Homemade lasagna: Part two - Fillings

Like I mentioned before, I LOVE lasagna! Noodles, cheese, meat, spinach (sometimes) yes please. Last lasagna post we looked at how to make the noodles. This time we are talking about the stuff that goes in the middle and assembly.
Now I have had success putting all kinds of fillings in a lasagna. The noodles are just a vehicle the same way bread is to a sandwich or crust to a pizza. I have grilled veggies and chicken with tomato sauce as a filling, cream sauce with chicken, meat sauce and cheese, meat and spinach, spinach and ricotta, even a pizza inspired one with pepperoni and mozzarella, endless possibilities really.
It's hard to narrow down a recipe for all the filings because they really depends on your taste.
I usually grate one 500g bar of cheese per 9x9 pan that I am making. If you are making a 9x13 I would use the whole bock.

Bechamel
This sauce has a basic 2:2:1 ratio. 2 tbsp fat, 2 tbsp flour, 1 cup of milk. I usually use butter for fat, but you can use any kind of oil, or animal fat, like bacon, yep bacon. For lagana I find this ratio a little thick, so I just add more milk till it looks right. For two 9x9 pans or one 9x13 you probably need about 3 or 4 cups of sauce.
Put the fat in the pan and let it heat up, or melt, on med-hi. Add in the flour and let it cook for a little. You do not have to cook it for long but the longer you cook it the darker and nuttier the flour will be. I like to cook it until it is caramel colored.
Then I add in the milk. Turn down the heat to med-low. You don't have to add all the milk at once, but you should add enough so that you don't make dumplings. You have to whisk as you pour the milk in or you will get lumps. Once you add all the milk season with salt and pepper. It's a matter of taste but I also add a bit of nutmeg, you can also add whatever you want, paprika, some red pepper flake, basil, oregano, whatever. I also usually add a handful or two of parm. As soon as it is thick enough take off the heat.
This sauce is also the basis for a killer cheese sauce, for awesome stovetop mac and cheese that doesn't make you want to die. Just add some grated cheddar to the finished sauce and mix with cooked macaroni. You're welcome.

Spinach and Ricotta
Not much to see here folks. It is what it is, spinach and ricotta.
I usually use 2 tubs of ricotta and 3 packages of frozen spinach per 2-9x9 1-13x9 recipe.
Thaw the spinach and put it in a clean dish towel. Then squeeze the spinach liquid out. There will be a lot. It's not a good idea to skip this step because you will make your lasagna really soupy.
Add in the tubs of ricotta. Season with salt and pepper. I usually put a little nutmeg again. Taste now if you want to. Then add 2 eggs.
And thats it.
If you wanna be "fancy" you can add some herbs or make it a little spicy


Tomato Sauce
This sauce is also not fussy or complicated.
If you are using meat brown and drain it first. This can be ground beef, pork, turkey, chicken, even uncased sausage meat. Depending on what kind of meat you use you could end up with a lot of fat so make sure you drain most of it off.
You can use some of the fat from your meat, or add some oil to the pan and saute some onion, garlic, carrot, and celery with a little salt. If you are in a pinch you can omit any of these, but I would try to keep the onion and garlic in. You can cook them a little or a lot, remember brown means flavour.
Deglaze with a little red or white wine, some broth, or even the juice from the canned tomatoes with a little water. Deglaze means to pick up the bits from the bottom of the pan. And you want that because those bits are flavour.
Then add the meat back in, add some cans of tomatoes, and season. I usually use different "textures" of tomatoes on my sauce. I break up 2 cans of whole tomatoes with my hands. Then I add in a few can of crushed. I like to have a chunkier sauce. If you don't use all crushed, or diced. I season with basil, parsley, oregano, and a few bay leaves.
Let it cook for a few hours. And THATS IT.

Assembly
Now this is what we are all here for right. How to put it all together. I mean really its self explanatory, noodles, sauce, filling, repeat. But there are a few secrets to making your lasagna come out perfect.
First the noodles. As per my previous post I prefer to use homemade noodles. Or you can buy those fresh noodles at the grocery store. They don't need to be cooked, and taste a whole lot better.
If you are using dried noodles, try and get the oven ready variety. Then you do not need to cook them. A little secret I dont even cook the non oven ready variety I just add more water to my sauce. If you do cook them do not cook them until they are done, you want them even more than al dente. Cook them cool them on a baking tray with a little oil so they don't stick.
Before you start assembling everything should be cooled. Not cold, but especially if you are freezing them, you want everything to be cool before you freeze anyways.
The first thing you put in the pan is a bit of sauce, this will help later when you are trying to get a good slice out of the pan. Also you are trying to encase the noodles in sauce so they can cook well.
So sauce on the bottom then noodles, enough to cover the whole pan, trying not to overlap. Cut the noodles if you need to. Then add a little more sauce over the noodles. Then if you are using another filing like spinach or bechamel or whatever add it in now. Then some cheese. And repeat. Sauce, noodles, sauce, filing, cheese. I can usually fit 2 repeats. Then the last layer I put sauce, noodles, sauce then cheese. A good amount, this will give you that cheesy crispy top to your lasagna.
And there you have it lasagna. No complicated, just delicious. Now go cook!

