rock ..and Springrolls

involtini primavera - springrolls

Let's spring-rolls !! As I said when I post about dumplings , one of my favorite Chinese food are spring-rolls.
One of my troubles was the wrappers, Is almost impossible to find it in the town  where I live. Maybe somewhere in Turin is available, but I have no idea where to find it!
In an Italian website I find a recipe that suggest in this case how to prepare wrappers myself, so I tried this.
with 200 gr of white flour and some water, I prepared a simply  dough , like the one of dumplings!
with this dough I made some flat wrappers as in the picture.

For the filling I had some cabbages , some leeks , some carrots and  half onion plus  some salt.

At this point I simply rolled the filling in many spring-rolls using the wrappers I made.

OK the shape is not perfect :-)

Now I had just to fry my spring-rolls .

After this I put spring-rolls on some cooking paper to adsorb the extra oil.

OK spring-rolls are ready! 

I think the taste was quite good and enough similar to the one I ate at Chinese restaurant, next time  I ll have just to add some salt to the flour pastry. It was a little to much sweet at the end!!

I have also in my mind some variations in fillings, I think this procedure is also good to try some "sofficini" like rolls. :-)

how much pasta ?

how much pasta for person you need ?
It depend in kind of pasta, and in how much you are hungry!
Average quantity is about 90/100 gr. for each person. Consider that maybe someone will eat second portion !
Usually for a plate of pasta is enough to fit .. a plate of pasta at 70% . Pasta will grown boiling!

Ops! Maybe this post can be considered obvious :-)

how to stop with ketchup tunnell :-)

If you are thinking to put ketchup in your pasta or noddles or what else that is not a French fry or hamburger , Stop!!! I have to suggest you almost 3 ways to do it without ketchups ;-)

First suggestion, this is how my grand-mum often do: with a concentrated tomatoes sauce, you can easy find it in tubes, can or tetra-pack and look like this:

The use is the same as ketchup, just put it in the same quantity ( or maybe a little more ).

Second option is a "passata" of tomatoes, usually this is available in bottles at mall , is much fresh than concentrated sauces. Is available also ready for pasta (with onions, olive, even minced meat or what else you like)

Last option is "do it yourself" with some fresh tomatoes , or a can of tomatoes pulp. Of course I prefer this , cos in prepared sauces there's always a large amount of chemical compound-preservative and strange ingredients to add colors or fake aroma with strange codes and labels  (also available in best ketchups!! :-)) ).

The basic sauce is very easy , you just can put some olive oil in a little pot , add some salt , a pinch of sugar and the  tomatoes  (previously minced with a mincer) :-)))

Kill the dumpling!

Homemade dumpling  (1th test :-) )

When I go to Chinese restaurant there's two things are a must for me ! 1 th is the steamed dumplings.

In Italy also called "ravioli al vapore"  .

2 Nd are spring rolls , in Italy called "involtino primavera". 

Till some times ago I even though this kind of recipes are almost impossible to do at home!! Some magic recipe with exotic ingredients !

In last period I often hear from Estee that she prepared it with her Asian friends at their food "party" and dinner. Then I watched at uncle Phil blog a recipe about spring rolls. There s some difficult about it, I think here the particular "wrappers" are almost impossible to find. Estee suggest me to go to Asian shop. What you can do if you don't have Asian shops in your town ? Eh eh Thanks to INTERNET I find an Italian site that talk about involtini , they put recipe too. And much important for me, they explain in how to do wrappers yourself!! this is Italian way , if you don't have, do it yourself !! aahah

Another "Everest" recipe are sushi and tempura. I think I can try with tempura, for sushi I need to learn more about preparation. It looks very specific and very "perfect" food.

Anyway first try is with dumplings, first consideration about my result, is the shape. Honestly I didn't made the right shape for it , I have to try again and again ;-) 

In my mind I have our Italian ravioli shape, or even the regional agnolotti.

Following a Chinese blog , with the recipe , I was very surprised about the preparation. I have my way to think , for example I immediately saw two differences. No salt, in the knead and no red of egg. Italian homemade pasta in knead have always some salt and often the red of some eggs (it depending of quantity of flour).

For the recipe I needed pork meat and leeks , but I didn't had it so I put beef meat and spinachs . (Red and green at last isn't it ? Same colors .. :-)) meat for meat and veggy for veggy ..) 

Another funny things , is that to remember the word "dumpling" I had some difficult , I don't know why, but I kept to think to it as "ravioli" in my mind!!

Later I put also some pictures about preparation of "my" dumpling! 

The taste at the end was quite good for me, I find it enough similar to the one I ate at Chinese restaurant! Parents enjoy it too... 

Any comments and suggestion in preparing it are welcome!!

If some Asian people read this , please forgive me to kill the dumplings ;-)

Crostata ai mirtilli ( Blueberries tart pie )

 

 

Crostata ai mirtilli ( Blueberries tart pie )

When I went in a national park near Stockholm  Blueberries there was a group of Indians tourists too, they was very noisy and they appear exited as a children for everything ! A very funny memory is when one of them saw some blueberry plant and he start jumping shouting "blùbbery! bluùberry!!" :-))

Anyway this kind of "crostata" tart pie is one of my favourite, maybe just the apple pie or fruits pie can be better for me.

