Thursday, January 14, 2010

Anything Is Pastable at Home

Yesterday I played with some new toys I got for Christmas. Trying to figure out what to do for dinner I decided on an old family standard, Beef Stroganoff. I had thawed out a chuck roast over the weekend to use because dinner fell through. At the time I had trimmed all the fat off (which I saved to render down) and de-boned it and then just put it back in the fridge.

I already had a couple of bags of egg noodles in the pantry. My family only uses the No Yolks brand, I don't know why, but that is what my Mom always used. Good enough reason for me. I haven't liked alternatives that I have tried. I also prefer their short dumpling noodle to the extra wide one. But yesterday I decided to break out my new toys. My in-laws spoiled me with their over indulgence and gave me pasta attachments for my stand mixer!!!

I've made pasta before in school. It's not hard. Like making homemade yogurt, I don't think making your own pasta is economically any better, probably not even healthier, but it is fun, their is a sense of satisfaction and I am really into this concept of knowing what is going into the food I eat. By making my own pasta I control that.


Here's my ball of pasta dough made with semolina flour. The dough knife was also a Christmas gift.

Rolling the dough out after it had rested.

Cutting the wide noodles for the beef stroganoff.


I was making the noodles early in the afternoon so I let them just semi-dry out on the counter.

Here is my pile of finished noodles. I found they were easiest to cut to length after they were mostly dry. I just used the dough knife as a chopper.


I was debating on whether or not to grind the meat or not. Since I already had the stand mixer out (not like it is ever put away) I decided to slap the meat grinder on where the pasta attachments had been and grind away. Home ground meat is always superior to store bought and this is a case where controlling the food that goes in is important.

The meal was great! The noodles were better than I would have thought. As in my class, I find that homemade noodles don't cook quite as tender as store bought, but they were still very good. I also think they held the sauce better.

5 comments:

Brook said...

Man I need some more attachments for my kitchen aid. I just have the grinder and I want the ice cream one and the juicer and now the pasta one. Fresh pasta would be so good with the Italian beef stew I made a couple of weeks ago.

Huff Daddy said...

Yep. I could not believe I got them for Christmas. I have a stand alone meat grinder and the KA attachment so I can do some serious meat grinding. I think I have a salad shooter type attachment too but I have never used it. My friend has the cheese grater attachment which looks to be great if you want to make a big batch of real mac and cheese.

Kitchen Aid mixers rock!

Brook said...

I bought mine for myself for Mother's Day 2 years ago I think. The only thing I'd change is the color but basic black goes with everything don't you think?

Amy said...

I have the black KA too. I don't have any attachments..:( I think the grinder would be a good one to start with....or maybe the juicer..

Huff Daddy said...

Well black is slimming, elegant and looks good with pearls.

I just dug around under the counter and it turns out I have pasta extruders (came with the meat grinder I think) and the cheese grater/grinder. My memory is really going fast. I'm worried.

I don't use the attachments that often actually though I may start using the pasta roller more often now that I have it. I use the cotton cover more than any other attachment. :)