eG Foodblog: Chris Hennes (2012) - Chocolate, Tamales, Modernism, etc.

[Chris Amirault]

So that was a no-xanthan recipe?

[andiesenji]

Chris, I have a couple of pasta racks but had problems with both - sometimes I'm a total klutz.

So I got one of these at KMart - in fact, I was in the store when they had one of the special discount announcements and when I got to checkout, the price was reduced by $2.00.

I don't use it for anything except pasta and other foods and keep it in one of the XXL Ziplock storage bags between uses.

It folds flat and is sturdy enough to hang several batches of pasta and sheets of fruit leather for final drying after coming out of the dehydrator.

[judiu]

And the drained onions: no browning, and still relatively intact. They tasted like... onion butter. Plenty of onion flavor, but also very buttery (of course).

Chris, to me those onions just cry for mushroom duxelle and maybe a little drop of balsemic vinegar to fill an omlette or a crepe.

My mouth waters!

[slkinsey]

Chris, when making baked lasagne dishes, I have always found it the most convenient to make the pasta as I was going along: First I'd portion the dough and kind-of "pre-roll" each portion, meaning that I'd do the whole folding and re-rolling thing until I got something I thought was ready for thinning, then I'd set that aside and do the next portion, and so on. After that, I'd just get my mise all set up with the baking dish, the ingredients and a sheet pan lined with tea towels all near a big pot of boiling water and a big bowl of ice water. Then it's simple to roll out one portion of pasta to the desired thickness, blanch in the boiling water, shock in the ice water, fish it out and put it on the tea towels to blot, cut it to size, put it in the baking dish, top with ingredients, now back to thinning the second portion of pasta. And so on. This can also be helpful if, after doing the process with one portion of pasta, you decide that you rolled it too thin or too thick -- because you can adjust the machine for the next portion.

This eliminates the hassle of having to find someplace to hand a zillion sheets of lasagna, and I anyway don't think fresh pasta particularly benefits from drying anyway.

[Chris Hennes]

Damn, slkinsey, now somebody tells me that! That's a great idea, one that obviously never occurred to me. In fact, I cover the fresh pasta with damp towels while I am doing the rest of the stuff, so your way makes much, much more sense—thanks.

Edited February 24, 2012 by Chris Hennes
Corrected tea towels: "damp" not "damn" (log)

[Mark Muller]

With the xantham added, it was different. As I passed through the rollers repeatedly it just became crumbly.

Sorry Mark I was wondering if you could clarify. Pasta dough that becomes more crumbly the more you knead it does not sound like a good thing. To my mind, crumbly pasta dough won't come together. Perhaps you meant to say the opposite?

Not really. The dough was weird. It only came together so much, and then remained the same, still being considerably crumbly. I learned to accept it, and just roll it thinner in spite of it being crumbly, and it worked out great. For my normal pasta dough (flour + eggs + salt), had I let it stay that crumbly before thinning it out, it would have been a disaster. With xantham, it was OK. Weird stuff.

I think the issue is that the xantham makes it very non-stick. So the dough want to crumble instead of stick together, in spite of the gluten being well developed. A light hand about excessive folding and rerolling, and it goes well.

[Chris Hennes]

Of course, it's too late for any good advice for today's lasagne. Here's my pasta-cooking station:

And my assembly station:

Since this lasagna has a lot of pasta in direct contact with the baking dish, I start by buttering the dish:

Then Bugialli suggests a thin layer of Bolognese to start: I think the point is that it makes the lasagne easier to get out of the pan, but don't quote me on that:

Then the first pasta layer goes in, coming up and over the sides of the dish:

A thin layer of cheese:

Pasta:

Bechamel (balsamella, I guess I ought to say):

More pasta:

Full meat layer:

Etc. etc. etc. Continue until you run out of pan or pasta (I ran out of pan, I'm making a small one here). The last layer should be either cheese or bechamel, and should be a spinach pasta layer. Mine was bechamel:

Final pasta layer:

And finally, closed up:

This bakes for only about a half hour, so it's in the fridge now.

[Chris Hennes]

So that was a no-xanthan recipe?

No: I added 1%, but it's not the MC recipe, it's just my normal pasta otherwise.

[slkinsey]

Interesting that it's all kind of "sealed up" in a hermetic pasta chamber. This will presumably not allow for any escaping steam unless you cut vent holes in the top layer. Is this according to the recipe? Or do you normally do it this way? Also, is it supposed to be nude pasta on the top? I've always finished with a layer of ragu and grated parmigiano. Seems like naked pasta on top could dry out, get hard/crispy and interfere with slicing.

