To make the best cannoli filling you have to start with fresh made cheese that you forking made yourself.

Fresh made cheese is only whole milk, heavy cream fresh squeezed lemons and a little kosher salt. You bring the milk, cream and salt to a slow boil and let it go a few minutes.

To make it curd you slowly add the fresh squeezed lemon juice till it curds as much as you want.

For cannoli filling I want it to curd more than ricotta because I want my cheese thicker so when I add sugar to sweeten the cheese it doesn’t get forking runny.

Now it’s time to drain the cheese.

So I get a paper towel lined colander.

Let it drain.

Now I have Cheese.

I make three flavors of filling.

Vanilla, chocolate and cinnamon.

The vanilla is just vanilla extract, sugar with a drop of anise.

The cinnamon is just cinnamon, a small amount of vanilla extract and sugar.

The chocolate is coco powder, vanilla extract, a drop of anise, a pinch of cinnamon and sugar.

I used one gallon of milk, 1 quart of cream, 2 fresh lemons and maybe 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt to make the cheese.

I saved somewhere between 1/4-1/3 of the cheese to make Cheese Gnocchi’s with the forking leftover.

Ricotta Gnocchi

On my search type in Ricotta Gnocchi for the recipe.

Forking Good!

I’ve been making Cannoli’s for a long time now. A while back  back I tried out the basic five recipes for Cannoli’s. Some forking fell apart. One came out too hard and thick. Some seemed good but got baked on to my cannoli tubes. None of those were perfect and sometimes the batter was so dry you couldn’t make a dough out of it. I figured out how to do them best learning a little from all the recipes so I made my forking own recipe.

Ingredients (will make about 18 smaller sized shells)

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon sugar

pinch kosher salt

about 1/8 cup water

about 1/8 cup wine

about 1 beaten large egg white (use 1/2 in recipe and half to seal)

A little extra flour for dusting your rolling pin and table or mat.

Mix up butter and sugar together. (doesn’t need to be creamed) Add flour and salt then combine. Add wine and water mix well. You will need to add about 1/2 of one large beaten egg white to form the dough. Mix well and let rest 1/2-1 hour.

Roll out thin. Either cut into desired sized squares or cut in desired sized round shapes. I find it easiest to pinch off maybe a scant teaspoon size of dough and roll it out in sort of a round shape on a dusted silicone mat.

Apply loosely to tube.

Use remaining 1/2 beaten egg white to seal shells together on tube.

Deep fry at 350 degrees in a neutral oil until crisp and desired color.

When cool remove from tube.

When still warm dust the shells with powdered sugar.

I recommend filling with home made ricotta cannoli filling. Other options are ice cream or whipped cream mixed with custard.

Since you fired up the fryer you might as well make potato or vegetable chips.

Rutabaga and Potato Chips with a light sprinkle of Sea Salt. (just slice thin, blot dry and fry till crisp)

Forking Good

Cardoons

I don’t come across  cardoons often so I thought I’d make something tasty and special out if it. They look sort of like celery but thought of  Cardoons as an artichoke since it’s from the artichoke family and thought it would be forking delicious fried with Parmesan and fresh herbs. After all isn’t anything forking fried delicious that way.

Cardoons are more work than most vegetables.

Cardoon

By the time it gets to your market most of the forking thorns and leaves are removed but not all.

Remove small thorns on each side of the stalks and peal the fibers from the stalk tops.

Then you cut the Cardoons in pieces.

Now at this point almost everyone boils  cardoons in vinegar laced water. The cardoons are forking bitter but boiling the cardoons till tender in vinegar water improves the flavor. Then set your Cardoons in something to drain.

Now were forking ready to cook!

Ingredients

One Cardoons bunch (some are small some are big already cleaned up and cooked in vinegar laced water with a little Kosher Salt)

1 cup panko crumbs or grated artisan bread crumbs

1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

scant 1/4 cup crushed hazelnuts

sprig of fresh oregano chopped fine

small sprig or half of large sprig fresh rosemary chopped fine

1 small garlic clove minced or chopped fine

1 small spicy chili chopped fine

2 beaten eggs

Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Fresh Ground Sea Salt

Canola or vegetable oil to fry with

Directions

You need Two large bowls.

In your dry bowl you want your panko or bread crumbs, hazelnuts, parmesan and 1/2 of your chopped herbs, garlic, and chili. Add salt and pepper.

In your wet bowl you have your beaten eggs with the other half of the chopped up spices and add salt and pepper.

Get your Cardoons.

and now dip in egg mixture and then in dry mixture and do them all.

Now your ready to fry!

Hopefully your fryer or fry pan is at around 350 degrees.

Try one tester piece of cardoon and see how it fries.

They only need a minute or so on each side.

After your batch is fried when they are still hot you should taste one and decide if you want to add more fresh ground Salt and pepper to them.

Crispy Cardoons with reduced Balsamic Drizzle

They come out very tasty and forking delicious and crispy. I think this might be the best way to eat cardoons.

Forking Good!