Under Pressure

Got a shiny new pressure cooker for Christmas, and it's awesome. The biggest one they make, 9 litres, and took it out for the first test drive.

Pressure cooker rabbit stew:

It's the simplest recipe you can imagine: you cut up the coniglio into big pieces, chop two carrots, an onion and four cloves of garlic. Dredge the bunny bits in a little flour with a little salt and curry powder, (used the plastic bag method). Brown the pieces in a bunch of butter, then put it all together in the pot with the veg. Add a soup cube and some sage and water just to cover, then bring the water to a boil, put on the pressure lid, and turn the heat way down. Seriously, it'll be done in 20 minutes. It's amazing. And the meat is perfect, tender and done all the way through, and the broth is fantastic. The only thing that could make it better is a little white wine which I didn't have.

What I couldn't believe was the speed. I figure it's basically what a microwave was before microwaves.

Totally get a pressure cooker.



~

More Pumpkinny goodness

What do you do with the pumpkin after Halloween? Traditionally, you just let it sit there and melt. Which I admit is often pretty fun.

But here's another idea:

Take
a big chunk of pumpkin, about a pound or more
curry powder
cinnamon
cumin seeds
coriander seeds
sesame seeds
butter
heavy cream


Cut the pumpkin into large chunks, about the size of your hand. Slice down into the meat to the skin, to score it and place in a roasting tin. Sprinkle generously with curry powder and cinnamon. In a pan, melt a bunch of butter. Grind a handful of the cumin/coriander/sesame seeds (that you toasted in a dry frying pan earlier and keep in a jar) in a mortar and pestle. Throw the seeds in with the butter and let them fry a little. Then douse the pumpkin with the butter, making sure it gets into the scored cuts. Roast in a hot oven for about an hour, or until it's toasty and crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.

When you plate it, douse in a little heavy cream. This will mix with the spices and the butter to make a truly gorgeous sauce. When you're eating it, gish each forkful around in the butter/spice and cream sauce.

Oh baby!!



~

Pumpkinny goodness!

What is wrong with processed food, in a nutshell? It's not food.

Well, as I was watching this very interesting video about the(mainly American) processed food industry, I was making a batch of Orange Soup. A long time ago a hippie/foodie told me that putting red lentils and sweet potatoes together gives you a "perfect protein". I really have no idea what that means, and I'm not really even interested enough to look it up on Google. I figure he was probably right, however, and that a "perfect protein" was probably good for you. Good enough. Other reading/rumours told me that orange food is good food. If it's got an orange colour, it's good for you. Vitamins and whatnot. So, I invented a recipe for soup in which nearly everything is orange in colour, and that involves an actual orange.

Take:

a knob of butter
1 onion,
2 or 3 garlic cloves,
3 large carrots,
1 sweet potato
1/2 a regular potato
big hunk of pumpkin
1 cup of red lentils
1 orange.
tablespoon of curry powder
tsp of cayenne pepper
chicken powder
1/2 pint of milk
125 ml heavy cream

Chop and saute the onion and garlic in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Peel and dice all the veg while it's cooking. When the onion is softened, put in the chopped veg and the lentils with enough water to cover comfortably. Simmer together, and while it's simmering, throw in the curry powder, chicken powder and cayenne pepper. Grate the rind of the orange and chop it very fine, and add it into the soup, then use the wooden spoon to ream out the juice from the orange. Let it simmer about 15 mins or until the veg is soft.

When the veg is cooked, take the pot off the stove and set up your blender with a large bowl, ladle, the milk and cream. Put on an apron, since it's going to make a little mess. About two or three ladles full at a time, pour the soup into the blender and combine with the milk and the cream in batches. Pour the soup into the bowl as you blend each batch, and when you're done, stir it all together, since each batch is going to have a slightly different ratio. Blend a good long while to get a really cloud-like texture.

Eat.

You will be amazed! Really!



~

Of herbs and stewed fenek

I am proud to announce that I have tripled my Maltese vocabulary. I now know three words of Malti: "Kappillan," "Bonju," and "fenek". Which, really, is pretty much all a good Catholic needs. Maybe I should learn to say, "What time are confessions at this parish?"

Fenek is the Maltese national dish.

Take:

1/2 fenek, cut up into pieces
3 bay leaves,
handful of chopped sage
1/2 a lemon
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
4 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 sticks celery chopped
2-3 cups white wine
tablespoon or so of honey
dash of Lea n' Perrin's
little whole mushrooms
olive oil

Peel, chop and place in the bottom of your cast iron-enamel Dutch oven all the veg, including the garlic. On top, place the pieces of fenek. Drizzle with olive oil and then sprinkle the sage over top, with a dash of salt n' pep. In a coffee cup, mix the white wine, lea-Perrins, juice of half the lemon and the honey. Mix vigorously, then pour over the fenek.

