Author Archive for Lucina

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Green veggies stir fry with egg-fried rice

Published by Lucina, on 9 novembre 2014 in English Recipes, vegetables, vegetarian and Verdure. 1 Comment
green veggies stir fry with egg fried rice

green veggies stir fry with egg fried rice

I don’t know why I don’t make stir fries more often, particularly now that I am the proud owner of a fabulous non-stick ceramic wok (thanks to a massive hint dropped in my husband’s ear before my birthday). :-) Stir fries are quick, they are easy to make and they are healthy. Not to mention cheap. Now, thanks to the aforementioned wok, I won’t end up with an almighty burnt mess at the bottom of the pan.  A massive plus point there, then! This recipe is from the mighty Hugh (Fearnley- Whittingstall. Who else?)’s River Cottage book Eat veg every day, which I LOVE.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is vegetarian. So many appealing recipes in there! In the book it  goes by the name of Summer Stir-fry but I couldn’t call it that, being November! So I re-christened it. Why not? By the way I have tried it with egg-fried rice as the recipe suggests, as well as with rice noodles. I liked them both. Of course you can add other ingredients like mushrooms, broccoli florets, cashew nuts,  prawns, etc..  and I might just do that next time. The only faff (if we can call it that) is that you have to chop all vegetables beforehand and have everything ready, which means stacks of little bowls/plates/chopping boards all over the place. Still, definitely worth the effort and the mess in the kitchen! Continue reading ‘Green veggies stir fry with egg-fried rice’

Prune and chocolate torte

Published by Lucina, on 2 novembre 2014 in cakes and English Recipes. 0 Comments Tags: , .
prune and chocolate torte

prune and chocolate torte

Well…I can’t be blogging healthy things all of the time so here’s a nice, chocolatey cake which requires egg whites rather than whole eggs. That’s right! Rather unusual, isn’t it? I had had my eyes on it for a while. As it happened today I discovered a packet of soft punes in the cupboard plus I knew I had some egg whites which had been languishing in the fridge for a few days so , voilà, I decided  to try it.  I have got to say I was impressed with its taste and texture: it was really soft and moist. A must for all lovers of chocolate then. Also on the plus side the fact that the quantity of butter in it was unusually low. The recipe comes from the BBC Good food website. I wonder if you could substitute the flour with ground almonds or rice flour to make it suitable for gluten intolerant people. I might experiment next time. Continue reading ‘Prune and chocolate torte’

Mujaddara

Published by Lucina, on 25 ottobre 2014 in English Recipes, vegetables and vegetarian. 1 Comment

mujadarra                                                                                                    mujaddara

Although I confess I had never heard about this dish until my son waxed lyrical about it and urged me to add it to my vegetarian repertoire (I think I have already mentioned I have more or less dropped meat from my diet ), it is apparently very popular in the Arab world. It’s a one pot dish made with lentils, rice and caramelized onions as a base. It’s great to make as it’s a complete meal : it contains proteins, carbohydrates and vegetables. And it’s dead simple as well as being cheap, filling and surprisingly very tasty. What more can anyone want? I have seen different spellings of it as well as different recipes on line. What I am blogging is a combination of what I’ve found. It worked for me but feel free to experiment with spices and herbs. My son’s recipe for example was a bit simpler than the one I ended up making. And by the way, isn’t it nice when one gets ideas of things to cook from her own son? I must have brought him up well then… :-) By the way it’s nice served with a dollop of Greek yoghurt. Continue reading ‘Mujaddara’

