On a Hazelnut Mission

What is it about the hazelnut?  All I know is that if you put it in a cake, cookie, pastry or ice cream, you will also have to wrestle me to the ground in order to keep me away from it.  

So when I watched a cooking show called "Catherine's Italian Kitchen," on GoodFood (UK's version of Food Network), I was extremely intrigued when Catherine visited the Nebrodi mountains in Northern Sicily.  Gaetano Calamunci owns a pastry shop/ice cream factory in the tiny town of Sinagra and makes all kinds of delectable looking treats.  Now, I had assumed that I had pretty much seen it all when it comes to sweets, but this guy takes decadence to a whole new level.  For breakfast, he is known to take a freshly baked brioche, slice it open, and spread on a generous helping of hazelnut gelato.  Then, to finish it off, he'll throw a handful of toasted hazelnuts on top of the ice cream before he closes up the amazing sandwich.

Sadly, I am not planning a trip to Sicily in the next few months, yet I feel like I must try something made by this master craftsman soon.  Calamunci makes all kinds of treats that he is willing to ship, thankfully.  I was delighted to discover that he had a website and gladly took orders (for a minimum of 25 Euros).  Unfortunately, I am not that seasoned when it comes to ordering goods from the Italian Internet.  So, someone may or may not show up at my doorstep with 5 jars of hazelnut spread and 1/2 kilo of hazelnut cookies, demanding cash on delivery.  Stay tuned!

In the meantime, if you are lucky enough to be heading towards the Land of Hazelnuts, visit Calamunci's and give us a full report!  http://www.pasticceriacalamunci.com/

Potstickers - The Perfect Oscar Party Starters!

Let's face it, the powers-that-be are not predicting too many surprises this year for the Academy Awards.  For your Oscar pool, you are choosing between "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker," and the accolades for actors supposedly will go to everyone who snagged the Golden Globes.  So, how to make your Oscar Party exciting?  Fabulous cocktails, obviously. And...fun appetizers!

Potstickers are one of those great little wonders that everyone loves.  If your guests do not eat meat, fill the little gyoza wrappers with grated veggies instead.  You are only limited by your imagination.  If it sounds like it would taste good fried in a crunchy wrapper, then it probably will!  Throw it in and see what happens.

Potstickers
Ingredients:
2 lb ground pork (ground turkey is fine)
3-4 cups shredded cabbage (I like to buy the pre-shredded cole-slaw cabbage to cut down prep time)
3-4 green onions, minced
2 Tablespoons freshly grated ginger
1 package of medium tofu (medium firm is fine)
1 egg
3 Tablespoons soy sauce
3 Tablespoons sesame oil
2-3 packages gyoza wrappers (won ton wrappers are too thin for these dumplings)

You will also need:
2 large cookie sheets/baking trays/platters lined with wax paper or parchment paper
1 small bowl filled with water
1 damp paper towel or kitchen towel
1 large, heavy frying pan with a tight cover (a glass cover makes frying the dumplings easier)
1 small bowl filled with water for frying

Place all ingredients except for the wrappers into a large bowl.  Mix together with your hands or a large wooden spoon until everything is incorporated together.

Gather together your other materials at a table where you can spread everything out and sit comfortably.  Take one wrapper and put a rounded tablespoon of filling onto one side.  Dip a finger into the small bowl of water and brush your wet finger at the edge of half of the wrapper (Do not go all the way around the whole wrapper, just make a half-circle).  Fold the wrapper into a half-moon shape, using the water you brushed on to act as an adhesive and close the dumpling into a half-moon shape.  (A lot of people pleat the top skin to make a pretty fan, but I really can't be bothered with such nonsense when I'm making a bazillion little dumplings).

After you've made one dumpling, lay it on the lined tray and repeat until you're out of filling.

If you would like to eat the dumplings immediately, begin the frying process, or keep the dumplings in the refrigerator/freezer until ready.  (Make sure your dumplings are in a single layer so that they don't stick together).

To fry, heat a few tablespoons of canola oil in the frying pan over medium high heat.  Place the dumplings onto the pan in a single layer, arranging them in rows.  Once the bottom of the dumplings are slightly cooked but before they turn golden, pour about 1/3 to ½ cup of cold water over the dumplings, making sure that all tops of the dumplings are moistened.  Cover the pan and cook until the dumplings are transparent.  Remove the dumplings from the pan onto a serving platter, fried side up.  Serve with Potsticker Sauce.

