Spaghetti Carbonara

Great pasta recipe which is super quick – under 20 minutes.

  • bacon
  • fresh basil
  • Parmesan
  • heavy cream
  • egg
  • spaghetti
  1. Cook the pasta (about a pound).
  2. As soon as you start the water for the pasta, cook the bacon (chopped into small pieces) until it begins to soften, 4-5 minutes.
  3. Add a generous cup heavy cream.
  4. Simmer for 7 minutes stirring frequently, until the cream begins to thicken.
  5. Add the egg, stir in very well and stir frequently for 2 minutes.
  6. Add a cup of Parmesan a stir it in, turn the heat off.
  7. Add the basil (about 2 cups).
  8. Add the pasta.

Biwa (late night)

Biwa is a fantastic Japanese restaurant in SE Portland. It specializes in yakitori and ramen, not sushi, and does it well. The interior has a classy SE “industrial” aesthetic, but the atmosphere is more relaxed than many of your comparable fancy restaurants.

Prices can get high on the main dinner at Biwa, but it’s worth it, and they have a great happy hour and late night menu. We went for a late dinner last night after the opera. Sadly they’d stopped serving ramen at 10pm, but we were still able to get lots of tasty treats at happy hour prices: Kim chi (they make it with several types of pickled things, not just cabbage), miso soup (stuffed full of tofu, clearly their own miso paste), and delectable beef burgers with a patty of pork on top that is apparently a new addition to the menu. We also got a carafe of Jinro, which is reminiscent of Pim’s, but not. It’s Sho Chu (a Japanese and Korean distilled liquor often made from potatoes or barley – like Asian vodka) in a carafe with ice and lemon and cucumber slices. Refreshing, light, and tasty.

Thirst

I had a mani/pedi at Pink & White down on the west waterfront, so we decided to check out Thirst Wine Bar because it’s right next door.

Side note: That area is insanely hard to find. I’m never going back to Pink & White just to avoid driving down there.

And it sure wouldn’t be worth it to go for Thirst, either. I’d heard good things about it, but they were all exaggerations. They’ve got prime tourist location – directly on the waterfront with a lovely bridge view – and they’re completely resting on those laurels. My cocktail, the “Daisy Duke,” was tasty but not terribly creative. Drink list definitely more on the frou-frou side than the clever side.

The food was so-so. Nothing terrible, but nothing very good, and the prices were very, very high. The glass prices for wine were also exceptionally high.

Basically, it’s an expensive tourist trap masquerading as a hip Portland wine bar. Fail.

Ten01

Ten01 is a very “it” spot in the Pearl, with good reason – the food and cocktails are amazing.

They’ve got one of my favorite downtown 4-6 happy hours, and you can even get happy hour on Saturday. I’ve never had bad food or a bad cocktail there. The cheese plate’s always good, they do pâté really well, their beef carapaccio is amazing, the grass-fed burger is great if you’re looking for something more filling, and the fries with truffle aioli are heavenly. As usual, I can’t remember the names of the cocktails I’ve tried for the life of me, but they were always flavorful and interesting. And I hear the wine list is good too, although I usually stick to liquor here.

Spint’s Alehouse

Time for bar/restaurant review catch-up time too! Starting with Spint’s Alehouse, a hip new spot on NE 28th & Flanders. And by hip I mean it just opened last November and everybody’s raving about it – the atmosphere is actually very mellow Portland.

I went for happy hour and had a great cocktail… Sadly, I can’t remember the name of it and nothing on their online cocktail list looks familiar. Suffice it to say, their mixology is clever and leans more toward the complex than the foofy/sweet. The happy hour red wine was good too, and their wine list wasn’t huge but was still fairly impressive.

The happy hour menu was delicious. They lean toward hearty peasant fare – we had a cheese plate, a charcuterie plate, and an incredible lamb-stuffed pastry, the name of which also escapes me and I can’t find on their online menu. (I really, really need to do these updates sooner.)

Their main menu is definitely in the $$$ range, but from what I tried at happy hour, it’s worth it. I’m especially looking forward to summer when they can put tables outside.

Winter Salad

This is a tasty little invention of mine that I call winter salad because small oranges and pears are in season in the autumn and winter.

Ingredients:

  • Mixed spring greens
  • 2 or 3 Satsumas, clementines, or tangelos
  • 1 or 2 ripe pear(s)
  • Black currants (amount to taste)
  • Almond slivers or slices (amount to taste)

Peel the oranges, carefully removing the chewy white pith, and section them (don’t slice them, leave the sections whole). Cut the pears into small chunks. Put mixed greens and 3/4 of other ingredients in the bowl and toss. Sprinkle the top with the rest of the ingredients for presentation. Serve with a salad dressing of your choice – I usually go with something vinegar and oil based.

Note: You can get black currants and almond slivers or slices in the bulk aisle. Also, do NOT use regular-sized oranges. Only the small, juicy, intensely flavorful winter oranges listed above taste good this way. If you insist on using a big orange, cut the sections into chunks. That’ll help release some juices and flavor, but it’ll still be disappointing.

Beef Marinara

I love simple, tomato-based spaghetti recipes. Nearly everybody likes them, they’re easy to make delicious, you can make them in big quantities for little money, and they taste even better as leftovers. After years of winging it, I’ve found myself coming back again and again to an adaptation of this Red Wine and Rosemary Marinara from Cooking Light.

