Glub Glub!

I have had the greatest luck this quarter to be in one of the only cooking classes available here at school! FSN 121 was a fantastic choice to take this quarter, a fresh, relieving break from other classes. So far in this class my group and I have made chocolate chip cookies, cream of broccoli soup, fried chicken and banana fritters! This week the topic was...FISH! My group decided to pick salmon and shiitake raviolis! I was quick enough this week to actually take pictures

Here's how to make salmon and shiitaki ravioli!

We're going to start with a...SALMON HEAD! Yeah i said it, a salmon head! Get that in a pot with onion, black peppercorn, bay leaf and water and boil boil boil for about 30 minutes. When that's done, strain and save the stock.

MMMMMM glub glub!

Now you're going to need about an 8 oz salmon fillet. Dice that up and mix with green onion, garlic, ginger and chili-garlic paste.

For the pasta dough, mix 2 cups of semolina, 2 cups of bread flour, 2 eggs, 2 Tblspn of extra virgin olive oil, 1 tsp salt and water as needed. I would suggest mixing everything except for the water first, and gradually add the water. The dough should be nice and firm, not sticky or wet. Run small pieces of dough through the pasta roller, over and over and over and over again until its niiicceee and thin, sorta like what you would see in the store (just better!)

Spoon about half of a tablespoon of the salmon filling (like the picture below). Using a pastry brush, brush some water around the filling. Fold over dough, in order to cover the filling, like you're tucking in a baby! Cut out the ravioli but make sure you press out all of the air from between the dough or else they will explode! You can leave them like this but I like to use a fork to press the sides down to double ensure they don't explode!

Fill a largantic (large +gigantic) pot of water with pinch of salt and a dash of oil. Get that boiling and cooking the raviolis in smaller batches to make sure they don't crowd the pot or stick together! While these are cooking stir them around so they get nice a cooked. Since this is fresh pasta it doesn't take as long to cook so these should be done in about 3 to 5 minutes! Drain these and plate.

Bubble! Boil! Toil and Trouble!

(Optional: toast sesame seeds and set aside)

In a small skillet add 2 Tbsp sesame oil, 2 cups of shiitake mushrooms, and 2 Tbsp of shallots. Brown the mushrooms slightly, and add 1/2 cup of reduced fished stock and soy sauce. Plate the pasta and sauce and sprinkle cilantro and sesame seeds.

Et Voila! Salmon and Shiitake Ravioli!

How's that for yum yum! Other people in our class made: Fried Fish and Tartare Sauce, Roulade of Salmon and Cod duglere, Shrimp Curry with rice and Trout Amandine. Everything was amazingly delicious! The Roulade of Salmon and Cod duglere was made with pureed salmon and microwaved! Who would have thought!

Fishy Facts!:

-Fish tends to have that "fishy" smell when it comes from salt water because the little fishy has to compensate for the salt in the water with amines. These amines give the fishy smell!

So don't bash the fishy fish, they're just doing what they have to do!

Enjoy!

Kitchen Tunes for Today: One Hit Wonders of the 90's - VH1