I am back (and it's going to get messy)

I am back, just back from the farmers market :) and also back writing this blog after... what seems like a lifetime. Did anybody notice? I am not sure, but definitely my friends did, which is really flattering :) 

I am not going to explain why it's just to boring to share, but I was still cooking, taking notes and getting generally excited about food. 

This weekend hasn't been the mot successful one in the kitchen, but instead of reading it as an Omen (I already binned a few cookies and no macrobiotic cookies are not good- you can't prove me wrong here), I thought if I decide to share then I have to make good stuff!

As a Sunday lunch  baked pasta is so satisfying, but just make sure that you have done your home chores before, as it is going to be impossible to mop the floors after these!

Jerusalem artichoke and walnuts vegan lasagne

Cook the lasagne in some salted boiling water (I add few drop of olive oil) cook for 5 min or according to the package, lay them on a damp tea towel and set them aside.

Peel the artichokes (we used 300 grams for 2 people)

slice them finely (3mm circa), heat a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil to a saucepan, and add one crushed clove of garlic and few sag leaves if available, after a couple of minutes add the jerusalem artichockes.

Cook till tender and leave aside.

Preheat oven at 250 C° and toast 1/2 a cup of  walnuts till golden (keep an eye on them as they burn quickly). Grind or like we did crush with a mortar and pestle.

Prepare the besciamel (white sauce):

I start with two tbs of flour in 250 ml of rice milk, cook whisking vigorously till thick (no lumps allowed!) add the olive oil, keep whisking and keep it dry thick and smooth. Turn flame off, grate some nutmeg, pepper and salt.

Now you are ready to layer!

1 layer of lasagna, 1 layer of besciamel and vegetables sprinkle the crushed walnuts, then another layer of lasagna and so on... as much as you like :)

On top of the lasagne I add some more artichokes and some nutritional yeast (it has an acquired taste try it before spoiling the whole thing)

Bake 180C° for 20 min or till the top layer looks golden.

We had it with some Nobile di Montepulciano, and felt strangely quite Christmassy!

This was the first delicious thing that I made the whole weekend.

Rice bells with spring vegetables

What a great day...

Saturdays can be extraordinarily lazy and still give you a full sense of achievement, if this make sense?

I had a bit of a cleaning with my new flatmate and then she gave me a full body massage as she is studying to be a masseur, I always believed in God, now I even think that he cares about my well being :)

You will hear more about my flatmate as she is a great individual that happen to be on the Internet at the right time!

Once you get an hour massage all your energy is refreshed and you feel like you could do anything or even just read in bed all afternoon, but no this wasn't the case.

I made a nice Saturday lunch that was yummy and had a sprig touch.

I just found an old magazine during the cleaning, it got stuck behind the bed as cookery magazines are my bed time reading- weird I know, let's move on.

Rice bells with spring vegetables- for two

1 cup rice 

1 bunch asparagus

1 bunch spring onions

1 3cm piece of ginger

2 medium size new potatoes

bunch of radish (they are 10 in the UK)

some mint leaves

Boil the rice with double the volume of water till the water is all absorbed.

Seam the asparagus till cooked but crunchy (I steamed on top of the rice for 8 minutes)

Chop the stems in small pieces leave the tips to decorate.

In  a large saucepan (everything will fit in it once the rice is cooked), fry the sliced onions with the grated ginger in 4 tablespoon of olive oil.

Once the onion is cooked (7-8 minutes) add the diced potatoes and cover till soft (about 12 minutes) add some water if necessary.

Mix rice, asparagus potatoes in the pan add the radishes quartered.

Shape using bowls or ramekins, decorate with mint and asparagus tips and more radish.

I served immediately  with mache salad.

From an old "cucina e salute naturale" a great Italian magazine... not available in the UK, but always available at my mum house!

food to share: quick crostini

There is nothing as challenging as having a few fussy friends around to feed. Each one of them have their own food preference but also each one not with  something they are not eating.

