Biancomangiare with Blackberries and Raspberries

Ingredients:

Serve 4

400ml milk
120ml sweetened condensed milk
10g jelly sheet
1 vanilla beans
1 stick of cinnamon
12 fresh Blackberries
12 fresh Raspberries
Icing sugar

Wash the fruits and dry it well with a towel. Put the jelly sheet in cold water until they become soft. Meanwhile in a pan heat in a low fire the milk, cinnamon stick, condensed milk and the vanilla bean seeds (you have to cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and with a knife take all the seeds out) stirring   every now and then.
When it is warm add the jelly stir well and let the mixture cool in the refrigerator for 30min. In a jar put three blackberry, once the mixture is cool enough that has an oily consistency poor it on top of the blackberries and refrigerate it for at least 6 hours. Before serving top the biancomangiare with the raspberries and a dash of icing sugar.

Dinner with friends.

After a busy weekend re-arranging the house it was nice to have my friends over for dinner and have a relaxing evening. Since all of them are very careful with their weight I wanted to prepare a meal with many fresh and light courses but at the same time rewarding without making you feel heavy.

Mini Clafoutis smoked with Pine nuts and Cherry Tomatoes

Ingredients:

Serve 4

200g Cherry Tomatoes
100g Smoked Bacon in cubes
2 Eggs
45g All purpose flour
150ml Milk
100ml Heavy Cream
50g Parmigiano Reggiano grated
20g Pine nuts
mixed salad
Olive oil
Salt

Wash and dry the Cherry Tomatoes. In a pan put 2 tablespoon of oil, add the tomatoes and cook them for 5 min. Add the smoked bacon and the pine nuts, cook them for other 5 minutes until all the flavors come together. Adjust the salt and keep them aside to cool.
In a bowl beat the eggs with 35g of flour, a pinch of salt, Parmigiano Reggiano, heavy cream and milk. Brush with some olive oil and flour with the remaining flour 8 non stick molds with a diameter of 5-6 cm.
Preheat the oven at 180°C. Divide in the 8 molds the cherry tomatoes and pine nuts and add the batter on top. Bake for 35min. Serve them warm or cold with a bed of mixed salad dressed only with olive oil and salt.

Panzerotti with Ricotta and Spinach

Ingredients:

Serve 4

250g bread dough (or puff pastry )
250g Fresh spinach
100g Ricotta
20g Parmigiano Reggiano
450g Peeled Tomatoes in can
1 Garlic clove
4 leaves fresh Basil
Olive oil
Salt

In a pan fry the garlic with 4 tablespoon of Olive oil. Add the tomatoes, basil and a pinch of salt. Cook it in a low fire for 20 minutes. Eliminate the garlic clove and set aside.
Wash the spinach, put them in a pan with half glass of water, a pinch of salt and cook them for 4 min. Drain the spinach, cut them in small pieces and set aside to cool. In a bowl mix the ricotta, spinach, parimigiano and a pinch of salt until all the ingredient are well combined. With the mixture make 8 small balls and put them in a tray to cool in the refrigerator.
Preheat the oven at 200°C.
Meanwhile roll out the bread dough or puff pastry and cut 8 squares with each side of 8cm, set them aside. Now cut other 8 squares with sides of 6cm, in the middle put some tomato sauce and the ricotta and spinach ball, cover with the 8cm square and seal the panzerotto. Cut the excess with a shaped round cutter. Bake the Panzerotti for 20min at 200°C and serve them warm or cold with the dip of the remaining tomato sauce.

Smoked salmon and Grapefruit bites

Ingredients:

Serve 4

200g smoked salmon
2 grapefruits
2 pita bread
100g sour cream

Peel the grapefruit and cut it in slices. Cut the pita bread with a flower shape biscuit mold. Cut the salmon in stripes and fold them to make small squares. In a bamboo skewer alternate the salmon and the grapefruit. Place them in a serving plate with the pita bread and the sour cream as a dip.

