July 28, 2011
It’s the Season of Jasmine. Take in a lungful and you get high. I don’t know how many Sicilians perfume their family altar with jasmine like Santina does, but I do know many use it in their cooking.
The bush I planted on the balcony two years ago has finally exploded into bloom. So I couldn’t pass up the chance to try the Jasmine Blancmange recipe from a little book called Sicily’s Favorite Recipes by Russotto and Sichel. Below is a slight adaptation.
INGREDIENTS
20 jasmine flowers
500 ml (2 cups) whole milk
50 g (2 oz) white chocolate
50 g (3-4 Tbsp) cornflour/cornstarch
100 g (1/2 cup) sugar (I used more like 1/4 cup)
1. Pour the milk in a saucepan and add the jasmine. (I let the jasmine steep in milk for a while before step 2.)
2. Bring just to the boil and turn off immediately. Allow to cool and then strain, squeezing the flowers gently to extract the flavor.
3. Add the cornflour to the sugar and mix thoroughly to avoid lumps.
4. Add the grated white chocolate. (I didn’t bother to grate it–just broke it into chunks and it melted just fine.)
5. Place on the stove and stir continuously until thick. Stir briskly for one more minute after the liquid boils and then turn off.
6. Pour the mixture into molds, allow to cool, and refrigerate for 2 hours. Decorate.
YOU CAN WIN SICILY’S FAVORITE RECIPES. It’s the English translation, but recipes are in grams & liters–finding conversions on the web isn’t hard. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post or a previous one and your name will be entered in the drawing to take place at midnight EST on August 1. You need an address either in Italy or North America. Buona fortuna!
***
Click to subscribe to BaroqueSicily.
July 7, 2011
Watermelons are piled high wherever you look. These heavy-as-boulder ones come from nearby Pachino, a town famous for its ruby-red tomatoes.
Watermelon used to bore me, conjuring up corporate picnics, American flags, and pig-out contests.
But I like it the Sicilian way–as gelo. It’s simple and fast.
DIRECTIONS
1. Roughly cut up a 3-pound watermelon (seedless, unless you want to pick out seeds one by one as I did) and discard the rind. Puree the chunks until liquified. (I have no blender–I’m trying to live a minimalist life–so I smooshed the chunks with my fists.)
2. Whisk 2/3 cups sugar and 1/2 cup cornstarch in a non-reactive pan. Whisk in the pureed watermelon. (OPTIONAL: Add jasmine flowers.) Bring the mix to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. It will take only a few minutes to thicken and bubble.
3. Remove from the heat and stir in a teaspoon of vanilla. With a rubber spatula, scrape the mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl. You can leave it in the big bowl, or spoon it out into individual serving bowls, as I did. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours.
4. To serve, garnish with some or all of the following: grated dark chocolate, ground cinnamon, chopped pistachios, jasmine flowers. Serve with whipped cream if you like the calories.
This recipe was adapted from Saveur. Hope you enjoy it!
***
Click to subscribe to BaroqueSicily.
March 8, 2011
To celebrate International Women’s Day, I’m giving away Treasures of Sicilian Cuisine.
To be eligible to win the book (published in Palermo and translated into English), just write a comment on this post or on one of my previous three posts between now and March 13. (I’ll randomly draw a name from a hat. You need to have an address in the U.S. or Canada.)
x
x
x
I concocted the very last recipe in the book: almond semifreddo with chocolate sauce. Semifreddo is what I always order for dessert in Sicilian restaurants so I was leery of a homemade version, but indeedy it measured up and sweetened my mood.
 Below is the recipe; the adjustments I made are noted in italics. I actually ended up with 12 good-size ramekins of semifreddo, so unless you are feeding a tableful of Sicilian stallions, I’d recommend cutting the recipe in half.
Almond Semifreddo (Italian Soft Ice Cream), serves 8
12 oz shelled blanched almonds (I used less for a full batch, more like 8 oz)
2 cups whipped cream
1.5 cups fine sugar (I used less, knowing how teeth-achingly sweet Sicilian recipes can be)
4 eggs
7 oz dark chocolate
1 tbsp butter (I omitted this)
3 tbsp milk (I omitted this)
Salt
Pour 7 ounces (=1 cup, but I used a lot less) sugar in a saucepan with one (healthy) tablespoon of water and simmer for a couple of minutes. Add the almonds and stir until the sugar coats the almonds. Put on a greased marble board (I used a plastic cutting board without grease and it worked fine) and separate the almonds and let them cool. Separate the eggs. Beat egg whites stiff with a pinch of salt. Beat egg yolks and remaining sugar (=1/2 cup–I used a little less) until smooth. Mince the almonds (I put ’em in a plastic bag and smashed ’em) and add to the eggs, keeping 4-5 tbsp aside for the decorations (I forgot so I added a few chopped walnuts on top instead). Combine the whipped cream and the egg mixtures. Pour into a mold or several little molds (I used ramekins) and keep in the freezer for at least 8 hours (I took them out after 4 hours). Dissolve the chocolate, in a bain marie, in the butter and a few tablespoons of milk and simmer until smooth (I skipped the bain marie part, as well as the butter and milk and just melted some good chocolate with a dab of water in a heavy enamel pan). Remove semifreddo from mold (I dunked the molds in a little hot water to help release it) and top with the hot melted chocolate and minced almonds.
