dotty

dotty, originally uploaded by ilva-b.

MINI TARTS WITH CITRON CURD AND DARK CHOCOLATE GANACHE

So what did I do with my citron curd? Apart from stealing spoonfuls of it every time I opened the fridge? I made these mini tarts, nothing new really but when I see the pictures now, I instantly feel how much I wish I had lots and lots of them here. Right now. I really like the slight bitterness of the citron curd paired with the dark chocolate but I just now that these would taste great with a lemon curd filling as well.





MINI TARTS WITH CITRON CURD AND DARK CHOCOLATE GANACHE
1 big pie and 8-10 mini tarts, maybe more depending on how mini you make them

pastry dough (based on a Alain Ducasse recipe that I found somewhere ages ago):
250 g/4,4 oz pastry flour
150 g/5,3 oz butter, soft
100 g/3,5 oz sugar
1 egg
the vanilla beans from 1/2 a vanilla pod

filling:
citron curd or lemon curd

ganache:
200 g/7 oz dark high quality chocolate, roughly chopped
300 g/10,5 oz fresh cream

- Stir sugar and butter smooth, incorporate the egg and the vanilla beans and stir well.
- Add the flour and work it quickly into a dough.
- Leave it to rest for a while in a cool place.
- Roll out the dough and line the tart forms. Cover with a sheet of foil and fill the forms with dried beans so that the sides don't fall down and the bottom doesn't puff up when you bake them.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven (175°C/350°F) for about 10-15 minutes for the small tarts and 15-20 minutes for a normal pie.
- Let them cool down.
- Bring the cream to the boil and then pour it over the roughly chopped chocolate. stir until smooth and leave it too cool down a bit.
- Fill each tart half-full with citron curd and then cover with ganache.
- Leave the tarts until the chocolate has set, it takes quite a while so make them well in advance.

rose petals

rose petals, originally uploaded by ilva-b.

The Heart of the Matter-the Flower Roundup

It is time for the Heart of the Matter roundup. This month's theme Flowers was not the easiest but I have a beautiful little bouquet here to present you with. I am so impressed by all the entries, you have taken such care of both of recipes and presentations - Thank You!

First we have Jugalbandi's incredible Sagz-to-Sexy Smoothie, Bee wanted to call it a liquid salad but was afraid it sounded disgusting but I don't agree, I love the idea of drinking my salad especially if it tastes as good as this one does, especially after the addition of rose water!

Then we have Soma's of eCurry whose Saffron Yogurt Mousse with Rose Petal Honey is not only beautiful to look at but she also has taken care of making it healthy too! And it looks so romatic that even I, a hardened soul, just melt when I look at it!

Yasmeen of Health Nut offers us these Wholesome Qatayef (Middle Eastern Stuffed Pancakes) With Orange Blossom Syrup, an incredible treat that really expands our Western notion about filling pancakes- a must to try!

Zabeena from A Lot On My Plate has created the most beautiful edible flower I have ever seen! And it is not only beautiful to look at, it is filled with treasures to discover-I just love this creative idea and I am sure it will find its way onto many tables!

Hibiscus-Ginger Cooler, doesn't that sound perfect now when the days are getting warmer? Not that I need that excuse to drink my co-host's Michelle of The Accidental Scientist lovely entry. I am just a bit (read a lot) envious of her living in Hawaii...


I made a Sweet Saffron Risotto With Strawberry Syrup made with rice milk.

This is it, a small but beautiful gathering of flowers, I hope you feel inspired to try out the recipes!

starlight

starlight, originally uploaded by ilva-b.

MEAT FILLED ZUCCHINI IN TOMATO SAUCE

Once I read about an Arabic dish made with small zucchini filled with meat and cooked in a tomato sauce and it has remained in my mind, waiting for me to get going. I have made filled zucchini before obviously but I have never thought about digging a tunnel into them and to stuff that with a filling and then cook them in a tomato sauce and that idea attracted me a lot. But as usual, it has taken some time before I actually managed to do something about it and I can't really remember the original recipe so this is a free interpretation. Zucchini and eggplants are perfect to fill with almost anything that takes your fancy and I regret not using them more often for that purpose but there's always time to make amends. The great thing about these filled zucchinis is that you actually could bring them along on picnics because the filling stays where it is. No spill, no fuss. Except when you have to excavate the zucchinis of course but I solved that by using a round apple corer, using that made it pretty easy. It is important to choose rather small and straight zucchini, don't worry about not having enough space for the filling because I don't think there should be too much of it anyway if you want to keep a good balance between vegetable and meat.





