The ultimate nut roast

Published by Lucina, on 8 gennaio 2015 in English Recipes and vegetarian. 2 Comments Tags: , .
the ultimate nut roast

the ultimate nut roast

First of all happy belated New year to everyone! Sorry for the absence but I have been too busy to blog during the holidays, partly as I was engaged in a major decluttering exercise (but that’s a different story!). What I am about to share with you here is the nut roast I made for my son at Christmas. He always asks for one and I dutifully oblige. All the previous nut roasts I made were lentil based but this year I decided to ring in the changes. This one contains mushrooms, parsnips, nuts and chestnuts as the key ingredients and it’s wrapped in savoy cabbage leaves. The result is a very moist and flavoursome dish. My son was very complimentary about it and said it was one of the best he had ever had – and he has eaten a few, I tell you. I spotted it in the Guardian. It’s by Felicity Cloake. I definitey will not wait till next Christmas to make another one! Continue reading ‘The ultimate nut roast’

Terrina d’anatra di Capodanno

Published by Candida, on 30 dicembre 2014 in Antipasti, sfizi, finger food..., carne, omelettes/frittate and Ricette in Italiano. 1 Comment Tags: , .

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Sorry per la foto, ma la ricetta è davvero quel che ci vuole per un cenone. Ha innumerevoli vantaggi: proma la prepari e meglio è. E’ buona avanzata e all’occorrenza la puoi variare con gli avanzi del pranzo di Natale (anche se noi, con gli amici dei ragazzi che sono arrivati alla sera di Natale non abbiamo avuto avanzi!!!). E così siamo arrivati all’ultima ricetta del 2014.

Buon anno a tutti, ma soprattutto alla mia socia, compagna e fedele amica Lucina!

Continue reading ‘Terrina d’anatra di Capodanno’

Spiced red cabbage

Published by Lucina, on 26 dicembre 2014 in English Recipes, vegetables, vegetarian and Verdure. 4 Comments Tags: , , .
braised spicy red cabbage

spiced red cabbage

Welcome back, dear Candi! How I missed you… I did patiently wait for you return but I do confess it was beginning to feel like a monologue. Well …merry belated Christmas and a happy Boxing day to you and everyone else who reads this blog. For my Christmas lunch yesterday I made a nice roast crown of turkey (my vegetarianism took a bit of a knock) but also a nut roast (recipe to follow). Of course I also made lots of lovely vegetables to accompany them. One of them was the spiced red cabbage you see here, which is traditional to make at this time of the year.  My sister in law Stefania asked for the recipe so I thought I might as well blog it. There are many similar recipes around. I used one from Riverford, the organic farms website. I am not a lover of cabbage, I have got to be honest,  but I have got to say this way of making it is rather nice. The good thing about it is that you can make it in advance and eat it cold as well as hot. It keeps really well. The only problem is I slightly overestimated the amount we would need. I could probably have fed a battalion with the quantities I made! :-) By the way another nice variation on the theme this year in the vegetables department was with the brussel sprouts. Instead of the ones with chestnuts I usually make  I cooked them with caramelised onions and blue cheese. Yummy! Definitely a success!  Continue reading ‘Spiced red cabbage’

La gobba perfetta. Madeleinettes al profumo di lavanda. Candi is back!

Published by Candida, on 23 dicembre 2014 in biscuits, Chiacchiere/Chatting, Dolci and teatime. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

DSC_0222Vacanze! E allora finalmente ritorno a bloggare. Povera Lucina, lasciata sola a supportare la baracca. Vorrei fare anche qualche proposito per l’anno nuovo, ma è inutile mettersi di traverso se la vita ti trascina vorticosa. Ammaina le vele e lasciati trasportare aspettando che la buriana si calmi.

E’ stata una ragazzina dalle mani di fata a insegnarmi qualche anno fa a fare la gobbetta delle madeleinettes. E ogni volta sembra impossibile, ma funziona! Grazie a Sasha! Oggi ho deciso di profumarle con la lavanda di Elena che conservo gelosamente sottovuoto e che uso con parsimonia (altrimenti, Luigi, dice, il piatto sa di sapone). Anche su Cavoletto si possono trovare istruzioni utili. Per un tè prima di Natale, per una pausa tra Natale e Capodanno, per l’ultimo regalino dolce… Una volta presa la mano sono davvero facilissime. Questa è la mia versione, ho un po’ modificato le dosi (un po’ meno burro, la farina di mandorle.. ecc). Mi pare che sia affidabile. Provatele, anche se non siete in un mood proustiano… Continue reading ‘La gobba perfetta. Madeleinettes al profumo di lavanda. Candi is back!’

