Showing posts with label pasta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pasta. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Poblano Macaroni & Cheese: The Homesick Texan Cookbook Cook Off

As I scanned Girlichef's email outlining the assignments for our Homesick Texan Cookbook Spotlight and Cook-Off, I giggled with glee to learn that week two would include a twist on one of my favorite dishes - Macaroni & Cheese.

In one of my earliest posts on my own Mac and Cheese, I waxed poetic for a solid three paragraphs on my personal and family history with this classic American dish. If you want, you can read about it on the link above, however, suffice it to say, should old wives' tales start coming true, "you are what you eat" would have serious macaroni & cheese consequences for me. If you start hearing of people turning into random foods, look for me in the pasta aisle.

The "extra" ingredients that Lisa Fain uses in this fab dish really give it the pop and zing that make this M & C special... and give it true Texas flavor! YUM. I can't put my finger on if it's the cilantro, the lime, the cumin, the poblanos... or a combination of all of the above. Every mouthful brings flavors that burst across your tongue and delight the senses.

Six stars on a four star scale!

Poblano Macaroni & Cheese
adapted from The Homesick Texan Cookbook, page 265


2 poblano chiles
8 oz (2 cups) elbow pasta (I used farfalle)
2 tbsp unsalted butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1-1/2 cups whole milk
1 tsp mustard powder
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp ground cumin (accidentally used 1 tsp because I looked at the wrong recipe)
1 tsp lime zest
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
salt & black pepper to taste
4 cups grated white cheddar
1/2 cup Cotija cheese

1. Roast the poblano chiles under the broiler until blackened, about 5 minutes per side. Place in a paper sack or plastic food-storage bag, close tightly and allow chiles to steam for 20 minutes. Remove from bag, and rub off skin; then remove the stem and seed, chipping into 2" long pieces.

2. Preheat the oven to 375. Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente; drain and dump into a large greased baking dish.

3. On low heat, melt the butter, then add the garlic, cooking for 1 minute. Add flour, stirring constantly and cook until a light brown paste forms (1 minute). Whisk in the milk and stir until thickened but fluid, then remove from the heat. Stir in remaining seasonings.

4. Add half the cheese and stir until combined into the sauce. (If you need to, return to low heat, but don't allow to get too thick -- adding milk 1 tsp at a time can, however, thin back out.) Pour over pasta and top with remaining half of cheddar. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes or until cheese is browned.


Sprinkle with Cotija and serve. Optional, garnish with a sprig of cilantro.


Until next week, when you learn what Week 3 will bring... a teaser... expect a whole lot of chiles and some red meat!



This post is part of The Homesick Texan Cookbook Spotlight and Cook-Off sponsored by Hyperion and hosted at girlichef.

Check out what some of my collaborators made:

girlichef #1 (#2) - Foodness Gracious (#2) - Kahakai Kitchen - Mangoes and Chutney - Stirring the Pot - EKat's Kitchen - A Platter of Figs - Anchovies and Butter - Sweet Life - Fudge Ripple - Miz Helen's Country Cottage - Bo's Bowl - Creative Kitchen - Rook no. 17 - Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor - Cooking for My Peace of Mind - La Cocina de Leslie (#2) - Nutmeg Nanny - My Year on the Grill

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Cremini Chicken Marsala over Pesto Pasta


This is one of those recipes that grew from a glimpse into the fridge to see what was there and a lightning bolt of inspiration. I was already planning a pesto with fresh basil, and I decided to make a bruschetta (which ended up becoming a pesto bruschetta).

We had lots of cremini mushrooms begging to be eaten, so I decided to make cremini chicken "marsala" -- this may be a bit of a misnomer, since I have never made a marsala and don't have marsala wine, but it was fantastic anyway!

Cremini Chicken Marsala
olive oil
2 cloves garlic
4 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced
red wine
2 chicken breasts, cubed
1/4 onion, sliced thinly


Heat oil in a pan and saute garlic until golden. Add the mushrooms and a splash of red wine.

If needed, add more wine and oil, a splash at a time. Saute mushrooms until the color is just right.

Set the mushrooms aside, leaving the juice in the pan. Add onion and saute till translucent. Then add chicken.

