Inspired by California-Mediterranean cuisines and farmers markets, I cook healthy, flavorful dishes that are easy-to-prepare yet elegant. I write for Zester Daily, One for the Table, Luxury Travel Magazine, Huffington Post & New York Daily News. My latest Amazon eCookbook is 10 Delicious Holiday Recipes. My handcrafted chocolates are available at www.dchocolates.com.
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Showing posts with label Homemade Recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homemade Recipe. Show all posts
Pickles are delicious anytime of the year. For Thanksgiving they are especially good. Their crunch and acidity counterbalances the deliciousness of gravy, mashed potatoes and roast turkey.
For years I used cukes, the choice of traditional kosher pickles. One year when cukes weren't available, I "made due" with Persian cucumbers. Longer, more dense and thiner than Jewish style cukes, I discovered that Persian cucumbers kept their crispy crunch longer than the cukes I was used to. Ever since then, I use Persian cucumbers when I make kosher pickles.
In the 1920s, my great-grandfather made pickles on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Grandmother Caroline used to tell stories about working in their little grocery store as a child. When customers would want pickles, she would hop off the counter and go out front to the pickle barrels and fish out the ones they wanted. I never knew my great-grandparents. I never ate their pickles, but I must have brine in my veins because wherever I shop or travel, I am always on the look out for pickles.
Lower East Side Kosher Dill Pickles
When making kosher dill pickles keep in mind four very important steps:
1. Select Persian cakes or pickling cukes, not salad cucumbers, and pick ones without blemishes or soft spots.
2. Use only Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt with no additives. Taste the brine to confirm you like the balance of salt-to-vinegar. The flavor of the brine will approximate the flavor of the pickles.
3. Once the cukes are in the brine, they must be kept submerged in a refrigerated, sealed container.
4. Store the pickles submerged in the brine, seal and keep in a refrigerator where they will last for several weeks.
Ingredients
8 cups water
1-2 tablespoons kosher salt (to taste) only use Diamond Crystal Kosher
1 cup white wine vinegar or yellow Iranian vinegar (my preference)
5 dried bay leaves
10 whole black peppercorns
10 whole mustard seeds
¼ teaspoon pepper flakes or 1 dried Sichuan pepper, split open
5 sprigs of fresh dill
5 pounds cakes or small pickling cucumbers, washed, stems removed, dried
1 medium sized carrot, ends removed, peeled, washed, cut into thin rounds
Directions
1. In a sterilized glass jar(s) or plastic container(s), add the salt, water and vinegar and stir to dissolve.
2. Dip your finger in the brine, taste and adjust the flavor with a bit more salt, water or vinegar.
3. Place the aromatics in the bottom of the container. Arrange the cucumbers and carrot rounds inside.
4. Pour in the brine being careful to cover the cucumbers. Reserve 1 cup of brine.
5. To keep the cucumbers submerged in the brine, cut out the bottom of a plastic cup the size of the opening and lay on top of the cucumbers.
6. The cucumbers have become pickles within 24 hours and will keep refrigerated for several weeks. If you like your pickles crisp, enjoy them within a week of pickling.
When the blossoms on our peach tree bloom, I know it's spring time which means it's ume time. Prized in Asia and the Middle East, ume can be found in Persian, Kosher and Japanese markets. Eaten raw by some, ume are often dried and salted or, in the case of umeshu, used to flavor a neutral spirit like vodka or shōchū.
If you love umeshu, Japanese plum wine, and you want to make your own, the race is on. Only available for three-four weeks in the spring, buy your ume soon or you will have to wait another year.
I first learned about umeshu from a supermarket news letter. Marukai, a Japanese market chain, with a store in West Los Angeles on Pico near Bundy, mails a magazine-style newsletter with the store's weekly specials. The opening article each month has an explainer about a particular Japanese food or cooking style.
The article described how to turn ume (Japanese plums) into umeshu(Japanese plum wine). The process was simple. Buy ume, wash them, pull out the little stems, place in a large glass jar, add Japanese rock sugar and a large bottle of vodka, put in a cool, dark place and come back in a year.
Now I was on the hunt for ume. I found them at Marukai, at Iranian markets and downtown at a farmers market near the Los Angeles Public Library Main Branch.
