my latest supper

from twitter to blog: watermelon gazpacho

2009-07-13T15:26:00.005+01:00

this twitter recipe was inspired by überblogger's Julia Cherry Pie in the bag event.
the rules are simple.
my own challenge is to keep it within 140 charachters.
this is the result:

"watermelon gazpacho: 1/2watermelon(pipped)+1cucumber(seeded) +3limes(squeezd)+mint(hint)+tabasco(why not?)+ice(loads).juice+strain. #inthebag"

some notes:
a.the last bit behind the hash tag is just a twitter thing so do not try to include it in your recipe...
b. i changed a word from the original posts because a like this one better
c. this is a virtual recipe: my nternal database of flavours tells me it works wonderfully but I never actually made it... could please someone try it and let me know?

please???

twitting (twittering??) recipes..

2009-04-24T13:46:00.006+01:00

i hate recipes.
i really really do.
i admit they look nice in old battered notebooks handed down from grandmother to grandmother (not mine though, they couldn’t cook).
and they are essential to link up to some tv program or other and make a few quid on the side.
oh and to make cakes with.
but i don’t like making cakes.

so i don’t do recipes. never did.
until now.
now, you know, there is twitter. it’s been around for some time but people like me tend to take a little while to acknowledge the new.
twitter allows posts that are no more than 140 characters long. and that includes spaces.
perfect for recipes, methinks.
so I’ve given myself the challenge to post recipes that are real, good, doable and 140 characters long. including spaces.

follow the experiment at
http://twitter.com/la_cena..

pimp my pasta

2009-03-14T20:20:00.003Z

lunchtime on an average march saturday.

the family is getting ready for yet another afternoon birthday party: better feed the kids but not too much or they won't be able to wreak the usual havoc.
i'll give them some capelli d'angelo - angel hair - the thinnest of all pastas, cooks in a minute, then you toss it with melted butter and parmesan .. heavenly and so child friendly it hurts..

i open the cupboard to reach for the pasta when i spot a long forgotten small tin of foie gras, a christmas present waiting for the right occasion.

thing is, we haven't had friends for dinner in literally years: too many kids to co-ordinate.. i work mostly on weekends .. etc..
it turns out that the christmas in question was 2007's and the foie gras can't wait for much longer.
oh no.

the right occasion is now.
because we are worth it.

i add some extra pasta for the grown ups. in a pan i melt a large dollop of foie gras with a large dollop of butter, i toss the angel hair in it and add handfuls of parmesan and loads of ground pepper.

the kids eat the plain version.
we eat the pimped one.

they are happy.
we are ecstatic.

How to try and scam a street wise ;-) personal chef and fail miserably :-)

2009-02-25T09:38:00.008Z

This is a warning for those who might be contacted by a man pretending to be a "Rev Tegah Shenge" from "Salvation And Praise Ministries" in Uganda.

The man behind that name is very clever, and even if in the beginning I was slightly wary, I didn't want to be prejudiced either...

Here is a selection of extracts from his e-mails:

9th of February:

"Hello Carlo Albertoli

....
Actually, I and some member of our missionary team will be visiting
London UK from the 23rd to the 29th of March, 2009 for a pastoral
retreat. There will be 4 male and 3 female missionaries, making a
total of 8 people.

So we thought its necessary to make arrangement to hire some one to
take up the job of cooking for us for those periods of time.
....
I will be glad to provide you with more details about us and further
information in regards to our visit as well as any dietary
restrictions.

Very sensible and reasonable isn't it?
He even has a quaint little website: http://salvation-praise.we.bs/index.htm

12th of February: Meanwhile, I have a couple questions which are not important but just thought I asked......do you have any business insurance policy in place for your business? Are you serve safe certified? Do you have references if demanded?

We proceed to agree a fee for my services. I ask for the payment to be made by card via Google Checkout.
I get this reply:

14th of February:There has already been arrangement to have a cheque drawn from a Uk Bank sent to you. That was the notice I got from the Planning committee. The cheque will be for the total amount payable and should clear immediately. So please have the name and address to make out the cheque sent to me immediately. So you need not worry about.

Details about the location is still sketchy as of now, but you have the full details as soon as they are ready.We just dont want to get anything mixup in our plans. Dont worry I will ensure you have at least 2 days prior to our arrival to conduct any pre-inspection as you may wish.

I decide not to worry because I can think of a few legitimate reason for this to happen.. and anyway I am not going to be providing my services if the cheque doesn't clear..
Furthermore, in the current climate I WANT and I need to believe this is a legitimate request.

20th of February:HELLO CARLO,

I WILL LIKE TO INFORM YOU THAT THE PAYMENT HAS BEEN MADE OUT TO YOU THURSDAY THIS WEEK AND IT SHOULD BE DELIEVERED TO YOU BY TODAY OR FIRST THING ON SATURDAY MORNING. I WANT YOU TO KEEP AN EYE OPEN FOR THE PAYMENT AS ITS WAS SENT OUT VIA FIRST CLASS ROYAL MAIL AND IT WOULD BE DELIEVERED TO YOUR DOOR STEP.

