I published the second diary in the series yesterday about subsisting healthily and inexpensively on flour products. I felt compelled to share share you the fruits of that labor today - Chicken Alfredo.
I made spaghetti noodles yesterday, and dried them. They came out perfectly.
I didn't create the dough yesterday - I made the dough a month ago and froze it.
Then I used only one of these portions out of the eight I originally made. It took 30 minutes to thaw - then I ran it through the spaghetti die on my pasta maker.
I got a bunch of chicken thighs for a pittance, and here they are, fresh out of the pressure cooker. Just took a few minutes to take the bones and skin off. I made lots of chicken - I'll have a lot left over for another day.
While I boiled the noodles, I made the sauce.
I reduced some chicken stock by half, added in some minced garlic, powdered some of the chicken meat with salt, pepper and a dust of flour, put in about a quarter cup of peas, then the chicken, and cut the thickness of the sauce a little with a dash of half-and-half.
Done.
Some things I didn't put in the Alfredo:
1 Butter. Too much fat. I already had butterfat from the cream in the dish, and the concentrated chicken stock added back a lot of flavor. I could do without it.
2 Green and red peppers. Would have put them in if I had them. But I didn't :-)
3 Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. I didn't have this either, but again I thought the flavor was sufficient and the dish had more than enough milk fat.
4 Much salt. A little, but not much. Too much is not very good for you.
It was a successful dish. Frankly the sauce tasted "restaurant". With home-made pasta, it was a much heartier, naturally denser, more satisfying meal than it would have been with store-bought pasta.
FYI, in the third of the "Flour" series, I will speak to choosing the right flour, and making pizza dough and dishes that can be made with it. Part III will be published on the morning of Saturday, 03 Mar 2012.