I think this combination of Toasted Walnuts and Charred Sweet Red Capsicum is rather moreish, actually I may well be addicted to it. Which isn’t such a bad thing, since we have loads of Walnuts and Capsicum from our garden, especially so at the moment with plenty of fresh Walnuts falling.
As an added bonus Walnuts are fairly good for you being an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids and helpful in lowering cholesterol. Cooked and softened Capsicums don’t do you any harm either. (please click here to read the rest…)

When Owen of Tomatilla announced the ingredients for this 22nd round of Paper Chef, I had to giggle a little, I nominated spinach as a bit of a joke, knowing full well the crisis and spinach shortage in the States. Naughty eh!

However in my defence, I didn’t really expect it to make the final list!

• Barberries
• Pumpkin
• Spinach
• Slow

The list had me stumped momentarily, firstly I had know idea what barberries were, so I was a little relieved when Owen suggested they would be hard to locate for most people and he would accept any berries.
Also how was I to combine the 3 ingredients in a most delicious way, not to mention give them a slow theme. With berries and spinach at least, I always find less is more, less cooking, less fuss.

Anyway after quite the brainstorm I came up with the following…

Barberries were to be substituted with the more familiar berry beginning with B - Blueberries.
Pumpkins are getting on at this time of year downunder, however I steamed a couple of small pieces, and blended them to a firm puree.
Spinach was great, there’s plenty of beautiful young spring tender leaves to be had.
Finally fresh homemade pasta made from some of the pumpkin puree, and shaping the individual tortelloni was to be my take to the ’slow’ element.

I think with the unsual combination of flavours and ‘fiddliness’ of shaping the tortelloni, my dish would be best suited to the “Paper Chef Haute” category, although arguably could fit both Home and Haute.

Spinach and Cheese filled Pumpkin Tortelloni with a Blueberry, Orange and Pinot Noir Sauce

• Fresh Pumpkin Pasta
• 300 grams of strong / pasta flour
• 2 heaped tablespoons of pumpkin puree
• 1 egg yolk (keep the egg white for sealing the tortelloni later)
• 1 tablespooon of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 whole egg, beaten

1. Put the flour, pumpkin, salt, nutmeg, olive oil and 1 egg yolk into a large bowl or food processor.
2. Mix or process the mixture together, adding enough of the whole beaten egg as necessary to form a ball.
3. Kneed the dough until smooth and elastic.
4. Cover and rest the dough for one hour.
5. (The pasta dough can be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated overnight if necessary.)

• Spinach and Cheese Filling
• 3/4 cup of finely chopped fresh spinach leaves
• 200 grams of fresh soft cheese, ricotta, cream cheese, mascarpone or similar (I used a soft goat cheese)
• salt and pepper

Mix together to form a firm paste.

• Blueberry, Orange and Pinot Noir Sauce
• 1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
• 1/4 cup of red wine, i.e Pinot Noir!
• 1/2 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice, approximately
• zest of an orange
• salt and pepper
• sugar to taste (optional!)
• 1 tablespoon cornflour mixed with a little water (if required!)

1. In a small saucepan heat the blueberries and wine together.
2. Mush a few of the berries to form a well textured sauce and add the orange juice and zest.
3. Reduce to a simmer and taste.
4. Add salt, pepper and sugar if desired.
5. If necessary thicken the sauce with cornflour and water, and bring to the boil for one minute then set aside.

• Assembly
• Extra strong or pasta flour
• Remaining egg white

1. Divide the pumpkin pasta dough into four pieces.
2. Dust each piece with a little extra flour to keep from sticking and using a rolling pin or pasta machine, roll the dough out very thin.
3. (On my “Atlas” pasta machine I go to the 6th setting.)
4. Place the four sheets on a lightly floured surface.
5. Use a pastry cutter to cut the sheets into circles, 10cm in diameter.
6. Place a tablespoon of the Spinach and Cheese filling in center of each circle.
7. Brush the edges lightly with a little egg white.
8. Fold in half and seal, trying to avoid having any air inside.
9. Pull the two points together, sealing again with a little egg white.
10. Dust the finish tortelloni with more extra flour, cover and set aside until ready to serve.
11. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil, salt.
12. Brush off any excess flour from the tortelloni with a dry brush.
13. Cook the tortelloni in rapid boiling water for 4-5 minutes and then remove each with a slotted spoon to drain.
14. Nappe over a little of the warm Blueberry, Orange and Pinot Noir Sauce and serve.
15. Serves 4 to 6

Enjoy!

Update: Columbus Foodie raised a very good question, which I neglected to answer!
“How did it taste?”
In the words of my hubby J “I thought they were awesome, unusual, but in a very good way.”

Ok… start the clock!

This month’s “Is my blog burning?” IMBB #24 is a kind of time trial, our challenge set by “Too Many Chefs” was to make a full meal from scratch or as much as possible from raw ingredients to the completed meal in 30 minutes or less!

To be honest, time itself has never been too much of a stumbling block for me to produce a meal, it’s finding the inspiration to start after a long hard day, or a lack of ingredients to start with that mostly stumps me.

For my 30 minute feast to feed four, I simply chose one of our family favourites, fresh Akaroa Salmon. I feel very privileged to have access to such wonderful fresh produce here in Canterbury, New Zealand. Honestly, Akaroa Salmon - “The Ocean’s Best!” deserves to be covered in more depth, so I will dedicate a future post specifically to it in the near future.