I WANT YOU TO GET BACK TO ME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE CONFIRMING THAT YOU HAVE RECIEVED MY EMAIL AND YOU ARE TO EMAIL ME AS SOON AS YOU HAVE RECIEVED THE PAYMENT AND MAKE THE DEPOSIT IN YOUR ACCOUNT.
I AWAIT YOUR IMMEDIATE RESPONSE BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

The tone is strange, the all bold urgency weird but sort of comprehensible (he "is" a few thousand miles away, he is paying in advance..) so as soon as i get the cheque I let him know.
The cheque is drawn on Coutts! The bank of the rich and wealthy: its clients are expected to have substantial income or liquid assets in excess of £500,000!!! No worries there then...
Again, slightly worryingly the name on the cheque is decidedly not ugandan but , again, there might be several legitimate reasons: a solicitor, a donor, a wealth manager ...
I cash the cheque, keep an eye on the balance and on Tuesday the money is credited!!! Success! I receive another e-mail with detailed travel time and itinerary and other extremely detailed instructions. I am already planning the fantastic menus I will cook for them when this appears in my inbox:

24th of FebruaryDear Carlo,

How are you doing? I am sorry I have a little bit of sad news. There has been a tragedy which had occurred on Monday. Three people from our missionary group were involved in a fatal motor accident while traveling back to the Village from town. Two of them died instantly, while the third person is at the hospital and in a very critical condition. Her left lungs were severely affected and have been placed on an artificial respiratory mechanism. Now the doctors says that immediate response will have to be taken to save her life and that the bills must be paid for them to operate on her immediately. There is not enough money to pay her hospital bills to get her operated on. And on the other hand we have to make necessary funeral arrangement to bury the two dead victims.

Considering this new unfortunate development, we are grieving the loss of our members and doing all we can to save the life of the one at the hospital. And since all these three people contributed financially to this trip to the United Kingdom, it has been decided that two people from the group, (that is me and one other person) will have to stay behind to plan all necessary burial arrangements and to save the life of one of us at the hospital, while the rest 3 people will continue with the plans of making the trip to the United Kingdom. However, they trip will now only last for 2 days.

In line with these new plans, we will need you to deduct charges/fees for cooking launch and dinner for only 3 people for 2 days and have the rest sent back to us. The money sent back is the share for the diseased people and we will need this money to pay for their funeral and also to pay the hospital bills.

It is very important that the money is sent immediately to pay the hospital bills so that the operation at the hospital will commence and the life of the only survival of the accident can be saved. To make it all faster for us to pay the bills, please have the money sent today via WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER to my brother in the United Kingdom using this details:

name: DAVID SHENGE

address: 14 Heddon Street
Mayfair,
London,
W1B 4DA

Please feel free to deduct the western union charges from the money and have the rest sent. Please I expect that you get this done TODAY and get back to me with the wiring information including the MTCN Numbers, Sender's names, Amount sent and Text Questions and Answer (if any).

All inconveniences caused are regretted. Right now the only thing that maters now is paying the complete hospital bills for the operation to commence on time, and to bury the remains of our diseased members. Thanks for understanding and expecting your mail soonest.

Remain Blessed

Rev Tegah Shenge

F**K YOU "Reverend"

For those who do not know:
- a bank will credit a cheque into an account BEFORE is fully cleared. So what you think is rightfully yours might be taken away if the cheque bounces.. I deposited the cheque on thursday 19th of February, the funds were credited and available Tuesday the 24th of February, but according to my bank the cheque is not going to be fully cleared until Tuesday the 3rd of March!!!
And when the cheque doesn't clear, the money is taken away, no question asked.

The scammers exploit this gap and this is why he had to come up with such a full blown dramatic excuse: there is a limited window of opportunity and I have to literally RUN to send them my cash before the cheque bounces back.

And what about the Mayfair address I hear you ask??
Google it and you'll understand..

One final note:
I am now available between the 24th and the 29th of March...

big chefs don't cry...

2008-03-11T23:38:00.004Z

.. but, at the tender age of fourty**** they can still be moved by a simple dish of agnolotti del plin in brodo.

it all started with a trip to london for a meeting with a possible client, cannily set up by yours truly in a wonderful coffee shop just by Borough Market where - incidentally - they serve a cappuccino much better than any you can have in Italy..
what i didn't plan for though was the event of my train not being late.

that left 45 minutes to spend, me and my debit cards, wandering through the sights, flavours, smells and temptations of the market.
i could already figure my bank manager with its (they are not human, are they?) hand hovering on the red button..

i emerged relatively unscathed: no way i could let hand dived scallops or rare cheeses or hand made chocolates rest in my bag for hours but then i could not resist gastronomica's shop and stand. i bought enough lardo to clog my arteries with a thick layer of joy and the fantastically rare agnolotti del plin.

these are a kind of tiny ravioli, handmade in a very limited area of Piedmont. you can find some kind of recipe in a link above but don't bother with it: there is no point in trying and replicate a flavour deeply rooted in the specific ingredients of a small area of a different country.. not to mention the skill in pinching the little bu***ers close. agnolotti del plin have a mytical status and I have had them in the past only once, at a meal organized by Slow Food's founder Carlo Petrini (agnolotti and Slow Food come from the same part of the world..not a coincidence).

once home i prepared a vegetable stock (yes with marigold) then genius struck me as it often does.. :-) : i added a few slices of preserved black truffle. they weren't enough to give a truffle-y flavour to it but yet more than enough to lift its aroma to completely different -higher- ground.
and the combination with the agnolotti was absolutely magical. big chefs don't cry but that dish really moved me deeply. i slurped it to the last drop (see above) and zoe did it too. i have the proof:

the ultimate carbonara

2008-03-03T14:08:00.006Z

i recently discovered with my great surprise a most fantastic italian food blog discussing with erudition and humour about as different subjects as molecular gastronomy and carbonara.

dario, the author, provided me with bucketloads of food for thought, inspiration and some photos that i am going to shamelessly ...erm..."borrow" for this post.

