Monthly Archives: November 2017

Good Food

Zucchini lasagne.

Leave a comment

I had a similar dish for lunch in Italy last month, I thought it was nice, tame, tasty, but I thought I could make it better.  I think I did this evening, what can still improve it would be home grown zucchini, which I intend to cook with next summer.

I grated 2 courgettes, pan fried them with half a red onion, half a tbsp of chili flakes, seasoned with some stock, salt and pepper and a touch of tomato puree.  Made bechamel usual way and layered the dish with the courgettes, topped with grated parmesan and baked for about 25 minutes in 180 degrees. We both liked it a lot, a glass of Romanian pinot noir sealed the deal.

Baking

Cream horns, part 2.

Leave a comment

This time from scratch, not from a block of puff pastry.  I used a simple recipe from mojewypieki.com, half a portion, as usual, still have about 12 horns left unfilled.  Maybe with creme pat this evening, I think I might be bothered actually!

250 g of plain flour, 125 g of cold butter, 125 g of sour cream and a pinch of salt all kitchen aided, rested in the fridge for about an hour and then rolled thinly, wrapped around the horn moulds and baked in 200 degrees for less than 15 minutes, till golden. Deliciously crunchy and delicate.  Filled simply with whipped cream, a few blueberries and sprinkled with pistachios.  Can’t say they’re effortless and quick, but worth the work for sure!

Good Food

Mushroom (overloaded) cannelloni.

Leave a comment

I was thinking about making this while buying truffles in Lucca.  Had great expectations, maybe too great, as we had style over substance for dinner last night. 🙂 It was tasty, satisfying, but as I packed the sauce with minced porcini mushrooms I found it very difficult to make it look appetizing.  There is never a problem when a duvet of bechamel covers pasta, but here I struggled….

The filling was much like the ravioli last time, a good combination of ricotta, parmesan, minced porcini, truffle paste, cooked, riced potato for texture and seasoning. All wrapped into a fresh pasta made by Florek and baked under the sauce; fried shallot, a couple of chestnut mushrooms, yet more porcini, more truffles, mushroom stock thickened with flour and a splash of cream. Tasty, like I said, but not eye catching! Quite heavy too, I found my liver calling me names at about 10 pm….:-)

Baking

Coffee and vanilla mini sponge cakes.

Leave a comment

Found on mojewypieki.com, when browsing for some ideas. Masterchef The Professionals started on Tuesday, something nice and sweet with a cuppa while watching it makes it a lot better.

These are really easy. 150 g of butter creamed with 120 g of sugar, 2 eggs added one by one, 150 g of flour, 1,5 tsp of baking powder. Some vanilla extract. 2 tbsps of milk.  The whole mixture divided in half, one went onto the bottom of the muffin cases, the other got mixed with 2 tbsps of coffee ( previously diluted with hot water).  I think next time I’d use maybe a double espresso or something better, this Nescafe crap simply has nothing to do with coffee.  Such a lovely idea, but for me it needs better coffee.

The brown layer went on top of the vanilla one and baked for 25 minutes in 170 degrees.  Topped with whipped cream and a dusting of cocoa. Good looking and pleasant.

Dessert

Pistachio ice cream.

Leave a comment

Cheatty ice cream, let’s face it.  I did, for a brief moment entertain the idea of getting myself an ice cream machine, but I’m pretty sure I will not. I bought one once, never used it,  it then spent a few years in the shed in Staines, before being given to Colin.

That gelato we have eaten in Lucca a couple of weeks ago blew my mind, Izzie loved it too and keeps on talking about “green ice cream”.  It was smooth, nutty, rich and fantastic. What I’ve done today was the idea carried through from mojewypieki.com that had worked before- whipped cream and condensed milk in equal amounts. Added to that was the remaining half a jar of my Sicilian pistachio paste bought in Lucca and a 2 good handfuls of chopped, roasted and SALTED pistachios. And these made it. Condensed milk is really sweet. Pistachio paste is mental sweet. But when frozen and set the sweetness subsided a bit and the salty nuts added texture and flavour the whole thing needed.  We all had a scoop after dinner. I must say it’s very rich and one couldn’t have too much of it, but it is good ice cream anyway. And will not be wasted. 🙂