Husband's Noc Letter For Wife

Sometimes it happens that the network ... SWAP

Around the end of November Marta Ideeingocce contacted us by e-mail because it said that he had found in our story on sourdough ... since then we began a pleasant exchange of emails until one day he invited her to participate in a Christmas project ... the SWAP.

WHAT IS THE SWAP?!?
In the spirit of sharing, is an exchange in which the protagonists are s results of Christmas cookies to put under the tree!
have followed busy days: the first was the time of accession, then the complicated calculations for Martha, who had to decide and coordinate the shipments and, finally, the collective prayer the Italian Post Office so that the parcel arrived ...
decided to prepare the cookies, we spent a lot of time for the packaging because our package would have to cross almost the whole of Italy ... you know we live in the Deep South!
accomplished the mission, began the time of waiting ... check often the blogs of all participants, ah yes I forgot ... we are all women! The more you spent the MPO, the more we realized that we were almost the only ones (along with 2-3 other bloggers) has not yet received the gift-pack! Despite the wait and the envy of those who had already in his hands the cookies, we were very amused to see the recipes, photographs and comments of our little community newly created ...

... Until the bell!

" There is a package for ..."

You can not describe the emotion and try adrelina. We withdraw our package, scrapped eagerly e. ..
SURPRISE! Four beautiful transparent packets filled with all different cookies on hidden wires of paper.

Our parcel from Tuscany, the cook is Frances Pots and joy officially not only that we thank for the goodness of cookies but also for the care of packaging and, above all, patience to have waited until the publication of this late post ... but you know the holidays we have a little disoriented ...

We can not thank Martha for the wonderful experience that we could not do without his invitation and all participants in the SWAP Christmas that link:

and Shake Bake
Lombardia
Biancifiori artiminori
Marche
My afternoon project

Ruostevilla Lombardy and Piedmont Laricio

Magic in the kitchen
Lazio
Pots and joy
Tuscany
The pleasures of life
Calabria
Rosmarina
Veneto
Thermomix Recipes
Piedmont
Always in the kitchen with joy
Campania
The vicious circle
Tuscany

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND THANK YOU ...

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The Sicilian Christmas with the yeast 1.0


As promised, we propose the second version of the "Sicilian" pizza with fried anchovies and Tuma, widespread in eastern Sicily, of which we had already talked here.

Having eaten at the speed of light in two Sicilian head, we can not say that this recipe gives better results than its predecessor. One is a crispy crust that crunches when you bite, the other is a pizza swollen, soft, characterized by a fragrant aftertaste typical of dough leavened with sourdough. Two textures both delicious but, in our view impossible to enact the best, but if we were to make a comparison with the original, the Sicilian Donna Peppina , we recommend version 1.0. Because not only is similar in texture and flavor, but it is even more ... if you can ...

Before going into details of the recipe, this time we would like to add some more information on a key ingredient for the success of the dish: The Tuma.
It 's a Sicilian cheese widespread on the island, is produced almost everywhere. It belongs to the family of pecorino but differently from the latter has a sweet flavor and is consumed fresh, it undergoes a curing time, is in fact sold a few days after production. Mainly used in the preparation of dishes is also eaten in its natural, accompanied by a slice of bread and the classic glass of red wine, which can not fail.
Sheep milk, lamb rennet and sea salt is all that is needed to produce this good cheese, which was originally allowed to rest briefly in the "wooden beam" , profit elimination the excess whey.
Today, most companies use polyethylene molds for reasons that relate to adaptation to current sanitary standards and / or the convenience of using a virtually indestructible material, but sometimes, in our opinion, the rules and modern materials should be put aside, if only to avoid the risk of achieving "faded copies" instead of products that are the result of practices and knowledge that are lost in the distant past ...
This long disquisition to tell you that in the preparation of this Sicilian cheese is really important. We do not know if and how it is distributed nationally, where it is difficult to obtain it you should to replace it with the most common "peppery fresh" that despite not having the same characteristics of tuma, can still be a good compromise. Provided you meet the required resting phase of the cheese, in a clean cloth, for 24 hours before baking pizzas ...

