Первое воскресенье Адвента
Разглагольствовала тут в очередной раз про переплетение языческих, еврейских и христианских традиций в Рождественской Европе (и о том, как это сказалаось на праздничной еде, разумеется). О бревне Yule log, которое горит 12 дней от Рождества до Богоявления и не сгорает (а потом стало советским тортом "Сказка"), о черном перце, победившем в обрядовой декабрьской выпечке мед, а затем в свою очередь побежденном имбирем (следующая стадия вероятно полная победа шоколада, но до нее не добралась). И как же прекрасно было наконец выяснить, что gingerbread это вовсе не хлеб, а средневековый gingiberatum - нечто имбирное.
Пфеффернюссе пошли на ура, и даже фриуланская пинза из мучной поленты с печеной тыквой, семенами фенхеля и сушеным инжиром (la cucina di Friuli e la cucina povera!), которую где-то в Порденоне пекут на Богоявление (оно же Бефана, оно же Волхвы и его канун 12-я ночь) получилась относительно съедобной.
Под катом рецепты по-английски, собственно то, что тут уже не раз было, новое в английской кухне перечная коврижка pepper cake из Йоркшира (ее обычно раздавали колядующим), в итальянской собственно вышеупомянутая pinsa (без раскладки, так что готовим на свой страх и риск, первую партию, собственно в капустных листьях я благополучно запорола, вторая - в которую было добавлено несколько серьезных пригорошней пшеничной муки - и выпечанная на противне была ничего). А вот вся французская часть новая, от прованской черной нуги и эльзаских сдобных человечков маннеле (на самом деле Святых Николаев, но почему-то в нескольких прилегающих районах Франции, Лотарингия, Франш-Конте и пр. они уже называются Жанами - Jean Bonhomme, прямо Джоны Доу какие-то). А еще самое смешное, нашла рецепт мусса из фальшивой фуа-гра, что уже совершенные Сатурналии какие-то и salsum sine salso апициевский (там как раз соленую рыбу имитируют печенкой кролика или курицы, а тут фуа-гра из куриной печени - хорошенько промаринованной в благородном портвейне).
В общем, рецепты здесь, если кому интересно
England
Lambs Wool Hot Punch
4 cooking apples (preferably russet), 2 l ale or cider (even regular apple juice works fine), 6 cloves, 1 tsp grated nutmeg, 1/2 tsp grated ginger, 1 cinnamon stick, 3 allspice peppercorns, 2 tbsp brown sugar
Bake apples at 400F for half an hour till soft with a little water, ale or cider. Heat ale or cider with spices and sugar to boiling pot. Scoop out soft fluffy apple pulp with a spoon and float on hot punch. Serve immediately.
Pumpkin and Apricot Chutney
450 g pumpkin, 2 big onions, 225 g dried apricots, 225 g sultanas, 600 ml cider vinegar, 450 g brown sugar, zest and juice from 1 orange, 2 tbsp salt, 2 cardamome pods, 1 tsp cayenne or medium hot chili, 2 tsp coriander seeds, ½ tsp turmeric.
Cube your pumpkin (2½ cm), slice onions, roughly chop apricots. Boil vinegar with sugar in a thick-bottomed pot, add all the ingedients. Reduce the heat and cook, stirring occasionally till chutney thickens (about an hour). Chutney is ready when a wooden spoon drawn through the mixture leaves a clear trail at the bottom of the pot that fills up only slowly. Put chutney away in sterilised jars and forget for at least a month to let the flavours infuse. Serve with cold turkey, ham, cheese etc.
Pepper Cake (Carol Singing Cake from Yorkshire)
1½ lbs flour, 225 g butter, 225 g brown sugar, 1 tsp ground cloves, ½ tsp ground ginger, ½ tsp ground cinnamon, 1½ lbs black treacle, 4 eggs, 1 tsp baking soda, 4 tbsp milk
Rub butter into flour, add sugar and spices. Heat treacle till melted, add to dry ingredients, beat in 4 eggs, mix soda with milk and stir into the dough, beating vigorously. Bake at 325F in a buttered baking tin for about 1¾ hours. Let rest for 15 minutes and then cool on a rack. Store in an air-tight tin for a few days letting flavours to develop before serving.
