No words needed

Show Us Your Most Treasured Cookbook-The Roundup and a plea!

It's time for the roundup for the Show Us Your Most Treasure Cookbook and let me begin to say that even though there are far from as many entries as the other Show Us Your..., this is the one I like the most! The stories and the cookbooks that we are shown are wonderful and I when I did, I realized that I want more of this, I want to read more stories and see more cookbooks so I have decided to give it another month with the hope that there are more of you who want to show your most treasured cookbook and share the stories with us. Please do it, do it for me! I find the stories behind so moving and above all so human and vivid that I wish I could read on forever, wouldn't it be nice to make a book out of it? Who knows, maybe one day so until then I'd love to keep on collecting here. So send me your stories about your most treasured cookbook(s) and if you want, cook your favourite recipe from it, blog about it or send me (luculliandelights AT gmail DOT com) the link or a text and maybe a photo if you don't have a blog and I post it here in the roundup. End of March is the next deadline, I really hope you will participate! And you who don't want to, please comment on the stories you will read here.

Now it is time to head over to the roundup, this will be long one because I have had three entrie from readers without a blog. The first to send me her entry was Megan whose favourite cookbook is an Italian one and her story is profoundly moving:

"Favorite cookbook - what an idea! To me, cookbooks are infinite potential, and just looking at the rows and rows of brightly colored cookbooks makes me happy. So many enticing dishes are captured in these old friends that have travelled with me from the East coast to the West coast, and back again.
That being said, a few cookbooks do stand out in the crowd. Some are the go-to cookbooks, plain and simple. But a few pack an emotional wallop: a cookbook with a dish from childhood, or a cookbook from a loved one.
For me the biggest standout is VENETIAN COOKING: 200 AUTHENTIC RECIPES ADAPTED FOR AMERICAN COOKS by HE Bruning Jr. and Cav. Umberto Bullo. I spent many summers as a child in Venice. On the cheap, flying Freddie Laker and living in sublets of all shapes and sizes, but Venice nonetheless. It was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with spaghetti, Venice, and all things Italian.
Beyond being Venetian, the cookbook was a Christmas gift to our family from my sister, who also adored Venice and lived there for a time studying art during high school. When she died a few years later, the cookbook became irreplaceable. Fortunately it has found its way to my collection, and sometimes I open it simply to read again her inscription in Italian, to look again at her handwriting. And it tickles me that the cover photo is of the vegetable boat in the neighborhood our family loved best – perhaps this was why she picked this particular Venetian cookbook! (For those who follow such things, this same boat appeared in the scene in SUMMERTIME when Katherine Hepburn fell into the canal.)
But the recipes stand up, too. One in particular is a fast favorite: Spagheti Col Ton, in Venetian dialect. Presented as a classic “emergency” pantry dish, it is quick - dinner on the table in the time it takes to cook spaghetti! And so easy you make it once, and never look at the recipe again. Except I did look at the recipe again, recently, only to realize I’d somehow simplified it even further over the years! As a shortcut to the comfort food it has become, I suppose.
However it’s made, it’s one of the most satisfying sauces I’ve ever had, especially on a cold winter night. It’s won over many a doubting friend – hot tuna sauce? really? – and never fails to set me right. Feel free to share as well the poignant Venetian proverb from the author’s foreword: A tavola non s’invecchia mai, or, At the table one never grows old.

SPAGHETI COL TON

4 quarts water
2 _ TBS salt
_ lb spaghetti
3 oz butter
5 oz canned tuna, packed in olive oil
3 TBS tomato sauce (p 218*, or diluted tomato paste in a pinch)
3 TBS dry white wine
Salt and pepper
(grated Parmesan cheese)

1. Bring the salted water to a boil. Start the pasta to cook as described above. (To paraphrase, don’t overcook the pasta, and start the sauce before adding the pasta if using thin spaghetti, or afterwards if using regular spaghetti.)
2. Melt the butter in a frying pan over a low to medium flame. Break the tuna into small pieces and add it, along with the oil in which it was packed, to the butter. Add the tomato sauce, wine if you wish, and some salt and pepper. Cook for 5 or 6 minutes, mixing the ingredients thoroughly.
3. Drain the pasta and dress it with the sauce. Serve in warmed spaghetti dishes. A tablespoonful or two of grated Parmesan cheese may be added at the table.

