The Kitchen Pantry

This blog has moved FOREVER

2008-08-10T18:28:00.003+02:00

www.saramaternini.com/kitchenpantry

Finally! After 2 months of intese coding, here is my new home!

The move was smooth and painless!

I would like to thank you all my followers here, and asking them to kindly change the link to my new blog! You'll find everything there, even new stuff, wow!

I would like to thank very much mr. Blogger, but after I briefly met mr. Wordpress during the WordCamp in Milan, last May, well, what can I say, wordpress rule!!! Code is poetry, afterall!

See you in my new home!

Daring Bakers: Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream

2008-07-30T08:45:00.004+02:00

I grew up in a home surrounded by a garden. Just outside the window of my bedroom there was, and still is, a big hazelnut tree. simple branches during the winter, but a lot of leaves from spring! It's one of my favourite tree, not because is beautiful or anything, but simply because it witnessed a lot of what was going on in my life! I used to do everything in my bedroom, except eating and watching tv :)
I remember entire afternoons spent picking up hazelnuts from the ground, together with my dog... I remember entire afternoons eating them too! :)
And I remember one of our dogs eating them with much pleasure! He was cracking the shells with his teeth and eating the hazelnut inside, all happy for the compensation of his efforts!
All this to state that hazelnut were part of my everyday late summer life for all my childhood!
Since I don't live any more with my parents hazelnut appear in our home only during Christmas time. A big Italian tradition is to end every meal during Christmas and New Year celebrations with a dish filled with nuts, to crack them while chatting around the table or playing cards...
So I wan very pleased when I saw this new Daring baker recipe!!!

And the final result was astonishing! I made it for the 60th birthday of my dad and all my family was superpleased! My aunts and uncles were all happy :)

Daring bakers make the world happy :)

PS: I know the picture is not up to the normal standards, but we were in a crowded restaurant and you know how people react when you take picture of food, don't you? But it shows the layers :)

PS2: I know it's 1 moth I do not update the blog, I know I haven't yet finished the Morocco Series, but I started a new job and I still have to find a routine... But I will! :)

Daring Bakers: Danish Braid

2008-06-29T09:00:00.000+02:00

One summer afternoon, Sara-Piperita goes to her usual Support Group: Anonymous Daring Bakers Challenged With Some Basic Preparation, ADBCWSBP (meetings every end of the month, day vary).
As usually, she meets with her fellow companions (some very skilled!!!), but this time is her turn to step in front of everybody and speak about the dreadful challenge of all...
"Hi, my name is Piperita and I'm puff pastry (and similar) challenged..."
A cheerful "Hi Piperita" comes from the audience...
Then she begin, tears dropping form her eyes, to tell her story...
"My problems with puff pastry began many years ago. Everybody love to make puff pastry. And many people told me that it is so simple that even a child can do it... I never could... I was always too hasty, or too afraid, or the room was too hot, or the pastry simply wouldn't puff...
I tried many recipes, work it in many ways, but nothing: I simply couldn't... It has always been one of the big flaws of my life..."
When she finishes, everybody stand up and begin to hug her... She feels sightly relived...
Then Kelly and Ben come up to the group and they begin to explain that they have the perfect recipe for Danish puff pastry. [Danish is slightly different form "normal" puff pastry, as it uses yeast to boost puffness...]
Piperita begins to cry again, mummling: "No, no, I possibly cannot... I even tried Nigella Lawson's recipe for Danish, where she allegedly says it's possible to make it with a mixer, with not so many turns and time, but even with that easy peasy recipe, I couldn't!"
Kelly and Ben try to comfort her, to convince her to give a try...
She finnaly surronder...
Sara- Piperita gave a try to Kelly and Ben Danish pastry...
Sara-Piperita isn't anymore afraid of Danish pastry or puff pastry!
Sara-Piperita succeded!!!
Now she can concentrate on the rest of her unberable flaws...

The world of wine would be safe forever if everybody would work like...

2008-06-23T21:20:00.004+02:00

Marco Sara, a young wine maker from Friuli, one of the eastern region of Italy: he has just 3 acres and he make just 3 wines: Picolit, Mufis and Verduz! One better than the other! My husband, who is a sommelier and he's acknowledged among our acquaintances as a fierce wine critic, after trying them, said: "Astonishing!" That was a first, I can tell you! Thanks to Filippo Ronco, who told us we should try them!

Or like Emidio Pepe, a wine maker from Abruzzo, making bio-dynamic wines that will last for ever, like the astonishing Trebbiano d'Abbruzzo 2001 we were lucky enough to have at La rucola in Sirmione: a white that had no problem to cast all its flavors even over roasted lamb.

Or like Villa Corniole and its bronze colored Pinot Gris, made from a maceration on its skins for a few days : a color and a taste that you'll remember for the rest of your life...

We had the pleasure and the honor to try those and many other wines at Terroir Vino, an interesting fair of wine producers mainly from Italy (but there were two French, and you could feel the different approach with communication: French are, astonishing enough, so nice when they come to wine speech!).
Forget Vinitaly and its Barnum circus: get back to basic! A desk, few bottles of wine, some pieces of Ligurian focaccia, and your glass: that will make your day and your tasting experience!

Day 5 to 6 Meknes and the King

2008-06-12T08:01:00.004+02:00

[Discalimer: I know I came back from Morocco like ages ago, but I know you want to know more about our adventures there ;) and by the way, I'm cooking almost nothing lately, so... :P]

Leaving Fès, I decide to enter fully in Moroccan life: I bought a newspaper! We consulted our guide on which newspaper we should buy: not too much on the side of the king, not too Muslim, not too rightish... I know: we are crazy! We always look for the local counterpart of Manifesto or Liberation!!! And in French, of course, as neither of us could read Arab...
I anyway ended up with the wrong one (I'm capable of forgetting the title of a newspaper in 10 meters walk), on the side of the king, whom, by the way, is a very cool and good looking person, so it was kind of ok!
And we discover, just 4 minutes before to take the train to Meknes that the king would be there, in Meknes, for the agricultural forum during the same days we would be there! How exiting!!! On paper... Because at the end we just had two glimpses of his car and nothing else...
Back to our trip!
By the time we arrive in Meknes I have the biggest flu of last year: hate Moroccan thermal excursion! So I don't remember much from the city...
I reckon it as something beautiful, with no too many tourists and all festive for the king...
I think there were some amazing monuments, as usually, but I was sniffing my nose constantly...
There is one thing I remember vividly: the Riad we went to!
Riad Feloussia, and Lionel and Sonia, its owners!
The Riad has only 2 bedrooms, one more beautiful then the other! the restoration of the Riad was undertaken by the owners altogether with Moroccan architects and carpenters, using traditional materials and trying to preserve the original feeling of the place! The bathroom in our room was bigger then our sitting room at home!!!
They even have a terrace looking on the main square: a treat you'll want to enjoy even under the midday sun!
Uh, something I remember: not far from Meknes lays Volubilis, a Roman archaeological site! Very nice... Very hot and sunny, but very nice!

Uh, something else: Christians prisons! Creepy!!!

Ah, and of course we got lost, somewhere, looking for an exit, but fooling ourselves inside a labyrinth of streets and covered alleys... We really felt inside a scenario of Prince of Persia! (actually I was constantly saying it... ;D)

We ate both on the street (in Meknes they have the best bread we ever tried in Morocco), in restaurants (Le Collier de la Colombe, where we had as a dessert a Pastilla au lait which was AMAZING!!!) and at the Riad.

At the Riad we had the pleasure to eat camel tajine (actually dromedary): kudos Zora, the Moroccan girl who cooked it!!!

For more pictures, here!

Food 2.0 NomNomNom

2008-05-30T07:09:00.004+02:00

Sunday 18th May 2008 I was here, teamed with her, doing this.
We cooked all this.
We where among other people, all cooking astonishing meals!
Everything was organized by her in partnership them, with some outstanding sponsors!
I spoke about it here and here (Italian version) and there we published our entry even here (recipes included!!!And thanks to Julia for the wonderful job she did!)!
We had fun! Loads of fun!!!

Now, after the tasting competition (which we won!!!!! Yeah!), there is the on-line competition. And as you have just one food blogger in your mind, and you love her so much, GO and vote for us! We Need you!!!

P.S. I know this entry is kind of cryptic, but is there a best way to oblige you to go around the net than giving you cryptic hints???? ;)

Daring Bakers: Opera

2008-05-28T23:12:00.000+02:00

Opera is a dessert I always wanted to try, but never found the courage! It is one of those dessert so complicate dan with so many different passages and layers, that, honestly, if it wasn't for the Daring Bakers, I would probably be still here wondering about it!
Funny thing is that before to make it, I wanted to compare the given recipes, a mix of Dorie Greenspan and Tish Boyle and Timothy Moriarty's recipes, with the French recipes, but I couldn't find it!
Among my cook book collection, I have to French desserts bibles: Ph10, by Pierre Hermè and Larousse de desserts. None has the recipe for Opera. And that looked strange, given the fact that both books are filled with monstrous recipes, so difficult that sometimes I read them, I think about them I dream them, but I do not dare making them (and I'm not revealing which one is the most dreaded, because it will be my choice for the Daring bakers challenge I'm going to host in 2009!)! I wanted to have a look at the French recipe not because I wanted to change the recipe of the challenge, but just for comparison. Has it never occurred to you to have in front of you a recipes, especially desserts, and want a "second opinion", just to be sure, just to have a different view? To me it happens all the time!!! :)
So my only reference for this traditional French dessert were American recipes! Perfect! I mean, my French husband wasn't so sure about it, but I mean, is HE the daring baker??? No, he's not, he's just French! :P
And as the recipe turn out PERFECT, he could say nothing!!!!

The only problem I had was the fault of the white chocolate: I like the taste (even if sometimes it tastes too much of vanilla!) but I hate working it! It spoils in a matter of seconds!

I did a big rounded cake (jelly rolls are rare and difficult to find in Italy), and bakes the joconde in 3 different pan: 2 of the same size and one tinier, as I had only 2 pan of the same size.
But I solved the discrepancy among the 2 different size with blueberries!
My layers, from bottom to up:
- joconde, big size (wet with syrup)
- buttercream
- joconde, little one (wet with syrup), with a round of blueberries on the side
- buttercream, covered with blueberries
- joconde, big size (wet with syrup)
- chocolate mousse
- chocolate glaze

As it was made of different joconde size, I had to restrain the cake in a ring, so I could fill it in a easier way.
Of course, as usually, I unmoulded to fast, and the chocolate glaze went on the side... After this challenge I can say with no doubt that I'm not cut for good and perfect looking desserts: I just cannot! I'm a pasticciona!!! (that in italian means kind of goofy but that makes mess all the time!)

Day 3 to 4 Up and down Fès

2008-05-19T10:29:00.000+02:00

First we went down, then up, by another street, and then down again, to the bottom, and then, too tired to go up again, we took a petit taxi to go up... And like this for 3 days. And we didn't get tired of it... I would go up and down in Fès for ever!
Even on a busy Sunday evening, pushed by everybody, shove by (stinky) donkeys and (rude) porters.
Because in Fès they push! All the time! And after 2 days you stop too to say "pardon" (French pronunciation, remember!)!

That's strange, because in Paris and Milan they push you all the time, but I don't stop to say "Scusa" or "Pardon" and I get always pissed by rude people all the time. Especially in Paris, in the underground: gosh, they are SO rude...
But in Fès no, they are not rude (except porters), they simply do not have the same concept of physical space we have: they are not afraid to touch a stranger in the street, they are not afraid of physical contact, they are not afraid of people. They smile, they chat, they walk around, for leisure or going to work or school, always smiling.

And if you had the enormous fortune to live in Fès, well, you would smile too!
We left our hearts in Fès! It is the most beautiful city we have been in Morocco, where we had our first understanding of Moroccan life, our first real touch of what life is there.
It's very difficult to describe it, but it's the most fascinating city I ever been too. You cannot see it or understanding in 1 or 2 days. Even 3 are not enough. It's tiny, but mesmerizing.

And our personal advice is to save money, eating in the street, to be able to go and eat to Le Palais de Fès, on their terraces! The food is amazing, but the view is what is important... That view... It will never leave my mind... Ever... Le Palais de Fès does not have sign outside his door. Once you arrive down down and you arrive at R'Cif, and it looks like you are going out of the Medina but you are not, you arrive on a main street (don't bother to look for singpost: there aren't), follow it, and soon you'll find on your right a cinema. There is a little square before the cinema. From the center of the square, cinema on your right, main street behind you, you'll see a door, surrounded by green ceramics. That's the entrance to the restaurant. Then you go up and up and up...

And be brave and go down until you find a part of the city tourist less, le quartier Andalous, on the eastern border of the Medina, and you can see real Morocco... And you eat a lot of nice, simple and tasty stuff, for nothing, as usual!!!
So tasty I couldn't wait to take a bite of the potato puff before to take the picture!!! :P

P.S. There is a way to enjoy Fès without the pushing: take a walk around 8am! Unforgettable!!!

For the whole set of pictures, here!

Day 2 Rain going to Fès

2008-05-15T15:05:00.003+02:00

We took the bus at 6.45 am and leave Marrakech on a cold but sunny morning.
We have in front of us 8 hours of bus ride, in the mountains. Fun!
As soon as we leave Marrakech and we begin to go up, the weather changes and it becomes grey, rainy and cold!

We freeze in the bus, we freeze during the 3 stops we are allowed to go out of the bus to eat!

First stop in the middle of the mountains, for breakfast: mint tea and some kind of patisserie. And, on the contrary of what you can think about looking at those pictures, the best thing was not the pastry in the back of the tea, but the rounded mega biscuit, that we called polentone: made mainly of butter and semolina, it's delicious!

Back in to the bus, next stop in Kenifra for lunch (no picture, too cold!).
You have to know that on our first draft of our tour we wanted to make a night in Kenifra, just to cut in two the long journey to Fès. When we went to consult the lady of the Moroccan tourist office in Milan, she asked us why on earth we would like to stop there, as it was a city (more village) with nothing to see. My answer was (with a dreaming tone!): Because we want to watch real moroccan life goes by... She gave me one of the strangest look I've ever seen!
On second thought we decided we couldn't waste 1 entire day there, so we ended up doing the whole trip at once.
And, honestly, I do not know if it was the rain or the mud caused by the rain, but thank god we decided not to stop!!! Let's say we didn't have the best impression of the city and the tourist office lady was absolutely right!
Then the road again, the rain again and at last, Fès!
I do not want to spoil you all the wonderful thing we saw and we did in Fès. Allow just to say that if one day we really decide to go to live in Morocco, Fès will be our first choice, above ALL.
I give just a bite for now! Mind: it was sunset!

