SEAFOOD LINGUINE PART ONE - COOKING THE LINGUINE

Okay, this may seem a little basic but I never know who is looking in at my blog or what level of knowledge they have about cooking so I thought I would go through the process for cooking pasta properly. Is there a proper way to cook pasta? Well...if you want pasta that isn't sticky, chewy or mushy, yes there is.

"El dente" is the term given to pasta that is still slightly firm after it is cooked. It isn't chewy or hard at all, just a little firm. Pasta that is cooked past el dente is on the soft and mushy side. Not only that, it loses flavor when it is overcooked.

How do you know when your pasta is el dente? Well...you taste it periodically throughout the cooking process to "feel" the level of doneness. When it feels cooked and it had a nice bite, it's ready. After you do this a few times when you cook pasta you will gain a sense of when your pasta is ready.

Here's the process for cooking dried linguine:

Fill a large pot with cold water. Add some salt and a little oil to the water. The salt is to add flavor to the pasta as it cooks and the oil is to prevent the pot from boiling over. That last point is one of contention. The truth is that you really don't need oil in the water at all, but I still do it out of habit. How stupid is that?!

Turn the burner on high, cover the pot with a lid and bring the water to a hard boil.

Add the linguine to the water.

Be sure the linguine is totally submersed in the water and give it a stir to ensure that none of it is sticking together in clumps. After a few moments stir the pasts again to prevent clumping.

Here is how the pasta looks at about the half way mark. Notice that it is soft. Is it done yet? Let's take a closer look!

True, the pasta is softer than when it went into the pot, but that doesn't mean it's cooked. Notice the yellow color and the waxy appearance. This pasts is still way too firm to eat and it would taste starchy and chewy. Better leave it in for a while longer!

Now look at the pasta. It is softer, lighter in color and slick looking. It's ready!

Strain the pasta in a large colander. DO NOT RUN COLD WATER OVER IT!!! Allow the water to run off the pasta without washing with cold water. If you rinse the pasts you will wash away the surface starch and the sauce will not stick the it. The only time you rinse pasta as if you are making pasta salad.

Transfer the pasta to a shallow tray and spread it out evenly to air cool. Drizzle some olive oil over the top of it and toss lightly. Move the pasta around in the tray periodically to allow the hot pasta on the bottom to be cooled by the air as well.

Now the pasta is ready to be added to hot sauce or to be refrigerated for future use.

THE BASIC KNIFE SET

I had a reader ask me about knives the other day and I decided that it might be a good idea to go over what knives belong in the kitchen of a serious cook. When I say "serious" I'm not referring to the chef, the amateur chef, the gourmet or anyone as serious as that. I am referring to anyone who is passionate about cooking and who wants to learn how to cook serious food. And when you have that mindset, you need the tools to do the job. Knives are the most basic of kitchen tools.

Below is a paring knife. The term "paring" refers to cleaning and preparing, or reducing in size. When it comes to cooking, this usually refers to fruits and vegetables, right? Yes it does. We clean, peel and cut fruits and vegetables into various shapes and sizes in order to either cook them or to eat them raw. This is when a small knife comes in handy, so a paring knife is definitely an essential knife in the kitchen.

Below is a turning knife. It is also known as a bird's beak paring knife. This is the type of paring knife I prefer personally because I like the action of the curved blade over the action of the straight one on a regular paring knife. And considering that most fruits and vegetables are either round or tubular in shape, the hooked blade works better. Just imagine peeling a small round beet with a straight blade and then imagine doing the same with a curved blade. I think it's obvious which task would be easier.

If you ever plan on cooking fish in your kitchen then a fillet knife will be on the essential list. It is irreplaceable when it comes time to remove the skin from a fish fillet or when you fillet a fish. Its value is in the thin, flexible blade which makes it easier to perform these tasks.

This is a boning knife. A boning knife is used for removing bones from various cuts of meat. A boning knife is larger than a paring knife, shorter than a fillet knife and much smaller than a French knife. The boning knife has a stiff blade with a curved tip which makes it easier to make the tiny cuts necessary to remove the flesh from bone. Imagine removing the rib and wing joints of a bone-in breast of chicken if you wanted to prepare a stuffed, boneless breast of chicken. What kind of knife would you use to get into those tiny nooks and crannys? Well...this is the one.