Germany
Colourful Christmas Bread (Buntes Weihnachtsbrot)
500 g flour, 40 g fresh yeast, 1 tsp sugar, ½ tsp salt, 1/8 l milk, 75 g diced ham, ½ cup diced dill pickles, ½ cup diced red and yellow bell peppers, 1 tbsp caraway, 40 g butter, 1 egg, 1 egg yolk, a little milk
Make a flour well, put yeast crushed with sugar and some milk in the middle, sprinkle with flour and let rest for 15 minutes. Mix in butter (room temperature) and the rest of the ingredients, knead well. Let rest for 30 more minutes. Form a loaf of bread and put on a buttered baking tray to rest for 20 more minutes. Brush the surface of the loaf with a little milk and bake bread at 440F for about half an hour. Brush with more milk while baking for extra golden crust.
Christmas Salad of Twelve (Zwölferlei Gericht)
boiled potatoes, boiled carrots, onions, apples, dill pickles, herring fillets, bacon or pancetta, mustard, oil, white wine vinegar, salt and black pepper
Dice vegetables, apples, herring and bacon. Make a dressing of salt, pepper, mustard, vinegar and oil and dress the salad. Let stand for a couple of hours before serving.
Christmas German Peppernuts (Pfeffernüsse)
300 ml honey, 150 g sugar, 300 g butter, 700 g flour, 4 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp ground cinnamon. 1/4 tsp each ground white pepper, cardamome and cloves, zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon
icing: juice of 1 lemon 300 g icing sugar
Heat butter with honey and sugar in a big pot, bring to boil and let the mixture cool to body temperature. Stir in flour with spices and baking powder, knead well. Roll smallish balls of dough (3 cm diametre) and put into a preheated (360F) oven on a lightly buttered baking tray. Bake for about 20 minutes till done (they shouldn’t colour too much). Mix lemon juice with icing sugar and glaze peppernuts with this mixture while they are still warm. Let peppernuts cool. Do not panic, they’ll become quite hard. Put away in tightly closed tins or jars and forget for two or three weeks. After that time they’ll become soft and melt-in-your mouth delicious. They keep fresh at room temperature for months - if they get a chance that is.
Italy
Boiled Meats with Green Sauce (bollito misto con salsa verde)
Any boiled meat (usually an assortment of several kinds: tongue, beef, chicken) may be served hot with green sauce for the Christmas Dinner in Northern Italy. Grind in a mortar (a food processor is also acceptable) 4 bunches of flat-leaf parsley (just the leaves) together with 6 anchovy fillets, 1 garlic clove, 2 tbsp capers and 2 egg-yolks, drizzle in 5 tbsp olive oil continuing to beat the mixture, add salt and vinegar to taste.
Certosino Christmas Cake (certosino di Bologna)
500 g flour, 400 g honey, 200 g almonds, 50 g pine-nuts, 80 g sultanas, 100 g candied fruit, 100 g fruit jam or pureed cooked fruit (e.g. applesauce), 50 g dark chocolate, cinnamon, aniseed (or a few tsp anis-flavoured spirits like ouzo or pastis), 1 tsp baking soda, 50 g butter
Mix flour with honey heated with a few tbsp of water, add the rest of the ingredients (except butter) and knead well. Bake in a buttered round baking tin at 360F till done. Let cool and wrap tightly in foil. Keep for a week , glaze with honey and garnish with almonds and candied fruit before serving.
Pinsa Epiphany Bread (pinsa di Friuli)
corn flour, cooked pumpkin or squash, yeast, flour, dried figs, fennel seed, a little sugar, a pinch of salt, a little milk, a little butter or pork lard, leaves of savoy cabbage
Cook polenta of corn flour with plenty of water (1:5), let cool. Add all the ingredients except cabbage, knead well. Let rest for at least half an hour. Take a couple of good big leaves of savoy cabbage. Put the dough on one of them, flatten it and cover with the other one. Cook on a griddle or in a hot oven till done.
