Weekend Foodie Thread
What to do on a snowy day? At the Pandora household we’re making pasta – and, um, drinking mimosas. Now, I’ve made pasta in the past, but today we’re using our new Imperia pasta machine. This is an old fashioned, hand cranked, clamp to the counter machine – that weighs a ton and provides directions in nine different languages. I’m already a little daunted.
Making pasta dough is simple. It’s either flour and eggs, or semolina flour, regular flour and water (with a dash of salt and olive oil). The hard part is always getting the pasta thin enough – hence the new gadget.
So… if all goes well we will be creating a ricotta, asiago, and parmesano reggiano with fresh basil and oregano ravioli along with a classic thin spaghetti served with sausage and artichokes. (I have posted this recipe in a past foodie post).
I’ll keep you posted on our efforts. Meanwhile, use this thread to post “must try” adventurous recipes. I’m feeling adventurous today.
Tags: Food
You are so ambitious Pandora. The adventure in my kitchen today is limited to whether or not to add a splash of dark rum to the hot chocolate. ;o)
Made a huge pot of chicken soup and matzo balls (about 10-11 quarts) and a pecan pie. And of course, my chicken soup and matzo balls is the best in the state. 😉
Guess I should first introduce myself – I’ve been lurking here for a while, never post, just enjoy reading! I know a lot of you as I’ve gone to some of the gatherings throughout the past couple of years. Of course, my first post is on a foodie diary – totally my weakness!
My neighbor and I just heated up some Pomegranate Cider with spices and a little brown sugar. Serving warm with Myers Rum.
We’ll be making a Shrimp and Tomato Pie for dinner with Pears stuffed with a Stilton mousse, poached in red wine with a ginger cream sauce.
Yes, I planned ahead on Thursday nite!!! Let me know if you want recipes. Oh, and we’re getting ready to make about 8 pumpkin rolls for gifts.
Blue City Girl,
I totally want to come to your house. Welcome! I hope you will keep posting.
Damn, pandora!!! Pasta today just consisted of half-a-box of dry ziti and half-a-box of dry angel hair combined with half-a-jar of leftover three-cheese sauce and a few shakes of really shitty green-can fake Parmesan. Definitely not up to my standards, but considering I didn’t go shopping yesterday, it ain’t half bad!
I have to have those recipes, Blue City Girl! Please post them here… and welcome!
We are having a blast making pasta – what a hoot! Lots of trial and error.
Over in my part of Wilmington, we are making Wild Rice Soup — using the last of some wild rice I got the last time I was up in Minnesota. There is a legendary recipe for this soup that comes from a Minneapolis grocery store called Byerlys. This is it:
Ingredients:
* 6 tablespoons butter
* 1 tablespoon minced onion
* 1/2 cup flour
* 3 cups chicken broth
* 2 cups cooked wild rice
* 1/2 cup finely grated carrots
* 1/3 cup minced ham
* 3 tablespoons chopped slivered almonds
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup half and half
* 2 tablespoons dry sherry, (optional)
* snipped fresh parsley or chives
Directions:
In a large saucepan, melt butter; then saute onion until tender. Blend in flour; gradually add broth. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil; boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in rice, carrots, ham, almonds and salt; simmer about 5 minutes. Blend in half and half and sherry; heat to serving temperature. Stir frequently. Garnish with snipped parsley or chives.
Amount: 6 cups
This makes about enough for 4 generous servings. You can easily double or triple this. I treat the amounts of veggies here as a suggestion — I add way more onion and I add sliced mushrooms and abit more ham. This soup is pretty forgiving of adding more stuff and you can add enough veggies to it to make a chowder out of it.
Use real sherry, not the fake cooking stuff.
Serve with a salad (I like spinach with this) and a really good bread.
Warning — this is VERY rich.
Oh, I feel so special – you want my recipes!!! Here’s a link for the pears –
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,161,150171-239192,00.html
Here’s a link for the Pumpkin Roll –
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/granny-kats-pumpkin-roll/Detail.aspx
Shrimp and Tomato Pie (makes 2 9″ pies)
1 1/2 lb. shrimp – I cut them in half
4 tomatoes chopped
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
1/2 c. mayonnaise
2 green peppers chopped
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 lb. yarlsburg or Swiss cheese grated
2 tbs. basil
1/2 c. parsley chopped
3 tbs. chives chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 c. butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Bread Crumbs
Paprika
2 pie crusts – I like to make the crusts with very cold butter – better flavor than crisco. Of course you can buy them!
Saute’ basil, chives, garlic, parsley, onions and peppers in the butter. Add shrimp and saute until pink.
Mix eggs and mayonnaise together in large bowl. Stir in cheese then tomatoes. Stir in shrimp and veggies. Pour into prepared pie crusts. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and paprika. Bake @ 350 for 45 minutes. I freeze one, eat one.
A little info on the pasta – When you’re putting it through the machine, if yours is like mine, you can’t skip more than one level/number as you feed the pasta dough through to thin it out. You’ll just jam the machine and have to start over. Been a while since I made pasta, it is tons of fun and cooks in like 1 minute. I always use 1/3 semolina to 2/3 flour and it usually comes out fine. Have fun – time to start throwing flour!
We have flour everywhere.
What I’ve learned… it’s all about the feel of the dough as it comes out of the machine. I didn’t skip a level/number, but I did use a couple levels/numbers more than once. We have the ravioli ready to go and are pairing it with sage butter sauce. With the extras we made up some manicotti for a snack.
Thanks for the recipes, BCG!
We’re having wine and cheese tonight. I stocked up on some nice stuff yesterday from Janssen’s.
All of these recipes sound great. Wish I could share my chicken soup recipe, but I got it from my mother, may she rest in peace, and she called it a “shit-avissel” recipe – take some of this, add a little bit of that, make sure you put some of this in and then after 5 hours over a very low flame, you have a fantastic batch of Jewish Penicillin.
Basically, I take 5-6 chicken breasts with skin on, add cut up carrots, celery (with the leaves), a large yellow onion, 2 boullion cubes, and just let it go.
I put everything in mason jars and freeze it; I’ll have some for my DL friends.
My slow cooker has been busy cooking pork for pulled pork since noon. I used nice boneless pork shoulder added BBQ sauce Worcestershire Sauce brown sugar BBQ spice mix from Red Hot & Blue onion, dry mustard, celery salt and other things that I don’t remember – i always cook that way if it smells good I add it.
Just never ask me for a recipe LOL
i SHOULD have made Pasta today – never even thought about it..damn..
The pasta was a success, but needs a few tweaks. I’ll keep trying!
Suzanne, that sounds yummy.
I’m kinda wishing some of my DL friends would adopt me. 🙂
I’ll adopt you, UI. I’m the ultimate Jewish mother.
hahahahahahahhaha funny MJ