cooking practice

Cold pasta salad

2011-10-12T13:38:00.002+02:00

In Italy, people tend to eat fresh salad in summer, and they rarely cook, the reason is quite clear that it's due to the high temperature which can reach 36 celsius. Another reason that make fresh pasta salad become so preferable is it's easy to make, less time - consuming, and can last long in fridge, can be eaten cold without being warmed up.

My salad is quite simple: pasta farfala (butterfly), with black olive, cherry tomato, tuna, olive oil, capsicum pickles, and fresh basil.

Enjoy ;)

Taralli

2011-08-24T13:19:00.000+02:00

Finally, I am back sharing a very delicious, authentic and simple recipe from Puglia - South of Italy. I am not sure if you guys out there have ever heard about Puglia- a beautiful region of South Italy where there are so many famous specialties such as bread, friselle (a type of double baked bread which go perfectly with fresh cherry tomatoes, and basil), or orechiette (a type of pasta with the shape of ear), and... taralli - one kind of salty biscuit, it has a very authentic and unique taste from Olive oil extra virgin-one of the typical Mediterranean ingredients. The shape is very cute with small rings, the texture is crispy, what do you expect more, huh?? ;p

This amazing recipe is from Sonia (giallozafferano.com)-a very trusted italian cooking site that i love sooo much! ;) Sonia is my icon who started her business as a food blogger (she's now a star in Italy who hosts some cooking show on TV, and does ads for Philadenphia and other food brands. :)

Ingredients:

500 gr multipurpose flour
125 gr olive oil extra virgin
10 gr salt
spices (paprika, pepper, ... )
white wine 200 ml

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together, knead around 15 mins, then cover the dough by a cling film, leave it in th fridge at least 30 mins.
Divide the dough in small pieces around 5 -7 gr
Slide the small dough on surface and make it as a stripe, close the stripe to form a ring.
Prepare a boiling pot, a kitchen cloth, oven 200 Celsius, and a baking tray.
Boil the rings till they go up on the water, put them on the kitchen cloth to get dry.
Lay the rings on baking tray and bake them around 15 mins, when they turn golden brown means they are ready.
Cool them down in rack.

Good luck!

Whole wheat sandwiches

2011-06-25T16:23:00.001+02:00

I have tried to make 100% wholewheat bread at home, and there was never a success; the dough didnt rise very well, the bread always ended up very tough, and heavy. So this time, i used only a part of whole wheat, and the rest is multipurpose flour; the product is amazing, and we still can feel the fiber from its fragrance and taste ;)

Ingredients:

75 gr whole wheat flour
50 gr manitoba flour (or can be substituted by multipurpose flour)
125 gr multipurpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 tablespoon olive oil extra virgin
around 20 gr fresh yeast or 1/2 teaspoon dry yeast
135 gr luke warm milk

MEthod:

Mix flour with salt.
Dilute sugar and yeast in milk.
Add oil in flour, continue to add milk and knead well till you have a smooth ball.
Make a cross on top of the dough, cover the bowl with cling film and let it leaven around 1 hour and a half.
Punch dough to release air, knead it a few mins, then lay the dough in the sandwich mould. Cover mould with cling film.
Let it rise around 45 mins.
Prepare oven 180 celsius, bake bread around 30 mins (or till it has a beautiful golden color)
Turn off heat, lay bread in a rack to cool down.

*Great with marmalade or smoked ham ;)

Fruit salad: choices of fruit, yogurt, almond, raisin and honey.

Italian meringhe

2011-06-20T17:24:00.000+02:00

Macaron has become a fashion in culinary field, and for those who love baking, surely they have to try them at least once. When we visited Paris, we recognized that Macaron is everywhere, in so many types, sizes, and tastes (some even tried to modify it in a salty way with Parmesan cheese); Somehow, in Italy, or at least in my city, macaron seems not exist. I once asked my colleague who used to work with me in the bakery about Macaron, and she barely had an idea what macaron was. the reason would be simple that first: The Italian dont fancy the French food, second: they dont have super sweet tooth like French people, third: Macaron is just a type of meringhe which is popular and simple in Italy. (actually, i was surprise when chef Pino whom i took the macaron course with in PAris told me that Pierre used Italian meringhe technique to invent his world-wide famous macaron).

By the way, i was not very fond of Macaron, therefore, after the cooking class, i didnt try it at home.

So you can see that macaron has a very close connection with meringhe which i have made a big batch today. ;)
Meringhe is much more simple than macaron, cus it is basically made from egg white and icing sugar. (meanwhile macaron contains almond ground which would make the baking process more complicated). And guess what? in ITalian pasticceria, we prefer french meringhe technique instead of Italian technique, cus it's easier, and quicker.

so to make meringhe, we need:

200 gr egg white (around 7 egg whites)
440 gr icing sugar
vanilla essence or almond essence
Color

MEthod:

Beat the egg white with icing sugar and essence till hard stiff.

Mix them with color (Wilton is the best!)

Transfer the batter in a decorating bag and make small bubbles as picture

Prepare oven around 80 celsius, bake meringhe around 1 hour, till they become dry and easy to remove from the baking paper.

Let them cool down and store in ziplog bag.

*For mandorline: (literally translated as little almonds) is a stype of meringhe with almond, which enriches the sweet with its crunchiness and taste.

You can mix the batter directly with toasted almond and then pump the batter on baking tray, and bake as usual, or you can make it like me by pumping the batter first, then lay the almond on top-with this way, we have a little cute mandorline, meanwhile with the traditional method, the sweet has no shape and kinda messy.

To serve meringhe: in Italy, we simply glaze the dark chocolate on top, or we make a pair of meringhe with whipping cream at the middle. :) Or sometimes, you can find a big meringhe with whipping cream and fresh strawberries on top ;)

My mom in law is crazy about mandorline, so here are some junk food for her! ;)

Mini salty pie

2011-06-18T21:31:00.000+02:00

this is simple and easy, i made a small batch for my hubby to eat in his office ;D

Ingredient (for 6 small pies):

Brisè pastry (1/2 the recipe)
100 gr chicken breast, cut in small cubes
2 tablespoons of pea
1/2 small capsicum, cut in small cubes
1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic+ onion
Olive oil
1/2 teaspoon mild curry
some salt

MEthod:

Sautee chicken with olive oil, garlic and onion in 4 mins, add capsicum and curry powder, cook in medium heat till the chicken is ready.
Turn up heat, add pea, quickly stir in 3 mins till the pea is cooked.
Turn off heat, let them cool down.
Prepare the brisè in small mould (you can use the cupcake moulds or small mould for tarts

Fill in with chicken, and finish the pie with another layer of pastry.
Bake in 180 celsius, around 15-20 mins.
Turn off heat. Can be served cool or hot.

32 weeks 6 days...

2011-05-29T08:59:00.001+02:00

...means there are 7 weeks more to go for us (me and my little girl) ;)

Sometimes, when i feel her gentle kicks, i asked myself if motherhood is a result of human instinct?? cus we can live even better without kids, we dont have to do the savings, we dont have to take care of anyone, we dont have to stay up late the whole night to breastfeed a little human creature ;) But still, put aside all those troubles, we insist to have a baby, though we havent seen her/him before, love just grows like that, bigger and bigger everyday.

Life is so amazing to know that we have someone inside our body, let the imagination fly so high, let the dreams come to our sleeps every night, let the happiness pour non-stop in our heart.

I know, when she really comes, i will break into tears, because of the happiness.

Thank you for coming to our life, my little Asia

Italian crespelle

2011-05-27T18:19:00.000+02:00

Crespelle is the Italian name for French Crepes. I have no idea if the Italian also have their own crepes or they learnt from the French. Anyway, the dish i am talking about is cooked in a very ITalian way with ricotta cheese and vegetable.
I learn this food from my cooking class, and i admit i didnt know there existed a salty version for crepes. I used to eat crepes with fruit flambe, with jam, and nutella, but having crepes as a first course was very new to me.

I love crepes for its easy cooking procedure, and its flexibility, with one recipe, we can have both salty and sweet versions. Koo, isnt it!

Ingredients;

250 ml fresh milk
2 eggs
85 gr flour

Method

Beat eggs with flour, and then slowly add milk while beating till you have a smooth batter.
Cover it with clingfilm and let it rest at least 30 mins in fridge
Heat the pan medium, brush slightly butter on, then pour the batter, cook in 1/2 mins, turn the crepes up side down, cook for 1 mins more. Lay crepe on a dish. Continue till finish the batter.

Salty filling:

250 gr ricotta cheese
150 gr radicchio, sliced and 200 gr mushrooms, both are sauteed with some onion
70-100 gr parmesan cheese
some nutmeg
some salt
some pepper

Mix all the ingredients together.
Lay them on half of the crepe (as picture), turn the crepe in 4 (as picture)
LAy filled crepes on an oven tray with baking paper
bake them in 7 mins, 180 celsius.
MEanwhile, prepare besciamella (Heat 15 gr butter on a sauce pan, then add 8 gr flour, mix well with a wooden spoon, pour 150 gr fresh milk in, stir the liquid with medium heat till it becomes rather thick, turn off heat, add pieces of fresh basil and season the besciamella with some salt)

For serving:

Lay crepes on a dish, pour besciamella on, serve hot.

Swiss roll with chocolate fondente and strawberries

2011-05-05T10:53:00.000+02:00

It's been more than 3 months that i am banned from sweet and limit of carbohydrate! ;( Who says the pregnant women have to eat double??? actually, i have a feeling that i eat less than normal but no idea where my body gets the materials to gain weigh! ;((

I had not been a fan of sweet, but since i was pregnant, i extremely crave for sweet food ;(

I am not supposed to eat any sweet till delivery, anyway, it's impossible to stop myself making this cake! It's very tempting. Got the recipe in Italian from Sonia (www.giallozafferano.com); Her version is swiss roll with berry marmalade and fresh raspberries. As i didnt have raspberries at home, so i changed the cake into chocolate and strawberries. Not bad! ;)

Ingredients:

100 gr sugar
100 gr multipurpose flour
40 gr melted butter
4 eggs
3 tablespoon coconut flakes
1 tablespoon coconut flakes for decoration
6-8 fresh strawberries
100 gr chocolate fondent
2 tablespoons full cream milk

MEthod:

Beat sugar with egg yolk till creamy, then add melted butter and coconut flakes, continue to beat.

Sift the flour in, and beat till they mix well together.
Beat the egg white in another bowl till hard stiff (around 10-15 mins), turn the bowl up side down, if the egg stays till, then it's ready.

Use a spatula to fold the egg white with the mixture of yolk and flour, try not to overfold or all the air bubles will be broken. (My experience: I folded the first 1/3 of egg white freely-without delication; then from the 2/3 i folded them gently from top to bottom- as a circle).
Pour the mixture in a rectangle baking tray (around 28x20cm), try to flat the surface even

Bake around 8 mins, 210 celsius.
When the cake ready, lay it up side down on a kitchen cloth, and gently fold it. wrap the cloth around to keep the shape, and let it cool down in room temperature.

*Prepare chocolate: melt chocolate with milk, prepare strawberries, cut strawberries in small pieces.
When the cake cools down, spread chocolate and lay strawberries on top. Roll them back, and wrap them with clingfilm, store in cool place around 2 hours before serving.

Serving: slightly tap the coconut flakes with your hands on the roll, and lay some strawberries on top :)

Good luck

2011-05-04T15:26:00.000+02:00

Ferrara where we are living belongs to Emilia Romagna - the gastronomic zone where Lasagna, Ravioli, cappelletti, Bolognese sauce, ... were born. I am glad that i have learn so many authentic dishes from this land. ;)

Pasticcio is a Ferrarese traditional food, and quite time consuming to make from crash at home; therefore, so many people would rather spend a lot of money for the Gastronomy shop than making pasticcio. 1 kg of PAsticcio costs at least 35 Euro which i believe without containing truffle, since the original recipe was truffle, the cost would be pushed high above the sky that i dont dare to think about ;p

To make pasticcio, it's best to prepare one day in advance, like this, we will be more tranquil ;)

Ingredient for 3 portions:

250 gr besciamella

80-100 gr Ragù (bolognese sauce)

180 gr pasta penne

80 gr grated Parmesan cheese

Brisè pastry

Method:

Boil pasta penne with a lot of water, and strain them when they are still "al dente".
Mix pasta with Ragù and besciamella; season it with some salt.
Leave it cool down, and form them in bowl, it's easier to leave it in fridge for 30 mins.

Then prepare pasta brisè, roll 2 disks of brisè around 1mm thin.
Lay one disk of brisè on the baking tray with baking paper, lay the pasta on top; finish with another disk of brisè.

Decorate on top as you wish.

Bake it around 20-25 mins (180 celsius) till the pastry have a beautiful golden color.
Serve hot.

Pasta brisè

2011-05-04T15:25:00.000+02:00

Brisè is a type of French pastry, super delicious with a delicate, crunchy texture, adaptable for both sweet and salty cake. to make Brisè is simple and it requires basic ingredients. I use the recipe of Sonia (www.giallozafferano.com)

Ingredient:
200 gr multipurpose flour

100 gr butter (cold in fridge)
70 gr cold water
a pinch of salt

Method:

Put flour and butter in a food processor, let it work in some second till the flour and butter mix together (but not melting)

Lay the flour on the table, make a vocano shape, slowly add water, and use hand to knead them quick in 1 min.
Make a ball, cover it with cling film, and let it rest in fridge at least 40 mins.
Then Brisè is ready

Beef rolled with Italian sweet basil

2011-05-01T08:01:00.001+02:00

It's been a while we (me and my husband) didn't take a stroll at the center of Ferrara as we used to do every weekend. I guess our lifestyle has changed quite a lot since the day we knew we would have a little baby. ;) Though i am not bothered by nausea anymore, but there are many things to prepare for the "new member"; we are still carrying on the "renovation project" which including making a room for Asia (name of our little girl, pronounced in Italian A-ji-a; the reason why we chose this name is quite simple ;) cuz she's half ITalian half Vietnamese-Asian); repainting our bedroom, buying and installing her little bed, her basin, ... This takes a lot of time. Anyway, so far, we have finished around 80% of workload. ;) In Giuly, when Asia arrived everything will be ready. ;)

Okie, back to today, when we were walking along the peaceful path at the center, my husband asked me what i would like to eat, here we go, my list was on and on with Tiramisu, prosciutto crudo, salame, Pan di Spagna with Chantilli cream and chocolate drops, ... but non of them is Vietnamese dishes. So my hubby was surprised, and i said "i didn't mention my traditional food, cus i am totally hopeless!" ;( Yeah, i really cannot have any dishes with 100% Vietnamese, there are always shortage of something, or herbs, or spices, ... Occasionally, i want the dish so much that i have to invent something... 1/4 vietnamese and 3/4 ITalian! Like this dish i am going to introduce now!

In Vietnam we call it "bò lá lốt"; basically, it's ground beef with spices then rolled with beetle leaves and then charcoal grilled, it is accompanied with fresh noodles, nước mắm chấm (the sauce made from fish sauce, garlic, sugar and lemon), and off course, with lots of veggy.

In Italy, i havent seen beetle leaves, so i substituted sweet basil; my dear husband doesnt wanna eat fresh noodles, so i served it just like a finger food ;) The outcome is delicious, but you know, the sense, the taste is not the same; how much i wish i can eat Vietnamese food with Vietnamese people! ;( Hopefull, my little girl will be able to eat all Vietnamese diishes, definitely, i will try my best to lead her ;)

Ingredients:

300 gr Ground beef
2 tablespoon of fishsauce
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic
some black pepper
Green pepper corn
Big ITalian basil leaves

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together except basil leaves and green pepper corn
Leave it marinated for 30 hours
Use a teaspoon to lay beef on each basil leave and the pepper corn at the center (dont put too much beef on the leave, since we are supposed to smell the fresh fragrance of basil instead of only meat and spices)

Fry with very little oil with the leave at the back, then turn them over and cook till they are done.
Serve hot!

Good luck! ;)

Chinese Pau cake

2011-04-01T17:46:00.000+02:00

When i was in Saigon - my city, i normally had Pau cake for breakfast, and certainly they were all made by the Chinese; how delicious! When i moved to Italy, i attempted to make this cake several times, but never get success. ;( I reckon it was due to the recipe, i mean ... they are not totally wrong, but it's complicated to follow, since it included sour starter, yeast and baking powder... I guess with so many chemical ingredients, if we miss one step, the outcome will be different.

