Tonight started out standing at a farmer's market with a desire to eat vegetables, but with very limited funds. So I bought this yellow zucchini ($1) and this tiny organic eggplant ($1.75!) and set out to make some pasta and béchamel sauce to go with it.
For the sauce, I followed a macaroni & cheese recipe from last year's cooking class, but I went a little too far and basically made some kind of gourmet Mac & Cheese Alfredo.
Ingredients went in in this order:
Butter, chorizo (rendered until golden); green pepper, celery (sweat); garlic, dry mustard, paprika, salt & pepper (mixed to season); flour (evenly incorporated, and then cooked for a few minutes so that starches bind).
Dry vermouth (tempered in, then alcohol cooked off); cream & milk with pasta water (tempered in slowly, a bit at a time -- allowing it to heat up each time before stirring to combine).
Oregano; zucchini & eggplant (blanched first); Parmesan cheese. Served on broad egg noodles. Not bad for $2.75 at the farmer's market.
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This wasn't exactly the recipe, of course. The recipe from my class is more of an equation of sorts, widely open to interpretation and experimentation, and goes something like this:
FAT | MIREPOIX (+ flour = roux) | LIQUID (+ milk = béchamel) | BOUQUET GARNI | (+ cheese)
There are many options to choose from for each step:
FAT: butter, prosciutto, ham, bacon, etc.
MIREPOIX: onion, shallots, peppers, celery, garlic, jalapeño, etc.
LIQUID: white wine, beer, vermouth, brandy, vodka, etc.
BOUQUET GARNI: smoked paprika, cayenne, thyme, etc. (note: spices go in when sweating mirepoix, but herbs are added after liquid)
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