And then we ate our first Moroccan sandwich, made of marinated meat (with onion, garlic, coriander and other spices difficult to sort out), grilled in front of you, and actually in front of the butcher too, and filling the wonderful Moroccan bread (you can see it in the back) all together with a spicy sauce! Delicious!!! Shall i tell you how much was it? I dunno, because maybe you won't believe me... We ate in the street, walking, and we bought from a stall where there was all moroccan people... And I think we pay it anyway more then Moroccan do, but it was 2 euros for 2 big sandwiches... Nothing!

For the whole set of pictures, here!

Day 1 Marrrakesh, a first bite

2008-05-08T06:30:00.000+02:00

We left home on a Friday night, heading to my parents home, in Varese, where we left the cat and we slept few hours before leaving for the airport (Malpensa is much nearer to my parents house then to our home in Milan) at 4.30 am on a Saturday.
3 hours flight with EasyJet from Milan to Marrakech, just the time to chat with a nice Moroccan woman living in Italy and traveling to her parent's house in Beni-Mellal, half way between Marrakech and Fès, as we will discover the day after...
We land in Marrakech the early morning of a wonderful sunny saturday (Morocco is two hours behind Italy) and we catch the bus heading to the city.
It's a short ride, 20 minutes at most, to arrive to the souther part of the famous Place Jemaa El Fna, which we do not explore then, but we begin to look for our riad: a little treat we indulge ourselves, as it will be the most expensive of all our trip.
The riad is on the map of the Guide Vert Michelin, but we soon discover, in the wrong location. Really in the wrong location!
But mind: we are still naive, we do not yet know how to act with "helpful" Moroccans...
And you have to know that Medinas, the Moroccan old city centers, are a labyrinth of noisy, narrow and cul-de-sac streets, with few exits and you get easily lost. And there isn't street names... And when there are street names, they are in Arab alphabet...
We were approached in the street by an old lady (you can normally trust women in Morocco, but they rarely speak to strangers) whom speaks only arab. She's trying to help us, we understand. So when she turn to a young guy explaining him (we suppose, as the conversation is in Arab) we are trying to find Riad An Nur, we gladly think that in the end, what all the travel guides tell you, is not really true: people in Morocco are genuine helping strangers in the street...
And of course we were WRONG. The young guy put us in the hands of another young guy who tells us to follow him. We of course follow him. But after 20 minutes going endlessly around the labyrinth, with no clear aim and we the feeling that he's just trying to making us feel even more lost, we decide we do not need is "help" anymore and we prefer to call the riad for specific directions.
But this guy is still following us, saying he know where to bring us, he knows where the riad is, he's helping us...
We kindly tell him, please, don't worry, we call the riad and they'll come to pick us up, thanks for your help... Nothing. He doesn't go away. And I tell you that the situation is beginning not only to piss us off, but to worry us...
We call the riad and the gentleman on the phone tell us to wait for him in front of the "bureau de tabac" (tobacconist). Only we do not find a bureau the tabac, because the guy that was trying to "help" us listened to everything, he's ahead of us and (supposedly) saying to everyone to give us wrong direction. We asked to the bureau de tabac if it was one, but they told us, no, sorry, we are not... But they were!
After looking around for 20 minutes, always followed by the guy, we finally find the riad gentlemen, Faissal whom get rid of the strange guy in a sec...
From that day we learned that never, under any circumstance, you should trust anyone who's approaching you in the street in Morocco. They seem nice, they smile at you, but all they want from you is money for nothing. They do not care about you, they do not care you are lost. They are just after your money, as a tip or a percentage on a selling or a room, in a way or another they just want your money. Sure they are not just trying to help.
Anyway, after this weird start, we enter the riad, and WOW!

First of all, there is silence.
Then it's fresh, calm, clean...
It's a paradise, with a luxurious garden, wonderful suites, shadowy patios and sunny roof top...
And then,suddenly, we are affected by what we called "The Riad syndrome": you don't want to go out any more. You just want to stay there, lying on the bed, or on the sofa, or on the terrace, taking a refreshing shower, or a nap, or just reading... You want the riad be your home. Forever.

But deep deep inside you, you know you cannot...

And so you go out of the door and boom: another world, another dimension! Noise, children loudly playing in the street, mopeds with their noisy horns, people trying to get you in their shop... But you begin to adjust and you like the outside too, because at the end you know you have a refuge...
Anyway, we forced ourself to go out because we had to eat and to buy the ticket for next day bus to Fès.
So we go to the bus station. And suddenly, again, people asking us, in any language "where do you have to go?" And I'm almost starting to answer, but then I think why someone should care? And so we decide to ignore them: we knew, from the travel guides, it was better to travel with CTM, because all the others companies have very poor services. We find the CTM ticket counter and we buy our tickets for the day after 7 am bus to Fès: 8 hours of bus riding...
Then we head to Place Jemaa El Fna to eat.
We survey some stalks (constantly harassed by everybody, trying to convince us to eat at their place) and we chose one full of Moroccan people.
We have our first tajine de poulet au citron (Chicken with confit lemon Tajine) and grilled meat, with bread.
Bread was the most amazing discover of Morocco: the best we've ever tried! And you know why? Simple: is cooked in a wood oven. But I have time to tell you all about it!
Finally we can head back to our paradise!
A paradise with a kitchen, where, for not too many dirham (at least not compare to Europe, but a lot compare to the Morocco), you can have your dinner, cooked expressly for you by the riad cook (whom is normally the woman housekeeping the whole facility too). Moroccan cuisine, of corse! Salads, tajine, fruit salad, mint tea.

A luxury we'll experience again during our trip!

Next, Day 2 Rain going to Fès

P.S. Let's say I wasn't SO inspired when I wrote this entry! ;) I hope to be less boring and more catchy with the following! :)

Morocco, the land where time stops...

2008-05-06T09:39:00.005+02:00

Morocco...
That's where I've been in the last two weeks... And that's where I would love to live the rest of my life!
Morocco...
A beautiful country, made of sand, sea, ocean and imperial cities...
Morocco...
The land where time really stops! At first we thought it was our watch, but soon realized that the whole country is inside a time capsules, where hours seem days, days seem weeks, weeks seem months...
For the first week I kept asking what time it was, and then suddenly saying: "That cannot be true! It cannot be still SO early!"... Then, little by little, the watch wasn't an issue any more: our day was scanned by the prayer callings coming from the minarets and filling the cities with their melodic verses... It wasn't any more a matter of what time it was: we were living fully (and, honestly, still are) in the Moroccan way...

Our trip was fairly classic for a two week first exploration of Morocco. We toured the imperial cities and did a short escaped towards the desert.
Moroccan currency is dirham. It's better you change you foreign money at the airport: the rates are very good (at least for euro) and there is no commission. Don't do the grumpy tourist that try to pay everything in US dollars and get pissed if robbed! ;)
Credit cards are accepted only in few places and they normally add a commission of 5%. On the other hand there is plenty of cash dispensers.
We travelled in public transports, train, buses and taxis.
We stayed mainly in awesome riad, the traditional Moroccan house: a cube with no outside wall windows, but windows facing the inner court where there was a large open area, with a fountain or a garden, with lots of light. It normally comes with a huge terrace on the roof. We booked all of them before to go (and I strongly recommend it!).
We used two travel guides: an old Routard, from 2000, and a newer Guide Vert Michelin, 2007. Both weren't up to the task, honestly. Maybe we should have used the Lonely Planet instead, but we wanted to keep it French, for once...
As none of us can speak Arab (or should I say Moroccan?), we spoke French all the time. It's not that Moroccan people doesn't know any other foreign language, they do, but French is more natural for them. And French is anyway the second language of Morocco. French is essential if you want to go to Morocco by yourself.
We didn't bought a carpet but if you want to, we strongly recommend you to look up the prices for Moroccan carpets in your country, so at least you know against which price you should haggle. Because Morocco is the land of haggling too! 99% of what is sold doesn't have a price tag, and Moroccan just love to haggle! A lady on the train told us that they haggle for tomatoes and carrots too!!!

In the next weeks I will publish an accurate account of our trip, full of pictures and stories...

Do not expect too much food! Not because we didn't have it, but because after the second tajine, looking all the same, you stop taking pictures...
Moroccan food is very very good, but, unluckily, it doesn't excel in variety: tajine, tajine, grilled meat, tajine, fried fish, tajine again and then, on friday, couscous and then tajine again... And then, of course, their wonderful patisserie! But I don't want to spoil the fun of reading the next posts!

Stay tuned for:
Day 1 Marrrakesh, a first bite
Day 2 Rain going to Fès
Day 3 to 4 Up and down Fès
Day 5 to 6 Meknes and the King
Day 7 to 9 Salè and Rabat, the old and the new
Day 10 The hot train and the harassing city
Day 11 The (almost) desert
Day 12 to 14 Too much harass, too much heat and too much almond milk

Canned peaches from Monate's Lake

2008-04-16T07:41:00.004+02:00

I was born in the Lake region of Italy: only around Varese there are 7 lakes (famous for a hard bike tour): Varese, Maggiore, Comabbio, Biandronno, Monate, Ghirla, Ganna ! Well, do not imagine lakes of the size of an American lake: no, nothing like that! They small lakes, but very very picturesque... Those lakes are very lucky with the climate, and always blessed with mild weather.
Once, many years ago, I was wandering around the Lake District, in England, and I suddenly felt like I was home: the two landscape are very similar!
The Lago Maggiore, being the biggest of the 7 (Maggiore means bigger), is well known and very beautiful... But all the other lakes are a popular destination during the summer, especially Lago di Monate, being one of the few where you can bath, and being very clean too! :)
Around Lago di Monate, there are several orchards, and the most famous are peaches, especially canned peaches.
Forget all about the normal, chewy and tasteless canned peaches you find in supermarkets: those are something else!
First of all, they are still firm! And they are not all the same: each halve is different from the other, because that's nature: nothing is exactly similar to the rest!
And then the flavour: awesome! Fresh, almost as if just picked from the tree!

For the picture above, I just drained them, blended them and then use them as a sauce for madeilenes! :)

Daring Bakers: Perfect Party Cake

2008-03-30T10:33:00.005+02:00

[Update: the pictures were added Monday, 31 March 2008, at 8.56, Italy Time for the reasons explained below]

Oh gosh, it's today! I though it was for tomorrow!
I was freely going around the net this morning, when I hit my FaceBook page and saw a random status message from Jean Aw, Tastespotting founder, saying "... it's that time of month ~ the Daring Bakers have struck again..." (I think on the daring baker day she receives hundreds of picture of the same cake: must be real fun for her! ;) and I thought: oh my, is it TODAY?
Then I saw that Ivonne poked me (always on FaceBook), as to wake me up, and then it struck me: IT IS TODAY!!! and my pictures are on the other computer! F@#§*!!!
For pictures you should wait the early morning of tomorrow, which means that in some part of the eastern world will be still sunday, so I should be "safe"! :)
And if you do not believe me I made it, you can ask to my friend Sara: she ate it at the beginning of March, when I made it, and she loved it! Although she asked me repeatedly for the recipe and I was oblige to tell her that it was a secret! :P
This cake was honestly AMAZING!!!
As everybody else experienced, this cake was marvellous!
At the beginning I was a bit concerned about the fact that no yolk are used in cake base, but this trick turned out to be so clever! I had a wonderfully light and fluffy base!
And for once I turned off the fan in my oven and baked the cake with heat coming from below and the upper part, and it came out perfectly flat, not in a dome shape like all the other time I baked a fluffy base!
I was relieved I wasn't obliged to make the buttercream: I'm in a low sugar kind of diet, so buttercream will be so wrong for me! So I decided to go for whipped cream, with little sugar.
I used blackberries jam (without sugar) for the filling and raspberries for the final touch, that as usually with me, turned out to be fairly simple, although right now I'm carving in front of Ivonne and Tartellete pictures, just to name two! :) And you can check out all the others here!
I promise, tomorrow first thing in the morning, the pictures! Wait for them!

P.S. I forgot that a shot of the cake was already on-line, in a Nigella Lawson style, with a friend holding it! :D

[note to self: it's not the first time FaceBook saves my butt, so stop saying bad thing about it, ok?]

The Recipe Writer's Handbook

2008-03-27T21:36:00.007+01:00

Here I am, neglecting my blog since ages and then, what do I publish? A book review! Not even a recipe and not even a picture! Bad Sara, bad!
But my book review is more useful then anything you can think of... My book review is about a book, as you can easily understand for the title, that will change your life...
Ehm, let's say it will change your way to write recipes, then your life, I dunno, it's your choice!!!
I bought it when I already decided that writing recipes was too boring for me... Don't ask me what made me push the "buy it" button on amazon. Let's simply thank I did!
The book as a simple structure: philosophy, style, testing, terminology, preferred spelling, metrics... Ok, nothing life changing there.
The life chancing experience lays in the reading of all this.
You have to know that in Italy the concept of an handbook is not very clear: we are not a self-help society, that's it. If we have to write an handbook, well, we use so many word to go to the point that most people get lost in between. Or at least I do.
In the The Recipe Writer's Handbook you cannot get lost: you simply follow the trail they lay in front of you and you are on and rocking, baby!
Soon you'll see all the wonderful flower that will blossom form my reading, and to be sure to follow them, do not forget to check out my other blog (update will soon come!).
And if you feel lonely and you miss me too much, check out my tumblr too.
and if you feel very social, well, look for me on social networks: there are many where I'm fairly active!

Kheer, Indian rice pudding

2008-03-11T16:04:00.003+01:00

I have recently became accustomed to Bollywood movies! They rock!!! I love them!!!
So, when my friend Sara (my Bollywood movies pusher) proposed a Bollywood night, well, I jumped in with great pleasure!!! :)
And I proposed to bring an old favourite of my husband: the Indian rice pudding.
It's a really soothing dessert, fairly simple, but worthy to the best tables, as my friend Sara is! :)
I will never stop to thank her for her Thanksgiving turkey!!!
And as she always scold me that I should write recipes, because, at the end "you have a food blog and that's what you should do!" (and she's right, I know, but it's SO boring writing recipes!!!), here's the recipe! :)

1,2 l milk
75 g basmati rice, rinsed
100 g sugar
150 g raisins, golden and Corinth
1 piece of cinnamon
6 cardamom
2 teaspoon rosewater
Flaked almond and rose bud to adorn

Bring the milk to boil. Add the rinsed rice and stir with a wooden spoon for 10 minutes, then leave it to cook for at least one hour, stirring occasionally, on a very low fire.
Add sugar, raisins, cinnamon and cardamom and cook for another hour, stirring frequently.
At the end of the cooking time, it should look like a cream.
Far from the fire add rose water, stir and transfer everything in a serving bowl. Cover with the flaked almond, adorn with the rose buds and let it cool.
Enjoy it in front a nice bollywood movie!

This is, may be, too much...

