautifully.

6. Now work that pan. It's where the magic happens. Bringing it all together in the pan is as easy as it is important. Undercook the pasta by about two minutes (you should see just a hint of white when you bite into a piece) and finish cooking it in the sauce's flavorful liquid. To coat the pasta with sauce, try some fancy restaurant fry-pan flips. Or, if you don't feel like cleaning the range after dinner, use tongs as if you're tossing a salad until the pasta is completely coated. Keep an eye on the sauce: Is it too tight? Remove it from the heat and add a bit more pasta water. Too brothy? Let it cook 20 seconds longer. Just remember that the pasta will continue to absorb the liquid and the sauce will thicken off the heat: What's loose in the pan will firm up in the bowl.

See Also: The Best Meatless Main Courses

7. Everything's Better with butter. The other secret to rich, silky sauces is extra fat—and yes, all the restaurants use it. "I finish the pasta with a little bit of olive oil, butter, or both," says Andrew Carmellini of New York City's Locanda Verde. "In Italian it's called mantecare, which means 'to make creamy.' " He adds cold butter to the pasta and sauce in the pan, off the heat, to give it an unctuous texture.

8. Cheese is not just a garnish. Whether you know it or not, restaurants enrich pasta sauces with cheese even before grating it tableside. When a little bit is added to the sauce, it melts and becomes a binder, a stealth ingredient that lends texture and flavor. Here are three simple steps to getting the most out of it: Skip pre-grated cheese. It's more expensive and it doesn't taste as good. Grate it finely so it'll melt easily into the sauce. You're making pasta, not a quesadilla. Think beyond Parmesan. Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo, of New York City's Frankies Spuntino, use Pecorino, a sheep's-milk cheese with a tangy bite. "It has a stronger flavor," Castronovo says, "so we use less of it in the food."

9. It should looks as good as it tastes. Like a wineglass, a well-designed pasta bowl not only makes for beautiful presentation but also serves a purpose. A broad bowl with high sides keeps food warm (especially if you heat the bowl in an oven first), and a white one makes the colors in the sauce pop. We like Crate & Barrel's Bistro Large Bowl ($7; crateandbarrel.com). Use your trusty tongs for plating. "It should look like a bird's nest," says Thomas McNaughton, executive chef at San Francisco's Flour + Water. To get the look, twirl the pasta, lift it out of the pan, lower it into the bowl, then re-twirl.

10. Practice Makes Perfect Now that you've learned the principles of great pasta, practice the technique on these four classic recipes.

Tomatillos???

Enchiladas Verdes:
4 t. vegetable oil
1 medium onion chopped medium dice
1 T. minced garlic cloves
1/2 t. cumin
1 1/2 c. low sodium chicken broth
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
12 tomatillos husks and skins removed, and washed well.
3 poblano chilis, or jalapenos
1 - 2 1/2 t sugar
salt pepper
1/2 c chopped cilantro
8 ounces pepper jack cheese grated about 2 cups
12 corn tortillas


Heat boiler. Toss tomatillos, chilis, and 2 t. oil together and place in  a foiled lined cookie sheet, broil till blackened and starting to soften. Peel the chili's when cool, but not the tomatillos. Transfer all to food processor and lower oven to 350.  Add 1 t. sugar, 1 t garlic, reserved cooking liquid and processes until still chunky, about 8 pulses of processor. Add remaining sugar 1/2 t. at a time. Throw away the foil. You will use this pan to warm the tortillas in a minute

  While veggies are broiling:  Heat 2 t oil in pan, add onion and cook til golden brown, 6-8 min, add 2 t. garlic and cumin.stir in fragrant, add broth, add chicken and cook until thermometer reads 160. about 15 minutes.Remove 1/4 cup liquid from pan and discard the rest.  Cool and shred and chop chicken into small pieces.  and add  1 1/2 cup cheese, season with salt.  .


Spray both sides of tortillas with cooking spray and place on  baking sheet, place in warm oven . Bake until soft and warm. Take them out of the oven and turn it up to 450.

Spread 3/4 cup tomatillos sauce in bottom of 13x9 pan. Spread 1/3 cup filling down center of each tortilla. Roll each tortilla tightly and place in baking dish on top of sauce, seam side down. Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas. Use the back of a spoon to spread sauce so it coats each tortilla. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and cover with foil. Bake enchiladas on middle rack until heated thru, about 20mins.


