Something a little different

Anyone that knows me knows that I adore food. I love to eat food but I do also enjoy cooking it. As I said yesterday I made some ravioli and I thought I'd share the recipe with you just in case you were tempted. I used this recipe for the filling and adapted it slightly. The post also includes an excellent photo tutorial showing you how to roll and stuff the pasta.

Ingredients:

100g of strong flour (type 00 is finer if you can get it
1 egg
a slug of olive oil
a pinch of salt.

125g ricotta cheese
1 tablespoon of Parmesan
4 sundried tomatoes
salt and pepper for seasoning
Italian herbs for seasoning (fresh basil would be preferable but I didn't have access to any)

Method: 

Filling:

- Make this before you make your pasta.

- Finely cut your sundried tomatoes up.

- Mix them with the ricotta, Parmesan, salt, pepper and herbs.

- Refrigerate until ready to use.

Pasta:

- Make a well with the flour, crack the eggs into the middle of it and add the olive oil and salt. Mix the eggs with your fingers and gradually pull in the flour a little at a time.

- Keep pulling in the flour until it's combined with the eggs and oil.

- Form a dough.

- Knead the dough until it's silky smooth and springs back when you push your thumb into it.
Rest the pasta for a couple of hours before rolling it or freeze it.

- To fill the pasta cut out circles (using a ravioli or cookie cutter), put about half a teaspoon of mixture just off the center of the circle.

- Then seal them using a trace of water around the outside of the circle. Be careful here to push out any air that's around the filling as this could cause your ravioli to burst while it's cooking.

- Dust them with flour to stop them from sticking together.

Cooking:

I froze my parcels on trays (and later transferred them to Ziploc bags) as I made them ahead of time but if you're cooking them fresh they will only need about 3 minutes in some salted boiling water. If you freeze them then they will take 4-6 minutes.

I made about 20 altogether but possibly could have squeezed out a few more with the excess dough if it hadn't been too dry to use. 

Serve with a simple sauce and marvel at the wonder that is homemade ravioli! 

 

On Our Way

So we've left China. The last week involved the shipping company packing all our belongings up...including the vast majority of my stash, packing our suitcases for 6 weeks away - not an easy feat I can assure you, and saying goodbye to the great friends we made. It was strange leaving our home of 3 years but exciting all the same. 

Now though, we're in Thailand. Having spent about 10 days in Bangkok we decided it was time to head somewhere a little quieter and preferably near a beach. We got a train from Bangkok to Surat Thani and then a boat to Koh Samui. The train journey itself was fine as we went first class so had our own little cabin, that was followed by lots of waiting around for a mini bus to take us to the ferry port and then a little more waiting before we could board the ferry. 

On arrival at our bungalow, aptly named Blissful Tropical Beach House, after many hours of travel we were delighted by the view and the house itself. Lying in bed we have a sea and mountain view which is wonderful after being in the city! We're staying at Bang Po, which is a quiet area of Koh Samui and perhaps not to everyone's liking. For us though it's perfect. This is the view from our bungalow:

We've rented a motorbike for the week to give us the opportunity to do some exploring of the island. It's wonderfully green and, of course, the sea is a brilliant blue, lined with golden, powder soft sand in most places. 

My days have been quite blissful and I feel very lucky right now. I sit on the porch to eat breakfast and read my book (The Night Circus, which I highly recommend), then we go for a ride and explore and perhaps eat out. One particular restaurant made me rather happy simply because of its name: Octopus Willys. The food there was delicious though. Look at these mussels with garlic butter and breadcrumbs:

Of course there is knitting and spinning but I think I've rambled on enough for now and will save that for another day! What are you doing for your holiday? I'd love for you to share!

Realisation

Mango Dumpling

As I write this I am sat in Starbucks, drinking hot chocolate - it's grey outside so thankfully I'm not missing a great deal. It's report writing season and this time I've decided that instead of sitting at home, surrounded by things I'd rather be doing, I'd try and get my reports written here. So far it's going well, although considering I'm blogging that may seem ironic to you. After a couple of hours I've decided I need a break from them. Also I've had too much sugar - in the form of a hot chocolate, bread and butter pudding and a mango dumpling - for it to be worth continuing for the time being. 

It's finally dawned on me that, in two months, we will be leaving the home we have made here in Suzhou. Seeing as I've had the job since December you may think I'm a little slow on the uptake, but there is simply so much going on at work that most of my focus has been there. I'm also realising now that this move will probably be harder than leaving the UK was. We've made some great friends here, seen some of them leave already, and now will be leaving some behind ourselves. Lots of little 'lasts' have already come and gone, last parent consultation, last class assembly, last winter for a while etc....and each 'last' from hereon in will be that little bit harder. Don't get me wrong though, I'm really excited to explore somewhere new and to start my new job, but the next couple of months are going to be a little emotional to say the least. 

On a more happy note I did finish spinning and plying a third of my Fondant Fibres custom dyed punis. I've done a two ply and really like the way it's come out. The colours have blended to create this gorgeous green but still have pops of blue and yellow running through it. I think this will knit up beautifully. The last two thirds of the punis have been divided equally and will be spun and plied soon.  

That's it from me this week. I hope you all enjoy the weekend!