Enjoying the food in Munich, Germany

Recently, we were lucky to be able to visit the beautiful city of Munich, Germany and took in a visit to Legoland. The Munich part was for the adults in the family and the Legoland part was to convince the younger members of the family to wander around a city for a couple of days. Nothing like a good old-fashioned bribe of a near-future visit to a fun place to get the kids to not whine about their tired legs and about how we’ve already seen two churches and why do we have to see another one! Aside from the architecture, one of the great things to do in Munich is eat (you thought I was going to say “Go to the Oktoberfest and drink like a fish, didn’t you!). Well, the Oktoberfest wasn’t on, and with a couple of kids in tow, fish-drinking is not the done thing, so we went to eat.  One of the delicious sides that you can get everywhere is red cabbage stewed with apples; a dish that brought back many good memories from when I used to live in Heidelberg many years ago. To make sure that I hadn’t forgotten anything, I also made myself eat large helpings of fabulous cakes and pastries.  Of course, it was only in the name of research and something I would never normally do…..

Red cabbage everywhere!

While wiping pretzel crumbs off our faces, before moving onto a beer hall to eat large amounts of meat with sides of red cabbage, potatoes and sauerkraut, we stopped to watch the show of the Glockenspiel in the tower of the town-hall on Marianplatz.  At certain times of the day a whole procession of figures cavort around to the tune of the chiming bells: knights, dancers and wedding guests all take a turn to spin in and out of sight of the crowds watching below. The different scenes show events that marked Munich’s history.  It’s worth reading about before you see it (um, which I didn’t do) so that you can really appreciate the show.

Must-buys when you go to Munich

After stuffing ourselves, we went window-shopping and decided that maybe the traditional dirndls and lederhosen weren’t quite for us.  Though it would certainly make us into talking-points if we wore them back in the French village where we live.  It maybe better just to stick to recreating the red cabbage and apple side dish and leave the dirndl wearing to the Bavarian experts.

Just a note for slicing the red cabbage: if you have a mandoline slicer, it’s actually very quick to shred.  Chopping it by hand will take quite a long time, unless you are an expert knife-wielder.

This cabbage goes exceptional well with brined turkey!

By Lisa Watson

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Stewed red cabbage with apple

Stewed red cabbage and apple is a typical South German side dish. It's good enough to eat by itself!

Course Side Dish

Cuisine German

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings 6 people

Ingredients

• 1 Red Cabbage
• 50 g Butter 2 Tbsp
• 1 Onion
• 2 Apples
• 1/2 lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
• 150 ml Red Wine 1 cup
• 150 ml Vegetable Broth 1 cup
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 2 Bay leaves
• 4 Cloves
• 3 Juniper Berries
• 1 Tbsp Flour
• 1 Tbsp Redcurrant Jam optional
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Slice the cabbage into thin strips. I used a mandoline slicer for this.
• Chop the onion finely. Peel, core and chop the apples.
• Melt the butter in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Sauté and onions and apple until the onion becomes translucent.
• Add the cabbage and lemon juice. Stir.
• Sprinkle with 1 - 2 tsp salt, then add the vinegar, wine, broth, bay leaves, cloves, juniper berries and sugar.
• Cover and simmer on a low heat for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, stirring every 10 -15 minutes.
• Mix the flour with a little water in a cup to make a runny paste. Add this mixture to the cabbage and stir in to thicken the sauce.
• Add the redcurrant jam, if using.
• Taste and season with more salt if needed.
• The cabbage can be made a few days in advance and kept refrigerated until needed.

What is a snickerdoodle anyway?

I spent a few years living in California, which is where I was introduced to these fabulous cookies called snickerdoodles. When I first heard the name “snickerdoodle”, I thought it was another one of those strange poodle crosses, like the labradoodle (now, who wouldn’t want one of those?!). In fact, I eventually found out that snickerdoodles were butter cookies rolled in sugar and cinnamon, which was a little disappointing, but much easier to keep as a pet. The origins of the strange name seem to be lost in the mists of history.  My guess is that one day some cook just decided that it would be terribly funny to make everyone in the world try to say snickerdoodle as often as possible.

What to use instead of cream of tartar

Snickerdoodles call for an ingredient called cream of tartar, which can be difficult to get in some countries.  My supplier (i.e. my mother) brings it into France when she comes to visit from New Zealand. If you can’t get hold of cream of tartar, apparently you can replace it with 2 tsp of lemon juice for the taste, and/or 1 tsp of baking powder.  Now, I haven’t tried either of these replacements, so I can’t guarantee that they will taste/work the same (although the internet assures me that they do!).  I can’t see that they would hurt the snickerdoodles, so if you try it, let me know how it goes.

Snickerdoodles keep well for a week or so in an air-tight container after they’re made.  It’s very unusual that they last that long though.

Travel Photo of the Week

This photo comes from the U.S.A.: the home of snickerdoodles.  This is one of the most spectacular places I’ve ever hiked to. Arches National Park lies in the State of Utah near a very hip small town called Moab. The park is full of eye-bending rock arches, but this one is the most stunning, in my opinion. The rock formation is called Delicate Arch, for obvious reasons.  It is perched on the edge of a cliff that drops away into a deep valley.  I’ve hiked up here a couple of times, and the best time was just before sunset.  The sun setting on the orange rocks turns them a deep red colour.  If you go, take a headlamp with you so you can find your way back down the trail!

