Archive for the 'English Recipes' Category

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Cream of cauliflower and stilton soup

Published by Lucina, on 8 gennaio 2014 in English Recipes and Soup. 1 Comment Tags: , .

cream of cauliflower and stilton soup

After the excesses of the past couple of weeks and the distinctive lack of vegetables in my diet in favour of sweets, cakes, biscuits, chocolate and all things calorie laden I am back on healthier stuff. In short ….bring back the soups and the salads!!  Soups are a firm favourite of mine and I’m always on the look out for new ones. Sometimes they are just a good way of using whatever veggies you have languishing in the fridge. This cream of cauliflower is a case in point:  I had a piece of sad looking stilton left over from Christmas, one cauliflower and …voilà…this soup was born. I confess I am not a fan of cauliflower (unless it is encased in béchamel sauce!)- not to mention its smell- but I must say I was surprised as to how creamy and tasty this one was. My husband was full of compliments and urged me to blog it as he enjoyed it so much. So how could I refuse? So here goes…. Continue reading ‘Cream of cauliflower and stilton soup’

Savoury brioche with ham,cheese and olives

Published by Lucina, on 30 dicembre 2013 in bread, English Recipes and Torte salate, pizze. 1 Comment

savoury brioche with ham, cheese and olives

Hello everyone, I bet you are all reeling from the Christmas excesses. Well, here’s another excess you MUST indulge yourself in: this incredible savoury brioche. It’s to die for! Amazingly soft and very, very tasty. You will impress family and friends if you produce one of these, I am sure.  I have already made it three times with very pleasing results. This one has ham in it but you could make it vegetarian by substituting the ham with mushrooms. What I like about it is that, unlike other brioches I have seen, it doesn’t contain ridiculously high amounts of butter.  I found the recipe on this amazing Italian blog called Zenzero e limone (Ginger and lemon to you!) and slightly adapted it. The lady who blogs is clearly passionate about cooking and knows her stuff in the kitchen . I will be trying some more of her recipes soon for sure!! Anyway, if you are interested in trying your hands at some yeasty type of bread try this one. Success guaranteed! Continue reading ‘Savoury brioche with ham,cheese and olives’

Chelsea buns with mincemeat

Published by Lucina, on 24 dicembre 2013 in cakes and English Recipes. 1 Comment

chelsea buns with mincemeat

And here’s one of the things I made with my homemade mincemeat.  Chelsea buns go back a long time. According to Wikipedia (so it must be true…ha ha) they made their first appearance in the 18th century. The traditional variety are made with an enriched dough and contain currants, brown sugar and spices. They have a nice, sticky glaze on the top. I decided to give them a Christmas twist by using mincemeat  and lovely they were too. Candi blogged a Swedish version,  similar in looks to these, but made with cinnamon and cardamom last year (see here). As they are type of bread buns they  are best eaten on the day. Continue reading ‘Chelsea buns with mincemeat’

Home made mincemeat with brandy

Published by Lucina, on 24 dicembre 2013 in cakes and English Recipes. 2 Comments Tags: , .

mincemeat with brandy

I can already see Italian people puzzling over the word “mincemeat”. Surely you can’t mix minced meat with brandy, right? RIGHT! I was puzzled too when I first came to England and realized that there is no meat in this traditional mixture that you use to make mince pies (one of the the traditional sweets to have here at Christmas time). Phew! Mincemeat is actually a sweet concoction made with raisins, sultanas, candy peels, sugar, spices, etc. So why is it called mincemeat? I really don’t know, is the answer. Must go on google and see whether I can find the solution to the riddle. All I know is that traditional mincemeat contains suet which is fat from meat. Could that be the reason why? Anyway, last year I made frangipane mince pies which turned out to be really nice, but I used mincemeat I had bought. This year I decided to make my own. Oh yes! And a cinch it was too! I didn’t use suet for mine but butter, as suggested by the mighty Mary Berry (the inspiration came from watching a Christmas programme with her and Paul Hollywood). I have already used some for the frangipane mincepies but ALSO to fill some Chelsea buns, which I will blog as well. They were both a success. Continue reading ‘Home made mincemeat with brandy’

Date and honey wholemeal bread

Published by Lucina, on 19 dicembre 2013 in bread and English Recipes. 0 Comments Tags: , .

