I confess I got a little discouraged about my international food project -- but only for a minute. Last week I cooked some international comfort food, supposedly Mexican, but I doubt you’d find it in Mexico. It was a tasty and easy Enchilada Casserole. Last night, I was inspired again, because Dusty asked me if I’d abandoned my international food project, and I told him that I sort of had, because I didn’t think he was into it. He suggested that I make Spaghetti Carbonara. I had never eaten that, didn’t really know what it was. So I started reading recipes and decided to give it a go. It came out really good.
Spaghetti Carbonara calls for bacon. Bacon in U.S. grocery stores isn’t so good, except for breakfast when you cook all the fat off and make it nice and crispy. In England the bacon is about what we would call ham. So for the Spaghetti Carbonara I used a center cut ham slice, that the grocery stores sell as “ham steak”. It’s about ¼” thick and I angle sliced it to make it thinner.
My Spaghetti Carbonara:
Ingredients -
½ box of spaghetti - 8 ounces
Olive oil
¼ cup dry white wine
1 center cut ham steak - angle sliced, and the bone piece discarded
2-3 cloves of garlic - minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons flour (I actually used corn starch, and I don‘t know how much)
1 ½ cup low fat milk
½ cup low fat sour cream
¼ cup parmesan cheese, finely grated (I used good quality pre-grated cheese, but not the one in a can)
¼ cup fresh parsley leaves, chopped
Pepper
Sauté the ham in olive oil in a large skillet. Then cook the spaghetti noodles. As the ham is cooking add the onions and garlic, stirring frequently. Next add the oregano. When the onions are soft, and the ham is slightly browned, add the flour or corn starch. Stir so that everything is coated evenly. Add the milk and wine; keep stirring so that the sauce starts thickening. Remove from the heat and stir in sour cream and parmesan cheese. Sprinkle pepper and parsley on top, makes a nice presentation. (I should have taken a picture.) Served over pasta, and a tossed salad on the side make an easy and sophisticated dinner. Preparation time was about twenty minutes; cooking time about the same.
Dusty, my favorite food taster and critic, said it was good, that I had the taste just right. He also said that my sauce should have been a little thinner, (maybe the corn starch wasn’t such a good idea). I didn’t know how this dish was supposed to turn out, and of course adjusting the thickness of sauce is easy enough, I could have just added water.
Enchilada Casserole:
Ingredients -
2 lbs. ground beef (I use 93% lean)
1 ½ teaspoons cumin
2-3 cloves garlic
4 teaspoons chili powder
Pepper
Water
1 cup sour cream
1 lb cheddar cheese
2 cups picante sauce
12 tortillas (I used flour tortillas, but corn tortillas might give it more the enchilada taste)
Brown the ground beef, and drain the fat. Add cumin, garlic, chili powder, and pepper to taste. Then add some water and let it simmer until most of the water evaporates. While it’s simmering away, spread ½ cup of picante sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan. Then place 6 tortillas on top of the sauce, letting the edges overlap to fit. Spread another ½ cup of picante sauce on top of the tortillas. Place all of the beef mixture on next. Spread sour cream on top of the beef mixture. And spread half of the grated cheddar on top of that. Place the remaining six tortillas on top of all of this. And then on top of that spread the remaining cup of picante sauce; and sprinkle the remaining cheddar cheese.
Bake covered for 40 minutes; and uncovered for five minutes. Mira!
Easy and tasty. This dish would be a great crowd pleaser for a Cinco de Mayo party. Serve with some guacamole and margaritas. It also is good the next day reheated in the microwave.
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