Franci

I am looking for good lard for pastry/bread baking. I bought some at Waitrose and it was really nasty. At Borough market, at Stillfield farm, they told me they do carry it once in a while. Anybody knows another good source in London?

With a clip top, like This?

it's one of my favourite side dishes. I generally cook it in two ways: split in half and cooked on a charcoal grill, then dress with vinegar and evoo. Or braised with butter and deglazed with sugar and vinegar. Or braised and used for stuffing a nice strudel, tart, stuffed focaccia. As for radicchio, I love the combination with gorgonzola. Cooking brings out the sweetness in vegetables and to me that is true with many other greens that I find undercooked in restaurants. In this case, to me taste is more important.

I tried one more of Chufi's wonderful recipes: Kruidkoek I reduced a little bit the quantities because I am the only occasional sweet eater in this house. I baked only two small disposable aluminum pans. I reduced a little more the spices, I am not used to it, the amount of cloves scared me, but I would have been fine using the total quantity. I really like it, maybe more freshly baked then after two days. Another time I will add walnuts instead of ginger. Chufi, walnut is also traditional, notenkoek a friend said, right?

Are you sure?

Yes, I mean the dried sambuco flowers (the tree is masculine , my mistake above), elderberry. It makes also a pretty good tea, it should be good for a cold or soarthroath.

Sorry, I should have been more precise, these small breads, or large cookies if you prefer, have kept the name "pan de mej" and mej being millet but nowadays are made only with wheat flour and fioretto (and sometimes also coarser corn flour) flavoured with sambuca flower (elder? flower). In the past, before america, polenta was made with millet. I don't know if there are traditional uses in the kitchen that survived, I have have friend with a passion for millet and history, I could ask her if you really interested.

Fioretto is more used for baking cakes and cookies. See amorpolenta, zaletti, pan de mej (mei=millet in milanese), biscotti di meliga.

Marcella Hazan cooks polenta for 25 minutes ? To me that would be undercooked, the polenta is hard to digest and it doesn't taste good. Maybe with fioretto you can cook for less but the thicker the grains the longer the cooking. The "crust", if it's thick enough, you can peel the most of it and it's like eating corn chips.

Elie, I loaded recipe and pictures on my blog here I really like this dough, it work very well also for savory strudels. I hope it helps.

I agree that it's hard to find, I will never tell you that taste really good. The pancetta I used to buy was not at the counter but in the refrigerator in vacuum packs. If you manage to find better, maybe thanks to JMolinari, let me know, soon or later I'll move back to NY.

If you go to Buonitalia at Chelsea market their pancetta pepata is pretty good, at least one of the best I managed to find. They also have guanciale for carbonara. Never tried but someone told me that the butcher on 29th and 8th or 9th Ave? But I am not sure of the address!!!! How is it called? Giovanni? Makes guanciale...I never checked though it.

Judith, thanks, I'll post it tomorrow on my blog.

I did work a little bit tonight Apfelstrudel This is one of my favourite dessert and I really enjoy making the strudel dough I didn't measure the size of the kitchen towel I used to stretch the dough, it's quite a big size And here the cooked strudel

Thanks Hathor. There is not a strict rule on cooked pork, but it's not the first choice of meat you can eat..... As for polenta nera. Yes, it is buckwheat. And around Sondrio they will make a polenta taragna with polenta bramata, buckwheat (grano saraceno), cheese plus noisette butter...not a light meal

Kevin, congratulations to you too!!! Just to help you out, I do drink wine moderately, a couple glasses on weekends. I checked for toxo and unfortunately I am not immune, so I am stuck with prosciutto cotto and mortadella only I am more incline to think it's caraway, in German is Kümmel and there it is used to flavour breads (this I tried there is a bakery in Milan) . In Italian cumino is cummin The Italian Cookbook "Il Cucchiaio d'argento" says 45 minutes to 1 hour. I think it depends on what type of corn semolina you'll use and how you'll serve the polenta. The thinner semolina type will normally be served "all'onda" like potato mash. I'll use the coarse grained semolina for the firm variant of polenta. ← Polenta is one of those things that if you have a fireplace you should really try to see the difference!!! Maybe not many outside Italy know the existence of this pot. It is an electric copper pot with an arm that will keep stirring the polenta at a very slow pace. So far, I have been travelling with this polentiera all around the States and here in UK without having the possibility to use it: I am always cursed with an electric stove. Last time in Milan I finally saw one with a flat bottom...but I didn't buy, I must have a gas stove in the next house. The preferences on polenta are different according to the areas. My mom is from Bergamo and they are known for liking a very coarse polenta (the bramata) and is pretty thick. In any case the polenta is done when the bottom is stuck to the pot, making a crust. CHEM, nice to see you also here.

I was not thrilled by canederli either, but since I heard a lot of people really enthusiast about them, I thought that I must have done something wrong. I do believe that bread and ingredients are very important for these recipes..... Well, be sure that at my first trip to Trentino I'll be ordering canederli Yes, thank you Kevin, I am pregnant. So, unfortunately, I have to cut down a little bit on my pork eating, even if it's cooked, I don't think I should have too much.