2008-03-06T08:32:00.006+01:00

This morning I was happily going through my March issue of Olive (courtesy of my kind friend Sarah Blow), one of the prominent British food magazine, and I found an article titled "Cheap Shots. Even Michelin-starred chef need to know how to cook on a budget. Olive reveals how the professional cut down on food bills without compromising quality".
Well, well, well...
I began to read and after few lines I thought: "WTF (and not in David's exception Welcome to France! ;D)!!!"
Do they really think we are all so stupid that if Jason Atherton tells us that he uses FROZEN PEAS for Maze's pea risotto we simply think "oh, how cute, how sensitive" and we do not make the equation: "WTF, why should I pay that ridiculous amount of money for his frozen pea risotto and they do not even have the guts to write it down on the menu they are using frozen ingredients???" I do not know in Uk, but in Italy there is a law that oblige you to do so...
And it's not just by chance that the advertisement of the exact brand of frozen peas used by Jason Atherthon appears on the side page of this article... That's sad, you know? That's the lowest advertisement can get...
And Tony Singh, stating the Italian Extra-virgin Olive oil is over-priced and he prefers cheap Greek olive oil... WTF! Simply say you prefer Greek, but do not spit on one of the best products in the world (which, by the way, for its quality, it is not over-priced!)... And then he goes on saying that he uses only Normandy butter!!! Which, of course, it is not over-priced, right?
WTF! Who do you think you are making fun of???

Really, do they really think this is good publicity?
Do they really think that stating that frozen peas are used in one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurant will attract more people because they feel they are "frugal"???
Common... We are not THAT stupid...
Do it, but do not say it, please! We already know you do it, but we want to think that you are not proud of it...

Daring Bakers: Julia Child's French Bread

2008-02-29T08:10:00.000+01:00

I love Julia Child! Love, love, love her! Last summer I read her biography and I was just startled by her voice: clear, gentle, friendly...
So, when I saw this month challenge I thought: "GREAT! A dream comes true!!!"
I knew that when Mary and Sara chose this particular recipe they were going in the right direction toward the true spirit of the Daring Bakers!
Never, in the whole of my life, I would ever dared to make a bread that needs an entire day to be made!!!
And by an entire, I mean it: I began around 10am last Sunday and I end up with the bread ready to be cut for dinner, around 8 pm!
An overall 6 hours of rising it was a mystic experience!
Ad the rules were allowing me to use a stand mixer, I bail out, and I used my beloved one... But the time you have to wait, the fact that you have to be patient and careful while your gluten is forming to the right consistent, and the fact that you have to wait other 2 to 3 hours to let it cool before to eat... Well, it was a mystic experience!
Of course the bread didn't come out like the one you buy in France, even if I used French flour to make it!
As Julia, Mary and Sara say the problem is the home oven!
But I NEVER made a bread with that kind of breadcrumb!!! It was amazing! And I was so pleased!
Expecially beacuse, remember, I married a French! And he was very pleased to!!!
To celebrate we ate it with a nice Fois Gras aux pruneaux we bought last time we were in France! A glorious dinner!

Thanks Daring bakers to make me dare!!!!
Here the recipe by Breadchick Mary.

P.S. I know, I know: the windows in my home have horrible dirty glass! I hate to clean windows! Every time I do it, it rains the very next day! Let's just hope my mum do not see this picture!!!

As seen on tv

2008-02-27T17:27:00.004+01:00

Or at least on Italian television...
Which I seldom watch, but just the other day I catch a glimpse of this thing pictured left... and I thought: "OMG!"
Then with my on-line grocery shopping it came as a nice little present. As fate was guiding me in such clear ways, could I ever avoid to try it???
I mean, I have to keep informed on the latest trends ALL my readers, shouldn't I?
So, for the only sake of this blog, I've tried it!
Almost two years ago, when I was still writing this blog in my mother language, I wrote a post about the fact that I am a Kinder Ferrero junky! And I really am! Not only nutella (even if know I changed producer for the simple reason that the one they sell is much better), but all the range produced by Ferrero has some kind of impact on my nervous system, such as every time I take a bite of one of their product I suddenly feel happy...
I know that they are a big corporation, that the list of the ingredient is longer than my average post and that their international web site has music (and there is not a way to stop it!!!), but I like it and I can't help it: it a fact about myself!
As much as I love my husband (AND Ewan McGregor, of course!), I love Ferrero products too...

The new credo

2008-02-18T15:15:00.003+01:00

It can sound very snobbish, it can sound very overconfident, but I personally feel like him:

"Are you a blogger too? Give me your camera. I’ll take a really blurry, close-up picture of the grapefruit in my salad. When do you think people are going to start making fun of bloggers?"

Danny Meyer via Serious Eats

You are my Catcher Block I’m your Barbara Novak

2008-02-14T08:42:00.000+01:00

You are my Christian I’m your Satine.
You are my Norman Warne I’m your Beatrix Potter.
You are my Lincoln 6 Echo I’m your Jordan 2 Delta.
You are my Frank Churchill I’m your Jane Fairfax.
You are my Jerome I’m your Nagiko.
You are my Renton I’m your Diane.

I was never, and never will be, one of those beautiful women people turn to watch in the streets, but you turned for me.
I was never, and never will be, one of those girls all smiles and “yes darling”, but that’s what you love about me.
I was never, and never will be, one of those women that will celebrate Valentine’s day, but you don’t care either. And you don’t mind if I have a meeting (to organize this) for tonight.
I was never, and never will be low maintenance, but that’s why you love me.
I always was and will always be a major pain in the @#§*, but that’s WHY you love me!
And, “It doesn't take a Nazi rocket scientist to figure *that* out”!
And I will always be the girl that makes you laugh, that makes you smile and that makes you a chocolate cake!!!

And this year, a chocolate, ricotta, yoghurt and ginger spoon cake, all for you, with all my love!

P.S. This post is part of the series "Only 10 people in the word understand my quotations, one of whom is me, one my husband and the other the subject of them, but he doesn't read my blog, better, he doesn't know I exists". For the rest... Well, I won't tell you my "secret": guess it! ;)

Raw, part 3: lemon salmon

2008-02-06T13:11:00.000+01:00

As my Sorrento Lemons were such an hit with the Daring Baker Challenge Lemon Meringue Pie, I thought to use them to marinate some my salmon too... Well, my husband thought of it...

As simple as sad: thinly slice some salmon fillet and cover it with freshly squeezed lemon juice. Let it marinate for 20-30 minutes.
Then enjoy it!

A short note on this raw posts: as you read, few days ago I bought a whole salmon of 2 kilos. I processed all that night, but as I'm lazy (and wise), I'll give slow sips of what I did with it. This doesn't mean I ate the fish, raw, after 1 week. It only means I ate it that night, took picture of it, then published it little by little...

Piperita DIY

2008-02-04T15:01:00.000+01:00

Well, this is not the DNA to create your own Piperita from one of my hair: one Piperita is enough in this world I can assure you!!! ;)
This week-end I felt handy and so I decided, after a short conversation earlier in the week with Sara, to build a light box!
And as I'm always thinking BIG, I built a huge light box, 70cmx70cm...
Anyway, let's begin from the beginning!
So, earlier last week I was chatting with Sara, and she asked me if I was using light box, I said no, that I was simply shooting in raw and adjusting white balance (and all the rest) with Aperture. But then I began to wonder: why don't I have a light box???
So I decided to build one. I search the net and I found various options, but the one that suited me most seemed this (thanks Jason for sharing!).
Saturday morning, after a very good night sleep, we woke up quite early, so I popped the dreaded question: shall we go to Castorama, my love?
A little note: Castorama and Ikea are very close in Carugate, on the outskirts of Milan AND we need to move the car to go there: a major stress!
I think his mind went directly to a blu and yellow sign, because a fear look appeared in his eyes: he knows that everytime I say Castorama I mean Ikea too...
But a saint look appeared in my eyes, and a nimbus popped out of nowhere over my head, matching my saint eyes, saying: "Me? Me I want to go to Castorama AND Ikea, spend a lot of money and be in the middle of Saturday crowd??? Noo, not me: I'm a Saint!" Saint Piperita martyr from Varese, died on a Saturday morning walked over the Ikea crowd... ;)
Anyway, there we went, and I have to say I was extremely pleased: it was a wonderful productive morning!
We went to Ikea (I'm a major candle addicted!) and Castorama, but they didn't have all I needed! And when I asked the exact material I was looking for, they looked at me as if I was the crazy housewife form Brugherio (sorry, this "joke" is only for people living in Milan...) and I was asking for a ready made kit to build a conservatory... I just wanted to build a light box!
I bought fabric in Ikea and 1 roll of carpet tape - two sided, 4 mt long in Castorama, but they didn't have the right type of foam... So, my last chance was to look for it at the Brico in Viale Monza, actually 4 underground stops from where we live...
And of course at the little brico we found everything!
Going back home we even stopped at a neighbour market and by 11.30 we were home, all packed, weekly grocery shopping too! Very productive!
And then I began with the light box... With the cat help, of course, as he likes a lot foam!!!
And I built the monster exactly as Jason instructs...
My only concern was related to the size of it: too big to keep it built all the time, so, instead of using rubber tape to stick it together, I used toothpicks, as hinges... And they worked!
My only problem now is the weather: I need nice spring days with a lot of sun! Or better bulbs...
Anyway, welcome my dear light box... And to welcome you I put on a new header, thanks to the light box, aperture and photoshop!

Raw, part 2: chirashi, kind of

2008-01-31T17:52:00.000+01:00

Well, the real chirashi is obviously different, better, with more fish...
I've tried my best with what I had: it!
So I used the same thin slices I used for the sushi and instead of doing little balls of the sushi rice, I put everything in a bowl, cover it with the fish and sprinkled it with a Japanese chilli pepper mix.

A short note on this raw posts: as you read, few days ago I bought a whole salmon of 2 kilos. I processed all that night, but as I'm lazy (and wise), I'll give slow sips of what I did with it. This doesn't mean I ate the fish, raw, after 1 week. It only means I ate that night, took picture of it, then published it little by little...

Raw, part 1: sushi, kind of

2008-01-29T09:03:00.000+01:00

A short note on this raw posts: as you read, few days ago I bought a whole salmon of 2 kilos. I processed all that night, but as I'm lazy (and wise), I'll give slow sips of what I did with it. This doesn't mean I ate the fish, raw, after 1 week. It only means I ate it that night, took picture of it, then published it little by little...

With my sushi book at end, I cleaned and cut the salmon accordingly to sushi cuts, and ended up with several fillets. A good part of them is nicely sleeping in the freezer, ready to be cooked. Few of them were processed as raw... While I was doing it, I wished for a thin Japanese knife... And I think I begin to save money for it... May be I'll be able to buy one before my eighty birthday...
My husband made sushi rice: he's better than me at it! You can find many recipes for that on-line...
Once cooled, decided to make some little nice bowl, lay them on individual spoons, cover them with a thin slice of salmon fillet, and add over it some berries of pink pepper... I have to say that rwa salmon and pink pepper work like a blast: they are wonderful!!!

Daring Bakers: Lemon Meringue Pie

2008-01-28T09:50:00.000+01:00

Ah, the American classic, the one you see in every diner in American movies! The sumptuous, meringue pie with a bright yellow cream filling!!!
When I read what the new challenge would be I was really excited!!! Jen, the Canadian Baker made a wonderful choice!
I began to read the recipe and I was a bit struck: water and not milk in the cream?
But, as usually with our daring bakers recipes, everything worked! Water in the cream, yes, as it's lighter, and with so much lemon you do not even notice it!
The lemon scent and flavour was perfect! I do not know if it was because I used organic lemons from Sorrento, the best lemon you can find in Europe, but it was the right balance of tangy and sweet!

The friends that ate it were very pleased! And me too, even if I would preferred a harder meringue, but that's all my fault: I'm always afraid of burning meringue!!!

I have a new friend

2008-01-24T09:51:00.000+01:00

(well, kind of, as it came dead in my house and now it's resting well packed in my freezer... ;-P)
I love to buy food on-line: you can find amazing stuff and they deliver everything to your door, on time, any time...
I even love doing my normal grocery purchases on-line...
I have only one problem: quantities... Few months ago I bought 120 packs of paper tissues... We are still using them...

This time I bought this:

When it was delivered yesterday night, I directly poured myself a glass of Martini just at the sight of it: I needed pace in my mind before to think what to do about it...
And then I began to act...
Nothing was wasted, I can assure this: we practically throw nothing!

Prepare yourself for many upcoming salmon recipes!

Mango Verrines

2008-01-18T10:48:00.000+01:00

I found astonishing mango: they were perfectly ripe, big, juicy and chosen by a very cute and gentle guy! ;-)
And I had them there, altogether with some FRENCH petit suisse (I would like to stress on the French origin of my petit suisse, because they are creamier then the horrible one you find in Italy...), so, what can do more justice to this two ingredients if not a verrine?
I know that my last sentence is not really logic... But, have I ever said to be a logic or non the less coherent person??? Never! So...
What I did was just to mix petit suisse with some cream and very little sugar and spoon it in the little glasses. It everything go with your own taste: I measured nothing! I just kept trying it until it had the right creamy consistence and the right sugary taste for my own palate. You do whatever with your own! :-)
Then I topped it with the blended mango mixed with some melted gelatine (for a big mango, 2 sheets (aka 4 g) of gelatine).
In the fridge for 3 hours.
Serve at room temperature.

Enjoy!

Boiling

2008-01-15T18:09:00.000+01:00

What do you normally do to free overwhelming anger?
Avoiding killing someone, I mean! ;-) Ok, maybe beginning a list of people you hate, but I need something physical...
Personally, I cook difficult recipes. Very difficult recipes...
As at this very moment I'm not surrounded by my cook book collection, but I have a wider option: the world wide web.
Now the problem is that if you google "easy recipes" more then 3 million entries appears. BUT if you google "difficult recipes" less then a million.

Let's face it: our life is getting, day by day, lazier.
Nobody is willing any more to cook something that will employ your time for more then 1 hour or that will employ some skills.
I'm the first to use a stand mixer or a blender, but just beacuse they do thing better then me, not because they do them faster!
From time to time I enjoy challenging my self with something complicated, really hard, troublesome, ambitious, just to please me (Hey, I've done it!) and my hubby (Hey, she's done it!)...
And since I have the blog, the screaming crowds under my window! But I will just throw you a (store bought) croissant... :-P

So, what shall I cook tonight instead of writing an angry letter to Sandra Bullock telling her I can't stand any more her greasy hair and that will all the money she has she should get a decent hairdresser?

And the winners are...

2008-01-11T16:46:00.000+01:00

First of all the children of Lesotho, for whom we could rise, all us food blogger around the world, the wonderful sum of $91,188.00!!!

And today Pim announced all the winners!

Are you among them?

Have you won one of the San Lorenzo hampers, EU02 or UK35???

Claim your prize!!! Write me at peppermintpatt [at] gmail [dot] com

Carrots and cumin soup

2008-01-10T10:33:00.000+01:00

Carrots are good... Carrots are nice... Carrots are orange...
And when outside everything is grey, orange CAN save you! Orange can make you happy!

