Minimally Invasive

That thing I had against leftovers? Not a problem anymore. No sirree, not after last night, at least.

I had quite a bit of filling left after adapting the Plump Pea Dumplings recipe from 101 Cookbooks, so I pondered for a while what exactly to do with it. Then I remembered another recipe I’d bookmarked from Delicious Days (whose photography just kills me) for Egg Yolk Ravioli and dinner was taken care of!

So I mixed together a double recipe of pasta in my food processor (if it’s good enough for Lidia, it’s good enough for me!) and kneaded it until it was pliable, then formed it into a ball before setting it in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes.

Making ravioli from scratch meant digging out the pasta maker we received as a wedding gift and only used once. Not exactly sure why it isn’t in the rotation more often because it turned out nice, thin sheets of ravioli dough.

First, I quartered the dough and ran half of it through the machine to make sure the rollers were completely clear of metal shavings before I got down to it.

And then slowly I rolled, step by step, inch by inch.

Oh yeah, that’s why I don’t use this more often! My arm nearly fell off.

But, as I said, it turned out nice, thin sheets, which I then topped with about a tablespoon of leftover dumpling filling per egg yolk I planned to use. This left me with four frankly not-very-attractive balls of green stuff, into which I formed little craters so the egg yolks wouldn’t escape.

See? Unattractive, but just you wait.

Then I used the egg separators right at the end of my arms to separate the yolks from the whites. The whites went into a bowl and the yolks just sat very perkily atop the green mounds.

Well, ok, not ALL of them were so perky…

That guy at left? He was trouble.

After that balancing act was done, I brushed the dough all around the fillings with egg white and set the other strip of dough on top, carefully sealing each ravioli and doing my best to squeeze out all of the air. Not sure I succeeded on that count, but none burst in the water, which is all I need to consider myself a culinary genius. Set the bar low, kids.

I’m no Martha, but I do love a scalloped edge.

So these babies boiled for 2-3 minutes while I scurried frantically around the kitchen, warming the plates, melting the truffle butter (yeah, you heard me), and getting out the microplane grater so I could top each eggy pillow with cheese before it had a chance to cool off.

I’d say it all turned out well, wouldn’t you?

Finally found ramps at the farmers’ market. Hot damn.

I’m convinced Spring is here now that I’ve seen the herbs and ramps at the Union Square Greenmarket — let allergy season commence! Despite feeling like a kid in a candy store, I kept my purchases reasonable and only bought some winter baudolino and cave-aged cheddar cheeses from Bobolink Dairy and two bunches of ramps.

Just in case you missed it — ramps! They’re here! (They’re queer! Get used to it!)

Last weekend’s Seder was a success; Miriam did most of the heavy lifting, and the only thing I really screwed up was overcooking some asparagus, which I put into the fridge for later comsuption. Heidi’s recent post on plump pea dumplings convinced me that we needed to have them in our lives, and I thought the asparagus would be a natural addition to the filling. Alas, it was not meant to be, as I am lazy. After work, the last thing I wanted to do was slave over wonton wrappers and spilling filling, so the asparagus languished too long and turned in a way that only asparagus can.

:: shudder ::

So I made the dumplings Saturday using my greenmarket find. I cooked one bunch of the ramps in some bacon fat (yummmm) and mixed it with about a cup and a half of peas, lots of black pepper, and two teaspoons of sumac instead of lemon rind; my lemon was nearing its final journey to the afterworld and I thought it should arrive complete with the rind that saw it through its full life on earth. Otherwise, I stayed true to the original recipe.

The easy part, she is over. Now the sealing must begin.

OK, not as bad as expected. And they even held together as they cooked.

I fried them in just enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan and they were really something — creamy, fresh and vegetal, like Spring in a bite-sized wrapper.

But we have lots of filling left over, which gives me an idea for another dinner…

Wait a minute, this isn’t Rufus!

Greyhound Friends of NJ held a Meet & Greet this weekend at Rusty’s Place, our local pet store. We took Rufus down for a couple of hours and he seemed to have a great time meeting and greeting all of the other greys, though he did get a bit tangled up in the other leashes and lost his shit whenever large trucks drove by. (Mr. Sensitive actually dragged me across the parking lot when an especially loud truck passed, which made for a hilarious visual, I’m sure.) But in general, he was pretty well-behaved … whew! Gil and I had a nice time talking with other greyhound owners, who predicted we’ll have another adoption someday; I don’t think any of them had just one dog.

In typical fashion, I snapped a bunch of pictures and have posted my favorites after the jump. As always, to see the full flickr set, click on any image.

