a secret ingredient

Back after a while to my cooking sessions... in the last few months my kitchen was completely ripped off and redone with a bit of troubles but now it's working fine, and I'm back enjoying cooking for family and friends.

Sherry rich scones

I know my husband love to be woken up by the smell of baking cakes. He loves piping hot scones with home made raspberry jam, another specialty of the house :) (his in that case) so I really want to make him a surprise, if only...
I was kneading my scones when I realized there was no milk in the house, too late I was already hands-on and I had to quickly find a solutions because the dough would started to rise anyway. Add water? Boring. Add another liquid? yes, but which one... Sherry!! That is known among my English family as my "secret" ingredient, because I'm able to use it in almost anything: meat, mushrooms, cakes, fruit salad, never tried in a soup but you never know...

Here is the recipe, hope you give it a try ;)

the scones ready for the oven

225 g of self-raising flour
a pinch of salt
50 g of butter (I usually recommend to reduce to half the quantity of fat, but not in this case especially if you do without milk)
25 g of caster sugar
50 g of sultanas
1 medium egg. beaten with enough Sherry yo make 150 ml liquid


Pre-heat the oven to 220C and put some baking paper on a baking tray.
Mix flour, salt and rub in the butter till it is completely absorbed by the flour. Add egg and Sherry leaving a little aside from brushing the tops. I forgot that time as you can see from the photos, but they taste good anyway.
The dough will be of a lightly pink colour and should be soft and spongy but not sticking to your fingers.

pink dough

Knead lightly on a floured surface and roll out to 1 1/2 cm in thickness, cut out with a round biscuit cutter, if haven't any use a glass  or a coffee cup.
Re-roll the trimmings and cut more scones.
Brush the tops with the egg and cherry mix and bake in

warm oven for 10 mins or till they become golden brown on top.

the scones just out of the oven

Have them with home made jam, any red fruit will be good, but the raspberry one is my favorite.

Enjoy them with coffee or tea.
ML xx

West of Sicily: Marsala

There are so many bits and bobs I've started to write down in the past months and haven't go time to finished...

As usual I'm celebrating my adored Sicily. Why mine? I can proudly say that a quarter of my blood is Sicilian.

Last September we spent a holiday in Sicily,  we visited the western part, landing in Trapani airport where we rent a car and traveled around. If you want to visit Sicily, unless you are staying in a big city, bear in mind that you need a car, distances are not so enormous but there are not good connections. Trapani airport is a small one, we queued for a while but not due to the personnel of the rent a car but due to disorganized customers. Coming back there were severe controls on the weight of the hand luggage, so be careful not to buy too many things, otherwise you have to leave them there. The civil airport shares the runway with the military one, recently quite busy, if there is a little delay the risk is that it takes longer due to closure of the flying zone.

Marsala Chiesa Madre from via Vaccari (B&B Il Profumo del Sale)

Firstly we stopped in Marsala for few days, I've been pleasantly surprised by that lively and elegant town, located in the extreme western bit of Sicily. In Marsala we stayed in a lovely B&B Il Profumo del Sale, right in the town centre, few steps away from the Cathedral square, near the "circolo" strictly for men only, where everyday I always spotted an elegant  and old man reading the newspaper. He looked like Il Gattopardo.
The owner of the B&B, Celsa is an active lady from the North of Italy who chose to live in Sicily, she used to run a restaurant so you will never be disappointed by the breakfast she prepares. Follow her precious suggestions for itineraries, she knows the area and what is worth visiting.

Marsala enoteca Sirena Ubriaca: the best aperitif

Marsala San Lorenzo Osteria

We tried all the nice restaurants in town, avoiding those that offer touristic menu,  worth to mention for a very good service and good food and very nice cosy atmosphere is San Lorenzo Osteria. If  you'd rather have an aperitif, stop at La Sirena Ubriaca try a tasting of Marsala wines and you won't be disappointed, meanwhile enjoy the "struscio" (a real ritual in that town!), much better that the more than packed Mercato del pesce, which is a proper fish market in the morning and in the evening becomes the heart of the local movida.

Marsala "struscio" at Porta Garibaldi

Marsala fish market by night

A must do visit is the Cantine Florio, a journey through the history of Sicily, of wine production and of a great family, the Florio. But this is a long story and I will talk about it in another post...

See you soon
ML

Marsala fish market during the day

Memories of Pantelleria - part 1

Pantelleria is a small volcanic island in the Mediterranean sea half way between Tunisia and Sicily, my husband and I spent summer holidays there twice and we fell in love of this fantastic spot in the middle of the sea.