Then you open the pressure cooker you had used to cook everything, and you see everything orange, because the steam just burnt your finger! And life is less nice then before, but, you know, you still have your orange (f#@§%&*) soup to relay on!
And you even manage, between ice, arnica cream, lint and band-aid to shoot your f#@§%&* soup to publish everything on that f#@§%&* blog of yours...
And this morning, with you band-aid finger (because you burnt the ring finger of your RIGHT hand, not the left, no, no!) you even try to write a post about it, telling the 10 people that read your f#@§%&* blog that you put carrots, potatoes (and if you still have some turnip in the fridge, too), coarse salt, grounded ginger and cumin seeds in a nice sauce pan (no pressure cooker!), with enough water to cover everything, and cook it until everything is tender, then you blend everything and you eat it. If you feel like splurging, add a drop of cream...

Nice story, no?

The France I like

2008-01-02T12:20:00.000+01:00

Do not get me wrong: I love France, the whole country...
But I have my heart set to some southern places, like Arles, the Causse du Larzac, Aix-en-Provence...

For an Happy 2008

2007-12-31T12:40:00.000+01:00

After spending Christmas surrounded by too many dozens of oysters, still recovering from all the required family eating (roasted roe dear, petit salé, Bûche de Noël, kidneys with scampi, not exactly in this order) I'm ready for tonight fish revellion 2008 with my French husband, trying not to think about the head of state of one of the major country in the world having an affair with an Italian top model speaking her mother language with a ridiculous fake French accent...
Let's leave this "horrible" things in 2007! This and many others!!!

Wishing a wonderful 2008 to everybody!

Daring Bakers: Yule Log

2007-12-29T14:45:00.000+01:00

I know, I'm late, but I had permission from Ivonne, as I spent Christmas at my in laws, whom live in the French countryside, in Aveyron, near Roquefort (actually more near Saint Affrique, but Roquefort is a bit more known! Or at least its stinky cheese is!) and they do not have any internet connection, either in the house or in the near by villages! So I had permission to publish everything when I was coming back! And here I am!
I did the yule log for a little party among friends with whom I share the office, the 15th December.
I was quite afraid: the yule log (or Bûche de Noël) is a great nightmare for my French family (in Italy we don't have it as a tradition, so nobody ever attempt to do it!). The grandma of my husband try to do it for her newly wed first Christmas and failed, badly failed! For a French is a real disgrace to fail in the kitchen! (of course there are French absolutely incapable of cooking anything, but they are rare!) We do not really know what went wrong, if the chiffon cake was overcooked or the cream with too little butter, or because she put it in the barn instead of the already stuffed fridge... May be the latter, but it's many many years they are telling me this horrifying story... No wonder I was afraid!
But nothing bad happened! On the contrary, it was a big success!
I love making every single part of it, eve if I wasn0t really pleased how my butter cream turned out: to airy... But that was sure my fault: I probably over mixed the white and the butter, turning the white a bit runny...

Great recipe!!!

Check out the others too!

Merry Christmas!!!

2007-12-19T14:34:00.000+01:00

I won't be home, neither in front of a computer, for the next 7 days, as we are heading to south of France, to see my in-laws: seafood, oysters, buche... Stuff like that!!!

My deepest seasonal greetings!
I will never leave you without a Christmas recipe, so, if you want to know how I made the yummy roulade pictured above, you have to simply head here!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

And don't forget you'll have until Friday the 21st December to bid for one of San Lorenzo's Hamper for Menu fro Hope: EU02 or UK35!

The Kitchen Pantry, San Lorenzo e Menu for Hope!

2007-12-10T16:00:00.000+01:00

The Kitchen Pantry is pleased to be part of Menu for hope 2007, the wonderful event launched by Pim, of Chez Pim. After last year huge success, raising more then 63.ooo US$, this year we are working to raise money for the UN World Food Program.

In collaboration with San Lorenzo, and hosted by Fanny for Continental Europe and Johanna for UK, I invite you to buy the raffle tickets (minimum donation 10 US$) and add the code EU02 to win the hamper explained here! Then, tomorrow, I'll give other reasons to buy raffle tickets!
Go and raffle!!!!

San Lorenzo is pleased to participate to Menu for Hope 2007 with a hamper full of wonderful Italian goodies:

Organic Pasta: Penne Rigate
Organic Egg Pasta: Tagliatelle
Organic Carnaroli Rice
Extra Quality Dried Porcini Mushrooms
Special Sauce for Egg Pasta
Anchovy Fillets in Olive Oil with Oregano
Salsa Imperiale (truffle oil)
Wild Boar Ragù
Borettane Onions in Balsamic Vinegar
Melata (Italian Forest Honey)
Peaches Extra Jam
100% Italian Certified Extra-virgin Olive Oil "Mosto"
Prosecco di Valdobbiadene d.o.c. Extra Dry

You can enjoy a nice risotto made with organic Carnaroli rice and astonishing dry porcini, bigger than ever... Please yourself and your friends with a dish of egg tagliatelle dressed with out special sauce for egg pasta, or a galore of organic penne rigate simply dressed with few drops of truffle oil or a spoonful of wild boar ragù... Have our little onions in balsamic vinegar for appetizer, with some anchovies on the side... And why not try the forest honey with some strong cheese? And then you can enjoy our outstanding peach jam with a nice slice of toasted bread... And don't forget out incredible extra-virgin olive oil, made only with Italian olives... Remember to chill the Prosecco too!

An Italian galore of outstanding and wonderful food, brought to you only by San Lorenzo, your favourite on-line store for Italian food, proud to be part of Menu for Hope 2007!

Program for the week-end

2007-12-07T01:23:00.000+01:00

Location: London... I'm actually already here, doing this!
What am I going to do? Ahah! that the best part!
While I was here working, well, I worked! I hang out for a wonderful lunch with Girl Geek Dinner friends (Maz, Nicole, Sarah and Steve) but that was all!
I mean, I enjoyed myself in the company wonderful people, even if working in the meanwhile, and that was great! But I'm really looking forward for the upcoming weekend (starting for me, tomorrow) for some specifics highlight, which are:
- Visit the China's terracotta army exposition at the British Museum (got tickets for today at 4pm after only one hour queue!) DONE!
- Lunch in Abeno, as it is just there! DONE!
- Spitalfield market (trying to find the bagel stalk my friend Andy told me about!) and may be Portobello as my friend G. told me that the stalks under the bridge are great for dresses... DONE!
- Looking for Christmas presents. Ehm... I though of myself, let put it that way!
- Eating in one of (or all) the places that my dear friend Mariel suggested to me! DONE! Canteen!
- Enjoying the rain, because is raining... A lot... But today is sunny!!! DONE!
- And last, but not least, going to what is considered by many newspapers "the hottest play in town" (completely sold out!): how cool is that???
I've got the tickets the first day they were on sale, after hours trying to get the line (servers of the website were crashing for too much traffic), and finding only two seats upstairs, one on one part and the other in the completely opposite part of the theatre! But I think it will be worth it! And anyway my husband is happy to be far from his drooling wife at the sight of Ewan McGregor playing Iago, one of meanest characters even created! DONE! Oh, my, yes! Really done!!!

That's it! Doesn't sound bad, does it? :-)

I’m high on Cannelés!

2007-11-30T11:51:00.000+01:00

Oh yeah, they are really addictive those little treasures!!!
When I was seeing them in bakeries or shop around France I never had the urge for them, but that was because I’ve never tried them!!!
Then, some time ago, I saw them again here…
So last time I’ve been in France I finally bought Cannelés mold (because you need special mold to make them like that, of course!): the last step toward a endless love affair that will bring me to the grave, ahead of time, with high cholesterol and diabetes…
But then they could write on my tombstone: “Here lies Piperita, beloved wife, daughter, and blogger. She lived wildly, experiencing all the patisserie in the world (with a special preference for Pierre Hermè creations)…”
And there will be a marble macaron on top of it… Preferably a caramel au buerre salé macaron… But I let the choice up to the tomb maker…
Ok, sorry, I’m getting creepy! ;-)
Back to Cannelés addiction! So, as I was saying, cannelés kept showing up in my life, here and there, from time to time…
And then, one night, watching our new addiction (Brothers&Sisters), Kitty Walker tried to feed her nephew Cooper with them, but what do you think a three years old kid can understand about high French patisserie??? Nothing, that’s it, as even grown ups cannot!
So, Sunday night my parents came to dine to our home. I though it was time: I had to make Cannelés!

Here they are… And you know what? They are simple: you mix everything, chill and then cook it for 1 hour in the oven… I mean: that’s dummies proof, no???
For the recipe, I used the only one I could find among my cookbook library, from Les Classiques de Camille, by Camille Le Foll, Marabout, 2004. (Do you want the recipe? Get the book! Or try hers!)

Following up the rest of Sunday night menu! I started from the dessert because I’m a fond maverick ("What can I say Taylor? I'm a maverick!") and I do not follow rules! Unless it is Pierre Hermè dictating them: then I’ll even jump from a bridge if he thinks it’s what you need to do to get a dessert right…

Apologies: I do not know where this creepy mood is coming from … I’m crazy, may be…

Daring Bakers: Tender Potato Bread

2007-11-26T09:12:00.000+01:00

Warm focaccia filled with Parma Prosciutto: to die for!!!

Last time I’ve seen Annemarie in London, we just ended the Bostoni Cream Pie challenge, and we were a bit disappointed about our Chiffon cake turned out…
Then we moved to one quite corner, and whispering, we spoke about the new challenge. She already had the time to look it up, so she revealed to me what was about. At first we thought: “oh, that’s it?”
But then I remembered that once, the mother of one of my former boyfriends, told me that she was adding a boiled potato to the normal pizza dough, to make it fluffier… And her pizza was one of the best home made pizza I’ve ever tried!!!
So, here we are with this amazing potato bread!
Flour: the recipe was calling for all-purpose flour, suggesting to use an organic one, so I did. Not any fancy big name organic flour, just the Esselunga (the most widespread supermarket chain in northern Italy) organic all-purpose flour. And then for the whole-grain, yet again Esselunga organic whole-grain flour.
Potatoes: recently we’ve been to France, and shopped at the supermarket (I love to shop in French supermarket: you can find so many amazing stuff!!!). So I bought French potatoes and, honestly, they are very good potatoes: in Italy is difficult to find potatoes as good! Quite floury, good for baking, wonderful for boiling, and I would use them for Italian gnocchi too…
Yeast: I’ve used fresh yeast, 25 g. I rarely use active dry yeast, only when I don’t have fresh yeast at home and I have the urge for pizza…
Of course I knead the entire loaf by hand, and, as usually, it was a wonderful moment, very liberating, as if I was detoxifying from the whole working week and free my mind to reach higher level of relaxations…
Of course if “normal people” would read this last sentence they would rather think I’m completely crazy, but all my fellow Daring Bakers would absolutely agree with me: kneading is good for mind and soul!

And I have to say that this recipe, especially the quantities, are just perfect! I haven’t use a single gram more of the indicated flour!

And as the dough was quite a lot, I made:

A small loaf

Rolls

Simple focaccia with coarse salt

Incompreso

2007-11-22T11:38:00.000+01:00

Note: first of all thank for the sympathetic comments of you all! My last post wasn't an adieu, but just a way to tell you that I want to find a different way to food blog! :-)

When I was little, in Italy they were showing on tv one of the saddest movie I ever seen (right after Remi, the saddest anime of all!!!): Incompreso. Basically it was the story of a motherless child misunderstood by his father... I'm in pain just thinking about it!!!
Anyway, back to my point!
Us, food bloggers: we are a misunderstood specie of this tech world!
How many times have you found yourself taking a picture of some juicy dish in front of you and then feeling weirdly looks all around you??? Many... Too many ;-)

The picture above was taken last september, at one of the Wagamama in London (here my "review"): I was eating alone, as often happens when I'm in London, as I'm there ALONE, working (insert Sara with sad face here), and I had to (I really felt the urge!) take a picture of the (average) food I was eating, to witness the fact that Wagamama is not so good as everybody says (better than the average fast food, but for the price I've paid, way too much, I would have preferred a REAL Japanese or Chinese or Thai alternative)...
The place was crowded and I had to share a table with a large group of English people.
Do I have to explain you the weird looks I've got???
I'm not form Mars: I am just a food blogger!!!
I even heard someone saying: "Oh my, she's taking pictures of her food" with a disbelieved tone...
I should find a line to answer to people like that: nice, funny, simple, and maybe that won't involve any strange word that will mathematically point me out as a foreign...
Ok, I ask to much: let's stick to a nice smile!!! :-)

I should have...

2007-11-14T18:05:00.000+01:00

... so many things to say...
So many recipe to write...
But honestly, I'm pissed off writing recipe!
I write too many for work, so I don't find any more inspiration to write even more recipes on my own blog... :-(
The only idea of writing "150g of that and 100 g of the other one, mix together..." make me sleepy!
Don't you find it extremely boring??? Am I the only one???
And I realize that, right now, I find extremely boring even the food blogs, unless they have a different edge and do not relay so much on the recipes but tell you stories, fun stuff...
The picture above is a little collage of all the stuff I should have told you about, but right now they are months old, I certainly do not remember how I made them...
I remember the story behind each, that's for sure... But that too are months old...

I'm a useless food blogger...

Fell free to add sympathetic comments! ;-)

Franciacorta, Bellavista and Gualtiero Marchesi

2007-11-12T13:01:00.000+01:00

Foreward: I paid to do what I'm going to tell you about, so I wasn't bribed. Not that you can say so for what I'm going to tell you! And I'm not a restaurant critic (and I don't aim to become one), but I have a palate, a mouth and taste... And they are all quite well developed...

My husband is a sommelier, and with the Italian Sommelier Association we went, this Saturday, to visit Franciacorta, Bellavista wine cellars, and to lunch chez the most universally acclaimed Italian chef, Gualtiero Marchesi.
It wasn't our first visit to Franciacorta, neither our first tasting of Bellavista.
The cellars are huge and very interesting. The tasting a bit less, as we tasted just one wine (the Francicorta brut, a basic product) and everybody would have loved to taste at least three different wines. If not, what's the use of a wine cellar visit with sommelier???
Then, the lunch.
I cannot say we didn't eat well, because everything was very good and really well cooked (well, not really everything). And being there in a big number (50) we hadn't à la carte menu, but a fixed menu, so I won't judge everything from that.
But... I expected more. Because, honestly, if you are a universally acclaimed chef you should ALWAYS be at your best, even if you serve the same menu to 50 chatting people. And even if this menu is average (well, you, chef, did the menu, so...)... And, honestly, being humble never killed anyone, but I already know the super mega duper ego of the chef... I do not justify it, though...
Leaving alone the whole menu, as first course we had the glorious, famous, worldly acclaimed Saffron risotto with golden sheet.
It was a good risotto, non the less, but not the most spectacular risotto I ever had (about which I won't speak, because I will ramble about another acclaimed Italian chef who's just able to make a good risotto (so he's a chef working in Milan, do you assumptions!), but uses store brought mayonnaise, and that's not the case, if not I get nasty comments, like "who the hell are you to judge?" (nobody, just a paying costumer! And I can assure you it wasn't a bargain!) and stuff like that, and that really piss me off)...
And the second course, roasted lamb, well, sorry, mine were slightly overdone...
Well, and the wine matched with the menu weren't memorable...
The bread, actually, was amazing!!! Best bread I had in a restaurant!!!
Full set of picture here...

