slow food in a fast world
When I posted the recipe for Pumpkin Ravioli, I was reminded of this but I hesitated to publish something we only make once a year. Continue reading ‘Sfince di zucca (Pumpkin sfince)’
Image: Nathalie Dulex http://www.sxc.hu
I am a fan of Rick Stein, the well-known English chef with several television series under his belt. He operates a number of fish restaurants in Padstow, Cornwall, UK, http://www.rickstein.com. He has cooked for the local folk and the high and mighty including the British Royals, the Prime Minister, and French President, and is probably the most famous and most awarded seafood chef in Britain. I recently caught one of his TV shows in re-run and it reminded me of this recipe, which is a little surprising as it is for ravioli with neither fish, nor seafood in sight. It will fill four small plates or two dinner plates and will take less than a hour cooking time and less than half an hour preparation time. Continue reading ‘Pumpkin ravioli with sage and butter sauce’
Image: Aaron Weeks www.sxc.hu
After I wrote out my method for making tahini sauce a couple of days ago, I thought now would be a good time to give my recipe for the quintessential middle eastern dip or paste, usually called hummus (with various spelling variations) which is shortened from hummus bi tahini (translating as chickpeas with tahini). You will need to have some garbanzo beans, Indian peas or chickpeas (all the same thing), ready to use, which may mean opening a can or two, or soaking overnight and then cooking some dried chickpeas. Continue reading ‘Hummus’
Image: Suat Eman www.freedigitalphotos.net
Half-a-lifetime ago, I knew a girl who grew up in Cyprus, part of the considerable British ex-patriate community there. If I recall correctly she had a family friend who was from Beirut. From him she learned the original of this recipe which I, in turn, acquired. When shopping two weeks ago my eye was caught by a new range of organic nut and seed products including pure unadulterated peanut butters, hazelnut spreads and unhulled and hulled tahini. This last item reminded me of this recipe, which I made last week.
Tahini is made from sesame seeds ground to produce a paste. Tahini can be eaten as is, spread as a butter substitute, used to make hummus, baba ghanouj, halvah and other traditional and not so traditional recipes. Tahini sauce is easily made and can be stored in a jar or airtight container in the refrigerator for 2 perhaps 3 weeks. Continue reading ‘Tahini Sauce’
The rationale for this dish in our table of preferences is that it combines all those vegetables – onion, capsicum, aubergine, courgette, garlic, tomato – that remind us of Southern European climes that we love so much. It can be a dish standing alone, eaten with good rustic bread, or an accompaniment. Continue reading ‘Ratatouille Rationale’
Elsewhere in this blog, you may have read our roast chicken recipe, and the method to make stock from the leftovers. If so, this is one of my favorite ways of using that stock. Risotto alla Milanese may have started life among the Arabic and Jewish populations of Sicily in the Middle Ages, and if so, perhaps, should have been called Risotto alla Siciliana, but the naming rights have long gone to the north! What follows is my take on Risotto alla Milanese and may not be for the purists, but I like the consistent results I get. Continue reading ‘Risotto Alla Milanese’
We have been making this soup nearly every week lately so there is always something warming and tasty when people come in from a day outside on the farm. As you might guess from the Italian title it’s really not more than a skip and a jump from minestrone. You could add small pasta shapes such as orecchiette, ditalini, acini di pepe, tripolini or orzo.
Continue reading ‘Seasonal Vegetable Soup’
If you read our recipe for Everyday Roast Chicken you may recall that the last thing we said was to keep all the leftovers. This chicken stock recipe is the reason.
Classically, there are two methods of creating chicken stock. The one involves fresh, raw chicken and some vegetables, herbs and seasoning and perhaps an hour cooking time. The other (this one), takes a lot longer but makes the cook feel thrifty and righteous!
Continue reading ‘Leftover Chicken Stock’
We don’t mean to infer that this recipe is not good, simply that we are not going to join the internet recipe bandwagon claiming to have the perfect or best roast chicken recipe. By ‘everyday’, we do not infer that we cook chicken everyday, only that this is how we cook chicken if we are not going to follow a particular recipe for roast chicken e.g., pollo alla diavolo or pollo al mattone. Continue reading ‘Everyday Roast Chicken’