MEAT FILLED ZUCCHINI IN TOMATO SAUCE

small straight zucchini, about 12-15 cm/4,7-5,9 in long
minced meat, 1-2 cooked meat/zucchini
onion, finely chopped
fresh herbs, finely chopped
tomato sauce
chili pepper, optional
clove of garlic,
salt
extra-virgin olive oil

- Trim the zucchini and cut off the top, keep the tops, you will need them later. Take an apple corer and proceed to take out the core of the zucchinis without breaking the skin. It gets easier as you get along.
- Gently fry the chopped onion in olive oil until transparent, add the chopped herbs, the minced meat and salt and go on frying until the meat has browned and is cooked.
- Stuff the zucchini with the meat and put the tops on, fastening them with a toothpick or two.
- Heat up olive oil, chili pepper and garlic in a skillet or pan with high sides, add the zucchini and brown them all around.
- Add enough tomato sauce to cover the zucchini and leave it to simmer for about 45 minutes, turn the zucchini around now and then and if the tomato sauce dries up, you can add a little water.
- Serve warm or cold.

not so mellow yellow

yellow, originally uploaded by ilva-b.

Spiced by Dalia Jurgensen - a review

Some time ago I received a book to review, it was the autobiographical book SpicedDalia Jurgensen, famous pastry chef who writes bout how she decided to give up her safe office job to become a chef, how she pusued her dream and through hard work managed to make it come through. Hard work and a bit of luck because I don't think that many people manage to get their first job at a restaurant like written by Nobu even before they have started attending a culinary school without a bit of luck. But you don't keep it, nor do you get other jobs in high class restaurants like Layla, Veritas and La Cote Basque unless you have talent and is a hard worker.
I enjoyed reading Spiced, it is almost always interesting to read about life in professional kitchens and here you get behind the scene of top class restaurants, you even get a peek at what it is to work in the test kitchen of Martha Stewart. And Dalia Jurgensen is sometimes surprisingly personal and candid about how she feels and things she does, adding a bit of spice to the book. But most of all I enjoyed her descriptions of how she creates desserts and pastries, the creative process of it; it is not easy to write about food in a way that makes you head straight for the kitchen or to a restaurant, but some people manage to do that, conveying their love for it in a way that contaminates you with their passion. And Ms Jurgensen managed to do just that with me, since I read the book, I have been baking far more often and making more desserts than I have done for a long time and to me that is a good sign!
If you want to know more about her, see her website My Spiced Life and/or her guest blog over at Penguin.

peekaboo!

shy, originally uploaded by ilva-b.

CINNAMON POLENTA PANCAKES - GLUTEN-FREE

When I think about my childhood and my mother I think pancakes, she made the best pancakes I ever tasted and only sometimes I manage to get that taste she 'produced' every time despite the fact that I use her same recipe but as we cook in the same way (intuition and feeling and not exact measures is the core of it) I can only put it down to her having the pancake touch and that I only have that on certain days. Now we must remember what we call pancakes in Sweden is not what you can pancakes in other countries, our pancakes are more like crepes, they are thin and there's no baking powder/soda in them. We usually roll them up with a jam, nutella or a simple sugar filling and they are perfect when you want to make pancake cakes!



Today I have made pancakes but as it is Friday and time for Gluten-free Friday, I have made polenta pancakes; after a couple of trial runs, I managed to get a good batter that keeps together even though you need to be a little careful not to turn it over before it is properly cooked. And they taste good too which is just as important, isn't it?
I almost forgot, I wanted to tell you that since I have decided to reduce the number of posts per week, I will not do Gluten-free Friday every week but I promise to at least do it every two weeks!





CINNAMON POLENTA PANCAKES - GLUTEN-FREE
about 6 large pancakes

300 ml/1,25 cup finely ground polenta flour
400 ml/1,7 cup milk
4 eggs
75 g/2,65 oz butter, melted
2 tblsp sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

- Mix milk and flour.
- Add eggs, melted butter, sugar, cinnamon and salt and whisk until smooth.
- Fry the pancakes preferably in a cast iron skillet but any skillet goes. The bottom of mine is about 22 cm/8,65 in wide. I fry about 100 ml/0,42 cup at a time. Be careful to let the pancakes cook long enough before you turn them over, otherwise the can easily break.
- Serve with a filling of your choice, in the photos you see a mixed berry jam filling.

pretty hairy

hairy, originally uploaded by ilva-b.

