Pineapple Tarts

Pineapple tarts are an all time favorite chinese new year snack in Singapore, when they really should be an all time favorite snack all around the world all year long. They're a little tedious to make but it's definitely well worth the effort.

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/8 cup powdered sugar
10 tbsp chilled butter
1 egg + 1 yolk beaten
2 tbsp cold water

2 cups/ 1 whole pineapple shredded/pureed
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 whole cloves

1 egg beaten to glaze

1. mix together flour, baking powder, pinch of salt, powdered sugar and butter. Combine ingredients until mixture has a crumbly consistency.

2. make a small well in the middle of the flour mixture and add in the eggs and water. do not over knead the dough. Once the pastry dough comes together wrap it up in some cling wrap and leave in the fridge to chill untill firm (about 2 hours or overnight if preferred).

3. in a saucepan over medium heat, bring pureed pineapple, sugar and cloves to a boil then lower the heat to a simmer. be sure to drain excess water from the pureed pineapple before cooking to reduce the time taken for it to thicken and cook. stir the mixture for about 40 mins until it thickens and turns a golden brown. remove and let it cool and thicken some more.

4. roll out the pastry to a quarter inch in thickness. you will need two different sizes of cookie cutters, 2" and 1" circle cookie cutter. this recipe should yield about 18 tarts. cut out the first layer of tarts and lay them out on a baking sheet. spoon out the pineapple jam in the middle of each 2 inch circle. for the second layer, do the same but this time using the 1" cutter, cut out a hole in the middle to create a ring and place it over the first layer with the filling sticking out in the middle. lightly glaze each tart with the beaten egg.

5. preheat oven to 370 degrees fahrenheit (190 degrees celcius) and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Grilled Roman Pork Chops

Latin was my favorite class in high school.  For christmas I got Harry Potter in Latin and it reignited my interested in Roman stuff.  I started reading parts of Apicius and have wanted to try cooking with ancient Roman flavors.  The problem is finding modern equivalents of certain ingredients.  Thai fish sauce is suppose to be dead on for the ubiquitous garum. Romans also liked to flavor their wines with herbs so vermouth is a pretty good substitute.

For Pork Chops
1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp fennel seed
3 tbsp vermouth
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup water or chicken stock
4 pork chops (about 3/4 inch thick)

For Topping
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
3 tbsp pine nuts
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1 tsp olive oil

1. toast the cumin and fennel seeds over medium heat in a small skillet until fragrant then grind them up.  combine with the parsely, garlic, vermouth, fish sauce, water (or chicken stock), pepper and salt to make the marinade; stir until the salt is dissolved.  Marinade the pork chops for at least 2 hours, over night is better.
2. grill over high heat for about 3 minutes per side.
3. to make the topping, heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.  toast the bread crumbs and pine nuts.  Set aside to cool, once cooled mix in the grated parmesan, sprinkle over the cooked pork chops and serve.

Grilled Shrimp With Sriracha Dip

This dipping sauce is really good, like really good.  It's great these simply grilled shrimp, but would also be good with other seafood, grilled chicken or even crudités.  I stole the bread-in-the-sauce idea (or should I say I was inspired by) from Gordon Ramsey.  It really adds a lot of body to the sauce.

For the shrimp
1 lb shrimp in shells
2 tsp olive oil
salt

For the Dipping Sauce
1 cup cherry tomatos
1/2 cup cubed bread
1 tbsp Siracha
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

1. heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. add in the cubes and sauté them for a minute or two, add in the cherry tomatoes, and continue sautéing for 3 to 4 minutes or until the bread is golden brown and the tomato skin is blistering.
2. move the tomatoes and bread to a blender, add in the balsamic vinegar and siracha.  Blend.  While blending, drizzle in the remaining 3 tbsp of olive oil (or a bit more if you need it to make it a smooth paste).
3. Toss the shrimp with the 2 tsp of olive oil and sprinkle with the salt.  grill over high heat, about 2 minutes per side, or until they are opaque.