1. what are the origins of carbonara?

the quick answer is: nobody seems to know.
many think it came from loggers who went to make coal (carbone) on the mountains of central Italy bringing only a pasta, eggs, pancetta and pepper.. but there are absolutely no written traces of a dish called "carbonara" anytime before WW2. hence the theory that carbonara was invented by some starving roman citizen who got creative with bacon and powdered eggs distributed by allied troops.. (if that was true a lot of dodgy italian restaurants could rightly claim they make the original carbonara... :-( )

2.how to make a perfect carbonara

this is guanciale, or cured pork cheek, thicker and tastier than pancetta or bacon. it should be available in some authentic italian delis but if you can't find it you can always make your own. alternatively some decent pancetta or bacon will do but then you'll have to downgrade your carbonara from "ultimate" to "decent". warning! pre-sliced bacon is a big no-no. buy it in one 1cm thick piece from your butcher and make your own cubes/sticks.

gently fry the diced guanciale in a non stick pan until the fat gets translucent and the (traces of) meat brown slightly. you won't need to add anything to the pan: you don't need either more fat or more flavour so put away that garlic and - god forbid!- that onion.

by now your pan of salted water is boiling so put the spaghetti in, stir and move on to the next step.

you will need an egg yolk per person in a bowl large enough to later contain the cooked pasta. add your grated cheese - pecorino and/or parmesan- and mix the two together along with a generous amount of black pepper.

now the make-or-break stage.
it is up to the heat of the pasta to cook the egg to just the right degree of creaminess: not enough gives you a runny mess, too much a not-so-nice omelet...

the best results are obtained by incorporating some of the cooking water: I drain the pasta as usual but without the extra shaking of the colander, dario suggests to retrieve the pasta from the pan with a fork.

add the fried guanciale to the pasta and egg mixture and stir well to ensure an even distribution of the condiment and the guanciale cubes.
as if...
twenty five years of experience have taught me that whatever your efforts and your skill there will be always a considerable amount of extra guanciale at the bottom of the mixing bowl and this is the reason why you should serve yourself last...

go on.. you know you deserve it..

3. cream? what cream??
indeed..

i can remember when this was new..

2008-02-26T11:01:00.001Z

time to waste? enjoy

chicken run

2008-02-18T14:54:00.014Z

my first proper post in three years... and it's not even a proper post:

after the recent flurry of celebrity chef campaigning on all things chicken, this non-celebrity-cook is resuming three very old but still relevant posts on the subject.

enjoy

the endless chicken part 1

originally posted : 28/01/2004

lesson i learned: do not trust chicken that comes without qualifiers.

believe me, i want nothing to do with what is sold as "chicken" in this country.

the previous statement is obviously untrue: when i feel lazy i am keen to buy a dubious chicken provided that somebody spit-roasted it for me. when i feel dirty i treat myself to a kebab.

i don't let these slight incongruences distract me from the right way, so in my household chicken is a rare treat because good free-range-organic -not-necessarily-corn-fed-rare-breed chicken --(ehi! a LOT of qualifiers)-- is expensive.

let's say £6 to £8 per kilo --(imperial measures are banned in this blog)-- or £12 to £16 per bird.

money well spent: i won't fill our bodies with unwanted antibiotics and those two kilos will go a loooong way.

day one:
the oven is getting hot, the chicken is out, potatoes are cut. everything is well coated with olive oil and two halves of a nice lemon sit snugly in the birds' bum. a few garlic cloves.
in goes the roast tin and i'm off to play with isabella while zoe is having one of her long baths.

after 90 minutes isabella is sleeping in her cot --she is going to school now!!!--, zoe is almost out of the tub and the chicken is ready.

a nice green salad, a glass of wine... i am happy.

coming up: the endless chicken parts two, three and four (!!!)

the endless chicken part 1

originally posted : 29/01/2004

after the feast of the day before i'm still left with 800g of top quality free-range-organic-not-necessarily-corn-fed-rare-breed chicken meat and a nice well scraped carcass.
i eat all the brown bits from the bottom of the carcass on the spot, and a bit of skin too, sprinkled with sea salt flakes... is there anything better?? the answer is yes but not now.
so, after the feast of the day before i'm still left with 730g of... well, you know what.

half the meat goes into a salad with a grated carrot and two grated courgettes. i had bought the courgettes for isabella but even if organic, they are so out of season that i decide against feeding her those. lunch is sorted with a bit of cous cous on the side.

the carcass, with all the bones saved from the night before, goes into my beloved le creuset oval cast iron pot to which i add the following:
- a large onion, peeled and cut in half;
- a root of galangal, cut in half lenghtways;
- several bay leaves;
- a generous handful of sze-chuan peppercorns;
- three stalks of lemongrass, cut in half lenghtways;
- enough cold water to fill the pot.

i clarify the stock then use it to make a wrong zuppa pavese.
a zuppa pavese (soup from the city of Pavia) is very easy to get right, if you only break a fresh egg on top a slice of toasted bread (farmhouse, not prepackaged loaf!!) which sits at the bottom of a deep bowl, top it with grated parmesan and pour hot good stock on the lot.
i have no bread left and decide against parmesan this time so to give it some extra substance i add a bit of the chicken meat and some thinly sliced courgettes.

right or wrong, when the stock is good - and boy, this is amazing! -a zuppa pavese is at the top of the comfort food list.

there's still more than half of a brest left. i'll have it tomorrow in a sandwich (but i have to remember to go and buy some decent bread... not easy in brighton).

bottom line: four great meals from a chicken and i still have a couple of liters of stock to flavour my cooking.

endless or what?

what do we talk about when we talk about chicken..

originally posted : 12/04/2004

to know more, and eat less, go here.

