Spinach Galette with Wild Mushrooms

When ever we have friends over for dinner, I typically spend a day or two pouring over food blogs and websites. I love jumping from blog to blog. One blog will lead me to twenty others. I could (and have) spent hours getting lost in the posts. I found this recipe on Yummy Supper and thought it would be perfect for our vegetarian guests.

I think next time I would add some garlic to the filling mixture to give it that extra little kick. Otherwise, it was a deliciously fresh and light meal that went perfectly with our quinoa salad.

Crust 
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour 
pinch of sea salt
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cubed
6-7 tablespoons ice water


Filling 
12 packed cups spinach leaves
1/2 cup sliced leeks
3 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt
2 cups fresh wild mushrooms (Chanterelles or Hedgehogs are delicious here)
1 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup coarsely chopped Italian parsley

Crust 
In a stand mixer bowl, add flour and salt. Attach the flat beater. Turn on briefly to mix. Add cubed butter to the flour mix and mix on speed 5 or 6. Blend until butter is clumped in pea-size bits. As the mixer continues to mix, add the 6 tablespoons of ice water. Turn the mixer off and squeeze the dough with your hand. If the dough sticks together, cracking slightly at its edges it is done. If the dough does not stick together well, add an additional 1-2 tablespoons. The ideal dough just sticks together, is slightly cracked, and rice-sized flecks of butter can be seen sporadically.

Ball up the dough and wrap with plastic wrap. Let sit in the fridge for at least one hour and as long as two days. 

This recipe receives a three whisk rating. When it comes to pastry, it is always easier in the stand mixer. While the mixer was getting the butter down to pea-size bits, I was moving around the kitchen to get the ice water - very helpful and time-saving!

Roasted Red Pepper and Portobello Lasagna

This is one of our favourites! This absolutely delicious meat-free lasagna combines the heartiness of the roasted portobello with the sweetness of the red pepper. But I really think it is the smoked provolone that distinguishes this lasagna from your regular fare. If you really need that meat in there, we have found that some ground beef mixed in with the sauce is a wonderful addition. 

Photo from LCBO Food & Drink

SAUCE

2 tbsp olive oil

5 cloves garlic 

2 carrots, diced 

2 stalks celery, diced

1 large onion, chopped 

2 tsp oregano 

1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes (add more for desired heat)

2 28oz cans of diced tomatoes

1/2 cup tomato paste

LASAGNA

5-6 portobello mushroom heads

2 tbsp olive poil

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar 

4 large red peppers, roasted (I like to roast my own as opposed to store bought)

360 g lasagna noodles 

3 cups shredded smoked provolone (the secret ingredient)

CHEESE FILLING

2 eggs

475g ricotta cheese 

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil 

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp fresh pepper

SAUCE: In a large pot, heat olive oil and sauté on high heat the garlic, carrots, celery, onion, basil, oregano, and hot pepper flakes for about 8 minutes or until softened. Add tomatoes and paste, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring often. Let cool slightly and puree until fairly smooth. Taste test and season with salt and pepper if necessary. 

CHEESE MIX: in a medium bowl, whisk eggs until blended, add ricotta, basil, salt and pepper. Set aside

PREP FOR LASAGNA: 

Mushrooms - pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F. Trim the stems from the mushrooms and slice caps into 1/2 inch thick slices. Arrange on a foil-lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and vinegar. Roast for 10 minutes or until tender. Let cool. Chop into smaller pieces if desired.

Red Peppers - pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F. Cut peppers into halves or quarters. Brush with olive oil and arrange in a glass baking dish (outside of peppers facing up). Roast until skins are blackened and lifting away from the flesh. Let cool. Remove skins. Slice into small strips, set aside

Noodles - cook lasagna noodles as per package directions. Of course, I learned the hard way that this is not really necessary. Just bake the lasagna for an extra 15-30 minutes! 

BUILDING LASAGNA

Grease a 13x9 baking dish. Trim lasagna noodles to fit dish as necessary. Spread one cup of sauce into the bottom of the dish. Place noodles along pan. Coat with a second layer of sauce, sprinkle with mushrooms and red peppers, Top with some of the ricotta mixture, and sprinkle some shredded smoked provolone. Repeat layering (I can never follow a standard routine for layering). Top with remaining sauce and shredded provolone. 

