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

Chicken (hella) Noodle Soup!

Hello again!

I've been so neglectful and I'm determined to work on this again! If I could I would rewind like, a year and a half just so I could recount everything I've made. Oh well, too bad, so sad! So here is my promise, to start this up again, starting..now!

Tonight for dinner I made Chicken (hella) Noodle Soup! Who doesn't like chicken noodle soup?! My deal with chicken noodle soup is that it's always on the salty side and there's never enough noodle! I mean, if I had my way it would be a like 45:55, chicken to noodle. (That adds up right? Hey! I'm a food person, not a math person!) Anyways, Mom and Pop Yee came down this easter weekend and brought me frozen, uncooked chicken. (I am a poor college student right?) I decided (after a very tough statistics midterm) to pair my frozen chicken with ham (from roommate Lisa's easter weekend), a mixture of veggies and onions and a TON of noodles for dinner! (*The noodles sorta happened on accident..I pour really fast! A small fault of mine*)

So to make my Chicken (hella) Noodle Soup you'll need (in accordance to what you feel necessary, to heck with exact measurements!)

-Frozen Chicken

-Chopped Carrots

-Diced Onions

-Garlic salt (or powder if you prefer)

-Olive Oil

-Diced Ham

-Water! (or a ready-made broth)

To start the broth I mixed: Carrots, Onions, Ham and Water! (If you're using water instead of a broth, add more ham! Trust me!) Get this boiling while you bake the chicken. I cut the chicken so they were still in their fillet shape, just a little thinner, placed it on a baking sheet and sprinkled a mixture of Olive Oil and Garlic salt on them. Shove that in the oven for about 15 minutes. (You can worry about over drying, but don't worry cause like a sponge it'll "un-dry" in the soup!)

PASTA TIME! Even though I loovee me some extra noodles, it's okay if you don't. I won't judge. So prepare pasta just as you would normally. I typically turn the stove off when the noodles are on the brink of ready, this'll make sure that your noodles will nice and Alllll Dent-Ay. (Al dente for your Italian speakers...and if you speak Italian you sure as heck shouldn't be taking notes from me!)

After your chicky is all baked and cooked thoroughly (you can check

by slicing a thiickk piece to make sure it's NOT raw) cut it up into bite sized pieces or steak strips if you prefer, but that would just be weird in a soup...right? Toss your chicky pieces into your soup and let it hang out for a while on low. Season to taste!

I told you there were a TON of noodles up in here!

Simple right? Right.

I don't know what's wrong with this picture, it was...cute...

Soup Facts:

-Most soup bases are made of a Mirepoix. This is a stock made of: celery, onions, carrots and water and boiled until your house smells like YUM! This is a typical base for any kind of soup...creamy soups, sick-curing soups or rainy day soups!

-A can of chicken noodle soup (from the store) has, on average, approximately 1/3rd of your daily intake of sodium. So remember to chase it with lots of water and don't eat the whole can! And just think, if you make myyy soup, all the cutting and stirring will suurree burn calories and there is for sure less sodium in it! Then again, it's sooo yummy I might just want to eat it all!

So enjoy and be merry!

Kitchen Tunes for Today: Anyway you Want It- Journey

Are you of Chinese People?

Just wondering...

Maybe my NEW favorite site. What do you think would happen if you poured everything here in a big pot of water and boiled it?!

Bleck

Sadly I would eat 8/10 of the things listed here!
Can you guess which ones I wouldn't eat?!

Up next: More bread!!!

More Bread Please!

Mere brød behage, もっとパンがしてください。, Plus de pain s'il vous plaît, Mais pão, por favor, 더 많은 빵, 제발, Mer bröd vänligen!!!!
(Danish, Japanese, French, Portugese ,Korean,Swedish)

The first thing we made in FSN 244 was....BREAD! Plain, white bread. Simple, yummy, satisfying.
You'll knead (HAHA..get it? need? knead!?...okay..):
-1 lb. bread flour
-0.25 oz. yeast
-0.3 oz. salt
~10-12 oz water (gauge depending on how loose you want the dough, this typically changes based on the kind of flour you use) *it usually works best with cold, cold water or ice water*

How to:
-Mix all ingredients for about 4 minutes
-Knead by hand or mix use mixer at ~speed 2 till you have a "window." (windows occur when you can stretch the dough till it's nice and thin BUT holes don't appear when you stretch it!)
-Let dough rest, it's tired! Actually it needs time to ferment, for the icky little yeast things to chomp away at the sugar in the dough...
-When the dough slowly becomes a little tight you get to KNOCK IT BACK! This makes it even tighter!!!! Tight!
-At this point you can lay your dough out and portion it to the desired size.
-BENCH THAT ISH! it's tired again...so let it rest.
*here's where it gets tricky*
-You can just let it rest....for it to finish rising OR
-If you have a nifty steam machine..stick it in there for "final proof"
-once its all ready to be put in the oven, stick it in there...duh?
*Caveat on how "long"*....truth be told I don't know how long it's suppose to be in the oven. Just keep a watchful eye on it, be kind and the bakery gods will bless you with the knowledge of when to take them out!

