Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Carbonara is Steven's most requested dish. It's one of the few recipes on this blog that I make regularly, so I'm a little embarrassed I haven't updated the recipe since 2007. The ingredient list has stayed the same in the last four years but I added the trick of tempering the eggs with boiling pasta water before adding it to the pasta. On the rare occasion, I get a little fancy but I always go back to the original recipe of 5 ingredients, 6 if you include salt for pasta water. Traditionally you would use pancetta or guanicale, but let's face it, that stuff is expensive and I'm a poor student. Because this recipe is so simple, there are a few things I feel strongly about. First, I don't believe in adding cream; I think it's like cheating. But I unfortunately don't know anyone Italian who can back me up. Second, use freshly ground pepper; this is non-negotiable.

This recipe is one of our staples during medical school, because I can make this in less than 30, maybe even 20 minutes. I like to cook with ratios because it makes recipes easy to scale up or down. This recipe is no different and can be easily adjusted.



Spaghetti alla Carbonara
Approximately 4 ounces or 4 slices of thick-cut bacon, sliced into 1/4 inch wide strips or equivalent amount of pancetta or guanciale, chopped
2 eggs, beaten
2 ounces finely grated parmesan, parmigiano, or pecorino romano
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper (I go up to 1 teaspoon)
8 ounces spaghetti

Cook bacon in a skillet over medium heat until it is crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a piece of paper towel.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta. Salt it generously, it should taste like sea water. Cook spaghetti according to package instructions, until it is al dente.

Temper the eggs like making a custard. With one hand beat the eggs and with the other slowly drizzle approximately 1/4 cup of hot pasta water with a measuring scoop or cup into the egg mixture. Set aside.

Before draining the pasta, set aside about half a cup of the boiling pasta water to loosen the pasta if needed.

You'll have to move fast at this point. When the pasta is al dente, drain the pasta then return the pasta back into the hot pot. Keep the pot off heat. The residual heat in the pot and pasta will thicken the sauce. Add the drained bacon, ground pepper, pasta and with one hand, stir the pasta while pouring in the tempered egg mixture.

Keep stirring to mix the cheese and egg evenly and the sauce will be thickened and silky smooth. Add a bit of the pasta water if needed.

Optional: top with extra freshly ground pepper and grated cheese before serving.

March 2007

Chicken Adobo

update from April 2007

When I first made chicken adobo 4 years ago, I was a little apprehensive about the seemingly large amount of vinegar the recipe called for. However, the vinegar mellows with cooking and the sauce is amazing over freshly steamed rice. I prefer a 1:1 ratio of soy to vinegar. I reach for a milder vinegar like rice, white wine, or cider vinegar. I personally find plain white vinegar is too monotonous and abrasive. You can marinate the chicken as long as you want but this is rarely something I plan that far in advance. I usually throw all the ingredients together in a pot and let it sit for about an hour (sometimes I skip this part entirely if I feel particularly lazy).

Chicken Adobo
approximately 2 pounds of dark meat chicken (thighs and drumsticks)
1/2 cup soy sauce (low sodium preferably)
1/2 cup rice or cider vinegar
1 cup of water
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
5 garlic cloves, smashed with the side of a knife
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
Optional: small yellow onion, thickly sliced

Optional step: Combine everything in a large bowl and marinate for 1 hour, up to overnight.

Bring everything up to a boil then lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Turn the chicken halfway through the cooking process.

Remove the chicken and bring the sauce back to a boil and continue to boil the sauce until it reduces by about half to a slightly thickened syrup.

Optional: When I'm not lazy or starving, I've broiled the chicken (skin side up for a few minutes) in the oven to go the extra mile. You have to keep an eye on it because it will go from crispy to burnt in a minute under the broiler. I have heard of people throwing adobo on the grill but I personally have not tried this. I imagine if the chicken is super tender it may fall through the grates. Consider yourself warned and don't blame me if this happens. Broiling/grilling is not necessary, the chicken is perfectly delicious without this final step.

Serve the chicken over rice and spoon the sauce on top.

(cooked with onions)

Basil Fried Rice

Basil fried rice and pan fried salted mackerel

I made a lot of fried rice during the school year. That and ramen (I'm very particular about my ramen)were my staples. The only constants for fried rice is leftover rice, which we always have plenty of, and egg. I would argue you need some sort of herb, which most of the time means green onion, in this case basil, but again that's debatable. If I'm feeling particularly fancy, I'll throw in some seafood (Trader Joe's seafood mix is great for this) or veggies, in an attempt to be healthy. But simple is good too, and fried rice doesn't get simpler than this.

The fancy stuff: Seafood and Veggies Fried Rice with XO Sauce

The basil came from my Aerogarden, a nifty hydroponic tabletop garden. It's pretty sweet but really expensive. If I hadn't gotten it as a gift I would have never considered buying one.

It started as this... (week 2)

aww, so cute!

Grew into this... (week 3)

Then I forgot to keep track...

and it turned into this!

