Independence Month!
Here is another Jamaican staple ingredient, the callaloo. With
its thick stems and large broad leaves. This is normally sautéed with other
veggies and meats like salt fish, then served for breakfast. Its also the star
ingredient in a vegetarian soup called pepper pot soup. However today Callaloo
will be making an appearance stuffed in ravioli.
Callaloo is very similar to spinach. The major differences are texture and cooking times. Spinach tends to get very mushy and soft when cooked too long, you can even have it raw. The stems are very thin and easy to cook and the flavor is very subtle. Callaloo on the other hand takes a bit more cooking than spinach, and still yields a little bite when cooked, it’s not entirely mushy. The stems are very thick; if the plant itself gets too large the stems cannot be eaten. If you cant find callaloo you can certainly use fresh spinach for this, just cut the cooking time in half.
Callaloo is very similar to spinach. The major differences are texture and cooking times. Spinach tends to get very mushy and soft when cooked too long, you can even have it raw. The stems are very thin and easy to cook and the flavor is very subtle. Callaloo on the other hand takes a bit more cooking than spinach, and still yields a little bite when cooked, it’s not entirely mushy. The stems are very thick; if the plant itself gets too large the stems cannot be eaten. If you cant find callaloo you can certainly use fresh spinach for this, just cut the cooking time in half.
It’s a very light and yummy dish. The sauté callaloo really shines
through. The wonton wrappers I used for the ravioli are a gift from above. I
actually tried making ravioli dough from scratch a few years back, and it was
not easy. The beef raviolis came out delicious, but it was not without some
serious effort. So I knew that homemade ravioli dough would never come from the
greedy girl’s kitchen again.
Ingredients
Sautee Callaloo
1 large bunch of callaloo chopped
1 large tomato
1 medium onion
2 table spoon canola oil
½ teaspoon scotch bonnet pepper
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoon seasoning salt
(Lawry’s)
1 teaspoon no salt seasoning
6 table spoons water
1 teaspoon brown sugar
Alfredo sauce
½ of cooked callaloo
2 table spoon butter
7 cloves garlic shredded
1 cup milk
1 cup cream
1.5 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon no salt seasoning
½ teaspoon seasoning salt
1 teaspoon sugar
Ravioli
½ cooked callaloo
1 beaten egg
Flour for dusting
1 package of wonton skins
This is a lovely rainy day dinner. And it’s great to make
ahead of time too. You can make the raviolis and freeze them until you’re ready. Just toss them in the boiling water
until they are cooked. Just remember to boil them in batches, the ravioli does get a half size bigger when boiled.
Greedy tip: How to store them without vacuum packing
- Make sure to dust the ravioli generously with flour
- cut some sheets of parchment paper
- stick parchment paper between each ravioli, you don't want them touching each other
- lay them in a zip-lock bag and freeze
- store the sauce in a zip lock bag a well. To defrost I just placed the frozen bag in a bowl of room temperature water till it melted.
Try this one out
Xoxo Greedygirl