Pantelleria really remains in our memory as one of the greatest places we ever been since now, where you feel detached from the rest of the world, where nature provides so much richness, from the green covered volcanic hills, planted with grapes, to the open bays with warm thermals from this naturally volcanic island.

The first time we stayed for a week in a dammuso (typical house of the isle) not far from the main village. Not worth renting a car, better a moped due to the roads, to reach the best spots most of them are small off roads. I will never forget the answer of an old man when we were in desperate search of a petrol station to refuel our empty moped while being on the wrong side of the island, he replied "don't worry the road is going down now" the only thing was we didn't know how far we still had to go to get to the only petrol pump, but that comment gave us the idea how relaxing the place was.

Everyday we would go out and discover new corners of the isle, we really fell in love with the island and each other. There are the ancient dammusi, or the perfectly conceived giardino pantesco, a real house built just to protect citrus trees from the strength of winter sea winds, creating a little oasis of peace from the constant sea breeze's on the isle of winds.

Only the other day and ten years later we opened a bottle of Moscato di Pantelleria that we brought back with us. After many years we tasted the same rich, sweet and dense flavors that struck us when we tasted it first in one of the very good restaurants we found on the island.

And that wine brought back to mind the work of hardworking men who cultivate the vineyard creating small crates around each plant, which is no more than the size of a small bush, and work every day to produce wines as valuable as what we drank after so many years but which preserves aroma and flavor of the sun in Pantelleria.

L'albero di pere di mio Nonno

Quando ero bambina il mio frutto favorito era la pera, mi piaceva il succo di pera, mangiavo le pere e detestavo le mele e tutto cio' le riguardasse, insomma una ragazzina forse un po' controcorrente.

Ad alimentare questa passione era il nonno materno, Augusto, uomo di campagna di poche parole, ma di grande dolcezza. Il nonno che ha regalato a me e mio fratello la prima bicicletta, il nonno che ci veniva a trovare a Roma ad insaputa di tutti, per poi tornare a casa subito il giorno dopo, perche' il lavoro in campagna non si puo' lasciare.

Con lui si mangiava a mezzogiorno, tutti a tavola e non ammetteva ritardi, e la sera a letto presto spalancando la finestra verso est per essere svegliati dal primo sole. Un nonno che mi ha insegnato ad amare la natura, la terrra con i suoi prodotti, un uomo che mi ha insegnato cos'e' il sacrificio e la dignita'. Un uomo semplice ma di profonda saggezza, che spegneva il televisore per giocare a carte con i nipoti la sera, che raccontava storie di fantasmi per le orecchie spaventate e trepidanti degli adorati nipoti. 

Immancabili le bretelle e il borsalino in testa che toglieva solo quando si sedeva a tavola e andava a dormire, come immancabile e' stato il suo amore per la moglie, Maria, anche quando la malattia aveva offuscato i suoi splendidi occhi verdi. 

Un piccolo uomo dal cuore tenero che negli ultimi anni si inteneriva rileggendo le lettere d'amore che si scambiava con la moglie, che raccontava le lacrime della prima notte di nozze, con una dolcezza che faceva salire le lacrime agli occhi di chi lo ascoltava.

Sono cresciuta tutte le estati della mia infanzia nella grande casa che aveva comprato con il suo lavoro e di cui andava fiero perche' vi era cresciuta la sua famiglia.

Nei caldi pomeriggi d'estate sedeva sul lato est della casa all'ombra, proprio sotto la finestra della sua camera e raccontava piu' a se stesso che a chi gli stava accanto i ricordi di vita che riaffioravano alla sua memoria, storie sempre nuove e sempre affascinanti e in quei pomeriggi, senza preavviso troncava il racconto per alzarsi, raggiungere un piccolo albero al di la' dell'aia e portarmi una piccola pera gialla e rosa, che accarezzava con gentilezza e mi porgeva riprendendo il racconto dove l'aveva interrotto, io incerta affondavo i dentini in quel frutto e rimanevo estasiata dalla dolcezza. 

Ancora oggi quando al mercato trovo esposte le pere, che qui chiamano "blush pears", ne prendo in mano una e penso sempre a mio nonno e rivedo il suo sorriso sotto la falda del borsalino.

                                                             

When I was a child pears were my favorite fruits and they still are. At that age I hated apples and anything which involved apples, and I loved pears. I still love them eventually I have learnt to appreciate any cake with apples :)

My grandfather Augusto really fueled my passion for this fruit that he loved too. He was a simple but sage man who adored his family, he'd grown up in close relationship with nature and taught me to love it, to love the products of the earth and to face sacrifice with dignity.