Sometimes ago a friend ask to prepare a pie , so after some research on the web about an easy recipe I tried with this pie. When I was kid mum prepared this pie and usually I made the up stripes of dough.
Nowadays mum get lazy and if I want to eat this pie , ( this often happen recently :-)) ) I have to prepare it myself , the prepared one that you find at mall are not the same!

Ingredients:

400 g of white flour

3 eggs

100 g of sugar

100 g of butter

1 grated lemon skin

200 g of blueberry marmelade

The preparation is quite easy:

Let melt the butter in a little pot (or in the microwave).

Mix the flour with the sugar, add the eggs, the melted butter and the grated lemon skin.

Knead it for about 10 minutes. (if the pastry appear too much watered add some flour)

Let the dough in the fridge for half hour.

After this divide the dough in two parts (65% for the base of pie and 35% for the decorative stripes )

Start to warm the oven , it must be at 180 degree (Celsius!!)

Cover with some olive oil a middle pie dish (is also good do this with some butter and grated bread or flour)

Stretch the dough in the pie dish, cover it with the marmelade and then decorate with stripes made with the other part of dough. make a web with the stripes over the marmelade.

You can choose the kind of marmalade you prefer. (also chocolate cream like nutella is good !)

Cook the pie in the oven for 40 minutes. Let it cold and enjoy it. ;-)

Risotto alle lenticchie ( Rice with lentils )

Risotto alle lenticchie ( Rice and lentils )

This risotto is quite fast to prepare, and easy to do. I think is a very good recipe for winter days. Lentils taste is quite good with rice.

Ingredients for 3 persons:
4 fists of rice
3 fists of lentils
1 garlic clove
olive oil
salt

Here in Turin people say that lentils can call coins and money, (maybe cos the shape of lentil is similar to a coin) , anyway I never get rich after eat lentils :-))
First thing to do is put lentils in a pot with water, add a pinch of salt and put it on low fire and let in cook for about half hour.

Prepare a large pan with some olive oil (sunflowers oil are also good) , mince the garlic in little pieces. (If you like you can also add half onion minced!)
Fry it for a couple of minutes, till the garlic will be golden.

In this recipe I'll boil the rice like how we do with pasta. So put water in a big pasta pot and let it boil.
When the water is boiling add half fist of salt.

Lentils must be ready now, add lentils in the large pan and let it fry for a couples of minutes, mixing it with a spoon.

Keep the water where you cooked the lentils and add it in the pasta pot water. It will gave colour and lentils taste to the rice!

Add the rice in the boiling water and let it cook for about 14 minutes.

When the rice is ready add it in the large pan and mix it with a spoon.

The rice with lentils is ready!!
Enjoy it! :-)

Bagna Cauda (hot sauce)

Today is the last day off , I took some days off after "befana" public holiday. So I decided to prepare the bagna calda, literally hot sauce.
This is a tradictional food of Turin , in dialet is called bagna cauda. Is very good in winter time and as the name suggest is better to serve it very hot.
Writing this post I put also Metallica black album, you know.. I needed something strong cos there s a lot of garlic in the recipe. :-)

Origin of this dishes are from middleages, I read that farmers made it to celebrate the broach of new wine. I read also that people of piedmont and turin originally made it adding to Anchovies and oil from genoa to the garlic and milk from farms near turin.
In france there's a similar recipe called "anchoiade" but  they use water and lemon instead of milk .
Turin is very near to France and we have some tradictional food in common or similar.

Ingredient for 4 persons :
Anchovies 150g (under salt kind)
Garlic  7 big cloves
Extra-virgin olive oil (half glass)
milk (1 glass)
some butter (50 g)
some milk cream (is optional if you like it more creamy)
Varius kind of vegetables.

Clean the  Anchovies with some red wine and trow the fishbone.
(Sometimes I use also under oil Anchovies, but under salt kind is better.)

After this clean the garlic pieces from the skin, this is a job quite boring. :-)

 

Cut Garlic in little pieces and put it in a large pot.

Add the milk (must be enough to cover garlic).

Left the garlic resting in the milk for at least one hour , this is important if you don't want to kill people around you just with a breath for about 2 days. After this the garlic wil be softer and it will loose his "power".
Put the olive oil and the butter in a little pot and warm it till the butter will be totally melted.

Now you can cook the garlic: middle - low fire will be ok.
Add the milk cream now if you like. The milk cream will make it much creamy (of course). This is optional and is not from the original recipe I think.
Mix the milk and garlic with a spoon, it will need about 20 - 30 minutes to be cooked. After 20 minutes try to squeeze a piece of garlic with a fork. If it will squeeze easy and it will appear soft is done.
Now  you can decide: you can squeeze all the garlic with the fork (more tradictional) or you can take an handy mincer :-) and mince it all . I always use the mincer :-))
It will make a fabulous cream of milk and garlic. You can also put this in a water gun and use during Halloween night to get candies . :-)

Is time to add the oil with butter mealted, add it and mix with the spoon , keep cooking it with the fire low.
Add the Anchovies and keep mixing till the Anchovies will be totally melted.

