Home made Fettucini in Alfredo sauce with mushrooms and pulled chicken.

So I got a new toy for my birthday. I am super excited about it, verging on being super annoying to my wife. I love her dearly, and she has the patience of 15 saints when having to deal with me being excited about anything. The new toy is a Marcato Atlas pasta machine, I have five attachments and am looking forward to playing with them all. The first thing we made as an experiment was Fettucini. When making home made pasta I really do suggest searching out Italian recipes. Really do make sure that you use fresh ingredients and find good quality semolina or Durum flour they are the same thing.

Pasta

250g white flour
250g semolina or durum flour
5 eggs
1 oz water

Put flours in a bowl and make a well. Add eggs to the well and blend well with a fork. Once eggs are incorporated begin kneading with hands, add water or white flour as needed to make the dough the right consistency. The dough should not stick to your hands but should not be too dry.

If using a pasta machine you want get the dough to a thickness of about .5mm which on the marcato is a setting of 5. Cut your pasta to the specs of your machine or by hand however you want to do it!

Cook the pasta in bling salted water for 2-4 minutes depending on how thick you get your dough. Thicker dough will take longer.

Alfredo sauce.

I used Giada Delaurentis’s Alfredo recipe and added shredded chicken and mushrooms to make it a meal. I also made it a little less fatty by changing the cream to 1% milk and the butter to margarine. The sauce came out amazing and everything was delicious.

Sauce

2 1/2 cups milk separated
1/2 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup margarine
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Salt
Pepper preferably white
Pinch of nutmeg
Mushrooms
1 cup shredded pre cooked chicken
Fresh parsley

Pour two cups of milk and lemon juice into a large heavy saucepan and heat over medium heat. Add margarine and stir until melted. Add cheese and remaining milk to pan and stir constantly. Allow to reduce a little to thicken sauce. Add mushrooms, chicken and spices and heat until sauce is desired consistency.

Add noodles and stir to coat, serve in pasta bowls and garnish with fresh parsley.

Enjoy

Thin Crust Pizza Dough

There are so many pizza dough recipes on the internet it’s kinda ridiculous, but this recipe is the one that I have doctored to get what is my current favourite pizza dough. You can make this one a couple hours before you need it. Or you can let it slow rise in the fridge overnight. Either way it gives a nice thin crust which makes an amazing vessel for transporting pizza goodness to your highly refined pizza eating palates. There are so many choices when it comes to toppings too, so don’t be afraid to let your imagination run wild. Anyway enough gibber jabber. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup hot water
1 1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp or one package yeast (I prefer traditional)
3 cups flour
2 T olive oil
1 tsp salt, preferably coarse salt

Method:

Pour the water, yeast, and sugar into a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, and give it a stir. Let it sit for a couple minutes, until the yeast is activated. Once activated, add the remaining ingredients and mix with a dough hook or by hand.

When everything is combined into a ball, take out of the bowl and knead by hand until very smooth. Let rise in a warm dark place for about 1.5 hrs or until dough ball has doubled in size. Remove from bowl and roll out and stretch into desired pizza shape. Not circular tastes just as good as circular. Cover with desired toppings and bake at 450F until everything melts into golden brown deliciousness.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

One of my last posts was a vietnamese noodle bowl, what goes better with that than spring rolls. Having never made them before. I was excited to try. They are actually fairly simple to make and kinda fun too. They are time consuming especially if you use the dried rice paper. I might suggest the frozen variety of wraps as you will not have to soak them to be able to use them. Anyway on with the spring roll.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound of ground pork, or shrimp, crab or other seafood
1 egg
1 cup chopped bean sprouts
1 small pepper julienne
400 oz of vermicelli soaked in cold water for 15 minutes and chopped
1 carrot julienne
2 green onions diced
1 t each Salt and pepper
2 T hoisin sauce
1 pkg rice paper

Method:

Combine all ingredients except rice paper in a large bowl and mix well, this can be time consuming to get a good a mix so I suggest using a stand mixer on medium speed and let it go until your happy with the mix the more thorough the mix the more consistent your final product will be.

Prepare your rice paper according to package directions, if using the dry paper be patient the longer you let them soak water up the more pliable they become. Take 2 Tbsp of the mixture and form into a sausage like roll place on the close side of the rice paper fold the left and right sides of the paper over the ends of the log and roll the package up. Place to the side, and continue rolling all your spring rolls up. You can now take some aside and freeze them for another meal.

This is the you decision part to deep fry or shallow fry the remaining. Deep frying gives a more even texture all the way around the spring roll. Shallow frying uses way less oil. If deep frying fill your pot enough so your spring rolls will be completely immersed in the oil. Try to not let the rolls touch the bottom of the pot as they may burn a lot easier. Immerse them until they are a uniform golden brown all the way around.

If shallow frying take a large non stick frying pan and coat the bottom in oil heat over medium high and start pan frying your spring rolls rotating them constantly, until they are a nice golden brown.

Serve them hot with the Vietnamese noodle bowl or as an appetizer on their own. I enjoy mine with plum sauce or Nuoc Nam sauce.

Enjoy!!!

Crab Cakes

My wife and I have been experimenting with our palettes, allowing them to grow by trying different things. Living here in Calgary, it can be difficult to get good fresh seafood, and as such, crab cakes are a great fall back. Recently I made them for the first time: Blue Swimming crab cakes with a Lemon Cream Sauce and Balsamic Vegetables. All in all, pretty simple and for those of you that are interested, here is the recipe.

Crab Cakes

1/2 Yellow Onion Minced

2 Cloves Fresh Garlic

14oz crab claw meat (I used Blue Swimming crab)

2 T Mayo

3 T Lime Juice or 1 fresh lime

1/2 Cup Bread Crumbs

5 T Olive Oil

1 Egg White

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Saute the garlic and onion in a sauce pan. Once caramelized, add to a bowl with the remaining ingredients. Mix all ingredients together and form into 5 or 6, three inch patties. Don’t make them to thick or they wont warm all the way through, don’t make them to thin or they will burn easily. Set them in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to firm up. Once firm, add a little oil to sauce pan and warm on med-high. When the oil is ready, add the cakes gently and cook for about 4 minutes. Flip them gently and cook for another 4ish minutes.

Lemon Cream Sauce

1/3 cup butter

3 T flour

2 t garlic

1/2 yellow onion

1/4 cup lemon juice or juice of 1 Lemon

1/4 cup sherry or white wine

1/2 cup cream or milk

salt & pepper to taste.

Melt butter in a sauce pan add garlic and onion and saute. Once carmelized add flour. Once the rue is bubbling gently, add lemon juice and sherry and stir well. Cook the mixture down, and this is the exciting part, add the milk. It will separate, this is no problem, continue cooking the mixture until it all comes together. This takes about 5-10 min on a low temperature. Don’t rush this part. Add salt and pepper to taste. When plating, put sauce on the side as it will ruin the crust on the cakes if you drizzle it over them.

Balsamic Veg

Carrots

Sweet Peppers

Arugula

Basil

There are no amounts in this recipe because there are no rules for this. Its easy though. Once your veg is prepped, add oil to saute pan and start with carrots, about 3 minutes later add peppers. Another minute or 2 later add arugula and fresh basil. Cook until desired doneness. Drizzle balsamic vinegar on top and cook down. Serve warm and enjoy.

My wife is now in love with these and I hope you will be too. Thanks for reading!