Cranberries expatriated

I read somewhere on the internet that cranberry/grappa jelly was the hot new dish for Thanksgiving this year. Who wouldn’t want to make the hot new dish of the year? It’s from Gourmet magazine, too, so there you go.

Three years ago, eg brought me two bags of cranberries in her luggage. They have sat, triple-bagged, in my freezer since then, because like the story of the pig you wouldn’t want to eat all at once, I couldn’t bear for them to just go away. But for the hot new dish of 2007, I figured let’s do it! Those of you who don’t live here will think how silly we are to miss something most people eat once a year and many people deride as not real food. I love cranberries.

The original recipe is fairly straight forward but a little messy with a lot of straining and pressing to get the skins and seeds free of the juices. Note that not only does it star the elusive cranberry, but also granulated gelatin, which doesn’t exist here, as far as I have ever been able to tell.

Italian gelatin is evocatively named “fish glue.” Yum. It comes in transparent sheets or leaves in envelopes. I made a strawberry Bavarian some years back using fish glue and it didn’t jell. I didn’t know how much fish glue to use to replace granulated gelatin nor did anyone I asked.

But I am nothing if not determined when it comes to my cranberries.

More great blogging

Three cheers for Smitten Kitchen. Go have a look at her apple tart post, which is absolutely terrific. It’s accessible to amateurs and beginners, and different enough to appeal to veterans.

The benefits of a walk

Saturday I went to town, both for the market and because I needed to pry myself from my mousehole, to which I had become far too adapted when I wasn’t feeling so well. I lost an entire size in a week! I don’t recommend the method, however. Still, when my jeans wouldn’t stay where I put them, and I pulled out that tight, black pair and zipped them on, it was pretty interesting from my point of view.

Everybody was bundled up. Except me. It was cool and I was wearing this knit jacket, but they were wearing down jackets, all black but one.

Dizzied and dazzled

The American girls have left. They actually left me on a street curb in a taxi to the airport at Florence. I have cooked nothing since. Nothing.

There are photos in the camera, maybe there’s something I’ve forgotten lying there?

Corrections

The peach mostarda from this summer: you must break open the chilies before cooking, enough to release the flavor. Just crack them before putting them into the peaches.

Smoked pecorino from Sardegna: it is not called Fiore Sardo. The website where I got that information is incorrect. Fiore Sardo is a great cheese, but not smoked. Ask for smoked Sardegnan (Sardinian) pecorino, or Pecorino affumicato Sardo. I just bought 700 grams of it at the Mercato Centrale at Florence, so now I can try to copy some of the recipes I ate at Terra Terra.

The sloppy dough bread was made twice. Both times were different. The secrets seem to be 1) making it wetter than regular bread dough, 2) allowing it to rise very slowly, cool, many hours and 3) cooking the bread in a heavy, covered pot for the first half hour, then uncovering it to finish. Rather than translate the recipe measures, I just used Italian measures, because the yeast comes in packets that raise 500 grams of flour. Both versions worked, and that’s the important part.

I am off to a town near Rome today for an expat gathering, and will post something new when I get back… so see you later.

Shopping the fruits of Puglia

I have lived here for just short of seven years. For all those years I have shopped for vegetables and fruits in the street markets, on Thursday and Saturday, and the covered market everyday but Monday. Local stuff abounds in growing season, but although we’re warmer, we are at about the same latitude as Maine, which means the days shorten and things stop producing very well if at all.

I was kicking myself because for one reason or another, I’d missed a lot of the season’s produce. Tomatoes are just about over, even though we’re still far from frost. But a couple of weeks ago when there was a market displacement due to a feast for St. Bartolomeo, I found that the trucks that sell outside the walls are from Puglia. They may be bragging, but Puglia says they have a seven month summer. I dropped by today and goodness gracious, great balls of fire! What incredible produce!

I dragged home three different kinds of plums, a small sack of hot cherry peppers and three kilos of tomatoes. Everything is being washed now in preparation for various preserving techniques. I was also given a beautiful bunch of the most honey-like grapes I’ve ever tasted. I tried to buy them, but the boy shrugged me off with a smiling, “Enjoy.”

