Tag Archives: cinnamon

Tajine au citron confit

Posted on by

Tajine aux citrons confit

It has been more than 1 year since my last update. Many reasons, the biggest: our son entered our life one year ago. Shall I say more?

Now, to the recipe!

Last September my friend Domitilla, coming back from her home town Mondragone, brought us some wonderful organic lemons, directly form her mother’s tree! Is there a better use than preserve them in salt? Sure no!

The lemons where ready after 2 months, but only recently I had the inspiration to use one in this classic moroccan dish: a Tajine with home made pickled lemon.

Ingredients

4 chicken tights

1 citron confit (brined lemon)

3 courgettes

1 onion

2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon of ground ginger

1 teaspoon of ground cumin

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Water

For 2 portions

  1. Halve the chicken tights with a sharp knife.
  2. Wash and cut the courgette in thick sticks, as big as your thumb (in the picture you see them bigger than I just wrote: I find that cutting them as big as your thumb makes them more tender in less time).
  3. Finely chop the onion.
  4. Heat the oil in a tajine dish or in a heavy, sturdy and big saucepan.
  5. Gently fry the onion, add the spices and meat and let it brown.
  6. Add the courgettes and the citron, cut in chunks.
  7. Stir and add enough wanter to cover it.
  8. Let it cook on a low fire until all the ingredients are tender.
  9. Serve with couscous.

Note

If you don’t have pickled lemon, or you cannot find them anywhere, do not despair: use a normal lemon!

Mince pies

Posted on by

Minced Pies

Well, a kind of Mince Pies.
First of all because this are not pies, but tarts, mini tarts.
And second of all because I’ve never tried the real English mince pie, so I cannot know if they taste alike.

The original recipe, from which those little pies are inspired, is from Modern Classics, Book 2, by Donna Hay.

Minced Pies

Shortcut pastry (Donna Hay’s recipe)

270 g flour
3 tablespoon granulated sugar
150 g cold butter, diced
2-3 tablespoon ice cold water

In a robot, work flour, sugar and butter until crumbled. Add enough water to make a silky dough.
Let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Filling

1 apple
100 g cranberries
80 g walnuts, chopped
50 g sliced almonds, crushed
An handful of hazelnut
50 g sugar (cassonade in this case)
1 tablespoon grapefruit juice
1 tablespoon Banyuls
Cinnamon, powder
Nutmeg, grated
Ginger, freshly grated

Turn on the oven at 180° C.
Peel the apple, discard all the seed, then roughly grated.
Add the rest of the ingredients and let it rest in the fridge overnight.

Roll put the pastry. Your choose to do one big (diameter of 18 cm) or many little pies (25 more or less). Cut paste accordingly. Fill it with 2-3 teaspoon of the filling, then decorate it with shaped scraped pieces of pastry, like hearts or stars.

Bake it for 15 minutes, or until golden.

Minced Pies

Dates chutney

Posted on by

Chutney di datteri

I had many different kinds of dates around the house!

Let’s state something: I do not like dates! they are too sweet, too soggy…

So dates are something that only my husband eats. And as he doesn’t eat kilos of them, well, we have many around.

The best way I found to get rid of them is chutney. Simple, soothing, satysfing! And perfect with roasted meat!

750 g stoned dates

1 litre white wine vinegar

A piece 5 centimetres long of fresh ginger, finely diced

4 teaspoons salt

3 cloves

4 cardamoms

1/2 teaspoon of ground ginnamon

1/2 teaspoon red chili pepper

200 g sugar

150 g sultanas

Bring vinegar and halved dates to the boil. Cook for 40 minutes, or until dates are tender.

Add sugar, spices, salt and sultanas, and cook for 30 more minutes.

In the meanwhile, half fill jam jars with water, and eat in the microwave, at maximun power, for 10 minutes. Take the jars out, discard the water, dry them with a clean tea towel.

Fill the jars still hot with the hot chutney. Close them and put them upside down to cool.

Let them rest for at least 10 day before opening.

They’ll make a perfect Christmas present :)

Related Posts with Thumbnails