tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58781323470802538932024-03-05T16:12:12.587+01:00tastes like a tomatoa blog on Italian, French, Spanish and Mediterranean cooking in general, with posts on food history, local specialities and good restaurants, with many recipes, both historical and modern. Dana Facaros and Michael Paulshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06741156711204438561noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-12187737782599318512015-11-19T15:29:00.000+01:002015-11-19T23:27:21.254+01:00Scotch Bonnet Chicken<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Not for sissies!</h3>
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<span lang="EN-US">We haven't put anything on this blog for quite a while but the Scotch Bonnet harvest is in, and while it was sadly diminished compared to our bumper crop of 2014 (France had a drought for several months this summer which made the plants miserable), the couple dozen that ripened are exquisitely perfumed! If someone could bottle it, I would wear <i>eau de Scotch Bonnet</i>, I really would. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">So last year, as one does, I googled habaneros and Scotch Bonnets, looking for a main course where they were the stars of the show, and well, there were hardly any, so I invented this dish. Just made it again and decided it was a keeper. It really does brings out the perfume and taste of your
fresh Scotch Bonnets! </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>Ingredients</b></span></h4>
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<span lang="EN-US">A chicken, cut into pieces</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Olive oil</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">6 garlic cloves, minced</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">1 red bell pepper, chopped in cubes</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">1 Scotch Bonnet , finely chopped (more if
you like it really really hot). If your skin is sensitive, consider wearing
rubber gloves; whatever you do don’t rub your eyes afterwards!) </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">A generous handful of halved cherry
tomatoes</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">5 Tb of lime juice</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">2 Tb light soy sauce</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">1 Tb honey</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">1 tablespoon turmeric</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">300 gr of fresh or frozen spinach</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">2 Tb butter</span></div>
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A big handful of fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped</div>
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Method </h4>
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<span lang="EN-US">Heat a few splashes of olive oil in a heavy
pot with a lid. When hot, brown the chicken, then remove.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">In the same olive oil, fry the minced ginger, garlic, red
pepper and Scotch bonnet until soft. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Replace browned chicken in the pot. </span>Add a cup of water, the cherry tomatoes, lime
juice, soy sauce, honey and turmeric, and bring to a boil; cover and simmer</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">In half an hour see how hot it is. Add salt
and spinach (add more if it’s too hot!), and more lime juice to taste. Cook for another ten minutes or so until the chicken is done.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Add a chicken stock cube
if you feel it needs it. If the sauce is too liquidy, remove the chicken and boil it down (rather than overcook the chicken). Throw in some butter to make it better, put the chicken back in the pot, mix in the fresh coriander and serve on rice. </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-30952138262066510102014-12-31T19:52:00.002+01:002015-01-01T18:36:25.002+01:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Walnut Thumbprint Cookies</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvfjbwnO4JduplE8zYZVjtCvJ_0XdjOS728bR3h2m4dvgHLVBY6LiC3280gNDEdpT62DtG0uY0QoysaLxT19YonVQjdWyu1CBhGgD5Ek_TywYWmX-6j9XypGhwYqMCfmtmY3GuHv79VylF/s1600/DSC_0069.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvfjbwnO4JduplE8zYZVjtCvJ_0XdjOS728bR3h2m4dvgHLVBY6LiC3280gNDEdpT62DtG0uY0QoysaLxT19YonVQjdWyu1CBhGgD5Ek_TywYWmX-6j9XypGhwYqMCfmtmY3GuHv79VylF/s1600/DSC_0069.JPG" height="425" width="640" /></a></div>
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Christmas in our house means a big batch of my sister-in-law Marge's walnut thumbprint cookies, a recipe handed down from her Aunt Helen back in the 1950s. They don't last long, so it's a good idea to double, triple or quadruple the recipe. <br />
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For roughly two dozen cookies you need: </h4>
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3/4 cup (72 grams) finely ground walnuts (whacking them in a little mixer works fine; set aside)</div>
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1/2 cup (227 grams) soft butter</div>
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1/4 cup (55 grams) packed brown sugar</div>
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1 egg yolk (save the white in a bowl)</div>
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1/2 teaspoon vanilla</div>
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1 (128 grams) cup all purpose flour </div>
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1/4 teaspoon salt</div>
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<i>Method</i></h4>
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Preheat oven to 375 (190C), gas mark 5, Moderate) degrees </div>
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Mix together the butter, brown sugar, egg yolk and vanilla. Then add the flour and salt and mix. The dough should be fairly thick and a bit sticky.</div>
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Beat egg white(s) with a fork. Grease your baking sheet.</div>
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Form the dough into balls about an inch across; roll in the egg white and then in the ground walnuts. They should look something like this:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw8yJahUnj22_j1KNZOzgEGQ2LWbnmZFKdzmHIYDNUu7-I6Qj1hA9PnZQRH_Vf8Exv8XiznRGdkz24XG35mjOrWzYzk3D076SFqPZH2rb2tF9Nh4-Or0TJvNLXT2g3Xz_A3Z8j5uJae2mB/s1600/DSC_0060.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw8yJahUnj22_j1KNZOzgEGQ2LWbnmZFKdzmHIYDNUu7-I6Qj1hA9PnZQRH_Vf8Exv8XiznRGdkz24XG35mjOrWzYzk3D076SFqPZH2rb2tF9Nh4-Or0TJvNLXT2g3Xz_A3Z8j5uJae2mB/s1600/DSC_0060.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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After five minutes, remove from oven and put a thumbprint in the centre of each cookie. Do it quickly so you don't burn your thumb.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4qSAqy9dL_xTA-2Uk2x92BHOTeUwYLzBnUuN_X8o83b5QZaikvorD908nT1fLFwjghxx-eHjPbleMVqxjEnMZjo2hPHAqtBN0Y-1E53TmvmwGiGIPS1u-VjnEYJuZp-ILVQ5q3Zxt5dlP/s1600/DSC_0065.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4qSAqy9dL_xTA-2Uk2x92BHOTeUwYLzBnUuN_X8o83b5QZaikvorD908nT1fLFwjghxx-eHjPbleMVqxjEnMZjo2hPHAqtBN0Y-1E53TmvmwGiGIPS1u-VjnEYJuZp-ILVQ5q3Zxt5dlP/s1600/DSC_0065.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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They should end up looking like this:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQvcOT6eaTCkeMI5jbEA2Uvg5cvWcowYXKhawV6ehqaqe21bloZqv84Yy0xQ6ZJcnoLxCCM4SkBhkYP4y8OJXkHMrSQoT5EJ2MhNwXjpXyryzuvOq-EjdlTiLcjxSGiFUG-M0GnOYtXOmp/s1600/DSC_0062.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQvcOT6eaTCkeMI5jbEA2Uvg5cvWcowYXKhawV6ehqaqe21bloZqv84Yy0xQ6ZJcnoLxCCM4SkBhkYP4y8OJXkHMrSQoT5EJ2MhNwXjpXyryzuvOq-EjdlTiLcjxSGiFUG-M0GnOYtXOmp/s1600/DSC_0062.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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Bake for about 8 minutes more or until they take on some colour. Cool on a wire rack or dish towel, then spoon out thick dabs of butter creme frosting (butter, powered (icing) sugar, vanilla and milk, and food colouring) in the thumbprint. You could also use jam, or melt chocolate into them. Then watch them disappear!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLskD2VvMT2s9u_Tz4RB-Op3YSJ5l7cPPK0yMuKsCbObaD9OXu-iApSrjW7N2-Svzur_VxE2xfIWnG5dtc0PaBBAhwVGC-YMB5TGhjnZFM90YADCSYT_jwDDEiM25thipKrAlK3l7xI7ET/s1600/DSC_0067.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLskD2VvMT2s9u_Tz4RB-Op3YSJ5l7cPPK0yMuKsCbObaD9OXu-iApSrjW7N2-Svzur_VxE2xfIWnG5dtc0PaBBAhwVGC-YMB5TGhjnZFM90YADCSYT_jwDDEiM25thipKrAlK3l7xI7ET/s1600/DSC_0067.JPG" height="425" width="640" /></a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-88523776224080079832014-07-10T14:37:00.000+02:002014-07-10T14:37:09.427+02:00Ready for agretti?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">It’s a vegetable of many names. When we bought it in our
Umbrian village market they called it <i>agretti</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, but you’ll also hear the same thing called </span><i>roscano</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, </span><i>ariscolo</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
</span><i>riscoli</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, or </span><i>liscari</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, or </span><i>rospici</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, or </span><i>barbe di frate</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(friar’s beards) or maybe even the inexplicable </span><i>senape del monaco</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (monk’s mustard). At first sight we suspected it was
some sort of onion or chive. The Italians soon set us straight. ‘It’s greens’
—like </span><i>spinaci</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> only better. Try
some!'</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">So we did. The taste is slightly salty, faintly bitter, but
nice; what makes it unique and addictive is the consistency: not mere boiled
leaves in your mouth, but something more like fine Asian noodles—think of it as
linear spinach. Besides being delicious, <i>agretti </i><span style="font-style: normal;">are astoundingly virtuous: low calories, lots of iron, calcium, and
other minerals, lots of vitamin B3 and C. It’s mildly diuretic, mopping up
those awful triglycerides and cholesterol in your blood. Popeye could have beat the whole Red Army with a can of this. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">You’ll seldom find <i>agretti</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> in other European countries. There isn’t even a name for it in
English; it’s often referred to as ‘saltwort’, but it’s really only one of many
varieties of saltworts. For years we became so accustomed to doing without </span><i>agretti
</i><span style="font-style: normal;">that we almost forgot about it. Fortunately
though, you can grow your own if you have a reasonably warm climate. In Italy
they get to be over two feet high. In our southwest France garden (with a
climate similar to the Carolinas) they’re a little smaller, but just as good.