Chicken Tonnato with green beans

Ingredients:

Serve 4

500g chicken breast
200g green beans
2 anchovies filet
1egg
60g tuna solid pack in water
12 kalamata olive
1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon caper
8 cherry tomatoes
10 fresh basil leaves
olive oil
salt

Grill the chicken, once cooked add some salt and set aside. Meanwhile boil the egg in a pan with cold water, when the water start boiling cook the egg for 7 min. Peel the egg and set aside to cool ( we will use only the yolk in the recipe).
Wash the green beans, cut them diagonally and boil them for 5 min. Drain them, keep half cup of their water aside and cool them in a bowl with cold water and ice.
In a food processor add the yolk, tuna, basil leaves, caper, pinch of salt, lemon juice and 4-5 tablespoon of Olive oil. Mix all the ingredients until you get a smooth sauce. If it is too thick add some water of the green beans that you have aside to get the consistency that you like.
In a plate arrange the green beans, tomatoes, olives, the chicken in stripes and the sauce. Serve it cold.

Mixed rice with avocado and shrimps

Ingredients:

Serve 4

200gr. mixed organic rice
1 avocado
16 shrimps
1 cup cube sliced celery
100ml white while
1 orange juice
1lime juice
cayenne pepper
Olive oil
salt

Boil the rice in salty water. Once cooked (about 15minutes) keep aside to cool. Meanwhile in a pan boil 200ml of water. Clean and wash the shrimps. Add the white wine to the boiling water together with the shrimps. Cook them for 2 minutes and drain them.
Season the 12 shrimps with the orange and lime juice add the cayenne pepper (choose the quantity depending if you like your salad spicy or mild). Cut the avocado in small cubes dip it in lemon juice to avoid that it become black. Drain it and add it to the shrimps. Add also the rice, celery a pinch of salt and 5 tablespoon of olive oil. Mix well and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before serving it.

Banoffee Pie

I was craving for a creamy toffee and banana and the Banoffee pie combine these two flavors perfectly. I was a bit intimidated by the one that my friend Diana always prepare because is the best banoffee pie that I ever ate. Finally I was inspired by a cooking program on the TV Unique sweets on food network and I decided to try to prepare one. The only inconvenient is that you have to boil the canned condensed milk for 2h and 30 min to caramelize it. The result is truly decadent.
Try this recipe and judge yourself !

Ingredients
serve 6-8

200g digestive biscuits
100g butter
1 can condensed milk (395g)
4 medium bananas
250g whipping cream
1 tablespoon icing sugar.

In a saucepan with a low heat fire boil the canned condensed milk (keep always the can covered by the boiling water) for 2 hours and half. Once ready let it cool at room temperature.
In a food processor crush the biscuits. Melt the butter in the microwave and mix it with the biscuits. Prepare the base of the pie combining the melted butter and the biscuits, spread it on the bottom of a pie tin and chill it in the refrigerator.
Once the caramelized condensed milk cooled, pour it in the biscuit base and spread it with a spatula evenly (keep two teaspoons aside, add 1 teaspoon of cream to make it creamy and use it  to decorate the top of the pie). Cut the bananas in slices add them on top of the condensed milk.
Prepare the whipping cream with the tablespoon of icing sugar. Top the bananas with a layer of whipping cream and decorate with the toffee.

Bucatini all'amatriciana.

This is one of my favorite pasta. It was one of my first pasta that I cooked when I was learning to cook. The sauce is very simple and the outcome is delicious.
Bucatini are thick spaghetti pasta with a hole in the center perfect for the amatriciana sauce. Unfortunately it is not very easy to find them at a normal supermarket it is better to look in an Italian gourmet shop. Nevertheless you can have an equally delicious amatriciana with Rigatoni which are more common and you can still enjoy the recipe.

