Baked sea bream with fennel and onion

Published by Lucina, on 17 febbraio 2012 in English Recipes, fish and Pesce. 1 Comment Tags: , , .
baked sea bream with fennel and onion

I am blogging this  über healthy recipe to counter balance the very indulgent ones we have been sharing recently. We seem to favour cakes and all manner of sweet, and may I add unhealthy, delights on our blog but not as many main courses (meat/fish, etc). I wonder why that is. :-) Anyway this particular dish can’t be accused of being “bad” for you or fattening so here I am promoting it to our little group of foodie friends. An interesting thing to report here is that I had NO idea what the Italian word for sea bream was when I embarked on the idea of cooking it. I had had sea bream in restaurants before, of course, but had no idea what the Italian word for it was. In truth something linguistically very peculiar has been taking place with fish ever since I moved to this country many many years ago. Namely, I know the English- Italian translation of many bog standard fish (like salmon, trout, sole, cod, etc.) but navigate a little further afield (in the world of the sea bream, sea bass, red snapper and such like) and I’m totally and utterly lost. Clueless in fact! Continue reading ‘Baked sea bream with fennel and onion’

Torta di farro all’arancia

Published by Candida, on 11 febbraio 2012 in Dolci and Ricette in Italiano. 8 Comments Tags: , , , .

Ho voluto vedere se si può usare la farina di farro per fare le torte, non solo un pochino, ma proprio tutta di farro. E così ho usato una ricetta che mi ispirava e l’ho coniugata al farro. Grazie quindi a Rossella di Vaniglia che ha postato questa torta della sua mamma. Ecco qua la mia versione farrOginosa. Funziona.

PS. Oggi a casa nostra è il giorno dei compleanni: marito/figlio/sorella in un colpo solo. Questo, infatti, è un post programmato. Io sono in cucina per le torte!

Continue reading ‘Torta di farro all’arancia’

Honey and peanut butter cereal bars

Published by Lucina, on 7 febbraio 2012 in cakes and English Recipes. 7 Comments

honey and peanut butter cereal bar

I MUST blog these delicious, moist cereal bars which I made for the first time last week. I found the recipe in the Everyday River Cottage recipe book I’ve already mentioned in my last posting.They are divine and everyone has been remarking on how good they taste. My dearest hubby liked them so much he decided to make a batch himself to take to work. Sure enough his colleagues were mightily  impressed. Particularly when they heard HE had made them. Ok I supervised him a teeny weeny bit but still… Anyway, they are a cinch to make and are a lot healthier than the bog standard cereal bars you  buy in the shops. …. They are packed full with oats, seeds and dried fruit so they have got to be good for you, right? RIGHT! I grant: there is also butter, sugar, honey and peanut butter amongst the ingredients, which are hardly healthy, but who’s looking,eh? They are ideal to take to work and munch when you need an energy fix. By the way, I LOVE peanut butter. I confess I could happily scoff half a jar by myself…..Mmmmmhhhhh! On to the recipe then…. Continue reading ‘Honey and peanut butter cereal bars’

La cremina mou per il panettone di San Biagio

Published by Candida, on 2 febbraio 2012 in Chiacchiere/Chatting, Dolci and Ricette in Italiano. 2 Comments Tags: , .

Domani è il 3 febbraio, San Biagio, medico e vescovo, protettore della gola. Da noi nel milanese è tradizione mangiare il panettone avanzato da Natale. E se non lo hai avanzato tu, sta sicuro che i negozi sono ben felici di sbarazzarsi dei loro avanzi e si precipiteranno a vendere i panettoni a compra due/paghi uno. Noi a casa l’abbiamo avanzato e ora la famiglia mi ha ordinato la cremina che faccio sempre per Natale e Santo Stefano. E’ semplice e di solito è molto gettonata.

Dolcetti di pasta fillo al pistacchio

Published by Candida, on 31 gennaio 2012 in Dolci and Ricette in Italiano. 3 Comments Tags: , , .

Avete mai sofferto di sindrome da pasta fillo? Una specie di panico dovuto a esperienze traumatiche da pasta che rompe, appiccica, raggruma in gomitoli informi, altro che filo/fillo/phyllo (greco: foglia)… Questa meravigliosa pasta sfoglia si presenta a fogli sottili e lisci come la seta che però sono delicati e vanno sempre tenuti sotto un asciugamano umido mentre si lavora, altrimenti si seccano. Io qualche misfatto con la pasta fillo l’ho combinato, scongelandola male, appiccicandola ecc…

Come aveva detto Lucina? Si finisce per combinare  a stodgy mess. Ecco, proprio, quella cosa lì. Espressione da imparare… stodgy=heavy, hard to digest, dull, boring…

Ma è meravigliosa e meravigliosi sono i piatti che rende possibili. Eccone uno. Continue reading ‘Dolcetti di pasta fillo al pistacchio’

Roast Jerusalem artichoke,hazelnut and goat’s cheese salad

Published by Lucina, on 29 gennaio 2012 in English Recipes, salad and vegetables. 6 Comments Tags: , .
roast Jerusalem artichoke salad

