Lasagna Bites

If you have ever been to the St. Louis area, then you have probably been introduced to toasted ravioli – those yummy deep fried breaded pillows of meat or cheese. The Midwest is typically the only place that you can find these delightful little treats whether it is in a restaurant or in the frozen section of your local grocer.

So why ravioli when I have title the recipe lasagna bites? When I saw Aaron McCargo Jr. on Big Daddy’s House make his lasagna bites, I had to try it out for myself. The ending product that we had for dinner tonight reminded me more of a really good ravioli then lasagna – maybe that’s because I have never had deep fried lasagna before.

This time I decided to create my own stuffing as opposed to following another’s. Taking the tips that I saw on the show – use manicotti noodles stuffed and cut in to thirds and the most important step – breading the stuffed lasagna. Mr. McCargo had a terrific way of remembering the order of the steps in which to bread a particular item – February - more specifically “FEB.” – flour, egg, bread crumbs. Considering that I normally suck at breading, with the majority of it remaining in the deep fryer, I was excited to learn to see if this new trick would work for me. I was met with great success.

Serve these deep fried goodies, normally served as an appetizer, with your favorite spaghetti sauce mixed with parmesan cheese. Of course, a nice alfredo sauce would work as well. As Mr. McCargo pointed out, if you do not want to fry your lasagna bites, you can just as easily bake them in a 375 degree oven, just be sure to cover them with sauce.

Lasagna Bites
Prep and frying about 45 minutes
24 pieces
8 manicotti noodles, boiled to al dente, drained and placed in cool water for easier handling
Spaghetti sauce
Parmesan cheese

Stuffing – combine the following
15oz ricotta cheese – lite
1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ cup of shredded parmesan cheese
1 egg
8 oz of sausage (mild or hot, your choice), browned in a skillet and drained – I made sure mine was in small pieces
1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
2 tsp. Garlic powder
2 tsp. Onion powder
Salt and pepper to taste
Half a bag of spinach, cooked, drained and chopped

Breading
Flour
3 eggs, beaten
Italian seasoned bread crumbs

Putting it all together: Hold the noodle in your hand on top of a paper towel so that it will not slip out of your hand. Spoon the stuffing mixture in to the noodle – try not to tear the noodle but don’t worry if you do, the breading will keep it together in the fryer. After you have stuffed all of the noodles, place them in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes. This will help firm the stuffed noodles so that you can cut them in to thirds.

While you are waiting, plug in your fry daddy and prepare your breading materials. In separate containers (pie plates work well), place your flour, eggs and bread crumbs (FEB) and create your assembly line in that order. After you remove the noodles from the fridge and cut them in to thirds, start breading them – having someone else helping you at this time will make it go quicker. I personally breaded all of my pieces first before placing them in the fry daddy.

Frying (it only takes about a minute and 10 seconds): Be sure to have a pan or plate lined with paper towels ready so that you have something to drain the fried lasagna bites on. Start frying; I did three pieces at a time. After draining the bites, place them on a serving plate and sprinkle with parmesan cheese – do this as you go.

Hints for breading:
Make sure that the entire bite including the ends is covered in flour before rolling it in the beaten egg.
You will want to knock of any extra flour before placing them in the egg.
Roll the floured bites in the egg, again making sure that the egg covers the entire bite.
Same goes for the bread crumbs.

More hints:
After you cut your noodles in to thirds, you may have to push some of the stuffing back in to the noodle.
Again, don’t worry if the noodle ripped. Simply push the noodle back together. The stuffing and the breading will keep it in place.
I cooked my spinach in the same pan that I had cooked my sausage in. I also seasoned the spinach with salt, pepper, a little garlic powder and Italian seasoning
Be sure to drain the spinach after it cooks down. Do this by placing it in the middle of a clean dish cloth (one that you no longer like), twist the cloth making a ball with the spinach and squeeze or continue to twist the water out. After it is drained, cut it in to small pieces.
Flavor is important with the stuffing so don’t be afraid to taste the meaty cheese concoction before placing it in the noodles. Nothing is worse then having flavorless lasagna.

Serve immediately and above all, Enjoy!

Just for the Halibut

Taking the idea from a recent episode of Triple D – Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, I have put my own spin on this delicious halibut sandwich. As luck would have it, my grocer did not have halibut so I used Tilapia. I cut the fillet in half for easier flipping. I should have gone to Bob's Fish Market (because I live in St. Louis). Now if I was in KC, I would go to Bubba John's Seafood.

Ingredients:
Halibut – one piece per sandwich
Pecan panco bread crumbs or if you must Bread crumbs
Garlic lemon butter
Butter
Garlic powder
Fresh lemon juice
Avocado
Creamy cole slaw (see recipe below)
Onion (optional)
Manchego cheese
Sandwich Thins, Kaiser roll or your favorite roll, pita bread, etc.

