Broccoli Macaroni and Cheese

Do you know your five mother sauces? Knowing your basics is quite important. Whether it is in science, in sports, in photography or simply in cooking, we have to start with the fundamentals. As a scientist, I make advancements in my field of research and publish several scientific articles because I know my basics in physics and chemistry. This is also true in photography. To take good pictures, one should know all the functions in their own camera, and know about composition.

The great splendor in French cuisine is the sauce as Julia Child would say. From the five mother sauces (béchamel, velouté, hollandaise, espagnole, and tomato sauce), one can make hundred of sauces to  compliment, enhance and bring out the flavour of the food that it is served with. 

Last week, my bro and I were craving for some comfort food, and we thought of making our own mac and cheese. There are several ways to make it. One neat and simple recipe can be found on The Hot Plate which uses a package of cheese fondue to make a creamy and delicious cheese sauce. The traditional method,  presented here, is to start with a béchamel, melt the cheese and mix it with the pasta and vegetables. For the non-vegetarians, you can add ham or bacon to the mac and cheese.

Serves 4
Preparation Time: 25 mins
Cooking Time: 25 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

375g elbow macaronis
2 broccolis, cut into florets
3 tbsps butter
3 tbsps all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1 1/2 cup sharp cheddar, shredded
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
1 pinch nutmeg
2 tbsps garlic powder
Salt and pepper

Procedure

1. In a large pot, cook elbow macaronis in salted water until al dente. Drain water and reserve.

2. In a small pot, cook broccolis until it turns colour. Drain water and reserve.

3. In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.

4. Add in flour and stir for 1 minute.

5. Gradually add in milk and stir until mixture boils. The mixture should be thick and creamy.

6. Add in cheddar and parmesan cheese and mix until cheese has melted. Add in garlic powder and nutmeg. Taste the cheese sauce, adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

7. Stir in cooked pasta and broccoli to the cheese sauce.

8. Serve.

Spicy Angel Hair Pasta with Crab and Lime

I have to admit that the presentation picture is not pleasing to the eye. The one from Gordan Ramsay is much more vibrant and colorful. By nature, we usually judge food by its cover. We can "see" whether it tastes good or not. Pretty much like searching through cookbooks and food blogs, you decide to cook a dish based on how mouthwatering the pictures look. If I added some greens and reds, I would probably convince you to try this dish out. This dish has lots of flavors. The pasta is mixed with crab, white wine and olive oil along with a kick of acidity and spiciness, making this dish pleasant to eat.

Serves 6
Preparation Time: 5 mins
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

200g angel hair pasta

3 garlic cloves, minced
1 red chilli, seeded and thinly sliced

4 spring onions, chopped

1/3 cup dry white wine

1 lime

250g white crab meat

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Procedure

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the pasta and cook according to pack instructions until al dente, about 3-4 minutes.

2. In large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Sauté for 1-2 minutes and season with salt and pepper.

3. Add white wine to pan and cook until it reduces to half. Stir in crab meat.

4. Drain the pasta, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Add the pasta to the crab mixture, chop the parsley and toss the ingredients to combine.

5. Serve immediately with a generous squeeze of lime juice.

Acorn Squash Raviolis

What is your favorite ravioli filling? Since my purchase of the pasta machine, I have been making taglatielle and spaghetti pasta. I went a step further and attempt making raviolis using acorn squash as a filling. It took me about an hour to get the hang of putting the right amount of filling and seal it carefully. It is not as bad as I thought and I was amazed of the final result.

Serves 4
Preparation Time: 30 mins
Cooking Time: 25 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp butter
2 lb acorn squash or any other squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes
salt and pepper
pinch of nutmeg
pasta dough
1 egg, beaten
Favorite pasta sauce

Procedure

1. Roll out the pasta dough into pasta sheets. For raviolis, make the sheets a bit thicker than usual, about the same thickness as a nickel coin. Let it dry.

2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat oil and melt butter over medium-high heat. Cook squash until soft.  Season with salt and pepper. Add nutmeg.

3. Purée squash with a hand mixer or blender.

4. To assemble raviolis, prepare a floured surface. Lay out pasta sheet.

5. Place teaspoons of purée on the pasta sheet, spaced about one-inch apart.

6. Brush beaten egg on pasta sheet between the mounds of purée. Cover with another sheet of pasta.

7. Use a pasta cutter or knife to cut raviolis apart.

8. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, add raviolis, and cook for about 5 mins.