Because I had made Limoncello, the idea of waiting a year appealed to me. And the added benefit of putting out very little effort added to what seemed like fun.
When we visited Yabu, our favorite Japanese restaurant, I told the waitstaff that I was going to make umeshu. They loved the idea. It turned out, when they were growing up, umeshu was a liquor made by their grandmothers.
When they yearned for a memory of home combined with a tasty cocktail, without grandmother's umeshu, they turned to store-bought umeshu. That did not compare to their childhood memories.
They also told me was that after the hard green ume spends at least a year bathing in the vodka, the hard green fruit would become sweetly edible.
Serving the fruit with the spirit is a nice touch. Kind of an alcoholic fruit punch.
Umeshu or Japanese Plum Wine
Although frequently called plum wine, ume is actually more of a apricot than a plum and umeshu is a spirit, not a wine. Available in Japanese and Korean markets, ume are also sold in Kosher and Middle Eastern grocery stores. Armenians and Iranians eat the unripened plums raw but do not use them to prepare a liquor. In Asia, ume are also eaten preserved in salt and called umebsoshi in Japan.
Sold at a premium price because of the short growing season in the spring, only use green, unripe fruit. Blemished ume should not be used.
Available large and small, I prefer ume that are quarter-sized rather than dime-sized.
Some recipes call for each ume to be punctured all over with an ice pick. Doing so, it is said, accelerates the infusion process. That is probably true, but punctured ume discolor and are not good to eat.
Mention umeshu to someone from Japan and invariably they will smile
Traditionally umeshu is made by grandmothers. In the spring when the plums appear in the markets, bright green and hard as rocks, the grandmothers buy up all they can find, place them in a large jar, add rock sugar and shōchū (similar in taste to vodka). The jar is placed under the sink and everyone waits a year until the plums soften and the shōchū has mellowed.
A good friend described visiting her mother in Tokyo and finding a kitchen cabinet filled with giant jars labeled the year the umeshu was bottled. I have to confess, my garage has bottles of umeshu going back five years now. Today I bottled my 2021 vintage! When you make your umeshu, wait one year. to enjoy it. Once the infusion is ready to serve, taste and, if the umeshu is too harsh, add a tablespoon of Japanese rock sugar, stir well and wait another month. The longer you wait, the more the umeshu will become rounded and mellow in flavor.
After at least a year in their sweetened, alcoholic bath, the ume can be eaten. I like to include them in the cocktail, either whole or cut off the pit, chopped up and added as a flavor garnish that can be eaten with a small spoon. In Japan, umeshu is served chilled, neat, or on the rocks or with a splash of carbonated water on ice.
1.75 l unflavored vodka, the most inexpensive you can find
Directions
1. Place the ume in a large bowl. Cover with water and let stand 2 hours. Drain, rinse and remove by hand any stems. Wash well a gallon glass jar with a lid.
2. Place ume into the jar.
3. Add rock sugar.
4. Pour in vodka. Stir well.
5. Cover.
6. Place in a dark, cool area where the jar will be undisturbed for at least one year.
7. Serve ice cold neat, with ice cubes, or with seltzer and (optional) with whole or chopped up ume as a garnish.
A bone-in steak seared medium-rare in a carbon steel pan
A baked potato with sour cream and scallions
An egg salad sandwich flavored with dill on crustless Japanese white bread
And, my favorite, congee.
Necessity led to a favorite dish
I couldn't sleep one night. Too much stress, too much going on in the world to sleep through the night. I woke up at 4 am and couldn't go back to sleep. Better to get out of bed so I wouldn't disturb my wife. Walking into the kitchen, I opened the refrigerator, hoping to find something already made or a dish that would be easy to prepare.
I needed comfort food.
In the dull light, I saw there wasn't much. Wednesday was market day. This was Monday.
Searching in the refrigerator, I found a container of homemade vegetable stock I had made the day before, Japanese white rice from a take-out dinner two nights ago, a carrot, a shallot, an ear of corn, fresh shiitake mushrooms, green beans and a small piece of daikon.
Not a treasure-trove, but those ingredients sparked an idea that led to my enjoying a deliciously comforting meal just as the sun was coming up.
