Oven baked mashed potatoes (cooked in skin, 450 for 35 mins), peeled and crushed with butter and EVOO. Steamed eggplant, meatballs, oyster sauce, sesame oil, diced cabbage. Needs something green, coriander perhaps. Hot peppers would work.
Steamed egg with ginger-garlic-onion-siracha paste. Roasted pork, dark soy. Water. Stir fried vegetables. Rice and couscous.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
black and strawberry ricotta pie
Having made a batch of sweet pie dough from the Ottolenigh cook book which is beautiful to make some tartlets a couple weeks ago, a pie was in order.
The recent trip to the supermarket yeilded a punnet of black berries and a tub of ricotta cheese. A quick search on tastespotting yeilded multiple ricotta pies which as it turns out, is an Italian Easter tradition. We may be two weeks early but who really cares. The dough itself is very easy to make and is not too difficult to work with (butter content isn't too high). The filling itself is also very simple - rich and smooth ricotta cut with the acidity of a little lemon, black berries and strawberries that have been slightly cooked down and pureed. This is then bound with eggs, a little vanilla for body and a little extra sugar for sweetness.
Some thoughts however - the tart could have been baked for way longer. Trying to get it out of a non-spring form pie tin is was a pain and a mess was created, though a neat looking tart never tastes as good as a messy one. Right? Also a little more sugar in the ricotta filling would have been nice, it was borderline bland even with the fruit puree. Finally to make it lighter, I think separating the whites and beating them into soft peaks and then folding it in would have made a lighter filling.
And what does one do with leftover rolled out pie dough? Quasi shortbread!
Moving on: Chocolate bacon macarons. There's really no reason why the two can't be combined. A chocolate ganache is enlivened by the textural crunch of rendered bacon and the richness from the fat basically replaces the butter. Couple notes again, the ganache itself could have been slightly sweeter, a less dark chocolate could have been used. Perhaps if I paired it with a maple butter cream or something... gasp, pancake breakfast macarons!
The recent trip to the supermarket yeilded a punnet of black berries and a tub of ricotta cheese. A quick search on tastespotting yeilded multiple ricotta pies which as it turns out, is an Italian Easter tradition. We may be two weeks early but who really cares. The dough itself is very easy to make and is not too difficult to work with (butter content isn't too high). The filling itself is also very simple - rich and smooth ricotta cut with the acidity of a little lemon, black berries and strawberries that have been slightly cooked down and pureed. This is then bound with eggs, a little vanilla for body and a little extra sugar for sweetness.
Some thoughts however - the tart could have been baked for way longer. Trying to get it out of a non-spring form pie tin is was a pain and a mess was created, though a neat looking tart never tastes as good as a messy one. Right? Also a little more sugar in the ricotta filling would have been nice, it was borderline bland even with the fruit puree. Finally to make it lighter, I think separating the whites and beating them into soft peaks and then folding it in would have made a lighter filling.
And what does one do with leftover rolled out pie dough? Quasi shortbread!
Moving on: Chocolate bacon macarons. There's really no reason why the two can't be combined. A chocolate ganache is enlivened by the textural crunch of rendered bacon and the richness from the fat basically replaces the butter. Couple notes again, the ganache itself could have been slightly sweeter, a less dark chocolate could have been used. Perhaps if I paired it with a maple butter cream or something... gasp, pancake breakfast macarons!
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