Our first Italian Christmas happens to be in Poland. 🙂 I was hoping for either Ewa or Moka to come over, but both found the flight costs too expensive and we would have ended up just the 3 of us, like in pandemic. So Floro treated us to a short trip to Poland and here we are, enjoying some Polish Christmas and getting fat.
Mum has done her best, as usual, we have eaten really well. On Christmas Eve two plates stood out for me, the golabki with only porcini filling, lovely and delicate and the herring, sweet one, with raisins and onions, so good.
But today for lunch there was goose. I think I only had goose once, minced, in pierogi, in Poland too, but today was so much better. It was cooked for a good few hours with salt, garlic and marjoram, served with my beloved kluski slaskie and red cabbage. A true feast, we all loved it.
Hopefully next Christmas we will all be in Tuscany is our new place, I would happily opt for a goose again.
As much as I love Italian food, every now and then I feel the urge to get my soy sauce out and my shaoxing vinegar and the long grain rice, dig up some ginger and make something Asian. This evening’s dinner was Marion’s recipe again, however I didn’t love it as much as I normally do anything she puts on youtube. The chicken was lovely, will double up the garlic next time though, the sauce definitely needs work.
One large chicken breast was chopped into quite small pieces and gently marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, a grated clove of garlic, some salt and an egg white. Set that aside and prepared the sauce- some chicken stock, soy sauce, vinegar and sugar, all combined and gently reduced on the stove, then finished with some cornflour mixed with water, but not until the chicken was tossed in flour, liberally and then deep fried. My rice was ready, the sauce was reduced but when I tasted it I decided I will make it my way next time and add some fresh ginger to wake it up a bit. I also added some green beans and a red pepper for colour and nutrition. A good sprinkle of sesame seeds on top.
The dessert came from Gelateria Veneta, we picked it up on the way home after a 9km bike ride along the walls this afternoon. A tiramisu for us and a creamy, strawberry number for Izzie. Tiramisu had no booze in it, regretfully, but I also tried ( for science and research, naturally!) some of their gelato made of pine nuts, surprisingly delicious, but also peach, which was super fresh and yummy.
One of the worst storms in decades is enjoying itself all over British Isles this weekend, the schools were closed today and people were generally advised to stay at home. I hate this sort of weather, but I made the most of it by baking before lunch, good timing too, as after lunch there was a massive power cut that lasted until 7pm. I managed to bake some delicious bread though, which we had for lunch, against our dietary recommendations. 🙂
Recipe was from Good Food mag, from Nadia Hussein, I purchased chipotle chili flakes from souschef.co.uk especially for this loaf and also some halloumi cheese, with which I was pleasantly surprised. I used 500 g of strong bread flour and did 2 small loaves, as Izzie is not a major chili fan just yet. 7 g of dry yeast, a tsp each of salt and caster sugar, 25 g of very soft butter, kitchen aid did the work and it proved for 2 hours, while lots of little chores got done, including a work out.
Once more than doubled in size I divided the dough in two, added 125 g of grated halloumi to both and chili flakes to one, dried oregano to the other. Formed to sexy loaves and left to prove again for over an hour. Once ready, I baked them in 220 degrees for a bit more than 20 minutes. The loaf with chili is sensational, I wish I could eat more bread, but still counting calories these days.
The dinner this evening was cooked in semi darkness, with the help of a torch and two small candles.
I made us a risotto from bediet’s list, which turned out really nicely, even Izzie had a bowl. I made it my way, of course, not bediet’s way, featuring tomato paste as a main ingredient- my base was made of chopped shallot, courgette, a generous handful of skinned cherry tomatoes, all nicely cooked down and then 150 g of arborio in. No white wine this time, only chicken stock. Cooked till I was pleased with the texture, then finished off with a little butter and some parmesan- which never gets a mention in bediet’s recipe suggestions, I can’t do a good risotto without it. Also on top a few pieces of torn buffalo mozzarella ( allowed) and some fresh basil. Really, really nice.
55.3 kg, this is my current body weight, in spite of treating the diet rather as a guidance rather than following actual recipes. One thing works for sure- eating a lot less that I used to. I’ve been doing that, but still have not opened my packet of wholewheat pasta or brown rice. Normal pasta, but less, white rice, not the messy brown one.
Dinner suggestion for this evening was wholewheat pasta with tomato sauce. Great, I have no problem at all with a good tomato sauce provided it is actually A GOOD tomato sauce. I’ve been to Polish deli this morning, popped next door to the oriental store to get some gyoza wrappers( making those next week!!), some mooli and I’ve also bought a nice vine of big, red, good looking tomatoes. Started my sauce this evening by slowly frying a finely chopped shallot on olive oil, after about 2 minutes I added 2 minced garlic cloves and a small tsp of chili flakes. Onto that 3 of those big tomatoes, skinned and roughly chopped, plus a few cherry ones. A small carton of Italian passata, for the colour and texture. A small knob of butter. Diet or not, butter makes everything taste better. Seasoning. The sauce reduced slowly for about 40 minutes, finished with a handful of chopped basil. Served with spaghetti and freshly grated parmesan. Simple and satisfying. Pretty sure I had more than 70 g of pasta!
In 64 days we will be back in food heaven, in Tuscany, all is booked. We’re going back to Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, to the same villa we rented last summer. I’m pretty sure the tomatoes in Italy at the end of July will be like candy, I can’t wait to be making this again. There. With local produce.
Ron, my dad in law recently vacationed on the island of Reunion, where vanilla is grown and produced. He bought 2 packages for me and sent them over.