So i hadnt eaten any Pau cake till yesterday, ;) my crazy pregnant hormone urged me to find a way to make Pau cake. No matter what! Talking about the pregnancy stuffs, i wonder if any of you were tortured by some kind of food that keep you up the whole night??? Gosh!! Poor me! i admit i am type of one who loves to eat, but i never crave for something this crazy! Off course occasionally, i tempted for Vietnamese traditional dishes, in case it doesnt exist here, i just turned to some Italian thing in supermarket. These day i dreamed of eating Vietnamese spring rolls with fresh rice noodles. Man! I guess i have to work my ass off to make a batch of home made spring rolls! ;((

Okay, about my Pau cake; it would not be too exaggerated if i said i am so much proud of myself! ;D It was delicious, easy, and have a real Chinese taste! [As you know, sometimes you follow an authentic/exotic recipe, but the local people would say "nah, it's not exactly our dish"; happened to me like this a few times either. (certainly i am not Chinese, but i ate so so much chinese food in Vietnam by the Chinese people, so the taste cannot cheat me!).]

My Pau cake is simple with the milk bun, and the filling consists of minced pork, Shitake mushroom, boiled eggs, and chinese sausage. The condiments are some salt, sugar, garlic, shallot, oyster sauce and soya sauce. Yummy! ;) Cooking time is around 2.5 hours (including time for rising dough)

Ingredients: (for 5 big pau cake/7 medium ones)

200 gr multipurpose flour
100 gr luke warm fresh milk
18-20 gr fresh yeast or 1/2 teaspoon dry yeast
3 tablespoon sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 tablespoon cooking oil

*Fillings:

400 gr minced pork
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 clove of shallot, finely chopped
1.5 tablespoons of oyster sauce
1.5 tablespoon of soya sauce
1 stick of chinese sauce, steam and cut in cubes
3 shitake mushroom, dept in water for 2 hours then chopped.
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of sugar
3 boiled chicken eggs or 5-7 quail eggs.

Method:

*Skin:

Mix salt with flour
Mix milk with oil, yeast and sugar.
Then pour the milk into the flour, knead well till smooth and make a ball, make a cross on top of the ball, cover with clingfilm, let it rest for 1 hour - 1.5 hours. (or till it rises double)

*Filling:

Mix all the ingredients together (except eggs)
Cut the chicken egg in half (or if you use the quail egg, you can jump this step)
Cover the egg with meat; make balls
Steam them around 20-25 mins till cooked (with this method, our Pau cake is not wet; and surely the meat will be cooked)

When they are done, lay them on another dish to get rid of the juice.

*Making Pau cake:

When the dough rises double, punch it to release the air, divide in portions.
Use each portion to cover the filling.
Lay them on the bamboo steamer (with baking paper under, i used a cloth, and it stuck around my cake ;( ) Remember to make some space for leavening.
Let them rest for 30-45 mins.
Steam them around 15-20 mins.
Serve hot.

Buon appetito! ;)

Le ricciole

2011-03-19T15:42:00.000+01:00

Ricciole is a type of bread, usually served at breakfast; before working in the bakery, i used to wonder what made the bread so different, it is a little bit delicately crunchy outside, and soft inside like milk bun. i had attempted to make it several times with my own experiment but the products were not very good as expected.

Thanks to the precious time in the bakery, i can say that i have a good base for baking.

Ricciole is somewhat at the middle of milk bun and croissant; i do appreciate those who invented this technique! First, you prepare a dough for milk bun (i made it normally with flour + milk + yeast and some olive oil). After the first leavening, I laid the ready puff on a surface, (the puff from supermarket is totally suitable), then i roll the dough around the size of the puff. After that, i laid the rolled dough on top of the puff, fold in 3 (technique of making croissant/puff), then roll, and fold in 3, and roll again. this time, i roll the dough around 1.5cm thick, and cut them in strips. Then i slightly twisted them, and form them in a ring. --> finish the shaping. I let them rise the second time, and then bake normally ;) Yay!! the ricciole came out so good. My niece would be very happy. ;)

Ingredients for milk bun:

350 gr flour
130-140 gr luke warm milk
a pinch of salt
a pinch of sugar
2 tablespoon of olive oil extra virgin (or you can substitute with butter)
1/2 teaspoon dry yeast (or around 25 -30 gr fresh yeast)

Method:

Mix flour with salt
mix milk with sugar, olive oil and yeast.
Make the flour like a volcano and pour milk at the center, use a fork to beat till the flour mixes well with liquid. Strain dough on to a flat surface and knead with hands till it becomes smooth and elastic.
Make a ball, cut a cross on top, lay the ball in a big bowl covered with cling film. Let it rise double (around 1h30).
When the dough leavens, punch it to release air, knead a few times before continuing the process of ricciole.

*Baking: 180 Celsius, around 30-40 mins, when ricciole turns golden.

Good luck!

2011-02-01T16:31:00.000+01:00

I believe that it's quite a while i havent updated my English page, there are some reasons subjective and objective, anyway, I am back! :)

If you are Asian, or you are traveling in South East Asia or China, then you will know this time of the year is so special for us - Asian, Yub! it's Lunar new year.

In Vietnam, my country, this festive is considered the most important event of the year, people clean and decorate their house, the market is busier with trading, finishing stocks, paying debts, ... kids are excited after the mid term exam and cannot wait to have a long holiday and to get the lucky money from red packets. The most interesting part to me is the whole family gather together and make traditional food. Our traditional one is called banh chung, a type of salty cake make from glutinous rice, mung bean and pork, then covered by special leaves called "la dong". Personally, for some reason, my family didn't follow this ritual, but i still remember the "scent" of Tet (Lunar new year in Vietnamese) when I was small.

Sadly, after 3 years in Italy where lunar new year doesnt exist, including my very "fading idea" about the event that causes me an empty feeling. I dont feel so homesick, nor excited, or missing. It's just it! It's not a must for me to prepare Vietnamese food, there's no obligation to make a year end party with family or sending wishes to relatives. Not a very good sign, is it? :p Somehow, i am certain that if i were in my home country now, i would never miss any festive activities with my mom and close friends. :) Gosh, how much i miss them!

Today is the 1st of February (solar calendar), i am saying this because I have such a messy mind! today, i woke up, and made a long plan what i gotta do, which dishes i gotta cook since i believed that today is the second of February - Birthday of my hubby! :( I rushed to the supermarket, baking cake, preparing food, then, when i nearly finished, i recognized how silly i was!! Good news is everything will be ready for tomorrow! :D

Bonus of the day: A loaf of sandwich with raisins. (Recipe from la cucina italiana - Italy special issue)

For a 800 gr loaf

Ingredients:

500 gr bread flour (i used 300 gr multipurpose flour and 200 gr manitoba; but feel free to utilize multipurpose flour only in case you dont have manitoba)
160 gr raisins dipped in rum and light liquer
150 gr fresh milk
150 gr water
10 gr salt
35 gr sugar
25 gr fresh yeast (or 7-9 gr active dry yeast)
30 gr olive oil extra virgin (or butter)

Method:

Warm up milk and water till they become luke warm.
Meanwhile, mix salt with flour
Add sugar, olive oil and yeast into the water.
Pour the liquid in flour, use a fork to beat well till they mix, use hand to knead around 15 mins or till the dough becomes smooth.
Make a ball, cut a cross on top, cover with cling film and let it leaven till double (around 1 hour and 30 mins)
THen beat the dough to release air, roll them flat around 1.5 cm, squeeze the raisins from liquer, and lay them on dough, then roll the dough and make sure its length is as equal as the length of your mould.
Prepare mould with butter and coated with flour, then lay the dough in, cover with clingfilm, let it rest around 40-60 mins.
Prepare oven 200 celsius, spray some water to make it steamy, bake bread in 40 mins.
Let it cool down before serving.

Good luck! :)

2010-11-20T11:12:00.003+01:00

Some may wonder why i so fancy cookies and bread, actually, i make them often because they are favourite food of my dear husband! ;) off course we cannot cook without eaters, can we?? :D Moreover, to me they are kinda practical, since bread is almost essential in an Italian daily meal, cookies is a simple breakfast. :D The difficulty is it's very difficult to find a healthy cookies recipe! :( (certainly, for a crispy one, we cannot cut off the butter), therefore, i have to pay a lot of time to search for healthy biscuit recipe which is delicious but not too fat :D

Yay!! i found one! the butter is less than 50% of the flour, meanwhile, normal cookies contains at least 60% butter. Some of you would laugh at me since there is a saying never ask healthy thing from a pastry. haha!! :D somehow, let's try to stay as healthy as we can! :D

This biscuit contains coconut and white chocolate; then coated with dark chocolate and coconut flakes :D

Recipes:

100 gr butter
1/3 cup (90 gr) sugar
2 tablespoons of coconut cream
60gr white chocolate (melted)
2 teaspoons of orange crest
1/2 cup (45 gr) coconut flakes
1 cup and 3/4 cup (220 gr) flour

Frosting:

60 gr fondent chocolate
30 gr butter
2 teaspoon of coconut cream

Method:

Prepare oven 180 celsius
Baking tray with baking paper
Beat butter and sugar till creamy, add coconut cream, white chocolate, crest, and continue to beat till creamy.
Add coconut flakes and flour, beat till they are smooth.
Let dough rest in fridge at least 30 mins.
Prepare balls (around 20 gr) and slightly press their surface, lay them on baking tray, bake in 20 mins.
Prepare frosting: mix butter and chocolate and put in microwave (low heat) for 1-2 mins till they all melt down. or put butter and chocolate in a metal bowl, then lay the bowl on top of a slightly boiled pot, and stir them with a wooden spoon till they totally melt.Add coconut cream.

When biscuits are ready, let them cool down
Dip cookies in chocolate and coat them with chocolate flakes.

Enjoy! :)

*tuna bread with parsley

2010-11-11T16:04:00.002+01:00

My husband always wonder why the American use a very complicated measuring system, instead of kg or gr, they have cups, and instead of meters or cm, they have feet, etc. i thought it was not that difficult, just take a little time to convert them into your wanted system. Simple! I was WRONG!!! it's very very annoying!!
A few days ago, i have downloaded a very interesting ebook called modern cooking, it comprises so many types of pastry, bread, salted tart, biscuits, cakes, ... most of the recipes are very very new, delicious and tempting. I want to make them all! Somehow, he uses the American measurement. So i got to convert them into the Italian one. And Guess what?? i recognize with the same "cup" they have one for dry ingredient and another is for fluid. i used a converting site for cooking, and the outcomes did confuse me so much, how can a bread dough (for Pita) contains 400 gr flour and 350 gr water??? it surely become very liquid. Though i have prepared my mind that this type of bread required a kind of wet dough, but THIS wet seems not right to me!! Fine!! let's try! no need to tell you what happened, right?? i even cannot do anything with it, it's like Poolish - a sour starter of French. i checked again the convert, cus i was 100/100 sure something definitely went wrong! Unluckily, around 90% of Pita recipes online in English, and they used cups (i also recognized that the Italian bloggers mostly fancy their national dishes more than the others!!) I was too desparate to count and convert all those recipes to see whether mine is right or not. I logged on youtube to see a clip, to have some idea how the dough of pita should be. Actually, it's kinda wet in fact, but not as liquid as mine, and the maker added pretty much flour aside from her recipe into the dough during the process (I have no idea what a recipe means in this case!! cus to me, if you provide a recipe, make sure it's correct, precise and convenient for users. In this case, it seems without watching her clip, it's very difficult to make the bread!!

Anyway, i managed to adjust my dough, and the outcome was excellent!! a real empty Pita!!
I was not satisfied with the recipe, i rechecked by couting on my own, 1 cup of dry ingredient equivalent to 125 gr, and the fluid one is around 237gr. then i realized the site i used to convert got wrong, instead of 500gr flour, it said 400 gr!! OMG!!!! i think from this experience, it's better to count, multiply, divide everything on your own, do not rely on the automatic converter anymore!! (

Here are some pics of my fresh pasta with ragu (Bolognese sauce)

2010-11-05T20:36:00.003+01:00

Have you noticed that how many leaves fall these days??? Yub, Autumn is coming (actually it already arrived), luckily in Italy, the weather is still quite warm comparing to the North Europe, it's around 14 celsius at day time, so we can leisurely take a stroll without feeling our face is freezing. :D

How much i miss my hot tea every night when sneaking on my cosy sofa with my hubby and watching our movie; i remember last year, autumn was one of my favourite season for baking (cus a slice of cake is a great choice with hot drink, meanwhile in summer, we have a big piece of water melon or a slice of fruit mousse. :)

Since i have a job lately, it's impossible for me to stay late and night, and i had no time to bake much; though i have enriched my cooking book collection with some new amazing pastry ones. guess i gotta find time to practice those recipes before they are covered with dust :D:D

This cake is made based on one of my cooking book which i guess was translated from an English version cus the ingredients are quite "weird" to me, and instead of using baking powder, they mention "self-rising flour" (iin Italy we rarely consume this kind of thing and definitely in a professional pasticceria it doesnt exist) Though again, i still so prefer the European culinary, but the american and Asian ones provided me such new and beautiful idea to create the sweet, i thought it is because they are not bound by the "traditional practice". Okay, back to my cake, it's simply an orange cake except a small change which is instead of using butter, they used Olive oil extra virgin. That's cool! though i bet so many people will spout when they heard a cake without butter, but try it! you will not be disappointed, the texture and really soft, the taste is ... cool, nothing fancy like Sachertorte or pan di Spagna with pastry cream, but it's very acceptable for a quick breakfast. (moreover, it's much healthier than butter isnt it?)

Recipe:

2 eggs
2/3 cups (160gr) sugar
2 teaspoons of orange crest
2teaspoons of lemon crest
1/2 cup (125 gr) olive oil extra virgin
1 1/2 cup (185 gr) flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup (60ml) fresh milk
1/4 cup (60ml) orange juice

Method:

Prepare oven 180 celsius
Beat the egg ans sugar till creamy, add olive oil, crest of orange and lemon --> stir well
Add orange juice, fresh milk, slightly mix, and then sift the flour, baking flour in, stir gently well in 30-50 seconds
Bake in oven 45 mins, once the cake is done, let it cool down at leat 5 minutes before take it away from the mould.
To decorate: lay some leaves on top of the cake and sift the icing sugar on.

2010-11-03T16:36:00.000+01:00

it's been a while i didnt update my blog due to the lack of time :( I feel so stressed lately since my exam for the driving license is coming next week, but i havent finished even half of the quiz :( My life is round and round with work nowadays, what a boring life!! haha!! we have been informed that my boss who is soo nice is taking her retirement in 2 months. It would be very tough, cus she works as much as 3 people, i have no idea how to work it out :(( Somehow, it's non of my business, i gotta leave my work behind my back right at the footstep of my work place. :D

today i have a good lunch with seafood pasta, i said it was good instead of amazing, because i think i used the wrong type of pasta. This one is super big and quite unusual for the family usage (no wonder big popular brands dont produce. such thing :( The shape is very catchy infact, i asked my husband to buy for me and he neglected telling me that this pasta is not as good as its look. Yeah, he's right!! it's so thick that it took me 25 mins to boil in water, once they are cooked, it's easy to be broken.

My advice is we should use a very big pot with a lot of water (though cooking pasta requires much water, but this need extra!), do not stir too much , and gently take them away from water with a ladder.

The sugo (pasta sauce) is cooked with seafood, tomato concasse, white wine, some onion, garlic and parsley.

Enjoy! :)

2010-10-11T14:58:00.000+02:00

I just feel restless, instead of enjoying the leisure moment of an off day, i felt stressed by so many things that i reckon i'm supposed to do, i cannot finish the movie which took me so long to find time to watch. when i sit on my couch, there comes a long list of thing i gotta do :( What's going on??? or i gotta go to a shrink??!!!
My colleague says she couldn't stand staying at home without a job, she loves being busy more than spending the whole day wastefully; i think it depends how we spend our free time. There's a saying from a business man that one of the key to success is how you spend your free time, instead of sleeping or playing around, we can read, take some hobby course, something productive and healthy. My point is not about how to be successful but how we spend the day without feeling being good for nothing. Actually, i love staying at home, so that i can read, I can take a stroll and refresh my mind, i can cook, I can have my linguistic courses, i can have time for my photography hobby, i can spend time with my husband, my nephews, my friends, ... there are so many things that i would wanna do if i had free time. It's totally not a waste for me to stay at home :((
I am saying all these things because I am feeling pity for myself :( Weird, right?? :p I guess I have just joined the club of people who wish to have 48 hours a day :)
Today i had an appointment with my friend who is 7 month pregnant, and sadly i couldnt stay with her long for a stroll due to my shortage of time :( We just took a cappucino at our favourite coffee hourse before i headed to a supermarket nearby for a quick shopping and went home. On the way home, i looked up to the blu sky which is shone by columns of sun light, then i felt the warm touch of the sun on my cheeks, i just slightly took a deep breath and think how i can miss these moments??? Or maybe because The business from work made me realize how precious these moments are???
When i was in Saigon, i had never thought this way, I am not so sure whether it was because of the monotonous season which is always hot, hot and hot, or it was because i was too overwhelmed by biz trips and researches and totally forgot the time was flying by??? Or maybe I was single and free like a bird, time came or gone didnt matter to me, working was my hobby, and i didnt have to spend time with family??
Well, my "qualitative research mind" is probing myself for a reasonable answer :D Man, how i wish i had 48 hours a day!!!