Wedding cake

So my good friend got married last weekend. Everything was amazing.
When she told me she got engaged the first thing I did was cry lol. Then I asked if I could make her cake as a wedding present. She agreed and I cried again.
I have made cakes in the past, even a wedding cake once, but nothing of this big. At a real hall, with professionals, for over a hundred people.
From the moment she said I could make the cake I bombarded her with pinterest pictures, and ideas of things I thought were awesome. She shot me down a lot, but she gave me a lot of freedom too. They gave me a few parameters they did not want fondant, they only wanted one tier of cake, and they wanted cupcakes.
I was so excited I couldn't wait to get started. But being cake I couldn't very well make it much sooner than the week of the wedding. So I kept looking at pictures and getting more ideas.
I fell in love with the look of these soft rosettes. It just looks so romantic and delicious, and the bride agreed. I also saw these cupcake liners. The bride had told me that the decor was going to be spring inspired with green, red, and yellow colors. I thought they would be perfect. She also agreed. So I bought them in red, yellow, and a green grass design.
Then I had a major breakthrough. 3 colors.. 3 flavours!! We had already decided that the cake itself would be chocolate. Knowing the bride and groom rather well, I made his and hers flavors. Chocolate cake with peanut butter filling. Cola cake with crown royal buttercream filling. Then one more flavor. I went back and forth and back again trying to decide on the third flavor. I knew I wanted vanilla cake because the other two flavors were chocolate. I thought maybe a maple bacon, or something fruity. Nothing really clicked. Then I got it. Salted caramel.
I decided to keep all the buttercream natural. Even the cupcakes has the same white buttercream rosette on top. I dug out a little divot from each cupcake and filled it with each individual flavor.
 After months of anxious waiting, it was finally time to bake. I had originally decided that I would make 4 layers of cake with butter cream colored for the wedding colors between each. But because of a silly mistake I ended up with 6 layers of cake lol.

 I am so happy with how the cake turned out. (Even though my oven broke and I made enough chocolate batter to encircle the earth twice lol) I was even happier to see how happy the bride and groom were.

Homemade lasagna: Part one - Noodles

When I was 8 or 9 my parents took my brother and I to have dinner with their friends, and it may have been the most influential meal I have ever had. Their friends were Italian, like legit Italian, and they made fresh pasta. When we got there mid afternoon they had already made the dough and we all rolled it out together. It seriously changed my life. I was, and still am, obsessed with fresh made pasta. It's not hard, no crazy ingredients, it is a little time consuming, but so so worth it.
Fresh pasta is kind of my signature dish. When it's someones birthday, fresh pasta. When we have a dinner party, fresh pasta. When it's a holiday, fresh pasta. Alfredo, creamy mushroom sauce, fresh tomato basil sauce, braised short rib ragu, but my favourite favourite thing to do with fresh noodles is lasagna.
Who doesn't like lasagna? I mean really it may be the perfect food. It has all the food groups, and it's mostly carbs and cheese! (I make myself feel better by adding spinach)

I make fresh pasta quite often so I got myself the attachment for my mixer. Is this recipe hard if you don't have a mixer for the dough or the (expensive as eff) attachment? Not at all. I have done it by hand many times, I've always used a machine (either hand crank or the attachment), but I have heard you can also use a rolling pin with great success. 

Making the dough is pretty simple. If you are doing it by hand you put all the flour on your counter and make a hole in the middle. Then I beat the eggs, water, olive oil, and salt together and pour it into the well. You then take your finger or the handle of a wooden spoon and start to mix the liquid, catching a little more of the flour each time you go around. Do this till the liquid is more of a paste, then start to knead your dough. When the dough is smooth you form it into a ball. 

With the mixer you use the dough hook. Put the flour in the bowl make a well, beat the wet ingredients and pour them into the well. Turn the mixer on.  When the dough is smooth, take it out and form it into a ball.
What ever method you choose, it is important to let the dough rest for at least 20 minutes to let the gluten form.
Before you start rolling you should think about where you are going to put your noodles. I take my broom handle, cover it in plastic, and put it up on two chairs.  The basic technique is you put the dough through the rollers at the highest setting a few times, folding the dough after each pass. Then you start turning up the rollers, going through once at each stage. I usually go to a 5 or 6 for pasta and lasagna. 

