January pictures

Waste not - Onion Tops and Potato Soup With Cumin and Quail's Egg

I'm re-surfacing after an intense week of cooking and taking photos of food for one of the Italian food magazines I talked about earlier. The result will be published in April. But all that cooking left me with bits of food here and there that I really didn't feel like throwing away, like a bunch of very fresh onion tops, I just couldn't throw them on the compost heap so I kept them and cooked this soup with them, a big potato and then I threw, well slid in some of the quail's eggs that also were leftovers from a recipe I shot. You can obviously use a normal egg if you want, the thing about this soup is that it is a leftover soup, the egg just makes it more substantial and nutritious so any egg will do.





ONION TOPS AND POTATO SOUP WITH CUMIN AND QUAIL'S EGGS
2 servings

6-7 fresh onion tops (i.e. the green past from fresh onions)
1 big potato
1/2 tsp cumin
500 ml/ 2,1 cups water or vegetable stock
6 quail's eggs or 2 normal ones
salt
extra-virgin olive oil

 Clean and trim the onion tops and then cut in thin slices. Peel the potato and slice it thinly.

Heat up a little olive oil in a pan, add the tops, the potatoes and the cumin and cook slowly for 2-3 minutes, stirring most of the time.

 Add water and salt and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes, the onion tops shouldn't cook too long.

 When almost ready, you slid in the eggs into the soup and leave to simmer for about 3-4 more minutes.

 Serve with a little olive oil drizzled over it.

A small celebration - Oat Chocolate Cookies With Cognac and Candied Orange Peel

Things are getting busier and busier here, not only will I go on shooting for the food chain I started working with last year, I am now going to be a monthly collaborator of two Italian food magazines so all my good intentions about blogging more often will not be easy to fulfil so I will go on like I do now, at least try to post once or twice a week. Not that I'm complaining, I feel incredibly lucky and also happy that my work is getting such incredible results, of course there are lots of more successful photographers out there but I never aimed at that, I'm just amazed that starting a food blog can lead to this, a new and actually successful (at least for the moment) career! Without all the encouragement I have gotten from readers and friends, I don't think I would be here now so Thank You all. And I also think it is a matter of getting older and therefore becoming more daredevil, well at least that is how I feel about it. When I was young, I did a lot of dangerous things because I didn't think but didn't really dare to show my value, now I know what I do and approximately what I am worth. And now I don't think rejections are the same as personal disasters, sometimes you are at the right place at the right time with the right 'product' and sometimes you aren't but one thing is sure-if you don't show that you exist and what you are capable of, you will not get anywhere you want. And accept a challenge as often as possible.

Enough of that and let's bring on these cookies instead. They are truly a sign of how you can change your taste because I used to dislike candied fruit intensely and here I am, happily baking along with candied orange peel as an ingredient. I do think that the superior quality of candied fruit that you find here in Italy is one of the reasons but it is also a sign of change and I like change, the thought of remaining the same all my life scares me. Well I like positive change obviously, I don't think I would like it if I turned into an evil person but then I probably wouldn't think the way I do any longer, would I, nor realize that I was evil so it wouldn't be a problem. These cookies are not evil but quite good. In case you wonder.

OAT  CHOCOLATE COOKIES WITH COGNAC AND CANDIED ORANGE PEEL
many

125 g/   unsalted butter
150 g/ 5,3 oz brown Dulcita sugar if possible, otherwise some other type of brown sugar
50 g/  candied orange peel
75 g/  dark chocolate, chopped
2 tblsp cognac or brandy
100 g/ 3,5 oz rolled oats
150 g/ 5,3 oz flour
1 pinch salt

 Stir butter and sugar smooth in a bowl and then add orange peel, chocolate and cognac. Stir well.

Sift flour and salt into the bowl, add the oats and then mix until you have a firm dough.

Roll balls about the size of a big walnut of the dough and put them on a parchemnt clad baking sheet. Press down each of them with a fork.

 Bake in a pre-heated oven (175°C/350°F) for 10-15 minutes or until they are ready. Leave to cool before moving them.

Taralli Pugliesi - Bread Baking Buddies

Do you remember the taralli I posted about in mid-December? Maybe you also remember that it was I who choose the Bread Baking Babes bread that month and therefore am responsible for the Bread Baking Buddy roundup? Well I did but then completely forgot about it until now and here I am, full of shame for being such a sloppy BBB host with no memory at all or maybe I just managed to repress it for some strange reason, trying to escape from my responsibilities?? What a horrid thought, I must say that I prefer the bad memory theory so I will cling to that.

But here I am now, with a handful of fantastic and dedicated bakers who managed to cut out time during the festivities and the preparations thereof to bake with us, a laudable feat in my eyes. They baked and then managed to remember to blog about it and send me the link, I should try to follow their excellent example instead of meandering around in a no-baking nowhere. But before I start, I want to say two things, one is that it is the posting date for this month's BBB challenge (and I am not participating as you can see, I didn't forget but couldn't find the flour) so please check out what my fellow Babes are doing with their ovens. And I also would like to tell you that we now are a group on Facebook, Bread Baking Babes and Friends if you want to join in the baking fun there!

Michelle of The Beauty of Life is a wise woman, she bakes instead of going skiing and when the snow blew in she comforted herself with yoga and baking taralli, I just can't help approving of that choice but then I'm no sportswoman.

I was delighted to see that my old blogging friend Didit who blogs on Didit in France joined us and made taralli as a loving gesture to her half-Italian husband who loves taralli. Her daughters realized that if you made them bigger, you finish earlier and there is nothing wrong with that because they are actually get made in different sizes here as well.

