Shrimpy Chicken Ravioli with white mozzarella sauce

This recipe came to realization as I wander between reality and the emerald dream. I have been experimenting with white sauce on several occasions, but I was unable to create something remotely close to an acceptable level. Hopefully, this attempt will result in something more favorable.


Ingredient: serving 1 person
Shrimp: 6 ~ 8
Red bell pepper: 1/4 ~ 1/2
Button mushroom: 1 ~ 2
Garlic: 1 clover
Salt: sprinkles
Dried Basil: sprinkles

Sauce:
Butter: 3cm of bar
Mozzarella: 2cm of bar ( they both come in a shape of bar block)
Flour: 2 tsp
Milk: 1/2 cup
Cognac: 1 tsp

Pasta:
Chicken Ravioli: amount of your liking
Olive Oil: 3 tsp
Salt: 2 tsp

Proposed Experimental Procedure:

1. Boil a pot of hot water and pour in the olive oil and salt. This is to keep the pasta from sticking to each other and an extra flavor. Cook it for about 5~10min, depending on the type of pasta. In this case, I cooked for the full 10 min.
2. While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter into a sauce pan with low heat. You don't want to burn the butter.
   
3. Slowly stir in the flour and keep stirring to make the paste look silky smooth
4. Time to add in Cognac, milk and mozzarella, slowly. The difference in the new addition will make the sauce kind of blocky. Same thing, you want to keep stirring until they melt with the sauce. sprinkle a little salt to your tasting.
   
5. Turn off heat and let it thickens.
6. Minced the garlic. Slice up the bell pepper and mushroom at size of your liking.
   
7. heat up the pan with cooking oil and medium heat. I have habit of overcooking my garlic. Once heated, throw in the garlic.
8. When the garlic looks brown, lower the heat and throw in the sliced bell pepper and stir it for a few min. It seems bell pepper requires a certain amount to burn away the raw smell and to bring out the natural sweetness.
   
9. Throw in mushroom and shrimp and sprinkles the ingredients with salts to your liking.
10. Pour in the drained pasta into the pan, and turn on the heat back up to medium to cook off the extra moisture. Sprinkles in the basil for extra flavor. Don't cook it for too long. 30sec should be ok.
    
11. Pour the sauce back into the pan and mix them well at low heat. That's it.

Result and Comment:

This time, the flavor of the creamy sauce turn out to be pretty nicely. Mozzarella really bring out its taste once heated, mild but savory. I was really surprised because I tried the cheese in its solid state and tasted like nothing. I wonder if I should have added more Cognac next time. I wasn't able to smell the fragrance of the Cognac. Aside from the flavor of the sauce, the texture of the sauce is still something that bugs me. I can still taste little sandy kind of texture in my cream sauce. Is it because I did not stir hard enough for the flour to fully blend in? or I am using the wrong type of flour? or should I use different type of medium to thicken the sauce?

Bell pepper turned out a lot better than my previous attempts. However, I was unable to bring out the same flavor as the roasted bell pepper I had at Antons. I wonder if I really have to roast the outside skin to have that kind of flavor.

I still need to work on the amount of my ingredients in a more detailed measurement. So far, I am working off a feeling. ha ha