The bagna calda is ready. We have particular plates called "fujot" with the place for a candle , the candle will keep the sauce warm. You can put veggy in the sauce and enjoy it!!

The vegetables:
What ever is in season and suits your fancy, traditionally one would expect:

Raw, cut into strips or bite-sized pieces:

• 2 cardoons (if these are not available where you live substitute 3-4 sticks white celery)
• 2 yellow bell peppers
• A head of Savoy cabbage

Cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces:

• 2 baked beets
• 2 roasted bell peppers
• 5 roasted onions
• A head of cauliflower, steamed and broken into florets
• 6 potatoes, steamed
• 6 carrots, steamed

This is probably a very healty food cos of garlic (that's a natural antibiotic ) cos of Anchovies and because of a lot of vegetables.

If tonight you ll have to fight with vampires this is probably the best dish to protect you, just a breath and they ll fall down like flies .. :-)
But if you want to kiss someone don't eat it!!

Penne tonno e olive

Penne Tonno e Olive (pasta with tuna and olives sauce)

Today at lunch I prepared this 'easy' pasta with home made sauce , the sauce was with tomatoes (a must!) , tuna and olives. this kind of pasta is called "penne" I like this kind of pasta very much. Usually I prepare this when I don't have a lot of time , anyway today I put more attention and care in sauce. mm this cos I was thinking about this article too :-) I think also it was a good start for this blog, something typical and easy to prepare.

Ingredients:
olive oil
garlic 1 piece
half onion
about 10 olives
100 g of tuna
a can of tomatoes in pulp
1 - 2 fresh tomato
salt , a tea spoon
a little pinch of sugar
a little pinch of red hot pepper
parmesan chees
penne pasta :-) usually I take flat plate of penne for each person.

Cut the onion and the piece of garlic in little pieces as in the picture .

Put some olive oil in a pot , then add onion and garlic pieces and the pinch of red hot pepper, put the pot in a low fire and let it get golden.

Add the olives , the tuna and mix it with a spoon for half minute .  (Save 3 olives and the fresh tomato in a plate, you ll need it later) At this point add the tomatoes pulp in the pot, the teaspoon of salt and I add half teaspoon of sugar. ( few sugar is optional, it will cut the acidity of tomatoes!! Have you ever seen godfather movie ? They prepared sauce with a few sugar too :-)) but this is not a menace! )
Mix it all, with a spoon , let it go for about 15 minutes on middle - low fire.
Start to prepare also the water for pasta, in pasta pot put water and put it on fire.

The sauce is almost done, at this point I took an handy  mincer and I mince the sauce to obtain a creamy sauce.
I put a cover on the pot and I let it go for 5-10 minutes more with low fire ,
aa don't forget, how the hell kitchen chef often say "taste it" :-) if it need more salt or similar.
Water for pasta must be boiling now, add a spoon of salt in boiling water.
Penne usually take 11 minutes to be ready.
While penne is cooking we have last duty..
We still have the fresh tomato and some olive remember?
At this point I took the fresh tomato and I cut it in little cubes, I took also some olive and cut in little pieces.

Ok penne must be ready now , put it on a plate , add the sauce , add parmesan cheese and decorate with pieces of fresh tomato and olive!!

I have also another fastest recipe to make penne and tuna sauce, I called this "survival pasta", very fast to prepare and done in 15 - 20 minutes maybe good material for another post in future.

Do you like penne ? I hope you enjoy it! ;-)

Little presentation about me..

OK I'm not so good in presentations :-) , shortly , my name is Fabio and I live in Italy. My home town is not so far from Turin in the north west of Italy.

One of my passion is food, I like to experiment how to cook and of course  I like to eat food!!
Maybe you re asking yourself <why a murder, why this title for a food blog?> ..

The answer  is simply.. I see that in each culture there's different way to prepare food .. In my life I visited and eat in France, Spain, Ireland , Sweden, Poland and the far place I went was Kenya . (To tell the true I didn't travel a lot but I love also watch food show at TV..)

When I traveled and ate in a different country my attention is often captured by good food (of course) , but sometimes there s something totally different , something that make me think <omg , how they can eat this?>
.. in some other occasion you can see your favorite food , killed!

For example when I knew that in Sweden they put ketchup in pasta, my first reaction was.. <hey , that's a Murder> so if you eat each kind of pasta, thinking something like "I'm eating Italian food!!"

...please don't add ketchup to pasta ;-) I mean nobody in Italy eat pasta with ketchup, if he's ok anyway. I wont make a list of food murders, but I'm not a chef , I just cook as hobby , so maybe something you ll see here about food .. will appear like a murder. :-)

..another murder is probably my English ;-) (I apologize for my mistakes in  English, by fortune spell-checks work very good nowadays)
I just want to practice also this language and I like to share my experience with people.

I like also think that maybe someone at the other side of the world will read this . This will be great: to share cooking and food experience so far .
Anyway I hope everyone will see this blog will enjoy it,

ciao ;-)