Food! I love food. Which is why I'm so excited for this week's question. Just one. Very simple. And totally worth blog-hopping for. I mean, writer or not, everyone is looking for the answer to this important, daily question. If you've come here from Fiona's page, welcome. At the time of writing this post she hadn't posted her post, so I can't comment on what deliciousness she has on offer when she answered this week's tasty question:
What's your go-to 15 minute recipe?
I've got several depending on if I'm feeding myself, or the whole family. You can't go wrong with homemade pizzas made on Nann bread. Quick and yummy. I also love pork burgers on the BBQ with souvlaki seasoning. I buy mine from my sister, who sells Epicure Selections (my fav. spices!) Toss some lettuce and tomato with balsamic vinegar and oil to add as a topping and it's heaven. I also love to fry up some hamburger meat with onions, stir in ketchup and mustard and then serve it over chips (french fries), however, baking the chips in the oven takes longer than our 15 minute goal, so that recipe is out.
But here's my favourite go-to dish. My hubby doesn't like this (he's strictly a tomato-sauce guy) and I don't know if the wine cooks off quickly enough for the baby, so this is what I treat myself to on a evening when it's just me and I want a quick, gourmet meal. Yup, I've even made this and eaten it right from the stove as I wrote or edited at the laptop perched on the kitchen counter.
Note: This is not my picture. I totally swiped it from the net, and the blog of someone who likely has an even better recipe than I do! Click the image to go to The Messie Kitchen blog.
Angel hair pasta in a white wine, garlic, cream sauce
There are many recipes out this for this, likely better than mine. But I can toss this together so quickly that I just wing it every time. I'm not big on measuring things so add depending to taste. Here's what I do when I'm making just enough for me.
Must-have ingredients
1 Shallot/Onion
1-2 cloves of garlic depending on the size
butter to fry it all in
white wine (whatever is in the fridge, nice and cold so I can drink while I cook)
sour cream or yogurt
angel hair pasta or another skinny spaghetti-type pasta that cooks in just a couple of minutes
PLUS: You can totally add in chicken, shrimp, mushrooms, whatever you want. I like to keep the palate white/brown so I don't get colourful, but there's nothing stopping you other than the time it takes to cut and cook more ingredients.
What I do
1. Put some water on to boil. Add salt and oil if you feel like it.
2. If you're using chicken or shrimp, cook that first in butter with salt and pepper. Set aside when done.
3. Melt a nice bit of butter in a frying pan.
4. Cut shallot and garlic into wee little bits and add it to the frothy yummy butter
5. When the onions are looking cooked, pour in wine till the bottom of the pan is covered. I use a deep frying pan about 8 inches around so I let the wine be about half an inch high.
6. Crank up the heat and let it reduce by half or until you don't want to wait any more.
7. Toss your quick cooking pasta into the boiling water.
8. Add a spoon of sour cream or yogurt. Stir and reduce heat.
9. If you have meat set aside, toss it in the sauce. If not, just toss the pasta into the sauce once it's cooked.
10. Stir it around, sprinkle on some salt and pepper, and eat. Civilized people will put it in a bowl and likely add some parmesan cheese or something. Hungry writers might just eat it from the pan.
I used to order variations of this when I'd go out to a fancy restaurant. But now that I know how little effort it takes, I can't justify paying $20 or more for something I can cook in about ten minutes.
You might be tempted to stop the blog hop here and go make this, but don't! Instead, go see what Raine Balkera is suggesting. I'm betting my supper tonight is somewhere down the path of this blog hop!