9. Drain with a colander and serve with your favorite pasta sauce. If you have some purée remaining, serve it as a side dish.

Making Your Own Pasta

I just got back from a full week conference. Don't worry, I'm still partially food blogging while writing my thesis. I finally accepted the offer to do my PhD in Ottawa, Ontario. I found a marvelous place to live with a huge fully equipped kitchen, at least twice as large as my home kitchen. This means more tested recipes with a new group of people. I haven't given much thoughts about how to plan a one-person menu, any suggestions?

During the conference week, I went to a kitchen equipment store and saw a pasta machine that was on sale for only $20. The cost of such machine is about $70. Before buying a kitchen appliance, I have to get the approval of my parents and strangely, they were strongly in favor in buying one. When I came home, I immediately open some of my favorite cookbooks, start making pasta and cut it into fettuccine. Pasta requires three basic ingredients: egg, flour and salt. My first attempt of making pasta was impressively success. This is the first time that I have ever tasted fresh pasta and it taste very different from the dry ones. No wonder that on this season of Hell's Kitchen, Gordon Ramsay can tell if the pasta is made fresh or not. Fresh ones have a soft and tender texture which absorb the full flavour of sauces. The recipe is adapted from The Cook's Book - Concise Edition.

Serves 2
Preparation Time: 25 mins
Cooling Time: 30 mins
Cooking Time: about 1 min, depending on the shape
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 eggs

Procedure

Dough
1. Pour flour onto the surface and form a well, large enough to hold the eggs.

2. With a fork, whisk eggs and slowly incorporate it with flour. Add salt to eggs and continue pulling small amounts of flour until it becomes thick.

3. Once thick, start kneading and add the remaining flour until it can no longer absorb the flour.

4. Set dough aside, clean work surface and dry hands.

5. Knead the dough on clean surface until smooth and elastic. Sprinkle a bit of flour if very sticky, but don't let dry.

6. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 mins. This will help soften the dough, enough to be stretched.

Pasta Machine
7. Cut dough in half. Flatten the dough and pass it through the widest setting on the pasta machine.

8. Decrease the setting a notch and pass the dough once again. Repeat it once more.

9. Fold the dough into thirds and flatten it. Return to its widest setting and repeat step 7 and 8, 3 more times until the dough fells silky and elastic.

10. Roll the dough through the machine on decreasing settings until desired thickness is reached.

11. Use cutters to cut pasta into fettuccine or tagliarini. Toss a bit of flour to prevent for sticking after cutting.

Cooking
12. In a large pot, boil water and add salt.

13. Add fresh pasta and cook for about 1 min. It is ready when you can no longer taste the rawness of the dough.

14. Drain and serve with your favorite pasta sauce.

Tuna Pasta Casserole

One important keypoint in cooking is the mise en place, making sure that all the necessary ingredients and equipments are available. Last year, I attempted to make a seafood pasta casserole, and it ended to be a simple pasta casserole with vegetables as I thought I had some canned crab meat and tuna. This time, I made the casserole better and tastier with cheese gratin.

Serves 8
Preparation Time: 5 mins
Cooking + Baking Time: 25 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

300g macaroni
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 1/2 cup whole milk
2 cups frozen vegetables (peas, corn, green beans)
2 cans tuna
ground pepper
bread crumbs mixed with melted butter
Mozzarella cheese

Procedure

1. Cook pasta in salted boiling water, 2 mins less as package directed.

2. Preheat oven to 425F.

3. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, add cream of mushroom soup and milk until mixture is smooth over low heat, about 5 minutes.

4. Add frozen vegetables and 1/3 cup of mozzarella. Season with ground pepper.

5. In a 13'' x 9'' baking pan, mix pasta with the cream texture. Top with buttered bread crumbs and cover with mozzarella cheese.

 6. Bake for 15 mins until it reaches a gratin.

Pasta Meatball Casserole

I love making meatballs, because they are soft, juicy and a great appetizer for parties. For a while, I haven't baked a casserole dish and I felt the urge of reexperiencing the taste of a baked pasta with the cheese melted on top. A cheesy pasta meatball casserole is what was needed, a real comfort food at its best.

