Homemade Spinach Pasta

It's been snowing... and snowing... and snowing in Seattle. I've pretty much been shut in my house for the last 5 days or so, which I suppose is what inspired me to finally do something I've been meaning to do for ages... make my own pasta. I guess it's always been an intimidating concept, despite having the pasta roller/cutter attachments to my KitchenAid mixer for years. And like so many things that seem daunting, in practice it wasn't at all. It was easy and fun.


You start with some basic ingredients: flour and eggs. My first batch of pasta was just a plain egg pasta; couldn't have been easier. It took 2 eggs and 1 cup plus of flour. I'm blogging about my second attempt, which was basically just like egg pasta, except you add spinach to create a lovely green pasta. Anyway, you start with a mound of flour, creating a well in the center, where you add the eggs. Start beating the eggs (and spinach) as you would scrambled eggs, adding flour from the sides of the well as you beat. Keep adding flour slowly, because depending on numerous factors you may not need the full amount of flour. You may also need more. If the dough is still sticky even after you've used up all the flour you began with, keep adding flour a bit at a time as you knead until the dough no longer sticks to your hand.

I based the recipe and method that I used on Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking and Canal House Cooking Volume No. 7: La Dolce Vita. They're both wonderful and I recommend them highly. I particularly enjoy how Hazan flat out states her honest opinions on various ingredients and methods.

If you want to use spinach, you'll need about 10 ounces. Clean it thoroughly so that no trace of dirt remains, and remove the stems (or use baby spinach, as I did). Get a pot and place the clean, wet leaves inside, and cook over medium heat with 1 tbsp of salt. No other water is needed. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the leaves are tender, then rinse with cold water. Using your hands, squeeze as much water out of the spinach as possible, then chop it up. It should be added to the flour well at the same time as the eggs.


Although I am a fan of using my mixer to knead dough, Hazan recommends doing it by hand, so I did. Immediately after incorporating all the starting ingredients, this is what I had. I continued to knead for about 8-10 minutes, in that time adding more flour. I started with 1 1/2 cups of flour; in the end I used about 2 cups. It all depends on the temperature and humidity of your kitchen, what kind of day it is, etc. You may use more or less.


What you want is a final ball of dough that's smooth and tacky but not sticky. The biggest mistake that people make when they make pasta at home is a dough that's too wet. A too-wet dough will be difficult to handle, and will also stick to your rollers/cutters, creating a mess to clean up.


What you need a lot of when you make pasta at home is -- space. Particularly if you're using a machine to roll and cut your pasta (which, unless you desire wider noodles such as tagliatelle or shapes such as orecchiette, I highly recommend -- you get a much more uniform result, and the pasta is thinner than a normal home cook would be able to create by hand), you're going to end up with some very long, thin sheets of pasta that need to be kept separate from one another.

First, you have to roll the pasta. Divide your dough into six parts (or three parts for every egg you used). Start the roller on the widest setting. Flatten out one of the portions of dough, then run it through the roller. Fold it into thirds as you would a letter, then press the dough around the folds so as to remove as much air as possible. Run it through again on the narrow end, fold into thirds again, and run through again, a total of three times. Lay the dough onto some dry paper towels and repeat with each portion of dough.


When all the portions of dough have gone through the widest setting, set the roller to the next setting up (narrowing the rollers). Run each sheet through. Keep going to the next setting until each sheet of pasta is the desired thickness (I stopped at the second to last setting). You'll notice as you run each sheet through the roller at the next-narrowest setting that they'll get longer and longer and longer, so make sure you have the space for them -- let them hang off the edge of your table if need be! For the ones that got really long (my dough portions weren't even), I ended up cutting in half with a sharp knife.


Once you've got your sheets of pasta at the desired thickness, wait for them to dry a bit -- this is particularly important if you want to store your pasta rather than using it right away. Hazan recommends waiting at least 10 minutes, but again it depends on your house/kitchen. I waited for about half an hour, flipping the sheets occasionally. You want the pasta to still be pliable, but dry enough that the strands/shapes won't stick together once they're cut.


Once you've reached that point, you're ready to cut! I made fettuccine. Because the dough wasn't too wet, it slid easily through the cutter, leaving no extra bits of dough behind. At this point, you can cook the pasta. Fresh pasta requires less time to cook than dry, and cook times depend on the cut. For my fettuccine, I cooked it for about 4-5 minutes to get it al dente.


