Desert or Dessert

In case you where waiting at the edge of your seat about the hint I gave you yesterday (more like a fence post I say), know that the wait is over (you can exhale now).

I must say I am so very pleased with how they turned out and my husband proclaimed them the best cheese Ravioli he has ever had. Success!
This was my first time making Ravioli with this little tool (Big Snack Combo from Tupperware). Actually my first time making Ravioli ever. I have made Maultaschen (a “Schwabian” type of Ravioli) before especially when we live away from Germany but not Ravioli with a cheese filling.
It’s rather easy I found especially with the aid of a Pasta machine. I make the dough than let the dough rest for a while (20-30 min.). To roll out the dough I start with Setting one on the pasta machine and work my way up to 4. I stopped at 4 for these Ravioli and it turned out perfect.
Next I floured my mold and covered it with pasta dough. My machine is not wide enough to cover the whole mold (12 Ravioli) so I made them in batches of 8 each.
I used the same filling from the dumplings I had yesterday. Still had enough left over  to make 24 Raviolis and 8 not so pretty ones (forgot to cover the mold with flour). Just enough for dinner for the 3 of us and some lunch with the not so pretty ones. 
I added some bit’s of “Katenschinken” (smoked cottage ham), covered this with another sheet of pasta dough.
The ravioli form I use has a wavy line around the “to be” ravioli that is raised. So all you have to do now is roll over the form with a rolling pin, turn the form around and the finished ravioli will drop into the container you place underneath.
Voila, that’s it. What I do when making pasta is this. I cover the pasta with flour to prevent from sticking. I then place them on a tea towel and cover them with another. Now I let them dry for  a little. I found that homemade noodles cook up better (better bite) if they have the chance to dry for a while. You certainly can cook them right away though.
For lunch I used some homemade chicken broth (this one was from a half cooked chicken which will be dinner today in some enchiladas) with some of my homemade vegetable seasoning, diced carrots and celeriac and some of the first batch of Ravioli that did not turn out quite so pretty (did not flour the mold and that was a mistake) but tasty nevertheless. That was all I needed. It was that good.

Recipe:

Pasta Dough
makes 32 Raviolis (3-4 people depending on what else you serve)
200g Flour (AP)
50g   Semolina (Durum) flour
2       eggs
a little salt
enough cold water (1-2T) to make a stiff pasta dough
Mix flour, semolina, salt and eggs and add only enough water (depending on the size of your eggs and the flour you use you might need none or very little) to create a stiff dough. Let rest for 20-30 minutes.

Filling
Ricotta or Lemon cheese bag filling from yesterday
Some smoked cottage ham or cooked bacon bit’s

Sauce
(makes enough for 24 Ravioli)
200 ml cream
cornstarch or flour to thicken
chicken broth
seasoning
More smoked cottage ham or cooked bacon bits
Ramsons (bear leek)

Heat cream add some chicken broth (1/2c or more depending on how much sauce you need, the broth with also aid in the flavor of the sauce so don’t skip this), season with homemade vegetable seasoning or your own seasonings (cubes, salt, pepper etc.). Thicken with cornstarch or flour. Add some Ramsons to your sauce just before serving.

I served these Ravioli with a Chicken vegetable broth and a salad w/feta. 4 Ravioli where enough for me. My husband and son ate 8 each.


PS: If you live in Germany and really don’t want to make your own Pasta dough you can find  dough in some Bakeries or your local grocery store. This might be the case in other countries too.

Remember that cheese from yesterday? Of course you do, that’s why you are here.
I turned them into dumplings and had them for lunch in a broth.
Let’s get to the broth first.
When you roast or cook chicken don’t ever throw away the carcass, bones, neck or insides of that chicken. You can make some fantastic broth out of it. You don’t have to do it right away either. You can freeze all those bit's and pieces and cook one when it’s convenient for you.
I have been telling you that I am cleaning out my freezer so today I got out the remaining bags of those chicken bit's and pieces and made some broth. Here is how I do it.
In this picture you see three different bags. One has a chicken carcass (leftover from a roasted chicken), one has different chicken bones from former meals and the other had the neck and innards from another chicken in it. I dump it all into a big pot and fill it with water. Bring it to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for hours and hours (Great project for a crock pot over night). Depending on what I want to use the broth for I often add all sorts of veggies to it right away too  (leeks, celeriac, carrots, leeks etc.). That’s it, see how easy it is to make a great chicken stock?

