Lemon and Goat's Cheese Ravioli

I remember the day Wednesday June 2, 2010 like it was yesterday. Ok, that might be stretching the truth, but I do remember the day the video of Yotam Ottolenghi making this ravioli was posted on the The Guardian site. I just looked it up, and that day was June 2, 2010. I remember watching that video and thinking that I couldn't wait to make this. It was a few months later when I acquired a copy of the book Plenty, where the recipe also appears, and then I couldn't wait to make everything else in the book too. In the video, Ottolenghi calls the ravioli "little sunshines on the plate." And, they are. The lemony pasta with zest mixed into the dough, the fresh and tangy goat cheese filling, and the pop of pink and mildly spicy flavor from the peppercorns make the ravioli bright and springy. As I always say, making fresh pasta is one of my favorite kitchen tasks, and this time was no different.

Since making pasta is one of my favorite things, of course, I have my preferred way of doing it. I never used a food processor, and I never make a well out of a pile of flour on a work surface. I put the flour in a bowl, make a hole in the center, add the eggs, and mix with a fork. That way, I don't have egg running all over my counter, but I can feel the dough and decide if it needs more flour or not. For this pasta, the dry ingredients included flour, a little turmeric for added yellow in the dough, and lemon zest. Three whole eggs were added with three tablespoons of olive oil. The dough came together nicely, and it was divided into four pieces, each piece was flattened into a disk, wrapped in plastic wrap, and chilled for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, the filling was made by mixing together soft goat cheese, some sea salt, crushed red chile flakes, and black pepper. After the pasta dough had rested, one piece at a time was passed through a pasta machine several times while setting the rollers closer together after each pass. To streamline the process of filling and cutting the ravioli, I left half of each long piece of pasta dough intact. That half was brushed with egg wash and topped with dollops of goat cheese filling. The other half of each sheet was cut into circles about three inches wide. The circles were set over each dollop of filling, and then the cutter was used to separate each piece. Once cut, the edges of each were pinched to seal. You can cook the ravioli right away or cover and refrigerate them overnight. After boiling for a brief couple of minutes and draining, the ravioli were topped with crushed pink peppercorns, chopped parsley rather than tarragon in my case, more lemon zest and lemon juice, and some olive oil.

Each part of this dish is simple but just right. Pasta is plain by nature, but here it gets a boost from lemon zest. The filling was just a few ingredients added to goat cheese, and the toppings couldn't have been easier to add to each plate. But, all those simple parts resulted in something as fabulous as I knew it would be when I first saw the video.

Sweet Potato Cakes with Sour Cream and Chipotle Black Bean Salsa

Football season is in full swing, and for me, the best part of watching a game is the spread of snacks that goes along with it. I was recently contacted by The Alcalde, which is an online magazine for the University of Texas alumni, and they asked if I’d like to submit a gameday recipe for this week. I’d be useless in a conversation about football stats, but coming up with food to serve at parties, I can do. Mine is one of four gameday recipes by Austin food bloggers who also happen to have graduated from UT. I wanted to use something seasonal for fall, and sweet potatoes are plentiful right now. There’s a recipe for sweet potato cakes in the book Plenty which is where this idea started. I imagined little, crisp cakes with some added big flavors that would still be easy to pick up at a party. I made some changes to the sweet potato cakes from the book by keeping them simple with just green onion added to the batter and by forming them in a nice, small size. And, since sweet potatoes and chiles belong together, I mixed a chipotle black bean salsa to sit on top and added sour cream for tanginess.

The sweet potato cakes in Plenty have some red chiles and soy sauce in addition to chopped green onions mixed into the batter for extra flavor. I added only green onion and salt and black pepper. Big chunks of peeled sweet potatoes were steamed until tender, allowed to drain until dry, and then mashed with a potato masher. Flour, the green onions, and salt and pepper were added and mixed in by hand, and then small cakes were formed. This process could be done in advance, and the cakes could be stored on a baking sheet in the refrigerator until you’re ready to fry them. They were fried for a few minutes per side in a mix of olive oil and butter, and the butter really adds great flavor. For the chipotle black bean salsa, finely chopped chipotle, small diced yellow bell pepper, minced red onion, chopped cilantro leaves, black beans, lime juice, and some salt were combined, and that’s it. Of course, taste as you go to decide it you’d like more chipotle heat and/or salt. The salsa could also be prepared in advance. For serving, the cakes were topped with sour cream which acts like a glue and holds the salsa in place.