Yesterday we had dinner with the family in law, i made some little pizzette for my nephews :) Then i also didnt forget my husband's lunch box with chicken breast skewers. :D

Recipe for pizzette with milk:

250 gr flour
130-135 gr fresh milk
Some salt, sugar
2 tablespoon olive oil extra virgin
Around 15 gr fresh yeast (i prefer fresh yeast since it works much better than the dry one)

Method:

Mix sugar and yeast with luke warm milk.
Mix salt and oil with flour
Pour the milk into flour, use a knife to stir well till the flour absorbs all the liquid. Stardt kneading energetically till we have a smooth dough. Make a ball, cut a cross on top, and let it rest in warm place for 40 mins.
Punch the dough, and knead one or 2 times before shaping them. Roll the dough with a rolling pin around 50mm thick, then cut them in ring, let the leaven in 1 hour or so till they become double size.

Put the tomato sauce/onion slices/anchovies/mozzarella ... whatever you like, and bake in oven 180 celsius for around 12-15 mins.

*With anchovies

*Fresh tomato

*bocconcini with onion

Enjoy! :)

I made chicken skewer simply by marinate the strips of meat with salt, onion, garlic, rosemary, olive oil extra virgin and sage. :)

Spoiled

2010-10-08T20:15:00.002+02:00

Yeah, i am getting spoiled since i have been pampered myself too much.
If you always follow my blog, then you would know that I am not so into bread or sweet, BUT sometimes suddenly the crave overwhelms me and it became an urge to make it at once as it came to my mind my head non stops picturing the shapes, the texture, the skin, the taste, my tongue just cannot wait to give it a big bite, and i am just round-and-round in a circle of imagination till i get it done and end up on my cozy sofa eating and watching my favourite series!
The bad thing is i never can finish my food, after 2, 3 bites, i give up and said "yeah, i will finish tomorrow" which never happens in reality! My husband who has just converted himself into Buddhist said "you will be starved to death in your next life" haha!! yeah, maybe!
The cake i am going to show now is a product of one of the spoiling moments! simple with pan di spagna (genoise classic) with chocolate fondant and whipping cream. Guess what?? i make these things everyday at work, but after coming home, taking a nap, i just thought "i want a piece of pan di spagna like this like that, blah blah blah..." then "C'mon, just do it!"
A big piece for my husband and the small piece is for me

I wet the pan di spagna with liqueur (scented of rock melon which is super fragrant), layered with whipped cream and chocolate chunks. then coated with chocolate fondant and decorated with ready-icing sugar which i prepared a few days ago. See the letters T & A ?? (it's our initials Thy Thy and Alessandro)

I coated the border with the almonds slices.

Guess my husband's heart will melt away when he sees this cake hahaha!! (J/K)

This is my treat for dinner, pan di spagna layered with chocolate fondant, coated with whipped cream

I made a very classic Pan di Spagna with European style, simply with eggs, sugar, flour, starch and vanilla. Though nowadays, people enrich pan di spagna (genoise) with clarified butter blah blah blah, ... i still agree with the ITalians that there is completely no need to do such thing! Pan di spagna is born to go with numerous amazing rich yummy creams (pastry cream, chantilli, marsala, chocolate cream, ...) if they want to have a rich, and complicated taste, why not just do another type of cake (plum cake for example), no need to add fat element, then turn the world into complication with clarified butter, or some even adds baking powder (OMG!) with this normal classic recipe, i made it in 15 mins, not more than that, and my kitchen is totally clean and in order, unlike the "modern one", after a genoise, i felt extremely exhausted, and my cooking corner is turned up side down! (

Some argue that without butter pan di spagna is too dry, then they miss an important thing! we always have to "wet" our cake with liqueur or fruit juice (pineapple juice for example) or simply with sugar syrup)

*My brown breads

With smoked ham (prosciutto cotto)

*Toast with mozzarella, ham, salad and rocket salad

Enjoy your day!

Bánh bột lọc from Vietnam

2010-09-27T17:28:00.002+02:00

These days are a mess to me when everything comes at the same time, work (which is already tiresome, but was added on more orders from events), night class (6 hours a day and 5 days a week), taking driving license, house work, ... i totally had no time to do anything, even just to breath! What the hell!
I have been thinking maybe i will have to give up the course, then at least i have some time to have the driving license. anyway, it's just a possibility!
The food i wanna share today comes from the Mid of Vietnam called Da Nang, or if anyone of you heard of a famous attraction Hoi An then there you go,Da Nang is the big city only around 30 mins by car from hoi an.
I went to Da Nang when i was 21 years old, but that doesnt mean this dish has been known since, cus Saigon (my city) is not something like in Italy that you want local food you gotta go there, instead we can find anything in my city, from traditional to western, Chinese, Indian, Thai, ... Gosh!! whatever, i think, as long as we have money to pay i just love doing shopping till 11 PM, or having a bowl of Pho at 12pm before heading for the second course - roasted pigeon at 1 AM in the morning. Since the day i came to Italy, my life just adapted a schedule of an old lady who stays at home at night to watch some movie and goes to bed at 10PM. I told the italian that there's nothing to do here and they looked at me in a bad way! But c'mon! all the shops are closed at 6h30 PM, last orders from restaurant should be done before 9h30, what the hell can i do?? also the ambiance is totally... too tranquil to have wild exciting night for me. You look around and all you can see is the empty street. Certainly there are some bars or clubs, but not much choices. i dont wanna go to nightclubs for teenagers or students, i wish i could find a nice tastefully decorated bar which has a wonderful pool view, with a lovely cosy sofa where i can sip my after dinner drink leisurely. Anyway, i think the my complaining show should be finished here before you guys mock me "then why dont you move your ass back to Saigon?" haha!!
The dish is called "bột lọc" i guess it was dated back from its pungent tranparent skin made from 100% tapioca flour?? The filling is pork and brawns praised with nuoc mam - fish sauce, sugar and spices. To serve, we simply lay the little cute bot loc on the plate accompanied with a bowl of dipping sauce - nuoc mam chấm (normally, people add some slices of green hot chilly). Yum!!!

*For the vegetarian version, instead of meat, i use barely chive.

Baked risotto

2010-09-17T10:03:00.000+02:00

It's weird to me when my husband said this baked risotto is new to him, how come??? i see a whole chapter of this type in my Italian cooking "bible" riso (rice). anyway, maybe it's not as popular as pasta, lasagna or pizza. I think it's a good idea to savour the rice first (with the normal method of risotto), then shape them in a mould and bake. The final product will be delicious and has a fun crispy taste.

My baked risotto is simply cooked with anchovies (in olive oil), some parsley, onion and garlic, some chilly paste (i use harissa, but you definitely can substitute it with tomato concentrate). Then i lay the risotto with some cherry tomato, bake in oven 200 celsius around 4 mins.

I just love it! :)

Ingredient: (for 2)

70 gr of risotto rice (short and round)
some minced onion and garlic
1 teaspoon of tomato concentrate
some finely chopped parsley
70 ml of white wine
some olive oil extra virgin
some salt
140 - 170 gr boiling broth
some cherry tomato cut in rings

Method:

Sautee onion, garlic and anchovies with olive oil, then add rice, cook in 2 mins when they turn transparent, scent them with white wine.
When wine vapours away, add around 120 gr boiling broth, tomato concentrate and some salt. cook in medium heat and stir occasionally (add broth if needed). When rice is cooked (should be al dente or not too soft), and the composition should be wet but not liquid, season with salt and parsley.
Lay slices of tomato and rice in a ring mold. Bake in 200 celsius in 4 mins.
Serve hot.

Adventure in kitchen

2010-09-13T18:53:00.000+02:00

Cooking is an adventure to me, i love trying new recipes, and sometimes it makes me so excited to create something myself. Back in 2 years ago, practically i only cooked things i have eaten already, or let's call them "safe recipes" which are surely known by me, and which i definitely can eat and like to eat. The more i put myself in this sector-cooking, the more i am curious, i wonder why i dont make something made by Kathy?? :p (that's the birth reason of the project pane).

Normally, i love trying spices, cus to me, the smell, fragrance is the core of a traditional and authentic food, such as, talking about Vietnamese cuisine, we gotta know that it's impossible to lack of shallot, garlic, some ginger, and coconut, or with Thai food, there are always coconut, green/red/yellow curry, curcuma roots, lime leaves, or ITalian food, it should contains some prezzemolo (parsley), onion, rosemarino, and oregano, blah blah blah, ... after spices, grain is the next ingredient that drives me curious. Anyway there's one direction that i always have to keep in mind; though i change method/ingredients, ... i still maintain the core of my cooking phylosophy-healthiness. Yeah!! now, i am mentioning about my experiment today, when i attempted to make a bread from rice flour instead of wheat, off course everyone knows the calorie and sugar from rice should be much lower than wheat, but the problem is due to its limited gluten it couldnt leaven and has the texture of bread. Okie!! let's add some manitopa flour (with natural highest gluten), buh!! it doesn't change the situation much! :( So after 2 hours of waiting, i admited my failure :D However, glad that i did give it a chance haha!! :p

I cleant the mess away, and left my kitchen without a trace of that experiment, i came back to the "traditional bread" with wheat :) (gosh! now i know how important it is!! :D)

This time, i made Focaccia, it should be sister or brother of pizza cus the ingredients and method are just the same Pizza BUT without tomato sauce and cheese. We put all types of veggy on top, or spices, or parma ham, or simply rock salt and some olive oil extra virgin.

My focaccia contains quite a great deal of fiber (as you can see) ;)

Ingredients: (for single portion only! :D anyway, keep it in mind that the percentage of water is normally 50% of the flour, feel free to multiply my recipe or invent your bread dough with that simple rule)

75 gr flour
35 gr luke warm water
Little sugar
1/2 teaspoon of dried yeast

*Topping:

Slices of eggplants (around 50-70 mm thick)
garlic, onion blended well with olive oil extra virgin
Minced parsley
Rock salt
Olive oil extra virgin

Method:

Mix sugar and yeast with warm water before adding to the flour and knead in 7-10 mins till we have a smooth ball.
Make a cross cut on top of the ball, lay it in a big bowl covered by cling film, let it rest in 30- 45 mins
Knead the ball the second time in 2 mins, roll the dough around 1-1.5 cm thick (depend on your taste, but normally, focaccia is much thicker than Pizza and has square shape instead of round shape).
Brush the oil of garlic and onion on top, let it leaven in 1h45' or 2 hours.
Meanwhile, prepare eggplants, prinkle some salt on them and let it rest in 15 before rinsing with water and dry them with a cloth.
Llay slices on a big dish, brush with oil of garlic, onion, prinkle some parsley, put in microwave, choose high temperatite and grill. Cook in 4-6 mins.
When the dough is ready, top rock salt on it, then lay gently the eggplants on top, add some drops of olive oil extra virgin before baking the focaccia in oven with 200 celsius in 5-6 mins (or till it's done depends on its size).
Serve hot.

After shaping and cutting the edges of my focaccia, i didn't want to throw away the leftover dough, so i utilized it to make a tiny round bread (in Italian it's called bocconcino) :D See, it's not bad at all!! :)

Take a closeup!

Mắm kho thịt

2010-09-09T15:13:00.001+02:00

I put the original Vietnamese name for this dish without any translation to emphasize its exotica. I bet so many Vietkieu (Vietnamese but reside outside motherland) miss this food, and i am so sure that very rare foreigner likes this one maybe due to its distinguishing fragrance (for us), or ... bad smell (for strangers)?? Mắm kho thịt is a combination of pork braised with shrimp paste and spices. (*Shrimp paste is made from fresh shrimp and ferments in a long time). i just love this dish, i can eat it everyday and never get bored. Meanwhile, my husband couldn't stand even a slight smell, he often questions me how I overcome the smell, and i said "it's like you-italians with Gorgonzola" - a very smelly cheese with fungi inside. ew!!!!

It's been quite a while i havent eaten my authentic food till yesterday, when i caught its picture by chance on internet. My mouth was drooling when imagined a nice bowl of hot rice with mắm kho. Gosh!!! as a result of that, i spent my day off to cook a batch of my traditional food, divided them in small portions, so that i could have a quick delicious lunch everyday after work!

After taking care of "my daily private lunch", i continue to prepare our dinner which comprises a loaf of home-made bread from whole wheat, Italian braised beef stomach, and mixed salad :D

I have tried whole wheat several times, but havent satisfied much due to the leaving volume, maybe i didnt have experience at that time, or maybe because of the lacking of kneading. anyway, this time, i attemp once more time since i prefer more fiber in whole wheat than the other type of flour. With 225 gr of wholewheat, i added 25 gr of manitoba which has the maximum glutine aboves all other types of flour. :D then, it would do a good job for my texture.

With shaping, i prepare roll the dough several times. :D

The outcomes is a wonderful pay-off, couldnt believe it's so soft, just like sandwiches inside but still has a nice crust outside! Well done, then!!!

Ingredient for a loaf of wholewheat bread:

225 gr whole wheat

25 gr manitoba or other strong wheat

2 teaspoon of sugar

some salt

17 gr fresh yeast or (4 gr dried yeast)

125 gr luke warm water

3 tablespoon olive oil

Method:

Mix sugar, yeast with warm water and let it rest in 5 mins.

Mix salt with flour

Add water and olive oil to flour, knead well in 10 - 13 mins.

Makes a ball, cut a cross on top, wrap cling film and let it rise double in 2 hours.

Knead the dough in 1 mins, then roll the dough, fold them in 3, then roll and foll. after the second roll, shape the bread in baguette shape.

Let it rise double in 40 mins.

PRepare oven 200 celsius, bake in 35-40 mins.

Turn off heat, cool down.

Good luck! ;)

a 5 star treat

2010-09-07T20:24:00.000+02:00

Lately, i am so tired (or it's not too exaggerated if i say I am totally exhausted) after work, cannot believe that the 3 of us have to do the workload of 4??? every morning is a challenge for me to wake up and start a hard day ( the only encouragement that keeps me on and on is the salary haha!! Dont get me wrong that i hate this job, actually i love it, and day after day i love it more and more, my colleages are very nice, it's a great opportunity to practice my Italian (and honestly my Italian really has had a great improvement since); i can spend money on things i love without feeling guilty , and off course, it's the job that i love-making sweet, baking, transform the raw flour, butter, sugar into a delicious, sweet and fancy dolce. the only problem is we are lacking of labour force!! i have been working non stop for more than 1 week! i need my day off!!! boo hoo!!!!
Back to my personal kitchen, today, i introduce a very very "high class" sweet that i learnt from Signature Fine dining restaurant where i used to work as ... a hostess
Signature is a high class restaurant belongs to Sheraton Saigon hotel and tower, locates on the 23rd floor with astonishing 360 degree view, visit it, and you will know that i am not showing off
The food here is international western, then you can imagine that the chef put a lot of his imagination and invention, creation instead of keeping the dishes authentic
I always remember the Flambè served by the chef with side table service, the cooking show is amazing, the fire went so high that sometimes the fire detector got the false alarm I just love the ambient which is so nice, romantic and luxurious Normally they made crepes with berries sauce, aside is a scoop of ice cream. I modified with summer taste from peach - peach sauce and peach sorbet

Sauce:
2 peaches, cut in segments
1 small cube of butter
1-2 tablespoon of sugar
Large slice of lemon
1-2 tablespoon of liqueur (i used lemon flavour, but if you make with berry, Grand Marnier is preferred)

Method:

Heat the pan and add butter, stir the slice of lemon around, add sugar, melt the sugar into brown caramel.
Add liqueur with high heat (then you will have flambe), somehow, i am not confident with the fire, then i changed the step, i added peach, then liqueur Cooked in medium heat for 3 mins before serving with crepes

2010-09-05T14:58:00.002+02:00

Last month on the occasion of visiting the metropolitan library, i took a book named "bread-it's science and art", this is an fascinating piece for anyone who loves making bread. I couldnt imagine that there is a faculty studying profoundly about bread, all the chemical element and what makes them have this texture or that texture, how to leaven, how to conserve and how to bake in the right way, ... not mentioning a long article about types of flour, ... Believe it or not, the bread we have every day contains such a complicated making procedure!
After a long part of explanation, they went into detail of each recipe, there are 3 types of bread, direct (normal bread made within 3 hours, indirect (with starter-biga, poolish) and art (decoration, they made bouquets of flowers, they made a garden, a flower, ... which scare me away hehe!! honestly i had no idea that i would try it in the short term!)
I bet no one who loves cooking can resist making a batch of bread after reading this book!! so off course, I am not an exception, i jumped into the kitchen immediately too

here we go, my recent breads

There are 3 types, one called bloves made from French poolish (a sour starter quite similar with Italian biga, but more liquid, instead of 50% of water respect the quantity of flour, we made poolish with 100% flour and 100% water). The second one is MY salty croissant. if croissant has the paste of brioche then i have this merely bread dough I am so proud of this since it's really flaky! they remind me of the croissant the Jack Lee an online friend i knew from his interesting blog, once he said that he wanted to make love with the most delicious croissant that he had ever tried from his pastry school:p

*Pinzini: In Ferrara it's called pinzini, but Bologna it's named Crescente, and there are various names in other cities that i still havent learnt
By the way, basically, it's a fried bread preferred for apperatif. Don't look down on it! Cus i bet you would love to eat them continuously! (it happened to me like that!!)
With normal bread dough, after leavening the first time, roll it, cut in pieces, lay them on baking paper and let it rest in 15 mins before deep frying. Simple, right?

