XMAS at HOME

The gothic wave that raped me reflects itself even in dressing the table. The tablecloth is made with chinese newspapers, a souvenir of London China Town. The lacy black placemat are hand-made by my gourgeos mom , the plates are my old granny legacy.

I though about Christmas dinner for about a week. I had to choose the main course: ravioli or risotto (always a succesful alternative). At the end I decided all at the last minute and I've gon for:

1. Leeks, lemon and pecorino risotto

2. Oven baked salmon fillets with lemon and pepper crust

3. Oven roasted garlic mash

4. Light ricotta trifle

RisOttO


The taste is plain but delicate and classic. Very refreshing and extremely light, with the particular tuch that Pecorino cheese gives, more savory than Parmesan.

Serves 4 people (plus the dog!)

500 g rice (Carnaroli or Roma)

2 leeks, cut into thin slices

200 g Pecorino cheese, grated

50 g Parmesan cheese, grated

50 g (2 oz) butter

zest of 2 lemons and juice of 1

oil, white wine, salt

Method: Heat 2 Tbsps of oil and the butter and cook over low heat the leek slices until moist (beware they burn very qickly). Poure in a splash of white wine and let it evaporate. At this point toast the rice (always look out for not let it get brown). Add hot salted water (or broth, but I prefer plain water because exalts all the flavours) enough to cover the rice and let cook over low heat, lid on, stiring frequently and adding water little by little (for about 18-19 minutes , depending on the tipe of rice. Roma tipe will take a little less to cook, about, 14-15 minutes). 5 minutes before the end add the juice of the lemon. Once cooked (it musn't be dry, but a little liquid), turn the heat off and add Parmesan and Pecorino cheeses, lemon zest, extra butter to taste (never less than 30 g/1 oz!) and salt if necessary

Salmon

I like things to be simple, and I like eating well, light meals without fats (ah, I'm vegetarian...). I eard that salmon is a good choice for the "good fats", Omega 3 and all the rest, so why not use it for the Christmas dinner? I hate the over-cooked fish, It's horrible...but I had a very bad experience with row fish...once my dad and grandfather cooked (or for better say uncooked) some nice pieces of salmon that gave me nausea...so this time, the first for me with salmon, I wanted to be sure that the fish wouldn't be uncooked. My pieces were very big so the take almost 30 minutes to cook, but at the end I really loved salmon, and almost forgot the past disgust! The oven baking let come out a wonderful crispy crust...just perfect and exactly how I like it!

4 salmon fillets (300-350 g each)

black pepper, fresh and coarsly grounded

zest of 2 lemons

salt



Method: Put pepper, salt and zest of half a lemon on a plate and lay the piece of fish to cover all the surface and sides. Repeat with the other 3 pieces. Wrap tighly each piece of fish in climfilm and let rest in de fridge until time to use. Preheat the oven to 200°C (375°F) and let heat a large baking tray, fan on. When you're ready heat a little of oil in a large frying pan and lay the fish fillets, skin side down. Cook 4-5 minutes (mine were quite thick so they needed a longer time to cook). Transfer the fish on the hot baking tray and cook for about 20 minutes or more. Serve them with potato mash.

OveN RoasTeD GarliC POtatO MasH

I like very much the garlic, and I love potatoes, so how can not adore garlic potato mash?

5 or 6 large potatoes (sorry, I never measure the ingredients for potato mash!)

some milk

some butter

salt

3 whole garlics



Method: Oven roast the whole garlics in hot oven (200°C/375°FG) until moist and burned on the outside. Let cool.Cook potatoes in salted water (or steam them) until very tender. Mash with a potato masher and add enough warm milk to obtain a light consistance. Add the butter, to taste, and squized garlic. Keep warm.

