Author Archive for Lucina

Page 15 of 23

A profiteroles misdemeanour

Published by Lucina, on 10 febbraio 2013 in cakes, Chiacchiere/Chatting and English Recipes. 4 Comments

profiteroles with hot chocolate sauce

Well..you wouldn’t think that judging from the picture, would you? The profiteroles in the photo seem perfectly fine, I hear you say. Right shape and all. You are not wrong my friends: these lovely profiteroles with hot chocolate sauce I served last night to a couple of friends (Mark and Anne, to be precise, who had come to do a walk with us. Only I had double booked myself and had to go to my Italian book group instead. AWWW! So no walk for me. Anyway I said I would mention them personally as Anne has been following my blog for a while) were rather good BUT they were my second attempt. The first batch, done at 8.30 in the morning, was a DISASTER (see picture below) as they came out of the oven flat as pancakes. I followed DElia Smith recipe (click here) , which I had done successfully once previously, but something went VERY wrong during the procedure. I now know what. Namely: the mixture was far too liquidy. I knew when I spooned it on the tray and it spread straight away that something hadn’t quite  worked but I tried all the same JUST IN CASE. I should have followed my instinct and chucked the lot in the bin at the early stage (hadn’t I watched enough Great British Bake off programmes to know?) but NO! Continue reading ‘A profiteroles misdemeanour’

Roasted roots with mustard, rosemary and honey

Published by Lucina, on 22 gennaio 2013 in English Recipes, vegetables, vegetarian and Verdure. 1 Comment

roasted roots with mustard, rosemary and honey

At the beginning of January I promised you I would try out a recipe from every cookery book I have got and never used as a new year’s resolution BUT here I am blogging a recipe from the trusted River Cottage Everyday book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Oh well! Must try harder next recipe.  I decided to blog a vegetable dish because humble vegetables often get overlooked and people end up cooking them in the same old, boring way. But there’s no need for that. I love roasted vegetables and the combination of mustard, honey and rosemary works really well, I think. I will certainly make these babies again. They are ideal to serve with meat, fish, etc. I have used parnsips, celeriac and carrots but as parsnips don’t exist in Italy you could perhaps use turnips or sweet potatoes instead. Continue reading ‘Roasted roots with mustard, rosemary and honey’

Bagels

Published by Lucina, on 13 gennaio 2013 in bread and English Recipes. 6 Comments

bagels

Following the bread making course I attended back in November (read here)  I’ve tried my hand at different types of bread, with various degrees of success, including bagels. I love bagels and I have been buying the ready made variety for many many years. Sainsbury’s bakery produces some very good ones, for example. I’m not sure how popular they are in Italy but perhaps Candi will comment on it. Anyway, I had always believed they would be far too difficult to make and never even thought of baking them myself. The idea to have a go came from the legendary programme the Great British bake off which I really enjoyed watching back in the summer. During the programme a group of contestants were given the challenge to bake all sort of weird and wonderful things and in each episode the worst contestant would be eliminated. Sure enough in one of the programmes one of the challenges was indeed to make some bagels. I was really intrigued by the fact that you have to boil them ( YES, boil them !) before you can bake them. How bizarre, I thought. Being a curious person I decided to attempt them. My first batch was passable but they were a bit on the dry side ( they should really be soft and chewy). Last week I had another attempt, this time following the River Cottage recipe and I was rather impressed with the end result. They looked quite professional, if I may be so bold,  and they tasted very nice too! Continue reading ‘Bagels’

Fig, apricot and prune cake

Published by Lucina, on 5 gennaio 2013 in cakes and English Recipes. 2 Comments

                      fig, apricot and prune cake

Happy new year everyone! I hope the year 2013 will be a healthy, peaceful one for all! Can you believe that I received MORE cookery books for Christmas? I haven’t counted how many I already have but the number is embarassingly high. I have had to take a few in the loft to make space for the new ones. Even more embarassing is the fact that I usually end up cooking from a handful of them. I reckon I could make something new every day of my life and still not manage to go through all the recipe books I have got. This won’t do! My new year resolution is going to be: cook ONE recipe from at least each of the books I have on my kitchen shelf this year.  And of course, if they work out you’ll be the first ones to know! Anyway let me blog this lovely moist cake which I have successfully made a few times already, the last one being during the Christmas holidays. I don’t particularly like the traditional English Christmas cake. I find it a bit too sweet and too rich. Same goes for the Christmas pudding. This particular  fruit cake, however, is a bit different as it contains figs, apricots and prunes instead of the usual raisins and sultanas. It is soft and moist without being sickeningly sweet. It’s absolutely lovely with a cup of tea or coffee so I advice all those cake fans out there to make it for their friends. They will be thankful! By the way it is by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Surprise surprise HIS cookery books are getting properly thumbed in my house. But what can I say? His recipes are brilliant! Continue reading ‘Fig, apricot and prune cake’

Frangipane mince pies

Published by Lucina, on 23 dicembre 2012 in cakes and English Recipes. 0 Comments

frangipane mince pies

Jingle bells! Jingle bells! Here I am with a seasonal Christmas recipe typically English to match Candida’s cinnamon buns: mince pies! For the Italians reading this blog they are mini pies, filled with a mixture called mincemeat which is made of chopped dried fruit, apples, sugar, spices, etc. You can buy this ready made in all supermarkets at this time of the year. I bought mine at Marks and Spencer, treating myself to the luxury variety which has brandy inside. Obviously the better cooks would make their own and next year I plan to have a go, I promise. Ironically  I’m not the greatest fan of  mince pies. I find them a bit too stodgy and far too sweet for my taste. However my husband absolutely adores them so in a fit of generosity I promised that this year I would make him some as he had had a particular bad experience with a couple of them. But instead of the traditional ones which have pastry on the top as well as the bottom I decided to make these ones which are topped with frangipane. Well, do you know what? I thought they were fabulous. Much lighter than the normal variety. I would definitely recommend them. And by the way, they are by the mighty Nigella Lowson. Who else? Continue reading ‘Frangipane mince pies’