They like a lot of water. Get the seeds from <a href="http://www.semilandia.it/product_info.php?products_id=1542" target="_blank">Semilandia</a> in Italy (these worked
very well for me), <a href="http://www.seedsofitaly.com/" target="_blank">Franchi-Seeds of Italy</a> (UK) or any number of online
sites in the U.S.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Though they look flimsy and spindly, they don’t shrink in
cooking like other greens. In fact the garden space you allot to <i>agretti </i><span style="font-style: normal;">will be more productive than spinach or chard. The
seeds can be a problem. Lots of gardeners complain about low germination rates,
and the seeds do not keep very long. Yours might fail one year, and be
brilliant the next.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">So what do you do with it? <i>Facilissimo</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: pull off the green bits and the most flexible parts
of the stems, and throw out the rest of the stems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wash it off well in a colander. Boil it for a few minutes,
throw on a little olive oil and a squirt of lemon. Or better, boil it for three
minutes, drain, and then sauté it with very little oil, lemon and maybe some
garlic. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>Agretti</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> are becoming
very trendy in Italian restaurants these days, though there really aren’t any
classic recipes. It’s great as a side dish with any kind of seafood, or (like its close cousin </span><i>salicornia</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, marsh samphire) with
seafood antipasti. One popular salad features </span><i>agretti</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> and smoked salmon. You can put it on pasta (try it
with dried tomatoes), or in an omelette or quiche. Use it in Asian dishes too.
The Japanese saltwort </span><i>oka hijiki</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
, or ‘land seaweed’, is practically the same thing; the Japanese like it as a
cold salad with soy sauce or vinegar. </span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-4998567064414954482014-07-07T16:45:00.004+02:002014-07-07T23:00:47.537+02:00Malta’s Tomato Epiphany<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">We simply don’t get to Malta often enough.
The last time was in spring 1980, in fact, when the food in the restaurants was pretty
bland. But I remember
the crusty bread was delicious. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Back in Malta again in 2014, the bread was
still as delicious as ever, but what came as a revelation (at least to me) were the things that you could dip or spread on it. At <a href="http://gululu.com.mt/" target="_blank">Gululu</a>, in the seaside resort of Saint Julians, an excellent restaurant featuring updated Maltese country cuisine, they served generous helpings of four for a starter: ricotta and lemon zest; broad beans mashed with garlic and olive oil; black olives and garlic, very like tapenade; and anchovies and capers, very salty, pungent and delicious. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">What a wonderful way to start a meal, and no wonder the staff at Gululu were turning people away at the door.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">On our first trip to Gozo back in 1980, one of the factoids that stayed with us was how Malta’s rural little-sister island was famous for ketchup; in fact these days you can go on a <a href="http://magro.com.mt/factory.aspx" target="_blank">tour </a>and learn about wide number of foods produced on the island—honey, fruit jams, sun dried tomatoes, pulses and Gozitan cheeselets. I was there on a Sunday so had to give it a pass. Next time!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In Gozo’s citadel of Rabat, or Victoria, we sipped Gozitan wines and had a platter of goodies at <a href="http://www.visitgozo.com/en/item/tastes-of-gozo/ta-rikardu-1079/" target="_blank">Ta' Rikardu</a>, a wine bar and local institution. The delightful owner Rikardu has a farm nearby, and produces nearly everything he served, including sun-ripened and sun-dried tomatoes from his garden, juicy olives and the fattest capers I’ve ever seen, along with his own fresh and aged cheeses, some of which go into his plump ravioli.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">A few minutes' drive away at<a href="http://www.tamena-gozo.com/" target="_blank"> Ta’ Mena</a>, Malta’s first agroturism estate, celebrity chef George Borj treated us to the estate’s lovely white, red and rosé wines, and introduced me to apogee of Maltese tomato-dom, modestly called ‘Sweet Tomato Paste’, artisanally made with tomato pulp preserved in the original pre-refrigeration method, dried and stirred and dried and stirred, with sea salt and sugar. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The result, spread on bread, was tangy, sweet, rich and utterly delicious. It didn't only taste like a tomato, it tasted better. A true tomato epiphany.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">And as George Borj added, it keeps up to 20 years in the fridge—but there's no way it will last that long.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-21685721857627465622014-05-19T18:00:00.000+02:002014-05-19T18:31:53.592+02:00How the Greeks Invented Hash<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The longest word in the Greek, or for that matter any
language, was invented by Aristophanes in his comedy<i> Ecclesiazusae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, the ‘Assemblywomen’. It’s a hell of a play,
something so sardonic and up-to-date it would work on the stages of New York or London today. In it, the women of Athens take over, instituting a golden
age of communistic rule and free love, except that before a man could spend a
night with a young pretty girl, he had to submit to all the old, wrinkled, randy
ones. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">It seems the end of the play is lost. As we have it,
Aristophanes leaves us pretty much in limbo, with the citizens of the new
democratic paradise rushing to the dining hall to get a seat for a taste of: </span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphioparaomelitokatakaechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygo<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Scholars plumbing the depths of this word have discovered
within it salt fish, rotted dogshead, honey, thrushes, pigeons, crabs, chicken
wings, rabbit, ‘sharp sauce’, blackbirds, new wine and much else. One careful
critic has defined it as ‘a hash composed of all the leftovers from the meals
of the leftovers from the meals of the last two weeks’.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The rest of the story is provided by Eugene Field, the
American poet and philosopher<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>best
known for <i>The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> and </span><i>Wynken, Blynken and Nod</i><span style="font-style: normal;">.
In a column for the Chicago Daily News, Field discussed the heretofore unknown
fate of the famous, long-winded dish: </span></span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span lang="EN-US">We have it from
private sources that this name was discontinued by royal order soon after
Theseus took the throne. It happened in this wise: When Theseus came back from
his bull-fight with the Minotaur he naturally strolled into a restaurant in the
basement of the Parthenon and asked for a plate of the fashionable dish. Before
the waiter had time to pronounce the word the king was almost starved to death.
He had just strength enough left to draw his antestylographic pen from his vest
pocket and write a royal order in these words: "Henceforth and forever let
lopadotemach-etc. be called hash, under penalty of death." The order has
never been revoked.</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">If anyone can supply the original recipe, we offer a small
prize.</span></div>
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Dana Facaros and Michael Paulshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06741156711204438561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-79336504624713512182014-04-27T13:34:00.003+02:002014-04-27T13:34:37.261+02:00Anyone for frattaglie?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The exasperating, confusing and delightful city of Naples is the kind of place that leaves memories unlike any others. A lot of ours, from back in 80’s when Naples was rather more Neapolitan than it is now, involve the streets of decaying palazzi and bad hotels around Piazza Garibaldi and the train station. Frantic, louche, grimy and full of surprises, the gargantuan piazza was lined with trattorie, most of them pretty good—some of them still are. Market stands sold contraband Marlboros and contraband cassettes. Once I watched a gaggle of street children with firecrackers, trying to toss them through the windows of passing police cars. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">On many occasions, this piquant world was our home. The hotels were full of character, like the Fiore on Via Milano, the one with the world’s fattest cat, signs in Polish, and a tiny elevator that required an obsolete aluminum ten lira coin before it would consent to move. Even the place that (we later found) more commonly rented by the half-hour tried to smarten itself up a little when a nice young American couple with a baby appeared. Family atmosphere, Neapolitan style. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">One constant fixture on the Piazza, at the corner of Via Milano, was a little three-wheeled farm truck with a custom-built white platform on the back. The platform was built up on steps as a kind of Busby Berkeley wedding cake, each level edged with green plastic foliage. Each bore a row of steel spikes, on which were arrayed pale, boiled pieces of pig: trotters, snouts, organs, testicles, and others we could only guess. Above each, at a rakish angle, was a neatly impaled slice of lemon. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">You couldn’t take your eyes off it. And we couldn’t bring ourselves to ever try it either. They say the taste for <i>frattaglie</i> (offal) goes back to the Bourbon monarchy, when the king’s French cooks would toss the nasty bits off the palace balconies to the Neapolitan rabble, shouting <i>Voila les entrailles!</i> Hence another local name for offal, <i>zendraglie</i>. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Today though, the smuggled Marlboros and the street boys of Piazza Garibaldi are gone, and so is the<i> carnacuttaro</i>, or <i>pere e musso</i> (‘foot and snout man’, as people called them) of Piazza Garibaldi. Nowadays the sellers of <i>frattaglie</i> in Campania and beyond are most commonly seen around Sarno and Nocera Inferiore, back behind Vesuvius, where they are a fetish dish, and everywhere else at parish and village festivals, when people’s folkloric feelings sometimes overcome more modern tastes. They chop up the bits and serve them in a paper cup with a skewer and your choice of fennel or lupins or <i>peperoncini</i>. Besides the lemon, the latest fashion is to offer a splash of tequila on top. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">If you can’t find a <i>carnacuttaro</i> on the street or at the festivals, there’s an old shop for <i>frattaglie</i> and tripe that has metamorphosed into a famous trattoria, right in the heart of Naples on Via Pignasecca: <i>Le Zendraglie</i>. But we still haven’t succumbed to the charm. Maybe next time. </span></div>
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Dana Facaros and Michael Paulshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06741156711204438561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-76624596831233213432014-04-27T12:56:00.000+02:002014-05-19T18:38:51.637+02:00The Forgotten Vegetable<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Curly kale, decorating the early 16th-century cloister of Cahors cathedral</span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Try and explain kale to a Frenchman! <i>Chou frisé</i>? ‘I’ve heard of it.’ But he’s never seen it. You can’t find seeds to plant it here, and no restaurant south of the Loire would ever dream of sneaking it into a menu. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Meanwhile, the humble kale is all the rage among the dissipated yuppies of America’s coastal metropolises. It’s a cultural cycle. In the Depression, their grandmothers badgered their kids into eating it because it was good for you. So their moms wiped the horrible thing out of their memory when good times came back, and now their grown children are rediscovering it and finding it’s not so bad after all, especially when simply sautéed with olive oil and garlic. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Kale, lowly kale, is the Sinatra of vegetables; it’s been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet—a pawn and a king. If you’re not familiar, it’s really just a cabbage; the word ‘kale’ is the same as the German <i>kohl</i> or the Dutch <i>kool</i>. Scientifically, it’s the <i>acephala</i> sort of cabbage that does not make a head, just floppy leaves. There are countless varieties, all closer to the original wild cabbages, and they have nourished us at least since Roman times. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In the Middle Ages, kale was king. All over Europe, it was a staple of the peasant diet. Even so, very few cookbooks even mention it. The nobles didn’t care for vegetables. Things that grew close to the ground were for groundlings. Birds and fruits that lived in the clear air were proper fare for noblemen. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">That didn’t stop kale from becoming a surprise star of Gothic sculpture. One of the most charming features of the great French cathedrals is the way they incorporate familiar common plants into the sculptural schemes of the portals, vaulting and capitals. In the early Gothic it was a celebration of spring. Notre-Dame in Paris is carved in plantain, cress and celandine; look closely at Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, and you’ll see buttercups everywhere. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In the 15th century, the botanic whim of Gothic art was moving on to other things, including vegetables. The French variety of <i>chou frisé </i>with its elegantly curling leaves fitted the artistic mood perfectly (chicory, thistle and seaweed were popular too). The late Gothic<i> flamboyant</i> style made the old peasant fodder into something elegant and ethereal. There’s lots of it at Rouen cathedral, and closer to us in the Lot, the cloister of Cahors cathedral (see above) is a kale garden in stone. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Somehow, kale fell out of style. Maybe it was the Reformation and Counterreformation; maybe the importation of such new foods as potatoes and tomatoes from the new world, or more productive round-headed cabbages. Kale held on in Protestant Scotland, Scandinavia, the Netherlands and north Germany. In the Catholic south, it nearly disappeared. In France today it is unknown, and most people use <i>chou frisé</i> to mean Savoy cabbage. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In Italy, one important variety called <i>cavolo da foraggio</i> is still around, but you won’t Google any recipes for it, though you will find mentions of the plant as ‘food for beasts’. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">We disagree. In fact we planted some in our garden last September, courtesy of the firm Seeds of Italy. It didn’t do anything but grow. By springtime there were leaves like Brobdingnagian dinner plates. They’re tough, but sautée them for about twenty minutes with oil and lots of garlic, and they are pretty tasty. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In Tuscany, at least, they are still very fond of one variety of kale: <i>cavolo nero,</i> or <i>cavolo lacinato</i>, or Tuscan kale. If you’re in a reasonably warm climate, this is a great thing for filling up the spaces that appear in your garden in late summer. For us at least, it soldiered on through the winter and into the following spring and provided a good return with no effort. The only drawback, as with most kale, is that you can cook the central spine of the leaf all day without making an impression. It has to be cut out, which is tedious. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Tuscans are earnest folk and immune to tedium (spend some time there and you’ll start to notice...). So <i>cavolo nero</i> is a main ingredient in the humble but much-beloved weekday dish called <i>ribollita</i>, so called because it is basically yesterday’s leftovers ‘re-boiled’. We won’t bother with a recipe right now; there are millions of them online, each one different, but the basic principle is always the same: a bunch of kale and a nearly equal amount of <i>verza </i>(Savoy cabbage), chopped onion, tomato, white beans, and breadcrumbs or croutons. And whatever else at the bottom of the fridge you’re trying to get rid of. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The white beans are a familiar refrain. Along with pork, they’re something that goes naturally well with kale. We’ll try to come up with a good recipe soon. </span></div>
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Dana Facaros and Michael Paulshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06741156711204438561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-41328794025006482912014-04-18T14:58:00.000+02:002014-04-27T12:30:33.088+02:00Cassoulet à la Dany Chouet <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i> A beautiful end of March at Malcournet</i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px;">It was Monday, the last day in March, when Dany Chouet (the 'midwife of modern Australian cuisine') and Trish Hobbs recruited their dear friend Appley Hoare, Australian friends Jim and Ann who were staying nearby and ourselves to help burn the garden rubbish at the bottom meadow of their gorgeous garden at Malcournet. The bribe? Dany's famous cassoulet, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px;">one of the favourite dishes served back in the day at Trish and Dany's much loved restaurant, Cleopatra, up in the Blue Mountains of Australia.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 21px;">As Dany wrote in her award-winning book, <i>So French</i>: </span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><i>In the South West, the Cassoulet, symbolic dish of
Occitanie, has achieved national mythical status, and has as many recipes as
communes. It is a complete meal,
does not need anything before and very little after, except maybe a small glass
of Armagnac. The cassoulet, one of
my favourite meals to cook, gathers together all the ingredients I love. The haricot beans, such a wonderful dry
vegetable, give the creaminess, and act as a liason between the meats and soak
up all the flavours, laced with tomato.
The roasted pork stays moist and becomes tastier, the confit is in its’
best surroundings. And I rolled up
my two star ingredients, garlic and parsley, into the pork skin.</i></span> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 21px;"><i>My
cassoulet is far from being ‘Catholique’ as we say in French (or according to
the rules) and is not made in the traditional way, but as Prosper Montagné
(famous Occitan chef, author of the Larousse Gastronomique) said:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘only badly informed people say there
is only one way to make cassoulet’.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 21px;">It's a very hearty dish, and Dany and Trish reckoned that March (unusually mild this spring in France) might mark the end of cassoulet-eating season. It's also not something one does at the spur of the moment, so just to document the process we asked the girls to take some pics. So here is how Dany's three step recipe goes (omitting the essential pre-step of ordering the proper cuts of pork from one's friendly local butcher).</span><br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Step 1. The Marinade</i></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>½ head of garlic, peeled<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>1 bunch flat-leafed parsley<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>salt and freshly ground black pepper<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>1 small neck of pork (scotch fillet)<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>1 kg lean pork belly<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>800g pork skins, without fat<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>1.5 litres dry white wine<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>black peppercorns<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>1 large bouquet garni (fresh thyme, parsley stalks,
bay leaf)</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>The day before:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finely chop half a head of garlic and
parsley and mix well together.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Remove excess fat from pork
neck and tidy the meat by trimming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Pierce holes along the meat and insert salt, pepper and the garlic and
parsley mixture deep into the meat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Tie up with string like a roast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Leave the skin on the pork belly, remove bones but reserve them for use later.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Arrange the pork skins flat on
the board, season normally with salt and freshly ground pepper then spread
thickly with the garlic and parsley mixture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Roll up like a thick sausage and tie with string at 1.5 cm intervals.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Place the three cuts of meat
in a large container.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cover with
1.5 litres of white wine, sprinkle over one tablespoon of whole black
peppercorns and immerse the bouquet garni.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cover and place in the refrigerator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before going to bed at night, turn the
meats around in the marinade.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Step 2: preparing the
dish:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>1 kg white Great Northern or
cannellini <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>beans<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>1 whole brown onion, studded
with 2 cloves<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>1 bay leaf<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>250g smoked pork speck, diced<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>60g duck fat<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>3 medium carrots, diced into 1
cm cubes<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>3-4 large onions, diced small<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>4 large very ripe tomatoes
peeled deseeded and chopped (or 800g tinned Italian peeled tomatoes)<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>½ head garlic, peeled<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>1.5 litres chicken or pork or duck
stock.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>The bones reserved from the
pork belly.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>On the day, or one day ahead
of serving:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Place the beans in a
large pot, cover generously with cold water, add the studded onion and the bay
leaf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bring to the boil and cook
for about 30 minutes.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Strain the beans into a colander and refresh in cold water. Discard the onion and the bay leaf and leave the beans to drain.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 21px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Take the meat from the
marinade and strain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heat oven to
200 degrees C and roast the neck only, basting often with a little of the
marinade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cook for about one hour
and 15 minutes, then remove and set aside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Collect the roasting juices and set aside for use later.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>At the same time in a large
thick-based pot, fry the smoked speck with duck fat until golden, then add diced
carrots and onions.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Sauté gently for about 15
minutes without browning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Add the
tomato flesh, reduce to a nice, thick consistency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Season with freshly ground black pepper only.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Add the drained beans, mix
together with the sauce, pour in the remaining strained marinade, and bring
gently to the boil.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Bury the pork belly and skin
roll into the beans, as well as the bouquet garni and the reserved pork bones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chop the garlic and add to the
beans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bring the level of liquid
up with the chicken stock, until it rests about 2 cm above the beans.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Do not stir the mixture any
more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let it simmer, covered, for
at least one and a half hours, maybe more, checking the meats with a skewer to
see if they are done.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Remove the meats from the pot
as soon as they are cooked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Set
aside with the roast pork neck and let cool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they are to be used the day after, let them cool and keep
well covered and sealed in the refrigerator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pour beans out of the pot into a bowl and stir to equalise
the flavours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Discard the bouquet
garni and the pork bones.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Step 3, serving the
cassoulet:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>6 thick pork sausages,
Toulouse type, cut in half<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>12 confit duck legs <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>about 1 cup breadcrumbs<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>1 large garlic clove, crushed<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>1 bunch flat leaved parsley,
chopped<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Heat the oven to 200C. Half
fill a large earthenware oven dish with the beans, thickly slice the roast pork
and the pork belly, slice the skin roll thinly, grill the pork sausages on one
side only, remove the duck legs from their fat.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Arrange in alternating slices,
embedding into the beans the duck legs, pork neck slices, belly slices, skin