                                     date and honey wholemeal bread

Despite my previous post this bread was not made with sourdough. Anybody can do it, don’t worry! (Having said that I confess I am now in the habit of adding a dollop of sourdough to all the breads I bake. It is supposed to improve the texture.) My fascination for bread continues, following the two bread making courses I attended. I hardly ever buy bread from the supermarket these days. At a push I get it from the local artisan bakery but I have now got into the swing of baking my own. Once you get into the routine it is really quite easy. Plus I get a lot of pleasure and satisfaction out of it. I’m sure it’s much better for your health anyway (have you looked at the ingredients list of those supermarket loaves- the sliced ones sold in plastic bags, I mean? There is all sort of rubbish! How else could they last for weeks? SCARY!). Continue reading ‘Date and honey wholemeal bread’

Pistachio and cardamom shortbreads

Published by Lucina, on 5 dicembre 2013 in biscuits and English Recipes. 3 Comments

pistachio and cardamom shortbreads

Yes! Yet another biscuit recipe to share with you, my friends! From the woman who never used to bake them it’s pretty impressive,uh? I have come to the conclusion biscuits are rather a  versatile thing to make! You can offer them to friends when they make a surprise call, have one with your tea or coffee when you are feeling peckish or take one to work with your packed lunch to make it less boring and impress your colleagues. And all without feeling you are overindulging too much. Somebody will point out that these little babies aren’t without a calory or two, judging by the quantity of butter that goes into them but I choose to ignore the remark. Anyway I baked these beauties a few weeks ago and they went down a treat with my Italian lady friends. My husband’s work mates were also suitably impressed. I LOVE pistachios and adore cardamom as a spice so when I spotted this Ottolenghi recipe containing both I just KNEW I had to try them. And sure enough they didn’t let me down. They were definitely worth the effort. Lovely and crumbly, with a rather moreish, delicate flavour. I’ll make them again for sure. I was thinking how lovely they would go with some coconut ice cream or similar….YUMMY! Food for thought…. Continue reading ‘Pistachio and cardamom shortbreads’

Canederli agli spinaci

Published by Lucina, on 24 novembre 2013 in Cucina regionale, English Recipes, Primi and vegetarian. 3 Comments Tags: .

canederli agli spinaci

As I promised on my return from my summer holidays in the Dolomites here I am blogging a typical dish from that area ( which I finally got round to making) : the legendary canederli. What are they? I hear you ask…. Well, the best way to describe them is they are big bread dumplings which are cooked in boiling salted water. A bit like gnocchi. They were originally a peasant dish. I have made the vegetarian version (with spinach and cheese) but the traditional ones contain speck which is a smoked ham from those mountains. I tried both versions when I was in Italy, as well as those made with beetroot. All delicious,  and a great way to use stale bread. They are not difficult to prepare and are very tasty (as well as VERY filling). Recipes on the internet vary but here’s what I did. It worked first time. Continue reading ‘Canederli agli spinaci’

Biscoitos de maizena (take 2)

Published by Lucina, on 15 novembre 2013 in biscuits and English Recipes. 0 Comments Tags: , .

 

biscoitos de maizena (take 2)

If Candi is also jumping on the maizena band wagon I can’t NOT (can you have a double negative in English? I am not sure!) blog the second experiment with maizena biscuits which I promised you. The ones only using  maizena flour, remember? The advantage of this version is that they can be enjoyed by gluten intolerant people. I must say this 100% maizena flour variety is every bit as nice as the previous one and certainly as easy to make, if not easier. I particularly like their yellowish colour and their slightly coarser  texture, (because of the maizena flour which basically resembles polenta, only finer). I reduced the amount of butter and sugar the recipe suggested but even then I confess there is quite a lot of both in them. Oh well!   You only need to have ONE with your tea or coffee. It won’t send your cholesterol levels sky high, surely! Continue reading ‘Biscoitos de maizena (take 2)’

Torta caprese al limone… di nuovo la maizena

Published by Candida, on 10 novembre 2013 in cakes, Dolci and Ricette in Italiano. 3 Comments Tags: , , , .

Ho adattato e rifatto una ricetta di Giallo Zafferano per questa torta un po’ calorica ma davvero goduriosa. Niente farina, solo maizena e mandorle che le danno corpo. Io sono partita dalle mandorle intere (mi erano appena arrivate dalla Sicilia) che ho sbucciato tuffandole per qualche minuto in acqua bollente, ma niente impedisce di comprare la farina di mandorle che si trova dappertutto. Dà veramente tante soddisfazioni. Continue reading ‘Torta caprese al limone… di nuovo la maizena’

Biscoitos de maizena

Published by Lucina, on 5 novembre 2013 in biscuits, Dolci and English Recipes. 8 Comments Tags: .

biscoitos de maizena

Yes, I am blogging in Portuguese! Well…at least the name of the recipe. It sounds much more enticing. Let me tell you why I ended up making these lovely little biscuits. The inspiration to bake them actually came from Candi’s post (biscottini al limone). Last weekend I tried making them but sadly they turned into a misdemeanour (read:they ended up in the bin). Why? Because I must have put too much bicarbonate of soda in them and you could taste it when you ate them. Oh dear!  Candi’s teaspoon must be much smaller than mine. :-(  Never mind: I know what to do next time. Anyway, I noticed that one of Candi’s biscottini al limone’s ingredients was maizena. Only a tablespoon of it but still. It so happened that I had a small bag of it in my cupboard, still unopened and about to expire with NO idea what to make with it so I started searching the net for biscuits recipes requiring maizena flour. Continue reading ‘Biscoitos de maizena’