Arrivederci Italia!

I decided, what with last week's marathon cook and this week's added pressure of packing for Scotland, that this week I would keep it simple. I had been rather putting off going to Italy because we basically eat Italian (pasta, pizza, risotto) about 4 times a week already. But it dawned on me (and this could seriously help us to avoid the really obscure countries) that countries have a plethora of food available to try and we could even go back several times to the same country and try a whole new range of food. Yes. So, gnocchi it was. Easy peasy (unless you make it yourself of course but even my friend who spent 6 months in Rome recommended I bought it ready made) and almost universally liked. I did go a bit OTT though. I am beginning to realise this is my downfall. As tea approached I realise I should have branched out a bit.. not one, but two different gnocchi dishes graced our table tonight. One tomatoey and one creamy. 

THE DISH

Gnocchi and tomato bake (BBC good food)

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion , chopped
• 1 red pepper , deseeded and finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove , crushed
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 500g pack gnocchi
• handful basil leaves, torn
• half a 125g ball mozzarella , torn into chunks

1. Heat grill to high. Heat the oil in a large frying pan, then soften the onion and pepper for 5 mins. Stir in the garlic, fry for 1 min, tip in the tomatoes and gnocchi, then bring to a simmer. Bubble for 10-15 mins, stirring occasionally, until the gnocchi is soft and the sauce has thickened. Season, stir through the basil, then transfer to a large ovenproof dish.
2. Scatter with the mozzarella, then grill for 5-6 mins until the cheese is bubbling and golden. 

That is so my kind of recipe. Easy ingredients. About 15 mins from fridge to table. Bargain.

Gnocchi with spinach pine nuts and dolcelatte (Delia online.. who disappointingly suggested a 'tub of cheese sauce'... 'ready toasted pine nuts' and 'ready grated parmesan'. Delia! Have you no shame?). Supermarket sell out.

500g pack fresh gnocchi

450g young leaf spinach

1 tbsp ready toasted pine nuts

85g dolcelatte (or gorgonzola)

olive oil

1 tub fresh cheese sauce

whole nutmeg – grated

1 tbsp breadcrumbs

2 tbsp ready-grated parmesan

Pre-heat the grill and put a lightly oiled, 19cm (or similar) round or square baking dish underneath it to heat through. Then wilt the spinach and drain. Now fill a large saucepan with boiling water, add salt and cook the gnocchi for 2 minutes or until they start to float to the top.

While they’re cooking, make the cheese sauce in a small pan (make a roux with flour and butter and whisk in enough milk for a thick sauce. Add grated cheddar and melt in the sauce). Squeeze any excess moisture from the spinach (hands are best). Then arrange the spinach all over the base of the heated baking dish.

When the gnocchi are ready, drain them in a colander and arrange them on top of the spinach.

Next, scatter the cubes of cheese in, along with the toasted pine nuts.

Follow this with the hot cheese sauce, spreading it evenly all over, and grate half of the whole nutmeg over that.

Finally, sprinkle over the breadcrumbs and the Parmesan, then grill it 10cm from the heat – for 3 minutes or until golden-brown and bubbling. 

Polenta bruschetta.

I am not sure whether, technically, you can get bruschetta made of polenta, or whether it's strictly made with some other sort of bread. But I bought some ready made polenta, sliced it, fried it on a hot griddle, and topped it with a variety of olives, sundried tomatoes and peppers, caramelised onion jam, capers and parma ham. And I threw in a salad with rocket, parma ham, parmesan and figs, as well as one with Growing Communities salad leaves plus pink grapefruit.   

THE REACTION
"Is Italy in the same country as Scotland?" (Really think the school should work a little harder on geography.)
"Are we going to Italy?? For real? In an aeroplane??" (Don't think K has quite got the hang of this yet!)
Overall Italy was greeted with some enthusiasm, but it turned to exasperation quite quickly in the few minutes it took me to sing 'Just one Cornetto' at the top of my voice as they came to the table. Should have been an opera singer! In fact I am pretty glad they didn't make the connection otherwise my pudding would have been voted out in favour of one of those cone shaped ice lollies in a trice.
"Wow! I thought you said it was going to be simple tonight? This looks amazing! You're a wonder-,mum!" And other nice phrases were from the lovely Lodger, Helen. She can come again.

