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One-Pot Wonders

Three Birds Biryani is one among 250 recipes in my new book ONE-POT WONDERS coming out in February.  In Indian cooking, biryanis are grand and festive rice dishes cooked in layers in a casserole and highly seasoned with spices, especially saffron.

[photo: Clifford A. Wright]

Timballo di Lasagne

One of the most magnificent of Italian dishes must surely be the timballi or pasticci that served as the famous centerpiece in the movie BIG NIGHT with Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalloub.  I tested my timballo di lasagne alla ferrarese and it was declared the best thing ever made by my son, a phrase he uses anytime he's over for dinner.  It is a centuries old preparation famous in Ferrara where they make it for Carnevale.  It's homemade egg and green lasagne layered with meat ragu and porcini mushrooms and a layer of Bechamel sauce made with Parmigiano-Raggiano cheese and truffles baked in a short dough crust that is sweet with orange zest.

Weekend of Cooking

A weekend of cooking for me is a weekend of recipe testing from the provincial cuisines of Italy.  And feeding the kids and their friends is ideal. Here's what I'll be testing: larduocchi, a casserole cooked pork belly pieces with garlic, olive oil, and peppers in vinegar from Molise, penne alla lenticchie, from Umbria is a dish of lentils cooked with carrot, onion, and celery seasoned with tomato puree, garlic, chile, and parsley, pollo alla marengo, and old dish people have heard of but never eaten, supposedly created after Napoleon's Battle of Marengo in Piedmont.  It is chicken with mushrooms, tomatoes, wine, and crayfish.  Gnocchi all'Ossolana are potato-pumpkin-chestnut flour gnocchi with a mushroom and cream sauce.  Gallina col riso is a Sicilian dish of boned whole chicken stuffed with rice, tomatoes, eggs, and mozzarella.  And more...maybe I'm doing too much.

Socca and Farinata

[Photo: Jennifer Pickens on Flickr]

Socca (in Provence) and farinata (in Genoa) are the same thing, a chickpea crepe batter cooked in a very hot pan like a pizza.  It's served as a snack and is true stret food in both Nice and Genoa. 
In Provence, socca and cade (another name) go back at least to 1860.  Cade de Toulon, probably the more ancient of the two, was made from corn flour and the socca de Nice that evolved from it is made from chickpea flour.  There is a version in Marseilles made with a mixture of flours which they call tourta tota cada, meaning “hot tarts.”  It was mentioned in 1879 by Frédéric Mistral as gâteau de farine de maïs qu’on vend par tranches à Marseille (corn flour cake sold by the slice in Marseilles).  Socca was a favorite morning meal for workers who bought them from itinerant socca sellers who cooked them from wagons fitted with charcoal ovens while they cried cada, cada, cada or socca, socca, socca caouda.   The traditional socca is made on a copper tin called a plaque a round cooking surface about 2 feet in diameter that sits in a very hot wood fired oven.  It cooks until the top is golden in about 5 minutes.  The batter should be thinner than crêpe batter, almost like milk.

Chicken and Zucchini

There is a very simple, and quickly made, dish from the region of Emilia-Romagna in Italy that is nothing but strips of chicken breast and zucchini cooked in balsamic vinegar the name of which indicates it all, Straccetti di Pollo al Balsamico.  A chopped garlic clove is heated in olive oil, then in goes the chicken breast until it turns color in 2 minutes, then the four julienned zucchini, some wine, and finally the balsamic vinegar.  From start to finish takes about 7 minutes.

Sicily: Architecture and Cuisine

My first cookbook was titled Cucina Paradiso: The Heavenly Food of Sicily, a cookbook about the Sicilian folkloric cuisine known as cucina arabo-sicula (Arab-Sicilian cuisine).  This was not a cuisine that existed during the Arab presence in Sicily (827 – about 1230), but was a contemporary Sicilian cuisine believed to be dishes composed by what Sicilians took to be Arab influence.  A professor friend many years ago said when I mentioned I was writing such a cookbook: “that sound more like a dissertation topic than a cookbook.”
The idea for the book came to me years before that, when I was in Palermo and became enchanted by the architecture of some of the older palazzi and churches that I later learned could be described as examples of Arab-Norman architecture.  This led to an even greater fascination since I had never heard of any architecture described that way.  I remember though the church that set me on this road.  It was the Chiesa di San Cataldo in Palermo.  The Normans flourished in Sicily from 1060 to 1194 and the pre-existing Arab population flourished with them under relatively tolerant rule. 
The church was built around 1160 by admiral Majone di Bari.  The three red bulbous domes, the arches, and various cubic forms were typical of Islamic architecture while the combination of Arab and Norman builders, architects, and workmen is seen not only in the façade but in design aspects such as the simple forms derived from Norman military experience.
It was only a small leap from this church to some fabulous food.
[Photo: Clifford A. Wright]

Pizza and its Cousins

One of my favorite dishes are all the variety of pizze and pizza-like preparations from every region in Italy. Crostata is one, a pizza made with pasta frolla, that is, short dough. This particular one,  crostata con cipolle, is topped with a luscious mixture of caramelized onions and anchovies and a bit of cream and is from Emilia-Romagna.

