GCC: Menu 2 - Ricotta and Arugula Roulade and Quindim
Sunday, October 10, 2010
And its week two of the Gutsy Cooks Club.
Our inaugural week was such a success, not only in participation but the choosen recipes were a total hit with the club. Most of us are putting them on the repeat list. I was also happy to see most of us get “gutsy” with the recipes by changing things around and getting creative.
That is the spirit guys!
And here we are in week 2. These choices were actually ones that got my attention when I first got the book and was browsing through it, because a savory roulade? Really? And if there is anything that I like more is changing sweet staples into a savory spin off. This was perfect; I have done so many sweet rolls before, so I was looking forward to it.
The best part of it is that my mother’s birthday was Sunday and I cooked a whole lunch for her, and this fit right into the menu nicely. I was not even trying to make it fit, but this tells you how good this would go with any type of menu.
The roulade was pretty easy to put together, in fact I was so surprise how easy it came together. And the taste before it went into the oven to cook was good. So I was all sorts of exited.
This was going to be good, I thought…
Until the 20 minute mark, where according to the book “…until golden and the top springs back when pressed”. Yep, it sprang back when pressed, but, golden? Not.so.much. In fact it was pretty pale and looked totally uncooked but, when I took a done test, it came dry.
Uh? Yep, the picture of “clueless” may come to mind - because that is the look I had at this point. Sort of like Rufus in this picture:
By now you know how I’m a sticker for following the recipes to the letter on the first try. So out it came out and I flipped it on my wax paper covered with parmesan (the expensive kind too!). And here I realized that my roll was much thicker than the picture on the book.
Oh Oh.
I read over and yep, I did use the recommended 9x13 baking sheet, that is a quarter size sheet pan and that is what I used. The hell?
But I continue ahead. I had arugula and I decided to mix into the ricotta some chopped up sun dried tomatoes to give it a punch. I also added nutmeg to it. Spread it on top of the roll and then got to rolling, which unfortunately, due to the thickness of my roll was more “folding in half” than rolling.
I was mad at this point. In 3 hours I was going to have six people over for lunch and one component was not working.
I figure, the taste will make up for it.
So, I cut the ends and tasted.
And it was “blah”. Ok it WAS totally “blah!!”
The texture of the roll turned out to be more of a “soufflé” like, instead of the bread like that I THOUGHT it was going to be. I figure, maybe it’s just me? But when Tom tasted it and his words were: “Yucky!” I knew we were losing this recipe to the scratch pile. I even made my mother and his mother tasted it, because I just could not bring myself to write it off as a “Fail” just yet. But, their words were “it lacks flavor” and “I don’t care for the texture”.
I was stumped. What went wrong? The picture looks like a crust develops and I did not have that. In fact other Gutsy Cooks had the crust - Shandy, Shelley. Raymond liked his. Steph echo Tom’s sentiment and manifested another “yuck”. Marie was not going to pin for it again.
WHAT WENT WRONG?
But you know what that means right? This is going to be a do-over in my book; I’m going to tweak it because cooking a savory rolls sounds just too good to pass it. I’m going to start with this version and see if it will go over better.
In the meantime here is the recipe if you want to take a crack at it and make sure you email me with your thoughts.
Ricotta and Arugula Roulade
Yield 4-6 servings – from The Kitchen Bible
- 4 tbsp butter, plus more for the baking sheet
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1¼ cups whole milk
- ¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 4 large eggs, separated
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 packed cup coarsely chopped arugula
- Special Equipment:
- 9 × 13in (23 × 33cm) baking sheet
Prepare Ahead: The roulade can be prepared through step 4 a few hours in advance of baking. The baked roulade can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Butter a 9 × 13in (23 × 33cm) baking sheet and line with parchment paper.
- Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Whisk in the flour and let bubble for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the milk and cook, whisking often, until the sauce comes to a boil. Remove from the heat again and stir in half of the Parmesan. Add the mustard and season with salt and pepper. Allow to cool slightly, and then beat in the egg yolks.
- Beat the egg whites in a bowl until they form soft peaks. Stir one-fourth of the whites into the cheese mixture to lighten it, and then fold in the remaining whites. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
- Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden and the top springs back when pressed. Turn out on to a large piece of wax paper dusted with the remaining Parmesan.
- Peel away the parchment paper and trim off the crispy edges from the roulade. Spread the surface with the ricotta, leaving a 1in (2.5cm) border at the short sides. Cover the ricotta with the arugula. Roll up the roulade lengthwise, using the paper as an aide. Cut into slices, and serve.
Notes: Mix a pinch of nutmeg into the ricotta before spreading over the roulade. Replace the arugula with spinach and add 3oz (85g) roughly chopped sun dried tomatoes before rolling
Next up was the Quindim and as I wrote on here, this is a Brazilian popular dish. It’s pretty easy to do this one too. In less than 15 minutes I had them in the oven cooking away.