*prepared with chopped tomatoes, garlic, onion, carrot, celery and fresh basil.

My adaptations have been to use plain olive oil in place of butter, stick with the tomato paste shortcut (tomato paste in a tube really comes in handy here), and omit the wine. Though, as one who cooks with wine routinely, I feel sure that I simply forgot along the way that wine had been an ingredient and will rectify this immediately!"

Next out was Britt-Arnhild of Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods who has created her own recipe book over the years, 30 to be exact and I can imagine all the memories that are hidden between those pages, the traces of good times and maybe not so good times! It reminds me of my favourite short story by the Swedish author August Strindberg, Ett Halvt Ark Papper ( I could just find it in Swedish, maybe someone know if there is an English translation available online?) where the short annotations on a piece of paper make the main character's remember his life over the past two years. Read it if you don't know it already, it is very short but beautiful.

I am very happy to include two of my fellow Babes in this roundup, first we have Gretchen of Canela and Comino who remembers her grandmother who recently passed away through her collection of cookbooks. It is interesting how many people's lives, especially women, are connected with their cookbooks, I for my part, felt that it was very important to me to keep my parents cookbooks and Gretchen pays a touching homage to her grandmother through her cokbooks.

Anna wrote to me about her most treasured cookbooks, both in the kitchens where they were used and I was happy to read that we share the same memory cake, Solskenskaka ! and the same cookbook, it shows what an important that single cookbook, Sju Sorters Kakor (Swedish Cakes and Cookies) have played in the lives for generations of Swedes:

"I can't send a photo of my treasured cookbooks because they're not with me at the moment; they're still in the kitchens they were originally used, even though my mother and grandmother are no longer with us to cook from them. These books are falling to pieces, just like the one you show, and I would probably throw them away when it eventually comes to emptying these kitchens, although after this post I might think otherwise.

And it's funny you should choose solskenskaka, because that'd be one of my memory cakes, from one of these books (but I would never accept it without almonds - unless cooking for someone allergic - the almonds is what makes the difference between a solskenskaka and a plain sockerkaka in my view). The book was once publicity for a Marabu baking powder which no longer exists. And it's from there I take the recipe for sandkaka at Christmas. A cake I didn't like as a child, now cherish, despite the endless beating of eggs and butter and the fact that it always comes out a bit soggy. It calls for brandy, but of course as a citizen of Porto I use portwine these days.
The memory book from my grandmother's kitchen would be an old copy of Sju sorters kaker, don't know which edition. That's where last summer I found a recipe for Sacher torte which uses only hazelnuts, eggs, sugar, chocolate and apricot jam. It might not be the original one, but it'll be the one I use from now on, as it's gluten free and full of healthy nutty fats. Well, it's delicious too, of course.
My own cookbooks are not old enough to fall to pieces yet, but clearly you can judge from the stains which are the ones I really use: Annas mat and Sju sorters kakor."

Katie of Thyme for Cooking is another of my fellow Babes who shares her most treasured cookbook and I was happy to see a children's cookbook because one of my other treasured cookbooks is just that (but obviously another one than Katie's, I'll blog about that next month), I think that many of us have been dreaming over cookbooks as children, reading and tasting the recipes in the mind, and I do recognize the feelings that Katie is talking about in her post! It also seems to me that you do share at least a cookbook author with Gretchen, if not the same cookbook, is that right Katie?

There is nothing that says a treasured cookbook has to be old and tattered, no it is enough that it is... treasured and Simona's of Bricoles cookbook is a confirmation of this! Her most treasured cookbook is the first one she bought for herself and her new life. You will learn a lot of Italian when you read her post and there are also some lovely quotations but that is typical of her blog, you don't only get food to eat there but also food for the mind.