Pop the lid on and put in a medium oven for a long time. An hour at least.

Eat.

So good! So so soooo good!



~

Aubergine egg sandwiches

In my endless search for a viable replacement for the English Fry-up, I have been experimenting with ingredients readily available in Italian supermarkets. Today we have a winner!

It's like a little fried mushroom, bacon, egg and cheese sandwich, only with slices of aubergine instead of bread.

Stay with me, it's teh. awesome! (Fully tested in the Orwell's Picnic test kitchens.)

Take:

about 1 oz of bacon chopped into small bits (sold in Ita. as "pancetta affumicato")
about 5 sliced mushrooms
four slices of prepared aubergine (you can buy them already sliced, pressed and grilled in bags in the freezer section)
25g butter
2 eggs
1 oz grated cheese (Leerdamer is very popular here)

You will need a skillet with a tightly fitting lid.

Cook the mushrooms and bacon together in a pan over a medium heat until the mushrooms are nicely cooked in the bacon fat. Remove and set aside. Lower the heat and scrape the pan carefully and add the butter. Lay in two large slices of aubergine.

Then ever so carefully, pile on the mushrooms and bacon bits in a heap on each one, then make a little well in the middle so there's a little bacon/mushroom fortress surrounding a little space. Crack the eggs into the well. (Don't worry if the egg white oozes out a little.) Lay on top the other two slices of eggplant to form a lid. Top with the grated leerdamer. Add about 2 tbsps of water to the pan, and clap on the tight-fitting lid. Allow it all to cook, keeping the heat down, for about 10 minutes or until all the cheese is melted and the egg is cooked inside.

Dress on the side with a tablespoon or so of Mexican salsa and another of sour cream (Very difficult to find, but shows up occasionally, other wise plain Greek yogurt makes a good s. cream substitute.)

Eat.

You won't be sorry.



~

How to make Bird's Custard awesomely!

It's a British institution. If you were English or raised by English people in an English colonial town, you will know that Birds custard, hot, makes everything better.

It's about 99% corn starch, so if you just follow the instructions on the tin, it can be a little dull, however. Esp. if you've been a pastry chef and know the difference between Bird's Custard and creme anglais.

One tbsp Bird's custard powder
1/2 pint milk + 200 mls fresh cream
tbsp vanilla extract
tbsp sugar (or substitute)
2 egg yolks

Mix the Bird's with the sugar and a little of the milk. Whisk in the egg yolks while the rest of the milk n' cream are heating. When the milk mix is just about to boil (this is called "scalding"), pour it into the custard and whisk vigorously. Pour it all back into the pot for a couple of minutes while stirring.

Voy-Lah! cheap, simple custard that almost tastes like real Creme Anglais.



~

The Lowly Sprout

OK, Muricans, let's deal with your fear of Brussels sprouts.

Personally, I've never understood the problem. I've always loved sprouts. But for some reason, they've got a bad rep. Well, here's a way of doing them that will make everyone ask for more.

1lb sprouts, cut in half
1 carrot, diced
1 medium slice of bacon
1/2 and onion, a couple of shallots or a leek, chopped
1 cup chicken stock
handful raisins
handful pine nuts or walnuts

On a low heat, cook the bacon and onion together in a skillet until the onion is transparent. Throw in the sprouts and carrots and continue to saute until the sprouts turn a bright green. Pour in the stock and raisins and cook until the veg is tender. Toss in a handful of nuts at the end when the raisins have plumped up and the sprouts are nice and eat-able.

Mmm... baby!



And now, here's some Shatner.

Happy Turkey Day all youse down there below the 49th...



~

Of herbs and stewed rabbit

My freezer chest needs defrosting. When I moved into this apartment, it had something I'd never seen before: a fridge with no freezer compartment on top. I told them that this was one of the weirdest things I'd ever seen in a kitchen and insisted that the place had to have a proper fridge. I was, of course, roundly ignored. Nonetheless, the agency lady, who seemed to take rather a shine to me, called me a few weeks after I moved in offering to give me one she had in her garage. Arranged a man with a van to come over and deliver it even. And it's huge. If any of our local friends need a place to hide the body, give me a ring.

But it's also old, and though it certainly freezes things, it also manufactures an indoor wintery wonderland. The ice shelf is now so huge I'm thinking of calling it "Ross" and offering guided expeditions across it. So I've decided to start the project of eating up everything in there that needs to remain frozen so I can unplug it and spend a day mopping.

