Cold Cut Platter

Make Your Own and SAVE MONEY

Why would you go to a catering place and pay upwards of $80 when you can do it all for under $40 with a couple of tricks and creativity. I know this has nothing to do with cooking but I will teach you how to make things instead of having to buy them all the time. Plus this lets your inner artist also come out.

PLATTER

The vessel where your creation will be has to be take into consideration when prepping your items. You need to make sure your items are enough to cover the whole base. For our preparation today this plate is 16in diameter. In your mind separate the plate into 8 different sections like a pizza. Treating each slice different for each cold cut.

Each section will handle a cold cut.

CHOICE OF INGREDIENTS

Whenever I choose to make a platter I take into consideration of what the people I am making one for like. Not everyone is going to like ham or salami or roast beef so you want to make sure you make it appealing for everyone.
  

CHEESE
Clockwise Yellow American, White American, Meunster, Mozzarella

MEATS
Clockwise Ham, Mortadella, Roast Beef, Genoa Salami

OLIVES/BREAD
Clockwise Black Kalamata, Green Casteveltrano, Baguette 

INGREDIENTS

All these are full slices of each. I ordered 1/2 Lb of each and ate the rest as they never go to waste here.

6 Slices of Roast Beef

10 Slices of Genoa Salami

8 Slices of Ham

10 Slices of Mortadella

8 thicker Slices of Meunster Cheese

8 thicker Slices of Yellow American

8 thicker Slices of White American

10 Oz Mozzarella Cheese Ciliegine(Cherry) Size

10 Oz Green Casteveltrano Olives

7 Oz Kalama Olives

1 Baguette

START TO PLATE

Don't forget the pizza

**NOTE---Keep all the cheese in the refrigerator as it is easier to handle a cold piece of cheese**

Lay your slice of Roast Beef away from you

Fold in half towards you

Roll loosely from left to right

Place 3 rolls on your "slice"

In descending order stack the rest making a pyramid shape












Fold the Genoa Salami in half

Fold it again to form a fan

If you want a fancier look, roll by holding the middle and it forms a flower shape

 Turn your platter 180 degrees and place the Genoa Salami directly across from the other meat

In the picture I started with 4 quarter fold on the outside and "flowered" the rest until I got to the center.

Make sure you keep a space in the middle

Use this to coordinate the colors of your meat Beef and Salami match, Ham and Mortadella match

Place slice of ham towards you

Fold towards you

Roll loosely from left to right

Turn the platter 90 degrees and place Ham in the slice closest to you

Set three rolls on the outside of your "slice"

Place another three on top and to the front of those

End with two more on top and to the front like pictured on right

**Detailed version of the flower fold**

Fold Mortadella in half

Start to roll loosely from right to left using the center as an axis until you get to the other side

This forms the flower

 Turn your platter 180 degrees

Place your flower as shown starting with four and in descending order until you reach the middle

Always keep in mind to leave a set space in the middle

Take the cheese out of the refrigerator

Using only the Yellow and White American cheese

Place a slice of Yellow forming a square in front of you

Take a slice of White and place it on top of the Yellow forming a diamond

Repeat this until you have stacked all the American Cheese

Take attention to detail in making sure they line up perfectly and that you end up with a White slice of cheese on top this will make a difference in a minute

 Using the Yellow cheese as your guide cut from tip to tip

Repeat and cut to have four equal stacks of cheese

Placing your thumb in the tip of the stack(where the center would be in the cheese) gently push back to fan out the cheese.

Alternate colors by fanning with a different cheese color on top

Place fans on vacant spaces

Stack the Meunster cheese and slice like shown

Use the same technique of fanning on the Meunster

Place the Meunster under the American fan

Place the Mozzarella Cheese in space left in the middle of the platter

Using the Green and Black Olives garnish the voids between the meats and cheeses making a pattern if you like.

(Notice the ball of mozzarella at the end of each Black Olive line)

BE CREATIVE!!!

OH WAIT DID HE FORGET THE BREAD!!!!!

 No I did not just take your sharpest knife much better if it is serrated.
Slice in an angle your loaf in 1/4 in thick pieces.

Place them in a decorative pattern

Plate your bread next to your

 CATERED COLD CUT PLATTER

Serve and ENJOY

Thank you for taking your time to read this. If you have any comments please post them. Questions, suggestions, hate mail, fan mail or anything you can write to me CookingMyBrain@hotmail.com.