___________________

links to learn more:

chicken out
fowl dinners
and since you asked:
take the red pill...

best? moi???

2007-05-25T13:41:00.000+01:00

is there a "best dormient food blog" category?

i used to love blogging but i have two kids now..

oh and since this is a food blog here is a photo of 12 beautiful legs of free range East Sussex lamb happily roasting away and ready to feed 120 guests at a wedding sometimes last year..

thank you chris abraham for the nomination

one HUGE risotto

2005-10-01T11:14:00.000+01:00

you have a 120 pints pot.
you have 5kg of rice and 3kg of pecorino with truffles
you have 100 people to feed.

butter and onion as usual but this time with the addition of a certain amount of premium truffle oil.
you toast the rice then add a little bit more truffle oil, just in case.

halfway through the cooking you start adding the cheese.
that's when you realize your diners are taking it easy and are running late on schedule.
you do not panic (only a little bit) then take the radical step of turning the gas off.
you keep on adding warm stock while nervously checking the diners' progress.
you wait.
you add some more stock.
you wait.

when he time is hopefully right you turn the hob on again then add the rest of the cheese.
your risotto is creamy, wonderfully smelly and miracolously al dente.

you serve with justified pride.
you pat yourself on the back and enjoy a one minute break before getting cracking with the lamb.

but that's another story.

ps: no time to take pictures so i have posted a lovely image of a cornish beach. the tiny pink dot is my daughter in her birthday dress.

IMBB 12: the roundup

2005-02-23T16:05:00.001Z

only nineteen entries to this IMBB, dealing with anything from the utterly disturbing (marmite) to the apparently innocuous (marmite).
here are excerpts from all of them. the link will take you to the relevant post.
read on.
be inspired.

"When I heard that the theme of IMBB #12 would be “Is My Blog Taboo”, I figured it might be a good time to take on some of those challenges. .... But the real question was this: did I have the balls to take some risks and do something new instead? Well, I didn't. But I knew where to get some".

"I decided that instead of cooking something that most people don't eat, I would go for something that I don't eat....Fish. I don't like fish and I never have. For as long as I can remember everyone has been trying to get me to eat fish".

"Finding a food taboo was a real hard task. I'm not someone who says no to new foods, and I'll try almost anything once. Bugs? Done that, they can be quite nice. Horse meat, snails, frogs... don't see what's shocking about that.."

"He greeted me with a kiss on the lips. At once his nose started twitching and he started sniffing. "Bleh", he muttered, "You've been eating that stuff again" "

"What does experimenting with IMBB 12: Food Taboos reveal about our own "true qualities" ? What do our taboos or dislikes have to tell us about ourselves? In my case, I think the jury's still out."

"Madness is our taboo, not food. Food taboos are the remnants of village mentality and morality dictated by an invisible entity. We are rational people, especially cooks.

"my particular food hates, my food fascism, is at the heart of what I consider 'real food' and why I continue my love affair with cooking and eating"

"I know what she was trying to do, she wanted me to find out by myself knowing how insanely curious I am sometimes when it comes to new ingredients or new food".

"Ok. Swedes are very wary of additives in food, of anything not-completely-natural in fact. (Swedes have a very hard time at US supermarkets. It can be a scary experience."

"there isn't much that I won't eat! (My friends, including my carbo-phobic ex are a whole different story! But, how much fun is it to make bread or a bowl of pasta and watch everyone just sort of push their food around?)"

"I was going to be someone who’s never tasted natto if it weren’t for Carlo, host of the 12th IMBB, who extended the deadline. I took it as a sign that I should take this opportunity to overcome my aversion to natto and give it a try".

"I was beginning to despair. And then it hit me. Something they eat in the UK that, to my mind, would just be taboo on so many fronts. Something that I have never eaten and would never make myself, except for the purely scientific purposes of IMBB.

"And because I work on my food entries from Pampanga, a province known for many exotic delicacies even for Philippine standards, close to nothing qualifies as taboo or forbidden".

"Her legal advise was it would be necessary to inform the diners what was being served before they ate it to risk the possibility of being sued if anyone suffered from the shock of it all".

"I have always wondered why should we go to such efforts to ruin something so good ? Do we really need to cook everything mother nature gave us?"

"... with some thought I came up with two ideas. One to use a food ingredient I HATE WITH A BURNING PASSION (sorry, got carried away by my hatred) and one for a dish that will disgust many readers out there, and may even be considered taboo by the Italian establishment!"

"Who am I to talk really? I'm the one who ate the cricket sushi at the Montreal Botanical Gardens".

"Oh dear. He's right: there is one food I hate and have resolutely refused to eat for the last thirty years ... Sigh".

"they were happy. i was happy. mission accomplished. there is hope".

thank you for your entries.
and thank you to the confabulist for having the balls and taking a picture of them.

