Malfatti with Sage Butter

This is a recipe from the Italian regions of Lombardy and Tuscany. Malfatti means: made badly or failed.

These dumplings are the filling of some Ravioli. Either someone had a problem with his pasta dough or was just too lazy to make some. The solution was a pot of salted boiling water and 2 tablespoon. Drop the chunks of Ricotta Spinach Cheese dumplings in and let them cook.

In Italy they are either served in a tomato sauce or in sage butter. Since the sage pot on my balcony is on its last leg before the winter, I picked a couple of sage leaves to use.

Recipe for 18 to 20 dumplings:

200 g ricotta

100 g hot water soaked, squeezed out and chopped spinach

75 g parmesan

2 eggs

55 g melted browned butter

180 g flour

Salt, pepper, nutmeg

Sauce:

12 sage leaves

35 g butter

Pepper

Start with melting and browning the butter.

Add ricotta, eggs, chopped spinach, parmesan to a bowl. Stir well. Add seasoning, flour and butter and make sure all the flour is incorporated. Let it sit 15 min.

A big pot of salted boiling water, dip 2 tablespoons in and get dough the size of golfballs in the water. On medium heat let them simmer for 12 to 15 min.

Put a large pan on an melt the butter. Add the sage leaves and fry them a bit. With a slotted spoon get the dumplings in. Coat them in the sage butter and serve.

 

 

Halloween Camembert

For my homemade bread I needed some topping.

Since it is Halloween today I upgraded a good and ripe chunk of Le President Camembert from Normandy.

The upgrade was a blackberry jam and a cookie cutter with a ghost theme.

Leftover Puff Pastry Halloween Edition

When you cut a round piece out of a rectangular puff pastry, there are leftover pastry chunks on the table. 

Most people would throw them out. I rolled them up and placed them in their packaging again.

Tomorrow is Halloween. I took out the rolled up pastry bits and pieces and used some chicken wieners as filling. 

Not having enough large dough in one piece, I improvised and it was fun.

Some ghosts, some fingers, an octopus, some eyes and some mummies. Not too good to look at, but tasty.

 

Chestnut Flour Bread

My friend developped a gluten intolerance this year. For her birthday in Summer I ordered some flours and bake mixes from a gluten free bake shop: Hammermühle

Last night I thought about the bake mix and decided to give it a try in the morning.

If it is a failure, we have organic waste trash day tomorrow.

The ingredients to add were simple, just a sachet of dry yeast, some oil and water.

I decided to prepare the dough in my Thermomix. After 2 minutes the dough was ready and I placed it in a loaftin. It needed 45 minutes to rest under a cover.

The oven was preheated to 210 C.  

I brushed the bread with olive oil and cut it open on top. It baked for 53 minutes.

The crust is firm, the bread itself is a bit dense. But it is tasty and has a chestnut undertone.

Halloween Steak Butter Spider

I purchased a silicon mold in a Salzburg supermarket. They had a "scary" Halloween table set.

 

Nice spiders to serve some cold butter in.

I decided to prepare a flavoured butter and added black sesame seeds for look and taste. Spices, yuzu peel and dark brown glitter.

I only softened 60 g of the butter and tossed the other 40 g in cold. That made it easier to mix and the consistency stayed like creamy butter.

The filled molds are sitting in the fridge over night to get the butter firm again. Now ready for some steaks. 

Ingredients:

100 g unsalted butter

2 tsp black sesame seeds

Salt, pepper, green paprika powder, yuzu peel, Café de Paris seasoning

Glitter

Tarte Tatin aux Oignons de Roscoff

Our supermarket had a treat: French pink onions from Roscoff in Brittany, Departement Finistére.

They were big and braided, but not cheap. But I was in Brittany and stood in fields were they grew.

The upside down onion tart is one of the most well known recipes. I did a smaller version.

Recipe for 2:

3 big onions and if there is 1 not so good one, peel back the bad layers and use up the inner parts to close the gaps

Some twigs fresh tyme

20 g butter

2 tsp muscovado sugar

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp water

Salt and pepper

1 round butter puff pastry

Goat cream cheese topping

Cut through the middle of the onions and make sure they stay whole. Melt the butter in an oven proof pan and set the onions cut side down. 

 

Cook for 5 min on medium heat, then add thyme. Dissolve the sugar in vinegar and pour that over the onions. After 2 min add the water. 

Preheat the oven 200 C fan.

Close the lid, reduce the heat to medium and cook 25 min. Cover with puff pastry and tuck the edges in. Bake for 25 min

Turn over immediately on a plate. Eat hot or warm with a topping of Goat cheese.

 

Chicken Udon Soup Japanese style

This is s recipe from

YT Aaron&Claire. Very fast and very tasty.

On a stormy and rainy Sunday a pot of soup is comfort food. While I was busy baking my Halloween cookies, I wanted something quick.

4 chicken thighs were in my fridge. I cut out the bone and some of the fat and tossed it together with some veggies in a pot and cooked chicken broth. Waste not!

Recipe for 2:

4 boneless chicken thighs

2 packs of soft Udon

4 large green onions

1 tsp grapeseed oil

2 tbsp Sake

2 tbsp Mirin

2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 sachet Hondashi powder

500 ml chicken broth - fresh or stock powder

Salt, pepper, shimishi togarashi

The large green onions are seperated in 1 inch white parts for cooking and chopped green parts for later garnish. The chicken thighs are cut in bigger size chunks. In a wok heat up a little oil and place the chicken skinside down. Let it sit for 4 min to get some color, then flip.

Add the chunky white parts of the onions. Cook for 3 min. Now in with the chicken stock and all the condiments and the Dashi powder. 

Check for salt and add some pepper. Cook for 5 min. In this time cook the Udon. They are ready in 2 to 3 minutes. Place them in a bowl and pour chicken soup over them. Finish with a generous helping of chopped green onions.