Pan Seared Salmon with Beetroot and Ricotta Canelloni

           “Fresh doesn’t always mean better; a self-respected Italian housewife doesn’t bother to make pasta at home since she can get good one in the shop” – an article “Things you’d know if your nanny was Italian” stated. Well, there is a point here, no doubt. But what about ravioli?! I do not mind buying ready-made ravioli with meat, mushroom or cottage cheese filling but what would you do if you crave for a more sophisticated flavour inside the pasta shell? There’s no other way but to put an apron, dust the table with some flour and get into making your own dough!

            I had an absolutely amazing recipe of beetroot and ricotta ravioli from one cooking magazine; I’d made the dish a couple of times – each time it was a great success. Recently, however, as I had already prepared the filling and rolled the dough to the necessary thickness – I stopped for a moment thinking how I can change the dish a little bit (just for fun, you know!). At that moment I remembered Chef George Calombaris who once showed how to make fish mousse cannelloni to the contestants of Masterchef Australia. He put the mousse into a culinary bag and piped it onto strips of fresh pasta dough which were then rolled around the filling and cut into tubes to form cannelloni. I decided to use the same technique to make cannelloni with my beetroot filling.

           Wow! The result was beyond any expectations: it was basically the dish that I was familiar with  – but in a new form. A piece of a seared salmon with creamy dill sauce served as a great accompaniment to the cannelloni which had a distinct sweetness of beetroot and a pungent scent of parmesan. All in all, it was a beautiful dish and I will definitely bother to make it again. In the long run, I do not have an Italian nanny who would try to talk me out of making fresh pasta at home!

Polenta Leaves with Zucchini Mille-Feuille and Coriander Fondue

           This week, as I wrote a post about “Trilogy of mushrooms”, I mentioned that I managed to get (quite in a mysterious way) a book featuring vegetarian dishes served at one Indian five-star hotel chain. As I said, the book – or, to be more precisely, simply a huge (more that 400 pages) magazine – is full of mouth-watering dishes. The only problem is – they are vegetarian. So my husband didn’t quite share my overwhelming excitement on getting this source of amazing recipes (when I try to serve vegetarian meal at home, he protests: “Honey, is there a widespread famine? Where is meat?!”) 

            Luckily, one of these days we had our piscaterian friends for dinner. Since I made quite a decent range of seafood starters, I felt that I had the right to prepare a vegetarian main course. My choice was a dish that struck me most when I looked through the book: beetroot and haricot layered zucchini mille fuille with polenta leaves and parsley fondue. I had to change beans for green peas and to substitute parsley with coriander (as I didn’t have the necessary ingredients in the fridge) but overall the dish looked exactly as on the photo from the book. To say true, it turned out to be decisively simple: it actually took me two hours to prepare it (there are quite a lot of elements that go on the plate!) but, needless to say, it was worth it. Even my husband who, to put it mildly, is not a big fan of polenta, finished it off in a few minutes!

            Now I’m waiting for another opportunity to cook a new dish from my “Vegetarian fare” book!

Beetroot Risotto with Apples, Walnuts and Brie

          When I was working on my post about Apple and Cream Cheese French Toast I made some research about Vicky Ratnani, an Indian celebrity chef (whose recipe I used) and accidentally came across another dish of his – beetroot risotto with apples and brie. Quite a quirky combination, I know, but that’s what usually makes any dish so appealing to me!

            Since it is a vegetarian risotto I decided to make it for breakfast (with a carnivorous husband at home a meal containing not a single piece of meat is a strict no-no during lunch or dinner time). So, as my husband walked on a weekend morning in the kitchen and saw a purplish something simmering in a pan he frowned and asked: “Honey, what are we gonna have for breakfast?” “A beetroot risotto. With some apples and walnuts.” “Oh….Wow…Ok…” (poor thing! as if  he had a choice!) But as he tried a spoon of it he quite liked it! And as far as I am concerned I came to the conclusion that it was probably the best risotto I’ve ever had (or was I way too hungry that morning?) Anyway, it’s definitely a winning combination and I will be happy to cook and to have this dish again!

Beetroot Soup with Coconut Milk

         

     

         Last year after vocation spent in Moscow I eventually brought my blender here, to India. Immediately I developed a mania to blend all possible and impossible things and, as you may guess, creamed soups were often on a menu in our house. It was then that I remembered about a beetroot soup I’d once tried to make a year before during the Lent (I got the recipe from a website featuring vegan food). I was impressed by the flavors and an interesting, really unusual combination of beets and coconut milk but chunky vegetables in the stew made it more like “I’ll probably (rather than certainly) make it again” type of a dish. But since I had eventually got that necessary piece of equipment in my Kolkata kitchen, I decided to give the soup another try and to blend it! And oh….that was a vivid (bright-pinkish) example of how a texture can change the whole dish!

So, go ahead – indulge! Even if the whole place will look like a Barbie house (with funny pink slashes on the tables/stove/sink/wall) you won’t regret it – the soup is really worth it!