Risotto alla Milanese

In the last couple of years, I have crowned myself the Queen of Risotto.

I always thought it would have been hard to make those creamy, delicious, wintery risottos I saw in the Italian Restaurants.

Tonight I have proven, once again, it is one of the easiest dishes one could make in about 10 minutes.

To that time, you need to add the actual cooking time of the Arborio rice, which is on average 14 minutes.

Well, it cooks itself, so I'm only going to consider the 10 minutes it takes to:

1. Chop a large white Onion and place in a non stick pan with about two tablespoons of Olive Oil.

Soften the onion and add a spoon of Vegetable Stock paste, then add about half a cup of Water and blend it all. You should get a cream that looks like this:

Then add a few filaments of Saffron. It is very expensive so use only a little.

Here is the little jar my mother sent to me a couple of months back. There is about 200 Euro worth of saffron in it, and it comes from her garden, from the bulbs I bought for her two years ago. At present, the price per gram is higher than that of gold...

Stir in now a couple of tablespoons of Turmeric Powder. It will give the rice the yellow colour and a nice taste. Plus, it's a super good food :)

Now put in about 6 cups of Water.

Stir and bring to the boil, adjust the Salt and let boil for a few minutes.

Add 3 cups of Arborio rice

Stir a bit, cover again and let cook on low to medium heat for 14 minutes, stirring every now and then. 

Once the timer goes off, add a dollop of Butter and grate some Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese on it, stir again and serve. And, more importantly, enjoy!

The doses above will be enough for 4 adults, plus you'll have a bit left over for your lunch box...

Coconut Oil... what else?

It's been a long, long, long time since I posted on my blog.

Life has been busy, the little one turned 2 years old and I have been cooking, cleaning, working and doing everything else on full throttle. Especially, being a mother. The hardest job of them all :)

A friend of mine recently told me about coconut oil. He uses it for his wonderful hair, black, curly hair, and for his skin.

I have read online for a few days and then I told him: Ok, you sold me coconut oil!

Great. In the past few days I've been experimenting with this wonder of nature. I bought two jars of coconut oil (it is, in fact, below 25 degrees Celsius, a solid, white paste).

My son has eczema quite often behind his knees. Coconut Oil!
My husband suffers from psoriasis since he was 7 years old. Coconut Oil!
My hair look a bit unhealthy and have no volume. Coconut Oil!

I've been spreading it, melting it, rubbing it... The benefits of this oil are endless.

I have been cooking biscuits and egg-free snacks at the weekend, and in the place of the butter I have used coconut oil.

It is truly marvellous. It gives a great taste to many different things and it has now earned a spot on my kitchen counter. Since it is something you can both eat and use as a cosmetic, I have placed it next to the stove and that's its spot. I never want to run out of it now that I have tried it!!!

I am also reading the book The Coconut Oil Miracle, by Bruce Fife. It is in fact a very interesting read and I also recommend reading online about the benefits of this oil.

Below is two simple recipes for the beauties in the picture: Coconut Oil Egg Free Cornetti and Coconut Oil Biscuits

On the left, Coconut Oil Biscuits

Ingredients: 

125 Grams of Coconut Oil

Melt the above in a saucepan

80 Grams of Dark Chocolate
80 Grams of Walnuts or Hazelnuts

Shred both the above in tiny pieces and add to the melted Coconut Oil

2 Eggs

Beat them and add them to the Coconut Oil and Walnuts and Chocolate mix

7 Grams or one sachet of Yeast, stir in the mixture

400 Grams of Flour

Fold into the mix above until you obtain a smooth ball of dough

Once you have the ball, start taking little pieces of it, roll them into tiny balls and flatten them a bit onto a baking tray lined with non stick paper.

Cook in the oven for about 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

When you take them out, they might seem soft, but they will become nice and crunchy as soon as they are cold.

Lovely and easy.

On the right, Egg Free Chocolate Cornetti

Ingredients:

100 Grams of Coconut Oil

Melt it in a little saucepan

125 Grams or one pot of Yogurt, I used chocolate flavour but you can use vanilla or white yogurt, they'll be just as nice

Add it to the melted Coconut Oil

250 Grams of Flour

Fold into the mixture above

1/2 Sachet or 3.5 Grams of Yeast

To be added to the mix

Once you have worked the ingredients together, divide the dough in two parts. With the rolling pin, form a circle and divide as you would do with a cake, in 8 parts diameter-wise.

Put on each part a teaspoon of your filling of choice, jam or chocolate spread, and roll them, starting from the larger side of each "slice".

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius, and, as for the biscuits, they will become crunchy once they cool down.

I have been placing them in my son's lunchbox for the past week and he loves them :)

Egg Free Biscuits

Looking for something to prepare for my (egg allergic) son, I came across a recipe that is as easy and tasty as can be.