IMBB 12: my own entry

2005-02-20T22:47:00.001Z

i was ready for it. this was going to be my entry for IMBB 12:
a nice picture of two packs of horse meat and rabbit meat baby food i bought in italy for isabella last year.
an erudite dissertation on culture and taste was to follow along with the detailed description of the contorted faces and gagging sounds produced by my british friends at the idea of feeding those to their kids (btw: isabella ate them with gusto).

then on thursday morning I get a call from a london tv production company.
they: "would you be available to cook for a couple in the pilot for our new reality-makeover-docu-whatever series to be broadcast on big national tv station?"
me: "i need to carefully think about it. let me call you back"
2 seconds later i call back and say yes.
then on thursday afternoon I get another call:
they: "we have changed our minds. sorry".
me: "whatever"
then on thursday evening the phone rings:
they: "actually we have decided we want you after all: we wont pay you but you will have your five seconds of fame"
me: "it's a deal"

further conversation follows, in which i am informed that i will have to cook for a couple who needs some pampering and good food.. oh and by the way they don't like: fish, shellfish, venison, ham, risotto, asparagus, courgettes, parsnips, salame and a few more things i have forgotten.. not particularly fond of cheese either..

"what a bummer i think". then i realize the wonderful sinchronicity of it all: it is a perfect chance for an experiment along the lines of IMBB 12.
if you are what you don't eat what sort of people are they going to be?
and how will they react to the forbidden food i will cheekily sneak into their plates alongside the agreed menu? (i wouldn't normally do this but it is for the sake of science and more important- of IMBB!)

the agreed menu: tuscan crostini and aubergine mini pizzas as starters, linguine with pesto, lamb cutlets with breadcrumbs and thyme, mascarpone cream with cantuccini.
the forbidden food: goose ham, smoked swordfish with orange juice and coriander roots, risotto with squid ink and bream with capers and mayonnaise (yes i had all that available because i am *that* kind of guy) all to be added to the mixed starters.

i meet the couple: very nice hard working people with three kids, a passion for candles and a fridgeful of heavily processed and heavily packaged supermarket food. 95% of food distribution in this country is in the hands of 4 (four) big supermarket chains so no surprises here.
this is the most important reason- along with harrowing work ethics, long commuting times and pub culture - for the sorry state of british eating habits. the results are an extremely poor quality of everyday food and an absurdly narrow and homogenized range of options.
the point i am hoping to prove is that the british like bad food because they only know bad food and have long lists of dislikes only because we all tend to fear and reject what is alien and unfamiliar.

i prepare the starters, then the pasta with pesto, potatoes and broad beans. the lamb is quickly pan fried so the meat will still be quite rare.. i warn them because this is another big no no.

i must say this has been one of the most gratifying experiences so far.
they both decided to take the plunge and tried (almost) everything and liked (almost) everything. they were sincerely enthusiastic about this new flavours they had encountered for the first time and would have rejected in every other occasion. since they had no choice the ate their lamb rare and it was fantastic (their words).

they were happy. i was happy.

mission accomplished.

there is hope.

___
ps: the number of contributors has been lower than usual. i have therefore decided to leave a few more days for others to try and test their tastes (or their friends', or unsuspecting couples'). full report of contributions will be published wednesday (or thursday depending on your time zone and my unreliability).

is my blog on tv?

2005-02-19T01:00:00.000Z

no, not really.

but this blogger might be: today i will take part in the filming of the pilot for a new tv program on national british tv.
this has caused havoc to my schedule so please bear with me.. i have already received some contributions for IMBB 12 and they are -you guessed it- stimulating, funny and exciting.

IMBB 12: is my blog taboo? aka you are what you don't eat

2005-02-05T01:36:00.001Z

i am happy and honoured to have the chance to host the IMBB on its first birthday.
yes is twelve months already from Alberto's "first inspirational idea and a full eight months since my last participation (you know.. baby, work, fat lazy arse.. it's a conspiracy to keep me from blogging.. it's not my fault.. i swear!!!!).

for these reasons I would like to make my contribution a little bit different, and, since i couldn't decide for a title i kept them both

after all, it's the same idea from different angles

is my blog taboo?
economy, environment, culture, religion have a strong effect on how we perceive our food so that what is perfectly good to eat for some is an abominable abjection for others.
if, like me, you are living abroad, your task will be to cook something that for you is normal or acceptable, but that in the country you are living in might be considered disgusting or even taboo.
The point of the exercise is to share the food with your local friends -or at least try- and record their reactions.

as an italian living in britain i could prepare some tasty horse meat speciality... on the other end, a british blogger living in italy would struggle not to have an italian retch over sickly sweet beans served for breakfast.
and so on...

i am particularly interested in the reactions of strictly observant followers of religions with rigid sets of rules about food: muslims, jews, vegans etc... would they really like to taste a forbidden food for "scientific" reasons? what would that taste like to them?

am i asking too much?

you are what you don't eat
this is a slight variation on the theme and is focused on you, my dear blogger who might lack a supply of willing victims.
try and test yourself.
cook something that you wouldn't normally eat because you find disgusting or taboo and think about the reasons why it is so. is it really so disgusting when you think of it with a more rational mind?
go ahead, take the plunge, suck the head of that fish, spread marmite on that toast.
and write about it.

IMBB 12 day will be the 19th. e-mail me your entry so I can keep track of it and report it in the usual way.

ps: for more info on IMBB please go to is my blog burning central.

(my)baby(and her)food pt.2

2004-12-04T23:02:00.000Z

Isabella is 16 months old now and the war against a junk food future is raging on.

