Category: Recipes

recipes we’ve made

Categories
Recipes

squash ravioli with brown butter sage sauce

There is nothing like crisp fall weather to make making squash ravioli from scratch seem like a better idea, except maybe David Tanis’ book The Heart of the Artichoke. David Tanis was a chef at Chez Panisse and is a beautiful writer. His recipes are simple, but coax the best flavor out of every ingredient he adds. His writing is just as wonderful—simple and heartfelt. This storybook-style cookbook easily convinces you to try every recipe inside. And the photos are just gorgeous. I just read the book cover to cover so be prepared for a string of beautiful David Tanis recipes.

It was a Sunday and Sundays are for cooking adventures here at Chez Jojonoodle. We had a few beautiful squash from our CSA sitting on the table and I had some time to kill before Jordan got home from work. I put on an episode of This American Life and got down to business.

While making ravioli from scratch is time-consuming, you can make this dish from start to finish in about three hours. If you relax and accept that your ravioli are going to look very, very rustic, it will be even easier.

You begin by making the pasta dough. While the dough is resting, you’ll roast the squash. After the squash is roasted and dough rested, you’ll roll out the dough and fill your pasta. Cooking the pasta and making the sauce takes only 10 minutes, which you should do immediately before sitting down to eat.

Squash Ravioli with Brown Butter Sage Sauce, adapted from The Heart of the Artichoke by David Tanis

For the pasta dough
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 egg yolks
pinch of salt
2 T olive oil

For the filling
2 lbs of squash (We used carnival and golden nugget. Butternut would be great)
salt and pepper
2 T olive oil
1/2 cup pecorino, grated
zest of one lemon
1/2 t red pepper flakes
nutmeg, for grating

For the sauce
4 T butter
a small handful of sage leaves
salt and pepper
1 clove garlic, mashed
juice of 1/2 lemon

Preheat an oven to 375 degrees.

Place the flour in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, beat the eggs with the salt. Make a well in the flour and pour in the eggs. Mix well with a spoon. Pour the dough onto a floured counter and knead until smooth. Wrap in plastic wrap and set aside to rest for at least one hour.

Cut the squashes in half and scrape out the seeds. Put them skin side up on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for 45 minutes – 1 hour, until fork tender.

Scrape the flesh out of the squash skins and put in a large bowl. Add the olive oil, pecorino, lemon zest and red pepper. Season with salt and pepper. Grate in a bit of nutmeg and stir well. Set aside.

Using your pasta machine, roll out the dough into thin sheets.  To make the process manageable, I cut the dough into eighths and then rolled each of those pieces out and filled them one by one. I recommend that you coat the dough ball with flour to reduce stickiness and roll out the dough until you’ve reached the second to last setting.

Lay this piece of thin dough on a baking sheet and cut into squares—mine were about 4 by 4 inches. Put a dollop of filling in the center of each square. Wet the edges with a little water. Fold one side over the other and press firmly around the edges to make a seal. Set aside on a flour-coated baking sheet. Keep at it until you’ve finished with all of the dough and filling. I made about 40 ravioli.

When you are ready to eat, put two pots of water to boil. Salt them well. Add the ravioli gently and boil for 4 – 6 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the sage and garlic, stirring occasionally as the butter browns. Once the butter has browned, season with salt and pepper and turn of the heat. Add the lemon juice. Spoon the sauce over the raviolis, top with a little parmesan and then enjoy the fruits of your labor!

Categories
Recipes

fresh mint chip ice cream

I am a lover of mint chocolate chip ice cream. My favorite was Baskin Robbins mint chocolate chip followed closely by Breyers white chocolate mint, until I made this recipe. The flavor of the fresh mint in unlike anything made with peppermint extract. It is more subtle and less biting, while still being refreshing. I shaved the chocolate chips because it worked so well in the creme fraiche ice cream we made last month. We brought this ice cream to a dinner party and it was a huge hit.