France
False Foie Gras Mousse
400-500 g chicken livers, about 200 ml port wine, 500 ml chicken stock, 250 g butter, 2 tsp brandy, salt and black pepper
Marinate cleaned chicken livers in port overnight. Poach them in chicken stock with 100 ml port wine in the morning for 12 minutes. Strain and mix in the food processor with butter and brandy. Add salt and pepper to taste, and let the mousse stand in the fridge for at least 12 hours. Serve in the same way as a real foie gras mousse.
St.Nicolas Mannele Brioche of Alsace
500 g flour, 150 ml milk, 2 eggs, 1 egg yolk, 200 g butter (at room temperature), 80 g sugar, a packet of dry yeast, a packet of vanilla sugar, a few currants, 1 tbsp of orange blossom water
Mix all the ingredients except currants, knead well. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest in a warm place until double in volume. Roll 100 g or 50 g balls of dough, shape into little men, cutting hands and legs with a knife right on the buttered baking tray. Use currants for eyes and buttons. Let rest in a warm place till double in volume again. Bake at 360F for 20-25 minutes till done. Sprinkle with sugar if desired.
Thirteen Christmas Desserts of Provence (les treize desserts de Noël)
In Provence there is an old tradition of 13 desserts served on Christmas Eve. They include a flat olive oil brioche (pompe à l'huile) and fruit and nut ‘beggars’ (mendiants) that symbolize the begging orders of Franciscans (dried figs), Augustines (walnuts and hazelnuts), Dominicans (sultanas) and Carmelites (almonds) according the colour of their robes. Fresh fruit such as grapes, apples, pears, winter melons and even Mediterranean service tree fruit (sorbes) are also present. There is also nougat both white and traditional black one.
Black nougat is relatively easy to make at home (although it might ultimately provoke an untimely visit to your dentist!). Boil up fast 1 kg of honey (preferably lavender), add 1 kg of almonds (some pistacchios and hazelnuts wouldn’t come amiss either) and cook, stirring from time to time till honey darkens. Pour the mixture into a tray lined with rice-paper and spread evenly (about 1.5 cm thick). Cover with rice-paper and a board with a couple of weights. Cut into pieces as soon as nougat cools down. Enjoy!
А предыдущие 24 рождественских рецепта, чтобы долго не искать, доступны через этот пост: http://gasterea.livejournal.com/28985.html
Пфеффернюссе пошли на ура, и даже фриуланская пинза из мучной поленты с печеной тыквой, семенами фенхеля и сушеным инжиром (la cucina di Friuli e la cucina povera!), которую где-то в Порденоне пекут на Богоявление (оно же Бефана, оно же Волхвы и его канун 12-я ночь) получилась относительно съедобной.
Под катом рецепты по-английски, собственно то, что тут уже не раз было, новое в английской кухне перечная коврижка pepper cake из Йоркшира (ее обычно раздавали колядующим), в итальянской собственно вышеупомянутая pinsa (без раскладки, так что готовим на свой страх и риск, первую партию, собственно в капустных листьях я благополучно запорола, вторая - в которую было добавлено несколько серьезных пригорошней пшеничной муки - и выпечанная на противне была ничего). А вот вся французская часть новая, от прованской черной нуги и эльзаских сдобных человечков маннеле (на самом деле Святых Николаев, но почему-то в нескольких прилегающих районах Франции, Лотарингия, Франш-Конте и пр. они уже называются Жанами - Jean Bonhomme, прямо Джоны Доу какие-то). А еще самое смешное, нашла рецепт мусса из фальшивой фуа-гра, что уже совершенные Сатурналии какие-то и salsum sine salso апициевский (там как раз соленую рыбу имитируют печенкой кролика или курицы, а тут фуа-гра из куриной печени - хорошенько промаринованной в благородном портвейне).