One of the things in there, right down near the bottom, is a package of skinned rabbit I bought on a whim a few months ago. I started looking up recipes online, having only had one rather unsuccessful experience with rabbit in the past. (I discovered that while it really does more or less taste like chicken, and you do similar things to it, it takes a LOT longer to cook.)

But then I realised, wait, what am I thinking? I know how to stew meat.

Take:

1 rabbit, cut into big pieces (actually, it was half a rabbit, including the head! gross!)
3 or 4 carrots, chopped into big bits
two leeks, also chopped into big bits
a few cloves of garlic, also as above, chopped into...
1 apple, not peeled, sliced into thin wedges

a few handfuls of dried shitaake mushrooms
two cups of water
two tablespoons chicken stock powder
splash of red wine
dash of Lea and Perrin's

Sprigs of fresh thyme, marjoram and sage from the balcony pots, all chopped up fine together.

Put all the chopped veg and the apple into the nice cast iron dutch oven you bought in Cheshire at the 50p shop. Cut up the little bits of meat on the head (including the tongue! gross!) and give it to the cat. Sprinkle the herbs on top of the veg.

Bring the water, chicken stock wine and wooster to a simmer. Break the mushrooms while still dried into big pieces and put them in the juice to simmer, covered for ten minutes or until they're nice and squishy. Pour the whole business, stock, mushrooms and all, into the dutch oven. Place the rest of the pieces of coniglio on top. Cover and put in a hot oven for 45 minutes to an hour. About half way, turn the pieces over and squish them down into the broth.

I went with very mild, herby sort of flavours, ones that might be found on the road by travellers, say. And that reflect an autumnal mood. But it would do just as well as a wine-tomato sort of thing too, and would lend itself pretty well to stronger, spicier stock.

I added the apples, in case you're wondering, to add a little natural sugar to offset the saltyness of the chicken stock, and as we all know, meat is great with fruity stuff. Don't peel the apples because they tend to disintegrate in stews, so if you want to keep them as nice apply blobs, you need the peel to hold them together.

You won't believe how wonderful...



~

Red Thai Chicken Curry... Hilary version

Finally got the knack of doing my own Thai curry. I bought a bunch of coriander and cumin seeds from the Bangladeshis at the Esquiline market the other day, and have been putting them in nearly everything but my tea.

In a dry fry pan, toast a handful each of coriander and cumin and sesame seeds, until the sesame seeds start to turn golden and the coriander starts to pop and crackle. Set them aside in a dish to cool then store them in an airtight container.

Take:

half an onion, chopped
two minced cloves garlic
slice some mushrooms
slice into thin spears some Romanesco Broccoli
slice some carrots into thin ovals
a large fresh plum, sliced thin
knuckle of fresh ginger, grated

(other nice things are yellow and red sweet peppers, Thai aubergines, Japanese sweet potatoes, parsnips, lotus root, or really any fairly hard sweet vegetable. All orange veg is good.)

Cut up one full breast of chicken (this recipe would also be good with gamberoni or other seafood if you're not into meat)

2 tbsp olive oil

250 ml coconut milk
teaspoon Thai green curry paste (watch out, hot! omit if you're not into spicy stuff)

1-2 tbsp Thai anchovy sauce (the Romans called it liquamen and put it in everything so this is not just a Thai recipe, but could easily be a Roman one)

a blob of tomato paste
a squeeze or two of ketchup

Saute in the olive oil the chicken and all the veg and fruit in a large skillet, until the chicken is cooked and the veg starts to soften. Meanwhile grind up in a mortar and pestle a couple of generous handfuls of the coriander/cumin/sesame seeds.

Once the meat and veg has cooked a bit, throw in the ground spices and toss so it' evenly coated. Allow a few more minutes on the heat.

Once it's becoming fragrant, dump in your coconut milk and reduce the heat to very low. Season with the liquamen, tomato paste, ketchup, curry paste, stirring gently. Once you've got it tasting the way you like it (all amounts above are approximate), stick the lid on, turn the heat down as low as you can, and go away and leave it alone for at least 20 minutes.

Eat with rice, or just by itself if you're paleo.


The secret to making Thai food taste that heavenly way that Thai food does, is the fish sauce. I was skeptical about this until I started trying to recreate Thai curry at home, but no matter what I did, it never did come out the way it was in restaurants. I did the curry paste, the coconut milk, the spices, everything, but it just lacked that special something.

Turns out it was fermented anchovies.

And that, as Robert Frost said, has made all the difference.



~

Laganum

OK, I have tried the Roman flatbread recipe and modified it into something AWEsome. It's a little more complicated than my usual throw-it-all-in-a-pot sort of recipes, and requires some attention, so no going off to watch Big Bang Theory while it's cooking...