THE VERDICT
"This is my BEST tea EVER - a trillion out of a trillion" said Mr K. Not bad I reckon. Until N tried to explain that this was the same, in fact, as if he had awarded the food one out of one. This resulted in one small confused 6 year old. But he had eaten all his tomato gnocchi which I consider to be A Result. I was interested to see that all the 3 kids preferred the tomato gnocchi when usually pasta with tomato sauce is greeted with derision by at least the male contingent. I guess it was all that blue cheese, which doesn't usually feature in my macaroni cheese.
Mr Middle only gave it 3/10, generously extending it to a 4 when he remembered he'd got an extra corn on the cob to make up for the fact he ate very little. Typical, as soon as the fussiest likes something, another declares their hatred of it. Eldest ate her way through most of the tomato gnocchi, declaring her passion for figs along the way.

THE PUDDING
Another Tuesday another cheat pudding. This time M&S supplied a very nice Sicillian lemon cheesecake, Sainsbury's served up Carte D'Or's Tirimasu icecream and we had another selection of figs doused in honey.  That all went down swimmingly.

Should have done a bit more opera, and probably a bit of standing around looking cool in shades, but at least the sun did grace us with its presence and lit up the plates like a tropical sea scape. The other stuff will have to wait till we visit Italy again. I am sure they eat all sorts of different things in Tuscany. Or in Sicily. Arrivederci Italia!

 

  

Rio here we come

It always takes longer than I think this travelling cuisine marlarkey. Trying every shop on the street for tapioca flour. Checking out on google whether tapioca flour is the same as the cassava flour which is the only think I can find in the local corner shop. Wondering what sort of chilly I have bought from the fabulous local greengrocer who doesn't much go in for labelling of products. More googling helped. Fab chilly chart for the uninitiated. But I was still guessing, to be honest. I guess I should have chosen a pudding which didn't call for being cooked for 2hrs and then chilled for 6. No one should have to start cooking Tuesday night tea the day before. And here I am blogging about it at nearly 1am on the following Tuesday as I haven't had a moment to finish it off til now. I've got to get a grip...

THE DISH

As well as the things, below, which I prepared for the main meal, I also bought some banana chips
and some coconut and passion fruit juice for a totally tropical taste. I am sure that there must be a stack of good cocktails but I just ran out of time...

Brazilian Chicken Stew (it seems a great shame that there isn't a wonderful Portuguese name for it..)
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/brazilian-chicken-stew
  
1/3 cup peeled and thinly sliced ginger (3 ounces) 
4 garlic cloves, chopped 
2 jalapeños, seeded and chopped 
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 
1 tablespoon sweet paprika 
2 tablespoons water 
1/4 cup vegetable oil 
3 medium onions, coarsely chopped 
2 cups drained canned plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped, juices reserved 
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk 
1/2 cup dry-roasted peanuts, finely chopped 
1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut, plus more for garnish 
1/4 cup chopped cilantro, plus more for garnish 
3 cups chicken stock or canned low-sodium broth 
Salt and freshly ground pepper 
2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces 
Steamed rice and lemon wedges, for serving

1. In a food processor, pulse the ginger with the garlic, jalapeños, lemon juice and paprika until finely chopped. Add the water and process to a paste.
2. In a large saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil until shimmering. Add the onions and cook over moderate heat until softened, about 8 minutes. Add the ginger paste and cook until it begins to brown, about 3 minutes. Add half of the tomatoes along with the coconut milk, peanuts, 1/4 cup of the shredded coconut and 2 tablespoons of the cilantro and cook until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.
3. Scrape the sauce into a food processor or blender and puree. Return the sauce to the saucepan. Add the stock and the remaining tomatoes and 2 tablespoons of cilantro and bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper and simmer over moderate heat until reduced to 5 cups, about 20 minutes. Keep warm.
4. Meanwhile, in a large nonstick skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil until shimmering. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and sauté over moderately high heat until golden and cooked through, about 10 minutes.
5. Add the chicken; season with salt and pepper. Spoon into bowls and garnish with coconut and cilantro. Serve with steamed rice and lemon wedges.

Pão de Queijo - cheesy puffs

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/easy_brazilian_cheese_bread/

• 1 egg*
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2/3 cup milk
• Scant 1 1/2 cups (170 grams) tapioca flour
• 1/2 cup (packed, about 66 grams) grated cheese, your preference, though we got the best results from Mexican farmer's cheese - queso fresco
• 1 teaspoon of salt (or more to taste)

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a mini-muffin tin. Put all of the ingredients into a blender and pulse until smooth. You may need to use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the blender so that everything gets blended well. At this point you can store the batter in the refrigerator for up to a week.
2.  Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until all puffy and just lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool on a rack for a few minutes.
Eat while warm or save to reheat later.
Note that Brazilian cheese bread is very chewy, a lot like Japanese mochi.