Here is a bread knife. If you ever buy or make fresh bread you need a bread knife. But a bread knife (otherwise known as a saw knife) has uses other than cutting bread. This knife is valuable for sawing thin slices of bread, cake, pastry and large fruits like melon. Personally I prefer a very long blade and I prefer the cheaper ones to the shorter, more expensive one in this picture.

Now we have the workhorse of the kitchen. This is the French knife. The French knife is a stiff, 10" knife that is used for pretty much all cutting after the paring process in completed. It is used for cutting meats, cheeses, fruits and vegetables into all sizes and shapes. Large dice, medium dice, small dice, paysenne, brunoise, julienne; whatever the cut, the French knife is the right tool for the job!

The blade of all French knives are slightly curved as you can see. This allows for the rocking action when a proper slicing motion is employed. The proper motion for cutting with a French knife is that of the drive shafts on an old steam engine. It is a rocking forward and back while lifting and dropping the back of the knife to make your cut. Actually, the tip of the knife doesn't ever have to leave the cutting board to cut properly.

Is a French knife used to chop? You bet it is! Chopping rough cut vegetables as for a stock or chopping down herbs before finely cutting them are jobs for the French knife.

Every kitchen must have a French knife!

The knife above is a good knife because it is made of good steel. That is what you look for in a knife. The steel must be hard and it must hold an edge. The Victoria Knox above is fairly inexpensive and will last the average cook a lifetime. It is comfortable in the hand and the plastic handle is sanitary and dishwasher safe.

You will notice the heel of the blade ends cleanly at the handle. I like this feature in a knife and I will explain this further below.

This knife I prefer to the Victoria Knox above. The brand I am unfamiliar with but the shape of the blade is excellent. It is nicely rounded for proper cutting action and the blade ends cleanly at the handle. Notice where the blade eases into the handle. It is nicely curved at the heel and that gives more comfort to the hand when cutting. The handle is molded nylon and is riveted to the steel tang inside. The "tang" is the part of the blade that forms the handle. A full tang runs the full length of the handle rather than ending part way through. This feature provides strength and balance. Your grandchildren will be using this knife long after you are gone.

This is a Henckle French Knife. We have all seen these. I have one and I hate it. It's a great knife, but I find it heavy and clunky. It has all of the features of the knife above except the shape of the blade isn't as rounded and the blade ends in a big lump at the heel. I personally dislike this feature in the design of the knife. Over time a hollow is formed in the blade from sharpening and the heel must be ground down to take it out. A blade with a hollow will not cut properly as part of the blade does not make contact with the cutting board. That is a tool that cannot do its job.

GOULASH - A PAPRIKA OVERLOAD!

Goulash is like Borscht; everyone makes it differently. But no matter how it's made, the main ingredients definitely have to be present in this rich Hungarian beef stew or it isn't Goulash. And although it can be served many different ways, serving it the old way - over noodles - is my favorite. That may not fly well with today's low carb, high protein mindset, but who cares? Sometimes you just have to be honest with yourself and give in to the fact that you need to enjoy certain things once in a while. And besides, tomorrow is another day.

This dish was originally made by Hungarian cattlemen out in the field and was a simple combination of tough cuts of beef simmered in a stock enriched with onions, garlic, vegetables and a lot of paprika. The Goulash or "Gulyas" was cooked for several hours until tender. The stew was thickened by the natural collagen present in the tough muscle used to make the stew and was converted to geletin as it simmered.

Here is my somewhat quicker version which is served here (by request) with whipped potatoes rather than the traditional noodles.

The emince of beef is mixed with a light coating of oil and is seasoned with freshly milled pepper and salt. It is allowed to marinate for a few minutes as a pan is heated for searing the beef.

A pan is heated to a very high heat for searing the beef.

The beef is seared to a medium brown.

Yellow onion, garlic and red peppers are added.

The onions and peppers are sauteed in with the beef until they begin to get tender.

Paprika is added. How much paprika? LOTS!

Everything is cooked out over a medium temperature until the peppers are nice and soft and the Goulash begins to resemble a stew in consistency.

Beef stock is added. The stew is simmered down and red wine vinegar is added to balance out the flavors. A final seasoning with salt and pepper finishes it off.

A bit of sour cream takes it to that special place where we go when we want to indulge ourselves.

Ah yes, Goulash!

CLEANING AN EYE OF THE ROUND

This is an eye of the round roast. Eye of the round is a cheaper cut of beef because it is tougher than more expensive cuts. Typically, eye of the round has to be tenderized and roasted no more than medium-rare in order to have any semblance of tenderness. Also, this is a good braising roast. I found this one on sale for a great price and thought I'd buy it to make goulash with.

