Penne with Pumpkin or Winter Squash (HCE)

• Salt
• 1 medium pumpkin or butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled and seeded
• 2 tablespoons butter or extra virgin olive oil
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes, or to taste
• 1 pound penne or other cut pasta
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, or to taste
• Pinch sugar (optional)
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Mise en place minus the pasta which was already underway.  This is the first time I used the shredding disc in the food processor.

Probably way too much squash.

I've actually made this dish before a couple years back.  It's a great dish but I didn't have nearly enough Parmesan on hand so its richness was definitely missing.  Oh well, it's a shame that I didn't make note of this earlier.

Tagliatelle Carbonara

Ferran Adria is probably the king of Modernist Cooking even though his restaurant elBulli closed on July 30, 2011. Last fall Phaidon published his book on the elBulli family meal, which is the meal that the staff prep and serve themselves. Not a lot of modernist cooking in this though there are a few foams.

from The Family Meal by Ferran Adria

• Smoked bacon, 4 ounces
• Olive oil, 1 1/2 tablespoon (Now I realize I forgot this but perhaps next time)
• Whipping cream, 35% fat, 1 cup
• Water, 2 1/2 cups
• Salt, 1 teaspoon
• Egg tagliatelle, 7 oz (I had an open box of ziti on hand)
• Parmesan cheese, finely grated, 1/2 cup
• Eggs yolks, 2
  

Mise en place. Except for I guess the olive oil. Does this dish really need olive oil?


Slowly frying up the bacon over low heat.


Pour in most of the cream and simmer for 20 minutes.


Whisk 1/8 of the cream and the egg yolks. Add in to the pasta after the bacon cream sauce.


Almost seems like a gratuitous amount of cheese but it works. Surely not the best dish for my health, but I think it'll stick in my rotation as long as I have house- cured and smoked bacon in the house. And particularly another cup of heavy cream in the fridge.
I haven't made too many pasta dishes since I guess they don't make it onto my planning list since I should already have all the ingredients on hand but maybe I should be more in the habit of doing so. Ferran Adria made it easy here since each recipe is for 2, 6, 20, or 75 people (the number of the elBulli staff).

Short Ribs with Cinnamon (HCE)

• 2 tablespoons neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn, or extra virgin olive oil
• 3 pounds meaty short ribs, more or less
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 28-ounce cans whole plum tomatoes, with their juice
• 3 tablespoons roughly chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Mise en place.
One of a sheer handful of dishes I've made about 4 or 5 times since I started cooking about two years ago. It can hardly be considered part of a "rotation" I might have (I no longer have such a habit), but it's a dish I deeply enjoyed. I've considered doing other variations HCE but I just don't think I will. I did make Anise-Scented Short Ribs, but they didn't hit the right spot for me.


Wikipedia:

The Maillard reaction (French pronunciation: [majaʁ], English: /maɪˈjɑr/ my-YAR) is a form of nonenzymatic browning. It results from a chemical reaction between an amino acid and a reducing sugar, usually requiring heat.

Vitally important in the preparation or presentation of many types of food, it is named after chemist Louis-Camille Maillard, who first described it in 1912 while attempting to reproduce biological protein synthesis.^[1](p79)

The reactive carbonyl group of the sugar reacts with the nucleophilic amino group of the amino acid, and forms a complex mixture of poorly-characterized molecules responsible for a range of odors and flavors. This process is accelerated in an alkaline environment, as the amino groups are deprotonated and, hence, have an increased nucleophilicity. The type of the amino acid determines the resulting flavor. This reaction is the basis of the flavoring industry. At high temperatures, acrylamide can be formed.

In the process, hundreds of different flavor compounds are created. These compounds, in turn, break down to form yet more new flavor compounds, and so on. Each type of food has a very distinctive set of flavor compounds that are formed during the Maillard reaction. It is these same compounds flavor scientists have used over the years to make reaction flavors.

Oh this could take a hour and half to get tender. Maybe it'll take four. Who knows with braising? I just have to spin the wheel at see and hopefully not do this so much in a short period of time that I get pissed at myself.


Garnished with Parmigiano-Reggiano and more freshly ground black pepper.
Put down the green canister; buy the real stuff and grate it yourself and you'll be so much happier. The REAL real stuff can only be made in "the producing areas near Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, and Bologna (all in Emilia-Romagna), and Mantova (in Lombardia), Italy." You'll know when you can see a bit of printing on the rind with phrase "Parmigiano-Reggiano." Save the rinds for soup and stock.