So many tomatoes!  What to do with them all?

My lovely neighbour grew a whole lot of tomato plants from seed this year.  He had so many, that he gave me piles of seedlings to plant in my vegetable garden.  Usually, I care for the tomatoes night and day for months, then we go away for a couple of weeks in July.  When I come back, the tomatoes have ripened and rotted, or there’s been a heatwave and they’ve all shriveled to nothing. Much to my delight this year, Summer got off to a slow start, so the tomatoes ripened later than normal. That meant that when we got back, they weren’t dead or over-ripe, but were scarlet-red and waiting to be picked!  We couldn’t eat all of them at once, so it was time to make some tomato purée, or passata as it is called in Italian.

What to do with tomato passata once you’ve made it

Tomato passata is very easy to make and very useful when you are cooking.  You can use it to make a pasta sauce, in a stew, in a soup, mix it in with some rice , or simmer some meat or vegetables in it to make an interesting side dish. Actually when you start to think about it, it’s an indispensable ingredient, at least in my kitchen! I love taking the passata out of the freezer in the middle of Winter and using it for some dish I’m making.  It brings back Summery memories of picking tomatoes and eating them straight off the vines.

Tomato passata is very easy to make!

To make the passata, I just wash the tomatoes, cut them up and cook them, then pass them through a food-mill, so I get rid of most of the seeds and the skin.  If you don’t have a food-mill, and can’t be bothered pushing the cooked tomatoes through a sieve, you can use a serrated potato peeler to peel the tomatoes, then remove the seeds before cooking them.  When they’re cooked, just blend them to create the passata.  As I hate peeling tomatoes, I try to avoid doing it that way!

Travel Photo Of The Week

The travel photo this week is taken in a place where the tomatoes grow abundantly as they love the climate.  If you look down to the heel of Italy, you get to a beautiful white-washed town called Otranto in Puglia.

By Lisa Watson

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Make Tomato puree at home

It's very easy to make your own tomato puree (passata) at home so that you can use it in many recipes all year around

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 2 kg Tomatoes 4.4 lbs
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 2 tsp Salt

Instructions

• Wash the tomatoes and cut them into quarters or eighths. depending on their size.
• Cook them in a large pot at medium heat with the sugar and salt, stirring frequently.
• Allow to simmer until the tomatoes have fallen apart and a sauce forms.
• Take off the heat and leave to cool.
• When cool, pass through a food-mill to remove the skins and most of the seeds.
• Place the passata in plastic containers and freeze, or bottle it.

Notes

The tomato passata can be kept in the fridge for up to 4 days or frozen for a few months.

The international history behind Russian fudge

When I was a kid, my mother used to make fudge often for us.  As we got older, fudge was one of our favourite things to help her cook on a rainy weekend when there was no chance to go outside to slide around in rivers and make mud-balls (actually we also did that when it was raining), run through the fields exploring, go fishing for eels, or make tree-huts in the branches of the huge pine-trees that swayed behind the house.

Why this fudge is called “Russian” is a mystery.  If anyone can figure out why, please let me know! I’m pretty sure that this is a New Zealand recipe, but don’t quote me on that, unless you’re talking to an Australian, then you can argue until you are blue in the face that it’s a pure Kiwi recipe and the Australians stole it. 🙂

Note: Since I wrote this post, I have talked to a French friend who spent many years living in Russia.  She made this recipe for fudge and said after tasting it that it’s exactly what Russians eat as candy all the time and that it really does come from Russia!  Ha!  That’s amazing that it really IS Russian originally!

The photo below shows three stages of the cooking process to help you when you are making the fudge.  The first is just as the butter is melting into the other ingredients, the second is the gentle boiling stage about 5 minutes into the cooking, the third is about the colour it should be when you take it off the heat. Have a look at the recipe instructions below on how to tell when it’s cooked if you don’t have a thermometer

The secret to making the perfect fudge

The secret to making it set properly is to beat it well for at least 5 minutes.  It can be a little tricky to get it right until you’ve tried to make it a few times.

Russian fudge makes a wonderful handmade holiday gift, or can be just an excuse to have a delicious sweet treat at home!

