A Mystery Ingredient...

Fiori di Sicilia. This is a heavily-concentrated flavouring essence that I first came across in the States about ten years or so ago. I can't now remember where it was that I originally became aware of it - maybe somebody recommended it to me? - since it wasn't in a shop anywhere, and the only place I've ever found it available for purchase is online at The Bakers Catalogue. This stuff is quite simply wonderful! Impossible to know exactly what's in it, and the label on the bottle gives nothing away; for sure the base notes are a very good vanilla, combined with one or more citrus flavours........but there are other things in there as well, tantalisingly familiar, but just out of reach at the same time.

In the marketing blurb, the makers confidently assert that this is what Italians use to make Panettone - and it's true that the smell is headily reminiscent both of Panettone and of Panforte di Siena .........and when we lived in Via Vernagalli, the smell emanating from the back door of the pasticceria on Piazza de Pozzetto which stopped me in my tracks every time I passed that way en route to Borgo Stretto was exactly the aroma of Fiori di Sicilia. But have I ever been able to find anybody in Italy who's ever heard of it? Nope.....I quizzed Sergio and Simonetta about it on one occasion, even taking along a bottle of the real thing for comparison purposes, and we opened bottles of arome di arancia, and mandorle, and rosa, and millefiori (which they were convinced must be the one......) none of which came anywhere even close. Which means that when I want some more, I'll have to resort to the usual complicated expedient of getting somebody in the States to order me some, and then forward it to me on receipt, since this is yet another american business that thinks sending anything overseas must involve contravening every fiscal, pest-control, and anti-terrorist law that's ever been invented, and so they just won't do it!

It is, however, worth the effort. A few drops of this stuff added to pastry or to a simple cake mixture, and the end result is transformed. The smell while it cooks gets the nostrils twitching uncontrollably, and the flavour in the finished product is superb - an additional accent that is subtle and rich and beguiling. You'll understand exactly what I mean, the first time you open the bottle......If only there were a scratch and sniff function on this screen!

Tonight's Dinner:

Artichokes, with Truffle & Lemon Mayonnaise

Duck à l'Orange; Celeriac roast in Duck Fat.

Tartes aux Pommes.

A Tip...

I don’t really know whether this counts as an ingredient, or as a piece of kit……Whichever it is, though, it occupies a place of fundamental importance in my kitchen: catering-strength non-stick spray. The one I currently use is called Trennwax, made by a German (I think) outfit called Boesen; I get it through Vin Sullivan, who seem only ever to have one kind of non-stick spray in their list. For a long time, this was something called ‘One Spray’, and only rcently have they gone back to a new version of Trennwax, which appears to have been significantly upgraded from the Trennwax I first used about ten years ago. This stuff is quite simply wonderful! I use it for the insides of terrine moulds, for baking trays and roasting pans, for ramekins to be used for baking soufflés, for egg dishes, for the insides of aluminium foil which I’m about to use for wrapping and baking fish……..in fact for absolutely anything where a non-stick surface is appropriate, and where a traditional recipe would talk about ‘greasing’ the surface with a butter wrapper, or indeed brushing the surface with melted butter. On occasion, if I want to ‘dry’ sauté something like a salmon fillet, then I don’t use any oil or butter as a frying agent , but merely spray some of this stuff into the frying pan or on the griddle, and the result is first class, dry and crisp and exactly as desired……

On supermarket shelves, I’ve come across distant – very distant – cousins to this product, which claim to do the same job, but which in practice are completely hopeless. They don’t do what they claim on the tin, which isn’t surprising, since it’s obvious to the naked eye that they produce a blotchy and uneven covering, which of course means that the end result sticks. Well, it would, wouldn’t it…..?

Trennwax (or equivalent products) appear to fall into the category of culinary goods which are generally available only to professional cooks, and for some reason are kept out of reach of the domestic cook – praline and pistachio pastes come under the same heading, I find, as do decently strong aluminium foil and cling-film. I don’t believe this culinary apartheid has a basis in anything other than manufacturers’ distribution practices, though, and if you can track these products down, I don’t believe there’s any reason why you shouldn’t be able to buy them.

Trennwax doesn’t come exactly cheap – I think a can of spray costs something like six pounds – but it lasts well. I get through a can in about six months, on the basis of almost daily use for some task or other (which, if nothing else, is a clear demonstration of how many things I use it for in practice).

If I were to give this a rating out of ten, it would have to be at least a twelve…. if not more!