This recipe for snickerdoodles is adapted from a recipe from a fantastic cookie book called (wait for it!) “Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt In Your Mouth Cookies” By Alice Medrich.

By Lisa Watson

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Snickerdoodle cookies

How to make Snickerdoodles: The Great American Cookie

Course Dessert, sweet

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

fridge time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 50 minutes minutes

Servings 35 - 40 cookies

Ingredients

• 225 g Butter 7.9 oz
• 275 g Sugar 9.7 oz
• 2 Eggs
• 380 g Flour 13.4 oz
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Cream of Tartar
• For The Coating:
• 4 Tbsp White Sugar
• 1 tsp Cinnamon

Instructions

• Cream the butter (at room temperature) and sugar together until fluffy.
• Add the eggs and beat in.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the rest of the ingredients, except those for the coating.
• Add the flour mixutre to the creamed butter and stir until the dough becomes smooth.
• Cover the bowl with clingfilm and put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, or up to one day.

When you are ready to make the cookies:

• Heat the oven to 180°C (375°F).
• Mix the sugar and cinnamon for the coating in a shallow dish.
• Roll the cookie dough into walnut-sized balls, then roll them in the coating mixture.
• Place them on a cookie sheet covered with baking paper. Leave about four fingers of space between each cookie so that they can spread.  I usually fit 12 cookies on a regular-sized cookie sheet.
• Bake for 10 - 12 minutes until the cookies are golden in colour.  Take them out of the oven and leave them to cool on the tray for a few minutes.

Tapas are the best way to eat!

This month of July, I’m kicking off the first post on Spanish Tapas Month! Tapas are small amounts of various dishes that are put on the table to share. They are perfect for the hot weather, and for all the barbeques and buffets that you may be heading for this Summer.  We were down in the South-West of Spain in the region of Andalucia in April and got to taste a whole screed of different tapas.  I wanted to try to recreate some of them at home and to share them with you, plus tell you stories of some of our experiences in Spain (which before I even start, I need to say that it’s a place you HAVE to go to if you can!).  The first tapa I would like to introduce to you is small battered and fried fish that you eat whole. My husband and youngest son adore these! They’re really easy to make at home, especially if you have a deep-fryer. I don’t actually have one, but I found that making the fried fish in a wok with oil in it worked really well too.

Which fish to use

You can use any small fish that you can eat whole to make these fried fish. In my opinion, the smaller they are the better. The fish I used are called in pretres in french, which is literally translated into priests in English.  As they clearly aren’t really priests at all, I imagine that they must have another name in English.  If anyone knows it, I’d love to find out what it is! You can also use small sardines or anchovies if you can’t find any priests swimming around where you live that are small enough to fry.

How to order food in Andalusia

The first town we visited in Andalusia was the dazzling white Granada, presided over by the Alhambra palace. It was only April, but the temperature was already over 30 degrees C, so while wandering around the winding streets of Granada, we had to combat the heat by taking lots of “rest-stops” to drink a cold beer or two. If you’re in Spain and you want a beer, just ask for “una caña (pronounced can-nya) and you’ll get a refreshing glass of beer every time. 🙂  Now, the fabulous thing about Andalusia is that, in many places, whenever you order a drink, a plate of free food comes with it.  It doesn’t get better than that!  The free tapas are not just chips and nuts, but are often surprisingly substantial, like the fried fish featured in this post.  We did get a little confused though, as in some places, you pay for the tapas; some places give them out for free. At some bars, we ordered tapas (that we paid for) and then ALSO got free ones every time we got new drinks. Even if you pay for the tapas, they’re generally incredibly cheap for big plates of food.  Forget needing to go to a restaurant for dinner: just go to any tapas bar!

Alhambra is wasted on the youth

Anyway, the Alhambra was very beautiful and the intricate carvings and colours in the rooms were breath-taking.  The palace was only slightly marred by four hot and tired children who kept on complaining how boring it was…oh, those were ours and the kids of our friends, so we unfortunately couldn’t roll our eyes and tut-tut in our friends’ general direction while looking smugly at our own children, as none of the kids were studying the wall-carvings and commenting on the history behind the building as they should have been.  They made it up to us later at dinnertime when they disappeared off into an orange tree-ringed square we were tapa-ing at (I think I should make a new verb!) and left us to drink cañas and eat like pigs while they played football with some locals. 🙂

For other delicious tapas, check out the recipes for salmorejo, roasted green peppers

and bean and capsicum salad ! Happy tapa-ing!

