By the time you read this, we will have finished a full (work or school) week of the new year. But I took the first week off and spent it away from social media to focus on prayer and getting back into the thick of things. Hence this delayed post.
Anyway! Happy New Year, dear reader. Hope your tummy was stuffed over the break, and that this will be another food-filled year ahead for you.
For New Year's Eve, instead of going out (which is what we'd usually do), my mom and I decided to celebrate a year of me and my siblings learning how to cook. We then set out to make a homemade Euro-themed menu for our media noche feast, in collaboration with my sister:
Part 1: Milk Chocolate Panna Cotta
This was my first time to attempt this kind of dessert (and it was the first time anyone in our home attempted a panna cotta), so I wasn't sure how it would go. I thought of making it the night before (December 30) so that it could set overnight.
I followed this recipe by Martha Stewart, thanks to the recommendation of a friend. To my surprise, it was actually easy to make. I used Cadbury milk chocolate and Ferna gelatin (although Alsa is the more popular local brand).
This was how they turned out right before I left them to set in the refrigerator.
This was how one of the ramekins looked after 24 hours in the refrigerator. I dusted off each of the panna cottas with Ricoa cocoa powder.
The whole family loved it (including yours truly, to my utter surprise). I was so happy that each ramekin had a firmly set panna cotta, but the texture was creamy and moist. But more importantly, it tasted the way I wanted a chocolate panna cotta to taste. I'm planning to try a white chocolate and mango panna cotta next time. (EDIT: Days after this entry was pre-written, I actually did make the aforementioned panna cotta.)
Part 2: Ravioli di Spinaci
Last July, my siblings and I gave our mom a ravioli pan for her birthday. This was due mostly to her being influenced by cooking and reality competition shows (i.e. MasterChef). But she never had time to try making ravioli until the Holidays. So, in time for New Year's Eve, she wanted us to attempt our first-ever homemade ravioli.
I think the mistake on our part was that we didn't prepare pasta dough beforehand. So we crammed everything in one afternoon. And... it was also the first time to try making pasta with a food processor (which we gave Mom for Christmas). Needless to say, we have yet to completely figure it out.
I think we filled the food processor with too many ingredients. The blades struggled to turn. Haha!
Finally, when we had dough to work with, we rolled it through the pasta machine until we had several thin sheets to use with the ravioli pan.
Simultaneously, Mom whipped up a mixture of ricotta cheese and fresh spinach. (Tip: we also realized that one can probably substitute or add cream cheese instead of ricotta — they're similar in terms of consistency — if you lack or don't have access to ricotta cheese.)
Once we had our first sheet of pasta dough, we lowered it onto the pan and scooped out enough filling per "square". I remembered Joe Bastianich's tips on the correct ratio of filling to pasta, for some reason.
Then when we had another sheet to work with, we pressed down with the other half of the ravioli mold.
Then we cut them up into individual squares. We repeated this a few more times 'til we had about 48 squares (our ravioli pan creates 12 squares at a time), then cooked them per batch (12 at a time). Thankfully, none of them burst in the water.
My mom made the marinara/tomato-based sauce earlier in the day so this was how each plate looked when assembled. We topped off the sauce with grana padano cheese.
Now we know better: to avoid stressing over ravioli for more than three hours (yes, it took that long because we had to make fresh pasta before anything else), we will only make ravioli when we already have pasta to work with.
Part 3: Pasta Crema di Tartufo
In other words, my absolute favorite, Truffle Cream Pasta.
I'd made this a few times before (if you've been a reader of this blog, or a follower of mine on Instagram, you'd know this), but this time around, I pretty much memorized the ingredients and the order of steps, so I managed to whip this up — and somehow improvise — within a few minutes.
My cream sauce (similar to this recipe) consisted of: salted butter, cream (ran out of cooking cream, unfortunately), salt, truffle oil, and a tiny portion of a chicken cube. However, instead of adding parmesan cheese, I sprinkled some grana padano to this mix.
To give it a little kick, I added my new favorite ingredient, cayenne pepper (for some heat), as well as nutmeg (for even more "earthiness").
Like the recipe, I used De Cecco spaghettini noodles (wasn't able to make spaghettini noodles from scratch; next time!), topped it off with grana padano again, but I overdid the sprinkling of parsley. Whoops!
According to the family, this dish tasted better than my previous attempts, which made me happy. I'll try experimenting on other truffle-related dishes in the near future.
Part 4:
My sister wanted to grill some sausages as part of the appetizer, so we prepared Hungarian, Italian, veal, and cheese sausages.
Can you tell which is which?
Afterwards, they were sliced and mixed together, then laid out on a rectangular serving plate.
We thought of serving a cheese and grapes platter as well. We only had leftover Manchego and Emmental cheese, so that's what we used. This was how my sister's plating looked.
So... just to recap, this was our simple, homemade, Euro-centric menu:
Appetizer: cheese and grapes platter; sausage platter
Main: ravioli di spinaci; pasta crema di tartufo
Dessert: milk chocolate panna cotta
If you can, I suggest that you try preparing a homemade spread with your family or your friends. If you're not a confident cook, you can help with simple things like chopping or mixing. Just get involved and be part of the process. Personally, I didn't think it would be this much fun (I mean, prior to 2014, I really had no plans of setting foot in the kitchen; I'm so glad that I finally gave cooking a try after all these years), and that it would be extremely rewarding to see your loved ones enjoying what you prepared for them.
Have a happy 2015, dear reader!