It might be a hopeless fight - unless aggressive advertising of junk food aimed at preteens is banned - but I can count on some strong allies:

1. My mom's minestrone. During a holiday in Italy we gave Isabella a bit of the minestrone we were eating to try and taste: next thing we know she is devouring an adult size portion of the thing with such gusto that we dubbed it "magic potion" on the spot. I made a few modifications of my own to the recipe and now the result is even better (yeah, you guessed it: my mom doesn't read my blog. I will keep on writing it in english just in case...).

2.Pasta but above all pastina. Pastina, is pasta in tiny little shapes and it is the quintessentially italian babies' food. Simmer it in stock with finely chopped courgettes or carrots or broccoli or just on its own. Pour it in a plate and stir in bits of soft cheese. Stand back and rejoice at the view of your little one wolfing it down only stopping to say "gnam gnam".

3. Couscous, which is basically pasta in another shape and even quicker to prepare and easy to mix with absolutely everything.

4. Roast chicken: i always try to give her the breast and keep the brown juicy bits for me but then paternal instict kicks in and i give up.

5. Fish: mackerel , bream, skate... bring them on!

6. Apples -good to eat - and bananas - great to splatter all over the face.

a cupboard with the world in it

2004-09-02T23:20:00.000+01:00

have you ever been in a tiny lift in the company of a huge pot of *very* hot vegetable stock?
well, i have, and if the stock in question is conjured up by fusion maestro peter gordon it is quite an experience. not that i can tell you what was in it, peter was darting around the kitchen picking a sprig of this, a few dashes of that and tossing the lot in the aforementioned pot. half alchemist, half speedy gonzales.
peter really keeps the world in his cupboard, it' his idea after all, and fridge and most of that world i tasted in a rice made in the garden with the help of that wonderful stock, a giant paellera and two hours of unexpected sunshine.

in the meantime sri owen was preparing plantain and prawn fritters, some other nibble and a majestic thai beef salad.
which i sliced.
with dubious skill.
while copiously sweating (as per bottom right picture).
i was nervous after all: i was sharing a kitchen with the guy who single handedly brought fusion cooking (yes horrible crimes have been committed by lesser chefs in the name of fusion cooking but let me tell you, peter is a genius) to the english shores and the first lady of asian cooking.
and i'm just.. you know who i am, you've been reading my blog...

after all that sweating, the feast. we had to go back to peter's apartment as the british summer reared its ugly head once again.
it really rained hard when we were enjoying our feast.
but after the rain came an amazing rainbow.
and sri owen's dangerously good black rice ice cream with peter's coconut biscuits.
and a rare vodka from new zealand.

to cap it all up, later on that night my dear friend manuel from italian band afterhours played at the scala with greg dulli's twilight singers. but this is another story which belongs to my previous life.

ps: many thanks to the kind lisa barber for taking and donating those pictures and for making me look quite dishy...

pps: a full report of the day will appear soon in the sunday supplement of the independent

good news day

2004-08-12T15:22:00.000+01:00

in no particualr order:
1.repubblica reports of a new italian law inspired by the green party and unexplicably approved by a parliament usually too busy keeping mr berlusconi rich and out of jail to do anything good..
it will require olive oil "producers" like our friend bertolli to clearly state on the label the origin of the goods they pack and resell, thus preventing them to call "italian" what it is actually imported from albania (fact). the same applies to tomato passata: a third of what is packaged by big brands, you will be glad to know, is produced by adding water to a concentrate paste imported from china.
2. the new president of sardinia's regional council renato soru has blocked with immediate effect all building developments on the island's coastline. at last!
3. isabella walked the whole of eight consecutive steps: she wobbles like a drunken frankestein but still she manages to be the most beautiful thing in the world.

a study on the weird eating and drinking habits of the indigenous populations of the british islands. pt1: would you like a cup of tea?

2004-08-10T14:22:00.000+01:00

for quite some time now i've been observing the weird and not-so-fascinating eating and drinking habits of the indigenous populations of this island i found myself stranded on.
i've finally decided to report them for the benefit and the amusement of the populations of the civilized world.

it seems very appropriate to begin with tea.

the relationship between the natives and tea is fascinating indeed. whatever the circumstances you can be assured that you can tame any member of the indigenous population by pronouncing these simple words:
"would you like a cup of tea?"
whatever the occasion, the day, the hour, the season the native will answer in the following fashion:
1.his/hers eyes will brighten up
2.he/she will say the words "mmmhhh... i would *love*one"
3.he/she will look at you with loving anticipation as if they are puppets and you the master.
(you must be then ready to serve the cup of tea. the consequences of not fulfilling your promise are too horrible to be mentioned in this blog).

the first time you are confronted with such behaviour you will think that for some obscure reason the poor creature had been left starving for tea for weeks.
it is quite possible - or better, it is very likely - though, that the native in question had its latest cup only a couple of hours before. (two hours is apparently the longest the british can be left without tea of any denomination without developing serious withdrawal symptoms of which the most severe are a ridiculous love of monarchy and the unexplicable appreciation for tim henman).

what are the rules for the preparation of the holy beverage, you might want to know?
the natives have refined the art of drinking tea to its lowest possible level.
to prepare the perfect "cuppa" you will drive to the supermarket, buy teabags filled with something-that-resembles-and-once-might-even-have-been tea in bulk. once back home you will toss one of the aforementioned bags into a cup and cover with scalding water. remove the bag after ten seconds and throw away, even if there's enough almost-tea left to feed a family of four for a week.
drink as soon as you can avoid branding your lips with the side of the cup, or better, watch a native drinking from its cup as it was the fountain of youth.
you will know the native has finished the drink when you hear the words:
"oh, that was a *lovely* cup of tea".
mind you, the phrase has no relation to your tea making skills: you will never know if your tea tastes like recycled mouthwash, the natives are too polite to tell you.

