broccoli al vapore con salsina al miso e noci / steamed broccoli with walnut miso dressing

June 15, 2014 | Simona

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

fresh from the farmers' market

When vegetables are this fresh and pretty, it is almost a pity to cut them up and cook them, so I try to treat them gently. In this recipe, I steam them until tender to my liking and accompany them with a nut-based dressing.

just steamed

I save the water at the bottom of the pot where I steam the broccoli and use it to blend miso and lightly toasted walnuts.

red miso, walnuts and the dressing

Print-friendly version of briciole's recipe for steamed broccoli with walnut miso dressing

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb. / 680 g broccoli OR 1 lb. / 450 g broccoli and 1/2 lb. / 230 g romanesco broccoli (cavolo broccolo romanesco), freshly harvested and possibly organic
1/4 cup / 60 ml broccoli cooking water
1 oz. / 30 g walnuts
1 tablespoon / 20 g mild red miso (see Note below)

Note: miso (fermented soybeans with rice or barley and salt) comes in several varieties, i.e., various degrees of flavor intensity and saltiness. The one I use has a nice balance of both characteristics and it is also in balance — in terms of quantity — with the vegetables, so the flavor of the dressing does not overwhelm that of the broccoli. You may need to adjust the amount of miso up or down based on the kind you use and your personal preference, but try to keep the balance so no note rings louder than the others.

Prepare the broccoli
Wash and cut broccoli heads into florets. Halve large florets lengthwise to get bite-sized pieces. Peel the tough outer layer of the stalk(s), quarter if very thick, and cut crosswise into coins. Steam to desired softness. (I like both broccoli and cauliflower soft, but I know that not everybody shares my preference.)

Remove broccoli from the steam basket and let cool in a salad bowl. Set aside the cooking water.

Prepare the walnuts
If your walnuts are freshly cracked, toast them lightly in a dry pan, shaking the pan often.

Otherwise, in her “Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone”, Deborah Madison gives instructions on how to treat walnuts to improve their flavor when they aren't freshly cracked, and make them less irritating for people who are sensitive to their skins. Bring a pan of water to a boil, add walnuts and let them stand for one minute, then drain them and absorb the excess moisture with a towel. Finally, spread the walnuts on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat and place them in the oven preheated to 300 F until they have dried out, 15-20 minutes. Remove them from the oven as soon as they are dry. (I do this for 6-8 oz. / 170-225 g walnuts at a time since I use walnuts often in my recipes. Store walnuts in the refrigerator.)

Prepare the dressing
Close to serving time, place walnuts into a blender and chop finely.

Add miso and water and blend.

Pour dressing onto the broccoli, using a slender spatula to get all the dressing out of the blender.

Stir well and serve. (The amount of salt in the miso I use is sufficient; depending on the miso of your choice, you may need to adjust the salt.)

Serves 5-6.

steamed broccoli with miso walnut dressing

ready for dinner

I like to serve farm-fresh broccoli dressed this way as a side (contorno) to Alice Waters's slow-cooked king salmon.

This is my contribution to edition #437 of Weekend Herb Blogging, an event started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, now organized by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once and Brii of briggishome. and hosted this week by Haalo.

The roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

broccoli al vapore con salsina al miso e noci

or launch the broccoli al vapore con salsa al miso e noci audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

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broccoli, miso, walnut, side dish

broccoli al vapore con salsina al miso e noci

freschi dal farmers' market

Quando la verdura è così fresca e bella è quasi un peccato tagliarla e cuocerla, quindi uso maniere delicate: cottura al vapore e un velo di condimento.

cotti al vapore

Metto da parte l'acqua che rimane in forno alla pentola nella quale cuocio i broccoli e la uso per frullare miso e noci tostate.

miso rosso, noci e salsina

Ingredienti:

680 g broccoli oppure 450 g broccoli e 230 g cavolo broccolo romanesco, freschi e possibilmente bio
60 ml acqua di cottura dei broccoli
30 g noci (vedi sotto)
20 g miso rosso delicato (vedi Nota)

Dosi per 5-6 porzioni

Note: esistono diverse varietà di miso (fagioli di soia fermentati), dal sapore più o meno intenso e più o meno salate. La varietà che uso io è equilibrata per quanto riguarda queste caratteristiche e ne uso una quantità tale da non sopraffare i broccoli. A seconda del tipo di miso che usate e dei vostri gusti potreste doverne aumentare o diminuire la quantità, ma cercate di mantenere un equilibrio tale che nessuna nota risulti più acuta delle altre.

