Homemade Spinach and Mushroom Ravioli

Dough:

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 tbsp water

Mix the wet and dry ingredients separately. Combine the wet and dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir until combined. Turn out onto floured surface. Add water until the dough comes together (mine took an additional 3 tablespoons - but add it incrementally). Knead for about 5 minutes. Form into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. While the dough is resting, make the filling.

Filling:

4oz goat cheese (softened)

1/3 cup Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

8oz finely chopped mushrooms

1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach (thawed and drained)

Chop mushrooms and saute in olive oil. Drain excess liquid. Combine ingredients in medium size bowl. 

Making the Ravioli:

Take the dough ball out of the refrigerator and cut into quarters. Use one quarter section at a time, keeping the remaining dough wrapped in plastic wrap on the counter so as not to dry out. Cut the quarter section in half. Roll out each half to desired thickness. I used a pasta maker and did several passes, each pass setting the pasta maker incrementally thinner, until the sheet has passed through the thinnest setting. This make the ravioli thin and delicate, so as not to be too doughy. Lightly flour the dough between passes so it doesn't stick. 

Place one sheet over a ravioli mold. You can buy these online or in kitchen supply stores, but I just used a miniature cupcake pan which worked well. Gently poke the dough over each cup in the mold to make a little pouch for the filling. Using a tablespoon put in as much filling into each cup as will fit. Gently pat down the filling in each cup to remove air pockets that have formed. Place the second sheet on top and, holding the ends of the dough and the pan, flip quickly onto a lightly floured surface.  

Gently press down around the filled pouches for each ravioli to remove air pockets. With a ravioli stamp, or cutter, cut out the ravioli into your desired shape. Stamps or cutters are preferable to using a knife because they crimp the ends of the dough together, sealing the ravioli. This works better than pinching it by hand, and looks a whole lot more professional.

Cooking:

Once your ravioli are all made, bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Boil ravioli for 3-4 minutes. Drain and serve.  

Goat Cheese and Spinach Ravioli

This is one we made a while ago, but were a little lazy about posting. It was delicious though, and super easy. We're big goat cheese fans, but obviously it works just as well with any filling. 

Here's our filling. Goat cheese and steamed spinach. 

We love our pasta maker. Roll out the dough just as if you were making pasta. Check out our pasta recipe for instructions on how to make the dough. 

http://phxculinaryadventures.blogspot.com/2012/03/homemade-pasta.html

Place your filler and cut around the dollops in whatever shape you prefer. Cut the other blank sheet of dough into pieces roughly matching in size. The trick with the filling is to put enough in each piece to have a good filling-to-dough ratio without putting so much in that it breaks and oozes out when boiling.

Complete your ravioli by pressing the edges gently with a fork

Boil until the dough is cooked through.

Pad See Ew

We both looove Pad See Ew so it was no surprise when I stumbled upon a recipe I saved it hoping that Michael would be on board with me to try this challenging endeavor, making not only the dish but the noodles as well from scratch. When I told him about it he was just as excited so we gave it a shot this weekend. While  it took a lot of time and ingredients (and we may never make the noodles from scratch again) the result far exceeded our expectations. If you have several hours to spare, try out the noodle recipe as well, but otherwise buy some noodles and stir fry up some pad see ew. You will not be disappointed!

Ingredients for Rice Noodle Recipe

1 cup rice flour

1 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup tapioca flour (tapioca starch is the same thing)

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 cups lukewarm water

about 1/4 cup vegetable or peanut oil

In a large mixing bowl whisk the rice flour, cornstarch, tapioca flour and salt. Stir in the water and the canola oil and whisk well to combine all ingredients. Set aside at room temperature for about 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes are up, heat a large skillet (see picture above) and re-whisk the bowl of liquid to ensure ingredients are well combined (you should do this each time you are going to make a new crepe). Pour about 1/2 cup of the liquid mixture into the pan and make sure it spreads throughout the pan like a crepe. Let it cook at a medium to low heat with a cover on top for about 3 to 4 minutes until it hardens a bit and then let it cook an additional 2 minutes.

Using a spatula (or two) slowly remove the crepe from the pan and place it on a cookie sheet; try to avoid tearing (although if it tears a little bit it's okay). The picture above is the only one we were able to get onto the cookie sheet perfectly.

Once the crepe has cooled (we used fans to speed the process) cut noodles into desired thickness. Be careful about overlapping the crepes or not waiting for them to cool completely as they have a tendency to stick together. Put them on a plate and set aside. Repeat process until all of batter has been cooked and made into noodles.

Pad See Ew Ingredients

1 package of firm tofu (or you can use the meat of your choice)

1/2 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon peanut oil, divided

broccoli (we used about a cup)

eggplant (we used about 1/3 of the eggplant)

8 oz flat rice noodles, soaked in lukewarm water (if you didn't use the recipe above)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 egg (or 2 eggs if the egg is your favorite part, like me)

2-3 tablespoons soy sauce

2-3 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon brown sugar

First, combine the tofu, fish sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil in a large bowl or Tupperware container. Allow it to marinate in the fridge for about 15-30 minutes. Next, heat a wok (or large skillet) on the highest heat and throw in a tiny splash of oil. Toss in the broccoli and eggplant  and a splash of fish sauce. Cook and stir until eggplant is cooked thoroughly. Place vegetables in a bowl or Tupperware with a cover over them to keep them warm. 

