Salmon and Goat Cheese Ravioli, with a Red Pepper Sauce.

Flora had some leftover salmon one day and wanted to make it into a pasta ravioli. You can use leftover or fresh salmon for this. She made it with homemade pasta, and this time, the pasta was made with whole wheat flour.

Ingredients:

about 6 oz salmon fillet
1/2 of a lemon
salt and pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 oz goat cheese
homemade pasta; you could use wonton wraps though if you would like
2 medium red bell peppers
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
dash of oregano, salt & pepper
1/4-1/2 cup chicken broth

1. Preheat oven to 350F (if not using leftover salmon)

2. F made the pasta with leftover salmon. But if you’re using fresh salmon,  squeeze the lemon juice over salmon and season with salt and pepper. Then roast the salmon in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until cooked through (you can check by poking the inside with a fork – it should be more pink than red, and not jelly-like). Take it out of the oven and cool.

Salmon

3. Chop the salmon in food processor until it is quite fine, and combine with garlic, parsley and goat cheese. You can be creative here, and season with different herbs to your liking.

Salmon Filling in the food processor.

4. If you are using wonton wrappers: Place 1 tsp of filling onto each wonton wrapper. Then wet the edges with water, and press the sides together to seal. Place in freezer while preparing sauce (this is optional; it just helps in better handling).

If using homemade pasta: roll pasta until quite fine (almost to the skinniest setting on the roller). Have two sheets ready. Place 1 tsp of the salmon filling onto one sheet (have the sheet on a lightly floured surface). Wet edges with water, and lay the second sheet on top, pressing the edges together. With a pasta cutter, you can cut it into individual raviolis.

Salmon filling on homemade pasta

5. Preheat broiler to high. Either spray peppers with cooking spray, or lightly oil them. Put the peppers on a baking sheet, and cook under broiler for a few minutes on each side, until charred on all sides. Remove from oven and put them in a plastic bag. Close the plastic bag to prevent heat escaping, until cool. This will allow steam from inside the peppers to rise and lift off the skin, making the removing of the skin easier. OR you can place the peppers  in a bowl covered with plastic wrap until cool enough to handle.

Red Peppers

6. While the peppers are cooling off, saute the onion in a small pan with a bit of oil (medium heat), for about 5 minutes or until soft. Add garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, oregano, salt, and pepper; cook 1 minute more to meld all the flavor.

7. Back to the peppers. They may still be hot, so be careful! Remove skin and stems from the peppers. In a blender or food processor (blender works better, as there is liquid here), combine the peppers with the onion mixture and broth; puree until smooth. Pour the mixture into a small saucepan to keep warm.

Red peppers, onion mixture; ready to be blended.

Finished red pepper sauce, warmed up in a saucepan.

8. Boil water, and cook the ravioli for 3-4 minutes (be careful not to overcook them). Strain when done.

F served this with steamed asparagus, and ladled some of the sauce on top of the ravioli. Garnish with fresh parsley or basil, and freshly grated Romano or Parmesan cheese.

Perfect for 2.

Salmon and goat cheese ravioli, served with a red pepper sauce, on a bed of steamed asparagus.

Dumplings 3 ways

We have made dumplings before, and this time, we made both veggie and pork ones. They are great to freeze, so you can just easily have them as a meal later on (remember to separate them on a large baking sheet in the freezer so they don’t stick together; once frozen, put them in a container or bag). The three ways we ate the dumplings after we made them were 1) fry them (aka potstickers) 2) boiled in a miso soup and 3) steamed

For the vegetarian one, we followed Alton Brown’s recipe that can be found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/vegetarian-steamed-dumplings-recipe/index.html

Pressing and draining the tofu

The vegetarian dumpling filling

For the pork one, this was the recipe our friend gave us:

Ingredients

Makes about 80-90

Store – bought wonton wrappers

For the Filling

450/1lb Chinese leaves or white cabbage

450g/1lb minced pork

15ml/1tbsp finely chopped spring onions

5ml/1tsp finely chopped fresh root ginger

10ml/2tsp salt

5ml/1 tsp light brown sugar

30ml/2 tbsp light soy sauce

15ml/1 tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry

10 ml/2 tsp sesame oil

For the dipping sauce

30 ml/ 2 tbsp red chilli oil

15 ml/1tbsp light soy sauce

15ml/1 tbsp finely chopped garlic

15 ml/1 tbsp finely chopped spring onions

1.Cut cabbage finely – or use food processor, which we did. Mix with the pork, spring onions, ginger, salt, sugar, soy sauce, wine and sesame oil.

2. Lightly dust a work surface with the flour.

3. Place about 25ml/1.5tbsp of the filling in the centre of each wrapper and fold into a corner, wetting the edges with water to seal tightly.