Cooked rice. A liquid. Sautéed vegetables. That's all I needed to make congee.
What is congee?
Visit most Chinese restaurants and you'll find a section of the menu labeled "Congee." The basic components are raw white rice and a liquid. The rice is simmered for up to an hour in the liquid, which can be water or stock made from seafood, poultry, beef or pork.
The result is a porridge-like bowl of creamy rice. Depending on the restaurant, the congee can be flavored with bits of protein or vegetables and topped with fresh scallions, fried shallots and a drizzle of hot oil.
Inspired by traditional congee, my version is very different
I use cooked rice added at the very end so my "congee" isn't creamy. Depending on my mood, I may add a great deal of vegetables and a protein and a smaller amount of rice. Purists might say I am making soup with rice, but in my telling of the tale, I add a lot more rice than you would find in 'soup with rice.'
With my approach, the results are infinitely variable. The only constants are cooked rice and a liquid.
Another variable is the ratio of broth to rice. For dry, cook the rice in the soup until most of the liquid is gone. For wet, cook the rice very briefly in the soup. Sometimes I like the congee with practically no broth. On a cold morning, lots of soup with the rice is the way to go.
The rice
You can make congee out of any kind of cooked rice.
Most of the time, I use Japanese short grained white rice or Chinese long grained rice. But, Thai brown rice, Middle Eastern basmati rice or Vietnamese broken white rice would also work. I have even used basmati rice flavored with almonds and orange peel from my favorite Armenian restaurant, Adana (6918 San Fernando Road, Glendale 91201, 818/843-6237).
Each rice creates a different result. The cooking time, amount of liquid used and the end result will change depending on the rice.
Cooking tip: if the cooked rice you find in the back of the refrigerator has dried out, no worries. Cooking the rice in a liquid will reconstitute the grains. If you see mold, toss the rice.
Generally speaking, one cup of cooked rice will serve one person. The ratio of rice to proteins and vegetables is a matter of personal taste.
The stock
I always use homemade stock. To make vegetable stock, during the week I freeze vegetable peelings. On the weekend, I add them to a pot of boiling water, simmer 60 minutes, strain and, voila, homemade vegetable stock. Whenever we make a chicken dish, I save the bones, fat and skin, cover with water, simmer 60 minutes, strain and cool. The resulting vegetable or chicken stock can be refrigerated or frozen in an air tight container.
In a pinch, sautéing a goodly amount of vegetables and adding water will pull out flavors from the vegetables. That creates enough homemade stock for your congee.
Homemade stock will produce the healthiest, freshest flavors. Store bought stock whether fresh in the deli department, packaged in cans or boxes or even dehydrated can be used, but the salt content tends to be high and the quality unpredictable.
I have used all kinds of broth. Sometimes I'll use the miso soup I brought home from a Japanese restaurant or I'll make stock by boiling left-over Thai bbq honey pork ribs or turkey stock from a Thanksgiving feast or chicken stock made with the bones from a roast chicken.
Making your own stock means you control the quality and flavor, so I recommend keeping 16 and 8 ounce containers of frozen stock in the freezer so you are always prepared to make a delicious savory meal at a moment's notice.
And, as I mentioned above, in a pinch, use water added to the sautéed vegetables to create a spur of the moment stock.
Vegetables and proteins
Use fresh vegetables or left-overs. Roasted vegetables from last night's dinner or bok choy and broccoli from Chinese take-out can be chopped into bite sized pieces and added to the congee. My go-to base ingredients are fresh, chopped onions, carrots, kale, shiitake mushrooms, green beans, daikon, broccoli stems or crowns and Savoy cabbage leaves, if I have them and corn kernels when in season.
For a protein, tofu, chicken, pork, fish and shellfish are good to add. Use cooked or raw proteins, knowing that the cooking times will be different for each. Cooked proteins only need to be reheated. Raw proteins can take longer, although fish and shellfish cook very quickly. Tofu can be added along with the stock.
Vegan or omnivore
Use ingredients you like. Stick with plant-based and make a best-ever vegan congee with homemade vegetable stock, rice of your choice and all the vegetables that make you happy.
