Recipe II Spaghetti Carbonara (and how to boil pasta)

Hi everyone!

Here we are again, ready to share a new recipe with you! Today we are cooking a traditional italian pasta dish with some slight mods as we can't easily find all the original ingredients. This is not a big deal as you will find big changes in this recipe even in Italy.

The origin of this recipe is not very clear, some people state that the name comes from 'carbone', which means coal, implying that it was first cooked by coal miners. Anyhow what we know for sure are the original ingredients: 'guanciale'(lard from the pork's cheek), 'pecorino' and 'parmiggiano' cheese, egg and black pepper. NO CREAM!

Now I have introduced the recipe let's cook it!

Ingredients 6-8 people;

-300g or 2/3 lbs of bacon (it should be 'guanciale')

-1 egg and and 1 yolk per person

(you can make it 1 egg and a half per person in this case, 9 )

-100g or  1/4 lb of ground cheese(parmiggiano+pecorino)

-2lbs of spaghetti

-salt

-olive oil

-black pepper

We will start by adding the bacon to a hot pan and cook it for around 15 minutes or until it starts to be crunchy(medium-high heat). We don't need to add oil or butter as the bacon itself has fat enough for not sticking.

While the bacon gets cooked, we put some hot water in a pot, a little bit of olive oil and we turn on the heat to the maximum till it comes to boil.

Now, while the previous stuff is getting ready, we will start preparing the mix which will be our yummy creamy sauce after. We whisk the eggs.

We add the cheese and mix it.

Now we season with salt and a good amount of pepper.

After 15 minutes, the bacon should be more or less like this. We remove it from the heat and keep it back.

The water is now boiling so we add a tablespoon of salt, the spaghetti(without cutting or breaking them) and we let it sink as it softens.Once it is sank we will stir it and let it cook keeping the water boiling.

My advice is that you cook it a couple of minutes less than the recommended in the package for cooking it 'al dente'.

While the pasta is cooking we add the bacon to the mix, removing a big part of the extra fat we have in the pan. We can keep back some bacon for serving.

When the pasta is ready, we drain it and put it back in the pot.(heat is off)

And it only remains adding the mix we had prepared to the pot. ATTENTION, this is the key of the recipe, the heat MUST be off, the egg will cook slightly with the heat of the pasta. This is what will make it creamy without the need of adding cream!

We only have to serve it. We put the spaghetti in a deep dish, some extra bacon and parmiggiano and we season with some fresh ground pepper.And this is it!

And closer...

What do you think? Do you like it? Don't hesitate to post suggestions or opinions!

I hope you like it!!

Recipe I Spanish Omelet (or potato omelet)

Hi again, 

If yesterday I started introducing myself today I will go for the first recipe. I don't want to make the same "mistake" I made in the other blog, that is starting with a non-spanish recipe so I just switched the order. This is probably the most traditional spanish dish(along with paella), and it really keeps the philosophy of the blog: cheap, easy and delicious!

In every spanish home, "la Tortilla" is prepared in a different way, you'll never find two exact the same. I like it with a lot of egg, not too cooked and without onion. This one has not been my best one, for sure, maybe it would have needed an extra egg but it was great anyway. Cooking is not like math as you see.

Ingredients (4 people)

-3lb/1,5 kg of potatoes

-6/7 Eggs

-Olive oil

-Salt

We start by peeling and washing the potatoes and we cut them as we prefer. You can either do it in cubes or sheets, I prefer cubes so there we go. It does not matter that much as they will  nearly go mushy when cooked.

As you see, the cubes are not perfect and it does not matter. While we go on dicing the potatoes we put a good amount of olive oil in a frying pan,it should be enough to cover the potatoes, but you have to take into account that it will be almost twice the initial amount when it gets hot. We turn the heat on to the maximum until the oil is hot. You don't need to use such a big pan as I did, but I was doing two omelets and fried all the potatoes together.

A very common doubt is when is the oil ready for adding the potatoes, ok it so simple as throwing a potato dice by the moment you turn the heat on, and when it starts doing like this,(see next picture) you can add the rest.

We put a little salt on the potatoes before adding them. You have to be careful with the salt, it is always better to fall short at first and the correct it than the opposite because the food would be uneatable.

We add the potatoes being careful not to get burnt as they have a lot of water and the oil could spit.

We let them cook at mid-high heat over 20 minutes or until they start to go mushy. More or less like here.

Now we have to drain them, we don't want all that extra oil in our amazing omelet. There are many ways of doing it but the one I like best is using a colander with a bowl below, the potatoes will remain on the colander and the oil (that you can of course re-use) in the bowl. 

While the potatoes are draining, we are going to whisk the eggs in another bowl with a pinch of salt. When the potatoes are already drained, we add them to the bowl and we mix it well. We can also smash some of the bigger cubes. We also put the pan back into  the heat with a little bit of oil.

When it gets hot it's the moment of setting up the omelet. We add the mixing and will cook it for a couple of minutes medium-high heat. Meanwhile, we start giving shape to it by putting it away from the edge with the aid of a spatula. In order not to get it sticked you should move the pan from time to time and check that the omelet moves altogether.

Now it comes the critical moment, flipping it over. I only like to flip it once, otherwise it will overcook and we also increase the risk of breaking it. I use this metallic lid but you can go for a plate as long as it fits in the pan.

We put it carefully back to the pan and do the same as before, now only for one minute.

We flip it again for taking it out.(sorry about this picture)

We serve it and it should look like this.

And closer

There it is! I hope you like it and that you try to cook it and give me a bunch of reviews!! See you all soon!

About the author.Introduction

Hi everyone!

I will start by telling some stuff about me so that those of you who don't know me can figure out who is on the other side. I am a 22-year-old business student who started cooking a year ago and discovered how easy and comforting  it can be.

I am from Spain, from a small city in the north (Lugo) but I am usually based in Madrid. At the moment I am enjoying an exchange program in Columbus, Ohio and this is probably the reason I am translating the blog. I want to share my modest experience with the most people possible.

Don't worry if you have never used a frying pan, If you mix up sugar and salt or if the closest you have been to cooking is using the microwave; here I am going to start from scratch so that everyone(me included) can learn and have fun.

Hello again and WELCOME to The Chefather