Bacon and mushroom Pasta

Bacon and mushroom Pasta

There is an unlimited amount of combinations you can have with pasta. It's an easy meal and can be amazingly tasty if you are willing to mix. Today I made bacon and mushroom pasta. It takes about 10 minutes to make and is absolutely delicious. 

Ingredients

• 100 grams lean bacon per person

• 100 grams fresh sliced mushrooms per person

• 5 balls of Tagliatelle per person

• a large spoon sour cream 34% 

• fresh grated Parmesan 

Boil water and start bacon frying.

Put your pasta in the water and cook 30 seconds less than the recommended time. Tagliatelle is usually 5 minutes.

You want the bacon to be fried, but NOT crispy.

 

Remove the bacon to your cutting board and put the mushroom slices into the bacon frying pan with the grease. Cut the bacon into bite size pieces and put it back in the frying pan. Spice your mushroom and bacon mix with some salt pepper and garlic as they fry.

 

Use your spaghetti ladle  to lift the pasta from the pot to the frying pan and add a couple spoons of the water too the bacon and mushrooms. Add a large spoon of sour cream and mix everything and let it simmer for 2 minutes.

 

Pour your dinner into a pasta bowl and top with fresh grated Parmesan Cheese.

just pics

A little update for today. BBQ of course and a nice evening.

Burgers and salad with Vishal

Had my friend over for a nice meal and a good talk. I made bacon and cheese burgers with a nice side
salad.For dieting, don't eat potatoes, bread or buns in the same meal. Chose just one of them and then eat vegetables. Love the burger with the grilled onion and bacon. very tasty.

what are you grilling this summer??

 

My dog Romeo after his summer cut. 

Bacon Pasta

Pasta rules!!

There is an unlimited amount of combinations you can have with pasta. It's an easy meal and can be amazingly tasty if you are willing to mix. Today I made bacon and mushroom pasta. It takes about 10 minutes to make and is absolutely delicious. 

Ingredients

100 grams lean bacon per person

100 grams fresh sliced mushrooms per person

1 small leak chopped

5 balls of Tagliatelle per person

a large spoon sour cream 34% 

fresh grated Parmesan 

Boil water and start bacon frying. You want the bacon to be fried, but NOT crispy. Remove the bacon to your cutting board and put the mushroom slices and leak into the bacon fat and fry it up. Cut the bacon into bite size pieces and put it back in the frying pan. Spice your mushroom and bacon mix with some salt pepper and garlic as they fry.

Put your pasta in the water and cook 30 seconds less than the recommended time. 

Use your spaghetti ladle  to lift the pasta from the pot to the frying pan and add a couple spoons of the water too the bacon and mushrooms. Add a large spoon of sour cream and mix everything and let it simmer for 2 minutes. Pour your dinner into a pasta bowl and top with fresh grated Parmesan Cheese.

 

 

Still waiting for warmer weather to come but at least it was a nice sunset today and that's never a bad thing. 

 

 

Refried beans

Love my Texmex

When I first traveled to LA in 1986 I had no idea what Texmex was and that's a shame. In LA I was introduced to a whole new world of flavors and Fell in love with it. I'm a real fan of hot and spicy so it was love at first taste. There was a great Burrito place that I spent a lot of time at on Sepulveda Boulevard. It was a cheap lunch and a very tasty one. They had a great beef and bean burrito. They also had a nice orange whip drink, but that's a whole different story. 

When I moved to Sweden in 1989 they were just starting to market Texmex, but it was impossible to get good refried beans. They sell a small can of something they call refried beans but there is nothing  in them that you should be putting in your body. It's like buying guacamole dip that contains no avocado, how is that even possible? A couple years ago a decided I needed to figure out how to make my own beans. I watched a couple youtube videos and read some recipes and started the testing process. Now I have a pressure cooker and it's down to a science. You can make them without a pressure cooker, but it takes A LOT LONGER. 

ingredients

800g Pinto beans

1 medium onion

2-3 cloves garlic(chopped)

1 tsp cumin (ground)

4 chicken bullion cubes

1-2 jalapenos (depends on your personal hot scale. I like two)

I use an 800g bag of beans and it makes about 2kgs of refried beans. The import thing is they are incredible easy to reheat after being frozen. I put them in plastic bags and they keep for a couple months in the freezer. 

Always start by hand sorting through your beans to make sure there are no small stones. The plants are kept in soil with a lot of small gravel to make them easy to irrigate and it's not uncommon to find a small stone mixed in with the beans. Nothing you want to be biting into so start with the sort. 