If you're an omnivore, just about any animal protein or seafood works well. Use any protein you enjoy. Cooked meats with a lot of flavor, like bbq brisket or Vietnamese bbq pork or roasted dark chicken meat will add layers of flavor. Raw pieces of fish filets, crab, shrimp or lobster, add flavor to the broth as they cook.
Congee with Scallions and BBQ Pork
As with all cooking, if you use quality ingredients, the resulting dish will taste better and be healthier.
Every element added to the congee should build to a final, layered conclusion. You can keep the result simple, like a piano recital, emphasizing the "quiet" of the stock and the rice or jazz it up with a composition with rhythms of hot, sour, sweet and savory.
I often add bbq pork from my frequent trips to Little Saigon south of LAX. From my home, the drive takes under an hour, barely enough time to catch up on The Daily, one of my favorite podcasts. On the return trip, I listen to the news and happily eat aBánh mi from Bánh Mì Saigon ( 8940 Westminster Blvd., Westminster, CA 92683, (714) 896-8782) next to My Thuan, a favorite supermarket.
Cut all ingredients into small bite-sized pieces, the easier to pick up with chop sticks.
The recipe is for one, so multiply the ingredients by the number of servings you are making.
Serves 1
Time to prepare: 20 minutes
Ingredients
2 tablespoons yellow onions or shallots, cut into thin slices
2 tablespoons carrots cut into rounds or small "sticks"
2 shiitake mushrooms, washed, stem trimmed, cut into thin slices
1/4 cup broccoli, florets cut apart (optional)
1 tablespoon corn kernels (when available)
1/4 cup green beans, washed, cut into 1" sections (optional)
1 scallion, washed, root end removed, cut into 1/4" pieces
1 cup cooked rice
2 cups stock, preferably homemade
1/2 cup bbq pork or cooked beef, pork or chicken or raw shellfish or fish, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 teaspoon soy sauce (optional)
1 teaspoon Vietnamese sweet and hot sauce often served with bbq pork vermicelli (optional)
Sea salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon olive oil
Directions
Organize all the ingredients before beginning.
Heat small saucepan over medium flame. Add olive oil. Soften but do not brown. Add remaining vegetables, stir and soften.
If using cooked proteins, add and sauté briefly, then add stock. If using raw seafood, add to the broth.
Simmer 5 minutes.
Add rice. Break apart any grains that are stuck together. Stir well.
Simmer 5 minutes.
Pour into a large bowl. Top with scallions. Serve with chop sticks and a spoon. Serve hot and eat before the rice absorbs all the liquid.
A post from last year is worth revisiting now. Making pasta is an ideal dish for these times when we are denied visits to our favorite restaurants. As with gnocchi, pasta is as variable as the sauces. Go simple with olive oil, black pepper and a sprinkling of freshly grated Parmesan cheese or make a savory meat sauce enlivened with roasted tomatoes and shiitake mushrooms. I recommend using "OO" flour, usually easily available at upscale markets like Whole Foods, Gelson's and Wegman's and online. If "00" flour is not available right now, All Purpose (AP) white flour is a good substitute. But "00" is clearly superior and I hope you can find some. For those of you who always wanted to make pasta but were discouraged because you thought it was too difficult to make and required special equipment, this is your moment to have fun and delight your family with the best comfort dish ever! Buon Appetito!
When I learned how to make pasta from scratch, I gave away all my boxes of dried pasta. Quality brands of spaghetti, linguini, fusilli, penne, tagliatelle and pappardelle. All of it.
I put away my shiny chrome Marcata hand-operated pasta making machine.
Now I only wanted to eat pasta that I made myself. No machines. Just me, a rolling pin, an egg and "00" flour.
I always loved pasta, even when my mom served me Chef Boyardee's pasta and sauce in a can. As an adult, I made my own sauces and used dried pastas, priding myself on buying the best quality available.
On a press trip to Seattle, I had a pasta-epiphany at Spinasse (1531 14th Avenue, Seattle 98122, 206/251-7673). I was traveling with a group of food writers. Before the pasta arrived, we were talking nosily about the trip. One taste of our pasta and all talking ceased. Everyone focused on their plates. I had pasta with a deliciously savory meat ragu (Tajarin al ragu). That pasta was a revelation. The bite, flavor and texture of chef Stuart Lane's pasta was unique in my experience. After that visit, I wanted to make my own pasta at home. I bought a machine and read countless recipes. The result was always less than satisfying. Ultimately I gave up on making my own pasta and concentrated on sauces.