It looks as if I’ll have to post another recipe and quick as Candi clearly hasn’t yet worked out how to upload photos using her new camera. Oh dear me! The trials and tribulations of new technology,eh? :-) I think I’ll personally  stick to my mobile phone. Ok , my photos are far from looking professional but still…you get the picture, right? And pardon the pun on words…Anyway, here’s a new salad recipe I tried the other day using Jerusalem artichokes. I found them in my last veggie box (it must be that time of year again) so decided to try something different from the soup I made last time (and blogged). The recipe is taken and adapted from a new recipe book I got at Christmas by Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall called River Cottage everyday. I’ve never roasted Jerusalem artichokes before but I’ve got to say I was impressed. They tasted really lovely and went very well with the goat’s cheese. In The River Cottage book the goat cheese used is the hard, crumbly variety which gets tossed in the salad itself, but I used the other type, grilled it and placed it on top. I reckon it is equally nice. Continue reading ‘Roast Jerusalem artichoke,hazelnut and goat’s cheese salad’

Where are the misdemeanors??

Published by Lucina, on 21 gennaio 2012 in Chiacchiere/Chatting. 4 Comments

We have called this blog recipes and misdemeanors but so far we have only blogged many recipes and NO misdemeanors. So here I am to set the record straight, partly for people like Alessandra who commented on the last recipe feeling inadequate about her culinary skills. The truth is that you can only learn and improve by…well, cooking. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But NOBODY just produces culinary delights from the word “go” without making SOME mistakes. There have to be some trials and errors. Like with many other things. There is a proverb here that says: “Practice makes perfect”. How true! If it’s any consolation, Alessandra, when I got married I could just about fry an egg. To vary on the theme sometimes I would add some ham or cheese, or cheese AND ham to be outlandish. Both myself and my poor husband soon got fed up with the lack of variety so I had to learn…and fast. Ok, it helps the fact I LOVE eating, but let’s face it: food is one of the pleasures in life. Right? We mustn’t feel bad or guilty about liking…loving….food.  Continue reading ‘Where are the misdemeanors??’

Variazione sul tema ciocco-noci. Brownies alle noci

Published by Candida, on 15 gennaio 2012 in Dolci and Ricette in Italiano. 7 Comments Tags: .

Lo so, è imperdonabile, dopo tanta assenza presentarsi con una ricetta con gli stessi ingredienti dell’ultima postata. A mia metafisica giustificazione introdurrò il tema del tempo come flusso continuo difficilmente sezionabile e della necessità di un ponte tra vecchio e nuovo anno… Oppure una più prosaica scusa per la mancanza non di ricette pensate e realizzate ma di foto a causa di una nuova macchina fotografica e di un maledetto cavetto finito chissà dove (forse buttato?) così da impedire l’estrazione delle foto dalla suddetta macchina. Ora però il tempo stringe, devo postare prima che Lucina torni a casa e mi sgridi! Alimenterò la vostra pazienza con questa sfocatissima foto da telefonino di questi brownies molto buoni e veloci, solo un po’ calorici :(, ma tant’è… poi rifatevi con il pesce postato da Lucina. Continue reading ‘Variazione sul tema ciocco-noci. Brownies alle noci’

Fillets of salmon with dill and capers

Published by Lucina, on 5 gennaio 2012 in English Recipes and fish. 1 Comment

fillets of salmon with capers and dill

Well…..happy new year everyone! Sorry for the absence from the blog but Christmas time is no time to go on a computer! I have been extremely busy and I’m only now getting back to some sort of normality and into cooking mood. Actually, that’s not quite true as I have spent a big part of my holidays cooking for a houseful of men! Anyway…..time to start experimenting in the kitchen again. Last night I tried this very simple salmon dish from the BBC Good food magazine. It was really simple but very tasty so I’ve decided to share it with you. And that’s what we want, us busy ladies with jobs: straightforward, no fuss recipes! By the way I had to look in the dictionary the Italian word for “dill”. I confess I didn’t know. Apparently it’s “aneto”. Not sure how common it is in Italy or whether it is readily available. It goes very well with fish and potato salads. Do you use it Candi? I really like it. Anyway, enough chatting. Let’s get cooking! Continue reading ‘Fillets of salmon with dill and capers’

Pear and raspberry cake

Published by Lucina, on 16 dicembre 2011 in cakes and English Recipes. 0 Comments

pear and raspberries cake

How is it possible to combine an autumn fruit like the pear with a summer one like the raspberry? Thanks to globalization, that’s what! And I have got to admit I am feeling a bit guilty about it.  I am not sure how kosha, or good for the environment, it is to buy raspberries from Argentina in December. I hope readers will forgive me. Candi, do you remember when we were kids and there was none of this luxury of being able to find ANYTHING in the fruit and vegetable world at ANY time of the year? I very much doubt there will be many young people out there who KNOW for sure when certain fruits or vegetables are in season. And another thing: we might be able to find strawberries in the depth of winter but, let’s face it, they are rather tasteless! Anyway, enough rambling! I have made this cake a few times now and it has been a success on every single occasion. I found the recipe (which I slightly adapted) in the Rachel Allen’s book called Bake, which is shortly turning into a Bible for me, as I have made many things out of it already. Continue reading ‘Pear and raspberry cake’