Ahh! (Mint, Basil, Dill, Thyme, Parsley, Purple Basil, and Chives)

It would have been a smarter move to start the Aerogarden in the fall so I could have fresh herbs in the Winter but I wanted to harvest it for E's wedding. I was delusional in thinking that a tabletop garden could produce enough herbs for dinner for 40. I guess I could be growing this stuff outside with all the lovely weather we've been having in Sea-town, but having everything in the kitchen is pretty convenient.

Some herbs are growing better than others. The parsley is pretty slow but the dill and basil plants are growing like crazy and I'm constantly having to prune them. Short of eating the stuff straight, (I'm not that hardcore), I've been adding basil to everything. It worked out pretty nicely in fried rice (I don't think dill would go over as well).

Basil Fried Rice
serves 2

2 C cooked, cold, leftover rice from day before
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 C basil leaves, chopped right before adding to prevent blackening
1/2 tsp kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 - 2 Tbsp soy sauce (as desired, more soy sauce = browner rice)
1 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil (sometimes I use bacon fat, mmm!)

Heat the cooking oil over medium high heat in a nonstick skillet or wok. Add the rice and cook for 2 - 3 minutes. Break up any clumps of rice and cook until the rice is steamy hot. Add the salt and some pepper.

Push all the rice to one side to clear an area of the skillet. Add the beaten eggs to the open spot in the pan and stir to cook the eggs. When the eggs are almost fully cooked but still runny, stir it into the rice and add the soy sauce.

Take the pan off heat, roughly chop or tear the basil, and stir it into the rice. Add just seasoning with more salt if necessary.

-or- w/ Green Onions instead of Basil
1 to 2 (depending on the size and your preferences) green onions, thinly sliced

Instead of adding the green onions at the end like with the basil, add the green onions to the cooking oil before adding the rice and cook until it's fragrant, about 30 seconds, then add the rice and proceed with the rest of the recipe.

Cold Soba

When exam crunch time rolls around, which is all too often, time is precious and there's very little of it that can be set aside to cook. Now, that's not to say I stop cooking all together, I just have to spend my time wisely. Anything that can be made in less than 30 minutes is good (as long as it's not remotely connected to Rachael Ray), less than 15 is ideal. Which brings me to one of my favorite meals, cold soba. It's simple, healthy, and delicious. I boil some noodles, make the dipping sauce while the noodles cook, and sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds, seaweed, sliced green onions on at the end to make it look pretty because pretty food keeps the morale up while studying. It can be cooked, slurped, and the dishes washed in under 30 minutes. And it's healthier than ramen, which will be a post for another day.

Buckwheat is high in protein, good for your cardiovascular system, and just does a lot of great things for your body. When you buy soba noodles, make sure to look at the ingredients list, and if buckwheat is not the first ingredient you see, don't buy it. Preferably, the noodles should be 100% buckwheat. Cheaper, low quality noodles often cut their buckwheat with yam or other ingredients. Cold soba is particularly refreshing after a night of heavy takeout. If I have more time to spare, I'll pan fry some tofu to add on top and make a cucumber salad for a more complete meal.

Like most people, I rarely have dashi stock just sitting in the fridge so I usually just use water. Or I cheat by simmering some bonito and seaweed with the soy sauce and mirin when I'm making the sauce, let sit for a few minutes, and strain. If you have chicken stock or vegetable stock that will work too.

Cold Soba
Serves 2

2 bunches of soba noodles

Soba sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp mirin
1/2 tsp sugar (more to taste)
1/4 C Dashi stock (or chicken/vegetable stock or cheater dashi-see note)

Garnish
Toasted Seasame seeds
Sliced green onions
Seaweed slivers
Grated daikon

Boil water in a saucepan and cook the soba noodles according to package instructions.

While the noodles cook bring the ingredients for the sauce to a boil then remove from heat and set aside.

When the noodles are cooked, drain the soba noodles. Return them back to the pot and fill with cold water, swirl the noodles around, drain and repeat this process until the water is no longer starchy and cloudy. Put the drained noodles on a platter or bamboo tray. Top with whatever garnishes you want.

Pour a little sauce in a bowl, pick up some noodles, dunk in the sauce, and slurp to your heart's content.

My Family's Shrimp Stir Fry

Eating shrimp was a messy affair when I was a kid. My parents always cooked shrimp with the shells on, which meant the sauce would get all over my fingers when I went to peel them. They tried to teach me how to peel shrimp "properly" aka not using my hands, by holding it with chopsticks and using my teeth to slowly nibble the shell off. Didn't happen. I did what any kid would do and went back to using my hands, because let's face it, it was faster and much easier. But having to wipe off my hands before taking a bite was slowing down my eating. So I got to thinking, how can I expedite the eating process and minimize the number of times I have to wipe my hands after peeling. Ah hah! Instead of peeling the shrimp one at a time and wiping my hands before picking up my chopsticks to take a bite, I decided to peel the shrimp all at once, slowly accumulating a small mountain of peeled shrimp on my rice bowl. When I deemed the number to be sufficient, I would wipe off my hands and commence the eating with no interruptions. What can I say, I was an efficient kid. Nowadays, I just peel all of the shrimp before cooking so I can skip the messy process of peeling them afterwards. And this way the sauce clings to the meat and not on the shell. Just be careful to not over cook the shrimp because there's no shell to protect the meat from the heat of the pan.