Baklava

Published by Lucina, on 14 ottobre 2014 in cakes, Cucina regionale, Dolci and English Recipes. 4 Comments Tags: , , , .
baklava

baklava

These incredibly rich, gooey, sweet pastries are definitely not for diabetic people or anyone on a diet, I am warning you. HOWEVER, they are delicious and a little piece of them goes a long way which makes them ideal to share with a group of friends. They are made with  layers of buttered filo pastry and contain lots of chopped nuts. What holds them together is honey or syrup. So you can imagine the high number of calories that these little beauties possess. Even an hour of Zumba I am not sure would be able to shift them. Anyway, the inspiration to make baklavas came from my holiday to the Greek island of Paxos, back in September, where they seemed to be sold everywhere (Oh happy, sunny days! If only I could be back there. Autumn is definitely upon us now :-(….). I understand, however, that they are Turkish in origin. Making baklava was also one of the challenges on one of the episodes of the Great British Bake off programme, which has just finished. So I had to have a go, didn’t I? The recipe I used came from the BBC Good food website, slightly adapted. I checked other recipes online and they all seem to be very similar. Unlike in the GB Bake off competition I most certainly did not make my own filo pastry. Come off it!  Life is too short for that! Anyway, they were very nice and made some colleagues at work happy. Continue reading ‘Baklava’

Uova ripiene al tonno

Published by Lucina, on 5 ottobre 2014 in English Recipes and starters. 0 Comments

uova ripiene

These eggs take me back to when I was a little girl and was visiting my grandparents. My grandma  always made these stuffed eggs with tuna as an antipasto when we visited- amongst other things (I still salivate thinking about them. She was such a good cook!). I didn’t mind the fact that she didn’t vary the repertoire as I used to love them. As I was taking a trip to memory lane I decided to recreate them. I’m not sure I have got the quantities right but I think I am roughly on the right track. They are ideal as a snack/starter and really easy to make. The only problem is shelling the hardboiled eggs , which can be a bit of a bugger sometimes!

Continue reading ‘Uova ripiene al tonno’

Breadcrumbed fennel

Published by Lucina, on 28 settembre 2014 in English Recipes, vegetables, vegetarian and Verdure. 1 Comment

breadcrumbed fennel

I don’t know about you but I adore fennel! I love its aniseedy flavour. I often steam it and then add a bit of crème fraiche and grated parmesan to it. Simple and delicious. But today I was in the mood to try something new. Cast your eyes on the left hand side of the picture to see what the final result looked like. Ignore the rest. I was impressed with how nice this way of cooking fennel was. Ok, I confess: it’s a bit of a faff and your kitchen will look  like a bomb site by the time you have finished ( you have to dip it in three different things before frying it) BUT it’s worth it. I had it with salmon and mangetout, as you can see, but I think these delightful slices of breadcrumbed fennel  would go equally  well with some sort of dips as a starter or indeed as an  accompaniment to any roast. Try it for yourself! Continue reading ‘Breadcrumbed fennel’

Milk bread loaf

Published by Lucina, on 16 settembre 2014 in bread and English Recipes. 2 Comments

milk loaf2

Hello everyone, I am finally back after my Greek holiday and rearing to cook again (and share my recipes with you). I confess it is a bit depressing to come back to Autumn after some lazy sunny days spent on the island of Paxos. On the other hand it is nice to be able to throw toilet paper down the loo again (which is forbidden in Greece, in case people don’t know…). Anyway, moving on swiftly, let me share with you the recipe of this milk loaf bread (courtesy of Dan Leppard) which I made for the traditional book group ladies tea party  which takes place every year in August. The idea is to use the best china and produce a top notch afternoon tea. Everyone has to contribute. All the ladies belonging to the group are excellent cooks so it is always delicious and worth the extra calories. This year the host was my good friend (and lover of all things Italian), Jill. She made a lovely job of setting it up (as you can see from pics below). I would have paid top dollars to partake of what turned out to be a most delicious afternoon tea, which would have made  Jane Austen proud. My brief was to make dinky sandwiches so I couldn’t possibly buy a ready made Warburton loaf, could I? I had to make my own. This one was really lovely: soft and delicate. A bit of a cross between a brioche and bread.  I’d recommend you try it! Obviously you have to cut the crusty bits off but they are so nice I scoffed the lot. 😉 Continue reading ‘Milk bread loaf’

