Aroma Cucina

Pomeranian

One last post for the New Year... I was worried that last post was a little somber....
Here is a pretty cocktail for the New Year and you get to use up that pomegranate that you have hanging around in the fruit bowl

Pomeranian
2 oz. Hendricks gin
.5 oz St Germaine
.5 oz lime juice
.5 oz grenadine

Shake. Shake again. Garnish with a lime peel.
* Don't buy or use that icky, nasty grenadine syrup in the stores. It's a cousin to cough syrup. Grenadine syrup is 1 part pomegranate juice to 1/2 part simple syrup. You can crush the pomegranate seeds in a sieve with a wooden spoon, or gently crush them in a food mill.

*Mitch, this drink isn't for you....because you are the Anti-Saint Germaine!

Happy New Year!

Buon'Anno! Happy New Year!

And the sun sets on 2008.
It certainly had it's highs and lows. Difficult times may be ahead, but I am blessed to have family and friends to share the truly important stuff.
Enjoy your holiday celebrations and I look forward to all the adventures that will come our way in the New Year. 

Prosecco by any other name?

Prosecco is to Italy what Champagne is to France; namely it is the signature bubbly wine of each country.  Champagne producers have fought long and hard to protect the name and integrity of their product and now it seems that Italian Prosecco producers must do the same thing. I suppose when Paris Hilton’s image appears on a can of prosecco in a gas station, that does make you stop and think. (Warning: clicking on that link may make you sputter anything you are drinking right onto your computer screen. It's bad taste on so many levels.)

Prosecco is a somewhat generic name in Italy, it can mean any sparkling Italian wine, however that is not the case. Prosecco comes only from the Prosecco grape and from the Valdobbiadene region, near Venice.  So, if you are buying Prosecco, take a closer look at the label; make sure you are getting the real deal.

That being said, there are some outstanding sparkling chardonnay’s being produced in Italy. Lungarotti in Umbria makes a particularly clean, crisp sparkling wine with a delightful, lingering finish. Keep your eye open for these gems, they cost more that your basic Prosecco, but they are worth the money.

Christmas Eve Menu

Amuse Trio: Alici Bianchi Marinata, Patata con caviar, Gamberetti Rossi con salsa di zenzero
                  Marinated White Anchovy, Caviar Stuffed Potato, Red Shrimp with Ginger sauce
 
Antipasto: Melanzanie Arrosto con Salsa Verde e Salsa Rosso
                Roasted Eggplant with a green (basil, parsley, caper, raisin) sauce and a red sauce (tomato chili)

Primi:  Agnolotti di Plin in Brodo
          Small ravioli filled with parmigiano, walnuts, orange peel and nutmeg in a walnut broth

Secondi e contorni:  Pork roasted with fennel and herbs and finished with pomegranate
                              Maiale Arrosto con finocchio e melo grano
     
                              Patate Arrosto     Roast Potato
                              Rape di Sedano   Pureed Celery Root
                              Zucchini Arrosto   Roasted Zucchini
                              Fagiolini              Flat beans

                              Insalata Verde      Green Salad

Dolce:                    Grappa Parfait


Thank you Curtis for taking the photos!

Revelation #1: I think in Italian when I create a menu. It’s not intentional; it just seems more natural. I think that’s funny for an American girl.
Revelation #2: Let those potato skins get good and crispy before you add the potato, caviar mix
Revelation #3: The walnut soup is a variation on a traditional Sephardic Passover soup and it shouldn’t only be made at Passover.
Revelation #4: Roasting meat and finishing with pomegranate is divine. The tartness of the fruit cuts the richness of the meat.
Revelation #5: Fennel pollen is under rated.

Merry and a Happy

I’m a little late with Merry Christmas wishes, but we’re stilling lighting Hanukah  candles, feeling the effects of the winter solstice, and I wish I knew more about Kwanzaa because we’d celebrate that as well. I’ve been spending far more time in front of the stove than in front of the computer and that sounds about right for the  season.  
If filling our house with friends, family, food, laughter and music is how you judge a good holiday get together, then we had a most successful Christmas event.  If you judge it by the time it takes to clean up, then woo-hoo we had fun!  The prep crew started arriving on Tuesday for our big Christmas Eve dinner on Wednesday, and almost everyone was still here late on Thursday night.  By then we had consumed everything in the house except for two lovely heads of radicchio that had managed to hide themselves and one frozen octopus that had had so many adventures getting to our house that it needed it to rest a bit before we get around to cooking it.  
I am a blessed and happy woman to have such good friends and family to share a holiday with. To everyone who came and shared our table, we love you and thank you for being with us.  To everyone who couldn’t make it, we missed you and toasted you.  To you, dear readers, Merry and Happy and all good things to come in the New Year. Now, back away from the computer and go play with friends and family. ‘Tis the season!

Food Declaration.org

This petition came into my inbox via a Culinate newsletter, along with a message urging me to add my name because what could I possibly disagree with.

The declaration boldly states (really, it’s written in boldface), “Behind us stands a half-century of industrial food production, underwritten by cheap fossil fuels, abundant land and water resources, and a drive to maximize the global harvest of cheap calories.”