In a bowl, mix equal parts

spelt flour, about three heaping tablespoons
coconut meal
almond meal
hazelnut meal
and a little bit of rice flour
about 2 tsps salt

In a hot dry fry pan, toast
coriander seeds
cumin seeds
sesame seeds

Swirl it around regularly and don't keep the heat up too high or they will burn. Toast until the sesame seeds are starting to brown and the coriander is starting to pop. Take the mixture off the heat and place in a dish to cool (I used a soup plate). Pour a handful into a mortar and grind.

Mix the spices into the dry ingredients.

Pour in enough water to make a dough, mixing thoroughly with a fork.

Ball up into about 50g lumps.

Dust the board with spelt or rice flour, and work the dough ball until it's nice and dense and not too sticky. Roll out very thin. Thinner than you think it needs to be, since the heat in the pan will make it shrink and thicken.

In the hot fry pan, add about 2 tbs olive oil and swirl it around until it runs freely. Keep the heat under the pan quite low. If you see the oil start smoking, you will have to pour it off, clean the pan with a paper towel and start again. Burnt olive oil is quite unhealthy.

When the oil is nice and swirly, very gently lay your flatbread sheet into the pan so it lies flat on the bottom. Don't fuss with it. In fact, just wander off somewhere for a few minutes. You want to leave it long enough that it starts forming the little brown toasty spots. Flip it once and allow it to toast on the other side.

When it's nice and toasty and crisp, break into big pieces. Perfect with lentils or mashed Mexican beans or anything like that for a good Lent or Friday meal. Or just eat them plain like chips. Best when really hot.

I know I'm supposed to be off grains, but there really isn't much in this recipe, and the spelt keeps the gluten content down to a minimum. It's pretty carby, but as a once-in-a-while treat it can't be beat.



~

Devilled Coratella

Just invented an English version of coratella di agnello. Basically it's my old Edwardian deviled kidneys recipe combined with lamb coratella. Awesome!

There's no way to pretty-up coratella. When presented with a plate of lamb's innards, heart, kidneys, lungs and liver, you're either gonna rub your hands in delighted anticipation or run for it. The Italians seem to be of two minds about it, but like all pure peasant food what sounds gross ends up being really great. I grew up on organ meats and have long resigned myself to being thought peculiar.

I must say it can be fun to hold up a lamb coratella in thumb and forefinger by the esophagus and chase your more squeamish roommates/kids/spouse around the apartment with it while cackling maniacally or yelling "And your little dog too!". I haven't had the opportunity to try this with lambs innards yet, but I've done it with a live blue crab purchased in Toronto's China Town, its many legs flailing grandly, and I can attest to its value as a stress-reliever.

I love the Italian way of doing coratella and will almost always get it if it's on the menu in a Rome restaurant, but have no idea how to do it myself. So, tonight I just did it the way the English used to do kidneys for breakfast. Lots of mustard and curry powder and lovely spicy gravy.

The English used to have it on toast in the mornings in the winter, and when I discovered the recipe I pestered Gerry the Butcher for as many pork and lamb kidneys as he could give me. As a lover of traditional English cookery, Gerry understood and he always saved them for me. It was another one of those things he said no one wanted any more (people eat nothing but chicken breast and ground beef) and we would shake our heads together and lament the disintegration of traditional British culture.


Take
1 coratella
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
dry mustard powder
curry powder
chicken stock or dry powder
dry ground ginger
cup or so of wine, red or white
ketchup or tomato paste

non-teflon pan. Mine is stainless and is the best frying pan I've ever had. Cast iron also good.

Cut up the meat into bitty bits, about forkfull size (getting rid of the yucky/anatomically interesting bits); dredge in a tbsp rice flour + a few shakes of ground ginger and set aside.

In a small mixing bowl, combine
2 tbsps dry mustard
1 tbsp chicken powder
1/2 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp ketchup
cup red wine

Slice an onion and some mushrooms and a clove or two of garlic and saute in the pan with some olive oil (remember, keep the heat down!) until the mushrooms start releasing their juice. Turn the heat up and add a little more olive oil and add the meat. Cook in the pan with the mushrooms and onions until the rice flour has started to stick to the pan and the meat is starting to sear. Keep stirring, scraping the pan a lot so the nice stuff on the bottom of the pan doesn't burn. This can be a little tricky because you want the meat to sear but want to avoid letting the rice flour make a paste on the pan which will burn. And you have to do it at a fairly high heat or the meat won't sear. Just keep scraping the bottom of the pan. No teflon! Teflon bad!

