Paper Chef #37

This month the paper chef dished up some interesting ingredients complements of Terry from Taste Adventures.

Three random ingredients from the list:

liver (calves liver to be precise);

cheese;

oregano;

and her choice of: chestnuts
Interesting.
The mind went into overdrive. What to do?!? How to combine them into a dish & hopefully eatable.
First up we had to get the ingredients. So off to the market we went, and suffered... Saturday turned out to be the hottest day on record in Melbourne hitting a top of 46.4c. This was a seriously hot day. If you have been following the news then you will know of the tragic bush fires that occurred. Luckily none of my family or friends were in the areas that were affected.
Back to the PC. And calves livers. 6 butchers later not a calves liver to be found. Time to invoke the substitute clause - chicken livers. All other ingredients were found easily. And then to decide what to make....
In the end I decided to make a ravioli dish, stuffed with liver, chestnut & Parmesan, and a oregano butter sauce.

Ingredients
200g cleaned liver
100g chopped chestnuts
1/4 medium onion finely chopped
20g grated Parmesan
1/4tsp fine orange rind
1/2tsp salt
1/4tsp ground black pepper
1/4tsp dried oregano
40g butter
Fresh pasta sheets (recipe here)
1 tbls roughly chopped fresh oregano
1/4tsp fresh thyme
30ml Brandy (optional)
Grated Parmesan to finish

Method
Melt 10g of the butter in a fry pan and add the onion, dried oregano & orange rind
When the onion is soft add the livers and quickly brown - do not over cook!
Remove from the heat and place in a bowl to cool slightly
Roughly chop the livers and return to the bowl
Add the Parmesan and chestnuts and combine thoroughly
Spoon about a heaped tsp onto the pasta sheets and create your ravioli.
When ready to cook the ravioli, melt the remaining butter in a pan. While the butter is melting cook the ravioli in boiling salted water.
Add the fresh oregano and thyme to the melted butter and allow to fry slightly.
At this point you can add the warmed brandy & flame it
Drain the ravioli, add to the melted butter and toss.
Serve immediately with freshly grated Parmesan.

Paper Chef - July

This month for the Paper Chef we had to use the following ingredients:
Fresh oregano, Walnuts, Chickpea or Chickpea flour and
Fish steaks.

Now what to do with these ingredients?
After a trip to our local market for fish I settled on creating a salad of some type. A bit of discussion with Paul as to how to combine the ingredients we settled on the following combination:

Chickpea salad with Rainbow Trout Steaks and Walnut & Oregano sauce

For the Salad:
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tin chickpea
1 tbsp sambal oelek (chili paste)
1 tbsp fresh oregano
1 large handful wild rocket

Gently sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil along with the chilli till soft.
Drain and rinse the chickpeas and add to the pan along with the finely shredded oregano.
Gently stir the chickpeas till they are heated through & coated with the onion mixture. Season with salt. Remove from the heat & toss with the rocket.

For the Fish:
2 rainbow trout fillets, cut into steaks
Chickpea flour

Dust the trout steaks with flour. It prevents the fish from sticking to the pan .
Pan fry over medium heat skin side down for about 1 minute then turn over and fry for a further 1 minute, or until cooked to your liking.
Drain on paper towel to remove the excess oil.

For the Pesto:
100g walnuts, roasted till golden
Lots of fresh parsley and oregano
50ml olive oil
Salt & pepper to season

Lemon zest & juice (to taste)

Throw it all into a food processor & blend. Add lemon zest & juice to taste & season as needed.
If the pesto is a bit thick add some water to dilute.

And to assemble:
Place the warm salad on a plate & arrange the trout steaks around salad and serve with pesto on the side.