What I learned today (Take Two)

A close friend of mine invited us up to his family's vacation house on Lake Almanor, about three hours north of Sacramento (and not too far from Karen, in Redding). It was myself, my wife and daughter, my friend, and his two daughters, their partners, their kids (one three months, one three years), an au pair, and a mother-in-law of one of the daughters. We were there for three days, and he mentioned that he hired a chef to feed everyone while they were up there. The chef turned out to be a very well known Sacramento chef who had run several highly regarded restaurants in the area but who is now doing the "chef for hire" thing. Yesterday, he did a cooking class in which we made large ravioli filled with mashed potatoes and raw egg yolks. We rolled out the pasta and cut it into sheets about 3"x3". We'd then take a sheet, paint it with egg white, and pipe a circle of mashed potatoes mixed with chives in the middle. The circle would be just big enough to hold a raw egg yolk. We'd slip a yolk in the circle, cover with another sheet of pasta, and seal it up while making sure to squeeze all of the air out. He made a point of mentioning that the pasta sheets needed to be thinner than normal as they were effectively doubled and wouldn't cook properly if they were too thick. We made them that afternoon and he served them that evening with a saute of corn, diced cherry tomatoes, basil, and a balsamic glaze. They were great.

Ok, potato ravioli is crazy starch/carbs, but I admit it sounds tasty!

Ok, potato ravioli is crazy starch/carbs, but I admit it sounds tasty!

Agreed. But it's also a common version of pierogi.

Ok, potato ravioli is crazy starch/carbs, but I admit it sounds tasty!

That would have been my wife's take on it, as she usually hates the idea of starch with starch. These were far too delicious for her not to like, though. Personally, I'm perfectly fine with potatoes in pierogi, on pizza, etc.

[Jenise]

Agreed. But it's also a common version of pierogi.

I was going to point that out.

Speaking of potato fillings, we did a version at the CIA Napa that was potato, chive and chevre cheese (smaller ravioli, not the raviolo Mike made) that were finished in butter with orange rind and fennel pollen. Outstanding!

Pierogi, blintzes, knishes... lots of yummy traditional foods are potatoes wrapped in pasta. But I suppose the real reason for the potato mash is just an unobtrusive way to hold the egg yolk in place. (And I'm perfectly jealous as I love egg yolk anything!)

The potato definitely did its part to hold the yolk in, but it was flavored with chives and butter and was great for soaking the yolk up after it came running out of the raviolo.

OK I knew masala meant spice mix. But just read a recipe where the spices were referred to as the masalas. Never heard it used like that before.

Lower the heat to medium and add red chile, coriander and turmeric, and stir until the masalas are uniformly mixed with the onion, about 30 seconds.

Garam masala translates to "warming spices". Not very specific!

Isn't it amazing what people come up with to do with food? Every time I come up with a creative idea at home, I think I am so clever...Then I search and find out that hundreds are already doing it. Oh well, at least I had a few moments of feeling cheffy.
Those ravioli ideas sound awesome!

Masala just means spice mixture. There are dry masalas made from ground, dried spices and wet masalas containing moist ingredients. One very common type of dry masala is garam masala ("hot spice mixture" in Hindi and Urdu). This is a combination of several ground up dried spices. It's one of those things that every region in India--if not every Indian cook--has their own recipe for.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

I rented a big house on Orcas Island for last weekend and invited two couples to join me. The house came with a home-built (all concrete) wood-fired oven in the back yard. So one couple volunteered to make pizzas the first night and the other couple, who are both of Greek heritage, volunteered moussaka and Greek salad for our last night--the moussaka was roasted in that same oven. Made in the same style she grew up with (her family is Cretan, if that has anything to do with anything, and Greek is still spoken at home), she layered both potatoes and eggplant in her dish. The potatoes, small waxy reds, were pan-fried to about 3/4 doneness with the intention of finishing cooking without breaking down in the final dish. It was the best moussaka I've ever had.

The combination of potatoes and eggplant surprised me. Every version I've ever had was eggplant only though I've heard that potato is acceptable. To check how unusual it was to include both, though, I just did a search on moussaka recipes and every single one was eggplant only. None were potato, either all or part. Surprising; the variation of textures was superb and I highly recommend it. Oh, and bake it in your backyard pizza oven too!

I too have never seen potato in moussaka, but glad it was good.

Yes, I know masala is spice mixture or used for dishes that use that mixture (chai masala, masala dosa, tikka masala). What I was surprised at was the reference to the individual spices added (Kashmiri chili powder, turmeric, coriander) as "the masalas".

There are myriad variations on garam masala, but usually in US stores you find the more Northern style (and it a recipe doesn't specify that's what you want). The southern states' versions are usually a bit hotter/spicier

Long ago, I had moussaka with a layer of potato on the bottom. New Haven, CT has (or had) a lot of Greek places.

I've not had moussaka with potatoes, but I'm pretty sure I'd love them in there.

Today, I learned that fish maw is one of the four sea delicacies of Chinese cuisine. (The other three are sea cucumber, shark fin, and abalone.) I learned this because I had lunch with a friend at a new Chinese noodle restaurant that pushed their "Fish maw chicken soup rice noodle" by putting a large color photo of it on page one of their menu. I figured what the hell, and ordered it. The dish was excellent, with a flavorful broth, tender chicken, tasty rice noodles, and a variety of other ingredients including one large morel, bok choy, and tofu skins. The fish maw was not really anything to talk about. It was firm rather than squishy or slimy and had little flavor of its own (which I guess is one of defining characteristics of the four delicacies). This would be a great soup for anyone with a head cold or who had just suffered through a hard winter's day. My friend had "Dry rice noodle with beef shank", which was also very good

The combination of potatoes and eggplant surprised me. Every version I've ever had was eggplant only though I've heard that potato is acceptable. To check how unusual it was to include both, though, I just did a search on moussaka recipes and every single one was eggplant only. None were potato, either all or part. Surprising; the variation of textures was superb and I highly recommend it. Oh, and bake it in your backyard pizza oven too!

Odd. Perhaps it's a regional difference. Every moussaka I've had here in Toronto had both potatoes and eggplant, and my one and only recipe for moussaka has both (although I don't know how authentic it is). I'll post it next separately.

On a related note, is it pronounced moussAK'a or MOUSS'aka? I've heard both.

I think the emphasis is on the first syallable.

[Jenise]

The combination of potatoes and eggplant surprised me. Every version I've ever had was eggplant only though I've heard that potato is acceptable. To check how unusual it was to include both, though, I just did a search on moussaka recipes and every single one was eggplant only. None were potato, either all or part. Surprising; the variation of textures was superb and I highly recommend it. Oh, and bake it in your backyard pizza oven too!

Odd. Perhaps it's a regional difference. Every moussaka I've had here in Toronto had both potatoes and eggplant, and my one and only recipe for moussaka has both (although I don't know how authentic it is). I'll post it next separately.

On a related note, is it pronounced moussAK'a or MOUSS'aka? I've heard both.

Yes, that's VERY interesting. I loved the variety of mouthfeels provided by both.

Re pronunciation, my friends both pronounce it a third way: moose-suh-KAH.

[Jenise]

I think the emphasis is on the first syallable.

How I've always said it but as I just told Ted, my friends put the emphasis on the last.