Preparare i broccoli
Lavare e tagliare i broccoli a cimette. Pelare il gambo, tagliarlo in quattro per lungo se molto grosso, poi tagliarlo a rondelle. Cuocere al vapore fino a che i broccoli non siano teneri a seconda del vostro gusto.

Togliere dal cestello e far raffreddare in un'insalatiera. Mettere da parte l'acqua di cottura.

Preparare le noci
Se le noci sono appena sgusciate, tostatele leggermente in una padellina a secco, scuotendo la padellina spesso.

Altrimenti, nel suo libro “Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone”, Deborah Madison spiega come trattare le noci per migliorare il loro sapore quando non sono appena sgusciate e renderle meno irritanti per le persone sensibili alla pellicina che le ricopre. Portare a bollore una pentolina d'acqua, versarci le noci e sbollentarle per un minuto, poi scolarle e assorbire l'eccesso di umidità con uno strofinaccio.

Distribuire le noci su una placca foderata con un tappetino di silicone da forno. Mettere nel forno scaldato a 150 C fino a quando le noci si sono asciugate bene, 15-20 minuti. Tirare fuori dal forno non appena sono asciutte. (Preparo in questo modo 170-225 g di noci per volta, dal momento che le uso spesso nelle mie ricette. Conservare le noci in frigorifero.)

Preparare la salsina
Verso l'ora del pasto, mettere le noci in un frullatore e tritare.

Aggiungere miso e acqua e far andare il frullatore fino a che si formi una crema.

Versare la salsina sui broccoli. Usare una spatolina per estrarre tutta la salsina dal frullatore.

Mescolare bene e servire. (Il sale nel miso che uso è sufficiente. A seconda del miso che scegliete, potreste dover aggiustare il sale.)

pronti per cena

Mi piace servire questi broccoli come contorno al salmone cotto lentamente al forno (ricetta di Alice Waters).

Questo post è il mio contributo all'edizione numero 437 di Weekend Herb Blogging, evento creato da Kalyn di Kalyn's Kitchen, ora organizzato da Haalo di Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once e Brii di briggishome e ospitato questa settimana da Haalo.

Il raccolto dell'evento.

mezzelune con ricotta e bietola / pasta stuffed with ricotta and chard

July 14, 2011 | Simona

Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks' July hostess. Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine. She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!

You can find the information and the recipes Steph provided on this page. Serendipitously, I have recently written two posts on fresh egg pasta: tagliatelle with ricotta (both homemade) and tagliatelle with tomato sauce and fava beans. The posts include my recipe for the pasta all'uovo itself and for three dishes. In them, I explained also how I always make the pasta dough by hand and sometimes use the rolling pin (matterello), sometimes the pasta machine to roll out the pasta: the ingredient in the latter case is called olio di gomito (elbow grease).

For the challenge, I decided to make stuffed pasta. First, I selected the filling ingredients: my homemade ricotta and baby rainbow chard (bietola novella) from my little vegetable garden. Then, I decided that I would cut the pasta dough with my 3-inch fluted round biscuit cutter and then fold each round into a mezzaluna (half moon).

If you have never made stuffed pasta before, my recommendation is to start small. Make one egg of pasta all'uovo and prepare the filling below. You will have some leftover filling. When I was a kid, my task was to fill and shape cappelletti. My mother prepared the filling and the pasta and cut the pasta for me and I took it from there. Sometimes I felt like the pasta and the filling would never end, no matter how many cappelletti I shaped. So now I am careful about making the task small so it looks manageable. Anyway, enough with advice.

The recipe I use to make pasta all'uovo is here. I have recently run out of the type of flour mentioned in the post, so I am now using a blend of all-purpose flour and durum flour that I brought from Italy.

Ingredients for the filling:

50 g cooked baby chard (I weighed it after I cooked it) [you can use tender chard leaves instead]
150 g [homemade] ricotta
a pinch of nutmeg (noce moscata)
a pinch of dried lemon zest
a bit of salt
2 tablespoons freshly grated homemade Montasio or Parmigiano-Reggiano

Additional ingredients to finish the dish:

salted butter
freshly grated homemade Montasio or Parmigiano-Reggiano, to taste

Wash the baby chard and put it in a pan with some water still clinging to the leaves. Cover and cook until tender, checking often to make sure the pan is not dry. If you do this carefully, there is no need to squeeze the leaves dry (something I can't bring myself to do in any circumstance).

