It really pays off to check my recipe folder every now and then. I just found this little gem, simple dish that all 3 of us liked a lot. Not perhaps particularly light, but very tasty. Conchiglie were cooking as long as they were to cook according to packet instructions, while I finely chopped a shallot, fried it on olive oil, added some roughly chopped nice ham, a handful of frozen peas and then a good, generous splash of double cream. A tsp of English mustard. A generous handful of grated mature cheddar. Seasoned. A few broccoli florets go in with the pasta for the last 3 minutes of cooking time, then onto the pan with the rest of of stuff, well coasted in creamy sauce. A sprinkling of parmesan is never a bad idea. Simple and delicious.
New pizza dough.
I spotted a post on Italian pizza onmojewypieki.com and with one look at the photos I had to try. It proves for 6 hours, so it’s nice for a lazy Saturday. For us it was Friday, the dough was made before lunch and rested till 6pm. A bit of a project, but well worth it, we all loved it. What was unusual for me was the tiny amount of yeast used, alongside lots of salt, but it was the salt I guess that made this dough really tasty! I used 300 g of 00 flour, a bit less than 300g (grams, not ml) of warm water and as little as 2 g of fresh yeast which I melted in 3 tbsps of that water and left it waiting, while the flour and water worked in the kitchen aid. After 20 minutes of it resting I added the yeast and 8 g of salt, worked it more, covered with cling film and left for an hour. After an hour Dorota recommends giving the dough a bit of a stretch and leaving it further, for the mentioned 6 hours altogether. It is to double in size and when prepared to go into the oven one is to stretch it rather than roll it out, I did a bit of both. My oven tried really hard last night and actually heated up to 270 degrees.
Simple pizza there was, excellent sugo, some Milano salami, ham and mozzarella for Izzie, pine nuts, parmesan. I think Gennaro’s recipe might now go into retirement, this one is really tasty.
Back to Scotland for some beef.
Steve and Christina are coming over this weekend, so we splashed out and placed the order with Wagyu House again. There will be burgers on Saturday. But I also ordered a piece of their sirloin, 300 g of it, a bit of luxury. I cooked it this evening, alongside roast potatoes and some greens. The meat was waiting to be at room temperature, then placed onto a hot pan, no oil or anything, cooked, left to rest and only then seasoned with flaky salt and a touch of pepper. Phenomenal flavour. And the credit card £80 heavier. 🙂
Shortbread “frutti di bosco”
Like I said in the last post, I need to be careful with all those butter cookies. I was so careful this morning, that I baked some more. But I had to, really, no choice, as last night in Polish Deli I found some good quality jam with forest fruit, bought 2 jars and simply had to try to recreate the cookies from Conad in Gallicano.
The shortbread recipe is the same as in the double dipped cookies, with 30 g less sugar. Good call, I think, while munching on one of them now, the jam is quite sweet, so the shortbread didn’t have to be. 200 g softened salted butter, 70 g of icing sugar creamed in kitchen aid with vanilla paste, 250 g of plain flour, 2 tbsps of milk. Half of the cookies cut with apple corer….:-) 160 degrees, 15 minutes. Sandwiched with the jam, gently softened now. Delicious.
Hazelnut and chocolate cookies.
I need to be careful with the amount of butter cookies I consume lately, my weight and figure are both very pleasant at the moment, must make sure they stay this way.
I couldn’t resist this recipe though, I even purchased a small jar of Nutella, though none of us is a massive fan in this house- and then ended up not using any!!! The original recipe makes these cookie sandwiches filled with Nutella, but in my view they stand their ground so well, they don’t need anything else. I gave some to Keava and Simon, who will look after Dusty this weekend.
120 g of soft butter creamed with the same amount of brown and caster sugar, which I reduced from the original, I think 175 g of sugar altogether is a bit silly. 1 whole beaten egg, 200 g of plain flour, less than half a tsp of bicarb soda, then 70 g of chopped, toasted hazelnuts and 100 g of chopped milk chocolate. That made a nice, thick cookie dough, which I spooned onto the baking trays and baked for 10 minutes in 180 degrees. Once I tasted the first one, Nutella went back to the pantry, which is where it will stay for now.
Excellent cookies. 🙂
Double dipped shortbread cookies.
Great British summer is in full swing, 2 days of rain and gusty winds, what can one do if not bake. Butter cookies always go down well with us, so I baked the first one of 2 recipes today, the second one, with hazelnuts maybe tomorrow. Very simple recipe-200 g of softened salted butter beaten in kitchen aid with 100 g of icing sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla paste added, then 250 g of plain flour slowly in, 2 tbsps of milk. When ready, to the piping bag with a wide nozzle. Squeezing the dough onto the baking paper was quite an effort, but I managed, then baked them in 160 degrees for about 15 minutes. When cooled, they were dipped in melted white and milky chocolate.
I find them a touch too sweet, but might try to do something similar to what I bought in Italian Conad last month, butter cookies stuffed with a nice, thick frutti di bosco marmalade. Those were great. I’d just have to find a jam good enough to use for this.
spanish tortilla.
First ever, how I managed to avoid ever making one of these, I don’t know. We get through 18-24 fresh farm eggs in a week in our house and yet it took “Remarkable places to eat” on the BBC to make me want to cook one. Excellent mini series, I must say, there was an episode in Venice ( “Venetians are thieves”, said our Tuscan host Marco last month), in Edinburgh- loved it, as it featured The Kitchin, one in Paris and one in San Sebastian, which is where the tortillas were made.