В общем, рецепты здесь, если кому интересно
England
Lambs Wool Hot Punch
4 cooking apples (preferably russet), 2 l ale or cider (even regular apple juice works fine), 6 cloves, 1 tsp grated nutmeg, 1/2 tsp grated ginger, 1 cinnamon stick, 3 allspice peppercorns, 2 tbsp brown sugar
Bake apples at 400F for half an hour till soft with a little water, ale or cider. Heat ale or cider with spices and sugar to boiling pot. Scoop out soft fluffy apple pulp with a spoon and float on hot punch. Serve immediately.
Pumpkin and Apricot Chutney
450 g pumpkin, 2 big onions, 225 g dried apricots, 225 g sultanas, 600 ml cider vinegar, 450 g brown sugar, zest and juice from 1 orange, 2 tbsp salt, 2 cardamome pods, 1 tsp cayenne or medium hot chili, 2 tsp coriander seeds, ½ tsp turmeric.
Cube your pumpkin (2½ cm), slice onions, roughly chop apricots. Boil vinegar with sugar in a thick-bottomed pot, add all the ingedients. Reduce the heat and cook, stirring occasionally till chutney thickens (about an hour). Chutney is ready when a wooden spoon drawn through the mixture leaves a clear trail at the bottom of the pot that fills up only slowly. Put chutney away in sterilised jars and forget for at least a month to let the flavours infuse. Serve with cold turkey, ham, cheese etc.
Pepper Cake (Carol Singing Cake from Yorkshire)
1½ lbs flour, 225 g butter, 225 g brown sugar, 1 tsp ground cloves, ½ tsp ground ginger, ½ tsp ground cinnamon, 1½ lbs black treacle, 4 eggs, 1 tsp baking soda, 4 tbsp milk
Rub butter into flour, add sugar and spices. Heat treacle till melted, add to dry ingredients, beat in 4 eggs, mix soda with milk and stir into the dough, beating vigorously. Bake at 325F in a buttered baking tin for about 1¾ hours. Let rest for 15 minutes and then cool on a rack. Store in an air-tight tin for a few days letting flavours to develop before serving.
Germany
Colourful Christmas Bread (Buntes Weihnachtsbrot)
500 g flour, 40 g fresh yeast, 1 tsp sugar, ½ tsp salt, 1/8 l milk, 75 g diced ham, ½ cup diced dill pickles, ½ cup diced red and yellow bell peppers, 1 tbsp caraway, 40 g butter, 1 egg, 1 egg yolk, a little milk
Make a flour well, put yeast crushed with sugar and some milk in the middle, sprinkle with flour and let rest for 15 minutes. Mix in butter (room temperature) and the rest of the ingredients, knead well. Let rest for 30 more minutes. Form a loaf of bread and put on a buttered baking tray to rest for 20 more minutes. Brush the surface of the loaf with a little milk and bake bread at 440F for about half an hour. Brush with more milk while baking for extra golden crust.
Christmas Salad of Twelve (Zwölferlei Gericht)
boiled potatoes, boiled carrots, onions, apples, dill pickles, herring fillets, bacon or pancetta, mustard, oil, white wine vinegar, salt and black pepper
Dice vegetables, apples, herring and bacon. Make a dressing of salt, pepper, mustard, vinegar and oil and dress the salad. Let stand for a couple of hours before serving.
Christmas German Peppernuts (Pfeffernüsse)
300 ml honey, 150 g sugar, 300 g butter, 700 g flour, 4 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp ground cinnamon. 1/4 tsp each ground white pepper, cardamome and cloves, zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon
icing: juice of 1 lemon 300 g icing sugar
Heat butter with honey and sugar in a big pot, bring to boil and let the mixture cool to body temperature. Stir in flour with spices and baking powder, knead well. Roll smallish balls of dough (3 cm diametre) and put into a preheated (360F) oven on a lightly buttered baking tray. Bake for about 20 minutes till done (they shouldn’t colour too much). Mix lemon juice with icing sugar and glaze peppernuts with this mixture while they are still warm. Let peppernuts cool. Do not panic, they’ll become quite hard. Put away in tightly closed tins or jars and forget for two or three weeks. After that time they’ll become soft and melt-in-your mouth delicious. They keep fresh at room temperature for months - if they get a chance that is.