Travel photo of the week

This week’s Travel Photo is of a beach called Hahei Beach in New Zealand. If you look at a map of the North Island, it’s on the little peninsula called The Coromandel, which juts up from the East side of the island, just below the city of Auckland. I used to go camping all the time here with my friends.  It’s fabulous for snorkling in the small bays nearby, body boarding on the waves at this beach and is as good of a place as any to eat lots of fudge!

This is my last post before the New Year rolls around. We going to Italy to go skiing on stones and grass for the week if the weather doesn’t change very soon. All the more reason to sit around drinking cappuccinos and eating pizza! I hope you all have a great holiday season with lots of good things to eat and drink!  See you next year!

By Lisa Watson

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Russian Fudge

A delicious sweet treat that makes a great holiday gift

Course sweet

Cuisine New Zealand

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Cooling time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 700 g Sugar 1 1/2 lbs
• 110 ml Milk 1/2 cup
• 125 g Butter 4 oz
• 200 ml Sweetened Condensed Milk 1/2 can
• 2 pinches Salt
• 1 Tbsp Golden Syrup
• 1 tsp Vanilla Essence

Instructions

• Stir the sugar and milk together in a heavy-bottomed pot, then cover and heat slowly until it starts to boil.
• Add the rest of the ingredients, except for the vanilla extract and stir.Put the lid back on the pot.
• Boil gently at a low setting, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes. The mixture will turn a golden-brown colour.  If you have a cooking thermometer, cook the mixture until it reaches 117°C (242°F). If you don't have a thermometer, after 10 -12 minutes, drop a teaspoon of mixture into a dish of cold water. It should set and the lump should be soft and not hold its round shape when you scoop it out of the water.
• Take the fudge off the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Leave with the lid on to cool until the thermometer reads about 80°C (175°F).  This will take about 15 minutes.
• Beat the fudge with an electric mixer for at least 5 minutes, until it thickens.
• Pour into a greaseproof paper lined baking dish that is about 20cm x 20cm (8 in x 8 in) in size.
• Leave to set. When set, cut into small squares or rectangles.

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.

Why you should adopt holidays from other countries

I can’t believe it’s the beginning of November already!  What’s happened to the rest of the year?  It feels as though I’ve just put away the New Year’s Celebration things, went to bed, and now I’ve woken up, it’s nearly Thanksgiving and Christmas time again! Well, that may mean that I celebrated New Year’s Eve for waaaay too long, but either way, I’m feeling a little cheated that the time is flying by so quickly. Every year for the last few years, we’ve been celebrating American Thanksgiving with a California girl transplanted to France. We say it’s to make her feel less homesick around the holiday season, but in actual fact, it’s because it’s a fabulous excuse to eat turkey and tons of other food, and drink wine with our friends!

The perfect way to roast a Thanksgiving turkey

Every year, we’ve been preparing the turkey the same way.  The first year we decided to make a Thanksgiving meal, we were both turkey-roasting novices, so pulled a recipe out of my falling-apart San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook.  The recipe worked so incredibly well, that we’ve tweaked it here and there a tiny bit, but for the last few years, we’ve stuck to it.  We found out that the secret to make the juciest, most tender turkey possible is to stick it in brine the day before.  It works every time! The Chronicle guys , in turn, got the recipe from one of the best restaurants in California called Chez Panisse. I had the huge pleasure to go there once.  It’s one of those restaurants that’s really hard to get a booking for. They take bookings one month in advance, and you have to try to call as soon as the day starts to get in. It’s a little like calling to get on a radio-show competition: you dial and redial until you get through.  There’s a set menu each evening, depending on what the chefs found at the market that day.

who thinks of taking photos when you are in the middle of Thanksgiving?

You will have to excuse the dark, slightly out-of-focus photos.  By the time the turkey is ready, everyone has had a few glasses of prosecco, and are very eager to eat, so taking good photos is not a high priority. I scanned back over the last five years of us doing Thanksgiving together and this was the best I could come up with (so, imagine what the rest of the photos are like!).

Some table decoration ideas

I lived in California for five years, and only ate a Thanksgiving meal once when I was there, but now I live in France, it’s a nice way to remember my time in the States.  There’s nothing like picking up random holidays that you like from other countries you’ve lived in and celebrating them because you like them.  I think our kids are very confused about who does what and where in the world they do it!

