Homemade Ravioli

It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

 

It looks like it’s finally spring here in Chicago.  I’ve been biking and running more, and it was so nice today that my class managed to convince our professor to have class outside.

 

I’ve also been so busy that I’ve stayed up late enough some nights to see things like this.

 

Now, this recipe.  I actually forgot about this for the longest time, which is silly.  I made these for a potluck I had with some friends… oh, I don’t know, a month or two ago?  I think right after spring break…  So a while.  And I’m sorry to say I haven’t been baking much, but I expect that will change soon enough.

So here we go.  A serious word of caution: get someone to help you roll out the dough for the love of god.  My forearms were in so much pain the next day, as were the palms of my hands.  I have mad respect for Italian grandmothers after this.  Also, this is the most imprecise recipe ever, so don’t feel obliged to follow it exactly.

Ingredients:

• 1 egg for every 3/4 cup of flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• ricotta cheese (I ended up using 2/3 container)
• pesto (you can use any filling you want, by the way)

Recipe:

I ended up making 5 servings, so I think I must have used 3 cups of flour and four eggs.  So what you want to do is take your flour and dump it on your counter or table, forming a well in the center.  Put the eggs, salt, and olive oil into the well.

Then, get your hands in there.  There’s no way around this; you just have to stick your hands in and knead it.  My roommate was totally grossed out, naturally, because it’s gross, but it’s also awesome.

Knead until the ingredients are well-incorporated.  The dough should be a little bit moist and kind of tacky–it should definitely not break off in clumps.  If it does, add a wee bit more egg.  Making pasta dough is about finding a balance between wet and dry, so experiment a little first if you’re going to make this for other people.  (I learned the hard way, as usual.)

Roll out the dough until it’s super thin–we’re talking 1/8 inch.  It will take forever.  Put on a movie.  Listen to The Ring Cycle.  Recruit your friends.  Embrace the pain.

Yours will probably look nicer than this.  I rolled out little chunks one by one and wrapped the dough I wasn’t working with in plastic wrap so it wouldn’t dry out.

Then, cut out the ravioli.

This part is way more fun.  So you’re going to need a little ravioli stamper.  They make fancier objects with which to make ravioli, but a) those are expensive and b) they’re really not necessary.

For the filling, I mixed ricotta cheese with some spoonfuls of pesto and threw in some slivered almonds for a nice crunch.

Take a spoonful of the filling and plop it on the dough.  Lay another rolled-out sheet on top, pinching around the filling a little bit so it doesn’t spread out.  Then, just stamp through both sheets.

Repeat ad nauseam.

I do highly recommend doing this with friends, which I did not for the most part, because it doesn’t require a whole lot of thinking.  Just rolling and stamping and rolling and stamping and also rolling, rolling, rolling…

But look at the finished product!  Store-bought dry pasta is so prevalent that it’s easy to forget how easy it is to make yourself, and so very rewarding.

Cook these for 4-8 minutes (this is also highly variable) in gently boiling water.

I’ve read some pretty good books lately, but actually the film Tampopo, by Juzo Itami is what I really wanted to talk about.  It’s a Japanese movie from the 1980s that is often called a ramen western, because it’s sort of a satire of American spaghetti westerns.  It’s a tremendous movie, and very sweet, and it’s really funny in how it satirizes so many aspects of American and Japanese culture.  Basically, it’s about this truck driver who rolls into town at stops at a noodle stand with this apprentice truck driver (played by Ken Watanabe, who looks like a little baby in this).  The ramen they have is pretty awful, so he gives the owner–a young widow–some tips and starts to head out when she begs him to teach her the ways of ramen-making.  Cue epic quest to make the perfect ramen.  The film is interspersed with vignettes of a western etiquette class gone awry, an old woman who compulsively squeezes food in a grocery store, and, my favorite, a number of scenes about a gangster and his girlfriend.  The gangster, incidentally, is played by Koji Yakusho, who was in Memoirs of a Geisha as one of the only Japanese people along with Ken Watanabe, and is also a total babe.