Caponata siciliana

Published by Lucina, on 21 dicembre 2014 in Antipasti, sfizi, finger food..., English Recipes, starters, vegetables, vegetarian and Verdure. 1 Comment
caponata siciliana

caponata siciliana

This is a famous sweet and sour Sicilian dish which I had been meaning to make for a very long time and somehow never got round to do until recently. There are several versions available out there, depending on what part of Sicily they are from (please Carmelita don’t shoot me down if this recipe is not how you make it :-)) . The basic ingredients are aubergines, celery, onions, tomatoes, sultanas, capers and olives. But I have also seen it with peppers and pine kernels and a few other things besides. The version I have made was a bit of a compilation of  the recipes I saw on line. In some of them you have to salt the aubergines beforehand in order to make them expel some of their liquid. I didn’t bother doing that. Life is too short. Caponata is better eaten the day after you have made it so that the flavours get a chance to develop. Also it shouldn’t be served hot but at room temperature. I served it as a starter with some homemade bread but it could accompany a variety of other dishes and dips. Ideal for a buffet. It’s really delicious!  Continue reading ‘Caponata siciliana’

Raspberry and white chocolate traybake

Published by Lucina, on 7 dicembre 2014 in cakes and English Recipes. 1 Comment
raspberry and white chocolate traybake

raspberry and white chocolate traybake

I made this traybake today to share with a group of friends at lunchtime. Yummy! There was enough to offer later on in the afternoon when some lady friends came to have tea at my house. So I basically killed two birds with one stone. The advantage of making a traybake is that you can easily cut smallish portions to share with a large group of people. It’s much trickier to do that with a cake. Anyway, I am glad to report it was a success! I don’t know about you but I love the combination of raspberry and white chocolate. I have got to come clean and confess though that, unlike my previous healthy recipe, this has got a lot of butter in it. :-(BUT, as you can cut it in many dinky little squares, a little piece of it won’t send your cholesterol level off the scale. By the way you’ll never believe where I got the recipe from: it was on the packet of my McDougall flour! And why not? Continue reading ‘Raspberry and white chocolate traybake’

Pumpkin and raisin tea loaf

Published by Lucina, on 30 novembre 2014 in cakes and English Recipes. 0 Comments

pumpkin loaf

After making my Porotos Granados  soup (see previous recipe) I was left with half a sad and lonely butternut squash in the fridge. What to do with it? Surely not another soup…. My attention was drawn to this recipe at the end of the River Cottage Veg everyday book, apparently one of Hugh’s favourites. I decided to try it. What appealed to me was the fact that it has no fat in it. YES, NO FAT! Can you believe it? Or more to the point: can a cake still taste decent without any fat in it? I was somewhat sceptical. Butter free experiments in the past hadn’t been all that successful but I have got to say I was impressed with this loaf. It was tasty and moist and it had a lovely yellowish tinge. Great with a cup of tea/coffee. I confess I did smear a little butter on my slice for added flavour but you don’t have to!   Next time I will try making it using a pumpkin. It might work well even with grated carrots. One would need to experiment. By the way: it definitely tastes better the following day!  Continue reading ‘Pumpkin and raisin tea loaf’

Porotos granados

Published by Lucina, on 22 novembre 2014 in English Recipes, Soup and vegetarian. 0 Comments

 

porotos granados

porotos granados

While waiting for Candi to re-emerge (she has been very busy with her work) you’ll have to suffer my experiments again. I haven’t blogged a soup for a long time but following a request from my sister in law Stefania who, like me, is a fan of soups and has tried most of the ones I have blogged so far, I decided the time had come to experiment again. She needed some inspiration and I was more than happy to oblige! With winter approaching what better than a nice, hot soup complete with some home made bread  (yes! I made that too !) to warm the cockles of one’s heart ? This time I went to Chile for the inspiration. The literal translation of the soup’s name, according to Google, is bean stew. Well, considering it is rather thick and rich perhaps it’s not far off a stew. The good thing about it is that it contains beans, hence proteins, making it a complete meal in itself. I used cannellini but any smallish beans will do (like pinto, aduki, borlotti etc.). I really liked it and will definitely be making it again.  Once again there are many recipes out there for porotos granados but I followed Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s recipe out of his River Cottage Veg every day book (I am afraid you will see a lot of his recipes in the near future as I have turned vegetarian) with a slight variation at the end as I added fresh basil to it which I had seen in other recipes on line. Also, and I am sure it’s not very Chilean, I served mine with grated parmesan.  Live dangerously, I say! I would put parmesan on everything, me! I have even tried it on porridge. Yummy! :-) By the way, if the Italians can’t get hold of a butternut squash I reckon this soup would be equally good made with some good quality pumpkin (not the watery and tasteless Halloweeny variety, mind!). Continue reading ‘Porotos granados’

Raspberry jam

Published by Lucina, on 15 novembre 2014 in English Recipes and jam. 0 Comments Tags: , .
raspberry jam

raspberry jam

Yes! I am afraid I am inflicting another jam on you. Raspberry this time! “Is she trying to tell us something?”, I hear you ask. “She has been blogging quite a few of the damn stuff lately!” Well….  you are not wrong. Basically I am trying to convince you to try making some, assuming you like eating jam like me , of course.  It is such a cinch! Honestly!  Have a go and you will never look back. The advantage of home made jam, taste aside- which is by far superior-, is that you can control the quality of the fruit and you know exactly what has gone into it. In this particular case I used 4 punnets of raspberries which had been reduced in price. They were expiring that day and Sainsbury was selling them off cheap. From £2.75 each to 69 p. What a bargain!  Ok some looked a bit on the soft side but basically they were perfectly fine. Luck would have it that the jam sugar was on special offer too. Only £1! So for under £4 I ended up with nearly 2 kilos of jam. Not bad, uh? I have of course given some away. One mustn’ t be greedy and forget one’s friends, must one! This afternoon I made some fresh scones (see recipe here) and topped them with my raspberry jam (see pic below) . OMG!DELICIOUS! Definitely one to make again. Continue reading ‘Raspberry jam’

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’