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When Gil decided to shutter Voyant Publishing, he was left with overstock that he had to destroy. He piled these boxes on the ground under our balcony just before winter and they’ve had a hard time containing their load. Before we bring in someone to cart it all away, I had to snap a few pictures to document their weathered beauty.

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Sometime last week, one of my friends asked me, “What can I do with barley and mushrooms?” I put on my thinking cap and came up with barley risotto for her, which sounded pretty good once I gave it more thought, so I threw it together for dinner Friday night.

And being the first risotto of any kind I’ve ever made, I was pretty happy with it. Not ecstatic and not quite thrilled enough to give you a recipe just yet, but definitely pleased.

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Our amaryllis blooms are no more, but the desiccated petals are still gorgeous, so I staged a little photo shoot this morning.

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I’ve been following Apartment Therapy’s Kitchn Cure for the past few weeks, thinking what a great idea it would be to do one of their assignments in our house someday. Of course something always seems to come up — travel, dog adoption, and chronic laziness being the three obstacles lately — but I did find inspiration in this week’s assignment to clean out the fridge and pantry, tossing processed foods and things that contain high fructose corn syrup. I’ve been on the anti-HFCS bandwagon from a taste perspective for years, so we don’t have much of that stuff around here, but I did toss an old bottle of ketchup which I’ve replaced with the organic stuff from Trader Joe’s. (Haven’t tried it yet, but I’ll let you know how it compares to the Heinz gold standard.)

While I was in there, I took note of anything that was nearing its expiration date and should be used ASAP, which is a roundabout way of saying that this meal was brought to you by cleaning out the fridge. Appetizing, yes? What lurked in the inky depths were leftover chopped tomatoes in juice, a fennel bulb waaay back in the crisper drawer, and half a jar of roasted peppers. Hmmm, tomatoes and fennel, tomatoes and fennel. When it comes to those two ingredients, there’s only one place to go for inspiration, so I headed over to Last Night’s Dinner and cobbled together a meal that did me proud.

It was really simple to put together, too, and could easily qualify as a weeknight meal. In a stainless steel pan, I heated some olive oil and sautéeed half of a thinly sliced red onion, a thinly sliced fennel bulb, and three small chopped cloves of garlic. Once they’d softened, I deglazed the pan with about 1/4 cup of Herbsaint to deepen that lovely fennel flavor even more; feel free to substitute another anise-flavored liquer or simply dry white wine if you don’t have it. Once most of the liquid had cooked off, I added about 3/4 of a large can of chopped tomatoes in juice, 1/2 jar of chopped roasted peppers, 1/4 cup golden raisins, salt, and pepper, and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Into the food processor it went (being quite unattractive in its natural state) along with some lemon juice for a quick whirl; it emerged much better-looking than it had been only minutes before.

When we were at Trader Joe’s last weekend, I branched out from the organic ketchup and picked up a bit of fish and a brown rice medley, which completed this meal. I seasoned the mahi mahi filets well with salt & pepper, then dusted them lightly with flour and pan fried them in a little olive and canola oil until golden, about 2-3 minutes per side. The light crust added a nice dimension to the fish and even held up to the liberal dousing of lemon juice I always give white fish before serving.

Ack — what is the cutest thing?

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I don’t mess around when it comes to national food holidays. Maybe it comes from growing up in a town that hosts an annual Catfish Festival at the height of summer — I figure if a bunch of sweaty coonasses can come together for a weekend to partake of the flesh of a lowly bottom feeder, I can do a lot better for National Something on a Stick Day than serve up corndogs. And so Gil and I feasted on kofta kebabs over the weekend in observance of this celebration of finger food.

After a bit of web research, I decided to adapt two recipes from Food Network into my own. (I know, I know, really keeping it traditional, there.) It had a pretty formidable list of ingredients, but I’m lucky to work near Kalustyan’s, so picking up the few extra spices not already in my cupboard was easy enough. And let me tell you, if you’re going to make these, definitely do what it takes to find sumac. I had a taste before adding it to the lamb and instantly realized that it’s the spice I’ve been missing all this time. It’s delicious and zingy and really boosts the flavor, but I suppose substituting lemon zest might be ok per Jamie Oliver’s recommendation. Dude knows more about this stuff than I do.

(And allow me to take a moment to apologize for the above photo. If I were a better photographer, you’d have something more beautiful to look at than Mr. Hankey in a yogurt bath, but I suck and really, it’s a brown log and not photogenic at all.)

We had tzatziki, mache, and whole wheat pitas to complete the sandwich portion of our meal, as well as foul moudammas, olive oil, and Syrian za’atar on the side. Overall, the meal was a little brown, but seriously delicious and pretty easy to make. These will be on the menu again just as soon as it warms up enough to take the grilling outdoors. I can’t wait.

recipes after the jump

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