It’s kind of a hard movie to get a hole of, but if you can find it, I highly recommend it.  I’m doing a presentation on it for my art history class and have also been placed in the esteemed position of “person who works DVD player” to show it in my Japanese politics class.  (My professor let me borrow the DVD, which is from the Japanese consulate, so I feel terribly fancy.)

Chicken, Rice, and Kale Skillet

Well, I don’t know what to tell you.  I’ve had a very busy weekend, but not a particularly eventful one…  I’ll save all of that for next weekend when I go to some gallery openings and see some folks.

 

(i got a new camera!!)

Mostly I’ve just been quietly settling into the quarter, getting acquainted with a new paper on Japanese avant garde fashion and feminism and continuing work on my sustainable architecture piece because it blossomed into a fledgling career path when I wasn’t looking.  Instead of doing a new paper for my Chinese politics class I’m expanding the old one into a writing sample fit for grad school.  Or something.  And discussion of the Federalist Papers abounds.  Bet you’ve never heard anyone say that before.

So enough non-news.  This recipe is insanely good, and actually adapted this time, not just followed to the letter like usual.  The original recipe is from How Sweet It Is and is a bit different in some fundamental ways.

You can make this vegetarian by substituting tofu for chicken or skipping the chicken completely, in which case it will be more of a side than a main dish.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb chicken, breasts or thighs
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1-ish cup rice (basmati works really well) or cooked pasta
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 bunch of kale (I don’t actually know how much that is), chopped
• 12 oz mushrooms, quartered
• 3 garlic cloves, minced (I love all of these action verbs)
• 1/3 cup tomato sauce

Recipe:

Heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil in a large skillet at medium-high heat and throw in the chicken after seasoning with salt and pepper.

 

This is me standing on a chair, by the way, trying to avoid being splashed by the oil which was shooting off EVERYWHERE.

Cook until golden brown on both sides, or about 6-7 minutes per side.

 

I am so afraid to cook chicken because I’m paranoid about undercooking it (I do not have this problem with beef, which I like rare), but look how gorgeous that turned out!

Anyway, put the chicken on a plate somewhere, reduce heat a tad, and sauté the onions in the skillet for a few minutes.

Then add the mushrooms and kale for 5-6 minutes.

 

Then add the garlic and cook for another minute.  Add sauce and cook until it gets hot.

 

Stir in the rice and mix until everything is combined.  Then put the chicken back on top, reduce heat a tad, and cover until the chicken is heated through (a couple of minutes).

 

Isn’t it lovely??  I don’t cook as often as I bake, so this is still thrilling for me.

 

So good!

 

 

Okay, so.  There’s a movie that you should absolutely see if it’s playing near you, and it is called Upstream Color.  I will only tell you a little bit about it because it’s sort of a special film that needs to be seen in isolation.

So the guy who did this movie did a stunning sci-fi movie 9 years ago that he wrote/produced/directed/starred in/composed/etc. and that was insanely excellent.  He disappeared for a bit and came out with Upstream Color, releasing teasing tidbits little by little that revealed absolutely nothing but got a certain group of people beyond excited.  He also did just about everything on this movie, which is part of the reason why it’s so good–it’s totally independent, it’s totally in his control, and it’s totally sublime.

The score is my favorite part.  Sometimes I lay down somewhere and just listen to it the whole way through, all 45 minutes of it.  I hesitate to recommend the movie because most people won’t like, but like the director said, the people it’s made for will come to it eventually, and if you’re one of those people… what an experience.

Coconut Almond Scones

I’ll say.

Today is actually one of the longest days ever.  Especially if you count before I went to sleep around 1:30 am after watching Farewell, My Concubine.  Who let me do that?  What a tragic fucking movie.  Made even more tragic by the fact that Leslie Cheung was one of the stars, and his character killed himself at the end.  Christ.

