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Monthly Archives: March 2007
Raisins and cinnamon swirl
Give me something light and not too sweet for breakfast. Give me something yeasty too. Give me a simple, quick, plain recipe, that can be made by everyone. Give me something I can made over the weekend and that will last at least few days. Give me something with LOADS of raisins in it.
Can you vaguely imagine how difficult is to find a recipe that satisfy all those components???
Very…
At the end I found something by Martha Stewart: I’ve changed a bit, but it’s basically it… Lighting a candle under her shrine, just next to Nigella’s…
And as I’m a bit neglecting this blog lately (sorry, too much going on…), especially from a photograph point of view, this time I’ve tried to recreate the picture published on Martha’s website. You know, most of the time the right inspiration makes your best shot, said the humble Piperita…
250 ml warm water
10 g fresh yeast
150 g all-purpose flour
200 g of strong flour
1 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoons melted butter
150 g raisins
70 g cane sugar + 1 teaspoon
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 egg beaten
Crumble the yeast in the kneader bowl (normal large bowl, if kneading by hand), add a pinch of sugar, then dissolve everything with the warm water. let it rest for 10-15 minute, until it foams.
Add flours, sugar, and half the butter. Knead for 10 minutes on medium speed. Add raisins and knead for another 5 minutes. Form a ball and place it in an oiled bowl. Cover with plastic and let it rest until it doubles, for 1-2 hours.
Roll out the dough in a 30×25 centimetres square. Mix cane sugar with cinnamon, nutmeg and the remaining melted butter. Brush the rolled dough with some of the beaten egg, sprinkle with the sugar-cinnamon- butter mixture and rub everything together with the back of a spoon. Roll up the dough tightly, beginning from the short side. Close the ends and lay the sausage in a buttered plum-cake pan, 22×12 centimetres. Let it rise for 30 minutes in a warm enviroment.
Preheat the oven at 220° C.
When the dough is well risen, brush it with the remaining beaten egg and a teaspoon of cane sugar. Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature at 180° C and bake for another 15 minutes.
Let it coll before to slice it.
Warning: gives addiction…
Out of fashion food?
The other day I was reading comments on one of my favourite blog (she doesn’t need publicity, but here it is!) and someone wrote: “stop with avocados, they are so seventies” (in the meaning of obsolete). Well, I found that comment quite strange.
Let me explain myself. On which basis can you label a certain food out of fashion or obsolete? This concept never even cross my mind, and it’s more then 10 years I’m seriously around food, 5 of which professionally. How can a food, something nature gives us, be defined obsolete?
There are a lot of lost vegetables or cooking techniques (my father in law grows many légumes oubliés, like 10 different variety of tomatoes, 5 or 6 different pumpkins…), lost during the centuries, due to famines, weather conditions, wars, drastic change of diet… But can someone decided that a vegetable, a fruit can become obsolete??? I personally do not think so. I think that everything is good, and with few basic skills everything can become an extraordinary mouthwatering dish.
I left a “talk” here and let me know, in comments or e-mails, what you think… Your opinions matter to me… As long as they are on the same track of mine! (;-D Just joking!)
The wind that shakes the barley
This is not at all an Irish recipe, as the title would suggest, but a very Italian one! Cooking other ingredients like you will do for risotto is quite common, even for pasta. Of course you always have to adjust the timing.
Barley is very good cooked with the absorption method, especially in the pressure cooker: you will obtain an orzotto all’onda (a barley[ris]otto waving in your plate!). For every 100 g of barley, use 400 ml of water or stock and cook it for 25 minutes. The method is very simple: you wash your barley under fresh water, hot some oil in the pressure cooker, add the washed barley (and the other ingredients, if this is the case), then cover with water or stock, close the lid and cook.
To the dish in the picture I added some tomatoes, some zucchini flowers (they are beginning to appear on the market but I think they are not yet at their best), and at the end I decorated everything with some sliced bottarga…
Barley is very good cooked with the absorption method, especially in the pressure cooker: you will obtain an orzotto all’onda (a barley[ris]otto waving in your plate!). For every 100 g of barley, use 400 ml of water or stock and cook it for 25 minutes. The method is very simple: you wash your barley under fresh water, hot some oil in the pressure cooker, add the washed barley (and the other ingredients, if this is the case), then cover with water or stock, close the lid and cook.
