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Well, talkjive will know how excited I am about this because I rave on about dinner parties all the time, but-- this year I'm going to take care of a large part of our christmas dinner. there'll be 8 of us, so a lot of hungry mouths. My mother is making a fish-pumpkin soup and some lamb or something because I'm cooking from a vegetarian cookbook, and mys ister will do dessert! I thought it might be fun to put up the thins I'll be making, I'll report back on how well it went o7
All these are from the fabulous vegetarian cooking book 'Vegeterranean' by Alberto Musacchio & Malu Simoes, painstakingly translated by me.
Crespelle Fantasia for 6, takes about an hour and a half.
CRÊPES
- 1 table spoon of butter + extra for in the pan
- 150 ml milk
- 75 grammes flour
- 1 egg
- salt + pepper
- 24 leaves of parsley, flat or otherwise
- 6 sprigs of chives
Melt the butter and let it cool to room temperature. Whisk the melk, flour, egg, salt + pepper through the butter. Heat up a frying pan or a crepe pan on medium fire. Grease the pan with a teaspoon of butter. Take pan off fire and pour in about 60 ml of the batter, then turn the pan around so the batter covers the surface. Put 4 parsley leaves in the middle when the batter is still soft, then put the pan back on the fire. Bake until golden brown, then turn around and bake the other side in the same way. Make 6 of these.
FILLING
- 1 shallot
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 1 sprig of fresh thyme, just the leaves
- 2 table spoons of extra vergine olive oil
- 2 aubergines/eggplants, peeled and chopped into fine cubes
- salt and pepper
- 1 table spoon of chopped parsley
- 1 table spoon of creamy goat cheese
Bake/fry (idk terms) the shallot garlic and thyme for about a minute in olive oil on medium fire, until soft. Add the aubergines, then salt and pepper to taste and bake them as well. Turn every now and then until the aubergine is soft and dry (around 25 minutets); take pan off fire, add parsley. Cool off until room temperature, then stir through the goat cheese.
FONDUTA
- 100 grammes of fontina, in cubes (it's a cheese!)
- 100 ml milk
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 table spoon of butter
- 2 table spoons corn starch
1 hour before serving this dish, mix the fontina and milk in a saucepan that's not on a fire. Whisk the egg yolk, butter and corn starch through. Warm the mix au bain marie for 20 minutes. Flatten the cheese with the back of a spoon so it melts completely.
FINISHING TOUCHES
Sauté the chives for a second in boiling water, then transfer to an ice bath. Cool down completely. Put the crepes on a flat surface, put the filling in the middle. Bring the edges towards one another to create little pockets, then tie them together with a sprig of chives, wrap it around twice. Put the pockets on a sheet pan with baking paper, cover with more baking paper and put it in the oven for 10 minutes at 180 C or, for a gas oven, number 4. Serve hot with the fonduta next to it.
COXINHAS ENCANTADAS, serves 6, takes around an hour
FIILLING
- 2 table spoons of extra vergine olive oil
- 1 chopped garlic clove
- 1 tea spoon of thyme leaves
- 1 table spoon onion, chopped
- 1 aubergine, peeled, cubed
- salt and pepper
- 1 table spoon of grated parmesan
- 1 table spoon grated pecorino romano
Heat the oil. Sweat the garlic, thyme and onion for a minute. Add aubergine and bring to flavour with salt and pepper. Bake until the aubergine is soft and dry, about 20 minutes. Puree it in a blender and cool down before stirring the cheeses through.
DOUGH
- 1 small potato
- 120 ml of vegetable bouillon
- 120 ml milk
- 1 table spoon butter
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 125 grammes of flour
Cook, peel and mash the potato. Cook the bouillon, milk, butter and salt, then add the flour all at once and immediately stir firmly. Stir for 5 minutes or until dough starts to dry and peel off the bottom and sides of the pan. Take off fire and mix with potato. Knead for about 2 minutes.
FINISHING TOUCHES
- 2 table spoons of flour
- 2 whole eggs, beaten and slightly salted
- 60 grammes of breadcrumbs
- vegetable oil to fry with
- salt
Roll 1 table spoon of dough into a ball, then flatten into a circle of about 6 cm. Put 1 table spoons of the aubergine mix inside and close the dough around it. Be careful the dough doesn't break! Carefully close it and shape it into a pear. Repeat with rest of dough.