How can you turn you nose up at that half-century of industrial food production? It put food on all of our plates, it essentially eliminated hunger in my generation, and it saved lives for crying out loud.  It released women from the kitchen and made cooking from scratch a choice not a necessity.

The declaration goes on to list twelve goals, and about the only thing it doesn’t declare is world peace although it’s probably buried in there somewhere. I worry that these sort of platitudes will actually cause more harm than good. To declare that everyone should have access to reasonably priced, healthy, nutritious food that isn’t produced using any fossil fuels strikes me as naïve to the point of dunderheadedness.   It’s a conundrum of epic proportions to think that small, local farms are ever going to be able to feed masses of humanity.  And are they expecting everyone to jump on their bicycles and ride out to the farm where Grammy will hand them their eggs, freshly churned butter and ration of potatoes?

We seem to be galloping along directly into an Orwellian nanny state and it scares the living piss out of me.  We all march along thinking eating organic and local will solve the world’s problems but mostly those are just marketing slogans that make us feel better.  I declare we take a closer look at industrial food production and not throw the baby out with the bath water.

Home for the holidays: Potatoes au gratin

So, are you finding yourself deep in the pot cabinet or the back of the pantry looking for that big roasting dish? Tis the season for digging out the big pots and feeding lots of people.

This is a potato recipe that works well for holiday buffets. Besides, who can resist potatoes and cheese?

Potatoes au Gratin
4 lb of russet potatoes
1 small sweet potato
1 small onion thinly slices
1 ½ cups milk
4 oz grated parmigiana
4 oz thinly sliced Swiss cheese
4 oz thinly sliced cheddar cheese
4 oz thinly sliced Gruyere

Salt, pepper, nutmeg, olive oil

Peel and thinly slice the russet potatoes. Drop the slices into a bowl of cold water. When all the potatoes are sliced, drain the water and rinse the slices in cold water again, repeat one more time. You are doing this to remove some of the excess starch from the potatoes, which means they will stay crisper and not melt together into a big shapeless pile of potato mush.

Peel and thinly slice the sweet potato.

The cheeses listed above are not set in stone, if you have a favorite, go for it, but choose well-mannered cheeses that play nicely with the other cheeses.  For example, blue cheese and cottage cheese would be terrible together! Don’t even think about cottage cheese, or anything that comes pre-sliced. Promise me, ok?

Preheat oven to 350F.

Use a nice roasting dish that holds all the potatoes and that can go directly to the table; a glass or ceramic dish would work very nicely.

Drizzle a little olive oil on the bottom of the dish and then start to layer the ingredients. Make a thick layer of white potatoes on the bottom, that way if anything sticks you’ll have a good solid base layer. Add a little bit of salt to one or two of the layers. Go easy on the salt, as the cheeses will also add a salty element.  About mid-way through, add the layer of sweet potatoes. They add some color and sweetness; I like to layer them near the onions.  Keep the grated parmigiana for the top layer, but before you add the parmigiana, pour the milk over the potatoes. Don’t worry if the liquid doesn’t come all the way up to the top layer of potatoes. As the potatoes bake and soften they will start to collapse down and into the milk. Do not overfill the baking pan or you will be cursing me from now till kingdom come because that pan is going to overflow and make a mess in your oven.  Add another little drizzle of olive oil on the last layers of potatoes, and then add the parmigiana and a few scrapes of nutmeg. Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, when the top should be nice and brown and the potatoes soft.

This recipe is enough for about 10 servings.

A question about the milk: classic recipes call for scalded milk, or milk that has been brought to the boiling point. I remember being told, I think by my Mom, that scalding would prevent the milk from boiling up and spilling over. I just did a little google research and based on my own experience, there doesn’t seem to be any scientific reason for boiling already pasteurized milk. Any other thoughts on scalding milk?

Architecture in the city

Here's a little treat, cityscapes built in a kitchen.
Cool, huh? I don't read Spanish so I have no idea what's being said, but the pictures say it all.

Let them eat parmigiano!

Even if Marie Antoinette never did say, “Let them eat cake!” as a cure for the hunger of the impoverished, the Italian Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia has declared, “Let them eat Parmigiano!”

As a way to bolster sagging Parmigiano Reggiano and Grano Padano sales and to help feed the hungry, the Italian government has committed to buying up 3% of the annual production at market prices.  Full story here, or maybe not the full story, but enough to make your brain reel at the machinations of the Italian government. I guess they have 'cheese barrel' issues instead of pork barrel; those wacky Italian lobbyists! 

Ben Franklin's Drunken Way with Words

I came across a curious bit of info yesterday when I was doing some research on distilling whiskey. Ben Franklin wrote “The Drinkers Dictionary” listing very creative examples of the way people describe the state of drunkenness. 

Here’s a sampling:
He’s casting up his accounts
Boozy
Drunk as a Wheel-Barrow (???)
He sees the bears
Cock Eyed
Been to France
His Flag is Out
Got on his little hat
Oiled
Smelt of an onion
Stiff, stewed, soaked, soft
Tipsey, thawed, trammeled
He’s very weary

Some words haven’t changed at all; some expressions need to be revived. Click here for the full listing and you can find your own personal favorites.   Scroll down to The Drinker’s Dictionary.