Ah, finally found the small square of paper I scribbled out the ingredient ratio on. This might have well just been sun-dried tomato and ricotta cheese. I couldn't taste the lobster mushrooms at all. The other flavors in this filling mixture were too too strong. Definitely in retrospect, the amount of sun-dried tomatoes was too much for this batch. And, the cheese should have been the liquidish stuff instead of the dried curds from Trader Joe's. Alas, I couldn't taste the lobster mushrooms at all. <sad face>
Ingredients
1 c dried lobster mushrooms (rehydrated and coarsely chopped)
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 c whole milk ricotta cheese
3-4 sun-dried tomato strips, finely chopped
1 egg white
1 tsp each fresh basil, fresh thyme, fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 tsp each dried oregano and marjoram (if not available fresh)
Whirl all the ingredients together in a food prep until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Let chill in a covered container in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Ravioli Filling #1 - Sausage/Ricotta/Spinach
An afterthought note on the ricotta cheese. At the store there were two types of ricotta cheese. One came in a pint tub, but was nonfat ricotta cheese. I'm not sure how this is even possible since cheese is made from the coagulation of the protein and fats in dairy. The other was dry and crumbled; and notably very salty. There was so much salt in the ricotta cheese that it overpowered all other ingredients in the ravioli. I couldn't taste the spinach or the sage. And heck, the cheese was saltier than the Italian pork sausage. If you're going to procure ricotta cheese for this recipe, skip Trader Joe's. Neither of TJ's ricotta cheese products are right for making ravioli. You'll want to get a ricotta cheese made from whole milk. Anyhow, onto the Better Homes & Gardens recipe ratio.
Each ravioli uses 1 tsp of mix, so keep that in mind if you have only made one batch of ravioli pasta dough.
Makes 1 cup.
Ingredients
4 oz Italian pork sausage (if you buy the links, simply remove the casings from 2 of them)
3/4 c fresh spinach leaves, packed
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
1/3 c ricotta cheese
1 tsp fresh sage, minced
1/8 tsp grated whole nutmeg or ground nutmeg
Directions
1. If you bought sausage links instead of bulk sausage, simply remove the casings from two of the sausages. Fry sausage over medium heat and break up the sausage as it cooks. When no more pink remains, remove the sausage to a plate and add spinach to the hot pan. Cook the spinach until it wilts. Drain off the fat, if any.
2. In a food processor, combine the cooked sausage and spinach. Pulse until it resembles ground pork.
3. In a medium bowl, combine egg yolk, ricotta cheese, sage, nutmeg. Stir in sausage mixture. Cover and chill until needed.
This is more than enough filling to make twenty 1" ravioli, each filled with 1 tsp filling.
Basic Pasta Dough for Ravioli
This recipe ratio comes from the French Laundry cookbook. First time making ravioli, second attempt at making pasta from scratch. There are two parts to any noodle dish. The most important part, I've discovered is having a pasta dough that tastes good on its own. It's not too salty; it holds up well to being boiled, and when you eat it, the pasta says: eat more, eat more. The second part is packaging. No, not how the product starts out, but how it looks when it ends up on your plate.
For a pasta-making beginner, this dough didn't exactly come together like it does in all those YouTube videos about how to make pasta dough from scratch; but what I can tell you (and the cookbook says this, so it must be true) is that you cannot overknead the dough.
I hope you are in shape because kneading the pasta dough by hand is an upper body workout!
Ingredients
1 3/4 c (8 oz) all purpose flour
6 large egg yolks
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp milk
Directions
Mound the flour in the center of a Silpat mat or large cutting board. Make a well in the center large enough to accommodate the wet ingredients (milk, egg yolks, whole egg, and olive oil). Pour wet ingredients into the well.
Mixing. Using your fingers, break the eggs up and turn the flour in a circular motion (same direction, don't go all changing direction when incorporating the wet ingredients into the flour). Supposedly this circular motion helps to incorporate the flour into the eggs otherwise it'll be all lumpy. Eventually the mixture will get too tight to keep turning with your fingers.
At this stage, I thought I had more of the ingredients stuck to my hands than what was on the board. My hands looked as though I'd been sparring with the Pillsbury dough boy. Alas, I think this is normal.
Kneading. Knead the dough by pressing it in a forward motion with the heels of your hands. Do this several times until the dough doesn't feel sticky. Let the dough rest for a few minutes. Form the dough into a ball and knead it again until the dough becomes silky smooth. What was interesting that the more I kneaded the dough, the more it came off my hands and by the time I felt like I was done kneading, most of it was off my hands.
I'm not sure that the dough ever got to the silky smooth stage from kneading; but after I let it rest in a closed plastic food storage container, the dough was smooth and pliable.