Blackberry jam

Published by Lucina, on 30 agosto 2014 in English Recipes and jam. 2 Comments

blackberry jam

Dear readers, apologies for the long silence but we encountered technical problems on the blog. Basically when we logged in  as administrators it was all a big blank, as if everything had disappeared. Cue in panic attack…What? The work of over 4 years down the drain? Luckily Candi has a techno savvy son and he managed to sort it out for us (thank you Matteo!!!) but we had to wait until he came back from his holidays. He was trying to explain to me what had gone wrong but it was like he was speaking double dutch. FTP files? What are they? Plugins? Akismet?  They sound like characters out of the Muppet show…Anyway, we are back in business so today I would like to share how to make blackberry jam with you. I love this jam, seeds and all, and it is so easy to make. It sets really well and quickly. Honestly: everyone could make it. I have already made 3 batches as blackberries are beginning to ripen now (earlier than usual) and are readily available if one knows where to look. Do take yourself in the countryside, collect some and have a go! And by the way, you will have to be patient once more as both me and Candi will be away for the next 2 weeks. Continue reading ‘Blackberry jam’

Minestrone soup

Published by Lucina, on 7 agosto 2014 in English Recipes, Soup and vegetarian. 1 Comment

lovely minestrone soup

Is this possible? Have I never blogged minestrone before? Unthinkable! Absurd! (to use one of the lines from the excellent musical The Fiddler on the roof). Well….in truth I don’t know why I have never done it until now as I LOVE minestrone and I often make it. I tend to make a huge batch of it, then either eat it for days on end or freeze some of it. To an Italian person minestrone will not sound all that exciting. After all it is pretty basic stuff . Still, we are here to share what we eat and, as I mentioned, minestrone is a welcome, frequent guest at my table. Plus my English friends will approve, I am sure. I know: summer is not exactly the right season to blog soups BUT , let’s face it, from what Candida has been saying, WHAT SUMMER? The weather in Italy has been very much minestrone weather so far, I’d say. Coming back to this queen of soups. The only minus point compared to other soups is that it is rather faffy to make as you have to neatly chop all your vegetables into bite size pieces  instead of chucking them  in the pot, boiling and liquidizing them. In other words, making minestrone is a labour of love: it takes time and patience. But you will be rewarded at the end. Trust me! Basically the more vegetables you put in the better. Always remember to include some potatoes and onions and some borlotti beans or similar, to give it body. Continue reading ‘Minestrone soup’

Verdurine fritte in pastella

Published by Lucina, on 28 luglio 2014 in English Recipes, vegetables, vegetarian and Verdure. 1 Comment
verdurine fritte in pastella

Once again I resort to the Italian title which sounds a lot nicer than its English equivalent. Basically these are vegetable strips fried in a light batter. The novelty is that they include courgettes’ flowers (in the picture they are the blobby things in the  bottom right corner). Oh yes! These are a delicacy in Italy and something I have always wanted to try making. You can stuff them, fry them or indeed use them in other recipes. The only problem was they don’t sell the flowers here in the UK (they do in Italy). So imagine my delight when the courgette I planted  and  nurtured this year started growing like mad and producing lots of courgettes as well as flowers! I have never seen anything as big as this plant! It has basically taken over my mini vegetable patch (which I created in an old whisky barrel). Every day I look and another couple of courgettes have sprung up. Unbelievable! Do they all grow as fast as that? Anyway I had 4 flowers to use today so I decided it would be a bit of a waste to make the batter just to fry them, hence the idea of adding other vegetables. I used courgettes (of course), carrots and asparagus. Of course you can try other vegetables too. Peppers would be very nice for example, as well as aubergines or cauliflower. The recipe for the batter, which I thought was very light, came from the Giallo Zafferano website. By the way: you must eat them as soon as you have cooked them or they lose their crunchiness. Needless to say the diet will start tomorrow…ha ha 😉 Continue reading ‘Verdurine fritte in pastella’