Chef's Original: Zesty Sauce on Farfalle

Now, this was a spur of the moment dish when I was digging through the fridge looking for stuff to cook today. I had all the ingredients and thought that they would make a great sauce for pasta.

Ingredients:
2 LG Tomatoes
1 Sm Tomato
1 cup Basil Leaves
2 White Onions
6 Scallions
5 Carrots
Italian Herb Mix
Ground Cumin/Coriander
Cayenne Chili Powder
Sea Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Fennel Powder
Turmeric Powder
Fenugreek Powder
Dry Sherry
Olive Oil
Teriyaki Sauce
Soy Sauce

This dish began by gathering the ingredients.

Now, I took the Basil Leaves and cut them up into smaller pieces. Along with the Carrots I chopped up into small pieces, go into the deep saucepan.

Step 2 of this was to add in the diced Scallions and diced White Onions. Make sure there is air flow cause the Onions make you tear up and that's no good when you are using a knife.

Step 3 is dicing up the Tomatoes. They don't have to be that small of pieces since everything gets pureed later on.

Now put the saucepan on the stove and turn the heat to MEDIUM. Pour in about a half cup of Olive Oil. Add a good quarter cup of the Teriyaki Sauce and Soy Sauce too.

Then season it. I did a dusting of the Fennel Powder, Fenugreek Powder, Turmeric Powder, and Ground Black Pepper. The Cayenne Chili Powder measured about a 1/3 of a spoonful. Too much of that will make the sauce too spicy, so do that if you dare! I added a couple of pinches of the Italian Herb Mix coupled with 3 spoonfuls of the Ground Cumin/Coriander mix.

Then mix together thoroughly. Add in your 1/4 cup of Dry Sherry as well. Mix again.

Now it should take a good 5 to 7 minutes for it to be done cooking. It should be mostly mushy and soft when it is done cooking. The carrots might still be hard, but that's of little consequence.

Turn the heat off and grab your blender or food processor. Pour the contents you just cooked up into the blender or food processor. Puree until smooth. I used a blender and had to do it in 2 batches. I served on some Farfalle Pasta. I did not include how to cook the Farfalle Pasta here since it's easy to cook. You also might know it as Bowtie Pasta.

I plated the Farfalle Pasta with a healthy serving of this Zesty Sauce on top. A garnish of a pinch of Shredded Asiago Cheese topped it off. Enjoy.

Dad's Ribs on the Grill Recipe

It seems I now know one of my sources of inspiration for cooking...my father. He has even sent me a delicious recipe for ribs that I think I will try this upcoming weekend!
This will be as he sent it to me, so not my normal style of posting, enjoy the change:

After securing a couple of racks of baby back ribs at $2.99/lb, you need to have your hickory chips and special rub ready to prepare the ribs:








The Kansas City Rub:
My Father's Favorite!
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Paprika
1 tbs Black Pepper
1 tbsp Salt
1 tbsp Chili Powder
3/4 tbsp Garlic Powder
3/4 tbsp Onion Powder
1 tsp Cayenne Powder

Combine all ingredients and place in air tight container. I use my food processor to mix all together.

Trim up ribs, remove skin membrane from back, and apply rub to all surfaces prior to putting ribs in rib rack.

Cook at 275 degrees for 2.5 hours on Weber gas grill or equivalent before applying sauce.

Remove ribs from rack, place on grill, and get ready for application of Sweet Baby Ray's sauce.

Apply to one side of the ribs and cook for 15 minutes. Flip over ribs, apply to other side and cook for another 15 minutes. Total cook time = 3 hours.

Slice up the ribs and serve. Be careful though, you may never know who might show up for ribs...

Thanks for the recipe Dad!