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secret garden..., originally uploaded by vonsachsen.

sicilian meatballs and no-knead bread

It´s been more then three weeks since I came back from Sicily and my tan is already fading...I´m afraid the memories would too but I am trying very hard to keep them alive. I have eaten Caprese quite a lot with the fresh Mozarella, the not-quite-as-sweet-as-in-Italy tomatoes and the peppery scent of the basil instantly transferring me back to Sicily. ...all I have to do is to close my eyes. I have also had melon with prosciutto, Penne alla Norma (my way) with the Ragusano I brought back home.

Last weekend I made Tessa Kiros´ Budino di semolina from Twelve and it was very popular with my friends, although the consistency wasn´t really what I expected. Tessa wanted me to cook the budino in bain marin and I just hate that. I don´t have the "real stuff" so I just place a large pan filled with water in the oven and I place the actual pan with the pudding in it. The Silver Spoon suggests that you bake it in the oven without any bain marin, so next time I´ll try the easy way, because I liked the taste very much.

I haven´t mentioned yet, but - of course - I bought a cookbook in Sicily, quite a touristsy one. I am not very fond of these kind of books, but this was the only type of cookbook I found in English.

This weekend I made my first dish from it and it turned out surprizingly well. I made the meatballs in tomato sauce and served it with some no-knead bread that I made for the first time.

Sicilian meatballs in tomato sauce
Polpette al Sugo

meatballs:
500g minced beef
1 clove of finely chopped garlic
1 egg
3 tbsp of chopped parsley
2 spoonfuls of oil
4 toasted rusks (I used 4 small handfulls of ströbröd)
salt, pepper
1/2 cup of flour (I omitted that - too much starch)
1 pinch of cumin

tomato sauce:
4 large, ripe tomatoes, peeled
2 spoonfuls of oil 1 clove of garlic
1 small onion
2 tbsp chopped parsley
2 pinches of cumin
1 bay leaf
salt

Prepare the sauce: in a pot, sauté the whole garlic and onion in oil for five minutes, them ermove them and add the chopped tomatoes, bay leaf, parsley, cumin and salt. Reduce to medium heat for around 15 minutes and keep aside.

In the meantime, crumble the taosted rusks into a large bowl and moisten them with a little warm water. Leave to stand for about half an hour, then press with a fork to eliminate any lumps and add the minced meat, egg, garlic, chopped parsley, cumin ans salt and pepper. Mix well with a wooden spoon until perfectly smooth. In the palm of your hand, roll into meatball the size of an apricot, press lightly and flour.

Heat the oil in a pan and cook the meatballs for about 15 minutes on a medium heat, turning twice. Pour the tomato sauce over the meatballs and cook on a medium heat for a further 7 minutes. These meatballs may be served either hot or cold.

The no-knead bread (Jim Lahey/Mark Bittman)was great, of course I didn´t succed to 100%, but being a novice bread baker, I was satisfied anyway. I used a way too large Römertopf, so the bread was a bit flat, but rose perfectly and had a wonderful crust. I used 1 1/4 of tsp of salt, which I found too little, it might have been the sea salt I used...I definitely must use more salt next time. And yes, I am going to make this again, as it is a no fuss bread. Umm...did I tell that I also swapped 1 cup of plain flour to Graham flour?

No-Knead Bread


From NYT Dining & Wine


3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

So, finaly the bibite (yes, I am showing off a bit ;P), the latte di mandorla. All the time I was thinking that it was made of ground almonds (and it sort of is), but every recipe I came across was using pasta di mandorla. Since I haven´t bought any in Sicily, I used some Swedish mandelmassa, that should be close to the original. Of course, the Swedish ones are surely not made of Sicilian almonds, also they contain things I could easily live without, so I am still to find a recipe I am satisfied with. Here´s a tutorial video on YouTube that can be usede as inspiration or guiding lines. I suggest you turn down your speakers on your computer if you don´t want that stupid background music to drive you totally crazy...

It is best served sweet and well chilled.