Celeriac and toasted hazelnut soup

Published by Lucina, on 9 dicembre 2012 in English Recipes and Soup. 2 Comments

celeriac and toasted hazelnuts soup

Don’t be put off by the odd look of the soup in the picture. I know it doesn’t look all that appealing (in fact the words: dog dinner spring to mind) BUT you have to trust me that the taste is great and it’s very easy to make. Plus it looks a lot better in “real” life, so to speak. The photograph doesn’t do it justice, that’s for sure. What you see floating on the top are toasted hazelnuts which I foolishly crushed before taking their skin off. The result? It looks as if it has been sprinkled with wood shavings. My advice is :don’t be fooled by the appearance (I believe in taste over looks) and try it.  I can already think of variations on the theme like adding some cream  or some blue cheese to it to make it richer. But all in good time. I believe celeriac (sedano rapa) is readily available in Italy too, right? The inspiration to make it came from the greengrocer who sells me the organic vegetables. When I bought the celeriac he mentioned that he had made a soup with it and had added toasted hazelnuts on the top. Well, I tried to recreate it using a bit of imagination and here it is. Tried and tested. Continue reading ‘Celeriac and toasted hazelnut soup’

Greek stuffed peppers

Published by Lucina, on 27 novembre 2012 in English Recipes, starters and vegetarian. 1 Comment

stuffed gree peppers

These stuffed peppers are ideal either as a starter or as a light lunch with a nice  salad (which is what I had). I don’t know about you but I sometimes struggle with starters. I really have to rack my brain to think of something a bit unsual. These are great as they can be made well in advance and then served at room temperature. One each would do very nicely as a starter. The recipe is once again from Rachel Allen. Obviously it would be best to make these peppers  in the summer when they are in season but let’s face it:  the truth is that now you can find peppers , as well as any other vegetable you can think of, at any time of the year. Not sure about the taste but that’s a different story.  I don’t think people really know what should be in season and what not anymore. Really quite sad. I still remember now those mini essays I wrote when I was at primary school about autumn fuits, like chestnuts, etc. Oh happy days! Continue reading ‘Greek stuffed peppers’

Long live bread (or Viva il pane!)

Published by Lucina, on 11 novembre 2012 in Chiacchiere/Chatting and English Recipes. 3 Comments

Bread is something Italian people simply can’t live without. We love bread. No Italian table is complete without some bread on it. I still remember the shock I had when I first came to live in England all those years ago and realized that a) the most common type of bread you could find in the UK was the plasticky, already sliced variety (God knows the preservatives and chemicals they contain, considering they stay fresh for weeks!) and b) bread is not automatically served at the table when you go to a restaurant. You might get a small slice or a bun with your starter (soup, etc.) if you are lucky, but that is your lot! You are certainly never offered it with your main course. We Italians live on bread. Every region has its own regional varieties. The bread you buy in Lombardy doesn’t look anything like the one you find in Puglia, for example. I have got to say things have GREATLY improved in the UK since I arrived  as a student and you can indeed find lovely baked bread here too, if you know where to look. Even in supermarkets the selection of fresh bread is not bad at all compared to what it once was. Anyway, I have tried over the years to make my own bread and pizza with various degrees of success. I even had a bread making machine for a while but in the end I gave up and resorted to the bakery section of my local Sainsbury. Continue reading ‘Long live bread (or Viva il pane!)’

Carrot cake

Published by Lucina, on 5 novembre 2012 in cakes, Dolci and English Recipes. 3 Comments Tags: , .

carrot cake

Who doesn’t like a good carrot cake? Not me! I LOVE them and this particular one is a winner, especially when you consider that it doesn’t contain any evil dairy (read: butter). It’s by Rachel Allen, whose recipes I really like. I’ve made this particular cake many times and it has always been a success. It’s lovely with a good cup of tea. In the original recipe there is an orange cheese cream icing as a topping but , to be perfectly honest, I find those type of toppings far too sweet and a bit sickly. Hence I didn’t put any on mine. Not much point putting icing on only to scrape it off before you eat the cake, is there? PLUS it’s a lot healthier (all in relative terms, of course) without it. Certainly it doesn’t have as many calories….And who wants to go to an extra class of zumba to burn off the extra 200 calories?:-) Continue reading ‘Carrot cake’

Giant cous cous with green beans and apricots

Published by Lucina, on 25 ottobre 2012 in English Recipes, salad and vegetarian. 1 Comment

giant cous cous with apricots and green beans

I LOVE cous cous and I often make it as a salad, with different ingredients (you can basically put anything you want in it and it always tastes nice). I have been making it more and more ever since we went to Marrakesh (remember, dear Candi???). Sometimes I just serve it plain with some flaked almonds,  pomegranate and fresh coriander to accompany a maroccan stew or tagine. Yummy! Last time I was shopping I spotted a box of giant cous cous on the shelf. I was intrigued so I bought it and had a go at cooking it. I really liked it as it has more of a bite than normal cous cous. It was even nicer the day after as all the flavours had more of a chance to  blend together and develop. Continue reading ‘Giant cous cous with green beans and apricots’