Marion’s. Made us all very happy this evening and also quick to make, which is a bonus after a longish wait for Izzie’s vaccination earlier this afternoon. We got home after 6pm, by 7 we were fed and onto the cookies- more of which later.
Thinly sliced chicken breasts were marinated in soy sauce, dark soy sauce ( today substituted by a bit of oyster sauce, but I have an order coming from Oishii Planet), Shaoxing wine, some bicarb of soda and some cornflour.
Basmati rice was steaming away, I prepared the veggies and then the stir fry sauce; a good splash of Hoisin, some soy, some Shao, brown sugar, rice vinegar and black pepper.
Onto a very hot wok went some oil, roughly chopped onions, quickly caramelised, then the chicken, which I left in peace for about 3 minutes to catch some colour. Some chopped garlic, peppers and a handful of edamame, which I found in Esselunga, miraculously. Finally the stir fry sauce, around the edges, a minute or two, spring onions and we were good to eat.
It was very much enjoyed, The Child had seconds. A keeper.
Courtney gave me some Swedish cookies at school, made by Daniel, I’m told they are called kolakakor. And I even obtained the recipe. Very nice indeed, sugar intake for today was quite, erm, significant.
From Marion, who doesn’t seem to put a food wrong. I came across this recipe when looking for inspiration of how to make chicken breasts exciting again. I’ve been trying to feed us more protein lately, there are eggs in the morning even mid week now, also trying to wave sugar goodbye as much as possible, with various results…..
This, however had to be tried, at least for science and research, as I have never marinated meat in mayo before. Eh? Oh yes, it does work.
So, before we went to school I sliced 2 chicken breasts sideways, in order to have 4 pieces and seasoned them with salt, before making a marinade out of some Heinz mayo, soy sauce, 2 grated garlic cloves and some vinegar. It sat in the fridge for nearly 3 hours ( Marion says even overnight would be awesome) . Once back home I got some plain rice ready and made the sauce. I had no dark soy sauce, so I used a tbsp of char siu sauce from the jar, also soy sauce, some brown sugar, rice vinegar, sesame oil and more grated garlic.
Onto a very hot pan went the chicken, being turned around a couple of times, until evenly cooked, beautifully browned, it took around 8-10 minutes. Sauce in, quick action and then just to finish, a small piece of butter. The kitchen smelled Asian! Served with fresh chili and cucumber. 2 hours later I would have some more. But no such luck. 🙂
In my 49th year on this planet I have made hummus today, for the first time ever. I became a fan of it fairly recently, but always used to buy it, a Greek one from Esselunga. But a pack of tahini caught my eye while shopping there yesterday, so I grabbed some chickpeas too and followed a recipe found on the web. Very pleasantly surprised, how good it is. The shop bought one had no cumin, this one does and it really makes a difference.
60 ml of lemon juice and 60 ml of tahini were blended first, until creamy, one garlic clove, a generous splash of olive oil. Ground cumin, smoked paprika, salt. Half of the 250g can of chickpeas in ( weight with the liquid 400g). Before adding the other half, some of the leftover liquid from the chickpeas went it to loosen it and more blending, until creamy and delicious. A touch more salt, another splash of olive oil.
Yet more olive oil to serve. We had it with the Swedish crispy bread from Ikea, discovered thanks to Daniel. Very good pairing, as the bread tastes of nothing, so one appreciates the hummus more. Yum! A keeper!
You Tube introduced me recently to a Silesian cook called Remigiusz Raczka, interesting to watch in the kitchen, pleasant to listen to. His take on placki ziemniaczane caught my attention and I made them his way for lunch today. It is the most miserable day in living memory, weather wise. It rains cats and dogs, it’s cold, grey, the cats have not been outside at all today. Florek is suffering from a back injury and Iza has a day off for that reason. I cook.
I used a different side of the grater, to change the texture of placki a bit, make them more hay-like. Normally I use my mini food processor to turn the potatoes into a pulp, today I did the work. Not sure if it made a huge difference. What did though was an extra ingredient- 3 cloves of garlic. Grated, like the spuds and onion. Then, as always, one egg, 2 tbps of plain flour, salt and pepper and they were ready to fry.
Nice, simple and calorific lunch, that made the house smelling like our small flat in Stronie. Iza and I had them with sugar and sour cream, the way I used to when I was a kid. Yum.