I used a simple recipe from BBC Good Food, with half a white onion chopped and slowly fried in quite a lot of oil, till softened but not coloured. 2 medium sized potatoes chopped quite small, cooked until soft. Then most of that oil had to be drained before 4 beaten and generously seasoned eggs were added. I also chucked in a few cherry tomatoes from the green house and some green peas leftover from Izzie’s supper. It cooked under the lid for a few minutes then with a help of a plate I turned it upside down to finish the cooking. I served it with crusty baguette, a green salad and some parma ham. We both liked it, but I would put some more flavour in it, chorizo maybe, garlic, something strong.
ITALIA 2019, CULINARY HIGHLIGHTS.
Got back home the day before yesterday after 10 days in Toscana ( and a cheeky one day in Liguria!). According to the invoice from Europcar we’ve done over 1700 miles in our rented Fiat 500, we’ve seen a chunk of that stunning land and we have eaten very well indeed. Again. 🙂
One place that knocked me off my feet was San Giminiano. I always wanted to go and visit it and it was well worth it. Super hot, very crowded, but stunning. We’ve had lunch; Izzie became a huge fan of prosciutto e melone and that’s what she asked for there. What arrived was a very generous plate of possibly the best Parma ham I’ve ever tasted, surely freshly sliced, plus melon as sweet as candy.
Florek went for a beef carpaccio with truffles, while I was starving enough for a plate of gnocchi.
Two bottles of wine were purchased, one of the local ones will be kept on the rack until some cold autumn day we will fancy a vino from San Giminiano, while this lovely Brunello was enjoyed that same day on Marco’s terrace.
Then, one evening we set out for Lucca with our eyes set on Bistecca Fiorentina. And bistecca we had alright, a T-bone, served to us on a hot plate, so we could finish the cooking of it the way we liked, some salad with that and a caraffe of red wine. An excellent piece of beef it was, followed by a less impressive bill of over 150 euro- it turned out they charge by weight of the meat, which also had a massive bone. :-/
When we hopped across the fence to Liguria to see some of Italian Riviera and Cinque Terre, we’ve eaten well again. For me it had to be some seafood, so I started with octopus salad and managed to convince Izzie to try a piece.
Salad came with a chilled glass of Pinot Grigio, simple and fantastic.
And then spaghetti with seafood, the langoustines were actually sweet! Loved it.
On the last evening we went back to Lucca and I ordered spinach gnocchi with walnut sauce, waitress said it was amazing, it looked the part, but I thought lacked a bit in terms of oomph. Google photos made it look like that;
In terms of stocking up the pantry I’m currently very much ok for truffles and porcini, 4 chunks of great parmesan in the fridge too.
And, pleasantly surprised, no shock while checking my body weight, I managed not to go too stupid while on holidays! 🙂
raspberry muffins.
The kind of bake I love to bake! Quick, easy, tastes great, seasonal. From mojewypieki.com. I intended to bake those yesterday, but as a certain Siemens engineer ruined our whole day ( failed to turn up for a SECOND appointment to install smart meters, clearly got mega bollocked by his boss after our phonecall, kindly turned up at 4pm and stayed for 1,5 hour having turned off the electricity- no oven), it all got postponed till today. Had to get more raspberries too as the child demanded some for her porridge this morning.
300 g of plain flour, 2 tsps of baking powder, 0,5 tsp of baking soda, 130 g of sugar. A zest of 1 whole lemon. 2 beaten eggs, 250 ml of natural yoghurt- that’s the only thing natural yoghurt is good for, baking, otherwise vile! :-). Half a tall glass of veg oil. All the ingredients gently and briefly mixed together, only to combine, overmixing results in muffins that are all but light. And at the end about 320 g of fresh raspberries in. Into the muffin cases, into the oven, 175 degrees, 25 minutes. Finished with a simple lemon icing- mental amount of icing sugar + lemon juice added until the texture is thick, but still runny.
5 of the muffins went to the Dewicks, as little Ruby has chicken pox.
The guest photo today is by Richard! 🙂
Chocolate and strawberry tart.
I was rudely awaken early this morning by the cat being sick under our bed. Sleeping was done, so having checked the news and stuff I looked at mojewypieki.com for some strawberry inspiration. My small strawberry patch in the garden is currently giving us a bowl of berries every day, the net helps to keep the birds away. I found the tart called “Truskawkowy Las” (Strawberry Forest), loved the look of it and made it for tomorrow evening, Keava and Simon will jump the fence to join us for a few glasses of wine and extras. Long overdue!
Short, chocolate pastry, quick and easy to make with kitchen aid. 160 g of plain flour, 30 g of cocoa, 60 g of icing sugar, 100 g of cold, unsalted butter and a pinch of salt. 1 whole egg brought it all together nicely. It rested in the fridge for 30 minutes, then got blind baked in 190 degrees for 10 minutes, followed by 20 minutes with no beans.
Chocolate creme pat was a first for me today, nice little number, not too chocolatey, just right. 3 egg yolks beaten well with 70 g of sugar. 20 g of both plain and potato starch added, while 300 ml of milk was getting nice and hot. Milk slowly added to the mixture, returned to the heat, stirred constantly till thickened, off the heat. 90 g of dark chocolate added, it melted quickly, needed some help of electric whisk as lumps appeared. While still warm it went onto the tart case, smoothed out, what was left in the pan was enjoyed by a certain chocolate enthusiast. 🙂
The strawberries on top are ours, as mentioned, raspberries from Co Op, mint from the garden.
Nice. 🙂