Tag: onions

Feb132011February 13, 2011February 13, 20115Commentsby Tony Hunt

Marsala Sauce (Tony-Style)

Posted in Randomosity...

Well, I went out on a limb tonight and did a little experimenting…in Marsala sauce. Anyhow, I wanted something with a little more surprise than the gravy most of us end up getting at restaurants.

One of the reasons you get such a gravy-ish sauce in restaurants is the use of stock in making the sauce. My experiment was mainly centered around ditching old water used to boil beef/fish/chicken, mainly because that’s exactly what I am thinking every time I find out “stock” is part of a recipe.

This should only take around 15 minutes if you’re a hustler in the kitchen.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil 1
1/2 cup purple onions (diced or minced) 2
10-12oz mushrooms (sliced) 3
4-6 tablespoons rye flour 4
1 cup Marsala wine 5
6 toes of garlic (minced) 6
3 tablespoons butter 7
1-2 cups water 8
2 tablespoons black pepper 9
2 tablespoons salt 10

Instructions
The olive oil goes on a saucepan set to medium. Get the onions, garlic and mushrooms sizzling in there. Once the onions and mushrooms are soft, sprinkle the flour evenly over the mix. A couple minutes later, add in the wine, water, butter, salt, and pepper. Stir thoroughly. Continue to let it cook until you get the consistency you like out of it (will not take long).

What to use it on.
Chicken – If you can bake a few chicken breasts this is perfect for them. I personally like a little rosemary, thyme, and oregano on mine in this case.
Beef – this stuff is taking the ever-popular sauteed mushrooms and onions for steak and takes it to the next level. Although it works incredibly well on hamburger patties (not joking)
Shrimp – This is a driving factor in the experiment. Grill up some shrimp basted in butter, garlic and oregano. YUM!

So anyhow, if you try this please let me know how it went and if you tried anything different 😉

Happy Cookin’

-Tony

Show 10 footnotes

  1. Real simple, use extra-virgin olive oil wherever possible, for for lots of reasons, but I’ll simply say it’s better for you, far cleaner, and doesn’t involve any crazy additives. ↩
  2. The onions make for a better texture for many people when they are minced. More often that not I’ve found that goobs the don’t like onions are usually just have a far bigger problem with the thought that with the taste of them. ↩
  3. You can leave the mushrooms whole by they simply don’t cook as well that way, slicing them lets them cook far faster. ↩
  4. I like rye flour because I am often a pretentious asshat in the kitchen and very set in my ways…but I like the taste it brings far more than the bleached stuff everyone else uses. ↩
  5. If you’re spooked by Marsala wine, you can get away with a large number of different things, just use your head though, Marsala wines are very broad in flavor. You can find an absolute TON of substitutes on LoveToKnow (link here). ↩
  6. There is just no topping fresh garlic toes, I do suggest a mincing machine though…takes all the work out of doing it by hand. ↩
  7. Don’t use fake butter. If there is only margarine in the casa, don’t bother. Fake stuff doesn’t work. ↩
  8. Knowing you used filtered water for this endeavor will actually make me sleep better at night, just sayin’. ↩
  9. There is nothing like freshly ground pepper. Try it against that crap in a can…you’ll see. ↩
  10. If you absolutely have to cook with salt, do it with the best. Sea salt only has a tiny fraction of sodium compared to the table crap we’re fed normally. If you are a salt-lovin’ fool, I highly recommend this for you, it will keep you from keeling over from the sodium overkill. ↩

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Jun222008June 22, 2008September 19, 20112Commentsby Tony Hunt

Spaghetti Night in TonyTown!!!!

Posted in Randomosity...

There are art forms…here…on Earth…among men. One of them is cooking good stuff…like spaghetti. Mine is pretty good, so I am sharing.

Now I will list this stuff off to you so you know what I am doing to yield food that usually makes me a popular guy of the evening on Spaghetti Night in TonyTown.

Qui sono gli ingredienti!

Sauce Ingredients:
16-32oz of Barilla Spaghetti No.5 or De Cecco Spaghetti No.11 <- The best!!!! (Always go for al dente!!!!)
1 12oz Can of tomato sauce
1 12oz can of diced tomatoes
1 12oz can of stewed tomatoes
1 12oz can of tomato paste
1 14oz-15oz can of whole tomatoes
(Can you see where this is going? Its enough sauce to feed an army!!)
1 Whole fresh white onion – diced
2 bell peppers – diced, no seeds unless you’re weirder than me and like them
16oz of whole mushrooms
1/2 cup of chopped green onions
6oz Pinot Noire

The following seasons are used, but it’s up to the cook as to the amounts, as some people will NOT like my amounts.
Rosemary: 1-2 tablespoons
Thyme: 1 tablespoons
Sage: 1 tablespoon
Oregano: 2-4 tablespoons
Basil: 1-2 tablespoons
Garlic: At least 6 toes. Minced.

Meats.
If available, use 2-4lbs if fresh Italian sausage for the meatballs, I prefer the spiciest I can get my hands on. Roll into balls ~1.5″ in diameter.

Tempo per preparare la festa …
All this is in order…

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Sauce.
Time to make: 1hr
The sauce is the easiest part, but also takes the longest. Modify to your desires, as I am very big on not overcooking the sauce. Set your sauce pot/pan on Med-low flame (same on electric) and open all the tomato cans listed above and pour them in. Immediately add the white onion, bell peppers, and green onions. Also add the Rosemary, Thyme, Sage, Oregano, and minced garlic. We’re going to add the mushrooms in later.

The Meatballs.
Now, with saucepan #2, take those whole mushrooms and mix them together with 2 cups water, 6oz Pinot Noire, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1tbsp black pepper, 1tbsp basil, and 1tbsp of oregano. Leave on medium heat and stir occasionally, when simmered, add the meatballs and warm them up and steep them until they are no longer red in color, the entire batch shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes…if you need to increase heat accordingly.

Pasta.
Very easy, boil pasta al dente. The best temperatures and instructions tend to be on the package you’re buying. If the instructions don’t tell you they are al dente, keep an eye on the paste about 75% of the way into cooking the pasta and you’ll find the right texture easily.

Finishing Up.
Take the prepped meatballs now slightly cooked and place them on a non-stick cookie sheet and place in oven, cook until browned (usually ~25-35 minutes the way I like them). Take the mushrooms and drop them in the pasta sauce, which should be pretty warm now and cooking rather tastily.

Extras you don’t want to forget!
Garlic bread!
I Prefer big honkin’ loaves of crusty bread slices in half, each half spread generously with butter, garlic, and basil. Broil to desired crispiness 😉 I know there are a lot better recipes for garlic bread but most of them call for turning the spread into a very oily batter/spread and it’s a personal preference not to 😉

Salad!
I will usually chop up a head of romaine lettuce and throw it in a bowl and top with baby roma tomatoes, shredded Colby-jack, chopped purple onions, and garlic croutons. I am a big balsamic vinaigrette fan, but most people actually like Parmesan vinaigrettes more.


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