After just a couple of minutes of this, when the meat has started to sear nicely, all in one go add the sauce and stir the whole thing in the pan until there is no crunchy stuff on the bottom of the pan and it's all incorporated into and thickening the sauce. The back of a fork works better for this than a wooden spoon. Essentially you are deglazing the pan only with all the meat and stuff in there already. Add a little more wine or water if it's too thick or sticking.

Once the sauce is thickened (and there's nothing stuck to the bottom of the pan) and simmering, turn the heat way down and pop the lid on to finish cooking the meat. About ten mins. tops.

Eat.



~

Hilary's Italian kitchen... or something like that

So, doing my imaginary cooking show today, narrating lunch to the invisible camera with lots of fun kitchen tips, it was my favourite English fry-up replacement:

take
two large slices of melanzane/aubergine/eggplant
two tomatoes (the lovely little Italian kind shaped like teardrops that are in the shops right now, and sooo sweet!)
buncha mushrooms
six slices of bacon or a packet of pancetta affumicato
two eggs
1 oz. butter

Chop the bacon into bits and cut the mushrooms into big thick pieces and the tomatoes in half lengthwise, saute the lot together over a medium heat in just a little of the butter for five minutes and push to the edge of the pan. Turn the flame down, and melt the rest of the butter, and lay down the two nice thick slices of melanzane (remember, butter burns at quite a low temperature, so keep the heat down).

Turn the m. after a few minutes and pile the mushrooms and bacon on top of the m. and make a little well in the middle. Crack an egg each into the well, so the yolk stays on top and the lovely eggy stuff oozes all through the bacon and onto the pan. Drop a few teaspoons of water into the pan and pop the lid on quickly. This will steam cook the egg very quickly. A teeny bit of balsamic vinegar in the steam water will add interest to the flavour.

Now your tomatoes should be nice and cooked but not squishy and you just ladle the whole thing onto a plate and eat. Nomma nomma!

I've been watching a lot of Jamie Oliver's cooking shows on Youtube lately and have fallen back into the habit of narrating all my cooking as though I'm doing my own YouTube cooking show. I grew up watching Graham Kerr and doing my own imaginary cooking show at home. My mum would often oblige by holding the imaginary camera and being the studio audience all at once. It was so much fun. And she always sat down and tried all my stuff. I suppose it was just a way of supervising me in the kitchen, but it always felt very supportive. Grandma also taught me cooking but she thought making an imaginary cooking show was silly (though she was also a Graham Kerr fan... who wasn't?).

I keep thinking that now with Youtube and cheap-o digital video cameras and whatnot, I could actually make this little dream hobby come true. Wouldn't it be fun to actually get together for (virtual) tea and triangle sandwiches? I'd have to do more housework, I guess. But maybe the camera wouldn't pick up much of the dust.

And we could take little trips together to the weekly farmer's market on Thursdays. I could show y'all around Santa Marinella, and maybe we could take little trips to the big daily market in Civitavecchia once in a while and y'all could meet the nice fishmonger and the garden centre lady.

We would need to come up with a good name for it. I'm really a terrible name-thinker-upper, so suggestions?



~

Orange Soup

A long time ago, I invented something I called Orange Soup, and it was a pretty big hit with friends. It had all orange food I could think of: sweet potatoes, carrots, red lentils and the grated rind and juice of one orange. Plus curry powder. It was hot and good for you and everyone loved it.

Unfortunately, I can't remember how to make it and I never wrote it down.

But tonight, I tried a simplified version that turned out pretty well: Cream of Carrot and Orange soup.

Take:

an onion, chopped
two cloves of garlic, minced
about five or six small to medium carrots
a few sticks of celery
an ounce of butter

tablespoon or so of chestnut flour

2 cups chicken stock
half an orange
tablespoon of curry powder
250 ml heavy cream

Saute all the veg in a heavy bottomed pot in the butter until the onions are soft. Turn the heat down. Sprinkle the chestnut flour (sweet and very flavourful, but probably expensive outside Italy, you can substitute wheat flour... if you don't care about your health) over the veg, mixing it all around until the flour has absorbed all the remaining butter.

Pour in the chicken stock, adding curry powder to taste (I get mine at the Bangladeshi's at the big Esquiline Market near Termini train station, but it's pretty hot stuff, so careful,) the juice of the 1/2 orange, and allow to simmer until the carrots are soft. (An easy method of juicing an orange is to use the round end of a wooden spoon. Don't buy one of those stupid juicer things. They're a waste because they never get all the juice and you end up throwing away most of the pulp.) If you want a more orangey tasting soup, grate in a little of the rind while the veg is sauteing.

When the carrots are very soft, pour about half into a blender and add half the cream. Blend on high for a minute or so. Pour it back into the pot and bring up to heat.