Put flour, egg and breadcrumbs in separate bowls. Put a coxinha first in the flour, then the egg and then the breadcrumbs. Put away on a plate. Heat up the oil and fry them a few at a time until golden brown. Put on a plate with absorbant paper and flavour with salt. Serve hot.
SFORMATINI DI ZUCCHINE serves 6, takes around 25 minutes + 20 minutes in the oven
INGREDIENTS
- 2 table spoons of extra vergine olive oil
- 1 shallot, chopped really finely
- 2 courgettes/zucchini, grated crudely
- 1 tea spoon of dried marjoram
- white pepper and salt
- 100 grammes of ricotta
- 1 table spoon of grated parmesan
- 1 egg
- 2 egg whites
Heat the oil and the shallot for 30 seconds, then add the courgette, marjoram and white pepper. Bake until the courgettes are soft and dry, stir every now and then (takes around 15 mins). Take pan off fire and cool off. Mash the ricotta and parmesan in a bowl using a fork until very creamy. Beat the egg and the egg whites together and mix with the ricotta until it's a smooth mixture. Mix through the baked courgettes and flavour with salt and pepper.
Pre-heat the oven until 180 C/gas 4. Boil water. Grease 6 small muffin shapes (or one big one), preferably silicone ones. Put baking powder on the bottom. Equally divide the mix over the shapes, then put them in a baking tin with raised edges. Carefully pour hot water until about halfway to the shapes. Cover with aluminium foil and bake for 20 minutes.
TUILLES OF PARMESAN CHEESE garnishing
- butter to grease pan
- 12 table spoons of grated parmesan
Grease a frying pan with the butter and put it on a medium fire. Sprinkle 2 table spoons of the grated parmesan in a circle of about 13 cm. As soon as the cheese has melted, carefully, using a spatula, transfer to a lightly greased oven dish. Carefully mould with your fingers so it takes a shell shape. Cool down for a minute, then put the tuilles on a sheet of grease-free paper with the flat part on the bottom. Repeat with rest.
This has to be served with truffle sauce but fuck that. Put the flans in the cheese, ta-dah!
CANNOLI DI RADICCHIO E PERE serves 4, takes 35 mins + 20 mins in the oven
FILLING
- 1 radicchio, chopped into 8 parts (but connected by the heart!)
- 2 table spoons of exxtra virgin olive oil, plus extra to sprinkle
- salt and pepper
- 1 pear, peeled, heart/centre removed
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- 1 table spoon of chopped walnuts
- 2 table spoons of white wine
- 2 tea spoons of red wine vinegar
Sprinkle olive oil over the radicchio and flavour with salt and pepper. Grill them on all sides and cool off before chopping into large pieces. Cut the pear into slices of around 5 mm and grill them in the sam way. Cool down a little before cutting into 5-mm cubes and mix with the radicchio. Heat 2 table spoons of olive oil and sweat the garlic until coloured and the shallot until see-through. Remove garlic and add the radicchio and pear. Bake for 2 minutes, then add the walnuts, wine and vinegar. Cook until the fluid has evaporated, takes about 10 mins. Flavour with salt + pepper, let leak in a colander. Cool off.
TO FINISH
- 250 grammes of puff pastry
- 30 grammes of taleggio, cubes of 1 cm
- 30 g of smoked scamorza, cubes of 1 cm
- 1 egg yolk
Roll the puff pastry on a flat surface until it's a big square of about 2 mm. Cut it with a pizza wheel or a sharp knife in 9 cm squares. Put 2 table spoons of the filling on one half of each square. Let 5 mm free on the edges and put the cheeses on top of the filling. put yolk on th eedges. Roll the uncovered part of the pastry over the filling so you get a cilinder, then press the edges together softly. Put egg yolk on top. Bake for about 20 minutes in a 180C/gas 4 oven. Serve hot.