Serves 8
Preparation Time : 20 mins
Cooking Time : 1 hour
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef
1 egg
1 small onion, chopped
3/4 cup bread crumbs
2 garlic, minced
Salt and pepper
400g of your favorite pasta
28 oz. can spaghetti sauce
2-3 cups cheddar, grated
Parsley to garnish (optional)

Preparation

1. In a small skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Cook onion until transparent.

2. In a medium bowl, combine beef, egg, onion, bread crumbs, garlic, salt and pepper. Shape meatballs about 1'' in size.

3. In the same skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Cook meatballs until all browned, about 20 mins. Set aside.

4. Meanwhile, cook pasta until al dente.

5. Preheat oven to 350F.

6. Transfer pasta into a 13''x9'' baking pan and combine with the spaghetti sauce. Scatter meatballs into the pasta.

7. Cover and bake for 45 mins until hot. Turn heat off, remove from oven and top with mozzarella cheese. Return to oven, uncover and cook until melted, about 3 mins. Serve.

Gnocchi with Bolognese Sauce

I hope you have all enjoyed Christmas, I know I do too. Since most of my friends are out of town for two weeks, I'm still here in Montreal, extending my culinary skills, discovering new ingredients and doing lab works. For now, I will be doing the cooking at home. Recently on Foodbuzz, there were quite some recipes using gnocchi and for a while, I wanted to make something with gnocchi. Gnocchi is an ingredient originally from Italy, you can think of as a potato-based dumplings. Like pasta, it can be served in any sauce. This recipe is taken from Robert's Recipes.

Serves 6
Preparation Time : 15 mins
Cooking Time : 40 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

500g lean ground beef
1 large onions
3 minced cloves of garlic
1 red pepper, cubed
5-6 white button mushrooms, sliced
1 28oz. can diced tomatoes
1 14oz. can tomato sauce
3 bay leaves
1 tbsp Italian seasonings
salt and pepper
1 package (500g) of gnocchi

Preparation

1. In a large pot, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook until transparent. Add in garlic and cook until fragrant.

2. Add ground beef and cook until it starts to turn brown. Add pepper and mushroom, continue to cook until pepper is tender. Drain off excess fats.

3. Add diced tomatoes and their liquid, tomato sauce, bay leaves and seasonings. Bring to boil and reduce to low heat. Continue cooking for 30-40 mins until the sauce becomes thick and liquid evaporates.

4. Meanwhile, cook gnocchi in a pot of boiling water. The gnocchi are ready when it starts floating.

5. Transfer gnocchi to Bolognese sauce. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

Meaty Lasagna with Jalapeno Tomato Sauce

Finally, the main dish of the evening, my friend has been dying to bake lasagna for us, especially for the tomato sauce with jalapeno peppers, it tasted soooo good. We are glad that he shared his "secret" recipe. This is one of the best homemade lasagna ever tasted. You do not have to follow exactly the recipe, be creative, especially the spices.

Preparation Time : 15 mins
Cooking Time : 2-3 hours (sauce) + 25 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

Jalapeno Tomato Sauce
2 celery stalks
2 carrots
2 green bell peppers
3 jalapeno peppers, seeded
1 medium onion
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
2 796mL can of whole italian tomatoes
4 156mL can of tomato paste
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried basil

Meat Lasagna
12 lasagna pasta (not instant)
Choice of meat (Hungarian salami, pepperoni)
Mozzarella cheese, grated

Procedure

1. For the sauce, dice celeries, carrots, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers and onion.

2. In a large pot, heat oil over medium-high and cook all the diced ingredients until softened. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

3. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, 2-3 tbsp olive oil and spices to the pot. Bring heat to a simmer and let it cook for 2-3 hours until thick and tomatoes lose its structure.

4. Cook lasagna pasta in boiling salted water according to package instructions.

5. Preheat oven to 375F.

6. On a 13'' x 9'' baking pan, spread a laddle of tomato sauce at the bottom of the pan. Layer with 3 sheets of lasagna pasta, pepperoni, salami and tomato sauce. Finish the layering with lasagna pasta.

