Holy cannoli!

So… having never done it before… I decided to make some cannoli.. I figured.. “how hard can it be?” Make some tubes… make some filling… bada-bing bada-bang… It’s done…

 

So… the night that we had folks over for pasta and meatballs, I figured that’d be a perfect time to make some cannoli’s up.. first up was finding a recipe… easy right? In the days of the internet, how hard could it possibly be? Well let me tell you… http://tinyurl.com/3olhn4q   yeah… some 450,000 hits. So… I started looking through them until I found one that “sounded right” to me… you know… with my vast experience of never making them before.. and eating them very rarely… the recipe I found that sounded the best to me was this one: http://www.recipegirl.com/2007/04/23/cannoli/ …

First up… making the filling.

so.. step 1.. hang the ricotta to dry…

I had to get a little inventive on this one.. the instructions say to hang the ricotta in cheese cloth overnight to let it drip out a bit…. so.. I draped the cheese cloth over a mason jar.. and secured it around the top with a brand new, unused hair band… I’m sure a rubber band would work equally as well.

So… load your 3/4 cup of ricotta into the cheese cloth, and let it drip in the fridge for a while… after it’s dripped for a while, wrap the cloth around the ricotta and squeeze out all of the moisture that you can.

Obviously, it won’t be dry like parmesan cheese… but… it should be stiffer than normal, and you will have likely squeezed out several tablespoons worth of liquid…. 

Next… start adding the rest of the ingredients… 3/4 cup of mascarpone .. 1/4 cup powdered sugar.. 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon a pinch of salt… and the recipe calls for 1/2 tsp Grand Marnier… which.. I didn’t have.. so, I used a combination of orange liqueur and vanilla.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So.. now… mix it all up!

After it’s all creamed together nicely, toss it in the fridge and it’s time to work on the shells…

2 Cups of flour… 1/2 TSP Cinnamon, 2 TSP Granulated sugar, pinch of salt, 2 TBSP Melted Crisco, 3/4 Cup sweet marsala wine, and 1 large egg white.

Now… this is where I messed up again… I don’t read directions well… so.. I added all of the above together in the blender and stirred… the result was a dough that was too sticky…

 

After the dough is mixed, wrap it in plastic an toss it in the fridge for a few hours.

So… when I pulled the dough out… it was too soft… too sticky… it should b the consistency of a pasta dough… it should be “formable” … so.. at this point, when I took the dough out to roll it into shells, I had to add a good bit o flour as I worked the dough.

Roll the dough nice and thin… then the recipe says to cut it out in 4” circles… well.. I didn’t have anything that could make a nice 4” circle… so… I cut squares… in any case, take the cut out dough and roll it around your cannoli tubes. The egg white that I tossed into the dough was supposed to be used to make the dough stick to itself while cooking… so.. I had to crack another egg for that… but.. then, it’s into the oil that’s preheated to 375ish.

These will cook relatively quick.. so… you just want them to get a nice golden brown. As soon as they hit that brown, pull them out of the oil with a pair of tongs an shake off the excess oil back into the pan… then stick them on a cooling rack. I’d recommend putting the rack over the sink so any excess oil doesn’t get all over the counters.

It won’t take too long to have all of the shells cooked up. One thing I learned was that you have to be very careful about getting your egg wash on the cannoli tube. Remember how the egg wash was to make the cannoli stick to itself? Turns out it’ll make the dough stick to the tubes as well. So.. the method I used was to pull them out of the oil, let them sit for about 30 seconds to begin to stiffen up.. then hold the whole cannoli and tube in a towel, and rap on the end of the metal tube with the handle of a spoon/fork/knife/etc. This was just to break the tube loose from the dough before the dough got completely hard.

So.. the shells are cooked and ready.. and the filling has been chilling for a good while… so. time to fill them… However, my filling was a bit thin as well, so I tossed it into the mixer and whisked it until it thickened up a bit… Same principle as making whipped cream… just whip some air into the filling and it’ll be light and thick. After I thickened the filling up, I spooned it into a zip-loc bag and cut the corner out of the bag to make a makeshift icing bag.

So, from here, it’s fast and furious. Grab the bag in one hand, grab a shell in the other.. and fill the shells.

Viola! Here are the filled shells. From here, it’s a matter of adding some garnish / extra flavor. This can range from candied orange shavings to…

…chocolate chips!! It’s pretty easy.. take your “garnish” and put it in a shallow bowl. Dip the cannoli ends into your “garnish” and the cheese mixture will adhere to it.

Top them off with some powdered sugar.. and they’re done… Now, you should avoid filling and finishing them until you’re ready to serve them… if you let them sit filled too long, the shells will get soggy. I made these and immediately took them in to Virginia’s office… where about half of them disappeared rather quickly… then, we took the remaining ones to our favorite place for wine tasting and buttered up the employees with them.

The general consensus from everyone that ate them is that these were the best cannoli’s ever made in the history of the world. So..on that note, I’d recommend you make them. You should be able to find cannoli tubes at your local kitchen store. We got our tubes for all of $2.99 .

Meaty, wonderful, meatballs.

So… we had some folks over for dinner not too long ago… and I decided to make some fettuccini and meatballs  for dinner.

