Sunday, April 27, 2014

Pasta Perfection

For my birthday earlier this month, I asked for and received a pasta-making attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer. It's the KPRA model, which flattens dough and cuts it into spaghetti or fettuccine.


I was very excited to try it out, and this weekend finally had the opportunity. Over at The Splendid Table I found a relatively-simple looking recipe for Spinach Pasta Dough.  The recipe is from a book entitled The Glorious Pasta of Italy, by Domenica Marchetti.  If you're not already familiar with The Splendid Table, by the way, you might want to check it out on NPR - it's a  terrific radio program and they have some excellent recipes online.

So...on to the pasta!

Ingredients
  • 9 oz/255 g fresh baby spinach leaves
  • 2 extra-large eggs
  • 2 to 21/4 cups/255 to 285 g “00” flour or unbleached all-purpose/plain flour
  • 2 tbsp semolina flour, plus more for dusting the work surface
  • 3/4 tsp fine sea salt
  • Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
First we take the baby spinach (I measured by weight), and cook it gently with a bit of water until it is wilted.

While that cooks, measure out the all-purpose and semolina flours, as well as the salt and nutmeg.

Drain and squeeze as much water as you can out of the spinach, before putting in a food processor with one egg. The recipe says to use extra-large; I only had large eggs, but I don't think it made a significant difference.  

Process until you've got a spinach/egg puree. Take this out and put it in a separate bowl, and then clean and dry the food processor. Add the flour mix back into the cleaned food processor bowl and pulse just to combine it. Then add your spinach puree back in along with the other egg, and pulse the entire thing together until it makes little crumbs. You should be able to roll them together into a soft ball that is not too crumbly or too sticky. If it's too crumbly (like mine was at first), add a smidgen of water. If too wet and sticky, add a tablespoon of flour at a time (or a teaspoon if you want to be more cautious).  



Once your dough is this consistency, turn it out onto a clean surface lightly dusted with semolina flour. Roll it into a ball. Now is when you knead the dough. I have always found the concept of kneading intimidating, but this was really not so tricky. Use the palm of your hand to push the ball firmly but gently away from you, flattening it as you do so. Fold it back over on itself, rotate the dough a quarter-turn, and do it again. Repeat this for a few minutes until the dough is smooth. The recipe says it should be "silky" but mine did not seem so. 

Wrap it up in plastic wrap and let it sit for half an hour. Mine sat for about 50 minutes, but I don't think that had a negative impact. Then take your dough ball and cut it into pieces about 1 cm wide.

Now is the part when we get to use the pasta attachments. Following the directions that came with the attachment, set the roller to the lowest setting (1) and feed each piece through to flatten it. Once flattened, you fold the piece over on itself and feed it through again to flatten it.

You do this a couple of times, until the sheets are the width of the roller, and then sprinkle the pieces with flour (I used semolina). Here is what they looked like after the first pass through the roller.

Then turn the roller up one setting and feed the pieces through again. Do not fold them over before feeding them through this time (I mistakenly did this but I don't think it had a huge impact). Here's the dough after the second setting on the roller:

Isn't that color lovely? Third setting:

Fourth setting, which is the one appropriate for fettuccine:

Then we swap the roller attachment for the fettuccine cutter, and start feeding the pasta sheets through.

Once they are cut, they are ready to cook! I of course had neglected to start the water boiling because I was too busy playing with the machine, so the pasta had to sit for a bit. This is when I discovered that we definitely need some sort of holding or drying rack for the pasta, because I only have so much countertop space. Once the water is boiling, the pasta only needs to cook for 3-5 minutes, since fresh pasta cooks faster than dried.

Love that bright green color! For what did we use this gorgeous pasta? Splendid Table had a recipe for Green Fettuccine with Asparagus, Basil and Butter that sounded scrumptious, and it was absolutely fantastic. I cannot recommend it highly enough. The three of us ate all of it and our friend went to bed and dreamed about eating more of it. How's that for an endorsement?


Something tells me there will be a considerable amount of pasta-making in my future...