Yum and EEE

Binder Summer Sales Chocolate Chip Fantasticos

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 2 1/4 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1  brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Hardware:

• Ice cream scooper (#20 disher, to be exact)
• Parchment paper
• Baking sheets
• Mixer

Directions

Heat oven to 350/ 375 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.

Pour the melted butter in the mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning.   DO NOT OVER- BLEND INGREDIENTS !!!!!!

Pioneer Hardtack

Hardtack is an old-fashioned flatbread or sea biscuit that was popular with pioneers and sailors because it was lightweight, compact, tasty, and stored well. And it is just as delicious today and handy, too, for hiking, backpacking, or snacking. Here is a recipe for hardtack:

4 cups flour (white, whole wheat, graham, rye, barley, or any combination of flours you like)
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups buttermilk, yogurt, cream, or sweet milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 400° and measure into large bowl.
2. Mix well and form dough into a ball, then divide dough and roll out a small portion (about the size of a tennis ball) at a time.
3. Roll dough on lightly floured surface as thin as you can. The thinner you roll it, the better the hardtack will taste.
4. Sprinkle rolled-out dough lightly with salt if you wish, cut to any shape desired, and place pieces close together on greased cookie sheet.
5. Bake until edges begin to brown. Remove cookie sheet from oven, turn hardtack over, and bake until it is crisp and dry and lightly browned.
6. As soon as the hardtack is baked, put on rack to cool. Store hardtack in airtight container, and it will stay fresh as long as it is kept dry.
This pioneer hardtack is delicious served plain or with jam, peanut butter, cheese, meat spreads, or whatever you like. Try seasoning the crackers by adding onion powder, cheese, barbecue sauce, bacon bits, herbs, or spices to the dough.

What's this green thing?? Chayote! Amazing recipe.

This edible plant (aka christophine, chocho, merliton, Mexican squash) belongs to the same family than squashes, melons and cucumber. Also great on sandwiches... or eaten as celery sticks...
Ingredients:
2 chayotes .2 chicken breasts, 1 thick piece ham , 6 slices mozzarella cheese, 3 cloves garlic, creme, chipolte sauce.

• Boil 2 chayote's and 2 chicken breasts until tender,  45 minutes , remove chicken after 25 mins.
• Peel chayote, cut them in half, discarded seeds and cut in slices. Shred chicken.
• Blended some chipotle pepper (O.K. There are no Chiplote chili's in Utah, Buy the sauce and add to your level of heat..:)  with 1/2 cup heavy cream and 3 garlic cloves.
• Sauté 1/2 onion, 1 or slices of ham cut in 1 1/2" pieces, and 1 1/2 cup shredded chicken over olive oil. Added the chipotle mix. Season.
• Arranged in a baking dish alternately chayote,  mozzarella cheese slices and meat in layers.
• Baked for 25 minutes at 350° F.

Buen provecho!

Key Lime Pie, Sorta Thanks Thepioneerwoman.com

Key Lime Pie. Sorta.

Jun. 8, 2009
Strict Key Lime Adherents: Please look away. I haven’t got time for the pain.
Everyone else: Let’s make Key Lime Pie! Using regular limes! Because that’s all I have available in my small town! And I don’t live in Florida! So I can’t grow my own! Key limes!
I’m still calling it Key Lime Pie, though—no one can stop me. Not even you Strict Key Lime Adherents.
But I love ya anyway.
Before I proceed, I would like to state that I am currently obsessed with refrigerator pies: pies that require refrigeration (to facilitate setting) before serving. These pies often have a graham cracker or other cookie crust, which I think is at the basis of my current obsession. They’re just making my skirt fly up right now. Can’t explain why.
I chose Key Lime Pie for today’s pie recipe (I have a second one coming tomorrow) because I love the movie “Heartburn”. At the end of the movie, just after Meryl Streep’s character, a food writer named Rachel, discovers that Jack Nicholson’s character, a political columnist named Mark, has just spent their savings on a down payment for a new necklace for his mistress, a tall, leggy European named Thelma with whom he’d had an affair months earlier, Rachel bakes a Key Lime Pie with the sole intention of smashing it into Mark’s face at a dinner party later that night.
And she does it.
And frumpy, disheveled housewives everywhere CHEERED!
And then we got really dang depressed.
But that’s what pie is for: movie-induced depression.
By the way, are you aware the story of “Heartburn” is loosely based on the marriage between Norah Ephron and Carl Bernstein?
Anyway, that’s why I decided to make Key Lime Pie.