Chop chard finely. With a fork, mash the ricotta into a cream. Add the chard and mix well. Add the seasoning and incorporate. The filling is now ready to be used.

Cut the pasta, place a small amount of filling on each round, fold it in half, and carefully seal the edge. I am afraid I must renege on my recent "enough with advice" statement. Start with using less filling than you think is needed: it is easy to put too much filling on a round and then get into trouble when you try to seal the mezzaluna. On the other hand, you want to end up with a nice, soft pillow.

Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Add some coarse salt and stir. Drop the mezzelune into the water, making sure they don't crowd, and bring back to boiling. Cook the mezzelune several minutes, until done. The amount of time needed depends on a few factors, so the best way to handle this is to watch attentively and taste a corner.

While the pasta is cooking, in a ramekin, melt a tablespoon of salted butter for each 10-11 mezzelune. This quantity is my idea of a portion and you should get two portions from one egg of pasta all'uovo. Add a few leaves of fresh basil finely chopped (or chiffonade) and stir. Grate the cheese of choice. Drain the mezzelune and place them on plates. Pour some of the butter & basil, sprinkle cheese on top and serve immediately.

You'll be loved.

You can see many variations of the theme of handmade pasta, when you browse the creations of my fellow Daring Cooks. A special thank to Steph for an interesting and fun challenge.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

mezzelune con ricotta e bietola

or launch the mezzelune con ricotta e bietola audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

stuffed pasta

cassoulet vegetariana / vegetarian cassoulet

January 14, 2011 | Simona

Our January 2011 Challenge comes from Jenni of The Gingered Whisk and Lisa from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. They have challenged the Daring Cooks to learn how to make a confit and use it within the traditional French dish of Cassoulet. They have chosen a traditional recipe from Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman.

You can find information on cassoulet, details about the challenge and the recipes provided on this page. Among the options offered, I chose to make the Vegetarian Cassoulet, which is basically a bean stew. The recipe from Gourmet is excellent, so much so that I made it three times in the span of a couple of weeks. And I also made the Leek Confit (more on this below).

For the cassoulet, I always started with dry beans (fagioli secchi). I haven't been using canned beans for years and there is no coming back. The beans I cook are much tastier than the canned ones and cooking a pot of them is no trouble at all. Plus, there are a limited number of bean varieties that are available canned, so purchasing dry beans allows you to expand your horizon. If you have not yet decided on a New Year's resolution, I suggest this one: preparing beans from scratch at least once a month.

My three renditions of the vegetarian cassoulet had some variations. However, in all cases:

I roughly halved the original recipe
I used one cup of beans, soaked overnight in 4 cups of water, then cooked with aromatics (see this post for details on how I cook dry beans)
instead of water, I used the bean broth, adding water to it as needed to obtain the specified amount of liquid
I used my own homemade bread to make the breadcrumbs instead of a baguette (sfilatino)

Here are the variations (the numbers refer to the relevant rendition of the recipe):

I used canario beans
I used black-eyed peas (fagioli dall'occhio) and cut the vegetables (leeks, celery and carrots — porri, sedano e carote) into pieces smaller than specified in the recipe; I did not mash the beans once they were cooked and forgot the breadcrumbs when I served the dish to our guests (sorry, Christine!)
I used canario beans again, and again cut the vegetables into pieces smaller than specified; also, I used baby carrots (1/2 lb.) instead of adult ones

The two photos portray the third incarnation of the recipe.

I personally prefer the dish without breadcrumbs, with a side of polenta. (I am playing with the cornmeal that I received as part of my most recent grain CSA share, and I may soon tell the story.)

Back to cassoulet, the word itself intrigues me for its definite resemblance to cassoeula, a dish typical of Lombardia, the region where Milan is located. The two dishes contain different ingredients. According to the Larousse dictionary, cassoulet is:

nom masculin
(languedocien cassoulet, de cassollo, terrine)
Ragoût de haricots blancs secs avec de la viande de porc, du confit d'oie ou de la viande de mouton.

Cassoeula is made with pork meat (ribs, feet, a type of small salami, rind, etc.) and verza (Savoy cabbage), besides onion, carrots and celery (no beans). If you are interested, on this page there is a recipe.

As it has happened to me before, close to the deadline, I realized I misread the challenge and missed the confit requirement. The recipe I followed did not ask for a confit, so it was easy to overlook that part. Last night, I made Leek Confit. I adapted the recipe given for the challenge to our household's dietary needs using olive oil instead of butter to cook the leeks. I don't have a photo of the leeks, so I will share a recent image of sky and ocean instead.