Eat with a little apple and ricotta salad.



~

Breakfast of Paleo champions

Almond and hazelnut flour pancakes with fresh cream and frutti di bosco

Take

three oz of almond meal
on oz of hazelnut meal
about 1 or 2 tbs of rice flour (to stabilise)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 packets/tsps of sweetener or a tbs honey
2 eggs
heavy cream
tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

Whipped cream
frozen or fresh frutti di bosco. (It's an Italian thing you can buy at all the supermarkets here, a combination of raspberries, blueberries, red currants and blackberries, and sometimes strawberries depending on the season. Any frozen or fresh berries will substitute.)

~ * ~

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl, add the eggs, honey and vanilla and mix with a fork. Add enough cream to reach the desired consistency. (Pancake batter should not be runny but not be like muffin dough...somewhere in the middle.)

Heat a tbs or so of butter in a pan over a very low heat. Butter burns at a low temperature so keep it down. Drop in the batter and cover the pan.

While the pancake is cooking/baking, whip the cream to a stiff peak. Warm the berries in a pan over a low heat but watch them carefully so they don't stick. You don't want to cook them, but basically just thaw and soften them. When they're ready, allow to cool for a minute and fold them into the whipped cream.

Flip your pancake.

When it's done, it should fluff up and be very cake-y.

Lob onto a plate and cover generously with the cream.

Eat.


Also good with creme fraiche or double cream.

Oh baby!



~

Totally awesome stir-fry

How to make the most totally awesome spicy Thai stir-fry.

1) buy all your ingredients in Italy (sorry)

2) Take:

Fibonnaci broccoli
1 whole zucchini, cut into large chunks
1/2 very green and tart Granny Smith apple, peeled, sliced into thin wedges
1 large carrot sliced into thin oblongs
couple of handfuls of sliced mushrooms

1 tbs green thai curry paste
blob of tomato paste
juice of 1/2 and orange
tsp chicken powder
mint from the balcony, chopped
dried or fresh chopped basil

Stir fry all the veg in a pan or wok with a little olive oil and a handful of basil until they start to release juices. Mix the curry paste, tomato paste, orange juice, chicken powder and mint in a bowl. When the veg is about 1/2 cooked, pour it on top with just about 1/4 cup of water. Quickly cover with a tightly sealed lid and turn the heat way down, and allow the water to steam the veg for about 6-8 minutes.

Eat.

If it's too spicy, stir in a tablespoon of plain white Greek yogurt.



~

Creamy apples

On my constant search for a replacement for the English Fry-up, I've discovered multiple ways to combine fruit and cream. Lately, in the depths of "winter," one of my favourites has been Creamy Apples. Even in Italy, the fruit choices start getting a little monotonous at this time of year. Must try to make the best of what we've got, hey?

Creamy apples: simplest thing in the world, and OH baby! so nice!

Take:

1 large or two medium apples,
250 ml whipping cream
teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup water

Peel, core and chop the apples into spoon-size pieces and stew them in a bit of water, (just to cover the pieces) on a low heat in a heavy-bottom pot (my favourite is my enameled cast-iron saucepan I got from the 50p shop in Cheshire). Cook the apples until they are soft but not mushy. Add about 1/2 the cream and continue simmering, stirring constantly, until the cream starts thickening. Add the cinnamon. When it looks all nice and cooked, add a little more cream. Pour into a bowl and eat. Great with tea in the morning.



~

The secret's in the deglazing

Made Fegato alla Veneziana for lunch today. I've been ordering it in Roman restaurants lately and it's wonderful, and often the cheapest and most digestible thing on the menu.

Today, faced with a pound of beef liver, I was fed up with my unsuccessful attempts to do it the way my mother did it; floured in a pan with butter. It always seemed to turn out burnt on one side and the flouring stuck to the pan.

The Italian way is soooo good!

Take:

1 pound of beef or calves liver, very thinly sliced and cut into strips
1 large onion, sliced into strips
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 and apple, cored, peeled and sliced thin
about 2 tbs olive oil
1 cup or so of red or white wine
dash of aceto balsamico
1/2 tsp rice flour (optional)
knob of butter


Saute the onions, garlic and apple in a pan with olive oil until soft and fragrant. Pile onto a plate, cover and set aside. Add a little more olive oil to the pan and add the liver but don't cook it too hot. Sprinkle with balsamico, but not too much. Keep the temp low. The liver will release quite a bit of meat juice, let it cook in that at a low heat until it is tender and still slightly pink. Remove the liver while keeping the juices in the pan. Turn the heat up and get the pan and the juice very hot, then add the wine and deglaze the pan with the back of a fork (no teflon in my kitchen!). When the wine has reduced a bit, add the butter. If you want, you can sprinkle the sauce very gently and sparsely with rice flour to thicken. Stir fast. You won't need more than a 1/2 a teaspoon, if that. When the sauce is ready, pour the liver and onion mixture back into the pan, stirring it all round in the sauce until everything is nice and coated and hot.