-Cool and Enjoy!

My apologies for the vagueness of this, it was a 8 a.m. class and I don't take good notes in the morning....basically if you mix everything together and let it sit for a while and bake it, you'll
have bread!

Next up:Challah, Whole wheat and Rye bread!

Genieten!!!!
(Dutch)

I need to make this!

Ginger Cake?! From Chows?!
WHAT?!

Chow's Ginger Cake With Caramel Sauce & Whipped Cream

Serves 16

• Ginger cake
• -- Butter and flour to prepare pan
• 2 ounces ginger, peeled and finely grated on a Microplane (about 3 tablespoons)
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup rice bran oil or other neutral flavored oil
• 3/4 cup dark molasses (see Note)
• 4 large eggs
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• Caramel sauce
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons light corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream at room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into pieces
• Whipped cream
• 1 cup very cold heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 teaspoon Tahitian vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar, + more to garnish

For the cake: Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly butter a 9- by 9-inch cake pan and dust very lightly with flour or line with parchment paper (see Note).

Combine ginger with 1/2 tablespoon water in a mixing bowl; add sugar, oil and molasses. Mix on low speed. Add eggs; continue mixing at low speed until fully incorporated.

Combine flour, cinnamon, cloves, white pepper, ground ginger and baking soda in another mixing bowl. Add dry ingredients slowly to the egg mixture, continuing to beat slowly, scraping mixing bowl occasionally. Increase speed to medium for 2 minutes. Scrape; decrease speed to low and slowly add 3/4 cup hot tap water. Mix until just combined, occasionally scraping. (The batter will be slightly thin.)

Pour into prepared cake pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 40-45 minutes.

For the caramel sauce: In a medium-size stainless steel pot, combine sugar and 1 3/4 cups hot water, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add corn syrup and cream of tartar; mix. Wipe down the inside of the pot with a wet towel to remove any sugar crystals. If needed, also brush inside of pot just once with a wet pastry brush. Bring to a boil over high heat without stirring, until mixture becomes a deep caramel color or a candy thermometer reaches 335°.

Remove pot from heat and immediately add cream in a slow stream while stirring (be careful - it will pop and sputter). Whisk in salt and the butter, a little at a time.

The caramel sauce can be made ahead and refrigerated. Carefully reheat in a water bath or in a microwave before using. Makes approximately 2 cups.

For the whipped cream: Vigorously whisk cream, vanilla extract and powdered sugar in a cold bowl until the cream reaches soft peaks. You want the cream to be relatively soft so it can slowly run over the sides of the cake. Makes about 2 cups; refrigerate leftovers to use another time.

To finish: (At Chow, the cake is cut into 2-inch squares and reheated 2 1/2 minutes in a 350° oven.) Place the cake square in a shallow bowl, top with caramel sauce and a dollop of whipped cream. Finish with a dusting of powdered sugar.

Note: If you plan to turn the cake out of the pan before cutting, also use the parchment paper, which helps the cake release more easily. Dark molasses (also labeled "full") is more intensely flavored and less sweet than light or mild molasses. Avoid using blackstrap, which is less sweet and has a stronger flavor than dark molasses.

BAKERY!

A-hoy-hoy!
I have returned after a quarter long excursion..making BAKED GOODS!
Off the top of my head..here are the things I can remember making:
-Rye and Wheat Bread
-Crossiants
-Cream Puffs
-Pate' a Choux
-Eclairs
-Sponge Cake
-Lady Fingers
-Meringues
-Puff Pastries
and we even got to make chocolates!

Surprisingly it was a really hard class...BUT I know how to make so many random things now...like Butter Cream icing...Cream Puff Filling...Fondant...Royal Icing... Cream Puffs that look like Swans...Cream Puffs that look like Mice...Simple Syrups...Mousse...

Mmmmm I wish I had pictures! I guess the only thing I have to show for this class is a grade and less room in my pants cause I gained so much weight!
Time to work off those cream puffs!