Monday, March 31, 2008

Home Alone



This weekend my flatmates abandoned me, but this girl kept herself happy with the leftovers in the fridge. I sit here gobbling down Fusilli with Sausage, Broccoli and Fennel, but this weekend there were peppers and cream... Never be afraid to pamper!

Fusilli with red pepper cream sauce and jamón Serrano (or prosciutto)
Serves 1
Cooking/prep time: 25 minutes

Extra virgin olive oil
1/4 large onion, finely chopped
5-6 pimientos del piquillo (or any small, red, roasted pepper in oil), chopped
3 slices of jamón Serrano or prosciutto, chopped or torn into bite-sized pieces
1/2 pint single cream (though I would only use about 5 tbs, depending on how much sauce you like)
Salt & pepper to taste
Parmesan to garnish
100g fusilli

How it's done:
In a non-stick pan, gently fry the onion until translucent. Put the pasta water to boil. Add the jamón/prosciutto to the onions and fry for just a minute. Then add the peppers and stir just to warm and blend flavors (2 min). Add cream and stir to warm and blend, but don't let it boil. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and black pepper. Add pasta to water. After a couple of minutes, blend the pepper-cream mixture in a blender until smooth. When the pasta is al dente, drain and coat with olive oil and the blended sauce. On your plate, cover in a light coat of grated parmesan and a bit more black pepper.

Tip: As a side dish I had steamed purple sprouting broccoli. Counter that cream with veg!

I also made some sort of rustic egg bread with dried cranberries and poppy seeds. Yum.

Sacrilege

I will admit that in general I don't like cheese with fish and that as a holder of an Italian passport, I feel I need to be more firm in this stance. It's a pretty well known fact that Italians are usually against cheese with fish because it lessens the enjoyment of fishiness in a dish. Or just because everyone else said that it's against the rules. I happen to like cheese with tuna, mostly because of the great American tuna melt. But you can't get me to put parmesan on a spaghetti with clam sauce. It's got so much flavor already!

The following article is a good argument FOR fish and cheese to be united in culinary bliss. I still don't buy it and will continue to cook fish in interesting ways that celebrate its fishiness, but do read on:

Just Grate - NY Times, by Robert Trachtenberg, 30.Mar.08

An alternative to cheese to enhance the flavor of a fish dish, you ask? GRATED/GROUND PISTACHIO. They do it in Sicily all the time and it looks beautiful and tastes divine.

Friday, March 28, 2008

The Great Mozarella Tragedy

Watch out, folks. That pizza could cause cancer. I've personally switched to ricotta. Just made a pizza with it last night and it was divine. But I admit I'd still prefer a little buffalo milk. Campania - Clean up your act!

How Italy's 'white gold' turned sour - BBC News
Italy recalls tainted mozzarella - BBC News
EU warns Italy over cheese scare - BBC News

Also in the news:

The Great Tam Tam Shortage of 2008! What's a Jew to do at Passover?!

It's Hide the Matzo, for Real: Where are the Tam Tams? - NY Times

And finally:

Everything is connected - as we saw with rubbish in Italy... Bees are having trouble in California, so it's time to truck them in so they can pollinate 80% of the world's almond crop!

Season of hope - LA Times

It's hard times for food!

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Borshch | Food & History


I highly recommend the following article on the history of borshch from the Saturday Guardian Magazine (15/03/08). Food as a study of culture and politics is always juicy reading material. Who knew there was so much pride behind borshch?

The Story of Borshch: It's just a bowl of beetroot and cabbage in meat stock. But it was the common denominator of the Soviet kitchen. So what happened to the dish after the collapse of the Union? by James Meek, photos by Justin Jin (including photo above, courtesy of the Guardian).

"Our men won't forgive us if we don't make it," said Yulia.
"Can men make it?" I asked.
"No!" chorused the Ukrainians.
"We haven't really taken on board the idea of men cooking," said Volodimir.


I think I'm going to try making it! Perfect for these rainy, cold and very grey days.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Purple fronds


We've got a bit of a backlog in terms of meals that need blog attention. I'll get an easy, and delicious one out of the way before it goes out of season!

The Pigs have a bit of a soft spot for broccoli (especially the Canadian Pig who calls them "the little brushes for the colon".)... We eat it all year, even when it's not in season, but it's a veg that can grow at any point of the year, really. We grew some in the garden last summer/autumn and it tasted marvelous. Iron, vitamins A & C, folic acid and fiber - broccoli is king!

Around 1 March I went to our local outdoor market on the High Road. In a corner near the bramley apples there was a crate of virtually ignored purple broccoli. I don't think I'd ever seen them stock it before. I went a bit mad and bought a huge bag of it. The kid who was at the till only works there on the weekends, I think. He's always yelling out the football scores which they receive on a live feed at the back of the stall. Though he has a remarkably large vocabulary, he's the last one you would think would say in reference to the broccoli, "Aw, these are really nice. I just bought my mum a bunch for Mother's Day; she loves them." I adore that guy. He's my hope for humanity. A working-class, English teenager who likes purple broc, bought it for his mom for Mother's Day, and was happy to tell me about it.