We’ve got to begin by making a good graham cracker crust. Put 18 graham crackers (that means the full rectangle) into a food processor.

Pulse until totally crumbled. You could also put the crackers into large Ziploc bags, hand them to your sons, and say “Have at ‘em, boys.” It’ll just take a minute or two.

Pour the crumbs into a bowl.

Then throw in a little sugar.

Or a lot, if that floats your boat.
It usually floats mine nicely.

Some butter. Regular, please. This concoction needs the salt.

Melt it in the microwave.

Then just drizzle the butter over the crumbs.



Stir the mixture with a fork.

It should be moist, but still very crumbly.

Pour the crumbs into a pie pan.

Using your fingers, press the crumbs gently so that they form a crust on the bottom and sides of the pan. Again, don’t expect the crumbs to stick together like glue; the crust should easily crumble if you mess with it too much.
Now just bake the crust in a 350-degree oven for about 5 minutes. This will toast it up a little bit and cause the crust to set.

Grab some limes. If you have Key Limes, yahoo! If you don’t, grab some of these regular peasants.

Now zest a couple of them. You’ll need a heaping tablespoon of zest.
And if you don’t have a microplane zester, please obtain one at your earliest convenience.
And when you do: run the zester over the lime—not the other way around.

Now halve and squeeze the puppies until you have 1/2 cup of juice.

Now dig around your fridge until you find two eggs. Heave a sigh of relief. Then scribble “eggs” on your grocery list.

Separate the eggs. You just need the yolks for this one.

Now, throw the lime juice and the lime zest into the bowl of your electric mixer.

Then add the egg yolks and beat immediately on high for one minute.

Turn off the mixer, then pour in 1 can of sweetened, condensed milk.
It’s good stuff. I promise you that.

Mix it on high until thick and smooth.

If the mixture looks like it needs more zest, add it right in!

When it’s all mixed, just pour it into the crust.



Oh, honey.

I love you so much.
Now bake it in the oven for about fifteen minutes, or until no longer jiggly.
Then remove it from the oven, allow it to cool for a little while, then stick it into the fridge to chill for at least an hour. A couple of hours is better. You just want it to be nice and chilled and firm and perfect.

Like this.
Oh, how I love Key Lime Pie Sorta.
Now, here’s my stance on Key Lime Pie Sorta: it needs sweetened whipped cream. It could be that I’m overly sensitive to tart flavors and I need the whipped cream to balance it out. Or it could be that I just look for justification for putting more cream into my diet.
Either way, whipped cream makes it better.
And here’s how you make it:

Pour about a cup of cold, heavy cream into the (clean) bowl of the mixer. Then add in a healthy tablespoon or two of sugar. You can also add a little vanilla, but we don’t really need it here.

Then just beat it on high speed…

Until it’s very stiff. Perfect!

Now comes the fun part.



Mmmm. You can see that the crust is rather thick in relation to the filling. This is by design; as much as I love the creamy filling, I do find it pretty rich. With the ample crust and whipped cream on top, it turns out to be a really balanced piece of pie…and that lime flavor still really bursts through.

A little extra zest on top totally seals the deal.

Oh, man. I’m so ready for the next five (okay, three) minutes to happen.

It’s…it’s…it’s happening.

It happened.
And now it can happen to you!

Key Lime Pie. Sorta.

 

Prep Time: 15 Minutes

Cook Time: 1 Hour

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 36

Ingredients

• Crust
• 18 whole Graham Crackers (the 4-section Large Pieces)
• ⅓ cups Sugar
• ⅓ cups Butter, Melted
• _____
• Filling *
• 1 Tablespoon (heaping) Lime Zest
• ½ cups Lime Juice
• 2 whole Egg Yolks
• 1 can (14 Oz) Sweetened Condensed Milk

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
For the crust:
Crush crackers in a food processor or Ziploc bag. Pour them into a bowl and stir in sugar and melted butter. Press into a pie pan and bake for 5 minutes or until golden and set. Remove from oven and set aside to cool slightly.
For the filling:
Mix lime zest, lime juice, and egg yolks in a mixing bowl. Add in condensed milk and mix on high until smooth and thick. Pour mixture into crust and bake for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven, allow to cool, then refrigerate for at least 1 hour—more if possible.
Serve with sweetened whipped cream and more grated lime zest.