And to conclude we have Sonny's most treasured cookbook, the one his mother used and that really is one of those historical and sociological monuments of a time that is no more, read his lovely story:

"Ica-Kuriren's Det godaste jag vet [The Tastiest I Know], published in 1973, is my most treasured cookbook - a mix between traditional swedish recipes and recipes from other countries adapted to swedish taste. The preface says that it was the readers of Ica-Kuriren that write and tell; “...what's the tastiest thing they know”.
My mother was born in Mauritius - a multicultural society influenced by hindus, chinese, european and creoles. As a child I ate exotic dishes every day - Indian Masala Dosa, Chinese Beef Szechuan and Coq au Vin. But when we were entertaining my mother always cooked and served Swedish food. She learned about Swedish food through the weekly magazine Ica-Kuriren, who has published the book Det godaste jag vet.
I can still see it in front of me - it's the early 70s and my mother is making the Smörgåstårta from Det godaste jag vet - our guests are soon to arrive and my mother is very nervous - though she lived most of her life, close to 50 years, in Sweden, as far as I know, she felt never mastered the art of Swedish cooking - so it is with perfectionists. I, myself know that I have had a culinary childhood vouchsafed not many.
Today, I get great pleasure reading the recipes from the book with an authentic chronicle and make a trip back to my childhood. The simplicity in all recipes strikes me, of course, first and foremost, the contributors they were all amateur cooks, but also the availability of ingredients and certainly living standards. With an eye and with a bit of philosophy, the book shows that we have come amazingly far in these 37 years since it was printed in 1973.
As a curiosity I must mention - typical of the times - among the 90 recipes are three Russian inspired dishes. For example Russian Pancakes (vodka in the ingredient list) with Swedish Herring Filling. I have chosen two recipes typical of the period Lemon Chicken in Clay Pot and Brown Sugar Glazed Bananas with Sour Creme Sauce.

- - -
THE RECIPES



Lemon Chicken In Clay Pot
Lars Segemark, Lidingö, is cooking as a hobby and has sent in a recipe for Lemon Chicken in a Clay Pot. He writes that he likes that it is cheap, good slimming diet, very tasty and easy to make.

1 fresh chicken
1 small lemon
2 big sprigs of parsley
_ – 1 tsp salt
_ tsp pepper
1 tsp dried or fresh basil
4-5 big champignon
Olive oil for greasing the pot

Dry the chicken inside and outside, prick the lemon with a sharp fork and put the whole lemon into the chicken. Rinse and cut the champignon into pieces and stuff it into the chicken together with the parsley. Brush the chicken with oil and add salt and pepper. Put the chicken in an oven safe pot for example a Römertopf. If you use a Römertopf don't forget to moist it in water about an hour before. Put the chicken into a cold owen. Heat the owen to 250°C and cook for 1_ to 1_ hour.


Brown Sugar Glazed Bananas with Sour Creme Sauce
Sometimes you can buy a big bunch of bananas 'for a penny'. They are nice to eat as they are but occasionally you want to make something special. Elisabeth Levin, Storvik has sent in this recipe for a tasty banana dessert. Warm bananas glazed in sugar and with a cold sour cream sauce.

Butter
4-5 bananas
2-3 tsp dark brown sugar
Juice from _ to 1 lemon

Sour cream sauce
2-3 dl sour crème
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
1-2 tbsp ground cinnamon

Heat a little butter in a frying pan. Add the peeled bananas and fry them on very low heat. Strew in sugar and turn the bananas so they glaze all the way around. Pull in a little lemon juice. Serve the bananas warm with cold sour crème sauce made from sour crème, vanilla sugar and ground cinnamon."

A big Thank You to all of you for letting us see a glimpse of your lives, I really appreciate your generosity and I hope that many others will follow in your foot steps and send me more stories and cookbooks! Love and Peace to you!

APPLE CAKE WITH HONEY AND CINNAMON SYRUP TOPPING

The great thing with having a child a while after you had the first ones is that you somehow have the time or maybe the peace of mind to really enjoy and appreciate the child in them, the way children live and see things around them. I feel profoundly moved when I peep into that world, when I take the time to listen and participate because it is so special and so different from the way I perceive and look at things now as an adult. The bad thing about having a child at the very end of the line is that you suddenly realize that you have to go on getting up early to get yet another kid ready for school much longer than you expected and that there will be another round of teenage-hood, those kind of aspects never appear until it is too late though.



