Category Archives: Forking Recipes

Interesting twists on everyday things as well as the unusual

Hand Rolled Spinach Taleggio Ravioli Recipe

The dough for these ravioli is based on hand rolled ravioli by Cooks Illustrated Magazine. I did that recipe and had trouble with it due to not using the brand flour they recommended (King Arthur). They did explain that all brands of flour are ground different so you will have a different result with each brand of flour. I’ve found that with other brands that you might need up to 1/3 cup more flour. I do love the recipe very much because it’s easy to hand roll pasta this way and you don’t have to mess with a machine. I did add salt to the original recipe because I felt it needed a small amount of salt. I happened to have spinach and delicious Taleggio cheese to use at home so that is what I filled them with. You have many choices of sauce that would work well with these ravioli. You could do browned butter, a thin white sauce laced with parmigiana, a tomato sauce, a meat sauce. I did something different but delicious. I used some of my tomato sauce. I added the drained spinach water that had lots of flavor in it and I also added the leftover spinach Taleggio ravioli filling to my tomato sauce and it tasted great and went well with the ravioli. This recipe make 12 big ravioli. My idea of serving size will differ from your idea of serving size. I think about 2 ravioli (to be eaten as a starter or side) is a serving but my husband would say that he needs at least 5 ravioli…. see what I mean? This recipe makes 12 big ravioli…Serve it the way you want.

Ingredients for around 3 servings

2 eggs

3 egg yolks (one white needs to be save and mixed well to seal ravioli)

1 cup all purpose flour plus extra to roll *****(with some brands of flour I’ve found that you might need up to 1/3 cup more flour*****)

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 pinches sea salt

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (filling)

9 oz spinach (filling)

3 1/2 oz sweet onion – sliced extra thin..slightly chopped (filling)

1 garlic clove – ground to paste or microplane (filling)

ground black pepper to taste (filling)

ground sea salt to taste (filling)

2 pinch ground white pepper (filling)

few grates fresh nutmeg (filling)

1 crushed dried Calabrian chili or a pinch of dried crushed red pepper (filling)

4 oz Taleggio cheese cut in small pieces (filling)

1/4 cup semolina flour or corn meal for laying the ravioli before you cook them

Directions

Heat up a big fry pan on medium high heat with 2 Tablespoons olive oil. When the oil is hot add the onions. They will cook up like in a minute if you sliced them thin. Then add the spinach and then add the garlic, salt, peppers and nutmeg. Add the Taleggio last and take off heat and place spinach mixture in a colander that is over a bowl to drain. Put this to the side.

Make dough.

Either by hand with a fork with a bowl or in a food processor. Combine eggs, yolks, flour (you might need up to a 1/3 cup more), 1 tablespoon olive oil and 2 pinches sea salt. Mix well till it feels like a smooth ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest 20 minutes.

Either roll on a rolling mat or a large cutting board. Cover surface with some extra flour and add a small amount of flour to the top of dough so that the dough doesn’t stick to it. Also you need to line some sheet tray(s) with parchment paper and put a semolina (or corn meal coating for your ravioli to rest on.

Ok now roll out some or all of the dough very thin. You can make them any shape or size you like. Mine were 3 1/2 in ch circles)

Now you use your reserved egg white to use like glue for the ends of your raviolis. Use either a pastry brush or your finger to paint on the egg white on the edges of the pasta. Filll with about a tablespoon of filling (drain the filling as you go). Slightly stretch the top layer like a pizza dough because it needs to be slightly bigger to fit over the filling. Pinch the edges together with your finger or a fork. Each ravioli needs to be placed on a semolina (or corn meal) lined pan or even a towel.

Gently boil the ravioli in either salted water or sauce. They cook up very fast like 1-2 minutes a side. I cooked mine in my tomato sauce (recipe on site) that I added the spinach water and leftover spinach filling. Topped them with some grated parmesan cheese.

Hand Rolled Spinach Taleggio Ravioli

Delicious I think everyone will like them!

The Forking Truth

Mushroom and Pea Crepes over a Spinach garlic Dashi Puree Recipe Inspired by chef Dominique Crenn’s Breton-Inspired Crepes

I saw this amazing looking crisp disk of a crepe in Food and Wine Magazine by chef Dominique Crenn. It was over vegetables in a green sauce and I knew that I wanted to try this recipe. After I read the recipe I had to come up with changes for several reasons. I had to make a different crepe for allergy reasons. I also made a different puree because for an unknown reason maybe a misprint? Maybe a different quality of produce? It didn’t work out for me. I had to make the puree with a different flavor and less fat. I substituted regular button mushrooms for the recommended wild mushrooms. I did make a basic dashi instead of a more complex shiro dashi. It came out amazing anyway.