By Lisa Watson

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Tiny battered fish

A delicious tapa from Spain that you can recreate at home: small battered and fried fish that you eat whole

Course Appetizer, Snack

Cuisine Spanish

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 4 portions

Ingredients

• 500 g small fresh fish 17.6 oz
• 150 g Flour 5.3 oz
• 50 g Cornflour (Cornstarch) 1.8 oz
• 1 Egg
• 1 tsp Salt
• 250 ml (approx) Water approx 1 cup
• 3 - 4 Ice cubes
• For deep frying Light oil e.g. vegetable/sunflower

Instructions

• Sift all the dry ingredients together.
• Add the egg, and mix.
• Slowly add the water, while stirring constantly, until you have a reasonably runny mixture.
• Add the 3 or 4 ice-cubes and stir.
• Wash the fish and pat them dry with paper towels.
• Pour the oil into a wok or a high-sided pot (if you don't have a deep-fryer) and heat it until it reaches around 180ºC (350°F) .
• Dip the fish in the batter and fry them a few at a time. Add them quickly, but one by one, otherwise they'll all stick together in a big battery mass!
• Drain them on some paper-towels, sprinkle with salt, if needed. Eat immediately!

A hankering for strawberry tart

Strawberries are everywhere right now, except in my garden.  At the moment I have lots of plants, some of which have flowers, but nary a strawberry in sight.  I’m hoping that they’re just being coy and will start popping out strawberries galore at any time now. As soon as strawberries come into season my family starts pestering me to make a strawberry tart.  There are a few steps to making this one, but it’s SO worth it.  The crispy-tenderness of the dough, the smooth sweetness of the “crema” and the tart freshness of the strawberries all marry together to forge an incredible taste explosion in your mouth.

Do you want it the easy way, or the hard way?

Our local bakery used to make the perfect strawberry tarts like this, but lately they’ve decided to go all fancy on us and put stuff in them that shouldn’t be there, such as threads of spun, caramelized sugar, or hazelnut paste spread on the dough underneath the crema.  It’s all very well (as they can put up their prices that way), but they’ve lost the essence of the true strawberry tart as it should be; one which  showcases the star, which is the strawberries. To make this strawberry tart there is an easy way and a harder way.  You choose what you want to go for.  Here’s the eas(ier!) way: buy the pie crust ready-made if you feel uncomfortable about making dough.  Well, that’s it for the easy bit really.  I supposed you could buy the strawberries already washed and cut up, but that would be taking the whole “easy” to extremes, wouldn’t it?  To make the crema, there is no easy way.  But, I assure you that it’s not difficult to make.  You stick all the ingredients in a pot and stir and stir and stir while they’re heating until they get thick.  That’s it.  You just need patience, and a watchful eye so you don’t get a solid lump of goo. Oh, I forgot to mention that the recipe for the crema comes from a lovely Italian lady called Lina who runs an agriturismo in the Salento region of Italy (down in the heel).  We were there last year and she stuffed us with fabulous tarts and cakes!

Where did the dough recipe come from?

The dough recipe I’ve used here is a slightly adapted version of fabulous Yotam Ottolenghi’s dough from his cookbook “Ottolenghi – The Cookbook“.  I could go on and on and on (as I am wont to do!) about Ottolenghi’s recipes, but this is not the time nor the place (plus you’ll probably get up and leave in protest if I waffle too much more). You can use any berries for the topping.  It works wonderfully with raspberries too.

Travel photo of the week

Here’s a photo of the Salento area of Italy, way down in the “heel” of the boot.  It’s not that well-known outside of Italy, but it should be! This photo is  of Porto Selvaggio, which means “Wild Port”.  You can see why. 🙂  The Salento is an incredibly beautiful region with marvelous food and a very long and interesting history.  Drop everything and go there!

By Lisa Watson

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Strawberry and Italian custard tart

A delicious recipe for strawberry and Italian custard tart

Course Dessert

Cuisine French, Italian

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Resting time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours

Servings 8 servings

Ingredients

• For the Dough:
• 125 g All-purpose flour 4.4oz, 1 cup
• 50 g Granulated Sugar 3.5 Tbsp
• 1 pinch Salt
• 1 Lemon for the zest
• 90 g fridge-cold Butter 6 Tbsp
• 1 Egg yolk
• 2 - 4 Tbsp Water
• For the Crema:
• 500 ml Milk 2 cups
• 75 g Flour
• 125 g 4.2oz, 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
• 1 packet vanilla sugar or 1 tsp of essence
• 2 Egg yolks
• 1 lemon for the zest
• 500 g Strawberries 1 lb, approx. 2 cups - or any red berries

Instructions

For the Dough:

• Mix the flour, sugar and salt together in a food processor or by hand.
• Add the lemon zest and butter and whizz, or rub together with your hands, until the mixture looks crumbly.
• Add the egg yolk and mix in, then the water, 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough sticks together.  It should be a little crumbly and not sticky.
• Put the dough in plastic wrap and leave it in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes, and up to 3 days.
• When you want to use the dough, take it out of the fridge (of course!).  Roll it out on the bench to the size of your dish.  Don't forget to grease the pie dish with butter before putting the dough in it. Try to roll out the dough as thinly as possible to get a nice crispy crust. Blind bake (that means put some foil on top of the dough and some rice on top of the foil) for about 15 -20 minutes at 180ºC (350ºF) until the dough is golden-brown.  You may have to take the foil and rice off for the last 5 minutes to let all the crust brown well.