Lasagna can be frozen for up to 2 months. Allow 48 hours to defrost. 

Bake at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes with foil cover, uncover and bake for approximately 15 minutes longer or until centre is hot and edges are bubbling. 

If baking from frozen (i.e. did not allow 48 hours for defrosting) bake at 375 degrees F for 2 hours then uncover and bake for an additional 20 minutes. 

Let stand for 10 minutes. Serves 8-10. Pairs well with Folonari Pinot Noir (recipe originally from LCBO Food and Drink) 

Recipe adapted from LCBO Food & Drink

This recipe receives a one whip mixture rating. I did not use a stand mixer for this recipe and don't really see where it would come in useful for a recipe such as this. Unless you are going to make your own pasta, and thats a whole other post!

Homemade Mushroom Ravioli

My parents came this weekend for a visit. When they have come to Kingston before, we have often set out to one of the many delicious restaurants in Kingston enjoy in some indulgent local cuisine - Kingston, after all, has some fabulous restaurants. This time however, my husband and I thought we should plan for a dinner at home and wanted to get creative! What resulted was homemade mushroom ravioli in a creamy lemon thyme sauce. The best part of the evening, was preparing this experimental dish with the family! It was a real team effort!

Earlier in the day I tried my hand at making fresh egg pasta:

Fresh Egg Pasta

Ingredients 
600 g of flour
6 large eggs

Making the Dough
1. place flour and eggs in the stand mixer bowl. Attach the flat mixer. Turn the stand mixer on to Speed 2 for approx. 30 seconds or until flour is well mixed with the egg.
2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and begin kneading by hand. I tried using the dough hook on the stand mixer but it turns out this dough is a little too thick for the poor machine. Luckily your hands are a practical and powerful tool! Just keep punching, stretching, poking, and working the dough until its nice and smooth. When the dough feels very firm and dry, I found it helpful to wet my hands with water and smooth a small amount across the top of the dough to moisturize it before kneading further.
3. Wrap it up very well with plastic wrap and let the dough set for 30 minutes.

Rolling out the Dough
Let me preface this by saying rolling out the dough would be SOOO much easier and better if I had a pasta maker. I read one blog that excitedly encouraged that no good Italian mother ever needed a pasta maker so rolling out pasta by hand can be done! I divided the pasta into 3 smaller balls then basically, I rolled and stretched and rolled some more until the dough was as thin as I thought it could go. Turns out even thinner would have been better. While enjoying the ravioli I noted how thick the pasta really was. The thinner you can get it the better!

Once I had finished rolling out the dough, I wrapped it back up in plastic wrap and put it back in the fridge. I was able to store it this way for about 4 hours.

The Mushroom Ricotta Stuffing 

Ingredients 

600 g of mushrooms - crimini, oyster, porchini mixture  

one small red onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic

a good splash of white wine

seasoning to taste - salt, chili pepper flakes

350 g ricotta cheese

fresh thyme 

1. finely chop mushrooms and red onion 

2. Add 1 tbsp of olive oil to a medium pan on medium-high heat. Saute red onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes. 

3. Add chopped mushrooms and saute for 10-15 minutes. The mushrooms will cause the pan to become liquidy at first, your goal is to cook off most of the liquid

3. Add white wine, seasoning cook until white wine has cooked off a little

4. Remove from heat, mix in ricotta cheese and freshly chopped thyme 

Constructing the Ravioli 

Ingredients 

prepared pasta pieces 

prepared mushroom filling 

egg wash - 1 egg and a dash of water combined in a small bowl and beaten 

1. Place one sheet of pasta on a lightly floured surface

2. Using a cookie cutter or fancy ravioli cutter, cut out as many pasta pieces as possible. Two pieces will come together to form one ravioli

3. Take one ravioli piece, place a dollop of mushroom ricotta filling in the middle. With a basting brush, paint the edges of the pasta with the egg wash to assist with sealing

4. Place another ravioli piece on top and pinch the edges closed with a fork 

5. Place on wax paper. To prevent sticking, dust ravioli lightly with flour

Lemon Thyme Cream Sauce 

Ingredients 

3/4 cup heavy cream 

1/2 cup white wine

1/4 cup chopped red onion

fresh chopped thyme and parsley 

1 Tbsp lemon juice 

pepper 

1. Heat about 1/2 Tbsp of oil in a small sauce pan over medium heat and saute red onion for 3-4 minutes or until softened

2. Reduce head and add cream, wine and lemon. Allow sauce to slowly reduce wine by maintaining medium-low heat but preventing rapid simmering or boil 

3. stir in fresh thyme, parsley and pepper. The sauce can either be removed from heat and reheated just in time for the pasta, or kept on the element at a very low temperature to allow for flavours to mix. 

