Pear Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter

Pear Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter

1 large Bosc pear, small diced

5 tablespoon of butter

1 small clove of garlic, chopped fine

1 small onion, chopped fine

1 bunch of fresh sage

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 ½ teaspoons lemon juice

1 ½ cups of arugula, coarsely chopped

½ cup ricotta cheese

¼ cup parmesan cheese

½ teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper

½ teaspoon salt

pinch of cayenne pepper

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1 recipe of pasta dough

1 egg, lightly beaten

Over medium high heat add 1 tablespoon of butter to a large sauté pan. Add onions, garlic and pear and stir to coat with butter. Sauté until onions are translucent. Finely chop 2 sage leaves and add to pan with arugula, season with salt, pepper and cayenne.

Remove from heat and cool. Once cool add in ricotta, parmesan, lemon juice and lemon zest. Set filling aside as you roll out the pasta dough.

Roll pasta dough out to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into 24 3” circles. Place 1 rounded tablespoon of filling in the centre of 12 of the circles. Moisten edges with egg and place a second circle of pasta on top and seal edges, making sure to form a tight mound of filling in the centre.

Add the pasta to pot of boiling well salted water. Cook about 2 to 3 minutes or until the ravioli floats and is pale in color. Remove the ravioli from the water and drain well.

In a large sauté pan, melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter. Add the sage to the butter and continue to cook until the butter starts to brown and smells nutty. Remove from heat.

Place three of the ravioli in the center of each plate. Divide the crisp sage leaves evenly among the plates and spoon the brown butter over the ravioli and serve.

Pasta Dough

1 cup flour

1 large egg

2 tablespoon virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon of water

1/2 tsp. salt

In a large bowl mix flour and salt, make a well in the centre of the flour and add in egg , oil and water. Stir to make a soft dough, Turn dough out on to a work surface and knead until smooth and not sticky, adding more flour is necessary. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes before rolling.

French Macarons Part 2

Chocolate French macarons with an orange butter cream icing.  If you have never had a French Macaron you are missing out!  And no I did not misspell it.  It is spelled with only one O.  They are compeletely different from our macaroons.  And there is no coconut involved!

They are meringue-based: made from a mixture of egg whites, ground almonds, and both granulated and confectionery sugar. Simple ingredients but tricky to make. My first batch of these turned out more like a brownie.  Still yummy but not a Macaron!

And the flavor combinations are crazy too.  You can flavor and color both the macaron and the filling. I love looking at pictures of these.  Click here to go to some images.  My roommate used these macarons to make a dessert for class one day.  Such a classy dessert.

Next to try is blueberry and lemon curd ones! Or maybe make these again but add in some dark chocolate to the meringue to off-set the sweetness.


Last link.....I promise....just for fun check out this miniature box of macarons.  So tiny and realistic looking!

Meatloaf overhaul

Today I changed my meatloaf recipe.  I added bacon and diced tomatoes to the ground meat mixture.  I love the bacon in it.  But who doesn't love bacon right?!  And my spicy tomato jam goes perfect with it.

Comfort Food

I love cream peas and toast!  I had a rough first day back at class on Monday, seriously who gets up at 6 am!  Crazy people thats who.  After a long day all I wanted for supper was something quick, easy and satisfying.  And creamed peas and toast did it for me. 

Tomato Jam

So....this is my new sauce for my meatloaf.  It is so yummy!  My husband eats it on everything! It took a while to get the recipe figured out but I finally have it. I normally make it with canned tomatoes and an onion marmalade that I make.  So I had to figure out how to make it from scratch with fresh tomatoes.

Tomato Jam

3 1/2 cups fresh tomatoes, peeled and rough chopped

2 1/2 cups red onions, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped
3 T brown sugar, lightly packed
1 T oil
1 T butter
1/2 cup port
1/2 cup red wine
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon chili flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter with the oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan over a high heat. Add the onions and garlic and stir well to cover with butter and oil. Saute until onions are golden.