Ingredients (for 8 Sicilian)
For the dough:
300 grams of wheat flour type "0"
12 grams of extra virgin olive oil
200/220 grams of warm water 50 g yeast


1 teaspoon salt For the sauce: 300 gr
fresh tuma (peppery fresh) 70 grams of anchovies

150 grams of cooked ham
For frying:
plenty of extra virgin olive

Nb: the store in a tuma towel and let stand at room temperature in a dark place for at least 24 hours, then cut into small cubes and season with salt and pepper.
clean, dried anchovies (if they have been preserved in salt ...) and cut into small pieces.

Put the flour and form the usual cake flour with the hole in the middle .
in a container together warm water and oil and stir briefly.
Add the yeast in the center of the ring and little by little, put the water and oil to create a paste made from yeast, water and oil and flour that you have to incorporate the mixture, taking it from the inside walls of the ring .
Add small amounts of water and oil, mixing until all the liquid, then knead the mixture for 20 min.
(Someone with a bit of experience on the use of sourdough, the latter procedure could be a bit risky, since the direct contact of the dough with fat slows its leavening action, but have patience and trust. The long rise of this mixture will allow our yeast to grow in the right way ... for the most suspicious, we promise right now to post yet again, as well as conclusive experiment on the preparation of Sicily in which we combine the fat in the dough later addition of yeast ...) .

will get a disease and very hydrated dough, take the form of a ball, place it in a glass bowl, cover with a sheet of PVC film without and let stand for 2 hours.
Staking out the dough to stretch it and add the salt and knead for about 15, made the ball and let it rise (bowl and PVC-free film) for 3 hours.
Knead briefly, made the ball, let it sit for 30 min, then store the bowl with the dough in the refrigerator for 10 hours, always covered with the film ...

Pull out the mixture from the refrigerator and put it to rest in a place where there are no drafts or temperature changes, for about 3 hours.
Divide the dough into pieces about 80 g, given the shape of balls and let stand again for 1 hour.
Flatten each ball with your hands, (The use of the rolling pin, otherwise the destruction of the hard work done by your yeast) , you get circles of dough not too thin.
Bucherellateli with the tips of a fork and let stand for 15 min. Fill with

tuma tuma and anchovies and ham or (dressing, non-traditional, but much appreciated by those who does not like the strong flavor of the anchovies).
Fold the dough circle with half-moon and super close attention.
Fry in plenty of extra virgin olive oil.

We hasten to post this recipe, despite being a little challenging, because:

• 1) "promises are promises" (to go with the Sicilian yeast ...)
  
• 2) we would like to invite you to arrange a dinner with friends. The upcoming holidays allow you to have a respite from work, so why not use the opportunity to prepare a meal and perhaps a basis of Sicilian green salad? Whether you choose this or the previous recipe, you can still prepare the pizza well in advance (as long as you care to sprinkle with a little flour, so they do not stick together) and then fry them at the time, 1 min per side. Still not convinced? The Sicilian is good, made with common ingredients, are greedy and economic and then you eat strictly by hand, er we meant to say using only a paper towel and hands, utensils are banned and the landlord rejoices, thinking of the effort saved ... you say, you will make this dinner?

