Fancy, Easy Quiche

I first discovered this recipe when I wanted to throw a France-inspired brunch for my birthday a few years ago. The menu included a cheese plate, fruit, fresh baguettes and pastries, and this gloriously rich yet deceptively light quiche. Later, two friends separately asked me for the recipe and asked how the eggs could be so fluffy and the crust so flaky and light. The secret? Heavy cream and puff pastry sheets.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 puff pastry sheet (they come in packages of 2), defrosted according to the manufacturer's directions
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 8oz mushrooms, sliced
• 10-15 stalks of asparagus 
• 1 cup Gruyere cheese, grated
• 4 eggs
• 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2/3 cup whole milk
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 425F. I used my beloved convection toaster oven.

1. Sautee the mushrooms and asparagus in the butter until the mushrooms are beginning to brown. Remove from heat and cool slightly
2. Beat together the eggs, cream, milk, and black pepper
3. Roll the pastry sheet out to roughly 12" square (from the 9" start), then drape it into a 9" glass pie dish. There is no need to grease the dish ahead of time. Be sure to press the puff pastry into the sides of the pie plate.
4. Cut off any excess puff pastry and discard.
5. Combine the semi-cooled mushrooms and asparagus with the egg mixture and 2/3 cup of cheese, then pour into the pie plate. 
6. Sprinkle the remaining 1/3 cup of cheese over the top
7. Bake at 425F for 20-25 minutes, or until the pastry is browned and the center of the egg is set. 

I ended up taking some of the leftover pastry to make a simple design. Also, your baking time may vary -- I used the convection setting on my toaster oven and the quiche was nicely browned at 18 minutes.

This can be made the day before, then re-heated in the oven. Quiches also freeze well, and you'll just want to defrost it in the refrigerator overnight then re-heat in the oven. 

Fresh Spaghetti with Mushrooms and Pecorino Romano

So once I'd tackled making fresh extruded pasta, I was a little worried about preparing it. There are so many pasta recipes, but few of them specifically call out fresh pasta. I was worried about the pasta sticking, or the noodles getting overcooked, or just going to all that effort then not having something amazing to eat at the end of it.

I'm still getting the hang of how to make the fresh pasta, but I shouldn't have worried. The fresh pasta was easy enough to prepare, and the noodles that had started to stick as they dried became unstuck (mostly) as they were boiled. And the noodles that did stick together were just fine -- nothing like the half-cooked consistency that dried pasta had.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 batch of fresh pasta (or 8oz equivalent dry pasta)
• 12 oz mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon butter 
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• parsley to garnish (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. "Don't crowd the mushrooms!" she said. Well, since I was in a bit of a hurry and preparing a few other things, I melted the butter with the olive oil, then just dumped the 12oz of mushrooms into a pan. They were a little crowded but still turned out fine.
2. Cook, stirring occasionally until the mushrooms are fully cooked and the liquid has evaporated and the mushrooms have formed a golden crust on 1 side (15-20 minutes). Remove from pan and set aside. 
3. While the mushrooms are cooking, you can grate the cheese and finely chop some parsley and put some generously salty water on to boil. I find using a simple microplane makes for easy cheese melting later.
4. Wait until the mushrooms are done, then add the fresh pasta to the boiling water. Keep a close eye and taste the pasta after a minute, then every 30 seconds until the pasta is done.
5. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup pasta water. Drizzle olive oil on the hot pasta and toss to coat. 
6. In the still-hot pot used to boil the pasta or a heated pan, add 1/2 cup of pasta water, noodles, and the grated cheese. Toss to coat the pasta and melt the cheese, adding more pasta water if needed. If the cheese does not melt immediately, you can warm the pan on medium heat until the cheese is melted. 

Serve immediately or keep warm in the oven.

Fresh spaghetti with pecorino romano, mushrooms, and parsley

Buon Apetito!

Valentine's Spaghetti Bolognese

Even though this is our first Valentine's Day as a married couple, we opted to do our traditional Valentine's spaghetti dinner with a few friends. Instead of celebrating our love on 2/14, we say that Valentine's is every day for us! (gag)

Since I first made the bolognese sauce, I've experimented some with the recipe and made a few tweaks. This week I used:

INGREDIENTS:

• 2.5lbs ground 85/15 beef
• 1lb lean ground turkey
• 2 x 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups each of onions, carrots, and celery, chopped
• Salt and pepper, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS
The original recipe talks about browning this, then browning that, then combining and simmering for a few hours. To keep things simple, I use my food processor to chop the onions, carrots, and celery, then cook those in some olive oil for about 10 minutes.

In another pan, you can cook the ground beef and drain off the excess fat. Add the beef and turkey to the vegetable mix, stirring to separate the meat as it cooks. Once it is mostly cooked, add the sauce and stir for a few minutes as needed to keep the meat separated. If you want, add a few splashes of red or white wine. Salt and pepper to taste.