Then I watched the "Fat" episode of Samin Nosrat's Netflix series Salt Fat Acid Heat. That episode is my favorite of the series. I loved watching chef Nostrat lose herself in the sights, sounds, textures and ingredients of Italy. In the episode she visits Benedetta Vitali's Tuscan kitchen to learn her way of making pasta. The instruction was simple. Mix together the best eggs and "00" flour you can find. Knead and roll out the dough into a paper-thin, round sheet. Use a knife to cut the pasta. Boil in salted water. Drain. Done! As soon as the episode ended, I had to try. Since I didn't have "00" flour, I used All-Purpose flour. The result was good and, thinking "00" flour was too exotic to find locally, I kept using AP flour, but the result was inconsistent.
So I went in search of "00" flour. Which wasn't much of a search. Our local supermarket carried it. A bit more expensive than AP flour, "00" made all the difference.
I was so excited by the result, now I make pasta all the time.
Basic Pasta Dough In correspondence with chef Lane for this post, he explained that "'00' is "a fine grained/milled slightly softer than all purposed flour." That finer grain gives the dough better elasticity.
To prevent the dough from sticking while you roll it out, sprinkle flour on the surface of the cutting board and on the dough. When pastry chef Federico Fernandez was showing me how to make sfogletella, a wonderful Italian pastry, for my YouTube Channel: Secrets of Restaurant Chefs, he used semolina instead of flour on the cutting board. I liked the idea of using the coarser semolina when I make pasta. I dust the cutting board with semolina, which is incorporated into the dough. I think it adds a nice texture. Less available than "00" flour, both are sold in Italian markets. (For a good description of the differences between "00" flour and semolina, please visit the website Farro.)
As with any dish, using the best ingredients improves the quality, so use the best eggs you can find. Chef Lane sources his from organic farms in the Seattle area like Stokesberry.
One day after I had rolled out the dough, I was distracted by a phone call. Before I realized it, more than half an hour had passed. When I returned to the kitchen, I discovered that the dough had dried slightly. The pasta that day was lighter, with a better bite. I added the air-drying step to my pasta making. I was very pleased when chef Lane noted that letting his dough dry was a key step for him as well.
Because the dough is fresh, the pasta cooks more quickly than dried pasta. On average, 5 minutes is sufficient, but taste the pasta after 3 minutes so it doesn't over cook.
I add freshly ground pepper and sea salt to the flour for added flavor, but that is optional.
When the pasta cooks in the salted water, it expands. What appears to be a small amount of dough on the cutting board will yield a much larger amount of cooked pasta.
To make larger yields, multiple the ingredients by the number of servings you want. However, for ease when rolling out the dough, I would advise working with an amount of dough equivalent to that made with 1 egg and 1/2 cup of flour.
The dough must be used the same day you make it. Once cooked, the pasta can be kept in an air-tight container to use the next day.
Prep time: 15 minutes
Waiting time: 45 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes
Total time: 65 minutes
Yield: one entrée serving or two side dish servings
Ingredients 1 farm fresh egg
1/2 cup "00" flour + 2 tablespoons "00" flour or semolina to dust the cutting board and dough
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (optional)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt (optional)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
Directions 1. Place the flour on the cutting board. Using a fork, make an indentation into the top of the mound to create a "volcano." Season flour with black pepper and sea salt (optional)
2. Remove the egg from its shell and place into the indentation.
3. Using the fork, swirl the egg into the flour until completely incorporated. Use the fork to scrape the wet dough off the cutting the dough.
4. Dust the wet dough with flour or semolina. Clean any dough off the fork. Use your hands to form the dough into a ball. Liberally sprinkling flour or semolina on the cutting board, roll the dough back and forth. Incorporate any dough that sticks to your fingers or the cutting board. Continue rolling the ball back and forth on the cutting board for 10-15 minutes. As chef Lane notes, "Really knead the dough a lot. You are not going to overwork it (like bread). In fact, it is more common to underwork it."
5. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and allow to rest 30 minutes. If the weather is cool, leave the dough on the counter. If the weather is hot, place the dough in the refrigerator.
6. Unwrap the dough. Sprinkle flour or semolina on the cutting board. Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough and roll out, keeping the round shape by turning the disk of dough frequently. After rolling out the dough three or four times, flip it over, dusting the cutting board and the dough to prevent sticking. Continue rolling out the dough until it is paper thin.
7. Allow the rolled out dough to air-dry for 15-30 minutes.
8. Add kosher salt to water in a large stock pot. Bring to a boil.
9. Place a colander and a heat-proof cup in the sink.
10. Sharpen a chefs knife.
11. Lightly dust the rolled out, air-dried dough with flour or semolina, fold the circle of dough in half. Do not press the dough.
Dust again and fold a second time.
Dust again and fold a third time and then a fourth time until the folded dough is approximately 1" wide.
12. You can cut the pasta into any width you enjoy, remembering that the pasta will double in size in the boiling salted water.
13. After you have cut the dough into strips, lift the cut pasta and let fall onto the cutting board so the strands separate.
14. Place into the boiling salted water, using tongs to separate the strands. Cook 3-5 minutes. Taste after 3 minutes to confirm when the pasta is to your liking.
15. Drain in the colander, capturing 1 cup of salted pasta water in the heat-proof cup to use in making a pasta sauce.
16. Toss in the colander so the strands do not stick together and serve while hot.
I am reprising a post from last year because making pasta is an ideal dish for these times when we are denied visits to our favorite restaurants. As with gnocchi, pasta is as variable as the sauces. Go simple with olive oil, black pepper and a sprinkling of freshly grated Parmesan cheese or make a savory meat sauce enlivened with roasted tomatoes and shiitake mushrooms. I recommend finding "OO" flour usually easily available at upscale markets like Whole Foods, Gelson's and Wegman's and online. If "00" flour is not available right now, All Purpose (AP) white flour is a good substitute. But "00" is clearly superior and I hope you can find some. For those of you who always wanted to make pasta but were discouraged because you thought it was too difficult to make and required special equipment, this is your moment to have fun and delight your family with the best comfort dish ever! Buon Appetito!
When I learned how to make pasta from scratch, I gave away all my boxes of dried pasta. Quality brands of spaghetti, linguini, fusilli, penne, tagliatelle and pappardelle. All of it.
I also gave away my shiny chrome Marcato hand-operated pasta making machine.
Now I only wanted to eat pasta that I made myself. No machines. Just me, a rolling pin, an egg and "00" flour.
I always loved pasta, even when my mom served me Chef Boyardee's pasta and sauce in a can. As an adult, I made my own sauces and used dried pastas, priding myself on buying the best quality available.
On a press trip to Seattle, I had a pasta-epiphany at Spinasse (1531 14th Avenue, Seattle 98122, 206/251-7673). I was traveling with a group of food writers. Before the pasta arrived, we were talking nosily about the trip. One taste of our pasta and all talking ceased. Everyone focused on their plates. I had pasta with a deliciously savory meat ragu (Tajarin al ragu). That pasta was a revelation. The bite, flavor and texture of chef Stuart Lane's pasta was unique in my experience. After that visit, I wanted to make my own pasta at home. I bought a machine and read countless recipes. The result was always less than satisfying. Ultimately I gave up on making my own pasta and concentrated on sauces.
Then I watched the "Fat" episode of Samin Nosrat's Netflix series Salt Fat Acid Heat. That episode is my favorite of the series. I loved watching chef Nostrat lose herself in the sights, sounds, textures and ingredients of Italy. In the episode she visits Benedetta Vitali's Tuscan kitchen to learn her way of making pasta. The instruction was simple. Mix together the best eggs and "00" flour you can find. Knead and roll out the dough into a paper-thin, round sheet. Use a knife to cut the pasta. Boil in salted water. Drain. Done! As soon as the episode ended, I had to try. Since I didn't have "00" flour, I used All-Purpose flour. The result was good and, thinking "00" flour was too exotic to find locally, I kept using AP flour, but the result was inconsistent.
So I went in search of "00" flour. Which wasn't much of a search. Our local supermarket carried it. A bit more expensive than AP flour, "00" made all the difference.