Anyway, a good day, wonderful company on the table (we really had fun! And there were even three Chinese, who loved everything and they were very nice! And Edoardo e Mariangela whom were real fun to chat with!!!), and Franciacorta surroundings are always breath taken...

Maybe I'm too spoiled... I don't know! This job I'm doing it's spoiling me! I'm not easily amused any more! ;-)

Daring Bakers: Bostoni Cream Pie (OH, MY!)

2007-10-29T15:58:00.000+01:00

I’m late, I know!
I mean, in Italy is still the 29th October, so technically, I’m ok… But I wanted to publish it sooner, but, honestly, I was too lazy to make it before today, so, here I am, in the rush to use the last glimpses of day light!

Well, I was too lazy, that’s for sure, but other factor combine to my laziness:
1- I wasn’t attracted by the recipe (sorry Alpineberry!!! Nothing to do with you, absolutely: it’s me that is wrong!), not because it didn’t seem good or doable… But just because those kind of cakes doesn’t really make me scream in joy… I had to take EVERYTHING back!
2- I actually had not a lot of time this month (and all the months coming by), but at one point this morning, looking at all the wonderful recipes from all the other dear Daring Bakers from all over the world, I felt SAD! I want to be part of this wonderful and growing group, and if I wasn’t going to complete this task I had to leave, as I already jumped two!!! And, anyway, what’s the use of being a part of a community if you don’t participate to community events???
3- The whole point of this group is to challenge our skills, learning from errors and from tasks that seems too difficult or too easy! This time, the task seemed too easy to me, way to easy! BUT, even if easy, I’ve learned few things, like how to make a very good custard with not a lot of sugar, or that what in Italy is called Pan di Spagna, somewhere else is called chiffon cake… Only one problem: as I’m Pan di Spagna challenge, so I am even Chiffon cake challenge… It was so thin I had to put 2 disk in each serving…

All this to say that the cake was, as in the title, OH MY!!!
WONDERFUL!
So good!!!
So light, so simple, so quick (the overall process didn’t take me more then 45 minutes, not counting the cooling time!) and yet so rewarding!

Another Daring Baker task completed! Another challenge done! Another happy day spent baking!!!

Daring Bakers rock!!!

We are all...

2007-10-24T21:56:00.001+02:00

... different, but at the end, all the same! Everywhere in the world...
We look for the best mozzarella that can only be found in that farm, at the end of that country road, after the big tree on the left, where you see that black dog barking at you, then turn left... We look for that bottle of Gewuztraminer (yeah, I know I should had some accent to that!), bought in that little cellar, in the third village on the right after the second traffic light leaving Annecy, due south...
But at the end, if someone ask you which is, above all, your ultimate comfort food, well, the answers are more straightforward, more simple, more REAL!
Check it out!

And GET REAL!

Strawberry jam mini brioches

2007-10-24T10:32:00.000+02:00

Sometimes ago I became obsessed by owning a copy of Larousse des desserts (the French equivalent of a gastronomical (dessert in this case) encyclopaedia), written under the supervision of the god of all pastry men, women, child, and passionate in the world, Pierre Hermé.
Stated this, I trusted the book like a bible, like the ultimate dessert recipe collection, along with the basic recipe.
I have to say I’ve made brioche (in the French meaning of the word), but never with this recipe. And I don’t know… The taste was the one of the brioche, but the texture wasn’t. In fact my husband (who is not very keen on pastry making, but it’s a scientist, so on some matters I certainly trust him!) said that the problem could be the flour. As I used normal white flour, may be the recipe was for stronger flour… The fact is that I haven’t trust my feelings (adding more flour), but I followed the book… Something I shouldn’t have done… Anyway, I think that if you add enough flour to the recipe I’m giving you, just to obtain a consistent, elastic and smooth dough, you should arrive to the right consistency… BUT if you are yeast/flour/patisserie challenged, do not attempt even to think about it!

This recipe was made among a series of Jam recipes I'm realizing for work, "to help" the tasting panel to get rid of all the jams they are tasting! As if they need it!

5 g of fresh yeast
190 g of flour
20 g of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
3 eggs
150 g of butter, room temperature

Strawberry jam

Crumble the yeast and mix it with flour and sugar. Add the eggs one by one, kneading each entirely in the dough before to add the next. Add the diced butter little by little and keep on kneading (if at this point your dough is too wet, add flour).
Let the dough rest for 2 hours, then punch it, knead it a little, and let it rise more.
Scoop a little of the dough into a muffin mould, add over it a little spoon of jam. Cover with more dough and let it rise again.
Preheat the oven at 150° C and bake the mini brioche until risen and golden.

Tell me why...

2007-10-19T09:07:00.000+02:00

... people always feel entitled to tell me about their culinary mistakes or their (usually nasty) culinary experiments, asking for my approval???
Tell me, eh, tell me: WHY???

Because most of the time I have to force a smile, and I obviously look stupid... And mean... I'm not able to lie...

I mean, if I random meet, let's say, a cat expert, I don't begin to tell him/her that my cat is crazy, fat and too demanding and how I can solve all this!!!

Sometime something different happens!!!

2007-10-17T17:06:00.000+02:00

There are so many different blogosferes around!
Sure one of the most powerful, or at least in Italy, is the blogosphere that speaks about technology (Yawn! Ops, sorry, I almost felt asleep)...
The Italian average technological blogger is, of course, male, geek (just to be nice and not calling him nerd!), is among the first 100 most known Italian bloggers (following the ranking of a site, which is not considered really reliable!) and its blog is quite boring (sorry to the nice guys I know among them! I really like you as persons, a bit less as bloggers!).
Most of them thinks that only "their kind" of blogospere exists (and I have proff about it, as at one geek dinner I have been lately a guy looked at me completely bewildered hearing me speaking about the food blogosphere!!! "Does it exist?" he said! Ah! What a naive!)...
And they rarely acknowledge the presence of women in the blogosphere... Unless they speak about technology in male terms!
Today la crème de la crème of female Italian blogosphere decided to act against their boring and grey male counterparts: they all published a post about THE argument that only us can understand: our period, our flow!!! Menstruation for dummies!
And that was one the funniest and lightest thing of an average day among Italian blogosphere!!!
If you speak Italian, why not go to read something different???
Here are some of the contributors (girls I know in person, but there are MANY others!!!):
Elena
Catepol
Feba
Pm10
Lalui

Keeping on with my meals!

2007-10-17T11:41:00.000+02:00

Moules au Champagne!!! One of my favourite!!!
Here the full (true) story in an old recipe I wrote for work!

World Bread Day: Sumac Focaccia Bread

2007-10-16T09:29:00.000+02:00

Today it's World Bread Day!!!!
I consider focaccia a type of flat bread, as it is the way I eat it most of the time: if I have friends coming over and I do not have fresh bread, I knead a focaccia (my Kenwood chef knead a focaccia, to be precise), and the appetizers are saved!
And sometimes, with focaccia, I get a bit "inspirational"... This time I had some sumac lying around and so I sprinkle the top of it before to bake it... And I even made it whole grain this time...

300 g of wholegrain organic flour
100 g of strong flour
7 g of fresh yeast
300 ml of warm water
1 teaspoon of sugar
Salt
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sumac

Dissolve yeast with sugar and warm water. Add flours and salt, and knead.
Let it rise or at least 1 hour or until it doubled its volume.
Lay it in an generously oiled oven proof dish and let it rise again.

Preheat the oven at maximum, sprinkle focaccia with sumc and bake until golden.

Serve straight away.

A nice slice of meat

2007-10-15T17:23:00.000+02:00

I know: I'm neglecting this blog... I miss it!
I miss to have enough time and organization to blog at least three times a week...
But please: do not abandon me!!!!! :-)

To prove you I'm alive (besides my flickr pictures!!!), kind of, here it's one of our latest luch: a very nice slice of meat... But I won't tell WHICH kind of meat it is! ;-)

Before

After

My new belle

2007-10-05T08:55:00.000+02:00

Few weeks ago was my birthday (for some insight of the crazy week-end we had, you can check out Robyn's pictures: she was visiting with some friends! And we had tons of fun!).
I received some presents (well, better to, as I cooked dinner for 20 of my closest friends!!!): some teas, delicious lip balms and macarons from Sara, a book about blogging form Susan, "Mastering the art of French Cooking" by Julia Child from Robyn (with the cutest birthday card ever!), a really nice pink bag from Rosa (once blogger!) and then the masterpiece, from a group of friends.
Here's the story about it!
My friends, whom they know me so well, love me so much and remember every time I bring them to one of my favourite kitchen stores and point all the silly and expensive dream equipments I would love to own, gave me my new belle!
Some time ago I went to the La Rinascente lower floor and pointed out to my friend G. a flamboyant orange Le Crueset, 22 centimetres.
Then my birthday came, and they handed me a huge pack. When I saw that flamboyant orange Le Crueset, 22 centimetres, coming out of the gift paper, I couldn’t believe it: I dreamt to cook with one of this for the last 5 years… And all my dreams, all my expectations were fulfilled! It’s one of the best cocotte I’ve ever used in my life…
And I cooked a chicken tajine, just to begin… (freely adapted from Tajine and pastillas, by Marie Chemorin, Marabout)... I'm in a huge tajine mood, lately...

2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
3 onions
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon of grounded ginger
4 chicken drumsticks
1 lemon, quartered

Peel and chop finely the onions. stir fry them slowly in the oil. Add the spices. Add the chicken drumstick, coat them with the onions and spices. Add two galsses of water, the quartered lemon (better if you have citron confit, if not it will be a bit bitter). Let it cook for half an hour.
Serve with cous cous or flat bread.

A long working week-end

2007-10-03T17:39:00.000+02:00

Well, working, yes, but you know, when you work for a food company and they put you in charge of organizing their events, well, work is more like fun!
First, Friday night I welcome in Milan a fellow German blogger, Matthias, who's gonna cover the German market for San Lorenzo. Then on Saturday morning we drove to Quistello, near Mantova, to eat the astonishing Ristorante Ambasciata (a full set of picture here) for this events where we invite random people from the internet to come and eat and drink with us!
Then, from there, we drove to Imperia, where San Lorenzo head-quarters are, spent the Sunday on the sea front (well, I spent it mainly in my bedroom sleeping and waking just to fetch food! Matthias went around, or so he says!) and then Monday at the San Lorenzo offices and the at the San Lorenzo warehouse (a full set of pictures here!). Then back to Milan...
In the mean while, we hit a nice good restaurant, in Imperia (pictures here): a bit too expensive, but good...

But you know, that's working! And I'm dedicated to it!!!
Ah, so exhausting!!! ;-)

Daring Bakers: Cinnamon rolls

2007-09-30T11:35:00.000+02:00

I have to say I love Cinnamon rolls. In general. Always. They are good, that’s it!
And then I saw this month challenge of the Daring Bakers I was happy, really!
You have to know that every daring baker take turn to host the monthly event. So every month we have a different host (this month is Marce!). The fact is that most of the hosts are Americans, so the recipe they give us are with American ingredients. And as we cannot all be Julia Child, and adapt the whole French cuisine to the American public, I sometimes have problems with the ingredients. Basic ingredients are simple to find, but for example you have to bear in mind that the average plain American flour has more gluten than the average Italian one. Or that yeasts are different.
This month the recipe was featuring a instant yeast, that, in fact, it must be different from the one sell in Italy. Because that’s the only reason I can give to the facts that my rolls were good, but not really puffy… Maybe with fresh yeast would have more soft…

But I loved them anyway! And I had fun, that’s for sure, and even all the people that ate them had fun!!!

Guinness chicken

2007-09-27T11:07:00.000+02:00

Ireland.
My first encounter with an English spoken country was Ireland, in 1992.
And it was even my first vacations with friends, without my parents. It was one of the most amazing experiences I ever had: being a teenager, in a foreign country, in one of the most amazing and lively European capitals, very different from now days Dublin (I mean, Dublin is still an amazing city, but completely different!). And, of course, my first encounter with beer. But Irish, black, thick, tasty beer: Guinness.
Even today, 15 years later, every time I take a sip of Guinness, my memory goes back at those days. And I feel 18 again (well, I was still 17 that summer, but I never told it to the bartenders!)…

Chicken breast, in stripes
Guinness

Marinate the chicken breast stripes in the Guinness for few hours. Grill the chicken pieces and serve it with a nice salad.

Simple, quick, satisfying…

Ce n'est pas possible!

2007-09-20T14:54:00.000+02:00

I do not know since when, but on amazon.fr, my favourite amazon, they are selling kitchen stuff!
I'm gonna die!
I want everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Magic Tajine, on the table, who is the fairest one of all?

2007-09-19T10:41:00.000+02:00

Magic Tajine: Over the seven jewelled restaurants, beyond the seventh pan, in the kitchen of the Seven Chefs, dwells Piperita, fairest of them all.
Queen [of food bloggers]: Piperita lies dead in the forest [you wish!]. The Envy Bloggers have brought me proof. Behold, her heart.
Magic Tajine: Piperita still lives, fairest in the land. 'Tis the heart of a pig you hold in your hand.
Queen [of food bloggers]: The heart of a pig! Then I've been tricked!

Oh, yeah! You've all been tricked!
I haven't post much in the last weeks, but I'm still here! Alive and kicking!
I'm just trying to recover form a very busy period, and a rather wild week-end!
But many days ago, I've cooked this quick tajine, mixing up two different recipes, so, here it is, thou magic tajine! So magic that I'm trying to remember how I did, but, nope, sorry, it's hiding any memory of it!

Lamb
Peppers
Potatoes
Onions
Olive oil

Spices: cumin, cinnamon, saffron, chilli pepper

Sesame seeds

Supposedly, I've stir-fried the minced onion in not so much oil, added the lamb, in bite size, then the spices, then the diced vegetables. Sure I added a glass or two of water, and I let everything cook...
I added some sesame seeds, just to have a "nice" picture...
Supposedly...

Maybe the Envy Bloggers have taken my brain...
;-)

London, pho and sun!

2007-09-12T19:15:00.000+02:00

I'm back in London, this time for this!

Wandering around I found this amazing place where they make outstanding Pho! And as in England is still surprisingly warm, I ate in their garden, just off the Chelsea Garden Market!
Gosh, Bourdain is so right about Pho!

