Crossroads

Haven't blogged in a while not because I haven't been cooking, I have. It's just that I decided about two months ago to quit eating meat. I'll admit it is not easy making things taste good without using some sort of meat product. I have had some good success with a few things here and there and I am going to share them with you soon.

Broccoli and Ricotta Cannelloni

These came out quite nicely, however they were even better warmed up the next day.

I used the dried cannelloni tubes from the store. Boil them for about six minutes first then set aside on a cloth towel, they won't stick.



Filling:
broccoli
bread crumbs
milk
olive oil
ricotta
nutmeg
parmesan
pine nuts
salt and pepper

Keep the same water boiling from your pasta and let the broccoli florets steam over that. When it gets bright green you're done. Toss this into the processor. Pulse it a few times. Add in 1 1/2 cups of bread crumbs, 2/3 cup of milk, olive oil, 1 cup of ricotta, nutmeg and 4 tablespoons of grated parmesan. Season with salt and pepper. Puree this.

Spoon this into a plastic zip bag or a pastry bag if you have one. Pipe the filling into the cannelloni, it should make 10-12.

I made a basic ragu with just a chopped onion which was sauteed first. I added a can of tomato sauce and tomato paste. A couple of cloves of chopped garlic and time. Bring to a boil, reduce and simmer for a while.

Assembling:

Spoon some of the sauce into a dish. Lay the cannelloni over the sauce and sprinkle grated parm over the top. Bake for about 40 minutes.

Fettuccine with Pesto

This turned out really good.

1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
2 tablespoons of parm
2 tablespoons of pecorino
1 large bunch of basil
olive oil
salt
2 cloves garlic

Add basil, salt, and garlic in a processor and pulse. Add in the nuts and the olive oil and pulse.
Add in the cheese and run. Drizzle in more oil if it is too tight.

Toss with fettuccine.

Potato, stilton soup

"What's tater's?" - Gollum

Well, I finally found a little inspiration and I brought my A game. I happened to be in a different part of town and on a whim I decided to stop in on small boutique grocery store, a sort of Whole Foods, only smaller.

It was really a pretty neat place because it had lots of premium produce and beef without the carnival-like atmosphere you find in Whole Foods from all of the posers being in the same place at once.

I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, other than just scouting out some potential ingredients for paella in the near future. But I spied some good looking bacon and bought a pound of that. I then happened across some nice looking potatoes. Then I knew I had to find some Roquefort.

After an interesting chat with the lady at the cheese counter about mozzarella, I came away with a good sized chunk of Stilton instead. It was half the price of the Roquefort.

I diced four pieces of the bacon and let them crisp up in a soup pot with a little olive oil.

I sliced up one white onion very thin and added that into the bacon after about 5 minutes.

One clove of minced garlic after the onions caramelize.

I cut the potatoes into small chunks. They were called "white creamers". I threw them in with the browning bacon and onions. Add a bay leaf and a pinch of cayenne pepper. One tablespoon of butter, as well.

Sauté these together for about 3 more minutes then add two cans of chicken stock. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes. Fish out the bay leaf.

Pour the soup into a food processor and pulse it 6-8 times until the potatoes are fairly well creamed. (I am about to buy one of the hand held devices to avoid having to transfer stuff.Use that if you've got it.)

Return the soup to the pot.

Add 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream. Bring up slowly to a simmer, not a boil. Add in the Stilton and stir. Make sure the cheese is thoroughly melted.
I served this with a little crispy bacon and some crumbled Stilton on top.

Off the hook, as they say...

Cooking music: Calexico