briciole

éclair al cioccolato

chocolate éclairs

After having to skip a month, I am back with the story of the Daring Bakers' challenge. This time I have no tragic tales of disaster to tell. I read the recipe, I followed it, and things worked out fine, in the sense that the end result of my efforts was appreciated at the table, the usual ultimate test of success. 

First of all, many thanks to this month's hosts, Meeta of What's for Lunch Honey? and Tony Tahhan. Their choice for the challenge, chocolate éclairs, was a little less intimidating than usual for me, because I had recently made cream puff dough for bignè con la crema (cream puffs). The chocolate part was welcome, considering my lifelong affection for cioccolato.

According to my Italian dictionary, éclair is a "specie di bigné di forma allungata ripieno di crema e glassato" (a sort of cream puff of elongated shape filled with pastry cream and glazed). Éclairs and bigné are referred to generically as paste, pastries. On Sunday, my father would often say: Vado a comprare le paste (I am going to buy some pastries) a sweet-sounding sentence that translated into the appearance, at the end of the Sunday lunch, of a tray (vassoio) of tempting delicacies. As far as favorite pastry, I would go through phases and it was important to communicate the results of my shifting taste to my father, so he could make an informed purchase. Making pastries brings me back to my emotions as a child. Hence, it was particularly nice for me that the evening I served my éclairs al cioccolato there was also a young person at the table: the sparkle in his eyes was my best reward.

My éclairs were not very innovative. I halved the original recipe (using 2 whole eggs and one egg yolk) and obtained 11 éclairs. For the filling, I made half of my recipe for crema, then added to it, when it was still warm, 50 g of extra-dark chocolate (70%), broken in small pieces (half of a 3.5 oz. bar). For the glaze, I melted the other half of the chocolate bar and added to it a tablespoon of my home-made mascarpone.

There was a small glitch, actually: I took no photographs. There was too much going on in my kitchen that day, plus my éclairs were not satisfactory in terms of aesthetic. Let me offer you a nice photo of something else instead: these two fawns have been visiting us often recently, together with their mother. Don't they look adorable? I hope you will take the time to go around and look at the gorgeous creations of my talented fellow Daring Bakers.

Hear me pronounce the words on the éclair al cioccolato audio file [mp3] or go to the éclair al cioccolato audio page for more listening options.

prugna

a.k.a. susina: plum

Whatever the name used to refer to it (prugna o susina), this is a fruit I have always liked, so much so that last June we planted a small plum tree (prugno, o susino) in our garden. It is doing so-so and will probably be moved to a more suitable location in the fall. Since prugna may remind you of prune, let me clarify that the latter in Italian is prugna secca (literally, dried plum).

I like pretty much all varieties of plums (prugne o susine), though I miss the one that was my favorite as a child, golden in color and very sweet. I have been buying plums at the farmers' market to eat and make fruit spread with (the most recent incarnation was a plum and blackberry mix). Together with peaches (pesche), plums suggest to me warm summer days.

Last Wednesday, it rained and then the light changed, indicating the shifting from summer to fall. We have had some wonderful sunsets, with the sky turning bright orange, then dark pink. Peaches and plums will soon become a sweet memory. Before it is too late, let me suggest an easy way of tasting them: cut a peach and one or two plums into bite-size pieces and add to them two dollops of fresh mascarpone. Sit down, relax and enjoy the warm light of the waning day. By the way, the mascarpone in the photo is home-made - by me. But that is a story for another day.

Special announcement: I have the honor of hosting the current edition of Fresh Produce of the Month, an event authored by Marta, An Italian in the US. Follow the link to see the roundup of the previous edition (about strawberries) and to read the rules for participating. This month, the focus is on eggplants (melanzane). The deadline for sending your submissions is September 21. 

Hear me pronounce the words on the prugna o susina audio file [mp3] or go to the prugna o susina audio page for more listening options.

Edizione speciale: Novel Food #5

Special Edition: Announcing Novel Food #5

The light has changed in my corner of the world, indicating that summer is giving way to fall. In other places, winter is on its way out, and spring is welcomed with joy.

The approaching official change of the season is marked, once again, by the announcement of a new edition of Novel Food, the culinary/literary event that Lisa of Champaign Taste and I co-launched a few seasons ago. Once again (for the 5th time, to be precise), we are looking to find culinary inspiration in literary works. 

