Sunday cooking blogging: Spinach, Chicken and Ricotta Tortelloni

These tortelloni are surprisingly easy to make. They aren't quite "official" tortelloni, because the dough is square instead of round, and because I used wonton skins instead of semolina pasta dough. But they work well enough, and they're easy.

The filling:

4 oz. cooked chicken. I used the frozen cooked chicken from Trader Joe's.
1/2 bag frozen chopped spinach
4-6 cloves garlic, minced
16-oz. container ricotta (I used fat free and it worked fine)
Grated parmesan cheese, about 3-4 tablespoons
salt & pepper to taste.

Defrost the spinach and squeeze out excess moisture. Cut chicken into chunks.
Heat some olive oil in a frypan and lightly saute the garlic with the spinach. Remove from heat and put in food processor with the chicken. Pulse until well chopped, almost to a paste. Remove from food processor and add ricotta, parmesan, salt, pepper. Mix till well blended.

To make the tortelloni, open a package of wonton skins. On each skin, brush all 4 edges with beaten egg. Put about 1 rounded teaspoon of filling in the center. Fold into a triangle, press to seal, then press the two sealed edges again with a fork. Squeeze out all air pockets if you can. Then pinch the long center to wrap the points as shown. What you end up with will look like a wonton. Put a damp towel over the finished tortelloni until you're ready to cook them. Save whatever filling you have left to make chicken florentine later in the week.

To cook, boil water in a wok or similar pan. Add tortelloni gently and simmer -- do not rolling boil -- about 3 minutes. Remove from pot with slotted spoon.

These are good with just some good marinara sauce and freshly grated parmesan.

Sunday cooking blogging

There's very little to like about winter in New Jersey, and this year there's even less to like. So far winter in New Jersey has consisted this season of gray, gray, snow, gray, freezing rain, gray, gray, wintry mix, gray, gray, peep of sunshine, more snow, more freezing rain, gray. I'm not one for Seasonal Affective Disorder, but I'm starting to feel that if I have to wake up to one more fucking gray sky I'm going to just pack it in and go to bed until opening day of the baseball season.

Of course this is not an option, nor do I even really want that as a state of affairs, because I thankfully have this thing called a job. It's even a job that I like (although if you're a programmer at the company that makes the system I work on, and you're reading this, can't you PLEASE put out a version where we can write our own damn edits instead of this point and click stuff? I know you wanted to set it up so non-programmers could write edits, but some of us who cut our teeth on C want to "roll our own", as it were). So this winter has put me into this weird fugue state of wanting to prostrate myself before the Goddess and thank Her for allowing me to be laid off at just the right time to luck into this new job where they do stuff like set up viewing rooms to watch the inauguration even though I'm sure they would have preferred that the election go the other way, and where it is assumed that I am competent and have a brain in my head instead of the way it used to be, where I was the Designated Department Shithead who hadn't had a real development project for the last two years and hoping She forgives me for those mornings when I get out of bed and say, "Fuck! Pitch dark AGAIN???"

But one thing I do enjoy doing on a cold day like today, where it'll be a miracle if it gets out of the teens, is to cook something hot and savory that will fill up the house with the smell of Great Stuff Cooking. And what better to cook, when we just had chili a week ago, than a nice pot of soup. And who better to consult on a morning when the first thing I saw when I turned on the computer and went to Buzzflash was "Time to Steamroll the Obstructionist Law-Breaking Republicans in the Senate: 'Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have asked Eric Holder to make a commitment, before he is even confirmed, that he will not prosecute any Bush Administration officials for their involvement in acts of torture during the last administration.'" but The Angry Chef, a.k.a. -- yes, you guessed it -- the B@B patron saint of comedy, Marc Maron.

This is a soup that has five of the mainstays of life in it: onions, garlic, beans, pasta, and pig -- the latter in the form of pancetta, an Italian bacon that had me say to Mr. Brilliant last night as we scrambled around the A&P looking for all the ingredients, "This fucking soup had better be worth paying twelve bucks for bacon" This kind of expression of seething resentment put me in exactly the right frame of mind to cook a creation of the angry chef, so after I finish this post, I'm going to start chopping. Because after all, how bad can anything be if it has bacon in it, even if you get fancy and call it pancetta? Even chocolate.