Tonight’s Dinner:

Moules Marinières. (Using Pisan mussels, which cook and taste completely differently from those in London – they don’t turn a deep orange as they cook, and have a wonderfully ‘meaty’ flavour when ready….)

Scaloppini, with a sauce of Ham, Capers, Anchovy and Grappa

Chocolate & Apricot Tarts.

Mrs Beeton, 2007........

In general, I care much more about the kitchen equipment I use than about the plates the food is served on - with the possible exceptions that desserts always look good on a black plate and that nothing ever looks good if the plate is too small. .....

Drinking glasses are another matter, though - and there is no doubt that a good wine does taste and look better when drunk from a fine wine glass than from a plastic beaker (speaking from plenty of experience of both). Unfortunately, in the rough and tumble of daily life, wine glasses take a beating - and not predominantly from the actual process of drinking. Short of managing to break them, the most irritating thing about good glass is the (almost inevitable) appearance on it over time of 'dishwasher-bloom'. In an ideal World, of course, it would all be washed by hand, before being lovingly polished and carefully returned to the cupboard........

That's the Ideal World version.

In the Real World, though - the 'life's too short' version - nine times out of ten, the glasses go in the dishwasher along with everything else.....With the result, over time, of a growing collection of milky hazy wine glasses which are perfectly serviceable except that they have a displeasing foggy bloom on them. Generally, too, this is on the outside of the glass so it doesn't even disappear when the glass is full....

You can remedy the problem by the judicious use of jewellers' rouge, (a) if you can find any, and (b) if you don't mind the tedious process involved in carefully polishing away all the tiny scratches and abrasions in the glass which go to make up the bloom. The Technical Department has come across a rather bizarre alternative method though: application of a proprietary brand of something that is in fact manufactured as a Rubber Bumper and Trim Polish for cars. It rejoices in the name 'Back to Black', and I assume is targeted at boy racers who worry about things like the pristine condition of their dashboards. In my mind, I associate it with the sorts of cars that have fluffy dice dangling from the rear-view mirror. Why we have any of it lying around is completely beyond me, and even more fascinating is why the Technical Department even thought of using it to restore the Riedel glasses to their pristine condition........Sometimes, it's just better not to ask! It works, though. Amazingly, it does.......

I doubt it's safe to use inside the glass, since I'm not certain what the stuff actually contains - but since most of the bloom is on the outside anyway, there's little temptation to risk it. Given that the bottle bears a large yellow sticker proclaiming that the product 'Contains Alcohol', I'm not sure we aren't in practice returning it to its spiritual home.

If you want to get hold of any of this stuff, I suggest you google it and find your nearest boy-racer online supplier! Difficult to think of Mrs Beeton and boy-racers in the same breath, but I suspect that were she around now, she would approve.......

Dinner Tonight:

Crab Tarts.

Chicken with Mascarpone & Dill stuffing. Celeriac Mousse.

Souffles of Vanilla & Apricot.

Bottled Summer.......

I don't recall how or why I first came across the range of Vedrenne Creme Liqueurs. I can remember numerous glasses of Kir being consumed as pre-lunch tipples nearly thirty years ago in the course of endless Greek summers - generally accompanied by slices of Hungarian Donkey Salami (the flavours of the two have been inextricably linked in my mind, ever since) - and the Cassis that was used on those occasions always came from the distinctive Vedrenne bottle..........But when it was that I realised that Vedrenne is not just Cassis I couldn't tell you. Or indeed why it is that no retail outlets that I can think of ever seem interested to move beyond the - admittedly very good, but on one level slightly pedestrian - blackcurrant.

Now I come to think of it, I suspect it was exactly because of lack of retail availability that I learned that Vedrenne products come in a whole battery of other flavours. I tracked down the UK importer (an outfit called Grape Ideas, based somewhere in Oxfordshire) and established that I could buy from them at trade price, as long as I bought a minimum of a case at a time. A dozen bottles of Cassis seemed quite a challenge even for the levels of consumption in this household, and I suspect my pause on the phone prompted G.Ideas Inc to add hurriedly that it would be perfectly ok for the case to be a mixed case. And that in turn prompted careful enquiry as to exactly what the options for that mix might be......

That first time, we decided to cast our net wide, in a spirit of adventure, and the order included Creme de Peche de Vigne, Green Apple, Wild Strawberry, Bitter Cherry, Raspberry, and of course the inevitable Cassis. They're all made and bottled in Nuits St George, and there are actually more flavours that come out of Nuits St George than those I've listed, but which inexplicably have been deemed uninteresting by the good people of Grape Ideas.........there's a Mirabelle, I think, and a Bilberry. ...and possibly more that I don't recall. The blurb available about the process is quite unrevealing, and the only details I could glean in trying to research Vedrenne was that absolutely no additives are used 'not even those allowed by law' (nice touch, that!) and the fact that only 'dry' sugar comes into play...

