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Wondering what the above pic is? Some deep sea water vent? The first image finally transmitted from the presumed forever lost Beagle 2?
Ever noticed the narrative power food has in stories? Imagine a hero (or heroin) of a book or movie. There he is, almost too perfect to be true: is anyone of us even remotely like him? Now imagine him eating in a down-trodden bar, making coffee on a campfire or sitting in his own kitchen. Immediately the atmosphere becomes warmer, more human and homely. The food eaten or served itself can have a meaning by itself. A special sweet might indicate a need for affection, an excessive dinner the exuberance or self-indulgence of a character and so on. A book with no mention whatever about food still feels weird, I must admit (but then, I write a food blog), as if it lacked contact to real life. Probably that's the reason why enjoy so much books mixing crime and food. This might sound like an improbable combination, and has a somewhat sick side to itself, but it's full of examples out there. I have to admit that the crime writers that really rock my boat are those who bring the topic to an almost obsessive level: George Simenon and his Inspector Maigret, and his frequent bistro visits, and Manuel Vasquez Montalban and his character Pepe Carvalho, immersed in the aroma of Cataln cooking and preserved :-) in plenty of alcohol, are two favourites.
Apart these two, there's one Italian writer who I probably like even better and writes great crime stories laden of delicious Sicilian food references: Andrea Camilleri. Most of his books are centred on the figure of commissario Montalbano (chief inspector Montalbano) and the collection of amusing characters that make up his police district.
Continue reading "La pasta di Montalbano: i perciati ch'abbrusciano" »
Some foods are just beautiful: just think at a fresh glistening strawberry or a perfectly cooked duck breast, still pink and juicy in the middle. They just want to be eaten. Other foods aren't so lucky. Even the most rare and expensive food can be ugly. Have you ever seen a truffle? Looks just like an oversized piece of goat's droppings.
In the past weeks I cooked a few recipes with one ingredient that IMO wins the title as most unappetising (as far as looks go) carb to land on a plate, till a better candidate shows up, but which nonetheless tastes nice: bulgur. Bulgur is cooked wheat berries that have been dried out again and then broken up into irregular pieces. It is a Middle-Eastern ingredient and it's most famously used to make pilafs and tabbouleh. Raw, it looks exactly like what it is, pieces of cracked wheat berries. But once it's cooked it shows it's real face. Bulghur suddenly looks like something your dog chewed and then spit out again. Luckily it's taste doesn't have the same canine association: cooked bulgur actually tastes nice and adds a certain nutty aroma to the dishes it is used in.
As soon as Pim decided the theme for this new edition of Is My Blog Burning I knew what I wanted to make. I had a rice dish I'd been wanting to try out for months and I only needed an excuse. The last few days have been so busy (as you might have noticed from the lack of posts) that I almost didn't get a chance to make what I wanted, but in the end I managed to. I did finish 10 minutes ago though.
The dish I made is a Sicilian speciality: arancine al sugo. Arancine, or arancini, to put it simply, are stuffed rice balls, covered in bread crumbs and deep fried. The name means little oranges and they're meant to remind of the fruit for their size, shape (in most cases and colour. Today arancine are made with a number of fillings but the original ones are the ones "al sugo". There are probably as many recipes for this dish as there are Sicilian families. The shape can vary: round or conic. The rice can be cooked with the absorption method or like a risotto, with or without saffron. The stuffing can also vary a lot: a special tomato sauce, ragu, is a constant, but small peas, bechamel sauce, cheese can be added or not. Looking at a few recipes and following my own taste I put together my own recipe. I decided to stay true to the "little oranges" idea and made mine round and with saffron.
Continue reading "IMBB around the world in a bowl of... oranges: arancine" »
Some cookbooks should come with a warning sticker. I'm not talking about health warnings here though I could see a point sometimes. Something on the lines of "The subject of this cookbook is classified as chemical weapon according to the latest UN report. Probable side effects after ingestion: loss of taste, intense oral pain, excessive sweating, hyperventilation and next-day rectal inflammation." would go very well with The Habanero Cookbook. That's not what I mean though. The warning I have in mind should be somewhat along the lines of "The recipes contained in this book are dangerously delicious and addictive. After trying them your taste will be spoilt forever and you'll become a demanding eater." That's what should have been pasted on the cover of Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme. I've only made two of the recipes in the book and I'm totally hooked: will any other chocolate sweet ever taste the same after this?
A while back I wrote about Petra's baking website. Petra, apart the fantastic collection of bread recipes, seems to have some fantastic cake recipes up her sleeve too. After reading my marble cake post, she sent me a very interesting take on this popular recipe: an orange and ancho chilli flavoured version. I was eager to try it out ASAP but I had to wait till my local "ethnic" shop recieved a new batch of ancho chillies. I bored the hell out of them for about four weeks till, finally, they got some. I went home with my little loot and got ready to bake.
Surprises are always nice and lately this little city of Jena has been surprising me, from a culinary standpoint more and more. First farmhouse raw milk cheese, then a great artisan bakery and now this. Last Tuesday, after about six month's time from my last visit, I dropped into a local shop selling mainly Indian goods looking for mustard seeds. I couldn't believe my eyes as I noticed a large shelfful of fresh Asian produce: Thai red shallots, various herbs, a few different Chinese greens and so on. Sadly none of those delicious Thai aubergines, sold out in a matter of hours the shop-keeper said. I bought a few different ingredients but what tempted me the most was the green peppercorns. I like the pickled ones but these looked much better: bright green instead of greyish-green, very pretty all bunched up together. And the taste was even better, brighter, fresher and hotter than the pickled stuff. What to do with them?
Continue reading "Ingredient of the day: fresh green peppercorns" »
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