Blistered Peppers

The other day I purchased a packet of Padron peppers on a whim at the farmers market. Padron peppers are beautiful green Spanish peppers that I had absolutely no idea how to prepare. If you are starting to notice a pattern, you are astute. I have a habit of purchasing ingredients I have no idea how to cook, then jumping in with both feet. Good news is this particular recipe is simple and doesn't require exotic ingredients. Bad news is the first batch with proper Padron peppers got eaten before I could take a photo so you will have to settle for the supermarket generic sweet peppers. Boo hoo.

1 pack of Padron or sweet peppers (any pepper under three inches long that you can stand to eat in bulk will work)
Sea Salt
Olive Oil
Dilithum Crystals

I'll be honest, I pinched that last ingredient from Star Trek because I felt the list was too short, but trust me these are delicious. Heat a skillet to high heat with a few glugs of oil in it. Open all the windows in your house, get a few fans running and be prepared for smoke. Once the oil is shimmering toss as many peppers as can comfortably fit in the skillet. They need to all be making full contact with the cooking surface, so don't over crowd. Shake the pan every 10 seconds or so, and turn with tongs as needed. You are looking for even blistering. I myself prefer a bit of char, but that's up to your taste, as long as they get nice and blistered you don't need them black. Cook this way for 4-6 minutes, remove to a plate when at the desired doneness. Add a few generous pinches of sea salt on top and eat as soon as they are cool enough to handle. These are a perfect appetizer for any meal and a damn good reason to buy multiple packs of peppers at the market.

chorizo carbonara

Can I get real for a minute? I am drunk. Pissed. Three sheets to the wind. Left of right. Don't know Tuesday from purple. BUT THAT DON'T BOTHER NONE! This is by far the most impressive meal you can make with the most limited of memory and motor skills. Chorizo Carbonara. If there is a better meal I've never had it.


1/2 pound fresh pasta (I mean made today by you fresh, check our recipe you slacker)
2 egg yolks
12 oz Mexican pork chorizo
1/2 cup heavy wipping cream
Hard cheese for topping
Salt and pepper


This may be the perfect date meal, I'm just saying. From making the noodles to mixing the ingredients, its cheap, easy, and completely fool proof. Make your noodles and let them rest a half hour. Be sure to leave the eggs and cream on the counter, cold eggs and cream will not do. Room temperature is ideal. While they are resting, cook the chorizo in a skillet over medium heat. You want it to get a nice crispy texture. Drain the fat as needed. While the chorizo is crisping, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Once at a rolling boil pull the heat back to a light boil and toss the pasta in. Because you are using fresh pasta (DONT YOU DARE USE DRY SO HELP ME GOD I WILL FIND AND END YOU!) it will cook in under four minutes. Taste every 30 seconds to ensure proper doneness. While the pasta is cooking whisk the egg yolks and cream until just combined, be careful not to over-do it. Drain pasta and remove from heat. Toss pasta, eggs, cream, and chorizo until a sauce forms. If the pasta is too hot the eggs and cream will curdle and be awful. So. You know. DON'T do that. Plate and top with very thin slices of hard cheese and a few cracks of good fresh pepper. You're welcome.

Cold Sesame Noodles

Adapted from Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine

This is our favorite cold noodle salad. Its fantastic on warm summer days when you have a ton of vegetables you want to use up but don't want to fire up the wok. We used dried Chinese noodles, but pretty much any noodle will work. most of the steps can be completed ahead of time and then combined a few minutes before serving. While the flavors blend really well over-night, the veggies have a tendency to get very limp very quickly. The dressing is also works as a great salad dressing if you have left-overs.


 olive oil
1 pound noodles
2 garlic cloves minced
1/2 sesame paste
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon tabasco sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup chicken stock
1/4 chunky peanut butter
4 endives
1/2 cucumber
1/2 bell pepper
1/4 cup minced cilantro
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds



Cook the noodles until tender according to the instructions on the packaging. Strain the noddles, toss with 1 tablespoon of oil and lay them out flat on a cooking sheet until cool. You can cover them with plastic wrap and refrigerate if you want to do this step ahead.  

Saute the garlic in 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat until fragrant. Remove from heat and add sesame paste, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, tabasco and sugar. It will develop into a thick paste pretty quickly, all you are doing here is making sure everything is mixed well. Bring the chicken stock to a boil in a separate pot then add that to the paste, creating a the dressing.

Cut the bottoms of the endives, remove the leaves, and julienne them. Endives are a bit tricky because they are so crisp you risk snapping the leaves if you do not cut off a bit more of the bottom after every layer of leaves. Its hard to describe but you will see once you get going. Julienne the cucumber and the bell pepper as well.

The book suggests to toss the sauce with the noodles and then top with the vegetables and cilantro. This is great for presentation and will store much better than if you toss everything together, but if you are serving a larger group, like a pot luck, you will definitely want to toss it all together. Enjoy!

Pasta

This is the most basic pasta recipe I know. It's ridiculously simple and easy to memorize. I highly recommend doing so.

• Three large fresh eggs. (Fresh matters.)
• 1 1/2 cups flower, separated
• 1 teaspoonful of salt
• 1 tablespoonful of olive oil

One a clean smooth surface, make a mound with one cup of flower. Create a well in the middle of the mound, about six inches in diameter. Separate two of the eggs and add the yolks to the well. You can save the whites for cocktails or throw them out. Crack the entire third egg into the well. Add the salt and oil, then whisk the eggs, slowly incorporating the flour as you go. Keep whisking until a dough forms, then kneed dough until smooth. form into a ball, cover with plastic and let rest for a half hour. 

From here you have a few choices. If you have a pasta roller, you probably already know how to make pasta and aren't reading this. If you don't, get out your best rolling pin and get to work. I like to half the rested dough, but if you don't work quickly you will want to cut it into thirds. Keep the dough you aren't working with covered so it doesn't dry out.  Flour your work surface and pin. The thinner the better as they will plump slightly when you cook them. Cut into the appropriate size ribbons. 

Cooking fresh pasta is very very different than cooking dry or even supermarket "fresh" pasta. Salt four quarts of water with about a tablespoonful of salt, maybe more. Bring it to a roiling boil but then back it off to a light boil, barely more than a simmer. Add the pasta and watch it! Do not crowd the pot and do not let it over-cook. Taste at 30 seconds and see if its done. If you walk away you will over-cook it. Two minutes is usually too long, but you will get a feel for it.