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December 13 "Saint Lucia"

"Saint Lucia Vurro breads,

loaves haju nun, I accussi staju"

"Saint Lucia bread I want, I have no bread, so I stay." The day dedicated to St. Lucia Sicilians face "great sacrifice" penitential s is on resist the room in bread and pasta wheat. This act of devotion he sees his the origin in a legend that on December 13, one year and not well identified at the conclusion of a long prayer to Saint Lucia to end the famine Sicily, a voice announced the arrival of a ship loaded with grain. The popolazine attributed the miracle of the holy that it "would respond" to the prayers of the faithful was propio ... It is said that on this occasion that gave rise to the nest, the population because of hunger did not wait to grind corn and ate boiled seasoned with olive oil and salt.
Besides the religious beliefs, despite everything that attracts even the most ardent atheists, there are historical data of the culinary tradition that sees the pot already à-known in the Greek era, that Muslims call "KECH" or "kesh" (a dish made of ig Rano boiled cream and vanilla or cinnamon). Religious beliefs or traditions
culiniarie has little importance, is cilia December 13th is a day of celebration. The streets, houses and bellies are filled with delicacies of every kind, sweet and savory dishes, made with wheat, rice, pulses and vegetables console penitents and not ...

indecision about choosing the recipe, between the eastern and western Sicily are diverse culinary traditions that mark the holiday, we thought we'd share with you:

The A r to n us n the



Ingredients

For the sauce: 4 shallots
pic of cole dimensional ni
1 celery
250 grams of minced veal
4 pork chops
500 grams of sauce (we used our tomato sauce )
extra virgin olive oil

Place onions and celery in a casserruola, soffriggetelicon the olive oil until they are wilted; ag comes ete the minced pork chops and saute for a few minutes. Stir the sauce and let CuO wax for about 40 minutes.

For rice:
500 grams of rice arborio
onion

a knob of butter salt pepper

saffron
½ cup meat sauce smoothie
300 grams of salt first (which used to make the kumquat)

Put a pot with water to boil.
Fry the onion in the butter in a frying pan ceramic or non-stick, when it is wilted, add the rice and toast it, then add the saffron, a little salt and shake the meat sauce. Gradually add water, stirring occasionally, until the rice is cooked (we preferred to leave the tooth because it will be because the orange-fried). Roll out the res
or on a work surface, level and let ate cool, finally sprinkle with pepper.

For the breading:
rice flour bread crumbs

water



bathe the hands, take a bit of rice and form a dimple in the middle where you have to put some rag ù strips and , cut thin, the first salt. Close yourselves and other rice (again with wet hands) and date the form (in Palermo are round, very large and are called "arancine," we have given for the typical but "dell'arancino" Catania you see in the photo) . Formed all the oranges and let stand in refrigerator for two hours.
After the interval, prepare three bowls: in the first place the rice flour, in accordance with a dense batter of rice flour and water and the bread crumbs in the third. Breaded arancini following the order just described, the three steps. Fry in plenty of olive oil arancini.

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Ingredients 350 g wheat t enero
cake 360 \u200b\u200bgr r icotta cow
50 grams of sugar cinnamon

6 squares of extra dark chocolate (from a bar of 100 grams) 5

a handful of pistachio nuts to the natural

Place the grain in water in a glass container with a lid, the day before cooking, so it softens. The next day, rinse in cold water and drain it for good, cook it in water for about 40 minutes or until it is cooked, drain it and put it in a container until they lose all the heat.
Mix the ricotta with the sugar, add the cinnamon, chocolate flakes founding, walnuts and pistachios into pieces. Stir the mixture and place it in a container, level with a spatula and garnish with cinnamon, chocolate, walnuts and pistachios.
We have always made the Cucco with ricotta rough but there are those who sifts or who uses the blancmange, a kind of pudding is typical of eastern Sicily which we'll tell you soon. As for the seasoning remember that it is a poor food, so you use what you have at home. Many people enjoy eating it with the candied fruit, but the tradition does not have it ... is an addition made at a later time.
The sweet should be stored in the fridge ... you with signed, however, try the savory version: boiled corn, salt and oil.