CITRON / CEDRO CURD

When I see a cedro or citron as it is called in English I feel the urge to buy it, they look as if they come straight out of a old still life with fruits. If you been to the Medicean villa Poggio a Caiano here in Tuscany, you might remember the large paintings of fruit hanging there, especially interesting as they show the different varieties of citrus fruit that the Dukes loved to collect. In 2007 they even opened a small museum of still lifes there, filled with paintings from the collection put together by the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. Now I am meandering away here, what I wanted to say is that the cedro (to me citron sounds strange because in Swedish citron means lemon, that' why I tend to stick to the Italian cedro) somehow connects me to the past; when you study the Renaissance garden you realize that the collection and cultivation of as many species and varieties within a species are vital components of the whole, the garden was a place to display the incredible wonders of the natural world, often achieved in collaboration with art and citrus fruits were one of the most popular fruits to be grown. And among them you often found the cedro. Another reason to why I have must buy them is that I find their beauty.



But then the problems start because you can't do much with a cedro really, you can make candied citron peel, I have a post about it here on Lucullian but I am working on a new more, exhaustive post about how to do it! And then you can make cedrata, a very refreshing analcolic drink. And that is about it I think. So I tried to figure out something more to do with my cedri and came up with the idea of making a citron/cedro curd. I am very fond of lemon and lemon curd is an old favourite with me albeit I sometimes find it a bit too sweet but now I have found the adult version of lemon curd! The peel of the cedro gives the curd a sightly bitter tinge, like bitter orange marmalade, a sudden sting in the middle of the sweetness. So be aware of that if you make it, if you don't like a little bitter, make lemon curd instead but if you do-this is the curd for you!





CITRON / CEDRO CURD

1 large citron/cedro, the grated zest and juice
2 eggs
150 g/5,3 oz sugar
100 g/3,5 oz butter, cut into pieces
1 pinch salt

- Whisk the eggs in a metal bowl and add the rest of the ingredients.
- Put the bowl in a pan of boiling/simmering water or in a bain-marie and stir until the butter has melted and the curd has thickened.
- Put the citron curd in very clean jars. Personally I keep it in an air-tight container in the fridge and consume it pretty quickly!

SPRING SALAD WITH PEAS, AVOCADO AND MOZZARELLA TOPPED WITH BABY SPINACH PESTO

I'm a bad Bread Baking Babe this month even though we had a really interesting and unusual bread challenge and despite Lien being so incredibly nice to send me the special flour we needed. But when I had the time to make it, I wasn't feeling well and when I was, I didn't have the time. So I hang my head in shame and will come back next month. I hope you will check out what my fellow Babes did!

But I have something else to offer you this sunny Monday, beautiful weather and Monday is an unbeatable combination! I couldn't resist the first fresh English peas of the season when I saw them, there is something about shelling them that makes me calm and I love the taste of fresh peas, I think I could eat it every day if I had the chance, their tender flavour and texture is so god. I wanted to make something that complemented the peas but still was fresh so I took the baby spinach and made a mild pesto with it (or should I call it salsa verde maybe?) and the avocado and mozzarella I wanted to add as well. It turned out to be a nice little spring salad that I think you should try when you feel like eating something fresh.





SPRING SALAD WITH PEAS, AVOCADO AND MOZZARELLA TOPPED WITH BABY SPINACH PESTO
2-3 servings

pesto:
1 large handful baby spinach leaves
6-8 walnut halves
1-2 tblsp parmesan, freshly grated
a pinch or two of ground nutmeg
salt
extra-virgin olive oil

salad:
200 ml/0,85 cup English peas, fresh if possible
1 avocado
1 mozzarella á 200 g/7 oz, as fresh as you can get

- Chop the spinach and walnuts really fine, add the parmesan, nutmeg and a little salt and mix well. Add enough olive oil to give it the desired texture, stirring all the time. You can also do it with a blender or mixer but it is pretty fast and easy this way too.
- Cut the mozzarella in two and leave it to drip off excess liquid if you want to avoid that the salad gets too liquid. (I forgot to do it as you can see in the middle photo)
- Cook the peas and drain them.
- Dice avocado and mozzarella and put in in a bowl, add peas and mix.
- Put the salad on plates and spoon plenty of pesto on top before serving.