Now we have the broth for our soup, it needs some flavoring. What I like to use is homemade vegetable seasoning. Here is how I do it.

In the fall when root vegetables are dirt cheap I get tons of celeriac, leeks, parsley root (sort of like parsnips) and carrots. I usually have parsley and other herbs like lovage in my garden. Sometimes I add tomato powder or dried tomatoes. I wash and dry all those veggies than put them in my kitchen machine to make them real small. The smaller the pieces the better.
Now I mix salt under (this will help preserve it) in a ration of 4:1 (4 parts vegetables to 1 part salt/ 1000g vegetable to 250g salt). Fill it into glasses and store one jar in the fridge and the others in the freezer. This will last a long time if you don’t use it up even faster.
I make other mixes in powder form where I weigh out my veggies (so I know how much salt to add later), clean, dry and dehydrate them. After they are dehydrated I mix them with salt and  pulse them in kitchen machine for a courser powder and in the Vitamix for a very fine powder. Those are the only seasonings I use in my stocks. No need to buy beef/chicken/vegetable cubes or there like. You can combine the vegetables in a way you like them.
Not to long ago I had a recipe from “The Kitch’n” on my feed for homemade bouillon. From there I took the tip to add cilantro and fennel to my fridge mix. Wow, I got to tell you, I was hesitant about the fennel in this but boy is this good. I make it with fennel and cilantro all the time now (only the fridge version). Why not give it a try yourself.

The broth is all done now. How about the cheese you ask? We are getting there.
A few days ago I saw this recipe at “Proud Italian Cook”.  Perfect for Michelle’s cheese I thought.
And perfect it was. Very light dumplings and very tasty.
I used the last of the Pecorino cheese I had leftover from this recipe. I had exactly 3.5 oz left over and with the 1/2 lb of cheese I had made that was just what I needed.
Very good and a very satisfying lunch. Life is good!

I have another idea in my head on what to do with this cheese and I will get to you with that tomorrow.

Hint: How does Ravioli sound?

 

My quest to bake Ginger Scones from the Modern Baker had me looking for candied Ginger. Had my husband looking to be exact. That was a week ago. He came up empty handed because neither the commissary nor the local grocery store he went to carried it.

Today I thought about what I would bake this week and those scones made the list. Having made candied orange peel years back I knew it could not be all that hard to make candied ginger myself.

I Googled it and came up with David Lebovitz's take on making candied ginger. It’s basically a simple syrup.

Off I went to the store to get some ginger. Though candied ginger might be a problem to get in some stores fresh ginger is hardly ever not available. I love how my local “Edeka” Grocery store displays their veggies especially things like ginger. Not just are they in pretty wicker baskets but they are stored out of moistures way.

I have seen ginger under the mister to many times in the USA and often found them moldy right there in the store.

Not here in Germany. No mister = no mold! I never keep ginger in the fridge either. I keep it in a hanging wire basket in my dark pantry it will keep for weeks.

Come to find out that Edeka does carry candied ginger but I was on a mission to make my own and the price only helped to bring that mission home.

1000grams (1kilo) cost Euro 4,90 fresh where 100grams of candied ginger cost a whopping Euro 2,29. That means I can make 5 times my own for the cost of 1 box of that candied ginger. That is hefty I would say.

Turns out making candied ginger is not just very easy to make it is so much better than any candied ginger I have ever eaten purchased from a store. It’s spicy and sweet and oh so good. I will make my own from now on, that’s for sure.

I bought a piece of root just a little over 300grams. I reduced the recipe to that amount and went to work.

David suggests to use the back of a spoon to peel the ginger. I find that using my veggie peeler (the one that  peels very thinly) works just fine. It took me less than 5 minutes to peel and cut up that ginger.

I followed the steps of simmering the ginger twice in just plain water but instead of throwing the water away I kept it. It’s allergy season and ginger is great for scratchy throats. I have been drinking ginger tea during winter for years whenever my throat hurts. It’s just as great in the spring. Simply sweeten it to your liking or add some of the leftover ginger syrup.

Next time I will reduce the cooking to one time but I will cook it for about 30 minutes. The cooking helps to soften the fiber. David explains that sugar has the tendency to harden the fiber and since ginger is pretty fibrous we don’t want that to happen.