In the hot summer afternoons he used to seat outside on the east side of the house, in the shade, and tell stories of the past, more to himself than to anyone sitting next to him, often he'd stop telling the story get up, walk quickly to the end of the shaded area, called "aia", pick some fruits form a small tree and come back offering me a tiny yellow and pink pear, caressing it with tenderness.  I remember sinking my teeth in the sweetest fruit I'd ever tasted as my grandfather would resume the story where he had stopped minutes earlier.

Still to this day, when I go shopping and I find some blush pears, I always stop and pick one up, thinking of my grandfather Augusto, I can picture him stilling there smiling at me from under the brim of his hat.

Coconut Valentine Biscuits

Yesterday before my oven blew up (luckily by the end of next month a new kitchen will be installed :)!!), I was able to cook my husband's favorite biscuits, a very easy recipe I invented to satisfy his great passion for coconut, which is not exactly my favorite ingredient to cook with, in the biscuits' recipe below you will get very nice results.

First of all the ingredients:

• 200 gr self-raising flour 
• 100 gr sugar
• 50 gr butter
• 2 tbs grated coconut + some for finishing
• 1 egg
• 3 tbs sherry

Mix the flour with the sugar in a bowl, add the butter, which is cut in small pieces, and add the egg, mix quickly with your hands till it is all well mix together to form a pastry dough, add the grated coconut and the sherry, don't be too generous with it otherwise you need to add more flour and loose a bit of its delicate taste. Work always quickly with your hands till it gets to a pastry consistence. If you've got time put in the fridge for half an hour, it will be easier to make the biscuits. Put some grated coconut in a tray or large and flat plate, take a small amount of pastry in your hand make a little ball, roll the ball in the grated coconut and put on a baking tray covered with baking paper, cook in pre-heated oven at 180 C for 15' or till they became golden brown. After taking them out of the oven, let the biscuits cool on a tray and put them in an air-proof box only when they are completely cool.
Enjoy them with a glass of vino passito at the end of your meal.

:)
ML

World Food Day at Borough Market

Borough Market

What better way of celebrating the World Food Day, which took place last October 16th, than to go food shopping at Borough Market, off the South bank in Central London, as I did with my husband last Saturday. 

First of all, few words about the World Food Day, it has been proclaimed by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) to enhance public awareness about the food problem in the world and strengthen solidarity in the struggle against poverty, hunger and malnutrition.

So then, how did I focus my attention on that special day? "I bought local"!  In fact Borough Market is a place where you can buy all locally sourced foods, as well as some "exotic" Mediterranean foods (more of that later). 

pumpkins

For those (I'm talking to the few Italians) who have never experience Borough Market I suggest to put in your agenda for next visit to London, it reminds me the open air markets in Rome, like Piazza Vittorio, where I used to go with my dad to buy little birds with amazing singing voices, Ponte Milvio, from where my auntie always brought back a tasty loaf of bread that she named "crocodile" just to amuse her nieces and nephews.
I could hear the same loud voices of the stall holders who invite people to buy their products, of the market where I used to go shopping with my mum. 

game

Last Saturday the market was packed with people, who care for what they eat. Lots of tourists but mainly people buying lunch on the go as well as taking the weekly fresh food shopping.
Vegetables still had a bit of mud on them, they do not look perfectly made as in the supermarket and the display was artistic.
Autumn vegetables and game meat made a well show of themselves among the sourdough bread, a fantastic display at the fish monger and lots of specialities like goose fat to roast your best potatoes (as written on the jar!) 

 Az. Zavoli, Saludecio (RN) Italy - Mora romagnola cured meat 

In the Jubilee Market, among the farmers, there were the Mediterranean traders who sell delicacies such as extravergin olive oil, truffles and, a great discovery, Mora romagnola cured meat made in Rimini (Italy) from Azienda Zavoli located in Saludecio.

In order not to miss such an experience, you can find below the times of the market and how to get there:

The Market is open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with Saturday being busiest after 11am.  The sensible shopper gets here between 8am and 10am for the pick of the day. Thursday is usually a relaxed shopping day and our demonstration chef is on hand for ideas, tips and demonstrations in the Jubilee Market.

Parking around Borough is limited, but there are plenty of public transport links:

• By tube to London Bridge or Borough underground stations
• By train to London Bridge mainline station
• By bus to London Bridge, Borough High Street or Southwark Street
• By foot along the Thames Path on the Southbank or over London Bridge from the City

Enjoy your food shopping!

ML