04 January, 2010

Muffin Ravioli

In theory, ravioli are watertight. So maybe this will work. But I'm not certain.

Background:
I like food. I like science and the engineering/hacking methodologies. But I know it's not a good idea to eat off of labware, so the natural solution is to hack food. To this end, I am hosting a food hacking potluck with many of the local hackers this coming weekend*, and I've been trying to figure out what to make.

Experimental Aim:
Essentially, I want to make blueberry muffin ravioli. I will serve it in a mango avocado basil reduction. Now, making either raviolis from scratch or muffins from scratch is relatively straightforward, but combining them so that the ravioli is still pasta-ey and the muffin is still muffiny is an issue. Will pasta cook if I just bake it in the oven? Or do I have to boil it first? I know from literature research that lasagna noodles must be boiled before being baked. It is possible that I could blanch the muffin batter-filled raviolis in boiling water and then bake them, but I am concerned that this would lead to leathery pasta shells. I mean, honestly, I think my best bet is to cook the ravioli squares first without muffin batter, fill them, seal them, and then bake them moist.

What do more experienced cooks think?

If this falls flat, I have a backup plan: caramel-filled radishes breaded, fried and then served with a sour pepper sauce.

*I will be posting pictures and recipes of the things that turn out tasty.
Posted by Toaster Sunshine at 17:49
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4 comments:

MGS said...

Are you wanting the inside of the raviolis to taste like blueberry muffin? I don't think that's going to be feasible, but your idea of making the raviolis and stuffing them with the blueberry muffin batter might yield something like blueberry dumpling ravioli, instead. A substance that does well steamed (instead of baked) is tamale dough (for the lazy: masa harina with a splash of oil). Blueberries might not go too well in tamale (or maybe they would, hmm), but the mango avocado basil reduction (I can't wait for your recipe!) will pair nicely for sure. You could mix the masa harina with a mango salsa for the insides of the ravioli, perhaps.

For the radishes, how do you fill them with caramel? I would think something buttery would be a better match. I've had some pretty disastrous things happen with just simple experimentation with radishes. It turns out they taste absolutely disgusting in soup. Who knew? But they go really well with butter, and the sour pepper sauce sounds fantastic.

I can't wait to see your creations.

p.s. Something you may be interested to know, since you appear to like avocado, is that it bakes surprisingly well. One time I baked it on a pizza and it turned out tasting a little like chicken. It was kind of cool.

4.1.10
Anonymous said...

Make blueberry pierogis. Google it, there's a whole bunch of recipes. You can boil or fry them.
jc

4.1.10
LostMarbles said...

I think the main problem is no matter how you cook the ravioli muffin mix expands unlike usual fillings. If there's no room for the muffin mix to expand, it's liable to explode out of the ravioli.

4.1.10
Ktbug Ladydid said...

as long as you don't overstuff the ravioli with muffin mix, it should be fine. An easier option might be to make a muffin surprise-where there are ravioli hiding in the muffin. THEN, you could put something different and unique in the ravioli, to make it three times the crazy!

22.2.10

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