We often throw Akaroa Salmon together with a simple Teriyaki style marinade, it’s tastes divine and best of all, salmon is so good for us being full of Omega 3s. This time I paired Teriyaki Salmon Kebabs on a bed of Orze (Risoni) Pasta, mixed with baby spring peas in a Crème fraîche and Pure Wasabi sauce and some Wilted Baby Bok Choy leaves.

Naturally you could use any type of dried pasta you wish and, time permitting, rice could work equally well. I recently acquired a little jar of “Pure Wasabi” after Caroline from Bibliocook tipped me off, I had seen the product advertised a few times, although hadn’t had a chance to try it. Imagine my surprise when I found out it was yet another excellent local Canterbury product! Once you’ve tried this stuff you’ll never go back to that horrid green stuff in a tube!!

• Teriyaki Salmon Kebabs
• 400 to 600 grams of Akaroa Salmon fillet cut into strips (hint - ask for the off cuts! It’s cheaper and you’re cutting it up anyway!)
• 2 tablespoons of shoyu soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of sweet sherry / marsala
• 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 teaspoons of freshly grated ginger
• oil
• bamboo skewers

1. Peel the garlic cloves and crush into a shallow dish.
2. Add the fresh minced ginger, brown sugar, sweet sherry and soy sauce.
3. Stir to combine.
4. Thread the salmon evenly onto 8 bamboo skewers and place into the marinade, coating both sides.
5. Place the kebabs on a hot oiled grill or barbeque for 2 minutes each side, or until they are almost cooked through - the golden rule here is NOT to over cook.

• Orze with baby spring peas in a Crème fraîche and Pure Wasabi sauce
• 250 gram of dry Orze Pasta (rice grain shaped pasta also known as Risoni)
• salt
• ½ to ¾ cups of baby spring peas
• olive oil
• ¼ cup of white wine
• ½ cup of Crème fraîche
• 1 to 2 teaspoons of Pure Wasabi paste or to taste (optional)
• freshly ground black pepper
• Maldon sea salt

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil
2. Salt the water and add the Orze pasta
3. Cook for 4 minutes and add the peas. Continue cooking until the pasta is al denté - approximately 2 more minutes.
4. Drain and stir through a little olive oil
5. Return to the heat and add the white wine
6. Stir through Crème fraîche and Pure Wasabi paste.
7. Check seasonings and serve.

• Wilted Baby Bok Choy
• Baby Bok Choy leaves
• Olive oil
• Maldon sea salt

1. Heat a pan or wok.
2. Throw in a few handfuls of bok choy leaves
3. Drizzle with oil and stir through until wilted and glistening
4. Season and serve.

And what meal is complete without dessert? Well, no meal is! If you’re me!!

This dessert is a very quick little twist on the classic Kiwi / Australian cookie… ANZAC biscuits!. ANZAC Tuiles with Crème Chantilly and Raspberries, drizzled with another Kiwi classic Chelsea Golden syrup.

• ANZAC tuiles
• 4 tablespoons of rolled oats
• 4 tablespoons of desiccated coconut
• 75 grams of plain white flour
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 80 grams of caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 50 mls of milk
• Fine cocoa for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degC.
2. On a piece of silcon/ parchment / baking paper, draw a pattern for 12 circles 10 cm in diameter.
3. Briefly process the rolled oats and coconut in a food processor to cut them a little finer.
4. Mix the rolled oats and coconut with the remaining ingredients to form a paste.
5. Smear 1 heaped teaspoon of paste in each circle using a palate knife.
6. Bake for 5 to 6 minutes
7. Remove from the oven and while still supple mould the tuiles over a rolling pin to form curved tuiles.
8. Dust lightly with cocoa powder.
9. Makes 24 Tuile

• Crème Chantilly and Raspberries
• 200 mls of whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon of caster sugar
• Vanilla bean or extract to taste
• 1 cup of raspberries, preferably fresh, although I made do with thawed frozen ones
• Golden syrup for drizzling

1. Lightly whip the cream, sugar and vanilla
2. Assemble 3 ANZAC tuiles per person with a few raspberries and spoons of Crème Chantilly
3. Finally drizzle with golden syrup and serve.

1. My order of work to achieve all this in less than 30 minutes!
3. Clean hands
4. Preheat oven to 180 degC
5. Put pasta pot onto boil
6. Put kettle on for a cuppa for hubby
7. Assemble all ingredients on bench
8. Draw circles on parchment paper
9. Process rolled oats and coconut
10. Mix tuile paste, set aside
11. Crush garlic and ginger… whilst sharing jokes and the days goss with hubby!
12. Add pasta to pot
13. Slice salmon
14. Clean hands / clear bench of extra equipment and ingredients
15. Throw peas into pot with pasta
16. Make cuppa for hubby!
17. Drain pasta and peas, add oil
18. Spread and smear tuiles / into oven, set timer 5 mins
19. Thread salmon on skewers
20. Clean hands
21. Remove tuiles from oven and bend over rolling pin
22. Heat pan for salmon
23. Lightly whip Crème Chantilly
24. Dust tuiles with cocoa
25. Start to cook salmon
26. Return pasta to heat, add wine…
27. Flip salmon kebabs over
28. Finish pasta with Crème fraîche and Pure Wasabi paste
29. Heat pan for bok choy, wilt
30. Remove everything from heat and assemble and serve
31. Stop the Clock!
32. Photograph…. and eat!
33. Assemble desserts
34. Photograph… eat!

Enjoy