I’ve tested the lovely, moist pod first in a panna cotta, fantastic flavour and then this evening in a custard, that accompanied apple and plum crumble. We had a lovely lunch in Brasserie Blanc earlier on, so we didn’t feel like dinner, but my crumble suggestion was received enthusiastically.
I haven’t really measured ingredients for a custard in a long time, I just take 2 egg yolks and whip them with sugar, maybe 3-4 tbsps, but I do add a tsp of corn starch to be sure the consistency is good. Milk gets heated up with that scraped out vanilla pod, then slowly added to the eggs, whisking all the time, returned to the heat and gently stirred till thickened. Very good custard. Very good crumble. Creme brulee next.
Back to Tuscany we went almost 2 weeks ago. Stayed in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana in a stunning villa, dined in new and old places, went back to Lucca to shop and eat, went to Forte dei Marmi to splash about at the beautiful beach. Foodwise, tomatoes out of this world. I mean, my Mum’s tomatoes are fantastic, but they’re home grown, while In Italy it seems to be a standard- every packet in a supermarket I’ve bought was full of sweet, delicious and flavoursome tomatoes.
We went back to eat at Marco’s in Bagni di Lucca, the place is now called Keep Calm. Simple menu, messy and a bit random place, great host. We sat by the river on the terrace and enjoyed 3 lovely meals there. Marco brought out once something we’ve never tasted before, a farinatta; chunky fried polenta with chopped vegetables              ( cauliflower), herbs, all well seasoned and deep fried. I will have a go at it one day, I think. Very filling.
Iz particularly enjoyed tagliatelle al ragu.
Then, in Lucca I had some beautiful gnocchi with an ok gorgonzola sauce and then, a great place of spaghetti alle vongole. Tasty, simple, lovely clam flavours.
Florek’s favourite pizza this time was at Ponte di Maddalena, best dough, he decided.
And finally, what does one find, when one picks a lemon at a supermarket? A lemon from Amalfi coast, no less. It smells and tastes truly luxurious.
On a visit to Whole Foods yesterday I had a peek at their macarons display and saw champagne flavoured ones, which inspired me to try something a little different. We’re not big champagne drinkers, Florek and I, I do like a glass of prosecco every now and then, but we hardly ever have bubbles at home. What we do happen to have is a handsome bottle of Disaronno. I’ve made a Disaronno jelly out of 100 ml of the liqueur and a gelatine leaf, while the perfect batch of macarons were baking. I also replaced 65 g of almonds with toasted and ground walnuts in the original recipe, but I can’t say it massively revolutionized the taste. The jelly was nicely set, enough to cut it out with a round cake nozzle, but in the end I just spooned it out onto the shells.
Onto those I added a ring of chocolate ganache. As the shells were perfect today, they needed no time to soak, they were good to eat pretty much straight away. I have to say- exquisite. The jelly is very strong when tasted on its own, but with the ganache and meringue makes for a real treat. Another door opened, getting ideas for the festive season in 3 months time. 🙂
A breakthrough in my pizza making. I had Gennaro Contaldo’s book sitting on the shelf for a couple of years, had a look through it yesterday and came across a recipe for ” La vera pizza napoletana”. Just what I needed after a few of my recent pizzas having a serious quality issues, especially the dough. I picked up some mozzarella this afternoon and made us 2 small pizzas, that were simply the best ones I’ve ever made. And on Florek’s request I added some pepperoni to tomorrow’s Ocado order, as there will be more of that awesome pizza made this week!
For 2 pizzas I used 250 g of 00 flour, 0,5 tsp of salt, 5 g of fresh yeast, 160 ml of warm water, Kitchen Aid worked it for a few minutes, then it proved for an hour in a warm oven cooling after creme brulees.
Rolled out as thinly as a thick pancake, the pizzas went onto an oiled tray, a freshly made tomato sauce onto it, but not as much as I used to do, less, I didn’t want another soggy pizza. Fresh basil. Mozzarella, a good sprinkling of parmesan. 7 minutes in the oven heated up to 250 degrees. Simply fantastic!!!! 🙂 Good evening that was!
Lisa’s having us for drinks this afternoon, I volunteered to make something sweet. There’s Bailey’s cheesecake for the grown ups and 2 types of Christmassy macaroons, both from mojewypieki.com. The only change I made was the lemon filling I used- Dorota suggested mint one for the trees, I’m not a fan. Snowmen could do with some more finesse, but the trees I love. 🙂
Now awaiting the bright red food colourant from Amazon and there will be more macaroons.
Last Wednesday Florek took us for lunch to Bar and Wok, a small Chinese restaurant on the dodgy end of High Street, that I wanted to visit in a long time. Pizia and I had random stuff, like calamari and spring rolls, while Florek took a bowl of udon noodles with beef. I had a taste, it was far too hot for me, but the other flavour, sort of smoky, deep one I loved. The chap who served us said it is done by heating up the wok to the very smoky point, which can’t be done at home, but it’s normal in a restaurant. I’d cry my eyes out if I had a bowl of Florek’s noodles, but I left the restaurant inspired and determined to try to make my stir fries better.
I looked up some recipes and made a little sauce, that covered the whole dish. It consisted of a generous of tsp of chili garlic sauce, 2 tbsps of rice vinegar, 1/4 cup of soy sauce, 1 tsp of sesame oil, 2 tbsps of brown sugar, 2 cloves of crushed garlic, 1 tbsp of finely chopped ginger, plus just a splash of teriyaki sauce. My prawns were sitting in soy sauce most of the afternoon and I have to say I got them spot on this evening. They were crunchy and succulent. The veggies I first added to the hot work were a shallot, sping onion, mange tout, bean sprouts, green bell pepper and some cup mushrooms. Noodles- udon, the best I guess. Finishing touch was a sprinkle of sesame seeds.
