Spaghetti with Lamb Ragout

This is not particularly difficult, but I followed no recipe, so it merits some discussion.

Based on some apocryphal information, I purchased a pound of lamb neck (subtitled lamb stew on the package), not yet deboned.

I deboned the lamb neck (actually, someone else did, as I'm still too squeamish), cut it up into small chunks (again, my co-chef), and then sauteed it. I then sauteed some garlic (two cloves, minced) in what remained in the skillet after the lamb was taken out. Meanwhile, I was boiling some crushed tomatoes. I added the lamb/garlic mix, along with some parsley and thyme, as well as salt and pepper, and then tossed it on some spaghetti.

Very easy, and the dish came out wonderfully, and tasted great paired with a good Cabernet-Sauvignon (hah! this was a bottle of two-buck chuck from Trader Joe's).

Next time I'll cut the lamb much more finely, and perhaps into long, thin strips (this is how it seems to be served in restaurants), and perhaps buy deboned meat (I don't _want_ to be unsqueamish enough to deal with this), but nothing else will change. The sauce takes less time to prepare than the pasta, and it really is quite easy and fairly cheap as well - this is another very simple dish that's still a good deal classier than mac and cheese.

Risotto Redux

I made risotto again, two nights ago, because I love it and because it's cheap and I still had arborio rice left over from the first time. There's not much difference from the version below, except that I was much less of a slave to the cookbook this time.

I used asparagus and fresh white mushrooms (1 lb. and 8 oz. respectively), and didn't mess around with infusing anything in chicken stock. I also used a pair of shallots along with the garlic. I sauteed the asparagus - apparently this is not the traditional way, but I like it - they came out nice and crunchy, though perhaps next time I'll steam them a little first, as the bigger pieces were ever so slightly undercooked in the center. I also used a sweet riesling instead of normal white cooking wine. Again, I think it tasted good, but it seems that without exception the white wine used in recipes is dry.

Overall a better experience than before, mostly because I had confidence in the recipe, and in my ability not to mess up easy things. I again recommend risotto to anyone who's not attempted it before - it's very easy, and requires no real cooking ability, only time.

Mushroom Risotto

This is following the recipe from Chanterelle, but it's a bit simplified, due to both time and material constraints.

The recipe wants dried porcini mushrooms, and a pound of white mushrooms. I used baby portabellas (not sure how much, but not a lot), and only half a pound of white mushrooms.

I boiled up 8 cups of chicken stock, and then turned off the heat and added the portabellas - this apparently will infuse the flavour of the mushrooms into the stock. Of course, you're supposed to use dried porcinis, and you are also supposed to wait half an hour. Not having so much time, I didn't wait, but started the other steps and removed the mushrooms from the stock as soon as I needed them (this was about ten minutes, I think). I'm not sure how much effect this had on the finished product; it certainly wasn't obvious that the chicken stock had been infused with the essence of the mushrooms, but it might nevertheless have improved the taste of the finished product.

Having boiled the stock, I sauteed the white mushrooms, and then removed them from the heat. I then sauteed some garlic (the recipe also calls for onion, which I lacked), and then added the rice to the skillet (a wok in my case, actually). I let the rice cook for a few minutes, and coated it in the garlic/olive oil mixture that was in the pan. I removed the portabellas from the chicken stock, chopped them up, and added them to the rice (the other mushrooms would be added at the end). I spent the next 35 minutes or so slowly adding stock, one cup at a time, and waiting for the stock to be absorbed before adding the next batch.

Having completed that (I ended up needing 7 cups of stock for 3 cups of risotto), I added the other mushrooms, a bit of white wine (the Chanterelle recipe didn't call for any, actually, but other recipes asked for 4 ounces), some heavy cream, and some parsley, as well as salt and pepper (I'm getting better, or at least more comfortable, with putting salt and pepper in large dishes - before, I was very afraid of oversalting).

The risotto was delicious, and while it is more effort than pasta, it's not actually much more time (though you have to spend it all cooking). Overall a very good experience, and I will cook risotto more in the future.

First Post

In future, I'd like to post an entry for every new (to me) or otherwise remarkable meal I cook, but for this first, I will just describe briefly what I have cooked until now.

Most recently:
Pasta with Cauliflower (from How to Cook Everything)
Roughly, boil some water, cook cauliflower in it, and then pasta. Having cooked the cauliflower, fry it up with some garlic and olive oil and anchovies, and then add it to the pasta. The cauliflower, which should have been cut up fairly finely to begin with, becomes rather soft, and serves as a wonderful sauce to the pasta.

The recipe worked very well, as stated, and I was very surprised as to both how tasty and how filling it was. Next time I'm trying it with broccoli.

Pasta with Butter, Sage, and Parmesan (from How to Cook Everything)
This is exactly what the title suggests, and it's great. As the cookbook author points out, it takes about as much time (and costs about the same) as boxed mac and cheese, but it tastes better. It is remarkable only because making it made it clear to me how much better cooked food is than most prepared foods, and how little effort cooking could require.

Chicken Pot Pie (from Chanterelle)
This was a major ordeal. I made the pastry dough in advance, and then still spent several hours cooking the pot pie. The filling was, for some time, in danger of not sufficiently thickening, but a friend's help and some corn starch solved the problem. I think I either used too much chicken stock (unlikely, as I followed the recipe exactly), or I prepared the filling wrong (this is it; one should, I believe, add stock to the roux, rather than the other way around, and add the stock relatively slowly - I added the roux to the big pot of stock). The pie itself came out well enough - the crust was messy, and the filling undersalted, but both of these are minor concerns. I think the making of the pie was a very positive experience; it's greatly enhanced my confidence in the kitchen.

Chicken Parmigiana (from How to Cook Everything)
This is the first meal I cooked on my own. Everything went completely according to plan, and the recipe provided was very easy to follow. Not a particularly difficult dish, but important also in giving me the confidence to proceed further.