I ordered a bottle of yuzu juice from Amazon. Eyewatering 30 euro for a 200ml bottle, but it brought so many great memories. And when I looked up the recipe here and found we were making it in Dinings 15 (!!!!!) years ago, I was aghast. This evening we had some Asian food, the side of broccoli dressed with yuzu ponzu ( soooo good), but then I had to make the pannacotta. With an Italian cream. There doesn’t seem to be much choice in Italian shops in terms of cream, there is panna, no double or single one like in the UK, so I hope the recipe works, I skipped the milk altogether. Slightly reduced the sugar too, I can quite believe that 15 years ago 120g of sugar didn’t even make me wink, now it does, so with 350 ml of cream, about 90g of sugar, some of it vanilla sugar, about 60ml of yuzu juice, 2,5 gelatine leaves. I should maybe wait for tomorrow to see how they turned out, before I blog them, but hey, they only just went to the fridge.

So, to be continued.

…And on Friday evening; tastes excellent, not sickly sweet, but a bit too set, I guess the addition of citrus juice messes up the gelatine a bit.

We went to Siena last weekend with the Swedes. On Saturday evening we dined in Taverna di San Giuseppe, a place with great reviews, a queue outside of the door and a sign saying- we are full, piss off, don’t bother. Expectations were very high, but we were not blown away. Daniel and I went for ossobuco, which left us both quite disappointed. I never cooked it before, but when eating it I thought- I can do it better. For sure. And yesterday in Esselunga I came across some veal ossobuco, grabbed them off the shelf immediately and cooked them today, having first consulted Luca Pappagallo and Max Mariola.

I seasoned them first with salt and pepper, then dusted them in flour, before browning them off on olive oil and butter. Some soffritto was ready and chopped, added to the meat, then a glass of white wine, after a few minutes some beef stock, lid on and it cooked on medium heat for nearly 2 hours, much longer than both chefs suggested. I wanted mine falling off that bone, in the Taverna I had wanted my veal softer.

When I was happy with the cooking, the potato puree was ready, I made a little finishing touch, as suggested on youtube, finely chopped rosemary, parsley and lemon rind, all sprinkled on the meat before serving.

Served with mash, broccoli and some decent red, the family said they liked it, I rather did too, but I’m thinking I’d give it a sauce, a ballsy, big sauce, maybe roasted tomato/pepper thing, maybe even some olives, not sure how authentic it would have become…

Not said the last word on ossobuco yet.

It tasted and looked much better than on the photo. :-/

Inspired by Stanley Tucci’s delightful book “Taste” that I have finished reading last night. Swifly moved on to his “What I ate in one year”, which so far doesn’t contain any recipes, but is still a great read.

I’ve made the spaghetti for lunch today. Never had it before, so can’t compare it to anything, but I love the idea of its simplicity and I love courgettes, so I had a go. Without provolone, which I had none of, but will get a piece when I come across it next time, for science and research, of course.

I started by thinly slicing 4 small courgettes, Stanley reckons the smaller the better, on a mandoline, deep fried them in olive oil in batches, while the spaghetti was cooking for about half of the recommended time on the packet. One of the chefs on youtube suggested that if one had no provolone, one could just chuck a knob of butter onto the olive oil and don’t be shy on the parmiggiano, I did both. A chopped clove of garlic, a few chopped basil leaves onto the butter/olive oil mixture, then most of the deep fried courgettes, before the pasta goes in, straight from the water. I kept adding more and more of the pasta water to finish cooking the spaghetti, then a bit of salt, but not too much, as I salted the courgettes once I fried them. Parmiggiano in, quite a lot, black pepper. When on the plate, I added the remaining fried courgettes.

From what I understand the sauce could have been more creamy, if one had the provolone, but I was very tempted to add a sprinkling of chili flakes in there, I still might next time.

It was a nice plate of pasta, not a spectacular one, but will be made again.

A very spontaneous batch of cookies made after lunch today, they are proving too popular, I’m glad I only made a small batch, as always when following a recipe from mojewypieki.com.

Over some hot water I melted 45g of butter, onto it went around 140g of chocolate, mostly 70%.

1 whole egg fluffed up with 80g of sugar, into it went the choc-butter combo, then 55g of plain flour, some baking powder, a pinch of salt, a generous handful of chocolate chips and chopped hazelnuts.

Formed by teaspoon and onto the baking paper, the cookies baked for 12 minutes at 170 degrees. Divine when still warm, brownie like texture inside, crunchy outside. They won’t make it past tomorrow, good, as Dott.Staal is awaiting us tomorrow afternoon.

Diane and Keith have popped in for a long weekend recently. It was our first get together in 9 years, so it’s fair to say we barely knew each other, but we got along really well. They appreciate good wine and food, which helped! Some Brunello di Montalcino was being enjoyed together on the evening they arrived, we have taken them to Nonna Clara’s in Lucca, which has been a hit. Then, on Monday, on our way back from Barga, which they both liked a lot, we stopped at Il Garfagnino di Nonna Clara, a joint by the main road to Garfagnana. We drove by it many times and always said we need to eat there one day. We did now. We were all decently hungry and all excited by the idea of having some meat. And meat we did have, none other than the famous Fiorentina. Cooked rare, mooing, much more bloody than I’d normally have, but it was spectacular. Diane said she never had a better beef in her life, so that’s saying something. We had some tomato salad on the side and some chips, a bottle of smooth Chianti( as you do with lunch on a Monday) and the beef ended up defeating us. We didn’t manage the whole thing, but we’ve taken it with us and made Nadia’s dogs very happy indeed. 🙂

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.

Lucca keeps on giving!

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.