What I Ate Today: Chicken Kurma

Chicken coconut Chana kurma with basmati rice. (Naturally.)

Italian Sausage Trottole in Cream Sauce

Today's entry is brought to you by adult beverages. Also with special guest Groll.

This pasta is pretty easy, which is lucky for me because I happened to be attempting to reenact scenes from My Drunk Kitchen instead of paying attention to just how everything was made.

Start out by gathering all your stuff. You will need Italian sausage, red onion, green onion, butter, flour, salt, Parmesan, Havarti, half and half, capers, and pasta. Make garlic bread too! We basically cooked a white sauce and boiled pasta today. I could do this.

Start out by grating some Havarti and chopping the green onions. If you're me, consume a minimum of one adult beverage (with lime).

Put the sausage in a pan and cook it. Nate dubbed this recipe "Angry Meat Tubes in a Very Special Creamy Sauce". There was more to it, but it got very NSFW. Cook the meat, boil some water for pasta, add onions. Still with me?

If you've ever made a white sauce (also known as a roux), you've got this next part. Melt some butter, add enough flour to thicken things up. I'm not sure on quantities here, as Nate doesn't really cook with much measuring, but going off of the picture that looks like a fourth of a cup of flour and about three tablespoons of butter. 

Add half and half, a little at a time. Just remember the more you add, the thinner the sauce will be. Sauce still too thick? You can add a little more. Don't worry. Be happy. Pasta should be cooking at this point.

While you're cooking the pasta, add Havarti to the sauce. My wild guess is about two cups or so. Cook some garlic bread. We went the easy route and got the ready-to-bake stuff. It's still delicious. Is your pasta looking good? Drain it, dump the sauce in, give it a good stir. You're practically done.

Groll played Kitchen Minion and Garlic Bread Hand Model today, and I played Hungry Person with Camera.

Add a few capers to the sauce. You won't regret it. Sprinkle plenty of green onion in there. Mmm.

Garnish with more green onion and a sprinkle of shaved Parmesan. You'll want thirds. 

This cream sauce is not for the faint of heart, or those who have issues with dairy products. I happen to be lactose intolerant, but I'm in possession of magic enzyme pills that help me cheat and eat it anyway.

This tasted Legend- wait for it, and I hope you're not lactose intolerant because the second part of that word is -DAIRY! This guy showed up just to say that. 

Basil Pancetta Pizza (Mostly) From Scratch

Start with a dough. It's so simple, even I could do it. In fact, we made so much dough that I got a turn to play too. 

Instead of water, we used a can of cheap beer. Apparently you don't want to go for the nicer stuff, because hops can add unwanted bitter flavor. Pour the beer, wait a bit. Do two or three tablespoons of salt, sugar, and yeast. This wasn't an exact recipe. Nate kept saying things like, "Hmm, add another tablespoon of yeast." He's one of those people that just knows how it's supposed to look.

Stir everything and give the mixture a few minutes to process. At this point it already smelled delicious, like the amazing dough it was about to become. After five minutes or so, drizzle some olive oil. 

Stir everything, and start adding flour. I think we added about three cups. It's supposed to look kind of like this:

Flour the cutting board and knead the thing into submission. When it starts getting a smoother surface texture, you have to perform a series of ninja moves that are impossible to properly describe, which ends up with a ball of dough like so:

(Kitchen minion optional.)

We should have thought to take a video. Oh well, that's hindsight! Maybe next time. 

At this point the dough needed to sit and do its special dough magic for about an hour. Rather than fussing around with other ways of covering it, you can just rub a little oil in the bowl you used for mixing, and put the bowl upside down covering the dough. 

While the dough made friends with the inside of the mixing bowl, we took the time to run to the grocery store and decide what toppings to put on this carnival of deliciousness. 

Shopping list:
Pancetta
Soft Buffalo Mozzarella
Shaved Parmesan
Crimini Mushrooms
Fresh Basil and Rosemary

Pancetta is kind of like fancy bacon. Everyone loves bacon, right? While waiting for the dough, we sauteed the pancetta in a skillet with the rosemary until crispy. I'll admit I snitched a piece or two. The pancetta ended up in a small bowl, leaving behind as much grease in the pan as possible. The mushrooms went right into the pan, with a healthy drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Yum!

How do you tell if the dough is ready? You should be able to poke it without the hole bouncing back. Flatten the dough into a roundish shape. Put it on the pizza pan and brush the edges with olive oil.

Add all the toppings. You can make your own sauce. We actually cheated just this once and used stuff out of a can. Pro tip: If you pop the buffalo mozzarella in the freezer beforehand, it will slice much easier. Chiffonade the basil (that means cut it into long thin strips) and sprinkle most of it on top. You can save a little to garnish at the end.

Bake at a pizza-baking temperature for about fifteen minutes. At ten minutes you may feel tempted to yank it out of the oven and devour it prematurely because the entire house will smell like you've died and gone heaven, and heaven is somewhere in Italy. It's worth the wait though, even if you're really hungry. Try to time things perfectly so the crust is slightly crispy without being overdone. It should still be chewy with a slight crunch.

Devour it like you haven't eaten all day! 

Even the dog got a bite.

Don't worry, those last few pieces didn't last long.

What I Ate Today: Memphis BBQ Chicken

Memphis BBQ Chicken, coated with a combination of Sweet Baby Ray's, Dijon, mustard, Italian seasonings, paprika, salt and pepper. Sides: A simple Sesame fried rice alongside edamame panfried with crimini mushrooms in truffle oil with a dash of Sriracha sauce.