Ingredients (my way):

  • Olive oil
  • One medium onion, chopped
  • 5 garlic cloves, minced
  • 3/4lb lean ground beef
  • 1 green bell pepper
  • 1 cup red wine, preferably dry
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 2 tsp dried basil
  • 1 tsp dried rosemary
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (or more, to heat taste)
  • 1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
  • 1 6oz can no-salt-added tomato paste

Directions:
Stir-fry the onion in olive oil until almost clear. Add garlic, stir fry about 45 seconds or until fragrant, then add ground beef. Stir fry until beef is cooked through, then add green pepper and stir fry until pepper is just beginning to soften (it’ll cook the rest of the way as the sauce simmers).

Add the rest of the ingredients, wine through tomato paste. Take it easy on the honey- it adds a nice golden sweetness, but it can be really overpowering. 1tbsp is actually half the amount called for in the original recipe and that’s plenty.

Let it simmer at least 20 minutes, or until it thickens. I recommend letting it simmer for a minimum of an hour to let the flavors really mingle. Serve it over spaghetti or linguine, with red wine, salad and/or garlic bread on the side.

Singapore Mai Fun

curry noodles with shrimp Work’s been very busy for both of us since February began, so we haven’t been cooking a lot and certainly haven’t been blogging. To begin catching up: Singapore Mai Fun, aka curry noodles with shrimp, from Cooking Light. Primary ingredients are shrimp, thin rice noodles, bell pepper, green onion, egg, with peanut oil, garlic, and curry powder for predominant flavors. FYI, “mai fun” refers to a type of rice noodle, but any thin rice noodle will work.

Things I would or did change: We skipped the chicken and used a pound of shrimp in order to make it pescatarian. Definitely make sure you use the peanut oil for cooking – it’s subtle, but contributes deliciously. And be aware of the heat level of the curry powder you use because that will dictate the heat of the whole dish. Also, it came out pretty salty. We forgot to get no-salt-added chicken broth, so that probably didn’t help, but I might consider reducing the amount of salt you add either to the noodle water or the dish itself.

Would I make it again: Definitely. Quick and easy, relatively healthy, and delicious.

Mushroom+Polenta

Last night we tried out a recipe for creamy polenta w/ mushrooms, spinach and tomatoes, adapted from America’s Test Kitchen. Next time I’d add a little something to make it pop – more salt, more pepper, and something hot – but it worked well as a simple, healthy, easy dinner.

Ingredients for the topping:

  • 2lbs crimini mushrooms, halved or quartered
  • 1 onion, thinly sliced
  • olive oil
  • 0.25oz dried porcini mushrooms minced (these are expensive so I skipped ’em, but the wild mushroom flavor definitely suffered for it)
  • 1 tsp minced fresh rosemary (I would increase this next time)
  • salt & black pepper
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 12oz baby spinach
  • 12oz cherry tomatoes, halved

Ingredients for the polenta:

  • 4 cups water
  • salt & black pepper
  • 1 cup coarsely ground cornmeal
  • 1/2 cup parmesan + extra for topping
  • 1 TBSP unsalted butter cut into small chunks

Directions for the topping:

  • Put mushrooms, onion, olive oil, rosemary, and 1/4 tsp salt in a cast iron saucepan or Dutch oven. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened, 10-12 mins.
  • Uncover, increase heat, and cook until vegetables are browned, 4-6 mins.
  • Stir in garlic, cook until fragrant, ~30 seconds.
  • Add spinach one handful at a time and cook until wilted, 3-5 mins.
  • Stir in tomatoes and cook until warmed. Salt & pepper to taste, set aside and keep warm.

Directions for the polenta:

  • Bring water + 1/2 tsp salt to boil in a large, heavy saucepan. Slowly add cornmeal, whisking to prevent clumping.
  • Bring cornmeal + water to a simmer, stirring constantly, then reduce heat to low. Cover and cook, stirring frequently and making sure to scrap the sides of the pan, until polenta is smooth and thickish, 10-15 mins.
  • Once you’ve achieved your desired texture, take it off the heat and vigorously stir in the butter and parmesan. Salt & pepper to taste.

Put some polenta in a bowl, put some veggies on top, and smother it in more parmesan and the hot sauce of choice.

Nice Salad

Tonight we concocted a salad bastardization, part chef’s salad, part salad Niçoise, mostly whatever we felt like throwing in. I’m calling it a Nice Salad because we went with a Niçoise dressing. Pardon the icky photo, I forgot to snap it until we’d tossed the salad and consumed most of it.

Ingredients:

  • Head of Romaine
  • 3 Hard boiled eggs
  • Can of solid white tuna
  • Broccoli
  • Kalamata olives
  • Red onion
  • Parmesan
  • Capers

Dressing:

  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 2 tsp mustard
  • 2 tsp dried thyme
  • 2 anchovy fillets, chopped to an almost-paste
  • 5-6 tbsp cider vinegar
  • 6 tbsp olive oil

Mostly the instructions are just wash, chop, mix, etc. However, I do highly recommend the following procedure for hard boiling eggs to keep them from overcooking and smelling sulfuric:

  1. Start with refrigerated eggs, and put them in a pot filled with cold water to about 1″ above the eggs. (Yes, cold and cold. The key is to avoid overcooking.)
  2. Cover the pot and bring to a boil on high.
  3. When it starts to boil, turn the heat off, but leave the pot covered and on the stove. Set a timer for 10-15mins.
  4. When the timer goes off, put the eggs in a bowl and and run cold water over them until they’re cool enough to peel. This will stop them from cooking right away.