Purple (or normal) Broccoli, Sausage and Fennel Pasta
(extracted and adapted from Pig Out 2007, our first book!)

4 cloves garlic, chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
4 fresh sausages (pork and leek is good; I think I did lincolnshire)
1/2 cup dry white wine
Purple broccoli, cut down to edible pieces
1/4 cup salt water (from pasta water)
1 Tbs whole fennel seeds
Salt & pepper
Parmesan
1 lb/500 g pasta (pref. orecchiette, penne or fusilli)

Steam the broccoli over the boiling and salted pasta water (or blanch for a couple of minutes. This will turn the pasta water purple, which is really cool.) Cook the broccoli less that you would to eat it plain, slightly underdone. In the meantime, fry the garlic and pieces of sausage in the olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook thoroughly. Add the wine and cook it down a bit. Add the fennel seeds, black pepper and fry for another minute. Then add a bit of salt water from the pasta water to the pan and all of the broccoli. Cook on medium with the top on until the broccoli is ready. If a bit too watery, just cook with the top of for another couple of minutes. While that finishes, cook the pasta. When it's done, mix with the sauce, serve and smother each bowl with grated parmesan.
Serves 4.

I had mine with a glass of prosecco.

I found this on purple broccoli:
Early Purple Sprouting: An English heirloom variety, bred for overwintering, produces lots of purple broccoli sprouts in the spring. Grows slowly through the winter, very frost hardy; a great variety that is very hard to find in this country; delicious! rareseeds.com

So you see that, folks - plant your purple sprouting broccoli in May and you'll have it in the winter (providing you live in a temperate climate like good ol' England).

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Gastronauts

Gastronauts: People who go out in search of "the rarest, the grossest and the most bizarre foods they can find — delicacies like baby chicken heads, python meat and chicken anus." Uh. Okay. But you've GOT to check this video out. Seriously gross and funny. Mmmm... Risotto with ant pupae?! (click on the video link) Beware - the Gastronauts are soon opening a London club - at least according to their website.

Bug Meat: It's What's for Dinner

"It's like apple sausage!"

NPR is my new friend! Check out their food page for a cornucopia of audio-visual foodiness.

Mac 'n' cheese and american uselessness

Yesterday at work I encountered racism head-on. A posh Lady donor called into the office asking about an event to which she'd been invited. I think she's probably just difficult by nature, feeling like she's entitled to royal treatment even though it's her husband who earned the title for the two of them. At any rate, the 30-second conversation ended with her calling me a "useless American." This was despite the fact that I dealt with her courteously and efficiently.

Not only has she never met me, she has no idea whether I'm American or not. I'm angry because that kind of class entitlement mindset is just SO not cool. So out of line. So pointless. So backward. {Honey, I hate to tell you this, but despite the fact the royalty is still around, the Empire is over.} For the record, she was also rude to my British colleague.

My reaction at home, following work, was to cook up a posh little macaroni and cheese number to spite her. I can be American AND cultured. I cleaned out all of the random bits of cheese left in the fridge from trips abroad: smoked scamorza, some sort of Roman goat cheese, cheddar, parmigiano reggiano, some hard Spanish cheese.

Five cheese revenge mac 'n' cheese

350g of various grated cheeses
40g all-purpose flour or type 00 flour
40g butter
600ml milk
3 finely chopped spring onions/scallions/shallots
pepper
300g pasta

Make a bechamel sauce by slowly melting the butter in a non-stick pot. Keep heat low and add flour little by little until it has formed a roux. Then slowly stir/whisk in the milk until smooth. When it's all nice and smooth and warm, add most of the cheese (save a tiny bit to garnish the pasta). Grind a bit of pepper to taste. When it's all smooth, take off the heat. Cook pasta to al dente. In the meantime, gently fry the scallions/shallots. Drain pasta and stir in the cheese sauce and scallions. Put the mixture into an oven-safe dish (preferably Pyrex). Sprinkle with extra cheese and grill until it's light brown and crispy. Devour (with some veggies) and think of sweet revenge.

A silly radio clip from NPR on mac 'n' cheese: A Brief History of Mac and Cheese

PS My boss says this is very similar to a restoring, traditional Bavarian dish. So maybe it's not so American after all!

Thursday, March 6, 2008

A mighty fine meal: 24.02.08









The photos say it all. A guest over to dinner provides extra incentive for dishing up something visually impressive. Of course, this meal also tastes great and it’s pretty much all seasonal stuff.

Starters: munching on some hard, Spanish cheese and salchichón.
Wine: 1995 Chateau des Bertins, Cru Bourgeois, Medoc (Bordeaux)
Salad: Endive, radicchio, pear and dolcelatte cheese salad (dijon, olive oil and balsalmic vinegar dressing). Did you know that endives and radicchio are both types of chicory?
Main: Roast chicken (stuffed with Italian sun-dried tomatoes and a selection of fresh herbs from the garden)
Bread: from our new breadmaker! More on that later...
Dessert: Marisol’s apple custard tart (one of our moms’ recipes, using Bramley apples)

Yummy.