But then there was the waking up at 6, the presenting a goddamn paper at 10, the wandering around ISU looking for stuff to do, the drive back to Chicago, the making of brownies (non-negotiable event), and the finishing season 2 of Girls finally, sadly.

I love that show.  So.  Much.

I’m so tired I can barely keep my eyes open, yet here I am blogging and watching Batman because… I don’t know, but here, enjoy these scones I made a week or so ago.

The recipe is, as usual, from Joy the Baker, adapted in the slightest of ways.

Oh my god i love batman if you haven’t seen the dark knight trilogy then gtfo and get thee hence okay.

Okay.

(and maggie gyllenhaal (sp?) i love her too)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) cold butter, cubed
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp milk (i used almond)
• 1/3 cup shredded, toasted coconut
• 1/3 cup slivered, toasted almonds

Recipe (the imperative of the Latin word recipere, meaning “to take”):

In a large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients, not including the coconut and almonds.

Add the cold butter and incorporate with your fingers until the mixture becomes crumbly.  This may be very frustrating and seem not to be working, but bear with it.

Whisk the eggs together with the milk, and then add the coconut and almonds to the flour mixture.

Form a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the milk/egg.

I don’t know why you’re supposed to do this, but I trust Miss Joy so whatever.

Mix all of that together with a fork until it just comes together.  The original recipe notes that the dough will be “shaggy”.  So then dump this shaggy dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a disk about 1 1/4 in thick.

With a biscuit cutter–or, say, a jar–go to work.

Luckily I save all my jars.

Place the biscuits an inch apart on a baking sheet and bake for 14-18 minutes at 350.

Now, the best thing about scones is that, somehow they know to puff up in a way that allows them to break easily in two.  Without you having to do anything special!  Don’t you just love dough and the science thereof?

Well, I do, I can’t help it if you have no sense of curiosity or wonder.

I know I recommended Xinran last week, but dude, you have to read her Sky Burial.  The Good Women of China is very enlightening and a great and important read…

But Sky Burial?

It’s a true story of a woman who, in the early days of the Communist rule of China, got married to her university sweetheart only to see him shipped out to Tibet by the PLA as a doctor for troops three weeks after their marriage.  And a few weeks after that?  She gets a notification of his death.

Not believing he’s really dead–due to the mysterious circumstances the PLA reported and the lack of skirmishes where her husband was located–she joins the PLA as well and goes to Tibet.

From the east cost of China.  By herself.  Back when travel was not easy, especially in China, and when, even after the Communist revolution, it was unusual for women to be so independent.

She ends up staying in Tibet for many, many, many years, living with nomads, never giving up the search for her husband.

It is such an absolutely tragic story, and all the whole you still want to know what happened to her husband even though that quest takes a backseat to the woman’s travels and growing up, and when you find out it makes the story even more beautiful and sad.

Dutch Baby

Well, classes have started again and I have been watching Girls instead of doing homework.  I am so obsessed with that show, it’s not even funny.  I was trying to read the letters of Brutus yesterday before class and got completely side-tracked by season 2.  Luckily the seasons are 10 episodes and there are only two of them, so this shouldn’t be too much of a disaster.  Here’s hoping…

But classes are actually going well, aside from the Girls thing.  For the first time ever the majority are on East Asia, although two out of three are on Japan, but that’s whatever.  It’s still Asia as opposed to some silly gen ed.

But none of you reads this to hear about Asia probably, so I will tell you about this miraculous breakfast thing I made after 4 hours of sleep between the hours of 7:30 and 11.  I got this recipe from America’s Test Kitchen Tumblr, and luckily saved it into a Word document before they removed it from free access.  So, take that!

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp of oil of some kind
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups milk (I used almond and it was fine)
• 1 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
• toppings, savory or sweet

To do:

Now, usually I am fairly willy-nilly about recipe directions, though not as much as some people i know, but this recipe is important to follow step-by-step.  America’s Test Kitchen is extremely legit, and they know what they’re talking about.  So when they say to do something a certain way… just do it.