Once the chicken is cooked, add the mushrooms back in. Add a splash of red wine and a little bit of water to deglaze the pan and create a gravy. Saute together until the sauce thickens (it's ok to add a bit of flour if it just won't thicken).

Remove from heat and serve with pesto pasta.

Pesto Pasta
basil leaves
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
1-2 garlic cloves
freshly grated parmesan
16 oz pasta, cooked to al dente

Combine all ingredients, except for pasta, into the food processor. Blend until you achieve the texture you like and then stir into the pasta.

This was so tasty and delicious. Can something be tasty AND delicious? I submit that it can be all that AND delectable.

Please enjoy.

Proudly linking this up to these linky parties -- please check them out and find some fantastic menu inspirations!

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Miz Helen’s Country Cottage Foodie Friday @ Designs by Gollum

Saturday, April 23, 2011

White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese


A while back, I posted about one of my favorite macaroni and cheese recipes created by Rachael Ray. This is possibly my husband's favorite dish, and he's been hinting about it for a while. In the original post, I didn't quite understand the value of beautiful pictures yet, so when I made this for hubby earlier this week, I decided to immortalize the recipe in photos.

Pre-cook bacon... or pre-chop jalapenos or whatever your add-in of choice may be.

 Pre-grate your white cheddar.

Melt the olive oil and butter together, then add the flour, stirring until slightly browned and most of the liquid is gone.

Add in the milk

 Whisk the milk and flour together until smooth. Allow to boil slightly and thicken.

Stir in the cheese, a handful at a time. Stir until smooth.

Add in the cayenne and nutmeg.

Stir in the bacon (or your add-in) and allow flavor to mix in with the sauce.

Pour the sauce over the cooked noodles and stir together.

Pour the noodle and sauce mixture into a greased 9 x 13 pan.

Smooth out the mixture.

 Top with remaining cheese and place in the oven under the broiler at 500 degrees.

Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.

Dish up and ENJOY!

We typically serve with a salad to get something green and a little healthier to offset the fantastic macaroni and cheese!

I'm linking this up to Miranda @ Mangoes & Chutney -- her mac n cheese blog hop and her

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Erin's Fabulous Spaghetti Sauce (for Carnivores)



Awhile back, K assisted me in what I deemed to be the monumental task of canning tomatoes. After reading the amount of preserving and canning that some people do every year, I feel that I have no room to whine, but it was a lot of work.

Fast forward; all of our soups are gone as are one of our chunky tomato basil sauces. I hadn't yet broken into our canned tomatoes, which were just plain tomatoes. The other night though, I decided to make spaghetti for Klark using some of the fantastic grass fed beef that we brought up from CO.



MMMMM.

Erin's Fabulous Spaghetti Sauce 
(for Carnivores)

1 quart canned tomatoes (all sauce)
3 fresh tomatoes, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 one white onion, diced
2 T balsamic vinegar
2 T red wine
1 dozen baby bella mushrooms
1 lb ground beef
1 tsp cornstarch
olive oil
1 tbsp dried basil
spices


In a large, deep skillet, saute garlic and onion in olive oil for a few minutes. Add beef in and brown.


Open the lovely jar of homemade and canned tomato sauce. I wish I could describe to you just how amazingly delicious it is. SO amazingly delicious and aromatic.


Add the tomato sauce, tomatoes and basil to the pan, along with the wine and balsamic vinegar.

Toss in the mushrooms, I found that chopping them in half or quarters worked best. Simmer until sauce is thickened. If you're impatient you and your husband are really hungry, and the sauce just doesn't seem to thicken up, toss in a teaspoon of cornstarch to thicken up.


Serve over pasta and top with parmesan cheese (fresh grated of course). I discovered that we didn't have enough spaghetti, so we served over penne. Yummy... and carnivore approved.

I just love that we made the tomato sauce ourselves!!!

I'm bringing this recipe to
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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Spaghetti w/ Spicy Turkey -- Holiday Guests #3

Welcome to the third guest post in my Holiday Guests series! I first "met" Tina through Friday Potluck and early on we discussed guest posts. I'm really excited to present Tina from MOMS CRAZY COOKING as my guest poster this December 29th!  