(makes enough batter for 16 mini muffin sized cheese breads).

THE REACTION
Apart from the obligatory melt down from the kids as they waited for food to be delivered, and the obligatory melt down from the mother as the extra burden of delivering the obscure cuisine sank in, it was all quite cool. No one made too much fuss as I served up, they all got pretty well into watching capoeira and videos of mardi gras (which is completely mad and seems much more like the one in the Disney/Pixar film Rio than I ever anticipated!!) and I even showed then a short video from amazonwatch.org/ about the Brazilian tribes fighting the government over the Belo Monte dam which threatens their homes and lives. To be honest the sauce turned out a little sick-looking-like so I was amazed it wasn't greeted with derision.


THE VERDICT
M: I liked the pineapple and coconut juice and the chicken (but he didn't really eat the sauce).  I would give it about 4 out of 10.
K: I liked the whole entire meal. I would give it 10 out of 10.
E: Say that I was the only one who ate it all.  I give it 7 out of 10.
me: I had been rather looking forward to the cheesy balls after the Travellers down the road had raved about them on their Brazilian night. But I thought the casava flour smelt of vomit when I was making them and they didn't improve much once in their mini Yorkshire pudding guise. Maybe that's the price you pay for recipes off the internet instead of getting the genuine article off your Brazilian cleaner. And, if I'm honest, what with the left over tapas rice on the plate with the cheesy puffs and slightly sickly looking stew, it all looked a bit orange. Had to shove on some red pepper and cucumber and a slice of lime at the last minute just for interest's sake.

THE PUDDING

Thanks to Brazilian Ana living in the States for the pudding. I must say it sounded devine and the pics on her blog are amazing. But... after the whole damn shebang of boiling it for 2 hours, whipping cream, cooking a custard, cooling it, layering it, freezing it etc etc I happened to nibble on a slice that I had saved for a garnish. That pineapple may have been lovingly bought by the Lovely Mary for my Lovely Birthday Soiree. But that pineapple was not lovely. Dry, tasteless and hard. Oh my what a disappointment! I reckon this could have been about the best pudding I've cooked for these Tuesday night adventures but I can't really say for sure because with this mediocre fruit it was not exactly the tropical taste explosion I had been hoping for. Damn.

• 1 medium fresh pineapple
• 3/4 sugar
• 1 cup water
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 can sweet condensed milk
• whole milk (use the condensed milk can to measure the milk)
• 1 can crema media (I think I would call this evaporated milk. But this is so 1970s I couldn't bring myself even to buy it. I used single cream instead).
• 3 tbs sugar
• 3 egg whites

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Cut your pineapples is small cubed pieces.

Add sugar, water in the pineapple and let it cook on medium-high heat for about 2 hours until pineapple becomes tender and water evaporates. You should have very little liquid left, and be very careful not to burn the pineapple compote.

In a sauce pan add condensed milk, whole milk, and eggs. Mix with a wooden spatula cook on medium heat until creamy.

Have the crema media can in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before using it. With your can opener placed on the bottom of the can poke a hole and let the liquid run down until empty.

Using your mixer beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff. Beat the sugar for about 2 minutes then with a spatula mix the crema media.

Make sure everything is cooled down completely. Start with the pineapple, second, add the cream and third, add the topping made with the egg whites, crema media and sugar. Spread each layer evenly.

Keep in the freezer for at least 6 hours. It has to be frozen just like ice cream. I used some of the pineapple juice that was left with 2 tablespoon of sugar to make a thicker sauce for pouring on the dessert.

Before serving, let it sit on the counter for about 5 minutes, and serve immediately

Hackney Hanami

Last Friday Mr Middle brought home a trip letter from school for us to sign. It is for this Friday when his year group will join together at a local park for a hanami. It sounded fun but I had no idea what a hanami was, so when I discovered the letter stuffed in his lunch box way after bed time I had to google it. A Japanese picnic to celebrate the cherry blossom! How is it that I have reached my 43rd year and no one has told me about this fantastic thing? Hackney is positively bursting with blossom right now, as it is every spring, from tiny spindles of trees lining the pavements full of Victorian terraces, planted in optimistic New Labour days when planting trees in streets was not only seen as a good idea but actually funded too (some come out obscenely early and look almost top heavy they are so laden) to the thick trunked behemoths of blossom which have been knocking around for years. So why are there no hanami? What more excuse does anyone need to spread your picnic blanket beneath such a glorious sight?

Enough eulogising. It at least helped pin down that destination question this week and it seemed a no brainer to travel to Japan.

And upon discovery of the great little website www.somewhereintheworldtoday.com I even had some recipes to hand.