If you prefer empty inside, then just roll it very thin, and let it leaven a little bit more.

Everyday, i always sneak one peace of pinzini with some prosciutto crudo (parma ham) at work. Soooo good!!

Full time for one job or part time for many jobs???

2010-08-25T17:27:00.002+02:00

Today as usual, after work, i relaxed on my sofa having lunch while watching Sex and the cities (series, this is my second time! ). The Vogue's chief of editor talked to Carrie that she accepted her partner had someone else, and certainly it made Carrie wonder what was really going on,then she explained "i have a full time job, so certainly i have only little time for a part - time relationship". At this point it makes me think to myself, to keen on something, certainly it takes a lot of time and effort, but there are too many "jobs" which we couldn't delete any of them from our list. For example: I am certainly a full time wife (not housewife ) obviously housework should be done by me (and the help of my hubby, but mostly it's women's responsibilities isnt it??), I have a full time job which takes away at least 8 hours a day from my schedule. Then i have a hobby that i do wanna donate my time and passion on it! Nope yet finish, there's my school which will start in one month, and my language course, ... Gosh!! Too little time!! Is there anyone who had more than 3 full time jobs at the same time???? Life is really tough!!
A few days back, when i was having dinner with my family and little nephews, he asked me if i could make panettone for him since in his mind i could cook everything (poor my little Matteo! ) Panettone is an Italian traditional bread which is sold only at the end of the year when there are so many festivals such as Chrismas, New Years, ... This bread looks like a huge brioche, but brioche is out of its league since Panettone has a marvelous texture, an unmistakable fragrance, the taste is amazing, the sweet is just right, the skin is soft and light, gosh!!! no wonder why it's saved for only the biggest season of the year! AS a result of that, though my MAtteo likes Panettone so much, it's impossible to find it in the market. Okie then!! i thought let's see what i can do! cus i have never made a panettone before.
Tah tah!! i made it!! gosh, it took me 2 days to finish!! Thanks to the magazine "più dolci" for an amazing housewife's method. below the recipe they quoted something like "panettone is absolutely worth for a time consuming effort" and it's true!!

A close up:

Bonus: Ricotta ravioli with tomato sauce

Facing with the challenge :)

2010-08-19T16:46:00.002+02:00

[SIZE=5][FONT=tahoma]once a girl told me "I am not scared of failure", i think i didn't get what she really meant, cus or it was because she had never failed before?? or because she's a super person that can face with the bad result directly?? or either way? anyway, i had no chance to "probe" her in detail. In my case, I am not scared of failure, cus after that, we gotta have a lesson, and we will get better the next time.
2 years ago, pan di spagna drove me crazy, more than 10 times i threw my "products" away right after pulling it out from the oven. It was horrible, it collapsed, its surface became a screwed up paper, it burnt, it was uncooked, ... I tried ... god!! around 5, 6 recipes!! Now, i can be nose up with my pan di spagna! :p See?? We can learn something from the failure, though try to minimize them, (don't be like me!! haha!!)
I am glad that after 2 years of cooking, and after the course, i could do most of the basic things, so yesterday, i challenged myself by making Maringhe - a type of sweet made from egg white and icing sugar. I was warned by my husband who was failed with maringhe terribly once, i said ... whatever, let's try and see.
1st time: unacceptable!! It collapsed and ... it was just like a sponge, you know, the thing that we use to clean the dishes!! Man!! Anyway, i could understand what was wrong. The recipe!!! more than twice i said recipes play 75% of the success! I am totally right!! Base on the way she did, all the bubbles would be broken during the folding process! :( Fine, i threw that batch immediately and rolled my sleeves for the second time. this time, i found an amazing site from an American guy living in France (i guess he works something dealing with pastry, i didn't have time to check him up).
2nd time: this is much better, it least i have the cute shape! :p But seems the surface is not as good as it is supposed to be!! Anyway, i really had no time and no more eggs for the third experiment!! I decided to ask my boss who just made a mountains of maringhe a few days back on my off-day!! :( (Yeah!! next time i will book her!! :p i will be on her side and see how she makes them!)
so, this time, i just show my challenge without any recipe or sharing, cus they are still not satisfactory! :D

I love playing with chocolate! :D they just blow an elegant look to the sweet! :)

I used Nutella instead of fruity cream, and people have the reason to create new cream recipes for Maringhe cus it was toooo sweet!! just like we mix sugar with sugar and eat them straight! :( ew!!!

*Bonus: Korean soup with seafood-the only Korean dish that my husband likes so far! :D

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Healthy food

2010-08-16T16:15:00.002+02:00

Due to the slightly overweight of my hubby, i gotta make a diet plan for him seriously. so let's see how many kg he can lose in one month!

Gratin mushroom (stuffed with breadcrumbs, parsley, and garlic

Fried rice with seafood, paprika, and cumin covered with sauteed zucchini

Eggplant stuffed with tomato concassè, and sauteed red onion

Am I a cooking geek???

2010-08-11T17:26:00.000+02:00

That's what my boss said when i told her that i made babà at home on my "precious" only off day :)
We made so many types of cakes, desserts and mignon everyday, and it seems not to be enough to me. I guess because i am tickled by the curiousity. Though we made babà at work, unluckily the babà is already ready (we were supplied by other service) everything i have to do is soak them in the sugar and rum liquid, then top with cream, fruits, ... it's not fun! I prefer making a real babà!! Everyone knows the texture of the cake is the most important part, glassing or decorating is not the matter of baking anymore. so yeah, i definitely have to make babà at home, then i can say "i could make babà!" ;p

Babà is a very popular sweet in Italy, it comes from Napoli - the land of Pizza, Mozzarella and thousands of other yummy things. When you visit Napoli (of course apart from the amazing monuments, fantastic Pompei, magnificient cathedral, architecture, ... you can easily recognize that babà is everywhere, from a small street vendor to a luxurious restaurant. Normally, in Ferrara (my city, or even other cities) babà has its classic mushroom shape, i thought it was the only figure, anyway, i was wrong, in Napoli, there is also a big babà with the chamber shape, some said the bigger babà is the more delicious it is. (i am not so sure, but one thing i can confirm that the tiny little cutie babà mushrooms are not as good as the bigger ones which are around 5-6 cm long)

At the first time i saw this sweet, i had a strong temptation that i had to make this thing very very soon. It's not the matter of taste, it's the weird texture. I mistook babà as a brioche, and couldnt help but wonder what makes it leaven so much that there are a lot of big holes inside??? they were risen 3 times?? or they are made by the natural yeast??? Then, this is a completely wrong path. The more i am obsessed with the idea babà is brioche, the more i got stuck with the question how to make it???

Thanks to Sonia from giallozafferano (a very famous culinary site in Italy), i have a wonderful recipe, and guess what?? babà is totally not brioche, it is just a sweet made from yeast. The dough is very liquid that surely we aint able to knead, instead we use the hand blender to do the whole process. When my timer rang, i run quickly to my oven and forgot how hot it was, i checked out my babà at once, and sighed relievedly after seeing a real amazing home made babà. nothing to say but exclaimed "Wow"!
Am I a baking geek??? Or maybe I am just a curious food lover ;)

2010-08-05T08:41:00.002+02:00

Today is a grey rainy day, but i am not bothered since at least now, in a precious pleasure vacation, i have a chance to enjoy such an unordinary day of August before the real autumn comes while i have to work, then it’s annoying!
I do miss the feeling of being a “housewife chef” (yeah, I gave myself that title, and I am totally satisfied with it! I take care of the family, and cook things that I want, try new recipes and invent something “crazy” ) Somehow, today, in a wet summer day, I found myself back to the “stage” 2 months ago, in the kitchen, there is a tons of dishes to be washed, the living room is a mess left by my nephews who came here yesterday, I need to conserve the meat bought from supermarket, I gotta do something with a bunch of lemon which is going to become rotten, blah blah!! I don’t find them boring
It’s kinda sad when we witness the leaving of summer when the sun is bright, shining, when we can have a sunbath wherever we want (in my case, this year, I lied down on my balcony ). Still cannot imagine how I can manage to go to work at 5h in winter, it should be chilly, maybe I should walk instead of using bicycle, but then, I have to wake up earlier than usual! Oh, c’mon! I guess I am letting the unreasonable fear overwhelm me, everyday in the world, how many people have to work tougher than me?? They might even not have a good house with TV, movie, music, internet, books, magazines awaiting for them at home, I guess I should stop complaining and put more effort to overcome this tiny problem!
Alrite! Back to my routine, here is some of my first try for choux (or in Italian it’s called bigne), the bigne is so much perfect, I have nothing to complain about, it rised well, and empty inside, not too much egg. It’s a very good recipe! But then, I attempted to give myself a challenge of playing with sugar! And the disaster started from here! As it was the first time, I have no idea when and how to pull out the caramel, anyway, after ruining the whole bigne, some experience came up (Yea, at the end! ;( ). Then, I store the choux in fridge and god knows why the caramel melted and ruined all my cute choux!! GRrrrrrrrr!!!
By the way, I don’t put too much expectation for the first time! Let’s see the second time!

Brown choux (to me and my niece, it is better than the classic ones since there is no smell of egg, infact it even has cocoa fragrance )

Yeah! i know, this caramel is horrible!

Some capture from our back yard i took these pics meanwhile my nephews were running around with their bicycles

Milk bread from flour semolina

2010-08-01T21:58:00.000+02:00

The bakery where i am working locates at the center of Ferrara-my little city, accidentally, 2 years and a half ago, it was the first bar in town that i visited with my "fiancè" for the first amazing hot chocolate-the one that now, when i close my eyes, the creamy, fragrance are still their on the top of my tongue. i feel so guilty cus i didn't take Hương and my cousin there when they visited me! :(

The bar has a wonderful position that faces directly to the ancient castle, in summer, the music shows are held here nearly every weekend, in winter, the greatest firework of new years'eve is right here, and in the Sunday morning the ancient market is just next to our open door. You can guess that how many opportunity we have to do business?? As a result of that, we have a long fancy bar, with shining window full of pastry, coffee, and gourmet stuffs. Before working here, everytime i passed by, i couldnt help but wondered how people can produce such a fantastic beautiful and tempting thing, I was not drooling for the deliciousness, i craved due to the curiousity and the passion was burning in me. You can say now that i just have a dream job! Well, it is not that very fancy, but yes, i get what i wanted.

In a crisis period these days, finding a job seems impossible, especially in a tiny city like Ferrara, particularly for an Asian - foreigner like me. Somehow, the luck smiled at me, and i had it. in the movie "the pursuit of happiness" stared by Will Smith (based on a true story), he said "do not let anyone tell you what you cannot do, you have a dream, you protect it, you want something, you go for it". I do love this quote. I am glad that i am well prepared enough so that when the opportunity comes I am capable to catch it! :) If we try hard, there will be some pay-off sooner or later, more or less, isn't it??

Anyway, back to my pastry job, i used to wonder how they can have such a fantastic texture for brioche, how the bread is so soft and smooth??? now i get it!! got their secret!! haha!! :p

In fact, it is much more simple than we imagine, it's all science. It's true that pastry is science, cus we gotta follow strictly the recipe in miligram, and we have to practice exactly the instruction or things will screw up! About bread, certainly the essential ingredient that makes it leaven is yeast. And to active the yeast completely, we need the temperature and humidity, dont we?? ;p Yub!! In my work place, we have 2 huge fridge or in italian called lievitatore - the machine plays a role as a fride, but also the leavening room. we set the time for machine how many hours of leaven, how many degree, ... so only one time of rising can make the bread leaven marvelously! I am so jealous!!!

Now, i have not only their "secret" but also the recipe :p

Today, i tried one of the recipe at home, and it is just so yum!!

I am not sure about the other places, but our products are good quality, good ingredients, fresh, and well-cared! However, having a home made ones has its own strength either, that we can choose the raw materials which we prefer and trust, we can modify the recipe in the way of the diet we are following (of course if you understand well the roles of each type of flour/fat/liquid in a recipe. Like me, instead of using normal wheat, i mix segale (without glutine) with farina to experiment :p. Last but not least, eating a newly baked bread from our oven is somehow so much more enjoyable, cus it's the result of our work, isn't it??

I can say the love for cooking and baking is still their in me, and I still wanna move on with another course of cooking! :) let's hope one day i can find time and Euro for this dream :p

Here is a batch of milk bread i have just made with flour of semolina :)

*I love decorating for milk bread :D Just let our imagination fly high :p

"A weird pasta recipe"

2010-07-28T15:04:00.003+02:00

It was the comment from my husband when he first saw the lasagna without besciamella, only simply layered with slices of tomato, anchovies, and brawns. But hey! i got the recipe from an Italian culinary magazine, i didnt invent it myself!
Somehow, he likes it; so lesson is do not let the prejudice blind you.
Talking about prejudice, it reminds me of my little nephew - Matteo who will be 7 in 3 months, but in my eyes, he is always a baby. If someone asks him what he doesnt like to eat, it would be easier to change the question "what you like to eat" since the list is very simple and short, meanwhile things he dislikes would take forever to count. He rarely or never tries new food. NEVER! he sticks with the ideas and keeps it as an unchangeable rule. By the way, he seems change for a while with my food. I guess because i made some of his "enemies" become very yummy?? for example, he never eats onion, if he sees a hint of this spice, he will never touch the dish. Fine! i just blend onion with olive oil so creamy, and cook as normal. he likes pumpkin since it's sweet, but never wants apple. One day, i made ravioli filled apple puree. He loved it so much and commented "this pumpkin ravioli is fantastic". I let him finish and said "honey, it is apple ravioli". I dint cheat him, i just adjusted at the end. haha!! you gotta see his face!!

Okie, here we go, my "weird lasagna", it is totally healthy and refreshing!!

*Pasta with yolks (instead of with whole egg), did you see its color??? amazing!! it is just gorgeously golden

Appetizer with eggplants, tomato and mozzarella

Biscuits delight

2010-07-27T11:48:00.001+02:00

Some people always mention about the "tips or secret" in kitchen, they strongly believe that the cooks own so many secrets that make food much more delicious and beautiful than unprofessional ones. I really dont agree much with those opinions. That doesnt mean the cooks or patisserie are just normal housewife, it is just that i believe tips signifies technique + experience. and certainly a chef surely learn cooking or professionally from school or on the job, whatever, they are taught to cook, moreover, cooking is not their hobby, it is a career, so guess what?? at least 8 hours a day, 6 days a week they are in the kitchen, they sure earn a lot experiences. Anyway, to me, if we have a passion, we learn, and experience, i assure we can cook and bake very well, a small difference between "pro" and "homemade" is the pro can make a large portion well and beautiful at the same time meanwhile the "homemade" would find it difficult to make things clean, in order, and quick.
When i was taking a cooking course which is called "the cooking technique", we learnt things in very basic, the basic/original recipes. Some complained "why dont we do something fancier?? I sure know how to make cookies" Yeah!! of course! i believe that so many people can make cookies, pan di spagna, or bread at home. But do they know how to twist a recipe to adapt with diversified taste/religion?? Do they know how to combine this type of cream with various types of cake??? Do they know what makes the pan di spagna collapse??? i doubt it! So if you wanna take a course which is useful enough to make you a pro housewife, i would advice a cooking technique. A wonderful course that enable us to understand deeply a recipe, to make something for our own, and to leverage our creations.
we have learnt only around 30 hours of pastry (tooooo little, right??) So, dont ask me if we learnt how to decorate this/that cake, how to make fondant flowers, ... it is not the purpose of the course. We learned how to make pasta sfoglia (puff pastry), pasta frolla (short crust pastry), croissant, Pan di spagna, crema pasticceria, ... basic things but they are roots of many fantastic pastries.
I have tried so many biscuits recipes, and finally, i have one on my own, the one i love soooo much, it contains less sugar, and butter than any others so far that i know, it is fragrant, and adaptable for many types of cookies/tarts. And no need to advertise that it is crazily delicious!! hehe!

