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Packaged Fresh Ravioli
I've been buying packaged ravioli recently, which are really good summer foods as they don't involve heating up the kitchen. The usual ones are cheese and meat, but you can often find other kinds, such as ones stuffed with artichoke, blue cheese, chicken sausage, etc. Very convenient as they cook up quickly just by pouring boiling water over them (this takes about 4 minutes). You can also fry them up in a pan like fried wontons. Go the extra mile to build a sauce for them and they're really nice. Here's one I just made today, which I liked quite a bit:
1 package of artichoke ravioli, unheated
1/2 cup diced onion
6 grape tomatoes, sliced in half
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp basil pesto (I just buy this, but homemade is better)
heavy grind of black pepper
6 Spanish olives
1 tsp olive oil
In a frying pan, combine all ingredients but the ravioli and pesto. Use a little heat on the vegetables to get some browning. Reduce heat. Cook on low until the ravioli are hot and browned, sort of like what fried wontons look like.
I've made other sauces for these, including some wine reductions, usually with some vegetables thrown in. Saute something in a pan that will add some flavor such as mushrooms and shallots, deglaze with wine and/or stock, and toss the ravioli in to cook.
I suspect making ravioli from scratch isn't that hard but it's not something I'm likely to do except for special occasions, not when I can get good stuff at the store.
Ratio App for Android
Last year, I singled out Michael Ruhlman's Ratio as my cookbook of the year. I still stand by that decision.
Today, Michael Ruhlmam announced the release of the Ratio app for Android devices. I quickly downloaded it, and it is pretty keen. It seems to include a lot of the content from the book. More importantly, it has an interactive tool that is incredibly useful.
Let's say you want to make a cookie dough. The ratio calls for 1 part sugar, 2 parts fat, and 3 parts flour. By default, these are set to 2, 4, and 6 ounces. Let's say you don't have a scale handy, though. You could convert these all to cups instead (or, say, the flour and sugar could be converted to cups and the fat could be converted to grams or liters or whatnot). Six ounces is 1.2 cups - but what if you only have one cup? Replace the 1.2 with a 1 and the app calculates the quantities of the other ingredients.
Now, the app isn't perfect. On my phone (an HTC Evo) the display gets cut off (not in a seriously problematic way, but it isn't pretty) unless I use it in landscape mode. Still, I've been looking for useful Android cooking apps and this is the one that I can see myself actually using a lot.
Oh yeah. There's an iPhone version, too.
Fennel Pollen Obtained and Used
So I bought some fennel pollen from Kalustyan's on 28th and Lex. It ain't cheap (about $20/oz) but it's interesting as it adds a subtle fennel flavor to foods to which it is added. I used it in French toast and also in a frozen fruit salad I devised for Fourth of July.
Frozen Fruit Salad
1 bag of mixed berries, frozen
1 bag of pineapple, frozen
1/2 cup anise flavored liquor such as ouzo, raki or sambuca
1/4 cup lime juice
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp fennel pollen
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp walnut oil
Gently heat the anise liquor, lime juice, honey, fennel pollen, walnut oil and vanilla in a saucepan until the honey has softened and the flavors have had a chance to combine. Empty the frozen fruit into a bowl and mix thoroughly with the liquid. The fruit juice and liquid will combine, creating a nice sauce. Return to the freezer to chill, but allow to soften a bit before serving.
This is easy to hack: Use other frozen fruit or fresh or switch to a different spice. You could use a white wine instead of the liquor.
Food-related Android Apps: Call for Recommendations
I recently got a new phone - an HTC Evo running Android. I'm in the market for food-related apps. I know that I've linked to a few in the past, but that was a few months back. I'm going to try a bunch out and post some reviews, but if you have any favorites, please let me know.
A Meeting of the Minds
Crimfan is making the trek south from NYC in a few days, and we'll catch up for dinner. I'm tempted to force feed him a meal involving sous vide techniques and extra umami. Suggestions?
The Downside About Living Near a Diner...
...is smelling French toast every morning. Why is this a downside, you ask? Because I'm not going to eat French toast every morning, that's why, but today I'll succumb and make some myself.
