ambra
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Posts posted by ambra
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41 minutes ago, shain said:
Nothing special about the local beans, I don't think. The only "secret" I know of is a good long soak and and a long slow cooking time. Some flavorings perhaps? Bay leaves and garlic are commonly added, some add an onion or carrot. I like it with a really peppery olive oil, but in some African countries ghee is also common. I knew of places that add lentils, to mellow the fava taste and make it more paste like as they break down.
If you like ful, do try it on top of a sharp tangy labneh, with plenty of olive oil and cumin. That's my favorite way to eat ful. Tomatoes, chilies and a boiled egg are a must. In the picture below it's a salad based on egg, pickles, onion and tahini; as well as a salad of tomatoes and chili.
These are the only fava beans I can get here. When I get fresh in spring, I do all kinds of fun recipes. These I reserve for fave e cicorie. But yes, that's definitely the way I enjoy Ful! So delicious! 😊
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2 hours ago, shain said:
Made of ful (fava beans) and chickpeas
I LOVE ful, it's one of the first things I eat when I get off the plane any place that has it! Sometimes I try to make it using Italian fava beans, but it's not the same!
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On 10/25/2020 at 3:11 PM, weinoo said:
I did get around to it @ambra!
It was a good one, with nice soccarat. Boneless and non-boneless chicken thighs. Wild shrimp. And to make sure it was non-authentic, a bit of chorizo.
And it looks AMAZING. I swear I'll get to the arroz con pollo one of these days anyway. 😁
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3 hours ago, weinoo said:
Where are your breakfast and lunch chalkboards?
My dinner planning starts about 4 PM, day of. Sometimes earlier.
But let's take yesterday, which is the day after I got my reserved weekly delivery from Fresh Direct. Said delivery included 4 chicken thighs (FD is pissing me off because they appear to not be carrying the poulet rouge from Joyce Farms at the moment, so my weekly order of a whole Joyce Farms chicken has been shot to shit - it's my favorite bird, and it's a small bird at 2.5 lbs, not too big for the two of us), a package of wings (interestingly, they do carry this chicken from Cooks Venture, and the first of these chickens I tried was quite good, if way bigger than the poulet rouge I like so much - and yes, I'm done with battery chickens), 2 thick heritage pork chops, not much produce since I've been going to the farmer's market again, and a big canister of Clorox wipes (since they had them even though I don't use them much...preparing for the next wave!).
So after lunch, (a just-received delivery from Chef Collective, of cheeses, Sullivan St. Bakery breads (yes, the no-knead bread guy), and 1/2 lb. of prosciutto - I made sandwiches) I put up a pot of pre-soaked beans, cleaned up, cut up, and dry brined the just received chicken for the paella I was gonna make for dinner, with a quart of recently made chicken stock that wants to be used, since there is no room in the freezer.
Then I took a nap. When I woke up, I was having second thoughts about the paella, not because I didn't want paella, but because I didn't want to make the paella. Dinner plan - shot to hell. Around 6 PM, I figured I better make something for dinner, as it's about the time Significant Eater starts asking about, you guessed it, dinner.
First, I cracked open a bottle of Beaujolais to calm her nerves. With a small bag of pretzels for her alongside, I could now hit the kitchen.
I did have a poached chicken breast from that giant Cooks Venture chicken. Poached in that stock, as a matter of fact. So I cut that up, heated up some previously made red chili sauce, and heated the chicken in that. I made a quick tomato/cucumber/red onion salad. The beans were done. And I had a beautiful Sullivan Street Bakery pizza bianca to serve alongside. Sig Eater was quite content.
Dinner plan? We don't need no stinkin' plans.
Yea that sounds about right. 😂. If it helps, I bought all the ingredients to make arroz con pollo and made chicken teriyaki! Now I have all the ingredients for arroz con pollo and no chicken! 😁
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21 hours ago, heidih said:
Oh please not the dreaded turkey breast roll! I read a take on roast chicken being done as Pandemic comfort food at the newish Winner in Brooklyn, NYC: a plump quality hen salted, smoked lightly, then spatchcocked and roasted. The drippings basting small potatoes. Kind of a traditional yet festive sounding prep of good portions for 3. .
😂😂😂 So you agree!! But that does sound like a really good recipe.
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9 hours ago, robirdstx said:
Meal Planning has become more important to us. Not so much Breakfast or Lunch, but Dinner. My husband is still working, so Dinner is our main meal of the day. Planning Dinners for several days in advance allows us to use what we already have on hand (with minimal waste) and cuts down on the need to go out and grab just that one needed item from the grocery store.