The final procedure included cooking the drained ginger in a sugar solution. To reduce that solution to a thin honey like consistency it took about an hour. By that time the ginger was just right. I left it in the syrup for a while longer after turning of the stove. Drained it and a little while later sugared them. OMG, this is sooo good, I can’t stop eating it.

If you have never made candied ginger before I suggest you put ginger on your next shopping list and give it a try especially if you are planning on making the Ginger Scones from “The Modern Baker” book. You will hear about those tomorrow.

 

 

PS: don’t throw the syrup solution away. This can be used in all sorts of ways. For instance as a sort of ginger ale (use 1/3 of syrup for every 3 parts of fizzy water).

I purchased my Excalibur dehydrator a while back and it has been in use quite a bit. I like to create my own vegetable powders and seasonings instead of purchasing vegetable cubes/granulates etc. A major advantage here is that I know what’s in it and the herbs and veggies my garden produces find an awesome use. What I don’t produce myself I am able to purchase “in season” which saves money.
I use these powders/granulates on a daily basis and it puts me right back to a time when the sun was shinning, the bees where humming (they sure love my herb garden) which is a picture I cherish when the outside is cold and dark.
This time however my dehydrator was used not in drying vegetable and such but to make some yogurt which was an ingredient in the second bread dough for this month (please read my last post for more detail)  HBin5 challenge and the first time I used the dehydrator in this manner.
I wanted to make my own yogurt for a while. I have done so years ago but that memory has fated and it did include a second hand yogurt maker which I no longer own.
I have been thinking about several methods I could go about it this time around. Recently the food blogging world has been buzzing with making yogurt in the Crockpot. I was a bit unsure about this method since one method was having to fill the finished yogurt into jars afterwards and there was talk about it not setting right if filled into jars prior. I have one big jar (over 500ml) that I wanted to make the yogurt in not fill it in later.
I researched it a little and finally thought about my dehydrator and the book that came with it sure enough on page 92 it gave directions to make yogurt.
A few hours later I had yogurt ready to go into the fridge. I made the dough the next day.
Here is how you make yogurt in your Excalibur dehydrator (I purchased mine refurbished).
If you don’t have a dehydrator you can use the same method except instead of putting it into the dehydrator place your warm jars into something insulated (maybe your cooler) with wool blankets and a couple of warm bottles.

Update: check here to see how to make it in your cooler


Yogurt –Ingredients-
4c milk (I use whole milk)
1/2c powdered milk (this helps to make the yogurt creamier)
2T plain yogurt (make sure it’s just natural yogurt, no additives. This is where the yogurt cultures come from)
Mix the milk and powdered milk and bring to a boil for a few seconds. Cool this mixture to 120F.


Take 1/4c of this mixture and mix it with 2T of the plain yogurt (I like Greek yogurt for it’s thick, mild and creamy texture) and mix it up. Add this mixture back to the milk mixture and fill the yogurt mixture into your prepared jars or containers. 


Cover your containers and place on the bottom of the dehydrator. Set the temperature to 115F and heat for 3 hours. Mine was done at this time. If yours is not check every 15 min. after the initial 3 hours. Let it cool down and place in the fridge to cool further.

This yogurt is awesome. Just the way I like it. Thick, creamy and mild. I already made my second batch since this one was gone quickly.

Now to the second bread of this month HBin5 challenge using this yogurt.

April 1st Olive Spelt Bread

1/2 recipe
Hbin5 page 96-97
-No olives- / 630 spelt flour (not the whole kernel) / added 1/2c wheat bran

This dough was very wet. I needed a bit flour to shape into a loaf. It also spread quite (my rise time was 45 min.) a bit. Next time I would place the loaf into a bread form for the rise.



Spelt flour was nothing new for me, I always use spelt flour. It’s such a great flour and I am glad it’s getting more exposure. This bread has sourdough characteristics. The taste screams sourdough big time.
I like this bread very much though it turned out flatter than I like.
I have a new oven that keeps all the moisture inside creating a nice thick crust if one chooses too. However I am still working on the right coloring.
This one tastes just like if it was baked in a wood burning stove. Great crust with just a little charred area (not really charred but very dark) around the cuts.
Great bread, I would bake this one again.