Pizza of the Lazy Housewife

Sometimes I dream of nothing more than a good pizza. Outside of Italy this usually remains a dream, because I simply do not have the time to prepare the dough and so on.

And, as a native Italian, I detest frozen pizza.

And all this dilemma was so simply solved by the brilliant idea of my mum - she is really the best!

So this is how it works.

Take Arabic flat bread from your local turkish/arabic/ or whatsoever store.

Put everything that you want on your pizza on top, bake it right under the grill of your oven until crunchy.

Done!!!

My mum is fantastic, right?

Recipe: Spinach and Cheese Börek

The pictures for this recipe have been sleeping on my computer for a while, but one dear friend asked me about it recently so here they are:

Börek with spinach and cheese filling

(I use here ready made Wantan dough, because it is less sticky and fragile than the Turkish yufka (fillo) dough).

Ingredients:

1 pck of wantan dough leaves
500 g spinach (steamed if fresh, or thawed)
300 g of feta (or similar) cheese
1 bunch of spring onions
garlic according to your taste
pepper
oil for frying
lemon slices

 Prepare the filling mixing all the ingredients.

Put a small (!) amount of filling on the leave (otherwise you will not be able to roll it properly). Fold sides vertically.

Roll up completely and press the part with the filling slightly in order to have a compact roll.

Deep fry in oil or coat it with vegetal oit and bake it in the oven until they have a golden colour.
Serve hot with lemon slices for an entrée or as finger food!

Winter's Delight: Chai Syrup

In Greek and generally in medieval medicine man is said to be in the centre of two opposites: hot and cold, wet and dry. As long as the these elements are well balaced in our body we are healthy. An excess in any of the directions creates diseases. And of course we depend on our environment, that means, that in winter we are strongly exposed to cold and wet influences which affect our bodies. To prevent "colds" (as contemporary physicians state the common "cold" we catch has nothing to do with the temperature of the environment, but is a result of contagion) people used to eat food that was said to be "hot", such as certain spices, dried fruits and nuts. And it is not by chance these ingrediences are part of the traditional Christmas dishes in Central Europe. Especially the spices like cinnamon, clove, cardamom and pepper (all considered hot and dry) as well as ginger (considered hot and wet) that we get at every grocery store around the corner used to be more precious than gold and were carried with caravans and ships from Southeast Asia to Europe. 

You can read the most amazing stories in the wonderful book by Jack Turner!             Yesterday I prepared a wonderfully tasty Chai Syrup that concentrates the taste and the properties of all the above cited spieces. It is so easy and much more tasty than the commercial syrups which are also extremely pricey. It also makes a lovely christmas gift! Syrup consists of the same amount of sugar and water. Simmer it with the spices of your choice. Also the proportions depend onyour preferences; I made the syrup really spicy and hot; if you want to avoid this, reduce the amount of black pepper and ginger.

For 1 kg of sugar I used:

about 1 tablespoon of ground black pepper, cinnamon and cardamom

1/2 tablespoon of ground clove

2-3 tablespoons of whole aniseed

1 cup of fresh ginger, cut into small cubes.

Filter and pour into small bottles. This step is messy! but it's worth it.

Use it to flavour your coffee, tea, hot milk or whatever!

Dreams of Orange and Purple: Orange-Black Currant-Ginger Jam

 In August the garden is full of fruits and vegetables, besides there are so many other things to to, so when it is possible I just freeze a part of the crop and leave the preserves for later.
With this grey and foggy november weather I yearn for some colours and tried a new combination: black currant, orange and fresh ginger preserve.
You need:
1 kg black currant
1 kg Orange slices
1 kg 1:1 gelling sugar
5 cm of fresh ginger root

Mix fruits and sugar. Add raped ginger. Boil. Fill into jars.
This preserve is not very sweet and goes wonderfully with cheese or meat.

Welcome Fall!

My garden is blessing me with oodles of fresh veggies ... what a bliss! That means a lot of colours, fun and a lot of time in the kitchen.See below (clockwise):
Apple sauce and pickled zucchini - vegetable casserole with potatoes, tomatoes and green beans - soup with cauliflower, pumpkin, potatoes and zucchini - very chocolatey cake.
Yum!

