Polenta

Polenta is another traditional course from North Italy. It is quite rich and therefore requests either a long walk with the dog or an hour on the sofa to bring back the forces.

It goes with meat dishes (my colleague eats polenta with rabbit meat) or "pure" with butter and aged cheese. I'm not a traditionalist, so I eat polenta fried! It goes with creamy soups, as a Japanese-dish surrogate or, why not, as a nice starter at Valentine's day. 

There are plenty of recipes on cooking polenta on the web, like the one I've chosen for you. But I must be honest with you, I'm not cooking Polenta for 45 minutes stirring and stirring all the time, no, I'm using parboiled polenta ready in five minutes.

For polenta as a pleasant starter, I use the quantity of corn flour indicated for 1 person and instead of water I use some broad perfumed with concentrated tomato paste.

Verse the cooked polenta on a backing plate and with the help of a rolling-pin and a piece of transparent film roll it to a 1/2 cm. thick sheet.

When cooled, cut it in pieces as you prefer and fry them in hot oil.

Christmas biscuits

On Friday, the Italian winter has come back, burdening - with wet snow - the branches of the shrubs.  It's not the right weather to build snow men or play with the dog in the garden, but the right one to light up the candles on the artificial Christmas tree  that's still placed in our living room.

Maybe next week-end I will remove its decoration and store the empty tree in the carton ... !   

So, we have some snow in the garden, the romantic lights on the tree, and the candles.  The only things that are missing are the 2014 Christmas biscuits and a nice cup of good Kenyan or Assam black tea for today's tea-time. 

 

The cookies are easy to make, so I will prepare only few ones for one baking sheet.

You need :

• 150 gr. of mixed nut kernels (hazelnut, almonds,  walnut), toasted in a pan for few minutes and the cut in pieces with the knife like in the photo.  (1)
• 50 gr. margarine (2)
• 50 gr. brown sugar (2)
• 1 tablespoon of maple syrup (2)
• 50 ml. of fresh orange juice (2)
• 100 gr. of wholemeal flour (1)
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder (1)
• baking powder and potato starch

1. Preheat the oven at 180 ° C.
2. Cream  the (2) ingredients adding a spoon tip of baking powder and 1/2 a teaspoon of potato starch.
3. Mix the (1) ingredients.
4. Add the (2) cream and then mix it all together with a hand whisk.
5. Using two teaspoons, scoop 35 walnut-ball shaped cookies onto the baking paper.
6. Bake for  about 15 minutes and  then leave the cookies to cool on a cooling rack.

 

Risotto with pumpkin

 

 

As a child, when I was living in a small and remote village in the South of Germany, eating pumpkin always felt as eating alien-food.

During my years here in Italy I begun to open my mind and taste new vegetables, including the pumpkin. At first I used it only in cakes but today I also use it to make a nice risotto. Risotto, which is the Italian way cooking rice, is a typical first course dish that is usually followed by fish or meat.

For a good Italian risotto, you need home-made stock that tastes better than the stock cubes you can buy.

You need a good rice, not parboiled obviously, maybe an Arborio rice or Baldo, a type of rice which grows about everywhere around the Mediterranean. We use Baldo brown rice. It's a little bit different using brown rice because the brown one will not release much amid that gives the rice a creamy texture. Instead, I use nutritional yeast just before serving.

In the original Italian receipt the pumpkin is cooked in the stock with the rice, but this way the pumpkin becomes a mash. I prefer vegetables "al dente", so I start with cutting about 250 gr. of pumpkin into little cubes and marinate them in a mix of olive-oil and curry powder. After an hour, the pumpkin cubes are ready to be fried in a large pan, that I will user for all my cooking actions. I fry the cubes until they have a golden colour. Then I pour the cubes on a plate.

Cut 100 gr. of smoked tofu un slices and fry the slices in the pan until they are crunchy. Pour the slices on another plate using  kitchen paper to absorb the oil in excess.

