catdaddy
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Posts posted by catdaddy
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What are your 3 favorite cookbooks to cook from?
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13 hours ago, rotuts said:
Kudos your way
and Id like to thank Whom ever for the idea of
artichoke bottoms in a lasagna
artichoke bottoms sliced w spinach and a béchamel sauce.
That would be @Lisa Shock. There is roasted garlic involved, too. The next one.......after the holidays.
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11 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:
Congrats, @catdaddy! If you have a moment, I'd love to hear about your competition? Any very unusual combinations or entries you found interesting?
There were four entries. Two were traditional Italian-American tomato ricotta dried noodle casseroles. The one that I voted for was vegetarian with no tomatoes and mostly mushroom based whose maker refused to tell me the provenance of her noodles, though they were fresh and yummy. I believe it had some bechamel in it but I can't remember as I had to hurry out during lunch break to let our dog out. Good depth of flavor and mouth feel.
The whole thing was fun with a minimum of trash talking. It brought us all together for a few minutes during a busy day to break bread. 10/10 would do it again.
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Today the Lasagna Wars were fought at work. And.......I won!
Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions. I went with the LASAGNA al FORNO recipe and even made both kinds of pasta. It wasn't even close.
First prize was this lovely pickle dish and spoon plus bragging rights.
Happy holidays, everyone.
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Yes! Hunting Season w/ Shelby. I'm just adding my words of encouragement for gritty details from the kitchen and the hearth.
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9 hours ago, Lisa Shock said:
Who are the judges? If they are trained chefs, I'd watch out with the parsley. There are protocols for how it should be cut. You could lose points for having 'grass clippings'.
Ha! The judges are my co workers. Libarians one and all.
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20 hours ago, TicTac said:
Not planning on buying any books so this is helpful. Thanks.
I am assuming the meat is all ground - equal portions? Is the paste added to the meat?
Cheers.
Pork and beef are ground. Chicken is cooked whole then chopped. There's also a fine dice mirepoix, garlic, red wine, and chicken stock involved. And yes the paste is added to the meat.
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I was thinking maybe leaving more pasta to fold over then dust the finished top with roughly chopped parsley. The shear volume of holiday cooking is starting to really effect my planning.
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18 hours ago, TicTac said:
Would like to hear about the Bugialli's lasagna al forno recipe - please!
The recipe uses; a meat sauce containing pork, beef, and chicken and only a tablespoon of tomato paste, a thick bechamel, a half'n'half blend of mozz and parm, and fresh thinnly rolled pasta. The result is biggly flavored and easy to serve.
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6 hours ago, Lisa Shock said:
Thanks for posting the picture. I am noting that your top is dry noodles. For me, one of the highlights of lasagna is a layer of browned cheese on top. I usually spread a little red sauce around and use mozzarella topped with either rows of tiny basil leaves, or a sprinkling of dry oregano, with paper-thin slices of red onion on top of that. (the onion gets a bit crunchy) Others will undoubtedly chime in here, but, I think you definitely need a topper.
Yes, a topper would be excellent. It would however make serving it just a little bit messy. There is plenty of flavor already there and the ease of serving is a big plus.
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2 hours ago, chromedome said:
It's a personal preference thing. For some people, that crunchy top layer of baked noodle is the whole point, like the crisp skin of a perfectly roasted chicken or turkey.
For others - including myself - it's something to pick off and discard.
Normally I would agree with you on the whole top layer thing. But somehow using fresh pasta and rolling it relatively thin it becomes really good. One of my favorite parts of the dish.
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Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I have made a first run at my competion lasagna. After realizing time was indeed the most limiting factor I decided to use an established recipe. Thanks to an above post I used Bugialli's LASAGNA AL FORNO starting on page 221 of his book THE FINE ART OF ITALIAN COOKING. Knowing I would make changes later I tried to follow the recipe closely. Fish sauce instead of porcinis and all egg pasta instead of egg and spinach were the only concessions I made
Wow. The meat sauce was deeply flavored and the pasta worked beautifully. The whole casserole was a little dry so next time, for the Wars, I'll make the meat sauce and the balsamella a little thinner. Love using the first layer of pasta to eventually enclose the whole thing. Also I'll make both pastas next time and make as many layers as possible.
I cooked it 5 minutes longer than the 25 called for and it was plenty hot at 180 degreesF. Note in the photo the crispy edges. The entire top layer was crispy and TENDER. YUM. Even my wife who tends to like Italian/American dishes in the traditional style (tomatoes and ricotta here) loved it.
I like my chances.
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8 hours ago, rotuts said:
do the Rules of War say you can only make one ?
why not Meat LS on the Italianish side of things
and a Veg version lets call it the California side of things for no reason what so ever
that would would have sliced artichoke bottoms , spinach usual cheeses and tomato sauce. maybe béchamel for that one but some basil too
Great idea but available time will allow for only one. Holiday party the night before, work, and etc.
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Awesome ideas. Thank you!
I'm going to do a dress rehersal next week. Will try to post some photos.
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3 hours ago, Lisa Shock said:
I'd like to point out that some of the best I've ever made had a couple layers where I used roasted zucchini strips instead of noodles. I just sprinkled some olive oil and salt on top and roasted on parchment. The roasting got the water out, and the flavor was like artichokes. I used a mandoline to cut thin strips. There was a lot of shrinkage, but it was a nice, concentrated flavor.