[Chris Hennes]

Interesting that it's all kind of "sealed up" in a hermetic pasta chamber. This will presumably not allow for any escaping steam unless you cut vent holes in the top layer. Is this according to the recipe? Or do you normally do it this way? Also, is it supposed to be nude pasta on the top? I've always finished with a layer of ragu and grated parmigiano. Seems like naked pasta on top could dry out, get hard/crispy and interfere with slicing.

This is according to the recipe: no steam vents. I've never really thought about it, but I've never had a problem. And yes, it's nude pasta on top: the top and sides get toasted and crunchy. And it's a very firm lasagna because there are so many layers of pasta with such thin layers of filling, so the crispness doesn't really interfere with slicing.

[Chris Hennes]

I'm making a green bean fricassee to go with it, and the recipe calls for soaking the green beans in cold water for 30 minutes before cooking them: does anyone know what that's about?

[Carlovski]

Strange, that's the second time in a couple of days I've seen the 'fold the bottom lasagne sheets over the top' technique having never seen it before - which makes really good sense (Saw it on a tv program, but he did put a final thin layer of sauce on top I think). I'm a fan of the more compact lasagne.

[heidih]

I'm making a green bean fricassee to go with it, and the recipe calls for soaking the green beans in cold water for 30 minutes before cooking them: does anyone know what that's about?

Sounds like something one would do with beans that are not "snappy" to rehydrate them.

[Carlovski]

Yeah, we'll see. I haven't tried the MC recipe in lasagne yet.

For those of you who compost, what do you use in your kitchen to hold the scraps? This is my compost bucket, next to my cutting board:

What, you don't pocket mulch?

Sorry, obscure simpsons quote..

Great blog by the way - loving the mix of molecular gastronomy (Hate that term really though!), mexican food which I know nothing about and the realism of occasional burgers and eating leftovers!

[Chris Hennes]

OK, here's the lasagne straight out of the oven:

And served with a side of fricassee green beans (which I thought wound up a touch overcooked, but were delicious):

That's 13 total layers of pasta in the finished dish. It's a shame that in the photo you can't make out the alternating layers of yellow and green pasta: it's a neat look.

[Andreas]

The lasagna looks quite nice, but I'm not sure if I like the pasta layer on top. I normally top my lasagna with a layer of bechamel sprinkled with Parmesan. The Parmesan gets nicely golden and crusty and the bechamel acts as a "base" for it. Still I think I'll have to try it this way once too...

Do you fell that the pasta sheet on the side help with lifting the lasagne out of the pan? Or is there another reason for those?

[Chris Hennes]

The lasagna looks quite nice, but I'm not sure if I like the pasta layer on top. I normally top my lasagna with a layer of bechamel sprinkled with Parmesan. The Parmesan gets nicely golden and crusty and the bechamel acts as a "base" for it. Still I think I'll have to try it this way once too...

Do you fell that the pasta sheet on the side help with lifting the lasagne out of the pan? Or is there another reason for those?

I could take or leave the bare pasta on top, but I do like having the structural support on the sides: it's easier to plate, and it stands upright more easily once there. The side sheets give it a little integrity that normally you don't have. I could see making the lasagna exactly like this, though, and then adding a layer of bechamel on the top: that might be interesting to try next time.

[annabelle]

What the heck is a fricassee of green beans?

[David Ross]

This is one fine blog Chris. I would imagine your peers at work are quite jealous of the lunches you bring in.

[maggiethecat]

Blogging greatness, Chris! (My pasta racks are the top rungs of my kitchen chairs.)

[Blether]

The reason there is no plural/singular distinction in the word 'pasta' is that it has its own collective noun: "a festoon of pasta".

[kayb]

Great stuff, Chris! Thoroughly enjoyable.

And, late to last night's party, kampei!

[Chris Hennes]

What the heck is a fricassee of green beans?

The beans are boiled and shocked, then sautéed quickly in butter and finished with a sauce of egg yolk and lemon juice. Lemon makes almost anything taste good.

[Chris Hennes]

This is one fine blog Chris. I would imagine your peers at work are quite jealous of the lunches you bring in.

My "peers" consist of a) a small statuette of a pig, and b) there is no b). I work from a home office

[Chris Hennes]

And, late to last night's party, kampei!

Don't worry, there are lots of parties: tonight's in fact, is an Australian Viognier (again with the screw cap):

Cheers!