Yesterday, my nephews visited us and stayed over for afternoon tea and dinner. Matteo asked me for biscuits as usual. Okie then! let's make a batch of biscotti!
We make the balls, the animal shapes with citrus chocolate (which adds a wonderful taste for the sweet), with almonds, with hazel nuts, with jams, with hazelnut powder, ...I remembered i had made some icing sugar decorations a few days back, why not stick it on cookies to colorize our work??? Here we go!! After around 30 mins, we have a bunch of cookies with diversified flavor.

Icing sugar:
2 clean egg whites
500 gr icing sugar
Some drops of lemon juice.
Colors

Method:
Beat the egg whites with icing sugar (add little by little), and lemon till they are creamy (around 10 mins).
Get the right amound for each color as you wish.

*I use the white color to make the border first (you can draw or print any shapes on a paper, then lay the picture below the baking paper which should be stuck well on an even surface by scotch). Then "paint" the color later. After finishing, let it dry at least one DAY, do not try to move, or fold the paper, it would break the sugar.
When the icing sugar is completely dry, gently put it in a box or jar and use as decoration. :)

2010-07-14T17:29:00.003+02:00

For those who has been following my blog, i guess they remember my commitment i talked about a few months ago that i am trying to reduce the consumed plastic. and so far, i am very glad that we made it well. bringing the shopping bags to buy stuffs became our habit, i never accept the free plastic, i even persuaded my friend _ Nataly not to use plastic provided by the cosmetic shops Sometimes i dropped in a pick-and-go to buy some food accidentally, certainly i dont have my bag with me, but again, i just brought all those stuff with bare hands and rush to my bicycle i know people would think i am crazy, or too stubborn, some would spout "only one time" anyway, even once, i would not want to use. It is my commitment, it is my choice!
So the new goal??? i intend to reduce the meat in our meals. As you know we (people) are consuming too much meat. I remember when i was small (from 2 yrs old to 15) we rarely ate chicken, i can count the number of time we eat beef a year; with a small handful of ground pork, my mom usually mixed with white tofu and cooked for the whole family 4 people. Vegetable always existed in our daily meal, grain and soup were never missed. meanwhile nowadays, our fridge is full of meat (pork, chicken, beef, rabbit, lamb, ...) when we are invited for dinner, most of the dishes are meat, so where are all those animals to provide such a huge amount of meat for us-human???
according to National Geographic, and some documentary about food supply, nutrition, instead of feeding animals with their real food which they are supposed to eat such as grass, and vegetable, things we dont eat, they are fed by grain, corn and industrial food which urge them to grow 4, or 6 times faster than normal. With this way, we have full of meat in the market with best price. Talking about price, they said industrial thing costs very little, and it increases our living standard, it is saving, it is economic, but they haven't counted the cost of pollution during process of growing grain industrially (which is supposed to be eaten by human, not animal, how many countries which still lack of food and suffer fame nowadays??? just to remind Zimbabwe, Somali, ... ), the glass house effect comes closer and closer, thanks to the transportation. still, they havent counted the medicine, and the illness consumers have to pay due to eating industrial things and unnatural ingredients. how come natural when a chicken from the day it hatches till killed only stays still in one cage, one place??? and how can it be healthy when one chicken is supposed to grow at least 1 month and a half instead of 2-3 weeks???

Do not ever say that it will become a dish somehow, who care how they are treated; it is not true! First, if something is unnatural, then it is unusual and it would cause effect somehow, more or less, sooner or later. second, though we will eat them anyway, but is it ethic to torture such an animal from born to dead this way??? i totally agree with my mother in law when she said "i dont mind eating meat, as long as they are killed quickly instead of suffering".
I have been thinking and decided to have vegetarian meal more every week, maybe one family buy less doesnt change anything, but who know some read my blog, some are my friends, some are my relatives will take it into account??
I dont blame the industrial factories, i dont blame the retailers, i dont blame anyone. But i have a strong believe that we - consumers definitely have the power to change things. it may takes time, but i dont mind, i still have faith, and i will see the changes of market. let's do it with us!

PS: Fish curry! (it is supposed to be vegetarian curry, but guess what?? after bringing the pack of tofu at home, i recognized that it was full of funghi ( )
Anyway, the dish consists of eggplant, capsicum, mushrooms, fish filets, coconut milk and spices (curry, bay leaves, onion, chilly and garlic

Nice day!

Off day

2010-07-12T18:40:00.002+02:00

It is not true if i use the reason of being busy for my absence from blogging, cause i dont feel much pressure from the new job anymore, or at least so far, i start enjoying it. The reason i dont update the page is maybe because of the weather?? seems weird, right? but it is the truth! Cannot believe it is so hot here, 35 to 37 celsius, and the sun shines from 7 am till 9pm, then you can understand how much it turns me down.

We dont have air conditioner at home, (in case you ask :p); i'm not sure about the other countries or states, but in EU, they have a limit of ...something... gosh, i have no idea, anyway, to prevent the glass house effect, so that the energy costs so much, especially now, they begin the new tariff which costs a lot during day light and reduces half at night and weekend. that's why we are not very willing to use air con.

Okie, let's talk about my job!

I gotta admit that it was so tough for me at the first place, due to the culture differences, the linguistic barrel (yeah, i speak Italian too, but i am not keen on chit chatting, you know, the small talks just for fun, i guess because i rarely use it at home, and of course never speak italian spontaniously, only in case i must use it). I didnt know what to talk to them, actually they are much older than me and i can say our background is totally different. The first month was extremely tiresome, we lacked of staff (people now are taking the summer vacation), i was not used to the work yet, and ... there was someone totally mean and racist at the workplace (anyway thank god, they will not come anymore, Amen!!).

Now i am cool with everything, i know what to do, how to move, i can get thing under control, and nobody can complain "it is not that, it is not this" (even though they dont have a F""king idea how to do! they really made me wonder when we get old, we can permit ourselves to be rude and uneducated to the youth???? i said it because those "mean" are elders, they never never greet, rarely say "please", extremely rare "excuse me" and "thank you" is too much difficult to be spoken out loud!

As my husband says such type of people exist everywhere, not only Italy, or Ferrara, but .. anyway!! i dont know, i just have a very bad impression! Italian said "the mother of the stupid is always pregnant". Yeah, if we see those people, take it easy!!!! they exist somehow!

Today is my off day, nothing much to do, i took a stroll at the bookstore, and bought an amazing cooking book which is published by Le Cordon Bleu-academy of Paris culinary art.1895 (FYI: this is the school that Julia Child -the woman who taught the American how to cook graduated from). I am completely happy and satisfied with this book though we have so many many culinary encyclopedia and magazines at home. I'd better say this is a dictionary of cooking, since it ranges from all types of basic technique, from western to oriental, from vegetable to meat, from salty to dessert, from pasta to cream, ... The layout is fantastic, there are pictures illustrating step by step, the photos are well taken, it's such a well done piece!

Then i went home, continue with my Pane project (this is number 5) called aromatic bread, cus i used so many spices (sage, rosemary, onion, garlic and chilly, yub! chilly!! :p) I made some bocconcini (small balls), a barguete, and one small pizza with grilled vegetable and fresh sausage. Glad that my niece loved it, she ate 3 slices for tea break before heading to a gelateria with me! :) but there was a comment "please, next time less chilly, my mouth is burning auntie!" hehe!

I went back home after saying goodbye to the kids, brought to boil a big pot of chicken stock which should be ready in an hour for my Phở :D So many Italian questioned how come we eat soup which is in their opinion only for cold weather, and... i dont know! i guess the hotter it is, the more soup we should eat to return the lack of water during sweating. anyway, i dont mind! i just want my Phở!! yummy!

My off day is spent like that, lazy, leisure and devoted for my hobby - cooking and eating!

Enjoy your day!! who know tomorrow you will be so much busy that even cannot have a cup of cappucino which is served even in front of your nose! haha!!! :p

Luv yah!

Thy Thy Kathy!

Pannacotta

2010-07-10T20:05:00.000+02:00

this dessert is definitely for hot summer.

You know, before coming to Italy, i used to think it should be fresh or cold only in Europe, but actually, it is not true! Summer here is very hot and as tiresome as in Asia. It is humid, and hot like hell!

Pannacotta is already famous in dessert world, so i dont have to introduce anything. The factor which i admire about this food is the simpleness, just every 500 gr of boiled fresh cream mix with 12 gr of gelatine.

To add a fresh fruity taste, i made caramelized peach to accompany with
To serve: fresh peach and coffee caramel

The panna is not very smooth since i was in a hurry, couldnt have time for another better one! (

Stuffed squid/mực nhồi

2010-07-08T21:48:00.000+02:00

Nowadays people non stop talking about the octopus Paul -the fortune teller of German football team, after the failure with Spain, octopus/squid became a culinary trend on the dinner table. I am not a fan of soccer, but i do feel sorry for the young and energetic team which i believe they could have made better, perhaps they needed a little luck???

Okie, back to my dish, i gotta say it is a mix of Asian and Wester cooking. Since the stuffed squid is from Vietnam, but i made it with Western spices. A very nice try!

Fillings: minced pork, chinese wood ear mushroom, some oil, garlic, onion, pepper and paprika powder.
Stuff inside the squid, the lay it on the baking tray, brush it with oil scented with onion and garlic. After 15 mins, turn off heat, prinkle paprika on top and serve hot with rice.

2010-07-06T15:05:00.000+02:00

I believe that more than 1 time i admit i fell in love with cannoncino at the first bite, then now, another confession, i am so head over heel with bomboloni-a type of fried donuts filled with custard cream. Despite the diet, i eat it anytime we have breakfast at the bar, i used to wonder what type of dough that make an amazing texture, how can it is so much elastic, the taste is marvelous! Now i get it!
We (especially me) make many bomboloni every day, and certainly, i found out bomboloni is not very different from brioche, but that cooking method transfers it in another form, more delicious and more unhealthy
Somehow, the recipe i used for this batch is not from the bakery i am working for, since cooking in restaurant/baking in a bakery differs quite a lot from home! I still prefer trusted Italian recipes to cook myself at home. Here we go! Recipe of bomboloni from anice&cannella

With a large amount of dough, i made a batch of bomboloni, and the rest was for brioche.
Recipe for bomboloni:
400 gr flour
100 gr water
100 gr milk
around 7 gr dried yeast
1 egg yolk
70 gr sugar
peanut oil for deep fry
Some icing sugar for topping.

Method:
Mix 100 gr flour with 100 gr luke warm water and 1/2 of dried yeast., mix well and let it rest around 40 mins or till it leavens double. (this paste is called poolish-a type od sour starter from France)
Add 2 tablespoons of flour in the dough to mix, then continue to add yolk, mix again, then the rest of the flour, sugar, yeast, and luke warm milk.
Knead well in 10 mins, then make a ball.
Make a cross sign on top of the ball, cover it with the cling film, let it rise in 1h30.
After that quickly knead and roll the dough with the roller pin around 1.5 cm thick. Use a pasta cutter (round shape) to cut the dough, lay on tray with baking paper.
let them rest in 40 mins, before frying them. --> finish!

*Custard cream:
4 yolks
250 gr milk
20 gr flour
80 gr sugar
Some vanilla

MEthod:
Boil the milk, meanwhile beat the yolks, sugar, vanilla, and flour with a whisk.
Pour the milk into the yolk, mix thoroughly before bring them back to the stove with medium-low heat. Stir gently with a whisk or a woodened spoon in only 1 way. When the cream gets thick, heavy and boils. turn off heat, cool down.
Fill cream in bomboloni.

My Vietnamese vegetable grown at home

Bread project: Pane number 4

2010-07-01T17:37:00.003+02:00

If anyone of you read my blog, then you understand which project i am talking about
I guess the drug that makes me so addicted to cooking is creation, i love trying new things, new recipes, then i attempt to make some on my own, only from me Certainly if it is similar to a few types of bread in the world, it would be a nice coincidence, since with the project PANE it is purely from my imagination and the hard work i am carrying on!

This time, i make olive bread with normal paste (without biga), olive oil and olive flesh. Gosh, it is such a nice feeling to have dinner with the one we love with delicious food made with whole heart and a loaf of bread which is apparently taken out from the oven.

[IMG= http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4080/4751320815_993ba52223.jpg]

*Basically i let the dough rise 2 times, but between the 2 leavenings, i let it rest around 20 mins under cover of a cloth.

Recipe for a loaf of olive bread (around 400 gr)

Ingredients:

250 gr flour (multipurpose is Okie)
125 gr luke warm water
50-60 gr olive oil extra virgin
around 15 olives without seeds
a pinch of salt and sugar
4 gr dried yeast

Method:

Mix the luke warm water with sugar and yeast, then cover them with cling film for 4 mins till the creamy foam appears.(with this method, we can check if the yeast functions or no)
Meanwhile mix salt and olive oil with flour.
Add water into flour, knead well around 10-13 mins till it is smooth and elastic. Make a ball, cut a cross on top of the dough, lay it in a big bowl, cover with cling film. Let it rise more than double (around 1h30 mins).
Prepare olives: Cut them in small pieces (or in small rings), use a kitchen cloth to make sure they are totally dry.
Knead the dough in 2 mins with olives, then make it as a long oval, cover with cloth, let it rest in 20.
Shape the dough as a long baguette, use a sharp razor to make some cut on top.
Leaven the second time around 40-60 mins. (to make sure it has a nice shape, use some thick cloth, or something long to put beside the dough, therefore instead of sliding down at the 2 sides, it will grow up, and we have a nice baguette or filoncino.)
Prepare oven 180 celsius with some spray of water, bake around 35-50 mins. Do not open the oven in first 15 mins.
Cool down in rack and enjoy!

PS: Who says wild flower is not beautiful???? I found them in one early morning from an old vase forgotten or abandoned long ago by me and my lazy hunnie! They are so adorable, the nice sweet color really brights my day up!!

2010-06-24T16:57:00.000+02:00

I am such a cookaholic I am not so sure if the cooking thing is a drug or the curiosity drives me this crazy. I can "PROUDLY" say that i cook more than 12 hours every day!
My pasticceria starts very early in the morning (at 4 AM) since we have to cater for other bars around. For your information that the Italian only have croissants, pastry for breakfast, unlike in Asia we have soup, or noodles, ... Gosh!! I do miss my Vietnamese breakfast!
We made thousand things both sweet and salty, but i have no heart to make my rushing one there since we usually have to run like crazy, after preparing for other bars, we started another complicated for our in house one. Then life is on and on with the same process - preparing pastry for the next day. That's it.
My work differs little from the others, since i do the final ground. All the base come to me and i will make them up with cream, fruits, gelatine, ... then place them nicely on the tray and send them to the bartender. You can say that it is quite interesting, but trust me, it is not very fun since you gotta make around 24 small fruit cakes with 3, 4 types of fruits in different ways as fast as possible! How come??? tell me!! She (the one ignorant woman who has no background dealing with baking) asked me to "throw the fruit on the cake in different angles" ????? Oh, excuse me! I am making cake, not throwing rubbish Okie??? You want it beautiful, then treat it as a beauty kind!!
Though the work is very tiresome, but i am glad that i did it with my heart, cus it is not only a job, it is my passion!
Then, yesterday like any ordinary day, i came home, worn out, hungry for a dish of tortellini (a type of Italian ravioli coming from Bologna and Ferrara where i am living. I remembered that we had a ball of fresh pasta in freezer which i prepared long ago. (What a good memory! haha) I patiently make the fillings, then a whole bunch of fresh pasta with stripe which i am so proud of (actually i learnt this trick during the internship in a traditional restaurant!

If anyone of you attempts to make tortellini/ravioli, my advice is you should make it in large quantity, then divide them in small portion and store in fridge, it is not comfortable at all to make the kitchen so filthy every time we eat fresh pasta.

Tortellini with cream of mushroom porcini

Grissini torinese (breadsticks from Torino). I guess all the gourmet have heard this name before since this type of bread is very wellknown If you don't know?? not a problem, after trying, you would understand why! I get the recipe from an amazing site vivafocaccia.com

*Bonus:
Curried rice fried with seafood. Don't mix it up with curried fried rice! Cus i cooked the rice with set of curry then fried it with seafood Different!