I even wrote a little review of the place on TrustedPlaces! Among with others, I'm pleased to say!

Another part of it: wines!

2007-09-04T11:28:00.000+02:00

Of course, having a husband sommelier, we couldn't, by any possible mean, skip the French wine cellars! Those in the picture is just a little taste of the many we visited... And the many bottle we tasted and bought!

And that's only a part of it!

2007-08-29T16:23:00.001+02:00

Of course I've eaten much more than this!!! And many many more dishes of foie gras, even fresh, just seared: heavenly melting in the mouth!!! France has many many layers of astonishing gastronomy, from Michelin starred restaurants (in which, of course, I haven't took picture: I have my own ethics!) to street markets, to village's fairs serving grilled beef to a series of places where you think you are going to eat something absolutely not remarkable and then you are pleasantly surprise by a maîtrise that you'll never imagine! But about the Many Wonders of French Gastronomy, or The Gourmet Traveller, I shall speak about in other upcoming posts!!!
Here we go!

For Robyn! :-)

The only Italian look like coffee we had! For Sigrid (mainly for the Speculos! ;-D)!

The last bite of this gorgeous Foie Gras terrine, just when I remembered that I had a blog and not only a greedy stomach!!!

One of the few picture I took the only day we were in Spain, in Pamplona

And they were grilling Blonde (a French cow) just beside the alive cows that were there for the awards for the most beautiful Blonde... How nasty are those French??? ;-)

Piment d'Espelette: a tasty treat!

My eternal and only love

2007-08-29T15:34:00.000+02:00

Mirabelles for ever and ever! I find them only in France and only during August! And they are so good!!!

Bowl from the Limonge porcelain assemble of my inlaws, mirabelles from the local market in St. Afrique, Aveyron, France, tablecloth from some Provence's shop

I'm back...

2007-08-27T11:25:00.000+02:00

Yes, I'm back...

Soon some news, some pictures, some discoveries...

At the end the trip was limited to France with only one short trip to Pamplona...

It was fun, it was wonderful, it was all I expected and even more...

Coming soon!

On Holiday

2007-08-01T09:32:00.000+02:00

See you at the end of August, after three weeks around France and Spain...

Have a nice August!

Mirror cake: I couldn't...

2007-07-30T08:57:00.000+02:00

This time I couldn't... And I feel a traitor...
I can give you all the excuses in the world, because I've made it, 2 weeks ago, but I couldn't dare taking a picture of it: it was all wrong...
What the hell am I speaking about???
I'm speaking about this month Daring Bakers challenge, Strawberry mirror cake.
It was my first with a mirror cake, and I felt challenged, and so happy!
Everything went perfectly well, until the last passage...
I made the sponge cakes, I made the Bavarian cream, I made the strawberry jelly... And it was so red I didn't even need to colour it!!!
The cake was in the fridge, and the strawberry jelly was getting cooler... But I was tired, and it was SO hot, I couldn't wait any more the jelly to get cooler... So I poured the jelly on the cake while it was still warm... I let your imagination to picture with what I ended up: a complete mess!

You see why we HAVE TO follow the recipe in every single step??? Because when I didn't, mess came out! And so I lost my first bonus. I will lost the second bonus next month, because I'll be on holiday...
And so I have to dare baking every single month, until the end of my days...
And it doesn't look bad at all!!! :-)
Sorry Peabody if I screw your challenge! I've just seen your creation and it looks amazing! Better: awesome!

Rice to the world

2007-07-26T10:46:00.000+02:00

Today I'm slightly excited for some reasons:
- I drank to much coffee in the last days so I'm easily amused and excited!!!
- it's our fourth wedding anniversary! :-)
- a friend gave me two computer programs that defining them awesome is not enough! Thanks Kikmuk!
- today I'm going to lunch in my favourite Japanese Restaurant with a dear friend...
- I'm pondering an afternoon off-line (OMG! An ENTIRE afternoon off-line????), as I have to prepare myself for something I'm gonna do tomorrow...

What am I gonna do tomorrow???
I'm going to shoot a short documentary in the paddy field of Riseria Greppi, the rice producers for San Lorenzo...
Which kind of skill I, the Piperita, the reject of the Italian blogosphere (and proud to be it! ;-D) could have to accomplish a task like this?
Absolutely none! Ask my "boss" why is sending me! ;-) Maybe just because I propose him to go and do it...
I'm going there with a friend, a professional director of short movies, who will held the actual shooting, and we'll be filming the Greppi's brothers while they'll tell us about their job, their link to the terroir and the rice they produce...
If everything goes well (I mean, I do not pretend to be the female version of Jonathan Nossiter, even if it would be cool!) it will be a wonderful experience!
How many times, in front of chatty French wine producers, I though "How nice would be to have a video camera in my hands!!!"...
I hope it will happen even in front of the Greppi's! Or as my husband calls them: the Mondini! Mondina were the women working inside the paddy field, bend to take away the weeds form the water fields where the rice grows. It doesn't exists the male counterpart...
Ok, I don't get started with any feminist issue... :-)

That's it: simply cool!

Bouncing off clouds

2007-07-25T15:39:00.000+02:00

[...] Make it easy
Make this easy
It's not as heavy as it seems...

And that's what this traditional Chinese recipe is: easy... Too easy! And too good home made to go back to the greasy/chemical restaurants versions (in Italy at least!).
Among the two or three different recipes I was consulting on my cook books to make Sweet&Sour pork, I came across this one from Recettes Chinoises Marabout chef I've bought last time I was in Paris.
What appealed to me was the fact that the pork stripes were dipped in plum sauce before to cover them with cornstarch and fry them in hot oil! And that's the real trick!!!
For the rest is quite easy, as I was saying! You slice some onions and some peppers. Even better if you have some pineapple, with its juice. Stir fry onion and pepper, add soy sauce, tomato paste, vinegar, pineapple, pineapple juice, and then the fried pork. Stir until thick and shiny.
Serve over a bowl of steamed rice.

Enjoy easiness! It's summer after all!

P.S. Have you notice the summer issue on the side bar? Run to buy it!!!

Crocchette di zucchine

2007-07-24T10:16:00.000+02:00

Again something Greek inspired. Those simple appetisers are quick and you wouldn't find anybody who dislike them (except my father, but that's because he hates courgettes over anything else!).

4 courgettes
1 onion
Mint leaves
Basil leaves
Salt and pepper
4 egg yolks
Bread crumbs
100 g of grated parmesan

Grate the courgettes very finely and salt them. Let them rest for 10 minutes, then drain and squeeze them to throw all the excess water.
Add the onion, grated, them mix together with the egg yolks, the minced herbs, 100 g of parmesan and some bread crumbs, until perfectly combined.
Heat good quality frying oil, and add spoonful of the courgettes mixture, frying until golden.
Sprinkle with salt and serve right away.

Summer! Summer! Summer: Greek Salad

2007-07-18T12:17:00.000+02:00

We've been to Greece just once, in September 2001, and since then we would love to go back and have an extensive tour of all the islands. For which we would need more then three weeks, so we keep postponing it!!!
But just to remind us how beautiful Greece is we make often, especially during summer month, what we European call Greek salad. If you can find very good and fresh ingredients it will be a must on you table too!
Of course I thought: why not make verrines out of it??? You can always make a verrine, remember!!! Verrines are our friends!

Cucumber, peeled and diced
Red pepper, diced
Spring onion, minced
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Feta cheese, diced
Black olives
Oregano
Extra-virgin olive oil

In your glasses, layer the ingredients in the order you prefer (I gave you the ingredients in the order I used them). Dress with dry or fresh oregano and drops of extra-virgin olive oil.
Serve it right away.

Gelato alla pesca

2007-07-16T09:35:00.000+02:00

In the last six month I've changed so much that my friends call me "The New Sara". And depending from the situation, with a smile, a grin or an angry face!
The pro of "The New Sara" is basically that I'm nicer. Sometimes. And that I'm surrounded by waves of personal luck I've never noticed in my almost 33 years on this earth. One of this luck waves let me won the latest David Lebovitz's book, The Perfect Scoop.
One day I was looking around my favourite food community and I found a post about entering a competition to win David's book. It was the last day to enter it. I left my comment about which was my favourite ice cream flavour, and that was it. Few days later I received an e-mail telling me I won the book!!! Gosh, I was so happy!!! The book needed something like three weeks to cross the ocean and part of the inland Europe, but finally it arrived to my humble home! And what could I do better then celebrate it by making one of David's ice-cream??? The book is awesome! It's a big collection of wonderful ice-creams, sorbets, granita and accompaniment! I think it can be called the ice-cream bible! And above all it has the best Basic chapter I've ever seen in a cook book: complete, heavenly written, almost encyclopaedic... And I'm not trying to bribe David (as I've already written all this in private to David, one of the most influential food blogger online, and one of the nicest too!): I really think it!!!
But, please, David don't hate me: I made some minor changes to you recipe... I did not modify the process or the basic ingredients, but I just added a flavour in a day that I was particularly inspired to add something "exotic"! And I did it not because I though your recipe was lacking of something, but just because I was inspired, and as it happens something like once a year, I must follow my inspiration!

675 g of ripe nectarines (ops, yes, sorry, I've used nectarines, instead of peaches!)
125 ml of water
1 teaspoon of Sezchuan peppercorns
150 g of sugar
240 g of whole, plain yogurt

Slice the peaches, remove the pits, and cook them with the water, the sugar and the Sezchuan peppercorns until tender. Remove form the heat and refrigerate.
When they are cool, blend them with the yogurt, still leaving chunks.
Ad my ice-cream maker is out of order, I've used the hand method. Put in the freezer the final mixture. Every two hour whisk it, until it's completely frozen and creamy.

Seafood and meat Paella

2007-07-10T09:22:00.000+02:00

Warning: this post was written by The French, my husband, as he's the Paella maker of the house. If I receive too many praising comments I will abdicate as queen of this blog and leave you alone with him! And just to remind you: HE'S FRENCH and he has ALL the components that make French people so "peculiar"! ;-D

This is a fairly aromatic dish so an aromatic wine comes in nicely. We tried this one with a simple Alsace gewürztraminer (good structure and neat perfumes but still quite light and fresh with almost no residual sugar). The freshness of the wine contrasted the richness of the rice and pork, the aromaticity accompanied seafood well, whilst the structure was holding well to the meat.

1.5 kg mussels
1 kg king size prawns (raw)
300 g chicken breast (or 4 legs)
300 g pork fillet
2 large onions
3 garlic cloves
300 g tomatoes
300 g green peas (petit pois)
350 g long grain rice
ca. 1 L stock (chicken or beef)
olive oil
1 lemon
black pepper, 1/2 tsp powdered saffron, laurel leaf

Peal and chop finely the onion and garlic. Blanch the tomatoes, peal them, remove the seeds and cut in rough pieces. Cut the meat into pieces around 1 inch square (if using chicken legs keep whole).
Heat up the oven at 100°C to keep the reserved ingredients warm. Start to heat up the stock.
Clean the mussels, discard opened ones and put the closed ones in a large saucepan. Put over high heat to make all the mussels open up (around 10 minutes), then remove from the fire, filter the liquid the mussels released and add to the heating stock. Select the bigger shells and separate the two halves keeping those with the flesh, for the smaller ones discard the whole shell and keep only the flesh, keep warm.
In the meantime heat up two tablespoon olive oil in a pan over high heat. Put the chicken in the hot oil and stir until golden, add ground pepper to taste, remove from the pan and reserve warm; do the same with thee pork meat. Put the prawns in the pan, stir until all sides have taken on red colour, reserve warm. Keep the reserved ingredients in the warm oven covered with foil so they don’t dry.
If necessary add extra oil to the pan, reduce heat and put the onion and garlic in the condiment, stir until the onion turns golden. Add the peas and tomatoes and stir 5 minutes to mix all ingredients. Add the rice and mix well, dilute the saffron in a ladle of broth and add to the rice, stir well, turn the heat under the pan to maximum and add broth, bring to the boil and reduce heat to simmer, put the laurel leaf in the rice. Add broth bit by bit, as the rice absorbs it and it evaporates add few more ladles, proceed until the rice is fully cooked (this should take around 20 minutes, depending on rice).
When the rice is finishing cooking remove the reserved ingredients from the oven and turn on to high heat (200°C).
Once the rice is cooked remove the laurel leaf and place over it the different reserved ingredients and lemon quarters. Cover with foil and place in the hot oven for 10 minutes.

Notes:
The pan for cooking the rice should go on the stove and in the oven. The traditional Spanish paella is earthenware but any all-metal frying pan can do the trick (actually for the one in the picture we removed the screwed on plastic handles). If you don’t have one you’ll need to transfer the rice to an oven dish.
Paella can be made in all sorts of versions with different seafood (scampi and squid are favourites) and meat, or some spicy hot chorizo for a more fiery version; in Catalonia it actually also comes with snails. You may also use a variety of vegetables for a vegetarian solution.

Peach and mascarpone syllabub

2007-07-06T18:19:00.000+02:00

I really love syllabubs: they are simple, quick, always good and looking always good!
This peach, raspberries and mascarpone verrines are from a BBC Good Food insert about Summer Entertaining: so summery! So refreshing! Indeed... ;-)

4 thick slices of Madeira cake (which I made, but you'll get the recipe another time! Just for your knowledge, I follow Nigella's recipe)
2 peaches or nectarine
The juice of 1 orange
120 g of raspberries
250 g of mascarpone
140 ml of cream
1 tablespoon of honey

Break the Madeira cake slices in big chunks, lay them in 4 glasses and cover it with the fruits.
In a big bowl, whisk together mascarpone, cream, orange juice and honey. Spoon it over the fruits.
Chill for at least 2 hours, then serve.

Food blogger 2.0: a new specie in the world

2007-07-04T16:47:00.000+02:00

The food blogger 2.0 is a really rare specie. It can live in every part of the world, in every environment, not only where it can find good food.
It lives mainly for the purpose of its food blog: cooking and taking picture of food. It can have many interest, but food it's the main objective of every action it does.
It has a "real off-line" life, but only on-line it feels safe. The "real off-line" life is mainly devoted to eating in good restaurants or cooking for the food blog. It finds some of its restaurants on TrustedPlaces and it buys its groceries and food mainly from few selected e-shops... And taking pictures of that.
It mainly reads food blogs and cook books.
It loves movies related to cooking and food, but it can appreciate even other kind of movies.
It's not aware of the rest of the blogosphere, as much as the rest of the blogosphere is not aware of the food blogger 2.0 (or food blogging in general).
It's difficult to spot it and it's almost impossible to take pictures of it (a rare example is published with this post, only thanks to the sympathy of a nice guy who spot it).
You can find it on facebook, probably in the group with less people of the entire social network (why don't you come and join us??? :-))
It's on Linkedin too...
On twitter it speaks about food is baking/cooking...
It's on Pownce too, but without understanding why: a geek friend says is the next step of social networking, and the food blogger 2.0 always listen to its geek friends...
It has more than one blog related to food (and it's doing it as a job!), and for sure it has a tumblr...
It tries to support and animate a food community...
It has a flickr account (and it uses Flickr uploadr) with which it participates to some groups and it creates other groups...
It's a frequent commenter on Serious Eats...
It's adding all the cookbooks to Anobii... And it created the Cookbook group (only three people at the momet: come! Come!)
It's part of some recipes communities... If it's based in Italy, is even part of Italian food social networks...
Every time it uploads a new recipe it posts it (immediately) on Taste Spotting too...
It's desperately wishing for Aperture to implement its food pictures...
It's part of the Daring Bakers Team and it's not allowed to link it to the outer world (We rock!)...
It participates to all the web food events it can...
Update: it got its business card and stickers from Moo.com

If you spot one, please contact the Food Bloggers Anonymous on FaceBook: you could save it from extinction... We need food blogger 2.0 in this world!