For storing long noodles, Hazan recommends creating "nests" from several strands, so that they can be easily stored in an airtight container. Just let the pasta sit out at least 24 hours for the pasta to become completely dry -- otherwise it'll develop mold once you put it in storage. If you let it dry out properly, it will keep in your cupboard for months, just like store-bought dried pasta.


Be careful with the pasta once it's dry... it will be extremely brittle. According to Hazan, air drying is a natural process and the pasta will retain its original nutritional value and flavor once reconstituted (unlike what is marketed today as "fresh pasta" in the grocery stores, using artificial means to keep it soft and pliable). Fully dried pasta will take a little longer to cook than when using it fresh.

Tomato-Braised Oxtail Pasta

Oxtail is one of my favorite cuts of beef. It's still called oxtail, though it no longer refers specifically to the tail of an ox, but all cattle. When you slow cook it, in soup or by braising, the meat becomes extremely tender (and flavorful, being so bony), with delicious melty gelatin.


If you've never had oxtail, give it a try. If you've only had it in soup, try braising it. Typically I braise oxtail Chinese style, with soy sauce as the base. But it's equally delicious using a more Mediterranean method, such as the one I'm sharing here.

When you purchase oxtail at the grocery store, it'll usually come pre-cut into several chunks, in roughly 2-pound packages. Select packages that have meatier chunks, with fewer small-boned pieces. The muscle should look as all good beef cuts look -- a nice red, not pink or dark or spotted. If you're in an Asian grocery store, the oxtail will sometimes be available whole; have the butcher cut one tail into pieces for you.


This is a good dish to prepare ahead of time, because the flavors only improve with time, and keeping it in the fridge overnight makes fat removal easier.

Tomato-Braised Oxtail Pasta (a variation on Pioneer Woman's Short Ribs in Tomato Sauce recipe)

Ingredients

• 2 lbs ox tail, cut into pieces
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 28oz can whole tomatoes
• 1 14oz can tomato sauce
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• salt and pepper, to taste

Method

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
2. Generously season the oxtail pieces with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the oxtail, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.
3. Toss the garlic and onions into the pot. Cook, stirring, for two minutes, then add tomatoes, tomato sauce, sugar, wine, red pepper flakes, and thyme. Combine.
4. Carefully place the oxtail back into the pot, covering the pieces with as much of the sauce as possible. Cover the pot and place it onto the middle rack in the oven. Cook for about 4 hours, at which time the meat should be very tender and will separate from the bone at the slightest provocation.  Taste and add salt and pepper if necessary.
5. If you're ready to serve, use a spoon to remove as much of the accumulated oil as possible (one of those fat separators might also work). Or you can remove the oxtail from the pot, place them in a separate container, and refrigerate. Do the same with the pot of sauce, though you can keep the sauce in the same pot. After a few hours, the fat will be hardened and easily removed. Then reheat the sauce with the saved oxtail in it.
6. Serve over your favorite long pasta, with chopped fresh parsley to garnish if you desire, and parmesan cheese.

Chicken in Guinness Red Sauce

I once found myself sitting in the Guinness factory in Dublin, Ireland, after taking the tour.  I don't know about these days, but more than a decade ago, you could sit in their little factory pub after the tour and drink pint after pint of Guinness for free.  For my friends, this made the price of admission well worth it.  As for me ... well, I nursed my one pint of Guinness for a long, long time.  By the time we left, I'd probably drunk about a quarter of it.



I don't think I've made any secret of the fact that I'm not a fan of alcohol.  It's not a judgmental thing; it's a I'm-pretty-sure-I'm-allergic thing.  Once, in college (of course), having drunk what to another person would be a moderate amount of alcohol (two shots and two beers), I broke out in splotchy redness all over.  Not to mention beet-red flushing after just a few swallows of wine.  Or the fact that after a few sips, any alcohol simply tastes like poison.  So while I often regret the fact that I can't drink socially, sticking out like a sore thumb, I know my limits.

Luckily, alcohol in food doesn't bother me.  In fact, I'm a huge fan of using it in cooking.  If you saw my full liquor cabinet you'd never think that I any kind of issue.  You might even think me a bit alcohol obsessed.  Of course, what I know is that it's all used for my big passion -- food!



