recipe: ravioli spinach&feta alla puttanesca

27/04/12

Ravioli Puttanesca 

mise en place:

       •       filling formed into small parcels, freeze down

       •       make pasta dough, rest 1 hr

       •       portion out & season tomato ½’s, slow roast in oven

       •       roast capsicums

       •       oven dry olives –garlic & pickled green chilli

       •       toast pumpkin/sunflower/sesame seeds

       •       count, label noodle boxes, bags, serviettes, biz cards

       •       roll out pasta dough, flour/h2o brush, shape raviolis

       •       portion x10per??

       •       blanch raviolis, refresh, oil

       •       wash & dry lettuce

       •       remove skins from peppers&tomatoes

       •      bring sauce together

       •       make salad, zest & ¼ lemons

       •       portion out dinnerboxes, pack’n’stack

       •       1600hr hit the road

So the day starts with a mise en place list. A friend asked me to write about how I go about organising my day when there's cooking to be done, easier I thought to simply post a typed version of my prep list, since it's pretty self explanatory: long jobs first; easy jobs last. & anything that can be done the day before, like labeling the noodle boxes or oven drying the olives, well yea, that all helps on the day too, one less thing to worry about & all that.

Anyway, a little about the dish, um..well, for starters it's pretty yum! A name of dubious origins perhaps, puttanesca means lady of the night, so spaghetti puttanesca is, translated, literally, whore's spaghetti: it's cheap & it's easy...it's also nice to eat...which I add without intending to be vulgar. As will be noted in the recipe below, my sauce making has changed somewhat from the traditional method; I prepare each ingredient separately these days, not cooked slowly in a single pan, like neapolitana, nor combined & stewed at the end like caponata, just bringing them together at the end & reducing any runny juices left in the pan & that's it. Each component to the sauce stands up for itself &, to me, the end result is far superior. The addition of some good sausage satisfies the carnivores among us, & I don't think the puttanesca minded one bit.

ingredients: the sauce - roast peppers

capsicums, red/yellow/orange, olive oil

method:

*on an oven tray, rub oil over the capsicums,

*into a hot oven, when the skins get a little blackened

*transfer peppers to a bowl & cover with gladwrap, make it airtight, & let it sit for a while. the skins will separate from the flesh & can be peeled easily.

*slice & set aside

ingredients: the sauce - olives

kalamata olives, olive oil, a head of garlic or two, 

pickled green chili, orange zest, capers

method:

*an oven dish, olives, chop garlic in half, season, splash of oil, 

*180C in the oven til wrinkled, shaking the pan occasionally, about a 1/2 hour or so

*add the pickled green chilli, as much as you dare, 10 mins before taking out of the oven

*add the capers & orange zest, toss together, set aside

ingredients: the sauce - tomatoes

fresh tomatoes, a head of garlic,  an orange

peppercorns, cinnamon quill, olive oil, brown sugar

method:

*use the same oven dish the peppers were roasted in,  cut fresh tomatoes cut in half, garlic too

orange zested&squeezed, splash of oil

 cinnamon, sugar, salt crystals

*cover with foil & into the oven - they can share the oven with the olives, timing about the same

*a purist would peel & seed the tomatoes, but the skins can be pinched off easily enough when they're done. They don't break down, but can be finely sliced & added to the sauce, which is what i do, or discarded.

*there'll be a lot of liquid in the pan, so remove the tomatoes & set aside, 86 the orange & cinnamon quill, reduce the liquid by half in a pan on the heat & add to the sauce.

The sauce itself is simply a matter of bringing it all together. Turn it once, twice, & that's enough.

As sauces go, this will go deliciously with the pasta of your choice. Spaghetti is the norm, though this week I made raviolis (which I'll feature another week)...really, a conflict emerges with two heroes competing. Better to let the sauce speak for itself. A plain risotto, pearl barley or bulghur wheat, couscous...there are loads of options with putanesca.

buon appetito!

fri27apr: ravioli spinach&feta alla puttanesca

Flour everywhere as the pasta machine gets set up again this week, fresh pasta for raviolis with spinach & feta. The sauce, classical Italian, one of my favourites, combines capers & olives, chili, garlic & tomatoes; sauce puttanesca. A green salad accompanies the dish. Carnivores, there is a fresh supply of pepperoni sausage & chorizo aging in my kitchen for times like these, just let me know if you'd like some added.