 

Lois of Bring Back the Bliss made gluten-free taralli, I so love the idea because in this way gf bakers can enjoy the beauty of taralli! And I am sure many of you will find this useful both for yourselves and for your gf friends, taralli are perfect nibbles when you invite people for a drink! Thank You Lois!

I was happy to see that Nicole of Bread butter and buns appreciated making taralli after all the Christmas cooking and baking, and it seems to me that she caught the allure of taralli in her last sentences. (You got to click over to read)

I extended the deadline a little and Heather of Girlichef immediately jumped on the occasion and joined us a Buddy, what a wise girl that is!

A big Thank You (and please forgive me for being so late) to these Bread Baking Buddies, I hope all these bakers and more of you will keep on baking with us and joining our Facebook group because baking together is such a great way to get to know new friends! (Did I miss someone??!! Don't let it be so but if I did, write to me and I will add you straight away)

The big mmm factor - Focaccine With Black Pepper, Pine Nuts and Crunchy Parma Ham

January, on the one hand this month makes me feel good because it marks the beginning of the end of the darkness but on the other hand, it is a blasted month, filled with tiredness, bad moods and all that boring stuff that are earmarked January in my life. But it could be worse, it could be so much worse. I have a working oven, for example, and that is surely a great thing to have, especially in January! And especially when I make these little focaccias, if you feel like I do about January - make them and you will at least think about something else for a while when you eat them. I did. And I will again. And if you love January, make them and celebrate the month!

FOCACCINE WITH BLACK PEPPER, PINE NUTS AND CRUNCHY PARMA HAM


25 g/0,9 oz fresh yeast (1 tsp instant yeast = 10 g fresh yeast)
1 tblsp sugar
1 tsp salt
8oo ml/3,4 cups tepid water
850 ml/ 3,6 cups wholemeal flour
850 ml/ 3,6 cups flour, I use Manitoba, i.e. hard, gluten rich flour but AP (all purpose) works too
black pepper corn, crushed
pine nuts
Parma ham in thin slices
salt, I used pink Hawaiian lava salt for the effect but normal salt is obviously perfect
extra-virgin olive oil

First dough:
 Crumble the yeast in small bowl and sprinkle the sugar over it. Add 200 ml/0,85 cup water to it and stir well. Add 200 ml/0,85 cup normal flour, mix well, cover with cling film and let it stand possibly over the night but it is OK with 2-3 hours.

Main dough:

 Mix the two flours (part of the the 'normal' flour was used with the pre-dough so now you use 650 ml/2,7 cups) with the salt and then add half of it to the tepid water, remember that you already used some of it so now it is 600 ml/2,5 cups left. Mix well and then add the pre-dough.

 When the two doughs have been made one, you add the rest of the flour, a bit at a time and work it until it is nice and elastic. You may need less or more flour than stated. Cover it with a towel and let it rest for an hour or two, depending on how warm your kitchen is. Let it double in size.

 Divide the dough and work it into small balls and then you leave them to rest for about 15 minutes to relax the dough.

 Roll quickly out the balls to long ovals, like small ciabattas, see photo if I am unclear. Make them quite thin.

 Brush each focaccina with extra-virgin olive oil and then sprinkle each with the crushed black pepper, pine nuts and salt.

 Bake in a pre-heated oven (200°C/390°F) until golden, it takes 10-15 minutes in my oven.

 While they bake you put the slices of Parma ham in a non-stick pan and fry them until crispy. Put on kitchen paper to drip off excess fat.

 Serve the focaccine with crispy ham on top.

Serve the surprise - Fennel, Carrot and Rosemary Puff Pastry Boxes

It is really about time I try to get back in the swing here on Lucullian, I obviously need to have a rigid posting schedule otherwise I just go on vacation. Well not really because I have actually been to Milan for this year's first job but you know what I mean. Discipline. At least more of it. And I suppose I should make like so many other bloggers are doing now, showing the past year in photos but just the thought of deciding  what to include and going through archives makes my blood sugar level drop to zero. But if you want you can check in at the P2P blog to read some of my thoughts about the year 2010. And those of my fellow Plate To Page organizers as well, Jamie, Jeanne and Meeta all have inspiration to share with you!

Anyway, this is a dish I did some time ago, I like the concept of stuffing a puff pastry box with interesting edible, put on the lid, making it a surprise to those who are eating it. This time I choose to fill it with one of my favourite winter vegetable combinations: fennel and carrot baked in the oven with some fresh herb, a little honey and extra-virgin olive oil. 

FENNEL,  CARROT AND ROSEMARY PUFF PASTRY BOXES

puff pastry
fennel bulbs
carrots
rosemary, finely chopped
honey
salt
extra-virgin olive oil

 Cut the puff pastry in circles or squares; put the puff pastry on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and begin with cutting out two circles of the same size. Then cut out a slightly smaller circle out of one of them. Put the ring on the other circle so that it forms a border and keep the smaller circle because that is the lid. Prick the bottom of the box with a fork to avoid that it blows up when baking. Continue with the other boxes in the same way and then bake in a pre-heated oven (200°C/390°F) until ready, it doesn't take long.

 Slice fennel and carrots and then spread them out in an oven proof form, sprinkle salt and rosemary over and then drizzle honey and olive oil over it all. Bake in a pre-heated oven (200°C/390°F) until golden, around 20-25 minutes, sometimes even less.

 Put the vegetables into the puff pastry boxes, cover with the lids and serve.

A New Beginning