The Scrawny Cook

Hi all! Sorry for the 6-month late post. A lot has happened in my life. My wife, son and I have finally moved from our small studio apartment in LA to Salt Lake City. I now have an actual kitchen whoo!!! I've been cooking up some great dishes and am going to get back into the groove here. I made a fantastic summer dessert which I saw on Masterchef Australia a bit ago. Chef Charlie Sartori made this beautiful semifreddo which one of my idols, Marco Pierre White, said it was the best dessert he's ever had on the show. It looked incredible and I knew I had to try it! I tweaked it a little and added a graham cracker base to the bottom, and let the semifreddo set in ramekins. This recipe makes 4, and it truly is light and delicious. Give it a go! Thank you Chef Sartori for coming up with such a wonderful, tasty dessert! This unofficial recipe makes 4 individual semifreddos. Honey Semifreddo: 1 egg, plus yolk 3 tbsp sugar 1/4 cup honey 1 cup heavy cream pinch of salt Cr...

Everyone loves a good spaghetti w/ tomato sauce. If you've ever only had the jar stuff then stop doing that to yourself and make a batch of this! It's incredibly easy. I cook it for about an hour, which isn't too long compared to other sauces. I've made sauces for 4 hrs, 6 hrs, and even 8 hrs and while I love those sauces, I needed to cut down the time because my wife and kid were hungry. Seriously, one hour is great for this. It's enough time to develop flavor without sacrificing the entire day. Now if I was making a bolognese then I would go ahead and cook it for about 6-8 hrs. Anywhos, to make this sauce you need fresh ingredients. Get the best that you can. San Marzano tomatoes are essential. Just go to an Italian grocer if you can and ask for a can of San Marzano. If you're going to the supermarket then the brand I usually see is Cento which is the brand I actually got for this recipe. For real though, try to go to a real mom and pop Italian grocer if y...

Sorry about the lack of updates for the past couple of weeks. I've been back to work full time so the content may be coming out at a slower stream for the next couple to few months. Nonetheless, here is a simple and tasty fall recipe. If you're new to making risotto it's fairly simple once you get the hang of it. You're basically just cooking risotto rice slowly in stock until it's cooked, which normally takes around 17-20 min. No, you cannot use any kind of rice. The most common rice used for risotto is arborio, which is widely in supermarkets around the country. Like pasta, you can add whatever the heck you want to your risotto. Once you get the hang of it, the options are endless! There's something fun about cooking it too, from sweating off the shallots and garlic, adding the rice and toasting it, then deglassing the pan with white wine and getting all those beautiful aromas...ahhh it's fantastic! Mushrooms...man I wish I had the money for some ...

This is a special dinner. It's also incredibly simple. It is light and clean tasting, with just the right amount of heat. You'll usually find black squid ink pasta at more upscale restaurants, but I saw some at Trader Joe's and instantly bought a few packs. If you can't find squid ink pasta then you can order it online. This type of pasta is excellent with seafood dishes, hence the jumbo scallops I decided to use. I originally wanted to use san marzano tomatoes to make a fresh red sauce but I had to use up the plum tomatoes I had laying around. It was delicious. Black mysterious looking pasta with sweet, succulent scallops with a golden brown crust. Then there's the heat from the red chili, and the acidity of the white wine and tomatoes...freakin' heck I'm sweating over here just thinking about it. My wife said this is one of her new favorites. Trust me, you've gotta make this dish. Your next special occasion (or just make one up) just have a go ...

Want a light and bright way of adding tons of flavor onto your next dish? Gremolata is the answer! It's one of my favorite things ever. The light fragrant smell of lemon zest, parsley and garlic being mixed together in olive oil is amazing. So light, so easy, so fresh! If you have no idea what gremolata is it's a chopped condiment traditionally consisting of lemon zest, lemon juice, parsley, garlic, anchovies, and really good quality extra-virgin olive oil. Capers can also be added as well, along with other things you may like such as red chili for a little heat. If you're on a budget then skip the anchovies and capers, but if you can try to use them as they give the gremolata its profile and depth of flavor. I made just enough gremolata for the evening to put on a couple pieces of salmon, but make enough of it to store in a container to put in the fridge for a few days as it develops more flavor. I'm not going to really give a recipe as I don't usuall...

Do you want to whip up something special that's also really easy? Then this is a dish for you! It's just chicken thighs cooked and simmered with mushrooms, grape tomatoes, garlic, and red wine that is served over polenta. I originally wanted to make creamy polenta, but decided to cut it in circles and fry it instead. Both versions would be wonderful. If you've never had polenta then you must give it a try! In short polenta is basically a cornmeal porridge common throughout Italy. People add various toppings such as mushrooms and tomatoes. Lamb shanks or braised beef short-ribs would be excellent with it. I don't like to fuss around too much when I make polenta so I will just provide a pretty basic and standard recipe. I usually do 4 cups of water to 1 cup of finely ground cornmeal. Just a heads up if you're not frying or grilling the polenta you'll want to serve it pretty much right away as it will thicken. Serves: 2-4 Prep Time: 15-20 Min. Polenta :...