This chicken in Guinness red sauce recipe is probably my favorite Crock Pot recipe of all time.  It's not just that it's simple (which it is, ridiculously so).  It's not just that it's delicious.  It's also that it doesn't look or taste like it came out of a slow cooker.  You know how some dishes, by either a certain kind of flavor or a certain kind of look, just has that Crock Pot feel?  This isn't one of them.  In my opinion, at least.

I use bone-in chicken thighs.  Thighs are my favorite part of the chicken -- they're tender and flavorful.  I like using bone-in pieces because, just like making stock, when you cook it for that long, it adds an extra dimension of flavor.  I also keep the skin on, then remove them and skim off the fat from the surface after the dish is done cooking.  But I think this recipe would be good no matter what you use.  If you want to use boneless, skinless chicken breasts, more power to you.  After cooking, the meat will be tender and falling off the bone at the slightest provocation.



The sauce is simply tomato paste, Guinness, and the juice from some green olives.  It's incredible how, after hours of cooking and simmering with the juices from the chicken, this turns into a sauce that's complex and delicious.  The olives don't turn to mush, but are soft while still maintaining their olivey-ness.  Their sharpness and tang, however, definitely mellows into the sauce.

I like to serve this chicken on top of a long pasta like spaghetti, but other starches such as rice or potatoes would probably work as well.  I've often doubled the recipe with great success.

Chicken in Guinness Red Sauce

Ingredients

• 4-6 chicken pieces (I like bone-in thighs)
• 1 6oz can tomato paste
• 3/4 cup Guinness (or other dark beer)
• 4oz green olives along with juice (about 24 olives + juice)
• salt and pepper, to taste

Method

1. If you like, wash and pat dry the chicken.  I don't unless they're really bloody or dirty for some reason.  Season the chicken with salt, pepper, or any other preferred spices -- paprika, garlic salt, etc.  Err on the side of underseasoning; if it needs more after it's cooked, you can add it then.  Place the chicken pieces in the slow cooker as evenly as possible.
2. Mix the tomato paste with the Guinness and pour on top of the chicken.
3. Add the olives and their juice on top.
4. Cook on low for 6-8 hours (I've gone as long as 12 and it was fine, but not as ideal), or high for 3-4 hours.
5. Taste and adjust for seasoning, then serve hot on top of pasta or rice.

Garlic Scape Pesto

This 4th of July is a double celebration.  First, there's America's 234th birthday, and second, I am celebrating the second harvest from my first attempt at edible gardening! :-)

One of the first things I planted in my square-foot garden were garlic bulbs from some great garlic I'd purchased at a farmer's market.  This was last fall.  Sometime after our very mild Seattle winter, green shoots started coming up; very exciting business.  They grew and grew, until they reached a certain height (about 3 feet), then stopped.  After a few more months of waiting, longer than usual, probably, due to the extremely mild spring/summer Seattle has been experiencing, the garlic finally started sending up scapes, which is one of the first signs of the plant starting to mature (if you leave them alone long enough, they'll eventually flower).  As a gardener and a cook, the scapes are a wonderful thing to look forward to.  They're tasty, and by cutting them off the garlic plant, it allows the garlic to put more energy into developing the bulb of garlic beneath the earth.



Garlic scapes grow out curly.  It's usual to wait until the scape has made one or two loops before harvesting.  I harvested mine a few days ago, so now all that's left is to wait for the leaves to turn brown, then dig those garlic bulbs out of the ground!



There are a great many thing you can do with scapes, which taste mildly of garlic.  The most popular method of eating them seems to be in a quick stir-fry, or roasting them like asparagus.  The stem of the scape is solid, while from the bulbil up, the scape is hollow like a scallion.  Some like to cut off the bulbil and only eat the stem, while others like eating the whole thing.  It's up to you.

After some research, I decided to make garlic scape pesto.  Not only do I love normal pesto, but this way, I'd also be able to stretch my scape harvest as much as possible -- garlic scape pesto freezes well.



If you're familiar with making pesto, you know the ingredients involved are few and simple: garlic scapes/basil, pine nuts, parmesan cheese, olive oil, and salt.  Here I've got the ingredients in my new Viking food processor.



A few minutes later, I had garlic scape pesto, which was so incredibly inviting with its bright green freshness.  I bottled most of it to be frozen (I plan to enjoy it slowly over the summer, hopefully mostly when my tomatoes have come in), but set some aside for one serving of pasta.