Here is my current plan through the end of next week, though subject to change:
X Wed - Panko Crusted Pan Fried Tilapia Tacos; Salsa Verde Sauce; Slaw
X Thur - SV Filet Mignon, seared in cast iron pan; Salad; Creamed Spinach
Fri - Grilled Jalapeño Sausage Wraps; Cole Slaw with Salsa Verde Sauce
Sat - Crawfish Half and Half - Étouffée and Fried; Rice; Broccoli
Sun - Pork Carnitas (from freezer) Tacos; Cole Slaw
Mon - Pot Roast; Potatoes; Carrots; Green Beans; Gravy
Tue - Beef Stew
Wed - Chicken and Sausage Gumbo (from freezer); Rice; Cole Slaw
Thur - Hot (canned) Corned Beef and Swiss on Toasted Ciabatta with Russian Dressing
Fri - New England Clam Chowder
I admire you too for doing this! And everything sounds amazing. I tried to do this for a little while, but all went south pretty quickly. You've inspired me to try again! 😊
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I do a big Thanksgiving every year for locals and transplants alike. Over 20 people. I usually make the basics (turkey, stuffing, mashed) along with lasagne, crudite', fennel, apple and arugula salad and an apple crisp. We also always do a "new oil" tasting (with fett'unta and black kale crostini) with 4-5 oils from different areas of Tuscany (we have a slight obsession). Then I have people bring things. Whatever they want. Including bottles. One of our friend groups is full of wine professionals/educators or certified sommeliers so we usually open a ridiculous amount of wine, usually blind. No one gets drunk, mind you, it's just a tradition and a chance to taste all together.
This year we aren't doing it. My son is especially heartbroken. But I promised him we'd try a Thanksgiving in Spring party, if all goes well. We will do a small Thanksgiving, for just us, but I'm not sure what to cook yet. I don't want an 8 kg turkey for three people. I'm not a fan of the breast. Here you can only get it skinless and boneless and I'm not good at cooking it. It's usually dry.
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16 hours ago, mgaretz said:
Panko-breaded shrimp (Kirkland), air-fried, with steamed cauliflower with butter.
How do you do the shrimp? They look delicious! I keep asking you about your recipes because I am so intrigued by the air fryer!
Edited to say: I see now that you bought them already breaded!
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13 hours ago, weinoo said:
I just came home with a few pints of mushrooms from the greenmarket.
What would you do with them if you were gonna have them with dinner tonight (sheet pan chicken).
I guess it's too late, and it's not a side dish, but I probably would have done tagliatelle ai funghi.
What did you end up doing? I'm sure it was delicious!
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12 minutes ago, Franci said:
Now I am curious which bread you buy! BTW, I don’t know if anybody is interested but I find the only bread doesn’t give me the gluey effect (needed bread for meatballs for example) when I was in Brooklyn was to use friselle from my Italian deli. There are many kinds of friselle, some are really crusty and whole wheat, I am talking about the plain one, white flour. Good thing is that they are dry, so you can keep long time, just need to soak with some liquid.
I agree 1,000% about the gluey effect in meatballs!
We love Pane Verna. It's an heirloom soft wheat from around Siena and Arezzo. I can certainly buy the flour, but where we get it, they use lievito madre (and that's too much work for me to keep up). Plus, they have the right oven. I also really like macinato a pietra (Just stone ground), which doesn't seem to be very popular in Milan. These flours are always darker and have a lot more flavor and texture than the over-processed white flours we have. Especially good in panzanella. There are no extra ingredients in them. It's just flour, water and yeast. Anyway, my CSA has excellent bread for every day use.
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11 hours ago, Franci said:
@ambra, you know I never had ribollita? For me it’s one of the few things that I totally understand you need to have in Toscana, with the right bread to get it right, so I would not even attempt to do at home. Soon or later...
I hope you can eat it one day! If you are vegetable dependent like we are, it's a delicious alternative to minestrone. 😀 Since we moved, I've thought about making the bread at home, but it's just been easier to bring it back, also because we buy breads made from specific flours. There are actually a lot of things we like to bring back, but I won't bore you.
P.S. your chicken looks perfect!
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A lot of deliciousness these days! Many compliments for all of your food!
Happy belated @Shelby!
This weekend I made Ribollita. The Tuscan vegetable and bread soup. It really looks terrible, in the bowl and in photos, but it's a favorite in my house. It’s basically minestrone enriched with more white beans and black kale. Stale Tuscan bread is then added. This dish is the reason I bring the bread back to Lombardy when I go to Tuscany. It’s not just about the no salt, but the consistency. You can’t use regular bread in it, it becomes gummy. After it is made, it is reboiled (hence the name) the next day.
I'm still not out of my cooking funk. The most exciting thing I made (so not exciting at all) was an old-school spinach salad. In Italy, they sometimes talk about dated dishes. There are a few that come to mind, like Farfalle with Smoked Salmon or even Penne alla Vodka. Obviously, people still make what they like. And no one cares if a dish is out of style. 😀
This gets me thinking about American dishes that are old – at least dishes that I only ate back in the day, that my parents made. Today, for me, that dish was an old-school spinach salad with bacon, eggs, mushrooms and a warm dressing. I couldn’t remember how my mom did the dressing really -- (I feel like the eggs were part of the dressing?) so I just riffed off a few recipes I Googled. It was perfectly satisfying and brought me warm memories of my mother’s kitchen. It was her birthday and I always cook her dishes to remember her.
