So Tuesday night I made Fettuccine Alfredo from scratch. I still can't believe that I made it, let alone that it tasted good.
I seriously took a bite of it and almost cried, it was amazing. Not perfect, but still amazing.
Considering the last time I made a noodle dish it consisted of Top Ramen style noodles, Chicken Breast, and a Hard Boiled Egg; I definately leveled up. Especially since the end result of that concoction was soggy and burned, and I destroyed a pot. I was able to fix the pot many months later with "Bar Keepers Friend". But the dish was beyond repair. It was flavorless, unless you consider over cooked soggy noodle watered down artificial beef packet seasoning burn taste, a flavor. I made the top ramen style noodles from an Asian top ramen package as per instructed on the package. Yet I managed to burn the noodles and make them soggy. The already cooked Chicken Breast I managed to char the outside yet the inside was still very cold. And the egg which was already hard boiled, I sliced it and it turned to broken and burned bits of hard boiled egg through out the dish. I wish I was exaggerating with the description, but I am not.
Reading what I just wrote in that last paragraph, I am amazed that I even tried to cook again. That pot was smoking so badly. It's interesting that I remember all that, which happened years ago, but hardly remember what I did last night to make the Fettuccine Alfredo. What I mean is that last night felt more like an out of body experience when I tasted the dish, I suppose. It tasted almost restaurant quality.
I got the recipe off of youtube.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Basically the ingredients are
1 Part Butter
2 Parts Heavy Cream
1.5 Parts Finely Chopped Parmesan Cheese
In the video Cajun Spice is used. I did not have Cajun Spice so I used
Salt and Pepper to taste and a Pinch of Garlic Salt (Mc Cormick Brand, the other brands you can see in the picture)
I also used one garlic clove smashed and sliced
I looked up the recipe because Scarlett and I had left over Cocktail Shrimp from the night before. The shrimp was from Albertsons, and since it was Cocktail Shrimp it was already cooked.
The pan I used to cook in was a All Clad Saucie Pan. Obviously Scarlett's and not mine.
It took me a bit to get organized and prep so keep in mind that the ingredients were sitting on the counter and fairly close to room temperature while cooking. I was told that it makes a difference and that the temperature of the ingredients, especially the dairy should be close to the same temperature.
Because the Shrimp was already cooked, I melted 1 pat (1 Tablespoon aka TBS) of butter in the pan over low heat (a 2 out of 10, 1 being the lowest the burner goes, 10 being the highest).
Then added garlic once the pat of butter was half way melted being careful not to burn the garlic.
I added the shrimp after the butter melted stirred them around to coat them in butter, added 3 shakes of salt and 3 of pepper stirring the shrimp till they were luke warm. Then I removed the shrimp and garlic and set them aside.
In the same pan I added the 1 Part butter, in my case 1 stick (.5 cup).
Let that melt.
The I added the 2 parts of Heavy Cream, 1 cup of Heavy Cream.
Stirring gently till warm stopping only to add salt and pepper. About 3 shakes of salt and 4 of pepper.
Once the cream seemed warm (it was showing the signs that steam gives off when liquid heats to a warm point), I sprinkled the 1.5 parts Fine Chopped Parmasian Cheese in, stirring while adding it. I continued to stir making sure to scrap the whole pan that was under the liquid so that the pan would not be coated too badly with burned sauce on it's surface. I continued to stir gently not allowing the sauce to bubble until the cheese had mostly melted. I thought the cheese melted all the way, but it didn't. I got impatient and realized later that I could have let the sauce cook more before I added the shrimp back. Because I had the heat on low, 20 minutes of stirring in that phase was all I could handle. 15 minutes into it I added a pinch of Garlic Salt. A few stirs after that, I added 2 shakes of salt and 2 shakes of pepper. Stirred about 5 more minutes. I realized later not all of the Parmesan Cheese melted. That's what I get for using the food processor to pulse the cheese instead of grating it to a consistent size.
Either way, Scarlett liked it. I was just surprised that it tasted good once finish like it was made in a restaurant.
Because I could not gauge ratios correctly I added the shrimp in and turned off the heat, instead of turning off the heat adding the noodles then the shrimp as the video suggested. The sauce itself seemed a bit salty for me, but with the noodles and shrimp the sauce was amazingly balanced.
And that was it.
First time making it from scratch.
Another quick version I made which more or less started my cooking quests consisted of Cream Cheese and Milk instead of Heavy Cream. Scarlett liked that sauce for Broccoli.
There is a major difference between the two sauces. They cannot compare. It does seem that these white sauces are what initiated attempting to cook for me.
I over cooked the shrimp slightly, but not too badly considering.
I'm still surprised that I did not burn the kitchen down. On top of that, my food was edible. I must be dreaming.
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