Just yesterday an old man at the parking in Pienza let me out without payment. Was it just the joking about why he wasn’t there when I drove in? Or am I becoming a cute little old lady who is given things as she moves through life? I’m really not sure what to wish for.

A non-dairy torta: fresh plums in a nut crust with a citrus honey glaze

One of this weekend’s clients is lactose intolerant, so the meal had to be dairy free, other than fully ripened cheeses. That’s not as simple as you might think. Italian desserts, for example, largely do have milk, cream, butter, mascarpone or ricotta in them.

I juggled some recipes to pull off this easy dessert that they all liked very much. It’s very toasted walnut in essence when it’s done.

The crust:

Preheat the oven to 180°C or 350°F

.5 cup lard (butter is the usual fat here, so feel free)
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1.25 cups of plain flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chopped walnuts– the last of the old crop and the new ones will be ready any day now.

Using a mixer, whip the lard and brown sugar together until well-blended. Add the flour, salt and baking soda and mix well. Stir in the nut meats.

In hindsight I will tell you to grease a pie or tart pan, because this crunchy crust fell apart when I cut and served it. Anyway, press the mixture with your hands into the greased pan, and put it into the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. It will look like a nut cookie.

Just before you want to serve it, make the honey glaze using:

.5 cup honey
the grated rind of one lemon
the juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Put them all in a pan and bring to a simmer and allow to simmer for a few minutes. Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t catch on and burn. You may be able to cut the plums while it cooks, or you may need to take it off the heat before the plums are ready. I guess it depends how fast you are with a knife.

You need a little less than a pound of plums. Cut in half about eight Stanley prune plums, remove the stones and cut the plums into nice crescents, about 3 per half plum. Arrange the plum crescents in overlapping circles to completely cover the crust. Pour the hot honey glaze over everything. Serve with a little pitcher of heavy cream for the dairy tolerant.

Sorry, no photos, because once again, I get way too busy when I’m working. Photos happen at home when it’s only me to worry about, or willing victims.

So, what about pears?

It will soon be autumn and the ubiquitous pear will be even more ever-present in Umbria. Everybody will be making pear ravioli, pear tarts, pear jams and pear things I cannot imagine.

I hate pears. I never know if I’ve cooked pear things well because I don’t like them so everything I make is nasty to me. Pears are filled with little hairs. Eating them is to me akin to licking out the bathroom sink after your guy shaves. Now that you have that image engraved on your brain, maybe you don’t feel so hot about pears, either. If it weren’t for all the pear farmers who would go broke, I’d happily spread my hatred and ruin the huge international pear market, or as I see it the huge international conspiracy to make humans eat hairs.

I do like Japanese apple pears because they are not hairy or soft, but crunchy like apples. I can easily settle for an apple, however. I don’t know whether one can buy these up and keep them for the inevitable day when someone insists you make a pear thing. Can you? I saw them this week.

Plum tart with goat cheese “Torta di Susine e Formaggio di Capra” (from cooking class)

This is a dessert that was adapted from a fig tart to use those slim, blue, frosted prune plums you find at the end of summer. You can make the pastry, which here is pasta brisé, or buy it at the grocery store or a bakery.

Pastry for a tart pan, fitted into the pan, trimmed to 3/4″ larger than the pan, then folded under and fluted.
soft goat cheese– not the ripened one with crust, but the fresh one you can spread. In Italy look in the fridge for “di Capra”
grated rind of 1 lemon
fresh blue prune plums about a pound, but who’s counting– eat the ones you have leftover
sugar
heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 180°C or 375°F.
Spread the goat cheese onto the bottom of the pastry you’ve arranged in the tart pan. It will be less than 1/4″ thick.
Sprinkle the grated lemon rind over the cheese layer.
Cut the plums in half, remove the stone, and place them in a pattern on the goat cheese, cut side down.
Sprinkle lightly with sugar.
Put it into the hot oven and cook for about 25 Minutes or until the plums have softened. Cool to just warm, and before cutting pour a little fresh cream over it so that it pools a bit around the plums. Serve with a little pitcher with more fresh cream.

This is great for weight gaining diets.