Oh, yes, that's fat!

(And it's a pity you can't see it bubbling...)

That's the fat from merguezes! Better: those merguezes are home made by my Halal butcher just down the street! I love to buy my lamb at the Halal butcher because it has more taste that the lamb that is normally sell in Italy: too young for our fine palates... They have wonderful legs of lamb (which I normally roast), any piece from the lamb and merguezes, that sometime we buy even if we don't make couscous: they are just wonderful all by their own, grilled, served with some potatoes.
And this time I made them in a kind like pie.
I boiled some potatoes, then mash them, add some milk (goat milk in this case), some grated emmental, some butter, salt and pepper and cook it for a few minutes. Then I placed some cut merguezes in the bottom of a oven dish, covered everything with the mash, sprinkled with some grated emmental and cooked in the oven for about 20-25 minutes.
Delish!

Carrot cakes

Carrots in the fridge (and not much else)...
Sun and a wonderful blue sky outside (glorious today in Milan, looks like spring!)...
What possibly can I do if not baking little carrot cakes from a Donna Hay book (always the same one...)???
I halved the recipe, as we couldn't possibly eat for 5 day a big cake, and I made those little one, in little plum cake moulds. They turn out quite brown, like her cake, but I think is the combination between brown sugar and carrots that do the trick...
I think some chocolate chips won't do any arm to the general idea of this cake, if you really need to add them (sure you'll need to had them: what is life without chocolate???)...

125 g of brown sugar
9 cl of vegetable oil
2 eggs
100 g of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon of chemical yeast
1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of sodium
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/3 teaspoon of powdered ginger
150 g of grated carrots
30 g of chopped hazelnuts
60 g of Corinth raisins

Pre-heat the oven at 180° C.
I used the mixer with the whisk to do the batter, but you can do as well by hand, using whisk and muscles.
Place in your mixer sugar and oil and begin to beat. Add eggs one by one, the add the rest of the ingredients and beat until you obtain a smooth batter.
Oil some moulds (I used 5 a bit bigger than muffin moulds) and distribute the batter. cook for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean and dry.
Let them cool.

Donna suggest to glazed then with cream cheese, but that's tooooo way Anglo-Saxon for a Mediterranean girl like me! But fell free to do it!

Those ugly little scones...

Or how to make scones for an afternoon tea with no all purpose flour in the house and the last time you shopped on line instead of normal cow milk you bought goat milk...

This afternoon some friends are coming over, so we decided we could indulge in a little English tea party, at 5 pm sharp!
I love scones, as I already said in the past, and they are so perfect with a bit of jam (figs jam from my father in law production in the picture above) or marmalade, that I can't stop myself from baking them when a sudden urge come up in my mind!
So, here they are, Whole wheat, goat milk and Corinth raisins scones...
Do I have to tell you from what the recipe comes from, or you can just imagine it?

165 g of whole wheat flour
165 g of manitoba (strong) flour
2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of sodium
1 pack of chemical yeast
1 teaspoon of salt
65 g of cold butter, diced
300 ml of goat milk
100 g of Corinth raisins

Turn on the oven at 200° C.
Mix together flours, salt, bicarbonate and yeast. Add the diced cold butter and crumble everything. Add all in once the milk and mix briefly. transfer the sticky mixture on a very floured surface and begin to knead until is everything combined. At this stage you will need a lot of flour, but the dough should remain sticky.
roll it with your hands in a disc 2,5 cm high and cut out 12 circle with a glass. Transfer the circle on a baking sheet, leaving them near one another, and bake for 15 minutes. If you like you can egg wash them.
Serve warm.

Waiter, there's something in my... (cheese) pie!!!

What can you possibly do when you have some fresh cheese near the expiration date and you have this intense urge to eat a cheese focaccia???
3 options:
1. Throw the cheese in the bin, take a train and head to Recco, eat hot cheese focaccia, go back on the train and head home with belly happily full;
2. Try, without any success, to make the wonderfully thin Focaccia di Recco at home, and end up with everything in the garbage (I'm NOT referring to an episode happened some years ago in my kitchen!);
3. Open "wish list of recipes I want to make but never have time to", find a cheese kind of focaccia, make it, post it and eat it.

I choose option 3 (albeit a nice trip to Recco would rather be nice...), and in the mean while why not submitting the recipe even to a nice event hosted this month by Cook sister!??? For the rules of the event, please find below the picture of the closed pie...

Here it is, freely adapted form Nigella Lawson's Feast (there goes under the title of Nana's Hachapuri). The dough is so light and airy that you won't even notice it! And the filling so tasty that you will end up asking yourself: "How could I possibly lived until now without eating this???"

