Nettle, Wild Garlic and Feta Ravioli | You've Got Meal!

Finally, spring is here! After all that snow and cold it was about time nature kicked things up. And the coming of spring translates into the rebirth of some great seasonal greens that are best in this time of the year: nettle and ramps. 

What can be said about the nettle? Yes, it hurts when you clean it and prepare it for cooking, Mrs. G’s blistered hands are a testimony to that. But after you manage to wash it and you boil it down, the result is a true health bomb. Nettle is high in iron and it’s great for getting out of the winter. In my opinion, nettle  basically represents spring’s way of kicking winter right in the, well, let’s call them almonds, if you catch my drift. Around here, nettles are foraged from the edges of the forests, but you have to be careful about the plants, make sure you get the young, spring, nettle, not the remnants of the nettle from last fall. I might get overexcited about nettle, but I have to bring this up. 

There are a couple of foods, that for us, mean more than just taste, they also mean memories of family, childhood or loved ones. And nettle means one single thing: Mrs. G’s grandmother’s garlic and nettle stew, served with some baby salad sour soup and polenta. She only makes that once or twice, in the beginning of spring and it’s the healthiest thing we’ve ever had, using only 3-4 ingredients that are handpicked by her from her garden or from the forest. Absolute delight.

Now, ramps. Also known as wild garlic, these tasty greens have a fragrant (you’ve guessed it) garlic punch, maybe a little bit of onion when they’re younger. You can eat the leaves, but also the bulb, although I have to admit we’ve never tried it. Ramps are also an amazing source of vitamin A and C, and are great in salads or in seafood side-dishes.

And on top of using nettle and ramps, we had some amazing, fresh, crisp, slightly peppery wild cress, also foraged, that we used to garnish the pasta. What can I say, it was a feast of spring.

So, I think I rambled enough about early spring greens. Let’s get cracking on the ingredients: :

1. home made pasta dough for the ravioli, 
2. 300 grams of washed and cleaned nettle leaves, 
3. 150 grams of ramps/ wild garlic, carefully cleaned, 
4. 150 grams of good quality feta cheese, 
5. pepper, 
6. parmesan, 
7. good quality olive oil, 
8. dried chili seeds, 
9. wild cress. 

We’ve talked before about how we made the ravioli, specifically here, so I’m not going to dwell on that. 

 

• For the filling, boil the nettle – be prepared, it will take a couple of hours on medium heat in order for the plant to reach that state where it basically melts in your spoon. Another health tip here, don’t throw away the water you boiled the nettle in, it’s can be very healthful in treating anemia, just make sure you strain it in order to avoid getting small amounts of sand or straws in your drink. 
• After boiling, remove the nettle from heat and drain it well, make sure there isn’t any liquid left in the wilted leaves. 
• Next, finely chop both the nettle and the fresh ramps. You can cook the ramps for a minute or so, to reduce that too, but these leaves were fairly young and I preferred them fresh. 
• Mix the greens with the feta and some pepper- I think the cheese has enough salt, but feel free to adjust according to your ingredients. 
• Make the ravioli and cook them for about 3-4 minutes on salted water. 
• As a sauce for the pasta we wanted to keep things very simple and elegant, so we decided to just use a very nice, slightly spicy and fruity olive oil. For another layer of kick, we added some chili seeds and some dried and grinded chili. We just put the chili and the oil in a small glass, covered it with a coaster, and gave it a good shake- you’ll get a sort of fast forward infused oil. 
• Drip, don’t pour, this oil on the ravioli, grate a small amount of parmesan and cover the pasta in a generous amount of fresh cress leaves. 
• For a small variation, we also poached an egg that we’ve placed on top, it was a nice touch, but you can decide to leave it.

Normally, I can’t leave a nice pasta dinner without a glass of wine, but seeing as this whole recipe was about health, I’m going to leave that part out…. Who am I kidding, don’t forget to grab a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc for this one and get eating. The greens have enough health in them to save that one glass (bottle) of wine, I think….

 Enjoy,

Tempura Mushroom with Wassabi | You've Got Meal!

If you Internet people out there have read any of our previous posts before (who am I kidding, I know you love us), you’ve probably noticed the fact that we talked a lot about the pleasure of keeping, sometimes, things simpler in the kitchen. 

Of course we love to get fancy, combining spices and ingredients, adding and taking quantities, but, in the end, we get the best satisfaction from the simple or the classic (take our home-made pasta or the duck fat fries). Same thing goes for frying veggies in tempura batter, and I remember last spring when we had the best baby zucchini ever, just fried in some tempura.

We’re not really describing a recipe here, we’re rather telling you of a great cooking experience when we combined tempura batter and some beautiful oyster mushrooms.

Making the tempura batter couldn’t be easier, you just need some fizzy water and wheat flour. I guess you do have to be determined to do it, I remember Mrs. G saying “I’m gonna own this batter” before starting. We used one egg, 200 ml ice cold sparkling water and 250 g smooth flour, but the thing you have to remember is 1. Use ice cold fizzy water, or even add an ice cube to the mixture and 2. Don’t overwork the batter.

For a bit of a kick, we added about 1 tsp. of wasabi paste in the tempura, just enough to give it a slight punch.

Separate the oyster mushrooms and dip the separately in the batter for a couple of seconds, dripping the excess of tempura. Fry the oyster mushrooms in some super hot cooking oil, until it gets a nice golden color on each side, and you’re done. Don’t keep the mushrooms for too much in the oil, the batter will burn and they will get soggy, you want to keep a firm texture.

We used the mushrooms as a great side-dish for some great duck breast, but that’s a story for another time.  

Enjoy,

Mussels in White Wine Sauce (Moules Mariniere) | You've Got Meal!

Mussels are one of our favorite choices when we want to cook seafood in the Youvegotmeal! kitchen, and for obvious reasons. They’re delicious, light, easy to cook and look great at the table. 

Unfortunately, when dealing with fresh mussels the most difficult part is cleaning them, but you can’t skip this part, especially when you’re using them whole. Scrub the mussels with a wire wool and make sure to remove the “mustache” or “beard” of the clam, meaning the algae that sometimes hangs from inside the mollusk.

 Cooking the mussels in some white wine sauce is one of the classic ways to do it and I’m sure you can find dozens, if not hundreds, of variations of this dish on-line. The concept is a simple one, and we made best with ingredients at hand:

• 1,5 kg of whole mussels, 
• 1 medium onion, 
• 3-4 garlic cloves, 
• some nice dry white wine, 
• coriander, 
• parsley, 
• salt, pepper,
• olive oil, 
• cooking cream

• First of all separate the leaves and stalks of your greens. The idea is to use the leaves, that are more tender in the end of the cooking process and the stalks from the beginning. 
• Bind the stalks of coriander and parsley with some string in order to easily remove it later – you can also add some lemon thyme springs to the coriander and parsley stalks and create a very nice bouquet garni. 
• Next, start  cooking the finely diced onion and garlic cloves in the hot oil, on medium heat, for 3 minutes, with the stalks in. 

• Add the wine, about 100-150 ml, bring to a boil, kick the heat up and pop the mussels in. 
• Cover the pan and let the clams open in the wine steam for 4-5 minutes- throw away any mussels that don’t open. 
• Remove the top, add some cooking cream for color (about 50 ml) with the parsley and coriander leaves. 

Serve the mussels with some crunchy bread and the rest of your white wine.

Enjoy,