For the Crema:

• Put all the ingredients in a pot and heat at medium heat on the stove top, stirring constantly with a whisk.
• Stir and stir until it has a "thick" consistency.  When  you pull the whisk through the crema, it should leave a trail behind it that levels out again very slowly.  The mixture should be almost thick enough to pick up with the whisk.
• Pour the crema into the baked pie crust and leave to cool and set.

For the Strawberries:

• Rinse and halve or quarter the strawberries (depending on how big they are).  Now it's up to you to use your artistic abilities to decorate the top of it!

It’s finally time to make fresh pasta

This post is way overdue!  I’ve been writing for nearly two years now, and haven’t yet put up a post on how to make fresh pasta……and I call this an Italian cooking blog??!!  Shame on me! I’m just lucky I haven’t had my Italian passport revoked yet.  Now, however, with this recipe for fresh pasta, I will be able to stop slinking around with my tail between my legs.  I will hold my head high and become one of the many Italian cooking blogs who have had fresh pasta up on their blogs since they began writing them.  It’s true that I shouldn’t just blend in with everyone else (unless I’m living in George Orwell’s 1984 book) , but fresh pasta is an important part of Italian culinary tradition, and really needs to be written about. I’m definitely not going to go into where it originally comes from, as in the past, that’s sparked some pretty major arguments. So, let’s just say it was introduced to Italy a few centuries ago, starting in Sicily, and leave it at that.

The myth about Italians and pasta is false

In the North of Italy it was usual to eat fresh pasta only for special occasions.  My mother-in-law tells me that when she was a girl, they usually ate rice dishes, and for various important occasions, such as Christmas, fresh pasta would be made at home. Filled pasta, such as ravioli and tortellini, such as the Bolognese ones below in the photo, can only be made using fresh dough (try stuffing some dried pasta with a filling and see what happens).  This kind generally comes from the North of Italy as well.  The word on the street is that the idea of stuffing it originated in Tuscany.  My Tuscan friends tend to think that everything originated there, including the way Italian is spoken now, so I’m not sure whether to believe it or not.  I mean, what was the rest of Italy doing then?  Snoozing? Hanging out in the bathroom and reading?

Making fresh pasta at home is easier than you think

Making pasta at home not terribly difficult.  It elevates an ordinary dish to something truly extraordinary. For that special occasion, or even just if you have a rainy day and the kids are bouncing off the walls, it’s the perfect thing to make.  The only tools you really need are strong arms (or lots of helpers) and some  patience.  You can use any flour.  I generally use all-purpose flour to make mine as I always forget to buy durum flour.  When you have an urge to make pasta, there’s no time to rush to the shops!  Once you get the hang of making it, you can start adding little touches, such as finely diced spinach to make it green, or beetroot juice to make it an amazing purple colour, or even squid ink, if you can get it, to turn it a deep black.

Travel photo of the week

Since pasta has been embraced by the whole of Italy, here is a random photo from the very south of the country.  On the north-east coast of the island of Sicily, you can visit a closed down factory where they processed catches of tuna once upon a time.  It’s not a bathing spot with crystal clear water.  The only problem is finding a flat place to sit on the rocks!

Once you’ve made your pasta, you can use any sauce you like: maybe some meat ragù or how about a delicious vegetarian recipe for lentil sauce.

By Lisa Watson

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How to make fresh pasta

Make fresh pasta at home whether you have a machine or not!

Course entree, first course, Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Kneading time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 20 minutes minutes

Servings 1 person

Ingredients

• 100 g Flour 1 cup per person
• 1 Egg per person
• 1 pinch Salt per 100g of flour

Instructions

• Pile the flour on the kitchen bench, then make a well in the middle of it. Add the pinch of salt, then crack the eggs into the middle of the well.
• Start mixing the egg into the flour with a fork.  As the dough starts to stick together, start kneading it with your hands.  If the dough is very dry and flakey (if your eggs are smaller this may happen), add water 1 tablespoon at a time, and continue to knead.  Now this is the arduous part: knead the dough for 15 -20 minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic (this is the bit to get your kids involved in!).
• Once it looks like the photo above, wrap it in plastic wrap and leave it to rest for 30 minutes. (This is the point at which you need to sit down and have a nice cup of tea or coffee).
• If you have a pasta machine, now is the time to pull it out of the cupboard.  If not, grab a rolling pin! Prepare a cookie tray by sprinkling flour on it.

With a machine

• Break off parts of the dough.  Keep the rest well wrapped so that it doesn't dry out. Start feeding the dough through the machine (or rolling it out) at the widest setting.  Fold the dough in half and feed it through again.  Then, move to the next setting down and repeat the process.  The thicknesses run from "6" to "1". I  usually stop at thickness "2".  Sprinkle flour on the dough if it starts to stick.