My Californian friend is a fantastic table decorator.  She does the table every year, and each year she chooses a different colour scheme.  I found two examples below to maybe give you some ideas for decorating your own Thanksgiving table. I’m so glad she’s good at the whole table thing as I would probably just put out paper plates otherwise (I’m shocking at preparing tables to look beautiful!).

The most important tool you need for roasting turkey

I haven’t put a cooking time on the turkey as it depends on the size as to how long it roasts for.  It usually says on the bag how long it should take. The absolute best piece of equipment you can buy for getting the turkey cooked to the perfect point is an oven-proof thermometer. Then there’s no second-guessing and no killing people with salmonella-infested raw turkey meat.

One more very important hint before I go: don’t forget to take the plastic bag with all the giblets in it out of the turkey before cooking it! No matter how well you cook the turkey, if you leave the bag in, you’ll contaminate the whole bird!  Other than that, the turkey roasting is remarkably easy.  The only tricky thing is the size and weight of the bird.  You may need two people to lift it out of the oven.

This turkey goes wonderfully with side dishes of Crispy Roast Potatoes and colourful Stewed Cabbage and Apples.

By Lisa Watson

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Brined Roast Turkey

How to make the juiciest roast turkey you have ever tasted!

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 3 hours hours

Brining time 1 day day

Total Time 1 day day 3 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings 1 turkey

Ingredients

• 10 L Water 2 1/2 gallons
• 450 g Large crystal Salt 2 cups
• 220 g Sugar 1 cup
• 3 Bay Leaves
• 1 head Garlic
• 4 Allspice berries crushed
• 5 Tbsp Dried Thyme
• 5 Juniper Berries crushed
• 1 Turkey
• 5 - 6 Tbsp softened Butter
• Turkey stock instructions below

Instructions

To Make The Turkey Stock:

• Cover 2 turkey legs, one peeled and halved onion and four peeled carrots with water, and simmer for 2 hours. Top up the water if it gets too low. This broth can be made in advance and frozen until the day it's needed.

12 - 24 Hours Before Roasting:

• Get a large container that can hold the turkey. Line it with a clean large trash bag.
• Peel the garlic cloves.
• Place all the ingredients from the water to the bay leaves in the bag and mix.
• Carefully put the turkey into the water mixture and tie off the top of the bag.
• Leave in the fridge, or somewhere where the temperature is between 0 - 5°C  (30 - 41 °F) for 12 to 24 hours.

To Roast The Turkey:

• Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F).
• Take the turkey out of the brine, rinse it under running water, then pat it dry with paper towels.
• Smear butter all over the turkey.
• Place the turkey in a large roasting pan, legs facing upwards. Cover the breast with aluminium foil.
• After 45 minutes, take the foil off the breast part. Ladle 2/3 cup of turkey stock over the turkey, then continue to roast it.
• Repeat the basting with the juices from the pan every 15 -20 minutes until the turkey is cooked. The time it takes will depend on the size of the turkey (see note below).  Use an oven-proof meat thermometer stuck into the thigh to check the progress of the cooking. (Don't let it touch the bone). When the turkey is ready, the internal temperature should be at 75°C (165°F).
• At this point, take the turkey out of the oven and place it on a large serving plate. Leave it to sit for 20 minutes before carving it.

Notes

The turkey cooking time can vary greatly depending on the size of the bird. As a rough guide, calculate 20 minutes per pound ( about 40 minutes per kg) to get the total time 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.

Hot cross buns, chocolate eating, and musings about the Easter Bunny

Easter is nearly here.  I can hear the hoppity-hop of little bunny paws as they stuff their baskets with Easter eggs…..well, there must be more than one Easter Bunny, right?  Otherwise how would he get the Easter eggs to all the kids on time?  You can’t tell me that he does the Santa trick!  He doesn’t have a sleigh, OR reindeer!  Anyway, aside from eating way too much chocolate, another thing I love to eat around the Easter holidays are hot cross buns. I’m not sure why hot cross buns and actually called “hot cross buns”, as they don’t have to be hot when they are eaten, though they do taste awfully good with butter melting into them when they’re straight out of the oven.  The cross is obvious.  I’m sure it has religious (or pagan) significance, but I’m not going to get into that stuff here.  Just make the hot cross buns and enjoy them, and don’t worry about the symbolism behind them!

