Stuffed and roasted guinea fowl

Roasted guinea fowl

A good stuffed and roasted guinea fowl is something merry and wintery, that will add to your post-holiday dinner a reminder of the late Christmas and New’s year celebrations.

1 guinea fowl (enough for 4 to 6 people)

For the stuffing:

300 g chestnuts, peeled and boiled (our chestnuts were a courtesy of a fellow Italian blogger and friend, LaPaoly)

200 g diced bacon

1 onion, finely chopped

50 g dried apricots

50 g dried plums

1/2 glass Marsala or sherry

Take the guinea fowl out of the fridge at least 1 hour before to cook it.

Preheat the oven at 160° C.

Heat a non-stick pan and stir in the bacon. Stir fry, in the bacon’s fat the onion. Add chestnuts, apricots, plums and stir well.

Add the wine and let it evaporate. Transfer the stuffing in a bowl and let it cool.

Salt and pepper the guinea fowl cavity. Add the stuffing and close it sewing it.

Lay the guinea fowl in a shallow baking tin sprinkled with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Cook in the hot oven for 2 hours, or until the skin is crispy.

Let it rest for a few minutes outside the oven before to carve it and serve it.

Serve it with roasted potatoes, or a celery root, carrots and potatoes mash.

Le marché de St. Afrique

Daring Bakers: pizza

Daring bakers Pizza

Or better, the best pizza dough I’ve ever made! :)

As you know, I’m Italian, and for some types of food I’m so snob! One of them is pizza, no wonder! Pizza was invented in my country, and any pizza I ate out of the border of Italy were practicly disgusting! Aka, I’m a food snob (but I don’t think I’m telling you anything new!)

But this pizza dough is really one of the best I’ve ever tried!

Maybe it’s because it rests overnight in the fridge, so it can develop a good texture…

Maybe it’s because it made with high gluten flour…

Maybe it’s because it’s knead for a long time…

Maybe it’s because there is a good amount of water…

Maybe are all this features together…

At the end you get a very thin pizza, like the pizzerie here in Milan…

One was topped with tomato sauce (quickly pre cooked with garlic and olive oil), Italian sausages (100% pork meat) and mozzarella, added only the last 3 minutes.

Daring Bakers Pizza

The other was always with the same tomato sauce, ricotta and arugula, added once out of the oven.

Daring Bakers Pizza

I have other pieces, and I think I’m going to freeze them for the future! :)

Check out all the other Daring Bakers!

Raw, part 3: lemon salmon

Lemon Salmon

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…

Raw, part 2: chirashi, kind of

Salmon raw, part 2

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

Salmon raw, part 1

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!!!

A nice slice of meat

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! ;-)

A nice slice of MEAT!!!
Before

Mmmh meat!
After

My new belle

My new belle.jpg

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.

Chicken Tajine.jpg

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