Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Pasta Fusili



Had this for dinner last night with a green salad and garlic bread with the addition of 1/2 cup red wine. VERY GOOD! This is a good pasta dish that you can reheat and eat on for several days. Light, yet filling!

Ingredients

Serves 4 to 6

* 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons coarse salt
* 1 pound good-quality Fusilli
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
* 3 cups quartered cherry tomatoes or 1 (1-pound, 12-ounce) can tomatoes
* 15 large fresh basil leaves, julienned
* 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 1 pound whole milk mozzarella, whole if possible, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
* Grated Parmesan cheese, optional

Directions

1. Fill a large pot with 5 quarts water; season with 2 tablespoons salt, and bring to a boil over high heat. Add fusilli to boiling water and cook according to package directions.
2. Add grape seed oil and garlic to a medium skillet and place over high heat. Cook until edges of garlic turn golden, about 1 minute. Using your hands, break up and squeeze tomatoes directly into skillet. Immediately add basil, remaining 2 teaspoons salt, and pepper. Bring sauce to a boil; immediately reduce heat to medium.
3. When pasta is cooked, remove sauce from heat. Stir mozzarella into sauce until well combined. Using a wire-mesh skimmer, transfer pasta to sauce. Fold fusilli into sauce until mozzarella has attached itself to the fusilli.
4. Serve immediately with Parmesan, if desired.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Manapua

Dough:
5-6 C Flour
1/4 C Sugar
1 3/4 C Warm water
2 Tbsp Shortening
1 Tbsp Yeast









Filling:
1 lb Char siu (BBQ Pork-shown); Shoyu Chicken; Pizza Sausage-Ground Beef; Seafood
Cooking Instructions
Dough:

Dissolve yeast in water. Add sugar and shortening. Mix in enough flour to make a fairly stiff dough. Knead until smooth. Cover and let rise in warm place for 2-4 hours until double.

Manapua Preparation:

Chop char siu into small pieces. Divide dough into 24 pieces, then flatten with palm of hand. Place one portion filling in middle of dough circle. Pleat edges of circle and press firmly; pleat entire circle in this fasion. Wrap up entire circle and press all edges together to close. Place filled buns on squares of paper and let rise 10 minutes. Arrange buns in a steamer 1/2 inch apart and steam 15-18 minutes over high heat; remove and serve.   If you use shoyu chicken, make sure you drain off the juice before placing in dough...

*Manapua can be baked too...just brush on melted butter or oil*

 With Shoyu Chicken

2-3 Tbsp Shoyu/soy sauce (lite)
1 Tbsp Sugar
2 Tbsp Cornstarch
1 C Water
1 Lb Cooked chicken, diced
Salt & pepper to taste

Combine first 4 ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Simmer for a minute then add cooked chicken and salt and pepper. Once chicken is heated, set a side to cool before using as a filling. 







Quick Manapua

1 lb Ground pork or turkey
2 Tbsp Sugar
2 Tbsp Shoyu (Aloha Shoyu if possible)
1 tsp Cornstarch
Chopped green onion
1 pinch of Chinese Five Spice
2 tubes of Refrigerated biscuit dough
Flour
10 2 inch squares of waxed
Cooking Instructions
For the filling:

In a frying pan coated with a little oil lightly cook the ground pork or turkey, add the shoyu, sugar, pinch of five spice and green onion. Sprinkle the corn starch over all of the ingredients in the pan and stir. Turn off the heat.

For the dough:

Pat together two biscuits and flatten with floured hands. Add a teaspoon of filling to the center of the dough and pinch all of the edges together. Stick a waxed paper square to each stuffed biscuit. Place in a steamer basket and steam for 10 minutes.
Additional Comments
In times and places where you just need to eat a manapua and can't get one you can make desperation manapua to fill the void. They freeze well. To reheat frozen manpua microwave 20 or 30 seconds. Add 10 seconds if you need to, but don't over do it or you'll have manapua rocks.

Malasada's - Ain't no Krispy Creme..."Da Kine"!!

Ingredients:
     1         package yeast (1 T)
     1         teaspoon sugar
     1/4 cup   warm water

     6 cups    flour
     1/2 cup   sugar
     1/2       teaspoon salt
     1/4 cup   melted butter or margarine
     1 cup     water
     1 cup     evaporated milk
     6         eggs

     1 quart   vegetable oil (to cook)
     extra     sugar
Procedure
Dissolve yeast, sugar and water and set aside. Beat eggs. Measure flour into mixing bowl and add salt. Make a well in the flour, pour yeast mixture, eggs and other ingredients. Beat in circular motion until the dough is soft. Cover, let raise until double. Turn dough over but do not punch down. Cover and let raise again. Heat oil to 375 degrees and drop dough by teaspoon full into oil and cook until brown. Shake in brown bag with sugar. Best when hot. Note: If the malasadas have a tendency to come out with the center still doughy, turn the heat down on the oil which will allow them to cook longer.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Jelly Shot Test Kitchen: Recipes

Jelly Shot Test Kitchen: Recipes

Noble Pig: Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

Noble Pig: Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

Jamaican Banana Fritters


Ingredients
3 ripe bananas
1 egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/2 cup of sugar
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4-1/2 cup milk


Directions
Peel and mash the ripe bananas.
Beat egg, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Next, blend egg mixture with mashed bananas.  Make sure it is all incorporated.
Then sift flour and baking powder into the banana/egg mixture.  Mix it all together.
If the batter seems to be too thick add a little milk… I added about 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of milk.
Add oil to a frying pan and place on medium high heat.  Drop spoonfuls of the banana fritter batter into the hot oiled frying pan. Flip when you see the edges starting to get brown and golden.
Lastly, combine cinnamon and sugar together to create your cinnamon sugar.  This is used to sprinkle on top of the fritters once they are finished cooking and still hot.
Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top.