Fragrances of chocolate to start 2021

Christmas season is at the end with religious celebrations on this January 6th 2021 and, in Italy, children love in particular way this holiday and wait with great enthusiasm and wonder for the arrival of “la befana”, a folkloristic character of the ancient tales, that is an old lady flying on a magic besom to bring toys to them.

On this occasion, we have prepared some little disks of excellent fine 70% dark chocolate with a range of tastes of dried fruit and spices on top. Because of the choice of ingredients, these delicacies might be a different version of “mediants au chocolat”, which represent an ancient tradition for the French pâtisserie.

For preparing them, you need chocolate (250g), the one you like best, be dark chocolate, or white or milk chocolate. Choose and chop some dried fruit (100gr) to top on the disks: we used apricots, almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, sesame. Then, mix these latter all together. Temper the chocolate and when it reaches the right temperatures in the process, use a soup spoon to make small disks on greaseproof paper sheets, then sprinkle the chosen dried fruit, adding cinnamon, cardamom, hot pepper powder on top. Place your chocolate disks in the fridge to get them cooler. Then, out of the fridge, remove them from the greaseproof paper sheet and serve them with a good cup of warm tea or coffee to your guests. It would be a good idea to store them accurately in a tin box and keep in a cool place for 4-5 days.

Many thanks and now let’s enjoy a long walk in the new year. Stay safe, everybody! ❤

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Welcome 2021

Hello! We welcome 2021 with hopeful heart both for ourselves and for humanity. Actually, the best wish and gift to the world for the new year would be the final defeat of pandemia together with the overthrowing of the disheartening but necessary, safe, constant use of face masks and all other health, sanitary precautions taken as preventive measures against sars-covid 2 in line with what has been taught us during the last year. Let’s think more about the return to a renovated more normal social life and the new endless possibilities to hug all members of family and dearest ones, especially those at a ripe old age or those, who are in weaker health conditions, since they are considered easier target for sars-covid 2.

While waiting to celebrate 2021, we made a thick batter, which was left to rest and swell for about 12 hours. In our mind there were some puffy appetizers belonging to the local culinary tradition at Christmas time. The batter was prepared with about 350 gr of flour, 6,5 gr yeast, a sprinkle of sea salt and all the necessary water to make a thick, soft, airy batter. In Apulia we love these puffy fritters and we enjoy to have them prepared with several different ingredients, according to personal tastes or following the traditional tastes of the families.

First of all, we fried some fritters with no other ingredients inside. Later on, we will enjoy those fritters as snack or dessert with a local homemade syrupy must reduction (mosto cotto), which is the result of a slow boiling process of grapes. To fry the batter, help yourself with a wet soup spoon for plunging and frying in very hot peanut oil. Then it was the turn of mixing steamed romanesco broccoli in a small portion of the batter and then fried. At last, we made some pizzaiola fritters with chopped olives, capers, tomatoes, anchovies. Before mixing these ingredients with the batter, put them all together in a small bowl, add little salt and a sprinkle of oregano. Please, do not pour their juicy liquid in the mixture otherwise it might turn to be dangerous because of the hot oil. Serve the warm fritters to your guests by pairing with a glass of your preferred wine or spumante and .. wishing a good year to everybody! ❤

Gott nytt år

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  Gott Nytt År

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  Gott Nytt År

Christmas, Tolkien and a warm cup of creamy zabaione

Merry Christmas, everybody! It is time to sit by the fireplace, in good company of a beautiful book written by J.R.R. Tolkien and posthumously published for the first time in 1976, “The Father Christmas Letters“, while enjoying the pleasure of tasting a warm creamy zabaglione prepared with a hint of Armagnac, a sprinkle of cocoa and tiny slivers of dark chocolate on top. The recipe of zabaglione is simple and you need only very few ingredients for enjoying this delicious cream.

Ingredients for 4 people: 6 yolks, 50 gr of icing sugar, 4 soup spoons of Armagnac, a knob of butter, a tea spoon of (bitter) cocoa, a tea spoon of tiny slivers of dark chocolate.

