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365 Days is a Long Time

Friday, November 2, 2007 | Leave a comment »

Makin' PastaFirst off, let me apologize for the lack of photos of the meal tonight. I didn't want to take photos because I didn't want to share with anyone; tonight was my anniversary with Julie so I made her a super nice meal. You will get to see the pie and the cat try to eat the chicken though.

So for tonight I wanted to try to make something above and beyond my normal meals — and I'm not just talking about making a dessert (although I did!). Being that the cold weather is still a novelty I'm totally stuck in a fall state of mind. That means root vegetables! I've had a huge hunkering for pumpkin as of late too. Maybe it was the plethora of pumpkin plants I plaintively passed by pondering other possibilities in the market. (Eek, sorry. I'm a sucker for alliteration.) Or maybe it's because pumpkin truly is the One True Fruit. Either way, somehow pumpkin was working it's way into the meal. I thought about making Alton Brown's butternut squash dumplings (with pumpkin of course), but then I had horrible thoughts of two years ago when I attempted this and ended up with a pile of starch.Pumpkin Pie It was nicely flavored, but a pile of wet starch none-the-less. Ah, but yes, what about pumpkin ravioli? (And yes, I've been watching a lot of Molto Mario recently, thank you very much DVR.)

But what to serve with it? My first idea was to float them in a shallow bowl of star anise scented chicken broth, along with some soy sauce glazed chicken. But I didn't have time to make chicken broth. And this needed to be special. Then I remembered this amazing pea purée I had at Jaan in London with Becky. And how much peas work with pumpkin. (It's the sweetness.) So, pea purée it was!

Analog loves chickenAlas! One final thing was missing. Thanks to the nightly cooking of my mom I feel no meal is complete without three components. A starch, a protein and a vegetable. Of course, I had my starch (pumpkin ravioli) and I had some vegetables (pea purée), but since they went together I didn't want to cheat Julie out of a complete meal! I thought about making creamed spinach. The béchamel sauce would have nutmeg which would go along with the ravioli, which would help integrate it into the meal. But I still had some potatoes left from my aborted attempts at making dumplings. But how to work them all together? After some thinking and reading and thinking and talking to my friend Annie it hit me: a gratin. Slice the potatoes, layer them with spinach, maybe a little grated swiss cheese, and then pour in some beéchmel sauce and bake it until it's done? YES.

Bechemal

  • 3 tbls butter
  • 3 tbls flour
  • 1/2 minced shallot
  • 2 cups whole milk (or cream)
  • 1/2 tbls fresh grated nutmeg

  1. Melt the butter over high heat until it starts to smell nutty and turn a little brown.
  2. Add the shallots and saútee until soft over medium heat.
  3. When the shallots are soft (5 minutes) sprinkle the flour over evenly and stir it until the mixture turns a night light brown and smells wonderful nutty.
  4. Add the nutmeg.
  5. Add the milk and whisk rapidly for a few moments, turn up the heat and bring to a quick boil.
  6. Retreat from the heat down to medium and keep stirring until the mixture "comes together." I know, I hate directions like that, but really -- it'll start to come together and thicken nicely.

Potato-Spinach Gratin

  • 2 large russet potatoes, peeled and sliced into coins
  • 1/3 lbs baby spinach, very well washed
  • 1 batch béchemal sauce
  • 1/4 lbs grated Swiss cheese (Alpkäse is super good here)
  • salt, pepper and butter

  1. Heat the oven to 350°F and grease the inside of a casserole.
  2. Arrange the potatoes, cheese and spinach in layers in the casserole, reserving some cheese for the top and seasoning each layer with salt and pepper.
  3. When the casserole is full, carefully pour the béchemal sauce over the top, taking care not to bring it up past the top of the potatoes.
  4. Cover with foil or a lid and place in oven for 35-40 minutes (or until the potatoes are soft).
  5. When the potatoes are done, place reserved cheese on top and throw it under the broiler until it's golden brown and bubbly.

Pea Puree

  • 1 lbs peas (Fresh or frozen. Serious, frozen peas are the 8th wonder of the modern world.)
  • 1/2 minced shallot
  • 1 tbls butter
  • 4 tbls vegetable or chicken stock
  • salt and pepper

  1. Melt the butter over high heat until it starts to brown and get nutty.
  2. Add the shallots and drop the heat to medium. Add a pinch of salt and sweat the shallots.
  3. When the shallots are translucent and soft, add the peas and bring the heat back up to high.
  4. Cook the peas in butter for a few minutes and add the stock.
  5. Reduce to medium heat and let cook down a little until the liquid looks reduced
  6. Pour into blender and purée (note: hot foods in blender = bad. Make sure you crack the lid on the blender or you're gonna have hot peas all over you.)

Pasta Dough

  • 2 eggs
  • 8 oz flour
  • healthy pinch salt

  1. Make a well of the flour on your work surface, and crack the eggs into it.
  2. Add the pinch of salt and mix the eggs into the flour.
  3. Knead the dough well to form gluten or it'll break when you roll it out.

Pumpkin Ravioli

You won't need all this pumpkin — be sure to save some for pumpkin pie. Seriously. Pumpkin pie. Fuck these ravioli. Just make the pie if you want. It's so good.

  • 1 small pumpkin, roasted in a 350°F oven for 1 hour, peeled and puréed
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 tbls fresh ground nutmeg
  • 2 tbls fresh sage, chiffonade
  • 1/4 cup fresh grated hard sheep or goat milk italian cheese (Romano works very well)
  • one batch pasta dough, rolled out into a 16" by 3" strip

  1. Mix everything together in a bowl.
  2. Put 1-2 tsp of mix every 2" of dough — you should get 8 ravioli, about 2" wide each.
  3. Trace a box around each ravioli and fold the dough over to seal — be sure to work your way out from the filling when sealing; you don't want any air in these things.
  4. Boil them for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes in heavily salted boiling water

Roast Chicken

I like to flatten my chickens out when roasting them and make very good use of my cast-iron pan. I think it cooks a little faster this way too.

  • 1 whole chicken
  • salt and pepper

  1. Cut out backbone, wishbone and that bone under the breast. Lay flat on cutting board. (P.S.: Save that backbone! We're talking chicken stock baby!)
  2. Cut a little hole in the skin beneath the drumsticks and lace the drumsticks through it.
  3. Season the chicken with salt and pepper on both sides.
  4. Put your oven on broil and get your cast iron pan going over high heat.
  5. After 5 minutes, add just a little oil to coat the bottom of the pan and put the chicken in skin side down.
  6. After 2-3 minutes, place in broiler about 2-3 inches beneath fire.
  7. Flip after 15 minutes and cook until the chicken gets to 150-155°F inside. Let rest 5-10 minutes before serving.

Pie Crust

  • 6 tbls butter, chilled
  • 6 oz flour
  • 1/4 cup ice water

  1. Cut the butter into the flour until the flour starts to clump and the butter is in pea-sized pieces
  2. Sprinkle on the water a tbls at a time — add just enough to get the dough to clump. You may not need all of the flour.
  3. This dough will be crumbly — worry not! Lump all this dough together in some parchment paper and wrap it up. Place in fridge for 60 minutes.
  4. When you pull the dough out, form it into a disc — it should be a very solid mass now.
  5. Roll out into a disc just large enough to fit in your pie pan.

Pumpkin Pie!!!!

  • 1 cup puréed pumpkin
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup dark rum

  1. Beat the eggs and mix all the ingredients together.
  2. Chill the mixture for 1 hour.
  3. Pour into pie crust and bake in a 305°F oven for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

categories: chicken pumpkin pasta pie dessert gratin potatoes ravioli

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