This recipe is about 4 servings

1 egg – beaten

1/4 cup + 2 teaspoons water

1 Tablespoon + 1 1/2 teaspoons unsalted butter – melted

1/4 cup flour

pinch salt

neutral non stick spray

1/4 cup unsalted butter

6 garlic cloves – smashed and chopped fine

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup dashi (basic dashi is just bonito flakes boiled with kelp)

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1 cup chopped yellow onion

8oz mushrooms – sliced

1/2 cup peas

1/4 cup dashi

1 teaspoon tarragon

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard

Directions

Make crepes.

Either make two big crepes to split or 4 little crepes. Get a fry pan on medium heat with non stick spray. In a small bowl mix together the egg, water, melted butter, flour, pinch salt and mix well. pour half into large fry pan if you are making big crepes or a couple tablespoons if you prefer small crepes. Loosely cover the pan and they cook pretty fast…and might be done in about a minutes. Set the done crepes to the side.

Make the puree.

Get a fry pan and set it on medium low. Melt the butter and add spinach, garlic salt. Cook for about 15 minutes. Blend it up with 1/2 cup of dashi till smooth. Set to the side.

Make mushroom filling.

Melt 1/4 cup butter in a fry pan on medium heat. Add onions. Stir often and cook till onions are beginning to brown (about 8-10 minutes). Add mushrooms and cook till tender (about 6-8 minutes). Add peas and a 1/4 cup of dashi and cook till most of the liquid is gone. Remove from heat and stir in the tarragon, lemon juice and dijon.

Assemble

Spread puree on plates. Fill crepes with mushroom filling and serve immediately.

Mushroom and Pea Crepes over Spinach Garlic Dashi Puree

It’s delicious!

A special THANKS! to Chef Dominique Crenn and Food & Wine Magazine. I would never have thought of lacing dashi into a dish like this. It’s Forking Amazing!

The Forking Truth

Pickled Rainbow Bell Peppers Recipe

I find that I am using pickled rainbow baby bell peppers a lot in all kinds of things lately. They go well in salads and on sandwiches. I also used them to decorate a flatbread. They are very easy to make. They will stay fresh for about 3 months. If you want them to have a little kick or heat you can shave a Serrano pepper or two into it.

Ingredients for around 12 servings.

11 oz baby bell peppers (you can probably squeeze a pound in) remove stem, core and slice in rings

2 cups white vinegar

2 cups rice wine vinegar

2 cups water

4 Tablespoons kosher salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 sweet onion chopped

6 garlic cloves – chopped

1 Tablespoon black peppercorns

1 Tablespoon coriander seeds

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon dry oregano

Direction

Put your peppers and onions in a sterilized container.

Put a sauce pot on medium high heat with everything except for the peppers. Bring to a boil. Then pour the contents into the peppers.

Leave on counter until this turns room temperature and then refrigerate. Don’t use until at least tomorrow. Enjoy all the different things that you can do with them.

I decorated a flatbread with pickled rainbow bell peppers.

I used them with tequila batter cauliflower.

Squash with neonata, olive oil smoked paprika potatoes, peppered feta and pickled peppers

Enjoy!

Pickled Rainbow Baby Bell Peppers
The Forking Truth

Forking DELICIOUS Salsa recipe

I had 9 pints of cherry and grape tomatoes so I made a delicious salsa out of them. To make this recipe as delicious as I made it you have to make my pickled jalapeños and my pickled cascabella peppers because they are part of the recipe. I think they just might be the secret here! Anyway this salsa comes out fabulous and just might be the most Forking Delicious salsa that you have ever tasted. My idea of serving size will differ from your idea oof serving size and since salsa is a condiment it is really difficult to judge serving size. This recipe makes around 12 cups of Forking Delicious Salsa. I guess it will be around 20 servings. It’s made with vinegar so it should stay fresh for three weeks or more.

Ingredients for around 20 servings

9 pints small tomatoes rough chopped (mine were a combination oof cherry and grape tomatoes)

1 large red bell pepper – core and stem removed – chopped

1 large sweet onion – chopped

3 large pickled jalapeños – chopped (preferably The Forking Truth Recipe)

1/2 cup pickled cascabella peppers (preferably The Forking Truth Recipe)

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

12 garlic cloves – ground to paste or microplane

1 Tablespoon sea salt

2 limes – just the fresh squeezed juice

2 cups fresh cilantro (leaves and only tender stems – chopped)

1/2 bunch fresh mint (leaves only) – chopped

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 cup scallions – chopped

1 Tablespoon dried oregano

Directions

Blend. Serve and Enjoy!