Tina once owned a meal-prep business where people came in and made food and took home to freeze. More recently she had been cooking every day for a year and and was sharing recipes to friends and family via Facebook. When the year was finished this past September, she wanted to continue as she looks forward to being in her kitchen each day, so started her blog. She loves cooking, and that she can send friends and family to her blog to grab the recipe, as well as meeting and talking with all the food lovers out there.
Hello to everyone at EKat’s Kitchen. I am so happy to be guest posting today for Erin. I am just starting to grow my blog and Erin and I have been emailing back and forth for a few months now. It’s so wonderful this “Blogging World”, I am enjoying it immensely. My name is Tina and my blog is MOMS CRAZY COOKING. I love to cook and bake and my all time passion is digital scrapbooking. I try and share a new recipe every single day on my blog and my family loves trying all my new recipes. I rarely make something more than once, because there are so many new recipes to try. I live in Southern California with my husband and 4 kids (19 yr old, twins 17 yrs old and my baby he is 11 yrs old). Like most moms, I live a busy and crazy life.

My love for cooking has always been there, but more a less on the back burner. A year ago I began a journey of “Cooking Everyday for a Year and Sharing my Recipes” (on facebook); when I completed the year I was so sad and wanted to continue. I didn’t know much about blogs, but began reading and following and just fell in love, thus began my MOMS CRAZY COOKING BLOG. I bake and cook and my family LOVES to taste. Then we all vote and decide if they are “keepers” or not.

Today I have a delicious Rachel Ray recipe for you. I tear out pages and pages of recipes from magazines and I try and make every single one, some are to-die for delicious and some are just so-so. This was one of those knock you of your seat every so yummy spaghetti recipes and I am so glad I finally got around to making it. I know that if you find the time to make this recipe you will not be disappointed. ENJOY!
Spaghetti with Spicy Turkey Sauce

from Rachel Ray Magazine
1 pound whole wheat spaghetti
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 pound ground turkey
Salt and black pepper
One 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the pasta according to package directions until al dente; drain, reserving 1 cup pasta cooking water.

Meanwhile, in a large nonstick skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat; add the onion and cook until softened, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Increase the heat to medium-high, crumble in the turkey, season with salt and black pepper and cook until the turkey is just no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and crushed red pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 15 minutes. Stir in the parsley and cheese.

Toss the pasta with the sauce and 1/2 cup reserved pasta cooking water, adding more water to thin the consistency, if desired. Serve immediately with more cheese.

Here are a few of my other favorite Dinner Recipe posts, I hope you stop on over to MOMS
CRAZY COOKING and take a look! Thank you again, Erin, for allowing me to be your guest
today on EKat’s Kitchen.

Club Burger Sliders with Avocado Ranch Dressing & Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
BBQ Pizza
Flat Bread Tacos with Ranch Sour Cream
Sloppy Joes
G’ma Goulash
Shaved Parmesan Chicken and Lemon Crème


Thursday, October 28, 2010

Butternut Squash Ravioli & Friday Potluck!

It's FRIDAY!!

Friday Potluck to be more specific!

What are you bringing this week? Grab the button and link back!


 
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Have you ever had one of those weeks where it just feels like hit after hit and comfort food is all you crave? We had one of those weeks, both K and I. 

It will all work out in the end, yes, but just lots of frustrating stuff all coincidentally happening at the same time. Comfort Food.

I'm bringing Comfort Food (with a Capital "C" and "F") to the Friday Potluck this week.

Ok. I admit it. 

I cheated this time. 

This is not a recipe, nor is it an admission of guilt for not making this dish from scratch. 

Instead it's sharing of an amazing, wonderful, delicious find from a store that I love. 

Butternut Squash Ravioli really makes my day.


After reading about Homemade Butternut Squash and Apple Stuffed Tortellini at Cook's Book (in fact a pick in my Saturday Sevens on 10/23), I started craving butternut squash stuffed pasta. 

Lo and behold. At a trip to Costco (a store that I love dearly) I spotted these lovely little ravioli.
Aren't they pretty?

Anyway, as it's always dangerous to shop when hungry, and knowing full well what we might be facing, K and I decided to do it anyway. At Costco last night, we decided to buy pre-made ravioli for dinner for a night like this.

Foresight? I don't know.

But... 

YUM!

I can't wait to see what you all post!!



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