***
See my Ode to Sicilian Women here.
***
Click to subscribe to BaroqueSicily.
February 8, 2010
Here’s an easy Sicily-inspired recipe for you, courtesy of Karen Covey, a Boston-based food blogger, recipe developer, and creator of Gourmet Recipes for One, a website featuring simple, healthy, luscious recipes focusing on cooking for 1.
 Karen Covey Why did you start your website?
Karen: Out of necessity. I was going through a divorce and I’d stopped cooking, something that I’ve loved to do since I was a child. The idea of cooking for myself didn’t seem as appealing as cooking for someone else, and paired with the emotional place I was in, I simply stopped cooking altogether. One day I woke up and realized I needed to start again, and so the idea for the website was born. It was really my way of creating recipes for myself and documenting them. I hope to publish a cookbook later this year.
You took a trip to Sicily recently. What impressed you the most about Sicilian food?
Karen: I went to Sicily last fall and absolutely fell in love with it. I was staying in a private villa surrounded by lemon and olive trees and it was simply magical. I loved experiencing the food culture: going to the markets every day to see what was fresh and trying all the local ingredients like pistachios, olive oil (my favorite), gelato and granita and capone (the local white fish I based this recipe on). Everything was so fresh and delicious.
The Recipe (1 serving)
Roasted Puttanesca Sauce
5 cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
1 small garlic clove, finely minced
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon chopped capers, drained
5 pitted kalamata olives, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon minced flat-leaf parsley
xxx
Cooking spray, for greasing
6 ounces fresh white fish (cod, scrod or haddock)
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
xxx
1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Place tomatoes and red onion on a baking sheet and toss with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 20-25 minutes, turning occasionally until vegetables are softened. Remove and set aside to cool slightly.
2. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.
3. Spray baking pan with cooking spray and add fish. Season fish with salt and pepper and bake for 10-12 minutes, until fish is firm and cooked through.
4. Meanwhile, chop tomatoes into smaller pieces and transfer tomatoes and red onion to a medium bowl. Add garlic, vinegar, capers, olives and parsley and toss together to combine.
5. Transfer fish to a serving plate and top with sauce. Serve warm.
***Enjoy!***
Click to subscribe to BaroqueSicily.
January 8, 2010
This sunny isle bursts with lemons. They roll around the streets with abandon, and nobody even bothers to pick them up (except me, that is—I perfume my house with big bowlfuls of ’em).
So it’s no surprise that Sicilian kitchens are redolent of lemon. Islanders are either marinating fish in lemon, squeezing a big fat lemon over a salad or just-roasted pork, or whipping up a batch of lemon gelo or granita.
I’ve slightly adapted this recipe for lemon chicken from Giovanna Bellia La Marca’s Sicilian Feasts (Felice’s Lemon Chicken), full of great old Sicilian recipes. This one’s easy, but you have to think ahead for the salt-water soaking and the marinade.
Ingredients
1 chicken, cut into pieces (free-range/organic is best)
1/8 cup coarse salt
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/8 cup lemon juice
1 tsp dried oregano
2 cloves garlic, crushed and skin removed
salt and pepper to taste
1 lemon, thinly sliced
xxx
xxxx
1. Pre-soak the chicken in water to cover and the coarse salt for 30 minutes. Rinse well, dry with paper towels, and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, make the marinade: place the olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper in a jar or bowl with a tight-fitting lid. Shake vigorously to blend.
3. Place a layer of the chicken pieces in a glass bowl, spoon the marinade on top, and continue until all the chicken is used up. Pour leftover marinade on top, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
4. Preheat the oven to 375 Fahrenheit. Remove the chicken from the marinade, place it on a rack in a roasting pan, and bake for 1 and 1/4 hours or until browned. Brush the chicken with the marinade as it bakes.
5. Now this is where I simplify. Giovanna adds the remaining marinade to the pan juices after the chicken is done. Then she puts the pan on two burners, adds the lemon slices, and simmers for 3 minutes, finishing the sauce off by adding a cup of water, stirring, bringing it back to the boil, and pouring it over the chicken. I, being a Lazy Bum (un barbone pigra), use up all the marinade as the chicken bakes, and then just pour whatever sauce has accumulated in the pan directly over the chicken. (I have also been known to not bother using a rack at all, and to just bake the chicken pieces directly in a glass or a roasting pan.)
6. Serve hot or at room temp, garnished with lemon slices.
Click to subscribe to Baroque Sicily.
|
Subscribe to Baroque Sicily
Copyright reserved -
All photos and text on BaroqueSicily are Copyright of Jann Huizenga ©2009-2015, unless otherwise noted. Material may not be copied or re-published without written permission. All rights reserved.
|