But they are definitely outweighed by the good ones like always having a reason to bake something, not that the smaller one always likes what I bake but still, it is so good to have an excuse to bake when you really should be doing something completely different. Like apple cakes. This apple cake is very simple but to make it more special I used the liquid from the apples and the honey to make a syrup that I drizzled over the cake before it went into the oven and I also used a large form so that the cake didn't get too high, I personally prefer apple cakes that doesn't have too much cake in proportion to the apple topping, the flavours balance better in this way I find.






APPLE CAKE WITH HONEY AND CINNAMON SYRUP TOPPING

topping:
2-3 apples
3-4 tblsp honey
1 tsp ground cinnamon

cake:
4 eggs
200 g/7 oz sugar
150 ml/0.63 cup melted butter or a vegetable oil of your choice
250 g/8.8 oz flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt

- Chop the apples finely, I keep the peel but if you don't want it, feel free to peel the apples before chopping them. Put the chopped apples in a bowl, add honey and cinnamon, mix and leave it for 20-30 minutes. When the cake is almost ready to put in oven, drain the liquid from the apples and reduce it to a syrup in a skillet (because it goes faster in a wide pan or in a skillet).
- Whisk eggs and sugar fluffy in bowl. Add the melted butter and then sift flour, salt and baking powder into the bowl. Mix well.
- Pour the batter into a large greased and breaded form, mine was a square one 24x28 cm/ 9,44x11 in. Spread the apples on top of the batter and then drizzle the honey and cinnamon syrup evenly over the surface.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven (175°C/350°F) for 25-30 minutes or until the cake passes the toothpick test.

H2Ope For Haiti and PASTA WITH TWO PEPPERS, OLIVES AND OREGANO

Blogging is not all about the blogosphere around you, at least I hope so, sometimes we need to reach out to help those in need and right now there is an urgent need to help the people of Haiti with, among many other things, clean drinking water and I was really happy when Jeanne of Cook Sister! (and Between Hemispheres) asked me if I could donate a prize for H2Ope For Haiti, a raffle based on the same principles as The Menu For Hope. Jeanne, who is a very generous and lovable woman, explains it all over on her blog so please, please click over and buy tickets for the prices, there are so many wonderful ones that you will have to buy several just because you will not be able to choose just one!


I have donated this set of supposedly 10 cards from RedBubble but I just realized they are 11, but the more the merrier. They are 13x19 cm/5"x7,5" folded cards printed on really good high quality paper and they come with envelopes as well and when I give my RedBubble cards to people they always like them a lot because they feel so nice in your hand. If you are not interested in winning these, you will find a vast array of prizes, ranging from inspirational cookbooks, beautiful photo prints, Ipods and fantastic Indian art among many many other things so when you have finished reading this blog post, click over and buy tickets for only 6,50 euro/approx 10 US dollars, remember that you will help people in great need and despair get something that we take for granted - clean water to drink!



Now over to something completely different, today's recipe. I love pasta and we eat it a lot, for a vegetable lover like me it is the best canvas there is to paint on with the colours and flavours of all these beautiful vegetables you can find in this world and today the palette have green, red and black to tickle our senses. The main ingredient is sweet pepper but to make it a bit more interesting, I used both green and red ones and to bind the sauce I added tomato but not much, the tomato should just keep it all together and work as a flavour enhancer. And then some olives and a pinch or two of oregano, what more can you ask for? That it is quick maybe? Yes it is, a real pearl for those days when you have about 30 minutes to make dinner on.






PASTA WITH TWO PEPPERS, OLIVES AND OREGANO
4 servings

pasta for four
1 medium-large red pepper
1 medium-large green pepper
2-3 tomatoes
1 handful of black olives, the salty type
1 large pinch of dried oregano
1 clove of garlic
salt
extra-virgin olive oil

- Start cooking the pasta
- Dice the peppers and chop the tomatoes finely.
- Crush the garlic slightly and let it heat up in an a skillet in some olive oil, take it out and then add the diced peppers and the oregano. Sauté for a couple of minutes and then add tomatoes. Check salt.
- Let it cook for 3-4 minutes or until the tomatoes are saucy, add the olives and cook another minute.
- Mix with the freshly cooked pasta and serve immediately.