This is my family's simple shrimp stir fry recipe. It uses only a handful of ingredients and the dish cooks in about 3 minutes. The ginger and green onions flavor the oil as with many Chinese stir fries and the soy sauce, rice wine, and sugar create the sauce for the shrimp.

My Family's Shrimp Stir Fry
1 lb large shrimp, peeled
4 slices of ginger
2 - 3 green onions
1 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp Shao Xing rice wine
1/2 tsp sugar
Dash of white pepper

First cut the green onions separating the lower light green and white part from the green tops. The light green/white parts can cooked longer than the more delicate green tops they are added first to the oil. Cut the green/white part in half lengthwise, then into 2 inch segments, this will help to release more flavor into the oil. Then for the remaining green tops, cut them into 2 inch segments. Keep them separate because these will be added a little later. Smash the ginger slices with the side of your knife to bruise them.

After peeling and washing the shrimp, pat them dry. You don't want excess water in the stir fry.

Heat up 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok or skillet over high heat. When the oil is shimmering, almost smoking, add the white part of the green onion and the ginger slices. Cook these in the hot oil to bloom their flavor, for about 30 seconds to a minute. Then add the shrimp and the green part of the green onion and stir fry these together first really quickly, about 20 seconds. Add the soy sauce, wine, sugar, and white pepper, and cook until the shrimp are pink and no longer opaque. The sauce will have reduce and cling to the shrimp.

BBQ Chicken Quesadilla

The last few days have been unbearably hot, with yesterday being one of the top 10 hottest days ever recorded here in Seattle. I was too lethargic to do get up and do anything other than lay on the couch and complain about the heat. Pardon the silence on this blog, as I haven't been cooking much or blogging. But like Jaden, there are so many old recipes I still haven't gotten around to posting, so now is a good time to do so.

BBQ Chicken Quesadilla was a very popular menu item at my favorite lunch spot near the UW, Honeybee's Cafe (which sadly closed two years ago). It's been a long time since I've had a Honeybee's quesadilla, but from what I can remember, the original quesadilla had grilled chicken, tomatoes, Monterey Jack cheese, tomatoes, green onions, and BBQ sauce in a tomato flour tortilla. This quesadilla is very flexible the only constants are: tortilla, chicken, your favorite BBQ sauce (Cook's Illustrated likes Bull's Eye Original), and cheese. The rest of the ingredients depend on what you have on hand. So here rather than offering an exact recipe, it's just a few tips on making a yummy quesadilla, which I learned from watching America's Test Kitchen.

Barbeque Chicken Quesadilla

Flour Tortillas
Chicken, cut up into large chunks (You can use grilled chicken, leftover roast chicken or bbq chicken, doesn't really matter)
Coarsley grated cheese (Cheddar, Monterey, Pepper Jack, or a combo)
Thinly sliced green onions or red onions
Fresh tomatoes or fresh tomato salsa, drained (if using this then omit the onions)
Corn (frozen is almost as good as fresh)
BBQ Sauce
Freshly ground black pepper
Few dashes of Tabasco if you like it hot
Lime juice, just a little bit (omit if using fresh tomato salsa)

- Toast your corn
Toasting the corn brings out a nice roasted, toasty flavor and evaporates the moisture so it doesn't leak into the quesadilla. This is an essential ingredient in all of my quesadilas now. (Frozen corn also doubles as a handy ice pack if you ever jam your finger in a door like Steven. :( Ouch!)

Heat a small nonstick skillet pan over high or medium high heat (no oil!) and add your corn. Shake the pan occasionally until you see the corn turn a dark brown in spots and pop out of your pan. Yes it will literally jump out of the skillet. Set aside for the filling.

- Make your quesadillas
There's a lot of flexibility here with what goes in so you can be the judge of that. Just don't make them too stuffed otherwise it'll be too hard to flip.

Also, rather than making the quesadilla with one tortilla on the bottom and one on the top and forming a sandwich (this is too hard to flip, stuff will fall out). Add your filling to only half the tortilla (leave a 1/2 in border around the edge) then you flip the other half over and make a half moon shape. This way, less yummy filling falls out. You can also cook two of these in a pan.

- Cooking the quesadilla
If you add the oil directly to the pan it won't evenly distribute to cover the entire quesadilla and sometimes you end up using too much oil leading to overly greasy quesadillas and oily fingers.

So instead, use a pastry brush and brush the tortilla a thin layer of vegetable oil. This ensures that the quesadilla will be evenly covered using the least amount of oil as possible. Optional step: sprinkle a little bit of salt over the oil so it will be even more crisp (I always forget to do this).

Cook the quesadilla over medium heat, oil side down, until the bottoms are crisp and golden brown, it'll will take a few minutes. Then brush the top of the quesadilla with some more oil and carefully flip them over. The second side will take less time because the pan will be hotter.

Slide them out and let it sit for 2 - 3 minutes for the cheese to set. Then cut into wedges and serve.

Links:
I'm not the only Seattleite who can't stand the heat, Pea made an absolutely drool-worthy ice cream.