And this one did not fare better either. Man I was in a total fail train! Thank god the other stuff in the birthday menu were total hits.
I did not unmold them until the next day. And when I did, it was crusty on top, but once I turned into a dish it was a bit runny sort of like soft boiled egg. During my mother’s birthday lunch, my mother requested my Tres Leche Cake as her birthday cake (recipe to follow), but, they were all game to have a taste of this.
And oh boy! The sugar rush knocks you off your feet – so warning this is SWEET! The taste afterwards is yummy but only after you get pass the sweetness of it. The verdict was that they all prefer the Tres Leche over it.
Quindim
Yield: 4 servings from The Kitchen Bible
- melted butter, for the ramekins
- ½ cup sugar, plus more for the molds
- 4 large egg yolks
- ¼ cup canned coconut milk
- 2 tbsp desiccated coconut
- grated fresh coconut, toasted, to serve
The quindim can be refrigerated for up to 1 day before serving.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter the insides of four 4oz (120ml) ramekins and coat with sugar, tapping out the excess.
- Whisk the sugar and egg yolks until light and creamy. Add the coconut milk and desiccated coconut; mix well. Divide among the ramekins. Place the ramekins in a roasting pan and add enough hot water to come halfway up the sides.
Regardless of the outcomes of both of our weeks recipes, the birthday lunch was a hit, the rest of the menu came together the way it should and I will be posting some of those recipes soon. I also learned to crack a coconut the fastest and easiest way from a fellow baker Patricia of BetterYum which tells you that being gutsy not only makes you try new things, but you learn new things as well.
Reader Comments (11)
Nice pictures, even if you weren't crazy about the roulade. I think it's going to take a lot of punching up for you to think it has flavor, since the roulade is bland and the ricotta is bland. But that's the whole point of trying a gazillion new recipes, right? You win some, you lose some.
Marie.. you are totally right, I thinking of using mayonaise (I made some for another recipe) and It may work here.. and like the in the New York Times that I linked to.. she also uses bread crumbs.. but for it it lacked a bit of crunch. I don't want to give up on it, because it's such a great idea. And I'm up for the challenge!
Sorry to hear you didn't like the roulade. It looks really good though. I wonder why it's not browned, maybe because it's really thick and so the cooking time needs to be longer?
PS: cute picture of the doggy. He looks sleepy!
Jenn... I actually cooked it an additional 5 minutes, thinking that it was going to brown, but no dice. And when I did the done test, the tester came out dry. I'm thinking I totally used the wrong sheet, regardless if I use the one it told me to use.
The cute doggie is our 180 pound bull mastiff - Ruffus. I could not resist.. he is usually in the kitchen underfoot, along with our other doggie - Maggie, playing vacum cleaner .. but as soon as he heard the major cussing coming out of me when the roulade was not working.. he went to sit away from me. Dumb dog! :)
Your black dog is too cute! Monica, I have to tell you, my roulade was all puffy and larger then the one in the cookbook too. Mine seemed to shrink as it sat. Also, I was surprised over the souffle texture, and like you, was expecting more of a bread texture. The top of my roulade was not golden brown but the bottom was when I flipped it out of the 9 x 13 dish. I was laughing when I read how you checked to make sure you had the right size for a baking dish because I did the exact same thing.
The quindim still has me wondering. I think the baking time was just wrong and should have been another 15 minutes; just a thought.
Your photos are gorgeous as always.
Cute dog! Fantastic pics. I loved this but then I added a bunch more Parmesan. My daughter thinks it would be fantastic with olive tapenade.
Your dog is soo cute! You have 2 dogs?! Quindim looks so interesting..i've never seen it before either..
Your roulade looks much, much lighter than how mine came out. It was actually golden brown when I took it out of the oven- which, of course, completely fooled me! How can something look like bread, but taste like foam? lol.
I agree- I tasted it before baking and the flavors were delish! What happened?!?! =(
Man, I hate days like that. Where everything you cook tastes like crap. Those are the days I go out for lunch. Better luck next time!
Vicki: You are totally right, while I did not not like the souffle texture, because I'm convience I use the wrong pan, even thought I checked like 10 times... I think the ricotta was pretty bland and did not help it at all, it needs some type of bold filling. I'm not giving up, I will try it again.
Faithy: Yep, we have 2 dogs AND 2 cats. Ruffus is actually the "baby" of the bunch and regarless of his size he acts like the puppy that HE NO LONGER IS.
Steph: I have no idea.. this is one of those times where everything seem to go ok, but the end result was just NOT what I expected. But, I shall repeat.
Jodie: yeah, there are days like that. Thankfully the rest of the birthday menu came out delish, so all was not lost.
What a bummer about the roulade! Great account of it, though—I totally believe the failure was no failure on your part!