Multi-purpose rolls

This recipe comes from my mother.  When I was in New Zealand this time last year (yes, it’s taken me an entire year to get this recipe up!), I made them without the spices and brushed the tops of the buns with milk before cooking them to give them a nice shiny top, and they came out fabulously as dinner rolls.  So, not only can this recipe be used for Easter, but you can make the rolls for Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or just for the heck of it, if you like.

A quick recipe

The hot cross bun dough only goes through one rising, which also means that they’re quick to make (well, quick in making-bread terms).  You can have them on the table in only 2 1/2 – 3 hours from when you weigh out the flour to when you take them out of the oven.  The photo above is before the rising, and the photo below is after, just to give you and idea of how much they should grow.

Hints and tricks from experience

I actually forgot to put the sultanas in when I made these as one of my sons ate the ones that I’d weighed out in anticipation of adding them to the dough, and I didn’t notice.  So, I can tell you after scientific testing, that they taste good also without the sultanas, just not as sweet. The cross is an optional extra.  It doesn’t add anything to the taste.  You can do it just to prove that the rolls are indeed hot cross buns.  I think next time I would just brush milk over them and forget about the cross.  As you can see in the photo below, unless you have a piping bag that you can use, making the cross with the edge of a teaspoon can be quite messy.

So, I wish you all a very happy, and non-rainy Easter full of good things to eat (we’re having a leg of New Zealand lamb, of course!).

Travel Photo of the Week

This is Whangarei Heads, a small peninsula which juts out from the East coast of New Zealand near the town of Whangarei.  I spent a lot of time here when I was growing up, getting into all sorts of trouble with a friend whose parents owned a farm just across the peninsula from where this photo was taken on top of a monolith of craggy towers called Mount Manaia. It takes about an hour or so to wend your way up the slopes through the forest (where once I got lost with the aforementioned friend: a story for another time). The view from the top, as you can see, is spectacular!

By Lisa Watson

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Hot cross buns

An easy and quick recipe for home-made Hot Cross buns from New Zealand.  

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Rising time 2 hours hours

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 300 g All-purpose flour 2 cups
• 10 g Dry Yeast 2 Tbsp
• 50 g Sugar 4 Tbsp
• 1 tsp Salt
• 250 ml cold water 1 cup
• 250 ml boiling Water 1 cup
• 50 g Butter 2 Tbsp
• 2 Eggs
• 2 tsp Cinnamon
• 4 tsp Mixed Spice
• 500 g All-purpose flour 3 3/4 cups
• 50 g Sultanas (or currants) 1/2 cup

Instructions

• Mix the first lot of flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix.
• Add the cold water, then the boiling water and mix until smooth. Leave for 2 - 3 minutes.
• Add the second lot of flour, the cinnamon and mixed spice. Mix, then add the sultanas.
• Knead for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth.  Keep sprinkling flour on the dough if it is sticky.
• Put a clean tea-towel over the bowl and leave on the bench for 15 minutes.
• Line two trays with baking paper, then break off pieces of dough approximately the size of an egg. Roll them into balls and place them on the trays, spacing them so that there is room for them to expand.
• Leave to rise for  2 hours until they double in size.
• Heat the oven to  200ºC (375ºF).  If you would like the buns to be shiney on top, brush them with milk. To make the crosses, put 2 tbsp of flour into a cup.  Dribble water in and stir until a thick paste forms.  Use a piping bag or the side of a teaspoon to draw the crosses on top of each bun.
• Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until the tops of the buns are golden-brown.

Discovering delicious food in Amsterdam

Yes, you’re completely right, this is NOT an Italian recipe.  Every now and then it’s good to mix it up a little! This is a recipe for Dutch pannekoeken (pancakes) with bacon.  You don’t actually need to eat them with bacon.  You can have them with cheese, or with sweet toppings such as apple.  We went to Amsterdam for a long weekend during August and found out about these delicious pancakes.  The Dutch make them in a unique way: they cook the “toppings” into the pancakes, so it’s not like a French crepe, or like an American pancake at all.

They’re really easy to make (surprisingly!).  My kids were delighted when I plunked the pancakes down in front of them at lunchtime.  They told me that they “taste just like the ones in Amsterdam”, so I must’ve done something right!

