Expanding the skill set...

What's this?
Yes!
The Sexy is back!!

Greetings food lovers and students of culinary tomfoolery in the kitchen! Been VERY caught up in my daytime pursuits as an attorney so free time has been both scarce and sporadic.  But now that I have a bit of a window I thought that I would start the plan for the new year long project.

I was speaking with Josh Nelson, one of the owners of The Kitchen Restaurant recently about finding some good, thorough cookbooks to learn from and he turned me on to "The Zuni Cafe Cookbook" by Judy Rodgers, and "A16 Food + Wine", by Nate Appleman and Shelly Lindgren, and because I am a fan of "The F Word" on BBC America, I picked up "Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food".  I included Gordon Ramsey because I have become enamored with another show of his on BBC America called "Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course" and it's just that: a cooking course.  I have about 20 episodes on my tivo and each one features Gordon walking the viewer through and teaching them a recipe.  No competition, no fake drama, just cooking.

The books that Josh suggested are by two very well regarded chefs, and Josh suggested that I pay close attention to the areas about preparing and stocking the pantry first. If the pantry isn't happening, then recipe will fall flat.  After reading on how to better stock my pantry, and couple that with what I learned in my Knife Skills class last week, I was ready to get back into the mix and start spreading my wings a little more.

I decided that I needed a couple of items that were old or absent from my pantry.  I picked up a new Santoku knife from Mac Knives, because the handle on my old one was loose and about to fall off, so it was time to replace it.  I also needed a Pestle and Mortar, which makes it simple to grind up herbs and spices, particularly garlic.  The last thing I need is a mandoline, which will make it infinitely easier to slice vegetables in a uniform manner, and I'm turning to my main squeeze Michelle out in Wisconsin to hook me up for that.  Just those few adjustments and then I'll be back in the race.

Last night as I was scanning through an episode of "Cookery Course" and saw Gordon Ramsay prepare a Mushroom and Leek Pasta dish.  Looked pretty good....so good that I jotted down the ingredients, and what I didn't have I zipped out and picked it up.

MUSHROOM AND LEEK PASTA

 First start a big pot of salted water boiling.  Then slice up some mushrooms, I used three small baskets.  From there you take a leek, cut off the top portion, maybe an inch past where it starts turning dark green, then take the remaining portion and slice it length-wise into quarters, then rinse under running cold water to be sure it's free of any sand or dirt. Then take a clove of garlic and slice it thinly and set it aside. Then put your noodles in the salted boiling water, any type of pasta will do, from lasagna sheets to elbow noodles.  I used extra wide egg noodle because they soak up sauces perfectly for me. Then take your heavy skillet and get it hot on the burner, once its nice a hot pour some olive oil into it, maybe a tablespoon, just enough to coat the bottom.  Once the oil gets hot, place the mushrooms in and let them cook all of their water out, then and the garlic, then the leek.  Once the vegetables have softened and are nice and fragrant then turn the heat down to medium and pour in some chicken stock, that will de-glaze the skillet somewhat, and let that simmer for a few minutes.  Then stir in some heavy cream and let that simmer for a few more minutes and then it will begin to thicken up.  Drain your noodles and begin to spoon them into the mushroom sauce, and allow them to soak in, let that come together then serve with some garlic bread.....that's what I'm talkin' about...:)

Fast, simple, and on point taste-wise! That is all one can ask for.

As I mentioned earlier my daytime job keeps me pretty busy, and the most time consuming part is dealing with knuckle-heads who waste my time.  Time that could spent doing research on other matters, playing softball, or....sharpening my cooking skills...so now that I have learned to sift the knuckle-heads out, that should allow me to try a recipe from each book every week and see if A) I can do it, and B) Is it tasty? I want to mine each book for all of the recipes which should refine and develop my skills much more than they are presently.  It will be a fun ride!

(This is my mindset for dealing with knuckle-head phone calls)

Until next time...!

Marc a.k.a "Big Sexy"