Chufi

yes, I would do that. The texture has to be really smooth and silky and luscious.

Vegetarians? but they will eat anchovies and sardines? if they eat fish, i would just suggest making the swordfish pie! Ling, I made the caponata last year for a dinnerparty, and served it with tomato pancakes, maybe not truly Sicilian but it sure was delicious and very pretty too. The picture is here in this post. Elie, I know what you mean. I could just cook Sicilian every night! Tonight we're having yesterday's leftovers though so no cooking going on unfortunately..

Yesterday we had dinner with friends and our hostess made Haagse Bluf for dessert. She was telling stories about how her mother used to make this for her and her sisters when she was a child, and I couldn't think why I never made it for this thread! So here it is, thanks Hannah for the inspiration! What does "Haagse bluf" mean? Haags means from The Hague.. and bluf refers both to the fluffy frothy substance of this dessert, and to the (alleged) character of the citizens of the Hague, who are said (but please don't quote me on this ) to be a bit pretentious.. for 4 people: 2 eggwhites 100 grams sugar 120 ml. thick, unsweetened fruit juice. Black- or red currant juice is traditional, but you could use raspberry, strawberry or blackberry juice. For best flavor, use a homemade fruit coulis rather than thin juice from a bottle. Whip the eggwhites until stiff but not dry. Gradually add the sugar. When all the sugar is incorporated, gradually add the juice. Beat until well combined, thick and glossy. Pile into serving glasses and serve immediately. Serve with thin, buttery biscuits - you'll need them for the contrast in taste and texture. You could also use the bluf as a sauce, and spoon over a mixture of summer berries, custard, yoghurt or icecream. It is very sweet and rich and I felt that half the recipe would be enough to make 4 nice, small after dinner portions.

Thanks, all, for the advice on cassata. The birthday boy has now made a special request for another cake and who am I to refuse him? but, I still plan on making cassata before the month is over, so your advice won't go completely to waste... Last year, when Kevin was doing Sicily, he made a swordfish impanata that looked so good that I wanted to make it too.. He very kindly PM-d me the recipe, and then ofcourse I never got round to making it, but today I finally did, and now I can't believe that I waited a whole year to make this, it is the most delicious thing I have eaten in a long time. The crust is very special, flavored with orange zest & juice, sugar and white wine. A bit sweet, which is a perfect counterpart to the spicy salty hearty filling. I think swordfish and salted capers are a match made in heaven and this dish makes the most of that lovely flavor combination. Everyone should try this! (I'll gladly Pm the recipe )

Thanks for reassuring me.. I thought this was a sure sign that I think about food too much.. when I start seeing shrimp everywhere you know

"This effort is dedicated to lovers of brussels sprouts".. phlawless, how beautiful! What a treasure to have.

Daniel.. I keep looking at this picture and I could just swear those are shrimp.. please tell me.. am I going crazy??

Ling, when I made the caponata I used a half the amount of sugar the recipe stated, because I am used to American recipes being often a little too sweet for me, and it was just right for me that way.

phlawless, thank you so much for this blog. It was a real inspiration to me. I have been researching the 100-mile diet thanks to you, and plan to try it for a limited time in the near future, and write an article about it. In preparation, I already started to find out where I can get local flour, grains, vegetables, meat etc. It won't be easy but it will be interesting! thanks for sharing it all with us!

I was talking to a co-worker the other day and was telling her about something I ate. She said: "you know you always start to glow when you talk about food, it's really wonderful to see." That's how I hope people will remember me, as someone who is passionate about good food, and as someone who was always trying to share that passion with others. I always tell my husband than when I die, he'd better make sure there's a lot of good food at the funeral ("how am I going to do that honey, when you're not there to cook it?" ) And yes, I hope to write something, one day, that will be read after I'm gone.

I heavily modified the recipe from Bugialli's book Foods of Sicily and Sardinia. First of all, I halved the recipe, because when I bake, I try to bake small cakes (portion control, you know). So here's what ended up in the cake: 4 ounces finely ground pistachios 1 whole egg and 2 yolks (keep the whites of those) 1 tablespoon of butter 2 1/2 ounces sugar pinch of salt teaspoon baking powder 2 ounces flour (he says potato sarch, but I didn't have any) 1 teaspoon orangeflower water (my addition) grated rind of 1 orange (keep the orange) All mixed together. Then beat the 2 eggwhites until stiff and fold them in. This was enough for a small 7 " springform tin (buttered and lined). Bake at 375 until risen and golden and firm on top (mine took about 30 minutes) Juice the orange and soak the cake with the juice. The original recipe uses Marsala to soak the cake, and an icing (glassa) of sugar, orange juice and saffron. The flavor combo of pistachios and orange is really good, I think.

try some speculaas on a slice of fresh white bread (spread with butter...) so good! There isn't really a large Irish population here. I don't know why these Irish pubs have become so popular, but new ones open all the time. They are popular both with locals and with the masses of English/Irish tourists we get here!