At this size, the cakes hold together well for picking up off a tray, and each one offers a bite or two of sweet, tangy, spicy, fresh flavors. I highly recommend them for a gameday party. Just don’t ask me who won.

Sweet Potato Cakes with Sour Cream and Chipotle Black Bean Salsa

For the sweet potato cakes:
Adapted from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi
(Makes 34 small cakes)
2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into large chunks
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
5 green onions, both white and green parts, finely chopped
4-6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4-6 tablespoons butter

-Steam the sweet potato chunks for 15-20 minutes until completely tender, and then transfer to a colander and allow to drain until dry.
- Once very dry, place sweet potato chunks in a large mixing bowl and mash with a potato masher to break up chunks. Add flour and finely chopped green onions, and mix with your hands to form a smooth batter. Using your hands here is best so that it doesn’t become over mixed. In a food processor, the sweet potato mixture could quickly become gummy. Taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper if needed. Once the mixture is smooth, and the flour and green onions are mixed in, you’re ready to fry. Note: the mixture should be sticky but not wet, so more flour may be needed.
- In a non-stick skillet, heat two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil and two tablespoons butter over medium-high heat. Form round, flat cakes from about two tablespoons of batter per cake, and fry four or five at a time for three minutes per side until golden. Transfer finished cakes to a paper towel-lined baking sheet to drain and cool. Add more oil and butter to pan between batches as needed, and continue frying a few cakes at a time until all are ready for their toppings.

For the black bean salsa:
1 16 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
1-2 chipotles in adobo, finely chopped
1 small, yellow bell pepper, small diced
¼ cup finely minced red onion
¼ cup cilantro leaves, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
¼ teaspoon salt

-Combine all salsa ingredients, starting with one chipotle, in a small bowl and stir to combine. Taste for chipotle heat and add more if desired, and taste for seasoning and add more salt if needed. Salsa can be made in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

To assemble for serving:
½ cup sour cream

- Place sweet potato cakes on a serving platter and add a small dollop of sour cream to each. Top sour cream with a small spoonful of black bean salsa, and enjoy.

Lentils with Tomatoes and Gorgonzola

The other day, I mentioned the box of San Marzano tomatoes I brought home. Most of them ended up peeled, chopped, and bagged for the freezer. But, a few of them were set aside for oven roasting, and is there a sweeter, more lovely tomato flavor than what you get from slow roasting? Store-bought, sun-dried tomatoes are intensely tomato-flavored and that's perfectly nice too, but with oven roasting, you can stop the process at any point to retain a little moisture for a semi-dried effect. The result is a cross between the chewy, completely dried variety and juicy, fresh tomatoes. This dish is from Plenty which has become my go-to source for dishes with great flavor and no meat. In the book, Castelluccio lentils are suggested, and the new bulk section at our Whole Foods offers a plethora of dried bean varieties but no Castelluccios. Instead, I found black, beluga lentils which are a cute, little size and nice, dark color and worked just as well for this. Another good option would be Puy lentils.

Slow roasting tomatoes in a 250 degree F oven will take an hour and a half to two hours depending on the size of the tomatoes and the moisture content. The tomatoes were cut in half, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and sprinkled with thyme leaves and salt. Just keep checking in on them after about an hour and fifteen minutes until they've reached the semi-dried state you prefer. I roasted the tomatoes a couple of days in advance and stored them in a container in the refrigerator with the oil and vinegar scraped into the container with them. When I was ready to complete the dish, red onion was thinly sliced and left in a bowl with red wine vinegar and salt while everything else was prepped. The black beluga lentils were cooked in plain water for about fifteen to twenty minutes until just tender. They were drained and added to the red onion slices. Olive oil, minced garlic, and black pepper were added, and that was left until the lentils were cool. The original recipe calls for chervil, chives, and dill, but I used garlic chives from my garden and flat-leaf parsley. The chopped herbs were added to the cooled lentils and everything was tossed to combine. The roasted tomatoes along with chunks of Gorgonzola were added to the lentils as the dish was plated, and I served it on a bed of arugula leaves.

With the bite of Gorgonzola and the fabulousness I've already mentioned of oven-roasted tomatoes, this is no shy, vegetarian dish. Simple, earthy lentils carried both well, and the herbs added fresh flavors. My only regret here is that I didn't buy several more pounds of San Marzanos and another freezer for storing them.