Eat.

You'll be amazed at how good it is. It will put a completely new idea about liver into your head.



~

Bakies

I have invented a new Primal snack food to have with your tea. I call it "Bakies". It's kind of a combination cookie and cake, and you bake it, so...you know... that's the name.

You make it with ground coconut, ground hazelnuts, about a tablespoon of rice flour, butter, honey, baking powder, a little cream of tartar.

I don't really have any measurements to give you. Just take a few tablespoons of each thing, gish it all together in a bowl (I use one of those big coffee bowls) lob it into a cake tin and into the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes. It's amazingly like cake/cookies, without being bad for you. Nothing but no-gluten, no-wheat, low-carb, high-proteiny goodness.

OK, I'll do a little guesstimating with the amounts. Preheat the oven to about 180C (350F)
2 oz ground coconut
2 oz ground hazelnuts
1 or 2 tablespoons rice flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp (or so) baking powder
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
- maybe some ground nutmeg and cinnamon or even a 1/4 tsp of chai spice if you've got it lying about

Mix all the dry ingredients in a small bowl.

add
1 oz soft butter (if it's hard, just cut it up into little chunks and give it extra mixing with a fork)
1 tbs honey
1 egg
a cap-ful of ARTIFICIAL VANILLA

Nearly all these ingredients can be adjusted to taste. I just sort of threw it all together the first time. I've just done enough cakes over the years that I know what a batter is supposed to taste like and can recognise by taste when I've not got enough of something. It's just practice. Keep trying it and remember that half the fun is having it turn out slightly different every time.

Gish it all around very thoroughly until the mixture is more or less even.
Once you've got it the way you like it, put a sheet of greaseproof paper in the cake tin and slosh the dough/batter onto it, and smooth it about into a round patty like a big cookie.

The dough/batter shouldn't be so liquid it runs, and shouldn't be so doughy that you could knead it.

Oh I don't know, kind of like muffin batter I guess. Just figure it out. If it's too runny, throw in a little more coconut to absorb the liquid, but don't use the ground hazelnut which can make the Bakie slightly bitter.

Shove it into the oven for 20 minutes or so, or until it goes crispy around the edges.

Eat hot with tea. Makes a nice breakfast with a side of no-sugar fruit preserves.

Another variation which is really nice is to cut up some soft fruit like a plum (skin on) and mix it into the dough. When it bakes, the fruit is just softened and the tartness of the plum really heightens the nuttiness without adding any sugar.



~

Autumnal soup

No, I didn't use the mushroom growing in the living room. It was a windy, blustery day today, and the big thick grey clouds coming in over the sea made me think of home made cream of mushroom soup. Of course, it being Italy, and only the second half of September, it was still in the upper 20s and heavy and humid, so not really very autumnal, but you take what you can get.

Take

1 packet of sliced mushrooms you bought last week and were in danger of going funny in the fridge
1 mushroom flavoured oxo cube
1 small onion
2 cloves fresh garlic
1 sprig fresh parsley
5 tbsp butter
1/4 cup marsala or dry sherry
3 tbsp rice flour
whole milk
heavy cream

Chop all the mushrooms and the onion very fine, mince the garlic and parsley. Reserve a portion of the chopped mushrooms. Saute gently together in a pot over a low heat with 2 tbsp of the butter until the mushrooms start releasing their juice. Pour in 3 or 4 cups filtered water, the marsala and the oxo cube and allow to simmer for about ten minutes.

While it is simmering, make a cream sauce. Melt the rest of the butter in the bottom of a heavy-bottomed pot, sprinkle in the rice flour (for primal people; if you don't care about your health, you can carry on using white wheat flour) and stir over a medium heat until you've got a thick paste. Add the milk and whisk until smooth. Continue stirring while adding cream until you have a nice thick consistency. (Don't worry about the cream sauce being a bit bland.) Stir constantly as long as the cream sauce is over the heat. With a little practice you will master the art of knowing how much milk and cream to use, but I can't really tell you. Wing it. Do not allow to boil. When the cream sauce has reached a thick, even consistency, remove from the heat and set aside.

Place the mushroom mixture in the blender and blend on high for two minutes. (Watch out, be careful not to overfill the blender or it will go all over you and you'll be scalded. Never fill a blender all the way to the top. If you've got too much stuff, do it in batches.)