I was so excited by the result, now I make pasta all the time.
Basic Pasta Dough In correspondence with chef Lane for this post, he explained that "'00' is "a fine grained/milled slightly softer than all purposed flour." That finer grain gives the dough better elasticity. To prevent the dough from sticking while you roll it out, sprinkle flour on the surface of the cutting board and on the dough. When pastry chef Federico Fernandez was showing me how to make sfogletella, a wonderful Italian pastry, for my YouTube Channel: Secrets of Restaurant Chefs, he used semolina instead of flour on the cutting board. I liked the idea of using the coarser semolina when I make pasta. I dust the cutting board with semolina, which is incorporated into the dough. I think it adds a nice texture. Less available than "00" flour, both are sold in Italian markets. (For a good description of the differences between "00" flour and semolina, please visit the website Farro.)
As with any dish, using the best ingredients improves the quality, so use the best eggs you can find. Chef Lane sources his from organic farms in the Seattle area like Stokesberry.
One day after I had rolled out the dough, I was distracted by a phone call. Before I realized it, more than half an hour had passed. When I returned to the kitchen, I discovered that the dough had dried slightly. The pasta that day was lighter, with a better bite. I added the air-drying step to my pasta making. I was very pleased when chef Lane noted that letting his dough dry was a key step for him as well.
Because the dough is fresh, the pasta cooks more quickly than dried pasta. On average, 5 minutes is sufficient, but taste the pasta after 3 minutes so it doesn't over cook.
I add freshly ground pepper and sea salt to the flour for added flavor, but that is optional.
When the pasta cooks in the salted water, it expands. What appears to be a small amount of dough on the cutting board will yield a much larger amount of cooked pasta.
To make larger yields, multiple the ingredients by the number of servings you want. However, for ease when rolling out the dough, I would advise working with an amount of dough equivalent to that made with 1 egg and 1/2 cup of flour.
The dough must be used the same day you make it. Once cooked, the pasta can be kept in an air-tight container to use the next day.
Prep time: 15 minutes
Waiting time: 45 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes
Total time: 65 minutes
Yield: one entrée serving or two side dish servings
Ingredients 1 farm fresh egg
1/2 cup "00" flour + 2 tablespoons "00" flour or semolina to dust the cutting board and dough
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (optional)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt (optional)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
Directions 1. Place the flour on the cutting board. Using a fork, make an indentation into the top of the mound to create a "volcano." Season flour with black pepper and sea salt (optional)
2. Remove the egg from its shell and place into the indentation.
3. Using the fork, swirl the egg into the flour until completely incorporated. Use the fork to scrape the wet dough off the cutting the dough.
4. Dust the wet dough with flour or semolina. Clean any dough off the fork. Use your hands to form the dough into a ball. Liberally sprinkling flour or semolina on the cutting board, roll the dough back and forth. Incorporate any dough that sticks to your fingers or the cutting board. Continue rolling the ball back and forth on the cutting board for 10-15 minutes. As chef Lane notes, "Really knead the dough a lot. You are not going to overwork it (like bread). In fact, it is more common to underwork it."
5. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and allow to rest 30 minutes. If the weather is cool, leave the dough on the counter. If the weather is hot, place the dough in the refrigerator.
6. Unwrap the dough. Sprinkle flour or semolina on the cutting board. Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough and roll out, keeping the round shape by turning the disk of dough frequently. After rolling out the dough three or four times, flip it over, dusting the cutting board and the dough to prevent sticking. Continue rolling out the dough until it is paper thin.
7. Allow the rolled out dough to air-dry for 15-30 minutes.
8. Add kosher salt to water in a large stock pot. Bring to a boil.
9. Place a colander and a heat-proof cup in the sink.
10. Sharpen a chefs knife.
11. Lightly dust the rolled out, air-dried dough with flour or semolina, fold the circle of dough in half. Do not press the dough.
Dust again and fold a second time.
Dust again and fold a third time and then a fourth time until the folded dough is approximately 1" wide.
12. You can cut the pasta into any width you enjoy, remembering that the pasta will double in size in the boiling salted water.
13. After you have cut the dough into strips, lift the cut pasta and let fall onto the cutting board so the strands separate.