Note:  Major Obvious likes his potstickers fried and crunchy on both sides, so after the potstickers are transparent, I will lift the cover, flip the potstickers with wooden chopsticks, and let them crisp up on the other side.  The traditional way to eat them, however, is crunchy on one side and soft on the other.  The choice is yours!

Potsticker Sauce
1 bottle soy sauce
1 bottle sesame oil
1 bottle hot chili oil

Give your guests their own little sauce dishes and encourage them to make their own potsticker sauce to their own liking, by mixing the soy sauce, sesame oil and hot chili oil.  (Some guests may choose to forgo the hot chili oil altogether).

I like to make a big, big batch of these and freeze them for convenience food at later times.  To do so, place your tray of potstickers in the freezer.  Once frozen, place the potstickers in a large, labelled freezer storage bag.  Potstickers will keep for 6 weeks.

Don't Forget the Latkes!

Lemony Snicket's "The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming," is a favorite holiday story of ours.  I think we enjoy it mostly because the central character is edible.  After we read the story this past weekend, I remembered that the latke remains a delicious holiday dinner option.  We serve ours with applesauce, light yogurt (my lighter alternative to sour cream) and sausages, but you can choose any accompaniments you'd like.

2 courgettes

6-8 medium potatoes (we used new potatoes, but you can use yukon golds or any ones...but I'm not sure how they'd turn out with red potatoes)

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 c flour

1/4 of an onion

sea salt and course black pepper to taste

2-3 Tbsp canola oil

Peel and grate the courgettes and potatoes.  (This is always a challenge for me.  I always seem to come very close to grating some of my hand into the mixture.  Be careful!)  When you are done, squeeze any extra water out of the grated veggies and put them into a large bowl.  (I use a smaller bowl on the counter to catch my veggie water so I am not making multiple trips to the sink).  Grate the quartered onion into veggies (don't squeeze out any liquid from these...you want that tasty onion juice in the mixture).

Add the rest of the ingredients to the large bowl and mix to combine.  Put a couple of paper towels onto a dinner plate and have it waiting by the stove.

Heat some canola oil over high heat in a large frying pan.  When the oil is hot, spoon the veggies into pancake-sized blobs into the pan.  Wait for a few minutes, then flip when brown.  You may have to manage the heat of the stove to make sure the latkes don't burn.  When the latkes are done, place them onto the paper towels to drain.  Serve while hot!

Traditional latkes are cooked in a lot more oil, but I like to have these less-fattening ones.  I also like putting in some zucchini so that the kids get some veggies!  Feel free to experiment.  I've seen people use grated carrots before, too.

Courgette Omelette - A Quick Lunch During The Holiday Season

For some, weekends leading up to the holidays consist of shopping and gift-wrapping.  Others spend hours playing Super Mario Bros. on the Wii.  You can guess what Major Obvious and Sweet Pea were up to last Saturday.  Little Man and I are less committed to the Mario and Luigi Cause, so we took a break to make a quick lunch.  Little Man picked out a lovely courgette (zucchini) at Tesco that we were determined to use.

Courgette Omelette

3 eggs, beaten
1 Tbsp canola oil
1 courgette, peeled and grated
1/4 onion, minced
1/3 cup grated cheddar cheese

chopped chives, optional

pinch sea salt

few grinds of freshly grated black pepper

In a small nonstick pan over medium-high heat, warm oil.  While waiting for oil to heat up, take handfuls of grated courgette and squeeze over the sink to wring out any excess water.  Put grated courgette in pan with minced onions.  Sautee for several minutes, until vegetables seem tender.

If you haven't already, crack the eggs into a bowl.  Beat with a fork and add salt and pepper.  Add egg mixture to pan when veggies are ready.  Stir a little and add grated cheese.  Let omelette set.

At this point, you can fold the omelette in half, but I never bother with such silliness.  I just grab the eggs out of the pan with a spatula and put them on plates.  Garnish with chopped chives, if desired.  Serve with toast.