The days around the Holidays were stormy along the California coast. We did not have snow storms like elsewhere in the country, but we had our kind of winter weather. In between fronts, the sky (cielo) can be remarkably beautiful and the ocean (oceano) amazingly calm, like on the first morning of the New Year.

You will see many variations of the theme of cassoulet, when you browse the creations of my fellow Daring Cooks. A special thank to Jenni and Lisa for an interesting and fun challenge.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

cassoulet vegetariana

or launch the cassoulet vegetariana audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

soufflé al formaggio con spinaci / cheese and spinach soufflé

November 14, 2010 | Simona

Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge! Dave and Linda provided two of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.

You can find information on soufflés, details about the challenge and the recipes provided on this page. Dave and Linda asked us to "make a baked soufflé using any one of the recipes provided or any other soufflé recipe that looks interesting and tasty." Veteran soufflé makers were asked "to make a soufflé never attempted before." I am no veteran soufflé maker, but I have developed a recipe for zucchini and carrot soufflé that I have been making for a few years. The challenge explicitly asked me not to present that, so I chose another recipe.

Much as the "sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé" appealed to my chocolate-lover self, I wanted to make a savory soufflé, preferably with a good amount of cheese. This is because cheese soufflé was the one soufflé I grew up eating. My mother would use grated Emmental for it. The soufflé al formaggio was always welcome as a menu option.

The day appointed for making soufflé, I bought some fresh spinach leaves at the farmers' market, about 1/3 of a pound (150 g). I didn't have a specific reason for the purchase, but I thought that spinach would be a nice soufflé ingredient. I found the recipe that answered my requirements in my beloved Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison: the variation with Spinach of Goat Cheese Soufflé with Thyme. For my zucchini and carrot soufflé, I usually preare a velouté sauce instead of a bechamel sauce. I did the same for this soufflé using:

3 tablespoons flour (I use 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour and 1 tablespoon white rice flour)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/4 cup of my homemade chicken stock

The stock is already flavored with vegetables and herbs, so I skip the step of the recipe that describes flavoring the milk. I let the flour cook in the olive oil for several minutes, then slowly add the hot stock, stirring constantly. Bring back to a boil, then lower the heat and cook for 10 minutes or so, stirring often. The resulting sauce is thick and velvety. Finally, season it with salt and freshly ground pepper.

For the cheese, I decided to use some of my homemade Gouda (made with mostly cow milk, but also a bit of goat milk) and some of the grateable blue-veined cheese that I showed in this post, and also some locally produced mixed mold, soft-ripened goat milk cheese: Cypress Grove's Lil' Ziggy. I grated a total of half a cup of the homemade cheeses and cut into small pieces half of a Lil' Ziggy. Here's a photo of the remaining half of the ziggurat-shaped cheese. Every now and then it is important for me to look at and taste professionally made cheese. In the photo, you can see the layers of this cheese. I am well aware that I have a long way to go.

To the base mixture of velouté sauce, four egg yolks (tuorli) and cheeses, I added the spinach leaves, cooked with the water clinging to them until tender, then finely chopped and seasoned with salt, freshly ground pepper, and a pinch of grated nutmeg (noce moscata). I beat six egg whites (albumi) and folded them into the base, and baked the soufflé according to the original recipe.

Instead of the specified 6-cup soufflé dish, I used my 8-cup one, which explains why my soufflé did not go overboard. I guess the soufflé does not look as impressive as expected when all contained within the confines of the dish. I am actually quite content, because, while there was not a lot of going up and coming down, the soufflé delivered in terms of texture and flavor. When I prepare this recipe again, I will squeeze the spinach better, as I suspect that a bit of extra liquid from the vegetables may have affected the rising of the soufflé. I have some Red Russian kale growing in my small vegetable garden, so I probably will try using tender leaves of that vegetable.

Update — My suspicion was accurate, as proved by the result of my second realization of the same recipe. Instead of spinach, I used some Red Russian kale from my little garden, ribs removed and cut into 1/2"-ribbons, then cooked in a pan with the water clinging to it until tender, then seasoned as detailed above for the spinach. The cooked kale was quite dry, so I added it to the other ingredients as is.

Voilà! (And actually, by the time I set the camera properly to take the photo, the soufflé had already collapsed a bit. It was excellent.)