Heat in a bain-marie yolks, icing sugar and armagnac. Beat the ingredients for at least 15 minutes by using a blender. When the cream is thick, add a knob of butter. Remove the bowl from the cooker and the bain-marie, keep on beating and whip the zabaione for more 15 minutes. Serve the warm cream in cups, add a sprinkle of cocoa and slivers of dark chocolate on top. Enjoy it!

Many thanks. I hope you all are well and wish a beautiful Christmas day. Please, stay safe, everybody. God Jul! ❤

First Sunday of Advent in the kitchen

Here we are, Christmas is knocking at the door again and we already know it will be a very special season for all of us. Even though it won’t be often possible to behave as usual, that is expressing our love by hugging members of family and loved ones, we wish all of them to be safe and in our heart as always. In the mood to keep everybody closer to our thoughts and in the respect of a long family tradition for cooking and baking at Christmas time, we had a cosy first Sunday afternoon of Advent in the kitchen and made a delicious soft heart of vanilla and chocolate to have with a warm cup of tea. As you will see the recipe is pretty simple and it will be a delicious dessert loved by children and “older children”. Ingredients we need:

100 gr castor sugar (make your own), 2 eggs, 175 gr flour, 100 gr butter, 40 gr almonds meal (make your own), 60 gr crème fraîche, 8 gr baking powder, 2 soup spoons bitter cocoa, 2 soup spoons vanilla icing sugar, a coffee spoon of cardamom.

• Choose the cake tin you prefer and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Once you are to use it for the mixture, grease it inside with butter and sprinkle it with flour at first.

• Mix castor sugar and eggs. Add flour, butter, almonds meal, crème fraîche and baking powder. Mix and beat with energy in order to have a very smooth mixture. Help yourself with a fork or a whisk or even use a whisk beater machine.

• Pour the mixture in two different bowls. In the first bowl add cocoa and cardamom and mix all together. In the second bowl, add vanilla icing sugar and mix all together again. Add some milk if the mixture is too thick and it will turn to be more creamy and softer.

• First, pour the vanilla mixture in the baking tin, then add the chocolate mixture on the surface of the vanilla mixture. Be careful to not touch the baking tin along its borders. Add a sprinkle of almond slivers on the surface of the cake.

• Place the cake in the preheated 160°C oven for about 30 minutes. Once you see it looks golden, turn the oven off and leave the cake in it still for about 10/15 minutes.

This soft delicacy can be an excellent idea as a dessert served with a good warm cup of tea or coffee during a coffee pause or even after dinner paired with a spoon of vanilla cream.

Let’s enjoy the beginning of this Christmas season and wish a beautiful December month to everybody! ❤

Julgran

Ha en mysig första advent! ❤

Warm crisp crostini of bread and lentils to wish a wonderful 2020

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  Crisp bread and lentils for wishing a wonderful 2020

It is Tuesday morning, on the last day of December 2019. For the table of the new year and for wishing all the best in 2020, I prepared a soup of small lentils. In less than an hour it can be served to guests.

You need lentils (the proportions are according to the number of your guests), celery, carrots, onion, garlic, bouillon prepared with vegetables, tomato puree, parsley, extra virgin olive oil, curry, salt and pepper.

Firstly, fry a mixture of diced celery, carrots, onion in a pan with extra virgin olive oil. Then, add a clove of garlic, the lentils, a coffee spoon of curry, a tea spoon of tomato puree. (When you buy lentils, please, pay attention whether you can already cook them or you have to leave them in a bowl with cold water for a couple of hours right before starting with the cooking process). Once in the pan, leave the lentils for a couple of minutes to let flavors of the frying vegetables be soaked up by the lentils and then add the bouillon. Add salt and pepper. Cook the soup slowly for about 40 minutes. In the end, lentils should be tender and dried.

Serve the warm lentils on discs (crostini) of homemade bread that you previously made crisp in the oven for about 10 minutes, 200°C, with few drops of extra virgin olive oil on their surface. Add leaves of parsley to decor the plate. This dish could be an inviting idea for starters or a light warm soup.

Many thanks and wishing everybody a wonderful 2020!

Lamb chops and bell peppers, a colorful and tasteful dish for your holiday season table

The time of holiday season is flowing and soon we will enter the new year. This is time for some relax and enjoying the good company of family and friends. At this proper, today I prepared lamb chops and bell peppers for lunch. It is a colorful and tasteful dish, which I enjoy to make from time to time for its fragrances of Mediterranean herbs and I may recommend for your New Year’s Eve table. It is easy to prepare and your guests will appreciate it.

