Friday, October 24, 2008

What Rosie Did On Friday.

I had a busy day in the kitchen today. First, I brought out my two stocks: Stock #1 (from Day 1) and Remouillage Stock #2 (from Day 2).
Gelatinous stock #1 on the left, and the remouillage stock #2 with the fat on top on the right.
I pulled the congealed fat off the top.
And I skimmed #2 stock to take out what impurities I could.
Here's my stock #1. All fat and cuddly gelatin.
I poured stock #2 into stock #1.
I skimmed throughout the day as this marriage of two stocks just barely came to a simmer for seven hours.
After seven hours or more, the stock has reduced by 3 inches. Then, I remembered I had leftover pasta dough in the fridge.
Brought the dough up to room temperature, then ran it through my pasta machine.
Thanks to Xmaskatie, who left pesto in my freezer for me, I had a filling for my "ravioli."
I covered the pasta and pesto strip with another strip of pasta.
Remember the other day when I made pasta and I got to the fourth setting on the pasta machine? Today, I got to the sixth setting, shown here. Whoot! I put mozzarella cheese and asparagus from the garden on the pasta.
Placed the pasta pockets on a corn meal dusted sheet. Now remember, looks aren't everything. Pasta went into the freezer. Then guess who called??????
If you guessed it was good neighbor Bobby with crabs you would be correct.
Mr. Crab is ready for his close up. We cooked the crabs and they went into the fridge waiting to be picked tomorrow.
Next up, my pasta dinner.
All right, I'm making this up as I go along. Here are the ingredients for my sauce: Pomegranate seeds Black olives Heavy cream Red onion Toasted walnuts Lemon drop pepper (courtesy of Xmaskatie) Leftover red pepper Cucumber Parmesan cheese
Chop/slice/dice/grate.
Gee, why not add a tomato?
Melt butter in the skillet and add walnuts, onions, peppers.
Then add in some olives and tomatoes.
Cukes go in.
And the cranberries.
Cream goes in.
Then the parmesan cheese. And the sauce is ready.
Next, I brought a pot of salted water to a boil and added the pitiful ravioli I made. Cooked for about 6 minutes.
Here's my pasta.
I added the sauce.
Well. I liked this. Mr. Hawthorne really liked it. I liked the pasta with the pesto. And I really liked the asparagus and the mozzarella oozing out of the pasta. And the topping was quite tasty - nutty goodness, salty olives, tart pomegranate, rich creaminess, and parmesan cheese to top it off and bind it together. Flavors, colors, and textures abound.

4 comments:

  1. It looks delicious, Rosie. And a great improvement over that oyster jelly/caviar debacle. That looked like a huge waste of your time and talent.

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  2. Thanks, NMOAC. I like to think of the oyster jelly/caviar debacle as a "learning experience."

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  3. Glad you found the pesto in that crazy freezer you bought. Why would anyone design such a thing? I have enough trouble finding things in my dresser drawers, god forbid I ever attempted to search for something in a freezer drawer. Just. Not. Practical.
    Could you taste the hint of lemon in the peppers?

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  4. Yeah, xmaskatie, I hate that freakin' freezer too.

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