Blood Orange Bacon Vinaigrette

This is the first salad dressing I've made that Keith actually likes; figures it takes bacon to finally get Keith to like a salad.  You can replace the blood oranges with normal oranges if you like, I just like the color they give.  It keeps pretty well in the fridge for several days but the bacon drippings will solidify so you'll have to microwave it to re-liguify them before you re-shake the dressing.

1 1/2 tbsp blood orange juice
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
3 tbsp bacon drippings
2 dashes garlic oil
2 dashes ginger oil
2 tbsp olive oil
1 shallot finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

1. Fry the shallots in the bacon drippings over medium high heat until they are golden brown. Set aside to cool.
2. Combine the lemon juice, blood orange juice, rice wine vinegar, garlic oil, ginger oil and mustard in a jar. Seal up and shake. add in the olive oil, shallots with the bacon drippings. Seal up and shake again until an emulsion is formed. season with salt and pepper, toss with lettuce of choice and serve, with a sprinkling of chopped crispy bacon if you like.

Butterbeer

What Harry Potter fan doesn't wanna sit around sipping on some butter beer. Out of all the food stuff J.K. Rowling came up with, not much has captured our interest more than butter beer.  The problem is that I don't like any of the recipes for it I found online (and I've tried just about all of them).  For one thing they tend to be too sweet and they are all assembled drinks (I feel like butter beer should be something you can pour straight out of the bottle and into a nice mug). And the one from Harry Potter would is gross.  So I've started on my mission to develop the perfect butter beer recipe; it's been my white whale and I think I've finally harpooned it.  Since wizards seem to prefer doing things the old fashion way (writing with quills, lighting rooms with candles, riding horse drawn carriages up to Hogwarts (albeit winged dragon-like horses you can only see if you've seen death), I decided to make the soda the old fashion way; soda actually started out as really weak beer brewed to circumvent alcohol taxes. I based this recipe around a milk stout, using lactose to give it a creamy texture. Now I'm not saying this is an quick recipe, and you probably will need to go to some specially stores to get some of the ingredients, but it's worth it.  It's very important to keep everything you're using very clean to prevent wild yeast from infecting your brew and give it off flavors.  You might want to even go as far as rinsing out whatever bowls and utensils you use with boiling water.

6 1/2 cups distilled water
5 oz brown sugar
2 oz lactose
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tbsp butterscotch extract
1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 tsp irish ale yeast (WLP004)

1 tsp light corn syrup.

You'll also need a plastic half liter soda bottle thoroughly cleaned with the label removed, preferably replaced with some cute butter beer label (there are a surprisingly large amount of good ones on google image search)

1. In a medium sauce pan add the brown sugar and 2 cups of the water.  Bring to a boil (this is important because it will kill any microbes and will break the sucrose into glucose and fructose which is easier for the yeast to eat). turn off the heat, and whisk in the cream of tartar and lactose.
2. Move the brown sugar syrup to metal bowl inside a larger bowl filled with ice to cool the syrup as quickly as possible.
3. Once cooled to about 60 to 70 degrees, add the butterscotch and vanilla extracts along with 1/2 tsp of the yeast (it'll come in a test tube, shake it up to get the yeast in suspension, and open it carefully over the sink like a soda, it'll be carbonated). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a cool (65degrees-ish), dark place for 24 hours.
4. Ladle the butter beer into bottle, careful not to disturb the sediment at the bottom. Add in the last 1/4 tsp of yeast and the corn syrup to the bottle, tightly seal and shake to combine.  Place in the same cool dark place for 2-4 more days or until carbonated to your liking then move to the fridge.  Serve chilled and enjoy (while reading quidditch through the ages, pretending that letter did come when you were 10).

Banana Curry Dressing

I was cooking dinner for my parents and, since my mom insists that we have something green for every dinner, I was rushing to come up with some sort of salad so I wouldn't have to listen to that woman flapping her gums all night about how I'm ruining her diet when I saw a banana and figured why not.  the banana gives this dressing a nice creamy texture without having to use any mayo or egg yolks (I haven't completely given up on my New Years resolution to eat healthier).  If you wanna fancy up this salad, some roast peanuts and maybe some chopped bacon added to the lettuce would be nice.

