Texas Trash & Chips
My daughter, Maren, drove down from Reno to spend the night & celebrate her birthday this week. She requested Pasta Carbonara.
I found a recipe on the pioneerwoman site that looked different from the usual—so…
Ingredients
1 lb Bacon or Pancetta
Bacon Cooking
1 lb Linguine Pasta
1 whole Large Onion
8-12 cloves Garlic
Adding the Chicken Stock
1 C. White Wine
Eggs, Parmesan & Parsley
1 C. Chicken Stock
4 Eggs
1-½ cup Parmesan Cheese
1 bunch Parsley
Onions in the Bacon Fat
½ stick Butter
1-2 T. Black Pepper
Preparation
1. Slice bacon into pieces about one inch wide. Cook until browned and crisp. Scoop them out and leave the grease.
2. Add the linguine to a large pot of boiling, salted water and cook until al dente, tender-firm.
3. Dice the onion & throw into the bacon grease which is at medium high. Cook for about 5 minutes stirring occasionally.
4. Thinly slice the garlic and throw it in. After the onion and garlic have cooked for another couple of minutes, remove from the pan with a slotted spoon. Discard the grease.
5. Place the pan back on high heat until it starts to smoke a little, pour in the white wine . Whisk until pan is thoroughly deglazed and all of the brown bits have come off the bottom of the pan.
6. Add chicken stock, onions and garlic back to the pan. Let simmer over medium-low heat.
Saucing the Pasta
7. Crack four eggs into a large bowl. Add most of the Parmesan cheese, and rough chop the parsley, adding it into the eggs as well. Leave a little Parmesan and parsley out for a garnish. Mix well with a fork.
8. Drain the water from your pasta and add immediately to the egg mixture & then add the onion mixture.
Pasta Carbonara
9. Finally throw a ½ stick (1/4 cup) of butter & the crisp bacon in there. Mix it all together well. Pepper to taste. Garnish with the Parmesan and parsley.
It was really good, different from the standard recipes but good.
My tiny loquat tree is full of ripe loquats. This was the perfect opportunity to use the fruit in a Loquat Mojito which I found on ‘The Dude Imbibes’ website.
Loquat Mojito
1/2 lime (quartered into wedges)
Loquats
4 loquats (seeded and halved)
2 teaspoons of sugar
10 mint leaves
Mojito Ingredients
2 oz light rum
Muddle the lime wedges, sugar, loquats and mint in a mixing glass until the sugar is completely dissolved and all juice extracted. Add ice and rum to mixing glass. Shake and double strain into a collins glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with mint & a slice of loquat.
This was delicious, but in a very strongly rum-y way. The loquat is both sweet & somewhat acidic so it does well in this cocktail.
You have to have something to eat when you’re drinking, so I made ‘Texas Trash’, which is a pico de gallo type mixture that contains chilies, jalapenos, tomatoes, black olives (the American kind), onions, garlic salt, apple cider vinegar & olive oil.
I know this sounds disgusting, but it’s not. It’s absolutely addictive.
Texas Trash
With a green salad and glass of iced tea, we happily celebrated Maren’s birthday.
Enjoying the Evening
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