This is one of those stories that starts at the end. You see, I'm kinda buzzing on the Long Island right now, so this one may not be the most well-written blog entry. However, I want to start using this space to write about one of my favorite things: food.
Main dish: Fettucine Alfredo
Drink: Long Island Iced Tea
Music: Savath and Savales
Tonight's project is an old one with a twist. The main dish is Fetuccine Alfredo with scallops. I first had success with the alfredo sauce about three years ago, in Loveland. This was probably my first successful food experiment, and it's surprisingly easy to make fantastic alfredo sauce from scratch. Since I moved out of the dorms at Boise State into the old house on Fort Street, I had held Alfredo Sauce in my mind as the ultimate in smooth sexy cooking, but never put the effort into learning how to make it until sometime in 2004. The first batch surpassed all expectations, and has ever since been my favorite dish to make. Recently I started making the pasta from scratch as well, which has vastly improved the end result.
The Food: Fettucine Alfredo with Scallops
Raw materials: flour, eggs, cream, unsalted butter, nutmeg, pepper, scallops, vermouth, parmesan cheese, and olive oil.
The pasta is the time-consuming part of the project. Two cups of flour in a pile on the countertop. Make a bowl out of the flour pile, crack an egg into it, and drop a drizzle of olive oil on top. Beat the egg with a fork, slowly pulling in flour from the sides, until the egg is no longer runny. Crack another egg into it and repeat. Once the eggy ball is firm enough to hold in your hands, you pick it up and roll it roughly against the counter. Just a few pushes are enough to make a uniformly yellow ball of dough. It will be sticky at first, so drop it back into the pile of flour, roll the dough into the counter to mix the flour throughout, and repeat until the ball is no longer sticky on the inside. This should take about fifteen minutes. There will be about one half cup of flour left over at the end. Just toss it out, because it probably has little bits of egg scattered throughout.
Cut the dough into racquetball sized balls, then roll a ball out with a rolling pin. After a few rolls, flip the flat dough over and turn it ninety degrees, repeat this until the dough is slightly transparent. I've found that once it seems thin enough, it helps to dust it with flour on both sides and roll it out a few more times. This keeps the noodles from sticking together later. Cut the pasta into long strips with a knife. I understand there are tools for doing this, but I like the irregular noodles that come from cutting by hand.
Put frozen scallops in a plastic bag and run them under cold water for thirty minutes, turning them occasionally. This is the fastest way to thaw them without using the microwave, which you don't want to do because scallops are delicate. Start a pot of water toward boiling first, so it's ready for the pasta at the end. Drop the scallops into a hot, olive-oiled pan. Let them cook for about five minutes. About three minutes in, drop a splash of vermouth into the pan; It will cook off by the time the scallops are finished.
Immediately after starting the scallops, start the alfredo sauce. Timing is critical here. Three quarters cup cream and two-and-a-half tablespoons of butter into a small sauce pan on high heat. Watch it carefully, because it will boil quickly. Don't forget to flip the scallops over a few times. Once the cream boils, lower the heat to low and drop in half a cup of parmesan cheese. Stir it for another minute, then apply liberal amounts of pepper and nutmeg. The nutmeg is the key to the Alfredo sauce.
Drop the pasta into the boiling water, take the scallops off the heat, keep stirring the Alfredo. The fresh pasta will cook in about three minutes. Once the pasta turns deep yellow, strain it, drop it on a plate, pour on the Alfredo, then mix in the scallops. The Alfredo will be magical and orgasmic for about fifteen minutes at which point it turns into a pumpkin. A lumpy and bitter pumpkin. So mix your drink quickly. Time is of the essence!
The Drink: Long Island Iced Tea
Raw materials: rum, vodka, gin, tequila, triple sec, sweet & sour mix, coke.
Mix one ounce of all five liquors and one-and-a-half ounces of sweet & sour mix into a Tom Collins glass over ice. Pour the contents of the glass into a cocktail mixer, give it just a few shakes and strain it back into the glass. You might like ice in the glass, but I prefer my drinks without ice when possible. Drop in a splash of Coke for the characteristic color and sweetness. You might also like a slice of lemon to finish it off, but I don't care enough to keep the lemon around.
The magic of the Long Island is that when it works right, it almost doesn't taste like alcohol at all, and looks just like iced tea, complete with a bit of fizz on top. For what may be the best mixed drink in the world, stop into the Black Dog Pizzeria in Telluride, where a capable bar tender will make you a Cherry Long Island Iced Tea. You should probably ask for exactly two of them. Any more may prevent you from remembering any of the Hot Buttered Rum String Band show you're about to go see. Trust me on this.