Add a little bit more oil to the pan as well as the noodles, another splash of fish sauce and about a tablespoon of soy sauce mixing everything together well. Cook, stirring frequently, until the noodles are cooked through. Remove them from the pan and set aside, covering to keep warm, as well. 

Add another splash of oil to the pan and throw in the garlic and the tofu. Flip the tofu and cook until it has browned on all sides  and then move it to the side of the pan. Crack the egg in the middle (or side) of the pan. Let it sit for a few seconds and then stir everything together.

Add the veggies back into the pan and stir. Throw in the noodles and continue to stir. Add soy sauce and rice vinegar to taste as well as the brown sugar. Enjoy!

Homemade Pasta

Michael got me a pasta maker for Hanukkah and it is the best present ever! I keep telling him it's the gift that keeps on giving. We were able to try it out a couple of months ago when Michael was in town and it was a lot of fun and made some pretty good pasta. I decided to bring it with me when I visited him in New York. We found a basic pasta recipe that is a keeper. 

Ingredients

1 egg, beaten

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons water

Once the egg is beaten, combine the flour and salt and create a well in the middle of the mixture. Pour the egg into the well and mix all of the ingredients together. Once it has formed into dough, knead it for about 3 or 4 minutes on a floured surface.

Next use a pasta maker (or a rolling pin) to flatten and thin out the dough. 

Next, use a pasta maker (or a knife) to cut the pasta into desired shape/width.

You can stop here and freeze the dough for future use or cook it in boiling water for about 5 minutes or until pasta is thoroughly cooked.

Enjoy!

M-Thanks again for the pasta maker <3

Seafood Marinara

Thus begins a sad chapter for phxculinaryadventures: one in which Becca and I must cook separately while I am attending law school in New York and she is working in Arizona. Yet, despite the difficulties this will inevitably raise in our motivation to cook and the time our schedules permit we are determined to keep the blog going. So, while our recipes may become a bit simpler and the pictures will be shot in different kitchens, we will continue updating for you; our 5 or so dedicated followers. 

So here's the first of many. This one's super easy. I picked up a seafood blend at Trader Joe's (best place ever) which is what makes this otherwise complicated and expensive recipe easy. Besides that you just need marinara, olive oil, your pasta of choice, and some basic seasonings. 

 Get a pot of water boiling on the side for the pasta and separately dump the thawed seafood into a pan. I drained mine a little, but make sure to leave plenty of the liquid in the pan. Some of this water is going to cook off so your sauce isn't going to be watery in the end, plus the juices have lots of great seafood flavor. After you have drained add just a little bit of olive oil for the fish to cook in. 

 Once the fish is almost cooked through (or heated up in the event you bought pre-cooked seafood) add your marinara sauce. 

Stir it in, adding more until you have the desired amount of sauce at around the desired consistency. Remember water will continue cooking off. Lower the heat to a simmer and stir every few minutes until the pasta is done.  

Plate it and enjoy. This took me about 15 minutes total. 

Noodle Stir Fry

Something I love about stir fry is that there are an endless combination of possible ingredients. The key is in the sauce, and we happen to think that this is a particularly good one; sweet, not too oily, and goes great with our veggie additions. 

Our sauce: 

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup sweet rice wine

3 tablespoons teriyaki sauce (we like to use a thicker marinade sauce but any will do)

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Mix it all up and set it aside. 

This particular evening we made a veggie stir fry with tofu (firm), broccoli, Asian noodles, shelled edamame, and peanuts. Some other great additions are sugar peas, bamboo shoots, and mushrooms. 

Start by sauteing the vegetables and tofu in a pan with a little bit of cooking spray. It's important not to add too much oil at this point because there is plenty in the sauce. 

The noodles we used were precooked and not dried so we only had to boil them for about 30 seconds to heat them up, but dried noodles will of course take a bit longer so plan accordingly. 

Drain the noodles and add them to the pan. Pour in the sauce and cook until everything is of the desired consistency. This is an easy recipe and pretty healthy. If you are looking to make this meal more substantial you can add meat, or serve with a side of pot stickers. Enjoy.

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Perfect Pesto Pasta

We had some leftover pesto from dinner last night so we decided to make a pasta salad out of it. It was really easy, yet delicious. We used angel hair pasta and prepared it according to the package.

We added the pesto and mixed it in thoroughly.

We added some feta cheese...

...and then we tossed in some artichoke hearts and green olives.

Once it's well mixed its all ready to eat!

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Pasta with Tomato Sauce and Turkey Sausage

Unfortunately, our current schedules make it very difficult to cook dinner together. However, tonight we were able to squeeze in an hour or so for a nice, home-cooked meal. We decided some pasta with turkey sausage would make for a tasty and easy dinner. While we boiled water and cooked the noodles, we sautéed some onions and garlic. Then, we added the sausage to the sauté, until it was nice and brown. Finally, we added some tomato and basil sauce and let it simmer. It was very simple dinner that really hit the spot.

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