FUN, FOOD & YOU

Vital Vittles VI CURING BOREDOM WITH FOOD - with S. Adam Icard

Quarantine. A word that invokes many feelings. Happiness that you don’t have to go to work. Sadness that you won’t be able to go out to your favorite bars or dining establishments. Fear of sickness. Anxiety about that job that may not be there after the quarantine is over. Concern for the safety of your family and friends. But, of all these emotions, there will be one that will trump them all (at least for me anyway) – boredom.

I hate being bored, as most people do. I always have to be doing something, anything to keep the boredom at bay. Gaming, watching movies, reading, working in the yard, cleaning the house, even playing tiddlywinks are all excellent ways to break up the monotony. What about cooking? How many times have we said, “I really want to try to make that pasta dish from scratch one day” or “I’ve always wanted to bake that loaf of bread” or how about “I think I want to try to make mustard ice cream” (ok, maybe that last one is just me).

Quarantine is the perfect time to try out a new recipe or learn a new cooking technique. Dust off your apron, everyone, because I would like to share two simple recipes you’ll be able to perfect and retry over and over again.

The first is pasta! A simple pasta dough can have many different uses. From spaghetti to lasagna, good pasta dough is something that cooks spend a lifetime to master. It only requires three ingredients: two cups of flour, a half teaspoon of salt, and three eggs will make a considerable amount of pasta dough.

The first step is to mix flour and salt and make a well in the center. Next, add the eggs to the well and start incorporating the flour with the egg. Once all the flour is mixed with the egg we will have a stiff dough. You will need to knead the dough for about 8-10 minutes to develop a smooth dough. If it is a little tacky, just add a small amount of flour to the dough. If it is too dry, add a half teaspoon of water to the dough until desired consistency is found. After we have kneaded the flour into a smooth dough, the dough should be rested for 45 minutes to 1 hour. This is very important for the dough to be easily worked with in shaping your pasta.

Once the resting is complete, cut the dough into four portions and begin shaping your dough. You could use a rolling pin to flatten a portion of dough and then cut into fettuccine noodles. You could use the dough for making lasagna sheets. You could fill the dough with your favorite meat based or vegetable based filling to make a ravioli. You could also come up with your own pasta shapes, the possibilities are limitless. When you have finished the shaping process, the pasta must be boiled for a few minutes in salted water until it reaches the desired texture. Industry standard is “al dente,” which means it has a bite to it and is not mushy. Toss in your favorite sauce or just some melted butter and enjoy.

Next up, galettes! A galette is a free form type of cake or pie that normally has a fruit filling. I call them fruit pizzas. They are incredibly easy to make and require a relatively small number of ingredients. All you will need is one and a quarter cup of flour, a stick of cold butter, two teaspoons of sugar (or your favorite sweetener), a pinch of salt, and a quarter cup of ice water. You will mix the dry ingredients with the butter. I prefer to use my hands to “pinch” the dry ingredients into the butter but you could also use a pastry cutter or food processor to do this.

After the butter is thoroughly mixed into the dry mixture, slowly add the ice water while bringing the mix into a dough form. Once you do this a few times, you will get a feel for the dough and be able to judge whether or not to add more water or flour to get the right consistency. Not dry and not tacky. Just right. After the dough is formed, wrap the dough and let it rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes. After the rest, you roll out the dough to about 12 inches and put your favorite fruit filling on top.

If the fruit is particularly juicy, add a little cornstarch to keep the juice from running all over the place while baking. Apple and peach slices work very well with this type of cake. Once the filling is placed on the dough, there should be approximately an inch gap between the filling and edge of the dough. With this gap, you will fold over the edges of the dough to form a barrier so the fruit filling doesn’t escape the dough. Bake in a preset 350-degree oven until the desired doneness level is reached. That’s it! Super simple, and like the pasta dough, the combinations of fruit fillings are endless.

So don’t let quarantine get you down. Combat the boredom with multiple lunches and dinners with different sauce combinations for the pasta and different fillings for the galettes. Next month we’ll continue with our regularly scheduled programming as we take an inside look of the different urban farms and local farmers that are incorporating innovative techniques and practices to bulk produce yields in small areas and how you can use these techniques for your own home garden. Stay tuned and remember to keep moving forward.

@adam.icard Adam Icard