Archive for the 'cheese' Category
Oy.
Let me preface this post by publicly announcing how much I admire teachers. Seriously, bravo to you guys. My sister teaches grade 6, and I am constantly amazed by her workload; not only during the days but on evenings, weekends and holidays. I never thought I was cut out for it. That belief was confirmed today when I taught 26 teenagers (grades 6-9) a hands-on cooking class at The Cooking Room in Red Deer. Which isn’t to say it wasn’t a total blast, or that teenagers are somehow intolerable, it’s just - well, picture 26 young adults kneading yeast dough for their calzone, shaping spanikopita in phyllo pastry, frying baci di ricotta (teeny ethereal Tim Bits by way of Nigella), wrapping shrimp in prosciutto, grilling chocolate panini and rolling energy orbs and chocolate truffles, all in one room with one oven.
The funny part is - I thought we’d have time to do all this and make ravioli with wonton wrappers. Ha.
So I came home with about 300 extra wonton wrappers and a roasted butternut squash (split it in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, drizzle with oil and bake on a cookie sheet or in your cast iron skillet at 400F for an hour) as well as half a container of leftover ricotta. (I wish I had thought of throwing a head of garlic in to roast with the squash!) The thing about wonton wrappers (the square ones - if they are round they are labeled gyoza) is that they are pretty much the same thing as fresh pasta sheets, so they make fresh ravioli dead easy. Fill them with anything you can think of; dab your finger in water and run it along two edges, then fold it over to seal, squishing out any air pockets so that they don’t turn into floatation devices when you boil them.
For the filling, I scooped out the roasted squash (you can do this in advance if you like while you’re cooking something else, and stash the squash in the fridge for a few days) and mashed it with what was left of the ricotta (not quite a cup), a drizzle of maple syrup, another of flax oil (for omega 3s) and some salt and pepper. Once the ravioli are assembled they can be frozen in a single layer and then transferred to freezer bags, or dropped into boiling water (don’t crowd the pot) for 3-5 minutes, until they float to the surface and the pasta is tender. Frozen ravioli can be boiled the exact same way, making them an even quicker supper than dried spaghetti.
For the sauce, anything goes. I pondered pesto, since W is such a fan, but really all I ever want with squash is butter. Browned butter is even better, nuttier and richer, and browning it helps make a little go a long way.
Swirl a knob of butter in a hot skillet; when the foam subsides, it will start turning golden as the natural sugars in the butter caramelize. (That’s right, butter and caramel.) Scoop the ravioli from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and drop into the hot pan, like you might with perogies. The hot pan and hot butter should keep them from sticking; shake them around a bit until they start to brown as much as you’d like them to. If you had some fresh sage, adding a few torn leaves now would be a great idea. Pour it all out into a shallow bowl.
Share on Facebook
February 07 2008 | cheese and pasta and vegetarian | 3 Comments »
Apparently, recipes have always been my thing. When I was little, I enjoyed reading cooking magazines more than Owl or Chickadee. In grade 3, I told my class I wanted to be the food editor of Canadian Living magazine when everyone else wanted to be nurses and firemen and princesses. When I was old enough to babysit, I’d spend those evenings flipping through people’s cookbook collections - it was a jackpot night when I stumbled upon an old recipe box to bring to the couch while I watched Fantasy Island. I’ve always been curious about what people eat.
So I still have 4 recipe boxes full of recipe cards I hand wrote or typed out on my electric typewriter when I was a kid-slash-teenager. Willem has recently discovered them, and thinks they are the funnest toys ever. (It used to be the stacks of business cards in my file cabinet that were the funnest, but these cards are bigger.) He likes to take them out one by one and then bring them to me. Wahoo! Who needs that big wooden train set or Mr. Potato Head?
I think the events that transpired yesterday could be classified as serendipitous. I noticed while rooting through the fridge that the two containers of ricotta I bought for some reason a month ago and never used were on the verge of expiring, and ricotta ain’t cheap. But what was I going to do with 4 cups of ricotta? I didn’t have enough other stuff to make lasagna, and while Nigella’s ricotta donuts would have been fabulous (I can’t find the link on my blog… it’s there somewhere, otherwise look in Feast), making them at home for just the three of us wouldn’t have been a good idea at all.
So yesterday afternoon W brought me a recipe card, and on it was a formula for ricotta gnocchi. This is one of few recipe cards that has stuck in my mind. I remember not knowing what gnocchi was when I typed it, but it sounded like something I needed to learn. This was gnocchi you roasted in the oven, drizzling with melted butter and Parmesan cheese as you rolled them around on the cookie sheet until they turned golden and crispy all over. To this day, every time the subject of gnocchi comes up, or I see it on a restaurant menu, I think of that recipe, which I never did actually make. Until today.