slices and sausages (place grilled side on top).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Bury all meats halfway into the beans and pour the roast pork jus all over.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Mix together the breadcrumbs,
one large crushed clove of garlic and chopped parsley and sprinkle generously
all over the top.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>Drizzle a little
liquid duck fat on top of the breadcrumbs to crisp them.</i></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i> Bake in the oven for<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>30-40 minutes, until golden brown on
top, very hot, and sizzling around the edges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px;"><i>Serves 8-12 people. (Can be re-heated the next day). </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">While all this lovely bean and meat alchemy was happening in Malcournet's kitchen, the bonfire down at the bottom of the meadow had nearly burned out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Time for a glass of rosé after all our labours, and piping hot cassoulet in the garden. The heady aroma of beans, duck and pork made our mouths water. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 21px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 21px;">It didn't all fit in one clay pot, so there was a mama and a baby cassoulet. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 21px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 21px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 21px;">The delicate harmony of the flavours in the cassoulet was absolutely delicious!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px;">It was one of those perfect spring days.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px;"> Music was provided by</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px;"> a nightingale warbling in a nearby tree, and as we wended our way home just before the sun went down, we all hoped that the spring bonfire cassoulet becomes an annual event. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px;">Thank you, Dany and Trish! Their book </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px;"><i>So French</i> is packed with similar delicious recipes (and great stories!); pick up a copy on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/So-French-Dany-Chouet/dp/1741964946" target="_blank">Amazon</a>—it's now available on Kindle, too.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px;"><i><br /></i></span>
</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-71501082205401805012014-01-19T18:58:00.000+01:002014-05-19T18:41:11.177+02:00Hell's Kitchen<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">One of the joys of travelling in distant
lands is discovering new foods, and in our guides we always included a special
chapter dedicated to local cuisine and booze.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">That said, in our Guide to Hell—now updated with plenty of pizzazz as an ebook (for links, see our <a href="http://facarospauls.com/travellers-guide-to-hell" target="_blank">website</a>), the section on food is comparatively brief. If the demons in Hell’s kitchen serve up
anything, it’s sinner, generally boiled in a giant pot or roasted on a spit. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">But Hell is the only place where the Eating Out section merges with Getting There, in the form of Gluttony. Yet few people know that Gluttony is a relative newcomer among the </span>Seven Deadly Sins:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>Ambition was the
original Mithraic sin, but when it changed sides and became a virtue, Gluttony
was called up from the second division to take its place. For centuries, this
new arrival languished in the back row as a trivial sin, a caricature of a fat
pink boojwah in a fancy restaurant. Gluttony charged back into Top Sin Status
with the near-simultaneous invention of three-speed tractors, cheese-corn
twisties, high-fructose corn syrup, corn dogs, caramel corn, corn-fed feedlot
cattle, triple-dip ice-cream cones and above all that relentless and
irresistible seducer of nations, the potato chip.</i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Of course, the one essential piece of
advice is that daytrippers to Hell should pack their own lunches:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMzRY4FIr6JH1SEZVj1R9CcZ5AmXVmm_AUsCqVzF5sHOxzVGnAWe4vtk1-69_j7PdZkuGhoAoOBrUdmvwFny2pknScXH22D7GiOx5t1kx72uX7NAPY0Xc786pKyz9iosxW5J6VWkeCOCU-/s1600/a.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMzRY4FIr6JH1SEZVj1R9CcZ5AmXVmm_AUsCqVzF5sHOxzVGnAWe4vtk1-69_j7PdZkuGhoAoOBrUdmvwFny2pknScXH22D7GiOx5t1kx72uX7NAPY0Xc786pKyz9iosxW5J6VWkeCOCU-/s1600/a.png" height="200" width="159" /></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>For those
planning just a short stay, though, it's important not to touch a bite, or take
a sip. If you don't believe us, take it from the Celts, the Lapps, the Jews,
the New Caledonians, the Greeks, the Cherokee, the Maori, the Kwakiutl and
dozens of other peoples around the globe. Folklore and mythology of all times
and places agree: once you have supped with the denizens of the underworld,
you're one of them, and you'll never get out.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Persephone's
abduction by Hades provides the best-known example. One pomegranate seed
accepted in a weak moment was all it took (some say it was seven; seven is a
very important number in Hell). What was Hades doing with pomegranates? No one
has come up with a convincing explanation for that one; pomegranates are
usually associated with fertility; some scholars have claimed that the apple in
the Garden of Eden was really a pomegranate.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-49093371487518474312013-10-25T21:11:00.001+02:002014-05-19T18:43:22.141+02:00Suffritto di Pollastri—Renaissance Saffron Chicken<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">We promised you a
recipe from <i><a href="http://tasteslikeatomato.blogspot.fr/2013/08/de-arte-coquinaria.html" target="_blank">De Arte Coquinaria</a></i></span><span lang="EN-US">, the famous cookbook written in the 1460’s by Maestro
Martino da Como, chief cook to the Pope and many other nabobs of Renaissance
Italy. I found one I liked but it’s had to wait until I could find a bottle of <i>agresto</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, known as <i>verjus</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> here in France. They still make it nearby
in Périgord, where some folks deglaze their pan-fried foie gras with it, but
usually you can only find it in the fancy shops. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here’s what
Maestro Martino was cooking for the nabobs:</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><b><i>Per fare un suffritto de carne, o de pippioni, o de
pollastri, o capretto.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><i>In prima nectali molto bene et tagliali in quarti, o vero in
pezzi piccholi, et poneli in una pignatta a frigere con bono lardo voltando
spesse volte col cocchiaro. Et quando la carne è quasi cotta getta fore la
maiore parte del grasso de la pignatta. Et dapoi togli de bono agresto, doi
rosci d'ova, un pocho pocho de bono brodo et de bone spetie, et meschola
queste cose inseme con tanto zafrano che siano gialle et ponile in la dicta
pignatta inseme co la carne et lasciali bollire anchora un pocho tanto che
tutte queste cose ti parano cotte. Dapoi togli un pocho pocho de petrosillo
battuto menuto et ponilo insieme col ditto soffritto in un piattello et
mandalo ad tavola. Et questo tale soffritto vole essere dolce o agro secundo
il gusto comuno o del patrone.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><b>(To
make a soffrito of meat, or of pigeon, or of poultry, or kid<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman;">First
clean them very well<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and cut them
in quarters, or else in small pieces, and put them in a pan with some good <i>lardo</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman;">, turning them
often with the spoon. And when the meat is almost cooked throw out most of the
fat from the pan. And then take some good <i>verjus</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman;">, two egg yolks, a little bit
of broth and some good spices; mix these things together with enough saffron to
make it yellow and put them in the pan with the meat;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>let it boil until they seem well cooked to you. Then take a
little bit of chopped parsley and add it to this <i>soffritto</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman;"> on a platter and
send it to table. And this <i>soffritto</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman;"> may be sweet or tart
depending on common agreement, or the boss’s taste.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Dead
simple, and intriguing; we’ll try it with a chicken. A <i>soffrito</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, which now means frying a mix of onion,
garlic, parsley etc to start a dish,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>for Maestro Martino was just a technique of slow-frying. For <i>lardo</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> he would have
meant rendered lard, or maybe something like bacon grease.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m going for duck fat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Like everyone else here, I have a tub of it in the back of the fridge
for frying potatoes (This is always part lard anyhow; they have to top up the
duck fat to cover the <i><a href="http://tasteslikeatomato.blogspot.fr/2013/10/ducking-down-at-la-serpt_25.html" target="_blank">confits</a></i></span><span lang="EN-US">. And it’s still the best stuff in the world)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">The
‘good spices’? Martino doesn’t say so we’ll have to guess from the medieval
repertoire. </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But before I can
get the recipe down, the computer tells me someone has already done it for
me—an absolutely wonderful site called <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/medievalcuisine/" target="_blank">Medieval Cuisine</a>, run by Euriol of
Lothian (Cassandra Baldassano) and her friends in the Society for Creative
Anachronism. You can see her interpretation of the recipe <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/medievalcuisine/Euriol/recipe-index/suffritto-de-pollastri" target="_blank">here</a>; mine differs
only slightly. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">a chicken, cut in fourteen pieces</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">duck fat, or lard, or olive oil</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">verjus</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">two egg yolks</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">chicken broth (cube is fine)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">1 dose saffron </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">ground cloves (6) and ground cardamon (seeds from a dozen pods); black pepper and 1T or more ginger</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">parsley</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Fry the chicken on medium heat until it’s almost done, with some colour on the skin. Reduce the fat if you must. Mix the other ingredients and throw them in, turn the heat down low and finish. Garnish with the chopped parsley. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Fine-tune this to please your taste (or your boss’s). If you dust the chicken with just a tiny bit of flour first, you’ll get a thicker sauce. After frying, start with just a little chicken stock, and add more if it’s getting dry. As Martino hints in the last sentence, the quantity of verjus is critical. A quarter cup will make it tart indeed, a little like lemon chicken. If you don’t want that, use less, and perhaps add a bit more of the ‘good spices’. Or you might temper the <i>verjus</i> with a teaspoon of sugar; we might try that next time. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And there will be a next time, ‘cause this was a treat. Maestro Martino, <i>grazie mille</i>!</span></span><br />
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Dana Facaros and Michael Paulshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06741156711204438561noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-28395723654428969692013-10-25T19:08:00.002+02:002014-05-19T18:45:49.920+02:00Ducking Down at La Serpt<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">There is a tiny
hamlet with the curious snaky name of La Serpt, miles from anywhere (the
closest town is Villefranche du Périgord), with a
stone farmhouse, built in 1730. Actually it could just as well have been built in 1630 or
1870; things around here change pretty slowly. You realize that just in the getting
there, over the meadows and through the woods; it's a journey back in time, to a sweet and peaceful place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Like many
traditional farms here, this one here has always raised ducks, and for over two
decades at least, it has also functioned as a farm restaurant, a<i> ferme
auberge</i></span><span lang="EN-US">. When we first
moved here, there were four pretty good ones in easy driving distance; now
there is only one, Aux Délices de la Serpt (although everyone just calls it La
Serpt) but it’s exceptional, the Ritz of <i>ferme auberges</i></span><span lang="EN-US">. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Like <a href="http://tasteslikeatomato.blogspot.fr/2013/10/la-terrasse-in-grezels.html" target="_blank">La Terrasse</a>,