It was, in a word, heavenly.  I was tempted to pull the jar of pesto out of the freezer and just eat pasta for the next few days until it was all gone, but I managed to refrain.  It doesn't taste like pesto made from basil.  It definitely has a garlicky flavor, but isn't overwhelmed by it.  Garlic scape pesto has its own delicious charm.



Garlic scape season is all too fleeting, but this is one of the ways it can be preserved for just a little while yet.

Garlic Scape Pesto

Ingredients

• 12 garlic scapes
• 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
• 1/2-1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup of pine nuts
• salt to taste

Method

1. Chop the scapes into one-inch lengths, bulbils and all.
2. Add the chopped scapes, cheese, pine nuts, and 1/4 cup of the olive oil to a food processor.
3. Puree the mixture, adding more olive oil in a thin stream as desired.  (Less for a thicker consistency, more for thinner.)  Scrape down as necessary to make sure all the ingredients are evenly processed.
4. Add salt to taste at the end, and pulse a few times to combine.

To serve with pasta, toss desired amount of pesto with pasta and top with parmesan cheese, if desired.  Alternatively, spread pesto on top of toasted bread and enjoy.

Linguine with Clams

A simple and delicious recipe from Alice Waters.  This is the second time I've had this in 3 days.  If I pre-soak the clams I can start cooking and be eating in less than 30 minutes.  This is one of those recipes that makes me realize there's really no excuse for not making a hot meal for myself.



Linguine with Clams (adapted from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters)

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs small clams
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1/8 tsp dried chile flakes
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 3/4 lb uncooked linguine
• 1 tbsp parsley, chopped (optional)
• parmesan cheese, grated (optional)

Method

1. Wash the clams well under cold water, and soak for 30 minutes to get all the sand out.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.
3. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan.  When it's hot, add the clams, tomato, garlic, chile flakes, and wine.  Cover and cook until the clams open, about 6 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, cook the linguine in the pot of boiling salted water to al dente, about 6 minutes.
5. When the clams are open, stir in 3 tbsp olive oil and the parsley, if using.
6. Drain the linguine, toss with the clam sauce, add more salt if needed, and top with parmesan cheese if desired.  Serve immediately.

Note: You can use larger clams; if you do, steam them open then remove them from their shells and chop them up.  Add them to the sauce along with the parsley.

"Perfect" Mac and Cheese

Some would say that I'm picky about my mac and cheese. Some would say that I'm very not picky about it. How can both be true? Well, it might be clearer after I make this confession: My favorite kind of mac and cheese is from Stouffer's, the kind you buy frozen then bake.



Maybe it's a childhood thing. It's what I had as a kid and so I associate it with being the right mac and cheese. I've had the Kraft stuff out of the box. It's crap. I've had the stuff they serve at Souplanation. It too, is crap. I've had mac and cheese at fancy joints and not-so-fancy joints, and sometimes it's been OK. But none of them have ever held a candle to Stouffer's.

Well, I take that back. This last December, I finally had a mac and cheese that I thought was absolutely delicious (as opposed to a waste of my time/appetite, as all the previous experiences had been). It's the side dish they have at Wood Ranch. It's not like Stouffer's; it tastes of real cheese and doesn't have any sauce (Stouffer's is a creamy cheese sauce), but is delicious nonetheless. About a week ago I also had the mac and cheese at Hugo's, and that was pretty good. Worth the calories to eat, at least. Maybe it's a coincidence that after so many years I've found two good mac and cheeses in succession, or maybe I'm getting less picky. I think it's the former, though.

By now many of you are probably thinking, just make your own! Oh I have. I've tried a number of homemade mac and cheese recipes, but they were all disappointing. They used a tremendous amount of cheese, but they all ended up being fairly tasteless. Considering that cheese is getting more and more expensive (and in any case, mac and cheese isn't the healthiest of meal options), I opted not to attempt it over and over again until it was perfected. I figured if I had a craving for mac and cheese, my grocery store's freezer section had the best kind readily available.

Then I came across a mac and cheese recipe that wasn't much of a recipe, more of a guideline. It breezily talked of making a white sauce out of a roux, then adding some seasoning, liberal amounts of cheese, and pasta. Little to no measurements were given. Specifics about the type of cheese were omitted. It didn't mention baking the mac and cheese at all, which in my book is necessary in order to get the crusty bits that I love so much (it also makes the creamy sauce in the end result). And yet, it sounded right. I finally had the chance to make it this weekend, and by golly if it isn't the best mac and cheese I've ever made at home! It's not perfect -- but it has the makings to be so. The method is sound; what needs to be perfected is the blend of cheeses I use.



