My poor poor blog! I’m so sorry, really. This past month or two has been ridiculously stressful with running out of money, and finding a new job, and then starting that new job! Phewf! I promise, now that I am all settled again and have the money to cook like I love to… You will not be undeserved!
Yesterday, I prepared a delicious hand crafted Salmon Ravioli with the help from one of my best friends! Sous-Chef Drew! [Which translates to Under-Chef… Which I like better ;]
Under-Chef Drew’s parents went to Paris for the week, so his girlfriend Erin and our mutual friends Gwenn and Kaitlin all got together to watch Jurassic Park and play Monopoly! The women sat in the living room, as the men slaved away in the kitchen…
Now this recipe is all by hand, and if Under-Chef Drew didn’t have a fancy hand crank pasta maker… This would have never came to be. So unless you can use a rolling pin better than [insert famous french pastry chef here], I would suggest not trying this at home ;}
Ingredients for Dough
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups of flour
• 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 2 to 3 minced garlic cloves
• .25 cup of chopped chives
• dash of salt
• dash of pepper
• squeeze of a full lemon
• zest of half a lemon
• 2 egg yolks to set aside, for binding the ravioli together
Combine all the ingredients with your hands in a large bowl, you’re gonna get sticky and gross… So have fun with that! I left my Under-Chef to do all the hard grunt work… But he wasn’t allowed to add the flavorful ingredients, just cracking eggs and leveling cups of flour. I suggest you put your significant other to work, or a friend who claims they can’t cook! Makes the lowly peons feel accomplished you know? Haha!
Set aside for half an hour, and cover it with a warm wet paper towel. Not drenched, but rung out almost completely.
Ingredients for Salmon Filling
• 1 pound of smoked salmon, or regular salmon if too expensive!
• 1 cup of heavy creme
• 2 garlic cloves
• quarter of a small onion
• squeeze and zest of a full lemon
• dash of basil
• dash of lemon pepper
• a large handful of shredded gruyere cheese
• a small handful of parmesan cheese
• 1 cup of ricotta cheese
• handful of chives
• dash of fleur du sal! [flower of the sea… SEA SALT… haha]
• handful of fresh spinach
Now one of the most important things about fleur du sal is that you must promounce it like a snooty french aristocrat while using it in your dishes! We had much fun doing this, or at least… I did.
If you can’t afford smoked salmon, which I couldn’t… Cause it’s packaged by like, 6 ounces and is 8 dollars a package or something? Crazy! I just got my local Price Chopper to get a nice pink meaty chunk from the pretty display freezer. The lady was super nice, and though she said she would skin it and rub it with lemon pepper before she wrapped it up… She forgot to skin it. And skinning salmon is not something I like doing, cause it feels gross and nasty and the sound makes your head shake.
You can tell fresh salmon by how pink it is, most of it is dyed before it gets to the store to make it appear fresher. But once you see that the pink has gone muddled and less vibrant, make sure you don’t get that one! The bad ones stand out like a dead rat next to a live rat when you see them next to each other. You can’t mistake it!
Puree the salmon meat and heavy creme first for about 2 minutes or until light and fluffy, then add all the ingredients except for the spinach and chives. Puree until smooth and blended, then add the spinach and pulse a couple of times. Make sure you don’t over puree, the greens should look a little chunky. You could even just break the spinach up by hand if you like.
Set that aside and it’s time to roll out your dough! Set up your machine and pre-flatten the dough as much as you can. Pre-Flour all your work surfaces first, the machine too! Put the machine to the largest pasta setting and feed it through in four equal separate batches. Drew’s pasta machine had 6 settings, so from high to low - big to small, I pulled through each batch at the largest -6- to a medium thickness -4- and then again to a -2-
For two of the batches I went to the thinnest setting, which was 1 or 0 I believe? and for two batches I went to a 2. The latter are a little thicker, so I used those as the base or bottom of the ravioli. The thinnest roll outs I used for the top.
Place a thicker roll out on a floured surface, and spoon in filling equally spaced apart. You don’t want to overstuff them, but you don’t want to understuff them either! Once you have a bunch of little mountains of salmon and cheese puree, your going to trace the outsides with a brush of yolk. Once every little hill has their specific outline, you take a thinner rollout of dough and drape it overtop. Press firmly from center to outer reaches, trying to get as much air out of the ravioli as possible.
Cut around the edges and trim them if you like, but I didn’t trim them… Didn’t see a need to. Each one is so different and unique, it’s precious. Some were big and some were small, some had a ton of extra foreskin and some didn’t, hahaha. It takes all sorts and shapes right? ;P
Let them sit for a good 5 or 10 minutes so they have time to bind to themselves. Boil some water with fleur du sal! And boil for about 6 minutes. Be very gentle when putting them in the water and taking them out! Use a mesh scooper if you have one, or a large ladle with slots in it. Place them in a colander and rinse with cool water, then use a little olive oil so they don’t stick together.
Line a tray with aluminum foil, turn your broiler on to low, and pour on some heavy creme, extra gruyere chunks, parmesan, extra chives, pepper, salt, and chunks of butter. Put the tray in the oven so everything melts, then put the ravioli on top of that and add more cheeses. Wait till they’re perfectly brown and voila! About 6 to 8 minutes, depending on the intensity of your broiler! WATCH THEM CAREFULLY. Once they start to brown they brown quick!
It took us forever, but that was partially because I was drinking my summer ale and making Under-Chef Drew do all the work… Haha. Hope you guys enjoy it, this makes a hefty meal… Each person had maybe 4 or 5? There were extra so we put some in the freezer before we even boiled them so they’ll stay nice and fresh.
Crispy, crunchy, smooth and creamy! I wish I had some friggin’ more… Damn…
Till next time food lovers,
I’ve got a bunch of recipes waiting for yah ;}
Justin Francis Kane
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