it’s small (with only 30 covers or so) and you have to book. Only at La Serpt
there is no guessing about what’s on the menu. But that’s just how their
clients like it. Everyone who likes duck, that is. If you don’t, stop reading
now! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">We recently went
with first-timers Betsy, Susanna, Nancy, and Harvey, and locals Marianne,
Laurence and Tom. Only two decisions are required: basically, agonizing between the
foie gras (on the €25 menu) or other ducky treats (on the €23 menu) for your
starter, and then, the <i>confit de canard</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> (duck leg and thigh, preserved in its own fat) or <i>magret
de canard</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> (the steak-like
duck breast) for the main course. There is also duck sausage, which is also
delicious, but the <i>confits</i></span><span lang="EN-US">
and <i>magrets</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> are so
amazing that 99% of the customers choose one of those. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: large;">Wine and coffee are included, as is the apéro—a <i>fénelon</i></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">. In the 17<sup>th</sup> century, the
erudite François Fénelon from Périgord was archbishop of Cambrai, poet, writer
and tutor of the son of the king of France, but just how his name became
attached to Quercy’s traditional aperitif (equal parts vin de Cahors, walnut
liqueur and crème de cassis) is a mystery. Maybe he guzzled them when he was a
student at the long-gone University of Cahors? The Fénelons had one of the great châteaux of Périgord. It’s
only about a half-hour away, east of Sarlat; you could visit before lunch. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">For those who have
been to the Serpt before and know what’s coming, the apéro is the gastric
equivalent of the opening <i>da da da dum</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> of Beethoven’s Fifth. First comes the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>tourin, </i></span><span lang="EN-US">La Serpt’s take on the local garlic and duck fat soup,
filled with country bread and molten cheese. This is truly the stuff soup
dreams are made of, and the first dish Michael learned to synthesize at home
after we moved here (it’s also an excellent hangover cure!). When you get to
the bottom, it’s time to <i>faire chabrol</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> (sloshing the dregs of soup around with a splash of
red wine); if you don’t perform the ritual they’ll think you’re a Parisian or
worse. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Next comes a
generous serving of the rich foie gras made on the farm, or (on the €23 menu)
pâté with foie gras, or a salad made with warm <i>gésiers</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> (gizzards, preserved in duck fat. like the
<i>confits</i></span><span lang="EN-US">), or my
favourite, the <i>salade fermière</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, with <i>gésier</i></span><span lang="EN-US">s
and thin slices of smoked <i>magret</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> along with<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><i>fritons de canard</i></span><span lang="EN-US">
(fried skin and fat—a bit like duck porkies or pork rinds, I guess, but a
gourmet treat).</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Then in a waft of
heavenly aroma the main event on big platters: golden crisp <i>confits </i></span><span lang="EN-US">or succulent <i>magrets</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> grilled and topped with a light cream
sauce. Gorgeous potatoes sautéed in duck fat and garlic, with nice brown crispy
bits everyone digs into. Plates are wiped clean, belts are adjusted out a
notch.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">It is useful at
this point to recall the so called French Paradox (first theorized in 1819 by
Dr Samuel Black of Ireland, long before 1991 when<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>60 Minutes </i></span><span lang="EN-US">introduced it to the United States) and remember that duck fat, garlic
and red wine, combined together, are good for you! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Next, cheese. More
bread. More wine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somehow we
manage to squeeze in nibbles of fresh, tangy Rocamadour cabecou (the local AOC
goat cheese) or <i>Cantal entre deux</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> (the local hard yellow cheese). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Orders are taken
for dessert: here too there is a choice and all are of the comfort homemade
variety. Our daughter Lily always talks about her ‘dessert’ compartment, which
has nothing to do with the rest of her stomach, and I think most of us must possess one
because we somehow managed to polish off the chocolate and pear <i>bavarois</i>, the
fig tart and <i>crème caramel</i>, without bursting. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Those who
would not be returning for a while bought tins of foie gras and confits in the
Serpt’s little shop to take home. If you like, you can have a peek in the barn and pick out a duck for next time (as if you could tell one from the other).</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">You’ll be lucky to
get out in less than three hours; you’ll be lucky if you can still walk.
There’s a good reason why you have to book a Sunday at the Serpt long in
advance—because after all this delicious food and wine, the rest of the day
tends to be a total write off, devoted mainly to naps. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I forgot the
camera again, but Harvey and Marianne were better prepared: thanks to them for
sharing their photos.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US"> —Tennessee girl learns to <i>faire chabrol</i></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>La Serpt, tel 05 65 36 66 15</i></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">How to get there:
La Serpt is on the D28 between Puy-L'Évêque and Villefranche-du-Périgord. There are directions on its <a href="http://jean-pierre.vidal.pagesperso-orange.fr/la_serpt.htm" target="_blank">website</a> (rather endearingly the menu
here is still in francs—they haven't had one printed for years!) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Dana Facaros and Michael Paulshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06741156711204438561noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-69041148920704810212013-10-14T13:12:00.001+02:002014-05-19T18:48:06.323+02:00La Terrasse in Grézels<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Writing travel guides, one of the first
things we learned is not to bang on about how
wonderful/authentic/full-of-character places were when we first wrote about
them and how crowded/homogenized/regimented they had become. It’s true, of
course, but who wants to hear it? If people weren’t lucky enough to visit
Venice’s San Marco when you could just wander in and spend hours there, it’s
not their fault, is it?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Recently, one of our most reliable local
restaurants, La Poule au Pot in Goujounac, was suddenly shut down. It was a
duck <i>ferme auberge</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, famous for heaving
quantities of hedonistically delicious food and the best sautéed potatoes on
the planet. Howls still reverberate down the Lot Valley: <i>Où sont les patates
d’antan?</i></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But two superb wonderful/authentic/full of
character local restaurants are still going strong and it’s time to toot their
horns for them because we don’t want to ever say: ‘Oh you should have been here
when they were open.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course we
hope they endure forever, but of course nothing does. Go now. Their Internet
presence is minimal, and as we know all too well, people don’t buy guidebooks
anymore. They mostly rely on word of mouth. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The first is La Terrasse in Grezels. We
went last week but forgot to take our camera, so all these photos are by our
dear friend Marianne, who went the next week. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Grezels on the river Lot is a Brigadoonish
sort of place. Any good village in the Lot will have a medieval castle or
château, vineyards, a <i>brocante</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> (antique shop),
and a B&B or two, and Grezels ticks all the boxes. And it has La Terrasse,
where time has stood still, at least since 1989 when we first went. The only
concession to the 21st century is having the menu in euros instead of francs. </span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">‘Terrasse’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is something of a misnomer. There is a terrace but it only
has space for a couple of tables and it is only used for apéros before lunch.
Lunch, in fact, is all they do, in the old rural tradition that you are
famished after slogging away in the fields all morning, and need to camel up
for more of the same in the afternoon. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The best we manage to do is not eat any
breakfast and make the 4km walk there from Puy l’Evêque.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The couple who own it are two of our
favourite people, but we know next to nothing about them, not even their names.
Madame has a very sweet voice, takes the bookings (reservations are essential)
and does the cooking. No one we know has ever seen her, behind her wooden kitchen door,
but I imagine she must be a serene and happy soul. There are never any bells
and whistles: foam? nitrogen? sous-vide? Quoi? Her style is what the French
call ‘bonne femme’—literally ‘good wife’ but what it really means is comfort
food, simple, honest, fresh French home cooking, which very few restaurants
seem to do anymore. Certainly none as good as La Terrasse.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Monsieur, who has the physique of someone
who played rugby in his youth (like every other red blooded male in this
region) is in charge in the stone-walled dining room, adorned, Lot style, with
a stuffed weasel, a mounted deer head, and a giant wooden fork. After years of
practice he can single-handedly keep the dozen or so tables turning over like
clockwork. It helps that there’s no need to take orders, because although the
menu changes every day, there is no choice; one gets what Madame has been
inspired to cook. This of course is ideal for those of us who like everything
and hate making decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
Monsieur has an eagle eye; if he spots someone not eating a course, a
substitute may well appear. The last thing he wants is anyone to go away
hungry.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">When you sit down, there will be a carafe
of local red wine (very quaffable version of our local puts-hairs-on-your chest
Vin de Cahors, immediately refilled when you empty it) and a basket of crusty
brown country bread. Soon a tureen of delicious homemade soup will appear; a
rich tomato soup with noodles, or perhaps a traditional chickeny stock with
bread and cheese. Portions are generous, and there’s usually enough for more. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">If you’re not a regular, Monsieur will come
around as you finish and splash some wine in your bowl to remind you to<i>
faire chabrol</i></span><span lang="EN-US">—drink the last spoonfuls of soup
mixed with the wine directly from the bowl, as one does in these parts. It’s
especially good if there are some stringy gooey bits of melted cheese on the bottom.
Soup bowls around here have no rims, so you usually don’t slobber it all down
your chin and shirt.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The hors d’oeuvres that follow is no dainty
little piece of pineapple and cheese on toothpick affair. It might be an omelet
laden with cheese or cèpes, or a quiche lorraine. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">This is when the uninitiated begin to
panic: this is where a normal lunch at home stops. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>Mais non!</i></span><span lang="EN-US">
Time for the main course–a heaving platter of sliced duck breasts and beignets
de courgette, or perhaps tender beef and carrots and golden roast potatoes.
It’s excellent home cooking although not many of us were lucky enough to have
such talented parents. Afterwards, a green salad to ‘lighten’ the stomach.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Then the fromage— a choice of five or six,
including the soft white cabecou de Rocamadour, our local goat cheese. More
wine is required. And then dessert—a home baked tart, or rich chocolate mousse.
Coffee is included.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">For Sunday lunch, when you’ll need to book
a table early, there’s even more: after the soup there’s a seafood course, with
a glass of white wine; followed by an entrée (generally something rich and
stewed) followed by the main course. It costs a bit more than the weekday €18,
but no one has ever complained.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Afterwards, it’s
traditional to peruse the antiques in the shop across the street, and if it’s
nice, take a pretty postprandial waddle down to the river, past the house with
the tower down to the spot where the Ruisseau de Saint-Matré flows into the Lot by an old mill.