Fresh Mint Chip Ice Cream, adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
pinch of salt
2 cups packed mint leaves
5 egg yolks
1 bar good quality dark chocolate, shaved for the chips

In a medium saucepan, heat the milk, sugar and 1 cup of cream. Once hot and steaming, remove the milk mixture from the heat and add the mint leaves. Let sit covered for one hour to infuse the milk with mint flavor.

Strain the mint leaves from the milk, squeezing them to coax out as much minty flavor as possible. Pour the remaining cream into a large bowl and set the strainer over it.

Rewarm the infused milk. In another bowl, whisk egg yolks and salt. Slowly pour some of the warm milk into the egg yolks, whisking to combine. Pour this egg-milk mixture back into the saucepan.

Over medium heat and stirring constantly, heat the custard until it has thickened enough to coat a spoon. Pour through the strainer into the bowl of cream and stir. Cool the mixture with an ice bath or refrigerate until cool.

Churn the ice cream in your ice cream maker, adding the chocolate chips in during the last few minutes of churning. Enjoy immediately or freeze until firm.

-Emily

Categories
Recipes

squash stuffed with barley and chorizo

Walking down the hallway of the psychology building at school, Jordan ran into one of his fellow researchers who was enjoying a stuffed squash. He was instantly jealous. Nothing seemed more appropriate for the onset of fall weather than squash, a rustic grain, mushrooms and sausage all topped with cheese. And he said to me, “Make it so!”

Squash Stuffed with Barley and Chorizo
1 large or 2 medium squash (we used carnival, but acorn would also work. Butternut might be a bit sweet)
1/2 cup barley
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, diced
8 oz button mushrooms, sliced
1 chorizo sausage
cheese for serving

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 45 minutes, until fork tender.

While the squash is baking, cook the barley. Boil 3 parts water with 1 part barley with a little dollop of butter. Once boiling, turn the heat down and cover. Simmer for 25 minutes, until the barley is tender.

While the barley is cooking, take the sausage out of its casing. Saute the sausage until just cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl. In the same pan, sauté the onion in a the rendered chorizo fat. When the onion is translucent, add the garlic. Saute for a few minutes more and transfer to bowl with the chorizo. Add a little butter to the pan and sauté the mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper. Once browned, add to the chorizo and onion mixture.

When the barley is finished cooking, add it to the onion, chorizo and mushroom mixture. Stir to combine and season again with salt and pepper. You want the filling to be flavorful on its own.

Once the squash is tender, remove from the oven and stuff with the barley mixture. Top with cheese — we used swiss, but Monterey jack, Gruyère or parmesan would all do— and put back in the oven for 10 more minutes to melt the cheese. This dish is very hearty and autumnal. We enjoyed it with a simple salad on the side.

-Emily

 

Categories
Recipes

pumpkin ice cream

It is still fall, and so I continue to cook things with squashes. Plus, I had pumpkin puree left over from the pumpkin tea cake I made last week.

This pumpkin ice cream was tasty! The second day after freezing, it had a bit of a grainy texture. I’m not really sure why that happened, but there is really only one way to get to the bottom of it. More testing/tasting!

Pumpkin Ice Cream, adapted from David Lebovitz
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 cup  heavy cream
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
5 large egg yolks
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree

In a large bowl, make an ice bath. In a saucepan over medium heat, heat the milk and cream until hot. In another bowl, whisk together sugar, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and eggs yolks. Slowly pour the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture, whisking well. Pour this custard back into the saucepan. Stirring constantly, heat over medium until the custard has thickened.

Pour this custard through a sieve into a medium metal or glass bowl. Whisk in the brown sugar. Set in the ice water bath. Let the custard cool, stirring occasionally. Once cooled, stir in the vanilla and pumpkin. Pass the mixture back through the sieve.

Pour into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the machine’s instructions. Freeze the ice cream for several hours in the freezer if you’re able. But, there is no harm in enjoying it straight out of the ice cream maker either.

-Emily

Categories
Recipes

pumpkin bread

It’s fall, which also makes it time to bust out pumpkin-everything. First up to the plate …  pumpkin bread. The sugar crust on this bread is lovely, the spices are perfectly balanced and it has a moist, delicate crumb. Basically it is everything you want from a quick bread.

