Skinny Italian?

Yes I know. It has been months..  I was supposed to do a recipe a week.  And it has been months.  But I am back.  And cooking again.
So this week's recipe book is

Title: Skinny Italian
Author: Teresa Giudice
Publisher: Hyperion New York
ISBN: 9781401310356

Teresa's Favourite Tagliatelle
1 pound (450g) tagliatelle or linguine pasta
3T extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2T butter
5 ounces (140g) think sliced smoked ham, trimmed of excess fat, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1C cooked fresh or thawed frozen peas
1/4t salt
1/8t freshly ground black pepper
Parmigiano-Reggiano to serve if desired.

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.  Add the pasta and cook according to the package directions until al dente.  Time the pasta so it is done at about the same time as the sauce
2.  Meanwhile heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, about 3 minutes.  Add the butter and melt.  Add the ham and peas and cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through, about 3 minutes more.  Reduce the heat to very low to keep warm.
3.  Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking water.  Return the pasta to the pot.  Add the sauce and the salt and pepper.  Toss the pasta, adding enough of the pasta water to make a light sauce.  Serve hot, with some parmigiano-reggiano on top.
Serves 6.

My review.

In the ingredients, it calls for any smoked ham.   I used pancetta but I think normal smoked ham thickly sliced is what the author meant.  At first when I tasted the sauce, I thought that it would be waaay too salty with the pancetta but once you make a sauce with the pasta water then and stir through the pasta, it is fine.  I added about three tablespoons of the cooking water but that was not nearly enough, so I had to add a fair bit more.  There is a reason the author leaves a whole cup of pasta water behind.  You might end up needing it.  I did not use all of it, but you have a fair bit of pasta to cover with the sauce. 

At first I thought that 3T of olive oil was a bit too much, but over 6 serves, it is really not that much,  and when you mix in the pasta water it helps to make a creamy sauce.
All in all it is a pretty easy recipe that can be used as a base for many varieties.. I have some mushrooms in the fridge so I think tomorrows leftovers will have some sauteed mushrooms mixed through.

As the book is American, it uses their measurements. I have used an online converter to give you the Australian measurements, but 1 pound of pasta is 450 grams and our pasta packets come in 500 grams, so I just used one whole packet.  I was really not going to leave 50 grams of pasta out just for accuracy...
At any rate, it is a great recipe to play with and make your own.

The book itself is pretty interesting and not at all what I expected.  I expected Italian food re-done diet style, but the author is more about eating good food and eating well the Italian way.  As the cover says, eat it and enjoy it.....

Pressure cooker sweet and sour chicken

So I have finally got my act together and started my one recipe a week. My first recipe is from my pressure cooker cookbook. Am a little obsessed with the pressure cooker at the moment. Dinner in 8 minutes? Yes please! So the book is;
Title: Everyday pressure cooker recipes.
Author: None
Publisher: Hinkler Books
ISBN: 978 1 7418 5609 5

Recipe
20ml vegetable oil
1 .5 kg chicken, cut up
1/2 C celery, sliced
1 green or red capsicum cut in chunks
600g can pineapple chunks drained and juice reserved
250ml reserved pineapple juice (add water if necessary)
1/4 C brown sugar
125ml vinegar
40ml soy sauce
20ml tomato sauce
1/2t Worcestershire sauce
1/4t ground ginger
2T cornflour
40ml water

Heat the oil in pressure cooker.  Brown chicken a few pieces at at time: set aside.
Return all chicken to cooker, and add celery and capsicum. Combine pineapple juice, brown sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce and ginger; pour over chicken.

Lock the lid in place. Over high heat bring to high pressure. Adjust heat to maintain high pressure and cook for 8 minutes. Let the pressure drop using the quick release method. Remove the lid tilting it away from you to allow any excess steam to escape.

Transfer the chicken and vegetables to a warm platter. Mix cornflour with cold water; blend in hot liquid.  Cook and stir until mixture boils and thickens. Pour sauce over chicken. Serve with steamed rice.
Serves 6-8

My review.

The recipe is very easy to follow and produces fairly consistent results.  There are some things that I will add to make it easier for you.
20ml is not enough oil to brown all that chicken, have some more at hand to add as you go.
Cut your chicken in fairly large pieces. I only use breast as I do not like the taste of thigh and breast does get dry in the pressure cooker fairly easily. So whilst they do not specify how to cut your chicken in the recipe, I would cut in about 1.5-2 inch pieces.  Any smaller and it will be too dry.  The chicken will still cook through in that amount of time so there is no worries about that.
I sliced the capsicum even though the recipe specified chunks and that did not work as well.  The pressure cooker is not gentle enough cooking for sliced capsicum so I would go for the chunks. Mine kind of melted!
Don't expect the lurid pink sweet and sour chicken you get from the local takeaway.  The photo does make it look slightly red/brown but in reality the colour is brown. Still tastes good but this is not the lurid pink sweet n sour we are used to.
I used a 400g can of pineapple as we do not sell 600g cans in Australia (that I could find anyway) only 400 and 800. That was a mistake. I had to add water to the juice to make up the 250ml and even though the recipe says you can, it takes away from the flavour so I would go the larger can, I don't think it would hurt to have extra pineapple pieces and you get enough juice for 250ml.
When you have cooked the chicken the recipe states to "transfer chicken and vegetables to a warm platter" Really? No, just put it in a bowl, you are not boiling the sauce for long enough for the chicken to go cold and warming a platter is a pain in the butt you don't need when cooking.
I had to add an extra glug of vinegar when I was thickening the sauce as well as there was really no sour.  I would start off with 150ml rather than 125ml and then add more or not to suit your palate but 125ml is not enough.  There is no sour at all really, so add a little more...
You may also need more cornflour. I did not find that 2T was enough to make a nice thick glaze with the sauce so I went some extra and it thickened up nicely.
The recipe does state this feeds 4-6. More like 6-8, there is 1.5kg of chicken here and it makes a fairly large amount so halve it if you don't have that many people coming over... I will probably freeze the rest as I have HEAPS left over.  I have no idea how this will go in the freezer but I will give it a go.  You may also want to do a side dish of steamed bok choy as well.  There is no greens here (well celery, but really) so if you want a more balanced meal I would add some greens.
So, it is a tasty dish, very simple to make, you could even get the kiddies started with this one.  And I am sure you could convert it to stovetop rather than pressure cooker as well... Just don't ask me how, I will leave that up to you to figure out!
Happy Cooking :)

So I have too many cookbooks

I buy them, and then not make anything from them.  Don't get me wrong, I cook.  But I don't give myself time to make things from the books that I have before I go on the hunt for more books.  So I have set myself a new years task... Call it a resolution if you like, but after organising my books into one place on their new bookshelf.  I have decided there is far too many that I have not explored or cooked from. 
I seem to have become obsessed with the cook book.  I read them, drool over them, and then put them away.
So my task is, to make at least one recipe a week from my collection. And then post it and review it.
At this stage I will only be doing one a week as I am trying to lose weight.  So my recipe book meal will be my "splurge" meal of the week.  If I find some that I can take to work to get rid of or healthier ones, I may do more than one.  But the commitment is, one a week.  I am going to explore my cookbooks and hope others have fun doing it with me.