Don't get me wrong ... it was perfectly good the way I made it. But the cheese I used, while good cheese, may not have been the right blend for perfect mac and cheese. From the depths of my refrigerator I unearthed several wedges of cheese, some that had never been opened, but getting a bit moldy. I went to work slicing off every surface of every wedge of cheese to get to the clean, unmoldy, perfectly good cheese underneath. I then proceeded to use my food processor (bless it) and the shredder attachment to shred much of the cheese, which was a combination of: medium orange cheddar, sharp New Zealand white cheddar, 2 kinds of gruyere, and parmesan. Once it was all shredded I mixed it up. The orange cheddar was just a generic grocery brand -- in future I'll definitely be getting the good stuff, as this was fairly tasteless. However, an orange cheese in the mix is necessary to give the final product that familiar orangey color (if you don't care about that, it's not required, of course). Gruyere is good to use because it melts in a non-stringy way, which is good for a mac and cheese cream sauce. I'll be experimenting with the kinds of cheese I use the next time for sure. Another thing I meant to add but didn't this time was just a bit of white wine. I think that'll make some of the flavor bloom, like a fondue.

The most important part about the cheese is that you shred it yourself. The pre-shredded kind has cornstarch in it, and is also generally not as flavorful as the cheese you buy in wedges and have to shred yourself.

The hardest part of the whole thing was finding elbow macaroni. I was very surprised by this, and maybe it's just my local selection. Maybe people always eat the Kraft stuff and rarely make their own, so stores don't carry macaroni anymore. Who knows?

I didn't do any measuring, but the recipe below is a good general guideline that I've approximated.



"Perfect" Mac and Cheese

Ingredients

• 8oz uncooked elbow macaroni pasta
• 1 small onion, diced
• 3-4 cups shredded cheese, your choice (recommendations above)
• 4 tbsp butter
• 4 tbsp flour
• 1 1/2-2 cups milk, cream, or half and half
• 2 dashes garlic powder
• pinch of nutmeg
• salt and pepper

Method

1. Make the pasta as directed on the package. Cook to al dente, and if you don't like your pasta softer than that, run cold water over the pasta once it's done to stop the cooking. Otherwise just drain the water and let it sit while you finish making the sauce.
2. Preheat the oven to 500°F and put a rack at the highest point it will go and still allow you to fit your baking dish. (Alternatively, broiling would probably work also.)
3. In a large pot (or right in the casserole dish, if you have one you can use on the stovetop like I do), melt the butter. Add the flour and mix thoroughly to create a roux. Cook until dark blonde.
4. Add the onion and blend well into the roux. Cook a few minutes. The roux will darken a bit more.
5. Start slowly adding the milk. Add as much as you need to create a thick creamy mixture.
6. Season the cream sauce with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and garlic powder. (At this point, I'd probably also add the white wine, if using.) Stir well.
7. Turn the heat to low and start adding the cheese a handful at a time. You don't want the mixture to boil at this point, as it will separate. Keep doing this until all the cheese is incorporated. The mixture will be very thick and may look kind of stringy due to the cheese. Taste it and adjust the seasoning as needed, or add more cheese if you think it needs more.
8. Add in the cooked pasta and mix gently but thoroughly. Use your spatula or spoon to press the pasta down into the dish and smooth the surface.
9. Bake for 10 minutes in the oven, or until the top is bubbly and brown in spots. Serve hot.

Breaking Out of My Hermit Shell for a Night

Those who know me in real life won't be surprised by the confession I'm about to make: I'm somewhat of a hermit. I like my family and I like my friends, and occasionally I even like my coworkers. But put me in a room full of strangers and acquaintences, and I'm completely ill at ease. It's not a situation I like to put myself in. But sometimes there are invitations you can't refuse.

Take Carol, a coworker of mine, and a friend. We've known each other for years, though it's only been since 6 months since we began seeing each other in person with any regularity (previously she lived in New Zealand). We go to lunch every week -- at least, we try to. She's a food enthusiast, like me. So when she said she was throwing a dinner party for a handful of people, I couldn't say no.

There were only 7 of us, so the "room full of strangers" claustrophobia didn't set in, even though I didn't know anyone well (or at all) other than Carol and her husband, David. And the best part of dinner parties is getting to take pictures of all the wonderful food, without having to do the work of making it (and worse, cleaning up afterward).