GATEAU DI PATATE serves 6, takes 15 minutes and 30 mins in the oven
INGREDIENTS
- 3 large potatoes
- 40 g butter, extra bits for on the tarts
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 table spoons of olive oil
- 2 table spoons of grated parmesan
- 1 table spoon of grated pecorino
- salt, white and black pepper
- olive oil for greasing
- breadcrumbs
- 30 g of smoked provolone in cubes; can be substituted with any soft smoked cheese
Cook and peel potatoes. Mash with butter ina bowl and let them cool off. Mix the mashed potatoes as soon as they've reached room temperature with the other ingredients except for the oil, smoked cheese and breadcrumbs. Put a piece of baking paper on the bottom of 6 oven-fit bowls of about 5 cm in diameter, grease them with oil and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
Put half the mix in the bowls. Put thecubes of smoked cheese on top, then put the rest of the mix in the bowls. Make circles on top with the teeth of a fork. Put a cube of butter on top and bake the tarts for about 30 mins in a 180C/gas 4 oven, serve hot.
And, for fun, something I'm making on the 25th. This is sth I've made a few times and I know it's amazingly good.
BISCOTTO ALLA PANNA serves 10, 20 mins and 1 hour in the fridge
CAKE
- butter to grease
- 4 eggs, separated yolk and whites
- 5 table spoons of fine caster sugar
- pinch of salt
- 4 table spoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
Pre-heat oven to 175 C/ gas 4. Grease a sheet of baking powder of aroudn 35 x 35 cm with butter and put on a baking sheet.
Beat the egg yolks and suger until light yellow. Separately beat the egg whites with pinch of sal tuntil stiff. Spoon in the egg yolks in 3 turns. Mix well after each addition. Sieve the cocoa powder in and fold it in carefully. Be careeful not to stir for too long. Put the mix on a baking sheet and flatten it with a spatula so it covers all of the baking paper. Bake for 7 minutes in the oven, or until the mix gives when you press on it. Don't bake it too long, or else it'll get hard and crumbly. Take out of oven and let it cool off.
FILLING
- 350 ml of cream
- 2 table spoons of powdered sugar
- 1 tea spoon vanilla extract
Beat all ingredients together until stiff.
FINISHING TOUCHES
Put the cake, paper and all, on a flat surface. Put the cream on top with a spatula, and leave an edge of about 4 cm fee at the top. Roll the cake, using the baking powder, until the seam is on the bottom. Carefully pull the powder away from the cake and put it on a long dish. Fill the ends with cream and put the biscotta alla panna in the fridge for at least an hour to stiffen up. Cut into slices usign a sharp knife so the roll keeps its shape.
ha ha my hands hurt
All these are from the fabulous vegetarian cooking book 'Vegeterranean' by Alberto Musacchio & Malu Simoes, painstakingly translated by me.
Crespelle Fantasia for 6, takes about an hour and a half.
CRÊPES
- 1 table spoon of butter + extra for in the pan
- 150 ml milk
- 75 grammes flour
- 1 egg
- salt + pepper
- 24 leaves of parsley, flat or otherwise
- 6 sprigs of chives
Melt the butter and let it cool to room temperature. Whisk the melk, flour, egg, salt + pepper through the butter. Heat up a frying pan or a crepe pan on medium fire. Grease the pan with a teaspoon of butter. Take pan off fire and pour in about 60 ml of the batter, then turn the pan around so the batter covers the surface. Put 4 parsley leaves in the middle when the batter is still soft, then put the pan back on the fire. Bake until golden brown, then turn around and bake the other side in the same way. Make 6 of these.
FILLING
- 1 shallot
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 1 sprig of fresh thyme, just the leaves
- 2 table spoons of extra vergine olive oil
- 2 aubergines/eggplants, peeled and chopped into fine cubes
- salt and pepper
- 1 table spoon of chopped parsley
- 1 table spoon of creamy goat cheese
Bake/fry (idk terms) the shallot garlic and thyme for about a minute in olive oil on medium fire, until soft. Add the aubergines, then salt and pepper to taste and bake them as well. Turn every now and then until the aubergine is soft and dry (around 25 minutets); take pan off fire, add parsley. Cool off until room temperature, then stir through the goat cheese.
FONDUTA
- 100 grammes of fontina, in cubes (it's a cheese!)
- 100 ml milk
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 table spoon of butter
- 2 table spoons corn starch
1 hour before serving this dish, mix the fontina and milk in a saucepan that's not on a fire. Whisk the egg yolk, butter and corn starch through. Warm the mix au bain marie for 20 minutes. Flatten the cheese with the back of a spoon so it melts completely.
