Monthly Archive for gennaio, 2013

Metti una cantante a cena… La šarlotka di Yulia

Published by Candida, on 29 gennaio 2013 in Cucina regionale, Dolci and Ricette in Italiano. 2 Comments Tags: , .

Se hai in casa una magnifica cantante non puoi farla cantare, povera, sarebbe come sfruttarla una volta di più. Ma la puoi far cucinare… Ecco quindi una superclassicissima torta di mele che in Russia si fa in tutte le famiglie ed è un po’ diversa da quello che intendiamo noi con charlotte, ognuno ha la sua ricetta naturalmente, questa è quella di Yulia Ziganshina, che chiacchierando chiacchierando l’ha fatta in pochissimo tempo e con le scarne provviste che avevo in casa. Perché, come racconta Yulia, la šarlotka si fa con quello che in casa più o meno c’è sempre: farina,uova, zucchero, sale, un po’ di lievito. E le mele, naturalmente. Se poi ci si è imborghesiti, si può mangiare con un po’ di gelato.

Continue reading ‘Metti una cantante a cena… La šarlotka di Yulia’

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. 3 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’