1 banana, cut into chunks
1 clove garlic
the juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or more depending on your taste)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Take the garlic for a spin in a blender.  Once its chopped, add in the banana, lemon juice, curry powder, and cayenne pepper and blend unto smooth.
2. While the blender is going, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. season with salt and pepper, toss with your lettuce of choice (I like arugula) and serve.

Spring Kimono

Sometimes I wonder how much my love of yuzu is because it actually taste that good or the novelty of a new citrus fruit plays a roll.  Anyhoo, this drink is particularly refreshing.

3 oz vodka
1 oz yuzu juice
1/2 oz lillet
about 1 inch piece of cucumber, cut into quarters

1. muddle the the cucumber to let out the juices.
2. add in the remaining ingredients, strain, serve on the rocks.

Valentine Steak with Yuzu Herb Butter

Keith loves steaks with herb butter, so that's what I made him for valentine's day.  Since I'm obsessed with yuzu and citrus goes so well with steak and will cut through the butter. The leftover butter would be great rubbed on chicken before roasting or melted, tossed with pasta.


2 dry aged new york strip steaks (or whatever cut you like)
vegetable (or other neutral) oil
kosher salt

for the butter
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp bacon drippings
2 dashes garlic oil
1 medium shallot, finely chopped
1 tsp parsley finely chopped
1 tsp rosemary, finely chopped
1 tsp chives, finely chopped
1 tsp powdered yuzu zest (or fresh if you can get it)
1/2 tsp white pepper
hefty pinch of salt

1. Combine all the ingredients for the butter and mix with a fork; wrap in plastic wrap and move to the fridge for at least 2 hours.
2. Take the steaks out to come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 500. Lightly coat in oil and sprinkle liberally with salt.
3. Put a cast iron skillet in the oven and let it heat up for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and put over high heat, move the steaks to the pan, searing them for 30-45 seconds per side. Then move the skillet with the steaks back into the oven, cooking for 2-3 minutes, than flip and cook other 2-3 minutes.
4. remove the steaks from the pan and let rest for 5 minutes.
5. now you have options, you can either cut a pat of the butter and let it melt on its own, or even better, add a couple pats to the skillet while it's still hot and let them melt and mix with the steak drippings and then spoon that sauce over the steaks.

Kalimotxo Sangria

This is a combination of 2 Spanish drinks based around wine.  Everyone knows about sangria but kalimotxo is something I stubbled upon on the internet, it's a mix of red wine and coke which at first sounded disgusting but I had to try it and it ended up being pretty good.  This would be great for a little get together with some friends especially since its pretty low alcohol content.  I'd recommend using mexican coke for this (and for any cocktail that uses coke for that matter).  It's made with normal sugar instead of corn syrup; it's not any healthier than american coke, but it's not sickly sweet.  A lot of grocery stores, particularly in areas with high latino/hispanic populations, carry it. You'll normally find it in glass bottles that are a little taller/ stretched out than normal glass coke bottles (when in doubt just check the ingredient list to see that it says sugar instead of corn syrup).

2 parts red wine
1 part pomegranate juice
2 parts Mexican Coke
frozen cherries

1. mix together all of the ingredients in a pitcher. Serve with ice.

Turkey Fried Brown Rice

I don't think I can actually call this healthy but it's healthier than the fried rice I normally make (turkey instead of bacon, brown rice instead of white rice and so on).  I don't really like straight egg whites so I include 1 egg yolk; still lower in calories but you won't know it. You can find maggi seasoning in chinatown; as far as I can figure, it seems like soy sauce thats made with wheat instead of soy, it's pretty good.

