Who hasn’t messed up a meal. Whether it was while changing the baby’s diaper, or breaking up the fight over who gets the remote, we have all had our trials and errors in the kitchen. The messing of the kitchen can be avoided through the vegan meal kit. Now, the question comes – what are vegans meal kits? These are the kits for pre prepared food for person.
Let’s take pasta for example. Here is something that I came up with it, using Boursin Garlic and Herb cheese spread. The beauty of this recipe besides taste, is the time spent making it, and clean up – you use 1 skillet, aka frying pan, and a pot to cook the pasta.
The first thing I do, is melt some butter, and add flour, to make a roux, pronounced “rue.” I am not much of a stickler to measurements, unless following a specific recipe, but mixing 3 to 4 tablespoons of butter, to a half a cup of flour works well. Funny thing about roux, I have watched many cooking shows, and I would listen to the host talk about making the roux, and then a bechemal sauce. I could never figure out what the bechemal sauce was. Well it is the roux, and add milk. This is the basic french white sauce, that can be expanded on with various different ingredients.
After preparing the roux, I add the whole box of Boursin Herb and Garlic cheese spread. Don’t worry, this box is only 8 oz. After mixing with the roux, pour in roughly two shots of wine. The meal is richer, and I use Riesling even tho a white wine, or dry sherry – whatever you have available, works well. You can prepare without this ingredient and it will still be delicious, all the same. Then add 3 grinds of salt and 6 grinds of peppercorn, from grinders (each grind is equivalent to a shake of salt/pepper). It doesn’t take long to melt the cheese, and then add 2 handfuls of your favorite parmesan, romano, asiago cheeses, or any combination of the three. That is another key to cooking trial and error, start out with small amounts, as you can always add more to taste. Let the sauce come to a low bubble, and then turn it off. I like to check the consistency and If it is really thick, I will add a little more milk, but be mindful, as you will be adding pasta you decide to serve, and it will still be wet.
Next you will prepare the pasta of your choice. Something I never quite understood, was why my mother always waited for the water to boil. She would add salt and told me that it helped the water to boil quicker. Well I was never patient enough for that, so I always add the pasta at the beginning. Really, it doesn’t matter. When the water is boiling, and you see the pasta either starting to absorb the water, or soften, make sure you stir the pasta as to avoid the pasta clumping together. After stirring, I turn off the heat. The water is hot enough to continue to cook the pasta, and this way, you have time to take care of setting the table, or in my case chopping the crab meat.
See this pasta dish can be eaten just as is, or what I like to do, is had crab meat. It works well with lobster, shrimp, white fish, just think of what kind of seafood goes well with garlic, since that is the main spice. Add the cut seafood into the sauce, and stir. When the pasta is finished, drain and then add to the sauce as well. Turn the heat back on, and stir, adding milk, or wine only if necessary, to thin out the sauce, until a low bubble appears. Turn of the heat, and serve.
If you have any questions, suggestions or tips you want to share, feel free to write me at cookingtrialanderror@yahoo.com and remember, you can make anything, through trial and error.