Week 9 - Cheese Stuffed Tortellini

Well that was messy... why isn't there a button for that? This week I attempted to make my own pasta. I'm kind of torn on if i succeeded or not. I think that it was part success and part WHOAH THE EGGS ARE GETTING ALL OVER THE PLACE!! Either way, I was able to salvage most of the fresh pasta and it didn't kill me to eat it.

This recipe was kind of random, I looked up what things are stuffed in a tortellini and found a recipe that involved chopped spinach and ricotta and Parmesan cheeses. I mixed the cheeses and spinach but felt it needed more flavor. So I added a bit of a garlic/basil pesto sauce to the mix and it tasted much better.

If you attempt to make your own pasta, it's basically a pile of flour with a well dug in the center. What I need to do next time is not make it such a deep pool,,, but rather a wide and shallow pool. So in my first attempt, the egg rolled off the flour mountain like lava and went everywhere. I had to grab handfuls of flour and make barriers to stop the flood. Thus, the lack of pictures....

Final dish with grape tomatoes, black olives, Italian seasonings and olive oil.

Cheese Stuffed Tortellini

-Adapted from Alton Brown's recipe

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Servings: 4-8 depending on amount of pasta

Ingredients:

·         ¾ cup ricotta cheese

·         ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

·          ½ cup fresh chopped spinach

·         1 egg

·         ¼ tsp fresh ground black pepper

·         1 pinch grated nutmeg

·         1 tsp basil pesto (basil, parsley, garlic, olive oil)

·         Fresh Pasta (Recipe below)

·         1 egg mixed with ½ teaspoon water

·         1/8 cup fresh chopped parsley

·         ¼ cup black olives (halved)

·         ½ cup grape/cherry tomatoes

·         olive oil

·         Italian seasoning (dry basil, parsley…)

Directions:

In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, Parmesan, spinach, egg, pepper, nutmeg and pesto.  Using the pasta recipe below, roll out the pasta to be as thin as a credit card. Cut out 2-3 inch circles using a cookie cutter. Immediately wrap the ‘scrap’ pasta so it doesn’t dry out. Spoon ¼ - ½ teaspoons of the cheese and spinach mixture into the center of the pasta circles. Using your ring finger, brush the egg wash onto one half of the circle. This will act as glue. Quickly fold the circle in half and crimp the pasta together with your dry fingers. Using your dry fingers, begin to roll the pasta into itself by lifting the center of the pasta circle and curling the edges into the center. Using the same ring finger, brush egg wash onto one edge of the pasta and press the ends together to seal the tortellini. Place the tortellini into rapidly boiling salted water and cook 3-5 minutes. At this point the pasta will float to the surface of the water. Strain all pasta. Toss with olive oil, then parsley and Italian seasonings, then with tomatoes and olives.

Fresh Pasta

Ingredients

·         3 cups flour

·         2 large eggs

·         3 Tbsp water

·         1 tsp olive oil

·         ½ tsp salt

Directions

On a large clean surface, pile the flour. Using dry hands, make a well in the middle of the pile and begin to spread the flour out. The well should be wider than it is deep (3-4 inches wide and 1 inch deep). In a bowl, mix the eggs, water, oil, and salt. Slowly pour the mixture into the well. As the mixture is pouring, use a spoon to begin mixing with the flour closest to the well. This will help ensure the egg mixture does not run over the edges of the well. Continue mixing flour until the dough becomes too stiff to mix by spoon. At this point add flour by hand and knead until no longer sticky. If using a pasta roller, follow the machine instructions to roll pasta. 

Week 8 - Crème brûlée

There's just something about these bowls that I love. I received these for a Christmas present a few years ago and really love the way they look when all the bowls are stacked. I have used these bowls for every one of my dishes in the past weeks so needless to say, I used them again in this weeks endeavor.

This week, I made something that I have been craving for years..... I can't remember when the last time I had creme brulee was, but when I did it was nothing short of amazing. As an die hard egg fan, this dish really speaks to me. It whispers sweet nothings into my ear... holds me tight... rocks me to sleep... Anyways, this dish really surprised me on how easy it was to make! Although, I'm in the process of making it a challenge for the future (thinking spicy).

The main ingredient in this dish is egg yolk. Crazy eggs never know how to pose for a picture.

Everything is ready to bake.

Then came the FIRE!!!!!

Whoooaaaaahhhhh BABY!!

But what do you do with all the leftover egg whites?? Make white chocolate meringue drops!! duh....

Week 7 -- NY Strip Steak and Lobster Tail

Week 7 – Valentine’s Day Steak and Lobster

MMMMMMM…. steak and lobster. What a wonderful combination. After a long list of things I could do for Valentine’s day, we ended up settling on an all-out surf and turf. First off… I need to share with you about this one amazing steak that I had once. It was at Charley’s Stake House in Orlando. It was the kind of restaurant where they bring out a selection of steaks to your table and you pick what you want. I chose this New York steak that was like 2 inches thick! It took forever for them to bring out the cooked dish but it was worth it.

