Cobb Salad

Spring is coming, so we thought.  All we have here in the Northeast are rain showers on the warm days and chilly winds on the sunny days.  I am no longer able to eat the yams in my cold storage – I must eat greens.  I finally went to the grocery store and for the first time in a very long time I bought lettuce.  I tried to eat a seasonal and local diet, but if you live in the Northeast like I do then at some stage you have to give up and just throw the green potatoes away.

Cobb Salad

Nothing in this salad was local, not the bacon, bleu cheese, avocado, chicken, lettuce, nor the cranberries.  It was very delicious and gave us hope that spring is on the way and soon little lettuce and arugula shoots will sprout and fill our CSA box once again.  In the meantime I have to buy my lettuce for $3.49 a head at our local rip-off Met Foods.

To make a Cobb, just arrange all the items I mentioned above over lettuce dressed with a simple vinaigrette.  It will make you feel like you are dining at a country club on a bright sunny day.

Egg Rolls

Sometimes I like a greasy egg roll, but I’m not brave enough to consume anything from my neighborhood Chinese dives.  They all seem to sell a combination of General Tso’s and tacos.  The silver lining is that my local grocery has egg roll skins at a reasonable price that fry up so nicely in about a 1/2 inch of hot oil.

Egg Rolls with Pork
You can put just about anything you want in an egg roll so I used whatever I had.  Roll them according to the directions on the package and seal them with egg wash for good results.

For mine, use 1/2 lb. ground pork, browned; 1 small cabbage, shredded; 2 large carrots, shredded; 6 scallions, chopped; 1 tsp. celery seed, and 1 sprinkle curry powder.

You may be curious to know why I used curry powder?  Well, it’s all I had and oddly enough it worked and made our little egg rolls much more compelling than they would have otherwise been.

Fry them in about 1/2 inch of screaming hot vegetable oil until browned and bubbly.  Let them rest of paper towels and serve with a chili or plum sauce.

It was better than being at a Chinese restaurant for me!

Quick Mushroom Ravioli

As much as I like to think I have time and attention to detail to make my own pasta dough and turn it into ravioli these days, it’s just not going to happen.  I love the taste of  homemade.  I’m overwhelmed by so many things right now like Storkbite’s moodiness due to a molar, Papa’s 40th birthday, international vacation planning avec toddler, and well my eternal problem — what to have for dinner.  The molar and what to have for dinner really got me today.  I wanted fresh pasta but lacked the courage.   I came very close to buying manufactured ravioli from the refrigerated section until the tiny Michael Pollan I carry with me in my subconscious barked at me and said “Eat Plants!”. I took the plunge, bought egg roll skins and developed a quickie variation on the original.  From an economic standpoint I would have saved $3 buying the manufactured ravioli, but they definitely would not have been as good.

Quick Mushroom Ravioli

These good looking raviolis were a little bit fiddly, I’m not going to make it sound like a breeze.

For the filling, use 1 box of baby portabellas, 6 cloves of garlic, about a dozen sage leaves, shredded parmesan and shredded mozzerella.   Make sure to chop the mushrooms, garlic and sage.  Then saute everything except the cheeses on the stove in olive oil and 1 tbs. butter, salt and pepper.  Once the mushrooms slightly carmelize, remove from heat and add to a mixing bowl.  Once cool, combine cheeses and mushroom mixture.

Take egg roll skins which can be found at most Asian markets (or the Met if you live in Sunnyside). Cut the skins into quarters.  Fix yourself a little bowl of water and with wet fingers go around each edge of your skin.  Put 1 tsp. of stuffing in the center, place a skin on top and smash the wet edges together.  I made approximately 16 raviolis that were about 2 x 2 inches.

Melt 1 tbs. butter and olive oil together in a skillet and pan fry the raviolis.  I imagine that one could also boil them, but we didn’t try it.  We were after some serious richness tonight.  The mushrooms, garlic, sage and butter worked so well together and was oddly enough exactly what I had a taste for.