Ok, after the problem with my dsl line, now my mac is dead: it fell form the table and at the moment is at the mac’s hospital…
I love my mac…
Maybe all this is telling me I should stop using tecnology…
Monthly Archives: November 2006
Rambling
Lately I do not have lots of recipe… I’m not cooking anything interesting (unless you think that pasta with pesto is interesting…) and since we’ve been in Paris last weekend, we even have the fridge completely empty… I mean, right now there is only lots of cheese from a nice Parisian fromagerie in the 17th arrondissement that ages its own cheeses… And we all know how much French cheeses stinks! So, empty and stinky fridge…
And as I’m not really inspired in writing or rambling about food issues, here are the picture I never posted because I wasn’t really satisfied with or with the recipe itself…
Right now I’m wondering about which way I may differ from other thousands of food blog we all read out there… And it is not simple to find an answer to that question, but soon or later I will come up with some ideas about it…
So, here is the collage: have fun wondering what the hell they could be and why I didn’t publish them! Well, some of them were obviously ugly, some just came not the way I wanted them, some were tasteless…
?
This made me wonder… A lot… And I didn’t yet decide if I agree or not…
What do you think?
Paris vaut bien des macarons…
… some croissants (the best of the 9th arrondissement), North African patisserie and, of course, HIM: the best, the only, le merveilleux Pierre Hermé… And foodblogger meetings, of course!!! Oh, and the discovery of yuzu…
Chinese style pork
I completely invented this marinade and I called it Chinese marinade
just because the ingredients are Chinese like (all except one…), but
I wouldn’t say you will find it served in Chinese Popular Republic…
A little memoir from my childhood… When Comrade Mao Tze Tong died I
was little, like two or three years old, and his death must have made
quite an impression on my little self. I don’t know if only for his
name, funny for a little Italian girl, as mao in Italian is very
similar to the sound of a cat mewing (miao!), or because I was
already aware of his importance on my political life… Growing older I
propend for the first solution, but for many years I was sure of the
latter…
Anyway, from the night of his death, and for the week that followed,
I went around saying to literally everybody I encountered on the
streets, at home, at the kindergarten, “Mao is dead”, with a smile
(the smile was the part I omitted when telling this story to my
comrades during my years as a young passionaria protesting against
the first Berlusconi leadership… And I would be ready to hit the
piazza again if he arouses to the power for a third time!!!)! My
mother tried to persuade me that it wasn’t very nice to announce
someone’s death with a smile, even if she told me that Mao wasn’t a
very nice person, but nothing would stop me!
What a stubborn little girl! And growing older I didn’t change a
single bit!!!
And, now, after the choirs of “who cares??!” that are arousing among
you, fellows readers, here is the recipe!
300 g of pork cut in thin stripes
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
1 teaspoon of grounded ginger
1/2 teaspoon of five spices mix
Steamed rice to serve
Marinate overnight, in the fridge, the pork with all the ingredients.
Stick two or three pieces of meat on metal skewers. Heat a heavy
grill and cook ithe skewers until golden and crispy.
Serve them with steamed rice.
P.S. For those whome are wondering if this meat is or isn’t burn, I will assure you that it wasn’t burn at all, but perfectly caramelized… and I have at least two no family related witnesses…
Amandines
Again something sweet from Donna Hay… Maybe I should buy more books
by her, so I can change trend…
Anyway, those amandines (almond tartlets) are so simple to make, and
to eat, that are worth even the effort of making the pastry base
(yes, sometime I’m so so lazy that I discard recipe that implies
pastry making…)!
For the pastry you can use half the recipe of the pastry from the Pumpkin
cake.
Serves 6
90 g of soft butter
55 g of sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
170 of almond flour
1 tablespoon and an 1/2 of flour
3 pinches of nutmeg
60 g of flaked almonds
Roll out the pastry very thin, 2 millimetres, and cut 6 circles and
cover 6 tartlet moulds. Let them rest in the fridge.
Preheat the oven at 150° C.
In a food processor, mix butter and sugar, add the egg, then the egg
yolk. Add almond flour, flour and nutmeg. Mix until you obtain a
smooth cream.
Fill each tartlet and sprinkle with flaked almonds.
Bake for 45 minutes.
Serve cold.
Pumpkin, again… And forever!!!
Another Donna Hay recipe: this woman is full of wonder!
This cake has a sweet short crust pastry that has the incredible
advantage of remaining “crusty” (or croustillant, my favourite French
word!!!) for days, even with the moistest filling. On the other hand, I
found it a bit too much hard on the first day, but ok after the second
day in the fridge. And as I used my Kenwood chef to make there
wouldn’t even be the possibility of overworking it: it did everything
in 2 minutes…
For the base
270 g of flour
3 tablespoons of sugar
150 g of butter
2-3 tablespoons of iced water
If you have a Kitchen aid of a Kenwood chef (much much better than
the Kitchen aid!!! 
), put all the ingredients, but the water, in
the mixing jar and using the K beater, knead the pastry until
crumbled. Add 2 or 3 tablespoons of iced water, knead until you
obtain a bowl. Cover it in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30
minutes.
Preheat the oven at 160° C.
Roll it in a 3 mm thick circle and cover a cake tin of 26 cm. Pick the base
with a fork. Cover it with greaseproof and fill it with rice or dry
beans, and cook it for 10 minutes. Discard the greaseproof paper,
altogether with the rice or the dry beans, and cook it for another 10
minutes.
For the filling
500 g of pumpink
65 g of brown sugar
2 eggs
75 ml of double cream
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
Clean and cut the pumpkin in cubes. Steam it until tender.
While the base is cooking, mix the pumpkin with the rest of the
ingredients. Fill in the cake base and cook for another 45 minutes.
Let it cool, unmould it and serve it with cream, whipped with 3
tablespoons of brown sugar.