I don't didn't like to end my post with a so-so photo, hence I will shared an image I took back in September, of the full moon (luna piena) about to set on a truly Pacific ocean.

You will see many variations of the theme of soufflé, when you browse the creations of my fellow Daring Cooks. A special thank to Dave and Linda for an interesting and fun challenge.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

soufflé al formaggio con spinaci

or launch the soufflé al formaggio con spinaci audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

burro di mele alle more / blackberry apple butter

September 14, 2010 | Simona

The September 2010 Daring Cooks' challenge was hosted by John of Eat4Fun. John chose to challenge The Daring Cooks to learn about food preservation, mainly in the form of canning and freezing. He challenged everyone to make a recipe and preserve it. John's source for food preservation information was The National Center for Home Food Preservation.

You can find the information on food preservation that John had compiled on this page. Out of the options John offered us, I chose to make Reduced Sugar Apple Butter from The National Center for Home Food Preservation, roughly halving the recipe.

Apple butter is something I didn't know existed until I visited New England with my husband a number of years ago, in early October. I brought back a jar from the trip and used it mostly as an ingredient in baking goods. I actually made apple butter for the first time at the end of last apple season, so I decided that for the Daring Cooks challenge I would make a variation of the basic recipe.

In my freezer, I had a one cup container of frozen blackberry purée from last year. After making blackberry sorbet (sorbetto alle more) and blackberry risotto many times, not to mention some jars of apple and blackberry preserve, I decided to try and preserve the intense flavor and color of blackberries in the freezer. I puréed the blackberries in my food processor and pressed the result through a mesh strainer to remove the pips. It is a bit of work, but I think it is worth the effort. I then froze the result in a two small plastic containers. The right time to use the frozen (surgelato) blackberry purée never came, and then a new blackberry season got under way. When I saw the Daring Cooks challenge, I decided to thaw some of the blackberry purée and add it to apples from the new crop to make a variation on the base recipe.

The photo shows some of the apples I used (organic and locally grown) and the two jars of apple butter I got as result. My list of ingredients:

slightly more than 2 lbs of apples, unpeeled, cut into eights
blackberry purée, approximately 3/4 cup
apple honey (miele), about 20% of the weight of the apples

I brought the fruit to a boil. After 10 minutes of cooking, I mashed the apples with a potato masher. Towards the end, I added the spices specified in the recipe, halving the quantity of cloves and allspice and using one teaspoon of cinnamon. After I turned off the heat, I used my immersion blender to obtain a smooth purée.

I jarred the hot apple butter according to the method described in this post (see step 4), which I learned when I took a conserve-making class last year, as recounted in this post. Once cooled, I labelled the two jars (vasetti) I had filled, so I would know what fruit is in them, the quantity of sweetener, and the date of preparation. I am planning to use some of the apple butter right away in recipes like this torta di mele, where I use it as a substitute for some of the butter and sugar.

The slice of bread in the photo will look lovely when topped with a layer of my apple butter with blackberries, don't you think? Like other mystery baked goods shown in previous posts, I will soon reveal the source of the recipes. Stay tuned.

You will find out about different preservation efforts, when you browse the creations of my fellow Daring Cooks. A special thank to John for an interesting and fun challenge.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

burro di mele alle more

or launch the burro di mele alle more audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

burro di noci / walnut butter

July 10, 2010 | Simona

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

Margie and Natashya put together an impressive amount of information on nut butters and a nice selection of recipes. You can find everything on this page. From the array of choices offered, I selected to make burro di noci (walnut butter) and use it in the preparation of Walnut White Bean Dip with Rosemary & Sage (salsa cremosa di fagioli bianchi e noci con rosmarino e salvia). The most important adjustment I made to the original recipe is that I started from dry beans — cannellini, to be precise (a.k.a, white kidney beans).

Cooking dry beans. The way I cook beans for further use comes from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison (Beans with Aromatics). After soaking half a cup of dry beans for several hours or overnight in enough water to cover them by about an inch (I use two cups), empty the whole bowl into a saucepan and add half of a small onion (or a quarter of a medium one), halved, a bay leaf, a small clove of garlic, sliced, and a couple of sprigs of fresh parsley. Bring the water to a lively boil quickly, and keep it there for five minutes, then turn down the heat and let the beans simmer, covered, until they are ready. How long this takes depends on the type of beans and their freshness. Let them cool in their broth, then remove the aromatics and discard them.