Sprinkle with the sugar, chilli flakes, spices and some salt and pepper. Give everything another really good stir and reduce the heat slightly. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook uncovered for 4-5 minutes.

Pour in the wine, vinegar, water and port and simmer uncovered over a medium-low heat for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Stirring occasionally until the onions are soft and a deep mahogany colour and most of the liquid has evaporated. Cool and pour into jars.

Don't rush cooking this out.  The first picture is just the onions cooking, the second is 30 minutes later. The third on is after 1 hour.  The final picture is after 1 1/2 hours simmering.  It makes a difference to let it cook for the entire time.

French Macarons

A friend of mine was retiring and I wanted to make her a little treat as a farewell.  I found these cute little boxes at Bulk Barn and bought some pretty ribbon.  Looks pretty enough.......right? 

Well check out whats inside.........these beautiful, tiny French Macarons!  I am SO  in love with these babies!

I will post a recipe and such later.  I just wanted to show you these beauties! 

Homemade Tortillas

Whole Wheat Tortillas

4 teaspoons oil (I used olive oil)
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup warm milk
1/2 cup warm water
1 1/2 cup All purpose Whole Wheat flour
1 1/2 cup All purpose Unbleached flour

In a bowl, mix your dry ingredients and oil. Add warm milk and mix well. It should still need more moisture so add a small bit of the warm water at a time, mixing well before adding more. The dough should be sticky but not a stiff batter. Turn dough onto floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes, cover with damp cloth and let rest about 15 minutes.

Divide dough in half then each half in half again. Do this till you have 16 fairly equal pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a ball shape and then cover with damp cloth again to let rest another 5 minutes.

While you are waiting on the dough, get a pan out that can hold heat, what I saw suggested was a cast iron pan, which I only have a grill pan made out of cast iron, so I used my non stick pan and kept the heat at medium but made sure it was ready before cooking the tortillas.

When your dough is ready take a dough ball and flatten it with the palms of your hands to start the round shape. On a lightly floured surface, take a rolling pin (I don't have a tortilla press so I went old fashioned :) ) and roll out your dough to your desired thickness. The baking soda in the dough lets it puff up and you will get some bubbles when cooking so if you like yours thin make sure they are THIN or you'll still have puffy ones (another way to do this is use only whole wheat flour as it doesn't rise as much).

Place the tortilla in the hot pan and let cook about 30 seconds (yes I did say seconds) and then flip over and let cook another 30 seconds then set on a plate to the side. Rinse and repeat until all 16 tortillas are done. I suggest that you use that damp cloth to cover your cooked tortillas to keep them from drying out while you're cooking.

Homemade Yogurt

I love to make homemade yogurt.  I bought a maker at Sears.  I used it ALOT!  It makes about 2 large containers worth, for a fraction of the cost.  And......I know exactly what goes into it.

4 3/4 cups whole milk

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of dry nonfat milk

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt ( I use Astro Balkan style)

Heat milk in a saucepan over medium heat until it reaches 185F.  Basically once it comes to almost a simmer.

Remove from heat and cool until 110F, or until lukewarm.

Whisk in powdered milk and yogurt.

Pour into containers and place in yogurt maker. 

Set timer for 8 hours.......

And TADA homemade yogurt!  Just add bananas and homemade granola.

Mushroom Cream Sauce

Spagettini with a mushroom cream sauce.  I simply sauted mushrooms, onions and a bit of garlic.  I then added some cream and reduced it until thickened.  I topped it with a bit of fresh parm!

Corn Fritters

Corn fritters for breaky?  Sure why not!  If you have confectioners sugar and maple syrup with them!

Corn Fritters
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup corn meal
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 cup corn kernels

Mix together and drop by the teaspoon into hot oil.

These were pretty tasty.  I liked them without the corn kernels in them too!

Lemon Mousse

I had some lemons to use up and decided to make a lemon curd. I did not want to use eggs for this so I looked for an eggless recipe and came up with this one.