Oh, now I have a serious craving for oatmeal raisin cookies! I made a pretty nice pistachiocake yesterday. It has ground pistacios, eggyolks and whipped eggwhites, sugar, a little bit of flour and only a tablespoon of butter. Flavored with orangezest. Orangejuice poured over when it came out of the oven, so it's nice and moist.

I once thought of doing that with Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cookbook. I have cooked a lot of recipes from that book, but it also has a lot of classics that I 'overlooked' until now.

Chihiran, I'm glad you enjoyed your stay. Yes, Kwekkeboom is a really good patisserie, they also make famous kroketten (the savoury deep-froed meat croquettes). If you ever come back, let me know and maybe I can advise you on some other restaurants!

Dinner looks wonderful and dessert looks fantastic! And I am in awe that you can run around in a kitchen in those gorgeous heels, phlawless!

IJssalon Pisa has been voted best icecreamshop in Amsterdam in newspaper Het Parool this weekend. No surprise to us because it has been our favorite for years . They have all the classic flavors, and novelties like liquorice icecream, ginger icecream, after eight icecream (chocolate & mint) and the best pistachio icecream I ever tasted. It's not exactly in the centre but really worth the detour! Just around the corner is IJssalon Venezia, so you could make it an Icecream comparison excursion!

Thanks Chihiran! I'd love to hear how your Dutch food turns out. And if you like, you can post about your Amsterdam dining experiences on the Amsterdam thread! (and, congratulations on getting married!)

And now, a question. A friend's birthday is coming up next week and I volunteered (well, demanded, actually ) to make dessert. About 10 people. I was thinking, what a great opportunity to make cassata! I have looked at several recipes and they all are very different, mostly when it comes to the shape of the cake. I am leaning towards making a loaf pound cake, slicing that up, and make a leyered cassata also in a loaf shape. Ricotta, chocolate chips, candied fruits as filling. I've seen one recipe with chocolate frosting, not so sure about that. Does anyone have a tried and tested recipe, or have you eaten one that was so good that you can give some tips? Thanks!

I made a bit of a mess of my first Sicilian dinner. I was looking through Antonio Carluccio's "Southern Italian Feast" which has a number of Sicilian dishes, and this recipe for skewers of bread and veal rolls caught my eye. Bought all the ingredients, started cooking, read the recipe again, and realized this wasn't Sicilian at all... But then I remembered that Bugialli has a Sicilian recipe for skewers of meatballs and bread in his book, so I looked that up, and made the lemon parsley sauce for that one to go with my skewers. I also made the Sicilian cauliflower (with pinenuts, raisins and basil) from the Bugialli book, but instead of braising the cauliflower I roasted it, and I didn't add anchovies, because I thought I had some, but I didn't. Well at least dessert was wholly Sicilian. (yes I know there is more cream than granita ) Tonight was dinner for one and I took advantage of that to do something labor-intensive.. as much as I love artichokes, I hate cleaning them, and dinner for 1 means I only have to clean 1! Pasta con fritella, artichokes, broad beans and peas, all fresh from the market. Delicious, vegetable heaven on a plate: Dessert was the pistachio cake from the Bugialli book, but I modified the recipe a lot, using flour instead of potatostarch, no icing, and I did not drizzle with marsala because I thought I had some but didn't (there's a theme here ). I aded a little bit of orange flower water to the batter, and drizzled with orange juice. Served with a perfect white nectarine.

A really good sweet & sour & spicy eggplant caponata is this Batali recipe. I have made it a couple of times and it's fantastic. And it even has chocolate as one of the ingredients

phlawless, I can understand that it is difficult, but I also feel that the fact that it is such a challenge, makes it all the more interesting. I have been thinking about your project a lot these past days, it has really opened my eyes to the fact that my food comes from all over the place... and not just the obvious foods, but the fresh produce etc. so don't get discouraged!

Elie, that's a fantastic dinner. I think I'm going to make that pistachio pesto some time soon. Is there nothing else in there but nuts, mint and oil? I seem to see some reddish bits in the mortar? Oh and it's so hot and humid here in Amsterda, that I am really craving that granita! Would make a great afternoon snack! Andrew, that picture of the cat and the asparagus is hilarious. And the fish with fennel looks great. I've planned a little Sicilian cooking for this evening, so more later!

I made the zucchini stuffed with lamb and toasted chickpeas today. It was fabulous. My zucchini (delivered to me yesterday, straight from my uncle's vegetable garden) were quite large, so I halved them before hollowing them out. The spice mixture used to flavor the meat (cloves, cardamom, coriander, allspice, turmeric, nutmeg and cinnamon) is heavenly. The chickpeas add a lovely crunchy nutty-ness to the filling. And the joghurt with tahini, I had forgotten how good that is, I could eat that straight from the bowl (in fact, I did).

Abra, I have a regular madeleine pan, and had the same issue with the definition, so I don't think it's the mini factor. We need Megan's madeleine expertise here I think!