Purple Potato Pepper Salad

With Julia Child's "beef stew" - or at least my first attempt at it - in the oven simmering, I feel I've almost reached a home chef's nirvana. For now, at least. As it turns out, french cooking is a lot of work! I love the food it produces, but I don't always have the four hours it takes to create it.

Last weekend I had a hankering for potato salad, but had a very limited number of ingredients. This recipe gives a close look into what my refrigerator looks like when I'm too busy to buy food. Purple potatoes are small, deeply colored potatoes that are rich and creamy, without being particularly sweet or buttery, like yams and yukon golds. I love them mostly because they make meals fun, and several vendors at the Fulton St. Farmer's Market carry them in the summer. These came from the grocery store.

1 bag (1 dozen medium-sized) purple potatoes (aka Peruvian potatoes)

8 hard boiled eggs, diced

3 cups fresh baby spinach, coarsely chopped

1 cup pickled banana (yellow) peppers, chopped (well drained)

1/2 cup pickled jalapeno peppers, chopped (well drained)

1 small sweet onion, chopped

1 cup Helman's salad dressing

3 Tblsp yellow mustard

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp paprika

2 tsp salt

The potatoes were best chopped in small cubes, cooked al dente (soft but not mushy) well drained and cooled before mixing with the other ingredients. Toss all dry ingredients into a large bowl before mixing in the dressing and spices, then gently mix with a large wooden spoon until well blended.

It all comes out to a tart, snappy salad that pops in your mouth. The eggs and salad dressing temper the hotness, so it's really not very spicy.

I'd like to point out that I did a little housecleaning this evening, and my blogroll is updated. The Michigan Lady Food Bloggers group was kind enough to invite me to their blogger's group, and there are some unique, lovely blogs in the MLFB blogroll. Check out TeacherPatti over at the MLFB blog, and have a look at smitten kitchen's studio-like photos.

Valentine's Day in 2 weeks! I'm thinking red velvet cake.

Thanks for stopping by!

Old World Noodles / Homemade Pasta Alfredo

I have a few disclaimers to make. One, that I'm sorry that I've not posted in a while (mostly because Google probably stopped spidering my website two weeks ago) and I'm going to blame it on the holidays. I had a cooking marathon and not many photos to show for it, but I'll try to dig some out soon.

Second disclaimer is that I haven't been reaching out to my fellow bloggers much, and I hope to have some time to fill out my blogroll soon.

So, a few months ago I promised a recipe for old world noodles. By "old world" I mean the stiff hand-rolled dough that puffs up like long flat dumplings. Or, they usually do the way mom and I have always made them. We made noodles and gravy for Thanksgiving, and I saved half the batch to try spaghetti, which actually turned out pretty well.

There are pictures of the spaghetti noodles hanging on my mom's coffee mug holder drying, but they're on her camera, so when she reads this blog she should...email them to me so I can post them. :)

From left to right; dough, roughly processed, halfway processed.

Here's the dough fully processed; you can see how smooth it's gotten.

Mommy said the spaghetti drying looked like a ghost.

Here's both recipes, starting with the noodle recipe. I'm going to be honest with you: it is definitely possible to do this by hand without a noodle maker, but you have to have a steady hand with a knife and strong biceps. I used my mom's noodle maker (they're about $30 at any kitchen store), and it was easy.

Noodle recipe:

4 egg yolks

4 cups flour

2 tsp salt

2 tsp fine ground black pepper (optional)

4-6 tblsp milk

Food process or grind by hand the egg yolks into a hollowed bowl in the flour, salt and pepper until it's very crumby. Then add the milk one tablespoon at a time until the dough all sticks together, then knead the dough on a very lightly floured surface until relatively smooth.

Cut the dough into four sections and wrap three. Roll the dough out flat and narrow (until it can fit into the noodlemaker). At this point, it needs to be run through the kneading section of the noodlemaker several times - a dozen, perhaps - until it's smooth and creamy. If you're making noodles and gravy, they can be chunkier, but if you're making pasta it needs to be smooth.

For those without noodlemakers, I salute you.

Pick the setting you want for thinness, or roll them out as thin as you want. These noodles swell quite a bit, so 1/4 inch thick noodles will be gigantic.

For my angel hair pasta, it was about 1/16 inch thick.

Once the pasta is cut, lay or hang it in long, straight strands to dry. I recommend drying these at least overnight (in the open air) before cooking them, but once they're dry you can put them in mason jars and leave them indefinitely. Because...it's pasta!

Old World Noodles and Gravy

4 cups chicken, turkey or beef broth (preferably boiled with a neck or joint)

3 tsp salt

3 tsp black pepper

2 tblsp flour

1-2 tblsp corn starch

Boil the broth and spices, then quickly whisk in the flour and half the cornstarch while boiling. Sifting the flour and starch into the liquid using a sieve or flour sifter is the safest way to go. Wait for the liquid to boil for 2-3 minutes, then add more corn starch if you want it to be thicker. Remember not to make it too thick, since the noodles are floury and will thicken it more.

Throw noodles in until they're half way up the liquid, then lightly simmer for 30-60 minutes.

Pasta Alfredo

Place noodles in boiling, salted water and let cook until tender.

the "roux":

3 tblsp butter

3 tblsp flour

Melt the flour and butter together until it's a lukewarm paste in the pan. Then slowly add on low heat:

1 cup whole milk

1 cup cream

1 tsp salt

Bring the milk mixture to a slow, low boil and stir constantly until it begins to thicken. As it thickens, add:

1/2 cup finely shredded parmesan or romano cheese. (Please not the can stuff)

Now pour the sauce over the noodles. I like to throw in baby spinach or steamed broccoli and sauteed chicken to make this a well-balanced meal.

Mmmm. I bet if this meal was calculated out it would come to less than $2 per serving (makes 4).

Pictures, mommy.