So, oil a skillet and stick it in an oven heated to 450 degrees for about 10 minutes.  This will help the dough puff up.  I think…

While that’s heating, mix the flour, cornstarch, and salt together in a large bowl.  In a small bowl, froth the eggs up.

 

Whisk the milk and butter into the eggs, and then add that to the flour mixture in thirds, mixing well after each addition.

 

Pour that into your skillet.  I actually used a pie tin because I don’t have a skillet, and it was shockingly big enough.

 

Bake until the edges are “deep golden brown and crisp” and it’s puffy and delicious looking.

 

The awesome thing about this is that it’s like a mutant crêpe–you can eat it savory or sweet. I think it would go really well with goat cheese, but I think everything goes really well with goat cheese…

 

It’s goo with jam, sugar, speculoos, Nutella…  You name it.  It also keeps pretty well, so you can keep having it for breakfast or for a quick snack.

 

I want you to savor this book recommendation, okay, because it’s the last you’ll get for a while.  The only thing I will be reading this quarter is the Federalist papers, and a book on Japan that I have to pick out eventually since my friend took the one I was going to do.  I’m torn between the two I read over break, but since I suspect no one else cares about urbanization in China, I will go with Xinran’s The Good Women of China.

I have been continually frustrated by the lack of books by and about women in China, particularly as someone who reads a hell of a lot about the country.  But this one….  This is good stuff.  It’s by a woman who hosted a radio show about “women’s issues” in the 80s, back when no one was allowed to talk about anything.  She collected all these horrible stories about women getting gang raped by emergency crews in the aftermath of earthquakes, child abuse, and the awful, awful consequences of female repression in China after the Communist revolution.  It’s dated, but it’s such an excellent book, and so important to read for people who study China and people who want to be Decent Human Beings.  I’m about to try to start another of her books, which will also probably be seriously excellent, but I recommend starting with The Good Women of China.

Spring Break in New York

So it’s been a while, and the reason is that I went home for spring break and brought only my iPad, which I still can’t use as well as a computer.  I have a couple of new recipes to post in the coming days, and more to follow soon after, but for now, here’s what I’ve been up to outside of my kitchen.

Catching the train to get to the airport.

First stop: Chelsea.  I had lunch last week with a really good friend who’s going to Japan for a long time, and one of her friends, a guy we went to high school with, came by as well.  Turns out he’s also studying Chinese and we’ll be in China at the same time for  few weeks next January.  So naturally we made plans to hang out over break, and went into Manhattan to see art galleries and go to Chinatown.  And Tribeca, and Central Park…  anyway.

The architecture in Chelsea is so excellent.

Now, Chinatown.  I love Chinatown.  In Chicago and New York, but really Chicago doesn’t compare once you’ve spent any time in New York’s Chinatown.  We spent so much time here.  First, lunch at a dim sum place, then walking around.

I love graffiti.  Also, since David can read Chinese, he tried to decipher all the signs with varying degrees of success.

 

We stopped in a park, listened to some musicians…

 

Went to a bakery, and walked up through Tribeca all the way back to Houston.

Having no other ideas for what to do, we got gelato in Central Park.

 

And found a guerilla haiku.

 

 

 

And then we headed out.

 

As you can see, this is all from one day, so I’m debating posting the other photos I have since it’s such a pain.  We’ll see!

Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread

And we’re back to baking!  I haven’t baked as much lately, and I don’t really know why…  Very silly, so I’ll have to fix that soon.

So I biked downtown for the first time in ages the other day.  I had to go to the library to get a book, but had fines and couldn’t check anything out…  But I ended up at this really wonderful little place that I’ve been meaning to try since I came here.  It’s called Grahamwich, it is divine, and it is strangely cheap.  Also it’s got gorgeous design.  I can’t even tell you.

 

Even though it was absolutely frigid, it was a beautiful day, and it made me so happy to be on the bike and taking pictures.  It’s been too long because we’ve had dreadful weather all winter that’s made it physically impossible to go out on a two-wheeled vehicle.