Pumpkin Tea Cake, from the Tartine Bakery Cookbook
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 T plus 2 t cinnamon
2 t nutmeg, freshly ground if possible
1/4 t ground cloves
1 cup plus 2 T pumpkin puree
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups sugar
3/4 t salt
3 eggs
2 T sugar for topping

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Butter a loaf pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, soda and spices into the bowl of your stand mixer or a large bowl.

In another bowl, whisk together pumpkin, oil, sugar, and salt.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. On low speed, mix the wet ingredients into the dry. Mix until just combined. You don’t want to over mix because it will make a tough bread.

Sprinkle with the sugar topping and bake for about an hour. Let cool in the pan for 20 minutes and then invert onto a rack to cool completely.

In what I thought was a stroke of pure genius, I decided to try to turn this pumpkin bread into pumpkin donut muffins. You might remember my life-changing donut muffin experience, but in case you need a refresher, check it out here. We thought that pumpkin donut muffins would be the crowning achievement of my life, but sadly (or perhaps not so sadly because now I still have future achievement to look forward to) the donut muffin topping did not really add anything to the pumpkin bread. This bread stands up perfectly well on its own. Those pumpkin donut muffins did look adorable though …

-Emily

Categories
Recipes

pasta with roasted tomato sauce and bacon

In the past few weeks, I’ve made three variations on this recipe. The first was great but time-consuming, the second was delicious and will become my fallback recipe, and the third was our ultra-budget version that turned out better than expected. Here is how it all went down …

A few weekends ago, I was reading cookbooks and drinking coffee while Jordan slept in and Willow took up too much space in the bed. (It’s hard to kick something this cute out from under your covers, trust us).

I stumbled across a variation on Pasta Amatriciana—pasta with braised bacon and roasted tomato sauce—in the Zuni Cafe Cookbook. When Jordan woke up, I shared just the recipe title and he was sold. I set out to make this magical pasta. The recipe calls for slab bacon, which you then braise with a variety of vegetables and spices. Well, slab bacon is really hard to find, even at a fine market like Whole Foods. In a stroke of genius, I tied the cut bacon together so it re-formed a slab. Sadly, this does not work. My braised bacon was so bland; all of the smokey, salty flavor had leached into the broth and left the bacon beyond dull. There are few things sadder than flavorless bacon.

Fortunately, Jordan saved the dish by bringing home the back-up bacon. We sautéed that bacon and added it into the roasted tomato sauce, plus some of the braised bacon for texture. It worked well, but was slightly disappointing. The time-energy input did not match the deliciousness output.

The second time I made this recipe, I skipped right to adding sautéed bacon to the roasted tomato sauce. It is so good and so easy.

The last time I made this recipe, we had no bacon at all. We did however have some rendered bacon fat in our fridge. I sautéed the onions for the sauce in that bacon fat, and  like magic, delicious bacon flavor infused the whole sauce. It was unexpected and amazing and so inexpensive. The next time you cook bacon, pour the fat into a small bowl. Fill with the bowl some water to separate the fat from the burnt bits.  Refrigerate this mixture until the fat forms a solid mass on top of the water and carefully scoop the fat off the top. Sauté away, adding delicious bacon essence to whatever you cook!

Pasta with Roasted Tomato Sauce and Bacon, adapted from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook
1 16 oz jar of whole tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 T sugar
2 T olive oil or bacon fat
salt, pepper, chili flake
1/4 lb bacon, cut into lardon
1 lb pasta (we used ziti and penne).

*A is a beautiful photo of a technique that I don’t recommend you subject your bacon to.

Heat an oven to 475 degrees. Strain the tomatoes of their juice and reserve that juice. In an oven safe dish, add the strained tomatoes and a drizzle of olive oil. Roast the tomatoes for 20 – 30 minutes, until browned.