Your part is simple: get in touch by thursday afternoon, cos that's when i go shopping, & tell me how many dinnerboxes you'd like.

Drop-offs from 4pm onwards, to the office/site/home just let me know what suits.

To order, contact me by txt or email

txt: 021 2414 020

or

email: pabloskitchen@yahoo.com (subject heading: “fridaynightdinnerbox”)

& I’ll confirm your order when received.
talk to you soon…

cheers - Pablo

recipe: vpecky, bramborové knedliky (porkbelly with caraway & dumplings)

 "Heheyheey! I'm 12 again!" My friend Vrati, another chef, was cackling as he cooked, bent over the pan inhaling caraway vapours as steaming onions & garlic & pork came together in the pan. I couldnt stop him.
"You could tell when you walk in the door," he began, recounting the memory of this dish, "yknow, when you put your bag & your coat on the whadducallit? hook thing yknow - 'Hey! Faark you, man! Don't push!!' Everyone they wanna get in there, ay."
A funny look came over Vrati's face as he recalled his days back at school. This was a dish served in the school canteen when he was a kid, back in the Czech Republic. It was the only dish in fact, that was any good & if you wanted some, cos it was always gone first at lunch time, you had to be quick. No chance of it lasting long - chance of seconds? out of the question.
Back to the here & now, where the aromas from the pan have filled Vrati's kitchen, but his nose is as close to the sizzling meat & vegetables as it can be without burning, almost his whole upper half disappeared in the vapours over the stove. Emerging: "Heeey yknow, if we had lard, I'm cooking with lard ay". That look again.

It's a curious thing, since coming up with this idea of inviting other chefs to contribute their dishes to the blog, getting together & cooking it & hearing the stories that come along with the dish, one thing has struck me as hilarious: I mean, cooks are a pretty disfunctional lot, we work crazy hours, nights & weekends, goddam christmas day ain't even sacred, on our feet all day, we get burned & scorched, tempers flair, everyone's got a vice, or a record, anger management issues, sore backs, stress, foul language, cigarettes & coffee diets, we work out the back, in the cramped & hot basements & hidden away corners of whatever fancy place it happens to be, unnoticed & disregarded...I mean, it goes on & on! But here, in this zone where flavour is king, when it comes to food, the world outside stops. Be it the kitchen at home, at work, round the bbq at a mate's place, some kinda crazy weird gleam sneaks into their eye...like they're a keeper of a great secret, or you're like a sorcerer conjuring magic...people see it, they even recognise it, but only a cook knows this by heart, & a cook can see it in another cook, & ...oh & so on & so on it goes.

This thing I've noticed tho is something more curious than that. When we get together to cook these dishes, I'm doing photos, taking notes, & it's just us doing our thing at home, exchanging a dish, & at some point there's a moment when I stop & think - geez, we're like a cpl of nerds in school! No one gets what we're talkin about & we're swapping notes & goofing off about the technical finer points of which type of mustard seed to use or what's yr preference in pastry for empanadas? maybe it's an 'oh no, not not an electric stove top??' or how bout the menu at such & such a restaurant, have you tried the sauce they use with their beef short rib?! Food geeks!
Vrati's muttering again...'hmmm...'(mixmixmix), "gotta make this nice, just like my dad's..." jumps from one pot to the next, stirring, tasting, '..mustard seeds, c'mon brothers!' in they go, the last of a jar from the back corner of the pantry. On Friday, for the dinnerboxes, a friend has made some sauerkraut & will be bringing it around, but here & now, finally, I'm allowed to taste our one, the supermarket version bought for our practice session, so it's required some serious tweaking.
"Yea, Vrat, very nice, bro"."I gotta stop cookin Czech dishes!" he replies, "I'm gettn homesick"