Another trick I have used in a veggie version was making a layer of artichoke leaf pasta and bechemel. (a very thin layer) I par-cooked the noodles. For the sauce, I used a liberal amount of buerre noisette. Everyone asked what the 'vegetable' was that was so delicious. (I had gotten the pasta a while earlier at a local fancy supermarket when they ran a clearance, and had been waiting to use it)
Artichokes themselves are delicious, too. If you can source 6-8 of them for a 9x12 pan, you can break them down to just bottoms, cut into 8 wedges each and saute lightly in butter, or roast/microwave until almost tender to concentrate flavor. I personally would make a bechemel sauce with a little tarragon for this layer. (even though the herb is mostly used in French cooking, I find it brings up 'green' flavors very well)
I tend to add roasted garlic to a ricotta layer, if used. And, a little chopped frozen spinach (well drained) adds color and flavor. That said, I agree that a ricotta layer is not necessary.
But lots of layers can be good (I tend to use a deep roasting pan for mine) -as long as it sticks together. You want a good presentation, not a collapsing house of cards. I also tend to put low moisture mozzarella on top of filling layers to keep things together and to help prevent color seepage.
You know, you can layer green, white, and red like the Italian flag on its side...
Love the idea for an artichoke layer and roasted garlic with ricotta. As mentioned above. Go big or go home.
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9 hours ago, Chris Hennes said:
I’ve made both the spinach and the bechamel lasagnas from Cook’s Illustrated. I liked their treatment of the no-boil pasta, which I thought gave a final product that was much more like fresh pasta. But for a “war”? Go big or go home! Make your own pasta :). Roll it thin, and make all your layers of filling thin. Then you get a lot of layers, which makes for a gorgeous presentation because it will slice very cleanly. Bugiali alternates bechamel, bolognese, cheese layers. I think last time I made it I wound up with twelve layers, it was glorious.
Many thin layers is brilliant.
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11 minutes ago, Chris Hennes said:
I will second this - I’ve made it many times, it’s my gold standard lasagna. He’s got a variant in there where you alternate layers of plain and spinach pasta, which looks really great if you have time for it. It is a far cry from the traditional Italian-American dish. I don’t know if for your contest that’s a plus or a minus.
Most likely a plus because others will be making traditional ones. Love the idea of alternating green and yellow pasta layers.
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9 hours ago, MelissaH said:
If you're not wedded to the idea of a traditional lasagna, Cook's Illustrated did a tomatoless spinachy version several years ago. They're heretical enough to use cottage cheese spun in a food processor with an egg rather than ricotta, but somehow it works. They also use no-boil noodles, but soak them in hot tap water for a bit (and then let them rest on kitchen towels) so they're hydrated before going into the oven, and just need to heat. I've started using that technique for most of my lasagnas.
Have you made the tomatoless spinachy version? If so any pointers?
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6 hours ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:
For me it's the CI lasagne bolonese. No spinach, no ricotta, no mushrooms (alas), no mozzarella--just a good bolognese sauce, no boil noodles, bechamel and parmesan. Classic, a little boring, but always wonderful.
Nancy in Pátzcuaro
Is that the one with pepperoni chopped up in the bolonese?
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Wow. Great responses. Thanks to everyone. Love the ideas of adding fish sauce/dried shrimp, raw sausage, chevre, and thick bechamel. Keep the ideas coming . I think a dress rehersal early next week will happen.
Mmmmm. Prosciutto, cepes, andouille...........
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I am participating in friendly lasagna wars on Dec 1. Wondering if anyone has and secret ingridients or techniques to offer. Making pasta and sausage are both on the table. Assume high proficiency on my part. I know it's a basic dish but two of my adversaries are Italian-American and make it a couple times a month.
Thanks.
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Yes, red drum. Alternately called spot tailed bass. Commonly farmed.
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10 hours ago, Shelby said:
Happy Hunting Season to everyone! It's me again
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I've been busy the last few weeks doing my usual prepping which is inspired by a visit from our hunter. It's a good excuse for fall cleaning and sprucing the house up a bit. Although.... @Anna N does warn me that cleaning is very overrated
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Our hunter arrives tomorrow morning and, as usual, I'll be sending a camera along with them. Right now, dove season is open, although, there have not been very many around. I speculated that they haven't come down yet due to all of the hurricane activity, but I have no idea. I suspect there will be some fishing happening....I'm hungry for fish. There is a duck season open up north, but I don't know if they will venture that far away or not.
It's been super hot until yesterday when we thankfully got a ton of rain. This morning it's a nice, cool 57F and it definitely feels like fall. Some of the leaves are just starting to turn. I will miss the garden veggies (don't worry @HungryChris, the zucchini are still going strong lol) , but I'm ready for cold weather....this year more than I remember being in the past. I very much feel like hibernating in a big comfy sweatshirt while looking out of the window at 7' tall drifts of snow, but, I digress.
We grew pumpkins again. Very low maintenance...I tossed the pumpkins from last year into the field and then, when they dried out, I stomped on them the scatter the seeds. I also threw zucchini out there and I think they cross-pollinated because I have either some very orange, hard zucchini or some very tall, skinny pumpkins
. Ronnie picked some for me to decorate the porch with so I washed them all and left them in the hot Kansas sun to dry.
You can see the weird looking zumpkins...or pumpzinis.....
Anyway, I hope you guys will keep me company this week. I don't have set meal plans yet--which is not like me--so we will see what I will feel inspired to make lol. I have to make a trip to the grocery store in a bit so I'll be back later --if it's not too boring I'll take pictures.
Can't wait. Love hunting season on egullet!
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Technivorm Moccamaster. Used at least once a day for 10 years.......and running.
St.Patrick , AKA CornedBeef 2018
in Cooking
Posted
I really enjoyed my results from SV cooked (160 for 48hrs) corned beef except for the saltiness. Should have soaked that puppy before cooking it.