The flavours are superb! There are some oddities, I'll admit, for which a good use took a little time to discover. Green Apple, for instance, left me completely cold until I tried a small amount of it in the bottom of a Gin & Tonic. Delicious! Wonderfully refreshing, and inexplicably tasting of almonds......Equally, the Bitter Cherry I nearly gave up on, until I tried a small slug of it as part of the contents for a Cherry Tart. For the others, though, there was never any question: Peche de Vigne with Prosecco; Framboise, or Cassis mixed with a chilled glass of Pinot Grigio.....all perfect! And they all come in handy in the kitchen as well - a little Wild Strawberry added to the base for a Strawberry Souffle, for instance, or Peche de Vigne to give a little kick to a Nectarine Pie. It's all good stuff.......

And given how summer in London now seems entirely to have given up trying, then there's much to be said for the bottled variety. Within 48 hours of touching down at Gatwick, I'd managed to contract a stinking cold, and much time is now devoted to sneezing my way around Kensington Gardens, as the four-footeds enjoy chasing squirrels in the pouring rain!

Tonight's Dinner:

Aubergine & Parmesan Tarts

Grilled Steak, with Caramelised Mushrooms

Pears, poached with Rosemary & Honey

The Best Mozzarella in the World......

..........comes from a 'biological' (whatever that may be) dairy called Vannulo, just outside the gates to Paestum. Both the Mozzarella and the Ricotta produced by Vannulo are quite exceptional - and once you've tasted either cheese, your benchmarks for 'good' as regards either product will have been radically altered. Permanently. The taste and creaminess is so remarkable that even hardened afficianados of italian cheese have been reduced to awed silence at their first taste - I know; I've witnessed it....

I have no idea whether it is the quality of the Buffalo milk which is responsible - presumably having been reared by 'biological' methods makes some difference to the quality of their output - or some wrinkle in the way that the cheeses are made. I suspect herds of Buffalo in Italy are few and far between these days, so I wonder if in fact what Vannulo produces is what Mozzarella and Ricotta used to taste like (I know....that old line again.....see earlier references to Felchlin chocolate...possibly I'm getting old) and our palates have merely become accustomed to what passes for 'good' these days, instead of what it used to be? Certainly, I can remember - when I first visited Paestum in the sixties, before it became such an item on the tourist landscape - there were rather grubby looking herds of Buffalo wallowing aimlessly pretty much everywhere you looked in that part of the World. Last time I was there, about five years ago, I don't recall seeing any at all.....

Anyway, I'm afraid this post is by way of being a 'so near, and yet so far', since I can tell you about Vannulo, but there's no way short of going there that you can lay your hands on any of their cheese. They don't distribute it, they won't send it, they have no outlets.......apart from on their own premises. I've tried all methods I can think of to get hold of it in Tuscany, all to no avail. The only possibility appears to be to queue up at their gates, and to buy it directly from the dairy, in person. Which is no awful hardship, but not entirely practical.... We've only enjoyed it hitherto by dint of some friends from Milan who have a house near Paestum, and who generously drop off a care package when they pass back through on their journey north (the cheese comes packed in a polystyrene box, accompanied by hushed instructions to 'eat it today - it won't keep'.......which isn't entirely true, but there's never any left after a couple of days anyway.) I'll put a link to Vannulo's website in the side bar. Good luck.....!

Tonight's Dinner:

Palline di Melanzane e Mozzarella (Aubergine fritters stuffed with Mozzarella - di Bufala, but not di Vannulo, sadly.....)

Swordfish Steaks with Salmoriglio Sauce.

Lemon and Almond Tart - see below for the recipe.

The Marsala Experience....

I'm not certain exactly when it was that I first started cooking with Marsala - but I suspect it was as long ago as the first time I tried Marcella Hazan's recipe for zabaglione, which must put it more than a couple of decades ago! As a fortified wine - for cooking purposes, at any rate - it stands out entirely on its own. It has a depth and richness which can't be matched by anything you might consider comparable within the cooking-quality alcohols - not sherry, nor brandy, nor port. The closest thing I can think of in terms of the roundness of its flavour is an Oloroso, but I think we're then straying beyond the parameters of strictly 'cooking' alcohols, and so the comparison is unfair. I understand that Nelson stocked up with Marsala rather than rum for his entire fleet en route to The Battle of the Nile, and I can understand why he would have thought it a valid substitution - the two alcohols have a similar complexity and the structure of their flavours bears comparison. And we won the Battle of The Nile, so that ought to mean something!

