Hello, hello, and hello. This weeks recipe is a bit of a nostalgic one. When I lived with my family one of the three meals my parents would have in their dinner rotation was spaghetti bolognese. My mum would have her, onions and tomato sauce, version, and my dad would have his, super liquid version. There was a time when I swore I would never make this meal because I was just so freaking sick of eating it, and also, I kind of liked the idea it remain as a staple to that time in my life. An 'I haven't eaten this since I was 16' type of thing. But then I realised literally everyone makes spag-bol and that would never happen. So tonight, we found out which one of my parents I am the most like.
When I was engaged (like 3 years ago) the women in my church put together a cook book for me as a "gift". I'm not sure what kind of message they were trying to send me, but I didn't get it until a few months ago when I decided it would be a good idea to learn how to cook. A N Y W A Y each of them added recipes that they had in their dinner rotations and one of them, of course, was spaghetti bolognese. Her name is Kathryn, and I've known her since I was like three or something. I took baking classes with her when I was 12. It's a whole thing.
What I Usssed:
-Everything I used is noted in the recipe here, but I doubled everything because I had more than twice the meat that was recommended.
Step 1: Prepping Your Veg
If you don't know about this stage yet, then you haven't been listening or you're new here. Welcome! This is the part where I would tell you the best thing to do first is prep or chop all or of your vegetables for when you'll need them later. This is because it helps to streamline the entire process of cooking the actual meal. Everything will be ready and waiting as you need it. Which we love. But as you can see from the recipe, Kathryn has us frying all of the vegetables first, so we're basically just chopping them up cause we need them right away. So yeah. Always prep your veggies though! You won't regret it.
I also opened my two cans of tomatoes and the packet of pasta. Cause imma little extra.
The thing I realised when cooking this meal is that it's funny how much it actually reminds me of my parents. I remember the way my mum's pasta noodles would always stick together into this big pasta nest, and would be the exact mold of the alien hat looking strainer she'd always use. I remember how my dad's would taste different every time he made it, because he was always experimenting with new sauces and different tomato sauce to canned tomato ratios. But that it always came out looking almost exactly the same. Which was a bit more like a soup than anything else. Eventually he settled on a recipe he liked, but no-one else did. Too much canned tomato I think.
Step 2: Frying all of the things
Just like Kathryn says, we are going to fry the Carrots, Celery, Onions and Garlic. All of these things are aromatics and apparently give your meal depth. Jess Dang, who writes for the website Cooksmarts, explains this in her article about aromatics. She also links several videos a to the best ways to chop them which I found really helpful (https://www.cooksmarts.com/articles/add-flavor-aromatics/). I fry all of this up until my onions brown and carrots soften just slightly, I then remove them from the pan.
I move on to frying up my mince. In my 'Asian beef bowls' post I go more in-depth about the wonders of cooking mince meat if you'd like to check it out. But basically what you want to do is add little to no oil into your pan (just work with whatever left from frying the veg if you can) and then, little by little, add a palm full of mince at a time. Only add the next palm full when the previous one has browned. This helps the juice from the mince stay in the mince. Which we absolutely want. Trust me. I have learnt from experience.
Step 3: Adding everything else
I add the fried aromatics back into the mince as well as the, two cans of tomato, tomato sauce, beef stock, and if I had remembered, the brown sugar. I also added in some oregano because we didn't have any mixed herbs. Which is a great thing about cooking. You can sub things in and out and it can still come out great.
As Kathryn directs, let all of this simmer for 20 minutes and become one big flavorful family. This got rid of a lot of the excess liquid I had going on. Which I really appreciated. Thanks science.
I would like to mention here that Kathryn is actually the one who taught me everything I had known about cooking (however little this may have been) prior to me beginning this journey of learning for myself. I mentioned earlier that she gave me, and a few other girls, baking lessons when we were pre-teens. I'll admit that I only started going because I knew the baking would eventually develop into eating, but the more I went the more I actually enjoyed the act of creating in this way (I've been an art kid pretty much my whole life). My dad didn't start cooking dinner for our family well into my late teenage years so up until this point it had only been my mum who'd cook for us. And she hated it. So it was a bit of a shock when I met someone, Kathryn, who was so passionate about the topic. To this day I remember her saying 'I feel like the most passionate people alive, are chefs'. And having watched the amount of Netflix cooking shows that I have, I think she could be right.