Ingredients:
serve 4

Sauce

250g pancetta affumicata (smoked bacon)
500g  fresh tomatoes peeled and seedless
100g freshly grated pecorino
1small onion finely chopped
1 teaspoon chillies crushed
3 spoons olive oil
salt and pepper


Pasta

320g bucatini


Cut the pancetta in small cubes. In saucepan put the pancetta cubes and cook them in a low heat fire until the pancetta became golden brown. Add the onion finely chopped and stir to combine the onion and pancetta. Add the olive oil and the chillies. Once the onion became translucent  add the fresh tomatoes chopped and cook slowly for about 20min. Adjust the sauce with salt and pepper and let it cook for other 10min.
Meanwhile boil the water for the pasta. Once the water start to boil add 1 tablespoon of salt and the Bucatini (check the cooking time for the pasta it is different for each brand) and cook them  until they are al dente (the pasta has to be firm to the bite).
Drain the pasta and mix it with the sauce in the serving dish. Sprinkle it with the freshly grated pecorino and serve it.  Buon appetito !!!!

Arroz con Leche (Rice Pudding)

This is one of my kids favorite dessert. The summer holidays in the North of Spain started always with Arroz con leche and Tortilla de patatas because are the two dishes that we always found ready at home after the long drive from Barcelona. Finally after many attempt I managed to find the perfect recipe with the creamiest rice and yet not too sweet.
My little touch was to sparkle the Arroz con leche with some chopped dark chocolate ( I love dark chocolate and I wouldn't mind to eat it even with a grilled Fillet....)

Ingredients:

2 liter full fat milk
100g arborio rice
100g sugar
1 vanilla bean
1/2 teaspoon salt
50g dark chocolate chopped (optional)
Cinnamon powder

In a saucepan pour the milk and heat it in a low heat fire. Using a sharp knife cut the vanilla stick in half lengthwise and using the tip of the knife scrape the bean lengthwise to take all the vanilla seeds out of the beans.
Add the vanilla seeds, the sugar, the salt and the rice to the warm milk and stir all the ingredients. Let it cook in a low heat for about 1 hour and 15min stirring every 5-7 min to avoid the rice to stick on the bottom of the pan. Once it became creamy and thick pour it in a single flat container (or in bowls if you want to have individual portions) and let it cool at room temperature. Sparkle the top with ground cinnamon and grated chocolate. Your Arroz con leche is ready to eat !!!!

Chicken with Orange and Rosemary

I think this is one of my signature dish of our daily menu. The recipe is my sister's Elisabetta. I like the sweet fruity combination of the caramelized orange with the earthy flavor of the rosemary on the juicy chicken. Actually this recipe is also very nice with mandarins if you run out of oranges. I love both of them and I can't say which one is best.

Ideally the chicken's drumstick or thigh are more indicated for the recipe but at home everyone like only the chicken breast therefore I always cook it with chicken breast.

Ingredients:

serve 4

450g chicken breast fillet

2 oranges

2 cloves of garlic

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

2 tablespoon olive oil

salt and pepper

Preheat a frying pan, add the garlic ( I put the whole clove of garlic just to give the flavor and remove it once the chicken is cooked) and rosemary let it fry for 1 min in a medium high heat. Once the garlic start to became translucent add the chicken. Cook one side of the chicken until it is golden brown and turn it on the other side. Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile peel one orange and slice it lengthwise, with the other orange prepare an orange juice and pour it  into the chicken once both sides are golden brown. 

Cook the chicken in low heat until the juice caramelize. Add the sliced orange at the last moment.

Serve it warm and garnish it with fresh rosemary.

Fish and Chips

Living in an Island would be very natural to eat a lot of fresh fish almost every day. Therefore for lunch I was inspired by the classic british Fish and chips recipe and I decided to prepare this little treat to the family. It is easy to cook and the kids love it. Although I did not fry the potatoes I find it too heavy and unhealthy since we are all very careful lately with our weight. Here is my version of fish and chips after I made few changes from the original recipe of Ina Garten. 

Ingredients :
serve 4

• 900g Fresh Grouper fillets ( Cod would be ideal but it is very difficult to find  here in the Middle East)
• 2 large eggs
• 130g all-purpose flour
• 30g baking soda
• 240ml cold sparkling water
• 40g freshly grated lemon zest
• salt and pepper
• peanuts oil for frying

Lay the fish on a cutting board. Season both sides with salt and pepper and cut the grouper fillets in large stripes.