Maybe we’ll walk home to settle it all down. 4km will just about do it. </span><!--EndFragment-->
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><i>La Terrasse, Grezels 46700 (on the Lot, south of Puy-L'Évêque), tel 05 65 21 34 03</i></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
Dana Facaros and Michael Paulshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06741156711204438561noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-63716876394872087542013-10-14T13:01:00.001+02:002014-05-19T18:49:17.564+02:00Franco-Italian (con)Fusion: Tagliatelle al Confit de Canard<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">When we had written about every square inch
of Italy, we were ordered by our publisher to leave Umbria for southwest France, where there were several
surprises, starting with the price of truffles. In Umbria’s Valnerina, where we
lived, even impecunious travel writers could occasionally splurge on <i>spaghetti
al tartufo nero</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> in a trattoria; in the Lot, even
though we live a mere 45 minutes from the big truffle market in Lalbenque, they
are a pricey indulgence reserved for times when someone else is paying.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">What compensated for the paucity of
truffles was the omnipresence of duck, and to a lesser extent goose. Fatted
duck, to be precise, to make <i>foie gras</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, and
along with the foie gras come numerous duck by-products, most importantly the <i>maigret</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, or breast (usually grilled like a steak), and the thighs (<i>cuisses</i></span><span lang="EN-US">) and gizzards (<i>gésiers</i></span><span lang="EN-US">), which are
put up in jars or tins and slowly cooked in their own fat and preserved as <i>confits
de canard</i></span><span lang="EN-US">; the gizzards end up in a<i> salade
quercynoise </i></span><span lang="EN-US">with lettuce and walnut oil, and maybe
some smoked duck breast or ham. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Even the duck carcasses, curiously known as<i> demoiselles</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, are preserved, and barbecued in
the summer by the locals at the<i> ferme auberges</i></span><span lang="EN-US">,
restaurants run by farm families—in the southwest, they’re nearly always on
duck farms.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Jewish communities in Venice introduced a similar dish to the Veneto. <i>Oca in onto</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> (goose preserved in fat) is pretty much the same thing as <i>confit
d’oie</i></span><span lang="EN-US">; the <i>onto</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> of
course, being a tasty substitute for forbidden lard in soups, sauces and other
dishes. The Jews also make elaborate dishes such as <i>frisinsal de tagiadele</i></span><span lang="EN-US">:<i> tagliatelle</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> cooked in a rich
chicken stock, with goose <i>salame</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> or meatballs,
or even shredded roast chicken, pine nuts and sultanas, all baked in the oven
in the shape of a ring (more or less; recipes vary widely).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: large;">My own recipe that is much simpler,
invented one day when there were four for dinner, but only two <i>confits</i></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> in the fridge. The solution: put them on pasta. </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Eccoci qua!
Voilà!</span><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Proportions are to your own taste but in
general what you need for four servings are: </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">4 cloves of garlic, chopped</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">400 gr mushrooms, thickly sliced. Even
better if you have shitakes or porcini</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">A few big spoonfuls of duck fat (remember
this is the ‘other olive oil’ and good for you!)</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Two duck <i>confits <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Big handful of<i> </i></span><span lang="EN-US">parsley, chopped</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Salt and pepper</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Truffle oil (if you want to be fancy)</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">A small carton of thick cream (roughly
20cl, or 6-7 fluid ounces)</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Tagliatelle for four </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">If your<i> confits</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> are in a tin, open it and place on a low flame until you can
extract the meat from the liquified fat. Take off the fatty skin and give it to
the cat (if they are a French cat like our Brutus, they will insist on it!). Shred
the meat from the bone, which is easiest done with your fingers, but really
greasy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Half way through this, the
phone will inevitably ring…</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Meanwhile, boil the water for the pasta, as
the sauce takes about ten minutes.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Use some of the duck fat to sauté the
garlic. Store the rest of the fat in the fridge in a sealed container to sauté
potatoes. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">When the garlic is soft, add the mushrooms
and fry until soft. If they seem too dry, throw in a knob of butter. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Add the shredded <i>confits </i></span><span lang="EN-US">to the mushrooms. Remember they they're already cooked so only need to be heated through; when
warm, add the cream, then salt. Keep warm until the pasta is al dente. Toss in
a few spoonfuls of the cream from the sauce, then top with the confits and mushrooms and a twist or two of the
pepper mill, chopped parsley, and if you like, drizzle with truffle oil, to
remind yourself of the good old days in Umbria. </span></span></div>
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Dana Facaros and Michael Paulshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06741156711204438561noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-72192540675245322962013-09-05T12:26:00.001+02:002014-05-19T18:50:27.345+02:00Another Odd Thing That Italians Eat <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>—Fabiana Geomangio</i></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">We were in
Rosciano, our hamlet in Umbria, at a dinner party when we were first offered
tidy rectangles of toast topped with a dark brown paste that had a delicately
pungent, liver-like taste. Informed that they were called ‘<i>Crostini di
milza’</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, we happily munched
on them on several other occasions in Umbria and Tuscany before actually
remembering to look <i>milza</i></span><span lang="EN-US">
up (this was back in the pre-internet era). We discovered that it meant
‘spleen’.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Spleen! Isn’t that
the organ of ill temper, the one that one must periodically vent?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>Must I observe
you? must I stand and crouch <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>Under your
testy humour? By the gods <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>You shall
digest the venom of your spleen.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">—Shakespeare, <i>Julius Caesar</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Even in awfully
offal-ly France, where the thymus gland of the calf <i>(ris de veau</i></span><span lang="EN-US">) is one of the stars in the gourmet
constellation, you never see spleen (<i>rate</i></span><span lang="EN-US">) in a butcher’s or on a menu, or at least we never
have. Of course there is the great Charles Baudelaire’s <i>Spleen de Paris</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, but you wouldn’t want to eat that,
either: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>“Nothing is as
tedious as the limping days,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>When snowdrifts
yearly cover all the ways,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>And ennui, sour
fruit of incurious gloom,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>Assumes control
of fate’s immortal loom” <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">But spleen is not
all bad. In traditional Chinese medicine, one of its functions is to house the <i>yi</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> (thinking). It governs pondering—something
Baudelaire might have held a world record for. In Greek, the language that gave
us the English word ‘spleen’, people who are good hearted are ‘good-spleened’.
And the Greeks eat their share: lamb’s spleen is one of the organs in the
Easter dish, <i>kokoretsi,</i></span><span lang="EN-US">
braided into intestines and grilled on a spit (<i>kukurek</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> in Macedonian, <i>kokoreç</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> in Turkish). In southern Italy, in fact,
they makes something similar, be it <i>marro</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> (Puglia), <i>cazzmarr</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> (Marche and Basilicata) or <i>cazzamarro</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> (Calabria), among other names.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Other regions of
Italy partake as well. In Trentino, they use spleen to make </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="file:///smentrylink/::81518"><i>gnochetti</i></a></span><span lang="EN-US"> with greens, garlic, bone marrow and
egg. In Alto Adige they make <i>milzschnittensuppe</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> (beef broth poured over spleen-covered <i>crostini</i></span><span lang="EN-US">). And Rome's Jewish community makes <i>milza
di bue in padella</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> (sautéed
ox spleen). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">But it’s in Sicily
where spleen triumphs in Italy as soul food, especially in Palermo, where the
locals are said to have learned their love of spleen (or <i>meusa</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> as it’s known there) from the city’s
Jewish butchers, who slaughtered the animals in the Vucciria market, and were
paid in offal instead of money. To turn it into cash, they set up stands along
the street, boiling and frying the sliced spleen, or stuffing it in rolls.
Today it’s called '<i>pan cà meusa</i></span><span lang="EN-US">' and served with a squeeze of lemon, ricotta and grated <i>caciocavallo</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> cheese.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: large;">For first time spleen eaters, though, you
may want to stick with Tuscany and Umbrian <i>crostini di milza</i></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">. If you can get the spleen, it’s easy to make with butter, red
onions, nutmeg and anchovy paste and a food processor: Marco Tomaselli reveals
all in this short video:</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Dana Facaros and Michael Paulshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06741156711204438561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-20844905594607915522013-08-23T02:56:00.000+02:002014-05-19T18:54:33.660+02:00De Arte Coquinaria<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i> </i>making<i> agresto </i>(verjuice)</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">While researching
the Menu Decoder, we found ourselves looking into a lot of early cookbooks.
