Seafood salad

Made seafood salad with thick asparagus, cherry tomatoes crayfish flesh, prawns and scallops. Unfortunately forgot to take photos.

But one thing is clear. I love my steam oven! Gentle steaming seems to be very good for seafood and vegetables. 

Asparagus steamed for 10 minutes at 88C retains the asparagus taste and is very tender. The seafood steamed at 80C for about 8 minutes was also very good.

Also did some peas separately at 88C and it too was very "pea" like in taste.

I then threw the lot into a bowl and added hollandaise.

Making ravioli

Tried making ravioli with a half semolina and half AP flour mix. The texture of the ravioli was a bit too chewy- not sure if it is due to the semolina or something else. Certainly the dough was a bit dry after rest and I had to add water.

If I make it again, I think I will do square ravioli. Round ones waste dough and take more time.

The filling is not bad - a mix of mashed pea puree + mentaiko.

The sauce was nice though - with one caveat - I added too much roux and it got pretty thick. I had to lighten it with some Creme fraiche and veg stock. 

1. Heat pot over high heat and fry shells from prawns and crayfish with some fennel.

2. Separately, sauté a mirepoix of celery, carrots, onions and leeks. After sweating for a bit, add garlic and tomato paste and sauté for another few minutes. Then add the mix to the shells.

3. Add a bit of brandy. Mix shells and fry for a bit.

4. Add thyme and Bay leaves. Just cover with water.

5. Simmer vigourously (medium high heat) for about 40 minutes, and reduce some fluid.

6. Drain the stock through a sieve. Return the stock to a clean pot. Bring to a boil.

7. Add one tablespoon of roux to about one cup of stock. Stir in the roux and break it up.

8. Continue boiling and stirring for several minutes.

9. Turn off heat and continue stirring for a bit. Then stop and let the sauce cool. It will thicken as it cools.

10.  Add salt to taste. Adding some Creme fraiche seems to be helpful to taste as well. 

First time with the vegetable stock

Easy peasy. Should have done this before.

Just cut up savory veg and also dump in any leftovers veg. Celery garlic and onion are musts for me. Also I have tomato carrots leeks bay leaf thyme and fresh turmeric (the slight ginger taste of fresh turmeric is nice). I also added a small handful of dried mushrooms (will be using this on a mushroom pilaf).

Pressure cook for 30 mins and let it cool naturally.

Tomato sauce time

Time to make a big batch of canned tomato sauce again. This time with a slight variation in that I add one to two teaspoons of tomato paste in each jar.

Making roux

Equal amounts of flour and butter by weight.

Melt the butter over medium high heat. Then stir in the flour. I think if using non stick and constant stirring can increase to higher heat. After about 7 mins the roux will turn slightly brown. This is blonde roux. 

Chicken soup with gnocchi

Did a chicken soup with gnocchi that I made and froze earlier. Photos unprepossessing but taste is good.

The nutmeg in the gnocchi was immediately noticeable esp when eaten at a lower temp (ie cool the soup a little)

Sauted celery, carrots, onions and oregano. Then added garlic later and then home made chicken stock with barley and potatoes. Added thyme and boiled the lot for a few minutes. Then added chicken thighs, brought to a boil again and then put it into a low heat oven  for 1 hour.

To serve, reheat then take the chicken out and put it on a bed of mw's home brewed sprouts. Boil the soup and added the frozen gnocchi. Cooked till done and then ladle over.