claudia

Claudia has been my daily cooking inspiration as of late. Slowly, her
masterpiece, The New Book of Middle Eastern Food is becoming my bible.
I just love those simple peasant recipes that are a nice break to create during
a day of work at home. Major shout out to Amy G for kindly giving me the book.

piece of my heart

I think receiving this would floor anyone.

sing into my mouth

i was introduced to this cookbook during my wwofing experience in Andalucia
and had the chance to make a couple of the recipes,
including paella and pea soup with jamon
there is a concentration on dishes from Andalucia and especially those
with a Moroccan influence - it already has a place on my kitchen shelf

viva zucchero!

for chocolate sauce:

1 cup heavy creme

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 tablespoon butter at room temperature

1 teaspoon bourbon

for churros:

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1.5 cups sugar

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup flour

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 quarts peanut oil

1. make chocolate sauce, in medium pan, heat cream until small bubbles form. remove from heat.

pour chocolate into hot cream, sit for 5 minutes, stir until smooth. stir in butter and then bourbon.

keep warm.

2. prepare churros: in shallow pan, combine cinnamon and sugar; set aside. in small saucepan,

melt butter with the milk and salt over medium heat and bring to a boil, add flour and cook, stir constantly

until a dough forms and pulls away from the sides of pan, about 30 seconds. remove from heat and cool for

3 minutes. stir eggs into the batter until smooth. fill a pastry bag filled with large star tip.

3. in medium pot, heat about 3 inches of oil to 350 degrees, squeeze out batter and snip when it reaches 4 inches

long. fry in batches, turning once, until deep golden brown. about 4 minutes. drain on paper towels. 

while still hot, roll in cinnamon sugar. serve with chocolate sauce, makes about 16.

 

love pie

blueberry lavender pie

for crust, 2 cups unbleached flour, 3/4 cup cold vegetable shortening

1 tsp salt, about 2 cups of water

using knives, cut up flour and shortening, sprinkle water and gather to a ball and chill one hour

grease nine inch pie plate, roll out bottom crust, coat with egg white, chill another 1/2 hour

1 cup sugar

(i prefer to grind up about 1 tsp of fresh/dry lavender with sugar)

3 tbs corn starch

1/8 tsp salt

2 tbs lemon juice

1 tsp lemon zest

pinch of cinnamon

2 pints fresh blueberries

mix sugar, corn starch, salt, cinnamon and zest add blueberries and lemon juice, toss and chill

roll out top crust (cut hearts), add about 1/4 cup crushed graham crackers to bottom crust

spoon in fruit, throw on a couple more lavender buds and add top, trim edges poke steam vents

15 minutes at 425 and then 30-40 minutes at 350

cool and eat with ice cream 

(also can use raspberries or a combination of blueberries and raspberries)

exquisite jam for nice poets

last august i became wildly nostalgic for my italian mum, emilias' fig jam

so i searched and researched and came up with my perfect fig jam for nice poets.

2 pounds of fresh juicy figs (i like black mission)

about 2 cups of water

1 pound superfine (caster) sugar

juice and zest of 1 lemon

large pinch of cinnamon

clean and boil ball jars

clean, trim and chop figs

boil water, add sugar, stir til dissolved

add figs, lemon and cinnamon and cook down, stirring quite often

i prefer to cook it down to about a quarter of its mass

fill jars, put lids on and boil again

enjoy with fancy butter and fresh bread

le tomate

another pastis cocktail avec a splash of grenadine. 

oh, how i used to adore shirley temples.

friends of a feather

the other day, i met spiro. i was sure he was a french sailor, in his stripe shirt,

holding his parrot coloured drink. in from port, thinking of his only love, la mer.

he reminisced about marseille and told me that certain locale informed his

drink choice of the evening.

le perroquet (the parrot)

one ounce pastis

one splash of creme de menthe

four ounces of cool water

stir and serve, its a sin to add ice cubes, they would say in marseille.

nice ice.

been on an extreme popsicle creating kick for the past few weeks-

+bananas, milk, cinnamon, vanilla

+blueberries, bananas, yogurt, milk, cinnamon

+bananas, yogurt, milk, peanut butter, chocolate syrup

+charred marshmallows, vanilla ice cream, milk, chocolate syrup

+lavender, blood orange

+cucumber, chili, mint

+avocado, chili

+honeydew melon, basil

+earl grey

+fresh lime, left to freeze with tequila then dipped in sea salt

+watermelon aqua fresca

half fresh watermelon

two limes, juiced

quarter teaspoon fine grained sea salt

one and one half cups of st germain liqueur

colloidal suspension

milk chocolate banana pudding

dark chocolate flan with new mexican chili, cinnamon and pepita praline

as usual, i'm suckered into whatever is going on in the dining section of the

nytimes. this week, it being chocolate puddings, my newest dessert project.

polpo perfection

most recently, the minimalist aka mark bittman of the new york times dining section

made my head turn again for the nostalgia of my past trips to spain.

his polpo con patatas is simply done by trimming down the legs of a fresh octopus,

cutting them into pieces and boiling them in heavily salted water one hour and a quarter-

adding in sliced potatoes and cooking another fifteen minutes serving with good olive oil

and pimento.