Make 6 to 7 pies
For the dough
350 g flour
250 g low fat yoghurt
1 egg
25 g extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

To make the dough, albeit Nigella tells you how nice is to knead, I've used my Kenwood chef and knead all together with no effort at all! I'm a lazy girl, after all!
If you dough is too stiky (it should be like a pizza dough) add more flour, little by little.
Transfer it in a bowl, close it either with film of lid, and let it rest for at least 20 minutes.

For the filling
200 g feta cheese
200 g robiola
125 g (1) mozzarella

Cut mozzarella in little cube. Crumble feta cheese, mix it with mozzarella and robiola (you can use ricotta or cresenza or stracchino).

Preheat the oven at 200° C.
Take a bowl of dough, roll it on a floured surface with you hands. Do the same with the rest of the dough. Oil 6 or 7 little cake pans (or a big one, or those little plumcake pans I bought last Saturday, all together with the little rounded pans...). Cover them with the rolled dough, add 2 tablespoon of filling, close each pie and cook it for 10 minutes.

Enjoy while still hot!

P.S. I know it looks like I'm making the entire recipe collection of Nigella's books, but I swear you I have other cookbooks! Simply I'm in a Nigella state of mind... Will it ever end??? Who knows...

Maple syrup muffins

I love maple syrup: is a late discovery in my life, but since then I would use it for anything, from marinade to cakes, from savoury sauces to sweet sauces...
A dear friend sent me from Canada a nice bottle of true maple syrup and as she's hosting one of her numerous events this month on one of her numerous blogs (and as I would love to win those nice pans... ;-D), here are some wonderful maple muffins! Perfect with coffee over a lazy breakfast...
Adapted from Nigella Lawson's Feast.

For 12 muffins

150 g walnuts, chopped
275 g flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
50 g rolled or crushed oat
pinch salt

130 ml milk
120 ml maple syrup
125 ml vegetable oil
1 egg

1 tablespoon vergeoise brune

Preheat the oven at 190° C.
Mix all together walnuts (but 3 tablespoons), flour, baking powder, oat and salt.
In another bowl, mix milk, maple syrup, oil and egg. Add to the dry mixture and combine, but do not mix to much: leave lumps, your muffin will taste and look better (said the voice of the experience...).
Spoon the mixture in your muffin pan. Mix the remaining walnuts with the vergeoise brune and sprinkle it over the muffins. Cook for 20 minutes.

Eat them still warm, with a nice cup of coffee...

Macarons au chocolat et cointreau

Oops, I did it again (no, I’m not Britney Spears fan…)! And this time, chocolatey, my favourites...
But lets get through the recipe, as it would be simple writing it in Italian, but in a foreign language, you know... I will take it step by step.

6 days before you intend TO EAT your macarons, take out of the fridge 2 eggs, divide white and yolk (use the latter for something else) and leave whites at room temperature, in a glass or some other kind of jar, covered with plastic film. The whites MUST weight 73 g.

2 days before you intend TO EAT your macarons, make them following this recipe (absolutely fools proof, as I did it twice and both the time they turned out perfectly!)

Ingredients for the macarons (must be precisely weight and they are the right amount for chocolate macarons, not normal macarons)
160 g of confectioner sugar
93 g of almond flour
13 g of cocoa
73 g of egg whites

Sieve together sugar, almond flour and cocoa. Whip the egg whites until they are stiff. Add all in once the sieved mixture and begin to mix everything with a spatula, from the centre of the bowl to the borders, turning the bowl at the same time (I know it sounds strange, but it works). You will end up with a gluey mixture, a bit fall down compared to the stiff whites. That's perfect, don't worry. Transfer your mixture into a pastry bag with a smooth decorating tube of 8 mm of diameter and begin to make your macarons on a baking sheets covered with greaseproof paper. You will obtain approximately 35-40 macarons. Let them rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes (better 1 hour).
Pre-heat the oven at 250° C. Once is hot enough, place your baking sheet over another baking sheet, turn the temperature to 180° C and bake you macarons for 10-12 minutes, NEVER opening the oven door.

Ingredients for the filling
Honestly, I haven't weighted them, but approximately should be
30 g of butter
50 g of dark chocolate
1 tablespoon of milk
1 tablespoon of Cointreau

Melt all the ingredients, except the Cointreau. add the alcohol only in the melted ingredients. let the mixture to cool before to fill the macarons.

Let the macarons rest for at least 36 hours in the fridge before to consume them.

Enjoy!!!

Dedicated to The Girl Who Ate Everything and to all macarons lovers around the world... In two day I probably publish a pic of the inside... If I can resist!

Of course this recipe is from Secret Gourmands, by Pierre Hermé.

The best chocolate ever?