The walnuts I used to make walnut butter are local and came to me still in their shells (gusci). While I recognize the ease of use of shelled walnuts, I like to do the shelling myself, playing the same game I played as a child, nutcracker (schiaccianoci) in hand, i.e., to crack the shell leaving the gheriglio whole. The whole walnut (noce) will soon be broken into pieces by my teeth, but I enjoy the skill displayed into imparting the right amount of pressure to the nutcracker to achieve the stated goal.

The process I apply to walnuts before I use them comes also from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison, and is described in this post. If I don’t use all the walnuts I have prepared, I store the leftovers in the fridge. Finally, the fresh rosmarino and salvia (rosemary and sage) for the dip came from my herb garden.

Once the ingredients were ready, the food processor made the preparation of the walnut butter and then of the dip a breeze. My husband and I enjoyed the dip for dinner. By chance, on the table there was a trio of foods all including walnuts: besides the dip, the other two were my homemade Walnut Sourdough Bread and my homemade Stirred-Curd Cheddar with Walnuts. You may remember that in a recent post, I showed a photo of this cheese when it was still in the aging phase and I mentioned a secret ingredient. The secret is now revealed: chopped walnuts. I must say I love the result: The walnuts pair well with the slightly sharp cheddar.

You will find a lot of variety, both in terms of the kind of nut butter made and the dish in which it was used, when you browse the creations of my fellow Daring Cooks. A special thank to Margie and Natashya for an interesting and fun challenge. I will certainly revisit it later to make another type of nut butter.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

burro di noci

or launch the burro di noci audio file [mp3].

risotto ai porri / leek risotto

March 14, 2010 | Simona

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of Melbourne Food Geek and Jess of Jess the baker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf. The recipes are available here.

I make risotto very often and I like to create variations on the theme, as it can be inferred from the recipes I have posted in the past: risotto ai lamponi (raspberry risotto), risotto alle more (blackberry risotto) and risotto integrale al pomodoro e salvia (whole-grain risotto with tomato and sage). The challenge for me this month was to find the time to make the chicken broth (brodo di pollo), as my schedule was quite hectic. I was resigned to excuse myself, when a sliver of time opened up and I booked it for broth-making.

To make my life a bit easier in terms of preparation, I bought several pieces of organic chicken instead of a whole bird (two whole legs, a bone-in breast, a back). I also bought a small piece of beef to add to the chicken, like my mother does to make her broth (brodo di carne). I had all the vegetables at home: onion, carrot, celery. To those, I added a piece of leek (I removed the leaves and used the top of the green part, leaving the white and pale green section for later use), a couple of sprigs of thyme, 6 or 7 stems of parsley (both herbs grow plentiful in my small garden: the photo below shows a detail of the thyme plant from which I harvest most often), two bay leaves and a 2-inch piece of lemon peel. I had never used the latter before, but saw it in the recipe chosen for the challenge and liked the idea. I did not use any other spice.

After I added the vegetables, I simmered the broth for a little over 1.5 hours, then removed the pieces of chicken and boiled the rest for another half hour. I turned off the heat, put the chicken meat back into the broth and let it cool a bit. Finally, I strained the broth, setting aside the meat and discarding skin, bones and vegetables. I will use the boiled meat for a dish that my mother used to prepare and that I loved as a kid (a story for another day). I divided the broth into two containers, let it cool completely, then put it in the fridge. The morning after, I removed the layer of fat from the surface. A set of engagements prevented me from making the risotto until the last minute (l’ultimo minuto), that is, yesterday.

I prepared risotto ai porri (leek risotto), because it’s one of my favorite variations on the theme of risotto and I had the leek partially used to make the broth. After warming up the saucepan and warming up olive oil in it, I cooked the white and pale green part of the leek sliced into half-moons until it was soft. To the leek, I added the leaves from a couple of thyme sprigs. I used Carnaroli rice, which I favor over Arborio. I added white wine and then the simmering broth as usual (see recipes mentioned above for the details). Once the risotto was cooked, I added salt to taste and a couple of tablespoons of my homemade cream cheese then stirred with a bit of energy to distribute the cheese. I find that the flavor of the cheese pairs well with that of leeks and its creaminess rounds out the risotto well. After a few minutes of rest, I served the risotto. I usually don’t measure ingredients when I make risotto, with the exception of rice (one cup) and broth (three cups). The guiding principle for me is that this is a rice dish, so the rice is the protagonist.

