Year of the Noodle: Week 12

Train.  Wreck.

Yes, that bad.  Even after waiting 90 (hungry) minutes for everything to cook, we still couldn’t bring ourselves to eat more than a few bites of this one.  John wouldn’t even eat it.  That says something.

It started off poorly when our fridge froze all of the fresh ingredients that were supposed to give this recipe so much flavor (fresh basil, cilantro, watercress and green onions – all frozen.)  I salvaged enough to halve the recipe and forged on.  But then the broth somehow tasted like strong citrus – even though there was no citrus in it – and had no redeeming flavors.  The tofu tasted like nothing.  The rice noodles were overcooked.  Nothing went right, and I couldn’t bring this one back to edible.  So we threw it down the drain and John got to work on making a backup dinner:  Year of the Noodle Week 12.5 – improv spaghetti.

This recipe turned out so poorly that I’m not even going to provide it below.  I don’t want anyone making it without reading my commentary and being as disappointed as I was.  After the last two weeks of failures, I need a win.  If you have a great recipe you are willing to share, please send it my way so that Noodle 13 doesn’t end up a flop!

Year of the Noodle: Week 11

Giada De Laurentiis confuses me.  Every time I’ve seen her Food Network show (which admittedly isn’t much seeing as we don’t have TV), she cooks something mouthwatering and calorie laden, yet still manages to look like a stick thin Natalie Portman clone.  Jealous.

Sadly, she really let me down with this alfredo sauce.  The lemon flavor slaps you in the face, and the cheese does not blend into a nice creamy sauce as anticipated.  It turned out citrusy and chunky.  Which is a serious bummer because Mario Batali’s recipe for handmade pasta turned out phenomenal.  The recipe is absurdly simple – it’s literally just flour and eggs – but that’s probably why it came out so delicious.  I kinda wish I had left some of it plain so that it could be used in another dish.

Should you choose to make this alfredo, definitely dial down the lemon zest and cheese.  You can always add more if you’re not as sensitive as I am.  But really, there are far better alfredo sauces out there.  As my sister said, you shouldn’t trust someone that doesn’t look like they eat their own food.  So true.

Fettuccine Alfredo

Fresh Fettuccine Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 5 eggs Continue reading »

Year of the Noodle: Week 10

Apparently when I was a kid I wanted to be the person who manned the pasta machine at the Olive Garden.  Remember how they used to make fresh pasta just behind the lobby area so you could watch them?  When I eventually worked at an Olive Garden in college, they no longer did that.  And I learned pretty quickly how gross Olive Garden food is (sorry fans of the OG, when you work somewhere you see icky things.)  Now that I am an adult(ish), with my very own pasta machine, that childhood pasta making dream finally came true.  I made my first ravioli from scratch last Friday night.  It took a significant amount of time, and didn’t look too pretty by the end, but it turned out delicious.  Hopefully I’ll have the process down better next time so that it doesn’t keep me in the kitchen quite so long:)

This recipe is a classic flavor combo that I’ve had at many restaurants in the past.  I think I pulled it off nearly as well as any I’ve ordered (aesthetics aside.)  Yummy.

Enjoy! Continue reading »

Year of the Noodle: Week 9

I’ve finally purchased a pasta maker.  As I write this, it is on it’s way from Amazon, or more accurately one of their resellers (I bought a used one.)  I’m very excited.  I like kitchen gadgets.  And I like fresh pasta.  Double win.

In the meantime, dried pasta still ruled this week’s recipe.  How do you make dried pasta a little more interesting?  Add booze to it.  Hence the Penne a la Vodka.  Buy the cheap stuff for this recipe – I doubt you  could tell the difference.  That is, unless you plan on doing shots whilst cooking, which I do not recommend.  Especially not with the cheap stuff  :)  Happy Tuesday!

Penne a la Vodka

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 shallots, minced Continue reading »

Year of the Noodle: Week 8

A jar of red curry paste resides in my fridge.  I had forgotten about it until midway through making the sauce for this recipe.  While it simmered on the stove, I took a peek at the ingredients of my Thai red curry paste.  Yup, it contains all the same stuff as this recipe – minus the coconut milk.  So if you didn’t feel up to finding Thai chilies and lemongrass in the market, or doing the chopping of ginger and garlic, you could just buy a jar of red curry paste, add it to a can of coconut milk, and essentially end up with the same thing.  Of course, for me, the point was to make the sauce from scratch, and so I did.  (Plus I didn’t know that I could cheat with stuff I already had.  But I wouldn’t have anyway.  I swear.)

Even with all the ingredient gathering and chopping, this recipe is easy, and pretty darn tasty.  I think the sauce had just a tinge too much lime, so you may want to add the lime juice slowly to suit your taste.  Also, the cabbage and carrots cook down to nearly nothing.  If you like chunkier veggies (like I do), julienne the carrots instead of shredding them and cut your cabbage thick.  Otherwise, enjoy – with or without the shortcut :) Continue reading »