Fritto Misto

As a small child fritto misto was something that I loved.  What child doesn't like anything battered and deep-fried? But for some reason my grandad hated this meal so we didn't eat it as often as I would like.  You can choose what you want to dip in the batter but we always had vegetables. Prawns and fish work just as well.

Batter
 I cup of self-raising flour
I tablespoon of olive oil
Sunflower oil for deep frying

Sauce
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1 jalapeño chilli
2 sage leaves
2 basil leaves

Method
Cut up any vegetables you have to hand into strips. Artichokes, aubergines and peppers work particularly well with this dish.
Mix the self-raising flour, olive oil and enough warm water to make a batter the consistency of single cream.
Heat the sunflower oil in a pan - not too hot, just enough to gently fry the vegetables.
Dip the vegetables in the batter and fry for about four minutes.  You don't want the batter to go brown.
Cut up the sage and basil leaves and dice up the chilli finely, then mix with the balsamic vinegar.
Drain the vegetables off on a kitchen towel and put on a plate.  Then just drizzle the sauce lightly over the vegetables.

Buon Appetito!

Spiced Chicken and Dip

Some people think that cooking is difficult, but it's only as difficult as you make it. This dish is so easy that you really have no excuse not to make it!

1 piece of chicken – leg, breast or thigh (must have bone and skin still on)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 small dried red chilli
1 carrot
2 spring onions
1 small piece of cheddar cheese

Mix the oil and chilli and rub into the chicken piece. Place in a medium heated oven for about twenty minutes.

Grate the cheese and the carrot into a bowl. Finely chop up the spring onion and put in with the cheese and carrot and mix. When the chicken is well cooked and crispy, serve with the dip.

This also works well with a baked potato.

Onion Bhajis

Unlike Chinese food, which is usually quite simple to cook, using just a few ingredients, Indian cooking can be quite difficult. Unlike Chinese food, Indian food can have lots of ingredients, and if some are omitted, you can tell.

Having said this, onion bhajis are quite easy to cook, I got this recipe from the wife of a friend, whose family actually owned a restaurant.

3 oz chick-pea flour (gram flour) Sifted.

1 Tablespoon of vegetable oil plus extra for frying.

1 Teaspoon of ground coriander.

1 Teaspoon of cumin.

2 Fresh green chillies finely chopped.

Half a cup of warm water.

2 Onions finely chopped.

Put all ingredients except the onions in a blender and blend to a smooth paste. Put the batter in a bowl and cover and leave for 30 mins, then stir in the onions.

Fill a pan half full with veg oil and heat until you can fry a cube of bread after 30 seconds in it.

Then use a table spoon to drop in the mixture but don't over fill. Cook for about 5-6 minutes then remove and place on kitchen paper.

These are best eaten fresh from the pan as they are quite crispy. I serve them with Greek yoghurt which I have blended with fresh coriander.

Buon Appitito!

Tiramisu

When I was a child, nothing could get me more excited than the site of Nonna getting out the Tiramisu bowl. This was a large glass bowl that had only one function in life, to hold the beloved dessert. This dessert has to be my favourite, even though I now only seem to make it on special occasions. Christmas is the time when it is traditional in our house to make this dish: for us, Christmas without Tirimisu would be like Christmas without Santa. It's a must.

When we were kids, the bowl made an appearance when other Italian relatives were visiting. To make Tiramisu mid-week was a statement to the other branches of the family that we were doing well. Even if we had to eat basic meals for two weeks afterwards it didn't matter, as long as the family thought we had money!

The antipasti would appear, followed by large salads containing salmon. This show was always finished off by Tiramisu! I wasn't bothered about the rest of the meal, I just waited for dessert. The recipe below is not the family recipe, as I would not tell anyone how to make that other than my son, or maybe his daughter when she gets older. All Italian families of my generation had their own slightly different recipe.

This recipe is for a quick, cheap version of this dish, There other variations of this recipe but this is the one that I make.

1 Egg - separate the white in one bowl and the yolk in another.

2 tbl spoons of Caster sugar. Put this in with the egg white and whisk until stiff but not dry.

2tbl spoons of Greek Yogurt.

8oz Mascapone Cheese. Put cheese and yogurt in with the egg yolk and beat until smooth. Then fold in the egg white mixture.

2 tbl spoons of black coffee (wet, not coffee powder) and a good glug of brandy mixed together in a bowl.

8 sponge fingers

Put part of the mixture in the bottom of a serving bowl, then dip the sponge fingers in the coffee mixture and put them on top of the cheese mixture, then cover with the rest of the cheese mixture. Pour whatever is left of the coffee mixture over the top. Then grate your choice of chocolate over the top.