Interviewed

Never did I think that my childhood in Kiruna in the extreme north of Sweden would be the cause of me being featured (interview, recipes and photos on pp. 12-14) in the weekend magazine of a Swedish newspaper! It is obviously only of interest for my Swedish readers (or those of you who for some reason read Swedish) as it is all in Swedish so I post a couple of photos for the rest of you so that you can see what lousy weather we are having right now!

indulging

Bee, originally uploaded by ilva-b.

Tree peony

Tree peony, originally uploaded by ilva-b.

SWEET SAFFRON RISOTTO WITH STRAWBERRY SYRUP - GLUTEN-FREE

Spring is displaying itself in an almost improper way, an abundance of form, colour and perfume that you cannot resist (unless you are allergic) and that seduces you completely, forcing you to surrender to a feast of the senses. But now and then reality shines through and it rains. Like today. The flowers bend their heads under heavy drops of rain and the birds are quieter but they are there, dots of colour making life more beautiful. Flowers is the theme of this month's HotM and this my entry (feel free to join in you too!), it is also part of my Gluten-free Friday series because we all need flowers! Dissecting the flower theme, I decided for pistils this time, so here we have a sweet saffron risotto made with rice milk to make it healthier but with the concession of a dash of strawberry syrup and a few white chocolate shavings. It is filling so I made small portions. You get the best result by over-cooking the rice so that it gets really soft, remember that the risotto always get thicker when it cools down.





SWEET SAFFRON RISOTTO WITH STRAWBERRY SYRUP - GLUTEN-FREE
4 servings

100 ml/0,42 cup risotto rice
500 ml/2,1 cup rice milk
1 pinch saffron powder, you decide how strong you want the saffron flavour
1-2 tblsp honey
strawberry syrup or strawberry jam that you warm up to make it runnier
white chocolate shavings

- Put the rice in a pan and start adding the warm rice milk a little at a time, cooking over medium heat.
- Stir all the time while the rice simmer. When it has absorbed the rice milk, add some more and go on like this until the rice is cooked. Make it rather 'loose' because the risotto will get stiffer when it cools down.
- Add saffron and honey and stir until perfectly mixed. Leave to cool down.
- Spoon a little strawberry syrup into the bottom of the glasses or bowls you are servin the dessert in, fill with risotto and drizzle more syrup over, top with white chocolate shavings.

architecture

architecture, originally uploaded by ilva-b.

PASTA WITH ASPARAGUS, SCALLION, PINE-NUTS AND SUN-DRIED TOMATOES

I have been an asparagus lover since I was a child, in those days it was close to impossible for normal citizens to get fresh asparagus in Sweden so we had tinned ones but still, I loved them with a passion, I understood what a delicacy they are and treasured the times we had those fat white asparagus spears, usually on bigger occasions. Italians can be a bit arrogant about tinned asparagus sometimes as they get fresh ones by the cartload and cannot really understand that it isn't always possible to live that way but I suppose I cannot blame them, it's hardly their fault they are so lucky. Since we moved here I obviously haven't seen tinned asparagus, I don't even know if they exist here, and I am happy to be able to indulge in fresh asparagus every spring! I just wish I could invite my mother and father to join me every time, I know they would appreciate every bite!

One of my many favourite flavour combinations is asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes and pine-nuts, here I added the green part of a couple scallions and tossed it all with pasta.





PASTA WITH ASPARAGUS, SCALLION, PINE-NUTS AND SUN-DRIED TOMATOES
2 portions

freshly cooked pasta
8-10 fresh asparagus spears
2 whole small sun-dried tomatoes
the green part of 2 scallions
salt
extra-virgin olive oil

- Put the tomatoes to soak in tepid water for 20-30 minutes.
- Clean the asparagus and snap off the woody bits.
- Slice the asparagus spears thinly, chop the onion and start cooking them slowly in a little olive oil. Add the pine-nuts.
- Meanwhile you chop the sun-dried tomatoes finely and when the asparagus is almost done, you add them.
- Add the freshly cooked pasta and toss until mixed. Serve immediately.