Pasta - Bettina Network's Blog

Archive for the ‘Pasta’ Category

Diversity In Food – A Child from the marriage of Chicken Soup and Chicken Stew!

Friday, March 5th, 2021

This dish was an accident, but one I am delighted happened because it improves on both chicken soup and chicken stew.

The first time I made this I didn’t know what happened. I was trying for chicken soup, but the result was definitely not what I thought it would be nor was it the chicken soup to which I was accustomed..

When I repeated the process, it became clear that I had discovered something rare and absolutely delicious.

A whole chicken is needed – preferably one of good size rather than the small young chickens that are good for frying. Decades ago these were called “stewing hens”. Today they seem to have disappeared in favor of the young chickens usually much under three pounds. The life span of, chickens has seriously diminished, they no longer have a long life.

If you can’t find a large one, then whatever you find will still make a good dish. ONLY make sure the chicken is organically grown. That is what really makes the difference. And everything else you use for this dish must be organic – otherwise, why bother cooking. It would only limit your life span.

First – take as much of the skin off the chicken as possible. This makes a better dish and the skin must be saved because it makes an absolutely scrumptious snack. – Recipe for this to follow in another article.

Second – put three or more tablespoons of organic butter into a very large pot and add chopped onions, celery, carrots and garlic. Add the garlic after the onions, and other vegetables have had a few minutes in the pot alone.

Use very generous amounts of the vegetables. – all of which have been organically grown.

Add the chicken and let these ingredients fry together for several minutes turning the chicken so it doesn’t burn or get too brown.

Add a can of organic coconut milk to the pot – please don’t use the “light” kind. Regular organic coconut milk is what makes the best dish. The other shouldn’t even be on the grocery store shelves.

Add several spices. The ones we like for this dish are salt, tabasco sauce, thyme, turmeric and rosemary. One person who tested this recipe added honey – YUK!! But he waxed eloquent about the results. That is what happens when you let men into the kitchen. The dish is adulterated, although he brought a pot for us to sample and it was quite good. Not excellent, but very good.

Let the dish cook a bit until everything in the pot looks comfortable combined together..

Add regular milk to cover everything to about two inches above.

Add noodles – uncooked. We prefer the large very thick noodles for this dish. They are what takes the dish from ordinary to great. If you lose your confidence in our recipes and add cooked noodles you will have a very disappointing dish. Something is added to this dish when the noodles so added are uncooked and allowed to cook to perfection in this dish rather than being put into the dish after boiling everything decent out of the noodles in a separate pot full of water and salt.

Let simmer until the chicken is done – at least 45 minutes – stirring every ten to fifteen minutes to keep all of the flavors moving around one another.

Add the zest from one lemon – obtained by using a rasp which takes only the yellow part off the uncut lemon, then squeeze the lemon juice into the pot. If a couple seeds get into the pot also, no problem, they add to the taste and nutrition of the dish.

The mixture will thicken without adding either corn starch or flour. Just give it time. And enjoy!!!

Serve in soup bowls – however, take care that the consistency is not as liquid as a soup and not as lacking in liquid as a stew.

AND feel free to send us your feedback on this dish. NOT on what you think about it, but what your experience having made it has told you.

A Great Dish to Help You Survive Tough Times – A Pasta!!

Wednesday, January 13th, 2021

Survival is always possible through “comfort foods”.

We discovered this pasta during a particularly difficult day, not knowing what to eat or cook and trying to resist sugar and chocolate, I went back to my childhood and out came this quick, easy and absolutely satisfying dish.

A PASTA

All ingredients, of course, need to be organically grown. A requirement for any good dish.

In a large cast iron skillet put at least 4 tablespoons organic butter

While that melts, slice an onion very thin and put those circles of beautiful yellow onions in the butter on a low light and let them bubble for many minutes until they are soft, but don’t let them brown.

However, if you are one of those who does not want to see your onions in your pasta sauce, cut the onion into four pieces and add it to the food processor with what follows….

Into your food processor put three stalks of celery – one green pepper – and optional would be to also add one red pepper and one orange pepper. Not necessary unless you want to ‘gild the lily’.

Add those ingredients to the slowly cooking onion and let all of them cook with an occasional stirring. If you chose not to have onion rings in your pasta then all of the above ingredients would be added at once.

After a time, add one pound organic and pasture fed ground beef to this mixture and stir to break up the ground beef.

To continue gilding the lily you can add shrimp, oysters, ham. Not necessary, but that depends upon your condition at the time. One or all of the shrimp, oysters and/or ham adds tremendously to this dish.

After that has cooked and begins to come together add three tomatoes which you have put through either a food processor or magic bullet to turn the tomatoes into liquid.

Add an equal amount of water and then the seasonings.

We like to add – oregano, thyme, turmeric, salt, and either pepper or tabasco sauce to taste. If you have a cultural tongue which likes other kinds of spices feel free to eliminate any of the above and add your favorites. We have tried adding rosemary to the above along with sage and that was a good combination but not when we wanted food as comfort.

While that simmers away get ready to add the ending of this dish – handmade, homemade organic noodles. It is crucial that you add handmade, organic, homemade noodles or the dish will suffer. The difference between these noodles and the ones you buy not organic – which means made with flour processed so there is nothing left to nourish you – it is dramatic and the taste difference will astound you.

Once upon a time we would have had water boiling to cook the noodles and when cooked and drained, put them on a plate and cover with the sauce. We have found, however, that this dish is best by putting the uncooked noodles directly into the cast iron skillet with a top on and let the dish simmer until done.

You will know it is done and ready to eat when you see oil accumulate on top.

Serve with an organic baguette just out of the oven. To make this as though it was freshly baked, quickly run the baguette through water and then put it in the oven to dry out. It will be fantastic – especially if you serve it hot out of the oven! We rarely serve bread which is not directly out of the oven.

With this secret you can take stale bread, put it quickly under the faucet and then into the oven and you will always have what feels and taste like freshly baked bread.

We don’t have nearly as much bread crumbs or as many servings of bread pudding as we used to before discovering this. It is something my great-grandmother Bucksell used to do. She insisted on freshly roasted coffee beans, ground just before making the coffee, but her bread could be rock hard she would pass it quickly under the faucet, into the oven and voila! – a great bit of freshly baked bread to accompany her coffee.

Enjoy!


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