1 1/2 cup uncooked brown rice
1 lb ground turkey
1 cup green beans, cut into 1/2-3/4 inch pieces
1 red onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp shaoxing rice wine
2 tsp maggi seasoning
1 tsp sliced dried chiles (more if you like)
1 whole egg plus 2 egg whites, beaten
1 tsp sesame oil
5 tsp olive oil

1. cook the brown rice according to the packages instructions. you can do this the night before, it's better if the rice has some time to dry out.
2. mix 1 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1 tbsp shaoxing rice wine, 1 tsp maggi seasoning
3. blanch the green beans in boiling salted water for about 3 minutes, drain them and run them under cold water to stop the cooking.
4. scramble the eggs over medium low heat. once cooked through, cut into bite sized pieces and then set aside
4. heat a pan or wok over high heat.  Once hot, add in 2 tsp of olive oil and 1/2 tsp sesame oilfollowed immediately by the onion and dried chiles. stir fry for about a minute or 2 then add in the garlic and continue stir frying until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Add in the green beans, continuing to stir fry for another minute, until they take on a bit of color.  remove the vegetables and set aside.
5. put the pan/wok back on the heat, add in the last of the olive oil and sesame seed oil. add in the ground turkey, using a slicing motion with your spatula to break up the mass. continue to fry until cooked through and browned.  keep stirring the meat so pools of liquid don't form.
6. add the vegetables, eggs and cooked rice into the pan. season with the remaining dark soy sauce, shaoxing rice wine, maggi seasoning, salt, and pepper. serve.

Blueberry Muffins

I remember the blueberry muffins my oma making being so good.  Recently I tried them and realized how wrong I was.  Alton Brown's muffins, however, are good but I thought I could give it a try to improve them; this recipe is based off his.  The almond paste and butter flavoring ensure that even if you don't get a blueberry in a bite it'll still be delicious.

12 1/2 oz cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable or other neutral oil
1 egg
1 1/2 tbsp almond paste
1 tbsp butter flavoring
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
hefty pinch of salt

1. Sift or whisk the flour, baking soda, powder, and salt together.
2. In a blender combine the yogurt, sugars, oil, butter flavoring, egg, and almond paste and blend unto homogenized
3. Take a tablespoon of the flour mixture and toss the blueberries in it, this will keep the berries from sinking to the bottom.
3. Pour the wet stuff on the dry stuff, and stir it together as quickly and using as few strokes as possible. The more your stir, the tougher they get so best to minimize it.  Fold in the blueberries
4. fill muffin tins 3/4 of the way full and bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. serve warm with butter or clotted cream.

The Pyrus Punch

My dad told me about when he was younger he'd spend some of his summers in Germany where the kids would drink this stuff made from equal parts beer and sprite, that got me thinking about mixing beer with soda to make a sweet, low alcohol punch. Pyrus is the scientific name for pear; Keith and I were really stumped with coming up with a name and pyrus just sounded cool (evidently its also a bakugan).

8 oz harpoon IPA
6 oz ginger ale
2 oz pear brandy
2 dashes Fee Brothers Old Fashion Bitters

1. pour all the ingredients into a glass. you can do this over ice, but I prefer to just make sure the beer and ginger ale are thoroughly chilled.  If you multiply this recipe to make a whole pitcher you might wanna think about freezing whole pears or chunks to use as ice cubes

Guinness Chocolate Milk Shake

I kept hearing about milkshakes like this and always wrote them off as just sounding gross but then I had an Irish Car Bomb when Keith's room mate turned 21 and suddenly it didn't seem quite so absurd.  This recipe makes a blender full so have some friends over and have a good time.

1 container of chocolate ice cream (14 oz)
1 1/3 cups guinness
1/4 cup Bailey's

1. Put all the ingredients in a blender and, you know, make a milkshake. garnish with whip cream or a sprinkle of coco powder

Duck Fat Brioche

People go nuts for duck fat and for good reason; it's delicious.  This recipe replaces some of the butter with duck fat; it doesn't end up as savory as you would think, and would make great french toast or bread pudding.  You end up with a lot of dough. I used 1/4 of it to make rolls with a dried fruit filling, and the rest to make the loaf.  Either version makes a delicious breakfast.