This should be ediquate for portion of 3

*Sauteed chinese lettuce with sliced beef

Creamcheese cookies

2010-06-21T21:42:00.000+02:00

I always thought that i would stop blogging after having a job, specially if my job relates to "cooking or baking" Somehow, so far, i realize i was wrong. It seems after 9 hours baking thousands of cake is not enough, i come home and continue my little projects. Though i am tired to death, but still, i wanna create some of my thing, and try to "play" with the decoration. Maybe it calms me down after such a long day with a hard work and stupid people (some! unfortunately, the mean people still dominate the good ones in our world!! )
Okie! Here is the creamcheese chocolate cake that was made a few days ago

I am still so passionated with decorating cake.
This time, pan di spagna (or gateau) was made by the Italian recipe which consists only eggs, flour and sugar. The method is super simple and the result is amazing!! I am totally satisfied!! We just beat the egg (without separating white and yolks) in 15 mins, when they expand the volume, slightly and slowly sift the flour in, fold gently. Then bake in 40 mins. Bet you will have a great beautiful and delicious pan di spagna!

Tomato tri-color

2010-06-18T19:39:00.000+02:00

My husband says i can proudly shout out loud to the world that I am an "italian" now, since i could eat mostly all type of food, from raw to cooked, from fish to meat, from pasta to risotto.
When i was in Vietnam, there were 2 dishes that i could never stand, one is consomè and another is risotto. But if anyone of you is Asian, then you would understand the reason why i denied risotto. first it is too wet respect to our national daily rice, second it is uncooked. How can we chew the rice "al dente" which we can feel the hardness at the center???
By the way, thing has changed!! even me myself dont know what really happened, i fell in love with risotto, i love the creamy delicious taste, i do adore the fragrance well combined by herbs. and yes, i eat it nearly everyday now.

Risotto with artichoke under olive oil, fresh sausage, white wine, lemon and sweet basil Yum!!!

Tomato tri-color:
This is a very typical summer dish!! It is so weird that people in Italy eat only salad and melon in summer, they explain that it is very refreshing, meanwhile in Vietnam, despite 40 celsius everyday not including the terrible humidity, we still consume non-stop soup, soups and soups.
Tomato stuffed with pesto, chic pea and tuna.

*Cá kho tộ.
I love braised fish with pineapple, some chilly, some spices, and hot rice. What a wonderful life!

Curried chicken

2010-06-14T17:45:00.002+02:00

Hazelnut biscuits. Yum!!! Paste was made by Thy but rolled and decorated by Ale

FRuit tart made by Thy and Ale.
After 9 hours in pastry kitchen, i still love to spend time for family activities with my dearest husband. I remember more than 2 years ago, i was surprised that Ale can bake a basic apple cake, i just opened my eyes widely with surprise and never had a hint that i would become a pastry chef oneday. Anyway, things changed, and now i am the one who helps him to make cakes.

Savour of Asia

2010-06-11T21:38:00.000+02:00

Working in a pasticceria really wears me out, we had no time for fancy food, moreover, it is now too hot to eat types of Vietnamese soup, so that my daily meals are mostly Italian.
This is just a simple dish for my Vietnamese cuisine craving
50% of glutinous rice, 50% of fragrant rice mix with sweet smoked bacon, peas some chilly, then wrapped with plain omlette

Buon appetito!

Arancino

2010-05-31T07:09:00.002+02:00

This food is very popular in the South of Italy, certainly it is since the origin place is Sicily :) I once saw little arancino in the snack menu of Burger King, i guess they got the idea from this traditional dish? Anyway, i am not sure, since i had no intention to taste fast food things not burger King nor MC Donald :)
Arancino (little orange, maybe it was given the name due to the little round yellow shape??) is basically a ball of risotto filled with ... whatever you like (normally ragù, mozzarella, fish, or olive unseeded). Then we coat the balls with breadscrumbs and deep fry. It is so much crispy and yummy. My niece can eat 4 small balls continuously. :)
In Sicily, there are 2 types of shape: cone or round, and weigh at least 50 gr, to me, it is too much, i prefer small size for apperatif, and my husband commented "it looks quite Burger King" haha!

Ingredients for around 16-17 balls of arancino:

150 gr rice
80 ml white wine
450 gr boiling broth (or boiling water)
Minced onion, garlic
Olive oil extra virgin
Parsley, minced
Italian basil, minced
Breadscrumbs
2 egs beaten with some salt.
Peanut oils to deep fry

Method:

Sautee onion and garlic, then add rice, toast them in a few mins before adding white wine. When wine vapours away, add around 300 gr broth.
Stir them frequently and add broth if needed. When rice is done,soft enough to shape the ball, but not smashed, season with salt, parsley and basil, turn off heat. Let it cool down.
Prepare fillings, (Mozzarella cut in small cubes and laid on a seive around 2 hours to dry out. olive, ragù, ...)
Prepare a bowl of water to clean hands, this is important, since the dry hand will be very sticky, and very difficult to make the balls.
Dip hands in water before taking a small amount of rice spread evenly, then add the filling, use the palms and fingers to press the rice embracing well the fillings. Coat with breadscrumbs, and continue to cover it with beaten egg, and another coating. Lay on another dry dish to deep fry later.
Prepare a hot pan of oil, deep fry, and serve hot.
*To store: Just fry them in 2 mins, don't make it too yellow. Cool them down and store in fridge (4 days) or freezer (around 2 months)

Buon appetito!

Lost, I am totally lost!!!

2010-05-26T12:39:00.003+02:00

I would like to dedicate this short entry for an American telefilm called "lost" which disappoints me so much since the season 4 (and it just ends a week ago with season 6, finally!!! Phhhh!!!!!!) The thing i hate much about telefilm is that the producers always try to make ultra-benefit on the movie, they tend to lengthen their product as much as possible. It is understandable that since you invest a mountain of dollar, certainly to earn the return of investment as long as the interest is reasonable. However, if the series just goes on and on, it finally become a pain in the ass!!! For example "Nashville" - a cute telefilm about superman, it was a big hit and cute, then so what? they made it year after year, finally we got sick of it, who care about that super coward guy anymore?? who care if he could make it out with his girlfriend or whatever! Please, just shut it down!!! Or i will provide another great example of disappointing series called Dawnson Creek (Katie HOlmes used to have a main part in this telefilm) OH MY GOD!!! I followed them till... which season... god knows! but when the circle of the teen girl Joey was back and forth with her childhood boyfriend and the highschool Joshua, it really wore me out. I just left them along and honestly, anytime i think about it, i just feel so fed up!! I wonder why they cannot make something just cute, begin and end just at the right time, right moment?? Like friends or Sex and the city for example, no wonder the 2 series still contains a great number of fan around the world, and their movies are still continuously downloaded/bought (:p) day by day.
Back to Lost, no need to complain how deep they fell in that wrong path as Nashville and Dawnson's Creek. The film was first aired in US in 2004, and soon became a big hit, brought millions of viewers, stars of lost are so well-known, Evangelina Lily (Kate) is now the ambassador of many big cosmetic brands. The first 3 seasons were amazing, i remember we watched at least 3 episodes everynight, and never missed a day of lost. (actually it was the third time of my husband, after getting married, he introduced me Lost and then watched with me). till the season 4, everyone can see that they had nothing to write, there was just no more thing to do! So what can they manage?? Ah ha!! very cunning, just make another airplane crash, then you have a bunch of people and their mysteries to exploit. Actually, the season 4, and 5 were just going around the bush, they tried to tickle our curiosity but never provided the answers (and i bet even the script writer wouldn't know what the hell he was writing!!) If i had watched the series alone, i would have stopped at the season 5, too tired of a way leading to nowhere, unfortunately, my husband is a type of one who has a great optimistic mind and full of trust in people; therefore we carried on till the end (season 6). yesterday, (the second day after the first air in US) he sent me the link to download lost and when he came home, behaved just as a small child who was very nervous to open his birthday gifts. I thought he expected they would give us a clear explanation for everything, an answer that we had been waiting for too long. The final episode lasted nearly 2 hours, and the ending just sucks as it was in the last 3 seasons. We are totally lost!!! After the whole advanture to get their life back, after all effort to find out who Jacob was, after the long long journey of fighting to protect the island, all we have is "people die at the end of the day, you know?" and what the hell "we are leaving, or we move on"?? Whatever, somebody please tell me what they really wanna say?? I guess i am too stupid to understand such a high level of movie which is full of symbols to be decoded or which was made only for masters, doctors, scientists?????? I guess the title "lost" has a great meaningful description in my case! I am just LOST!!!

*Bonus:
Korean spicy tofu soup Got it from Maangchi
I love Maangchi's recipe so much, they are not only so yummy, but also totally healthy. The ingredients are fresh, full of fiber, good spices and very low calories from fat or protein. :)
The soup was made from potato, zucchini, onion, garlic, dried anchovies, korean bean paste and fresh tofu. Excellent to start a day in my case. :)

Back from Torino

2010-05-25T11:16:00.002+02:00

We took a 2 day-tour in Torino a few days back with my husband's company - Italian Telecom; the trip was amazing, luckily we had a great weather of this late spring, bright sunshine and fresh breeze. Honestly 2 days are too little for a big and beautiful city like Turin, definitely we have to be back next time; it was a pity that we couldn't have enough time to visit mummies museum and National movie museum. Turin is the capital of region Piemonte where there is well-known for truffle (especially the precious white ones), chocolate, and hazelnut. Is there anyone having tried Nutella?? then you know how much delicious it is the marvelous taste of Torino?? ;p besides we had a great chance to eat a famous roasted beef with yummy sauce made from mayonnaise, tuna, and capperi. If anyone is a fan of breadsticks then here you go! A right place to indulge your palate with crispy and tasty bread. Torin used to be a favourtie spot of ITalian majesty, so certainly we can find so many masterpieces of art and high end objects brought from those blue bloods. Unluckily it is not allowed to take a picture (how greedy they are! :( ), the palaces are very beautiful, elegant and full of rich cultural artistic stuffs. ;( Guess what? since the Italian emperor lasted till the 19 century when the world was much close together and there existed cultural exchange between countries. We found a part of the building full of nice huge chinese pictures, not including numerous of artisian asian objects. There were one dipinto made by a western artist, the sense, the ambiance is really oriental, but the faces of people are definitely European, to answer the question they said at that time we - asian was still a mystery and not many people (including the artists) had opportunity to meet someone asian, therefore that pic was painted basing on the imagination of the painter :D I forgot to tell you the main goal of our tour ;D that we went to see the holy shroud of Giesus openned freely for everyone after 10 years closed quietly in a palace. No need to tell how much important the event is not only for the catholic, but also who treasure the culture, and history. I guess i belong to the second group of people though i am catholic :)
That day was the last one of the show, we reckoned it should be less people than normally, but in contrary, there was an extremely long line from street to streets, across a large park then through an underground of an antique church. In total it took more than 2 hours to have 2 minutes of witnessing the holy shroud! By the way, I am happy with that, not many people had chance like us, didn't they??
After the holy shroud, we took a troll around the center city, My god, trust me, it needs at least 4 days to enjoy the city where there are full of beautiful and ancient building, big and splendid museums, nice squares, amazing chocolate, sweets, and cakes. I just love it!! a cute place adaptable for anyone, elders, youths, couple and kids!

*Bonus:
Viennesi cookies double layered chocolate

Ingredients:
115 gr butter
125 gr flour
60 gr sugar
2 tablespoon of fresh milk
2 tablespoon of cacao powder

*Decor:
200 gr chocolate fondent
crusted almonds/hazelnuts...

Method:

Beat the butter and sugar till creamy
Add shifted flour and cacao, continue to mix, then add milk. Make the batter creamy.
Transfer them in a saccapoche, with bif waving tip.
Make small sticks around 6,7 cm.
Bake 180 celsius in 12 minutes.
Cool in rack

Melt the chocolate, dip half of the biscuits in, lay on a net, top them with almonds.
Store them in a close jar or a zip log.

Buon appetito!! ;)

Film review and Mexican tortilla

2010-05-20T16:52:00.004+02:00

The weather in Italy these days is just like a spoiled moody girl which changes so often that does bother me and anyone who loves sun-bathing so so much!!! I have made a plan to take sun bath everyday on our balcony where i can enjoyably let the sweet sunlight kiss my cheeks, where I can comfortably stretch out my body on a soft towels and leisurely read a favourtie book. Somehow all my good attentions couldn't make thing better, the sun lazily wooke up and didn't bother to shine at all as it's supposed to in this late mid of May. Okie! Fine! i will take a stroll to the supermarket and buy some stuff for my tortilla, when i get back, i will take the bath! See? I so had a lot of patience. It was so pleasant that my balcony was shined with the sun 2 hours later, Certainly i couldnt wait to put on my bikini and ready for the bronzing time. But guess what? Right after i laid my back on the towel, the sun just went away, left me and the bikini foolishly in the shade :(( I though if i had seen anyone in that situation, i would have asked her to have a blanket! ;(

Too tired of waiting for the sun, i disappointedly turned back to my sofa and watched "Julie and Julia". I downloaded this movie quite a while but still have no intention to watch. Yesterday, by chance i read a review about it which told a story based on the true ones. the 2 women who is Julia Child-the mother of American culinary (or who taught the american how to cook), another-Julie is an inspired by Julia who was just a clerk but had a great passion for cooking. She started with a food blog and set the goal that in 1 year, she would practice all the recipes of Julia's cookbook "mastering the art of French cooking" (more than 500 recipes). Her life turned in another page full of passionate, excitement and creation. She became one of the top 3 hot bloggers; then her story was published on Time and her direction is to become a writer which had been her dream instead of spending the rest of her life in a boring office.

The movie really brought me a great emotion, it is not merely about cooking, but also it just confirms my point of view that if we have a great passion, we can do a good job. Sometimes i found myself in the movie, when Julie burned her Beef and burst into tears, or when she did one dish again and again till happy with it. Some thinks being a housewife should be the easiest task ever (my husband is an example), i would correct immediately that it is not true, it is easy if the house is messy, the side bed table is full of dusk and pillars of magazine, the clothes are not ironed and daily food is merely something to eat not a cozy meal with happy conversation. Then yeah, it is very easy. But to keep a real homey house, nice food, clean and healthy is another story, Should our men know that if they have a great meal, some nice home made junk food, or a cake on sunday, they are all the products of love from their wives??? And to make them so delicious, tailored and cute certainly we have to learn, practice and try?? IT is just a process of learning, not merely a hobby. (hopefully my husband gets it now! ;p)

I do love the character Julia (starred by Meryl streeps), a woman who chose to cook because she loves eating and had nothing to do. A hobby turned to passion and finally a happy ending with the fame and money :) I felt so fascinated when she practiced cutting a mountain of onion just to prove to the male professional chef classmates that she was not stupid and cooking was a serious decision unlike what they reckoned and treated her as a poor housewife who just wanted to kill time in a cooking course. No wonder Julia became a great inspiration for the whole America and now she does still inspire me. ;)

After the movie, the down to earth moment kinda left me alone, i turned up my sleeves to make Tortilla whose recipe was from Sonia-Giallozafferano (a great hot blogger from ITaly, she is also a chef and a cooking teacher).

Tortilla is a traditional Mexican dish, normally they are made from Corn flour, but in my case i use the recipe of wheat (excuse me! there is no white corn flour available in my house). Surprisingly tortilla is so much similar with our traditional (Italian in fact) Piadina crepe which is a product of flour, water, fat and some baking powder.

To make tortilla is super easy, bet anyway can make it. The challenging point is how patient we are to roll the dough ;p

Ingredient for around 6 tortilla:

250 gr wheat flour
120 gr luke warm water
10 gr baking powder (plain, without vanilla or any flavour)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Some salt.

Method:

Mix flour with baking powder, salt.
Add water and knead well with oil.
Make a ball and let it rest 30 mins before dividing them in 6 balls and rolling one by one.
Prepare a large pan on high heat.
Cook one by one tortilla and let them cool down.
Store them in a small closed bag.

To accompany with tortilla, i made beef gravy with onion, capsicum, paprica and some cumin. Amazingly yummy!! Really cannot wait to share with my hubby! ;)

Ingredient for gravy:

350 gr minced beef
100 gr minced tomato
20 gr flour
minced onion and garlic
1/2 tablespoon of paprika powder
Some pinch of cumin
Salt, olive oil, sugar.
50 ml of red wine
Some pepper corn
1/2 yellow capsicum, cut in bite size
1/2 red capsicum, cut in bit size
1/2 onion, cut in bite size

Method:

Blend tomoto with flour, paprika, peppercorn and cumin.
Sautee onion, garlic then add beef, cook till they turn white, add red wine, when the wine vapour away, add the sauce prepared above.
Cook in low fire and stir them occasionally (around 40 mins till the sauce is thick and gravy). Season with some salt, sugar.
Sautee capsicum, and onion on another pan, when they are done, add to the sauce, cook in 10 mins then re-season and turn off heat.