You will find a lot of personal interpretations of the beloved Italian dish, when you browse the creations of my fellow Daring Cooks. A special thank to Eleanor and Jess for the nice challenge.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

risotto ai porri

or launch the risotto ai porri audio file [mp3].

pane pita e hummus / pita bread and hummus

February 14, 2010 | Simona

The 2010 February Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

A mezze plate (also called meze) can contain many different foods. The mandatory part of the challenge included pita bread and hummus, and that is what I made. You can find the recipes for all the elements of the challenge here. [As an aside, the word mezze in Italian means half (adjective, female plural). For example, mezze penne is a kind of pasta, a shorter version of penne (literally, half penne).]

One of the reasons I love being a Daring Baker & Daring Cook is that it often happens that the challenge is a recipe I have been meaning to make for some time. Procrastination comes to a halt in the name of the monthly challenge. This month it was pita bread's turn to move from the "to-do" list over to the "done" list.

Michele allowed us to use a mix of flours, so I made pita bread with some whole-wheat flour (about 1/4 of the total), besides regular wheat flour. I halved the recipe, starting with 295 g of water (1 ad 1/4 cups) and 300 g of flour, then adding more flour until the dough had the right consistency. I baked the flatbreads on my baking stone and some puffed up nicely, while others didn't, not sure why. The breads that did not puff up were nonetheless good.

I had not made hummus for a while, so I was happy to renew my acquaintance with this famous spread. I soaked and cooked half a cup of chickpeas (ceci), using the recipe in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. The flavorful cooking liquid left behind after I drained the chickpeas ended up in a really nice pumpkin soup I made the day after.

I roasted a red bell pepper (peperone rosso), removed the skin and added it to the chickpeas. I also roasted four cloves of garlic (quattro spicchi d'aglio), because I prefer the more delicate flavor of roasted garlic to that of raw garlic and squeezed some fresh lemon juice. I also used some ground cumin (cumino) as flavoring (together with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper). I toast cumin seeds in a dry skillet until fragrant, then grind them in my mortar to get a nice, fresh flavor. Finally, I used olive oil instead of tahini, because the couple of times I have bought tahini in the past I ended up having to discard it, which made me feel bad. I don't use tahini in other dishes and don't make hummus often enough to finish a jar. However, my hummus had a sesame component: I toasted some sesame seeds (semi di sesamo) and sprinkled them on the surface.

Although I did not have a traditional mezze plate, I served my pita bread and hummus together with my roasted red beet spread, my homemade cream cheese and small pieces of two of my hard cheeses (edam and kefalotyri, the latter made with a mix of cow and goat milk). I also served small patties made with thyme-flavored chenna and baked crab cakes (made with fresh crab — more on this in an upcoming post, hopefully).

Preparing pita bread made me think of a traditional Sardinian flatbread that I ate many years ago when I visited the island and never forgot: pane carasau. In browsing around the web trying to find a nice reference to share with you, I found a few videos, the first featuring Anthony Bourdain.

Did you see how the bread puff up beautifully in the oven? The video shows how each flatbread is cut in half horizontally while still warm, but it doesn't show the second baking, when all the pieces are put back in the oven to crisp up. I have eaten pane carasau with pecorino ("true pecorino"), as shown in the video. I have also watched another short video, and also a longer one, divided into two parts (one and two). The latter is in Italian, but I think the images speak by themselves. In it, you can see how the pane carasau is baked the second time, and also the sort of presses used to keep it flat.

Now that I've made pita bread, maybe I will try my hand at pane carasau, though I don't have a wood-fired brick oven. I will start by looking for a recipe and then we'll see what happens. (To be continued.)

In the meantime, you will find a lot of photographs to admire, when you browse the creations of my fellow Daring Cooks. A special thank to Michele for a very nice challenge.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

pane pita e hummus

or launch the pane pita e hummus audio file [mp3].

salmone in crosta / salmon en croute

December 17, 2009 | Simona

The December 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Simone of Junglefrog Cooking. Simone chose Salmon en Croute (or alternative recipes for Beef Wellington or Vegetable en Croute) from Good Food online.

You can find the recipes for all the elements of the challenge here¹.

I had planned to prepare the dish on Sunday December 6, the plan entailing making homemade cream cheese, but a set of unforeseen circumstances subverted my plans. And then forgetfulness set in and the day I prepared another batch of homemade cream cheese (the previous one having been rapidly completely consumed), I realized that it was the day I was supposed to publish my post about the whole recipe. However, I wasn't going to let embarrassment have the last word, so here I am, late to be sure, but still happy to have fulfilled the challenge.