Unfortunately, when we were in Amsterdam it was raining almost the whole time, so we didn’t get many photos.  We did have a lot of fun though!  Below I’ve written a guide on 10 Things to Do with Under-10s in Amsterdam.  It’s a really great city to take kids to (unlike some other cities we’ve mistakenly visited with the kids thinking it would be fun…HA!)

By Lisa Watson

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Dutch Pancakes with Bacon

An easy recipe for delicious Dutch pancakes with bacon, plus 10 things to do with under-10's in Amsterdam

Course Main Course

Cuisine Dutch

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 4 pancakes

Ingredients

• 200 g All-purpose flour 1 1/3 cups / 7.1 oz
• 200 g Whole wheat flour 1 cup / 7.1 oz
• 800 ml Milk 3 1/3 cups
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Sugar
• Several strips Bacon

Instructions

• Mix the flours, salt and sugar together.
• Add the milk in a steady stream while whisking to remove all the lumps.
• Lightly beat the eggs, then add them to the batter.
• Heat 1 Tbsp of oil in a non-stick frying pan. Add 3 or 4 strips of bacon and let them cook slightly.
• Pour the batter over the top until it covers the whole pan.
• Wait until the pancake is cooked almost all the way through, then flip it using a thin spatula (or slide it onto a plate and use that to help you flip it over).
• Cook on the second side until it is brown.
• Eat immediately!

Crumiri and cappuccino: a breakfast made in heaven!

Whenever I am in Turin, one of the first things I do on the first morning I’m there is go to the bar and drink a cappuccino (of course!) and grab a biscuit to munch on that is made with polenta flour.  The cracking of the cornmeal grains between your teeth is somehow incredibly satisfying. These cookies called crumiri, are typical of the Piemonte region of Italy in the North-west, where my husband comes from.  I’m very grateful for the fact that it comes from that part of Italy, so I have an excuse to go and eat these biscuits often! For some reason, I’d never tried to make them at home before.  I heard mentions of piping bags, and scary things like that, so I’d put them to the back of my mind. Recently I came across a recipe in an Italian cookbook that said that there was no need for any special equipment at all, except for a fork to make them look pretty.  I decided to launch myself into the making of crumiri, and discovered that it is actaully quite easy to do at home.  No longer do I have to wait until my next trip to Turin to scoff myself silly with them!

Why are crumiri cookies shaped in a U-shape?

It is said that the half-moon shape of crumiri represents the voluminous moustaches of King Vittorio Emanuele II, who was the first king of Italy when it actually united to become Italy as we know it today (except without a king now, of course). If you go to Italy, you’ll find all sorts of things named after Vittorio Emanuele II: streets, piazzas, monuments.  I guess trying to call the crumiri “Biscotti di Vittorio Emanuele II” was a bigger mouthful than the cookie, so Domenico Rossi, the baker who developed them, called them crumiri.  The actual origin of the word “crumiri” is unknown.  Maybe Mr Rossi just liked the sound of the name. 🙂

And just to finish, before I go and make myself a big cup of tea and chomp on some of the leftover crumiri before the kids get home (and eat them all!), I’d just like to say happy New Year to you all!  There are going to be all sorts of interesting things happening here this year, including a trip to New Zealand!   So, stay tuned and thanks to all of you who come to visit me here in this small part of the blogosphere!  I love your return visits!

By Lisa Watson

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Crumiri (Crunchy Cornmeal Cookies) from Italy

how to make delicious Crumiri (Crunchy Cornmeal Cookies) from Italy

Course cookies, Dessert, sweet

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 30 cookies

Ingredients

• 200 g Polenta Flour (cornmeal) 1 1/2 cups
• 250 g All-purpose flour 2 cups
• 100 g Sugar 1/2 cup
• 1 packet Vanilla sugar or 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
• 220 g Butter 7.7oz, 1 cup
• 3 Eggs

Instructions

• In a food processor, or with a wooden spoon, mix together the dry ingredients.
• Mix in the eggs.
• Mix in the butter (softened to room temperature), either with short pulses of the food processor or with your fingertips, until an smooth dough forms. Add a little more flour if necessary.
• Form into a ball and leave in a lightly floured bowl for 30 minutes.
• Turn out onto a lightly floured bench.  Take pieces about the size of a walnut and roll then into sausages about 10cm (4 in) long.
• Place on a tray covered with baking paper and curve them into a cresent shape.  Flatten them slightly, and run over the top of the cookies gently with fork prongs to make the grooves on them.
• Bake at 200ºC (400ºF) for 18 - 20 minutes.