Charley’s has a very neat grilling process. First, the steaks are aged and seasoned for a few days in a climate controlled room. Then, with all the fat left on, they sear the steak with a very hot flame on both sides. After a couple minutes searing, they move the meat to a lower heat area and is smoked with applewood. Needless to say, their process is a lot more involved than any normal backyard barbeque so of course it tasted much better. The best part about cooking with the fat on is the flavoring in the fat was absorbed into the meat. When diving into this steak, you just trim the stuff you don’t want.

                I’ve attempted this method a couple of times but it never worked out. I think the reason is that I was using ‘cheap’ meat. This time I went to the butcher and again selected my steaks. I got a pair of NY strips that are roughly 12 oz each and about 1.5 inches thick. Expensive, but worth it!

                For a dry rub, I mixed salt, pepper, dried minced garlic, paprika, brown sugar, and dried crushed red pepper. Most of it was to taste. I tried to follow a recipe but it didn’t smell too great. A little more pepper, garlic and red peppers than suggested fixed that.

                Now I know that steak isn’t new for my cooking résumé, but the lobster sure is. I love food presentation at restaurants so I decided to butterfly. Thanks Google for knowing everything about butterflying a lobster tail.

                Grilled some garlic /red wine asparagus

Combine all this together and BAM! A very delicious meal.

For a quick comparison, this size steak and lobster tail with a side is around $30-35 dollars per plate at Red Lobster. The entire 2-meal cost me only $29. Not bad and very easy to make. 


As an added bonus... I've been a fan of cooking competition TV shows like Chopped and I felt like I should have been filmed during the making of this meal. I was literally running across the house to do prep and outdoor grilling!!

Week 6 -- Twice Baked Potato Bites

For the Super Bowl party we went to, I decided to make twice baked potatoes. Except all the recipes called for full size potatoes. Who would eat a half a potato as an appetizer?? Craziness.. anyways, I made my potato bites with red potatoes because they were much smaller than Russets. A good tip that I read recently when cooking food for guests was: don't skimp on the calories. This usually makes for a much tastier dish. For this appetizer, I seasoned all layers of the potato bite starting from the potato shell, through the mashed potatoes, and even after the dish was cooked. Made it much tastier!!

Although the prep time on this recipe is not long at all (I'm thinking around 45 minutes) I spent all day on these. I only have limited time to play with my son so he takes priority over cooking. So when I have to cook, I usually distract him. This week's distraction was baked apple slices with cinnamon and powdered sugar. So during his nap times and during feeding distractions, I prepped this week's dish for nearly 5 hours.

To start the appetizer, I cooked the bacon (there's nothing like butcher shop thick sliced seasoned bacon.. MMMMM....), boiled the potatoes with some rosemary, and chopped up some garlic, parsley, and chives.

After the potatoes were cooked, I sliced them in half, scooped out the centers, and blended that with sharp cheddar cheese, sour cream, and the bacon/garlic/parsley/chives. Put that mix into the potato shells, top with more cheese and then bake until the cheese is a few minutes from burning. That way everything inside the dense appetizer gets cooked. Then just top with some freshly chopped parsley. A tip from the famous Giada... rub olive oil around the skin of the potato shell before baking. This way they kind of get "fried" and crispy.

Week 5 -- Beignets (Ben-yays)

I got the urge to try this after watching another movie with my bride. The Princess and the Frog. In one of the scenes, the main character's friend asks her to make "some of those man catchin beignets!!". Never knew what that was but the movie made it look soooooo delicious. So after further investigating, they end up being an original doughnut made with yeast, flour, sugar,... and fried. After they're done cooking, they have a bath in powdered sugar, can be drizzled with honey, syrup...

The recipe that I was following said that there was a 25minute prep, and a few minutes of cooking. Well, they forgot to factor 8 hours for the dough chilling/rising so that was kind of a bummer... Oh yeah, they also forgot to count time to run to the store because you forgot shortening, ran out of flour, and didn't have enough frying oil.

Beignets

1 package active dry yeast (3/4 oz)

1 ½  cups warm water (1 and a half cups)

½  cup sugar

1 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1 cup evaporated milk

7 cups flour (leveled)

¼ cup vegetable shortening

Non-flavored oil (enough to fill an inch in a pan)

Powdered sugar (optional)

Honey (optional)

Add water to a bowl/kitchenaid

Sprinkle in all the yeast and ~2 tsp sugar

Stir this until well dissolved and let sit for 10 minutes

Add the rest of the sugar, salt, eggs and evaporated milk and blend it all together

Slowly add 4 cups of flour

Add the shortening and make sure all chunks are well blended

Slowly add the rest of the flour

Cover with plastic wrap and let sit overnight

Heat the oil pretty hot

Put a lot (and I mean a lot) of flour on a rolling surface and roll out the dough to about the thickness of half a pencil. (the recipe said 1/8 inch but I’m not gonna get out a ruler)

Cut into shapes

Test a small chunk of dough to see if it rises to the top when fried. If not, increase temp.

Fry each side about 30sec-1minute or until golden. Put on paper towels to dry.

Serve hot/crispy with powdered sugar/honey or whatever else you want.

I used a kitchenaid with paddle for the first 4 cups of flour and shortening. Afterwards I used the dough hook. You can use your hands or spoons too but it gets thick and sticky.