Panelle Sweets



Ing red ie nts (for custard)
90 grams of sugar
3 egg yolks
75 gr cornstarch 500 grams of milk

grated lemon zest

Put in a glass bowl the egg yolks and sugar and stir with a wooden kennel, since when the sugar is incorporated (you'll know because the eggs take on a foamy appearance) . Add starch and lemon zest and stir.
Put the milk on the stove and wait for it to come almost to a boil.
Turn off the heat and add small amounts of milk to the mixture of flour eggs and sugar, stirring constantly with a whisk.
When you add the milk mixture, place it on the heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon.
Slowly the cream will thicken, bring to a boil and counted 5 minutes, turn off the heat and let cool (from time to time do not forget to mix in order to avoid formation of a film on the surface).

Ingredients (8 / 9 panelle)
300 g chickpea flour
50 g butter 250 ml water


half cup milk 2 eggs 1 pinch of salt


sugar 1 teaspoon grated orange peel
extra virgin oil for frying sugar for breading

Put a saucepan with water, salt, milk, sugar and butter. When the butter is completely melted and the mixture will stand almost to boil, add the grated orange zest and the flour. Stir quickly until around your wooden spoon will not form a single ball frigolante.
Remove the mixture from heat and let cool.
When the mixture is warmed will add an egg, which you have previously beaten, incorporate.
Move all on board and knead with hands until dough is soft and fragrant. Let stand
"bell" (in a container, just as if it were a bell) for 15 min.
Use a rolling pin to flatten the mixture, drawn circles of dough with a pasta bowl round 8 cm (every panella will consist of two discs, so you do the accounts ..).
Brush a disk of dough with the second egg, lightly beaten that you always ask yourself at the center of a teaspoon of cream and cover with another pasta diskette (or close them for good at the time of cooking the worst happen) , repeat the process until exhaustion diskettes.
Fry the fritters in hot oil extra virgin olive oil, pass the sugar, served warm with a sprinkling of cinnamon.

We take this opportunity to wish good name day with our friend Lucy ...

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Potato starch: the ingredient and the experiment

The pleasure of food for us was certainly important for a spring start cooking but in reality, beyond the throat and family influences, our Mom is an excellent cook, she also played and plays a key role also fun, surprise, the study of techniques and timing.

Who likes to cook knows, in fact, that many have be the skills and knowledge to manage the kitchen, sometimes need to do accounts and ratios, and other times we run into issues of stocks, and others is the craftsmanship that makes the difference, in short, we believe that the master of the kitchen is a scientist / magician some spin doctors!
We are of easy to learn, but we have passion, curiosity and desire to share this ... so today in the wake of the science of cooking, we would like to tell you something about an ingredient that is often placed in disoensa and propose an experiment to home physics!

ingredient:
Potato starch , as well as starch from corn or rice that are essential ingredients when you want to prepare a cream or a pudding, they play, in fact, the function to thicken or gel, that changes the appearance and texture of certain foods.
are starches, you can imagine how long chains of glucose molecules, some more complex, lengthy and complicated than others, depending on the vegetable origin (corn, rice, potatoes ...). If you try to dissolve a teaspoon of starch in some water, you will realize that it is not soluble, water intorbidirà and then there will be a deposit on the bottom of the container. Everything will change if you put fire on a vessel in which you have dissolved starch, because the rise in temperature will allow the chains to absorb water molecules.
From here on things get a little more complex, so without too much burden you could simplify by saying that: the chains of starch enriched by water molecules will bind to each other creating a kind plot, the structure of this 'last to give the mixture a soft solid consistency.
At this time we can give you precise guidelines sull'amido to choose if you want to prepare ... but we promise to start a small studio cooking up "a natural thickener and their use. "
Before you start playing with the physics experiment of which we speak, we have a little trick to be revealed, if you do not have home-starch potatoes, you can solve the problem this way:


Ingredients 1 medium potato (about 100 gr)
200 grams of water (twice the weight of the potato without the skin)

Tools
blender
meshed sieve

Peel and wash potatoes, cut into small pieces and place in a container with high sides. Add water and blend the mixture.
Let stand for about 15 min.
After the time you will find that the potato into small pieces is reduced shall be deposited on the bottom, then pass the mixture through a sieve mesh stood. Puree the pulp
again you've got the casting and use it as a thickener.

