Tzatziki

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.

Salted twists

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.

Verrines, again and again and again...

Ok, I have to admit it: I'm obsessed with verrines... It's that once you've started making them, your only thought will be about making them every time someone come along... They are so cute, so fast and so flexible that they scream: "MAKE ONE"! Now do you understand why on the last Cuisine et vins de France there were at least 20 recipes with/in them? Do you realize why in France they sell special glasses? (though mine were bought and made in Italy) And I even fund a wonderful catalogue that sells them in plastic, in different shapes...
And this one was practically invented: I said to my French hubby (that lives in Italy since 2001, but verrines must be in French dna...) "I would like to make verrines for tonight's dinner, possibly with rillettes..." And we came up with this: on the bottom goose rillettes, grated carrots, blanched broad beans and some swirls of fresh goat cheese coated with just a little bit of pepper... They liked them... And someone (and I'm not saying the name, but begins with F) said that my first attempts weren't so good... Well, as the proud cook I am, I thought about it, and I found on this very blog my first attempt with verrine... But maybe, judging by the date of the post, it was my first published attempt...

Verrine with feta and sun dried Pachino’s cherry tomatoes

Another verrines directly inspired by this book. It’s like a verrine in kit: I did absolutely nothing if not cutting the feta cheese and assemble everything!

For 4 glasses

200 g of feta cheese
20 sundered Pachino’s cherry tomatoes in extra virgin olive oil (or 8 sun dried normal tomatoes in oil)
salad
Extra virgin olive oil
Dry oregano

Cut the feta cheese in cubes. Assemble the glasses beginning with the salad then feta, then the tomatoes. Drizzle with oil and season with oregano.
Serve.

Something more simple??????

Note: Pachino's Tomatoes are little cherry tomatoes that grow in the field around the Sicilian town of Pachino, in the far south of the island. They are sweet and tasty, very rare and expensive... We bought a kilo of dried Pachino's Tomatoes last summer, at the Siracusa market: they are worth every cents we paid them!!!

Avocado, salmon and tapioca in verrines

One of my last buy on Amazon was this amazing book that reflects the last and crazy trend that is going on on the other side of the Alps: verrines (aka, little drinking glasses filled with savoury or sweet stuff).
The book is wonderful, with so many ideas I can’t stop looking at it!
But remember, if you intend to buy it and try something, the ingredients stated in the book are for little glasses, lets say like the one you could use for grappa or strong liquor, not for water glasses…

For 3 200 ml glasses

For the green layer:
2 avocados
Cumin
1 tomato
Parsley
The juice of two lemons

For the pink layer:
Smocked salmon
Dill
The juice of half a lemon

For the white layer:
80 g of tapioca
Extra virgin olive oil

Fish eggs to decorate

Halve the avocados, scoop the flesh and mix it with the lemon juice, parsley and cumin. Once you have a thick cream add the diced tomato and pulse the mixer: the tomato must remain in chunks. Make a layer in each glass.

Mix the salmon with the lemon juice and the dill. Do not over mix it, you need chunks even in this.
Make a layer over the avocado cream.

Bring to the boil a pan with 3 litres of salted water. Add tapioca and cook for 15 minutes or until the tapioca is tender.
Drain and cool it under cold water. Dress with a tablespoon of olive oil.
Make the last layer over the salmon.

Decorate with fish eggs or dill.

What will I eat tonight? We will begin with...

I do not like to celebrate New’s year eve in the traditional way, with a big party of people, but rather low key, just with my husband, and at most (very) few friends.
This year it will be only the three of us, and as my husband is coming back from France tonight I was alone planning the dinner!

Alliance de foie gras de canard entire et de figues confites
(Carrefour made it, I just bought it!). I can’t wait to taste it!!!
(And yes, what is drolling form the side of the foie gras is fat, my dears, plain good duck fat!!!)

Soon the other courses!

What will I eat tonight? And then we will go on with…

Valeriana with smocked duck breast, apple and Jamaican pepper

Do I have to explain how I made it??? Of course I didn’t spend the last years of my life breading, stuffing and smocking my own duck… So, just buy everything and toss all together, with a nice vinaigrette of your choice!

Various

Coleslaw

Sformatini di carciofi

Frullato di pesche

Guacamole

Sformatini di asparagi

Bellini sbagliato

Involtini con maiale e zenzero

Baba Ghanoush

Strudel (o meglio, rotolo) di verdure

Fiori di zucca ripieni

Insaltina di germogli di soia e gamberetti

Frullato di mango

Verdure ripiene

Ratatouille

Pomodorini confit

Verdure al forno

Pappa col pomodoro

Mixed salad with peaches and Roquefort

Crispy scamorzine

Carrot, leek and potato soup

Horseradish sauce

Roasted potatoes

Roasted fennels



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