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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Baked duck ravioli

So I decided to start by being ambitious and attempting to make duck raviolis. Let me start by saying I've never cooked duck before and i've only made egg noodle pasta dough for ravioli. But seeing as I'm the ambitious type I figured what the hell might as well try it, the ducks are in the fridge and I'd love an excuse to use my kitchen aid.

I don't have a clue what I'm doing with this blog so bare with me, I promise it will get better as I go...

Ingredients:
For the filling
2 ducks
8 leaves of fresh basil
2 1/2 tablespoons goat chèvre
2 tablespoons dried cherries

For the pasta
Semolina flour
Salt
Water
Olive oil

So first off I made the pasta dough by simply mixing everything together in my kitchen aid then kneading by hand for ten minutes till the dough became very elastic in consistency. I wrapped the dough in a towel and let it sit for about 20 minutes.

While this was happening I removed the heads and skin from my ducks and deboned them so that all I had left was meat I came out with about 2/3 cup of meat and chopped it into fairly big chunks before mixing with the other ingredients. After I made my mixture I realized my twenty minute dough resting time had elapsed and made my lasagna sheets by rolling the dough out on the counter and counting thin strips. Trust me this process is much easier and faster with a pasta press and ravioli mold! But back to what I was saying I made my little squares and laid them out to be filled.

I took my duck mixture, ran it through my meat grinder and put about a teaspoon of filling in the middle if my square pasta sheets. Then I placed another sheet on top brushed the edges with water and pinched them shut. Now here I got a little crazy and had the best kitchen assistant ever cut pretty edges cuz we gotta have it look professional! And after I finished each ravioli I baked them for about 15 minutes at 375.

Then we devoured them.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Good old-fashioned down home cooking

So I was thinking that my blog should become much more food related because in a perfect world I would not be working in a grocery store but I would be cooking in my own family style restaurant. Making the food that I love without all the fillers and added unnecessary crap that you get at a lot of places today. It would be treated as an extension to my kitchen feeding people the way that I love too with healthful, hearty, scrumptious meals!