They’re good fun, and they can give insights into the past—the people’s past,
the story of everyday life—that no formal history can. Over the last few years
some good people have been putting many old texts online, in the original
languages and sometimes even in English translation. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Today
we offer a tribute to our forebear Maestro Martino da Como, the author of one
of the first printed cookbooks, the <i>Libro de Arte Coquinaria</i></span><span lang="EN-US">. Martino was a boy from a small village in the Swiss-Italian Canton
Ticino who worked his way up cooking for princes and prelates, counts and <i>condottieri</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, and eventually ran the kitchens of the Pope.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Martino lived in
interesting times. When he was busy at his cookbook, in the 1460’s, Cosimo de’
Medici and Francesco Sforza ruled in Florence and Milan, and Italy was getting
its first printing press. Pope Nicholas V statyed up nights planning the
rebuilding of Rome, and the terrible Turk was making himself at home in
newly-captured Constantinople. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">They were good
times too, especially for anyone with a skill to offer<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Renaissance Italy’s sophisticated
elite. Consumption then could be very conspicuous indeed, and Martino had the
talent for coming up with unique culinary spectaculars. One recipe in the <i>De
Arte</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> informs us ‘How to Dress a Peacock With All
Its Feathers, So that When Cooked, It Appears To Be Alive and Spews Fire From
Its Beak’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Italian cooking
has always had its divisions of class. One thing you won’t find in <i>De Arte</i> is
onions. Not much garlic either; as the Maestro frankly explains: ’Garlic and
onions are good for the peasants, who eat them willingly and depend on them
because of their poverty and because of the work they do’.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Surprisingly
though, many of the recipes he chose to include are simple, even humble: <i>porchetta</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> and sausages, cockscombs, peas and beans—even <i>pastine in brodo. </i></span><span lang="EN-US">Not so long ago, every trattoria in Italy still had this modest dish on the
menu—plain broth with nothing but tiny noodles in it, mostly for people whose
digestion was telling them to leave the pasta alone that day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Five hundred years ago, Martino was
cooking it for the princes of the Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We like his idea of putting a pinch of saffron in the broth. We’re not
so sure about his recommendation to boil the noodles for <i>a full hour</i>—it seems
in Martino’s kitchen there was always a whole lot of boiling going on. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>De Arte</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> has its quirks; the casualness of his approach seems charming to a modern
cook: ‘To cook an egg, let it boil for the time it takes to say an Our Father’—<i>per
spatio d’un paternostro</i></span><span lang="EN-US">. Precise quantities are
hardly if ever given. We cooks are invited to use <i>secundo che pare a la tua
discrezione</i></span><span lang="EN-US">—‘as much as we think best’. He’ll tell
us to put in ‘the good spices’ but never says which ones they are. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Maestro Martino
certainly would have enjoyed a longer spice rack than most other cooks in his
day, but any upper-crust kitchen would have had saffron, ginger, mace, cumin,
nutmeg and the lemony peppery spice called ‘grains of paradise’ (or <i>maniguette</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> to the French, who once were very fond of it), as well as most of
the common garden herbs we know today. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Martino had an
interesting palette of flavours. The great chef is said to have spent some
early days in Naples, and there is definitely a sweet hint of the south in many
of his recipes: plenty of almonds and almond milk, as well as raisins and other
dried fruits. Another star ingredient is <i>agresto</i></span><span lang="EN-US">
(verjuice), prominent in many soups and sauces. People in the Renaissance liked
a touch of tartness in their dinner more than in later ages. Verjuice is the
squeezings of unripe grapes, a kinder, gentler<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>sort of vinegar. Maybe it’s time for this old favourite to
make a comeback; if you have a lot of grapes, there’s a recipe for making it
<a href="http://honest-food.net/2011/08/02/how-to-make-verjus/" target="_blank">here</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Anyone with the
time to go through <i>De Arte</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> will find plenty of
fascinating sidelights and surprises. If you thought cheesecake was a modern
innovation you’ll see a perfectly serviceable recipe for it here: <i>torta
bianca</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, made with lots of ricotta and flavoured
with ginger and rosewater. There are cheesecake variants too, including one
that calls for a pound of garlic (!)</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Maestro Martino’s
work lived on for centuries. Later editions, some good and some pennydreadfuls,
added whatever they pleased to the original recipes. One even included
(entirely fantastical) instructions on carving and cooking an elephant:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">You can see the
whole text of De Arte Coquinaria <a href="http://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/tx/martino2.htm" target="_blank">here</a> (in Italian) .
And a few of his recipes have been translated into English <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/medievalcuisine/Euriol/my-recipes/recipes-by-time-period/15th-century" target="_blank">here</a>.
There is also an <a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Libro-De-Arte-Coquinaria-Maestro-Martino/9781891788833" target="_blank">English translation</a> in print, though a flawed and
controversial one. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Online resources
are getting better all the time, and anyone with an interest in old recipes, or
anything else Italian, will be delighted to see John Florio’s 1611
English-Italian dictionary reproduced in a beautiful facsimile <a href="http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/florio/" target="_blank">copy</a> (thanks, Greg Lindahl!). Florio, a born
Londoner, was the son of an Italian refugee who became a great scholar and a
friend of Shakespeare; he spied on the French ambassador for Walsingham, and
did much to introduce the English to the arts and manners of Italy. For words
where Florio is no help, try the massive<a href="http://tlio.ovi.cnr.it/TLIO/" target="_blank"> Tesoro della Lingua Italia delle Origini</a></span><span lang="EN-US">, a dictionary of Italian words going back
to the Middle Ages <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Dana Facaros and Michael Paulshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06741156711204438561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-7781552632068411202013-08-23T02:47:00.001+02:002014-05-19T18:57:25.923+02:00Eating the Enemy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I was out in the
garden, doing what everyone with a garden in these parts does in July: pulling
out purslane. I gave it my special attention last year, concentrating on
eradicating the cursed stuff completely so I might not have to deal with it
this year. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Ha. Purslane
always wins. Purslanologists note that one plant can make 32,000 seeds. But I
can hold it at bay, taking special care to get the root out—because leave one
sliver of taproot and it will be up again in no time. Trying to hoe it only
makes more purslane. On hot afternoons I can hear them laughing at me. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">To be fair, it’s a
rather charming plant, a cousin of the portulaca, with its starburst of
creeping stems and glistening, semi-succulent leaves. It’s only coincidence
that the Italian word, <i>porcellana</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, should be the
same as for ‘porcelain’, but the delicate colour and the sheen do make the
leaves seem as if they were made of celadon ware. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">While yanking them
out I might nibble on a couple. Purslane when freshly picked does have a
pleasantly tart taste. I remembered that the Greeks like it in salads. Back
before we even knew what the stuff was, Dana’s relatives back on her father’s
Greek island, Ikaria, had given her some to plant at home. Healthiest thing for
you, they said. Dana kept it in water until the ride to the airport, and
carefully packed it for the trip home. It was not one of the great moments in
her life when of all people our daughter, the Queen of Mockery, was the one to
notice that the weeds she was ripping out to make room were exactly the same as
the stuff she was putting in. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">But did we have <i>porcellana</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> in the menu decoder yet? What do Italians do with it? I had to
check as soon as I got back inside and washed my hands. Dana had already written
a short entry, where she noted that they throw them in salads like the Greeks,
and also sauté them with garlic, just as you would do for other greens. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">We found a score
of local dialect words for them: <i>barzellana, perchiacca, perchiazza,
porcacchia, precacchia, pucacchia, purciaca, purchiddana</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, and on and on. Back in harder times, everyone used to eat them,
just as they did in England and France. A little research turned up some
recipes: purslane in soups, in <i>malfatti</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, in
omelettes, or fried in batter like courgette blossoms. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The thought was
becoming irresistible: if you can’t beat the enemy, eat it. We’ll give it a
try, and report back soon. </span></div>
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Dana Facaros and Michael Paulshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06741156711204438561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-27459377127194762572013-08-23T02:43:00.001+02:002014-05-19T19:00:38.360+02:00Eating the Enemy, Part II<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The
more we got to know about purslane, the greater our wonder and respect for it.
It has an astoundingly high level of omega-3 fatty acids, more than any other
vegetable. And omega 3’s are very fashionable these days. Purslane is loaded
with vitamins, especially vitamin C and E, along with lots of healthy minerals
and antioxidants. Doctors have been singing its praises since antiquity, for
countering inflammation, sore throats, ulcers and earaches. It’s good for the
heart and the joints. Put some in a poultice on your bee stings and boils.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Even in the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>garden, purslane’s fans claim it is the
most virtuous of weeds. It makes good ground cover to hold moisture in the
soil, and breaks up soil to help plants with less robust roots. (Maybe so, but
if you let it, it will take over everything. Everything.)</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">There’s been no
rain for two weeks now, but the purslane just keeps coming. It’s time to yank
some up and cook it. Everyone who has ever used the stuff recommends picking it
in the morning. The plant employs an unusual sort of photosynthesis; it does
its work at night, storing up nutrition in the form of a slightly acidic
chemical, which it converts to sugars over the course of the day. Get it in the
morning while it’s still tart. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">This we do. We
have to cut off the roots and soak it; growing next to the ground it picks up a
lot of dirt. Italians have been eating <i>porcellana</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> (also called <i>portulaca</i></span><span lang="EN-US">) forever. The
Milanese Bonvesin de la Riva mentions it in his list of foods in his 1288 <i>Marvels
of the City of Milan</i></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we haven’t found a lot of compelling recipes for
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we try it the most common
way: like any other green, sautéed with a little garlic and olive oil (and a
chopped chilli, because that’s the way we are). It looks about like any other
green when it’s done, but I have to admit we were a little disappointed by the
taste. The tartness disappeared, and a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>blandness replaced it. Fortunately we didn’t cook it too long. That’s
the worst mistake you can make; after about five minutes on the stove a sort of
gluey texture starts to emerge—not nice. Five minutes is just about right.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs1HkaNfR4wOoAC8LP9i4VdvrFgEJWSWqfvyg1lUgRRLjqmE_iRak_pMvyo4w5QSBblztIHScYWj6og7ecIrrjSvop23e_jThTjlbqfpw4RiHFjOM8cXHIg6LKX28iwBUDeQHpIC8B3rW4/s1600/cookedpurslane.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs1HkaNfR4wOoAC8LP9i4VdvrFgEJWSWqfvyg1lUgRRLjqmE_iRak_pMvyo4w5QSBblztIHScYWj6og7ecIrrjSvop23e_jThTjlbqfpw4RiHFjOM8cXHIg6LKX28iwBUDeQHpIC8B3rW4/s640/cookedpurslane.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">One