Anyway, three parts to this week's fridaynightdinnerbox dish, brought together on the plate. I made both types of dumpling, just because i wanted to, sliced bread dumpling in the bottom of the noodle box to soak up the juices, pork belly on top covered with gravy. potato dumplings served with parsley & watercress on the side, sauerkraut on the side as well.                                         

Ingredients: bucek(pork)
pork belly, cut into cubes
caraway seeds
onions&garlic, sliced
olive oil or lard, water
method
*cut the belly into bite sized bits, massage with caraway seeds, stand 1/2 hr
*preheat the oven to a light/moderate heat, roughly about 180C is ok
*saute the onions&garlic in a warm pan with the oil/fat
*add the pork belly & let it get to know itself a bit
*add a little water, deglaze the pan, cover & put into the oven for about an hour
*remove from oven, remove pork from pan, thicken juices with a little cornflour
*when the gravy has thickened, return pork to the pan

Ingredients: bramborové knedliky (the potato dumplings)

floury potatoes, egg, flour, salt

olive oil

watercress & chopped parsley

method:

*boil then mash the potatoes

*add an egg & flour, work by hand to make a dough

*roll out & cut even portions, rolling & flattening each to form little dumplings

*poach in boiling water, in batches, & when they float they're ready

*remove & in a bowl coat with olive oil so they don't stick

*I tossed mine with chopped parsley & watercress

Ingredients: Kynuté houskové knedliky (the bread dumpling)

flour, stoneground&organic, if possible

yeast, milk, sugar, salt

stale bread croutons

water/stock

Method:

*mix the yeast & sugar in warm milk, stand for 5mins til frothy

*sift in flour, season with salt, add croutons, in a bowl

*make a well in flour, add yeast, knead to form a dough

*roll out into fat sausages & poach in boiling water (I used a mild stock)

*remove when cooked (they're pretty ugly looking suckers), cool then slice

Ingredients: the sauerkraut
sauerkraut(homemade if poss, bought if not - could be posting this recipe soon)
butter, flour, 
pepper, mustard seeds
Method:
*strain the sauerkraut in a sieve, 86 the pickling juice you don't need it
*melt butter in a saucepan & add a good pinch or two of pepper (I used white&red)
*add sauerkraut & with a wooden spoon mix it all really well
*sprinkle some flour over the mix & keep stirring - you don't want gluggy sludge, but you do want to thicken it a little & take some of te sharpness from the flavour

I must admit, it's my first foray into Eastern European cooking &, as we practised the dish at his place thru the week, I did wonder how my regular dinnerbox customers would receive my dish of pork, cabbage & potatoes, cooked in lard...whatever, it smells fantastic & Vrati, whose cooking I trust, is clearly in his element.                          
Feedback from one dinnerboxer, that it's as close to a home cooked meal as he's tried so far, & it's true. Hard to make this kind of food look glam on the plate. It's not fancy food. What it is though, is amazingly good tasting food made from simple ingredients &, as another dinnerboxer commented, it's about time this kind of cooking came back into vogue.

fri20apr: vypecky, bramborové knedliky (porkbelly&caraway, potato dumplings)

Another dish from the afar this week, courtesy of my good friend chef Vrati Smida. We met this afternoon to talk about food from where he's from, the Czech Republic. It's a conversation I never fail to get carried away by &, after a few cold beers round the kitchen's marble bench (I sat, he cooked & talked) our 'cook-a-cow' intentions had been nudged aside by the arrival of another, more serious contender in our conversation: pork belly arrived. Perhaps inevitably then, pork belly it is. With dumplings. And with sauerkraut.
Personally, I can't wait.
Practice dumplings are rising as I type, Vrati has suggested more than one type, so for research purposes some serious eating will need to happen before Friday. However, what I can say is that in this dish, an old favourite from his school days, the pork belly is cubed & cooked slowly with carraway seeds, & the dumplings & sauerkraut are traditional accompaniments, so we wont be straying far.

Your part is simple: get in touch by thursday afternoon, cos that's when i go shopping, & tell me how many you'd like.

Drop-offs from 4pm onwards, to the office/site/home just let me know what suits.