It was supposed to be last night’s dinner. I quickly stirred an egg, some flour and Parmesan into the ricotta, and then noticed the mixture needed to sit for 2 hours. So it sat in the fridge for 24, and this morning I floured my hands and rolled them into little balls while Willem ate his oatmeal. The mixture was very soft despite my addition of extra flour, but that’s OK; although it was impossible to roll the dough into a rope, cut it into pieces and then roll each piece on the tines of a fork to create the traditional gnocchi shape, they made perfect little round ricotta dumplings. I imagine they would be fantastic dropped onto the surface of a simmering chicken stew - perhaps tomato-based - to cook in the broth and flavorful steam trapped under the lid.
And since I had enough chicken drumsticks and thighs to feed an army (or a radio newsroom the Friday morning before Super Bowl Sunday) I threw a few extra into my cast iron skillet, drizzled with oil, salt and pepper, and stuck it on the oven shelf above the gnocchi. Putting away the groceries I discovered a few depressed brussels sprouts, so halved them and scattered them around the chicken as it roasted, which I was happy to discover produced a plethora of crispy bits.
Ricotta Gnocchi
1 lb. (2 cups) ricotta cheese (regular or light)
1-2 eggs (the original recipe called for 2, but I only had 1 left)
1/2 cup grated mozarella or 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
3/4 cup flour
pinch salt
Butter, oil and Parmesan cheese for roasting
Stir together all the ingredients in a bowl, cover and refrigerate for an hour or overnight.
Lightly shake some flour over the countertop and onto your hands, and roll the mixture into 1″ balls; place them on a floured cookie sheet, cover and pop in the fridge for an hour or 8, if you don’t want to cook them right away. (I imagine they would also freeze very well.)
Preheat the oven to 400F and boil a large pot of water. Drop the gnocchi in about 8 at a time (depending on the size of your pot - you just don’t want to crowd it) and boil for 3-4 minutes, or until they float to the surface. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon, and put them on a rimmed cookie sheet.
Drizzle with melted butter and/or canola oil, and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Roast in the oven, turning occasionally and sprinkling with more cheese (or drizzling with more butter or oil) if you like, until crunchy and golden.
Share on Facebook
January 31 2008 | cheese and pasta and vegetarian | 2 Comments »
I’m almost ashamed at how close Mike came to convincing me we should order Inglewood Pizza tonight - he knew I was an easy target, my defenses having been knocked down by the deep snow and PJs I had been in most of the afternoon since coming inside, making me feel all snug and far from Monday. (Not quite far enough.)
I stopped him as he picked up the phone, in fact. I’m so glad I did - I had another recipe to test using my mishmash of peppers. Right now I can smell the tumble of oil-slicked peppers, tomatoes, chilies and garlic roasting in the oven. When they come out, I’ll blitz it in the food processor until it’s chunky with a few black olives, spread it over some crumbled goat cheese I put in a smallish baking dish, and broil it until it’s bubbly around the edges. It should be perfect scooped out with chunks of the pepper-olive rye we picked up this afternoon, still so warm it made the plastic bag soften and almost shrinkwrap the loaf when we stepped out into the cold.
Final report: we have a winner! This is the sort of thing that excites me so much, I just wanted to pick up the phone and tell someone about it. The photo truly doesn’t do it justice - it was dark and the battery was flashing, and I wasn’t in a position to abandon sizzling cheese in order to find the battery charger. Because roasting mellows the chile peppers, we put a spoonful into W’s whole wheat spaghetti, and he wolfed it down.
I suspect if you don’t have any fresh chilies or are a fan of chipotle, this would be equally good with the red chilies omitted and one or two chipotles en adobo (the smoky tomato sauce they are generally packed in when canned) added to the peppers along with the olives. A few leaves of fresh basil or a twig of rosemary would probably be great thrown in too.
Goat Cheese Gratin with Roasted Peppers, Tomatoes and Chilies
1 red bell pepper
1 orange or yellow bell pepper
olive or canola oil
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, or 4 Roma tomatoes, halved
2-4 red chile peppers, seeded and chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup black olives, pitted
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
salt, to taste
10 oz. soft goat cheese
Preheat oven to 450°F. Seed the peppers and cut them in half. Set them cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet that has been drizzled well with olive or canola oil. In a medium bowl, toss the tomatoes, chile peppers and garlic with another drizzle of oil, toss to coat and spread them out on the pan among the peppers. Roast for 30-45 minutes, until the skin on the peppers blisters and blackens.
Remove the vegetables from the oven and transfer the roasted bell peppers to a bowl; cover and let stand until cool enough to handle. Scrape the roasted tomatoes, chilies and garlic into the bowl of a food processor, along with any juices and the blacked bits on the pan. When the peppers are cool, peel off their skins and add them to the food processor, along with any juices that have accumulated at the bottom of the bowl. Add the olives, some basil or rosemary if you like, and the vinegar, and pulse until the mixture is well blended but still chunky. Taste and add salt, if it needs it – the olives are often salty enough
Crumble the goat cheese into a shallow baking dish, and spread the pepper mixture over top. Broil for 10 minutes, or until heated through and bubbly around the edges. Serve with fresh bread, pitas or crackers.
Serves 8 (depending on appetites).
Print Post
Share on Facebook
January 19 2008 | appetizers and cheese and snacks and vegetarian | 5 Comments »
« Prev