I'm glad for the video instructions for making this soup, which you can find in sequence here, here, and here, because it means I don't have to spend time artistically arranging ingredients the way I did for the Traditional Thanksgiving Pastitso Dinner. I am making a few changes, though, because in the vain search through the A&P for red onions (I ended up buying a big Spanish onion instead, figuring that with the one red onion I have in the house, it should turn out OK) I forgot to get the cabbage, which is OK because Mr. Brilliant isn't overly fond of cabbage. So if the soup needs more STUFF in it, I'll toss in another can of canellini beans or more pasta or some frozen spinach. Or all three.

Stay tuned. It's not soup yet.

Stuffed Stuff with Heavy: Authentic Greek Mother-in-Law Pastitso

I'm not sure that this involves any less labor than making a turkey and six side dishes, but the cleanup is a heck of a lot easier, and it microwaves a lot better than day-old turkey.

First, chop up a medium onion and mince a few cloves of garlic. In my house "a few cloves of garlic" means "At Least Four and Usually More", so adjust yours accordingly:

(Note the artistic placement of the Scary Knife.)

Sauté the onion with about 1/3 cup of water until just soft, then add 1 Tbs. oil (I use olive oil), 2 tsp. salt (to taste) and the garlic.

Saute for a few minutes and remove from pan to a bowl.

Take 1-1/2 lbs. good lean ground beef. I use Laura's Lean Beef -- no antibiotics, no hormones, humanely farmed and slaughtered.

Crumble the meat into the hot pan and brown well.

Yes, that really is a harvest gold 1970's cooktop.

Line a colander with paper towels and drain the meat into it:

If you like, you can then remove the paper towel and rinse the meat to remove more fat. I do this, and it tastes just fine.

Return the meat to the pan. Add 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper, 1 tsp. sugar, 1 Tbs. red wine vinegar, and 2 8-oz. cans tomato sauce.

Now come the spices that give this dish its flavor:

1 cinnamon stick, whole
5 whole cloves
1/2 tsp. nutmeg (freshly grated is better)
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. powdered cinnamon

Stir it together, cover, reduce heat to very low and cook for about an hour. When done, the meat mixture will look like this:

Boil a large pot of salted water. Add 1-1/2 lbs. ziti. I use whole wheat penne, you can use whatever tube pasta you like. Cook 10-15 minutes. Drain in colander, run cold water over it and drain well.

Add 1 tsp. powdered cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, 4 heaping Tbs. grated romano cheese (parmesan is OK too). Stir to combine:

Spray a large oblong casserole dish with oil spray and sprinkle the bottom with bread crumbs. Layer ziti, sauce, ziti, sauce, and finish with a layer of ziti.

Now take a large saucepan and add:

1 quart milk
1 stick butter (Smart Balance half-butter works fine)
1/2 tsp. salt

Let the milk boil and the butter melt.

In a glass or measuring cup, mix 2 Tbs. flour and 2 Tbs. cornstarch with an additional 1/2 cup milk. In a separate bowl, beat 2 eggs well:

Now add 1/2 cup farina and turn the burner down to low. Yes, you will have to buy a whole box of this stuff in order to make this, but that's what the Web is for -- to find recipes for crap you have laying around the house. Farina has all the good stuff like fiber beaten out of it, but it supposedly is rich in iron. Or you can just decide you will make pastitso about a dozen times this winter.

Anyway, put in the farina and mix slowly for five minutes. The sauce will look like this:

Add the flour/cornstarch/milk mixture and stir. Mix some of this cream sauce into the eggs, then pour the egg mixture in, stirring constantly with a whisk. When the sauce becomes very thick, remove from heat and pour over the casserole. Top with romano or parmesan cheese.

Bake 35-45 minutes at 400 degrees. When the top starts to brown, it's done:

This is a very rich dish, for which the word "savory" was invented. The sweetness of the cinnamon and nutmeg adds a richness to the flavor of the meat, and the creamy sauce just screams "comfort food." It's quite labor-intensive, as you can see, but it's worth it.