cookbook suggests making a sauce for meat or fish: mash up a bunch of it, with
an egg white, an anchovy and some oil. Others remind us that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the country folk used to make it<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>sott’aceto</i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">, preserved in vinegar. Everyone else seems to limit it to salads: with
cucumber, with tomato, beetroot, beans, lentils or whatever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s a <a href="http://it.paperblog.com/insalata-di-pollo-all-erba-porcellana-1879043" target="_blank">nice one</a> (in Italian) involving cold
chicken, basil, pistachios, shaved <i>grana padano</i></span><span lang="EN-US">
and red currants.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Bottom
line—it’s absolutely fine in salads, though it will never be a star. You can
leave the smaller stems in, and there doesn’t seem to be any difference in
taste between the young shoots and the full-grown monsters.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
Italians haven’t provided much inspiration, so we looked to see what the French
do with their <i>pourpier</i></span><span lang="EN-US">. Back in Roman times,
Pliny oddly referred to it as ‘Gallic asparagus’, which suggests it was
somewhat prized. And Gallic <i>pourpier</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, after all,
is what’s menacing my garden. But the French were no help; all they do is purée
it for a soup, a <i>velouté</i>, like they do with everything else. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Next year the
purslane will certainly be back, and we’ll be trying<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a Mexican favourite, pork and purslane, or the Lebanese
salad called <i><a href="http://rovinggastronome.com/mainblog/files/egullet_purslane_z_oneill.pdf" target="_blank">fattoush</a></i></span><span lang="EN-US">, with lots of mint and
lemon juice, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>or this
very intriguing Indonesian <a href="http://www.erbeincucina.it/730.html." target="_blank">salad</a>. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Finally, all you
gardeners be advised that purslane has an evil twin. The false purslane is called
‘creeping spurge’. it is nearly as common and mildly toxic. Almost as soon as I
learned this I noticed, yes indeed, we’ve got that in the garden too. But the
leaves are smaller and flatter, and grow in pairs. It’s not hard at all to <a href="http://www.aragriculture.org/horticulture/ornamentals/weed_id/spurge_spotted.htm" target="_blank">tell the difference</a>. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Dana Facaros and Michael Paulshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06741156711204438561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-43759832485469868212013-08-12T16:29:00.001+02:002014-05-19T19:02:32.688+02:00The Naked and the Ill-formed<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">It won’t be love
at first sight. Even a glowing description wouldn’t set your taste buds on
fire. But you won’t be sorry you tried them. <i>Malfatti</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> means ‘badly made’, and the charm of these dumplings seems to be in
squeezing them into shape by hand any which way—they’re never supposed to be
completely tidy and uniform like their cousins, the gnocchi (in some corners of
the northwest they sometimes call them <i>gnocchi verdi</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, ‘green gnocchi’). </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Essentially,
a <i>malfatto</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> is the common stuffing used for
ravioli or tortelli: spinach and ricotta, bound with eggs, and some nutmeg and
parmesan thrown in—only without the pasta cover.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In much of Tuscany, the same thing is logically called <i>gnudi</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, or ‘nudies’ (<i>malfatti</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> in Siena, <i>gnudi</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> in Florence ; it’s a local thing). Some restauranteurs in Napa, California claim that their mother invented them in 1925,
but the Italians say they come from Lombardy, where they’ve been making them
for centuries. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>They’re
pretty trendy now, both in Italy and the U.S. <i>Malfatti</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> are easy to make, and offer a great alternative to pasta for a <i>primo</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, or a good lunch all by themselves along with a salad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The most popular recipe has them with
slightly browned butter and sage on top. They’re perfect like that, but up in
Lombardy they will also put mushrooms cooked in butter on top, or even a tomato
and meat <i>ragú</i></span><span lang="EN-US">. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Here’s Dana’s
basic recipe for <i>malfatti</i></span><span lang="EN-US">:</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This recipe is very forgiving, and can be
easily adjusted to what you have in the garden or fridge. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 firmly packed cup of greens (whatever
you have in the garden will work; this one is a mix of chicory, chard, amaranth
and spinach); boiled, drained, squeezed and finely chopped<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">garlic cloves, minced (if you like
garlic, put in five; if you don't put in less)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1/2 cup green onions or chives, or both,
minced<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">a handful of fresh basil leaves (if you
have them)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">250 gr ricotta<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1/2 cup grated Parmesan<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 cup breadcrumbs or flour.
Breadcrumbs make a lighter version<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">a big pinch of nutmeg<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2 eggs, beaten<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">salt and pepper to taste<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">flour for dredging<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">5 tbs butter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">a dozen or more sage leaves<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">grated Parmesan<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">—Sauté the garlic in a bit of olive oil
and mix in the greens. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">—Mix in the onions/chives, ricotta,
Parmesan, breadcrumbs, garlic, nutmeg, eggs, salt and pepper to make a stiff
dough. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi14sTszWON6X8TDTtAF_i7uni6ZQNOD2TJmNDtQ8_3OVj5ZjufV-HfEPyG0Lm8XqAHJBvYHR1Ppb7ebur7TiCn0lnxrf0Ks_3Lq67DP84nuU2dN4qO7ZnW8UrM1TpLmFQ5wW1UK66NrB1e/s1600/malfatti2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi14sTszWON6X8TDTtAF_i7uni6ZQNOD2TJmNDtQ8_3OVj5ZjufV-HfEPyG0Lm8XqAHJBvYHR1Ppb7ebur7TiCn0lnxrf0Ks_3Lq67DP84nuU2dN4qO7ZnW8UrM1TpLmFQ5wW1UK66NrB1e/s400/malfatti2.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">—Preparation: heat salted water to a boil
as you roll the dough into logs about 4cm in diameter on a floured surface.
Slice, making sure each dumpling is lightly coated with flour, and drop into
boiling water (it usually takes four or five batches). Take them out as they
float to the surface and put under a low grill to keep warm and lightly brown while cooking the other batches. This light grilling, it must be said, is not canonical, but it gets rid of the slightly slimy surface and makes the malfatti much nicer, at least at our house.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">—Meanwhile gently heat the butter and sage
until the butter is light brown and sage turns dark. Drizzle over the malfatti,
top with Parmesan and serve warm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC-YJUQ44jbX-_fnn8ROdOCoQ0B5O2fqhUXcvGoS5cRV8PRb6EB6aebAReDce15U2XkVJHK-vDL1JKXfh-jC0cXYyj5J_ZSPLICb-lnYBi5btGyBAlBtimiACnn0DS6pXIh259a7u64zcF/s1600/malfatti.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC-YJUQ44jbX-_fnn8ROdOCoQ0B5O2fqhUXcvGoS5cRV8PRb6EB6aebAReDce15U2XkVJHK-vDL1JKXfh-jC0cXYyj5J_ZSPLICb-lnYBi5btGyBAlBtimiACnn0DS6pXIh259a7u64zcF/s400/malfatti.JPG" height="346" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Here’s a recipe that may more nearly
approximate the original rustic <i>malfatti</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, with
old bread soaked in milk instead of flour or breadcrumbs (recipe in Italian <a href="http://laprovinciapavese.gelocal.it/cronaca/2012/12/13/news/i-malfatti-un-classico-della-cucina-contadina-1.6191526" target="_blank">here</a>) </span></span></div>
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Dana Facaros and Michael Paulshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06741156711204438561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5878132347080253893.post-19866345726794510532013-08-10T13:20:00.003+02:002014-05-19T19:05:10.982+02:00The App’s Finally Out<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Well, we did it.
Apple has just OK’d our baby for the App Store, and we’ll just sit back and
wait and see if anyone notices. A long-treasured bottle of Barolo fell victim
to our little celebration. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">The Italian Menu
Decoder was some three years in the making. Not that we worked on it all the
time; it was something we took up to fill any time we had between jobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it was addictive. One thing always
led to another. Take <i>milza</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, or spleen (of a
calf). Couldn’t leave that out; in Umbria they grind it up and put it on little
toasts as <i>bruschetta</i></span><span lang="EN-US">—it’s actually delicate and
quite tasty. That reminded us of the <i>pan ca meusa</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, spleen and cheese sandwiches, we tried long ago in the famous
Antica Focaccia San Francesco in Palermo. Now, that old standby is famous and
has its own website, which reminded us we had to explain <i>sfinciuni</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, <i>panelle</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> and <i>cazzilli</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, and a few other things too. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">And a Palermo
market cheese sandwich (usually <i>caciocavallo</i></span><span lang="EN-US">—I
check to see if we have that word yet) can be <i>schietta</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, plain, or <i>maritata</i></span><span lang="EN-US">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Married’ means with spleen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Maritata</i></span><span lang="EN-US">
can mean a lot of things around the Mezzogiorno. We didn’t know that in Naples
they call a soup <i>minestra maritata</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> if it has
meat in it, ‘married’ to the vegetables. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And
<i>schietta</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> made us think of the Greek <i>sketo</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, which is what you say there when you don’t want any sugar in your
frappé. It was a surprise to find so many old Greek words hiding among the
Italian. In Venetian dialect (and Bergamasco and Triestino and no doubt many
others) a fork is a <i>pirón </i></span><span lang="EN-US">instead of a <i>forchetta</i></span><span lang="EN-US">. And rightly so; after all, the Byzantines invented them.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>See
what I mean?</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It
never stops. Never. Most likely we will be working on this app for the rest of
our days. I’ve added two words to it since I started writing this post—<i>cimino</i></span><span lang="EN-US">, I noticed, is Sicilian for sesame seeds, which will be on the soft
roll locally called a <i>mafalda</i></span><span lang="EN-US">; the Palermitani
prefer these with their spleen. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We’ve
learned a lot, most of which we of course forget—after some thirty years of
being confused by Italian words for seafood, we still often can’t tell which
fish is which. Worst of all, the Italians are diabolically clever people,
nowhere more than in the kitchen, and at times we suspect that they might be
coming up with new words faster than we can pin down the old ones. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Right
now we have checked it against various lists and we think we have just about
everything. There was a last minute panic before the release when we realized
we had forgot—spinach. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> Not
having a staff of culinary lexicographers at our command, we might slip up here
and there. And with a subject where everyone and every village has its opinion
of what’s right, we expect to get a lot of mail. That, in fact, is just what
we’re hoping for. One of the reasons for starting this blog is to start a big
discussion about all these subjects, to hear from those who know while
exploring the secrets of regional and traditional cooking from every corner of
Italy. If you have any corrections, amplifications, emendations, recipes or
stories to tell, do drop us a line!</span></div>
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Dana Facaros and Michael Paulshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06741156711204438561noreply@blogger.com1