The cookbook suggests that kneading can take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. This might be true if you were a seasoned bread maker with massive forearms. I think this step took me longer.
Resting. You could wrap the dough in plastic wrap, but a sealable airtight plastic container will suffice.
Let the dough rest for 30 minutes to an hour before making it into something else, like noodles or ravioli.
Making. This batch of dough made 40 ravioli dumplings, though I'm sure more could have been made if I didn't waste so much figuring out the hand-cranked pasta machine. The cookbook says to take this ball of dough and cut it into thirds, then each third (roughly 5 oz each by weight) should be cut in half. The amount of dough that should be fed through the pasta machine is 2.5 oz. I used a digital kitchen scale to measure out the dough.
I ran the dough through the pasta machine starting from the largest width setting (7) to the second smallest (2). I found that the smallest setting on that machine makes a paper-thin, translucent sheet of pasta; maybe this is how filo dough is made. Run the pasta through the machine 2-3 times per knob setting, gradually making it thinner.
Most pasta recipes will tell you to fold it and turn it a quarter. I watched a YouTube video on this because I had no conceptual idea what the cookbook was talking about. I used an egg wash (1 egg yolk + water) with a pastry brush on one side of the ravioli and pressed the two sheets of pasta dough together after putting in the filling. That method worked well for sealing it.
For a pasta-making beginner, this dough didn't exactly come together like it does in all those YouTube videos about how to make pasta dough from scratch; but what I can tell you (and the cookbook says this, so it must be true) is that you cannot overknead the dough.
I hope you are in shape because kneading the pasta dough by hand is an upper body workout!
Ingredients
1 3/4 c (8 oz) all purpose flour
6 large egg yolks
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp milk
Directions
Mound the flour in the center of a Silpat mat or large cutting board. Make a well in the center large enough to accommodate the wet ingredients (milk, egg yolks, whole egg, and olive oil). Pour wet ingredients into the well.
Mixing. Using your fingers, break the eggs up and turn the flour in a circular motion (same direction, don't go all changing direction when incorporating the wet ingredients into the flour). Supposedly this circular motion helps to incorporate the flour into the eggs otherwise it'll be all lumpy. Eventually the mixture will get too tight to keep turning with your fingers.
At this stage, I thought I had more of the ingredients stuck to my hands than what was on the board. My hands looked as though I'd been sparring with the Pillsbury dough boy. Alas, I think this is normal.
Kneading. Knead the dough by pressing it in a forward motion with the heels of your hands. Do this several times until the dough doesn't feel sticky. Let the dough rest for a few minutes. Form the dough into a ball and knead it again until the dough becomes silky smooth. What was interesting that the more I kneaded the dough, the more it came off my hands and by the time I felt like I was done kneading, most of it was off my hands.
I'm not sure that the dough ever got to the silky smooth stage from kneading; but after I let it rest in a closed plastic food storage container, the dough was smooth and pliable.
The cookbook suggests that kneading can take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. This might be true if you were a seasoned bread maker with massive forearms. I think this step took me longer.
Resting. You could wrap the dough in plastic wrap, but a sealable airtight plastic container will suffice.
Let the dough rest for 30 minutes to an hour before making it into something else, like noodles or ravioli.
Making. This batch of dough made 40 ravioli dumplings, though I'm sure more could have been made if I didn't waste so much figuring out the hand-cranked pasta machine. The cookbook says to take this ball of dough and cut it into thirds, then each third (roughly 5 oz each by weight) should be cut in half. The amount of dough that should be fed through the pasta machine is 2.5 oz. I used a digital kitchen scale to measure out the dough.
I ran the dough through the pasta machine starting from the largest width setting (7) to the second smallest (2). I found that the smallest setting on that machine makes a paper-thin, translucent sheet of pasta; maybe this is how filo dough is made. Run the pasta through the machine 2-3 times per knob setting, gradually making it thinner.
Most pasta recipes will tell you to fold it and turn it a quarter. I watched a YouTube video on this because I had no conceptual idea what the cookbook was talking about. I used an egg wash (1 egg yolk + water) with a pastry brush on one side of the ravioli and pressed the two sheets of pasta dough together after putting in the filling. That method worked well for sealing it.
Dumplings for Chicken Fricasse
This ingredient ratio was adapted from the Pacific Northwest the Beautiful cookbook and was used in a chicken fricassee recipe of the same book. When the stew is done, eat the dumplings first. Imagine hot and steamy bread-based dumplings drenched in a hearty chicken stew and that's what it tastes like. The dumplings are not as good through multiple reheatings and become rather dense. They are pretty much as good as they're going to get when made fresh the first day. There usually isn't as much stew liquid leftover to accommodate more dumplings.
