Recipe: Spaghetti Carbonarra with Lamb Bacon

It amazes me that two years ago, I didn't even know that Lamb Bacon existed. It has won its way into my heart as a favortie meat product. I don't know where to buy it, aside from the Deck Family Farm, but if you are a bacon lover and in the Willamette Valley or Portland area... WOW. Try it out! It is intesnely flavorful and wonderfully fatty. It makes a killer BLT (especailly now that the tomatoes are getting ripe).

I wish I could upload the flavor for you. So very decadent

But our favorite thing to do with it? Carbonarra.




Frequently, Carbonarra is made with pancetta or proscuitto. Often people use pork bacon as the meat, but a good pack of Lamb Bacon really makes this dish something special. As a bonus, it's almost laughably simple to create.



Spaghetti Carbonarra with Lamb Bacon

Amazing ingredients for amazing dinner.

1 lb. Lamb Bacon
1 lb. fesh pasta (preferably a larger noodle like linguini. I used egg linguini from Pasta Plus.)

4 egg yolks
3/4 cup heavy cream (like the amazing raw cream from the Deck's Creamy Cow Share. Yum.)
3/4 cup parmesan, plus extra to sprinkle
Salt and Pepper to taste



Chop the bacon into small pieces and fry. Pull out of the grease and set aside. Save the grease - you'll need it later and want the leftovers for something else good.

Cook the pasta to al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, whisk the egg yolks, cream, and parmesan together. Drain the pasta and mix with the dairy sauce over low heat till the sauce thickens and clings to the noodles, about 3-5 minutes. Add the bacon and 2-4 tablespoons of reserved grease, mixing throughly. Season to taste with the salt and pepper.

Serve with a light salad or other veggie. Clearly this meal is the best kind of calorie fest, so keep your sides very light and simple. The Lamb Bacon has such a rich flavor you don't want to try and compete with it.

Also, if you do this and splurge on the Lamb Bacon... Go All The Way. Get really good pasta, cream, and eggs. Get local and raw if you can. I swear you will not be disappointed. It's worth it.

Recipe: Crackling Cheese-Chive Muffins

"Warm and plump as fresh baked muffins..." (Charlotte Pomerantz)

This morning called for something more than cereal or scrambled eggs. The day called for Muffins. So Sister-Bug and I whipped up a batch while Brother-Bug slept in.

Two other excellent reasons to make muffins:

1) You have sour milk. Like I wrote about here, sour milk has a magical effect on the consistency of baked goods like muffins, quick breads, and pancakes. And why waste that potential?

2) Mixing muffins is an easy project to do with a little kid. Muffin batter is very flexible and forgivable. Once you get a general recipe down you can add and subtract, and your toddler can pour in too much baking powder...and you can still save it and come out of the experience (usually) with something edible.

These are our favorite muffins, and a wonderfully flexible recipe. Because they are savory they make a good addition to any meal and I've seen them disappear at many potlucks. My mom made a similar muffin when I was young and I've kept it and adapted it for our days when we just need muffins for breakfast - like today.

I used Lonesome Whistle's Red-Fife Wheat Flour and Buckwheat Flour which gave this particular batch of muffins a particularly rich flavor and a wonderful crumb. The millet is for texture fun (as well as the wonderful nutrition found in millet). As the muffins bake, the millet softens a little and toasts which is what makes these muffins "crackling" - the millet pops while you chew which is really fun! You can use any flour combinations, but at least 1 cup must be a whole grain flour or the texture will be really strange. I like a sharp cheddar and chives best, but only fresh chives. However, any combination of cheese and herbs will work, and it's fun to play with flavor potential.

Sister-Bug considers the implicatons of muffin batter.

What else could you add? Bacon or ham bits? Blue cheese instead of cheddar? Roasted red pepper bits? Flax seeds, bran, wheat germ, or other nutritional delights? Rye flour and caraway seeds? So many possibilities.

It's the fresh chives that really make this recipe so good.

Crackling Cheese-Chive Muffins

2 cups flour (combined whole wheat, other whole grains, and a little white to keep it light)
4 tsp. baking powder
A pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups sour milk or thinned yogurt
2 eggs
1-3 tbl. fresh chives (or other herbs)
2/3 cup millet
1 cup grated cheese (sharp cheddar or ??)
3 tbl. melted butter (or vegetable oil)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Mix the dry ingredients and make a well. Add the milk and eggs and beat throughly. Add the chives, millet, and cheese mixing till just combined. Stir in the butter.

Spoon into muffin tins and bake until a toothpick comes out clean - about 20 minutes. Eat warm, eat cold, eat plain, eat with butter... Just eat them quickly before your kids inhale them!