See you later

Leo

Ravioli




A staple in Italian cooking is the ravioli and depending on the filling it can be a meal into itself. This is a plain version of the cheese ravioli. Very easy to make and easy to store for future use.

Dough

Recipe and Steps HERE 

(Prep Time 20 minutes active 10 minutes inactive)

Filling

3 Cups of Mozzarella Cheese

2 Cups of Ricotta cheese

2 Cups of Grated Cheese

2 Eggs

1 Teaspoon of Salt

2 Teaspoons of Pepper

(Prep Time 5 minutes)

Ravioli Start to Finish

(30-40 minutes) 

Using your food processor and pulse the Mozzarella Cheese

Once the Cheese is to a very fine consistency pour in bowl

Add two Eggs

Add Ricotta Cheese

Add Grated Cheese

Pour Salt and Pepper

With a wooden spoon or by hand mix filling thoroughly

Get your pasta station ready(for dough recipe see blog)

After letting your dough "Dry" somewhat

Flour your ravioli sheet

Make dough to desired thickness and place over sheet. Fill in each pocket with filling making sure not to over fill them. Dip your finger with warm water outline the seams this will help the dough stick to each other.

Fold over other side of dough and press down with rolling pin. Making sure to put added pressure to the seams



Take a cooking sheet and line with aluminum and place the ravioli making sure you do not have the ravioli overlap as they will stick



From this point you can either boil them and enjoy them as is or freeze them for a later date. If you choose to freeze them take the lined cooking sheet and place in the freezer for 24 hours. At such time pull the aluminum off the sheet and the ravioli will separate from the aluminum.

Bag them and date them to boil at any later time.

(Rule of thumb you can put them to boil right from the freezer just add 10 more minutes to the boiling time)

Thank you for taking your time to read this. If you have any comments please post them. Questions, suggestions, hate mail, fan mail or anything you can write to me CookingMyBrain@hotmail.com.

See you later

Leo

Homemade Dough

The secret to any good dough is the preparation. There are many different ways of making dough....here is mine. Pasta dough is a very good conductor of flavor where you can go simple as we will bellow or add things to the dough to make the flavors pop like spinach or roasted peppers. With all the different variations the starting point is always the same for me....

4 Cups of All Purpose Flour

1 Cup of Ricotta

2 Eggs

1 Cup of Water

(Total Prep Time 20 minutes, 20 minutes inactive)

Using your stand mixer or a bowl put 2 Cups of Flour

Add 1 cup of ricotta

Add 1 cup of water

Add 2 Eggs

Add the remaining 2 cups of Flour...By making "Sandwich" it will help your ingredients mix better

Mix on LOW for about 60 seconds

Once you start to see a ball starting to form you can crank it up to medium

Once the ball has completely formed (about 5 to 7 minutes)

Dust your tabletop generously with Flour

Place your dough over on your board

Kneed you dough by folding it into itself until you get a "smooth" layer on the bottom

Place your dough in a zip-lock bag and place in you refrigerator for about 10 minutes. This will help you because it will make the dough a bit sturdier.

This next step can be done with either a rolling pin or this AWESOME machine

(we bought for 65 buck well worth it)

Take flour off from refrigerator and work some more to get it back to a ball shape.

I use a pizza cutter to cut the dough this is easier than using a knife.

Divide the dough into about 6 pieces.

In Decending order pass your pieces thru until you get a desired thickness. From here you can make lasagna sheets, Spaghetti, Fettuccine or even use the dough for Ravioli. For today we will make Fettuccine

As you get your sheets of dough to the right thickness it is a good thing to let them hang to dry a little bit as if you were to boil these right now they will just form a ball of pasta and that is never good. To dry pasta just take a broom or mop stick lay it secured between two chairs or in this case a dishwasher and a cabinet. Drape a tablecloth or a clean towel and place sheets as pictured above. Keep an eye on them as if they are too long the weight and gravity may break them so keep them small. the Drying process depending on humidity should only take 20 minutes.

Cook them right away or freeze them and save them for a later date. Either way you will not get fresher pasta than this.

Thank you for taking your time to read this. If you have any comments please post them. Questions, suggestions, hate mail, fan mail or anything you can write to me CookingMyBrain@hotmail.com.

See you later

Leo