It wasn't the best timing for a barbecue (they'd just gotten a new Webber grill) -- it ended up getting extremely cold during the day and started snowing. I wasn't even sure I should go, as the roads were sure to be a mess. But I had made a pumpkin pound cake that I didn't want to eat all by myself, and I do actually try to make an effort at not being such a hermit all the time. So I went, and other than one terrible spot on the freeway, it wasn't too bad. A fun time was had by all, and though I didn't get home till well after midnight, I was glad I had gone.

Now for the pictorial, and a recipe for the pumpkin pound cake at the end...

We begin, appropriately, with the appetizers. Here is a bowl of chicken wings, marinated in Malaysian spices (which had a hint of sweetness to them), then deep fried. They were delicious; possibly my favorite of all the food served!



Here we have some fantastic salami from Whole Foods, a duck spread that has a French name that I've forgotten, and freshly sliced French bread.



Next, I helped Carol wrestle this special, extra-long pasta into a pot of boiling water. Its black color comes from -- squid ink!



Here we've got some on-the-vine tomatoes, roasted with a couple of cloves of garlic, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.



The tomatoes, along with their sauce, were stirred into the pasta, along with sliced scallions, pine nuts, apple-flavored olive oil, and a dash of salt and pepper. It was light and delicious.



Here we have a huge salad (though you can't really tell that from the photograph) of mixed greens, candied walnuts, cucumber, shaved parmesan, and thinly sliced apple and pear. It was served with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette.



The lamb roast on the grill:



And off:



Unfortunately, the problem with serving meat at home is that people tend to like it cooked with some variation of rare or well done, and neither the twain shall meet. I like my lamb (and beef) cooked medium rare, as did 3 others. The other 3 liked their meat practically burnt ("cook it as much as you can cook it, and you're just about there" is how one described it). It's very difficult to prepare meat that caters to everyone's preferences without either letting some portion go cold (those of us who like it on the rare side), or making people watch others eat (those who need their meat cooked longer). Sadly, those who like meat on the rare side tend to get screwed, because while we can usually still suffer through over-done meat, those who like their meat well done absolutely cannot eat meat that has even the slightest amount of pink (at least, that was the case last night). So last night, the meat was cooked too well. There were a few slices with some hint of pink, but that was as rare as it got.

David, who prefers his meat medium rare as well, was muttering to himself as he sliced: "God! Ugh.... how can people eat their meat this way.... and this probably isn't even done enough for them! Ugh!" The meat was tender, though, so in that way it was still good. Flavor wise it was less than ideal, due to it being overdone, though since the lamb was fresh, it didn't have that gamey flavor that I don't like.



Along with the pasta and salad, the lamb was served with some beautifully roasted potatoes:



Putting it all together, it made for a very eye-catching plate:



As I mentioned, I brought a pumpkin pound cake laced with chocolate chips, which Carol served after dinner along with a cheese plate, an assortment of crackers, and slices of apple.



The cheese included an Irish cheddar, some kind of bleu that was wonderful with an apple slice, a caramel-flavored gouda, and one that looks like Brie but that I don't think was Brie (though I can't actually remember what it was):



The crackers included two types of New Zealand cracker, and one that was laced with dried fruit and nuts. My favorite was the one in the middle, which had a great taste and crunch. Naturally it was the one that Carol had actually physically brought back from New Zealand, which means I won't be able to find it here. Sigh.



My favorite thing about this pumpkin pound cake, which probably would have been more suitable in October or November, is that it actually sort of resembles a pumpkin. It's not an extremely sweet cake, and the pumpkin and spices are fairly subtle.



I laced it with chocolate chips, which you can see better here:



And a slice:



Pumpkin Pound Cake

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. freshly ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 8 oz. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups pumpkin puree (or mashed fresh roasted pumpkin)
• 4 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

For the buttermilk glaze:

• ½ cup buttermilk
• ½ cup sugar
• 4 Tbsp. (½ stick) unsalted butter, cubed
• 2 tbsp pure pumpkin puree
• 1 ½ tsp. cornstarch or flour
• ¼ tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 10-inch non-stick Bundt pan with cooking oil.
   In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt. Whisk well.
2. In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the milk and vanilla.
3. In stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and two sugars until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Scrape down, add the pumpkin, and mix until the batter is combined. The batter will look grainy at this point; that's okay.
5. With the mixer on low speed, add half of the flour mixture. Beat until just combined. Add half of the milk mixture and beat on low speed until well blended. Add the remaining flour, followed by the remaining milk, using the same method. Beat on low until the batter is thick and smooth.
6. Scrape half the batter into the prepared pan. Scatter the chocolate chips as evenly as you can over the batter, then spoon the rest of the batter into the pan. Bake for 60 to 75 minutes (in my oven it took 70 minutes), or until the cake springs back when pressed lightly and a toothpick inserted in one of the cracks comes out clean.
7. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes. If needed, run a thin knife around the edge to loosen the cake. Carefully invert it onto the rack.
8. Meanwhile, make the glaze. In a medium saucepan, combine the buttermilk, sugar, butter, pumpkin puree, cornstarch, and baking soda. Place it over medium heat, and bring it just to a gentle boil. Remove it from the heat, stir well, and set it aside to cool to room temperature. Once cool, add the vanilla and stir well.
9. Set the wire rack over a rimmed sheet pan or long piece of foil. Spoon the glaze, which may have lumpy bits of cornstarch in it, through a cheesecloth-lined strainer over the warm cake if you want the glaze to soak into the cake. If you want the glaze to sit atop the cake, don't use it until the cake has been cooled significantly. Cool completely before serving.

Friday Dinner: Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, and Browned Butter and Mizithra

Stand aside, Old Spaghetti Factory, we've discovered your secrets. Well, all right, they weren't really secrets to begin with. Nothing so mysterious about spaghetti with meat sauce or mizithra cheese and browned butter ... except for the availability of the mizithra, an unpasteurized cheese made from sheep's milk.


Too much of a good thing? Never. Trix prefers her pasta with all mizithra and browned butter, no meat sauce.

Trix and I have long been fans of OSF's spaghetti with browned butter and mizithra, a dish made even more desirable due to the fact that no one else, no restaurant or grocery store, seemed to know about mizithra cheese. That all changed the other week when I found a hunk of "mizythra" (no other brand label visible) at my local Fred Meyer. Trix found some at Ralph's.

Thus we set out to recreate our favorite OSF dish at home -- hers being pure mizithra and browned butter, and mine being half and half (the other half being meat sauce). I like having the tang of the tomato sauce cut into the buttery goodness when it gets to be too rich. I find that after having some of the tomato sauce, going back to the mizithra portion makes it taste as powerful as it did on the first bite. And the tomato sauce seems sweeter and heartier when I go back to it after eating the mizithra. Thus the two are true complements for me, each making the other even better.


Half meat sauce, half browned butter and mizithra. 100% yummy.

The mizithra and browned butter part wasn't difficult to figure out; OSF doesn't do anything fancy. As far as we can tell, they just toss some pasta with browned butter, then pile some grated mizithra on top and garnish with a bit of parsley. The meat sauce was a little more challenging (but not much), because we have a favorite Bolognese sauce, but it's far thicker than OSF's version. Not that OSF's meat sauce is, frankly, anything special -- but a "saucier" meat sauce seemed more appropriately paired with the mizithra and browned butter to me. So I set about retooling the Bolognese sauce I usually use to make it the right consistency for what I wanted here. And I'm very happy to say that it came out wonderfully.


Dessert for me was this gorgeous orange. Your eyes do not deceive you, nor is the picture distorted. It was that orange in color, practically red. I believe the variety was Cara Cara.

Despite having to make two sauces, I never felt rushed. The meat sauce requires an hour of simmering to achieve the best results, so once that's going preparing the browned butter and mizithra is fast and easy.

Now that I know I can make this delicious meal at home, OSF will be seeing a lot less of me!

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, and Browned Butter and Mizithra

Ingredients

• your favorite brand of spaghetti (or other long pasta) - I like Trader Joe's brand, or Barilla

For the Meat Sauce

• 1/2 lb ground beef
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 6oz can tomato paste
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 4oz tomato sauce (the small cans in the stores are 8oz, so use half of one)
• 7-8oz diced tomato and green chiles (I used half of a 14.5oz can)
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3/4 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp marjoram
• 1/4 tsp rosemary
• 1 bay leaf
• dash of garlic powder

For the Browned Butter and Mizithra

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
• 4oz mizithra cheese, grated
• salt to taste
• minced parsley, to garnish (optional)