Forking Delicious Salsa

It really is FORKING DELICIOUS!

The Forking Truth

Tequilia Battered Cauliflower with Chipotle dust, Chimichurri & Lime Pickled Peppers inspired by chef Aaron Sanchez’s Decadent Tequila battered Cauliflower Tacos Recipe

I came across chef Aaron Sanchez’s recipe for Decadent Tequila battered Cauliflower Tacos and as AMAZING as they sound I wanted to make them less (fattening) decadent. By cutting out the tortilla and incorporating that flavor in the batter I cut a little there. I cut way more by eliminating the generous thick smear of chipotle mayonnaise. More decadence was cut when I removed the cheese from the original recipe. The cauliflower still is rich and delicious. It still isn’t diet food but much of the guilt was cut. As far as serving size the original recipe says it is for 4-5 servings. Servings do differ and each cauliflower will differ in size and in denseness. My cauliflower was very dense and I got maybe 40 florets. After they were battered each one seemed very large to me and I thought I got like 10 servings. They still came out very delicious and you will want to eat several. They are very crisp when they are hot but as they cool they don’t stay as crisp but you can bring back the crisp in your oven.

Ingredience for around 7 servings

7 limes (just the fresh squeezed juice)

1 lime – cut into wedges for serving with cauliflower

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 Tablespoon salt (divided into three teaspoons + extra to taste)

2 serrano peppers – sliced extra thin

3-6 rainbow baby bell peppers (they differ greatly in size when in doubt make more because they taste good) – sliced extra thin

1/2 cup flat leaf parsley leaves

1/2 bunch cilantro rough chopped

1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoons capers

1 1/2 teaspoons caper brine

1 scalion – rough chopped

1 garlic clove – ground to paste or microplane

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

canola oil for frying

1 cup ap flour

1 cup corn masa flour

1 cup corn starch

2 cups club soda

3 Tablespoons silver tequila

1 large head cauliflower – cut into florets

smoked paprika to taste

mild chili powder to taste

ground chipotle to taste (only 99cents at sprouts grocery)

Directions

In a small bowl combine lime juice, sugar, one teaspoon salt. 1 1/2 serrano peppers, baby bell peppers. Leave on counter one hour.

Blend parsley, cilantro, vinegar, capers, brine, scallion, garlic, 1/2 serrano, and one teaspoon salt. Blend till chopped and slowly add olive oil and keep blending. Set to the side.

Get a pot on to fry on medium high heat with the canola oil. You need enough oil to fry up the cauliflower florets. You also need either a cooling rack with something under to catch the oil or a sheet pan with paper towels.

This seemed like too much batter but it wasn’t. In a large bowl combine flours, corn starch, remaining one teaspoon salt and slowly add soda until it looks pourable. You might not need it all.

Be careful frying. Use thongs to dip cauliflower in batter and carefully fry in oil till done. Don’t crowd the pan. They should fry up in 2-3 minutes. Repeat till done.

Sprinkle with salt, smoked paprika, mild chili powder and ground chipotle.

Either dip or toss in chimichurri and top with some lime pickled peppers and wedges of lime.

Tequila Battered Cauliflower with chipotle chimichurri and lime pickled peppers.

YOU and YOURS will ENJOY because these are FORKING DELICIOUS!

A SPECIAL THANKS to chef Aaron Sanchez for sharing his recipe for Decadent Tequila Battered Cauliflower Tacos.

The Forking Truth

Cucumbers with Radish Sprouts, Rainbow Baby Bell Peppers Feta, Mint and Urfa Pepper Recipe

I had 4 English cucumbers and came up with a Middle Eastern Inspired cucumber salad. It’s light and delicious. It’s not very spicy but does have a small amount of mild heat. I’ve found that radish sprouts not only look pretty but also make any cucumber salad extra delicious. I made this salad with ground Aleppo pepper and Urfa pepper that you might have to order on-line. I’ve found them at my local Asian Market. My idea of serving size might differ from your idea of serving size.

Ingredients for around 6 servings.

4 English cucumbers – ends trimmed and sliced (you can use regular cucumbers with seeds removed or Persian cucumbers would be best but I don’t know how many would equal 4 English cucumbers)

7 rainbow baby bell peppers with end and core remove. Slice into rings.

1/2 sweet onion – sliced

1/4 cup fresh mint leaves – chopped

2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro – chopped

2 Tablespoons fresh parsley leaves – chopped

1 cup radish sprouts

4 oz feta – crumbled (preferably a less tangy less salty one)

1 Tablespoon Urfa pepper

1 Meyer lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice

1 orange – just the fresh squeezed juice

2 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 garlic clove – ground to paste or microplane

1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper

Directions

In a big bowl add the cucumbers, baby bells, sweet onion, mint, cilantro, parsley and radish sprouts. Set to the side.