Apparently, the earliest versions of Marsala were produced by the addition of 8.5 gallons of grape spirit to every 400 litres of one of the local wines - of which three grape varieties predominate. I have no idea whether those proportions still hold good, and as I'm not contemplating making the stuff, I'm not too bothered about the detail. Where things do seem to have changed recently is in the production of a hierarchy of qualities of Marsala, the top four of which rank significantly above that of cooking quality. For the latter purpose, you should restrict yourself to the 'Fine' variety (misleadingly named, since it is the poorest quality of the lot) which sells for about two quid in any half decent italian supermarket.

I use Marsala for desserts - Posset with Poached Prunes; Zabaglione; Pears poached in Marsala and Moscovado Sugar; Oranges with Marsala Syrup - for cooking with vegetables, as a base for cream sauces for sauteed meat, in stews........it has a place somewhere in pretty much all kinds of cooking.

As for the place, I remember it as a bustling and unprepossessing example of modern urban sprawl, with a very confusing one-way system......which was particularly unhelpful when trying to get through Marsala and down the coast to Mazara del Vallo in time to see the statue of the Dancing Satyr before it closed for the day - and all I was working from was a small scale map of the whole of west Sicily! The guide-books describe Marsala as charming, and traditional and clustered round a picturesque harbour; well, all I can say is that I missed that bit as we swept through the main shopping street, past a host of all-too-familiar department stores, for the third time in twenty minutes! Dinner, however, in a family-owned trattoria called A Ciaramira in the middle of nowhere, eight miles away from Marsala, across empty fields and unlit roads was a truly memorable experience, and more than made up for the deficiencies of the roads- department within the local planning office!

Today's Menu:

Tortino of Pancakes, with a filling of Aubergine and Peppers.

Involtini of Leek and Parmesan. For the full recipe, see below.

Oranges with Marsala Syrup. Not sure what came first to my mind, today's post or the thought of dinner. Whichever.......

Ingredient Alert: Boyajian Citrus Oils...

This post is in part a paean of praise, and in part a straightforward gripe. The paean of praise is for Boyajian Citrus Oils. I first discovered them ten or more years ago in the States, and my kitchen has never been without them ever since! Cold-pressed from the rind of the fruit, the flavours of these oils are intense and accurate, and in many instances are a perfectly valid replacement for either zest or juice in either sweet or savoury recipes. A drop of orange oil in a Creme Anglaise can replace the chore associated with juicing half a dozen oranges and then reducing the liquid to concentrate the flavour for e.g. an Orange & Raspberry Tart; or a drop of Lime Oil at the end of making mayonnaise is fantastic for eating with Globe Artichokes. Boyajian have branched out into a much broader range of flavoured oils than merely their base citrus range, but I confess I've never really got to grips with the more complicated items on their list, and in fact stick pretty much to Orange and Lemon Oils, with an occasional use also for Lime Oil. I can't recommend these oils highly enough!

And my gripe? I can't seem to get hold of them outside the States, and I can't get a response from the Customer Service people at the Boyajian website when I ask whether they will ship orders to the UK. Frustrating? And how!! If anybody reads this and knows where I might be able to replenish my declining stocks, please let me know........I probably have about six months' future supplies, and after that the future looks worryingly bleak!

Today's menu:

Scrambled Egg with Smoked Salmon. Winter seems finally to have arrived, and this is a very Sunday evening, Home & Hearth type of starter.

Boeuf Bourguignonne. Same reason as above, I guess....

Mango Souffle Glace. Enough dwelling on winter......! For the full recipe, see below.

Apricots in winter......

A new discovery. Dried Apricot paste from Syria. I'd not come across this before, but a new arrival on the bookshelves at Christmas was the first Moro Cookbook - the result of a dinner at Moro several weeks before, where an interesting sauce for roast lamb prompted subsequent purchase of the book. Perusal of its pages identified a number of previously unknown ingredients, of which one was Amar Paste, which - as with many ingredients which have been phonetically imported from their language of origin - appears to have a variety of names in English. In Moro, they refer to it as Amradeen, but this must be quite an unusual variation, as it produces only limited resonance on Google.

From memory, the paste is generally melted in hot water before being used - the book is sitting in Italy, and I won't be able to check the details until the next bi-monthly trip, next week. In appearance, the paste is a gelatinous sheet, slightly orange in colour, and the flavour is subtle - one can certainly imagine it working well with meat dishes, without introducing that rather unfortunate jammy quality that is so often the result when fruit is used in conjunction with red or white meats.