THE DISH

Yakitori chicken

Chicken and marinade:

• 400 – 500g Boneless Chicken pieces – thighs and/or breast are best
• 3 tablespoons dark Soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons Sake (I used sherry... I know it's scandalous. But several blogging gurus said it was OK and where was I gonna get Sake on Chatsworth Road?.)
• 8 to 10 Bamboo skewers, soaked in water so as they don’t burn
• Oil

Tare:

• 100ml Soy sauce
• 100ml Mirin (I, erm, just left this out. I know - scandalous. But the blogging gurus said there isn't a substitute and you might as well just leave it out.)
• 50ml Sake
• 1 tablespoon Sugar or Honey

1. Toss the chicken piecse in a bowl with the soy sauce and sake marinade ingredients. Set aside for at least 15 or 20 minutes.
2. Mix the tare ingredients together in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over a medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes.
3. Thread the chicken pieces on the soaked bamboo skewers, leaving an inch or two free at each end and brush lightly with oil.
4. Grill the chicken over hot charcoal or grill in the oven, turning part way through to cook both sides. When the chicken begins to brown, spoon over or brush with some of the tare.
5. When the chicken is cooked through, give the skewers another brush with the tare and serve while still hot.

Tamagoyaki - sweet omlette

• 4 eggs
• Sugar (1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon depending on how sweet a tooth you have)
• 1 tablespoons water)
• 1 teaspoon mirin
• 1 teaspoon Japanese soy sauce (or light soy sauce)
• Pinch salt
• Vegetable or sunflower oil for cooking
• Optional sesame seeds for topping
• Extra mirin, soy sauce and sugar for dipping sauce

1. Beat all the ingredients (except oil) together with a fork.
2. Heat a little oil in a heavy frying pan* over a medium heat, it really just wants to be brushed over the bottom and sides of the pan and not in a pool.
   *If you want to be a` perfectionist then you can buy a special square pan so as to have more solid ends to your Tamagoyaki which makes slicing neater.
3. Add some of the egg mix to the pan (about 2-3 tablespoons) and tilt it around so it spreads out. Cook gently until its nearly set on top. Using a spatula (preferably wooden) roll up the egg pancake to one side of the pan.
4. Brush the pan with more oil if necessary. Add the same amount of egg mix again letting it run right up to the edges of the cooked omelette and even underneath it. When this second layer of omelette is nearly set then roll up the whole of the omelette to the other side of the pan.
5. Keep on in this way until all the egg mix has gone.
6. Allow to cool to room temperature and slice. You can serve the Tamagoyaki immediately sprinkled with a few sesame seeds and with an accompaniment of 50% soy sauce, 50% mirin and a little sugar as a dipping sauce. Or it can also be used use as a filling for sushi rolls. (Sushi maki).

Hanami salad

• 200g Rice vermicelli (fine noodles)
• 2-4 Spring onions
• 100g Pack asparagus or mangetout
• A few radishes
• 1 large carrot
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• A dash of sesame oil (ordinary oil will do but add a few sesame seeds or a handful of peanuts to the salad to give it a nutty flavour)
• A dash of light soy sauce

1. Cook the rice noodles according to the packet instructions and then plunge into cold water to cool. Drain really well even blotting with kitchen roll or a clean tea towel to remove as much of the excess water as possible.
2. Blanch or cook the asparagus or mangetout for a couple of minutes and then plunge them in cold water too. Drain well, again trying to get rid of as much excess water as possible.
3. Chop the spring onions and slice the carrots and radishes finely into discs. Using a sharp knife cut 5 or 6 V shaped nicks out of the radish discs evenly spaced around the edge to make them into a flower. You can do the same with the carrots or use a flower shaped vegetable cutter (a metal clay cutter or cookie cutter will do just as well).
4. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and toss well to coat with the oil, mirin and soy sauce.

Sekihan rice

400g Japanese glutinous rice (or you can use Sushi rice)
1 can of azuki red beans
1/2 teaspoon salt
Gomashio (black sesame seeds and salt) for topping (optional)

1. Wash rice and drain in a colander.
2. Cook the rice (according to the instructions on the packet) along with the azuki beans and  colored liquid from the can. Season with salt and mix well.
3. Sprinkle mixture of salt and black sesame seeds over the rice before serving in rice bowls with chopsticks

A little bit about the festival is here.