Although the recipe allowed us a choice of shortcrust or puff pastry, I decided to use the former, because I had never made shortcrust pastry for a savory dish. In Italy, it is called pasta brisée (from the French pâte brisée). The use of a food processor makes preparing this pastry really easy. My homemade cream cheese turned a lovely pastel green when I processed it with some ruchetta (or rucola, arugula) and some spinach (spinaci). I made the dish ~~twice~~ three times, the first time with halibut and the other times with Pacific salmon (not farmed), and both renditions were well received at the table.

I halved the recipe for the pasta brisée, because I meant to bake a small piece of fish, then further divided it in half, because for my first try I could not get some skinned salmon fillet. I must admit that I was a bit of a Scrooge when it came to apportioning the pasta brisée to each piece of fish and therefore the wrap opened up a bit during baking, but that did not have a negative effect on the flavor of the dish, which was excellent.

Update (December 18, 2009) — I debated whether to write a new post to show today's much better rendition of the recipe, then opted for an update to the already existing one, given that I published it only yesterday. I made another half-batch of pasta brisée, this time using 1/4 of whole-wheat pastry flour and 3/4 regular flour. Perfection is a long way away, but there are signs of improvement.

I can see myself preparing salmone in crosta again in the future, maybe for a dinner with guests. Let me know if you would like to be invited.

You will find a lot of photographs to admire, when you browse the creations of my fellow Daring Cooks. A special thanks to Simone for a very nice challenge.

¹ To make the shortcrust pastry, I used twice as much water as indicated in the recipe.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

salmone in crosta

or launch the salmone in crosta audio file [mp3].

crespelle indiane vegane / vegan Indian dosas

September 14, 2009 | Simona

For this month’s Daring Cooks challenge, Debyi of The Healthy Vegan Kitchen! has chosen Indian Dosas (Vegan Style) from the cookbook reFresh: Contemporary Vegan Recipes From the Award Winning Fresh Restaurants by Ruth Tal. You can find the recipe for Indian Dosas, Curried Garbanzo Filling and Coconut Curry Sauce here.

Although I told myself I would not prepare the recipe a day or two before the post was due, that is once again what happened. It all went well, except the photo-taking part. As a result, I don’t have an image of the assembled dosas to share. I will rely on your imagination to make up for that.

I followed the given recipe to make the batter (pastella) for dosas, using soy milk (latte di soia). I rarely make pancakes, but my lack of experience was not a problem: the batter was easy to work with and only one dosa was badly injured when I flipped it.

Debyi allowed us free rein in terms of filling and sauce, the only requirement being to keep them both vegan. I decided to improvise using available ingredients. I started with half a pound of fagioli borlotti freschi (fresh cranberry beans, weighed after being shelled — more on these in an upcoming post). I cooked the beans in enough water to cover them by an inch, together with three slices of an onion, a bay leaf, a smashed garlic clove and a couple of parsley sprigs. Once the beans were ready, I turned off the heat and let them cool, then removed the aromatics and drained them. Finally, I seasoned them with some sea salt.

In the meantime, I started to slow-roast a pound of San Marzano-like tomatoes (pomodori). The inspiration here came from this recipe by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen. I cut the tomatoes by half and seasoned them with a mix of finely chopped fresh herbs (winter savory, marjoram and parsley) and a bit of salt. I then placed them, cut side down, on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat and baked them at 250 F for five hours without turning them. When they were cool, I slipped off the skin and spooned them in a bowl, where I mashed them with a fork. Finally, I added the beans, mixed well and seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

For the topping, I set my eyes on some yellow heirloom tomatoes I had, compliments of my CSA box, and decided to make a simple sauce. Last year, I learned to use my grater to quickly turn fresh tomatoes into crushed tomatoes using this tecnique, and that is what I did. In a small saucepan, I warmed up a bit of olive oil, then added two garlic cloves, minced, and a few leaves of pineapple sage (salvia ananas), slivered. When they became fragrant, I added the crushed tomatoes and cooked, uncovered, for 10 minutes, then adjusted the salt.

While I prepared the dosas, I warmed up the bean filling and tomato topping and then served them all together. The dish was well received by the people around the table. Looking back, I feel that, once again, in preparing a dish from another culinary tradition, I gave it a decidedly Italian twist.

I am sure you will find a lot of photographs to admire, when you browse the creations of my fellow Daring Cooks. A special thanks to Debyi for a very nice challenge.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

crespelle indiane vegane

or launch the crespelle indiane vegane audio file [mp3].