Once the mushroom mixture is very smooth, put it back in the pot and over a low heat. Whisk in the cream sauce and you can add a little more cream. Wash the heavy bottomed pot and add another tablespoon or so of butter and saute the reserved portion of the chopped mushrooms and add them to the soup as a garnish.

Eat.

(Very nice with a little grated pecorino on top. But what isn't?)



~

Melanzane alla Parmigiana, Hilary style

Meanwhile, back here on the ground, I invented my own melanzane parmigiano recipe tonight.

 I've also been very carefully tracking my intake of various nutrients, carbs and calories, to figure out how to bring my weight down a bit, while keeping up optimum levels of protein and whatnots and cutting out the really damaging stuff, grains and sugar that play havok with my blood sugar. So heavy on the green veg, meat, fish, chicken, cheese, plain yogurt, slightly less fruit... more or less the way I've been eating all my life, but without the sugar. At the moment, I'm not worried too much about fats.

Since the end of surgery, I'm hovering very close to what the websites all agree is the "optimum" weight for my age, height and build, which is fine, but I'm still feeling bulbous and slightly blobby. Flabby and out of shape mostly, from a year of lying around moaning and complaining.

Of course, all the numbers here are mostly approximate. I've learned that there really is no way to precisely calculate exactly how much of anything is in the food I'm eating. But at least this gives me an idea of what effects my favourite foods are having. It's helped to sort out what I can have lots of and what I could stand to be more circumspect about, where I was well balanced, and where I was going to heavy or light on various things.

Try this. No idea if this is the way the Italians make it, but I had it tonight for dinner. It was great.

350 g melanzane                               35g carb / 171.5 cal
1 tbs butter                                          0g / 100
1 cup whole milk                               13g / 146
1 tbs olive oil (optional)                     0g / 110
1 oz parmesan cheese                         1g / 121
1 tbsp rice flour                                22g / 102
125g. mozzarella                           1.25g / 292.5
400g tinned tomatoes                       12g / 68
1 oz tomato paste                               5g / 23
2 cloves garlic, minced  
1-2 pinches dried basil  
1 tbsp chicken powder 
shot of Worcestershire
                                                     ____________

One portion = divide by 4          22.31g carb / 283.5 cal

Preheat oven to 175.

Prepare the cream sauce. Melt the butter in a heavy bottom enamel pot, taking care not to let it burn. Dust with the rice flour, and stir until it's all damp and sizzling. Stir in the milk a bit at a time with a wire whisk over a low heat until all the milk is used. Keep stirring as the sauce thickens and stir in the parmesan until it's melted and smooth. Set aside to cool.

To prepare the tomato sauce, pour the tin of peeled plum/roma tomatoes into a stainless steel bowl. Add the basil, minced garlic, chicken powder and tomato paste and Worcestershire. Crush the tomatoes with your hands, mixing the ingredients together until it's all an even paste.

Take a 9x9 square cake tin, spread the olive oil over the bottom then line with prepared eggplant slices. (If you want to drop 110 calories, skip the olive oil, it doesn't make too much difference except for taste.)

Spread a layer of tomato sauce with a spatula, covering the melanzane. Take a ball of (Italian style) mozzarella, slice into ten or more pieces and layer them over the melanzane. Add another layer. Spread the parmesan/cream sauce to entirely cover. Repeat with more melanzane, making sure you end up with tomato sauce on top. Grate a layer of cheese on top, pecorino is nice.

Bake for 30 minutes or so.

Using the amounts I gave above, and the 9x9 cake tin, allow to cool then cut into four even pieces. One portion should come out to about:

22.31g carb / 283.5 cal

Nice with a leg of chicken on the side.

Notes:
Lately I've been saving myself a lot of trouble by buying the frozen melanzane already prepared and grilled. I don't know if you can easily get them outside Italy, but if you can, they're in the frozen veg section. Pretty cheap too.

Chicken powder comes here in tins, not so much pressed in cubes. I have been using it instead of salt. It's less salty and adds a lot of nice flavour.

I've entirely given up wheat products, along with barley and rye, but am allowing myself to use a bit of rice now and then when nothing else will do, so this uses a tablespoon of white rice flour to substitute for wheat flour in making a cream sauce. It tastes a bit different from making it with wheat flour, but not bad and you soon get used to it. The rice flour doesn't give you the insulin spike or have the nasty chemicals that are in wheat. Wheat wants to kill you.

Of course, it goes without saying, or should, that the mozzarella I'm talking about is the heavenly Italian kind that is an unripened soft cheese, a formaggio fresca. It isn't the horrid blocks of tasteless rubbery stuff you buy in North America. That stuff is good, perhaps, for caulking the bathtub, but I hesitate to call it food.



~