Thanks everybody for the welcome back! MrBig, do you know how adorable is your little boy? You have all the reasons to prefer him than cooking for TAA I never been to Trentino, but I tried to make canederli more than once. Last time I posted my pictures on the Italian forum where I write. A guy from Trento pointed to all my mistakes...I din't use breadcrumbs but cubed stale bread, soaked with milk. That would be correct if was not that I shouldn't have mixed with the other ingredients and made a mush out of it. I do believe that the bread in the US or in UK makes a big difference, rolls don't stale in 2 days (maybe are the improveres in the dough)...it's like trying to find a good bread for panzanella These are not for spinach canederli, but it's for those with speck and lucanica, it's in Italian but Franz was very detailed with pictures, so I hope it can be useful to the next person who wants to try canederli. Here I'm skipping the pork recipes, I am waiting for my first child so it's better I don't eat too much sausages or fatty pork pieces. Maybe I'll also jump on a more safe strudel too.

I don't know if it is the flour, the water, the weather or the skills but I lived 6 years in the States: 1 year in San Francisco, 1 year at 5 minutes from King Arthur's bakery and 3 years and half in NY. I cannot recall a memorable bread. King Arthur's bread was decent to me, not memorable. Americans breads are simply not to my taste. In Paris I cannot stop eating baguettes as in Milan I cannot stop eating michette and when I am there I keep asking myself how can bread be so good... Personal opinion, everybody decides for himself.

Gfron, I don't want to sound to meticulous: it's not DELICIA, but DELIZIA AL LIMONE. It's also a very nice idea, you did a pretty good job with it.

Nizza, I loaded the two recipes Chiacchiere Sanguinaccio As soon as I'll make chiacchiere this year I will load a picture, meanwhile here is a link to show how they look like for who is not familiar with them. These were not sprinkled with sugar yet.

Chiacchiere or Bugie or Frappe A classic Carnival threat. Chiacchiere basically means chit chats, my idea is because they are crunchy and when you eat them they produce a noise that make you think of chit chatting. In some parts of Italy they are called bugie (lies) or frappe or crostoli. The quantities come from a recipe posted by Sergio Salomoni on the Cucina Italiana forum. 500 g Flour 00 type (you could use also a AP flour, better with low protein content) 50 g g sugar 50 g softened butter 3 small eggs (or 2 large eggs and 1 yolk) a small glass of grappa (or white wine) a small glass of dry marsala a pinch of salt Work the ingredients adding the grappa and marsala a little at the time to adjust the necessary liquid content to get to a smooth, pretty stiff dough. Should be like a pasta dough. Let rest covered for one hour. After the resting time, cut and roll the dough with the imperia (or pasta) machine. I like to stop at the third last thickness, or second last of my pasta machine. Some people like it thinner. I do not let dry the sheets of dough but immediately go on cutting and frying. With a serrated pastry wheel I cut rectangles of about 4 inches x 2.5 (10 cm x6 cm) and cut in the middle of each rectangles without getting to the hedges, lengthwise. But you can cut longer and thin strips and tie them, or you can be creative. Deep fry in planty of oil ( I use peanut oil), but many Italians for Carnival, where excesses are permitted, will use lard, because fried stuff come out perfectly dry and not oily. I find that if you do that you need a very good lard, otherwise you'll have an aftertaste. Chiacchiere are very easy to make, you need to be just a little careful in frying, the oil should be hot but not to the point where the chiacchiere will burn as soon as you put them in. So, not french fries temperature, maybe around 160 C. My suggestion is to fry no more then 3 chiacchiere at the time and turn them after few seconds, they should be of a nice golden colour, not dark. Drain them on paper and when they are all done dust with powdered sugar. If you plan to eat them immediately they don't need to be covered, I do only if I want to keep for several days. Do not refrigerate. Before trying them wait until they are cold and powdered with sugar. You can serve with sanguinaccio, as they do in Naples I will add a picture next time, soon, I'll prepare chiacchiere. Keywords: Dessert, Italian ( RG1924 )

Sanguinaccio Serves 10. Sanguinaccio as the name suggestes was one day made with pork blood (sangue is blood in Italian), it can refer to a cake or in Naples is a thick chocolate cream usually served on Carneval with chiacchiere (see between my recipes for it) 1.1 l milk 400 g sugar (for my taste is too much I use 260 grams) 100 g bitter cocoa powder 100 g bittersweet chocolate 75 g wheat starch (or cornstarch) 2 T flour vanilla extract cinammon 1 T butter dark rum half a small liquor glass Dissolve the starch and the flour with a little bit of cold milk, taken from the total (separately), then pour into a pot, add the sifted cocoa, the remaining milk and the chocolate in pieces, the sugar and butter. Bring to a boil, stirring with a whisk, let cook 5 minutes. Out of the stove add the vanilla and rum. Pass through a chinoise if necessary. Stir to let cool and then refrigerate. I serve it in small liquor glassed with a dust of white chocolate. Recipe posted by Lydia Capasso from Naples on the Cucina Italiana Forum Keywords: Dessert, Italian ( RG1923 )

Carnevale is not yet there but there is something that I make every year and it's super to bring to parties. Chiacchiere and sanguinaccio. Chiacchiere are strips of a slightly sweet dough rolled thin with the pasta machine, they are cut with a pasta wheel in rectangles, sometimes are knotted. They are deep fried and, when cold, sprinkle with powdered sugar. They are cruncky, light and addictive. You can prepare the day before and keep covered, not refrigerated. They last for quite a few days. In Naples they use to serve chiacchiere with sanguinaccio. As the name suggestes, sanguinaccio was one time made with blood. Nowadays it's no more possible. Sanguinaccio is a very thick chocolate cream. Last year I served sanguinaccio in liquor glasses along with a tray of chiacchiere. Highly reccomanded. If you need the recipe I'll post it.