 I find that having many different things that they can pick save you and them from the embarassment of leaving a whole untouched starter.

I am also in the mood for some colorful food, craving the spring I suppose!

I made my sourdough bread (my favourite recipe being again here) but I have got a good tip for the londoners, end especially the north London one (am I narrowing down my niche too much here?). You can buy your bread at euphorium bakery after 8PM buy one get one free (normally the price is quite high), mhh what a very English idea... However this means you can get bread in the evening and prepare a Sunday Lunch (I refuse to say brunch here), without having to bake, they do sourdough too.

You need to slice your bread in slices of about 1.5 cm then brush them with extra virgin olive oil, and put them in he oven at 200C° for 15 minutes or till golden.

My toppings:

• Marinated courgettes (sliced finely with a potato peeler), my marinate: 4 tbsp of eldelflower vinegar, 2 tbsp of olive oil, salt to taste, fresh marjoram
• Roasted and peeled peppers (bake till the skin gets dark, then place in a paper bag for few minutes and then peel of the skin once that they cool down), slice and mix  with green olives, capers and mint (and again a bit of olive oil)
• tofu cream, which is just a packet of silken tofu blend with a small bunch of dill and a finely chopped leek plus 2 tbs of good shoyu or Tamari soy sauce (I prepare this the night before and keep in the fridge)
• olive pate' which consist in blend kalamata olives and basil

Isn't just easy to please everyone?

Euphorium Bakery

202 Upper Street Islington

N1 IRQ

Easter in London and homemade Gnocchi

I was never quite sure whether my mum loved or hated cooking. I think she did like to be adored like the only one that could feed me and dad, but she would have happily put some quicker meals on the table rather then the  Sunday lunches my dad xpected her to. 

The place where I come from in Italy  is all about traditons an when my mum arrived from Eastern Europe (the neighboor called her Bulgarian, Polish and Russian never getting it right) she had to learn quickly from my auntie as my father would not eat any nonsense ethnic stuff. My mum did not know how to cook an egg which was lucky in a way as she did not have her own way to cook and she just picked the Italian one quite quickly.Sunday was normally all about the traditional homemade pasta,"cappelletti" for years. I remember quite clearly that one fine Sunday mum did some gnocchi, an it was as revolutionary as it could get in her kitchen.

On Easter day I have done them just the way she toughed me, boiling the potatoes, mashing them and adding 1/5 of their weight in flour mixing in a dough when the potatoes are still warm. Then I rolled out some ropes of dough cut in  bite size gnocchi and rolled them with my thumb on a fork.

My mum used to do them with fresh tomatoes and basil for me and with ragu' (bolognaise sauce) for her and my father, and they were the most delicious thing ever (or so I remember them to be)

Now I always say to my friends that live in the UK  that thy sould  make them as there is no comparison between the potatoes back home and the ones they have in Britain which are far superior, it's easy and you friends would love it, although I very raely eat potatoes this is my favourite way to use them.  

I did my gnocchi at Easter with an easy easy rocket pesto:

1 bunch rocket

1 clove garlic

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup pistachio nuts

Blend the rocket and garlic and salt add 3 tbs olive oil and taste.

Blend the pistachio nuts, mix with the rocket and add olive oil if you need to preserve it in the fridge (it will keep for 3 days).

Otherwise  put in a sauce pan when your pasta (or gnocchi) is ready add 3 tbsp or more to the pesto of the boiling water to thin it down and

 add the gnocchi to the pesto mixing thoroughly, add dry yeast if your vegan and if you like the taste of it. You can add cashewnuts to the pistachio for a different flavour.

Once again don't buy a jar of pest already made! It's disgusting is not fresh the oil they use is cheap and it would never be as good s you make your own and have it straight away.

