Blowin up in this Biz

This is all I ever wanted for my squash babies. (babies? I dunno)

Big ups to the Ramberg for his post.  That goulash looked a little too green peppery. Garbage. Luckily I threw 2 green peppers in the trash to balance the universe.

More importantly (Jake is like a 4 on the important scale),  I was responsible for creating a dish to go on the menu at my work last Sunday for a fixed course meal.

Originally, I was thinking of a new take on tater tots.  I really wanted to make a squash tot kinda thing that would have a nice orange color and taste like crispy butternut squash.   Unfortunately, that didn’t turn out so well.  The OG tot is just shredded potato with seasoned flour and a little water to bind it.  I tried that…but it just tasted like fried food, no squashy taste and the texture was off.  Then I tried making like a fritter kinda thing with egg yolks and breadcrumbs with mashed squash.  These tasted pretty good, but more like breading or dumpling kinda thing and not very squashy…At this point I was behind on my prep so I abandoned that project for now.

Instead I made: Chestnut Ravioli with a Butternut Squash Puree with a Sage and Apple salad.

You should probably click on this picture to see my name bigger. I'm kind of a big deal.

Boom, Vegetarian! Sorry vegans, I can’t quit milk n butta..or eggs…or cheese…wow, that sounds like shooting at the ground.

First I made a Chestnut Puree for the ravioli.  I boiled 1 c of Shelled Chestnuts (Actually a lot more, but these are more home friendly amounts) in 1/2 c water, 1/2 c Veg Stock, and 2 Sage Leaves. I reduced this till the liquid just covered the chestnuts.  Then I strained the chestnuts, reserving the liquid. Next, I pureed the chestnuts in a food processor and slowly added some of the cooking liquid into the puree until it became a nice thick consistency.  Then, I pushed the puree through a tamis,  to make sure I didn’t have any chunkies left.  To finish I added about 1 T of Butter, 1 T Cream Cheese and a splash of Truffle Oil.   The truffle oil is pretty much what makes these raviolis taste like NOM.

For the pasta dough, I used the ol TK move from the French Laundry Cookbook (which is also where the chestnut thing came.  When stealing, steal from the best).  This is an egg yolk pasta that calls for 1 3/4 c flour, 6 yolks, 1 Egg, 1 T Milk, 1 1/2 t Olive Oil. The whole pasta making thing is a bit involved with some tricks to it, so I’ll do a post on it soon instead of making this one push the blawg barrier.

The Butternut Squash puree essentially uses the same method as the chestnut.  But this time I boiled the peeled and chopped squash in half milk half water to give it more of a rich taste, along with a sachet (remember?) of Garlic, Thyme, Rosemary and Peppercorns.  Maybe next time I might change that, since I felt they added a little too much and slightly covered the butternut taste.  Then I pureed like above by adding the cooking liquid, but I added much more so get a smoother and thinner puree.  I just seasoned with Salt and a little 5 Spice.

Leftovers for my homies, roughly what it looked like at werk.

Last I made a little Apple Salad at the last minute so that it didn’t wilt and remained a crunchy foil to the soft ravioli and puree.  To do this I just julienned some Apples, then added a small pinch of Brown Sugar and Salt, a decent pinch of minced Sage and a small squirt of Olive oil and Apple Cider vinegar.   I wanted to keep the apple flavor and highlight the sage, so I didn’t season too heavily, but I wanted to taste the acidity of the vinegar to balance the richness of the rest of the dish.  Sorry about the measurements, but I have no idea.  (I’m not really sorry.)

So that was basically the starter course to a three course meal at my restaurant.  Its pretty straight forward and the only time consuming part is making the raviolis.  Soon I’ll do a pasta post, its easy to make, but a little time consuming and a pasta roller is pretty important for thin pasta.  But, anyone can do it in less than an hour with a little practice and a lackey (I found one on my couch) to crank the pasta machine.

Also, if anyone wants to post a recipe or something, lemme know, anyone can get on the foodgrind.  Unless you piss me off…

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