These biscuits remind me of pasticcini, a kind of biscuit in Italy is usually served with coffee after a Sunday meal.

All together, it takes around 1 hour of time, and if you make the dough and then don't have time to bake, not a problem.

Ingredients:

200 grams of flour
200 grams of soft cheese (such as Philadelphia)
100 grams of vegetable spread or butter
4 grams of dried yeast
a bit of jam

Work together, in a mixing bowl, the soft cheese, the vegetable spread, the flour and the yeast. You will obtain a ball of sticky soft dough which has to be wrapped in cling film and placed in the fridge.

Let the dough rest in the fridge for as little as 30 minutes or as long as 2 days. When you are ready to bake, turn on the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and take the dough out of the fridge.

With a rolling pin, evenly work the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut out your biscuits.

You should aim for a 3 millimeters thickness.

Move the cot outs on to a sheet of baking paper and add the jam on the top of each biscuit.

Place the biscuits in the oven for about 20 minutes. They will be  light and yummy :)

Oil Bread, or the soft dough bread

Bread, the staple food that we used to buy at the "end of the day" reductions. Problem is, is full of anti fungal, alcohol, weird kind of fats and other stuff you would not really want to eat, I think.
Now, I bake my own bread in the electric oven, and we always have it in the house to accompany our meals.
The recipe I use now will give you an elastic dough that is easily stretched to make focaccia, which is a kind of pizza, filled with mozzarella and ham, usually, and covered with another layer of dough. It is lovely to eat, it keeps for a few days and is good eaten hot or cold. My husband takes it to work for his lunch almost every day.
Now for the recipe and procedure.

Ingredients:

500 grams of plain flour
300 ml of water
60 ml of olive oil
1 sachet of dried yeast
salt to taste

Mix everything together, adding nuts, olives, turmeric, anything you fancy really in your bread. Or just stick to the basic and enjoy :)

I let the bread-maker do this part of the work for me, I've already said my bread machine is worth her weight in gold and I'm not exaggerating.

Anyway, once you have a nice soft ball, place it in a bowl and cover it with a clean tea towel. I place it then in the cold oven, so it is away from temperature change that may occur in the kitchen.

After about 2 hours you will see the ball has almost doubled in size and so is ready to be baked. Take olive oil and brush your loaf with it. Now, if you are lucky enough to own a cast iron pot, place it in the pot with the lid on and in the oven. 

Switch the oven on to 200 degrees Celsius and let cook for about 30 minutes, or until you see the crust is starting to form.
At this stage, take the loaf out of the pot and place it on the oven rack and let cook until you are satisfied with the crust outside.
And here it is:

Baking your own bread will save you about 30% on the shop bought one, and most important, will spare your body the added crap ;)

Sweet and Sour Sauce

Chinese... we love Chinese! My only problem is the Mono sodium Glutamate, or MSG, abundant in all Chinese food we can purchase at any take-away.
I wrote about this scary "ingredient" before, here. I have since learned how to make at home two of our favorite sauces, the Lemon Sauce, and the Sweet and Sour sauce. They have entered now our regular menu and my son jumps around and celebrates every time I make it :) He is an easy please child, I admit it!

Now, the Sweet and Sour sauce I've made many times, hence I have found a beautiful balance with the ingredients to make it just as we like it best.

Ingredients:

60 grams of tomato sauce
200 grams of water
120 grams of white vinegar (I've used the Apple vinegar and the Pineapple vinegar I made myself)
90 grams of sugar, possibly brown
1 tablespoon of corn starch, not essential but it will thicken the sauce if you like
1 slice of pineapple if you have, cut in small chunks, it gives it a superb twist

There are no pictures for this because it's so easy to make.

Add all the ingredients to a small pot and bring to the boil. Turn the heat to a minimum and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Ready!

Rice Krispies "Bars"

Wondering the aisles of a supermarket, I see so many "products" ready made, full of sugar and preservatives that, inevitably, damage our bodies (and I believe our souls as well).
Having a child in school age, means everyday I must fill his snack box with... something!
I used to buy for him the puffed rice bars, more than 3 Euro for a pack of six. Money is not the issue here, but reading the ingredients label I was quite amazed. They are supposed to be made with rice krispies and chocolate, but the ingredients list goes on and on... That's not good.

So yesterday I made my own puffed rice bars. The result was very good, although I will need to increase the chocolate part so the rice can stick together.

Ingredients:
200 grams of chocolate: white, milk or black depending on your taste
50 grams of butter: it can be replaced with vegetable spread as well
125 grams of puffed rice
3 tablespoons of honey

Melt separately the butter and the chocolate.

 

To the melted chocolate, add the honey, then the butter.