The cost of home made:

organic pistachio nuts 1£ for 85gr

olive oil maybe 20 pence for three tbsp

rocket you could grow it on your balcony

salt not sure maybe free if you get it from the neighboor, 50p in Portobello Market.

the waitrose pesto is not vegan and it's 1.99, so fresh is better isn't it? You can obviously add parmesan if you eat dairy but it would still be nicer, and soon you'd be able to do it with basil (ehm it was snowing this morning!)

a guest has a suspicious approach to the rocket pesto :)

The protest -part two

I would like to thank the Hare Khrisna people that fed us at the protest to end the siege on Gaza,  we were many in Trafalgar Square and they offered food for free. If you feel like giving back you could visit their London restaurant a classic vegetarian address (they are not vegan but you can find some dishes without dairy).

Govindas 

10 Soho street London W1D 3DL,

tel 02074374928

the Bombay mix they gave us at the march was glorious...

A special tahini

Tomorrow like many people we will be attending the protest to end the siege on Gaza in Trafalgar Square, if you would like to see the impact that the siege has you can read it here.

This is only a food blog so  for me the best way to support the cau

se trough it is just to recommend you some ingredients that come from Palestine, so that we can try to support the Palestinians right to have a normal life.

In the UK there are several ways you can get hold of the products from online sellers.

Last week I attended the Palestine Trade Fair at the Arab Chamber of commerce in London, I got to know the products of Canaan Fair Trade (US).

Now if you know me or read my blog you know how I use tahini in almost everything, but the one I bought from the fair is the best I ever had, as it is quite liquid compared to the ones I normally buy but it has really go body and flavor. The olive oil (that I bought from a producer that unfortunately doesn't have a website) has got nothing to envy to an Italian one, and I think that from now on I will always buy Palestinian olive oil.

So if you can't come to Trafalgar square tomorrow (assemble at noon) maybe you can think about filling your pantry with this delicacies.

As they say on the Zaytoun website (UK) the best way is  "resisting the occupation by insisting on life".

Apple strudel

I don't know what's wrong with me but the more busy I am socially and at work the more prolific I become in the kitchen.

I guess it is just a way to prove myself that I can have a busy schedule and still be an Eco-domestic-goddess? Being submerged with things to do at work and having to find a flatmate (this is a mild form of advertisement if you are interest please leave a comment) I still manage to make all my lunchboxes, and cook almost all my meals. Tonight I went to a restaurant on Essex road called Zigni House, it was delicious! BUT I did not want to skip cooking and made a strudel to have after the dinner... 

So, give me a  lazy Sunday with no commitment and I will probably feed myself with bread and tahini  but pack in so many things in the week, and I will have dozens of pots on the stoves and a funny blob in the oven, I guess cooking makes me so happy that it balances out all the mad stress?

Busy Busy Apple strudel

1 cup whole flour

1/4 cup rice flour

1/4 cup sunflower seeds oil

1/4 cup water

a pinch of salt

filling

3 peeled and diced small apples (I used cox)

1/2 cup raisin

1/2 cup water 

1 teaspoon kuzu

pinch of salt

3/4 cup cashew nuts

1/8 tbs Cinnamon

In a bowl mix together the flour and salt. Rub in the water and oil and make a soft dough, it does not need kneading.Make a ball and leave it to rest while you prepare the filling.

In a small saucepan put all the ingredients for the filling but not the nuts. put on a medium flame and wait till the kuzu is all dissolved and the fruit is covered in the jelly mixture. Let it cool.

Now you can roll the dough between waxed paper ( I have to admit I used tin foil but it's evil so don't do it!)

My dough was really thin (careful not to break it) and the size was like 25cmX10cm. 

You can remove the top sheet and you end up with this almost rectangular thing.

I put the mixture of fruit in the middle and cut slits on the sides and braided them (if you look at the picture you'd understand) :)

You can also spread the mixture all over the surface and simply roll it.

Bake it in a preheat oven 200C° for 30 minutes, when still hot I brush it with 1 teaspoon of rice malt mixed dissolved into 2 of water.

Adapted from Macrobiotic community cookbook by Andrea Bliss-Lerman