The quality of your meatballs will greatly depend on the quality and type of meat that you put into the mix.

For this batch, I used (from left to right) Ground beef, Italian sausage, and ground lamb. Regular ground pork works as well… and normally instead of ground lamb, I would use ground veal… but none of the local grocery places had ground veal. If you get sausage like above, you’ll have to take it out of its skin… but no big deal, a simple slit with a knife, and it pulls right off.

 

So… this is about a pound of beef, a half pound of sausage, and a half pound of lamb… along with 2 TBSP Italian spices… 2 eggs…. 1 cup of parmesan cheese… a cup and a half of breadcrumbs.. and of course.. 2-3 freshly chopped garlic cloves. Once you have it all in a bowl together.. mix it all up by hand.

After it’s all mixed up, it should be sticking together nicely and easy to form into balls….

Form the concoction into meatball sized balls…

.. and then bake them at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes or so…

They should be a nice golden brown after 40-45 minutes… once they’re done in the oven… pull them out and toss them into a pot on the stove…

They should sit on the stove in simmering sauce for at least an hour. That’s it! It’s that easy to make some awesome meatballs…

Quick Update…

There are new and interesting things coming up…. but.. I don’t want to put it all online at once.. so. expect a few random updates over the next few days..

Yesterday, Virginia made an awesome Strawberry Rhubarb pie.. but… it’s been on the cooking blog before… but.. we’ve been severely lacking on blog updates lately… so… I decided I would post it… but I wanted to do it in a different way… so.. without further ado… Virginia makes a Strawberry Rhubarb pie..

Making a pie… all quick-like.

So… that was the prep work… each second of the above video represents 24 individual pictures, taken every 2 seconds…

The finished product:

mmmmmmmm tasty

Stay tuned for more updates… coming soon…

Citrus Meringue Pie

I call this Citrus Meringue Pie, because you can really make it with any citrusy fruit medley. Today I used grapefruit and oranges, because that’s what my grandmother sent us for Christmas. But I’ve done it with oranges, lemons and limes. Probably even pineapple mixed in would work for a Five Alive pie. You could even make a purple one with blood oranges.

It’s good to get the ingredients all ready to start, because the pie comes at you kind of fast.

You’ll need:

• 2 teaspoons of zest (do this first before you juice)
• 1 1/2 cups of juice (fresh is best, but whatever’s on hand)
• 1/4 cup water (pour in with juice)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup corn starch
• pinch of salt (all dry ingredients above can go in together)
• 4 eggs separated (most difficult part of this easy pie)
• 1/2 stick of butter cut in tablespoons
• 1 9inch pie crust (I use premade, although Aaron says that is cheating… whatever. It’s not like he offered to make me homemade pie crust!)

By the way, this recipe is adapted from this one: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Orange-Meringue-Pie-3/Detail.aspx

So to start, zest your fruit. Then juice your fruit.

 

Try to get the seeds out. If you fail, tell everyone it’s for “authenticity.”

Next, prep and bake your pie crust. You’ll need to cover it with foil and wait it down with pie weights of dried beans. I didn’t have any of those things so I used spoons. Bake for 10 mins.

Note, spoons are not ideal, as every time I’ve made this I have broken the pie crust, but that doesn’t really matter. The pie is still delicious!

While the crust bakes, go ahead and prep your dry ingredients (sugar, corn starch and salt) and liquids (you should have 1 and 1/2 cups juice plus an extra 1/4 cup water). I used one grape fruit, one orange, and topped off the rest with lemon juice. I always add at least 1/4 cup lemon juice for the tang!

Then, separate your eggs.

The crust should be mostly cooked by now. Pull it out, take off the weights and CAREFULLY remove the foil. (This is where I always am not careful enough. Then back 5 to 7 more mins. until golden brown.

You can see a little of my crust is falling off, but no matter, we are going to cover it all with MERINGUE and no one will notice.

While the pie crust is browning, cut up some of your fruit sectionals. (I usually go with the oranges – unless you want some real zing!)

Top those lovely wholesome things with your 1/2 stick of butter. They will be folded in together later.

Ok. Now quick, pull out the pie crust before it burns. Then in a small sauce pan, stir together the dry ingredients until mixed.

Next add the juice and stir. Turn the burner on medium high heat. The magic is about to begin.

Whisk in your egg yolks that you separated. Reserve the whites.

Then continue to stir until the mixture thickens. When it thickens, you will know, because it really thickens… think gel.

From

to

Remove from heat and fold in the zest, sections of fruit and butter.

Once the butter is melted and everything is incorporated, Pour/scrape into pie crust.

Smooth it all down with your spoon. Then let it cool to room temp. Meanwhile you can tackle the pile of dishes in the sink… or just watch TV.

Now comes the super fun part. First, preheat the oven to 350. Then, take those egg white you reserved from earlier and pour them into a mixing bowl. Then whip them, whip them good, while slowly adding a 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tarter.

Here is the process:

Here is the result:

Spread on your pie.

Then take a spoon and make those nice peaks all over it.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes until golden brown.

So good. I love this pie because it’s the perfect antidote for the winter blahs. It has the tart of the citrus with the nice sweet of the meringue. Also making the filling when the corn starch sets up is really fun, and turning egg white into meringue is like magic!