In a saute pan, saute the bacon until just cooked through. Remove from the pan and set aside. Pour off the excess fat, leaving a tablespoon or two. Sauté the onion in the bacon fat until translucent. Add the garlic and sauté two minutes more. Add the roasted tomatoes and reserved juice. Add sugar, salt, pepper and a pinch of chili flakes. Cook for 20 minutes and test for seasoning.

Meanwhile, put a pot of salted water to boil. Cook the pasta until al dente. When the pasta is nearly done, add the bacon back into the sauce. Toss the sauce with the cooked pasta and serve with a sprinkle of parmesan.

-Emily

Categories
Recipes

larb—a delightful thai salad

I am a big fan of the Spilled Milk Podcast by Molly Wizenberg and Mathew Amester-Burton. It makes me laugh out loud—usually on my commute home—which in any other city might look weird, but in San Francisco just makes me typical. A few weeks ago they did an episode on Thai Salads and I was inspired to try this dish. The toasted rice component was irresistible.

This dish is typically served in cabbage leaves. You could also serve it over rice or noodles. Or —my preferred method—make little Thai burritos with cabbage leaves, rice and larb all wrapped up in one awesome bundle.

Larb Gai, adapted from Spilled Milk
1 pound ground chicken thighs or pork (breasts will dry out too much)
1/2 cup shallots, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons scallions, sliced
2 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons lime juice from 1 to 2 limes
1 teaspoon red chile flakes
2 to 3 tablespoons toasted rice powder (below)
cabbage or lettuce leaves leaves

Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground chicken or pork, shallots, scallions, red pepper flakes, fish sauce, and lime juice. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the meat is cooked through.

Turn the larb out into a bowl and cool for at least ten minutes. Stir in rice powder. Serve with cabbage or lettuce leaves for wrapping.

Toasted Rice Powder
1/4 white rice, uncooked

Place a dry skillet over medium heat. Add 1/4 cup white rice to the pan. Toast the rice, stirring and shaking the pan frequently, until the rice is golden-brown, about 5 minutes. Cool to room temperature and grind to a very fine powder in a spice grinder or coffee grinder. I used my magic bullet—thanks Dad!

Larb is as delicious as it is fun to say! Jordan and I really enjoyed this meal. We are also trying to invent more things to top with toasted rice powder! That stuff is awesome.

-Emily

Categories
Recipes

my first indian foray—dal and naan

Inspired by a delicious dinner at our friend Ted’s, I decided to try my hand at Indian. For a first attempt it was successful, but could still use some tweaking. The dal was good, but a little over-spiced for my tastes. I’ve adjusted the recipe below to how I plan to make them next time.

And, because I like to take an easy meal that would normally be ready at 7 pm and turn it into an epic culinary adventure that we sit down to at 10:30, I decided to make naan from scratch. It was totally worth it though. This naan is really good, especially considering our clear lack of tandor oven.

Dal, adapted from Smitten Kitchen and the San Francisco Chronicle

2 cups yellow split peas, soaked in cold water for 1 hour or more
1 large tomato, cut into 8 wedges
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
5 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon coriander seeds, finely ground
3/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 cup minced cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt

Drain the peas and place in a dutch oven. Add 6 cups of water and the tomato. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 45 minutes, until the peas are tender. Pick out the tomato skins and whisk the dal break up some of the peas. Reduce the heat to low and keep warm.

Heat the oil over medium heat. Once the oil is hot add the cumin seeds. Saute the seeds until golden, 1 – 2 minutes. Add the onion and saute for a few minutes. Add the garlic, turmeric and cayenne. Pour this mixture into the pea soup. Stir to combine and and season with salt. Add the cilantro leaves and butter just before serving.

Naan, adapted from All Recipes
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup sugar
3 T milk
1 egg, beaten
2 t salt
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1/4 cup butter, melted

In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes, until frothy. Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes. Cover with a towel and let rise for 1 hour.

Pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll into balls, and place on a baking sheet. Cover with a towel, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

Heat a grill—we used a cast iron pan— over medium high heat. Lightly oil the grill or pan. Roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle.  Place dough on grill, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until puffy and lightly browned. Brush uncooked side with melted butter, and turn over. Brush cooked side with butter, and cook until browned, another 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from grill, and continue with the rest of the balls of dough.

