Thursday, October 23, 2025

Kabocha Squash Ravioli in Lemon Butter Caper Sauce

 

If you peel, chop and cook down a great kabocha squash, just a little butter, nutmeg and maple sugar, some water so it doesn't burn. Let it go for an hour or so stirring often until a thick paste. 

Then roll out dough and make ravioli with that. Cover in a sauce of butter, lemon, egg and capers. As simple as it can get. Just exquisite. 

I'm told this is one of my signature dishes. I've been doing it for about 30 years. It's so labor intensive that I don't do it often and every time I try to do a quicker or easier version, it just doesn't work. 

So it must all be done by hand. 

Friday, February 7, 2025

Breakfast Noodle Soup


 

Every other day I make noodle soup for breakfast. I add slightly different ingredients, use a slightly different technique or something different each time. Every now and then they flop. Usually they're good, sometimes exquisite. And there's no inherent logic to the rate of success either. Handmade noodles, homemade stock, fresh ingredients sometimes yield a superior soup. I keep stock in the freezer for just such occasions. But just as frequently I'll use store bought ramen and soup it up, so to speak, with other ingredients. This base of Neoguri Nongshim's seafood udon is remarkably good. Coconut milk, lime and tomatoes make it sublime. A little chickua or fresh fish is fantastic. Even canned clams works great. This is sort of like oyakudon, made with strips of marinated pork shoulder, dusted with tapioca starch and when simmered in a pan with shallots and dashi stock for the same 3 minutes it takes to cook the noodles. At the end a beaten egg is poured on top and then covered to steam for a minute. Finally it's all tipped into the soup, which also contains baby bok choy. It sounds a little complicated, but actually it takes 10 minutes or so, which is why on days I teach this has to be quick. I'm out the door around 7:00 AM and walk for an hour and a half on my way to work. 

This is actually an experiment. Do blogs still exist? I started a substack and not sure I really want to use it. But obviously I haven't written anything here for a year. Let's see is anyone looks at this other than bots.