In a small bowl mix up the olive oil, lemon juice, orange juice, salt, garlic and Aleppo peppers and mix well and add to big bowl of cucumbers.

Add the feta cheese and urfa pepper and mix well. Top the cucumber salad with the peppered feta.

Enjoy!

Cucumbers with Radish Sprouts, Rainbow Baby Bell Peppers, Feta, Mint and Urfa Pepper
The Forking Truth

Stir Fried Chicken Recipe

I throw together this chicken and got the idea to marinate it similar to the way I did ramen eggs. It was pretty easy to stir fry and came out FORKING AMAZING! After I stir fried the chicken I stir fried quick cooking vegetables with a little garlic, oil, soy sauce and mirin. WOW! It taste as FORKING AMAZING as it smells! My husband gave me the greatest compliments on it too and he usually isn’t a fan of Asian Food. The chicken also came out super moist delicious and perfect. I wasn’t planning on publishing this so I didn’t measure exact but this is really easy to wing.

Ingredients for around 2 dinners

1 – 1/2 breast of chicken (around a pound raw) without skin and bone – butterfly and remove tender – half the butterfly – cut across into strips about as wide as your finger.

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup mirin

1/3 cup water

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon granulated garlic

around 4 cups vegetables mostly soft (I used a carrot sliced like spaghetti, 1/2 onion slice thin, handful snow peas, handful snap peas, cup cabbage (chopped) and maybe 2 cups zucchini that was spiral cut.

1 hot pepper sliced paper thin or fine chop (I used a Serrano)

3 garlic cloves – ground to paste or microplane

2 tablespoons canola oil

splash soy sauce

splash mirin

4 pinches toasted sesame seeds (to finish)

fresh cilantro (around two Tablespoons to finish)

few shakes togarashi if you have it.

crushed sea salt to taste (not much)

fresh ground pepper to taste

optional non stick spray (I started the chicken in a regular fry pan that isn’t non stick)

optional ramen eggs to finish with.

Directions

Depending on the pan you are using you need to add a little oil or non stick spray and put your pan on high heat. The chicken only needs only a short time and you start pushing the pieces around so it browns all over. Maybe a total of two minutes to cook the chicken. Put the chicken to the side in a big bowl.

Add oil to the pan. Start frying up the harder vegetables till they are almost done. Remove them and add them to your bowl of chicken. Add the sauces and garlic and softer vegetables. Add them to bowl. Salt and pepper slightly or to taste. Serve it up and top with cilantro, sesame seeds, optional togarashi. Finish with ramen eggs if you already made them.

Ramen eggs are easy to prepare and are very delicious. Slow boil eggs for 7 minutes and then they go into ice bath. They need to marinate over night in equal parts of soy sauce mirin and water.

Stir Fried Chicken and Vegetables

Then when I threw this into a bowl to eat it looked like this.

FORKING DELICIOUS!

The Forking Truth

Ramen Eggs Recipe

Ramen eggs are very easy to prepare and are delicious! You can enjoy them many ways. You can enjoy them plain, to dress up a vegetable dish, any soup dish, a salad, a burger or sandwich or even a dinner. I didn’t create this recipe but found it on the web years ago and can’t find the same one again to give the author credit. I did find that many recipes are similar. You have some flexibility with the recipe and adjust it to your needs. You cook the eggs the way I did and you just need to remember to marinate the eggs over night in a solution that is 1/3 soy sauce, 1/3 mirin and 1/3 water. I wrote the recipe in 1/3 cup measurements but I used a 1/3 cup dry measuring cup because that is easier to eyeball. It doesn’t have to be exact but the measurements are meant to be even.

Ingredients for 6 servings (I did 7 eggs and it was enough)

Water to cover eggs well in pot

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup mirin

1/3 cup water

Directions

1- Bring a pot of water to boil with enough water to cover eggs well.

2 – Add eggs slowly with a spoon and don’t drop them in or they will break

3 – turn heat down. Water must barely bubble.

4 – Cook 7 minutes

5 – Ice bath eggs.

6 – Marinate eggs over night.

They are Forking Delicious!

Enjoy!

The Forking Truth

Tomato Soup with Grilled CHEESE Ravioli Recipe

I had these plum tomatoes that had to be used so I made a tomato soup. I made it chunky but if you like smooth you can blend, strain and add a little cream if you like. After I made it I thought what can I do to make it more interesting? I thought I’d make grilled cheese ravioli so I did. The soup is far more interesting now. My idea of serving size will differ from your idea of serving size. To me this makes 4 bigger servings or 6 smaller servings.