While I’m sure the following statement won’t surprise you in the least, it is all about the butter with this naan. Don’t skip that step. It makes the bread heavenly.

-Emily

Categories
Recipes

breakfast sandwich

Jordan made these sandwiches for breakfast on Saturday. Leftover brioche bun + black forest ham + swiss cheese + farm fresh fried egg = awesome.

They are easy. Toast some bread under your broiler. Add a slice of ham (or turkey or bacon or whatever else you have around) and a slice of cheese. Broil that. While your melting the cheese, fry a quick egg. Top the whole thing with some parsley and pepper. Ta-da!

Why brave brunch lines when I can eat this awesome sandwich in my pajamas with wacky hair and my pup at my feet?

Am I right, or am I right?

-Emily

Categories
Recipes San Francisco

a bread success!

I’ve been working on my sourdough bread for about 9 months now. It was a rough beginning with sad, flat loaves of super sour bread. Still, I was determined. I dreamed of crusty, deep brown, slightly sour loaves of airy but chewy bread. I tried different recipes, different flours, adding commercial yeast to supplement the wild yeast. My breads were ok, but nothing close to the better artisan breads you can get here in San Francisco.

Everything changed when my sister bought me the Tartine Bread cookbook for my birthday. I’ve raved about Tartine Bakery on the blog before, and now I will proclaim that their bread cookbook changed my life. In it are the secrets to amazing bread, simply yet throughly explained, with amazing pictures alongside. While I’m going to go through the process briefly here, if you want to make wonderful bread, you should just buy their book.

The general idea is this: Take your starter. Make a leaven by adding water and flour to a very small amount of your starter. The next morning, take part of your leaven and add more flour, water and a bit of salt. Then start the rising process. The first rise is in a large bowl or tupperware and lasts about 4 hours. Shape the loaves. Now for the second rise with the dough shaped in bowls. The second rise lasts about 4 – 6 hours. Now bake each loaf in a 450 degree oven for 40 minutes.

While each step of this process is extremely important to creating the bread of your dreams, perhaps the most obvious innovation that I took from Tartine was cooking the bread in a cast iron dutch oven. You heat the cast iron to 450-500 degrees in the oven, plop the loaf into the bottom of the pan, cover it with the top and bake for 20 minutes. The dutch oven creates a mini steam chamber very similar to a commercial bread baking oven, but impossible to achieve in a regular home oven. Steam is crucial for a proper rise and also for creating the chewy crust. Using the dutch oven in this way allows the bread to steam itself! Amazing! Then you remove the dutch oven top for the second 20 minutes of cooking and the bread browns to perfection.

Following Tartine Bread’s detailed schedule, I began a sourdough starter from scratch. After culturing my starter for a few weeks, I made my first loaf. It was beautiful, so tasty and almost perfect. My first real bread success! I was so pleased! I gloated by sending photos of this bread miracle to my mother, sister and friend.

I’ve since made bread many times using Tartine’s method and I couldn’t be more satisfied with the results. Seriously good bread.  I’ve tweaked the recipe a bit to match Jordan and I’s tastes, but it has turned out incredibly well every time. Bread from scratch is time-consuming —we’re talking a day of baking here— but it is so fulfilling when it turns out well.

Recently, I’ve been experimenting with the rise and proofing times to figure out the best way to fit this bread into my regular schedule without devoting a day to baking. And, I think I’ve worked it out! I make the leaven before bed 2 days before I plan to bake. Around 3 – 4 pm the next day I mix the bread and do the first rise. I shape the loaves that night before bed and then put them in the fridge. Around 3 pm the next day, Jordan takes the breads out of the fridge for their final rise. They rise until 7 when I get home from work and have preheated the oven and then I bake! Maximum bread, minimum “wasted” down time!

And now I’m really going to brag … last night Jordan said that my bread was better (!!!better!!!) than Acme Bread! Maybe he is biased, but I’ll take the compliment anyway. I set out to make bread that was as good as Acme – and now I’ve done it!

-Emily