If you are new to the event, and you are wondering what it is about, the split roundup of the previous edition should answer your question: Lisa's portion is here and mine is here.

I will make this announcement short and just lay out the simple rules for participating in Novel Food #5:

1. Prepare a dish of your choosing that has a connection to a published literary work (novel, novella, short story, memoir, bio).
2. Publish a post about it on your blog by Saturday September 20, 2008, 9 am (Pacific Time), referencing the Novel Food event. If you wish, you can include the Novel Food logo.
3. Send an e-mail to Lisa (webrina AT gmail DOT com) or to me (simosite AT mac DOT com) and include your name, blog name and blog address, and a permanent link to your post. Please, include the words "Novel Food" in the email subject, so we can more easily retrieve the message in our inbox.

Non-English submissions are fine. If possible, include an introduction in English.

Lisa and I will do a roundup soon afterward the deadline: once again, it will be our way of welcoming the coming season.

prosciutto

The following few lines about prosciutto have been inspired by: Jeremy of DoBianchi with his post and photo essay on prosciutto di San Daniele, and Susan of Food Blogga with her delicious recipe for Wild Arugula, Cantaloupe, and Watermelon Salad with Prosciutto and Blue Cheese.

As I mentioned in a previous post, prosciutto is one of the two items that I buy as soon as possible after arriving in Italy. My husband likes to open the package of prosciutto (usually San Daniele) and eat slice after slice of it over granetti. The other famous Italian prosciutto crudo (raw) is prosciutto di Parma. When we visit my family in Perugia, my mother may buy prosciutto nostrano (local, i.e., produced in Umbria). Besides prosciutto crudo (of many other types, besides the ones mentioned) there is also prosciutto cotto (cooked). Speck is a special kind of prosciutto, disossato e affumicato (boned and smoked) typical of Alto Adige.

I have a few bites to share that include prosciutto. Besides prosciutto e melone (with cantaloupe), a classic summer dish in Italy, when meloni are plentiful and flavorful, the pairing with fresh fichi (figs) is also quite nice. My favorite way of eating prosciutto is with torta al testo.

According to my memory, my father and my aunt used to purchase half a pig every year, and we would then get raw braciole (pork chops) and salsicce (sausages), and cured meat: prosciutto, spalla (shoulder), capocollo, etc. We had a special rack to keep the prosciutto ready to be sliced. Besides prosciutto e melone for dinner, we would eat pane e prosciutto as a snack (plain bread, prosciutto and nothing else). I took all this for granted, as it had been part of my life for as long as I could remember.

There are a few interesting Italian expressions that include prosciutto:

• levarsi la sete col prosciutto (literally, to quench one's thirst with prosciutto): to do something that makes things worse (since prosciutto, being salty, is bound to make one thirstier)
• avere gli orecchi foderati di prosciutto (literally, to have one's ears covered with prosciutto): to be deaf, or to pretend to be deaf
• avere gli occhi foderati di prosciutto (literally, to have one's eyes covered with prosciutto): to be blind to reality, to obvious things.

Hear me pronounce the words and expressions on the prosciutto audio file [mp3] or go to the prosciutto audio page for more listening options.

brodo di pollo

chicken stock

I warned you at the end of my previous post that you would get another episode related to pollo arrosto (roast chicken) and here it is. Bones with some meat attached and the neck went into a pot to make a light stock and, ultimately, a soup (minestra).

• Tutto fa brodo means it's all grist to the mill, or every little bit helps (literally, everything makes stock).
  
• Lasciar cuocere qualcuno nel suo brodo means to let someone stew in his/her own juice.

Back to the chicken. In Julia Child's "Julia's Kitchen Wisdom," I found a nice recipe for making Light Chicken Stock, just what I needed. I covered the chicken bones and trimmings with water, then added a quarter of a big onion, chopped, a carrot, sliced, and a celery rib, sliced as well. I also tied together a few sprigs of parsley, a couple of sprigs of thyme and a bay leaf to make a herb bouquet, which I wrapped in cheesecloth before plunging it into the water. I brought the water to a simmer, skimmed a bit of foam from the surface, then covered the pot loosely and let it simmer for an hour and a half. After the light stock had cooled, I strained it, then put it in the fridge and the day after I degreased it (there was not much fat to remove, actually).