Ingredients
2 c unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tbsp fresh sage, minced
2 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves, coarsely chopped
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp celery seed
1/2 c buttermilk
1/2 c half n half
additional water, optional if the batter is too dry
Directions
1. In a large bowl, whisk all the dry ingredients together. Add milks and stir gently to combine.
2. Drop by rounded tablespoons into simmering broth. Cook for 15-20 min, until puffy and dumplings float to the top.
 |
| Chicken Fricassee (imagine fried then braised chicken, served up in its own broth) |
Ingredients
2 c unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tbsp fresh sage, minced
2 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves, coarsely chopped
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp celery seed
1/2 c buttermilk
1/2 c half n half
additional water, optional if the batter is too dry
1. In a large bowl, whisk all the dry ingredients together. Add milks and stir gently to combine.
2. Drop by rounded tablespoons into simmering broth. Cook for 15-20 min, until puffy and dumplings float to the top.
 |
| The finished dumplings after cooking in the broth. I removed them from the pot so that they could be evenly distributed in bowls. |
Green Tea Pound Cake
This recipe comes from the book Perfect Cakes by Chef Nick Malgieri. I made a few adjustments to the recipe, not much, but don't go broke buying matcha green tea powder when you can make it yourself using ordinary loose leaf green tea. Because I didn't use the bright green-colored matcha tea powder and used unbleached all-purpose flour, the cake itself had a green tea flavor and had a muddy-green color when I took it out of the oven. I also overfilled the loaf pan (the cake does rise by double its volume) and baked the cake for 15 minutes longer that what the original recipe calls for.
You don't need to buy the expensive matcha green tea powder for this recipe. If you have an electric coffee grinder, you can certainly make your own with any type of dried green tea. I used a combination of good quality green tea bags plus some Longjing loose leaf tea. The green tea powder that anyone can make is called konacha, or "powder tea". Since this is for a bread-based dessert, you don't need to get the green tea as finely milled as you can with a coffee grinder, as you might with a mochi or green tea ice cream recipe.
Ingredients
2 c unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tbsp green tea powder
2 tsp baking powder
2 sticks unsalted butter, diced
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
5 large eggs, separated
a pinch of salt
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and line a 9" x 5" x 3" loaf pan with parchment paper.
1. Separate the eggs into yolks and whites. A small bowl for the yolks, and a 5-qt mixing bowl for the whites.
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, tea powder, baking powder, and powdered sugar. Cut in butter with a pastry blender (or toss in all these ingredients in step 1 into a food processor and pulse until crumbs form). Gently fold in one egg yolk at a time with a rubber spatula.
3. Add the pinch of salt to the egg whites and beat with a balloon whisk (or use an electric mixer with a balloon whisk attachment) until medium peaks form. When you lift the whisk out of the eggs, the foam should mostly hold its shape and be white and opaque in color.
4. Gently fold the egg whites into the flour mixture until no white streaks remain.
5. Fill a prepared loaf pan with the batter half way, the cake will rise and double in volume. Bake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Let it cool for 10 minutes in the pan on a rack before slicing.
You don't need to buy the expensive matcha green tea powder for this recipe. If you have an electric coffee grinder, you can certainly make your own with any type of dried green tea. I used a combination of good quality green tea bags plus some Longjing loose leaf tea. The green tea powder that anyone can make is called konacha, or "powder tea". Since this is for a bread-based dessert, you don't need to get the green tea as finely milled as you can with a coffee grinder, as you might with a mochi or green tea ice cream recipe.
Makes 1 loaf (9" x 5" x 3")
Ingredients
2 c unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tbsp green tea powder
2 tsp baking powder
2 sticks unsalted butter, diced
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
5 large eggs, separated
a pinch of salt
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and line a 9" x 5" x 3" loaf pan with parchment paper.
1. Separate the eggs into yolks and whites. A small bowl for the yolks, and a 5-qt mixing bowl for the whites.
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, tea powder, baking powder, and powdered sugar. Cut in butter with a pastry blender (or toss in all these ingredients in step 1 into a food processor and pulse until crumbs form). Gently fold in one egg yolk at a time with a rubber spatula.
3. Add the pinch of salt to the egg whites and beat with a balloon whisk (or use an electric mixer with a balloon whisk attachment) until medium peaks form. When you lift the whisk out of the eggs, the foam should mostly hold its shape and be white and opaque in color.
4. Gently fold the egg whites into the flour mixture until no white streaks remain.
5. Fill a prepared loaf pan with the batter half way, the cake will rise and double in volume. Bake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Let it cool for 10 minutes in the pan on a rack before slicing.
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