Then, simmer for 2 hours or more. The simmering is key in making the meat tender and adding depth to the tomatoes. I generally do this the day before, then re-heat the sauce for dinner. Serve over spaghetti and enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Making Extruded Pasta

I'll admit, I'm still a newbie at this, but I have managed to pull off a few attempts at making fresh pasta using the Pasta-Extruder Attachment attachment for my KitchenAid mixer. I have to admit, I'm not sure if it's worth the almost $200 investment, but I'd been mulling over making fresh pasta after eating so well in Italy. When a friend sent it to us as a belated wedding gift, I totally pounced on it -- how did she know what I was thinking? :)

The particular tool that I have is the extruder, not the Roller Attachment. The roller attachment seems more common and there are more how-tos online of how to use it. Since I was nervous about being able to make pasta at all, I'd considered exchanging the extruder for the roller (somehow it seemed easier) but in the end, I kept the extruder. I'm glad I did, because it makes beautiful shapes and if I want long noodles, I can always use the spaghetti attachment.

Here are the things I have learned:

• A chef friend (I won't name-drop, but he has been called "Pasta King" at a Michelin-starred restaurant) advised me that when making extruded pasta, you want the dough to be dry -- likely, drier than you think it should be
• Being dry, and using Semolina flour will prevent your dough from being gummy

INGREDIENTS

These are simple:

• Semolina Flour
• All-purpose flour or cake flour
• Eggs
• Water

Getting the proportions of these 4 ingredients right is where it gets interesting. 

Flours:

I found a 50/50 mix of Semolina and white flours was a bit gummy (though to be fair, the dough was too wet that time either). Next, I tried 2 parts Semolina and 1 part all purpose flour, and that turned out well. Start with 2-3 cups total. 

Eggs:

Here is what they say about eggs. Per 2 cups of flour:

1. A rich man will use 9 egg yolks 
2. A middle class man will use 3 whole eggs plus 1 egg yolk
3. A poor man will use 2 whole eggs

I found that a fun rule of thumb, but at the same time a lot of pastas don't use eggs at all! I went with 3 whole eggs and didn't bother with the extra yolk.

YIELD: 2 generous servings

INSTRUCTIONS

For rolled pastas, they tell you to form a mound of flour, create a divot for the eggs, etc. I just threw flours and beaten eggs into my standing mixer and let them mix until they were somewhat combined. From there, you want to add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough just barely sticks together, but not so much that you can form a nice smooth ball.

See this nice smooth ball? 

That was too wet and resulted in pasta that was extruded, but gummy and stuck to itself. No worries, that is easy enough to fix -- just add more flour.

Instead, you want something like this, where the dough will adhere to itself if you press it together, but otherwise feels dry. 

Next, cover the dough and let it rest 30 minutes. This step allows the water to soak in and allows gluten strands to form. I noticed that after resting, the dough felt wetter.

Once the dough has finished resting, cut it into walnut-sized pieces. I started with 16 sections, but ended up having to make them smaller. I would start with 24 or more -- there is no harm in having them too small, but if they are too big, they won't fit through the extruder

Next, you'll feel them through your extruder slowly, cutting at the desired length. I had the luxury of a motorized extruder, so there was no hand-cranking involved. If it is your first time and you are using the KitchenAid attachment I would recommend starting with the Large Macaroni shape.

This video is a great visual on how this process works.

Once your pasta has been extruded and cut to the desired length, I found it helpful to roll the finished product around in a bit of semolina flour. In my experience, spaghetti noodles are particular tricky. Try letting them dry for a minute or two before coiling them to store and dry further. 

Once your pasta is extruded, you can cook it immediately and boil 1-2 minutes (until it tastes done) in water that is salty enough that it is unpleasant to taste. Or you can let it dry for an hour before storing covered in a cool place. The fresh pasta will keep 2-3 days in the refrigerator. 

Here is some of the finished product:

Extruded Spaghetti

TROUBLESHOOTING AND TIPS

• If you are making tubed pasta that is sticking to itself and folding, your dough is too wet. Don't worry, just knead everything together and add some flour and try to extrude it again
• If your Kitchenaid mixer start smelling or getting too hot, give it a break and grab a glass of wine :)
• My spaghetti seemed hopelessly stuck together after I'd stored it coiled. I was kicking myself for not letting it dry before coiling, but luckily my sous chef/husband didn't mind boiling it in small batches and swirling it around to dislodge the noodles. Even though some of the noodles still stuck together, unlike dried pasta that is stuck together, they were still delightfully edible and soft.
• I have the Artisan 5 Quarter KitchenAid mixer, recommends you only extrude two batches of pasta before allowing the motor to cool for an hour or more. Be sure to check the recommendations for your mixer and plan accordingly
• Cleanup for the extruder attachments is easy -- just let the pasta dry completely, then it will flake off. You can gently coax out tricky bits gently with a toothpick once everything is dry

Large Macaroni

They say you can tell something is hand-made (rather than machine manufactured) because of the imperfections. I really took that to heart, as you can see from the many-varied sizes of my macaroni. But hopefully you can also see a bit of the uneven surface of the pastas -- all those nooks and crannies made for a great base for the pasta dishes I ended up cooking. But more on that later, stay tuned and happy pasta making.