As you can see there is a fat cap on the surface of the roast. This is perfectly fine, and leaving it there is fine if I were going to roast or braise the meat. But I want to cut the roast into thin strips known as "emince" in French cooking. So, I will remove the fat cap and clean the roast of connective tissue in order to prepare it for cutting.

You will also notice a "Y" shaped strand of connective tissue running through the roast. This can be removed because it is tough as well.

By inserting a boning knife under the fat cap and cutting along the length of the roast, the fat cap can be removed in long thin strips.

When you reach the end of the roast....

...insert the knife where you began and cut in the other direction.

By applying pressure to the fat cap behind the knife you will be able to force the knife along just under the fat cap and minimize the loss of any meat.

Continue to cut...

...and clean...

...and cut...

...and clean...

...until all of the fat cap is removed.

At this point the roast is ready for me to cut into an emince for the goulash.

This is the finished product, beef emince, ready to be made into goulash. Notice that emince is nothing more than thin, bite-sized strips of meat.

The post following this one will be where I show one method of making goulash.

ROOT VEGETABLES CELEBRATED

Root vegetables are under-appreciated. Root vegetables are kind of like the geeks you see whenever you go into a bar. You know...the ones who are uncool, poorly dressed and have absolutely no chance of picking up chicks because they are so uninteresting.? Yeah, unlike the flashier vegetables like asparagus, rapini, bok choy and purple cauliflower, the roots ain't very hip!

But I prefer to think of root vegetables more like the two-by-fours you pass by at the building center because you want to look at the sparkly bathroom fixtures. And that's cool, but without the two-by-fours, you have no walls, and you would be peeing out behind a bush rather than in your cozy bathroom. So, bad analogy aside, roots are the practical members of the vegetable family and like the two-by-fours we use to build houses, they are the flavor builders in cooking.

This is a simple root vegetable soup I make in the early fall. I like to add in a touch of curry to compliment the sweetness of the roots and then finish it with just a little cream to add a bit of richness. Coconut milk could easily be added as well and would be a great flavor with the curry.

First the roots are diced in uniform pieces. This ensures that all of the vegetables will cook Here I have diced rutabaga, yams, parsnips and carrots. I also dice butternut squash and chop leek which will both be added later in the cooking process.

In a large pot I melt some butter

When the butter stops sizzling, the roots are added to the pot to be sauteed.

When the vegetables have been sauteed for a few minutes, I dust them with curry powder. and a bit of white pepper.

While sauteeing the roots, I cut the butternut squash and leeks.

Chicken stock is added to the pot. I add enough to cover all of the roots completely. This is allowed to come to a simmer over a medium-high heat and is then reduced to medium for a slow simmer. The soup is allowed to cook until the vegetables are tender. I like to keep the vegetables el dente.

When the vegetables have cooked long enough, I add the squash and leeks. I allow them to cook until tender.

The soup is seasoned with salt, sugar and a touch of white wine vinegar. Cream is added to finish the soup off.

Chopped flat leaf parsley is added as a garnish just before serving.

This soup is satisfying. The curry adds a smooth background flavor to this soup that works well with the yam and the sweetness of the roots. The cream adds richness to the broth and picks up on the richness of of the yams and parsnips.

If you are a vegetarian you can swap the chicken stock for vegetable stock and omit the cream. If you like purees, you could easily run this soup through the blender and it would work well. Personally, I like this soup just the way it is.

ASS KICKING RIESLING!

Okay...this is a good one! I know I ranted about Angel's Gate 2006 Riesling a little while ago (and I absolutely love it) but I believe we have a serious rival here in the 2007 "Dr.L" Loosen Brothers Riesling from Germany. It is fan-tastic!

This wine has the same intensity as the Angel's Gate as well as the same complexity. There's nothing subtle about this wine because it packs a punch with a full boquet of fruit followed by a pleasing snap of acid on the finish with just the right level of sweetness as a counter.

Green apple, pear and melon are evident and there is slight carbonation to add crispness. It is a sweet Riesling, so if you opt for a dry version of this variety, you may want to pass this beautiful wine by. That would be a shame however because this wine can be enjoyed for exactly what it is, a sweet Riesling.

At $15.00 a crack you can't go wrong with this wine. I prefer my whites nice and cold because it accentuates the crispness. That's exactly how I enjoyed this kick ass Riesling which I have added to my list of favorites!!