Where's the Veal?

I lament the disappearance of veal which is increasingly hard to find.  When I was growing up veal scaloppine was always on the menu and a veal scaloppine hero was a wonderful treat.  One ordered veal piccata or veal marsala in one's favorite restaurant.  Today, it's difficult to find veal.  I often hear the complaint that people "don't eat veal."  It's a wonderful meat though: tender, light, flavorful and versatile.

Grilled Duck

Grilling duck, while delicious, is not a casual matter.  One must consider what happens to all that fat that will drip out and most importantly that it does not drip onto the coals which will simply ignite it and incinerate your duck.  So there's two steps which will assure a good grilled duck.  It might be easier to split the duck in half lengthwise then place it cut side down in a deep casserole and bake it at 375 degree F in your oven until you have at least 3/4 cup of fat.  Build the charcoal fire in your grill's firebox to one side and place an aluminum drip pan on the other side.  Take the roasting duck from the oven and place the duck over the drip pan in the grill, use the cover, and grill until the duck has a deep smoky mahogany color.

Beccute, a Biscotto from Marche

Biscotto is singular and it is, basically, an Italian cookie or biscuit (same meaning: twice cooked).  Decided to test today the beccute from the Marches popular in Ancona.  It's very easy to make: mix flour, sugar, almonds, walnuts, pine nuts, dried figs, raisins, and water, form little rolls and bake.  That's it.  Very nice.

Potatoes in Barcelona

Patatas brava is a classic Catalan potato dish but these days it’s transformed into a very popular tapa in Barcelona bars.  Restaurant chefs get into the act too and all sort of interpretive variations occur.  The one I had at the Florian restaurant in Barcelona at Bertrand i Serra 20 in the early 1990s was demonstrated by the chef and owner Rosa Grau and her sous-chef Enrique Martin, who encased the potatoes in allioli.  This recipe is adapted from the inspiration of Chef Sergi Arola of the Arola restaurant in the Hotel Arts in Barcelona.  The brava sauce is the tomato sauce.  In more careless versions of patatas brava the brava sauce is made 

with ketchup and mayonnaise.  

For the potatoes

4 white rose or Yukon gold potatoes (about 20 ounces in all, each about 3 inches in diameter at the widest part)

4 to 6 cups olive oil for frying

For the brava sauce

5 ripe tomatoes (about 1 pound), cut in half, seeds squeezed out, and grated against the largest holes of a standing grater down to the peel

1 large garlic clove, finely chopped

1 small dried red chile

Freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons sugar

½ teaspoon salt and more if desired

For the allioli

4 large garlic cloves

½ teaspoon salt and more to taste

1 large egg

1 cup sunflower seed oil

For the garnish

Finely chopped fresh parsley for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 260 degrees F.

2. Peel the potatoes and cut in half lengthwise.  Trim each half into a cylinder about 1 ½ inches in diameter using a paring knife and peeler.  Slice the cylinders in halves.  You’ll have four 1 ½-inch segments per potato.  Hollow out the middle of each segment using a small melon baller, corer, or a paring knife and demitasse spoon.  Try not to break through the bottom.  Place the potato segments on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, in a skillet, simmer the tomatoes with the garlic and chile over low heat until all the water has evaporated, about 1 hour.  Transfer to a food processor and blend with the sugar and salt.  This is the brava sauce.  Clean the food processor.

4. Prepare the allioli in a mortar by mashing the garlic with ½ teaspoon salt until mushy.  Transfer to the food processor and blend with the egg for 30 seconds, then add the sunflower seed oil in a very slow stream until emulsified with the egg.  Correct the salt and refrigerate, covered, until needed.   You’ll have more allioli than you will need for this recipe. 

5. Preheat the frying oil to 360 degrees F in a deep-fryer or an 8-inch saucepan fitted with a basket insert.

6. Remove the potatoes from the oven then deep-fry the potatoes until golden, about 4 minutes.  Remove and cool for at least 30 minutes, but keep the frying oil hot.  Re-fry the potatoes for 2 to 3 minutes.  Remove and arrange on a serving platter and season with salt.  Once they are warm and not hot, spoon the brava sauce into the hollow and then cover with a spoonful of allioli.  Garnish with a sprinkle of parsley and serve.

Makes 8 tapas servings (2 per person)

[photo: Clifford A. Wright]