Step 4: Boiling water
This blog isn't so "beginner" that I'm going to teach you how to boil real-life water. But it is in the way that I'm going to explain the best way to make pasta noodles. Because, 'how to cook pasta noodle' is a real-life thing I googled when cooking pasta for the first time.
While your mince is simmering away, you want to get a big pot of water. The pot needs to be big enough for the pasta to move around in quite easily. Following Kathryn's measurement of 2 tablespoons of salt sprinkle this in the water. Though Kathryn says to put the oil into the pasta when it's been drained, I've watched many-a-video and read many-a-articles where they all recommend putting the oil into the water. I'm sure both work fine. But putting the oil into the water is just something I have become accustomed to.
You want to make sure the water is at a rolling boil when you put the pasta noodles in. When they're in, make sure the water stays at a boil. When the pasta has softened enough to move around freely in the pot with any kind of stiffness, take a strand of pasta out and taste every few minutes until cooked.
Drain into your strainer, which should be waiting in the sink, and presto. You have past, my friend.
This video of Gordon Ramsey teaching us how to make the 'perfect pasta' really helped me when I wasn't sure what to look for when deciding if my pasta was ready to come out of the pot or not.
Dish pasta out onto plates, scoop simmered bolognese on top, and then pat yourself on the back, because you just made your first Italian dish.
Conclusion: Wow, nothing went wrong
I can't believe it, fam. I cooked a recipe where nothing fcking went wrong. This must mean something. I feel like I've graduated to the next level of cooking or something. Wow, what a time to be alive. Not only that, but it was delicious. Like I could have eaten another plate full of this stuff. My in-laws enjoyed it, my husband ate all that was left over, it was a good night all around.
With the more liquid consistency of my bolognese and the un-nest-like nature of my pasta, my spaghetti bolognese came out more like my dads but 100% like Kathryn's, lol.
This recipe was nostalgic in all the most interesting ways and got me down the path of all the other foods my parents had cooked for me over the years. Corned beef and cabbage (to this day a family favorite), whole roast chickens where me and my brothers would fight over the crispy skin, and the spicy fish curry my dad used to make and really miss the taste of. I've recently been reflecting on how universal the language of food is, about how sitting down at a table and sharing a meal is a staple in every community. At or around a table with other people sharing a meal is where relationships are built and strengthened. When me and my husband were dating an outing was not complete unless we had eaten somewhere together. It's a thing so integral to nature and, more and more, is something I'm coming to be so grateful for in the moment and when I'm going home after.
#spaghettibolognese #beginnercook #pastanoodles #howtocook
What I Usssed:
Step 1: Prepping Your Veg
If you don't know about this stage yet, then you haven't been listening or you're new here. Welcome! This is the part where I would tell you the best thing to do first is prep or chop all or of your vegetables for when you'll need them later. This is because it helps to streamline the entire process of cooking the actual meal. Everything will be ready and waiting as you need it. Which we love. But as you can see from the recipe, Kathryn has us frying all of the vegetables first, so we're basically just chopping them up cause we need them right away. So yeah. Always prep your veggies though! You won't regret it.
I also opened my two cans of tomatoes and the packet of pasta. Cause imma little extra.
The thing I realised when cooking this meal is that it's funny how much it actually reminds me of my parents. I remember the way my mum's pasta noodles would always stick together into this big pasta nest, and would be the exact mold of the alien hat looking strainer she'd always use. I remember how my dad's would taste different every time he made it, because he was always experimenting with new sauces and different tomato sauce to canned tomato ratios. But that it always came out looking almost exactly the same. Which was a bit more like a soup than anything else. Eventually he settled on a recipe he liked, but no-one else did. Too much canned tomato I think.
Just like Kathryn says, we are going to fry the Carrots, Celery, Onions and Garlic. All of these things are aromatics and apparently give your meal depth. Jess Dang, who writes for the website Cooksmarts, explains this in her article about aromatics. She also links several videos a to the best ways to chop them which I found really helpful (https://www.cooksmarts.com/articles/add-flavor-aromatics/). I fry all of this up until my onions brown and carrots soften just slightly, I then remove them from the pan.