I don't know if this is (was) the best chocolate in the world, but for sure is the best chocolate I've ever tried...
Pierre Marcolini is a well known Belgian chocolatier and this carré was a present from a dear friend that went to Bruxelles and thought of me... I normally prefer dark chocolate, but I have to say that this incrusté of milk chocolate with pecan nuts and subtle perfumes of caramel was just astonishing!!! So wonderful that all I can show you is the beautiful box but not the chocolate, as it disappeared very quickly...

Mushroom soup/pâté

Well, I love mushrooms, any and all kind! As I live in Italy, in autumn is quite normal to find fresh porcini at the market, altogether with many other wood mushrooms. Of course the most widespread mushrooms that you can find everywhere, all year long, are champignon. And as we produce so good dried porcini, the most simple way to have a porcini taste even when porcini are not available, is to mix champignon with some dried porcini. And so I did for this soup.

2 celery stalks
1 carrot
1 onion
30 g of dried porcini, soaked in hot water for 30 minutes (do not throw away the water)
500 g of champignon
3 potatoes
2 tablespoon of extravirign olive oil
1 glass of Marsala wine or Porto wine
Thyme

Clean and slice the champignon. Pell the potatoes and cut them in chunks.
Clean and mince celery, carrot and onion. Stir fry them in the oil. Add the drained porcini, then the sliced champignon and the potatoes. Add the Marsala, the drained water form the porcini, the thyme and cook for 30-40 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.
Serve it straight away (upper pic) or blend it (like under here) to make an interesting pâté for your appetizers!!!

Cozze e broccoli

I had this idea in mind: a nice dish of pasta with mussels and broccoli. The problem was, as you can understand from the picture, that I cooked broccoli too much and all I end up with were just the stalks, while the nice green flowers were all over my sink... So, in the recipe, you will find the time you should cook the broccoli, and not the time I actually cooked them... Mess happens, even in the "best kitchens" (Ah! Ah! Ah!)...

1 kg of Spanish mussels
250 g of macheroni, mezze maniche, rigatoni or penne
1 broccoli flower
extra virgin olive oil
chilli pepper
garlic
parsley
1 glass of white wine (plus more for your lunch and while you are cooking!)

Begin by preparing the mussels. clean them under running cold water and discard all the open shells. Heat 2 tablespoon of oil in a heavy sauce pan and add garlic, chilli pepper and parsley (as much as you like for everything), then add mussels, let them stir fry a bit, add the wine and let them cook, covered, for 5-10 minutes, until all the shells are wide open.
Bring to the boil a big sauce pan filled with salted water and once it's boiling add the pasta. Five minutes before the pasta is cooked (al dente, remind you! So if on the package is stated 14 minutes, cook the pasta for 12), add the broccoli flowers. Drain everything and add it to the pan with the mussels and let it cook for other two minutes, stirring constantly. Serve, sprinkled with some minced parsley.

Banana, pear and chocolate crumble

It was ages I wanted to try this recipe from the wonderful book Crumbles by Camille Le Foll. And then one merry day I had all the ingredients in the house and some friend to dine with, so I though it was the right moment!

3 pears
2 bananas
3 pieces of candied ginger

For the crumbles:
100 g of butter
100 g of flour
100 g of sugar
60 g of grained hazelnut
2 tablespoon of cocoa
Ginger powder

Crumble all the ingredients for the crumble in a food processor.
Peel pears and bananas and cut them in thick slices. Dice the candied ginger.
In a oven dish layer pears, banana and candied ginger. Cover with the crumbles and cook in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.
Serve warm.

Warning: this post is not (mainly) food related, but rather a silly post and absolutely NOT serious!

Today I was in the underground heading back home from work and there was a lady reading Pride and Prejudice, one of my favourite books. For one second I thought: “Now I ask her if she’s in love with Mr. Darcy”… I didn’t, mainly because I thought that, of course, she was in love with him, who isn’t??? And then I thought: and if she answers me no, what can I possibly say??? I was in love with him the first time I read Pride and Prejudice, and I was in love the second time I read it! I blushed with Elisabeth when she saw him on the other side of the garden. I was outraged like Elisabeth for the way he was treating her in the beginning, but then my heart was beating with her heart every time she saw him, and I was beaming with joy when they finally got together! He’s a dream man, not the ideal, but a dream man for sure! And my favourite on screen Mr. Darcy is of course the one and only Darcy for the Bridget Jones generation: Colin Firth! Perfect in the BBC drama!!! Ah, how much can someone miss BBC???
And now, the food related part of this post: Jamie Oliver and his podcast!
Yesterday, a lazy Sunday mainly devoted to the recovery after one long dinner with friends on Saturday night (one pic at the end of the post: sorry about the light, but it was a candlelight dinner!), I was messing around in front of my Mac, and I decided to have a look at some food podcast. An entire universe opened in front of my eyes!
First of all the podcast of the Culinary Institute of America: I haven’t had enough time to explore them in the way they deserve, but just watching a brief part of the video dedicated to northern Spanish cuisine I was absolutely delighted!
Then a silly podcast, for cooks who can’t cook: ctrl-alt-chicken! Just hilarious!!!
And then, my favourite of all, the only, the unrivalled, the wonderful podcast by Jamie Oliver! There are only three video podcast by him (the rest are just audio), but he’s so cute while he tastes beetroot that you wish you could taste it too, with him, alone in the kitchen, maybe some candlelight, some nice music, a bottle of red wine… Ok, sorry, sometime I forget I’m a married woman! And Jamie is a married man father of two!
Heading back to Jamie’s podcast, it’s just like watching him in one of his famous shows: hilarious, everything made in front of your eyes, no fuss no muss, easy, simple, with no ostentation. He makes you think that even a 2 year old can do it! And that’s exactly what England (and the world) needed and still needs! Enjoy his freshness and the wonderful mood he’s able to broadcast all over the net!
Jamie Oliver you’re the best!