 

One thing I love about winter: the beaches are deserted.  I’m always surprised/dismayed when summer comes around and the park near where I live is swarmed and the bike path becomes hazardous.  Not only is that crush of people stressful and annoying, but it prevents a person from singing a mix of Lady Gaga and Indigo Girls at top volume while biking.  If a person were into that kind of thing.

You’re here for food, though.  Let’s get to it.

I feel bad taking so many recipes from Joy the Baker, but she is truly primus super pares in the world of baking blogs.  This recipe isn’t even adapted, and I am suitably ashamed.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 envelope dry active yeast (2 1/4 tsp, acc. to Joy)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 tablespoons/2 oz butter
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 large eggs

For filling:

• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 4 tbsp/2 oz butter, melted and cooled

To do:

First, stir together 2 cups of the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.  Pour the yeast into 3 tbsp water with a pinch of sugar and stir.  Let sit for five minutes until it foams up.

Whisk together eggs in a different bowl.

In a saucepan, melt the butter and milk together.  Remove from heat and add water.  Let that cool for a bit.

 

Add that and the activated yeast to the flour mixture and stir until incorporated.  Then, whisk in the eggs completely.  It will take a long time and you’ll be totally convinced that there is no way the eggs will get with the flour/milk, but keep at it.  Also, it looks nasty as hell.

Add the rest of the flour to make it look even nastier.

Trust.

Transfer the dough to a greased mixing bowl and cover with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel.  Sit that down in a warm, dry place and wait for an hour so it can double in size.  While bread chemistry is happening, mix the dry ingredients from the filling part of the recipe in a small bowl.

 

Also grease a loaf pan while you’re at it.

 

I worked on my political theory final while I waited for the dough to rise.  Super fun.

Deflate the dough and knead in 2 tbsp flour.  Cover with a towel and let it rest for five minutes.  I don’t know why you’re supposed to do this.  I will find out and let you all know.  Maybe I will write a bread science post some day.

Anyway.

Roll out the dough on a lightly-floured surface until it’s about 20 in x 12 in.  I actually didn’t have a lot of trouble with this dough being super sticky or recalcitrant or anything, which made me very happy.  I did have trouble rolling it out for a while, but then I realized that I had these height guards on the end of my rolling pin…  Don’t judge, we all have those moments.

 

With a pastry brush, slather it in the butter.  Or a paint brush.  Whichever you happen to have.

Then, sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar.

Actually.  Okay, the original recipe acknowledges that it seems like a lot of sugar, but says to roll with it.  I disagree because jesus, it is a lot of sugar.  I would recommend using half the sugar, but if the original recipe works for you, go for it.

 

Slice this into six-ish strips and stack the strips on top of each other.  Then, slice that into six squares.

 

Pile those into the loaf pan like so:

 

I’m trying to think of an analogy and failing…

Like stacking books on a shelf.  There we go.

Place a kitchen towel over the loaf pan and do the whole rising thing again.  In the mean time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Then, bake for 30-35 minutes.  The original recipe cautions you to make sure it’s really baked all the way through before taking it out.  The top should be a deep golden brown.  If it’s lightly browned, the middle may still be raw.  Cue paranoia, I know.  Sorry!

 

It’ll be okay.  I believe in you.

 

The book I wanted to check out at the library was by Kim Young-Ha and it was called Your Republic Is Calling You, about a North Korean spy living in ROK for years and years who gets called back suddenly.  My school library actually had a different book of his called I Have the Right to Destroy Myself that I quite enjoyed.  It’s very short and a very quick read (I read the whole thing in the bath), and it’s sort of about a guy who helps people kill themselves, and about these two guys who know a woman who killed herself with the first guy’s help.  I don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s a solid little book, and worth a read if you want something that doesn’t require a huge investment but isn’t some throwaway thing.