From giallozafferano.it. Surpringly lovely to eat, crunchy little delights, even Florek said he’d have them again. Iza on the other hand announced they were her biggest nightmare, all they needed was an olive on top and it would be an ultimate schifezza! 🙂
I roasted 2 whole aubergines for about an hour in 200 degrees, cooled them slightly, peeled off the skins and then placed on collander to get rid of the excess water. Mashed them with a fork and then added an egg, 2 mashed garlic cloves, a generous amount of both breadcrumbs and grana padano, chopped parsley, salt and pepper. When eating them in the evening I thought a nice, crunchy green chili, not super hot, but flavoursome, will be added next time. Or a raw shallot. Or both!
Once formed in cute little polpette I rolled them in breabcrumbs again and they waited in the fridge for dinner. Deep fried until golden, sprinkled with salt before serving, also a fresh green salad and a dip made of Greek yoghurt, cucumber and mint went well together. I’m thinking they would make a great antipasto, maybe even with guacamole!
It was curry night this evening. The time has changed last night for the winter one, so it started getting dark after 5pm. I thought a nice naan bread with that curry would be appreciated, especially by bread loving Child and curry loving Husband. I flipped through internet hoping to find a decent recipe, settled on one quite quickly and after sifting through thousands of unnecessary words leading up to the actual recipe, as usual, finally got cooking, with Izzie’s help.
We used 280 g pf plain flour, some of which made us a nice starter with 20g of fresh yeast and 120 ml of warm water. After about 10 minutes we added the starter to the remaing flour, plus a tsp of sugar and a tsp of salt, 120 g of youghurt bianco, a splash of oil and got it all working in the Kitchen Aid. I ended up adding some more flour, as the dough was super sticky and runny.
After less than an hour of resting it, we were ready to get on with it. Butter chicken curry from The Spice Tailor kit was nearly ready, today with prawns, rice was ready, melted butter with garlic and coriander was ready to be brushed all over the naans. Izzie rolled out the dough, I was cooking it really quickly on a super hot dry frying pan. It blistered beautifully.
First two were eaten immediately, barely cooled and they were gone. That good!
Definitely a keeper this recipe. Ron is coming to visit us in a month, I asked for some more curry kits, they really are excellent.
Last Saturday we were invited to Leszek and Ewelina’s. There was a lot of good food on their table, 2 types of curry, steamed rice, some chicken for meat lovers, naan bread that made me squeak, as mine is never that good and there were also those beauties. They were already on the table when we arrived, the toothpicks made it easy to pick up and enjoy. They were my favourite thing we have eaten that evening, I asked for a recipe and then also found it on the internet. Just like Leszek said, it is a Georgian dish, veggie, healthy, good for you. Pretty and tasty. I made it last night and ended up scoffing most of it by myself, as husband claimed the texture of aubergines made them ….challenging. Ma che cazzata!! 🙂
Thinly sliced aubergines were first salted and left to sweat for half an hour before being dried off and fried. The stuffing I’ve made a tiny bit differently. The original recipe and the one at Leszek’s used raw walnuts, I simply can’t stop myself from toasting them, there is so much more flavour after 10 minutes of gentle heat! They were then blitzed with a shallot, some garlic ( maybe a bit too much, I decided afterwards), fresh coriander, a pinch of chili and paprika, salt and all this creamed with a good splash of water to make it into a paste. Spread on the aubergine slices, rolled up, stitched with a toothpick and finished off with fresh pomegranate seeds and more fresh coriander. 10 out of 10 for me and I will be making them in a couple of weeks for a planned dinner party. Might play around with a completely different filling.
“Lasagne”, not Lasagne, as I am still of firm belief that seafood lasagne is not a thing, it is a pasta with seafood. But I did use the lasagne sheets, so, ok, let us say- “lasagne”. 🙂
Recipe from the latest episode of Robert Maklowicz’s vlog, this time from Dalmatia. He said he actually tried it in Italy, but with the access to wonderful fresh prawns and fish he made it while in Croatia.
A first for me, but definitely not the last – I’ve peeled my prawns ( to the loud meowing of Gino who is a dog for prawns) and used all the heads and shells to make a rich, wonderful stock. On a bit of olive oil I have chucked 3 bay leaves and some rosemary, Rob also used some fennel seeds, I had none. Onto this the prawns’ shells and heads. A generous slosh of Sardinian white wine. A little splash of rum( dessert wine or brandy was Rob’s choice), some tomato paste and a whole tomato, gently punctured. Some salt, some water, lid on, 40 minutes on medium heat. Then a laborious process of sieving the stock to get as much out of it as possible and not wasting any of the goodness. With that done I proceeded to make a sauce, similar to bechamel, but instead of milk I used my stock. Ended up with a beautiful, flavoursome sauce that needed hardly any seasoning, it was that good. Into the sauce went the roughly chopped prawns, some fresh cod in small pieces and that was ready to be layered in between the sheets of pasta. Lovely, fresh pasta from Esselunga. On the top a bit of torn mozzarella, we are reasonable people and we don’t do seafood with parmesan. I will use another mild cheese next time, as mozzarella is a bit watery and didn’t look stunning on top, so I sprinkled some chopped parsley.