The ingredients for this dish are lamb chops, garlic, leek, breadcrumbs, some herbs like thyme, rosemary, parsley, grated parmigiano, a lemon, extra virgin olive oil, almonds, salt and pepper.

As first step, for preparing this dish, it is necessary to make little pieces of parsley, thyme, a clove of garlic and the peel of a lemon. In a bowl mix all these little pieces of herbs and garlic together with breadcrumbs, grated parmigiano, after you have added a couple of tea spoons of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Secondly, make cubes of red and yellow bell peppers and cook them in a pan with extra virgin olive oil, little white wine, garlic and rings of leek. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper, some thyme and a soup spoon of rough minced almonds. Keep on cooking for about 20 minutes.

Third step: coat the chops of lamb with the mixture in the bowl made of herbs, breadcrumbs, garlic etc. and fry the chops until they will get a golden crisp surface.

In the end, serve the warm chops of lamb with the bell peppers.

Wishing everybody “bon appétit”, thank you and, most of all, may your 2020 be wonderful!

Home Made Fresh Pasta at Christmas Time

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Here we are! It’s the second weekend of Advent and, in the kitchen, on Sunday morning, we enjoy making fresh pasta. Actually, serving ravioli to guests at our Christmas table can be an excellent idea but we are going to use alternative ingredients for the stuffing, such as sheep milk ricotta cheese (250gr), parmigiano reggiano (50gr) and a pear.

• As first step we make a thin sheet of pastry. The manual pasta making machine (nonna papera) is the faster solution if you are in a hurry or you may use a rolling pin if you are familiar with it. The proportion of the ravioli mixture for a couple of people is 250g semolina, one egg, little oil, water. Of course, you can add ingredients according to the number of your guests. As soon as the mixture is done, leave it to rest for an hour.
• In the meanwhile, cut a pear in very small cubes, add a yolk, ricotta, grated parmigiano cheese and mix the stuffing for ravioli pasta.
• Then, make small discs of ravioli pasta, stuff them with a spoon of the cream made with pear, ricotta and parmigiano cheese, seal them hermetically.
• Cook ravioli in boiling salted water for few minutes and, as soon as ravioli come up on the surface of the boiling water, it’s time to strain them.
• Finally, serve them warm in a dish with melted butter, grated sheep milk cheese and papaver seeds on top.

Buon appetito and wishing everybody a good new week!

A homemade green lasagna: layers of lightness in the dish

   A white tablecloth is the fine simple way to dress the table for the Christmas holiday season and it is also the best way to highlight your delicious dishes. In a couple of days, we are going to celebrate the arrival of the new year and, for the special event, we take care of our guests by preparing a light green lasagna that both children and grown up would love to eat.

A warm welcome to Santa by the fireplace and delightful appetizers made with zucchini and raclette cheese for our guests

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Hello! It is Christmas Eve and guests are on arrival. The ideal place to welcome them could be a cosy, comfortable corner by the fireplace, where warm, fragrant appetizers, made of puff pastry, wait for them. These appetizers are easy, light and fast to be made. Would you like to try and make them? Start making little disks of puff pastry and place them on a baking tray. You can fill the centre of each disk with some beans, in order to have a cavity to fill with zucchini (which you have already sautéed with garlic, onion, a sprinkle of salt, pepper and chopped parsley, in extra-virgin olive oil and white wine) and little cubes of raclette cheese to grill and melt later on. Place the little disks in the oven for few minutes 180° C/200°C and then out of the oven just for the time you need to fill them with zucchini and raclette. Place the appetizers in the oven again and, as soon as their surface is golden, puffed and crisp and raclette looks melted, they are ready to be served to guests with a glass of white wine by the fireplace. Besides, please won’t forget to bake some puff pastry little stars and fill them with homemade apricot jam. Leave them in a dish by the fireplace for welcoming Santa. He will appreciate your kindness for sure.

Merry Christmas! Buon Natale! Frohe Weihnachten! God Jul! 

Jul, jul, strålande jul