Cooking and Serving the Ravioli 

Ingredients 

prepared ravioli 

water 

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil

2. Carefully drop in ravioli. Adjust heat to maintain a steady boil (not too aggressive of a boil that it throws the ravioli around too much, running the risk of the ravioli breaking up)

3. We boiled the ravioli until they rose to the surface (approx. 5 minutes) - this is a traditional way of measuring when ravioli are finished. However - because the pasta was so thick, the ravioli really should have been boiled for another 5 minutes or so. So if you roll out your pasta with a pasta maker, you could probably stick to 'boil until floating' approach. If you rolled the pasta out by hand, I would say 10 minutes in the pot would likely do the trick. 

4. Use a straining spoon to transfer ravioli into a pasta strainer. Transfer to a bowl and coat with prepared sauce.

5. Enjoy with a crisp salad and your favourite bottle of wine! 

watching the ravioli boil

I gave this recipe a three whisk rating because the stand mixer definitely did come in handy saving me time and effort kneading the pasta dough. However, if this were a different blog with a different sort of rating I would give it a strong rating in favour of using a pasta roller to get the pasta as thin as possible. I was not very successful doing this by hand. 

Recipe: Scalloped Sweet Potato

Let me introduce this dish by saying it was an experiment.... and it turned out to be a bit of a failed experiment. I don't recommend it. "So why are you posting it?" You ask. Well in starting this blog experimentation was an accepted tenant of the mission. And, as any good scientist will tell you, experiments don't always succeed. So I post this if only to demonstrate that not all cooking is successful, that trying something new will either result in a new recipe or an area you know to stay away from next time!

Its not that this dish was inedible. We ate it at dinner as a side to chicken and greens. We ate leftovers. But it just wasn't exciting. Further, there was just something off about it. I am now a firm believer that scalloped potatoes should always remain true to their original classic form. But hey, I invite you to by your own judge!

Ingredients
3 sweet potatoes
1 medium onion, sliced and separated into rings
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp cinnamon
2 1/2 cups milk

Directions  

1. Attach the slicer/shredder attachment to your stand mixer, using the thick slicer blade. 
2. Rinse the sweet potatoes. Turn on the stand mixer to Speed 6 and feed the sweet potatoes through the slicer. Catching pieces into a medium sized bowl.
3. Oil a large, rectangular casserole dish. Arrange sweet potato slices to cover the bottom of the casserole dish. Top with onion. Repeat layers. Arrange remaining potatoes over top. 
4. On a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add flour and spices, stirring together to form a paste. Gradually whisk in milk stirring constantly for 5-8 minutes or until boiling and thickened. 
5. Pour the sauce over top of the sweet potato and onion layers. 
6. Cover and bake in an oven set to 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until sweet potatoes appear soft at the prick of a fork. WIthin the last 20 minutes of baking, uncover the casserole in order to brown potatoes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. 

Recipe in Photos: 

Sweet Potatoes

Slicing the Sweet Potato 

Layers of sweet potato and onion in a casserole dish

Making the sauce 

Pour the sauce over the casserole 

The finished product

What I Learned:

• While it can be a fruitful endeavour to experiment with new combinations and ideas sometimes the original classic is a classic for a reason 
• There are better ways to eat sweet potatoes. I suggest homemade sweet potato fries tossed in olive oil and sprinkled with Cajan seasoning. mmmmm, much better. 
• I dont even recommend this recipe if you were to simply substitute out the sweet potatoes for white potatoes such as Yukon Gold. My grandmother has a infinitely better scalloped potato recipe that would blow this recipe out of the water. We will try that on another day. 

A stand mixer is not required for scalloped (sweet) potatoes. I imagine other routes would take just as much effort as what was required here.