Quinoa Salad with Dried Iranian Lime

It was last June when I first learned about dried limes. There was a story in the NY Times about their use in cuisine from Iran and Iraq, exactly how they’re used both whole and ground, and their unique, complex flavor of citrus with a slight funky edge. I immediately called Phoenicia, our nearby Middle Eastern market, learned they did have dried limes for sale, and ran straight there to get them. Dried limes are just that, whole, dehydrated, sun-dried limes. You should wash them before using them. Then, you can either pierce them and drop them whole into soups or beans as they cook, or you can chop them and then grind them in a spice grinder or coffee mill. If you grind the chopped pieces, you should shake the ground lime through a sieve to remove any large, hard bits. I tried two of the recipes from the NY Times article, the lentil salad and the broiled shrimp, but I never got around to mentioning them here. I recall that for the lentil dish, the dried limes were pierced and placed in the pot with the lentils while they cooked. The flavor they imparted was very subtle, and if I hadn’t known I’d used the dried limes I don’t think I would have picked out their flavor in the dish. For the shrimp, a paste was made with ground dried lime, other spices, and olive oil, and that paste was used as a rub on the shrimp. In that dish, the flavor from the limes was present, interesting, and enjoyable. I intended to try that again and grill the shrimp rather than broil it, but I just never got to it. All of this explains why I was so eager to try this quinoa salad from the book Plenty. I already had dried limes in my pantry, and I couldn’t wait to use them again.

There are a several great-looking mixed grain salads in that book. Here, quinoa, wild rice, and basmati rice were mixed with roasted chunks of sweet potato, herbs, sliced green onions, and feta. I had just received sweet potatoes and green onions from Farmhouse Delivery, so I was set. I bought Canadian Lake wild rice, which is a long variety that requires about 55 minutes to cook. I cooked it in a large saucepan with plenty of extra water, and added the basmati rice after about 15 minutes of simmering. When the two grains were cooked, they were drained and placed in a large mixing bowl. Meanwhile, sweet potatoes were peeled, chopped into cubes and roasted with a coating of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. For the last 10 minutes of roasting time, the quinoa was cooked in simmering water, and then it was drained and added to the rices. Dried limes were chopped, ground, and sieved, and two tablespoons were used in the salad. Last, olive oil was heated in a small skillet, sliced garlic was added followed by chopped sage and oregano, and I was lucky to still have some sage and oregano in my herb garden after our cold spell. The oil with garlic and herbs was poured over the grain mixture followed by the roasted sweet potatoes and the oil left on the baking sheet, the sliced green onion, a little lemon juice, some shredded mint, the ground dried lime, and cubes of feta. Everything was carefully mixed so as not to break up the sweet potato or feta.

This was such a pleasant mix of nutty, chewy grains, and the garlic, onion, and herbs hit all the right flavor notes. The dried lime with its concentrated citrus was well-matched with the sweet potato and feta. You could easily add more of one thing or less of another here, but I wouldn’t change a thing next time I make this. It was a meal of a salad, and since it makes a nice, large quantity, it will be several meals. I’m already looking forward to the next one for lunch.

The Ultimate Winter Couscous

I had a couple of little butternut squashes that I’d been neglecting, and a turnip collection sat hopeful but lonely in the vegetable bin. It was time to find a good winter dish where they’d be put to use. That didn’t take long once I grabbed my copy of Plenty. The recipe really is called the ultimate winter couscous, but I don’t think that means you have to stick to it too precisely. You could use any type of winter squash, and turnips weren’t even mentioned in the ingredient list, but I was sure they’d be fine. What was in that list was carrots, parsnips, shallots, dried apricots, chickpeas, chopped preserved lemon, harissa, and lots of spices. The vegetables were to be roasted until tender and sweet, and I could imagine the smell of the spices filling the kitchen before the oven was even warmed. I think this is the ultimate winter dish because it really couldn’t go wrong. It was full of warm spice flavors, sweet roasted charm, and perky acidity and heat.

First, big chunks of all the vegetables needed to be roasted, and I used carrots, parsnips, turnips, and butternut squash. Shallots were added to the roasting pan along with cinnamon sticks, star anise, bay leaves, ground ginger, ground turmeric, hot paprika, chile flakes, olive oil, and salt. After roasting for a bit, chopped dried apricots, chickpeas, and a little water were added to the pan. Just before the vegetables were ready, couscous was added to boiling water with saffron and olive oil. After the couscous had absorbed the water, butter was added, and the couscous was mixed and fluffed. When the roasting pan was removed from the oven, a big spoonful of harissa and some chopped preserved lemon rind were stirred into the vegetables. The couscous was served topped with the roasted vegetables and some chopped cilantro leaves.