A Visual History of Cookery - A Review

Some time back in December I was asked if I was interested in reviewing A Visual History of Cookery published by Black Dog Publishing and with a past as a teacher of the history of book illustration, I just couldn't say no and last week it finally arrived. I have tried my best to repress the academic in me because this is not an academic work but I can't help it, it pops up now and then. Let me make it clear that I like this book even though I feel that it could be improved; I think it is refreshing to see a richly illustrated book about the history of cooking and there are many very nice illustrations in it, I can tell you that. It covers the gastronomical history of France, Italy, Spain, Great Britain and the U.S. in words and pictures, taking us back as far as Roman times, covering the historical ground of the following centuries leading us up to modern times presenting our times great chefs and their signature dishes to us. There are essays and abstracts from authors like Elizabeth Davies and Brillat-Savarin among others but the main part of the text is written exclusively for the book but here we stumble over one of the first things that I feel critical about, there are no authors, nor editors mentioned to pin the texts to and I do find that a bit disturbing. Another point that could be improved is the quality of several of the images, some are blurred and some photos have such weak colouring that they seem far older than they in reality are, after all it is a work that is built on images. I also would have loved to see more of a history of food illustrations, I think that would be a wonderful journey through social history and visual arts - I wonder if there are any publishers out there that are interested in printing that?
On the whole I think this is a great book to spend interesting hours with and I know that I will return to it to eat with my eyes (sorry, I just couldn't resist that!)
And as a special offer to my readers, to get 40% of all orders of A Visual History of Cookery just email jess@blackdogonline.com quoting "Lucullian Delights Offer" in the subject line.

Bread Baking Babes celebrates 2 years of bread with Ensaïmadas

It feels strange that Bread Baking Babes turn 2, and just like that first time, it is Karen from Bake My Day who has decided what we bake this month. Without her and Tanna, Bread Baking Babes wouldn't even exist, they are the driving forces behind us all. Not that they have to do much because the passion for baking that my fellow Babes show me time after time is impressive as is the knowledge they have, there is always someone who can answer any question that pops up in your head and I cannot but thank all these inspirational women for helping me becoming a far better bread baker than I once were. I do blame them though for the increase of bread baking books that have invaded my kitchen but the strange thing is that I need them all, couldn't live without now!



But bread is not the most important thing that the BBB has given me, no the most imortant thing BBB has given me is the friendship that tie us together, we are all different and we live in different countries but we all speak the same language somehow and that is rare to find but that is what blogging (and bread) does to us all I think! So Thank You Tanna and Karen for starting the BBBs and Thank You to all my fellow Babes for these two incredible bready years! Here's the complete list of Babes!




Ensaïmadas from Mallorca, a not too sweet bread that lingers on the border to pastry but it isn't that sweet. And it is not difficult to make, I can tell you that because when I made it earlier this week together with Karen, I was so awkward and our house was so cold that I was convinced that the poor maltreated dough would rebel and it would all be a disaster but they turned out exactly the way they were supposed despite me forgetting one batch in the oven a tad too long.. One of the mysteries of life I have to say. They were soft and layered as you can see from the photos and that was certainly not because of me! Karen used a recipe from the well known food blog delicious days and Nicole has graciously allowed us to use her recipe which you find here if you want to read about where she found it and her thoughts about it. My comments in italics.

If you would like to join the gang of faithful Bread Baking Buddies and bake the Ensaïmadas with us, please check Karen's blog for details!




Ensaïmadas
Recipe source: inspired by Eliza's recipe
Active time: about 45 minutes, rising: several hours, baking: about 15 minutes
yields about 10 Ensaimadas

500g/1,1 lb all-purpose flour (plus additional as needed )
75g/ sugar
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
40g/ fresh yeast (= 1 cube)
200-250ml/ lukewarm milk
2 eggs (M)
2 tblsp olive oil
150g/ soft pork lard (some babes used butter instead)
powdered sugar for dusting

