Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Butternut Squash on Bittersweet Blog


Made some ravioli - guest post up on Hannah's Bittersweet blog - maybe I'll start blogging again here...


Here’s a quick “no measure” recipe for a rustic ravioli dish that will make any occasion seem super special. You don’t need any special equipment — just a rolling pin though I prefer to use my Kitchen Aid pasta roller attachment to save time.

Pasta:
1-2 cups of fine semolina flour
2 Tb extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp salt
water, as needed

Filling:
1 butternut or kabocha squash, roasted and seeded
chopped fresh herbs (your choice), quantity as needed
pinch of salt
pinch of nutmeg

DIRECTIONS – FILLING:
To make the ravioli filling, Just mash the roasted butternut (or kabocha or pumpkin) and blend with the finely chopped herbs and spices. You don’t want this to be too fine a puree, you want to be able to drop it by the spoonful onto the pasta.

DIRECTIONS – PASTA:
1. Make the pasta – mix the dry ingredients and start adding the olive oil and mix well. Add cold or ice water in a thin stream, in small amounts, until the semolina starts getting a sandy texture. Check it periodically to see if you can clump it by smashing some inside the palm of your hand with your fist. If it is too tacky and wet — add more semolina (easy, right?). I prefer to use my stand mixer but you can do this by hand.

2. Use a flexible spatula to scrape out of the bowl onto a work surface. Work it with your hands to press, squeeze and smush it together into a ball that starts to really stick together. You want to develop the gluten. Get out the rolling pin and work it flat, fold it and repeat.

You can continue to work it with the rolling pin or you can get it thin enough (about 1/4″ for the widest setting on your pasta roller) to start putting through the pasta roller. I start out at “0” on my KA attachment and after a couple passes, narrow it a few more times until I get to 4 or 5.

Get the pasta sheets as thin as you can without them being transparent, developing holes or tears when you try to stretch a bit (since you’ll be doing that to make the ravioli) but not so thick that you just have a super squishy dumpling.

To shape the ravioli – you can do this with a water glass or biscuit cutter, a fancy ravioli cutter (I have individual cutters as well as a metal mold that is about as wide as the sheet of pasta.

Get a small bowl of water and maybe a brush to keep at hand. Once you roll out your sheet of pasta — put it on the form or lightly mark it with your cutter, then use a measuring spoon to scoop a small ball of your cool filling onto the center of that mark.

Dab a bit of water all around where the edge of the ravioli will be using the brush or your finger tips. Lay another sheet over top (or just fold a very long sheet) and then use your cutter (or rolling pin) to score the raviolis. Check to make sure the edges are sealed the first few times and then lay them out in a single layer on cutting board or cookie sheet to rest.

Freezing the ravioli before you cook them yields better results. You can drop them into boiling water and then scoop them out and cover them with sauce, but for this thanksgiving treat — we browned some of Miyoko’s vegan butter and crisped up the ravioli on both sides with some holy basil out of the garden, and then sprinkled with vegan parm.

You can’t eat just one!

Oh yeah – and – if you have more pasta than energy to make ravioli — you can slice the sheets up into linguine or fettuccine, or make farfalle (butterfly or bowtie pasta) just by cutting squares and pinch in the middle. In all cases — leave pasta on a cookie sheet to rest and freeze or dry. You can also tightly wrap leftover pasta ball with plastic wrap and refrigerate to roll out later.


Sunday, November 11, 2018

Exploration: Reducing Refrigerator Dependence

The recent fires in Butte County have given me a lot of time to think, while hiding out from the smoke filled skies of the Bay Area.  I read that PG&E had considered shutting down the power grid -- but did not, and conditions resulted in the massive wildfire that decimated the town of Paradise and the evacuation of over 50K people.

One of the key considerations is the reliance on electricity and the challenges faced by less affluent households when the power goes out:  they can't afford solar panels or generators to keep their food in the fridge.   If you're not in a hospital or nursing facility, or dependent on electricity for some kind of healthcare related system -- your biggest risk is your week (or more) of food in the refrigerator and freezer.

So, how can we reduce our dependence on the refrigerator?  I found this interesting article about the history of refrigerators in the US -- and it got me wondering whether I could cut back my use of the refrigerator to a point where I would not lose perishables in a power outage of longer than 2-3 days (or however long a refrigerator stays cold).

This would require changing my shopping habits -- making purchases of fresh vegetables more frequently -- and not storing anything in the freezer.  I would also have to stop stocking up on perishables like vegan cheeses, seitan and condiments.  I've already experimented with using my Excalibur dehydrator to dry pesto and harissa -- and this year, I canned all my enchilada sauce (but not my tomato juice, for example). 

I'm going to start working toward reducing perishables in my freezer and fridge - and identifying foods that don't need to be kept in the fridge (does the hot sauce really need to be refrigerated?). 

If you have any experience with such an experiment -- I'd love to hear from you!