FINISHING TOUCHES
Sauté the chives for a second in boiling water, then transfer to an ice bath. Cool down completely. Put the crepes on a flat surface, put the filling in the middle. Bring the edges towards one another to create little pockets, then tie them together with a sprig of chives, wrap it around twice. Put the pockets on a sheet pan with baking paper, cover with more baking paper and put it in the oven for 10 minutes at 180 C or, for a gas oven, number 4. Serve hot with the fonduta next to it.
COXINHAS ENCANTADAS, serves 6, takes around an hour
FIILLING
- 2 table spoons of extra vergine olive oil
- 1 chopped garlic clove
- 1 tea spoon of thyme leaves
- 1 table spoon onion, chopped
- 1 aubergine, peeled, cubed
- salt and pepper
- 1 table spoon of grated parmesan
- 1 table spoon grated pecorino romano
Heat the oil. Sweat the garlic, thyme and onion for a minute. Add aubergine and bring to flavour with salt and pepper. Bake until the aubergine is soft and dry, about 20 minutes. Puree it in a blender and cool down before stirring the cheeses through.
DOUGH
- 1 small potato
- 120 ml of vegetable bouillon
- 120 ml milk
- 1 table spoon butter
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 125 grammes of flour
Cook, peel and mash the potato. Cook the bouillon, milk, butter and salt, then add the flour all at once and immediately stir firmly. Stir for 5 minutes or until dough starts to dry and peel off the bottom and sides of the pan. Take off fire and mix with potato. Knead for about 2 minutes.
FINISHING TOUCHES
- 2 table spoons of flour
- 2 whole eggs, beaten and slightly salted
- 60 grammes of breadcrumbs
- vegetable oil to fry with
- salt
Roll 1 table spoon of dough into a ball, then flatten into a circle of about 6 cm. Put 1 table spoons of the aubergine mix inside and close the dough around it. Be careful the dough doesn't break! Carefully close it and shape it into a pear. Repeat with rest of dough.
Put flour, egg and breadcrumbs in separate bowls. Put a coxinha first in the flour, then the egg and then the breadcrumbs. Put away on a plate. Heat up the oil and fry them a few at a time until golden brown. Put on a plate with absorbant paper and flavour with salt. Serve hot.
SFORMATINI DI ZUCCHINE serves 6, takes around 25 minutes + 20 minutes in the oven
INGREDIENTS
- 2 table spoons of extra vergine olive oil
- 1 shallot, chopped really finely
- 2 courgettes/zucchini, grated crudely
- 1 tea spoon of dried marjoram
- white pepper and salt
- 100 grammes of ricotta
- 1 table spoon of grated parmesan
- 1 egg
- 2 egg whites
Heat the oil and the shallot for 30 seconds, then add the courgette, marjoram and white pepper. Bake until the courgettes are soft and dry, stir every now and then (takes around 15 mins). Take pan off fire and cool off. Mash the ricotta and parmesan in a bowl using a fork until very creamy. Beat the egg and the egg whites together and mix with the ricotta until it's a smooth mixture. Mix through the baked courgettes and flavour with salt and pepper.
Pre-heat the oven until 180 C/gas 4. Boil water. Grease 6 small muffin shapes (or one big one), preferably silicone ones. Put baking powder on the bottom. Equally divide the mix over the shapes, then put them in a baking tin with raised edges. Carefully pour hot water until about halfway to the shapes. Cover with aluminium foil and bake for 20 minutes.
TUILLES OF PARMESAN CHEESE garnishing
- butter to grease pan
- 12 table spoons of grated parmesan
Grease a frying pan with the butter and put it on a medium fire. Sprinkle 2 table spoons of the grated parmesan in a circle of about 13 cm. As soon as the cheese has melted, carefully, using a spatula, transfer to a lightly greased oven dish. Carefully mould with your fingers so it takes a shell shape. Cool down for a minute, then put the tuilles on a sheet of grease-free paper with the flat part on the bottom. Repeat with rest.
This has to be served with truffle sauce but fuck that. Put the flans in the cheese, ta-dah!
CANNOLI DI RADICCHIO E PERE serves 4, takes 35 mins + 20 mins in the oven
FILLING
- 1 radicchio, chopped into 8 parts (but connected by the heart!)