 In a large bowl, mix the puffed rice with the melted mixture and make sure it is evenly distributed.

Place everything in a tray lined with oven paper and level with a spatula or a spoon. I have added some coating sugar on top, because my son loves it, but it is not essential.

Place the tray in the fridge for a few hours and then cut out the bars with a good knife.

This is what mine look like, cut and wrapped in film:

Today is test day, my son took one of them to school along with other things... Let's see if he will eat it ;)

New Life

I have not touched this blog for a very long time. I've missed it, I must say. We have a new baby, a girl. I am happy and all my energy and time I dedicate to my children. But I miss writing, I miss having the time to do something just for myself :)

Well, in the last 3 months I've gone through a lot, emotionally speaking. We were told we were going to have another boy, and I was really really happy about that. But I must confess, when I saw my little girl emerge from behind the curtain in the surgery room, I was overwhelmed, I felt over the moon. We now have a wonderful 5 year old boy and a little girl of 3 months. They are everything to me and I am focusing on their well being from the moment I wake up until I go to bed in the evening. As any other parent in the world does :)

I have not stopped cooking for a minute, I have been trying many new things and I want to share these new recipes on the blog as soon as possible.

My son liked the sausage rolls some dear friends brought here one day, so I made him something similar the very next day. That means I've learned to make a sort of puff pastry, it's a version that only takes 5 minutes to prepare and needs to sit in the fridge for 2 hours. It was my first try at puff pastry, while everyone tried to scare me away from it! The results were amazing and today I will make a lighter version of it, substituting the butter with a vegetable spread.

I have finally managed to get my hands on a cast iron pot, it was on good offer at a supermarket and I just could not miss the opportunity to have it for less than half the normal price. I bought it mainly for one reason: baking bread!!! It is a magical pot, because it turns my electric oven into a real oven where the bread cooks slowly and does not dry too much. I've baked bread loafs since I got the pot and I've added to it seeds and nuts of all kinds, olives, turmeric powder... My creativity is exploring all the possibilities and I really want to share the recipe for this wonderful bread as soon as I can.

My mother, 2000 kilometers away, saw the picture and immediately inquired about the pot :) This week I'll buy another one for her and take it with me when we will go visit them in less than 20 days. I am amazed that I will be teaching her how to make that bread loaf.

I've also been making marmalade, or better, jam. Every time I had some fruit too ripe to eat raw I turned it into a jar of sweet goodness. It's easier than I thought and I froze the extra jars to make sure they do not go bad. There is no artificial preservatives in my jam, such as pectin: only sugar, fruit and a secret ingredient that gives it a completely unexpected twist.

Let's say my main efforts have gone towards the baking, lately, as I bought a bread machine that is worth her weight in gold: she will make the dough and I turn it into pizza, bread, focaccia, panini rolls and the like.

This post is just an update to myself, mainly, to look back a few months and see all the important things accomplished so far and the new challenges ahead. I just want to remind myself to take 5 minutes for me every now and then and write. It's my medicine for the soul and it makes me feel good.

The little one is already 3 months old, I cannot believe it. My son will be 6 years old in no time and I look back these years and I say to myself: wow! you've come a long way!

The changes that happened in my life thought me a lot and I am grateful I have been able to adapt to all the good and bad things life threw in my direction. I can't wait to start cooking for this new baby too! And that is something I would never have imagined myself doing only 7 or 8 years ago.

She is so much part of this family already, she will happily sit in her baby chair and just look at us moving about all day. When we eat, she will be in her chair, "talking" to us. We are now a complete family, we will not have any more children for many reasons and I am loving each and every second of this slow, strange life I am living at present, where my whole world starts and ends in my house, with plenty of things to do, nappies to change, bottles to boil, meals to imagine and prepare, homework to do.

I am grateful for all I have, I believe we all build our lives with our actions and decisions, even with the wrong ones.

This is a promise to myself to get back to writing, one way or the other. This is a pin pointed on my imaginary board reminding me to make room in the daily routines for me, me and me.

Rice Gnocchi - my style

It's been a long time since I've posted a recipe, I've been experimenting a lot lately, not only in the kitchen but also with paper and scissors and my son is turning into a crafty little man with his enthusiasm. He loves now to make things, mostly tridimensional things, with paper and glue and glitter and any object he can find loose around the house.
The main experiment in the kitchen has been in the bread compartment. I have succeeded using a US recipe posted by an Italian friend on facebook... That says it all. The recipe is super easy, especially for me. I cannot knead too much now, being 7 months pregnant and a bit short of breath at the moment. The bread made with this recipe came out very well, and I will definitely be posting it soon, because it is super easy and it worked so well for two times in a row, without any "first time failure".