Without a machine

• Sprinkle flour on the bench-top. Break the dough in half. Cover the one half again, and roll out the other half of the dough, turning it every so often so that it doesn't stick, and sprinkle it with flour every now and then. Keep rolling until you have a thin sheet. After cutting up the sheet into your desired shapes, roll out the other half.
• When the dough is a long smooth sheet, you can cut it in any shape you like.  If you have a pasta machine with a attachment, it's easy to make tagliatelle.  I like making "maltagliati" ("badly cut") pasta.  To do this, you lie the dough strip on the kitchen bench, then using a pizza cutter, or a sharp knife, cut the dough into random shapes.
• When the shapes are cut, lie them carefully on the prepared cookie sheet and sprinkle with more flour.
• Cover the pasta with a tea-towel and continue the process with the dough that has not been used yet.   It is best if you use the pasta the same day that it is made.  It should be kept in the fridge until you want to cook it.

Notes

 

To cook fresh pasta:

Immerse the pasta in a large volume of boiling salted water for 1 - 2 minutes, then drain and immediately add the sauce of your choice.  To make lasagna, put the sheets of pasta directly on the lasagna without boiling them first.  They will cook in the sauce when the lasagna is in the oven.

A classic square from the annuals of my childhood cookbook

I’m back from New Zealand and, after a week of sleepless nights, finally over the jet-lag! While I was there,  my mother made ginger slice, which whisked me back to my childhood faster than that Back to the Future dude went all over the time spectrum in his Dolorian!  When I got back to France, I scrabbled through my old recipe books and found the recipe for ginger slice that I had carefully written out in my cookbook when I was 9 or 10 years old.  This recipe for ginger slice came from my cooking teacher at school.  I don’t know if they still do this, but back in my day when I was a young whipper-snapper (wow, do I sound old right now!), they used to send the girls to do cooking and sewing once a week, and the boys would go off to do carpentry.  I really envied those boys!  They got to play with a whole lot of dangerous tools and make birdhouses, while all we did was the stuff I did at home on the farm already (seethe, seethe).  Anyway, one good thing to come out of it was this ginger slice recipe I’m going to share with you today.

So, what did I do in New Zealand?

Ginger slice is generally called ginger crunch in New Zealand and you can find it in pretty much all the cafes you walk into.  I’ve called the recipe below ginger slice as it’s not very crunchy, but more “cakey”.  If you want it to be more like a flakey biscuit base, leave out the eggs and add a little less flour.

“Enough about cake!”  you shriek.  “What did you do when you were in New Zealand?” you ask in a more moderated tone, after taking a few deep breaths. Well,

we did a lot of this:

and hung out with friends like these:

We also spent some time with a few of these:

who live on my parent’s farm that looks like this:

and we spent a lot of time swimming, body-boarding and building massive sandcastles in places like this:

That about sums it up. Had enough yet? 🙂  So, go make the ginger crunch, and make a cup of strong black tea with a spot of milk in it to go with it. Close your eyes while you are munching and slurping, and pretend you’re sitting in a cafe in New Zealand.  Next thing you know someone will be saying to you, “Hey cuz!  Where youse guys from?” or “Sweet as, bro! (to say they like something, like what you’re saying, or agree with a plan you suggested)”, and then you’ll know you’ve teleported to the North of New Zealand successfully!

By Lisa Watson

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Ginger Crunch from New Zealand

Ginger Slice from New Zealand is a delicious sweet square found in all good NZ cafes. Get the recipe here

Course Dessert

Cuisine New Zealand

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Ingredients

For the Base:

• 125 g Butter 4.4oz, 1 cup
• 125 g White Sugar 4.4oz, 1 cup
• 1 Tbsp Golden Syrup
• 2 small Eggs
• 1 tsp Dried Ginger
• 250 g Flour 7oz
• 1 tsp Baking powder

For the Glaze:

• 4 Tbsp Butter
• 8 Tbsp Icing Sugar Powdered Sugar
• 4 Tbsp Golden Syrup
• 2 tsp Dried Ginger

Instructions

For the Base:

• Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.
• Add the eggs, and beat in one by one.
• Add the golden syrup and beat in, then add the dried ingredients. Mix until the dough becomes homogenous.
• Pressed out into a greased rectangle tart dish.
• Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 15 -18 minutes until it is browned lightly on top and firm to the touch.

For the Glaze:

• In the last few minutes of the base cooking, put all the ingredients in a pot and heat on the stove-top, stirring constantly, until the butter has melted.
• Pour the glaze over the base once it comes out of the oven (while it is still hot).
• Leave to cool, then cut into squares or rectangles.

Discovering the focaccia success secret

I had the pleasure of watching Leonarda, a friend of mine from Puglia, make focaccia last week.  I had tried over the years to make focaccia but for some reason, no matter what I tried, the focaccia always came out hard like a plank of wood. Leonarda very kindly told me that there must be something wrong with me as it was so easy to make, and then actually showed me just how easy it really IS to make!  I don’t know what I was doing wrong before, but now I’m churning out the sort of focaccia that makes my kids ask me to cook more of it while they’re eating the focaccia I just took out of the oven. Now, that’s a great measure of success!

Making focaccia by eye with an Italian pro

So, I’ve discovered that focaccia is actually very easy to make, and very forgiving of mistakes as well.  Leonarda showed me that she makes it by eye. I got her to weigh things as she was going so that I could write it up for you, which she did, but as she said, if you know the consistency of the dough you need at the end, you can just add a little more flour or water to get it that way.  With practice, I hope I can do that! I’ve taken a lot of photos for you so that you can see the focaccia at each stage in the recipe.