Update: Well it was there again this morning. Damn them, but that French toast smells too good, so I had to make it again. (I know they wish I'd just stop by and get some there, but noooo, I'm going to make it myself.) Here's my take:
Three large pieces of good (preferrably stale) bread
Three eggs
1/2 cup of vanilla soy milk (approx)
1 tbsp Chinese five spice
1 tsp allspice
pinch of salt
t tbsp honey, warmed so as to be runny (or use brown or raw sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp walnut oil in tsp amounts (approx)
Whisk the eggs, milk, salt, honey and spices together into a custard and put it in a shallow, flat-bottomed bowl. You may not need all the milk so don't add it all at once. The goal is to get a nice custard-like consistency, but it shouldn't be over-beaten either. Soak the slice of bread in the custard mix until it has saturated. Set the frying pan on low and let it heat up in the meantime. It's a little slower but low heat lets the eggs settle nicely in the bread without getting tough. Put 1 tsp of walnut oil in the frying pan, roll to coat thoroughly and cook each slice until brown on both sides, but be sure to pull when the bread is still soft. Carryover will finish the job to make sure it's cooked through and you don't want the eggs to get tough. Rinse, lather, repeat.
The walnut oil gives a nice nutty flavor. Low heat ensures it doesn't smoke and maintains its flavor (as well as nice nutritive properties). Butter would also work, of course. The honey is there to add that little extra bit of sweetness and, more importantly, to enhance caramelization without overcooking. This didn't need much, I just added a teaspoon of jam.
Lots of people like challa for French toast but I find it a bit too dense and eggy. I prefer a country bread with a reasonably airy texture, but that's up to you. Just use your whole wheat bread for something else because it's not going to absorb the custard (this means you, Mom...). Staleness is important because you need to have the custard get into the bread without destroying its integrity and turning the bread into goop. This happens best when the bread is dried out and thirsty for liquid. Because I usually keep bread in the freezer, I had to defrost it before cooking. This turns out to make an admirable substitute for stale bread if done in a dry frying pan on low. The frying pan will be thoroughly heated to the right temperature and ready to go.
This Is Simple But Very Nice
Frozen fruit with fresh squeezed lime juice. A little fresh mint is optional but a nice addition, too.
I'm enjoying some frozen pineapple with lime juice right now but it works on blueberries, mixed berries, raspberries, peaches, etc. Low calories, no fat, lots of fiber, easy and it tastes great. Definitely a nice alternative to classic summer treats like ice cream.
Is the Secret of Good Bulgogi Be in the Taste That Dare Not Speak Its Name?
So I've loved bulgogi---Korean BBQ beef, sliced thin and thrown on the grill---for a long time. You really have to get good thin sliced beef and make a nice marinade with ingredients like sesame oil, ginger, etc. Nice recipes are available on the intarweb, e.g.,
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Bulgogi-Korean-Barbecued-Beef/Detail.aspx.
Pork bulgogi is even better, but I've not tried that in a while. Same basic idea but with lots of chili peppers! :)
I've done all that, with the exception of the optional ingredient. While I don't have a grill, I've cooked it using the broiler and it gets to a reasonable approximation of what a grill would do.
And yet... and yet... it just lacks that je ne sais quoi? of restaurant bulgogi.
Could I be forced down the path of the Taste That Dare Not Speak Its Name?
Chirp... chirp... + a capsule review of Steak by Mark Schatzker
Not much going on. I'm afraid I haven't cooked anything novel in a while as I was caught up in the end of the semester and various other things.
I did read Mark Schatzker's Steak: One Man's Search for the World's Tastiest Piece of Beef. It was an interesting read and worth if if you like steak, but kind of frustrating at points as he circles around things a lot, probably because there is no real answer. I suspect, as the author points out, talking about steak is about as informative as talking about wine. The writing is solid and he's got a decent steak recipe in the back of the book (it is more or less the conventional wisdom, when you come right down to it, i.e., raise to room temperature, hot pan or grill, a bit of salt and oil, etc.). He does point out that feedlot beef is prized because it grows quickly (thus cheap) and is very uniform (thus easily commodified), but of course, it's also not very good (goes along with the previous two), kind of the Model T of the beef world. Grass-fed beef is great when the grass is good, but can be downright awful when the grass is bad. There's also some nice history of cattle breeds, including some information about the aurochs. It's definitely worth a library read at least.
Memorial Day Potato Salad
I am going to a BBQ in a little while and am bringing a six pack of beer along with this variation on good old potato salad:
12 mixed color waxy potatoes (red, white and blue, actually!), cubed
1 medium Vidalia onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
12 grape tomatoes, halved
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup tarragon vinegar
1/4 cup prepared mustard
sea salt to taste
black pepper to taste
2 tbsp dried tarragon
2 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp dried dill
2 tbsp ground turmeric
Brush the potatoes with oil, sprinkle with salt and roast until brown in a 400 degree oven. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and mix with the onion, tomato and garlic. Whisk the herbs, remaining olive oil, pepper, vinegar and mustard in a separate dish. Combine the vinaigrette and vegetables and stir thoroughly. Chill and allow at least two hours for flavors to combine.