Fresh Pasta

1 1/2 cups Semolina flour

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

or

3 cups of all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

4 eggs

1 tbsp olive oil

2-7 tbsp water

Happy cooking

Pancakes and Waffles

I posted the pancakes and waffles I made on fat tuesday but I didn't post the recipe, so here they are. They both come from "Joy of Cooking".
The pancake recipe is something I have made and tweaked for years. My mom and dad have a copy of "Joy of Cooking" that is a million years old, in 7 pieces, stained with grease and flour, tattered and torn, well loved. A few years back my man bought me a "write your own recipes" cookbook and it was the first recipe I put in. This is really the best pancake recipe ever; buttery, fluffy. Sometimes I add cinnamon and nutmeg, or vanilla into the batter.  If you don't like pancakes try these, they will convert you.
What's different about this recipe is the addition hot butter to the cold milk and eggs the butter solidifies and becomes little pieces of butter. At first I thought I had done something wrong because it looks like the milk separated. Like when you make biscuits you leave the butter in bigger pieces to make them flakier. Same effect here, plus little pockets of butter.
If you like your pancakes a little cakier, fluffier, use 2 eggs, 1 cup milk. If you like them a little thinner use only 1 egg and more milk. Wanna live life on the edge try 1 egg and 1 cup milk or 2 eggs and 1 1/4 cups milk. I like mine 1 egg, 1 1/4 cups milk.

Pancakes
1 1/2cups All purpose flour
1tsp salt
3tbsp sugar
1 3/4tsp baking powder
1 or 2 eggs
3tbsp melted butter
1-1 1/4cups milk

Sift dry ingredients
Combine the egg, milk, and butter.
Combine the wet and the dry.
Cook in an ungreased pan, on med heat.
On one side until bubbles start to form around the edges, then flip and cook for another few moments.

This is the belgian waffle recipe directly from the book. This was my first time making it, also my first experience with yeast waffles. They were pretty good. The smell was amazing the whole time I was making them. Something about yeast and butter just does it for me. They were perfect with syrup. They could have used a little spice in the batter and a little more sugar.

Belgian Waffles
3 cups warm milk (I microwaved it for 2 minutes)
1 envelope of active dry yeast
3/4 cup melted and cooled butter
1/2 cup sugar
3 egg yolks

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp salt

4 cups all-purpose flour

3 egg whites

Whisk together milk and yeast, let stand for 5 minutes. 

Whisk in butter, sugar, yolks, vanilla and salt. 

Add in flour in 3 additions beating till smooth after every addition.

Cover with plastic wrap and rest till doubled, 1- 1 1/2 hours.

Stir to deflate.

Beat egg whites to soft peaks, fold into batter.

Cook according to waffle iron instructions.

They are delicious and easy, go try them tonight.

Tiramisu

If there is one thing I like better than cooking, it's baking. I love sweets. I love chocolate. I love cake. I love ice cream. Dessert junkie!
Tiramisu is one of my favourite desserts. What's not to like? Coffee, whipped cream, cookies, mascarpone, little booze, chocolate, yes. It is so simple, but its simplicity makes it easy to mess up. Something like dry cookies or fake whipped cream can ruin it. Like this in not the time to cheap out with some cool whip.
When I make it I start by making a zabaglione, 6 egg yolks, 2 cups sugar, in a double boiler and whisk like your life depends on it. It will get light and glossy. When you have achieved the desired consistency take it of the heat.
Then it's time to incorporate the mascarpone. I like to put it in a bowl and add a little of the zabaglione to the cheese to loosen it up, mix until incorporated. Then another addition of zabaglione, this time folding, not until completely incorporated. Then the final addition, again folding, same thing, it doesn't need to be smooth.

Last my favourite thing in the whole wide world. Whipped cream! Whip the cream to just over soft peaks. Then again with 3 additions add the whipped cream to the mascarpone, zabaglione mixture. The first just mix in to thin it out. The next fold until almost all incorporated. The last fold until it is nice and smooth.
Now here is where I get a little crazy. Usually I just make the traditional coffee, and chocolate tiramisu. This time, however, I had some fresh strawberries in my fridge. I am always looking for alternatives to chocolate desserts for my allergic to chocolate man, and this seemed like a great opportunity. So I started with the same cream and split it in half.
For the tiramisu assembly you need some coffee, usually espresso, but just use regular coffee. If I have it, add a little bit of instant espresso or instant coffee to the brewed coffee. Also add a little booze. Coffee liquor if you have it, if not, rum, vodka, irish cream, whatever (irish cream was a big hit last time I made it). You should also let the coffee cool. If you dip your cookies in hot coffee they will fall apart very quickly. Speaking of cookies, that is the next ingredient. Regular lady fingers, or savoiardi cookies.
Put a little of the cream on the bottom of the dish, then start dunking the cookies. Arrange them nicely so you have one even layer of cookies. Then more cream, a dusting of cocoa powder, then more dipped cookies, and the final layer of cream. Dust liberally with cocoa powder. And thats all she wrote. Let it set up for at least a few hours. I usually make it a day in advance.

