Sunday, August 31, 2008

i love berries

one of the things i liked of finland are berries for sure.. they have such a variety of those, in color, taste, shape. i love berries and for some reason i have a special liking for the dark ones.. blueberry, blackberry, mulberry, blackcurrant.
besides i love shortbread eheheh so buttery, slightly salty.. i like to use the basic shortbread mixture to make different kind of sweet food, from classic shortbread cookies to these bars.
i guess these reasons are enough to tell why this is one of my fav cakes ever.. in the recipe there's blueberry, but i actually make it with all the kinds of berry. yesterday for example i made it with a raspberry and blueberry mixed jam and fresh mashed blackberries.. awesome result :D


blueberry shortbread bars
150g butter
150g sugar
210g wheat flour
2egg yolks
1tsp baking powder
1pinch of salt
blueberry jam (i use more or less 100g)
fresh blueberries
vanilla flavor

Combine butter with sugar, then add yolks and vanilla flavor and beat well. Add sifted flour, baking powder and salt to the butter cream and make a soft dough. Halve the dough, wrap the pieces in food cellophane and let them stand in the fridge for 30minutes. Then put them in the freezer for 15minutes.
Wrap a square baking tin (about 20x20) with baking paper and grate (with large grater) a piece of dough in it, spreading the shreds around. Spread jam (as much as you like) onto the grated dough, then grate the other piece to cover the jam layer. Bake in preheated oven at 170°C for about 30minutes. Let it chill a bit and cut the cake into squares.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

bread of the elves

i dont even remember where and when i found this recipe.. i was just looking for something weird and i bumped into lembas. i'm all about elves so i tried it at once.. no idea if lotr elves actually used to eat anything like this.. but i have to say it's a delicious cookie :D for sure it's a pretty good mixture.. i tend to keep mine a bit salty, not too sweet, because i like the taste better. today i was in the mood for cookies but not the usual kind, so lembas is what i made!


lembas
the elven bread

110g butter, softened
40g sugar
1tbsp honey

2egg yolks

1pinch salt

250g flour

fresh orange zest, grated

2tbsp ground hazelnut

baking powder qs


beat butter with sugar and honey until fluffy, stir in egg yolks and the rest of ingredients. mix well, when the knead makes crumbs make a ball and let cool in the fridge for about 30min. flatten the dough (about 3mm thick) and cut it in rectangles, place them on a baking tin. bake in preheated oven at 200°C for 10min.


Sunday, August 24, 2008

i love clafoutis

so.. after the veggie clafoutis recipe, another clafoutis variation i like quite :D it has a crusty surface, a bit more than usual clafoutis (which recipe i'll manage to post asap, it's been a while since the last time i made my yellow plums clafoutis and i'm looking forward) i made it with a mix of strawberries and peaches because, although i like cherries a lot, i dont like to make chocolate clafoutis with those.
useless to say it came out delicious! i like clafoutis also because it's such an easy recipe to make.. once you get the mixture in the proportions you like the best and the right balance between sweet and fruit, it's almost impossible to make a bad clafoutis ^^


peach strawberry chocolate clafoutis
200g straberries
250g peaches
2eggs
40g cornstarch
40g flour
40g sugar (+2tbsp)
2tsp baking powder
75g dark chocolate
50g butter
50ml milk
lemon juice

clean the fruit and chop it, squeeze some lemon juice on it and set aside.
melt butter and chocolate in a bain marie, let it cool. beat eggs with sugar till fluffy, gradually stir in sifted flour, baking powder and cornstarch. beat in milk and melted chocolate.
place the fruit at the bottom of a greased baking tin, pour the mixture to cover it. bake in preheated oven at 180°C for about 25min. spread some sugar and a bit of butter all over the surface and bake for 10min still

Friday, August 22, 2008

summer peach tea

to me, peach is with no doubt THE fruit of summer.. yea i dont like watermelons and similar, which are also hard to find in other seasons, so i can concentrate on peaches ^^
surely a reason to be glad to spend the summer months at my family home is that our garden is pretty nice.. we usually have meals outside and absolutely pleasant, in the late afternoon, to sip some cool tea on our bench :)

peach iced tea
1peach
1l water
1tbsp lemon juice
2tbsp sugar
2tbsp earl grey loose leaves tea

bring water and sugar to boil. pour the water on the tea leaves, let steep for about 4min.
slice the peach and place it on the botton of a pitcher, spread with lemon juice. pour tea in the pitcher and let it cool.


snickerdoodles

i love to make (and eat) cookies so i'm always looking for some new recipe to try.. i like sugar cookies a lot so today i decided i was going to make snickerdoodles :D
for some reason in the past i was not very fond of cinnamon.. i didnt like it unless it was accompanied by apple cooked in some way. lately i kinda discovered the pleasure of this spice and these cookies are just a good cinnamon flavored recipe.