This was such a fragrant dish, and it hit on just about every flavor you can name. The preserved lemon added little sparks of brightness here and there while the cilantro brought some fresh herbiness. The flavors of all the vegetables had become sweeter and more intense from roasting, and the spices permeated each bite. This was an ultimate winter dish, and I’ll remember it next time my butternut squash or turnips or parsnips are feeling overlooked.

Yotam Ottolenghi, What Are You Reading?

In 1998, Yotam left his career in academia and journalism in Israel to study at the Cordon Bleu in London. He has worked as a pastry chef at London restaurants including Baker and Spice before opening the extremely popular Ottolenghi with Noam Bar and Sami Tamimi. There are now four locations of the restaurant in London and at each, the focus is on uncomplicated, seasonal food with bold flavors. Yotam also writes a weekly column called The New Vegetarian for the Guardian Saturday magazine. He and Sami Tamimi wrote the Ottolenghi Cookbook which was released in 2008. His new book Plenty, which I'm much enjoying, is a collection of his vegetarian dishes from the Guardian column, and it was released earlier this year. The American version of Plenty will be available in February. I knew I'd hear of some interesting titles when I asked Yotam what are you reading?

Yotam:
Two books that I love:

The first is The Perfect Egg which is a collection of short stories and anecdotal food memories and recipes, all told beautifully and animatedly by the Italian architect and essayist, Aldo Buzzi. The book is illustrated by the brilliant Saul Steinberg.

The second is Saraban, a recently published book about Persian food and the society that created it and lives it. It is a travel piece and a recipe book with the most astonishing photography from modern day Iran.





Thank you for participating, Yotam. Check back to see who answers the question next time and what other books are recommended.

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Black Pepper Tofu

Over the last few months, I repeatedly heard great things about the new book Plenty by Yottam Ottolenghi. Then, I read an issue of Delicious magazine in which there was a story about the book with six recipes. Well, after that, I could wait no longer. I finally ordered my copy of the book, read it, and quickly realized I’d probably end up cooking everything in it. Seriously, every single thing looks great. The sweet potato cakes, mushroom ragu with poached duck egg, and crusted pumpkin wedges with sour cream will all be tried soon. First up, though, I made the black pepper tofu because that had caught my eye when I saw it in Delicious. This is a spicy, big-flavored kind of dish with great balance. When Kurt saw the sauce coming together in a saute pan, he said it looked like it was going to be really hot and spicy. It did look that way with the red chiles and generous amount of black pepper. But, the chiles used were mild, and the black pepper heat was tempered by the kecap manis, or sweet soy sauce, and some sugar. The result was a tangy, interesting mix of flavors enveloping crispy tofu chunks.

I’m not sure why, but the version of the recipe in Delicious is slightly different from that in the book. The quantities of ginger and the different soy sauces are just a little more or less, but I don’t think those slight changes would even be noticeable in the finished dish. To start, drained tofu was cut into chunks, coated with corn starch, and fried in hot oil. I’ve finally learned a better way to fry tofu. Rather than heating oil in a wide saute pan and adding tofu only to watch it pop and splatter and cause oil to end up all over my stovetop, countertop, and floor, I now use a small saucepan instead. Heat an inch or so of oil in the saucepan, and the sides will be high enough to contain the splattering business. You’ll need to fry in batches so as not to overcrowd, but you’ll use less oil and spend less time cleaning. The fried tofu chunks were left to drain on paper towels while the sauce was made. Now, this was destined to be delicious because making the sauce began with melting a good bit of butter in a large saute pan. To the melted butter, chopped shallots, red chiles, garlic, and ginger were added. It instantly smelled amazing. Next, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and kecap manis were added. I learned from The Perfect Pantry that I could make kecap manis by simmering soy sauce with molasses until thick which I did. Then, sugar and lots of coarsely ground black pepper were added, and the tofu was stirred into the sauce with big pieces of green onions.

The flavor of the sauce was bold and exciting, and the tofu somehow magically remained crunchy and firm on the surface even though it had been warmed in the sauce. It really was not a tongue burning kind of hot sauce. The spiciness was there, and the black pepper was prevalent, but the sauce brought together an interesting mix of the whole flavor spectrum. I'm already deciding what to make from the book next, and I may not even bother finding room for it on a shelf since it’ll be spending most of its time in the kitchen.