TriFLe

I just love trifles, they are a quick and easy way to take out a delicious dessert in a few minutes, different every time. You can use all your immagination and ingredients you have in store and the result will always be good! I think trifle is the perfect way to end a meal; light, fluffy, tasty...Just because I'm extremely greedy with sweets around, but I watch my weight too, this time I've tried to make the trifle lighter than ever, using ricotta cheese instead of cream, mascarpone or crème anglaise. Say by way of introduction that there are just a few things that can beat a good old Tiramisù, with all its fatty, round and smooth taste, chocolate chunks, coffee, liqueur, cocoa powder exc, exc...mmmmh.....gnam....I was saying: mascarpone has too much fat to my taste (just because I'd risk to finish the entire dessert all by myself), so I choose a good, incredibly velvety and delicate in taste, ricotta cheese (that has 10-14% fat instead of 40% of mascarpone). I used the same method of Tiramisù, whisking egg yolks with a little of sugar, mixing this with ricotta and adding beaten egg whites. You can't even imagine how equal is to the mascarpone batter! The same, identical, ditto! Try to believe! At first I wanted to use a walnut sponge made for the occasion, but then I had the inspiration to use vanilla honey madeleines and ChristÖllen (a northen Europe sweet bread made with almonds or marzipan, nuts and raisins) soaked in Disaronno liqueur (almond-flovoured). To finish it all, a sprinkle of grated white chocolate and these dreamy little silver balls of sugar used to decorate...that I put everywhere just because they add a tuch of classy and elegant look. This was the most amusing course...as always, a dessert!...I never change : ).




500 g ricotta cheese

2 eggs, separated

4 Tbsps sugar, or more to taste (but not too much, the batter must be slightly sweet)

1 glass of Disaronno liqueur

100 g white chocolate, grated

Half a ChristÖllen, cut into thin slices (1 cm)

10-15 madeleines, depending on the size of bowl

Method: Beat egg yolks and sugar until pale. Add the ricotta cheese, whisking gently. Beat the egg whites until light and fluffy and stiff peaks form. Add the whites to the ricotta mixture, preserving the airy consistance. Slightly soak the madeleines and ChristÖllen in the almond liqueur and lay them on the bottom of a bowl. Cover with 1/3 of fake mascarpone mixture, sprinkle with white chocolate. Repeat with the remaining ingredients. Finish with an extra sprinkle of grated white chocolate, crumbled (or better chunks of) ChristÖllen and silver sugar balls. Keep in the fridge for at least 6 hours.

PERSIAN DAY

I had an oriental wave yesterday...all the baked stuff was made with some key ingredients such as honey, pistachios, rose water and petals, saffron, vanilla and orange. The inspiratione come from the famous pistachios of Bronte (a sicilian small village knows for its good nuts) that my grandmother send to me. They were wonderful little bright green beans with shades of baby pink...dreamy...my home was full of an incredible and unique smell of East...

SAFFRON, ORANGE, VANILLA AND MIXED FRUIT BISCOTTI

2 eggs + 3 egg yolks
250 g sugar
400 g flour
150 g mixed fruit (pistachios, walnuts, peanuts, almonds)
saffron powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 drop of orange oil

Beat eggs and egg yolks with sugar until pale and fluffy. Add vanilla, saffron and orange oil. Add flour and nuts. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half. Shape each piece into a 16-by-2-inch log, and transfer to prepared baking sheet, about 3 inches apart. With the palm of your hand, flatten logs slightly. Brush beaten egg over surface of the dough logs, and sprinkle generously with sugar.
Bake, rotating sheet halfway through, until logs are slightly firm to touch, about 25 minutes. Transfer logs on parchment paper to a wire rack to cool slightly, about 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.
Place logs on a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut logs crosswise on the diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Place a wire rack on a large rimmed baking sheet. Arrange slices, cut sides down, on rack. Bake until firm to touch, about 30 minutes. Remove pan from oven; let biscotti cool completely on rack.

Persian honey cake

150 g butter
1 Tbsp water
175 g honey
50 g brown sugar
200 g flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
50 g pistachios

cream cheese frosting:
200 g ricotta or cream cheese
2 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 Tbsp rose water
candied rose petals
pistachios

Put honey, brown sugar, butter and water in a saucepan and cook over low heat until the butter is melted, wisking a couple of times. Let cool for 15 minutes.
Poure the honey mixture over the sifted flour, baking powder and ground ginger. Add the pistachios. Put the batter in a loaf tin and bake in preheated oven to 180°C (350°F) for 35-40 minutes or cooked until tested with a skewer.
For the frosting: beat cream cheese, sugar and rose water and spread it on the surface of the loaf. Decorate with crumbed rose petals, whole pistachios and some extra drops of honey. Put in the fridge to set.

Snowflakes cookies

I bought the snowflaked-shaped cookie cutter about

one year ago (...maybe more) in a website full just of cookie cutters...