THE REACTION
Mr Middle positively beamed when I said we were going to do a hanami picnic. Eldest and Youngest looked a bit bemused, but we had a few johnny-come-latelys join us from school so pretty much everyone was happy. The setting - park surroundings, football, blossom to throw and grass clippings to build with - did rather distract from the eating thing. But that's always the way with picnics. The lovely P brought down some Miso soup in a flask so we felt well authentic but only her two kids and my Eldest got the gold star for eating it. But I must say that even my Youngest tasted it, which would have been unheard of 6 months ago. The wasabi chickpeas were an unnecessary addition that no one seemed interested in. The tamagoyaki came out next and was wolfed by my two boys before anyone else even clapped eyes on it. Chicken ditto. Some liked the rice, some the noodles in the salad. Even the flowery carrots were a hit. Radishes? Not so much.

THE VERDICT
I think we could definitely get away with yakitori chicken again. And Sekihan rice with a bit of persuasion. Even I was a bit doubtful about the glass noodles in the salad, but with the suggested addition of peanuts it was quite an interesting mix. It wasn't quite the environment to get proper feedback... been a bit slack about that recently. But eating out on the grass, on a blanket, from teensy bowls with chopsticks, and delicate pink blossom falling around our ears was always going to be a winner!

THE PUDDING
Erm. I bought a packet of Oreos. Somehow they strike me as so American that I feel sure they'd be ubiquitous in Japan (what kind of perverse logic is that?). Melon appears to be popular, so I bought a peachy cantaloupe melo and skewered some melon balls in a nod to the fact I had not be quite bothered enough to make the special three colour hanami dango (dumplings).

The kids played crazy grass and petal throwing games on their scooters, P and I talked about the travesty which is post occupation Iraq and the evening sun drenched the hospital workers as they filed out of the Homerton and onto the buses whizzing past. Should probably do this every Tuesday in May. We left when one of the drinkers who hang out in that little piece of ground lit a bonfire of a pile of grass clippings and started smoking it. I wonder if that's a feature of many hanami in Japan?



 

The Real Greek

Oh the joys of going Travelling on Tuesday without having to cook anything !! What with last week's oven ready meals and this week's restaurant option perhaps it's a slippery slope?

I really wanted to get to the Hayward to see the Light Show but suddenly found all the tickets were gone for the weekend. So whipping the kids out of school on a Tuesday afternoon seemed like the only option. I do love it when things like this come together. Mostly I am too much if a lazy mum to bother but when there is no alternative option I throw caution to the wind and just go for it and its so much fun when it works out.

I sprang the kids out of school at 3pm and we were in Waterloo by 4.15. Apart from leaving both the boys fleeces on the tube it seemed really easy. I guess we are right out of that buggy or carrying phase and it makes cities a whole lot easier to navigate.

N was even able to meet us too as his shoot in Plymouth finished early. It was a great exhibition. I do love the Hayward. A very typically playful exhibition. Very amusing and moving and accessible. Lots of fun quirky sculptures playing with different aspects of light. Included works by the Danish artist Olafur Eliasson who did the Weather Project and the Little Sun at the Tate and James Turrell of skyscape fame.


The kids loved it. The sun shone. We bumped into old acquaintances. Everyone was happy.



I had forgotten quite how far a walk it was to the Real Greek. But we had announced a visit to Greece and I just couldn't bear copping out and going to Pizza Express again. But, in fact, The Real Greek is a lot like Pizza Express. Just without the pizza. And with more hummus. But the pens and colouring sheets are the same, the kids' menus, the offer of chips and fizzy drinks and ubiquitous ice cream. N and I should have, in contrast, ordered some crazy stuffed testicles or something. Actually I don't think the RG does those. Have to head to a Hackney Turkish place for that. But we went down the 'play it safe' road. I dunno. I think it's good to show kids and parents alike that they can find something they like to eat even on menus of places they don't usually go to. But I am not sure how much 'expanding of the repetoire' we actually did.

The kids ate: chicken kebabs, roasted halloumi, hummus, flatbread.

Off our plates they tried: Gigandes plaki (butter beans in tomato sauce), tiropitakia (pastry parcels with spinach, leek and feta inside) and greek burger patties (which I hadn't appreciated where authentic Greek food).

Baklava and Greek coffee rounded it all off nicely. Especially as the kids didn't even like the baklava - ha ha all the more for us! I do love that cardamon coffee. It reminds me of all the Arabic hospitality I've had the good fortune to be the recipient over the years.

Verdicts ranged from the Eldest's "Wow, this is just like the Turkish restaurant I went to with Evie. I love this food!" through the Middle's "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease can we have chips?" to the Youngest's "Actually I don't really like this food mummy" (which is at least an improvement on the tantrums he's been known for in the past). So pretty much par for the course I would say. Still, it was nice not to have to cook!