In the same pan, toast 500 gr. of rice in some olive-oil until the rice becomes translucent. Remember that you don't have to wash or rinse it before cooking.

Add a glass of good white wine. A good white wine is the wine you will combine with the meal you're preparing.

Once the wine is evaporated you can add the stock and the white part of a leek, cut in rings.

Keep the pan over low heat and add, a little a time, boiling broth so that it gets absorbed by the rice. It is not necessary to stir the rice.

After the rice is ready, add salt, pepper and, to underline the smoked taste, some Piment della Vera, a Spanish smoked paprika spices.

Add part of the pumpkin cubes, and half of the tofu stripes, cut in small pieces and stir all ingredients. At last, add  some parsley, the remaining  pumpkin, the tofu, and the nutritional yeast.

 

 

 

Pizzoccheri - Buckwheat pasta with vegetables

Our South-Italian/German family often eats traditionalNorth-Italian dishes like pizzoccheri. Well, it is not the original receipt which requires cheese and cabbage instead of Swiss chard. But I think the poors of the Valtellina valley surely used any vegetable available ignoring the traditions like me.

During the last holidays I've begun to prepare home-made pizzoccheri, and I am very satisfied with the result. It is easy to make and tastes as good as the ones that are bought at the supermarket.

The colour of the pizzoccheri depends on how much hull remains after the milling, so the taste of the pasta may change by using different brands of buckwheat flour.

I always cook for 4 servings adding a large quantity of vegetables. The remains will be used the next lunchtime, heating it in the oven.

 

First, I prepare the  pizzoccheri pasta:

300 gr. buckwheat flour
50 gr. whole wheat flour
water, the quantity depends of the flour but it will be more than 200 ml.
olive-oil, Durum Wheat Semolina

Mix the flours together on a cutting board or a flat work surface, then knead with the water.

Work the dough with your hands for at least 5 minutes or until the mixture is smooth and velvety to the touch.
Place the dough in a olive-oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with a plate and place it in the fridge for 1 hour.


Divide the dough in 3 parts and roll each part on a Durum Wheat Semolina dusted surface into thin sheets. Then, cut the sheet in stripes, large 7 - 8 centimetres and cut each stripe in  0,5 cm large pasta stripes.
Place the ready pasta stripes on a semolina-dusted napkin end cover them with another napkin.

Bring a large pot of water to boil, then and add salt as you do for other pasta.

Add the pizzoccheri e cook them for 5 - 10 minutes. Check sometimes to make sure it is "al dente".
Drain the pasta. 

The quantity of vegetables depends on what offers the fridge:

4 potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 kilo of Swiss chard, cut in pieces large 1 - 2  centimetres
1 onion, finely chopped    
300 gr of carrots, peeled and chopped
olive-oil
salt, pepper, dried garlic
 

Heat an abundant quantity of oil in a large pan, add the carrots, the onion and the potatoes. Cook them for some minutes. Add then the Swiss chard and the garlic.

Continue to cook the vegetables on a low temperature.
After 20 minutes the vegetables will be "al dente".
Season  with salt and pepper.
Mix the  vegetables with the pizzoccheri and if you are not vegan, add a some pieces of feta-cheese.
Let them brown for some minutes under the grill before serving.

 

Chai Tea chocolate cake

Do you miss it?

I have always missed eggs in my cakes, so I have stopped baking them after some bitter frustration. Some weeks ago, my colleague Isabella brought me a slice of home-made chocolate cake and I remained delighted. The cake was soft and fluffy like a cake has to be.
I have adapted her receipt to make my Chai Tea chocolate cake

Solid ingredients

180 gr.      wholemeal wheat flour

20 gr.        potato starch

30 gr.        cocoa powder, unsweetened

20 gr         grated coconut

1               sachet backing powder

1/2  teaspoon cannel powder

1/2  teaspoon star anise powder

 Liquid ingredients

80 gr.        cane sugar

20 gr.        unrefined coconut blossom nectar which contributes with a fine caramel flavour

100 gr.      margarine

50 gr.        almond cream

250 gr.      strong brewed chai tea

other ingredients

50 gr.        dark chocolate (70%) to finish the cake

 

    ·      Preheat the oven to 180° C.