Starter
2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast
1/2 cup warm milk
1 cup AP flour
1 tbsp sugar

Dough
6 eggs
1/4 cup warm water
2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, at room temperature (2 sticks)
1/2 duck fat, at room temperature
AP flour (lets say maybe 4 cups)

For the fruit fillings
6 oz dried figs
4 oz prunes
3 tbsp honey
2 tbsp ground almonds
1 1/2 tbsp dark rum
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground pepper
pinch of salt

1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water
demerara sugar

For the starter
1. Mix the yeast, milk, and sugar together and let sit for 5 minutes. In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix in the flour. Let it rise, covered, for at least 2 hours.

For the dough
1. Mix the eggs and warm water together.
2. Put 2 cups of AP flour in the work bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, slowly drizzle in 2/3 of the egg mixture with the mixer on low speed to make a batter. add in the salt and sugar.
3. Work in the butter and duck fat into the batter slowly, bit by bit.
4. Slowly drizzle in the rest of the egg mixture.
5. Switch to a dough hook attachment, adding in about 1/2 a cup at a time, work in the AP flour until you get a soft elastic bowl of dough.  It'll be somewhat softer than most bread doughs because the duck fat is so liquid-y at room temperature.
6. Knead the starter and the dough together until completely homogenized. It's easier to do this with a combination of your hands and a bench scraper.
7. Let rise in a greased bowl, covered until doubled in size, about 2 1/2 hours. punch down and then chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes so the fats have a chance to harden up.

For the filling
1. Simply put all the ingredients for the fillings in a food processor and process until it makes a chunky paste.  This should be enough to fill about 1/4 of the dough.

For the Fruit Filled rolls
1. Take a bit of the dough, roughly the size of half of a fist. Roll it out into a circle
4-5 inches wide. Place about 1 1/2 tbsp of the filling in the center (one of the spring loaded fishers is great for this).  Wrap the dough around the filling and squish/twist it to make a seal.
2. Let rise for 30-45 minutes on the pan you are gonna bake them on.
3. Snip the top with kitchen shears to make a shallow X.  Brush with the egg wash and sprinkle with the demerara sugar.  Bake at 375 until golden brown, 15-20 minutes

For the loaf
1. Divide the dough into 9 pieces, rollin each out into a snake the length of the loaf pan. place them in the pan, 3 across, 3 stacks high. (a roll out a bit of the dough, cut it into strips and decorate the top with a lattice pattern, it makes it look way impressive)
2. Let Bench proof for 45 minutes.
3. Brush with the egg wash and sprinkle with the demerara sugar.  Bake at 375 until golden brown and a bamboo skewer comes out clean, about 50 minutes, turning it halfway through the baking time.

Olive Fried Rice

I didn't know that they used olives in Asian cooking but evidently Keith's mom makes this a lot.  The preserved olives can be found in Chinese supermarkets. They don't really taste like olives so don't try to replace them with normal olives.  They're salty and replace the soy sauce you normally add to fried rice.

1 1/2 cups leftover cooked rice
4 tbsp preserved olives
1 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 eggs
1 tsp garlic oil
1 tsp ginger oil
1/2 tsp dried chiles slices
6 oz desired protein (shrimp, squid, pork, chicken, beef, bacon), cut into bite size pieces
1 tsp XO sauce to garnish
1 tbsp+ 1 tsp Chinese cooking rice wine
vegetable or some other kind of neutral oil


1. Beat the eggs with 1 tsp of the rice wine and a pinch of fine grained salt.  Scramble them over medium heat until cooked through and set aside.  Once cool, roughly chop the egg into bite size pieces.
2. Add a tsp of oil to a large frying pan or wok over high heat. add in the garlic, dried chiles, and onion, stir fry until fragrant. add in the protein and stir fry until cooked through (if you are using bacon you should pre-cook it).
3. Add in the rice, olives, garlic oil, ginger oil,and 1 tbsp rice wine. Stir fry until the protein and aromatics are thoroughly integrated and the rice is heated through.  Stir the cooked egg in an serve with a bit of xo sauce if you like.