Italy
Boiled Meats with Green Sauce (bollito misto con salsa verde)
Any boiled meat (usually an assortment of several kinds: tongue, beef, chicken) may be served hot with green sauce for the Christmas Dinner in Northern Italy. Grind in a mortar (a food processor is also acceptable) 4 bunches of flat-leaf parsley (just the leaves) together with 6 anchovy fillets, 1 garlic clove, 2 tbsp capers and 2 egg-yolks, drizzle in 5 tbsp olive oil continuing to beat the mixture, add salt and vinegar to taste.
Certosino Christmas Cake (certosino di Bologna)
500 g flour, 400 g honey, 200 g almonds, 50 g pine-nuts, 80 g sultanas, 100 g candied fruit, 100 g fruit jam or pureed cooked fruit (e.g. applesauce), 50 g dark chocolate, cinnamon, aniseed (or a few tsp anis-flavoured spirits like ouzo or pastis), 1 tsp baking soda, 50 g butter
Mix flour with honey heated with a few tbsp of water, add the rest of the ingredients (except butter) and knead well. Bake in a buttered round baking tin at 360F till done. Let cool and wrap tightly in foil. Keep for a week , glaze with honey and garnish with almonds and candied fruit before serving.
Pinsa Epiphany Bread (pinsa di Friuli)
corn flour, cooked pumpkin or squash, yeast, flour, dried figs, fennel seed, a little sugar, a pinch of salt, a little milk, a little butter or pork lard, leaves of savoy cabbage
Cook polenta of corn flour with plenty of water (1:5), let cool. Add all the ingredients except cabbage, knead well. Let rest for at least half an hour. Take a couple of good big leaves of savoy cabbage. Put the dough on one of them, flatten it and cover with the other one. Cook on a griddle or in a hot oven till done.
France
False Foie Gras Mousse
400-500 g chicken livers, about 200 ml port wine, 500 ml chicken stock, 250 g butter, 2 tsp brandy, salt and black pepper
Marinate cleaned chicken livers in port overnight. Poach them in chicken stock with 100 ml port wine in the morning for 12 minutes. Strain and mix in the food processor with butter and brandy. Add salt and pepper to taste, and let the mousse stand in the fridge for at least 12 hours. Serve in the same way as a real foie gras mousse.
St.Nicolas Mannele Brioche of Alsace
500 g flour, 150 ml milk, 2 eggs, 1 egg yolk, 200 g butter (at room temperature), 80 g sugar, a packet of dry yeast, a packet of vanilla sugar, a few currants, 1 tbsp of orange blossom water
Mix all the ingredients except currants, knead well. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest in a warm place until double in volume. Roll 100 g or 50 g balls of dough, shape into little men, cutting hands and legs with a knife right on the buttered baking tray. Use currants for eyes and buttons. Let rest in a warm place till double in volume again. Bake at 360F for 20-25 minutes till done. Sprinkle with sugar if desired.
Thirteen Christmas Desserts of Provence (les treize desserts de Noël)
In Provence there is an old tradition of 13 desserts served on Christmas Eve. They include a flat olive oil brioche (pompe à l'huile) and fruit and nut ‘beggars’ (mendiants) that symbolize the begging orders of Franciscans (dried figs), Augustines (walnuts and hazelnuts), Dominicans (sultanas) and Carmelites (almonds) according the colour of their robes. Fresh fruit such as grapes, apples, pears, winter melons and even Mediterranean service tree fruit (sorbes) are also present. There is also nougat both white and traditional black one.
Black nougat is relatively easy to make at home (although it might ultimately provoke an untimely visit to your dentist!). Boil up fast 1 kg of honey (preferably lavender), add 1 kg of almonds (some pistacchios and hazelnuts wouldn’t come amiss either) and cook, stirring from time to time till honey darkens. Pour the mixture into a tray lined with rice-paper and spread evenly (about 1.5 cm thick). Cover with rice-paper and a board with a couple of weights. Cut into pieces as soon as nougat cools down. Enjoy!
А предыдущие 24 рождественских рецепта, чтобы долго не искать, доступны через этот пост: http://gasterea.livejournal.com/28985.html