Cooking Just Got Real: Carbonara Special

I know I've been MIA with my cooking post. The last time I posted something about cooking was last April when I graduated from my cooking class lesson. Well, now let me share something not so new dish but something that I've tried cooking on my own- Spaghetti Carbonara. Yes, as I've said it's not some unique dish but I've cooked it outside the school and all by myself, so I'm kind of proud you know :)

I have to be honest here, the way I cooked this was not really by the book (I mean not all of the instructions and ingredients learned from school are present here, so please bear with me). However, I can say that I like cooking dishes on my own, I can make all the rules, there are no teacher or someone I need to follow. As long as it taste good and as long as everything is right, then I'm good to go- just cooking on my own terms. But of course I'm really grateful from all the things I've learned from cooking school. Without that course, I wouldn't be confident to cook something like this and on my own. :)

Ingredients:

Spaghetti noodles 250 grams

Garlic, minced

Onion, minced

Red & green capsicum(bell pepper)

Bacon, chopped

Ham, sliced

Cream of mushroom 

All purpose cream

Evaporated milk (half can)

Parmesan cheese

Parsley, chopped

Velouté - (chicken/pork/fish stock)-1 liter 

Roux- butter (1/4 cup)
All Purpose Flour- ¼ cup
Add salt and pepper to taste.

Preparing the velouté

1. Boil the desired stock in a saucepan. You can choose either chicken, pork or fish. Set aside. (For this, I chose chicken stock.)

2. In making the roux, heat the butter until it melts then add the flour. Stir vigorously until you can create a blond roux. (Remember that it should be 1:1 ratio, if you have 1/4 flour, the butter should also be 1/4.)

3. Remove the roux from the heat then gradually add it on the stock and beat constantly so it mixes well.

4. Let it boil and stir constantly so it would not stick. Let it simmer until you achieve the desired thickness.

Procedure:

1. Cook spaghetti noodles. Set aside.
2. Pan fry bacon. Set aside.
3. Heat olive oil in a pan.
4. Saute garlic, onion and bell pepper.
5. Add bacon and ham until golden brown.
6. Pour cream of mushroom, veloute, all purpose cream, parmesan cheese and lastly evap milk.
7. Season with salt and pepper.
8. Pour mixture into the spaghetti noodles.
9. Garnish with chopped parsley.

Carbonara

Take note, I don't have Parmesan cheese, parsley and cream of mushroom for this, but it still tasted so good. Just right for me, as honestly, I like it more with less butter, cream and milk. 

So there you go, till my next cooking post! :)