Ingredients for around 6 servings

2 Tabllespoons olive oil

1 onion – chopped – like pea sized

1 carrot – remove skin, trim end, chop into small cubes like pea sized

3 garlic cloves – ground to paste or microplane

1 1/2 plum tomatoes (they must be super ripe like one day from throw away) – remove the stem button and dice small

14 oz Italian crushed tomatoes

2 cups water

1 Tablespoon vegetable soup base (this adds flavor and also reduces the salt added)

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper (or to taste)

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

1 egg

2 egg yolks + one of the egg whites to seal ravioli

1 1/2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

pinch sea salt

10 slices American cheese

2 oz butter to fry with

2 Tablespoons corn meal or semolina to rest ravioli on

few squirts of olive oil so ravioli don’t stick

optional a few fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons flour + extra flour for rolling *****amount of flour may differ slightly because different brands are ground different****It’s possible that you might need 2 Tablespoons less*****Start with 1/2 cup flour and slowly add till dough isn’t too sticky

Directions

In a big mixing bowl add the egg and yolks and mix well. Then add the oil and salt and mix well. Add 1/2 a cup of flour and mix well. You might need up to two tablespoons more flour. Slowly add flour until the dough is smooth and not too sticky. Knead it into a ball pat some flour all over it and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate about an hour.

Make soup.

In a sauce pot on medium high heat add the olive oil. When the olive oil is hot add the onions and carrot. Stir Occasionally and cover. This takes around five minutes. Add the garlic, plum tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, water, soup base, black pepper, thyme, salt, basil and white pepper. Bring to boil and reduce to simmer. Let it simmer about 20 minutes.

Roll out ravioli dough.

Cut out a circle and brush it with egg white.

Put about 1/2 a slice of cheese in the lower middle of ravioli. Fold and seal and place on semolina (or corn meal) lined tray.

If you have a dog it might appear by your feet now hoping that you will drop cheese.

Repeat till done. ( made 19 ravioli but I had to roll up scraps and re-rolll the dough..The second dough I couldn’t get as thin or as tender but it still was good)

Boil for one minute.

Fry in butter on both sides for about a minute or until lightly brown and serve with soup.

I guess you might have enough ravioli to give more than two ravioli a person but I thought two was the right size serving. You will have more ravioli than soup if you give two but don’t worry. They are so delicious that the ravioli will go fast. They taste like a grilled cheese sandwich but they are ravioli.

Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Ravioli

Add some fresh basil if you have any.

My husband said that he could eat all the grilled cheese raviolis. I hate to brag but they really are FORKING GREAT!

The Forking Truth

4 Ingredient Roll Recipe

You need a stand mixer bread flour, salt, water and active dry yeast to make these rolls. The dough will be sticky so you need to knead it with extra flour. They come out DELICIOUS! This recipe make 8 good sized rolls.

Ingredients for 8 rolls

3 1/2 cups bread flour plus extra flour for kneading

1 (slightly heaping) Tablespoon sea salt

1 3/4 cups water

1 1/2 pack active dry yeast (around slightly heaping Tablespoon)

A small amount of semolina, corn meal or flour to rest dough balls on so they don’t stick to surface.

Directions

Everything goes in your stand mixer bowl. Mix everything up by hand so you don’t have flour going all over the place. Use your dough hook and set the mixer on medium high for around 5. minutes or until the dough is like elastic.

Get a large bowl and make a nice little bed of flour for your dough ball.

Make the dough into a dough ball. kneading it till it feels like a nice dough ball.

Cover with plastic wrap and leave it sit out 4 hours. Then punch the dough down and knead it into a dough ball. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 10 hours.

After ten hours pull out of the refrigerator and punch the dough down and divide the dough into eight by quartering it and cutting each quarter in half.

You need to lay down a large baking sheet or two baking sheets to rest dough balls on. The sheets need either flour, corn meal or semolina on them so your dough balls don’t stick.

The eight pieces of dough need to be kneaded into balls. Place each dough ball on a baking sheet that has either flour, corn meal or semolina on it and let the dough balls double in size.

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.

I used my very oiled stone to bake the rolls on but I warn you that I took a chance.

Most bread stones can’t take 500 degree heat and might crack or burst. They make bread stones out of iron now that are more durable.

If I didn’t have a stone I would have used my pizza pan lightly sprayed with non stick spray.

Mine were perfect in 11 minutes…timimg might differ slightly.

Four Ingredient Rolls

Enjoy!

The Forking Truth