i have to say that, to roll cookies before baking, i used a mix of sugar, freshly ground cinnamon and nomu sugar. that's one of the best spiced sugars ever to me.. it's a mix of vanilla sugar (some of it powdered, some very thin and some in crystals), cinnamon, cloves, ginger and allspice. it's awesome to rub fruit like peaches and apples before grilling them.
i was so glad when i found this jar of nomu's.. otherwise i have to make this mix by myself eheheh i love to add a bit of ground nutmeg too, it's one of my fav spices and i like the match with cinnamon.

snickerdoodles
100g sugar (+2tbsp)
1tsp baking powder
75g butter (softened)
1egg
200g flour
1pinch salt
1pinch nutmeg
2tsp ground cinnamon

mix cinnamon, 2tbsp sugar and nutmeg. set aside.
beat butter and sugar, add the egg and mix till fluffy. sift flour, baking powder and salt, then add gradually to the butter mixture. make small balls with dough, flatten them a bit and roll in cinnamon sugar.
bake in preheated oven at 180°C for 10-12min.

Monday, August 18, 2008

eggplant and basil clafoutis

i love sweet clafoutis.. usually i make it with peaches.. or fresh yellow plums, cherries, apples.. but just lately i found out i could make a salty version of this wonderful dish :)
so here is the first recipe of veggie clafoutis! the smell of tomato, eggplant and basil that my kitchen got after 10min baking was itself worth it.

eggplant clafoutis
2big eggplants, chopped
80g cherry tomatoes
150ml milk
100ml fresh cream
2eggs
6tbsp wheat flour
butter
grated bread
fresh basil
salt, pepper, spices (ground mint, chives, oregano, garlic)
olive oil
sugar

cut cherry tomatoes in a half and spread them with a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar. sautee the eggplant in olive oil and salt.
mix flour with 50ml milk and set aside. beat 100ml milk with cream and spices, whip in the eggs and the flour mixture. add fresh basil, salt qs.
butter a baking tin, spread eggplant and tomato on the bottom then pour the mixture. bake in preheated oven at 180°C for 20min. spread the surface of the clafoutis with small pieces of butter and grated bread, then bake for 10min still.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

almond paste pt.1

this is the first trial with almond paste.. looking forward to make the true paste alle mandorle (wonderful pastries made of almonds, sugar and vanilla) i decided to use the ready made almond paste i bought in sicily. actually it would be perfect to be flattened in a sheet, cut and make very sweet confectionery or coating, but i dont like too much that kind of stuff.. besides i dont even like too much marzipan. so i tried something and what came out is some delicious sort of amaretti :)

almond paste amaretti


25og ready made almond paste (almonds, sugar, glucose, vanilla flavor)
10tbsp corn starch
1egg
50g ground almonds

soften the almond paste and mix it with the egg. add corn starch spoon by spoon stirring well. make small balls of mixture, roll them in the ground almons and place on a baking tin.
bake in preheated oven at 180°C for 10-15min.



inciminati cookies

i have to say these cookies filled my kitchen with an amazing perfume.. i love to enter a bakery and smell the awesome flavor of freshly baked bread :)
we found them for breakfast everyday in our b&b in agrigento.. the man loves them and recalls his grandma used to make this kind of cookies for the kids. i have to admit mine dont look exactly like those we ate there because i used a little bit more baking powder and a little bit less sesame seeds.. but the taste is just the same, besides i love the look of small bread rolls they got.

first recipe from sicily then.. cookies with sesame seeds! down there sesame is widely used, i like it quite but i tried not to spread too many seeds on these cookies, in order to highlight all the different flavors.. i specially love the aroma of lemon zest when the cookies are still warm :)


inciminati


250g wheat flour
80g sugar
100g butter, softened
100ml milk
2eggs
lemon zest
baking powder
sesame

beat flour, baking powder and sugar with butter. add lemon zest, one egg and milk stirring well. knead the dough, make a ball and let rest for about 15-20min.
make small cylinders with the dough (size of a finger), spread them with beaten egg and then sesame seeds. place the cookies on a baking tin and bake in preheated oven at 180°C for 15min.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

an ode to burrata

i love burrata. really.


first of all, let's check out what wikipedia says
about it.. fresh italian cheese, made of mozzarella and cream.
"The outer shell is solid mozzarella while the inside contains both mozzarella and cream, giving it a unique soft texture."


right. it's a beautiful white shell that jealously holds its milky treasure, a delicious heart that will melt in your mouth.


to me it's just awesome.. i love mozzarella and this is the best of :D the creamy filling is one of the most luscious things one can eat.. the taste is simple, delicate, outstanding.. involves you like a sweet hug.. palatable, harmonious, mellow..

the best way to eat it to me it's burrata alone, without any other flavor to taint it.. just pure pleasure :) makes an amazing caprese, just some few drops of olive oil, freshly ground black pepper and tomatoes.

