Pumpkin and saffron pie

OK guys, this is my take on a traditional Northern Italian pumpkin pie.

II don't usually post exact measures and quantities in my recipes, but this is one of the few exceptions.

Start by thinly slicing 500 grams (net) of pumpkin and boil it, gently, in 500 ml of WHOLE  milk until there's no liquid left.

Now add 100 grams of sugar, one good pinch of saffron, a smaller pinch of cinnamon and 3 whole eggs to the cooked pumpkin and what's left of the milk ( solids and fat) and mix well with a wooden spoon, smashing as you go.

To this add another 100 ml of milk, mix well and pour in the crust of your choice (raw); I like a brisee made with half butter for flavour and half margarine for flakiness.

Bake at 180° for 45 to 60 minutes, or till firm .

Pasta with olive oil poached yellowtail, potatoes, garlic and arugula

OK.. this was lunch today...an experiment inspired by my garden.

While waiting for the pasta water to boil, I cubed a nice piece of yellow tail loin and placed it in a pan with a load of evoo, lots of garlic slivers, a touch of hot peppers and a good pinch of coarsely cracked black pepper and poached it on very low heat.

Poaching the cubes of yellowtail a side at the time

Once the fish was almost done I added a diced boiled potatoe

cooked the thing a while longer, till the fish got just a hint of color and then added the pasta

I don't think I have to tell you how to cook pasta, don't I?

Once  pasta, potatoe, fish, garlic and oil got to know each other and started to get along, I added a bunch of fresh, tender arugula from the garden, tossed it all together again

and served it with a few mustard sprouts thrown in there, more as a second thought than to give it more flavour.

Got to admit it was good...not over the top, but a good, light pasta dish after all.

Try it and let me know.

Buon appetito

Mexiterranean St. Patty : Nopal gelatine

Ok, ok...I tried not to get caught up in the St. Patty thing but old habits are hard to die.

Here's a GREEN, think out of the box, dessert: a gelatine made with nopal (cactus), with a foamie top and tomato marmalade on the side.

It's very easy to make and for sure it will raise some of your guests' eyebrow..."wow effect" guaranteed!  HAHAH

Start by blending 2 cups of cleaned and chopped up nopal with 1 cup of water and 1/2 cup of sugar.
Blend it like you want ot kill the thing...and then blend some more.

In 1 cup of water hydrate 2 envelopes of gelatin. Add to this another cup of water and bring to a boil.

Combine the blended nopal and the boiling gelatin base and whip very hard until a froth forms on the top.

Pour the green thing into a square baking mold, making sure the froth stays on top,cover tight with plastic wrap, punch a few holes in the wrap to allow steam to escape and refrigerate overnight.

For the marmalade : equal parts of peeled tomatoes, the riper the better, and sugar.A bit of lemon juice and cook down till ready.

Cut a square of gelatin from the mold, place it on a white plate, pour a spoonful of marmalade next to it and, if you have it, a cactus flower, a slice of prickly pear  or some ground toasted pumpkin seeds (pepita )for garnish.

That's it...provecho!

Fish carpaccio with 2 pestos and grilled vegs

Colder waters, in this part of the world, mean lots of yellow tail; it's a great fish, totally sustainable and I substitute it as much as I can to marlin, swordfish, mahi and tuna.

  Sierra mackerel and trigger fish are also very viable options, with two totally opposite textures and flavours...very interesting, both.

Start planning your prep:

1) in a baking pan place 2 parts of seeded red bell peppers, 2 parts of tomatoes, 1 part of onion and 1/2 measure of garlic. Froth with olive oil and bake until well done.

2) In the meantime prepare the olive and parsley pesto by blending 3 parts of good black olives, 1 part of flat leaf ( Italian ) parsley, garlic to taste..a lot, in my case, a few capers, evoo ,S&P

3) In a dry skillet toast some nuts,almonds or pumpkin seed and reserve; in the same skillet toast a couple slices of country bread and reserve; lastly toast a couple of guajillo chiles, until they puff, add a generous splash of water, shut the flame and let rest/soak.

4) Grill your choice of vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, peppers, green onions,...) and toss them in a bowl with some balsamic vinegar, chopped garlic, parsley and S&P.Reserve.

When the peppers, onion, tomatoes and garlic are ready place them in a blender along with the seeded guajillo pepper, a good pinch of Spanish paprika ( hot or sweet is up to you...), a splash of sherry or balsamic vinegar, one slice of bread and the nuts.
Start pulsing and add some of the soaking water to help the blender. Once you achieve a nice smooth paste, start adding olive oil till the whole thing turns pretty fluid. Taste for S&P and adjust.

Now you're ready to slice the fish, quite thin but not paper thin and assemble the plate.

Start with the 2 pestos , then the grilled vegs and, lastly, the fish.

I like to add a crunchy element to mine, in the form of baked hot and spicy tortillas strips or , if working with a rectangular or wide plate, extremely thin baguette toasts ( freeze the baguette for 30 min, slice it lenghtwise with a very sharp knife or a slicer, rub with oil and bake..)

As wine pairing goes, well, this is a tricky one  ; )  and I don't really feel like pointing you in any particular direction, even though I would go on a limb and say : "heavier, full bodied and buttery white...".