Macaroni and Cheese

My brother loves macaroni and cheese, or rather he loves my mom's macaroni and cheese. It does taste good but the thing that's really amazing about it is that it tastes nothing like cheese.  She uses so much shredded cheddar in it and for the life of me I have no idea how she sucks the cheese flavor out of it but I digress.  This is MY macaroni and cheese and you can definitely taste the cheese.  It's based loosely on a german cheese spread called obatzda.

8 oz Brie or camembert
12 oz shredded cheese (a mixture of cheddar, gouda, and or mozzarella, smoked or not smoked, whatever you like)
2 tbsp butter, room temperature
4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
4 slices thick cut bacon
1 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp pepper
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup wheat beer
1 tsp lemon juice
1 egg, beaten
2 leeks, shredded
1/2 lb dried elbow macaroni
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs (or crushed cheese crackers)
salt

1. cook the pasta in boiling salted water until just shy of al dente (it'll finish cooking in the oven)
2. remove the rind of the brie/camembert, combine in a bowl with the butter, cream cheese, mustard, pepper, nutmeg, and garlic. use a fork to mush them into a homogenized paste. Thin the cheese mixture with the beer and lemon and then mix in the beaten egg.
3. fry the bacon until crispy, remove from the pan, and drain on paper towels. once the bacon is cool enough to handle, chop it into 3/8 inch pieces. in the bacon dripping, fry the leeks over medium heat until softened and take on a bit of color around the edges. set aside to cool.
4. fold in the bacon, leeks, 10 oz of the shredded, and the cooked pasta (when you drain the pasta run cold water over it to cool it off, you don't wanna add anything to the cheese mixture while its still hot.
5. transfer the mixture to a 2 quart casserole dish, top with the bread crumbs and remaining 2 oz of shredded cheese (sometimes I chop up the brie rind and sprinkle that on top too). back at 350 for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown

Chocolate Egg Cream

This recipe developed from me wanting an egg cream but not having any chocolate syrup so I macgyver-ed up some with honey and coco powder which ended up being way better than hersey's.  This way you can use better quality coco powder than they'd use in the pre-made syrup. It's important to use dutch-processed (also called sweetened) otherwise it'll be too acidic. You can use any honey but the orange blossom does go quite nicely.  If you want it to be non-acoholic, replace the kahlua with coffee and just leave the vodka out.


1 tbsp dutch-processed coco powder
1 tbsp orange blossom honey
1 tbsp kahlua
1/3 cup milk
2/3 cup seltzer
vodka to taste (I do 2 tbsp)

1. in a glass mix the coco powder and kahlua with a fork or small whisk until smooth, stirring in the honey, then milk and vodka.
2. add in ice and stir
3. in a chilled glass add in the seltzer and pour in the coco/milk mixture. serve with a orange spiral.

Lemon Buttermilk Fizz

This recipe is based off of a lemonade recipe from Miss Aimee's tea room, a place I've never been but I really like this recipe.  It seemed so weird I figured it had to be good.  It doesn't actually use buttermilk, but adding lemon to milk to make it curdle is a common substitute for buttermilk.  And the best part is that this lemony drink doesn't require you to squeeze or muddle a single lemon.

4 lemons, cut into chunks
2 cups sugar
4 cups milk (2%)
seltzer
vodka

1. roughly mix the lemon chunks and sugar in a bowl, you aren't really muddling but don't be gentle. let sit for 30 minutes, stirring again halfway through.
2. mix in the milk and let sit for an hour.
3. chances are the milk will curdle, go from opaque to simply cloudy with little white blobs floating in it, no problem; just use a colander or a slotted spoon to fish out the lemon pieces and seeds (don't use a mesh strainer, it's too fine and will remove the curds as well). transfer to a blender and blend for about 30-45 seconds or until it has re-homogenized.
4. pour seltzer over ice in a glass, pour in an equal amount of the milk mixture, and then add in vodka to taste. it's best to pour the seltzer in the glass before the milk mixture or the proteins in the milk will strengthen the bubbles formed when the seltzer is poured and you'll get a huge head on your drink.