Making focaccia is less time-consuming than it seems

The fabulous thing about making focaccia is that you don’t have to do it all in the same day.  You can make the initial dough in the afternoon, then throw it in the fridge for the night, or you can start in the morning and leave it rising on the bench for about 5 hours until you get to the next step.  The recipe I’ve written out for you below is the one with the overnight rising.  This works great for me as it means that we can have focaccia with lunch with no problem…I’m certainly not getting up at 2 in the morning just so we can have it at midday.  I like to cook, but not that much!

What to use as toppings

There is only one downside to focaccia: it really needs to be eaten on the day it’s made.  It goes stale quickly.  Even by the next day, it’s not that good.  I haven’t had a problem with this yet.  It seems to disappear just about before it gets to the table! Your imagination is the only limit to what you put on top.  You can also make it with nothing on top: just olive oil and a little salt.  Here, I used cherry tomatoes and oregano on one, and green olives on the other.  I’ve eaten delicious ones with various toppings such as caramelized onions, black olives, slices of tomato, and also ones with cheese in the middle.  Just don’t overload the focaccia: one or two sprinklings of a topping is plenty.

And the last word on focaccia

If you don’t have a standing mixer, you can do this easily by hand, as it doesn’t need much kneading, so don’t let that stop you!

Thanks to Leonarda for showing me the true focaccia path.  Time to go and make one….my stomach is growling just looking at these photos.  Try it yourself!  I’d love to here how it goes!

For a stuffed focaccia from Liguria in Italy, try out this recipe here

By Lisa Watson

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Leonarda's Focaccia

Learn how to make focaccia just like a real Italian from Puglia does with this easy recipe

Course bread

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Resting time 1 day day

Total Time 1 day day 35 minutes minutes

Servings 2 focaccia

Ingredients

• 500 g Flour
• 6 g dehydrated Yeast
• 20 g Potato Flakes
• 300 ml Water
• 10 g Salt 2 tsp
• 250 g Cherry tomatoes optional
• 2 - 3 tsp Oregano optional
• 100 g Olives optional

Instructions

Day 1

• Put the yeast, potato flakes and flour into the bowl of your standing mixture.
• Add the water and the salt.
• Knead for 5 minutes until the dough comes together. Add a little more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, if the dough seems dry and doesn't stick together well.
• Put the dough in a clean bowl lightly oiled with olive oil and cover the bowl with a lid or transparent film.
• Put in the fridge overnight.

Day 2

• Take the dough out of the fridge and leave on the bench for an hour to warm up.
• Oil two oven dishes with olive oil, or one cookie tray with This time, I used pie pans that were 25 cm in diametre, but you can make them square or rectangle, depending what you have in your cupboard.
• Cut the dough into two roughly equal portions. (Or leave in 1 piece for the cookie-tray)
• Gently push the dough with your fingers out into the shape you want it, turning it over every now and then. It should be about  1 - 1 1/2 cm ( about 1/2 an inch) high when you have finished.
• Put it in the pan you are using.
• Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and press gently them lightly into the dough at regular intervals.  Sprinkle with oregano.  Do the same for olives if you are using those, without the oregano.
• Cover with a teatowel and leave on the kitchen bench to rise for 2 - 3 hours until puffy.
• Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F).
• Sprinkle the focaccia with a few tablespoons of olive oil and splash with a 2 - 3 tsp water water (this helps a nice crust to form).
• Bake for about 20 -25 minutes, until the top is golden-brown and the tomatoes are slightly charred.

Notes

The focaccia is best eaten fresh on the day it is made, but if you have leftovers, keep them in an air-tight container.  Before eating them, sprinkle them with water and put them in the oven at 200°C (400°F) for 5 - 10 minutes.  It will come out as though it is freshly made!

A recipe from way back when

This recipe for peanut square is an childhood favourite of mine from New Zealand.  My mother used to make it regularly. She modified it from a recipe published in the Women’s Division of Federated Farmers Cookbook.  It’s not as posh as it sounds. It was an important way for women in the isolated country areas of New Zealand to join together and have some support, which I think meant that they made lots of jam and scones, and wrote this cookbook, well at least back in the 1950’s and ’60’s.  I love the cookbook as it dates back to the early part of last Century, therefore has all sorts of arcane sections, like the one for “Savory Gelatine Dishes”. Unfortunately, the copy I have comes from the 80’s, so has been updated to “include the use of electrical appliances“, as it says it the introduction.  I’d love to read the recipes for cooking things on open fires! Next time I head down to the farm in New Zealand, I’ll have to dig around to see if my mother still has one of the older editions.

