Pumpkin Ravioli

Pumpkin ravioli is not new, it's not earth shattering, but It's almost a requirement for the Fall season - and it's sooo good.  The recipe I created below gets a helping of flavor from the fresh ginger.

This is a hearty dish, so serve with something light (a simple salad) or make your ravioli small so as not to overwhelm. You can make these ahead of time and freeze them too.

Tips and tricks:  Browning butter can be a super tricky process, it's easy to burn the butter.  But there is a simple method to follow.  Make this the last thing you do before you serve the ravioli.  Heat a sautee pan, add a bit pat of butter, do not touch the pan.  Let the butter melt and sizzle on the edges for a minute, the edges will start to brown.  Drop in a few sage leaves, pick up the pan and swirl the butter so that the rest of the butter pat melts.  Return to the burner (medium to low heat) for a minute.  Add in the ravioli and toss, or just drizzle over the ravioli on a platter.

Pumpkin Ravioli
1 small roasted pumpkin with brown sugar
4 oz of mascarpone
1 tbls fresh ginger, grated
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
salt and pepper
1 tbls each of fresh thyme and sage, chopped
1/2 cup shredded Midnight Moon Goats Milk Cheese  (this is a semi-soft cheese, regular goat cheese will work or try fontina cheese)

Roast the pumpkin by carefully chopping in half.  Drizzle with a little olive oil and rub with 1-2 tbls of brown sugar.  Place cut side down on a baking sheet.  Bake until pumpkin flesh is fork tender.

Scoop out the pumpkin flesh into a large mixing bowl.  Using a whisk, smash the pumpkin and whisk in the rest of the ingredients. 

Scoop the pumpkin filling in to fresh pasta dough sheets (or wonton wrappers.)  See my posting on fresh pasta for recipes and ravioli instructions. 

Brown Butter Sage Sauce

Warm a sautee pan, add 2 tbls butter.  Let the butter melt until it begins to brown on the edges (do not touch the pan). Add in 4-5 fresh sage leaves.  Pick up the pan and swirl the butter, replace over heat for 1 minute.  Toss with the ravioli.

Cook the ravioli. Serve the ravioli with the brown butter sage sauce, topped with fried shallots, crispy pancetta (optional), fried sage and shredded goats milk cheese.

Chili Linguine with Pumpkin Chocolate Sauce

"Any ideas for chili linguine?" my brother Marty wrote to me.  There is nothing more I like than to make up a recipe ... so, yes, yes I do have ideas.  I sent him two ideas- off the top of my head I wrote the basic recipes for him and hoped for the best.  When the weekend hit, I promptly made both ideas to test them out (I had a busy week, testing a new recipe was not an option until the weekend.)

Jenni sent me a text today to say the one they made was awesome (the Chili Linguine with Lemon Shrimp).  They even sent me photo- go check it out. 

But back to the pumpkin mole sauce;  this is definitely not a true mole in any sense of the word mole, the only real similarity is chocolate ingredient, but it just sounds cool!  And it works well, it's a great fall recipe and a nice change to regular tomato spaghetti sauce.  I'm pretty happy with this creation.  The goat cheese is key, do not substitute Parmesan or anything else for that matter.  The goat cheese complete softens the bite and brings all the flavors to life.  Give it try and let me know if it makes you fat and happy!

Tips and tricks:  I always say to make your own pasta when possible.  This recipe was based on the Chili Linguine (boxed variety) that my brother had- so I added the cayenne and chili powder to make up for using regular pasta.  If you happened to have the chili linguine- you may want to taste this without the cayenne first, as it may not be needed.

Chili Linguine with Pumpkin Chocolate Sauce

Roast 1 small pumpkin  (carefully cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds (roast them with salt until crispy), drizzle with olive oil and about 2 tbls of brown sugar.  Place cut side down on a baking sheet, bake at 400 degrees until fork tender.)

Sautee in olive oil until caramelized:
1 large shallot. thinly sliced
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
Dash of chili powder
Fresh black pepper

Scoop the roasted pumpkin out of its shell, and add to the shallots.  Mash the pumpkin with a wooden spoon.