Ravioli

Making ravioli isn't something I'd do everyday but if you have the time, it makes a fun afternoon and you can always just much a bunch of them and freeze them. The spices in the pasta dough don't do much for the taste but will change the color (paprika for orange, turmeric for yellow); normal pasta beige is so boring.  I wouldn't eat the 2 fillings together, but apparently I'm the only one in this house that likes dates so I made the ricotta one so they wouldn't bite my head off.

Arugula Ricotta
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup arugula
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 tbsp shredded parmesan
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
pinch of pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp pine nuts

Chorizo and Date
4 oz fresh chorizo, removed from the casing and crumbled up
3-4 dates, chopped
2 tbsp finely grated asiago
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 dried sliced chiles
1 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp coarsely ground hazelnuts
1 tbsp butter

Pasta
2 eggs
3 tbsp water
1 tsp olive oil
hefty pinch salt
hefty pinch paprika or turmeric (optional)
AP flour
egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water)

For the pasta
1. to make the pasta, mix the water, oil, salt, eggs, and the paprika/ turmeric if using.  Make a mound of flour (lets say about 3 cups) on the counter and make a little well in the center, pour in the eggs mixture in the center.  Slowly work in the flour until it's a stiff paste.  Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for at least an hour.
2. knead the dough until its smooth and elastic.
3. roll out the dough until it's about the thickness of a quarter. using a biscuit cutter of about 3 inches in diameter.
4. place about 1 tsp of filling in the center of each circle, fold the pasta circle in half, using the egg wash as glue (only put it on one edge).
5. cook in salted boiling water until they float.

For the arugula and ricotta filling
1. add 1 tbsp of the olive oil to a sauté pan over, add in the garlic and sauté until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add the arugula and cook until wilted.
2. let the arugula cool, roughly chop it up and squeeze out as much moisture from the arugula.
3. mix the arugula with the ricotta, parmesan, nutmeg, and pepper.
4. fill the pasta with it and cook like step 5 in the pasta instructions.
5. heat the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil to a pan over medium heat, sauté the pine nuts until toasted and add in the cooked ravioli. sauté them until they take on some color; keep them moving so they don't stick to the pan. serve, with a bit more parmesan on top

For the chorizo and date
1. add the olive oil to a pan over medium heat. add the chorizo and sauté until throughly cooked through.
2. drain the chorizo on paper towels.
3. mix the cooked chorizo with the dates, cinnamon, and asiago.
4. fill the pasta with it and cook like step 5 in the pasta instructions.
5. melt the butter over medium low heat, add in the dried chiles. sauté for 45 seconds and then add in the cooked ravioli. raise the heat to medium and sauté them until they take on some color; keep them moving so they don't stick to the pan. serve, sprinkled with the ground hazelnuts and maybe a bit more asiago if you like.

Pepperoni Pasta

Keith came up with this and we eat it a lot. You can use normal pepperoni and thats how Keith likes it but I think it's a little nicer to use some special salami. Using some salami from Salumi Artisan Cured Meats makes this extra good.


8 oz spaghetti
3 cloves garlic chopped
1 onion diced
2 oz pepperoni or salami,
1 tbsp italian seasoning
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp sliced red chilies/red pepper flakes
1 tsp garlic oil (optional)
2 tbsp parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

1. boil pasta in salted water (it should taste like ocean water) until al dente. you can add some olive oil to the boiling water to prevent foam overs.
2. in a separate pan add the olive oil, butter, garlic, onion, chilies, and italian seasoning fry for about 2 minutes or until fragrant.
3. add in the pepperoni/ salami and continue to fry until the meat takes a bit of color.
4. turn down the heat down to low and toss in the pasta. mix the ingredients and pasta well for a minute. turn off the fire and add in the parmesan. stir well and serve. add extra cheese if desired.