Making hot soup in the summer may seem strange, but our evenings can be quite chilly (and our days too), because of the coastal fog. Last night, after a bike ride to nearby Patrick's Point Park, a walk on Agate Beach (pictured above on a sunny day) and the ride back home, a soup made a perfect dinner. I prepared what Julia Child, on the same page as the recipe for Light Chicken Stock, calls Soupe du Jour (minestra del giorno):

Meaning add anything else you have on hand, such as cauliflower, broccoli, green peas, spinach, cooked or raw. This is how you may come up with some of your own marvelous ideas and and secret "house recipes."

The Soupe du Jour is actually given as a variation of the Potato and Leek Soup described on the previous page, but that's just a minor detail. I went out to my little vegetable garden and harvested some kale leaves, the second zucchina of the season (as in the second individual, not the second batch), a few broccoli florets and a couple of zucchini blossoms. I must admit I am not a very good gardener: considering how neglected it is, my little patch is doing pretty well, producing mostly kale, some Swiss chard and the occasional zucchina.

Back to the kitchen, I washed and chopped the vegetables. I brought some of the brodo (I set aside three cups for a future endeavor) to boiling temperature, then added the vegetables, except for the zucchini blossoms. When the vegetables were almost cooked, I added the zucchini blossoms, sliced lengthwise, and two cups of small-size pasta (pastina) already cooked (leftover from a previous meal) and cooked for another couple of minutes. I served the soup sprinkled with crumbled fresh goat cheese and some home-made olive bread. It was restorative.

This is my contribution to the Third Annual Julia Child Birthday Celebration, a lovely tribute organized by Lisa of Champaign Taste. Julia Child was born on August 15, 1912. Here is the roundup oft the event.

This was actually the second Julia Child's recipe I made this year. The first was her French bread (pane francese) from volume two of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," which was the Daring Bakers' February challenge.

Hear me pronounce the words on the brodo di pollo audio file [mp3] or go to the brodo di pollo audio page for more listening options.

insalata di pollo con labneh

chicken salad with labneh

Roasting a whole chicken for two means having a certain amount of leftovers (avanzi). Making chicken salad with avanzi di pollo arrosto is not really creative, but using labneh to season it is probably not as common as using, say, maionese (mayonnaise).

Why labneh? Because of a photo of it that I saw in this post by Lucy of Nourish Me. The image of a snow-white ball nestled in white cheesecloth stayed with me and inspired me to follow the instructions on this page and get my own snow-white mass of labneh. I decided to be daring and used non-fat, organic yogurt.

The process of draining yogurt to make labneh was a bit messy. Hanging the wrap of cheesecloth and cloth inside the fridge required the building of a contraption that made access to a section of the fridge difficult for 24 hours, not an ideal situation. Next time I'll be better prepared, and I will use only cloth.

Fortunately, the contraption worked and I got my mass of soft, creamy, deliciously tart labneh. Having never tasted labneh before, I have no idea how my rendition compares to the real thing, but I am not worried: in any case, I like the result of my effort.

The first thing I did with it is sprinkle its surface with slivered fresh basil (basilico). I made a tomato sauce to go with it and the pairing was wonderful. Then came the pollo arrosto, and its leftovers, and the idea of using some labneh as an ingredient of my insalata di pollo.

The chicken being quite tasty of its own, I didn't add much to the salad: a rib of celery, finely chopped; a handful of toasted walnuts, finely chopped as well; a few leaves of lavender mint (menta) and pineapple sage (salvia) fresh from my garden, plus some more basil (besides that already on the labneh), all finely slivered; and a generous sprinkling of freshly-ground black pepper. I spooned some labneh over the diced chicken until the balance of flavors seemed right. The salad made a satisfying dinner.

Warning: I am actually not done with the aftermath of the pollo arrosto, so expect another post on the subject.

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Readers of this and many other blogs have learned that Sher of What Did You Eat? died recently of a heart attack. In memory of Sher, Lia of Swirling Notions has organized an online fund raising for WomenHeart, the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease. Visit this page to find out the details of Lia's initiative.

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Hear me pronounce the words on the insalata di pollo con labneh audio file [mp3] or go to the insalata di pollo con labneh audio page for more listening options.

pollo arrosto per Paz

roast chicken for Paz

I wrote a guest post for Paz, of The Cooking Adventure of Chef Paz, describing my first attempt ever at preparing pollo arrosto. Fear not, the adventure has a happy ending.

Hear me pronounce the words and expressions on the pollo arrosto audio file [mp3] or go to the pollo arrosto audio page for more listening options.