To order, contact me by txt or email

txt: 021 2414 020

or

email: pabloskitchen@yahoo.com (subject heading: “fridaynightdinnerbox”)

& I’ll confirm your order when received.
talk to you soon…

cheers - Pablo

kitchen basics: recipe: shortcrust pastry

These days people buy their pastry. it's too easy: go to the supermarket, find an isle full of great big freezers, stroll down with your basket & choose your favourite brand, then convenience food your way outta there, saving yourself the hassle of making pastry! But then...I see having to rely on supermarket convenience as the hassle when making your own pastry, with your own hands, from ingredients of your own choosing, is too easy.

It was, actually, a conversation with my mother about making pastry that decided me into the life of a chef. Over a flour dusty bench, as my mother rolled out her pastry for quiche to take to a work lunch the next day, she told me about the surprise of her work colleagues at discovering she could make her own pastry, make her own quiche, & would be bringing to their party not chips or biscuits or some plastic wrap wonder product from the supermarket bakery section but flans made by her own hand. Frankly, I didn't believe her at first. it just goes to show the things we take for granted...this, afterall, was a woman who baked every loaf of bread we ate when I was a child, who could whip up a quiche lorraine in 45 minutes from scratch & did so, regularly, & who, without labouring the point, instilled in her children a love of good healthy eating not as a luxury but as a simple given. In a nutshell, I'll open a packet if I absolutely have to, but given the option I'll make my own every time.

shortcrust pastry: for pies & flans, for tarts & tartlets, quiche, pasties, & desserts

on ingredients: 

- use a soft flour as for cakes, rather than a stronger bread flour

- my mother used to add a pinch of baking powder, so when I'm making it for me I do too

- for the fat, it's gotta be butter butter butter - cos it butters better

- for the liquid, use water, drop an ice cube in it so it's cold as

- & if it's for something sweet, I usually sieve in a spoonful of icing sugar

on method, the rubbing-in stage:

-this is important, you dont want to melt the butter, or over work it, 

-my grandmother would say not to use anything sharper than your elbows! 

-for me, with always warm hands, I have to avoid using the flat of my hands or butter will melt

-having said all that, if you're using a food processor, pulse a few times til it's right

on method, the mixing stage:

-don't over work the mix, just form a loose dough that holds together & nothing more

-kneading the dough, like bread, forms gluten & makes for a pastry that is chewy & tough

-you want just enough liquid that the dough is almost crumbly, but not sticky

on method, the blind-baking stage: 

-for the beans, any pulse is fine. kidney beans or chic peas, split peas or turtle beans. 

-I use mung beans, mainly cos I opened the pantry one day, saw them there & thought, I'll never ever use them for anything else, they'll be perfect for blind-baking

-keep the beans after use, re use them again & again. Once used, they're good for nothing else so store in a jar & label 'blind baking beans' 

ingredients:

220g flour, sifted

150g butter, cold & cut into cubes

pinch salt

pinch baking powder

an egg

3 or 4 teaspoons iced water

method:

*preheat yr oven to 200

*rub in you flour & butter. use your finger tips, pinch & lift, pinch & lift, til what you have resembles breadcrumbs. 

*combine the liquids & make a well in the flour, add all at once & form a soft dough

*form the dough into a roll, wrap with glad wrap, rest in the fridge for 1/2 hr

*roll out what you need, cut into shape of tin you'll be using, line greased tins 

*now you need to blind bake the pastry cases

*line the pastry with cut out baking paper & fill these paper cups with the blind-baking beans 

*bake for 10 minutes (keep an eye on it)

*remove from oven, remove paper & beans, return pastry to oven for 5 mins (keep an eye on it)

>done! finito!

I like to keep a few muffin sized pastry cases on hand in an air-tight container. They are easy to fill with whatever you like - a little sweetcorn & red onion bound by a quick-fire cheese sauce with parsley from the garden, say, or last night's left over lamb roast, cut up & bound with some peas & gravy, mashed potato piped on top works well for an impromptu pie. Or else fresh fruit, strawberries, with custard or whipped cream & icing sugar on top (sara - that's for you) a sprig of mint finish it off, or even better some of last night's uneaten (yea right!) creme brulee, sprinkled with sugar & scorched with the blow torch...or not. endless possibilities...