I've really gotten into making fresh pasta. Today I made some fresh linguine again. I wanted to make a meal out of some of the live seafood I bought going shopping yesterday.
The shopping was very good yesterday. One trip across town to two stores and I have everything I need for a week.
these are Chinese ceramic vessels for low temperature cooking very similar to
sous-vide; the food ingredient is place inside; the entire vessel with lid is then place in a water bath and cooked at low heat for many hours
these are not pistachio; they are ginkgo nuts - typically used for a dessert
giant Japanese daikon; i have to pick through the pile to find a small one
Taiwanese cabbage - I bought one to try; their leaves are wavier so not as densely packed
an dong market has most of everything I need except seafood
next stop for seafood
stock up on wanton noodles - they freeze very well; also more black cardamon
cactus fruit - this is the first time i try them; pretty plain tasting for me; i was expecting a bit tangy but they are not
i am curious to see how does the Taiwanese cabbage taste different from common ones
this is for making
Chiuchow clear broth braised beef flank 潮州清湯牛腩
one precious sea urchin; now i regret not buying a few
one fat live dungeness crab
mid size manila clams
i poached the crab, cool it, then picked out the meat for use in many meals; i also took care to save the tomale and some of the juice inside
ready to get the hands sticky; that is 1/2 egg which has two tiny yokes
I have watched a lot of cooking shows where they show you how to make fresh pasta. Most would tell you to use only egg as the liquid. I didn't want all that much egg so I only used about 1/2 egg, and use enough plain water to adjust until the dough is just right. I used 2/3 of
Durum flour and 1/3 of unbleached flour. In total there was 8/10 of a cup of flour, enough for making two servings (my own serving size).
I am getting very good in making very little mess now working with flour to make fresh pasta. I found out I can really skim on using all that dry flour to to keep the dough from sticking while I am working. By carefully skimming on the dry flour I can keep the pasta roller/cutter machine almost completely free of flour, making clean up a snap.
the batch i made yesterday was a bit thick
This time I made the linguine noodles very thin. Come to think of it, they are really fettuccine now, not linguine. There is a challenge when the noodles is very thin, on top of skimming on the dry flour to keep them from sticking. They want to stick together as soon as they are rolled out of the cutter. I came up with a solution. I have a pot of boiling water ready.
As the fettuccine comes out of the cutter I catch the middle with my other free hand while keep cranking until the dough is cut. Instead of finding a place to air dry them I immediately cook them in the boiling water. It only takes may be 16 seconds to cook. I pulled them out and put them in a pot. With just a bit of olive oil they don't stick together. As there were 4 pieces of rolled dough sheets I did this process 4 times. No mess at all.
you can see these are very thin and delicate; this is from one of the 4 sheets of dough
all 4 small half-cooked batches of fluffy fettuccine - enough for 2 servings
I only quite recently decided to buy the Italian pasta roller/cutter. It is the old fashion one that you used to find in every Italian household. Very well built, simple to maintain, and will last forever. It has two noodle cutters, one for fettuccine/linguine and one for spaghetti. The cutter head is detachable so you can swap in other optional cutters. If you ever want to get one, make sure it is one of the traditional Italian brand, made in Italy. I have the
Marcato Atlas Wellness 150 Pasta Maker, in stainless steel for around $70 from Amazon. I have seen knockoff from China selling for more.
I've grown to love my pasta machine, and cannot help but to think of all the fresh pasta dishes to come.
some of the ingredients
The ingredients are very simple so as not to overwhelm the shellfish and cuttlefish
- home made fettuccine
- butter
- olive oil
- boiled clams and juice
- crab meat and crab tomale
- cuttlefish sliced
- sliced onion
- ginger
- garlic
- black pepper
- big head vegetable 大頭菜 (used in lieu salt)
- Parmesan cheese
- whipping cream (very small amount)
- sliced scallion
the very thinly julienne
big head vegetable 大頭菜, ginger, and onion is saute first, then the raw cuttlefish slices
Most people confuse cuttlefish with squid. Cuttlefish typically is much bigger than squid. It has much thicker body and shorter tentacles. It is tastier than squid and is not as fishy. Cuttlefish has a cuttlebone that is like a hard piece of foam. Chinese name for cuttlefish is black thief 烏賊.
u ain't gonna find this in the Cheesycake Factory
it is very important to put the cooked pasta into the pan and let it soak up the cooking juice (clam juice, crab tomale, whipping cream, and melted cheese; i had to exercise self-control not to eat both servings in one setting
the fettuccine is al dente - it is the most delicious pasta i'd ever have; btw, the proper way to eat pasta noodle is to roll a few strands into a ball with the folk using the curve side of the plate
i brought the crab meat, clam meat, and cuttlefish to the top for this photo op
I really love the use of Chinese
big head vegetable 大頭菜 in this rather Italian dish. Not including picking the meat off the crab, this dish take about 45 minutes to prepare, including making the fettuccine.
While taking time savoring every bite of the dinner, I remember watching a recent health show about the problems with sugar and processed food, and not all calories are the same. In the modern era we eat our food too fast. Food is something we should take the time to enjoy instead of just toss them through the trap. It is not about getting the deed done, but rather the experience of it using all our sensory.