that said, sometimes i use burrata for some other dishes.. a few days ago we had 3 or 4 burrate, so i made some pasta with it. first of all one should never heat burrata, so i cooked my pasta (maccheroni to be precise) while i was preparing a rough pesto with pine seeds, fresh basil and black pepper.. then i mashed a burrata (you can use a fork or a mixer.. burrata is already quite soft, but in this way it gets a nice mousse-like texture).
so i mixed pasta with my pesto, took everything off the heat, poured burrata stirring well and that's it! very nice pasta to eat in the summer :)


Monday, August 11, 2008

monthly life update!

well yep, i finally came back to update this blog! i really didnt have the time and the wish to do something about it in the past weeks.. a lot of things and matters were going on and then i was on holiday for 2weeks :D
i have to say the holiday in sicilia was awesome and all the good food i ate down there brought my inner foodaholic to absolute delight and made me come back to the kitchen loaded for cooking madness eheheheh i bought almond paste, ground coffee, pistachio and almond rosolios, oregan, sicilian pesto and such.. ready to make some of the wondrous stuff we had there :)

i already posted a couple of recipes (that have nothing to do with sicilian food though eheheh) so i guess it's time for a brief update about the rest.
finished the year in helsinki i'm finally home for the summer, by september i'll manage to move to pisa (tuscany come to me, yay!) i'm looking forward to that.. then maybe there will be some more moving in the next years, maybe zurich, maybe somewhere else, anyway for the moment it's pisa :)
holidays went very good.. i love the south of italy and sicily is just beautiful! it was quite hot though and the days we visited ruins it was almost hellish LOL so i'll confess, the day we spent in selinunte we stayed on the beach instead of sightseeing the archaelogical park.. and i have to say it was the best seaside ever.
beautiful places, awesome food, hot weather, transparent water, a troll, some good books and a lot of obsolete pieces of architecture.. soooo good, i guess i would have liked to spend at least 2more weeks down there.. but well, that's the only complain i could have eheheh

i have so many pics i havent had the time to put them in order yet!


lemon caramelized pork loin


i'm not a huge fan of meat or, to be precise, i often dont eat meat if i dont know where it is from. if i'm eating out, it must be a place where i know meat is good, otherwise i'll stay veggie or eat just some pasta instead. well i have some problems with fresh vegetables too, since i've been used to eat vegetables from grandma's garden.. ah, and if i eat salad it's bare lettuce or rucola, no dressing for me and my fresh veggie.
(i have way more food idiosyncrasies than that, but for today i guess this is enough LOL)

on the other hand i like to cook meat and try flavor combinations. this is something i made today for lunch.. my parents bought this pork loin and i looked up for some recipe, then i didnt have the ingredients to follow the one i chose so i just improvised on that theme.

(when i cook meat usually i dont really have a recipe and i often measure ingredients just with a look, so i cant give precise doses :)

lemon caramelized pork loin
pork loin (i used about 1kg, does for 6-5people)
juice of 3lemons
soy sauce
columbo spice mix (basically turmeric and caraway)
ground chili
1glass white wine
salt and black pepper
some tbsp olive oil
some tbsp honey
fresh lemon thyme, sage and rosemary

brush the meat with olive oil, lay it down in an oven-proof tin and bake for 20min in preheated oven at 220°C.
pour white wine in the baking tin, spread the meat with salt and fresh herbs. lower temperature to 200°C and bake for 50min. in the meanwhile mix lemon juice, soy sauce and spices.
pour some spoons of lemon juice mixture all over the loin from time to time.


check the cooking point of the meat, when it's done spread honey on the surface. let it bake for about 15min at 220°C turning the piece of loin every few minutes in order to get a nice brownish tasty crust.

hazelnut choco cake

i made this cake yesterday since it was my dad's name's day, san lorenzo.. traditionally the night of the 10th of august should be the best for falling stars watching. too bad yesterday here the sky was not that clear ehehe well anyway i could see my annual amount of falling stars last week in agrigento :)


hazelnut choco cake
100g butter (softened)
120g caster sugar
2eggs
220g dark chocolate
1tbsp orange blossom flavor
50g hazelnut flour
220g wheat flour
2tbsp dark cocoa
baking powder
250ml milk

cocoa sauce:
50g dark cocoa
30g caster sugar
200ml milk

mix baking powder, hazelnut flour and dark cocoa, set aside. whip bitter with sugar, add eggs one by one and orange blossom flavor. whisk in milk, add hazelnut flour mixture and sifted wheat flour, mixing well. stir in dark chocolate, melted and cooled.
pour the batter in a baking tin and bake for 40-45min in preheated oven at 180°C.

prepare the cocoa sauce: mix well cocoa and sugar, stir in milk and heat till the sauce starts to boil. let cool and spread onto the cake.