I call it paradise, and you? I picked up a spiderweb,

the snowflake, the gingerbread men (small and large) and wife (small)

and a five-pointed star (almost unavailable around here).
I used a scandinavian recipe, found in the Beatrice Ojakangas' book (a birthday gift of my lovely mom), that it's an almond shortbread with a little less butter.

I added vanilla and ground cardamom and then I've decorated these cookies with the remaining 7 minutes frosting (see the "Snow white cupcakes" recipe), sprinkled them with powdered sugar and left them dry up.

400 g flour

150 g ground almons

200g powderwd sugar

250 g butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

2 egg yolks

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, vanilla extract, ground cardamom, then flour and ground almonds. Kneat the dough until smooth, but not too much. Put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment. Remove one dough disk; let stand 5 to 10 minutes. Roll out 1/8 inch thick between two sheets of floured parchment, dusting dough with flour as needed. Cut shapes with cookie cutters. Using a spatula, transfer to prepared baking sheets. (If dough gets soft, chill 10 minutes.) Reroll scraps; cut shapes. Repeat with remaining dough.
Bake, rotating halfway through, until edges are golden, 10 to 18 minutes (depending on size). Cool completely on wire racks. To ice cookies, spread with the back of a spoon. Let the icing harden, about 20 minutes. Decorate as desired.

Same recipe, different form!

When all around is lights, fancy shimmering papers and happy people carring their just-bought gifts, you can say it's almost Christmas...to me it's not Christmas without the right sweets...check it out...



SNOW WHITE CUPCAKES


I just ADORE making cupcakes (as I already said in previous posts), but every time gets better and better! This time I've tried for the first time the gorgeous "7 minutes frosting" seen in Elinor Klivans' book "Cupcakes!". I wanted to simulate a snow-covered mountain and I can surely say that I'm more than satisfated. Just look at these...this wonderful, creamy, fluffy and immaculate white frosting covering those banana, olive oil and orange cupcakes...they're just lovely (...don't misunderstand, I'm a very modest girl...)!!!

The olive oil, fruity in itself, increase the taste of ripe bananas and the flavour of orange zest to high perfection. Then comes the frosting, slightly flavoured with cardamom, extremely light and not too sweet despite the large amount of sugar. This is what I call a complete treat!



Ingredients:



90 ml olive oil (1/2 cup)
2 eggs
2 Tbsp milk
100 g sugar (1/2 cup)
250 g flour (2 cups)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp orange zest
2 bananas, smashed

For the frosting:
2 egg whites
200 g sugar (caster or powdered)
*(1/3 cup) water
1/4 tsp ground cardamom (or 1/2 tsp of vannilla or almond extract)




Method:
Combine the olive oil, milk, orange zest and smashed bananas. Combine all the dry ingredients and add the liquid mixture. Mix all together (the batter could be a little dry, in case add a little more milk just enough to get a soft and smooth mixture) and fill a muffin tin with the batter. Bake in preheated oven to 180°C (350°F) for about 20 min.

For the frosting: put the egg whites, sugar and water in a bowl over a pan with simmering water and beat with electric beaters for 7 minutes or until soft peaks form. Far from heat add the ground cardamom (or extract) and keep beating for onother couple of minutes. The frosting must be shiny, light but firm. Frost each (cool) cupcake with a spoonfull of frosting using a rubber spatula, trying to spread it picky by giving little hits. Let the frosting dry a little before tasting.

RAIN OF LIGHT IN VIA DEI CALZAIOLI IN FLORENCE

Xmas market in Piazza Santa Croce

During a walk out with a friend (Hi Lara!) I enjoied the spirit of Christmas by taking a look at the stands in Piazza Santa Croce, an old square behind the Duomo, not so far from Piazza Signoria. This amazing place (one of my favourite squares in Florence) hosts the yearly Christmas german market. There's a wide set of traditional and hand-made products, a lot of little stuff to give as a gift and inviting heap of food such as breads, brezen, krafen, cookies...and so on. I found the foodie stands the more interesting part of this event, that, to be sincere, it's not so different from the other Christmas market around (and surely worse than the ones I've seen in northen Italy or Germany, Austria and Swiss). On the whole this small marketplace gives a good cheer and prepares you to face the real mood of holiday!

Christmas market stays on until the 18th of December.

This was the best stand of the market: a huge amount of cookies for everyone!!!...It was 5 o'clock, you know...time for an afternoon snack...and I was quite hungry...