Once sorted put the beans in a bowl and cover with water a couple inches over the beans because they will absorb a lot of water. Let them soak over night with a cover.

Chop a medium size onion and fry it with a little butter. Put the kettle on to cook up water while you are letting the onion get slightly yellow and soft. Chop up 2 or 3 garlic cloves and add them and 4 chicken bullion cubes with a little of the water. Mix until the cubes have melted. Chop up a jalapeno and throw it into the pot. Grind up a teaspoon of cumin and add that. Then strain your beans and put them into your pot. Add enough boiling water to cover your beans plus a couple centimeters extra. Once again the beans will soak up water and you will be able to remove excess water later.

Bring the Beans to a boil on medium high and put the lid on. Once the pressure cooker seal closes, turn the heat down to low and let it cook for an hour. Take the pot off the heat and let it cool down and release the steam on it's own. This will help the beans cook the last little bit without risk of burning them. The beans should be soft and you should be able to mash them with your finger. This is a great time to taste test.

Strain the beans into a bowl saving the liquid. Put the beans back into the pot and mash the beans. The consistency is up to your own personal preference. Use the liquid you save to give the beans moisture. You don't want dry beans and there is so much flavor in the liquid. I like to use the liquid instead of water when cooking up my texmex beef to get full use of the amazing flavors. 

 

Tips

• portion your beans into small plastic bags for freezing
• you can reheat in microwave or in a pot. 
• You may need to add a little water when you reheat
• for a really good bean dip you can just add a little sour cream
• bean burrito is a great thing to serve to your vegetarian friends

Bacon wrapped Jalapeño chicken

Bacon wrapped Jalapeño chicken

An easy meal as always. Slice your chicken breast into strips. Spice with some chili, garlic, paprika or and grill spice you like. Then half your Jalapeño and remove the seeds. Put a half on each side of your chicken slice and then wrap with bacon. Use toothpicks to keep everything place. Grill on medium high heat until chicken is cooked though. Serve with rice and a nice sauce.

sauce suggestion

• sour cream
• BBQ mix spice
• ketchup
• garlic
• soya sauce
• chili

Oven baked chicken wings

Buffalo wings

When I was 20 you could get wings for 10 cents a piece at any bar or pub. Popcorn shrimp were also 10 cents each as well. Those days are long gone. The chicken wing used to be scrap and thrown away but then one day, some very smart person, decided that it could be sold as a snack. In the beginning wings were fried and than put in a bowl of hot sauce. In the last 30 years they have figured out that all that fat is really bad for us so it was time to start baking wings instead. The good thing is baking wings is extremely easy. 

Start by putting a mix of your favorite spices in a plastic bag. Add the wings and shake them around to get spice on all the wings. I like to let them stand for an hour to make sure that the chicken absorbs as much flavor as possible. Heat the oven to 180 C. I have a pan with a rack that I like to use, but you can just put tinfoil in a pan and use that as well. Make sure the wings are spread out and put them on the middle rack in the oven. After 20 minutes turn all the wings over and turn the oven to 200 C and put the wings back in for another 20 minutes. 

Today I did a chili and ginger spice mix and then some Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce when the wings are almost done, just a little. You can serve with carrot and celery sticks or just some fresh baked bread. Easy food for sure! 

Strip loin steak

 Strip Loin

Today I made one of my favorites, steak and potatoes and that's never a bad combo. Today I used a prime cut strip loin steak. When Grilling Strip loins you want to make sure that your steak is about an inch thick.

TIPS

1. It is really important to take your meat out at least half an hour before you are going to grill. If the meat is still cold it will cook fast on the outside and not get the even grilling that you want. 
2. Good cuts of steak should not be marinaded or rubbed. You pay the good money for the taste of the steak. All you want to do is brush on a very thin layer of vegetable oil and then put on a bit of salt and pepper just before you throw it on the grill. 
3. Make sure your grill is very hot before starting to cook. Place the steak on the grill and let it sear on the first side for about a minute and then flip it over. You want to do this so that you lock in the moisture in the meat. If you leave it on the first side too long there is nothing to keep the juices from being forced out of the meat. 
4. How well done the meat is depends on the individual, but I would recommend never cooking a Strip Loin past medium and if you can live with the red color the taste and tenderness of the steak is better if you grill it to a medium rare.

The day started nicely

 The day started with some really nice weather. The moon was still hanging in the air as the sun was coming up and the sky was perfectly clear. The clear sky gave way to some clouds and rain early in the day, but a little rain isn't going to get in the way of getting some BBQing in.

Time to watch the end of the baseball game and we'll see whats cooking tomorrow.