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19 minutes ago, weinoo said:
Ahhh - one of my favorite dishes, and one I haven't made in a loooooong time.
Way different than brandade, because as well as no potatoes, it was originally made with dried stockfish, which was air-dried but not salted, if my memory serves me correctly. And something which is virtually impossible to obtain nowadays, as is good salt cod, I suppose. (Unless you're lucky enough to live in or near the Veneto!)
As well as in Saveur: https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Creamed-Stockfish/
Indeed, it's hard for me to find good stoccafisso, in fact, I've never really met one I liked! 😂 My husband swears the good stuff exists, but I haven't found it. Luckily salt cod is still popular enough across Italy that you can find it easily.
I hope I inspired you to make it again! 😇 Does Eataly carry either?
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Here are some random dinners from around here.
This is Baccala' Mantecato. I guess it's like Brandade but without the potatoes. It is baccala that has been steeped with some flavorings (like peppercorn, onion, bay leaf and the rest) and then whipped with olive oil. We like it enough that it has its own designated bowl. 😃 It's usually served atop crispy fried polenta crostini, but we didn't have the patience for that this weekend!
Then a seafood risotto made with calamari, shrimp, jumbo shrimp (sadly not pictured), clams and mussels.
Then we have pork baked inside garlic bread. It's a riff off a Tuscan dish, which is just a pork filet cooked in a baguette, usually with rosemary, sage and garlic. Sometimes fennel seed. I "Americanized" it, basically making it garlic bread! First I seared the filet on all sides, then made the garlic bread, using olive oil instead of butter. Then you make a sandwich out of it, cover the whole thing in pancetta, tie it up, and bake until desired doneness. I'm not a fan of cooking pork at all, this was a special request. (I'm not good at it, it's always dry, or....wrong.)The sides were mashed red-skinned potatoes, sautéed turnip tops (with absolutely NO flavor whatsoever) and those are some mushrooms on top of the mash that I had to cook because they were about to go bad.
And finally, we had a COVID scare this weekend, scarily, so the kid in the family got baked pancakes two nights in a row. The parents had lots of wine. 😁 (P.S. His results came back negative.)
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On 10/5/2020 at 6:11 PM, mgaretz said:
Chicken tenders with homemade panko coating. Made in the air fryer. This time I did not pre-toast the panko. Instead I lightly sprayed the coating chicken with olive oil and that browned and crisped up nicely.
Do they get dipped in egg like normal breaded chicken? Looks great!
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21 hours ago, patti said:
It was sweet, so I added sriracha to sort of counterbalance it. Maybe I'd also increase the fish sauce next time. I thought it was tasty enough to be worth playing with the salty, sweet, and heat to find the right balance. Maybe lime juice to add sour?
I have seen some recipes that use rice vinegar....But I still haven't tried it yet. I will report back if I do.
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On 10/4/2020 at 5:24 AM, patti said:
Vietnamese One Pan Caramel Chicken. Recipe from Marion's Kitchen.
This dish as always piqued my interest, yours looks great! Just one question, did you find it very, very sweet?
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I make chick pea salad WITH tuna! Chick peas, chopped tomato, canned tuna, red onion. A pantry meal that is especially good in summer when it's so hot and no one wants to cook.
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Thank you! And for the other!
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1 hour ago, Kim Shook said:
Hi, @Hannah G! Welcome to eG. I'm looking forward to seeing your input. Something that I have loved about eG is the quality of the writing - I hope you give us a sample of yours. Take a look at past Food Blogs. There is some fantastic writing there.
I completely forgot about the blogs.. those were amazing!
Welcome Hannah!
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57 minutes ago, shain said:
I'll gladly share recpies if you'd like.
Thanks Shain! I would love that! I'd really love recipes for the soba salad above as I just bought soba noodles on Sunday. I may have to do without the miso though, as I didn't buy that. More locally, they sell dark miso in a giant container: do you know how long it keeps or how I can keep it by the way? I never know what to do with a giant container when I just need a couple of spoonsful.
And also the green beans and mushroom stir fry. Randomly, I have fresh shitakes grown in the Sud Tirol coming in my box tomorrow. I'm very excited and was thinking of soup, but I haven't decided yet.
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A frittata with leftover risotto alla Milanese and pancetta. The leftover rice was supposed to become arancini, but when I realized I had run out of bread crumbs, a frittata it was!
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Dinner 2020
in Cooking
Posted · Edited by ambra (log)
I see you your delicious Chirashi and raise you my bland looking Bibimbap. I know it's not authentic, I used what I had, but it's a favorite around here! It was "sauced" after the picture with a soy mixture and Gochujang.
Here then is Tagliatelle with Sugo di Nana (Arezzo-style duck ragu).
And roast beef with little red potatoes. It might look a little overcooked. But it was fine.