Pat dry your pieces of halibut and dredge in pecan panco bread crumbs. Take a basting brush and brush garlic lemon butter on one side of halibut before placing it on your griddle or your George Forman, just leave the lid up (buttered side down). Brush other side of halibut with garlic lemon butter before flipping. Squeeze fresh lemon juice on the halibut as your second side cooks.

In the meantime, place your roll on the grill – a couple minutes on each side depending on how hot your grill is. This is optional and I actually forgot to do it lol.

Start stacking your components: avocado, slaw, halibut fillet, cheese, and onion (your choice on layering order). Substitution toppings could be lettuce, spinach, tartar sauce, onion, pickles, blue cheese, etc. Have fun with the toppings. If they don’t work for you, scrap them off and put something else on.

CREAMY COLE SLAW:
½ head of cabbage finely chopped
¼ c. carrot, shredded
Pre-shredded slaw is a nice easy way and it was cheaper than buying cabbage and carrots.

OPTION 1 FOR MAYONNAISE DRESSING:
(combine all ingredients until smooth; add enough cole slaw to create a nice consistency)
¼ c. milk
½ c. mayonnaise
¼ c. buttermilk
1 ½ Tbsp. white vinegar
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
⅓ c. sugar
½ tsp. salt
⅛ tsp. lemon pepper
⅛ tsp. ground pepper

OPTION 2 For a healthier mayonnaise Dressing:
(combine all ingredients until smooth –you will need to use a blender or mixer; add enough cole slaw to create a nice consistency)
Dana Jacobi, Cooking Light, AUGUST 2003
1 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces firm lite silken tofu
2 canned anchovy fillets
1 garlic clove, chopped

Deep Fried Hot Dogs

In an earlier post, I mentioned that my husband and I are trying to watch what we eat and get in shape for an upcoming trip. After a particularly hard day at work, I decided on the drive home I wanted to eat something comforting and I didn’t care how it was going to affect the "diet". My choice of yummy goodness: deep fried hot dogs.

I'm fairly certain that the idea came from an episode of Triple D - Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (if you haven't watched this show, might a make a huge suggestion - START!)

Deep frying the hot dog adds a nice snap to the skin or if you by Nathan's Hot Dogs (YUM) a crispy skinless hot dog. The process is easy: plug in your fry daddy, let it heat up, pat the hot dog down with a paper towel to dry it off before gently placing them (I kept it to two at a time) in to the hot oil and let them fry. Nathan's hot dogs will go directly to the bottom of your fryer and will pop up in almost exactly 2 minutes. Once they pop up, continue to fry for 2 1/2 minutes -you will notice a difference in the hissing of the oil and that is when you should take them out and place them on a few paper towels to get excess oil off.

Proceed by using your favorite toppings to create a terrific tasting hot dog. I topped one of mine with Taylor’s Chili http://www.taylorschili.com/, grilled onion, shredded cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream. The other hot dog was covered with sauerkraut, grilled onion and mustard. Now I am not a fan of sauerkraut but my husband loves it on his hot dogs and brats. I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and try some on my hot dog. Much to my amazement – I loved it!



Another suggestion comes from my brother Wayne, a concoction that he created for his business "Pick'n 'N' Grinn'n BBQ" - The Hairy Dog - hot dog covered in pulled pork and cheese. Is your mouth watering yet?

Enjoy!

Shiitake Mushroom & Asapargus Risotto

I've never made risotto before tonight. When I saw the idea for a wild mushroom and asparagus risotto I wanted to see if I could make it. I typed the title of the recipe in to the search engine and the first one that pulled up was a recipe from Alton Brown. So I printed out the recipe, headed to the store and cooked up a pretty tasty risotto.

It took me 50 minutes to make the risotto so give yourself some extra time. If you figure out how to make it quiker, let me know LOL.

I'm not much of a lemon person either, so next time I will be leaving the lemon zest out and add garlic to taste. I would also saute the asparagus in butter and garlic but not for too long. The al dente texture of the asparagus with the creamy goodness of the rice works really well together.

I will say that I did not originally add the salt and pepper that Mr. Brown had and wish I had. I'll be honest, I did not read the recipe correctly.

Other ways to change up the recipe would be to add a different type of cheese. I'm looking forward to making this recipe again and before adding the Parmesan cheese, divide the rice in to 3 or 4 bowls and adding different cheeses - maybe a nice asiago, permigiano reggiano, manchego maybe even a mizithra cheese. Now I'm not saying that any of the above cheeses will work but I will let you know.

Anyway, go to the link that I have provided and you will find Alton Brown's recipe for Wild Mushroom & Asapargus Risotto.

Enjoy!