In a bowl whisk the eggs and then add the flour,lemon zest, a pinch of salt and pepper. Whisk the water and at last the baking soda. Let rest the batter for 20 min in the refrigerator.

Pour the oil into a frying pan and heat it to about 180C°.

Take the batter out of the refrigerator and dip each fillet into the batter, allowing the excess to drip back into the bowl. Place few fillet into the hot oil being careful not to crowd the pieces. Cook the fish on each sides until lightly golden and remove it to a plate with a paper towel to eliminate the excess of oil. Adjust the salt and pepper and serve it hot with the baked potatoes.

Baked potatoes

Ingredients:

• 4 large potatoes peeled
• 20g minced fresh rosemary
• 4 tablespoon Olive oil
• salt and black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200C°.

Clean and peel the potatoes, cut each potatoes in 8 pieces lengthwise.Place the potatoes on a baking pan and season them with olive oil, salt, pepper and the fresh rosemary. Toss all the ingredient and spread the potatoes in a single layer.

Bake the potatoes for 35 minutes, turning to the other cut side after 25 min. Bake them until lightly golden and crispy outside. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Let's celebrate !

I was thinking what could I prepare to celebrate the wedding of our good friends Marco and Rosien that we missed last July in Paris. I wanted to combine some French and Italian flavors to create an ideal connection with their respective countries of origin.
To celebrate the triumph of the mediterranean cuisine I thought to start our festive dinner with savory crepes filled with asparagus and prosciutto cotto (honey roasted ham) followed by a salmon roll with mint that combined perfectly the earthy and sea flavors which are typical of the mediterranean cuisine. Roasted cherry tomatoes and herbes de provence to compliment the sweetness of the pistachio crust of the salmon.
A wedding is not a wedding without a proper wedding cake therefore I decided to bake one with a surprise inside. I found a heart cake pan set from Wilton and I thought that it could have been great to hide a red heart inside the white cake covered by the white vanilla frosting. I got the idea from I am baker and used his recipe for the red velvet heart, but I had a different recipe for the white cake that I liked better.

Crepes with Asparagus and Prosciutto cotto

Ingredients: 

Batter for crepes(make 8 crepes)

125g All purpose flour

300ml milk

3 medium size eggs

1tablespoon of butter

pinch of salt

Filling

24 fresh baby Asparagus spears

8 slices of Prosciutto cotto(honey roasted ham will do perfectly)

200ml cooking cream

100g Parmigiano

Salt, Pepper

Serves 4

• In a mixing bowl, whisk together the three eggs with a pinch of salt. Gradually add in the flour and the milk stirring to combine. Add the melted butter mix until you get a smooth batter. Put the crepes batter in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.
• Clean and wash the Asparagus. In a saucepan boil 1liter of water and add a pinch of salt and the asparagus. Boil them for 3 min, drain them and place the Asparagus in ice water. After few minute you can drain them and pat dry.
• Take an 8" frying pan. Grease it with some butter. In the lightly heated pan poor about 1/4 cup of the batter and cook it until is golden, with a spatula turn the crepes on the other side and cook it for about 3 min. Once you have the 8 crepes prepare the filling.
• Prepare an oven pan to put the crepes. Grease it with some butter and preheat the oven at 180 C°. 
• On each crepes spread some cooking cream to keep the filling moist, layer a ham slice and three asparagus spears . Roll them gently like a spring rolls or burrito style and place them in the oven pan.
• Poor the remaining cooking cream on the top of the crepes and sprinkle some parmigiano on top of them. Place the crepes in the oven for 20/25 min. Serve them hot.