We have not tried using the home-like starch to make a sweet cream, but the experiment with pumpkin and spinach smoothies went very well, soon we will publish a post ... I almost forgot, the starches are insoluble in water at room temperature, but very soluble in the mouth, because our salivary glands produce ptyalin, which allows the bond breaking of the chains and a first digestion.

The experiment with the ingredient:
know what "non-Newtonian fluids"? We
we discovered recently. They are normally used in pharmaceutical technology and ... if you're still reading this long post, you'll probably be wondering what c'entrino fluids with potato starch, physics and the pharmaceutical industry. You still have a little patience and are confident that the scientific game is a worthy end of a journey into the world of starch. We order
ideas:

• a "Newtonian fluid" is a fluid that continues to run regardless of the force acting on it "if you put a little water into a glass and stir with a spoon or a whisk not consistency will change, will remain liquid. So we can conclude that water is a Newtonian fluid.

• A "Non-Newtonian fluid" but not strong well-defined, meaning that the viscosity of the compound will change depending on the force acting on it "if you put a non-Newtonian fluid in a glass and started to shoot mixture with a spoon, you will be able to make that move until you move the spoon slowly, not just speed up the fluid will become extremely hard to prevent you from running up the spoon. As soon as they rotate, the fluid will return liquid ... MAGIC! ".

After the theory, let the experiments in the kitchen ops in the laboratory ...

Ingredients for a fluid" does not Newtonian:
250 grams of potato starch (or cornstarch) *
2 glasses of warm water (approximately)

Put 85 grams of potato starch in a bowl, adding water and stir slowly. You must obtain a liquid batter. Add another 80 grams of starch and a little water, continue until you have added all the potato starch. Mix everything well and go for the experiment.
socks the surface of the compound, if you have well determined the amount of water the fluid under the pressure of your stress will take the consistency of a solid, try to create the ball or dip your fingers in the mixture slowly so that it behaves like a liquid ....

We can say with certainty that the potato starch (or 'corn starch) and the' water in the right proportions, you get a non-Newtonian fluid ... look here!

* we recommend that you buy an industrial starch, since the cost of the product, especially because if you decide to use the potato starch produced at home, you need a large amount of the compound, an unnecessary waste a lot of potatoes.

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U 'bread ... cucciddatu Catania

U 'cucciddatu bread is a culinary traditions of Eastern Sicily. Prepared with few ingredients, semolina flour, water, salt and sourdough, is consumed in large quantities by households in Catania, who love to eat often "cunzato" or seasoned.

The big cake of bread, this is the form that characterizes it, is open, cut horizontally and seasoned with plenty of extra virgin olive oil, oregano, red pepper, and salt. I n fact, there are many variations due to "what you have at home, we sometimes add the" tomato butt " ie dried tomatoes preserved in oil with garlic and basil, black olives or, in other words you can "cunzato" a little as you like, only we recommend you do not overdo. The bread only serves to support, enhance, to accompany the bread, which is the main actor in your room. Although this recipe has its origins in the rural world, the laborers going to work at dawn and returning at sunset, wearing a nice meal as the sole piece of "cucciddati Schitt " , s enza relish when times were hard, or "cunzato" if you had the good fortune to have a little good oil e. ..
We Catania, a meal of bread cunzato and a good glass of red wine is the ultimate!


Ingredients 700 gr flour 150 gr semolina
yeast
500 grams of warm water
8 grams of salt

Sift the flour and put it on a work surface with the usual form to the volcano, the crater to be charged and put into the levitated mother always refreshed three times before use.
Add warm water, not overdo the water temperature on pain of death of many bacteria and yeast resulting in a bad rising just above the yeast and begin to knead, so that the yeast to absorb the added water. Keep adding water, kneading in order to form a batter in the center of the crater, you have to worry that you will take the flour from the inner walls of the fountain. When you add all the water, mix all the ingredients for about 20 minutes, you will get a soft dough, smooth and not sticky.
Put to rest, covered with a damp cloth and a blanket for about 1 hour, then add the salt and knead for 15 minutes.
Let rest again, always with a damp cloth and the top, until the dough has doubled, in our case about 6 hours. Finally
date the form, knead quickly, taking care not to completely deflate the dough , drill a hole in the center of the loaf, about 7 cm and put to rest for another half hour.
Preheat the oven to maximum temperature, cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, do not forget to put in the oven with a bowl of hot water for the first 20 minutes of cooking, will help create a humid environment.