Chinese Chicken Soup

In three weeks I’m presenting my paper on sustainable architecture in China at my first political science conference.  Do you remember that paper?  You must, I think it’s all I talked about from September-November.  A movie I’ve been waiting four years for is also finally coming out but instead of being in Chicago seeing it and the director at the Music Box I will be in Normal, Illinois talking about buildings and the environment and China to people who are probably really confused about why architecture has to do with political science.

Ah well, I’ll see Upstream Color the day after I get back and it’ll be amazing and wonderful, and I won’t get to see the lovely director/writer/composer/co-star, but I can live with that.  I suppose.

I can feel this becoming a career, though.  Green architecture in China.  I’m already thinking about paper topics for next quarter, but I’m leaning heavily towards how contemporary art in China is an invaluable form of resistance against the government, particularly against the central government’s urban planning policies.  HOWEVER, I have to finish this quarter first, and I’m so close to the end now.

This quarter I actually had the foresight to make one dish that I could eat all week long and that didn’t require a lot of effort, and it has really helped sustain me.  I just finished it off a few minutes ago, and so now I bring to you: Chinese chicken soup!

 

How is this different from American chicken soup?  Well the broth, for one thing.  The Chinese version has a lot more flavor, using rice vinegar and soy sauce instead of just chicken stock.  Also, the vegetables, which is the biggest draw for me.  I’m not hugely fond of vegetables, but will always eat them in Chinese food.  They’re just better.  Better variety and better cooking methods.

I got this recipe from a very lovely site called A Spicy Perspective and adapted it out of laziness, taking out some ingredients I didn’t feel like getting.  If you really want the full experience, check out the original recipe.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups chicken stock
• 6 cups water
• 1/2 cup rice vinegar
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 3 garlic cloves, cracked
• 1 lb boneless chicken… I used breast, but the recipe calls for thighs.  I don’t know what the difference is.
• 5 oz rice stick/mai fun noodles.  You could use any noodles though.
• 1 large bunch/1 package green onions
• 8 oz. mushrooms
• whatever other vegetables you want to throw in there

 

To do:

In a large pot, bring the chicken stock, water, vinegar, soy sauce, and garlic to a boil.

Throw in the chicken and simmer for 5-7 minutes.  Stir, or the chicken will clump together and it’ll  be weird.  Trust me.  Chicken clumps are weird.

 

Add the noodles and then remove from the heat.  Mai fun don’t need to be cooked so much as soaked.  I actually don’t like these noodles, but it’s what the recipe called for and I was on the phone in the grocery store so I wasn’t really paying attention… Also I went to the local grocery store which only sells mai fun.  I should have gone Uptown to the Asian grocery store… They have an entire aisle of noodles.

 

When you’re getting ready to serve the soup, chop all the vegetables up and put them in little bowls if you’re sharing with a group.  If you’re just keeping it to yourself, chop whatever you need as you need it.

This can be stored… probably indefinitely, but I’ve had it for a week and a half now.  You just have to microwave and then throw some vegetables on top and you’re golden.

 

Ta-daaaa.  (I went to sleep at 7 am, okay, so don’t judge me based on my coherency right now.)

 

 

Now, books.  I’m reading a bunch right now, but what I really want to recommend is this French book.  If you don’t speak French… sorry.  Because I don’t think it’s been translated.  To preface this, I saw a movie a few days ago called Monsieur Lazhar, which is this exceedingly lovely Canadian movie staring a gentleman by the name of Mohamed Fellag.  I really liked him so I looked him up and found out that he was also a comedian and a writer, and my library system happened to have his books.  Luckily I can still read French, and luckier still Fellag is a brilliant writer who is completely readable and very talented.

I’m reading his short stories in C’est à Alger.  They all have to do in some part with Algeria, whether with the Kafka-esque government or the mythology of the area combined with the current political climate.  I would compare it to Persepolis, actually, in the way it shows you this very beautiful portrait of a place in turmoil and its people who are trying to make a life in extreme circumstances.  Anyway, if you can find a translation, hurray, and if you can read French, even better, because the book is great and his writing is even better.