Salmon roll with mint

Ingredients:

700 g Salmon filet
30 g breadcrumbs
40 fresh mint leaves
100 g peeled pistachio
400 g cherry tomatoes
1 lemon zest
origano
Olive oil
Salt, Pepper

Serve 4

• Preheat the oven at 180 C°
• Cut the salmon fillet in half and open it like a book to have an even and flat base for your filling (You can ask the fishmonger to cut it for you).
• In a food processor mix the breadcrumbs, peeled pistachio, lemon zest and the fresh mint leaves until all the ingredient are well blended.
• Season with salt and pepper both side of the salmon. Add half of the mix of the mint, pistachio, lemon zest and breadcrumbs evenly on the top of the salmon. Starting from the longest side of the salmon begin to roll it. Once you have the roll use some kitchen wire to tie the salmon to avoid that the filling come out from the roll.

• Brush the outer surface with olive oil and use the rest of the mix and cover the salmon.
• Put the salmon in a baking pan lined with baking paper and put it in the oven at 180 C° for 25 min.
• In a different pan season the cherry tomatoes with salt, pepper, origano and olive oil. Mix well the tomatoes and the rest of ingredient with your hands to be sure that the tomatoes are well seasoned and put them in the oven at 180°C for 25/30 min depending of the sizes of the tomatoes which should be roasted and without too much juice in the pan.

• Serve the rolled salmon with the roasted tomatoes aside.

Heart cake

This is a combination of recipes. For the white cake I used the recipe of Ina Garten for the Coconut cake but I did't put the coconut in the batter. For the filling and frosting I used the recipe from I am Baker but the icing was too soft and kept melting. Next time I have to find a better recipe.

Thai food at home.

Today I decided to prepare a light lunch. My husband and myself used to go to a Thai restaurant in the neighborhood and we loved to order fresh spring rolls with peanut sauce and a minced chicken salad with mint ( Larb Kai ). This was our healthy treat, therefore today I prepared it here at home and it was delicious.

FRESH SPRING ROLLS

Serve 4

Ingredients :

8       rice paper discs for spring rolls skin

30g     rice vermicelli

8       leaves of lollo salad

1       carrot 

1       cucumber

16      leaves of fresh mint

8       leaves of fresh basil

• Wash the salad, basil and mint separately and dry them with a kitchen paper. Chop the carrot and the cucumber julienne and put them in separated bowl.
• In a bowl put  1/2 liter of warm/hot water and add the vermicelli and let them soak until they soften. Drain them and put them aside.
• In the same water soak individually for 30 sec the rice paper disks. Let the excess water drip off and lay them in a cutting board.  I suggest to prepare the spring rolls one by one because the rice paper disk are sticky once they are wet. 

• Place on the bottom center of the spring rolls skin a handful of vermicelli followed by the salad, mint, basil, the carrot and Cucumber julienned. Roll gently pulling aside like sushi rolls. Fold the sides into the center to avoid the filling to drop out and continue to roll the spring rolls.
• Continue to roll the rest of the rice paper discs and you serve them with Thai penut sauce.

 Larb Kai

Ingredients:

450g    ground chicken breast

1       red onion finely sliced

2       tablespoon spring onions

20      leaves fresh mint 

1       cloves of garlic

2       red chilly (thai)

1       thumb of fresh ginger

8       leaves of lettuce

2       spoons olive oil

6       tablespoon fish sauce

4       tablespoon chopped peanuts

Handfull of fresh coriander leaves finely chopped

dressing sauce:

1/4       cup of lime juice

4         tablespoon fish sauce

1         tablespoon brown sugar

• In a serving plate prepare a bed of salad. 
• In a food processor ground the garlic, ginger and red chilly.
• Place the 2 tablespoon of olive oil and the mixture of ginger, garlic and chilly in a hot wok. Add the chicken and stir continuously to cook it evenly. Once the chicken change color add the fish sauce and let it cook for few minute more.
• In a mixing bowl transfer the hot chicken. Add the sliced onion, mint, spring onions and the fresh coriander finely chopped.
• Combine all the dressing ingredients in a bowl. Stir the sauce to dissolve the sugar.
• Pour the dressing into the bowl with all the ingredient and toss well.
• Put the chicken salad on top of the lettuce bed. Finally add the chopped peanuts on top of the salad.