In the meantime, it was decided to give it a try here as the basis for a new after-dinner chocolate. Triangles of Amar paste cut out and then enrobed in tempered Felchlin Grand Cru. Fantastic! The result is like a distant and very sophisticated cousin to both an After Eight mint and a Jaffa Cake - wafer thin chocolates, with a subtly fruity interior. Highly recommended!

I got my Amar Paste from 'Archie's' in Moscow Road, W2. A fairly industrial quantity costs about a pound. And as for the tempering, I freely confess that I do not do it by hand - I researched that several years ago, and concluded that life was far too short - but instead use a small computer-controlled device called a Chocolatier Electronique, which is both quick, entirely reliable, and idiot-proof.

Today's Menu:

Poached Egg on Ratatouille (I love the combination of the egg yolk with the tomato and pepper in the ratatouille. For the latter, I use Julia Child's method, where the Aubergine and Zucchini are cooked separately and only added in at the end, to preserve the identity of the separate flavours within the finished dish.)

Fillets of Bream, with Basil & Tomato: For recipe, see below.

Cherry Tarts - fresh, stoned cherries on a base of sugar and flour, piled into phyllo shells and baked at 200 degree C for twenty minutes, or until the cherries have entirely collapsed and their liquid has mostly run out, to be absorbed by the flour & sugar mixture.

What's for dinner?

And so........for today's menu:

To start with, crisp Phyllo pastry shells, with duck livers and mushroom. Simple preparation: bake the shells separately until richly dark brown; saute sliced duck livers and mushrooms in butter in two separate pans, and then add half a wine glass of marsala to the pan with the livers in it, along with half a teaspoon of ground ginger. Let the marsala bubble slightly, then pour in some double cream and stir. Add the mushrooms to the mixture, correct seasoning, and pile into the cooked pastry shells. Top with a sprinkling of chopped parsley to serve.

This is always better using mushrooms found growing wild - but conditions aren't right for that at the moment, so this evening it will be the ordinary cultivated variety instead.

Then:

Boned chicken, roast with a poultice of butter, minced shallot, coriander and chopped rosemary - half of it pushed between the skin and the flesh, and the rest pressed over the surface of the boned beast. Use the ribcage to make stock for future use. Prepare the chicken several hours in advance, and then roast for approximately forty minutes at 200 degrees C. The combined fat and melted butter that collects in the bottom of the pan is fantastic for future sauteeing of vegetables, and will keep for weeks in the fridge.
This is a variaton on a recipe that I've been doing for many years, originally - I think - seen done by Paul Bocuse on the Food Channel in the States . It works equally as well with duck, when some bitter orange zest included in the poultice is excellent. Not only does this method make slicing the bird extremely easy, but you get a lot more for your money, as none of the meat gets left behind in the process of carving.

And to finish:
Egg-white chocolate souffle. The fridge in this household generates its own egg-white mountain on a very regular basis, and so egg-white only dishes are much in demand. This one is as follows, for two: 50 g melted dark chocolate, 4 egg whites, one tablespoon sugar, 1 tbs strong coffee. Melt the chocolate, stir in sugar and coffee, and then fold into stiffly beaten egg whites; pour into greased ramekins and bake eight minutes in a bain marie in a pre-heated 175 degree C oven.

I always use Felchin chocolate - better by far than any alternatives, even the much hailed Valhrona. Difficult to find, but worth the search. Felchlin is an old family run swiss business, and from the first mouthful you'll find yourself saying 'THIS is what chocolate used to taste like!'. It's imported in the UK by Dohler, but after that heaven only knows what happens to it. You can sometimes get it through Vin Sullivan, I think. For the past couple of years I've been sourcing mine through Felchlin's distributor in Italy.

Fyi, when I mention sugar, it will nearly always in fact be equivalent-volume Splenda that I use - it works just as well as sugar for anything which is baked or where the finished product doesn't require the silky texture that only sugar can produce. It's no good for ice creams,or sorbets, for example, and is hopeless for meringues. Otherwise, it's an important element in ensuring that eating well isn't entirely inconsistent with having a waistline!

Equipment note: for melting chocolate or making sauces, I use an integrated bain-marie of german design called a zimmertopf. I'm not sure how widely known they are, but they are excellent for this kind of job, where you want heat, but with no danger of anything boiling. Excellent for jobs like Hollandaise, or Creme Patissiere.