Monday, January 24, 2011

Long awaited first entry. MEAT LASAGNA


First to let everyone know I will only list a grocery list as my idea of cooking is not to always measure, there is just no fun in that, and to me cooking is more about having fun hat what you are doing then the actually outcome. There is no surprise when you measure everything the same all the time and have the same meal each time you make it. Would we not then just get bored of the same lasagna each time? Now in my blog you will notice I use alot of moose. I eat more then I do beef. It has a slightly more bold flavour. This helps it hold up to stronger spices without losing it's tasty meatiness... mmm meaty.

In the lovely meaty lasagna there is


-Yellow onion

-Carrot

-Bacon

-Moose ( you can use beef, pork or chicken. Sky is the limit, hell use TVP [Textured Vegetable Protein])

-Parmesan

-Can Stewed Tomatoes

-Garlic

-Mushrooms

-Milk

-Flour

-Lasagna Noodles ( I use the Oven bake verity, you'd be surprised most restaurants do as well.)

-Parsley

-Oregano

-Basil

-Chipotle Powder

-As always Salt and Pepper.

-Lemon Juice

-Sherry

-Corn Starch

I like to sweat the onions down with the bacon, carrots and garlic. I find this draws out a nice sweetness.

Cut up the onions ( i used two medium sized ones for this) garlic( two cloves) and carrot (one or two med sized ones depending on your love for carrot.)



lost my video for the onions sorry. so here is a lovely image of the cut size you are looking for


I set this on the lowest setting my my stove top for about an hour as I get the red sauce started to add into this later to make a lovely none traditional bolognese sauce.


mmm

Now over th the red sauce.

I heat up on med the can of stewed tomatoes while I cut up the mushrooms..


about 6oz.

I smash down the tomatoes after that have softened abit adding in the mushrooms after herbing with what I would have to say if I measured a table spoon of each parsley, basil, and oregano. Salt and pepper. Of course a "small" big dash of sherry as well. I also sneaked in alittle chipotle powder, for good measure.


I keep this heated for ten minutes to bring out some of the herbs. Remember you are cooking everything in the  oven after this so don't over heat on the oven top or you will bitter the herbs.

While this is taking it's time you have time to deal with the LOVELY pain in the butt white sauce aka Bechamel, mmm great as a pizza sauce to btw. You stove top should look a lil like this by now.....


Now the ratio I use for my Bechamel is 2 cups of flour ( yes measured not weighed. I don't own a kitchen Scale [ My birthday is in June if you feel bad for me ;)] ) per pint of milk. Use more percentage milk for sweeter taste. Here I used 2% and one and a half pints, so 3 cups of flour. Melt a few table spoons of butter down in your sauce pan and add the flour on med low heat. Mix butter through the flour ( it will chunk up ). Then the half pint while mixing with a wooden spoon. Then the full pint turning over to your whisk and turnign the heat to med. Now comes the pain in the ass part, whisk like you mean it! No really until you feel it start to thicken... No don't stop, but turn your heat off and keep going until the mixture is like pudding.


At this stage I like to toss in a half cup of parmesan and a lil bit of parley and more chipotle (what I love it.)


Set that aside to cool and crack out your pound of meat. Add this to your sweat pot of bacon onion carrot garlic DEL ish ish ness. Turn heat to med high and flick is some pepper and salt and a little bit of my secret touch...... white..... yes.. sugar. and a few squirts of lemon


When the meat is cooked through (pot heat should be 145° F for 15 seconds for ANY ground meats. Even if the meat looks cooked test it.) Feel free to taste your base mixture before adding the red sauce to test for flavour... hell taste everything through the cooking process. Better to know is something is over flavours of under flavoured before the final product. Toss that Red sauce into the mix now and blend it through. This is going to still be rather runny so we are going to add some corn starch to the mix. Most people do not know but corn starch needs to be mixed with water cold before being added to heat or it does not blend through.


Videos are hard to take one handed while mixing starch to water hehe.

Go grab a coffee, or a beer if your old enough. Everything should be removed form heat by now and cooling before you layer this bad boy.

What the coffee good? Yes good, bad coffee makes me have a bad day.

Now it's time to get this show pony going.


Your oven should now be set to 375° F (Use a oven Oven thermometer, do not trust you oven, they lie.)





Layer time baby.


You should only have two pots now, I always have a foam mat on my counter to keep my cutting boards and glassware form moving around as I work with them, it's more sanitary then using a dish cloth (and hell the mat can me hand washed.). I always start with a thin layer of bolognese on the base to keep everything form sticking to the bottom.


Then noodles, spacing abit as they will swell when cooked.


Then bolognese, thin layer of bechamel noodles


Repeat


You should be out of bolognese by now and have some bechamel left. Use the remainder of the bechamel on top. Garnish it with parley and more parmesan.


Oven is heated by now. I normally cook this guy for 45mins at this temperature. I would keep an eye on it though as sometimes the bechamel will create a seal and it will bubble, which it did this time for me, in which case just stab the bubble with a knife. When golden brown take out and let it set for five mins before even cutting. I like mine with salsa mmm. You can serve it without a sauce or even some melted cheese, however you love it.



Enjoy

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Open For Business

Just started uploading videos and images to my photobucket and youtube account for my meat lasagna. Stay tuned.