Cover and leave in the fridge for twenty four hours before serving.

Buon Appitito!

Soft Noodles

Good food is usually the cheapest of foods. The problem is that these items have, over the years, been renamed and repackaged by clever chefs and then sold to an unsuspecting public at inflated prices.

This blog is about cheap food, and food from China doesn't come much cheaper. I have always liked noodle dishes, probably because I was brought up eating spaghetti. We all know the myth that Marco Polo (whose name always reminds me of a hairdressers for some reason) brought pasta to the Italians from China. Well, it may have arrived in Italy from the east but it had nothing to do with old Marco.

One of my granddaughter's favourite dishes is 'Soft Noodles'. If let to her own devices, she would happily live off this dish. This recepe was given to me by an old Chinese lady back in the 'seventies who was a friend of a family that I was staying with at the time.

A single portion of fine egg noodles

1 teaspoon of dark soy sauce

3 teaspoons of light soy sauce

Half a small onion, finely sliced

1 clove of crushed garlic.

Teaspoon of ground nut oil

Fill a small pan with hot water, bring to the boil, and put in the dried egg noodles. Boil for 2- 3 minutes, then take them out and drain.

Heat a wok and put in the oil; when the oil starts to smoke, add onions and garlic. Cook for a minute or so, taking care not to burn the onion, then add the noodles.

Put in both the dark and light soy sauces and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring all the time.

That's it! So simple, but so tasty and cheap. You can add veg or meat if you wish to make a more substantial meal. Use any cooked left overs you have to add to the dish - anything works well with these noodles.

Buon Appito!

Finnan Haddie!

The above title is a new one for me. This smoked haddock from Scotland had always been known as "Finney Haddock" to me. This was no doubt down to Nonna and her interpretation of English words. There are lots of dishes that Nonna gave us the English words for which turned out to be incorrect. But there could, I suppose, always be a chance that it is known as Finney Haddock here in Yorkshire.

She called sweets "spice", tarts were "torte" and tomatoes were either the Italian "Pomodoro" or "Tomat", "Tomatie" - anything but the correct word.

This dish, to Nonna, was always called "Pesce con Pomodoro" - Then she called it "Finney Haddock" to English people.

I love fish when they are swimming in the sea or in a river. I love their diversity and how graceful they are. I'm not keen on them when they are on a dinner plate, though! So I very rarely eat this meal, but my wife loves it!

1 piece of smoked haddock (not the sort with the horrible food colouring on)

Half a green pepper (Pimento) seeded and thinly sliced.

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

Juice of half a lemon.

Two teaspoons of sugar.

Half a clove of garlic, crushed.

Two fresh Basil leaves.

Put a splash of virgin olive oil into a heavy-based frying pan.

Add garlic and pepper, and sauté  them for two or three minutes.

Add tin of tomatoes juice of half a lemon and sugar, then stir.

Cook on low heat for two more minutes, then add the haddock.

Coat the haddock in the sauce then add a few drops of water to thin the sauce out a little. Cover with a plate or lid and cook on a low heat for 15 to 20 minutes.

Rip the basil into pieces and put it in the pan.

When the fish is falling apart, turn out on to a plate and serve. This can be eaten with polenta or new potatoes and green beans. But, as with most of our meals when I was young, we just ate it with our hands and warm bread. 

Buon Appetito! 

Gnocchi

This week I visited a grammar school in Halifax West Yorkshire. There I met a lovely teacher who was so warm and welcoming, and really connected with her students.

Later, while talking to her in the staff room, I discovered that she was not only Italian, but came from a village not far from where Nonna was born.

This lady, unlike Nonna, had lost her accent but not her identity of where she came from. The reason she came to Britain was the reason lots of people migrate, poverty.

We both spoke about how simple real Italian food is, and how it's the love and the people who make it special.

To prove this, try the recipe below for gnocchi: you can't get anything more simple, and tasty.

Make mash from boiled potatoes that are soft but firm.

Take about 250g of mashed potato and add 9oz of plain flour and one egg and mix together.

Knead the mixture and then roll into a ball.

Cut the the ball into four and roll out each portion into long thin sausages. Then cut into small cubes.

Drop the gnocchi into a pan of boiling water and cook until the gnocchi rises to the top (about 3mins).

Sauce.

Gently heat two oz of butter in a pan and add chopped fresh sage to your taste. Let it cook on a low heat for about five minutes then pour over the gnocchi.

Buon Appetito!