What “biscotti” are called in Italy

Yes, I know I just put up another almond biscuit recipe recently, but honestly, I bought a lot of almonds when I made the marzapani, so they have to be used up. This is a recipe for classic Tuscan biscuits called cantuccini or cantucce. Cantuccini are the grandmother of the biscotti you find in every cafe spread through the U.S.A. (no mention of trade names, but it begins and ends with  an “S” and was founded in Seattle).  The taste has mutated, but the form has stayed true to the original. The only addition to the basic biscuit dough in the original cantuccini are almonds: there’s no chocolate, marshmallows or cranberries to be seen anywhere!

The variety of biscuits in Italy is endless!

The name biscotti simply means “biscuits” in Italian (oh, and for the record the word “biscotti” is plural….you can have ONE biscotto or many, many biscotti!).  Biscotti in Italy can have any shape or form; be soft or chewy; square or round.  Of course, every region has its own special type of biscuit; the variation is endless!  Local products are incorporated into many of the biscuits, for example pistachios in the South and hazelnuts in the North, making them very unique to their area. I have even eaten biscuits in Sardinia with olives in them and dusted with icing sugar.  I have to admit, it was a little strange, but maybe that one is an acquired taste……

How are Cantuccini eaten in Italy?

Cantuccini are not generally dipped in coffee, but in a sweet, fabulous dessert wine called Vin Santo (Saint Wine).  I guess it’s called that because it’s so very heavenly to drink!  In Tuscany you find the “Cantuccini e Vin Santo”  in nearly every restaurant on the dessert menu.  That’s what I get every time I’m there!

The trick for making Cantuccini so crunchy

The trick that makes cantuccini so crunchy is double baking the biscuits.  The first baking of the cantuccini is done in a kind of loaf form like you see in the photo below.  Once the loaf is golden-brown, you take it out of the oven, wait for it to cool so you don’t burn your hands, then carefully slice it, and bake the slices in the oven again.

When we go to Tuscany we usually come back with a few bottles of Vin Santo, and until now, packets of commercially-made cantuccini.  Now that I’ve discovered how easy they are to make, I won’t be buying them anymore!  The only slightly tricky bit is cutting them.  You have to have a very sharp serrated knife and a firm hand.  Now, I just have to figure out how to make Vin Santo and I’m set with dessert for life!

 By Lisa Watson

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Cantuccini: the original "biscotti" from Tuscany

Find out how to make Cantuccini, the original "biscotti" from Tuscany, Italy

Course cookies, Dessert

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 130 g Whole unpeeled almonds 1 cup
• 300 g Flour 2 1/2 cups
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• 1 pinch Salt
• 150 g Sugar 3/4 cup
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Tbsp Honey
• Lemon zest from 1 lemon
• 1 Tbsp Butter at room temperature

Instructions

• Put the almonds on a cookie tray in a single layer and bake in the oven at 180ºC (350ºF) for 5 minutes.
• Leave to cool on the bench.
• Beat the eggs and sugar together with an electric mixer (or whisk) until foamy. 
• Add the honey and softened butter and mix.
• Add the flour, baking powder, lemon zest, and salt. Mix in gently.
• Stir in the almonds by hand.
• Form the mixture into two long thin "loaves"  no more than 6cm (2 1/2 inches) high and place them on a cookie sheet lined with baking paper.
• Bake at 200ºC (400ºF) for 20 minutes until golden-brown.
• Leave to cool for a few minutes until you can touch it.
• With a SHARP serrated knife, cut slices approximately 1cm (1/2 inch) thick and lay them on a cookie sheet.
• Bake at 200ºC (400ºF) for 7-10 minutes until slightly browned.

Notes

The cantuccini can be stored in an air-tight container for several weeks.

Home-made bread-sticks are so much tastier than store-bought ones!