- 2 table spoons of exxtra virgin olive oil, plus extra to sprinkle
- salt and pepper
- 1 pear, peeled, heart/centre removed
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- 1 table spoon of chopped walnuts
- 2 table spoons of white wine
- 2 tea spoons of red wine vinegar
Sprinkle olive oil over the radicchio and flavour with salt and pepper. Grill them on all sides and cool off before chopping into large pieces. Cut the pear into slices of around 5 mm and grill them in the sam way. Cool down a little before cutting into 5-mm cubes and mix with the radicchio. Heat 2 table spoons of olive oil and sweat the garlic until coloured and the shallot until see-through. Remove garlic and add the radicchio and pear. Bake for 2 minutes, then add the walnuts, wine and vinegar. Cook until the fluid has evaporated, takes about 10 mins. Flavour with salt + pepper, let leak in a colander. Cool off.
TO FINISH
- 250 grammes of puff pastry
- 30 grammes of taleggio, cubes of 1 cm
- 30 g of smoked scamorza, cubes of 1 cm
- 1 egg yolk
Roll the puff pastry on a flat surface until it's a big square of about 2 mm. Cut it with a pizza wheel or a sharp knife in 9 cm squares. Put 2 table spoons of the filling on one half of each square. Let 5 mm free on the edges and put the cheeses on top of the filling. put yolk on th eedges. Roll the uncovered part of the pastry over the filling so you get a cilinder, then press the edges together softly. Put egg yolk on top. Bake for about 20 minutes in a 180C/gas 4 oven. Serve hot.
GATEAU DI PATATE serves 6, takes 15 minutes and 30 mins in the oven
INGREDIENTS
- 3 large potatoes
- 40 g butter, extra bits for on the tarts
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 table spoons of olive oil
- 2 table spoons of grated parmesan
- 1 table spoon of grated pecorino
- salt, white and black pepper
- olive oil for greasing
- breadcrumbs
- 30 g of smoked provolone in cubes; can be substituted with any soft smoked cheese
Cook and peel potatoes. Mash with butter ina bowl and let them cool off. Mix the mashed potatoes as soon as they've reached room temperature with the other ingredients except for the oil, smoked cheese and breadcrumbs. Put a piece of baking paper on the bottom of 6 oven-fit bowls of about 5 cm in diameter, grease them with oil and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
Put half the mix in the bowls. Put thecubes of smoked cheese on top, then put the rest of the mix in the bowls. Make circles on top with the teeth of a fork. Put a cube of butter on top and bake the tarts for about 30 mins in a 180C/gas 4 oven, serve hot.
And, for fun, something I'm making on the 25th. This is sth I've made a few times and I know it's amazingly good.
BISCOTTO ALLA PANNA serves 10, 20 mins and 1 hour in the fridge
CAKE
- butter to grease
- 4 eggs, separated yolk and whites
- 5 table spoons of fine caster sugar
- pinch of salt
- 4 table spoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
Pre-heat oven to 175 C/ gas 4. Grease a sheet of baking powder of aroudn 35 x 35 cm with butter and put on a baking sheet.
Beat the egg yolks and suger until light yellow. Separately beat the egg whites with pinch of sal tuntil stiff. Spoon in the egg yolks in 3 turns. Mix well after each addition. Sieve the cocoa powder in and fold it in carefully. Be careeful not to stir for too long. Put the mix on a baking sheet and flatten it with a spatula so it covers all of the baking paper. Bake for 7 minutes in the oven, or until the mix gives when you press on it. Don't bake it too long, or else it'll get hard and crumbly. Take out of oven and let it cool off.
FILLING
- 350 ml of cream
- 2 table spoons of powdered sugar
- 1 tea spoon vanilla extract
Beat all ingredients together until stiff.
FINISHING TOUCHES
Put the cake, paper and all, on a flat surface. Put the cream on top with a spatula, and leave an edge of about 4 cm fee at the top. Roll the cake, using the baking powder, until the seam is on the bottom. Carefully pull the powder away from the cake and put it on a long dish. Fill the ends with cream and put the biscotta alla panna in the fridge for at least an hour to stiffen up. Cut into slices usign a sharp knife so the roll keeps its shape.
ha ha my hands hurt