if you are bored, wait a couple of hours and start all over again.

guess who's coming to dinner

2004-07-22T10:32:00.000+01:00

i have nothing against salmons.
really.

some of my best friends are salmons (even if, i must admit, i wouldn't like my daughter to marry one).
still, i eat a lot of fish and write about it many times but i never had salmon for dinner.

why?
well, while farmed salmon is cheap, it is heavily coloured with the happily named canthaxanthin not to mention that its farming is an heavily polluting business, with dreadful consequences...
therefore, at home i rarely eat salmon, because wild salmon is as expensive as it is rare to find and when i cook for my clients i make a point to let them try some of the delicious fish that comes daily practically on their doorstep: mackerel, gurnard, squid, skate, huss, red mullet, breams...

a few days ago i managed to find some organically farmed salmon which i thought to be a good compromise, because that was exactly what i wanted to think.
thanks to my easily fooled conscience i bought it.

to prepare it a took inspiration from a couple of rick stein's recipes twisted an turned them, added a bit here, took out a bit there and came up with my own poached salmon with shallots and sze-chuan pepper. the recipe goes like this:
poach some salmon in a lot of olive oil flavoured with bay leaves, szechuan peppercorns and thinly sliced shallots for 30 minutes in an oven at very low temperature.

drain and eat for dinner.

the great italian oil swindle: an update

2004-07-12T12:23:00.000+01:00

these are the not so quintessentially italian owners of the bertolli brand...

and this is an interesting piece of information from the states

"In 1998, the New York law firm Rabin and Peckel, LLP, took on the olive oil labeling misnomer and filed a class action suit in the New York Supreme Court against Unilever, the English-Dutch manufacturer of Bertolli olive oil. The firm argued that Bertolli’s labels, which read “Imported from Italy,” did not meet full disclosure laws because, even though the oil had passed through Italian ports, most of it had originated in Tunisia, Turkey, Spain or Greece. “Bertolli olive oil is imported from Italy, but contains no measurable quantity of Italian oil,” according to court documents".

and remember, the same applies to every single "italian" big brand.

buon appetito?

wines!

2004-07-07T22:44:00.001+01:00

pictured above -resting on the table of the sun terrace of the secluded villa on the ligurian coast where we were lucky guest earlier last june- is the most exciting display of italian wines you will ever see.

praise and thanks go to my dear friend stephen, refined australian gentleman (well that is an oximoron if i've ever seen one) living in florence with lovely marina and recently arrived baby raphael eliodoro.
stephen is my wine sherpa. for more than a decade now, he has been guiding me with skill and passion through the highest imaginable peaks of taste... and he even foots the bill!!
he has been discovering, buying and offering me wines that would soon be elevated to the top of any league.

but this selection which he showed me on my arrival just left me speechless.
from left to right:

- the now legendary solaia 1997: the best wine of the best modern vintage in tuscany and wine spectator's wine of the year 1999. not cheap but affordable when stephen bought it: just on release, before the rave reviews. now it retails, if you can find it, at no less than £300 (it's not a typo..). i had already drank a few solaias in my previous life in italy, when wine prices were much lower and my wages much higher. i can recall exactly when and where such remarkable experiences they were, but i won't bore you with the details;

- cepparello 1997, the second best wine of the best modern vintage in tuscany;

- an incredibly rare and movingly wonderful sauvignon 1996 by the reclusive maverick genius of miani's Enzo Pontoni. his wine are produced in very limited quantities and are extremely difficult to find, and the few dealer that stock them only sell them to the inner circle of their best clients. a few years ago i managed to buy four bottles of tocai and sauvignon at venice's aciugheta only because i was with stephen... being able to drink another bottle of miani's wine was an unexpected surprise and a great privilege. a bottle that conjured up old fond memories and managed to create plenty of new ones;

- sassicaia 1995 in recent years sassicaia has been affected by the ferrari plague: ferraris are great cars, but each time you see one in the street, you are almost certain that the driver is a pretentious fart wishing to show off his wealth in a loud and slightly vulgar way. or a footballer. or jamiroquai.
so, even if sassicaia has become the kind of wine which is ordered in fashionable restaurants by would-be ferrari drivers it is still an absolute gem of a wine. my canny sherpa bought it when it was much much cheaper and we enjoyed every single drop.