7. Top with mozzarella cheese. Bake for 10 mins, or until the cheese melts to your likeness.

Cannelloni with meat sauce

We are restarting collective cooking this Friday. August 7 was my brother's birthday and I wanted to make something big. I wish I could invested time to make a 3-layers cake, but I ended up making a cannelloni dish with a homemade meat sauce. I didn't expected that these express cannelloni would expand that much during the baking. Sorry about the not-so-good looking pictures, I tried my best.

Serves 4-6

Preparation Time : 10 mins

Cooking Time : 15 mins

Baking Time : 45 mins

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

Sauce

400g ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 28oz. can crushed tomatoes

1 tbsp salt

2 tbsp Italian seasonings

Filling

500g cottage cheese

1 egg, beaten

2 tbsp parsley, minced

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

12 cannellonis, instant or cooked according to package

1 - 1 1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese

Preparation

1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat and cook onion, garlic and ground beef until browned.

2. Drain fat from the pan. Add crushed tomatoes, spices and salt. Simmer for 10 mins.

3. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. In a medium bowl, combine cottage cheese, egg, parsley and parmesan.

4. Preheat oven to 375F.

5. Pour half of the meat sauce at the bottom of a 13 x 9 inch pan.

6. With a spoon, fill up the cannellonis with the cottage cheese mix. Put it over the meat sauce.

7. Cover the cannellonis with the remaining meat sauce.

8. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and top with the mozzarella cheese. Bake for 5 more minutes. Serve.

Chicken Pinwheels with Basil and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

We invited two new guests from physics for our usual Friday cooking. One of them is from Poland and he never cooks in his apartment since his arrival in Montreal. It is a great opportunity to teach him a thing or two for quick and simple dishes. The other one is from France, he is just curious about what we usually do on Friday. To impress the new guests, I made chicken rolls stuffed with cheese, sun-dried tomatoes in oil and basil. These are cooked in tomato sauce with white wine reduced. This recipe can found in the Kitchen Bible cookbook. Some of my favorite cookbooks are listed at the bottom of this blog.

Serves 4
Preparation Time : 20 mins
Cooking Time : 25 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

4 chicken breast halves
16 large basil leaves
12 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained
8 slices of swiss cheese
olive oil for brushing
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup white wine
8 oz. of your favorite pasta

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Lightly pound each chicken breast between 2 sheets of plastic wrap until the breast is 1/4in. thick.

3. Place chicken beasts smooth sides down, on work surface. Season with salt and pepper. Arrange 2 slices of swiss cheese, 4 basil leaves and 3 sun-dried tomatoes over each piece of chicken.

4. Roll up the chicken and secure with wooden toothpicks.

5. Line the aluminium foil on a 13'' by 9'' baking pan. Lightly oil the foil and then place the breasts. Brush with oil. Pour wine and crushed tomatoes around the breasts.

6. Cook in the oven until the chicken is opaque, about 25 minutes.

7. Meanwhile, cook pasta as instructed.

8. Transfer the chicken to carving board. Let it stand for a few mins. Remove toothpicks and cut crosswise.

9. Arrange slices on individual plates. Add pasta and spoon the sauce on top.

Lobster with Pasta

My Taiwanese friend Chris loves to cook seafood. Some of our friends love to eat lobster so one of them bought two large lobsters so he can cook it. He found a great recipe from Chef at Home hosted by Michael Smith. This pasta dish is served with a creamy lobster sauce reduced in white wine. You will have to use the whole wine bottle.

Serves 4
Preparation Time : 15 mins
Cooking Time : about 2 hours
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

2 large lobsters
1 cup 35% cream
1 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
2 medium onions, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 bay leaves
Salt and Pepper
12 oz. of your favorite pasta

Procedure

1. In a large soup pot, boil 4 cups of water over high heat, then add the lobsters.

2. Cover and let it steam for about 8 minutes per pound. The lobster is cooked when the shell changes colour.

3. Use your powerful shears such as Cutco Super Shears to cut open the shells. Remove the meat from the tail, knuckles and claws and reserve.

4. Wrap shells in a kitchen towel. Smash shells with the back of a knife. Put them in a large saucepot and add the cream, tomatoes, wine, onions, garlic and bay leaves.

5. Simmer for 1 1/2 hours, until liquid reduces by half and the colour is reddish brown.

6. Meanwhile, cook pasta as instructed.

7. Strain sauce into a clean pot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour sauce onto pasta.