Musings about coconut in New Zealand

Peanut square has dried coconut in it, just like many other sweet recipes from this time in New Zealand, such as mothballs and chocolate crackles.  This has always surprised me that dried coconut shows up everywhere, as it isn’t warm enough for coconut palms to grow in New Zealand.  My guess is that it was used so much because it keeps forever once dried, so was an easy product to have on hand.  Plus, the Polynesian Islands aren’t that far away and they DO have coconuts.  I imagine the boats from England may have stopped there on the way down to the ends of the Earth to gather more food for the passengers, and brought dried coconut with them.  On a tangent: can you imagine if you lived a Century or so ago, jumping on a ship in England to travel for months and months all the way down to a place that you’d never seen?  It must’ve been like it would be to move to the moon these days!

It’s all about the ratio of ingredients

You can use peanuts with the skin on or without for making peanut square.  I don’t think it makes that much difference.  I used peanuts without skin as that’s what I had in the cupboard.  In the recipe, it says to chop the peanuts roughly.  I didn’t actually do that either, as you can see by the photo above, but it worked fine! Remember that this recipe was originally with everything as a ratio, so if you use any kind of teacup to measure the ingredients, it will work fine.  For the those of you who are determined to bake with measurements, I have quantified everything. 🙂

Not so much a travel photo of the week

I’ll leave you with a photo that’s a little different.  It’s not exactly a travel photo of a beautiful landscape, but is a very typical photo of a New Zealand shearing shed in action.  This is taken in my parent’s shearing shed.  I know every knot in the wood there as I spent many hours sweeping and picking up wool there.  I’m very happy to hand my broom to the guys in the photo.  The work is hard, and in this shed, there’s no electricity, only a generator to run the machinery, so you can’t here anything but the buzzing of the cutters and the thumping of the generator all day.  I really admire the shearers and shed-hands (the people who sweep and sort the wool)!

By Lisa Watson

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Peanut, Coconut, and Chocolate Slice

Course Dessert

Cuisine New Zealand

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 10 people

Ingredients

For the Slice:

• 125 g Flour 1 cup
• 200 g Brown sugar 1 cup
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 170 g Butter 6oz
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla essence
• 1 Tbsp Golden syrup
• 90 -100 g Peanuts 3/4 cup
• 100 g Dried coconut 1 cup
• 30 g Cornflakes 1 cup

For the Icing

• 260 g Icing sugar 2 cups + 2 Tbsp
• 80 ml Boiling water 1/3 cup
• 2 Tbsp Cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp melted Butter

Instructions

For the Slice:

• Roughly chop the peanuts. Slightly crush the cornflakes.
• Mix the dry ingredients together.
• Melt the butter and mix in the golden syrup and vanilla essence.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix.
• Press into a rectangular or square tart tin that has been greased with butter.
• Bake at 180ºC (350ºF) for 25 - 30 minutes until golden brown.
• Leave to cool in the tin before icing the slice with chocolate icing.

For the Icing:

• Add the cocoa powder and butter to the boiled water and stir until dissolved. If they butter doesn't melt completely, put the mixture in the microwave for a few seconds or on the stove-top.
• Add the icing sugar and whisk until you have a smooth, runny mixture.
• Pour onto the biscuit base and leave to set.
• When set, you can cut the slice into squares or bars. It keeps well for 2 -3 weeks in a closed container.

Why Anzac cookies are called Anzac cookies

Along the theme of New Zealand recipes, I bring you Anzac biscuits! You may have already seen my post on banana cake, another Kiwi stalwart.  As a kid, Anzac biscuits were one of the staples of my afternoon tea when I came home after school.  Anzac is an acronym that stands for “Australian/New Zealand Army Corps.  The story goes that these biscuits got the name Anzac as they were sent to the soldiers in Europe fighting in World War I. Anzac biscuits have no eggs in them, so could last the long journey from one end of the world to the other without going off.  In spite of their sturdy nature, they also taste very good!

Great to make with the kids!

These biscuits are good fun to make with kids as the only “tricky bit” is the melting of the butter and dealing with the boiling water.  The rest of the recipe just calls for everything to be thrown in together and mixed up.  Then you get to have fun rolling balls of dough and squashing them flat.  My 6 year old LOVES doing this bit!  Though he often gets a little carried away and smushes, rather than squashes them………..

What to do when you don’t have baking soda

I know in some countries, baking soda is hard to come by.  When I lived in Germany, it used to be impossible to find.  I ended up getting a friend to send me some from England so I could get my fix of New Zealand baked goods. It seems to be in most of them. I’m guessing that this is because baking soda is a lot more stable than baking powder, so it was easier for the early European settlers to have some on hand whenever they needed to whip up a cake in the middle of the bush (that’s “forest” for you non-kiwis out there).  So, if you can’t get baking soda, you can try substituting baking powder in its place: just double the amount to 2 teaspoons and don’t dissolve it in the boiling water.

Travel Photos of the Week

You get a bonus of TWO photos this week!  Why?  Because you deserve it! The two photos of the beaches are near to where I grew up in Northland, New Zealand.  The top one is called Matapouri Beach, and the bottom one, Ruakaka.  When I was a kid we used to spend many Summers at Ruakaka building sand-forts and trying to body-board on the waves before body-boards existed.  That meant many face-plants in the sand, thanks to being dumped by the waves.  I probably still carry more sand in my body than there is on the beach there, thanks to getting so much of it in my mouth and up my nose.

