Fresh Pasta Night (Part 2)

Making your own pasta is simple.

I wish I had known just how easy it was instead of always buying dried pasta from the stores or, worse yet, expensive frozen/refrigerated versions! I didn't even need a pasta maker, roller or any other complicated contraption. Just my dough, some elbow grease and a rolling pin.

Egg Pasta Dough

1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 eggs, room temp
Pinch of salt

I mixed the salt and flour, and made a volcano looking shape with the flour. I cracked the 2 eggs into the middle of the volcano and stirred quickly in one direction to beat the egg, being careful not to spill over the edge.





Once the egg was beaten thoroughly, I started to incorporate the edges of the flour into the egg, little by little. This part takes some time. The egg mixture will slowly pull in more flour from the sides of the volcano, but you have to be patient and not let the egg spill over or else a catastrophe of minor proportions will take place on your countertop.

Once most of the flour is incorporate, it's time to knead!



I don't knead my dough too much since I am not using a pasta roller. Something about making it too chewy if you knead too much. So, once everything is smooth and round, I wrap cellophane around it and let the ball of dough rest for an hour.

When the hour is up, unwrap and cut the dough in half. Roll out one portion of it into a long oval. Make sure you evenly distribute your weight on the rolling pin so your pasta comes out fairly evenly. If the dough sticks to the counter, add more flour to the surface.







Then, add a little more flour to the flattened dough and rolling it into a cylinder. Using a really sharp knife, cut thin and even slices into the cylinder. Roll out each strip and voila...pasta!



This is the final meal, ragu and all:

Fresh Pasta Night (Part 1)

I like to anticipate things.

Really, half the fun of life is the anticipation of something great, dontcha think? I found this excellent recipe for a very egg-y pasta dough, which I love with all of my heart, as there is nothing better than an egg dough that you can knead into every little Italian noodle shape.

So, in my attempt to make some true, downhome, handmade pasta tomorrow evening, I put together a simple veal/lamb/red wine ragu that will be a savory and fantastic accompaniment to any pasta shape I'm able to roll out tomorrow evening. This, with the help of a bunch of leftovers in the fridge and good mushrooms and spices.



Dark Etoile's Veal and Lamb with Red Wine Ragu

1/4 lbs of ground veal
1/4 lbs of finely minced leg of lamb (this was leftover from the other night, I just minced the meat very fine)
1-1/2 cups of finely diced crimini mushrooms
1 cup of red wine
2 tbsp of tomato paste
1 tbsp of finely chopped fresh rosemary
3 small cloves of garlic finely minced and crushed with the heal of the blade
Pinch of red chili flakes
Pinch of marjoram
Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and ground black pepper to taste
1 generous pinch of sugar

Put a generous tbsp of extra virgin olive oil in a medium sized saucepan. Heat at medium until oil glistens. Throw in garlic and cook until fragrant (lightly browned). Toss mushrooms in to soak up oils and garlic flavor. Sweat the mushrooms. Add veal and lamb and cook until pink. Add rosemary, red chili flakes and marjoram.



Then add tomato paste and stir until evenly distributed. The ragu should get thick and pasty. Add half a cup of wine at a time, stirring all the while until wine reduces to thick sauce. Add salt, pepper and sugar to taste.

My First Time with XLB

Making Xiao Long Bao is best left to the experts. Although generally viewed as simple dumplings, there's a real artistry that goes into each of these little soup-filled purses of deliciousness. My attempts with the skin came out rubbery and thick, but the filling was savory with little bursts of juice (although not soupy like I had wanted them to be!). However, I believe I may have put too much gluten in the wrapper dough and will take it easy next time I make these.

With the help of a friend, we tried desperately to make 18 pleats for the fold, but we usually ended up with 10 or less. Alas, there's a first time for everything!

Xiao Long Bao

Ingredients

Wrapper

3/4 cup high gluten flour (mix scant 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour with 1/2 tbsp of wheat gluten powder if you do not have any bread flour)
1/3 cup less 1 tablespoon water
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup boiling water
flour for dusting

Soup

1/4 lbs skin of pork
2 sweet chinese sausages
1 scallion
1 pounded piece of ginger
chinese rice wine
salt

Filling

1/2 lbs ground pork (use the fatty kind)
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon finely minced ginger and scallions
white pepper
sugar
2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
Splash of chinese rice wine

Making the soup



Wash and clean pork skin. Parboil in boiling water with the chicken breast and ham. Place all the meat in a saucepan with 6 cups of water. Add scallion and ginger and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer till pork skin is soft. Continue simmering till only 2 cups of liquid remains. Strain and reserve the liquid keeping the pork skin. Diced the saved pork skin. Whizz the pork skin and liquid in a blender till milky. Season with salt and leave to cool. Use before it gelatinizes.

Preparing the Filling



Place the ground pork into a mixing bowl. Add salt and light soy sauce. Stir with chopstick or wooden spoon continously and in one direction only. Add the rest of the ingredients. Continue to stir in the same direction until the mixture forms a thick paste. Pour in one cup of the prepared soup, a little at a time, stirring to mix thoroughlly with the pork. Wrap in cling film and put in the refrigerator to cool.

Preparing the wrapper



In a large mixing bowl, mix the 3/4 cups of high gluten flour and 1/3 cup less one tablespoon less water until it resembles bread crumbs. Knead into a dough. Place the plain flour in a mixing bowl. In a small saucepan bring 1/4 cup of water to the boil. Add the 1/3 cup plain flour and move the saucepan away from the flame, stirring the flour vigorously with a wooden spoon. Leave it to cool a little before kneading together with the high gluten flour dough prepared earlier. Cover with clean damp cloth and leave to rest for 4 hours.

Forming the dumplings


Place 2 teaspoons of oil on the worktop, put the dough on top and knead for a little while. Cut the dough into 4 quarters. Form one quarter into a cylinder. Divide the cylinder into 10 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. Flatten each piece with the palm of your hand into a disk. Use a rolling pin to roll the disk out forming a thin disk with the edges thinner than the center. Make a well with you thumb and first finger and drape the disk over. Let it sag in the middle to form a recess for the filling. Use a teaspoon to place 2 teaspoons of filling. Carefully gather the edge of wrapper making folds and holding on to them till fully gathered. Traditionally, 18 folds are made. Do not let your finger touch the filling while doing this or you will make a mess. Do the same for the rest.

Steaming


Cut out cabbage leave disks or use thin slices of carrot and stick one piece to the bottom of each dumpling. Place the dumplings in a bamboo steamer. In a large saucepan or wok, bring water to a rolling boil. Sit the steamer on a rack over the boiling water, close the lid and steam for seven minutes. The dumpling is done when the filling feels firm to the touch. Serve with a small dish of thinly shredded ginger in Chinese black vinegar (very similar to Worcestshire sauce).