14. Place into the boiling salted water, using tongs to separate the strands. Cook 3-5 minutes. Taste after 3 minutes to confirm when the pasta is to your liking.
15. Drain in the colander, capturing 1 cup of salted pasta water in the heat-proof cup to use in making a pasta sauce.
16. Toss in the colander so the strands do not stick together and serve while hot.
If you love umeshu, Japanese plum wine, and you want to make your own, the race is on. Ume are only available for three-four weeks in the spring. Right now, in Los Angeles, they are available in Iranian and some Asian markets. Buy your ume right away or you will have to wait another year.
I first learned about umeshu from a supermarket news letter. Marukai, a Japanese market chain, with a store in West Los Angeles on Pico near Bundy, mails a magazine-style newsletter with the store's weekly specials. The opening article each month has an explainer about a particular Japanese food or cooking style.
The article described how to turn ume (Japanese plums) into umeshu (Japanese plum wine). The process was simple. Buy ume, wash them, pull out the little stems, place in a large glass jar, add Japanese rock sugar and a large bottle of vodka, put in a cool dark place and come back in a year.
Now I was on the hunt for ume. I found them at Marukai, at Iranian markets and downtown at a farmers market near the Los Angeles Public Library Main Branch.
Because I had made Limoncello, the idea of waiting a year appealed to me. And the added benefit of putting out very little effort added to what seemed like fun.
When we visited Yabu, our favorite Japanese restaurant, I told the waitstaff that I was going to make umeshu. They loved the idea. It turned out, when they were growing up, umeshu was a liquor made by their grandmothers. Store bought umeshu did not compare to their childhood memories.
They also told me was that after a year bathing in the vodka, the hard green ume would become sweetly edible.
Serving the fruit with the spirit is a nice touch. Kind of an alcoholic fruit punch.
Umeshu or Japanese Plum Wine
Although frequently called plum wine, ume is actually more of a apricot than a plum and umeshu is a spirit, not a wine. Available in Japanese and Korean markets, ume are also sold in Middle Eastern grocery stores. Armenians and Iranians eat the unripened plums raw but do not use them to prepare a liquor. In Asia, ume are also eaten preserved in salt and called umebsoshi in Japan.
Sold at a premium price because of the short growing season in the spring, only use green, unripe fruit. Blemished ume should not be used.
Available large and small, I prefer ume that are quarter-sized rather than dime-sized.
Some recipes call for each ume to be punctured all over with an ice pick. Doing so, it is said, accelerates the infusion process. That is probably true, but punctured ume discolor and are not good to eat.
Mention umeshu to someone from Japan and invariably they will smile
Traditionally umeshu is made by grandmothers. In the spring when the plums appear in the markets, bright green and hard as rocks, the grandmothers buy up all they can find, place them in a large jar, add rock sugar and shōchū (similar in taste to vodka). The jar is placed under the sink and everyone waits a year until the plums soften and the shōchū has mellowed.
A good friend described visiting her mother in Tokyo and finding a kitchen cabinet filled with giant jars labeled the year the umeshu was bottled. I have to confess, my garage has bottles of umeshu going back five years now. Today I bottled my 2019 vintage! When you make your umeshu, wait one year. to enjoy it. Once the infusion is ready to serve, taste and, if the umeshu is too harsh, add a tablespoon of Japanese rock sugar, stir well and wait another month. The longer you wait, the more the umeshu will become rounded and mellow in flavor.
After at least a year in their sweetened, alcoholic bath, the ume can be eaten. I like to include them in the cocktail, either whole or cut off the pit, chopped up and added as a flavor garnish that can be eaten with a small spoon.
1.75 l unflavored vodka, the most inexpensive you can find
Directions
1. Place the ume in a large bowl. Cover with water and let stand 2 hours. Drain, rinse and remove by hand any stems. Wash well a gallon glass jar with a lid.
2. Place the ume into the jar.
3. Add the rock sugar.
4. Pour in the vodka. Stir well.
5. Cover.
6. Place in a dark, cool area where the jar will be undisturbed for at least one year.
7. Serve ice cold with ice cubes, with seltzer and with whole or chopped up ume as a garnish.