Also, in a previous post I have been telling about the modest owner of Bar Manzoni in Catania, who - in my opinion makes the best latte di mandorla. He learned me a little trick how to recognize good quality latte di mandorla even before tasting it. If the bottle the latte di mandorla is being poured from remains too clear, that means that the beverage is too thin. If it remains white even after being emptied, then it should be OK.

I made the test with my own bottle and here is the result:

pretty good for a beginner ;)

chocolate strawberry jam

I know I have promised more from Sicily but right now there are other things wanting to be blogged :D

Few weeks ago a friend and I went to a newly opened café in Haga, Gothenburg. It is a very cosy cafe in scandinavian-shabby-chick-cottage style with (mostly) vintage tables, chairs and stacks of white and blue plates. Everything is apparently home made, from the pies, tarts, sandwiches to scones and jams. It was a delight to be able to choose from so many different jams, rhubarb, pear, walnut, raspberry and the one that really got me going: strawberry chocolate! I am not a chocolate person (according to David Lebowitz “there are two kinds of people in this world, the lemon people and the chocolate people ” ) but this combo blew me away.

The weekend after the visit I bought the pale blue plates too...

I could hardly wait to come home and ask my friends on Vi´s Pantry if they have heard or made or had recipes for jam with chocolate, because I knew that I just have to reproduce this delicacy at home. (The main reason was that they have silver knives in the various jam jars that made it hard to have generous helpings and I am a greedy but polite person...)

Carlotta from Vi´s Pantry had several recipes for different jams with chocolate, so I changed the raspberry chocolate jam just a tiny bit to fit strawberries.

It was a hit! This is going straight into my favourite recipes file! It is good to pancakes, scones or just plain on a slice of buttered bread with a nice cup of hot tea. Mmmm...
As I think it is my duty to share the recipe with you, here it comes ;P

Strawberry Chocolate Jam

(Adapted from Christine Ferber´s "Mes Confitures")

1 kg strawberries

700g granulated sugar (I would use 650g with a sweeter strawberry)

juice of 1 lemon

225g bittersweet chocolate ( 68%- 70%)

Day 1:

Hull the strawberries and give them a hasty rinse. Divideberries into two, mash one half with a fork and chop roughly the other half.

In a preserving pan, mix the strawberries with the sugar and lemon juice. Bring to the boil and cook 5 minutes, stirring gently and skimming carefully. Add the grated chocolate (I used a food processor) and stir until it melts. Pour into a ceramic (or china) bowl. Cover with a sheet of parchment paper and refrigerate overnight.

Day 2:
Next day, return the mixture into a preserving pan. Continue cooking on high heat for about 5 minutes, stirring and skimming if needed. Return to a boil. Check the set. Put the jam into sterilized jars immediately and seal.
The reason for this technique of cooking the jam twice is that the chocolate and the fruit will combine more thoroughly and the tastes "ripen" together.


Thanks Carlotta, this jam rocks!!

Not much left from the first jar...

tablecloth

I´ve bought a tablecloth on a market in Taormina. I mostly have whites and blues - kind of Scandinavian style - so it is fun to have something more "rustic". This lemony cloth is 100% pure cotton, cost me 2,50Euros and will remind me of Sicily every time I use it:)

morning prayers ;)

morning prayers ;) in front of The Duomo in Catania. I wishI was there now.

I loved how these guys gathered on the steps of the church early every morning to talk about politics and God knows what and how later in the evening their places were taken by younger men and boys watching people on their evening passeggiata.

Sicily - under my skin

The Duomo in Catania

I´ve been back for six days now but I am still suffering from post-holiday-depression. I´m sitting in front of my laptop and watching the slideshow with photos I took in Sicily. I take the Sicily guide with me to read on the tram on my way to work...
I have already found two cook books on Amazon about Sicilian cookery that I am ordering as soon as my economy allows it.

Do I have to say more? I am in love.