Garden Green

After a few last brushes with freezing temperatures and snow, spring appears to be here for good. Finally! That meant this weekend it was time to transplant our seedlings to their prepared beds. Here's a rundown of what we're growing in raised beds this season:


  • Eggplant (bought these seedlings as ours failed to germinate)
  • Bell Peppers
  • Tomatoes (three kinds: Eva Ball, Heritage Hybrid, and Beam's Yellow Pear)
  • Jalapeno (bought these seedlings as ours failed to germinate)
  • Kale (Lacinato and Dwarf Siberian)
  • Swiss Chard
  • Snap Peas
  • Broccoli
  • Spinach
  • Lettuce (Mesclun, Buttercrunch, and Red Leaf)
  • Bush Beans
  • Zucchini
  • Acorn Squash (Thelma Sanders)
  • Cucumbers (Boston Pickling and Parisian Pickling)
  • Radishes
  • Carrots
  • Parsley
  • Tarragon
  • Scallions
  • Oregano
  • Lavender
  • Cilantro
  • Basil (Genovese and Thaii)



On Friday I transplanted kale, squashes, cucumbers and peppers. Saturday Nick and a friend of ours prepped the support system for the tomatoes, planted the tomatoes, and placed the squirrel cage over the bed. This time the tomatoes are going in the middle bed instead of the last bed (up against the fence), so that they can be more easily accessed.


The guys also put up a trellis for the snap peas to climb as they grow.



So far, so good. In addition, I'm trying my hand at dill (again) and potatoes. Thus far the potatoes do not appear to be progressing, but we'll see.


Wednesday, April 16, 2014

And Now For Something Completely Different

From lard to...oh I don't know....how about cherry blossoms?

Last Friday I went to the Tidal Basin to enjoy the wondrous event that is the blooming of hundreds of flowering cherry trees.  They are famous in D.C., and as such bring thousands of people to look at them, both locals and tourists. It's a bit of a zoo come cherry blossom time, but they are simply breathtaking and I try to go every year. After multiple years of chilly, rainy weather, this time I was rewarded with warmth, sun, and unbelievable beauty. My photos cannot do it justice, but I had to try nonetheless.




 









Larded Up: Mom, Don't Read This Post!

In D.C. politics, lard is considered a bad thing. But when it comes to food, it can be a thing of beauty. Last November, we ordered a turkey from Whiffletree Farm, which is about fifteen minutes from our house and is run by a terrific couple about our age. The bird was delicious, and we started getting interested in their other offerings. One of these offerings was, essentially, a pig. Raised on the farm, allowed to run around and root with all its pig friends, and then slaughtered and processed at another local facility. As we have become increasingly conscious about a) buying local, and b) wanting the animals we eat to have been humanely raised and treated, this seemed liked a great option. Jesse (the owner of Whiffletree) let us tour the property and see where the pigs spend their days, and they did indeed appear to be happy creatures. An entire pig would be far too much meat from us, but when split with some of our friends it seemed like a great idea. This is how we came to have a freestanding freezer in the garage filled with delicious pig products (sausage, chops, ribs...mmmmm).

Included in these products were several packages of lard. It is a versatile substance; you can bake with it, make tamales with it, or make soap with it. First, though, you have to render it, which involves cutting it down into small pieces and slowly cooking it to separate out all the [delicious] impurities. So last month there was a lard party! Unfortunately, I was ill and could not attend, but my friends kindly provided me with some photographs of the festivities.







Recently, we received our share of the lard: over eight jars, plus two jars full of the crispy bits that separated out during cooking. To be frank, it was a bit overwhelming. It would appear that I've got my work cut out for me! I can't wait to make tamales. Although I do have some dried lavender that I could use to make soap...




Saturday, April 12, 2014

Fun in the Sun

This weekend has brought us absolutely gorgeous weather, warm and sunny. Time to start moving our seedlings to a protected area in the backyard to get them used to being outdoors. This is called "hardening off" the plants, so that they don't experience too much of a shock when actually planted (which will hopefully happen next weekend). We'll need to bring them indoors at night early next week as temperatures are forecast to drop again overnight, but this weekend it will not get below 50 so they ought to be fine. We have lost some broccoli and kale seedlings due to inconsistent watering (I am a neglectful mother), but by and large things are looking good!

Tomatoes in their new (temporary) home. 

Happy zucchini, acorn squash, and kale. 


Monday, April 7, 2014

Planting Time

Most of our seedlings are doing well, although some of the broccoli plants are looking kind of wimpy. The zucchini seedlings are adorable (photo). Transplants are supposed to be put out after last frost. However, I realized yesterday that radishes, carrots, snap peas and spinach are supposed to be sown two weeks before the last frost. Which means now. Oops. So early last evening I planted those, and Mother Nature is kindly watering them for me at the moment.

We've turned the heat pad off under the tomatoes to begin hardening them off; after that for a few days they will get to start spending some time outside. They are growing so well that some of them are starting to brush the grow light, even after I moved said light up a few spots on its chain!

Spent a few hours this weekend mulching the front of the house - I don't have a photo but it looks good if I do say so myself.