…and my "House Building" dilemma that Salmon Ravioli has provoked
I suppose some dilemmas are irrelevent, but they are still there. The short version of the dilemma is that there is a Private Community named Oil Nut Bay in the Virgin Islands, that I intend to move to, after my "ship comes in".
They are building an amazing custom home right now but it won't have an outdoor kitchen. So, when I'm ready to move there, hopefully soon, do I buy that home and get my Caribbean Living started right away, or build my own home, perhaps having to wait two years, so I can have my ultimate custom outdoor kitchen?
Like I said, when I was looking at this Salmon Ravioli recipe, imagining myself making endless tapas for some "hottie" outdoors in the islands, the dilemma was thus provoked………………..I suppose if this is my biggest problem in life, then count my blessings
Either way, I am building an arsenal of Tapas appetizer recipes in my Healthy Cookbook, including this Salmon Ravioli.
Tapas Time!! Salmon Ravioli
For the pasta:
3 pasture raised eggs, room temperature (I AVOID CONVENTIONAL EGGS)
1-3/4 organic cup flour more or less (my current fav is Hodgson Mill Semolina Pasta Flour)
note: I can go for months without eating any grains, so I don't worry to much about enjoying them occasionally
For the filling:
1 tablespoon organic extra virgin olive oil
1/2 organic leek, thinly sliced, white part only
12 ounces Wild Caught Alaskan Salmon, skin removed and cut into cubes (AVOID FARM RAISED SALMON)
3 tablespoons dry white wine
1 tablespoon chopped organic chives
1 tablespoon chopped organic parsley
2 tablespoons grated grass fed Parmigiano [or other grass fed ] cheese (I AVOID COMMERCIAL CHEESE)
1 pasture raised egg
Pink Himalayan Salt or alternately Celtic Sea Salt (AVOID COMMON TABLE SALT)
Organic Coarse Ground Pepper
1 tablespoons lemon zest from an organic lemon
For the sauce:
1-1/2 organic leeks, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons organic extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons grass fed butter (I AVOID ALL COMMERCIAL BUTTER)
juice of 1 organic lemon
1 tablespoon chopped organic chives for garnish
To make the pasta:
Mound the flour on the counter and make a well in the middle. Break the eggs into this well and, with a fork, whisk the eggs until slightly beaten. With the fork, start incorporating the flour a little at a time until a dough forms. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour. Only add enough of the flour to make a dough that is still slightly wet but not sticky enough to come off on your fingers when you press into it. Knead the dough for a couple of minutes and wrap in floured plastic wrap. Let rest on the counter for 20 minutes.
To make the filling:
In a large saute pan, heat the oil and leeks and saute the leeks over medium low heat until soft. Add the salmon and cook gently for about 5 minutes. Add the white wine and cook for a couple of minutes just until the wine has cooked off and the salmon is just barely cooked. Remove and place in the bowl of a food processor. Let cool for several minutes. (You can use this same saute pan to make the sauce for your finished ravioli).
Add the chives, parsley, cheese, lemon zest and egg to the food processor. Add a pinch of salt and some pepper and pulse. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust accordingly. Pulse until mixture is fairly fine. Refrigerate filling until you are ready to assemble the pasta.
Assemble the ravioli:
Cut the pasta dough into two pieces. Keep the dough you are not using wrapped. Make sure your pasta rollers are on the #1 setting, the widest. Flatten your piece of dough and run it through the rollers. Flour it, fold it into thirds, and run it through again. Do this three or four times. Set the rollers to #2 and run your dough through that setting. Do not fold dough this time.
Keep running it through the rollers until you get to setting #4 or #5. I usually make my ravioli no thinner than these settings. I find that if the dough is too thin, the ravioli tend to burst when you cook it. If you like thinner dough, use #5. Keep in mind as you are making the pasta sheets, that you want them as wide as possible so that they cover your ravioli mold. (If you are not using a mold, don't worry about that.) It helps to grab the sheets as they are coming out of the rollers and stretch them width-wise a little bit.
Take the sheets of pasta and lay them on a floured countertop. If you are not very speedy and are going to take a while to make the remainder of the sheets, cover the pasta sheets with a towel or plastic wrap, so they don't dry out. You want them slightly moist for ravioli, as opposed to dry when making other cut pasta.
You can store the ravioli on baking sheets in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. You can also freeze them on baking sheets and then stick them in zip locks. To cook after being frozen, do not defrost first.
Nonetheless Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, make the sauce.
Make the sauce:
In a large saute pan, melt the olive oil and butter. Add the leeks and cook until they are soft. Add the lemon juice. Keep this mixture on low until you add your cooked ravioli:
To cook:
Add the ravioli to your boiling water about 10 at a time. Bring the water back to a gentle simmer and cook for about 3-4 minutes. (If ravioli is frozen, cook about a minute more). Remove with a slotted spoon or handled strainer to the sauce in your saute pan. Continue cooking the remainder of ravioli. Add to your saute pan and blend gently with sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste and chopped chives for garnish.
When serving tapas style, a final light drizzle of Olive Oil or the AMAZINGLY delicious and healthy Culinary Argan Oil makes for a tantalizing presentation.
recipe and food photography from "The Italian Dish" Blogspot
When I think about it, there is no way my dream can be my dream without my outdoor Caribbean kitchen.
But I suppose the good side is that when I have the kind of money to live like that, which destiny is telling me I will, the game is already won at that point. The 1-2 year wait to have the house finished should be well worth it.
And as I drizzle my olive oil over my Salmon Ravioli outdoors under the Tiki Torches, I will chuckle to myself…"Well done my son"
~stay healthy~
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