4. Fold the two outer edges back together and put a dab of water to seal together.

5. Make the dipping sauce by combining all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Serve in a small bowl with the dumplings.

The pork dumpling filling

We're ready to roll!

For the pork ones, B made them in circle wonton wrappers. He put the filling in the middle, folded them into semi-circles and pressed and folded the edges. For mine, I made mine in triangle wrappers, folded back with the 2 outside edges of the triangle

Dumplings/wontons

Veggie Dumplings

Pork dumplings

First, we made potstickers. You first heat 1 T of oil over medium-high  in a  large skillet with a tight-fitting lid. Fry some of the wontons and cook for about 1 minute per side, or until lightly browned. Flip and do the same thing (flip only once!). Then add 1/2 c of water and cover for 2-3 minutes, or until wrappers are translucent. Repeat with the remaining wontons if desired.

Potstickers with dipping sauce

The next one we did were boiled in a miso soup. We boiled water, turned it off, put the miso paste in, with green onions, carrots, and shitake mushrooms. Stir. Next, we put the dumplings in (carefully) and reboiled. Dumplings should be done when they float (around 3 minutes).

Miso soup dumplings

The final one we just steamed (put a parchment paper underneath to prevent sticking). The dumplings are done when skin is translucent, about 12 minutes. We served this with the same sauce as the potstickers.

Steamed dumplings with sauce

Orange Tart

This is another Mario Batali recipe – it has orange, brown sugar, ricotta (his recipe called for Mascarpone cheese) on a lemon zesty tart shell. It was yummy.

Orange Tart

Another Pasta night – bowtie pasta

We had some leftover tomato sauce and fresh pasta (from the previous post), and Brandon made bowtie pasta from scratch. Roll out the pasta and cut them into small rectangles (we cut them with a fancy serrated knife). Then you use your thumb, index and middle finger to scrunch up the middle to make the bowtie part. For this pasta, we fried up some vegetables (eggplant, carrots, green pepper, onion, and garlic) with the tomato sauce.

Brandon rolling out the pasta

Bowtie Pasta

Finished Bowtie Pasta with Vegetables and Tomato Sauce

As promised, here is the recipe for Mario’s tomato sauce:

1/4 c extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, diced into 1/4 inches

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

3 T fresh chopped thyme

1/2 carrot, finely shredded

2 28oz cans whole tomatoes

1. In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat.

2. Fry onion and garlic for 8-10 mins, or until soft and golden brown – don’t brown.

3. Stir in thyme and carrot, until carrot is quite soft, about 5 mins.

4. Add tomatoes, with juice, slowly and bring to a boil, stirring often. Lower to a simmer; sauce should reduce and be thick like oatmeal (about 30 mins). Season with salt and pepper.

Mario Batali night

We got out Mario Batali’s cookbook from the library and decided to make a night out of cooking his recipes. Two simple yet delicious dishes were chosen: a Mushroom Salad, and St John’s Eve Pasta.

This pasta is a delicious combination of pappardelle with a classic tomato sauce, added with a crunchy breadcrumb (other recipes calls for panko). It is this crunchy texture that makes this delicious dish super special.

Recipe: for 4-6 servings (we halved this recipe ourselves0

3/4 cups sliced almonds

1/2 c virgin olive oil

2 c fresh bread crumbs

4 anchovies – chopped, rinsed

1 onion finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 and 1/2 c basic tomato sauce

6-8 fresh basil leaves, chiffonade

1 pound lasagnette or pappardelle

1. Boil water for pasta; add 2 T salt

2. Toast almonds with 1 T oil (over medium heat). Do not burn! Toast until medium brown

3. Transfer almonds to another plate

4. In remaining oil, toast breadcrumbs utnil golden brown- do not burn! Transfer with almonds

5. Add 2 T oil to pan and stir in anchovies. With a fork, crush them into oil. Transfer with breadcrumb mixture. Season with pepper if desired.

6. Saute oil and garlic – softened but not browned. Add tomato sauce, simmer, and sauce is reduced to about 1/3. Add basil and remove from heat.

7. Cook pasta in the boiling water. Drain and cook with sauce. Stir in half the breadcrumb mixture. Mix well.

8. Dish out, and sprinkle with remaining breadcrumb.

Tomato sauce - Mario's recipe.

This tomato sauce was amazing. We will post the tomato sauce at another time.

St John's Eve Pasta

For the salad, Mario’s original recipe called for porcini mushrooms, but we modified it by by grilling a portobella mushroom with a few king oyster mushroom. Then, we put it on a bed of spinach leaves, drizzled it with a very nice balsamic vinegar and truffle oil.

Salad of Mushrooms