Method

1. Make the meat sauce. Start by browning the beef and onion in a medium saucepan. Drain.
2. Add the diced tomato and green chiles, tomato sauce, sugar, salt, and spices.
3. Mix the tomato paste with the water until it looks like a thick sauce. Add it to the mixture.
4. Heat everything until it's boiling, then reduce the heat, cover the saucepan, and leave it to simmer for an hour. You'll want to check on it occasionally and stir.
5. While that's going, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Simmer until the butter is amber in color. Don't stir -- the milk solids will darken and fall to the bottom of the pan.
6. Grate the mizithra and mince the parsley.
7. When the butter has sufficiently darkened, strain it into a small bowl using a strainer and some cheesecloth (to make sure none of the solids get through).
8. Time it so that you will be ready to top warm pasta with the meat sauce when it's ready. Heat a large pot of water to boiling, adding salt and oil if you desire. Prepare your pasta according to the package's directions. Usually al dente spaghetti will take between 7-9 minutes. Drain the pasta and pour a cup of cold water over it to stop the cooking.
9. Transfer the pasta back to the same pot. Drizzle with a desired amount of browned butter (depending on how many servings you've got) and toss. If you're making meat sauce, it's up to you if you want to reserve some unbuttered pasta for that half (I do). Alternatively you could simply spoon butter over the portion you desire while it's on the plate and skip this tossing step entirely.
10. On a serving plate, heap with half buttered pasta and half unbuttered pasta. Ladle the meat sauce over the unbuttered half. Generously sprinkle the buttered half with grated mizithra and garnish with parsley.

Nothing "Old" About This Spaghetti

Just over a week until I fly home for Christmas. Woot! Can't wait to see the folks and my friends. It's kind of sad that I haven't lived in California for over a decade (other than a brief stint in '99) and yet I still consider it home.

But this is a food journal, so how does this relate to food? Well, as I'll be gone for 3 weeks, I need to a) not buy any new perishable food; and b) use up the perishable food I already have. This is not a pretty thing, as mostly it's about eggs, eggs, eggs. I could probably make something "real" with the ingredients I have on hand, but it would probably yield too many leftovers. It's also a good excuse to go out to eat (which I love doing), because I can get single servings at restaurants (or double at most, usually).

So today for lunch I went to the Old Spaghetti Factory,because I had a sudden craving for their browned butter and mizithra cheese spaghetti. It's been so long since I've been there that they changed their menu -- no more daily specials! Alas. I always enjoyed looking at those, debating about getting whatever was on special that day rather than my usual. (I think I deviated once.) Luckily, they still had my usual -- the Manager's Favorite, which is a combination of 2 of their classic pasta sauces. I always get the meat sauce and aforementioned browned butter and mizithra cheese. I had the same debate I typically have with myself when I order this; I considered not getting meat sauce and getting mizithra only, but I've never been brave enough to do it. I fear it will be too rich for me, and I do enjoy the flavor combination of the tangy tomato sauce mixed with the deep, rich taste of the browned butter and mizithra cheese.

One of the changes they made is that lunch entrees are now part of their "complete meal," which includes the entree, soup or salad, bread, choice of beverage, and dessert (previously, this was only reserved for dinner, while lunch was served a la carte). Not too bad for $9.99, though honestly, not great either. Pasta's not exactly a costly expense. Still, a delightful and satisfying meal.



First, the bread, a fairly sour sourdough. A whole loaf, even if you're just a party of one. It's been so long that I forgot to do this, but you can request garlic butter instead of plain. I should actually go here more during the winter, just to bring home the bread since I'm not making my own.



Next up, the salad. I got ranch dressing on the side. It's a fairly decent ranch, not the best I've had but certainly not the worst. It has a very nice texture that I enjoy. The greens today were not as good as I've had there before, but not bad.



Ahhh the main course and star of the whole event. The browned butter wasn't as strong today as it normally is, but the pasta was delicious nevertheless. I've never liked meat sauce in restaurants as much as I like the one I make myself, but OSF's is not bad, particularly with the mizithra cheese mixed with it.



A top-down shot of both sauces. Wow, I'm getting hungry all over again!



The end note is the spumoni, which was a little icy (rather than creamy) for my taste, but hit the spot after the heaviness of the pasta. Shown here with the hot tea I managed to neglect mentioning until now!

Overall, a homey, satisfying meal that keeps itself interesting with variety and a yumminess all its own.