Add
1/2 cup heavy cream (or use white wine)

Blend with an immersion blender (or place in an upright blender).
Add broth to thin out
....about 1 cup of broth** (chicken or vegetarian) Or white wine
   **may need more or less depending on desired consistency

Add 1-3 Tbls of chopped bittersweet chocolate (try it with 1 tbls first- you can always add more but you can't add less) and 1 tbls butter.  Stir until melted.  Keep warm over the lowest flame.

In the meantime, cook the  linguine until al dente.  Warm a drizzle of olive oil in a medium -size fry pan.  Drain, toss the linguine lightly with the olive oil and then add a few scoops of the pumpkin sauce.  Toss.

To plate:  Use a pair of tongs to pinch a scoop of pasta from the pan, and place in the middle of the plate.  Drizzle with more pumpkin sauce and a little olive oil- crumble goat cheese and few shavings of  chocolate on top a d roasted pumpkin seeds (optional).
Enjoy immediately.

Kahlua Ice Cream Bars with Kalua Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies

We had a potluck for charity day at work.  The charity is Off the Street Club, a place for kids to play, learn how to use a computer, interact and plainly put- be safe!   It was painful to decide what to make, there are so many good options to make.  I'm not sure how I ended up choosing to make Kahlua ice cream bars, but I'm so glad I did- these are rich, moist, decadent and utterly fantastic!

The chocolate chip bar portion of the ice cream bar is soft and studded with large chucks of chocolate.  I wanted to be sure that they wouldn't freeze solid, so there is a bit of Kahlua in there as well.  It's easy to get pretty heavy handed with the Kahlua too, here's a recount of my experience while I was making the ice cream:

Pour in Kahlua...taste
pour in more Kahlua...taste
pour in more Kahlua...taste
pour glass of Kahlua, drink.

Ha ha!  Alcohol just seems to find it's way into my hand when I'm cooking!  Remember what I always say though - make this to your liking and to your preferences in terms of more or less Kahlua.  But there is nothing like a super happy ice cream to leave you fat and happy!
 

Tips and tricks:  You can pat the cookie dough in a 10"x15" pan or drop them by the spoonfuls for actual cookies, I tested both methods and they each worked just fine. Shape the ice cream into a pan while it's semi soft, and then place it back into the freezer.  Whether you are doing squares for bar cookies or circles for regular cookies, you can cut them or use round biscuit cutters for the mold, it's much easier than trying to scoop the ice cream and smashing it between the cookies.  Also, choose a pan this is 1/2 the size of pan you are using for the bars, since you will double the bars (one for top and one for bottom) you will need less squares of ice cream.  Line the pan with syran wrap, and then top the ice cream with syran. Wrap each tightly with syran wrap and place into freezer.  And of course, the ice cream is superb on it's own!

Kahlua Ice Cream
2 1/2 cups cream
1 3/4 cup half and half
3/4 cup sugar
2 heaping tbls cocoa powder
2 tbls finely ground coffee
2 tsp vanilla
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup Kahlua

Heat the cream, half and half, 1/2 cup sugar, cocoa powder and the coffee beans over medium heat.  Do not boil, stir occasionally.
While the cream is warming, whisk the eggs yolks and remaining sugar until they turn pale a fluffy.
Temper the yolks with the warm cream by adding a little bit of the cream to the yolks, like 1/2 cup at a time, until the yolks are warmed.  Pour into the cream, add the vanilla and continue to cook over  medium heat, stirring until the custard becomes thick and coats the back of the spoon .  Add Kahlua, remove from heat.  Cool in an ice bath.  If you have the time, let the custard mixture sit in the refrigerator over night; otherwise just follow your ice cream machine manufacturers directions.

I placed the ice cream directly from the maker to my syran wrap lined pan, and then froze it (see tips above), making for easy cutting and molding.

Chocolate Chip Kahlua Bar Cookies
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp  vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup Kahlua
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
16 oz chocolate chunks or chips

Cream butter, and sugars.  Add vanilla, and each egg, one at a time.  Add Kahlua.  Sift together the salt, baking powder and soda and the flour.  Add to butter mixture.  Add 16 oz of chocolate chunks, mix.  Drop as cookies or use a rubber spatula to mold into the pan.  I used a 10"x15"- this does make a bit of a thick cookie, you could use a full cookie sheet for thinner bars.  Bake 20-30 minutes, until the top is golden and the middle is set.

