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November 8, 2005
Mushroom and Veal Ravioli (5)
My mom came into town on Friday. After I picked her up from the airport, we went shopping and headed to the house to cook. I decided to make ravioli. I knew it would take some time, but ultimately be worth the effort. Plus it was cool to cook and catch with Mom.
Roll
Stuff
The afternoon reminded me of being a kid of about five or six. My great-grandmother had come to visit my grandparents and she spent the entire time in the kitchen. That woman lived to cook. She would get up at around 5:30am and start breakfast. When she was done with breakfast she would relax in the kitchen for a couple of hours and then make lunch. Once lunch was over, she would immediately start on dinner.
She would cook all afternoon. The rules were simple: You could watch, talk, listen, and even occasionally taste, but you could not help. She didn't want anyone doing what she considered to be her job, not even my grandmother. I really learned to respect what went on in a kitchen on her visit. Gram-Gram was proud of her skills and the meals were all the proof a kid like me needed.
So in the kitchen 30 years later, making ravioli, while my mom watched and asked questions, gave me a strange sense of nostalgia.
Dry
The filling made of ground veal, shitake and cremini mushrooms, eggs, and ricotta, is amazingly rich and tasty. I did a good job sealing and drying them, because not one broke in the pot. I chose to sauce them in a brown butte sage sauce. The result was silky and the sage compliments the veal and mushrooms well.
Eat
Posted by Rich at November 8, 2005 1:40 PM
Comments
Those raviolis do look like a lot of work!
I, too, like to have people in the kitchen with me when I cook, but I do not want there help. My rule comes not because I love cooking so much (though I do) but because I'm rather anal-retentive about how I do things. I don't want people showing me how they chop onions or peel garlic. I don't want people getting eggs out of the fridge for me or whatever. My mind is a strange place, and it likes its routines.
On the other hand, I do like it when people give advice if I ask them for it! :)
Posted by: J.D. at November 9, 2005 1:46 PM
I like help and I like to help...but if it's my kitchen I like to be in charge.
I have found that like many things, there are several ways to do the same thing. One may be better than another, but better for whom? Not that I'm opposed to advice, but I don't like being told that my way is wrong.
Posted by: Rich at November 9, 2005 2:52 PM
Wow, homemade pasta... very nice. Looks delicious.
When it comes to helping (and being helped) in the kitchen, it depends on who is doing the helping. Stephanie and I have discovered that we really don't cook together very well, and we usually end up fighting. So, one of us usually cooks and the other one cleans up.
I have helped Jeremy cook for the MNF group dinner party several times, and we seem to work very well together. Part of that is because I go in knowing that Jeremy is the 'executive' chef and I am the 'sous' chef. I just do whatever he tells me, and only give advice if he or Jenn ask for it.
...and then I try to use my problem solving skills when Jeremy dumps the wrong batch of cream into the oyster stew... :-)
Posted by: Jeff at November 11, 2005 4:17 PM
Karen and I cook well together. It is always someone's meal, and the other person takes on the "helper" role.
Posted by: Rich at November 14, 2005 10:50 AM
how about the recipe?
Posted by: deb at December 17, 2007 6:35 PM