I move on to frying up my mince. In my 'Asian beef bowls' post I go more in-depth about the wonders of cooking mince meat if you'd like to check it out. But basically what you want to do is add little to no oil into your pan (just work with whatever left from frying the veg if you can) and then, little by little, add a palm full of mince at a time. Only add the next palm full when the previous one has browned. This helps the juice from the mince stay in the mince. Which we absolutely want. Trust me. I have learnt from experience.Step 3: Adding everything else
I add the fried aromatics back into the mince as well as the, two cans of tomato, tomato sauce, beef stock, and if I had remembered, the brown sugar. I also added in some oregano because we didn't have any mixed herbs. Which is a great thing about cooking. You can sub things in and out and it can still come out great.As Kathryn directs, let all of this simmer for 20 minutes and become one big flavorful family. This got rid of a lot of the excess liquid I had going on. Which I really appreciated. Thanks science.
I would like to mention here that Kathryn is actually the one who taught me everything I had known about cooking (however little this may have been) prior to me beginning this journey of learning for myself. I mentioned earlier that she gave me, and a few other girls, baking lessons when we were pre-teens. I'll admit that I only started going because I knew the baking would eventually develop into eating, but the more I went the more I actually enjoyed the act of creating in this way (I've been an art kid pretty much my whole life). My dad didn't start cooking dinner for our family well into my late teenage years so up until this point it had only been my mum who'd cook for us. And she hated it. So it was a bit of a shock when I met someone, Kathryn, who was so passionate about the topic. To this day I remember her saying 'I feel like the most passionate people alive, are chefs'. And having watched the amount of Netflix cooking shows that I have, I think she could be right.
Step 4: Boiling water
This blog isn't so "beginner" that I'm going to teach you how to boil real-life water. But it is in the way that I'm going to explain the best way to make pasta noodles. Because, 'how to cook pasta noodle' is a real-life thing I googled when cooking pasta for the first time.
While your mince is simmering away, you want to get a big pot of water. The pot needs to be big enough for the pasta to move around in quite easily. Following Kathryn's measurement of 2 tablespoons of salt sprinkle this in the water. Though Kathryn says to put the oil into the pasta when it's been drained, I've watched many-a-video and read many-a-articles where they all recommend putting the oil into the water. I'm sure both work fine. But putting the oil into the water is just something I have become accustomed to.You want to make sure the water is at a rolling boil when you put the pasta noodles in. When they're in, make sure the water stays at a boil. When the pasta has softened enough to move around freely in the pot with any kind of stiffness, take a strand of pasta out and taste every few minutes until cooked.
Drain into your strainer, which should be waiting in the sink, and presto. You have past, my friend.
This video of Gordon Ramsey teaching us how to make the 'perfect pasta' really helped me when I wasn't sure what to look for when deciding if my pasta was ready to come out of the pot or not.
Dish pasta out onto plates, scoop simmered bolognese on top, and then pat yourself on the back, because you just made your first Italian dish.
Conclusion: Wow, nothing went wrong
I can't believe it, fam. I cooked a recipe where nothing fcking went wrong. This must mean something. I feel like I've graduated to the next level of cooking or something. Wow, what a time to be alive. Not only that, but it was delicious. Like I could have eaten another plate full of this stuff. My in-laws enjoyed it, my husband ate all that was left over, it was a good night all around.With the more liquid consistency of my bolognese and the un-nest-like nature of my pasta, my spaghetti bolognese came out more like my dads but 100% like Kathryn's, lol.
This recipe was nostalgic in all the most interesting ways and got me down the path of all the other foods my parents had cooked for me over the years. Corned beef and cabbage (to this day a family favorite), whole roast chickens where me and my brothers would fight over the crispy skin, and the spicy fish curry my dad used to make and really miss the taste of. I've recently been reflecting on how universal the language of food is, about how sitting down at a table and sharing a meal is a staple in every community. At or around a table with other people sharing a meal is where relationships are built and strengthened. When me and my husband were dating an outing was not complete unless we had eaten somewhere together. It's a thing so integral to nature and, more and more, is something I'm coming to be so grateful for in the moment and when I'm going home after.
#spaghettibolognese #beginnercook #pastanoodles #howtocook
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