hack – Lady and Pups

In All recipes, Noodle/Pasta/Rice

HOW TO USE KITCHEN TOOLS TO MAKE FRESH PASTA

OMG YOU GUYS HAVE TO TRY THIS OUT!

Inspired by @miyukiadachi, a Japanese pasta chef in Toronto who creates beautiful pasta with self-made pasta boards or even vegetable grater! It made me wonder what kind of pasta shapes I could potentially create in my own home without spending an extra dime, and after testing with what I have in my kitchen drawer, I’m amazed at how many different and beautiful fresh pasta shapes that came out from simple kitchen tools like tongs! Like rice spatula! Or even from making my own pasta board simply with wooden skewers!

Here, three types of fresh pasta doughs that could be used interchangeably with each different method. Really!? Do you really want to hear me say another word at this point?! Go! Run! Make it now!

MUSHROOM WATER PASTA DOUGH:

Yields 2 servings

1 1/2 cup (195 grams) tipo 00 flour, or all-purpose flour
2 large egg yolk
1/8 tsp salt
5 tbsp mushroom water (the water you use to soak dry mushrooms)

Mix flour, egg yolk, salt and mushroom water in a large bowl with a fork until it come into a shaggy dough. Transfer onto a working surface and knead vigorously for at least 5~6 min, until the dough is very smooth and silky. The dough should feel soft but not sticky. If it feels sticky, knead in a bit more flour. If it feels crackly and dry, wet your hands with water and knead it into the dough. Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and let rest for at least 1 hour. Shape into fresh pasta according to video instruction.

*NOTE: DO NOT add egg whites into this type of chubby pasta, or else it would become really tough!

FRESH BASIL PASTA DOUGH:

Yields 2 servings

2 large handfuls of fresh basil leaves
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup (195 grams) tipo 00 flour, or all-purpose flour
2 large egg yolk
4 1/2 tbsp water

In a mortar, grind fresh basil leaves and salt together until it become a fine paste. Mix the basil paste, flour, egg yolk and water in a large bowl with a fork until it come into a shaggy dough. Transfer onto a working surface and knead vigorously for at least 5~6 min, until the dough is very smooth and silky. The dough should feel soft but not sticky. If it feels sticky, knead in a bit more flour. If it feels crackly and dry, wet your hands with water and knead it into the dough. Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and let rest for at least 1 hour. Shape into fresh pasta according to video instruction.

*NOTE: DO NOT add egg whites into this type of chubby pasta, or else it would become really tough!

WOODEN SKEWER PASTA BOARD:

Find a small rectangle of a sturdy material as your foundation (I used a cork pad, but you can use wood board or anything you have on hand). Cut the wooden skewers into the same length as your board, then line them on top of the board using all-purpose glue (don’t use too much! just enough to stick!). Leave wider gap between each skewer if you want a deeper ridge. After you’re done, press the board down with something heavy (like cast-iron skillet) until it’s completely dried. Clean the ridges on the board with a toothpick if they are stuck with excess flour after using.

PAPRIKA PASTA DOUGH:

Yields 2 servings

1 1/2 cup (195 grams) tipo 00 flour, or all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tbsp paprika powder
1/8 tsp salt
2 large egg yolk
5 tbsp water

Mix the flour, paprika powder, salt, egg yolk and water in a large bowl with a fork until it come into a shaggy dough. Transfer onto a working surface and knead vigorously for at least 5~6 min, until the dough is very smooth and silky. The dough should feel soft but not sticky. If it feels sticky, knead in a bit more flour. If it feels crackly and dry, wet your hands with water and knead it into the dough. Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and let rest for at least 1 hour. Shape into fresh pasta according to video instruction.

*NOTE: DO NOT add egg whites into this type of chubby pasta, or else it would become really tough!

07.26.2016

In All recipes, Meat, Snacks

THE WORLDLY PULLMAN-TORTILLA TACOS

IS IT,

LET’S EAT NOW AND KILL EACH OTHER LATER?

What has this world come to? Or, all along, this is how we always have been?

I know. This is a food blog, rainbows and marshmallows and summer noodle salads. Politics, world affairs… are not palatable, instead, I should be talking about pumpkin pies. But you see, this is the thing. Talking about foods, in a time like this. How can we, so at ease, not taste the irony between the bettering tolerance for flavours on our dining tables, and the boiling hostility on just about everything beyond? Food-wise, in the history of mankind, the world has never come so open-minded, so intimately close to sharing and tasting the very same beliefs that are being enjoyed from the other side of the map. We can all agree on the cold silkiness of a piece of raw fish on a small nub of tangy rice. The cool creaminess of hummus meandering around the sizzling spiced kebabs. The good funk of cheese melting into the chewiness of a hand-torn crusty baguette. A sip of wine. It registers the same. The contentment in common. The smile radiating from our torsos. Ah, yes, that wonder you’re tasting over there, I’m feeling it right here too, understanding, happy-ing, at the same time, over the same things. How is it that we could relate so much in happiness, and yet, empathise so little in suffering. Can we really talk about foods, without thinking about politics? Or is it, let’s eat now and kill each other later?

Really bad things happened in Paris. Here we all mourned, in shock, in disbelief, compassionate. Meanwhile, the exact same really bad things, just as bad, sometimes worse, happens not that far away almost every week on that side, perhaps your side, stacking up silently like morning pancakes. Beirut 3 days ago, Ankara last month, other cities of dwindling lights. But… that was just inks on newspapers, no hashtags in its grief. Has even my sympathy, where I decide to spare it, become part of the problems? Why is it only you and I, yours and mine, and nothing in between? We’re all micros teeming on a speck of dust in this universe, but somehow, we still manage to divide beyond our means, to sever what is better as one, to split the atoms. I don’t. Wanna. Exist like this.