P.S. Explore all the links: they are worth it!!!

The ultimate cake

I really have to say it: he’s the best, without any doubt, with no regrets and no reserves… I own three of his books, made two of his recipes and I’ve never read in my life something better explained, with all the passages made clear, with all the instruments you have to use and when, all the ingredients precisely indicated…
I would go on and on for days, but I don’t want to bother you…
Pierre Hermé is just fantastic! I haven’t yet found the courage to try one of the recipes on PH10, mainly because some ingredients are strictly seasonal or difficult to find in Italy or on big surfaces, but the recipes on Secrets Gourmands are just incredible!
Take for example this cake. Normally for a plum cake you mix all the ingredients together and away in the oven. Here no! You make your own almond paste, you use a semi professional kneader to assemble everything (and he doesn’t just tell you to turn it on! No: he tells you which accessory to use, when and at which speed!) and then you cook it. Fate wanted my little grinder to brake just today, so I cut the chocolate in the way he instruct it, and I have to say, it made the difference!!!
If you follow each and every word he writes, success is knocking on your door. Of course if you never baked in the whole of your life, well, leave the book on the shelf… But if you normally bake, well, he wrote the new millennium pâtisserie bibles… And I’m not a religious person!!!
The problem is that I’m quite “embarrassed” to re-write one of his recipe: I will never master its perfection…

For the almond paste
100 g of almonds, refrigerated for 1 night
15 g of egg whites
90 g of sugar

Blend all the ingredients until you obtain a smooth paste.

For the cake
140 g of almond paste
165 g of sugar
4 eggs
1,5 dl of milk
40 g of cocoa
180 g of flour
1 teaspoon of chemical yeast
80 g of diced chocolate
60 g of hazelnut, toasted and roughly minced
55 g of almonds, toasted and roughly minced
55 g of pistachios
180 g of cold melted butter


In a big kneader bowl, knead, al medium speed and with the k utensil, almond paste and sugar until you have crumbles. Add one by one the eggs and when everything is assembled, substitute the k utensil with the whisk and whisk at maximum speed for 10 minutes.
Lower the speed to minimum and add cocoa, flour and yeast. With a spoon add then chocolate, hazelnut, almonds, pistachios and butter.

Bake in a preheated oven, at 180° C, in a cake pan 28 cm long, for at least 1 hour. After 15 minutes, when a think crust will form over the cake, groove a straight line in the centre, with a knife.

Let it cool, then unmould.

Green Sformatini

“Again? She made sformatini again???”
Oh yeah! And you know why? Because they are so simple I’m not ashamed to show them on this blog forever and ever.
“Yeah, ok, but she could choose not to publish them!”
And why???? The way I made them is absolutely the same, but I slightly changed the ingredients and they are superb!!!

Last week, reading a post by my friend Ilva, I realized that cauliflower and broccoli stalks are edible and you could do something with them, something tasty, and something edible!
So I boiled them and I mixed them with a mozzarella, some stracchino, half a teaspoon of red curry paste, two egg yolks and some Parmesan. That’s it! Oven and it’s cooked, edible, tasty, healthy and good!!!!! And if you don't put the egg yolk you can enjoy it like that, maybe with pasta or over bread...

P.S. The picture is always part of the set "Piperita bought bargain linen napkins"...

Lemon Marmalade

So good, so simple, so refreshing, so, well, lemony!

1 kg of lemons
1300 g of sugar

Wash the lemons (better be organic), cut them in thin slices then each slice in four wedges. Leave them to macerate with the sugar overnight in the refrigerator. The next day cook the jam for 1 hour, 1 hour and half.
Store in sterilized jars.