Now the strawberry variation. First I took some strawberries and put them in a pot with a little orange juice and sugar. I let them cook until there was a good amount of juice. Then I strained out the juice and let it cool. I kept pressing the boiled solids through the sieve and added them to the cream.  Then I diced 10 or so strawberries and added to the cream as well. Then the same basic layering process. A little cream in the bottom of the dish, then dip the cookies. Arrange them so there is an even layer of cookies, top with cream, another layer of cookies, then the last layer of cream. If you were not concerned about a chocolate allergy, I feel like a few dustings of cocoa powder wouldn't hurt.
This strawberry variation was sooo damn good. Strawberry shortcake, meets cheesecake, meets tiramisu. So so damn good.
The original is equally good. It is just what you want tiramisu to be. Cool, boozy, creamy, moist, rich, and delicious. It really is just perfect and so easy. Don't be scared, go make some tonight.

Fat Tuesday

Pancakes, paczki, bacon and sausages. Whats not to like. I added waffles to the mix this year. First Mère brought over some paczki, I just recently found out that paczkis aren't something everyone does. For those of you who don't know, paczkis (poon-ch-kees) are a lot like a jelly donut. Some times with powered sugar on the outside, sometimes with glaze. Filled with whatever you can think of. The big difference is that paczki is made with butter, eggs, and milk. They are a polish tradition. They are generally made on fat tuesday, to use up these items before lent.
Grayson liked it, Xavier as usual was not really a fan.
Pancakes or waffles are always a hit around here. Put in bacon and Xavier is hooked. I have a pancake recipe I use from an ancient edition of "The Joy of Cooking" at my parents house. I finally got my own edition and my waffle recipe comes from there too.
The waffles started with milk and yeast which is really new to me. They also had butter and eggs in them. When they were cooking they made the house smell so so good.

 

Happy Fat Tuesday

Roast Vegetables: The Essentials

Something very special happens when you roast a vegetable. Giving veggies a little bit of browning releases some of the natural sugars and make every vegetable better. It's such an easy thing to do. Almost the same amount of prep and cooking time as if you were steaming or boiling, and the flavour is so much better.
Meet my nemesis. The Brussel Sprout. I love most vegetables,  but there is something about these that just turn me off. Since roasting makes every veggie better I thought why not.
First wash your veggies. I wash every fruit and vegetable, even if I am not eating the skin, even if I am peeling the skin off. I'm a bit anal about it. I get quite annoyed if someone hands me an unwashed orange. Wash your veggies. Then I cut off a little of the stem, peeled off a few outer layers, and quartered them. Generally I only cut them in half, but these were massive.

Then I foil and parchment my baking tray, add oil and salt and pepper right onto the parchment. When I put the sprouts on the tray I tried to put on of the cut sides down. Then I put more oil, salt and pepper, and a little glug of balsamic vinegar.
When you roast other veggies you can feel free to add any spices you like. Cumin goes really well with carrots, maybe a little honey too, some butter in addition to the oil. How about some cauliflower with some basil, oregano, and parmesan. Celery (yes celery) with some za'atar spice. Douse beets with oil salt and pepper, wrap in foil and roast. The possibilities are endless.
I set my oven to 350ºF (the universal oven temp) and stuck those awful little gems in. How long do they cook. As long as they need to. Half an hour maybe. Check them and see how they are. I tried to let them roast on one side until they developed quite good colour. Depending on how done you like your veggies, you could take them out at this point. They will be cooked but still al dente. If you like them a little more done stir them up and put them back in for a little bit. I put them back in. The outside leaves got brown and crunchy. The inside was tender, not mushy. The balsamic got sticky and sweet.
Now like I said I do not like brussel sprouts. They tasted much different roasted then they do boiled. Instead of tasting like farts, they were nutty, sweet, salty, and sour. They tasted just slightly like sauerkraut. Still not my favourite,  but these were pretty darn good.
So do you have a vegetable you hate? Try roasting it. It's easy and really delicious.