So, I know you’re going to say, “But, why make grissini (bread sticks) when I can buy perfectly good ones at the supermarket?”……why, indeed…..well, fresh homemade grissini are infinitely more delicious than store-bought, and anyway, it’s coming into Winter and on one of those rainy (or snowy, depending where you live) Sundays when you’ve got nothing much to do, this is a great way to spend some time.  It’s a fun bread project for kids too as it’s fast – well, in terms of general bread-making, it’s fast. The time it takes to make grissini as opposed to normal bread is like comparing the speed of a turtle with the speed of a snail. It’s all relative. You see the snail inching along and you’ll say, “Boy, look at that speedy turtle!”

Watch out after taking the bread-sticks out of the oven; they disappear!

Homemade grissini get even better the next day, or so I’m told. There never seem to be any left the day after they’re made.  You’ll see when you make these that they magically disappear as soon as you turn your back.  When you turn around again, all you see are a few crumbs littering the ground, and maybe, if you’re very lucky, a glimpse of the back of someone’s foot as they’re hoofing it out of the kitchen after stealing the breadsticks that they weren’t allowed to have yet as it was nearly time for lunch…..yes, I’m talking to you, you two boys who tornado our house on a regular basis! Yes, I know that “tornado” is not a verb, but it’s a good description of what happens to a room when my kids are left to play in it for 10 minutes.

The history of the humble bread-stick

It is controversially said that grissini were first invented just north of my adopted city of Torino in the 1600’s, but others vow that they were first developed in the 1400’s.  As nobody is still alive today from either of those centuries, we will never know for sure, but we can say for sure that they have been eaten in Northern Italy for a very, very long time.  A recipe that old has to be a good one, right?!!  In pretty much any restaurant you walk into in Italy (well in Turin at least: I can’t vouch for the whole of Italy), there are always grissini on the table, and we always say, “We’d better not eat too many or else we won’t be able to eat (make that scoff) everything else”, but then we do always eat too many as they’re so crunchy and yummy.

Ideas for making the bread-sticks your own

When you make grissini at home, you can personalize them to your taste: you can add cut up olives to the dough, or you can roll them in seeds, like poppy seeds or sesame seeds.  Just a note though, as you can see from the photo below, I very gently rolled my bread-sticks in sesame seeds before baking them, but when they came out of the oven, all the seeds had fallen off.  I think you need to roll them more assertively to make them stay on.  If anyone has success with this, please let me know.  In the end, they tasted great anyway, so it didn’t matter.

Just one more hint before you get to read (and hopefully try) the recipe.  You cannot “un-stretch” the dough once it’s stretched out, or roll it up in a ball and start again.  The grissini just won’t work.  So….be careful!  Try not to be too strong!

By Lisa Watson

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Home-made bread-sticks (Italian grissini)

Home-made bread-sticks (Italian grissini) taste so much better than store-bought ones.  Find the recipe on Italian Kiwi!

Ingredients

• 8 g Active dry yeast 2 1/4 tsp
• 2 Tbsp Flour
• 50 ml Water 4 Tbsp
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 500 g Flour 4 cups
• 230 ml Tepid water 1 cup
• 8 g Salt 1 1/2 tsp
• 50 ml Olive oil 3 Tbsp

Instructions

• I used a standing mixture to make the dough, but it can also be done by hand.

The first step:

• Mix together the yeast, 2 Tbsp flour, 50ml tepid water and 1 tsp sugar in a small bowl and leave for 20 minutes.

And then:

• Dissolve the salt in the second lot of water.
• Put the flour in the mixer bowl, then add the water and yeast mixture.  Start to mix them together using the dough hook (or your hands!).
• While the mixer is running, add the oil in a steady stream.
• Knead the dough for 7 - 10 minutes until it is elastic.
• Turn out onto a lightly floured bench. Flatten it with your hands to form a large rectangle (Don't pull at the dough too hard otherwise it will rip).
• Brush the top with olive oil and sprinkle with flour.
• Cover with plastic wrap and a teatowel, then leave it to rise for about an hour until it has doubled in bulk.
• Heat the oven to 200 C (400 F).
• Cut off strips of the dough and gently stretch them out to make the length of grissino that you desire.  If they break, don't try to stick them back together (it won't work!).
• At this point you can leave them as they are or roll them in sesame seeds or poppy seeds if you like.
• Lay them on a tray covered with baking paper.
• Bake for 15 -18 minutes, turning them over halfway through the cooking.
• I dare you not to eat them immediately once they come out of the oven!  The bread smell swirling through the air is overwhelmingly  good!