- antinori secentenario was bottled in mgnums on the 14th of may 1985 to celebrate the 600th birthday of the family's winemaking activity. six hundred years make some know how. the wine we drank on the 8th of june 2004 was perfect.

pictured above is the most exciting display of italian wines you will ever see.
i can't believe i drank them all.

a public utility post

2004-06-30T12:15:00.000+01:00

last sunday the monthly food magazine that comes with the observer was completely dedicated to italian food.

i will forgive the fact that it used all those worn out clichés you can expect in these occasions: mafia jokes? check
happy families around table? check
pictures of smiling old peasants? check
tuscan villas? check
"insert_name_of_region" the new tuscany? check
etc..? check

i will forgive the fact that the food of northern italy was completely ignored. there's no way you can paint a complete picture of italian food by ignoring the wealth of flavours and wines that come from piedmont in general and the langhe in particular.
no way.

i will forgive all of the above because nowadays i'm older and wiser and more tolerant.
*much* more tolerant.

what i will not forgive though is that the whole of the issue was sponsored by bertolli, which presents its oil as the quintessentially italian product of a quintessentially italian family run producer of centuries old tradition.

the present owners bought the bertolli *brand* in 1994 from the holding company which owned it. just the brand. not the production plants. not the family estate because it never existed in the first place.

moreover, bertolli only packs and resells oil it buys from various sources: not less than 80% comes from spain, greece, turkey, tunisia ( all the big "italian" brands out there - berio, carapelli, carli, sasso etc.. - do the same).

it's not a scam, it is perfectly legal and perfectly detectable: check the bottle and you will see that it only says "packed in italy".

so, next time you want to buy extra virgin olive oil steer clear from the big itaian brands: they just add a premium on the greek oil you find on the same shelf at a cheaper price.

the catch of a day

2004-06-20T22:05:00.001+01:00

i'm beginning to think that blog is a contraction for backlog...

i just can't keep up with everything. i cook,i eat, i take pictures, (not necessarily in this order). the photos are then left to gather digital dust: not much time for choosing, editing, writing etc..

it was with a huge sigh of relief that i welcomed wena's nominating "the catch of the day" as the theme for this month's is my blog burning? day.

what a wonderful chance to indulge in some fresh fish while at the same time get to use up some stale old photos, i thought.
then i changed my mind.

this post will therefore describe the fishiest parts of a meal prepared last saturday with the catch of that day. we were on holiday in italy, guests of the very wonderful marina & stephen (via marina's sister francesca and her husband antonio who actually owns the place) in an heavenly house overlooking the golfo dei poeti.

the italians amongst you will have immediately recognized the alien blob pictured above for what it truly is: moscardini!

a moscardino is a baby octopus, usually no longer than ten centimetres. tentacles and all.
what i bought that morning from the fish market in lerici were a sort of teenager octopi (?): not fully grown but still half a kilo each. i had to feed 10 hungry italians so i bought a few.
they went in a shallow pan with water, garlic, herbs, tomatoes, celery, carrots. all cold.
the pan was covered with a lid and left to simmer for almost two hours which is a bit longer than needed.
(i wanted to play it safe: the previous day i had a bad experience with a reckless fisherman and a fully grown octopus: "cook it for twenty minutes" he said. "twenty minutes???" i said "twenty minutes!" he said.
i cooked it for twenty minutes.
it was so hard that i threw it on the rocks below where it bounced and bounced and bounced and bounced ...)
the moscardini were oh so tender, with a flavour to match.

in the garden below the house and above the rocks where the octopus is still bouncing, there are a couple of lemon trees.
a previous experiment during a previous holiday proved that the usually neglected lemon leaves make a perfect complement for a delicate fish such as red mullet.
the typical mediterranean red mullet is a tiny, delicious fish, much smaller than the equally delicious version i can find here. i bought 1.5 kilos of red mullets and went back home with 40 plus little fishes, mercifully cleaned by the the fishmonger.
my original idea was to fill the cavity of the fish with rosemary and garlic and wrap it in a leaf frm the lemon tree. i did it before and it worked wonders. this time there were so many fishes and so little time. i took an oven tray, covered it in foil. i laid a layer of lemon leaves. the fish went on top, sprinkled with chopped rosemary and garlic. more leaves, more foil to seal, oven.
10 minutes are enough.
the smells of lemon, sea, garlic and rosemary are the essence of this dish.
i filled my lungs and i tucked in.

the flying italian vs ricotta woman

2004-06-18T15:29:00.000+01:00

"two starters ready for table two, quick!"

early into the debut night of the flying italian i actually said those words.
that's when it hit me hard.
i was doing it!

matthew, official photographer for the brighton festival and la cena, runs up and down the stairs to bring orders and take plates. max, mac evangelist and it technician runs around the kitchen trying to make sense of what i'm telling him.

i run around the kitchen trying not to look like an headless chicken on panic.

the first guest arrive. the first plates go upstairs.
more guests. more plates.

the plates come back empty.
everything runs smoothly.
almost.

"any comments matthew?"
"yeah, everybody says food is great..."
relief
"but woman at table 7 says it is edible"
oh well, i'm all up for some constructive criticism, i'll check that table later.

later on i go upstairs.
all plates are empty. good sign. my maternal (??) side rejoices.
there's a table where nobody had any cake.
my maternal side shrieks in disbelief.

i approach the table.
one of the ladies asks:
"so what is it that you teach in your cook group??"
i explain while the lady looks aloof and dismissive. then, full of drunken contempt, she says
"i can teach *you* how to make a cheese cake without making it curdle..."
"curdle??"
"yes. this cake is curdled. you know, it tastes of whey!"
"...errr madam this is a ricotta cake and ricotta is just pure whey..."
"isn't this mascarpone??"
"please look at this menu: it says *ricotta*. by the way, you might be interested to know that one of the things i teach is how to tell ricotta from mascarpone.."

almost everybody left happy and tipped generously.

ricotta woman and her lady friends' bill was £57.50. they paid with £58.00 and asked for their 50p change.

shameless self promotion pt.2

2004-05-25T19:10:00.000+01:00

the first night of "the flying italian", is *SOLD OUT* (and there's even a waiting list!!!!)

wow

:-)