Just coming out of the oven...

Baking in Cast Iron? I always bake my muffins in my cast iron pans. They are a bit of an investment, but they are really worth it! Preheat the pans with the oven and use a basting brush to grease each muffin cup. Spoon in your batter and bake as usual. Because your muffin cups are hot iron, they bake the bottom of the muffin - making the whole muffin crisp around. And as long as you wipe them up right away and don't use soap on your cast iron (EVER), they are clean and back in the cupboard very quickly. 

The New Nutrition Symbol

It's a plate! NPR reported that the out-dated and unwieldy pyramid is out and the plate is in.

To my eyes, this makes a lot of sense. After all, we usually see our food on a plate and so this makes it easy to see if anything is missing. I also really like the broad categories. It's going to be hard to lobby any specifics into this baby. Meat lobby? You've got a whole protein category right there, Ditto to you, soy lobby. Lots of fruits and veggies, and a reduction of grains. Also good. The proportions are good too - more veggies and grains than proteins and fruits, and just a cup of dairy to the side. It doesn't have to be milk - it could be a cup of cheese to sprinkle on everything.

In fact, this plate is very similar to my concept of The Three G's.  I hope this makes meeting nutritional requirements easier on parents. I personally think it makes it more like an art project when serving up - arranging plates to cover all your bases could be fun. Actually, it is fun! I do it with my Gs all the time. Making attractive, colorful, diverse meals is an artistic delight. Which makes cooking less of a chore and more of a game.

I like games.

 

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I just learned about Reverse Graffiti. This is brilliant. I am totally thrilled. Actually revolutionary, in my opinion.

Recipe: Slow Cooker French Onion Soup

It's one of my favorites - rich beef-broth, savory onions, browned cheese... Yum. Luckily it is also one of the easiest things I make in our kitchen. The secret is in the slow cooker.

I never used to make french onion soup because I don't particularly enjoy caramelizing onions. The amount of slow stirring over the pan of onion aromatics... not really a cooking task for me. And then came the realization of Slow Cooker Caramelized Onions. Let me lay this out for you.

I say this is "almost instant" but in reality it takes a day or so to complete. However, most of that time is in the slow cooker, so it doesn't really count. You just have to think ahead a bit.

1) Throw some beef bones and about a quart and a half of water in your slow cooker the night before you want your soup. Add a potato for extra potassium if you wish it. Make sure the bones are covered with water. Turn it to high and leave it over night.

2) The next morning, pour the broth into a container to store in the fridge for the day. Discard the bones. Save the potato and have it for lunch. YUM.

(You can skip these two steps and buy a quart of pre-made beef broth at the store. But it won't taste quite the same.)

3) Slice up enough onions to OVERFILL your slow cooker. I use my food processor for this. You can do it by hand. Either way, you want enough to fill the slow cooker above the brim.

4) Add the onions and a stick or two of butter (8-16 oz.) to the slow cooker. I usually put half the butter in the middle, and half on top. Figure out how to lid this pile - I had to cover mine over with tinfoil this last time. Too many onions for the lid to fit!

**NOTE: If you don't want extra caramelized onions for later, fill your slow cooker only about half way with onions and reduce the amount of butter.

5) Turn the slow cooker back on (high). Leave it for the day. Stir it once or twice if you get the opportunity. Or just let it go. Whatever.

6) 20-30 minutes before you want to eat, open up your slow cooker. You should have lovely onions - a whole pile of them! Way more than you need for your soup. Take about 2/3 of the onions and freeze by the measured 1/2 cup on a cookie sheet or in muffin tins. Keep these guys in the freezer for caramelized onions in an instant. They thaw fast to be added to burgers, quiche, omelets, pasta sauce, whatever! That's a win. You can put them to the side and get them in the freezer after dinner or anytime in the next couple of hours.

**I am compelled at this point to bring up my dad's complaint with this method. You end up with caramelized onions that are more steamed than fried and therefore do not have the crispy caramel bits. I agree with him. I also like how simple it is to caramelize these guys.

7) Add the following to the remaining 1/3 of onions in the slow cooker:
Approximately 4 cups beef broth
1/2 cup (or more) dry white wine
4-5 fresh thyme sprigs or 2 tbl. dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste

8) Lid the cooker and let it all warm up.

9) Serve the soup into oven-safe bowls. Top each one with some crusty baguette-type bread and slices of Gruyere cheese (Parmesan is okay in a pinch). Broil until the cheese is toasty and serve.

That's it. Lots of steps, but (with a food processor to cut the onions) no step takes more than 10 minutes. Most steps take more like 2 minutes.

Eat up!