More Carbo-loading

After Monday’s potato bonanza, we moved onto other starches…. rice and pasta. If Monday was our longest class, it’s only fitting that the day after was our shortest. After a quiz and short lecture, dove straight into our rice preparation.

Steamed rice……… uh… wash it, bring it to a boil, cover and simmer for 25 min. Yep, that’s it.

Rice pilaf….. same as above except that you add the rice to sweating onions to coat and flavor the rice with fat (usually butter). The fat brings out a nutty flavor in the rice and the coating prevents the rice from sticking together.

The takeaway on rice prep, rice to liquid ratios:
Steamed Rice: 1 cup rice – 1 ¼ cup liquid
Pilaf Rice: 1 cup rice – 1 ½ cup liquid

30 min into class and we’re done with 2 of 6 of our dishes.

I got started on spaetzle. Spaetzle is a German pasta that is a mixture of flour, eggs and water with the consistency of thick pancake batter. The dough or batter is then basically run over a cheese grater into a pot of boiling water. This process creates little batter drops that cook and surface within 60 secs. The noodles are then shocked in an ice water bath to keep from over cooking. We then held these until near service time when we and reheated them in a pan of clarified butter. I remember having this before and it being very buttery and light. In our class, everyone’s seemed to be tougher than I remember and not quite flavorful enough. Because it was not as popular, I was able to take a portion of it home. When it sat overnight and I seasoned it again with more salt and cooked it with a lot more butter, it was much better.

In addition to our fresh pasta, we also made a dried pasta dish, Pasta “Alla Carbonara”. First things first, here are some handy measurements to have regarding cooking pasta:
Pasta: 1 lb pasta – 8 cup of water
Dry Pasta: 1 lb dry pasta = 2 ½ - 3 lbs cooked pasta; 8-10 min cook time
Fresh Pasta: 1 lb fresh pasta = 2 – 2 ½ lbs cooked pasta; 30-60 sec cook time

Adrianna prepared ½ lb of dry spaghetti in a pot and sautéed bacon in another. When the bacon fat had rendered she added the pasta into the sauté pan. The heat is turned down to low and finished the pasta with a liason (if you remember from Soups 2, this is 1 part egg + 3 parts cream). Unfortunately, our pan was a bit too hot and the liason broke a little bit and you could see dots of the coagulated egg scattered on the pasta. It still tasted fantastic but did not have the thick cream sauce that it should have.

Carling took the lead on the polenta. I have never made it before but had seen a Michael Chiarello’s Food Network show Easy Entertaining where he hosted a polenta party. Polenta = cornmeal + butter + liquid and can be served 2 ways. When first cooked, it’s most like oatmeal or grits and has the texture of a thick batter. Basically, it should run but have a doughy-ness to it that prevents it from breaking up. The most common restaurant preparation of polenta is to cool the polenta and let it harden. Then it is cut into shapes, re-heated (fried to add color) and served as a layer in a stack of food. At the “Polenta Party”, Chiarello served the polenta while runny. He poured it out over his table and had dishes of other ingredients like roasted vegetables that his guests served themselves directly onto the table and mixed in a portion of the polenta. It looked pretty awesome and is still something I’d like to do in the future. We served our polenta in its runny state and Adrianna formed it before plating and made ours look pretty. Mental note: this form of polenta needs to be served very hot; if it cools, it hardens and is like eating sandy jell-o.

The last dish before service was risotto. This dish is traditionally difficult because it requires constant attention to finish properly and is best served immediately. Apparently, there are several ways to prepare it though. Some people add all of the liquid at once, some add it gradually; some people stir consistently, some stir in intervals; some people add the wine up front, others finish with the wine. I followed the traditional preparation, liquid added gradually while stirring constantly and adding the wine at the end.

The reasons for these steps:
1. Adding the liquid gradually: to keep the pot at a constant simmer
2. Constant stirring: with a small amount of liquid stirring prevents the bottom from burning and/or over-cooking
3. Adding the wine at the end: to keep the white wine flavor

The desired texture is creamy and tender but with al dente centers to the rice grains. My arm started to get tired by the end but it was well worth it. This was my favorite of the day. Once all of the liquid is incorporated (1 cup rice – 3 cups liquid), parmesan cheese and butter are stirred in until melted. Service time. Oh man, was this good.

Today we were done early, and good thing, cuz we had a lot to eat.

Rees