The best kept secret in food photography

2007-07-03T14:55:00.000+02:00

What could make you the best food photographer in the world isn't only a good camera, good lenses or style...
No, no, my dearest! The best kept secret in food photography is a more than 300€ tool called Aperture: I'm trying the 30 days free trial and it already changed my life after one hour... And for some option you don't even need to shoot in raw: it works even on jpgs!!!

You don't believe me?
Compare this picture to the one I've published last week! It's the same picture: I swear!

Tzatziki

2007-07-03T08:36:00.000+02:00

If there is something addicted about Greek cuisine, that is tzatziki for sure! I can eat kilos of it, on bread or pitta, alone, with chips...
Sure, right after that comes moussaka, another Greek addiction, but it's a bit more complex and a bit more wintery, so maybe this fall I will give the recipe of mine low fat moussaka!
Right now, for you barbecue or your al fresco night, here it's Cuisine et Vins de France's Tzatziki: why buy it if it's so damn easy???

1 cucumbers
2 Greek yoghurt
1 garlic clove, minced
Some mint leaves, striped
Sea salt

Grate the cucumber and let it drain cover in sea salt for at least half an hour.
Squeeze it, and mix it with the rest of the ingredients (except sea salt that you already used). Cover it and let it rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

I love Italy, but...

2007-07-02T16:17:00.000+02:00

I really love my country! And my compatriots (well, not everybody, but you know...). As I had many experiences outside Italy I can really see all the pro and co of my wonderful country...
But today I'm pissed, and I decide to say it in a public display!
My dsl line is supplied by Wind Infostrada. I have since January 2006 and until today I was without a connection for at least 10 days overall... Now you think: that's not so much of a deal... Sure, it's not so much of a deal if you use your dsl to play: I use it to work, so even 1 hour is a problem.
Today I lost connection for the second time in ten days. I called the help desk and they told me: "I did some tests and you should have everything back is something like two hours". "Should"??? "Something like"??? "Two hours"????
When I told him that I needed a more specific estimate of time the men answered me "What are you complaining about? It's only half an hour that you are not connected". Now visualize my face red! And try to keep calm I told him that I already had problem one week ago, that it happened to many times and then he hanged the phone.
Now, how can I complain about this lousy, rude and impolite little piece of @#§!!! if I don't have his name, a code or something to recognize him???
I cannot.
And that's Italy: a lousy service (they say it's 4 mgb, but most of the time is not even half...), for a price much higher then in the rest of Europe, with rude people at the other end of the phone...
But as that's Italy, I continue to pay...

Daring Bakers: Real Honest Jewish Purist's Bagels

2007-06-27T10:52:00.000+02:00

Wow! Always challenging our daring bakers contests!!! I made bagels just once in my life, few month ago, and I was ready to try a new recipe and give it another chance to improve!
And this recipe, even if in mammoth proportions, is wonderful! Luckily I made them for friends coming over, so they were just enough!
How did it go?
First of all, as the rules weren't allowing the use of a mixer, I knead by hand the dough.
So, let's think, since how many years I haven't knead by hand??? To many for sure! Kneading is a wonderful exercise, for mind, muscle and soul. When I'm stressed, or sad, or I don't fill all my self, I make something yeasty and fluffy, but I don't knead any more... Mainly because three years a go I kneaded so hard a bread that my wrists began to hurt, so I began to use the mixer. But now, years later and old stress free, I knead again, and I'm so happy!!!
Remember, when life is hard and you don't know what to do, KNEAD AND BAKE!!! (this could be the opening line of the Daring Bakers hymn, what you think???)...
The rest of the execution when smooth as a sailing boat on a sunny, light wind day! I enjoyed every single step, every single ironic line written by our hosts...
I had just one tiny problem: they are so ugly, but so so so ugly that I'm a bit ashamed to let you see pictures of them, but they tasted much much better then Nigella's...
But, you know, life too isn't always beautiful! But always tasty, that' a given!!! ;-)
Bagels for ever and ever!

Daring bakers rock, rule and we are cool!!! (Does it work enough as a rhyme? Maybe no...)

Piperita in London

2007-06-26T19:03:00.000+02:00

Would you like to see Piperita at the London Borough market the last time she visited London??? Try to spot me!

Click To Play

Just a hint: I'm the "girl" who's always eating something!!! :-D

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...

2007-06-26T18:17:00.000+02:00

It wasn't a period of civil war, but a period of great heat, and the less I'm near the oven/fires, the better I feel!
And this quiche is cooked in the oven for 25 minutes without looking after it, prepared in 5 minutes top and could be eat either cold or warm...

2 courgettes
200 g of feta cheese
2 egg whites and 1 egg
200 ml of milk
Mint and basil leaves
Salt and pepper

1 roll of fresh puff pastry

Roll out the puff pastry inside a cake mould. Wash and trim the courgettes, then grate them with the biggest grater directly inside the cake mould.
Chopped mint and basil leaves.
Mix egg whites and egg (but if you prefer, you can use 2 entire eggs: I just had some white standing in the fridge since yesterday), milk, salt and pepper and the chopped herbs.
Pour it over the raw courgette, then crumble over it the feta.

Cooked in a preheated oven (180° C) for 25 minutes.

While we were eating it I thought that even adding grated lemon zest could do very well indeed!

EBBP#7: Childhood sweets

2007-06-25T07:22:00.000+02:00

As a little girl I wasn't very keen on sweets: never ate many caramelle (sugar sweets), but I ate loads of chocolate!
When I saw two months ago the theme for this year Euro Blogging By Post I though that maybe I wasn't really fitting in, but then I found some stuff to send!
When Saturday morning I received my parcel I was completely with out words!!! So many sweets, and all looking exotic to me!!! Well, they are all English, so not from so far away... My husband was the happiest looking at them!!! He loves sweets!
The only way I know to thank Johanna for hosting and sweet Freya for sending me so many wonderfully amazing sweet stuff!!! I will soon have a bite of everything! :-)

2007-06-22T13:52:00.000+02:00

... a bowl full of cherries!

Opportunities

2007-06-22T10:29:00.000+02:00

For my work with San Lorenzo I have, among other stuff, to organize events, both in Italy and England. Should I express the happiness that surround me since I have to do this kind of job, or is a given??? :-D
For the next week-end, the last of June, we are launching a new monthly event: Il Vino Lo Portiamo Noi (we bring the wine)!
We give to 10 lucky drawn people the possibility to eat in a Michelin starred restaurant with a special tasting menu matched with the wines we produce. The lunch, or dinner, is completely free, and altogether we will give you the opportunity to visit the kitchen, the cellar and speak with the chef, asking him all the question you have in mind! A special day to remember!!!
This month, friday 29th, we are attending a lunch to the astonishingly good, well known and wonderfully positioned Don Alfonso 1890, near Naples and facing the island of Capri! Not only the food, but even the setting will be outstanding!
So, if you are interested, why not try to push your luck and enter the competition??? The enrolments will close tonight at midnight, CET (Central European Time) and the lucky picked by the Fortune goddess will be announced!
Hurry! I'll keep my finger crossed for you!

P.S. We offer the lunch, but transportation and accommodation are at your expense.

Disclaimer: this post is about the company I work for. They do not pay me to write this on my blog, but I thought you could be interested as I think this is a wonderful opportunity for everybody.

Salted twists

2007-06-21T21:15:00.000+02:00

Lately I'm more on simple, quick and not so complicated stuff then anything else... It's hot here in Italy, and the hotter it is, the sleepier I am...
So, simple, quick, even for friends coming over to dinner!
This twists are wonderful with a sparkle of fleur de sel or some parmigiano or other grated cheese or some tapennade...
All you have to do is to buy a nice and good quality puff pastry (but if you are so brave to make it, KUDOS! Just the thought of all that turns make me yawing!), lay it on the table, sparkle it with cheese of olive paté, fold it in half, cut long thin stripes, then, with each end between the thumb and the index finger of each hand.
If you are using the fleur de sel, twist them and then sparkle with salt.

Cooked in a pre-heated oven until golden

Serve with aperitifs.

The best scone I've ever baked

2007-06-18T22:39:00.000+02:00

Seriously!Those are the simplest, tastier and better looking scones I've ever baked, and you all know my addiction to this wonderful English treats!
Sunday morning I woke up early and already annoyed and so what could I do better if not baking? And baking scones, what there is better in life then that??? Apart the obvious, ok... ;-)

This recipe, with the due changes and personalizations, is from this month BBC Good Food.

125 g of wholewheat flour
100 g of flour
10 g f chemical yeast for cakes
1 and 1/2 tablespoons of brown sugar
40 g of softened butter
150 ml of milk
100 g of minced dried apricot
1 egg yolk, beaten, to glaze

Preheat the oven at 180°C.
In a food processor, mix all the ingredients, in the given order, except the apricot and the egg yolk.
You'll obtain a wet mix, bot do not worry. Add the apricots by hand, then, on a floured surface, lay down the dough 2 centimetres thick. This is the whole trick: the dough must be thick! I made some scones with a thinner dough and they came out quite ugly!

Cut it out with a glass or a cookie cutter.
Brush them with the beaten egg yolk, then cook them for 10 minutes in the hot oven.

Eat them warm, but they are still good even cold!

Enjoy them with some clotted cream and some jam!

It's London baby!!!

2007-06-15T22:02:00.000+02:00

Well, I'm in London, again! Sorry if I haven't said anything, but it's just a very quick visit...
It was a sunny and hot day and I had the wonderful opportunity (and for this I will never stop to thank Walid from TrustedPlaces!!!) to meet some gorgeous people and have a good look around London Borough Market!
I met some prominent English food bloggers I read, like the lovely Julia, the astonishing young and talented Aidan and, even if briefly, the adorable Krista.
I add the pleasure to meet some English food journalists too, as Susan Smillie from The Observer and mind behind the food blog of The Guardian; Andy Hayler with whom I chatted a lot about restaurants and food; and, even if briefly, Tonia George food editor of Waitrose Food Illustrated (and I exposed myself telling her that the cover of one of their old numbers is hanging from the wall of my study: Nigella Lawson's packing the perfect picnic is so inspiring for everyday inspiration!!!).
Our host, chef and foodie Celia Brooks Brown, was just wonderful: I've liked her form the first moment I've spotted her! she was so smiley ad charming that I couldn't stop listening to her food chatting with us and the stands holders!

My impressions on the market itself can be found here.
Here I just want to stress on one point: I was honestly and really pleased for the way England is transforming its relationship with food! they are really expanding their views on food, and not only towards organic food (that here in England is less expensive than in Italy), but towards food in general!!! I had so many bad memories about English supermarkets and food, but right now, just after two visits, they are all gone!
And even the bad memories about constant rain are almost gone: I've always had sun!!!

For the complete photo set of this visit, you can click trough here! Enjoy!

Do you think food bloggers use Internet at its highest potentials?

2007-06-13T18:35:00.000+02:00

Lately I'm hanging out with a lot of "internet people" (aka people working in Internet companies, involved both in contents and logistics, software, hardware, stuff like that), and I've realized something...
They all have a blog, since ages, a flickr account, a tumblr blog, they use twitter, they know all about the latest google innovations and they are for sure part of more than one community...
And they are part of much more that for sure I do not even know it exists...

But we, one of the biggest and more bonding community on line, are we using the so called web 2.0 at its highest potentials?

Donna Hay's Verrines

2007-06-09T17:41:00.000+02:00

Have I said somewhere else how much I love the Donna Hay style?
It's just wonderful, or at least it is exactly what I would like to achieve: special made simple. Or, as a friend would say, less is more...
And Donna, a great stylist, made a wonderful effort to make all this possible even for us. She accomplished many perfect combination, without all the fuss of molecular gastronomy or the overrated fake elegance of a three star chef... (Uh, that was tough... Sorry, I'm in need of basic stuff lately!)
Like this combination of three basic ingredients: couscous, feta and beetroot. Together they make your mouth (and your soul) very happy and satisfied, a feeling that you would never imagine from something so simple... The best way to taste it is with the couscous still warm and dressed just with a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice. Mint was for decoration, but wasn't bad at all!

Live from London!!!

2007-06-05T16:28:00.000+02:00

It's sunny! It's hot!
So far, I drunk an Orangina (I know, it's not English, but everywhere I find Orangina, I drink it!!!) and ate a tuna and avocado wrap!
I found a wireless connection not encripted...
Tonight I go to google's offices for a dinner party...

What would I want more then this????????

Monthly mingle 10: Happy birthday Meeta!

2007-06-04T22:42:00.000+02:00

Sorry Meeta, I'm two days late, but Happy birthday!!!
To my excuse, I can assure I made this cake on the 2nd of June!
And I don't know if you would like it, but it was a very quick and very simple non baked cheesecake that everybody enjoyed!
And here's the recipe!

For the base
250 gr of digestive biscuits (I used petits beurre, but it turned out very crumbly, so not the best choice...)
75 g of butter

For the filling
400 g of marmalade (I've used the orange one I've made in January)
250 g of ricotta
175 g of low fat yoghurt
6 g of gelatine (3 sheets)
Mixed berries, as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and redcurrants

Crumble the digestive, mix them with melted butter. Cover a cake mould with the mix. Refrigerate.
Soak the gelatine in cold water.
Heat the marmalade in a little pan and when is boiling add, far from the fire, the gelatine.
In a mixer, process ricotta and yoghurt, add the marmalade, then mix, in bowl, with the fruits.
Fill the cake and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

London calling to the underworld come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls...

2007-06-02T17:22:00.000+02:00

UPDATE!
I wanted to check out a dim sum restaurant.
What do you think if we meet the 6th of June at Chuen Cheng Ku, 17 Wardour Street (Piccadilly), from 12.30 pm, for lunch? I will be there, red hair, black glasses...

I don't know if I have any English readers or followers (and even less if they are Clash's fans! ;-D), but the 5th and 6th of June I will be in London, so if anyone would like to meet for a cup of coffee or a lunch, I will be more then happy!

Let me know in the comment or via mail...