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Fortune Cookie - Christmas cookies SWAP

Rome , during a dinner at a restaurant, "Sino-Japanese" with some colleagues, we found the indimenticabiil fortune cookies.

When we were little our parents sometimes took us to eat at a Chinese restaurant and the choice of food was always the same: the Cantonese rice, fried chicken and fried ice cream (the one with hot and crispy outer crust and the filling of chocolate ice cream ... it seemed like a magic!) . the end of dinner brought the legendary fortune cookies ... in those where was kept the "precious" written on paper with a phrase "almost vinatoria. We got up happy not only for man refugees dishes that had not been accustomed, but also for the surprise contained in fortune cookies and their taste.

Their origin is Chinese, as their spread in Chinese restaurants made us believe, but the Japanese is in fact the original name "tsujiura senbei. But what led people to believe that they were of Chinese origin?
The story goes that before dur the early years of Novec nt, some Japanese immigrants arrived California: San Francisco Chinese restaurants they borrow and this has created the false history that still makes you believe that the fortune cookies in the tradition c Inese ...
In web we found some pictures Japanese very beautiful, there is one in particular that you link that shows a bar with lots of round plates of iron which were cooked biscuits.
There's more ... because the origins of fortune cookies are nell'aleuromanzia (from greek: wheat flour) : the divination of the headlights na. It was practiced in the Middle Ages by hiding in the bags of flour ticket on which Rano and writings of respiratory nsi; fi Gurat that an individual was found guilty or innocent by the way he ate a cake of flour or corn!

Ingredients 2 large egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
8 tablespoons flour 00
1 teaspoon 1 / 2 tea cornstarch
5 tablespoons sugar a pinch of salt

4 teaspoons water Mineral

First of prepared strips of paper where you write what you like ... a wish or a phrase of any author who impresses you very o. ..
fold it so that you will put it in your fortune cookie that has a diameter of about 6-8 cm .

Put in a glass bowl the egg whites with vanilla extract and vegetable oil (we used sunflower oil) ; blend with the mixture of frus you power until become frothy. Add flour, cornstarch, sugar, salt and mineral water and blend the mixture again with electric whips. The compound will slip from the spoon.
Preheat oven at full power (our heated to 200 °).
Grease the pan lightly, take a teaspoon of dough and form circles with a diameter of about 6-8cm (evenly spread out the mixture).
The advice we give is to do no more than two biscuits at a time otherwise not be able to achieve the typical shape of the fortune cookie because in the meantime, the mixture is too dry and will tend to break.

(Click on images to enlarge)

Infor born to c bout 5 min used or until to when the edges start to get dark, take the dough circle with a palette in, turn it, you put in the note that you have previously prepared, fold the dough circle in half and, with the aid of a cup from the thick edges, fold the cookie that will take on a rounded shape because it will swell, then cool in a mold muffin. When you have filled with cookies throughout the muffin mold, turn off the oven and lasciteli rest until the oven cools, it will reach the right "crunchiness" of the cookie!

NB The forming of the cookie is a very delicate step, but especially "searing" ... if you plan to tolerate such high temperatures do not help yourself with a cotton cloth, avoiding direct contact with the biscuit, attenuate heat.

With these fortune cookies are participating in a SWAP of Christmas cookies to Marta ideeingocce ... who knows what some of you should wish to participate!
... and GOOD LUCK!