Ingredients

•1/4 c. cold water
•1/2 c. sugar
•3 Tbs. cornstarch
•1/3 c. fresh lemon juice
•1 Tbs. finely grated lemon zest
•Pinch of salt

Directions

1.In a saucepan, whisk together water, sugar, cornstarch, and salt until cornstarch is dissolved.
2.Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. When mixture thickens.
3.Reduce heat to low and cook for another minute, stirring constantly.
4.Pour mixture into a non-metallic bowl and add lemon juice and zest, mixing well.
5.Allow to cool and thicken at room temperature.
6.Can be refrigerated, covered, for several days. Before serving, beat thoroughly to a smooth, spreadable consistency.

I then folded in some whipped cream and poured into glasses and chilled.

Very lemony and delicious!

Cherry Flakey

Take two on the flakey.  This time I made life simpler and cut the puff pastry into individual squares first. The filling is cherry pile filling that I pureed a bit first for better consistency. 
I really liked this flavor better than the blueberry ones.  

Meatloaf and tomato jam

I have come up with a new sauce for my meatloaf.  A tomato onion jam.  I did not write down the measurements yet but boy is it good!  Next time I make it I will definately get a recipe.

Frozen Chantilly Meringue

Tonight I made Frozen Chantilly Meringues for dessert.  I am not sure what is up with me but I really love making desserts lately!  Must the the classical cuisine class I just finished. 

I really liked these.  Quite easy to make and very tasty, next time I will make it with a bit less sugar as I found it a bit too sweet.  Or maybe make a tart raspberry coulis to pair with it to cut the sweetness.

I also added some frozen blueberries to the ramekin before I topped it with the meringue.  Next time I will not do this.  They texture of them were terrible with the frozen meringue.  And they looked terrible so I cover them with the boozey blueberry sauce I had made. (BB and Grand Marnier)  I was going to put the sauce on the plate as a garnish but oh well!  The other garnish I made was a walnut praline shard.

Italian Meringue aka Boiled Icing

1 cup of granulated sugar
2 tablespoon corn syrup
1/3 cup water
~~~~~~~~~~~~
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla

Dissolve the sugar and salt in the water in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil and continue cooking until the syrup reaches 250 degrees.  Beat the egg whites until peaks form. Pour the hot syrup slowly into the egg whites while continuing to beat the whites. Continue until the mixture has cooled and peaks again form. Add the vanilla extract when cool.

Chantilly Meringue
 
Once the Italian Meringue is cooled gently fold in an equal amount of cream chantilly ( whipped cream).  
Scoop the meringue into ramekins and freeze for at least 3 hours.
 
Walnut Praline Shard
 
I melted some sugar the same as for the meringue and once it reached temperature I added some chopped walnuts and pour on a piece of parchment paper.  Once it was cold I broke it into pieces.
 
To plate dip the ramekin into hot water and invert onto a plate. Garnish with shard and thats it!

Blueberry Flaky

Last night I made a flaky!  I did not know that was what it was going to be when I started but that is exactly what it tasted like!  I rolled out my puff pastry and cut it into strips about 3 inches wide.  I baked these off, cooled them and sliced them in two longways.

I made a pastry cream and mixed it with whipped cream.(cream mousseline)

I spread some on the bottom layer of the puff pastry and topped it with a thin layer of cooked blueberries and their juice.  I then put another thin layer of cream mousseline.  And topped it with the top layer of puff pastry.  Man these were really good!

Pastry Cream

250 ml milk

65 grams sugar

1 egg yolk

1 whole egg

20 grams cornstarch

15 grams butter

2 ml vanilla

In a heavy saucepan combine milk and sugar.  Bring to a simmer. 

In a bowl whisk cornstarch and add in eggs, whip until smooth.  Slowly pour the hot milk mixture into the eggs, whisking constantly.  Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and bring back to a boil, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.  Remove from heat and stir in the butter and vanilla.  Pour into a clean bowl and chill.

Once cool slowly fold whipped cream into the pastry cream.  And voila......Cream Mousseline!