By Lisa Watson

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ANZAC cookies

ANZAC biscuits are crunchy rolled oat and coconut cookies that have a long history in New Zealand and taste great to boot!

Course Snack

Cuisine New Zealand

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes minutes

Total Time 22 minutes minutes

Servings 20 biscuits

Ingredients

• 125 g Flour 4.4oz, 1 cup
• 120 g White sugar 4oz, 1/2 cup
• 90 g Rolled oats 1 cup
• 60 g Dried shredded coconut 1 cup
• 100 g Butter 3.5oz, 7 Tbsp
• 1 Tbsp Golden Syrup
• 3 Tbsp Boiling water
• 3/4 tsp Sodium bicarbonate

Instructions

• Heat the oven to 180ºC ( 350ºF).
• Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
• Melt the butter.  Stir in the golden syrup.
• Add the baking soda to the boiling water and stir.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix.
• Form balls of mixture about the size of a walnut and place them on a cookie try lined with parchment paper.  Squash them with a fork.  If they fall apart, just squish them back together.
• Bake for 12 - 15 minutes until golden brown. Leave for a few minutes on the tray to set before transfering them to a wire rack to cool.

The best apricot cake I’ve ever made

One more week of the school holidays to go.  At this time of the year I always have mixed feelings: sad, as it’s so nice just to hang out with the kids and not have to rush anywhere, but also happy, because I’ll have more time to work on my blog and the kids will be too busy being back at school to fight with each other.  While they’re busy with a couple of those I-devices, I thought I’d get this recipe up for Torta di Albicocca (apricot cake) before the apricots are out of season.  Nothing worse than reading about a delicious recipe that you can’t make because the ingredients aren’t available!

I love cooked apricots.  Their taste condenses a lot when they are cooked, and with this apricot cake, it’s no exception.  The cake is simple and showcases the apricots to the full advantage of your taste-buds! You could of course use any other juicy stone-fruit in their place, but do try it with the apricots. No real reason, except for the fact that it’s really, really, really good!  Whenever I make this cake it disappears before I can steal a piece to take a photo of it for the blog (actually, I mean: to keep for myself so that I can eat it for breakfast the next day).

A cake that takes no time to make, and why Chardonnay grape seeds are good for hamsters

This cake can be whipped up in a hurry, which is a big bonus, plus it looks and tastes wonderful. It has no butter in it, so it could almost be considered healthy……..well, OK, it’s a cake after all, so don’t get your hopes up too much.  If you want healthy, just eat the apricots and forget about the rest. I used grape-seed oil, but any oil with no taste will work fine.  If you’re wondering: no, I’d never heard of grape-seed oil either.  Some friends left a bottle of it behind after staying at our place.  It has a lovely greenish colour, and seems very “light”. On Wikipedia it says that it’s relatively good for you (as opposed to other oils), and that hamsters that ate Chardonnay grape seeds managed to avoid becoming obese on a high-fat diet.  Hmmmm….I wonder if that works if you drink Chardonnay too?  I think I could be onto something!

Notes on making apricot cake

For this cake, I use the cake tin you can see in the photo above.  It’s 25cm (10 inches).  You could use a slightly smaller one or a bigger one, depending on what’s in your kitchen cupboard, or how thick (or thin) you want the cake to be. You’ll need to vary the cooking time accordingly.  For a larger tin, the cooking time will be less as the cake is thinner.  Just stick a knife or a skewer in it every so often to test it after the first 20 minutes. If it comes out clean, take the cake out of the oven.

Travel Photo Of The Week

Thinking of Summer: here’s the Travel Photo of the Week: The beautiful beaches of the island of Sardenia. This was taken about ten years ago and at that time, there was nobody around, even though it was the middle of Summer.  I’m not sure if it’s still like that now.  It’s amazing to be able to find empty places like this in Europe!

Just thinking of this apricot cake is making my mouth water, and I have some apricots sitting on the bench….I know what I’m going to do today!

By Lisa Watson

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Apricot cake

Easy to Make Apricot Cake. Find the recipe on Italian Kiwi!

Course cake, Dessert, sweet

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 1 cake

Ingredients

• 300 g Flour 2 1/2 cups cake flour best; all-purpose works too
• 180 g White sugar 3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp
• 4 tsp Baking powder
• 1 pinch Salt
• Zest from 1 lemon
• 3 Eggs
• 60 ml Milk 1/4 cup
• 150 ml Oil 2/3 cup - use a tasteless oil. I used grape-seed oil.
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract or 1 packet vanilla sugar
• 10 - 15 Apricots depending on their size

Instructions

• Heat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF).
• Beat the eggs, salt, vanilla essence and sugar with a standing mixer or an eggbeater at high speed until they become fluffy and whitish in colour.
• While still beating, add the milk and oil in a thin stream.
• Add the flour, zest and baking powder.  Mix in gently until combined.
• Put in a greased 25cm ( 10 inch ) cake tin.
• Cut the apricots in half and place them over the top of the cake batter.
• Bake for approximately 30 - 40 minutes until a tester comes out clean.
• Let sit for 5 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool.