Bolognese. A Family Affair.

Some recipes are found in cookbooks, some in magazines and some you can jot down while watching a cooking show. However, some of the best recipes often come from an Aunt, a friend, or a grandmother who can't really remember where she learned it. Frequently, they include directions such as, a dash of this or a handful of that. Which leads to frequent head scratching and one thinking to themselves, this couldn't possibly be right. However, it usually takes just one bite to realize that all your doubts were quite foolish.

That's where this bolognese recipe comes in, it was taught me to my dad who learned it from his mom. Who most likely learned it from her mother, however, I'm not really sure where she picked it up. It is such a simple meat sauce, but yet utterly delicious. It does take time, about 2-3 hours, but it is largely unattended. The mantra of Italian cooking is to use fresh ingredients and allow the natural flavors of those ingredients to make your dish shine. That technique is most definitely employed here. The crushed tomatoes are reduced down about by about half to concentrate their flavor rendering them simply mouthwatering. The diced onion is quickly sauteed to provide a flavor base that will eventually meld into the dish allowing multiple flavors to build on top. In this case the garlic and spice mixture do an excellent job of providing those necessary levels of flavor, as well, as complementing the natural beefiness of the ground meat.

Today I used the bolognese to make lasagna that I served for my parents and uncle who came over to celebrate the holidays. It reminded me how much I enjoy cooking for others. I love seeing their joy as they bite into something delicious that I prepared. It really makes the time and effort put in the kitchen worthwhile. When you make a dish you don't know one-hundred percent that it's going to come out. You have your ingredients, your recipe and a general idea of what you're going to do. Then you go into battle. When you are finished and all the flavors come together perfectly and it looks beautiful out on the table that feeling is truly indescribable. It's like nailing a triple axel or finishing a beautiful painting. Every ounce of effort you put in is rewarded, right in front of you. All that's left to do is dig in.

This sauce is my favorite thing in the world to prepare. Growing up my dad would always cook it Sundays during football season and we would eat it at halftime of Philadelphia Eagles games almost religiously. It was the first thing I ever learned to cook by myself and I loved every second of it. I've never been a fan of the phrase comfort food, but that's what this was to my family. No matter what was going on in life we always had pasta on Sunday to comfort us. It was something we could always fall back on and something to help prepare us for the week that lay ahead. My biggest hope is that others can share this dish with their loved ones and it can do for them and their families what it did for mine. It truly is comfort food at it's finest.

Bolognese

-Adapted from my Dad

-2 teaspoons vegetable oil

-1 small onion, diced

-3 cloves garlic, minced

-1 teaspoon salt

-1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

-1 teaspoon dried oregano

-1 teaspoon dried parsley

-1 teaspoon dried basil

-1/2 teaspoon onion powder

-1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

-1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

-1 lb. ground meat (85% lean)

-2 28 oz. cans crushed tomatoes

-28 oz. water

-1 6 oz. can tomato paste

-2 teaspoons granulated sugar

-2 bay leafs

1. Over medium heat, heat the oil in a 5-qt stockpot until it beings to shimmer, about 2 minutes.

2. Then add the onion and saute until it becomes translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Then add the garlic and saute for additional 3o seconds. Add the salt, black pepper, oregano, parsley, basil, onion powder, garlic power and red pepper flakes and continue to cook for another minute.

3. Raise the heat to medium-high and add the ground meat. Breaking up any big clumps as the meat cooks. Continue to cook until meat is throughly browned, about 5 minutes.

4. When the meat is browned, add the crushed tomatoes, water, tomato paste, granulated sugar and bay leafs.

5. Bring mixture to a boil and then reduce heat to medium-low and allow to simmer until it reduces by about half and greatly thickens. This takes about 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

Cookies!

What's Christmas without cookies? Furthermore what better cookie is there than the chocolate chip? It's the classic. Developed in 1933 when Ruth Wakefield, owner of the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, chopped up a Nestle semisweet chocolate bar and stirred the pieces into her cookie batter. She expected the chocolate to melt and make chocolate cookies. However, the pieces held their shape and the chocolate chip cookie was born. Immediately word of these new cookies spread and in 1939 Nestle began to offer packages of small pieces of chocolate, what we today refer to as chocolate chips. Every package of chocolate chips, to this is day, includes the recipe Mrs. Wakefield developed on the back.

While Mrs. Wakefield's recipe may have the been the one I grew up on in my opinion it's far from the ideal chocolate chip cookie. Most likely due to two reasons. Number one the flour used in the original Toll House cookies was most likely a high-protein spring wheat, similar to the bread flour we have today. The recipe on the back of the package calls for all-purpose. Using all-purpose instead of bread flour would result in flat, dry cookies, as I'll explain later. Number two is at the Toll House Inn the dough was left to chill overnight. Chilling the dough allows the doughs' flavors to meld resulting in deeper levels of flavor. Also, a cooler dough melts at a higher temperature which means the cookies spread less in the oven.

When I want an outstanding chocolate chip cookie I look to one recipe and one recipe only. The Chewy from Alton Brown who featured it on his Food Network show Good Eats. The recipe stems off the original Toll House one, but deviates in some major places. One of the changes worth noting, as I explained earlier, is the use of bread flour. Today, I used King Arthur's Unbleached Bread Flour which has a protein content of 12.7%. This is higher than All-Purpose Flour which usually comes in around 10.5%. This is important because nearly all of the proteins in flour are either gluetenin or gliadin. When these proteins are mixed with water they from elastic sheets of gluten. When gluten is formed in a baked good it provides toughness and chewiness. Since bread flour has a higher protein content is can absorb more water, therefore producing more sheets of gluten which provide the cookie with chewiness. The water in this recipe is provided by melting the butter, each stick of butter is approximately 15% water. Also, to ensure that the cookie stays moist and chewy the recipe calls for 1 1/4 cup of light brown sugar compared to only 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. Brown sugar is made by processing molasses with sugar crystals. Light brown sugar contains 3.5% molasses. Which is the key to keeping the cookies moist because it is hygroscopic, meaning it absorbs water from the atmosphere. More water equals more gluten which in turn produces more chewiness.

So if you are still using the recipe on the back of the package. I encourage you to try this one. I doubt you'll be disappointed.

The Chewy

-Adapted from Alton Brown, Good Eats

-2 sticks unsalted butter

-2 1/4 cups bread flour

-1/2 teaspoon table salt

-1 teaspoon baking soda

-1/4 cup granulated sugar

-1 1/4 cup light brown sugar

-1 egg

-1 egg yolk

-1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

-2 tablespoons milk

-2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter.

2. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, salt, and baking soda.

3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugars. Once thoroughly creamed, add the egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and milk.

4. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the wet ingredients. Once combined, fold in the chocolate chips.

5. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, but preferably a few hours.

6. Once dough has been chilled preheat the oven to 375 F.

7. Scoop dough into round balls using an ice cream scoop. Place the dough balls 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheet. It is important that your balls of dough are the same size so that they will all be cooked at the same time.

8. Bake for about 12 minutes or until the edges began to brown. Rotating the baking sheet half way through to ensure even browning.

9. Once finished transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

The Reason.

Before I get into any recipes, tips, or stories that are to become the basis of this blog. I feel as if I need to layout my reasoning behind doing this. I've been reading food blogs for probably about two years now and the idea to start one of my own had never really dawned on me. Up until about a week ago.

I started cooking my Junior year of high school. I was overweight at the time and wanted to cook myself healthy meals so that I could drop a few pounds. These meals usually consisted of some burnt type of meat and some microwaved vegetables. Not exactly deliciousness. After reading food blogs, food magazines and watching the food network I started to realize that healthy food and tasty food could go hand in hand. With the help of my new found guides, the food I started to cook tasted pretty good. My parents had started to take notice and before you know it I was putting dinner on the table for my family nightly. There was still a hunger for more. A challenge almost. Could I take these ingredients and turn it into something decadent? One things for sure if I couldn't I was sure as hell going to keep trying until I could.

Out of this grew a passion. I read numerous cookbooks searching for the best way to do this or the quickest way to do that. One of my favorite things about cooking is that it is both an art-form and a science. It's a lot like life in that, you can display all the creativity you want, as long as you stay within the rules. Cooking also brings people together; what's a birthday without a cake or Thanksgiving without a turkey?

That's where this blog comes in, I want to share my passion. Also, I want to spread my joy to others. So I encourage you to come along for the culinary journey I plan to take on. Who knows you might just learn a thing or two?