It eats really well, I love the sauce with that fresh stock with a lovely aroma of bay leaves. I have a feeling it is something my mum might like to try. And she’s arriving on Tuesday. 🙂 xx
A big dream came true, I’ve been to Sicilia. I’ve set my foot on that volcano, walked around, brought a few pieces of lava with me. I’ve been to Taormina, been to Siracusa, walked in the footsteps of Robert Malkowicz in Catania – even tried to go and eat in “U Sapuritu”, but they were closed for ferie. Been to Ragusa, after the stories I’ve heard from Michele. Tried a proper Sicilian cannolo. Tried caponata in 3 different places, all different, all delicious. Tried vino grown on the slopes of Etna, brought 2 bottles home. 🙂 Tried different granitas, including pistachio one, mandorle, limone- that one was excellent. Been to Bronte, saw pistachio trees, brought back a load of delicious things made with their famous pistachios.
The portions they serve are staggering. Our first breakfast in Trecastagni was a cornetto with pistachio filling, the size of a small loaf of bread. Delicious, but I could feel my waist expanding immediately.
On a visit to Bronte we all had a different granita, mine was pistachio, very rich, filling, delicious.
When we took our first look and taste of Catania ( dirty Catania, with piles of rubbish everywhere, the side of the roads where shocking) I wanted a nice tagliata di tonno, ordered one and received it quite overdone. Disappointing. I asked the owner where I could get a proper nice cannoli, he directed me towards a pasticceria with a bunch of rude, ignorant bastards for staff, but the cannoli, at 3 euro per piece were superb.
And then, on our doorstep we discovered a real gem. Well, we didn’t discover it, one of our Etna guides told us about the place and that it wasn’t that good. Therefore, off we went to Nicosia, a vineyard and an osteria. Stunning surroundings, beautiful building, great staff. A young Claudia, who matched some of their own wines to our food. Bread, olive oil, everything was superb.
Caponata served in a cannolo? Sure, why not?
Arancino version posh, amazing, with some rose wine Claudia brought over just to see what we thought of it.
We bought a bottle of their dessert wine to take home, but the next evening, our last evening in Trecastagni we went straight back to them. And one of the best looking and tasting plates during the whole week was their beef carpaccio, topped with everything- pistachio mousse, fresh fruit, ricotta salata, which I tried in different ways and I loved it, bought some on the market in Siracusa. Wild strawberries too, normally I’m not a fan of fruit and meat/fish together, but this was a triumph.
I wish I could have finished my secondo, but I struggled and then the chef came out of the kitchen to say hi and brought me a chunk of vacuum packed ricotta salata, cause Claudia told him we came from Tuscany. One of those will now go to Enrico, I know he will love it.
In the end I manage to not look like that:
When the time comes to revisit Sicilia I would go back to Nikosia in a flash. I’ve not tried a sweet iris, that Michele recommended. I would want a nice tagliata di tonno, but barely cooked. I will run back to mercato, the one in Siracusa was a real treat. Some fresh spices, nuts and herbs were brought home from there.
Sicilia was very much enjoyed, next top destination is up north and hopefully will happen in autumn. 🙂
First tasted it at Molly and Enrico’s a couple of years ago and loved it. Enrico was kind enough to make a bowl of it for Florek’s birthday party and it was so popular I barely got to taste it. So I figured it was time to have a go at it myself. Luca Pappagallo was consulted, as was Enrico and this afternoon I made it. And I love it. And Florek loves it too.
I started with a large white onion, roughly chopped , a carrot and a celery stick, gently fried on olive oil, while in a small wok I had some oil heating up and some red and yellow peppers ready to fry. The chunks were not too small, as caponata must not turn into a mush, one needs to see what’s what. After the peppers the whole aubergine went into the oil, also cut into a medium sized chunks.
When the veggies were resting on kitchen towel, I added some passata to the onion and celery, seasoned with salt, added the veggies in, some dry oregano too. Green and dark olives, stoneless. And finally I increased the heat under the pan and added 2 tbsps of white wine vinegar and some sugar. Once the vinegar evaporated I checked the seasoning and it was ready to come off the heat. Final touch should be basil, but I had none and also toasted pine nuts, super delicious, added texture and nuttiness. My own sourdough completed the picture.