Today I'll be posting about a special kind of gnocchi, Rice Gnocchi. In Italy, we used to have them often in the CHinese restaurant, however I've never seen them on any menu here in Ireland and I know my husband loves them. He didn't eat them for the past five years, but now I know how to make them myself so he's a very happy bunny :)

Ok, the word gnocchi is not too accurate, they look like slices of rice dough, but in the Italian Chinese restaurant that is what they are called, so we'll stick to that.

Ingredients:

100 grams of rice flour for each person
50 grams of plain flour for each person
100 millilitres of water for each person.

Measure the flours.

And place them in a bowl.

Mix in the water and knead until you get a nice dough ball. If needed, add a bit of water.

Let the ball rest for 30 minutes or more in the fridge, so it firms up a bit. I left it for over an hour and it was a pleasure to work with when I took it out.

Cut a thin slice of the dough and press it down on a wooden board, then cut it in the desired shape. It should look like an ellipse, bit I didn't have any elliptical cookie cutter at hand so I just cut them in stripes.

Place all the stripes obtained on the side, and do not flour them  at all, otherwise the gnocchi might be a bit harder than what they are intended.
Prepare your condiment. For us it was chicken breast, slowly cooked with some olive oil and soy sauce, along with mushrooms, peppers and courgettes pieces. It is important that the condiment cooks slowly, so it can release the juices needed for the gnocchi.
Once the condiment is ready, put on some salted water and cook the gnocchi in batches of maximum 10 for two minutes in boiling water. 

Remove with a strainer after the 2 minutes and place over the condiment in the pan.

Once all the gnocchi are in the pan, stir fry everything for a few minutes turning and turning the contents so all the gnocchi get the chance to come in contact with the sauce.
Serve warm and enjoy. They are not heavy to digest and needless to say my 5 year old son loved them!

Filled Aubergines

It's been a long time since I last posted a recipe. We have been busy with the beginning of our son's school career :) and I have enjoyed playing with my sewing machine more than with pots and pans for last few weeks. We are also... well I am also preparing everything for the new baby that will complete our family, hopefully in December.

So, filled aubergines. I love aubergines, my son a bit less, but he needs to taste things before he can say he doesn't like them. So I tested the aubergine.

Ingredients:

3 Aubergine's halves (I used a 4th half to cook Pasta alla Norma)
1 Breast of Chicken, cut in small cubes
1 Small Onion
10-15 Black Olives
1 glass of White Wine

Remove the inside of the Aubergines and cut is small pieces. Place them in a non stick pan with some Olive Oil and let them cook for about 5 minutes. You will see a bit of liquid will come out. Add the Chicken pieces and the sliced Onion and let the aubergine's water evaporate for a few minutes.

Add salt and pepper to your taste and make sure all sides of the chicken are white. At this stage, add the Black Olives and the glass of White Wine and let cook on medium heat, covered.

When you are satisfied the chicken is properly cooked, remove the pan from the heat and fill the Aubergines halves

Place the filled Aubergines in the same pan with the juice left from the filling cooking and let simmer on medium heat, covered, for 20 minutes. Check that the juice is still there from time to time. If it dries out during the cooking, add a bit of Wine or water.

Serve and enjoy! 
This is a very versatile recipe, meaning that you can cook any filling you like and the aubergines will still absorb the taste of it and be super yummy. You ca blend the filling so it becomes an even mixture, add cheese on top, tomato sauce instead of the wine... it's up to you, and the contents of your fridge :)

A Busy Weekend - Calzone

From now on, whenever I cook a pizza I will also throw in a Calzone... It's just a great way to use the pizza dough, but bear in mind it has to be a bit thinner when used to make Calzone, so to give the filling a chance to cook properly.

Now, what I found great about Calzone is that the filling keeps its moist and doesn't "burn" like the topping on a pizza.

The first and most important thing that I learned making pizza dough over the last couple of years is that it has to be quite sticky when you put it to raise. Once raised it becomes a light material in your hands and not too heavy on the digestive system.

The trick is to cover your hands in flour before "handling" it, so that it can be worked with ease.

In a non stick pan I placed some olive oil, some mushrooms, broccoli and ham pieces. When the oil started frying, I threw in some white wine and let that cook for about 10 minutes on low heat.

I placed the filling in the middle of the Calzone and topped with some pieces of Port Salut cheese.

I folded the Calzone on itself and rolled the sides up, so the cheese, melting in the oven, would not leak out of it. I also pressed the borders with a fork.

In the oven he goes at 200 degrees Celsius and out it comes in about 7 minutes.




















The nose you see in the picture on the right is my son's, who suddenly was interested in broccoli and ate half of my Calzone last night :)

For a vegan version, just leave out the cheese and the ham. It tastes just as good.