9.23.2008

Kick'n it Jamie Oliver Style


Peter made these amazing baked onions served with tomato sauce and polenta. We saw these made earlier this summer on Jamie Olivers new show. The cheesy creamy onion filling was the best part.

BAKED ONIONS
Ingredients
4 good sized white onions, peeled
olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, peeled & finely chopped
4 twigs of fresh rosemary, lower leaves picked & chopped
8 tbsp double cream couple of handfuls of grated Parmesansea salt & freshly ground black pepper
4 slices of pancetta or smoked streaky bacon rashers

Method
1 Boil the onions in plenty of water for 15 minutes until slightly tender. Remove from the pan and allow to cool.
2 Then, with a sharp knife, remove the top 2.5cm/1" of each onion, finely chop and place to one side. If need be, slightly trim the stalk end of the onions so that they will sit flat on a roasting tray.
3 Cut about a heaped tablespoon out from the inside of each onion, keeping the outside intact. Finely chop and add to the rest of the chopped onion.
4 Pre-heat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Heat a frying pan and add a little olive oil, your garlic, the chopped onions and just a little chopped rosemary.
5 Fry for a couple of minutes until softened, then turn the heat down, add the cream and remove from the heat. Stir in the Parmesan and season.
6 Wrap a nice slice of pancetta around the middle of each onion and just spike it in place with a sharpened twig of rosemary.
7 Place the onions on to a roasting tray and spoon some of the chopped onion mixture inside each one. Bake in the preheated oven for around 25 minutes.

Golden Pineapple Tomatillos

This week I discovered some Pineapple Tomitillos at the farmers market. Somehow I have never seen them before. They are like small golden firm grapes with a sweet citrus flavor. They are great eaten all by themselves or they can be used anywhere you would like a sweet tart flavor. I ended up using these in place of mangos in a jicama salad. Unfortunately I found these on the last week that they were in season, but I’ve set a reminder in my calendar for next year. I’m looking forward to experimenting with them more next year.

9.07.2008

Tabla Egg Ravioli

The first time I had this dish I fell in love immediately. It was three summers ago when I walked into Tabla Mediterranean Bistro for the first time. It was a busy night and they sat me at the kitchen bar looking directly into their open kitchen. I saw this ravioli being made and I knew I had to have it. The Tabla ravioli is filled with a ring of ricotta and chard and in the center is an egg yolk. When you cut into the ravioli the yolk spills out making a rich sauce for the pasta. It truly is magic. Since that first bite three years ago I’ve been back every couple of weeks and I always order the ravioli.

Last night for dinner we decided to make the ravioli. I remembered that I had seen a recipe for it in Sunset Magazine so I rooted around and found it. This is a recipe that is easy to adjust, you could put just about anything in it. I think that next time I make it I’m going to do the ricotta filling with basil and lemon zest instead of chard.


Ingredients
About 1 1/4 cups flour
2 whole eggs, plus 6 egg yolks and 1 egg white
1 1/2 teaspoons heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon plus 1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups tightly packed stemmed chard leaves
1/4 cup whole-milk ricotta
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/8 to 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. poppy seeds
Preparation
1. Mix 1 1/4 cups flour, whole eggs, and cream to form dough. Turn out onto a clean surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Prepare a large bowl of ice water and set it next to the stove. Add 1 tbsp. salt and chard leaves to pot. Cook chard until water returns to a boil and leaves are tender, about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer chard leaves to ice water. (Keep pot of hot water on stove, but turn off heat.) Drain chard, squeeze out as much water as possible, and chop (you should have about 1/2 cup). Mix chard with ricotta, 1/4 cup parmesan, remaining 1/4 tsp. salt, and pepper to taste. Set aside.
3. Cut a 5-in.-diameter round from a piece of paper and set aside. Unwrap pasta dough, divide into 6 pieces, and pat each piece into a 1/2-in.-thick rectangle. Working with 1 piece at a time, set a pasta roller on the widest setting and roll piece through, dusting dough with flour as necessary to prevent sticking. Fold piece into thirds (like a letter) and roll it through again. Repeat folding and rolling once more for a total of three rolls on the widest setting. Repeat with remaining 5 pieces of dough.
4. Set roller to next narrowest setting and roll each piece through once. Repeat with next narrowest setting. Cut each piece in half and roll through on each remaining setting twice, turning 90° between rolls and trimming as necessary to fit and to keep a basically square shape, until dough squares are thin enough to see through and measure at least 5 in. on all sides.
5. Using paper round as a template, cut 5-in. rounds from each dough square.
6. Assemble the ravioli: Lay 6 pasta rounds on a clean surface dusted with flour. On each round, use a small spoon to arrange 1/6 of the chard-ricotta mixture in a circle about 3/4 in. from the edges, creating a well in the center large enough to hold an egg yolk. Repeat with remaining 5 pasta rounds and chard mixture. Put an egg yolk in the center of each well. Brush edges of pasta with egg white and place a second pasta round on top of each ravioli. Working from the center of each ravioli, gently press the top pasta round onto the filling to make sure there are no air pockets in the ravioli. Press edges firmly together to seal.
7. Bring pot of water to a slow boil. With a 4- to 5-in. strainer or slotted spoon, lower ravioli one at a time into the water (cook in batches of 2 or 3). Cook ravioli 3 minutes. Using the strainer, transfer them to a serving plate, blotting excess water with a paper towel. Top each ravioli with 1 tsp. butter.
8. Sprinkle ravioli with poppy seeds and remaining parmesan. Serve immediately.

9.01.2008

Huckleberry Cinnamon Roll Bread Pudding

It took Huckleberries to get my mojo back. We've been catering so much this summer that I had become completely burned out on cooking. Luckily we headed up to the cabin for Labor Day weekend and we cooked up a storm of inspiring food.

This was a great experiment turned home run. I picked up some cinnamon rolls and huckleberries at the farmers market. That night before I went to bed I cut up the Cinnamon rolls at placed them in the casserole dish. I sprinkled them with huckleberries and let the bread soak up a simple custard. In the morning I baked off the bread pudding. It came out rich and cinnamony and the tart huckleberries added a great tart bite.

5 cinnamon rolls
1 pint huckleberries
6 eggs
2 cups milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons butter

The night before cut up the cinnamon rolls and place them in a buttered casserole dish. Sprinkle with huckleberries. Whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla and salt. Pour over the cinnamon rolls and let it soak overnight in the refrigerator.

preheat oven to 350. Arange the 5 tablespoons of butter on the top of the breadpudding and bake for 50 minutes.