Orange and Fennel Salad

View from our hotel in Tuscany, Italy. Photo By Stanley Hu

We had a simple but glorious orange and fennel salad during a lunch at a farmhouse in Tuscany, so when I was planning the menu for an Italy-inspired lunch, I knew that I wanted to make this.

TOOLS:

• I used a simple mandolin to slice the fennel oh-so-thinly (I have this one)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 fennel bulb
• 2 Oranges (I thought I was buying navel, but they ended up being Cara Cara, which was a nice touch)
• 1 tablespoon good quality olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• A squirt of mustard

YIELD: Serves 6-8

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Wash the fennel and reserve some of the fronds for a garnish later. Slice the bulb down the middle and peel away the tough outer layer if necessary. 
2. Use the mandolin to slice the fennel into thin slices (and mind your fingers whenever using a sharp blade)
3. Whisk the olive oil, lemon juice, and a squirt of mustard together in a medium-sized bowl. The mustard acts as an emulsifier and adds a bit of tanginess. This mixture will taste quite tart, but the oranges that we'll add later will balance this out
4. Add the shaved fennel to the olive oil mixture and let it sit for 15 minutes or more
5. Remove the skins of the oranges with a knife then slice 
6. Combine the oranges with the fennel mixture and serve with the frond garnish. 

This can be prepared a few hours in advance.

Fennel sliced thinly with a mandolin

peel the oranges with knife to remove all the pith 

Finished product, garnished with fennel fronds

Almond Gelato

I recently was lucky enough to go on an Italian Honeymoon, where we strolled through various cities and ate copious amounts of gelato and pasta. When I came back, I was inspired to make Almond Gelato.

My first attempt was to make the Toasted Almond Gelato recipe from Williams Sonoma. It was good, but a little too nutty. What I was looking for was more like the sweet almond flavor of Asian Almond Jello, and even though it's a little fake, it's our favorite!

The next version I tried was one very loosely based on Ciao Bella Pistachio recipe. I actually used the leftover almonds from the Toasted Almond Gelato to add some texture. Here is my adaptation:

INGREDIENTS:

• 5 egg yolks
• 1 2/3 cups milk*
• 2/3 cup heavy cream*
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon Almond Extract (I used this organic one)
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted then ground to fine bits (I used a food processor)

*I often buy half and half and substitute with 1 1/3 cups half and half and 1cup of milk

PREPARATION

Use the first 5 ingredients to create the Gelato Base. Add the ground almond bits, and cool completely by refrigerating overnight. Add the vanilla and almond extracts just before you churn your gelato.

This version of Almond Gelato will give you a sweet almond jello-esque almond essence along with a bit of gritty crunch to add some substance to the sweet creaminess, but not so much nut meat that you have to chew eat bite.

I served this as part of my Babette's Lunch and it was a hit. Upon tasting it, my mother-in-law said "Oh, it's just like Almond Jello!" and she got seconds. I will still experiment a bit (and post updates), but I think I found my Almond Gelato recipe.

Blackberry Cookies N Cream Gelato

The two flavors that propelled me to want to make my own gelato are Almond and Blackberry Oreo. Blackberry what? Back in college, there was a place that allowed you to choose your own flavors to be blended into frozen yogurt. My favorite combination (as recommended by Wendy) was blueberry and Oreo. You might say that sounds odd, but if you try it, I think you will like it.

INGREDIENTS

Gelato Base:

I used Gelato Base I except with only 1/4 cup of sugar since the cookies would add sweetness. 

Flavorings:
1.5 cups of blackberries, frozen or fresh
12 Oreo cookies, moderately crushed

PREPARATION

1. Prepare the Gelato base 
2. Blend the blackberries (defrosted, if you used frozen) using a food processor or blender. 
3. Strain the blended blackberries, using a spoon to squeeze out as much juice as possible. Discard the seeds. You should have about 1.25 cups of blackberry puree
4. Add the blackberry puree to the gelato base and chill until completely cool
5. (I usually do this the next day) Churn the blackberry custard mixture, adding the crushed Oreos during the last 5 minutes. 

What you'll end up with is a strangely purple gelato with a smooth fruit flavor and a fun chocolate cookie finish. This is a nice twist on cookies n' cream and a total fan favorite. I will definitely be making this again.