Egg Yolk Ravioli

I was looking at Cleveland Food Blogs today and came across this one in particular and can't seem to get the image out of my head! It was on Ruhlman.com (photo by Donna Ruhlman) and if you are interested in the egg yolk ravioli:

"Summer is flying by too quickly and I’ve been buried in all the good things–work and family and friends and food. Ma was here and I showed her the Iron Chef show with Symon v. Bloomfield and she was so enamoured of Symon’s idea of putting a yolk inside pasta, I made some for her (above, on a bed of sheep’s milk ricotta I got from Paul Minnillo at Baricelli Inn, seasoned with citrus and espelette), served with a simple brown butter sauce. Sooo. Good . Yolk spills out into the butter. Then off to NYC to judge an Iron Chef competition, then back home on the 4th for Old Chicago’s on the grill at my Dad’s and fireworks viewed from the first fairway of a local course, then Pardus, my chef was here, for reasons I won’t reveal now, but we cooked a meal that is worth a blog post on it’s own. His visit of course required a two day restoration of the body and soul before work began again. Yesterday I was with Symon as he was making some of his own egg-yolk-only pasta dough and he said something interesting that I’d never thought about. He made it very dry and scarcely kneaded it. I believe in kneading for at least ten minutes till it’s satiny smooth, but Symon believes that the key to great texture is in not creating too much of a gluten network (which happens by kneading) so he treated it practically like a pie dough. It makes sense. I don’t know if I’m willing to give up that satiny pasta dough, but it’s an interesting idea, and his ravioli were very tender. Is this a common thing? Not kneading? [I've since tested this and find that the all-yolk pasta does not need the kneading, whereas pasta dough with whole egg does require thorough kneading, which is part of the fun!]

For those of you wanting to try an egg yolk ravioli, they’re very easy. Marcella Hazan recommends a cup of flour and two eggs to make a pasta dough, mixed and kneaded till it’s satiny, about ten minutes. And of course there’s a Ratio for it! Three parts flour, 2 parts egg by weight; if you have the Ratio iPhone app, weigh your eggs, plug the weight into the ratio calculator to calculate the exact weight of flour you need, add it right on top of the eggs! (I love the Ratio app!) While it’s resting in plastic wrap in the fridge, mix into a cup of ricotta, citrus zest (any kind you like, lemon and orange are great, maybe a little juice), black pepper, espelette if you have it, some chives or minced shallot if you have it, kosher salt (and taste it for to make sure it’s delicious). Make a pillow on the pasta for the yolk, put a little cheese on top to protect the yolk, and fold the pasta over it, using water or egg wash to seal the pasta. Boil gently for a few minutes and serve with a brown butter and some julienned parsley. The yellow ooze is worth the effort."

Karlie vs Parker

Up DOs

From InStyle.com

Try This

Beer Margarita

1 can of frozen limeade (found in freezer section of grocery store)

1 12oz Can of Lemon/Lime soda (I use Sprite)

bottle of tequila

1 12oz bottle of light mexican beer (I prefer Corona)

limes

course salt

pitcher

glasses

ice

1. fill a pitcher half way with ice, add limeade

2. fill limeade can with tequila (12 oz) pour into pitcher

3. Add bottle of beer. Combine those ingredients

4. Now add soda. stir

5. run a cut lime across the top of the glass and dip the rim of glass into course salt

6. Pour margarita into salt rimmed glasses and serve (if you feel it is a little strong you can always add more soda)

ENJOY!

Brought to you by: Couture Parties

Negev

Con't:

We arrived in the Negev desert in the middle of a sand storm. (Those are cacti - Israeli's are like cacti, rough on the outside and sweet on the inside.)

When I realized we were going to Merchav Am, I was pumped. I had been to this place back in December with my previous group. Out in the Negev, there is a group who moved from the cosmopolitan areas into the desert because they think (just as one of the original Zionist founders, David Ben-Gurion preached) that living in the Negev is the most crucial part of Israel surviving.

So this new community was just getting started in December and we go there and help them plant trees. As cool as it is to plant the trees and contribute to this settlement, the two guys in charge are really what make it worth every second. They are just so chill. Stop by and say hi to them if you ever find yourself in the desert.

A tree from December and the new planters.

We also stopped by the side of a winding road to check out, Makhtesh Ramon. It's a huge crater. The wind was so strong you could lean into it at like 45 degrees and not fall over. When we turned around to go back to the bus, we saw some cars on the cliff behind us.

Following our mitzvah of the day (that means good deed), we proceeded to my now least favorite night of the trip of sleeping in the Bedouin Tent. It's like Disneyworld in the desert, such a tourist attraction but that's not why I hate it. We all sleep in a tent together and usually people are loud and obnoxious and snore which does not help with the fact that you have to wake up at 4am to hike Masada AND it's crazy stuffy with sand and you sleep on dirty mats. But I digress, it's part of the trip.

Here's a pic of two ladies enjoying themselves on a rushed camel ride in the middle of that sandstorm I mentioned.

Jessica vs Leigh

Food For Thought

Now that there is all this low fat etc food on the market, do you think eventually, since it is better for our bodies and all, that the regular of foods will go away? I don't think they all will in time or anything but like, if low fat Poptarts taste the same as regular ones, and I only buy low fat, as do other people, and just say hypothetically everyone does the same, why keep the regular ones on the market at all?

Northern Israel

PART 1

The trip started in the North, with team building exercises before we even got to the hotel. It wasn't clear but I think it was in the forest where when we were young we donated trees to Israel. I wish I remembered the name of the company that worked with us on the coarse because before we left, they took a lot of my pictures for their website. Hm...

We rafted on the Jordan River. It was fairly easy except for the fact that my boat couldn't keep itself away from the sides, where we were constantly stuck and being poked with branches. That said, it was one of the highlights of my trip.
Before we even began our second major hike on Mount Arbel, my knee gave out causing my ankle to bend. The second photo is the wall we had to climb down after this fun little mishap.

To be continued...

Telly vs Michael and Johnny vs Chloe

Sex and the City 2 Premiere

Photo: Landov via Entertainment Weekly

SJP in Valentino. Kim Catrall in Naeem Khan. Kristen Davis in Jean Dresses. Cynthia Nixon in Carolina Herrera.

The ladies are getting claps and some gasps. I gotta say, I like. They could have done a lot worse then this! Maybe that's not a fair way to judge but with these ladies, it's tragically true.

What I think is even more important is this:

As a fashion designer Ms. Port, this is just unacceptable. Who is encouraging this?

But which is worse, that or this?