·    Grease a 20 cm springform cake tin with neutral oil.

·    Put all liquid ingredients except the chai tea in a bowl.

·    Add 1 teaspoon of the potato starch (solid ingredients) and  1/4 teaspoon of the backing powder (solid ingredients)

·   Mix the ingredients with the electric mixer adding some tablespoons of Chai tea little by little until all the tea is mixed with the other liquid ingredients and you have obtained a creamy liquid.

·    Mix all the solid ingredients in another bowl.

·    Add the liquid ingredients to the solid ones and mix everything to obtain a dark brown cream.

·    Spoon the mixture into the prepared springform and bake for 45 minutes until well risen. Use a toothpick to control if it is cooked.

·    Cool the cake on a cooling rack.

·    Cover the cake with the chocolate liquidised in the bain-marie.

 

For the cake in the photo, I have filled the cake with red jam like a Sachercake, before completing it with the chocolate.

 

 

 

 

Crispy bread slices

I admit it - I wasn't honest with you yesterday!

We have been eating crispy rye-bread slices every day since December 23th, the day I found the original receipt in "My blue& white kitchen" searching for a new idea to present the traditional smoked salmon starters on Christmas Eve.

We have eaten the smoked salmon without the crisp bread, because all the slices have disappeared during the day. The slices look like a Nordic version of Sardinian Carasau bread but I missed the spices (I love spices, spices are good!) used for the Tyrolean Schűttelbrot, a dry rye-bread. So, the receipt revised contains the yesterday bread spices. I have modified the flour quantities because it is not easy to handle rye dough which remains moist. Don't worry if the shaped dough is not perfect, you can remake a ball with it and re-initiate to roll it out.

 

 

So, here is the adapted receipt of  crispy rye-bread slices:

For the dough you need 

100 gr. of wholemeal rye flour

50 gr. of wholemeal wheat flour

10 gr. of fresh yeast

a tablespoon of olive oil

half a teaspoon of the bread spices

100 gr. lukewarm water.

To complete you need sesame seeds and some water bur NO salt.

Sieve the flours on to a clean work surface and make a well in the middle.

In a jug, mix the yeast and the olive oil with the water and leave it for a few minutes, then pour it into the well. Using a fork, bring the flour in gradually, from the sides, and swirl it into the liquid.

Keep mixing, drawing larger amounts of flour in, and when it all starts to come together, work the rest of the flour in with your clean, flour-dusted hands. Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough.

Place the ball of dough in a olive-oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a warm room for about an hour. The dough will not double in size.

Remove the dough to a Durum Wheat Semolino dusted surface.

Take half of the dough and shape it into a round about 1 or 2 millimetres thick.

Use a knife to cut the dough into squares or triangles and let them rise for the time the oven needs to heat at 250° C.

Brush the bread surface with water and sprinkle it with the seeds.

Bake the crispy bread for 5 minutes.

bread spices mixture

The typical mitteleuropean bread is made with rye flour and it always seems moist.

These German bread spices gentle the strong rye flavour and maybe they prevent the indigestion of the moist bread.

 

 

We usually don't eat rye-flour bread, but I like making my own spice mixtures, that I toast and ground by myself by using a mortar and a pestle at the last minute, so that their delicate aroma can be enjoyed.

Here is the receipt of my bread spices mixture: 

 

Preheat a pan and add the tablespoons of cumin seeds, anise seeds, fennel seeds, coriander seeds and fenugreek seeds, stirring constantly for one or two minutes at medium heat.

Remove the spices from the pan to avoid burning them and let them cool down for ten minutes before grounding.

I need about 30 minutes th ground this mixture and you must be attended th ground the fenugreek seeds very well, they are like stones.