- Add the flour together with sugar and salt into a large bowl and mix well. Make a hollow in the center, add the crumbled yeast as well as a decent pinch of sugar and pour over just enough of the lukewarm milk until the yeast is covered. Stir the yeast milk once or twice, then cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let rest for about 15 minutes or until the surface of the yeast milk looks bubbly. (I didn't do this, I dissolved the yeast in a little tepid milk and then mixed it with the eggs and the oil)
- Add the other ingredients (the remaining milk, eggs,olive oil) and knead well, either by hand or with your kitchen machine until the dough comes together nicely. I used less milk in the beginning (200 or 220 ml, while the original recipe suggests 250 ml) and my dough still turned out pretty sticky, I therefore added a tad more flour and let it knead at medium speed for 3 minutes (just for the record: my dough still felt sticky).(I knead by hand so I had to slap the sticky dough to obedience, always with a flour dusted work surface) Let the covered bowl rest again in a warm place for at least 30 minutes or until the dough has doubled. (I put it in my tepid oven, it didn't double but I took it out anyway after almost 1 hour)
- Punch it down softly, then flip the dough onto a well-floured surface and sprinkle with flour. Cut into about 10 equally sized portions and form into neat little balls, before letting them rest – sprinkled with flour, covered with a kitchen towel – once more for at least 30 minutes.
- Shaping the Ensaïmadas: Flatten one doughball, then roll out with a rolling pin (use flour as needed) until you get a pretty thin dough circle and brush it generously with the softened pork lard. (I used approximately half of the pork lard) Roll up cautiously, then let rest for a couple of minutes and continue with the other dough balls. (Meanwhile line the baking sheets with either parchment paper or silicone mats.)
Coil up each dough piece until it resembles the house of a snail (tuck the outer end under), ideally very loosely, because any spaces will fill up as the dough rises further. Place about five Ensaïmadas on one baking sheet, making sure to leave enough space between them. Lightly brush with lard and cover up again.
- The final rise is supposed to last overnight, yet I baked mine in three different batches (with rising times of 1 hour, 4 hours, 13 hours) and we preferred their look and taste with shorter rising times (1 and 4 hours). But do as you like. (I left them to rise about 2 hours and they rose beautifully and turned out perfect despite my maltreatment)
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (~390° Fahrenheit) and bake for 14 to 16 minutes or until golden brown. Take out and let them cool down on a wire rack for a couple of minutes, then generously dust with powdered sugar and enjoy while still warm.

There's hope dear friends

Today I could see that Spring will come and save us from the dullness and I wanted to share some images with you in case you despair of ever seeing the sun again!

And just to let you know, if you want to join in and Show Us Your Most Treasured Cookbook, I accept entries until the roundup which probably will be next week so there is still plenty of time!

PESTO MEATBALLS SERVED IN OVEN-ROASTED TOMATOES

Still obsessing with dried hortensias

I took a small break from blogging but now I am back. Food blogging must be one of the more demanding ways to blog, well it depends on how you do it, if you blog about what you eat for dinner it is slightly easier, if you create the food and recipes just to blog about it gets a bit more demanding. Whichever way you do, it still involves cooking the food and then do the styling to photograph it but it isn't over yet, you need to process and edit the photos and all this bores me sometimes and I need to take a break to get back the blogging mojo as my dear friend Kalyn calls it!
I wanted to remind you of the Show Us Your Most Treasured Cookbook event that is on and will finish this week, if you want to participate but haven't got around to it yet, don't worry, drop me a line and I will change the final dates. I have got some lovely entries but I would love to get to know more about your most treasured cookbooks and why you love them! Read here for the details.



When the pesto caught my eye while I was taking out the minced meat from the fridge and I got the inspiration to make these pesto meatballs, I also had a flashback to when I was a teenager and brought home a friend for dinner and my father made meatballs with coconut (I haven't heard from that friend ever since) - would these meatballs be as horrid as those, the nightmare of meatballs (FYI my father was a good cook but quite experimental at times)? They obviously wasn't as I am presenting them to you here today but I was a bit worried to tell the truth, maybe they would fall apart and just taste like perfumed mothballs. Instead I really liked them and served in oven-roasted tomatoes like here, they are a most perfect finger food indeed! But you can serve them like you want, the choice is yours.





PESTO MEATBALLS SERVED IN OVEN-ROASTED TOMATOES

500 g/1,1 lb minced meat
1 egg
4-5 tblsp freshly grated parmesan
3-4 tblsp pesto or more if you want + more
10-12 tomatoes
salt
extra-virgin olive oil

- Divide the tomatoes in two and empty them of seeds with the help of a spoon- Put them on an oven-proof form, sprinkle salt over and then drizzle olive oil on top. Bake in a pre-heated oven (150°C/300°F) until baked, it takes about 30-40 minutes.
- Mix meat, egg, parmesan, pesto and salt well and form quite small meatballs that you fry in a skillet in olive oil.
- Put a little pesto in each tomato half and then fill them up with small meatballs, if you want you can top with a little more pesto on the top like I did.