Milano: let's meet

2007-06-02T16:11:00.001+02:00

For anyone who would like to come, tomorrow night I will be at NordEst, a funky bar in Milan, for a reading by an Italian author, Gian Luca Favetto.
He will read extracts form his book "L'Italia, provincia del Giro - Storie di eroi, strade e inutili fughe".
I will be there, from 9pm... If you would like to meet, I will be the one with the camera, taking pictures of everything!

Bigoli for ever and ever

2007-05-31T11:52:00.000+02:00

I've just realized that I've never spoke of Bigoli on this blog!!! That's incredible!
Since the first bite I had of this wonderful pasta I was in love!
Let's go back in time... It was our first tour in Veneto, winter of 2002 or 2003, and we were in a nice little restaurant in Verona, near the (hypothetical) Juliet's balcony (Juliet of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet). It was a mid week lunch, crowded, and while my husband was choosing among the many meat dishes with polenta on the side, I was heading towards the pasta list. I've decided for Bigoli con sugo di anatra (Bigoli with duck sauce).
The dish arrived in front of me and I was lying pure heaven! A steaming plate of thick, rough, home made egg spaghetti (Bigoli) with a dense tomato and duck sauce. The aroma was incredible... And the taste...
Most of the time non-Italians have difficulty to understand that each shapes and types of pasta as a flavour of its own... That duck sauce could only exist WITH that bigoli, not with normal spaghetti, even less with short pasta, may be it could have a little life with fresh egg tagliatelle, but with those bigoli it was just the nearest to perfection I've ever tasted!

I would love to make that duck sauce again, but to constraint my bimonthly need for Bigoli I have to find compromises...

Serves 4 (2 in there me at the table...)
500 g of fresh Bigoli (sorry, I buy them, but may be one day I will try to make them)
200 g of asparagus, thickly sliced
1 robiola (around 100 g)

Bring to the boil a large quantity of water. When it's begging to boil, add sea salt.
Add the asparagus and the bigoli. Cook it for 8 minutes.
In the mean while, lay the robiola in a big bowl, pour over it a ladle of the pasta water, and mix it.
Drain pasta and asparagus, add it to the bowl and mix t well before to serve it.

In the open

2007-05-29T16:26:00.000+02:00

I've been thinking about this post for a few months.
I was fighting with myself for the way I was going to write it, how many and which informations I was going to put in it, what "impact" it would have (as I have some kind of "impact" on anything outside my little shiny room from which I'm writing this! AH!AH!AH!), how many insults I will receive...
As few of you know, I was (and I would like to stress on the past sense) in the catering business. I'm not any more. Why?
Well, the first answer to this would spontaneously be: "mind your own business!", but as I'm writing this on my blog it would sound a bit hypocritical! (hey, I wrote the last word perfectly right all by myself!!! And that was a difficult one!)
I didn't want any more to be part of it, but the matter is not simple. As I wasn't the only person involved, and the other person is going on with the business, I don't want to get a legal charge for what I might say! So that's as far as I'm going on the catering matter!
Any way, that's not the story I wanna tell!
Two days after I went "public" with my decision I was offered with a job!
I wrote to Antonio, whom I had known through my blog, months back, and for whom I was writing recipes, to change everything and cut away the name of my former catering company, and just leave my name.
He asked me what I wanted to do from then.
Well, that was the major problem! It wasn't that I hadn't given a thought to this, but I had no real strategic plan! I was too relieved to get free of a suffocating situation, that I hadn't really thought of anything...
So I wrote him my ideas... He cut everything short and he gave me the opportunity, if I was willing to take it, to become San Lorenzo Country blogger for England.
Well, what do you think my answer was???
:-)
And next week I'm heading to London for my first """"""business trip""""""!!!

Well, why am I writing all this?
Self-promotion, primarily... :-)
To assure you that my "integrity" (:-DDDDDDD, sorry, I can't stop laughing!!! I'm so funny!!!) as a food blogger is well kept and safe: I won't do any advertising on this blog, if not related to my personal life...
Because I'm a self-centred person (but well, you know, I have my own blog, so that was established more then one year and half ago when I published the first post...)...
Because I like what I do and I wanted to share it...
Because I have few passions, one of it is good food, and I like to share it...
Because you don't want to know about tv series (possibly stupid and American) or books or movies or cross-stitching or cats, right??? ;-) (Well, about the last one I'm managing to do something too ;-D)
Because I have no recipe pending, and I'm not really into cooking lately (still with flu, but on drugs, many drugs!)...
Because I want, from now on, everything in the open (for more, check the backstage!), everything being as much spontaneous as possible, everything clear...

And I'm ready for that! Are you?

Every finger in a row is pointing at me [...]
Everyday I crucify myself
Nothing I do is good enough for you
Crucify myself
Everyday I crucify myself
And my [blog] is sick of being in chains...

P.S. Sorry for little quote that nobody will understand, but she's coming... She's just few days away... And I'm the most thrilled person in the world!!! :-)

Daring Bakers: Saint Honorè

2007-05-27T09:36:00.000+02:00

When last month I've seen all around the internet a wonderful tower of chocolate crepes (something I'm dreaming/dreading to make since ages), I knew I wanted to be part of this exclusively club!!! So I've pulled some strings of well known V.I.P. food bloggers ;-) and the next day I was part of it... And just in time to discover the May challenge: Saint Honorè!!!!!!!!!
I run to the kitchen, looked at my husband and said: "I'm afraid! I have to make Saint Honorè!!!" He looked at me in disbelief while I was telling him the whole story, and he began to refer to us, Daring Bakers, as "the crazy people on the net that bake"... And at the end is what we are: find me somewhere else so many people that are all exited to bake, all together, from the same recipe, a Saint Honorè, and publishing it on the same day... Find me a "secret" place where all this people (and this month we are almost 50!), from all over the world, meet and chat about the making of one of the most known cake in the world, and put in the open if they made a mistake, if they had a bad time or a good time, and seek for help, advices, support... And they get all that!!!
I've made my Saint Honorè (the first and probably the last) the weekend after the under covering of the May challenge: I had some friends coming over to dinner, so I thought it was the best time to try something so scary!
I was honestly scared by the task, especially the decoration part of it, as I'm not much of a decorator...
Anyway, let's go back to the beginning...
I've decided, as the rules permit me to, to use ready made puff pastry: sorry, but puff pastry is one of the biggest fears I have in baking and I need more than that to get over it!
So, having already set the problem puff pastry, I could concentrate on the rest. I've already made cream puffs in the past, and that gave me to much confidence, and I screw the first batch, making the dough too liquid, so I made it again, and this time it turned out nicely...
The cream was ok, as I have my own way to make cooked cream (and sauces in general): I use a hand mixer directly in the cooking cream, so you can cook it for shorter time at high temperature, it doesn't stick to the bottom, and you don't have to keep stirring all the time...
The assembly was ok... Until I arrived to the caramel part...
I admit it: I'm a caramel challenge person... I'm afraid of it, I don't have a caramel thermometer, it just never caramelized in my hand...
Ok, I'm a bad daring baker: I've used my husband! He made caramel for me, and it was a wonderful caramel!!! All this while the pan I've used to make it in the first place was doomed in the limbo of caramel sticky pans...
The overall product was a success! They all loved it, they all eat it twice!
The cream was very very good, and while at the beginning I was a bit sceptic for the jelly, it was absolutely necessary, and I thing I will put jelly in other creams too from now on...
I'm so so happy to be part of the Daring Bakers: if it wasn't for you I would never made a Saint Honorè!
And now I can't wait to see what the June challenge will be!!!!!!!!!!!

Daring bakers rule and rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tonight...

2007-05-25T17:09:00.000+02:00

Tonight is a big night: in one hour we are leaving for Franciacorta, homeland of the Italian Champagne, where my hubby will be officially proclaimed somellier by AIS (the Italian Sommelier Association, with whom he attended three long years of courses).
We will be having dinner and staying overnight here.
And then tomorrow I will head to Bologna for the FemCamp, in part sponsored by San Lorenzo...
I'm already tired... ;-)

Finally...

2007-05-23T14:54:00.000+02:00

Finally I'm able to find a recipe (worth, at least) and the time to update my blog (at the end it made me find a job, so how can I neglect it????)!
And let's begin this post with a sonic "OMG, it's hell-hot!" And it's not even the worst yet, as it is only 35° C...
So, hot = cold stuff! And as last year some other south European blogger ;-) beat me on the race "Who's the first to publish Tabouleth?", this year I've decided to play ahead and make it, today, now, oggi, aujourd'hui...

For 6 people
200 g of couscous
the juice of: 1 lemon, 1 lime and 1 pink grapefruit
200 g of cherry tomatoes, halved
1 sping onion, chopped
Few springs of basil and mint, roughly minced
Salt

Mix everything together and let it rest in the fridge for few hours before to serve it.

P.S. Of course, for the picture, I've put mine in verrines: you already know my insane love for verrines...

Check it out!

2007-05-21T15:54:00.000+02:00

Let's go check out my first attemp with my new camera: head over to San Lorenzo's kitchen!!!

Food photography for dummies

2007-05-18T10:53:00.000+02:00

At the end I had to: I've decided, tempted by a good offer, to oblige my (poor) French husband to buy me, for my birthday (that is in 4 month...) a Canon Eos 350D! Yeah, I know, I'm a slaver! ;-)
As the camera is not yet in my hands (because of the offer, Milan shops run out, so my father bought it for me in Varese), I was "preparing" for the big moment (me? a control freak??? Noooo....) downloding brochure from the Canon web site. And look what I found???
A brochure for macro lenses that on page 6 explain you how a nice lady with a nice apron can take pictures that "Looks like professional cooking" in a bit, using a 500 € camera + 600 € macro lenses!!! If it could be just the camera, the world would be saved in a click!!!
I think all the Bourdain reading during flu made me bitter... ;-)

Vegetable lasagne

2007-05-15T17:36:00.000+02:00

It's spring, and I'm sick! Outside is beautiful all the time, sunny (except a major storm this morning!), hot, enjoyable, and all I can do is to stay inside, all covered, coughing... And so I NEED comfort food, I really do!!!
I don't know where I found the strength to cook lasagne, not even where I'm founding the strength to write this post, but here I am! Very short: for once I'm not giving you real direction, neither measurements...
Sorry... I still love you very much, do the same with me...
Sorry: when I'm sick I tend to be sentimental... When I was a little girl, every time I got sick, I dictated my will to my mom, leaving all my possessions to my dog...

Anyway...

I've used ready made dry lasagne sheets. I made a vegetable ragù with diced tomatoes, aubergine, onion and courgette. I made my usual yoghurt béchamel.
One layer of pasta, one layer of veggy, one layer of béchamel, one layer of pasta, and so on and on....
End with béchamel, cook in preheat oven, eat and fell better...

Japanese curry (or so they say on the package!!!)

2007-05-10T09:38:00.000+02:00

I'm not so fond of ready made food. But sometimes, once in a while, a get very lazy (Ah! I'm always lazy!!!) and use industrial stuff, and that normally happens when I do not read the list of the ingredients BEFORE I buy it... And that doesn't happen so often... But sometimes, you know, you find yourself in the aisles of one of the biggest Chinese supermarket in town, you see colourful stuff, written with nice ideograms, with a nice picture on the package and you think: Well, why shouldn't I buy it???
And that's what I did... And of course, once I buy it, I have to use it (I hate to waste food)...
And it wasn't so bad, at all... It tasted like some lousy Indian restaurant (don't ask my why they make in Japan a curry mix that tastes like Indian curry)... And that's not exactly comforting... But you know, as long as you don't read the list of the ingredients... Really, it wasn't bad at all... And we are still alive... It was OK... You know, as long as you add fresh ingredients... No, it tasted OK, really...

1 tablespoon of oil
1 red pepper
2 little potatoes
1 onion
360 ml of water
1/2 package of Tasty Curry Sauce Mix, Medium Hot
250 g chosen fish, in chunks (I used cod)

Cut red pepper, onion and potatoes (peeled) in thick stripes. Stir fry the onion with the oil, add the vegetables, stir fry for few minutes and add water. Once the vegetables are cooked, add the curry stuff and the fish. stir and cook for 5-10 minutes or until the fish is cooked. Serve immediately, with some rice.

I have a new idol!

2007-05-09T16:17:00.000+02:00

I love food communities, and I think Serious Eats is one of the best: they are funny, wit and smart and they have that certain edge (that I like) when speaking about food: it's a serious matters, ok, but a bit of lightness never hurt anybody!
through them I've just discover my new idol: Mr. Minimalist Mark Bittman! I love his article on no expensive kitchen equipments: he couldn't be more right!!!
I know that he's well know in America (hell! He writes for the New York Times), but as I live in Italy, is quite difficult to reach for the New York Times (if not on line!) everyday...
But now I will be updated through their feed... (I love feeds...)
Thanks Serious Eats to make me discover this, among the other thousand discoveries I've made through your community...

Cupcakes for K

2007-05-09T06:47:00.000+02:00

My dear sweeeeet friend K today turns (insert the number you like)!!! And tonight we'll party!
I made her this lavender cupcakes I found on one of my favorite blog: thanks so much Chockylit for being a constant source of inspiration! Your cupcakes are gorgeous!!!
The only thing I've changed was the decorations (the original one was of course much nicer!!! I'm a real mess!): I added a nice Toulouse violet on top!

And now a food dilemma for you all: why on earth cupcakes are a big hit in the States and back here, in Italy, we don't even know what are??? They are simple, quick, fancy and you can flavor them with practically anything you want... Why???
As much as why we don't even know what macarons are... Why???

In my dreams lately I often see a little cake shop in a narrow, old street, with 2 or 3 tables and chairs (may be 2 tables even outside, for spring and summer), the scent of freshly baked goods mixed with the different flavors of the most fragrant teas in the world, people relaxing and chatting, a beating sound coming from the back kitchen, a smiling young Italian woman in the back, decorating cakes...
But that's just a dream...
:-)

Monthly Mingle: Spring (rainy) soup

2007-05-04T08:21:00.000+02:00

It's finally raining!!! After a very long period of sun (and it was beginning to annoying me: I love rain!!!) we finally have a long deserved rain! So now everybody can complain about rain, and how it will ruin the crops, and that of course veggy and fruits will be expensive... Exactly how they would complain if there was sun...
Anyway, asparagus are THE spring vegetable, and as we are deeply in to spring and soon even the asparagus season will be over, let's make something with them!
I personally love them just steamed, qith nothing more... When I was living at my parents, we had many asparagus Sunday's lunch: many bunches of asparagus, steamed and eaten just with some butter, fried eggs and lots of Parmesan cheese... Heaven!
But as is raining, the only way that came to my mind to cook the sad asparagus that were living in my fridge since two weeks, was to soup them!
Just boil all the asparagus, except some heads, in not to much salted water.
Mix everything and enjoy with the steamed heads!
W spring!