Zucchette sott'olio: Pickled Courgettes South Italian Type

Hey, the harvesting season in the garden has already begun and the first courgettes (zucchini) are ready to be picked!
(The pics from the following recipe are from last year and I never managed to post them)
 When I studied in Padova, Italy, my house mate from Bari in Southern Italy used to bring the most delicious pickled vegetables from her trips home. Since then I have been dreaming of the yummy taste of olive oil, herbs, garlic and vinegar. Now that I tried it it turned out to be quite easy and a good alternative to freeze the vegetables when you harvest a lot of them every day. You can even use those that have grown too much and tend to have a rather stiff peel.
Ingredients:
1l vinegar
salt
spices as you please (pepper, chili, bay leaves, and garlic are the base. You can add whatever you like)
olive oil
sealable jars

1. Peel the zucchini and cut them into thin slices. Salt hem abundantly and leave them for 2-3 hrs in a colander. They will loose a lot of water.
2. Mix water and vinegar half and half. You can add bay leaves and some aceto balsamico for taste. When the mixture is boiling, add the zucchini and cook for 2-5 min. They should not be completely cooked.

3. Let the zucchini dry on a towel, then fill layers of zucchini and spices alternately into a sealable jar. Add olive oil until it covers the last layer of zucchini. This is absolutely important, otherwise the vegetables will rot. Leave it for 3 weeks before consumption.

The pickled zucchini last several months without any problem. Just make sure they are always covered with oil.

Sunday of the Frugal Housewife

Partly probably due to my Svabian ancestors (they are the Scotsmen of Germany when it comes to parsimony), partly due to vital necessisty in the years I have perfectionated my habit of never ever throwing away anything that is still good, exspecially regarding food.
So today we have an extraordinary frugal Sunday with homemade marmelade from garden strawberries and a cocktail of very ripe fruits from the kitchen:

 

Yum!

 

Venetian bread cake with apples. A recipe from my mom who taught me never to throw away bread ... "because the child Jesus ("Gesù bambino" is a very common figure in Italy that sees Jesus Christ predominantly as a human being. Its the poor little boy that was born in the hut, a very well known situation in after war Italy) climbed down from his donkey just to pick up a tiny crum of bread." This used to be told to children that (quite naturally) refused to eat bread from the day before.

Additionally the women of the Padan Plain, once a very poor region where my mom comes from, created a lot of delicious ways to use day-old bread. One of our favourite is the bread cake:

You need: 

day old bread cut in cubes (as much you can put in a salad bowl

1 liter of milk

3 spoons of sugar

vanillia essence

3 spoons of butter or vegetal oil

3 eggs

3 peeled and diced apples

raisins (if you like them. My kids are unfortunately rather picky with them)

Heat the milk until it begins to boil. Be careful to stir it while heationg, otherwise it tends to stick on the bottom of the pot. Add sugar, vanilli essence and butter in the end. Then pour it on the bread dices and cover the salad bowl with a large lid. Leave it while you prepare the apples. Mash them with the bread that should have absorbed the milk by now and add the eggs. Butter a casserole and bake for 25 min.

With vanillia sauce it makes a whole meal!

 And finally some pasta al forno, an absolute classic for reusing leftovers from the previous day. Mix them and add eventually tomatoes to make a sauce. Cook some pasta, add the sauce and cover everything with a bechamelle sauce. Done! Super quick and easy.
And how do you celebrate frugality? I'd love to know!
Have a great sunday!

Celebrating with cake "Poire-belle-Hélène"

We were celebrating the birthday of the best husband and daddy of the world ;-) with my favourite combination of chocolate and pears... and some whipped cream... yum! i love the colour combination, too...
For a really easy cake mix 4 eggs with 120 gr. sugar. Add 200 gr of butter and 300 gr. of flour with baking powder. This is the base where you add now ingredients for your taste! Here I put walnuts, 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder and dark chocolate cut into pieces. In the end I arranged three pears cut in slices on the dough.
Bake for 40 minutes and decorate with powdered sugar.