It wasn´t love at first sight and that´s why I know this is going to last. It wasn´t all perfect, all gorgeous. When we arrived to Catania airport after ten hours on three different planes, we were standing and waiting for our luggage in the small (ish) arrival hall and stated fact that it looked and felt like Romania. Well, actually it also sounded like Romania, the first person I heard talking there was in Romanian :) So we were waiting and waiting and waiting for our luggage and I was telling laughingly the story when Anthony Bourdain arrived to Sicily (in No Reservations) and his bags were missing. I was sure it was all set up for the filming. The smile on my face faded when the belt (?) stopped and our bags never showed up.

These were our first minutes in Sicily. After an initial threatening stroke, I recovered quickly and started to appreciate that we are going to travel light. We ran to catch the bus already standing there but unfortunately we missed it as we forgot to buy tickets for it.

Lesson nr1: when taking a bus in Sicily, you always always buy the ticket before. You also need different tickets in different cities, so you can´t buy them in bulk and think you are safe for the rest of your stay. You can buy tickets in stores that have a black T-sign.

So I became obsessed with black T:s.

Another black "thing" I became obsessed with was Mount Etna. Before actually seeing it (I call it "her" for myself) I thought it was such a tasteless thing, every tourist taking pictures of it and buying loads of kitschy postcards, but when I finally laid my eyes on it, I couldn´t stop staring. It kept me spellbound. I was looking at her while eating my breakfast, I was gazing at her from our hotel window in the afternoon and especially in the evenings when we could see the still glowing streams of lava.

It was first then and there it started to get real to me. It was first then and there I started to understand how this vulcano gave and took life. I can´t even imagine what it would feel like to live and sleep with that mountain over my head for the rest of my life.

But since this is a food blog I should here mention that the territory on the lower slopes of the mountain is extraordinarily fertile. In the cultivated zone there are oranges, lemons and tangerines, and on the higher slopes are planted with groves of olives, apples, pears, pistachios (the famous Bronte pistachios!), hazelnuts and vineyards. It is also one of the most important honey-producing areas of Italy, known for its citrus blossom honey.

I am not going to bore you with more talk, it feels like I could go on forever. Of course I just have to mention that I have never had such excellent bread in my life then in Sicily. The food (or shall I say our choice of restaurant or trattoria) wasn´t the best one every time, but the bread was.

Also a beverage I fell in love with is the latte di mandorla. Quite sweet but so refreshing! I made a test tasting in Catania, Taormina, Modica and Siracusa and I must say my favorite latte di mandorla was made by a very kind and modest man in Catania. I picked the place because it didn´t look "touristy", it was a simple place with a few green plastic chairs stacked upon each other.

We had Pasta di Mandorla and Cassata at the famous Bar Pasticceria Chemi in Taormina, but dare I say I was disappointed? I have had Cassata at every place I could but the best one I had at a little taverna in Catania. The Cassata at Chemi was overly sweet, as was the marzipan covering on it, and that made it impossible to detect even the slightest taste of ricotta.

The marsipan fruit was a piece of art!

More coming another day.

Theme orange for human rights - again

Last night I recieved an update from The Color Orange about 2 june: Press release :Give the Chinese students their history back! TheColorOrange.net appeals to everybody to wear the orange color on 4th June, the 19th anniversary of the crackdown on the students in 1989 on the Tiananmin Square, Gate of the Heavenly Peace.

So on the menu I had Diana Henry´s Thyme, oregano and citrus roasted chicken from Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons, liked it very much and I am going to meke it again. I am also going to use more orange zest in my cooking, it gives an interesting flavour to food.

For dessert I made George´s Golden Delight loaded with oranges too. George is about to publish a cook book and is looking for test pilots around the globe :)

The cake is made with oil that makes it moist and I simply loved the filling. I didn´t have the orange blossom essence George used, only an ordinary orange blossom water, so I added some grated orange zest both to the cake and filling, and it was incredible! This is a keeper recipe, although - since this is Tea for ONE - I would halve the recipe because this makes enough cake for at least 12 people! I made the cake just before leaving to Sicily (wasn´t too smart) but luckily I was invited for a grill party so I took the cake with me. Yum!

Note: Even if I halved the cake I would leave the amount of filling as it is ;)

Previous post on The Color Orange http://vonsachsen.blogspot.com/2008/02/color-orange.html