New Year, New Outlook in 2015

This blog entry was originally posted on Sunday Supper Chronicles in January 2015. We have since moved all posts from that point on to our personal blog since they no longer included the rest of the group

GS:The last Sunday Supper blog posting was in March 2014 and although we had three Sunday Suppers after (Secret Ingredient: Chocolate, Microwave, and Sweet Tooth), the write-ups were incomplete, which meant no posts. Sunday Supper dinner with the four of us came to a complete halt by late spring of 2014.

For PC and I, we missed challenging ourselves in the kitchen so we decided to continue them on our own. No more Sunday Supper Chronicle blog posts, I've now transferred them to here.

My motivation came around the holidays when my stepmother made handmade, knife-cut noodles for my father to celebrate his 80th birthday. In the Chinese culture, noodle dishes are a staple for birthdays and Chinese New Year because they signify a long life for whoever is eating them -- as long as the noodles are not cut short. The longer they are, the better. I was so fascinated that I asked her to teach me and was surprised at how easy it was. My knife skills were slow and my noodles didn't come out nearly as good as hers, but it was enough to inspire us.

Our first challenge together was to finally break out the pasta machine purchased a year ago and make fresh pasta.

PC: With a new year brings new culinary challenges, some more so than others. My first endeavor back into the Sunday Supper Challenges may not sound very difficult and for the most part it wasn't. The hard part was actually done by GS - making pasta dough. Why was it hard? Well it came down to getting the right consistency. Something I'm sure seasoned chefs know like the back of their hand. My part was just making the sauce.

I remember an episode of No Reservation where Anthony Bourdain and his chef buddies cooked some basic dishes. One of them being your basic tomato sauce from scratch. Off to the market I went and rounded up some roma tomatoes. Here is where my issues began. Well what does a fresh tomato look like, smell like, feel like, and taste like? Still trying to figure this one out. I peeled the skin off the tomatoes, the peeler worked ok and then i just opted to just use my big knife and slice the skin off, thankfully the knife was still sharp otherwise this was going to get extremely messy. A sharp peeling knife is probably best. After removing the seeds as diligently as I could, I slow cooked those tomatoes. I totally underestimated the number of tomatoes I needed. I can see them breaking down but I definitely needed more. I opted to add some tomato sauce. Yes it was "cheating" but the key to remember is that this is a learning process and at the end of the day, this dish has to be edible. I added enough to give it volume. However the key to giving the sauce flavor is adding olive oil infused with basil, garlic, salt, pepper, and some pepper flakes. I'm sure you can throw in some other herbs in there but this is basic.

We finally put the pasta machine to use. Nope this isn't one of those attachments to a Kitchen Aid mixer, it's the old school cranker. The one perk I give to the Kitchen Aid unit, it gives you both hands free. Since I didn't have an extra hand of my own I borrowed my wife's. Together we rolled out some beautiful spaghetti and fettuccine. It was fun to see a glob of dough become fine strands, which a week later we were still finding in areas of the kitchen. Water boiling and salted, in went the pasta. Time to cook was also another new experience since this wasn't dried pasta and just like some Asian noodles is ready in a jiffy. Well I still used the grab a strand and taste while attempting to minimize burning my fingers and face. When it was nearly done cooking in my novice opinion, out it came and into the sauce. The starch in the pasta helps the sauce adhere to the pasta. Swirl, swirl and swirl and while trying to keep the pasta from flinging against the wall, onto the plate it went. A little basil garnish and voila, fini.

The take away from cooking this are: 1) get fresh tomatoes OR there are some perfectly good canned tomatoes that can be used as well when tomatoes are out of season OR when you are just being damn lazy.. I mean efficient. This is a good opportunity thouhg to visit a farmers market and the the 411 on what is a good tomato and have them slice up one and give you a taste. Supposedly it should have some sweetness but everyone's palette is different. 2)Use one of those baskets to cook your pasta. Its much easier to wrangle the pasta unless you prefer playing go fish for strands which can make a pasta go from al dente to al mushy. Ultimately this is a simple dish but being a simple dish there is no reason to go messing it up and there is plenty of opportunity to do that. Did I say this is a simple dish. I retract that. Its a dish that is a labor of love and that always requires work.