FENNEL SEED AND GRAPPA INFUSED PRAWNS WITH CHICKPEA PURÉE AND GRILLED RED PEPPERS

Brocade

First I want to remind you of this and for those of you who didn't see the announcement about our cooking classes, click here.



And now I am getting down to business, yesterday was the last day of the Paper Chef but I have asked Mike ,who is not only the host for this edition but also the nicest of men, if I could post my entry today and he said of course, I agree with him, Paper Chef is supposed to be fun too, not only a creative challenge so if someone arrives a little late with an entry it's OK, as long as it arrives before the roundup is done. Right Mike? Last month's winner was Cathy of ShowFood Chef so it was she who picked the ingredients and it is she who acts as The Judge. The ingredients turned out to be forgiving ones: prawns, fennel, sweet peppers and, this is Cathy's own chosen theme, passion. And my passion is the Paper Chef itself, I have loved this event since the first time I took part of it back in October 2005 and I was happy to take over the responsibilities when Owen of Tomatilla felt that he did not have the time to run it any longer. And here we are now me and my co-host Mike, it is a small event but the participants are pretty passionate about it I think. To the prawns, fennel (which I interpreted as anything fennel) and sweet pepper I added chickpeas and grappa and this is my entry:





FENNEL SEED AND GRAPPA INFUSED PRAWNS WITH CHICKPEA PURÉE AND GRILLED RED PEPPERS

prawns
fennel seeds
grappa or vodka
chickpeas, cooked
red peppers, either fresh ones that you grill yourself or the grilled ones in oil that you can buy in jars
chili pepper, ground
lemon juice
salt
extra-virgin olive oil

- Pestle fennel seeds and mix with a bit of grappa.
- Put the prawns without shells in a bowl and add the grappa and fennel seeds. Leave to marinate for 30-60 minutes.
- Heat up the chickpeas in a little water before puréeing them. Add little lemon juice and a pinch of chilip pepper.
- Cut the grilled pepper in thin strips or fine dice.
- Sautée the prawns quickly in olive oil and with a little of the grappa infusion.
- Make a bed of chickpea purée on a dish, put prawns on top and sprinkle the grilled pepper over before serving.

Lucullian Delights and Un Tocco di Zenzero proudly presents: Cooking Classes in Chianti!

Oh yes, another announcement, but what an announcement!

Lucullian Delights and Un Tocco di Zenzero proudly presents: Cooking Classes in Chianti!

Sandra, who runs the successful Italian food blog Un Tocco di Zenzero and who is a well-known gastronomy teacher in Turin here in Italy, and I have decided to join forces and to start this adventure together and we hope that you will join us. The first, but hopefully not the last, cooking class will take place the weekend 16-18th of April here in Tuscany at Podere Patrignone, a wonderful place right in the middle of the Chianti countryside (you can see San Gimignano from the windows) where you can relax and dedicate yourself to some real Italian cooking. The emphasis will be on seasonal cooking so you will get a taste of springtime in Italy. We will live and cook in a small villa full of inspiring atmosphere with a large kitchen and in order to give you the attention you deserve, we have decided to limit the participants to 10 people so be quick to sign up!

The classes will be spread over Friday 16th (afternoon), Saturday 17th (lunch and dinner) and Sunday 18th (lunch and dinner) and they will also include a wine tasting session on one of the days. The price will be 750€ per person and that includes lodgings (in a double room) food (2 breakfasts, 2 lunches & 3 dinners), drink, wine tasting and the teaching. The closest and most convenient airport is the Florence Peretola Airport but you can also fly to Pisa Airport. You can find detailed directions how to get to the Podere Patrignone here and here. To sign up or to get more information, please contact me at luculliandelights AT gmail DOT com or Sandra at cucina AT untoccodizenzero DOT com as soon as you can, you never know if there are any spaces left, do you? We are looking forward to meet you!