*To serve tortilla:

Pour the sauce on the tortilla, fold in half, warm in oven around 5 mins then serve hot.

*Bonus: My lazy lunch: Pasta with tuna and tomato sauce

Simply cook the canned tuna with tomoto sauce, some onion, garlic, pepper and chilly.

Serve hot with pasta and topped with some chopped spring onion. ;)

Buon appetito, tutti! :)

Tomato stuffed with tabulè

2010-05-19T15:47:00.002+02:00

I guess this dish originates from Morocco, but definitely it is not Italian. ;) I have the recipe from a culinary magazine, since my hubby is quite fancy about cous cous, so i made this for him. It is very healthy, refreshing, and yummy (he said so! ;p cause i dont eat cous cous). Ingredients for 4 portions:

couscous 100 gr
Tomato 4
200 gr canned tuna conserved with olive oil extra virgin
Minced onion
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
2 small branches of coriander
Some parsley
Olive oil extra virgin, salt, and pepper

Method:

Bring to boil 250 ml water with some rock salt.
Add couscous in, cook till the water vapors away, then turn off heat, add some olive oil stir, and cover the pot, leave couscous cooked for awhile with the steam.
Clean and mince coriander and parsley.
Sautee onion with olive oil, add tuna, stir in some mins, add parsley and coriander, season with some salt and pepper. Turn off heat. Transfer them to a bowl with couscous. Add lemon juice. Mix well. Cover them with a cling film and store in fridge.
Clean and dry tomato. Cut the tomoto in the way to make them small pots, Use a fruit scoop to clean away the flesh away.
Fill tomato with tabulè. Serve cold.

Pasta with lamb and capsicum

2010-05-17T14:20:00.002+02:00

I got this amazing recipe from an Italian culinary magazine which was bought by my husband during the time i was nursed in hospital. (I am completely in good shape now, don't worry! ;)). Looking at the delicious pictures made me so much mouth-watering, and i promised myself that i would try it very very soon right after healing. :) Certainly the presentation can cause a false "judgment" on the food, but this dish is totally very yummy, i love it! ;) Actually, the pasta for this sugo should be chitara - a type of italian gross pasta whose shape is very similar to Asian udon, anyway, my husband is not very interested in the thick one, so i substituted by tagliatelle but of course they were thicker than the normal ones. *Ingredients for sugo.

around 250 gr lamb, cut in small cube
100 ml white wine
Minced onion and garlic
300 gr tomato sauce
Around 150 ml broth
1/2 red capsicum, julience
1/2 yellow capsicum, julience
Some fresh oregano
2 bay leaves
olive oil extra virgin
salt
sugar

Method:

Sautee lamb cubes with oil, onion and garlic, then add white wine and cook till the wine vapours away.
Add tomato sauce, oregano, bay leaves, season with some salt, sugar. Cook in low heat and add broth occasionally in case the sauce is too thick or burning. Cook in 40 mins.
Sautee capsicum with some oil in another pan, then add them to the lamb sauce, cook in 10 minutes.
Cook pasta with a large pot of water and rock salt, transfer pasta to the sauce, stir in 4 seconds, turn off heat and serve hot.

*Bonus: Home-made vegetarian lasagna

Buon appetito!!

Hazelnut cookies

2010-05-17T10:13:00.003+02:00

Sometimes i cannot help wondering what makes the italian crazy about sweet (especially biscuits) this much. They eat them for breakfast, for tea breaks, in break time, at school, on the train, ... My little nephew is an example, he is so much choosy, a typical 6 year old boy who eats only very very few and boring things. (ice cream: only strawberry and chocolate, BUT they cannot be in the same cone or definitely he will not touch; capsicum: only yellow one, and raw, if cooked?? NO WAY!!) He is not fancy of mousse, tiramisu, ... but cookies. He is crazy about it, and always asks me to make for him anytime he sees me ;( Here we go, hazelnut cookies which are always requested by my hubby and nephews (sometimes my dad in law ;(( ) To make this is totally simple, you can follow this recipe of tart cake, but this dough should be kneaded more than tart, and we add around 3, 4 tablespoon of hazelnut powder.

Shape and bake in 180 celsius around 15-20 mins

Chicken breast rolled with asparagi and carot

2010-05-17T10:00:00.002+02:00

This is super fresh and totally adaptable for dieters. ;D

The ingredients and cooking method is simple, just in 30 mins, you will have a yummy and healthy meal :)

Asparagus cleaned well, cut away the hard stems, boiled in water for 4 mins, then dipped in ice water, strain well.
Carrot peeled, cut in strips, boiled in water and dipped in ice water, strain well.
Chicken breast, sliced thinly, use the meat hammer to make them flat. Then season with olive oil extra virgin, minced onion, salt, and Dijon mustard.
Roll the chicken breast with asparagus and carrot
Bring to grill and serve hot with creamy vegetable sauce (potato, onion, celery, carrot, rosemary, sage cooked in long time with stock before mashing them by the vegetable mill) Or you can make a simple sauce with olive extra virgin, lemon, minced parsley and some salt.

Fresh springrolls with salmon and herbs

2010-05-15T08:06:00.000+02:00

Fresh springroll is a popular dish in Vietnam, basically we can roll with whatever in hand, no need to follow exactly the ingredients. In reality, we normally use belly pork, shrimps, or pork ears and pickle. The dipping sauce varies from fish sauce (mixed with sugar, vinegar/lemon, garlic, and water) to hoishin sauce and mắm nêm (a strange type of dipping sauce made from shrimp paste i think)

This time, i use salmon accompanied with mint, basil, rocket salad, fried onion and roman lettuce

The hoishin was re-seasoned with some sauteed onion, garlic, vinegar and topped with broken peanuts.

*Super fresh and healthy, love it! ;)

Homemade chinese dimsum

2010-05-11T07:20:00.003+02:00

First i wanna send my special thanks to my dad-in-law who presented me an amazing encyclopaedia of cooking book , which varies from chinese, Wok, Japanese to Tunisian, Italian, Maroccan, and dessert, potato, wild meat, vegetable, ... Moreover, he always treasures my food, puts a trust in my cooking ability, and doesnt hesitate to give me full support whenever i need :) I think there would be no chef if they don't have great gourmets ;p (Luckily i have so many - hubby, family in law, and friends) Smuakkk!!
Alright, back to the dimsum, this is not the first time i attempt this type of Chinese ravioli, but this is the one i feel most satisfied due to the nice, smooth yummy pasta, and the real Chinese fillings. I often made the fillings in Vietnamese way, and certainly the flavour is not original anymore; this time i tried to follow step by step from the recipe ;D As a result of that my dimsum is so much better than ever before :)

Ingredients:
*Skin:

150 gr multipurpose powder
100 gr tapioca starch/corn starch
115 gr water
1 tablespoon cooking oil

*Fillings:

250 gr pork meat
70 gr Chinese spinach or pokchoy (the green part only)/ in case you don't have them, feel free to substitute by roman lettuce.
1 tablespoon minced onion
1/2 tablespoon minces garlic
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 tablespoon soia sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt (or as needed)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoon sesame oil (or other types of seed in case you dont have sesame, but DO NOT use olive oil , olive oil extra virgin, it would ruin the flavour)

*Sauce:

3 tablespoon soia sauce
2 tablespoon apple vinegar
7 tablespoon water
2 - 3 teaspoon sugar
Mixture of sesame oil, onion, garlic and some chilly blended well

Method:

Warm of 100 gr water around 60 celsius (or the slight smoke appears on the surface is Ok), add little by little to the flour and mix them. Let it rest 2 mins.
Continue to add the rest of fresh water and knead well till the dough is smooth, make a ball, cover by cling film and rest in 30 mins.
Mince the meat with spinach, and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix them well.
Roll the dough (it should not be too thick or after cooking, they will become tough at the folding parts)
Use the pasta ring to cut the dough. Add one teaspoon of filling in. Fold half moon, close it well. After that you can make the shape as picture if you want. If not, leave them in the half moon shape.
Lay them on a kitchen cloth topped with flour to prevent sticky
Prapare wok with water, when water boils, add dimsum in, cook in 3 mins.
Bring them in a bowl of cold water.

*Sauce:

Sautee the mixture of oil, onion, garlic and chilly, add soia sauce, vinegar, water. Add dimsum, cook them in around 3 mins till the sauce is quite caramelized, taste, and re-season.
Serve hot with some stalk of spring onion.

Buon appetito!!! :)

Italian food

2010-05-09T21:07:00.000+02:00

These are the 2 popular appetizers from Italy, one is Pizzetta (mini pizza) which were introduced long ago, another is Caprese simply with cherry tomato, Mozzarella alla buffala, basil leaves and olive oil extra virgin.

*Pizzetta:

I have quite a small selection since we had a cozy meal with the whole family to celebrate the mother's day, and FYI mom is so so so much important in Italian culture ;p

traditional pizza with toamato sauce and mozzarella for my little nephew who is so much choosy, fresh cherry pizza for my niece who does treasure tomato a lot. For the rest of the dough, i made 3 small "bocconcini" - small bread topped with sauteed onion, and cream of salmon. ;)

*Some sharing for the cherry: After letting the dough rings leaven, i topped them with slices of cherry tomato, some drop of tomato sauce (which are seasoned with origano, salt, olive oil extra virgin, and basil), then bake them in 15-18 mins, when they are done; let them cool down in 5-7 mins before adding the basil leaves (so that we can have a very beautiful color from the fresh leaves. :)

*Caprese:

Enjoy! :)

Delicious vietnam

2010-05-07T17:59:00.001+02:00

This is made especially for the "Delicious vietnam" hosted by chị Anh and ravenous couple. guess i don't have to explain much about the event, since the name covers clearly the spirit of its owners and the participants :)

To someone, the term "vietnamese food" always reminds of phở, bún bò Huế, bánh cuốn... type of fancy dishes which are quite time consuming, and require a complicated cooking process. Honestly i love all of them, and in Vietnam, i almost ate them everyday from the sidewalk restaurants or street vendors. Somehow, since the day i left Vietnam, i prefered somethingmuch more simple, something that i know for sure my mom, my friends, and my loved ones in Vietnam are eating everyday in their daily meals.

It was not difficult for me to make the decision of cooking this very Vietnamese meal consisting: braised pork with eggs, vegetable soup and plain rice.

As all the vietnamese know, a basic daily meal definitely never lacks of rice, a bowl of vegetable broth and a salty dish. :)

Here we go!

*For the braised dish: I prefer making it in Southern style, less salty, a little more sugar, and not too dry (Though my origin is from Hanoi-North of Vietnam)

I utilized pork (not too lean), marinated with minced shallot, garlic, fish sauce, salt, sugar and a small stalk of cinnamon. For Vietnamese braised dishes, in my opinion, it is best to use terracotta which has a very stable heat so that the meat is so much well marinated, tender and juicy.

*For the soup: Luckily i have just harvested the vietnamese veggy from the garden.

I simply cook it with dried shrimp. :)

*Thaibonnet rice is a great choice, thoug in Italy there are quite a large selection of this kind of grain. I still love the Asian small size rice with nice fragrance anyway ;p

And guess what? I don't need the assistance of rice cooker anymore :D Using terracotta is so much more fun ;D

Living in Italy-where there are thousands of amazing dishes, the culinary is also their culture, the whole world treasure their cooking, to me, Vietnamese food is still the best, and soup, broth, rice, noodle are always in my heart. :*

Despite the curious look from the Italians when they catch me eating breakfast with noodles or sticky rice, i do enjoy it, and never have an idea that i would change this habit one day :)

Thanks to chị Anh and ravenous couple for this meaningful event. Smuakkk!

Great link for da gals

2010-05-01T14:24:00.000+02:00

I always love make up, the eye shadows make my eyes brighter, the blush helps my look so shining and refreshing; my lips are more juicy with gloss. Actually, i rarely appear on the street without make up, it doesnt mean i am not self-confident, i just want to have a nice look as so do many girls :)

The thing is most of the magazines, tutorial make up pages usually have Western models who have big eyes with blue, green, bright maroon colors; meanwhile I have a typical Asian eye shape-almonds which are unadaptable for the style of Western. It needs more blending of eye shadow to create a sexy and deep look. I strongly believe that if we get the right way, we would blossom with a mysterious oriented beauty.

Tah tah!!! I have just found out a hot blogger who is Vietnamese American make up artist; she started with the tutorial clips on youtube, then became very famous with hundred comments every entry; So far, Lancome has just invited her as an ambassador for their lines, and she was listed one of the most popular bloggers on Glamour Italy.

Check out her site here and i bet you would love to add it on your favourite list. :D Her name is Michelle Phan ;)

Tofu with ginger sugar syrup and coconut milk

2010-04-29T09:03:00.002+02:00

Homemade soya milk

2010-04-17T14:41:00.003+02:00

I remember when i was in vietnam, my mom always bought a big bottle of soya milk everyday, since it is believed that soya does have a good effect on our health, especially for women. Me myself, i consumed a lot because some said it helps cool down our body and prevent pimples :D Since i went to Italy where there is full of wine, and milk instead of soya milk. Honestly, in supermarket, it is possible to find some packs of soya milk, by the way, it costs so much more than its real value due to the very low number of consumers :( Last year, chị Vân-my Vietnamese friend presented me 2 packs of soya beans, and encouraged me to make homemade soya/tofu :D My first time was quite clumsy, because i still had to figure out how to use effectively all types of utensils for the complicated process, moreover, i had no idea that if we boil the milk with high fire, it would become a mess in the cooker, all the liquid goes up, and runs out of the pot. :(
This second time is much better. :) With 400 gr of soya beans, i made around 1l 1/2 soya milk. :D It is all bio!!!!!!! (bet my "bio" Italian friends would be very happy to learn this recipe :) )

Ingredients:

400 gr of soya beans
1, 1/2 l of water
Some pandanus leaves

Utensil:

1 sieve/kitchen cloth
electric mill

MEthod:

Dip beans in water over night or at least 8 hours
Strain the water away
Add the beans in the electric mill with some water and mince them well. Strain the whole batter in a big bowl, and continue till finish the bean. Use up the amount of water.
Use the sieve or kitchen cloth to twist the beans and get the soya milk.
Cook milk in medium heat, and continuously stir it with a wooden spoon to prevent burning at the bottom of the pot. Add pandanus leave to have some fragrance.
When the milk boils or reach 70 Celsius, turn off heat and let it cool down.
:)

*Macedonia of strawberry (Strawberry salad)
This is so much popular in summer, when the temperature can reach 38 celsius at day time :D It is very simple and easy to prepare this type of dessert, just clean, and cut the strawberry in bite size, mix them with some sugar (sugarcane is preferred), some drops of lemon. Of course, you can play with some spices such as mint leaves, cinnamon powder, basil, or some type of liqueur. :)

Inspiration

2010-04-09T17:21:00.002+02:00

It really takes time to have an inspiration for a new collection of photographs. :)

Here we go!

Biscuits made from orange and honey. Orange came from the orange powder "tang". REally refreshing taste! Best to have afternoon tea. :)

Biscuits with Ceylon tea, extremely fragrant with berries, corn, and sun flower. Maltose from Orzo is a perfect choice to add in! :)

Back to the kitchen

2010-04-09T12:53:00.000+02:00

After the cooking course, i am now back to my kitchen, and continue my long way journey of Italian course and the driving license (which is supposed to finish a few months later)

Nowadays, i have a great passion for ITalian food, I am not sure how come :p, by the way, maybe learning from my teacher and looking at the dishes in the restaurant did inspire me so much, i recognize that the Italian cuisine is not merely pasta and pizza as so many people reckon, in contrary, there are so many many dishes, spices, that stimulate my curiosity! It is a pity that i put on a huge number of weight, so at the moment, all type of fat, energetic food is banned from my menu! :((

Here are the 2 dishes i just made a few days ago, one is Italian, and one is Asian :D (i always try to have a balance, ain't i? :p)

*Fried noodles with soya sauce

Ingredient:

Plain noodle

Chinese mustard cabbage

Juliences of pork

prawn

soya sauce

Hoishin sauce

Beansprout

*Spices: garlic, shallot

*The dish:

*Polenta: polenta cooked with onion, garlic, Porcini mushroom and some salt

*Sauce: minced meat, marinated with onion, salt. Sautee on the pan for a few mins before adding tomato sauce and cook in low fire for around 40 mins.

A very first project of artisan cake decoration

2010-04-07T20:05:00.000+02:00

The base was simple with eggs, flour, corn starch, and sugar in Italian style.
The decoration was inspired by the apricot flower in spring.