Because Green Bean Casserole is nauseating: Middle Eastern Chopped Salad

I'm not sure this salad is Greek. To me, Greek salad is romaine, cucumber, tomato, bell pepper, dolmades, onion, black olives, and feta. This is more like Turkish coban salad -- no romaine. This means it will keep for about 3-4 days in the fridge -- if it lasts that long. But nothing says "Thanksgiving" quite like a

Take 2 nice cucumbers(unpeeled), a pint of grape tomatoes, a few stalks of celery, a bell pepper if you have one (I didn't), and a red onion:

Take out that good sharp knife that scares you to death. You know the one I mean -- the one you bought with the Bed Bath and Beyond coupon because you decided you needed a good chef's knife and then realized it was so sharp it was terrifying so you usually use your old dull one instead.

Cut the cucumber into 1/2" to 3/4" chunks.

Cut the larger grape tomatoes in half lengthwise.

Dice the onion fine.

Slice the celery on an angle.

Cut the bell pepper into strips.

Put all in a bowl and toss with some nice kalamata olives if you have them, or a small can of sliced California black olives, drained -- if that's all you have (or if you are trying to sneak them past someone who claims not to like olives). Chop up some parsley if you have it, or you can use dried parsley flakes that are still green.

Make a dressing of approximately (adjust to taste):

- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 Tsp. oregano
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- juice from 1/2 lemon
- enough sugar to take just the edge off the bite, about 1 tsp.
- Freshly ground salt and pepper to taste.

Mix well with whisk and pour over salad. Add an 8-oz. container of crumbled feta and serve:

(Does anyone actually make that green bean casserole, anyway? Green beans, cream of mushroom soup and those ersatz "fried onions"? Yuck. Eat this salad instead.)

What to make after you get sick of turkey - Part I: Behold the [Pita] Bread

I'm taking a page from the Minstrel Boy today and sharing step-by-step instructions for the Greek-inspired Thanksgiving dinner we had at Casa la Brilliant yesterday. I realize that for most Americans, not having turkey, cranberries and assorted carbohydrates is exactly the kind of thing that Sarah Palin warned us about, but a turkey dinner is always better with lots of people bringing lots of dishes, resulting in a kind of American Traditional Tapas Bar. So while Matt Yglesias is being shunned in some quarters for his temerity in making a case against the Big Bird on lefty bloggers' favorite American holiday, I prefer a quieter approach to dashing tradition on the rocks of contemporary reality.

Today I know you'll be chowing down on leftover turkey sandwiches smeared with cranberries (though I think the idea posted in the comments at Minstrel Boy's cranberry post of leftover homemade cranberry sauce on a bagel with cream cheese sounds intriguing). But tomorrow you'll be sick of the Big Bird and you'll want something different. Here in the New York area, it's supposed to be colder tomorrow and raining by Sunday night, so you might want some nice comfort food in a casserole. So here you go, with accompaniments -- Authentic Greek Mother-in-Law (not mine, that of a former co-worker from many years ago) Pastitso with whole wheat pita and chopped salad.

First the pita. Bring your bread machine up from the basement and wipe down the dusty exterior. Then put into the loaf pan:

1-1/4 cups lukewarm water
1 Tbs. shortening or butter
3/4 tsp. sugar
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1-1/2 cups bread flour
2-1/3 tsp. yeast

Set it for the dough cycle and let it go. When the cycle is done, clear the cycle, then set it for dough again and let it go for 60 seconds. Then hold down the stop button to clear the cycle. You should have a nice ball of dough that holds together well. Let it rest for 5 minutes.

If you have a pizza stone, put it in the oven and preheat the oven and stone to 500 degrees. Yes, 500.

Then cut the ball in half, and then each half into 4-6 equally-sized pieces. This recipe will make 12 4" pitas or 8 6" pitas. Lightly dust a board with flour, setting some aside to keep your rolling pin dusted. Roll each piece into a round about 1/4" thick:

Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with oregano, if desired. Bake on the pizza stone for five minutes (yes, five minutes). Take out, cool slightly, and the put in a ziploc bag so that the breads un-puff, flatten, and stay soft. This is what you end up with:

Next up: The Salad