The Chefather-Recipes for everyone: Pasta and Rice

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 III Rice with chicken (paella style)

Welcome back!

After the finals and some days of vacation I am back for sharing with you a new recipe that you'll love!

Ingredients por 6-8 hungry people

-1.5 lbs of round rice (not pre-cooked please!)

- 2 pounds of chiken

-1/2 a green pepper

-1/2 a red pepper

- 1 onion

-2 cloves of garlic

-Saffron or colorant

-Olive oil

-Salt

-Pepper

We start by seasoning de chicken. Salt and pepper.

We add some olive oil to the pan and we are going to cook it both sides until brown,very high heat!. If you don't have the 'paella' pan, don't worry, you can use any wide pan or pot you have.

While the chicken is cooking we can cut the vegetables. Try to make them small chunks so that they are not the protagonists when eating.

When the chicken is ready, it should have pretty much this color. We put it out of the pan and let it rest.

We add some extra olive oil and it's the moment for the onion and the garlic. A little bit of salt and we lower the heat. We leave the heat medium until the onion is transparent.

When the onion is transparent, we add the peppers, stir for a while and let it cook for 5 minutes.

We let them cook and meanwhile we can clean and chop the tomatoes. You can peel them if you want but after cooking them you won't probably notice the difference.

When the pepper is ready we add the tomato, a little bit of salt and and we let it cook until the water evaporates.

When it is approximately like this, it's ready.

Now it's the moment for adding the rice. You can make the cross if you want, it's the tradition.

We stir it and let it cook for a couple of minutes.

Now we get the water ready, it's going to be twice the amount of water than of rice. You can use a cup (always the same), measure the rice before the water and you will now the proportions. It is better if you add the water already hot because it will take less time to boil.You could also use chicken stock, which will add an extra flavor but with water it will be delicious anyway.

In the last cup of water, we add a tea spoon of colorant and stir properly. You can also use saffron but it is way more expensive although it adds much more flavor so this is your choice.

Maximum heat until it boils, we add a tablespoon of salt. Let it cook like this 5 minutes, lower the heat(it must keep the boil) and put back the chicken and its juices.