Salt-encrusted Red Snapper

The first time Dave and I went to Italy, his client took us out to a local eatery and choose our menu for us.  When the chef came out with this enormous fish covered in salt, I was excited and a bit skeptical at the same time. Not being a big salt fan, I was sure the fish would have an overtone of a sardine and I would need much more than a jug of wine to wash it down!  Of course that didn't happen.  The fish was amazing and meal ended properly with shots of grappa!  Yum.

Last night I finally recreated that dish.  The idea of crusting fish in salt is not a new dish or one that I made up, but it is simple and allows the fish to shine.  Do try this for your next dinner party; not only will it impress your guests, but you'll be a fat and happy host!

Tips and Tricks:  Vary what you stuff the fish with.  I used lime and fresh oregano because it's what I had on hand.  Lemon or orange would be great, as would rosemary, thyme or just parsley even.  Leave the fresh herbs in the stalks and just set the in there, so you can pull them out easily after the fish is cooked.

Salt-encrusted Red Snapper
2 lbs of course salt (sea or kosher)
1 cup water

red snapper, gutted and cleaned of scales and fins
oregano stalks (5)
4 slices of lemon or lime
salt and pepper

Rinse the fish and pat dry. Place the oregano and lime slices inside the fish, season with a little salt and pepper.  Drizzle a little olive oil on the inside and outside of the fish.  Pour the salt and water in a bowl, mix till the salt is all moistened.  Lay a bed salt on a sheet pan, place the fish on top and cover all but the head and tail with salt.  Push it all together so it is fully encrusted.

Place in a 450 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Tap on the crusted salt to remove.  Strip away the skin, remove the herbs and limes. Serve.

Butterfinger Candy

About ten months ago I started an undertaking to recreate the Butterfinger candy bar, I was ultimately going for a cake that tasted like the crunchy, flaky, peanut buttery Butterfinger.  This started after a friend tasted a cake I made for Dave, it was an unbelievable, fabulous malted milk ball cake (whopper cake).  To this day, anyone  who tasted that cake swears it was the most scrumptious thing they've ever had. And it truly tasted like a whopper, down to the gritty middle. 

So this friend nonchalantly mentioned that her birthday was coming up, and oh, Butterfingers is her favorite candy bar.  My sleeves were rolled up before the drool started, and the testing began.  I do have a plan for the cake and topping portions, but the key to this is to recreate the actual flaky candy portion.  Lets be honest for a second- this type of candy is nearly impossible to create outside of the large, industrial, candy making plant. But that didn't deter me, I made three different batches of candy that day. Fast forward ten months and one new job later... life swallowed me up and spit me out.  I'm dusting myself off and getting back in the kitchen and back to my many recipe projects that were left unfinished, starting with the Butterfinger.

This is not perfect yet, but it's pretty good!  Give it go, see what you think.  Most of the problem with my earlier batches was that they were too hard.  This version gave me those flaky layers that are so crucial to this candy.  I'll be refining this recipe slightly more and then making the actual cake (check back for that recipe soon.)  In the meantime, nobody better lay finger on my Butterfinger...but if they do, they will be fat and happy!

Notes and tips:  You must work extremely fast once you add the baking soda, and do not touch the candy after pouring it in the pan or you will loose the layers.  Do cover it with chocolate.  This only stays for a few days, but before it gets old, it almost seems to soften slightly- making it even more like the actual candy bar.

Butterfinger Candy (aka, soft peanut brittle)

Have ready:
1/3 cup peanut butter, place in a glass dish and warm slightly
Line a 9x13" pan with parchment paper
Stir 2 tsp baking soda with a spoon of water (use a regular table spoon)


Melt together on low, stirring gently for about 5 minutes:
1 cup sugar
4 Tbls corn syrup

Boil for 10 minutes, do not stir.  Pour into the peanut butter, add the baking soda water. Stir and immediately pour onto the parchment paper (this has to happen in lickety spit time!).  Do not touch at all or you will loose the layers.  Let cool.  Cover with melted chocolate.  Break apart and eat!