Enjoy!

Coomb

"La tera l'e' basa"..the ground is very low...

..is what old people say in Northern Italy when somebody (me...) complains about how hard it is to "work the land".

I've been quite busy the past week ; victim of a sudden "I want to grow my produce" virus I started working on the garden and building beds.

IT IS hard work..specially if, like me, you do it with improvised tools! Dumb? Cheap? Maybe... hehe

Got my first salad made with my own arugula yesterday and yes, it tasted good.... been using my fennel sprouts to garnish delicate scallops carpaccios and peppers and cilantro sprouts to top Mexican fusion dishes...

Now I can't wait for the eggplant, squash, mustard, dill, bell peppers Roma and heirloom tomatoes to grow... of all these babies though, a very special place is occupy by the cutest, tiniest lavander sprouts I am trying to grow into gorgeous plants.

Also, to top it off, while I've been cleaning and organizing my old restaurant inventory I came across some pretty neat stuff I totally forgot about and that found its way onto my kitchen wall at home

Yes, I'm a sucker for old kitchen stuff..cast iron, terracotta, etc...

Mexican lamb barbacoa

Although a truly traditional Mexican barbacoa is prepared in a hole in the ground, using a whole lamb, it can be prepared in a more "urbane" fashion by using a steaming dish and a large stockpot or even a pressure cooker.
I don't really like to use ´pressure cookers for a variety of reason so here's how I make it in a stock pot.

To recreate the smoke taste of the underground cooking, the best way to go is to char a piece of aromatic wood (like mesquite, mango, hickory...) and toss it in the pot along with the water you'll use to steam the meat.

Start by rubbing the chunk of lamb of your choice (I like chuck, for the nice proportion of bone, lean and fat meat) with a liberal amount of coarse salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

Next wrap the meat in banana leaves that you'll have previously softened by passing them over an open flame_ or you can hit them with a propane torch, if you prefer ....   ;  )

Now get the stock pot and place a soup bowl, inverted, on the bottom.
On top of the bottom of the bowl place a metallic steaming dish or a colander and in it place the meat, wrapped in the banana leaves.

Add water to the pot, just enough to almost level with the bowl and add:
°a bouquet made of bay leaves, oregano, marjoram and thyme
° a whole head of garlic, cut in two crosswise
°a large onion, cut in two
° a fair amount of dry, unsoaked chickpeas
° the piece of charred wood

Close the top of the pot with aluminium foil, making sure to achieve the tightest fit and place a lid on it.
Put the pot on medium high heat until it it starts to boil, then lower to heat to the lowest setting your stove allows and let cook for around 4 hours for a 4 pounds piece of meat.

Note:obviously, cutting the meat in smaller pieces will reduce cooking time, but some of the magic will be lost

Once ready, unwrap the meat,pass the stock through a colander and recover the garbanzos.
Discard the herbs and the wood  and serve the meat with tortillas, chopped onion, cilantro, the garbanzos and a cup of the stock on the side.

Here comes my "twist":
°reduce the stock to a gravy consistence;
°bled the chickpeas into a puree
°roast a poblano pepper, liquefy it and use it to make green tortillas
and serve it like this:

atop the green tortillas, with a few dollops of the garbanzo puree,some smashed avocado, cilantro and peppers sprouts/buds, sliced fresh serrano chiles and the reduction on the side.

Pop a few cold beers, or a nice cab and buon appetito!

Spring is coming...

Thank God February is over..as for as far as I can remember it has been the worst month of the year for me; March is here at last and it started with a good kick in the right direction!
Last Friday night I cooked for 10 beautiful and really fun ladies from the US,; the occasion was a birthday and what follows are some pics of part of the courses taken by my friend and collegue Giulio Lupori ( @Actorando, his Twitter handle).

We started wit a fillet of roasted red pepper rolled around a smoked tuna panzanella, flavoured with Spanish smoked hot paprika and served with a sliver of aged sheep's cheese, as sharp as they come, and a drizzle of 25 y.o. balsamic vinegar.

Next was a light salad of grilled peaches, heirloom tomatoes, basil, mixed greens and dry ricotta that I featured once already on these blog.

The first of the two main courses was this great yellowtail carpaccio

served with a roasted tomato and peppers sauce, on the lines of a Romesco, a black olive and parsley pesto, an assortment of grilled vegetables and spicy hot tortilla crisps.

The lamb barbacoa followed... I tried to give this traditional Mexican lamb dish a little contemporary twist and I think I pulled it off.

The lamb has been cooked in the traditional barbacoa style but I choosed to sear it a bit before serving it. It caame atop roasted poblano peppers tortillas, with a puree of the chickpeas it's been cooking with, some smashed avocado and a reduction of its own stock.

On the side we served a little salad of grilled new nopales and red onion lightly pickled in sherry vinegar.

The dessert was a little spicy chocolate number with a spicier tequila creme anglaise.

The event was a round success and a great time was had by all...yours grumpy truly as well....

Left to right: Giulio, CookAndTheFly, Lupita

Recipes will follow, starting tomorrow...

From the Land of Mañana,

Ciao,

E.  : )