Serves 2 (if paired with toast and salad).

A Little Addictive Cookie - Just In Time For The Holidays

Major Obvious came home from work one day bearing this package.  Now, normally I do not condone packaged cookies in the house.  (I will bend for cookies that are "home-baked" in the grocery store).  I just can't help but feel that the cookie manufacturers of the world are shoving trans fats into the little treats at every turn.  (How else can the biscuits stay "fresh" for a year on the shelf?)  The worst of it is, I never seem to see the term "hydrogenated" anywhere on UK packaging, so I can't help but wonder whether these cookies are filled with trans fats anyway or if, perhaps, this country is more health conscious than the United States.

But these little Nice biscuits are very, very hard to resist.  Whenever I eat one, I automatically pop another and then another in my mouth.  Then, I run out of the kitchen so I don't eat the whole box in one sitting.  They are crunchy with tiny little coconut pieces in the cookie, and then a fluffy vanilla cream filling provides a great additional treat.  They're awesome.  They're probably going to make me gain an additional 3 pounds on top of the traditional holiday weight, but oh well.  'Tis the season!

A Thanksgiving in England

Celebrating Thanksgiving in the UK is actually really fun.  It's totally low pressure in that the average person in the village has no idea what's going on.  The local butcher vaguely realizes that I ordered a 12 pound turkey for some American holiday, but since there is only one other order for a turkey that week, he doesn't think much about it.  All supermarkets are open on The Big Day, so if I've forgotten something, I can quickly run to the store and grab it.

This year, my family and I did something very strange, indeed.  We stayed by ourselves.  I may have served Thanksgiving dinner in my pajamas, I'm not sure.  My kids were dressed in clothes, as they went to school just like it was any normal day.  Major Obvious had the day off and was also dressed since he took the kids to school.  After that one task, he promptly came home, kicked off his shoes, and headed straight for the couch.  He was consumed with the Play Station Portable (PSP) for most of the day.

So while it was odd getting a turkey ready without the Dallas Cowboys or the Detroit Lions gutting it out in the background, I may prefer this low-key experience.  I enjoy getting together with friends and family over the holidays, but it was such a treat to have 2 whole days to ourselves.  No work, no birthday parties, no swim lessons.  Just 12 pounds of juicy, delicious goodness, and some fantastic sides. And NFL football or NHL hockey at midnight.

Pumpkin Chocolate Cake

This is the time of year when everyone starts cooking and baking with pumpkin in order to celebrate Halloween, Thanksgiving and the general fun of autumn.  I was so excited to find this recipe when I was looking for a dessert to make and bring to a dinner party.  Because the rest of the menu was Middle Eastern, I had reservations about making it and thought about baking sesame cookies instead.  When I consulted Major Obvious, he firmly stated, "Your choices are sesame cookies vs. Pumpkin Chocolate Cake by Jacques Torres?  That is a no-brainer.  Who cares if it doesn't match the rest of the meal?"  So, I made the cake and we brought it over.  When our friends heard the story, they excitedly asked, "Did you really make it?  And that's what we're having for dessert?"  When we sat down to eat it, they exclaimed, "That was a good call!  Pumpkin and chocolate is such a fantastic combination."  Amen. 

Pumpkin Chocolate Cake

from Jacques Torres' "A Year of Chocolate"

1/2 cup (1 stick)
plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

3/4 cup light brown sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup canned pumpkin purée

1-1/4 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 ounces (1/2 cup) chopped 60% bittersweet chocolate

1/2 cup dried cranberries, optional

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional

2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar, optional

1 tablespoon Dutch-processed cocoa powder, optional

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter and flour a 6-inch bundt pan. Set aside.

Place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed to just soften. Add the brown sugar and beat for about 4 minutes, or until very light and creamy. Reduce the speed to low and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the pumpkin and beat to blend.

Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt and, with the motor off, sift the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture. Turn the speed to low and beat to incorporate the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture. When well-blended, remove the bowl from the mixer and, using a rubber spatula, fold in the chocolate, cranberries, and nuts.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted near the center comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and invert onto a wire rack. Remove the pan and allow the cake to cool at room temperature.

The cake will keep, covered and refrigerated, for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 3 months.