To the dish in the picture I added some tomatoes, some zucchini flowers (they are beginning to appear on the market but I think they are not yet at their best), and at the end I decorated everything with some sliced bottarga…
Canard aux poires
Do I have to stress again on how much I love duck? And ducks, of course: cute funny animals, but I prefer them directly from the oven! Oh, how cruel I am!!! (Add a very cruel laugh at this point)
This roasted duck is so simple that shouldn’t need a recipe, but I know many people are afraid to roast whole animals. I found it rewarding!!!
My duck was 1. 7 kilos. It was stuffed with a diced pear and sprinkled with some salt. It cooked for 2 hours at 150° C, then 30 minutes at 220° C. I took it out of the oven when, piercing it with a skewer, the juices form the leg joint came out clear.
Allow it to rest for 10-15 minutes before to carve it.
This roasted duck is so simple that shouldn’t need a recipe, but I know many people are afraid to roast whole animals. I found it rewarding!!!
My duck was 1. 7 kilos. It was stuffed with a diced pear and sprinkled with some salt. It cooked for 2 hours at 150° C, then 30 minutes at 220° C. I took it out of the oven when, piercing it with a skewer, the juices form the leg joint came out clear.
Allow it to rest for 10-15 minutes before to carve it.
It was juicy, but crispy on the outside. If I have to tell you the whole truth, I’m from the school that likes duck medium rare (rare for breasts alone), so if you prefer your bird well done, allow an extra 30 minutes at 150° C.
Serve it with the pear and some greenery.
Budino!
Watching a video of Jacques Pépin, found through The Amateur Gourmet, I was fascinated by his allure and his elegance… His recipe for Hasty Pudding reminded me my old love for budino (the Italian equivalent of pudding). Budino is the simplest dessert of all, if made with the powder selled in supermarkets, and it’s even the most disgusting one, but as a toddler it was a much appreciated dessert or afternoon break!
When I was little there was a designated budino day during the week at the canteen where my father was working, and he was always able to sneak a little plastic glass with a chocolate or a vanilla budino for me! Glorious days!
During the years the range of budino available in supermarket widened to the ultimate possible peak: Lindt chocolate budino, the Everest of budino! Just heaven!
But of course, becoming older is not only a meaning of ageing, but of acquiring wisdom too (well for most people, I do not know how much for my little self…), so I began experimentation on the matter of budino. Many years back in my teens, I was still using the industrial powders but I was adding some liquors or a stratification of cookies…
The recipe by Pépin just reminded me the simplest way of all to make a budino and the perfect way to get rid of semolina before the summer (old semolina=worms, butterflies etc. …).
1 lt of goat milk (the last one!!!)
160 g of semolina flour
130 g of sugar
3 tablespoons of yoghurt
Bring to the boil the milk with 2 tablespoons of sugar (that you took away from the overall amount).
Add semolina flour and give a good whisk. Cover the pan and let it cook for 2-3 minutes, on a very low heat, until it thicken.
Give it a good whisk, add sugar and yoghurt, give it another whisk, then spoon it in the mould/s you prefer.
Note: if you really want to spoil the perfect simplicity of this pudding, add any flavour, spice, nut or raisinof your choice. But only if you really feel the urge to spoil something… 
Mon monsieur
No, this is not a picture of my French hubby, but the picture of the croque monsieur I made for fun yesterday night.
Well, croque monsieur is another of those simple stuff that it’ so simple to get it wrong! Too much cheese compare to the ham, stale bread, poor quality ham and/or cheese… Well, so few ingredients involved, so many mistakes just around the corner!
I have to admit I’m not big fan of French street croque monsieur, but when made in the right way, it’s a tasty bite!
Do I have to tell you how is made??? Please, I do not want to insult your brightness!
I’ve used cumin bread (baked following this recipe just few hour prior to the execution), cooked ham and freshly grated emmenthal. Straight under an hot grill…