Easter

2010-04-07T07:47:00.003+02:00

Hi there, how was your easter? About us, we have a great holiday at the lake Iseo (around 1 hour high way from Milan) this place is such a paradise with beautiful freshing lake, amazingly splendid rocky mountain Alpi, not including some small hills around enabling us a magnificent views. :) I am totally happy not only because of the picturesque scenery but also the warm hospitality from the Gallo family-a very very nice friend of my husband.
Luckily my apprenticeship ended last Sat (the Easter's eve) so that we had an opportunity to do a short holiday. We departed from Ferrara at 8:30 in the morning, and arrived in Iseo around mid day. The weather was grey and wet, somehow, we didn't have any pacific plan, then just take time for a delicious lunch with barbecued sparerips from MArio (the cool father of Gallo), (FYI: The meat is very juicy and marinated well with the spices, i cannot wait to make one batch at home myself!!!). The lunch finished with the Easter eggs and my Colombina - name given by anh Gallo :) I was so much glad that they all loved the cake-which i modified from the original Italian tart with pasta frolla.
The second day was very very tiresome to me-a very typical metropolitan who merely stays in office, and never had a single idea of a trekking trips, or adventurous tour. By the way, i prepared myself, and let's take this chance to see how strong i was :D --> climbing to one of the mountain of Alpi - 1600 m
It was stupid of me not to have a proper breakfast before the heavy physical excercise, therefore, at the middle of the trekking, i was so much hungry, all i could think about is a slice of bread :(( By the way, i successfully resisted the hunger and reached the restaurant-shelter- oour destination at the end. It was impossible to resist a nice hot meal with rustic polenta and braised spear rips :)
The way down was much more faster and easier, so we made it around 2 hours.
After that, my legs definitely needed a break, i could not move a finger!!! But I am glad that i could win myself this time :D

Colombina: the word colomba is a type of traditional Italian bun cake, specially for Easter, with the shape of my colombina. Since mine is different, and its shape is small, so we call it colombina to mark the moment it was "born" - in Easter

Ingredients:

400 gr flour
1 1/2 tablespoon of dried coconut
1 teaspoon baking powder
130 gr sugar
3 eggs
150 gr butter at room temperature
a pinch of salt

Method:

Put all the ingredients into the mixing bowl, mix them well till have a smooth dough.
Store in fridge around 30 mins before shaping.

*Chocolate mousse:

250 gr chocolate fondant, cut in pieces
1.5 tablespoon rum
1 tablespoon hazelnut powder
1 egg
70 gr fresh milk
1 tablespoon of flour

Method:

Beat the egg in a bowl with hazel nut powder, flour and rum.
Meanwhile, melt the chocolate and milk together (not too hot, or boiling)
Mix the 2 together.

*To finish:

Roll the dough around 40-50 mm, lay them in a mould. You can use a pasta cutter to cut neatly the border.
Pour the chocolate in. Top with some decoration and hazelnut.
Bake around 170 celsius in 15-20 mins.

Bún riêu - Việt Nam food

2010-03-30T20:51:00.003+02:00

Though I can eat all types of western food now (except Gorgonzola cheese which contains the fungus), it doesn't mean i forget my Vietnamese food which always makes me so mouth- watering when i randomly check out some Vietnamese food blogs :((
The dish i proudly present today is called "bún riêu" :D I remember when i was small i could eat this type of noodle soup day after day but never got bored.
The soup came from Hanoi-the North of Vietnam. It was very simple with tomato and minced crab in spices (*I have no idea how to call it, nowadays, in supermarket, we can find this type of food in cans; though traditionally, people minced the whole small crap in pieces including their shells, then we mix that mixture with a quantity of water, and strain them through a net, or a thick basket just to have the water mixed with tiny tiny pieces of crab meat. AFter that, we cook that water in low heat, little by little, the slightly foam of crap appears on top --> we have a real crap soup). by the way, after a long development, bún riêu has become "richer" with meat stock, pork tails, tofu, chả lụa (a type of bologne/mortadella), ... Some substitute crab with a mixture of minced dried shrimps with beaten eggs, maybe it is more economical and less time-consuming. For serving, just like the other traditional Vietnamese foods, we aways have bún riêu with a large selection of vegetable, a slice of lemon, and one thing very very special: mắm tôm - shrimp paste :p I know a number of people who cannot stand its smell including my husband, but that's what make bún riêu so special and unforgettable ;p
Because of the limited access to Asian ingredients, it is very difficult for me to manage a bowl of bun riêu in Italy :( But i made it anyway! :p
Bún riêu made from dried shrimp, stock, mortadella, tofu, and noodle
Yummy!!!!!

Fried rice with paprika and Spanish spicy sausage

2010-03-29T20:47:00.036+02:00

I am totally a big fan of spicy food, though normally, herbs and spices are utilized so much in Asian cuisine, by the way, i would make an exception with western cooking by inventing a new type of fried rice with Spanish spicy sausage (NOT chinese sweet sausage ;) ), paprika, onion, chilly and garlic. It is really a nice try! The fragrance of paprika does make the dish very special. ;) I am so happy with the result.

To go with the main course, i made some omlette with mushrooms, and onion :) Simple and delicious :)

*Bonus: pane 3 (if you remember, i am still going on with my little project "My own bread" So this is the number 3. I am so inspired by the colorful bread idea from a special issue of Italian culinary magazine which mentioned only about bread and dough :D
Here we go! After having the dough leaven the first time, i divided them into 3; one with concentrated tomato juice, one with saffron, and the rest is just plain with some minced parsley to add the fragrance. :D

Gnocchi

2010-03-22T20:38:00.002+01:00

Just so much glad that i can make gnocchi successfully. I remember the first time i tried this pasta was 2 years ago, after 10 days in Italy. The reason to attemp such a challenging dish was because i felt guilty for not knowing any ITalian food My Gnocchi was very simple and basic with potato and yolk. Somehow, for an amateur, it became a disaster. It was very hard, that at the end, we had to eat out
The second time for gnocchi was a few months ago, and it was not very better than the previous one, actually, it was contrary. If the first time was so tough like a rock, then the second time was so soft that they all melted away during the boiling! (
TAh tah!! The third time became a history in my journey of cooking!!
Thanks to the restaurant where i am having the internship, i made my gnocchi perfectly with pumpkin, eggs, flour, and ricotta! Savory and soft! I was so excited that i made immediately 2 types of gnocchi One is normally with butter, sage, chilly, and garlic. The other one is accompanied with tomato sauce I think in the future, you will see some more gnocchi on my blog, it is simply because i have made nearly 1 kg of gnocchi and store them in freezer
Honestly, since the day i work in restaurant, i tend to make very large portion and store in fridge, with this way, we still can have fresh pasta, fresh biscuits, fresh bread without spending too much time in the kitchen (though i wanted to but after 8 hours of a real hard work, i have no gut to prepare complicated things. )

Okiem that's all for now, will update the recipe this weekend

Tired

2010-03-18T21:41:00.004+01:00

Gosh, only after 4 days working in the restaurant, i am nearly exhausted :( The restaurant i am having the apprenticeship is called il testamento di porco - the testament of pork, yeah! What a weird name, i really have no clue why it was given such a name, somehow, i think that it was based on the Italian traditional cooking, which utilizes pork meat a lot (from numerous types of salumi to fresh ingredients). According to my school, i gotta have 120 hours practice, so practically, i am supposed work 40 hours a week, it is divided in 6 days, 7 hours in week days, and 5 hours on Saturday, Luckily they only serve lunch, and 1 dinner at weekend. The restaurant is a kind of family-run, therefore, i give no comment for the operation, or management; i do so so much appreciate the experience here where i can learn the real food, original and traditional recipes which is so difficult to find in big catering, especially abroad. (I used to work for Signature -a fine dining restaurant belonging to Sheraton saigon hotel and towers, definitely, they are very professional in the training, operation, but sadly, their food is not authentic at all) EVeryday, i start at 9AM, do the cleaning (and trust me! With this small restaurant, little labour force, we gotta work like hell!! :( ), then start making the fresh pasta, lasagne, ravioli, chitara, ..., after that, we prepare traditional FErrarese cakes which are sooo yummy! Though the restaurant has the name dealing with pork, but people non-stop order seafood, so certainly, i gotta clean seafood, from lobster to octopus, ... (AH, they have amazing lobster risotto!! Gosh!! Just thinking about it makes me mouth-watering!!! ) My day in the restaurant normally finished at 4:30 PM when my legs almost don't wanna move :D You might ask whether i still have the heart to prepare our dinner?, then i said yes! :d but not because of the passion for cooking, it is just that i wanna award myself something good! I hate eating just because we gotta eat!I rather have nothing than such a cold plain meal :(( call me stubborn or arrogant, but maybe, because of this habit, my love for culinary is never enough :D
It is nearly 10 PM now, i gotta go to bed so that i can wake up tomorrow, and start a hard day :p hehe!
HEre we go! Some of the dishes i prepared during the week :)
*Small bocconcini - small bread bun made of flour and corn flours, topped with tuna in olive oil, light mayonnaise, tomato concassè and mint leaves

Tart cake with the crust of pasta foglia, but i re-invent the new paste with a softer texture, and fragrant of coconut :D (I do love this one, and intend to make it more in the future) I have learnt some tips how to save time for housewife, instead of making the dough everyday, we can save time by making 1 whole giant one, and use it little by little anytime we need; not sure about the others, but these are great tips for those who always make things from A-Z like me :) Will share with you guys when i have more time :) ) *The cream is a combination of chocolate fondant, hazelnut powder, rum, and eggs

*See the surface of the cake? really smooth right?? :D SMuakkk!!!

Tropical cream caramel

2010-03-14T15:56:00.005+01:00

To take advantage of some free time left (since tomorrow, i will be at the restaurant 8 hours a day :D), I would love to cook some light dessert, which has the form of cream caramel or panna cotta. Honestly, i intended to make a dessert with tofu which was introduced by chị Anh, somehow, i was too busy to make the soya milk at home (from the soia bean presented from chị Vân - my ex Vietnamese neighbor in Ferrara :D) Then i postponed the plan till next weekend :D I want cream caramel so bad!!! Maybe it's because of the yummy lesson we have with Ricardo-our pastry teacher. :) milk, eggs, sugar, and caramel are basic and main ingredients for the classic dessert, but i wanted to challenge myself with something new, something... light, and has the fragrance of fruit. THat's the reason of my new born tropical cream caramel which is made from coconut cream, eggs, and orange crest :D The taste is sooo right, not too heavy and creamy from cream caramel of panna-whipping cream, not too much yolk flavor from some recipes which utilize only yolks instead of the whole eggs :) (I don't mean they are not delicious, they are just not right for my taste at the moment :D) The fragrance from orange is very fruity and relaxing. Ingredients:

250 gr coconut milk
2 large eggs and 1 yolk (or 3 medium eggs)
60 gr sugar
100 gr sugar (for caramel)
1 orange (for the crest)
A cup of nice fragrant coffee.
Mounds for cream caramel (around 6-8)

Method:

Bring coconut milk to boil
Mix eggs with sugar
When the coconut boils, pour them into eggs, and continue to stir them. Add a pinch of salt.
Bring sugar for caramel on the heat, do not stir. When the sugar melts completely and has the beautiful brown color, carefully add 1-2 tablespoons water. Use a wooden spoon to stir, till the caramel mixes completely with the water.
Add some little caramel on the mound to cover the bottom.
Wait till the caramel gets hard. Pour the mixture of coconut in.
Prepare an oven tray with water reaching 1/3 of the mounds.
Bake in oven around 50 mins 170 celsius.
Cool down and store in fridge.
Serve with some teaspoons of coffee.

Plumcake, basic recipe

2010-03-12T12:02:00.004+01:00

Plum cake in Italy so far as i know it has the shape of a loaf of sandwich, the figure reminds me of farmer sweets, since there is no decoration, no filling, actually, it is quite rustic. personally, I am not very interested in sweet in general, or plum cake itself but, I am very curious to try new recipes :D
I have made yoghurt plum cake, so this time, i tried the basic recipe which i got from the cooking book of my teacher :D
I do love the original, basic recipes so that it is much more easier to modify, or add the essence, whatever you want later on without ruining the texture.

From the base of plum cake, i made one with 2 colors, the yellow part contains orange crest and vanilla, instead the dark brown part has cacao powder and honey.

Here is the recipe! Feel free to personalize your plumcake ;)

Ingredient:

250 gr butter (at room temperature)
250 gr caster sugar (optional, the normal one is Okie either)
250 gr flour
5 eggs
7gr baking powder
a little salt

*to make 2 colors:

1 orange --> get the crest
Some vanilla
around 2-3 teaspoon of cacao powder
1 tablespoon of honey

Method:

Mix the butter with sugar till creamy
Add eggs one by one, and continue to beat
Sift the flour, baking powder in, mix well with some salt.
Divide the batter in 2 equal parts
One mixed with orange crest and vanilla, another with cacao powder and honey (add cacao little by little and mix till you have a nice brown color)
Put the batter into a plum cake mound (or one left, one right, or you can mix them whatever, or after mixing the color (one black, one yellow here and there) use a chopstick or a toothpick to stir the batter for a while to make it marbled.
Bake 190 Celsius in 60 mins.
Cool down in rack.
It is best for an afternoon tea ;)

Bad weather

2010-03-10T14:19:00.002+01:00

i just shouted out loud a few days ago that the spring is comin'.Yet the excitement for my new vegetable crop hasn't started, the bad weather come with snows, and super cold that made me so much disappointed. I have prepared seeds, and soil yesterday, though there was quite weird since a lot of strong wind came. I thought to myself maybe it would pass soon; unfortunately, actually, in contrary of what i reckoned, it snowed the whole night, and this morning, we have a white day :(( The cold weather makes me so lazy, i prefer staying on my cozy bed, reading my comics, or some culinary magazine till ... noon, then, i would loveeee to have a bowl of hot, spicy seafood congee, yummy!!! My god!! Maybe this week is the last free week i have, since my internship will start from next monday :( I don't think i would keen on cooking after 8 hours preparing food for a dozen of clients :D By the way, i am so much happy that we have this chance to learn practically from a restaurant :)
About my food, honestly, i prepare quite a lot, but too lazy to post them all :(( moreover, my husband is pushing me to spend more time for my driving license :( Ah, suddenly i realize i will have an exam for my italian as well Gosh!! so many things to do, but too little time. :(( Talking about driving license... please don't laugh at my face, but i have never ever had any driving license in my life though in Vietnam, it is obligatory to have the license for motorbike (over 50Cc). Once, i passed the red light, and was stopped my the police, certainly, if you don't have document, they would keep your vehicle, and the fine will not be little at all; i was so panicked that i nearly cried; and they felt pity for me, so they just wrote on the record that i used bicycle and was on the one way street *Sigh!!!* Somehow, it was motorbike, and in Vietnam (where the traffic law is not as strict as EU), instead now i gotta use a car which we should not have any mistake, or incapability of reading the signs. Fine!!! I will try my ass to learn that thick manual! :((

*Pizza: I am not a fan a bread, so automatically, i am not a fan of pizza either, though so many people go crazy about this delicious flat bread :D I eat pizza occasionally if there is some meeting or party; anyway i don't mind slurping a whole big one of the real pizza with Porcini, Mozzarella of Buffalo whose diameter would reach 30 cm :p

I made this batch for a baking challenge entry. The method is quite complicated comparing to the normal simple rising dough. Instead, i made the biga, then let the pizza dough leaven quite long the first time before shaping, and baking. The outcome is amazing! The crust is crispy,the taste is very good, without yeast smell! Yum!!! No wonder biga from ITaly is very popular and most of the traditional breads are made with biga :)

Lao cuisine - Lap with sticky rice

2010-03-05T12:00:00.002+01:00

Ingredient:

350 gr-400 gr ground pork
2 stalks of lemongrass
6-7 mint leaves
1 stalk of coriander
Some lemon drops
Fresh chilly-minced
1 shallot-minced
2-3 cloves of garlic
Salt, sugar
1-2 tablespoon fish sauce
Cooking oil

*Sticky rice:

210-280 gr (3-4 persons)
1 Bamboo steamer
1 cotton cloth

Method:

Dip sticky rice in water overnight, or at least 4 hours.
Strain the water away and lay it on the cotton which is placed on the bamboo steamer.
Steam it around 15-20 mins.

*Lap:

Marinate meat with some fish sauce, cooking oil, salt, sugar around 15 mins.
Sautee lemongrass with onion, garlic, on a wok, then add meat, stir fry in 2 mins, add 1/2 minced mint and coriander, chilly.
Continue to cook and stir occasionally, after 10-15 mins with high fire, meat is done, add the rest of the mint+coriander, lemon juice, reseason
Turn off heat.
Serve hot with sticky rice.