Creative Concotion # 2: Polpettine di Calamari

My friend Ivy of Kopiaste to Greek Hospitality is actually one of the few blogging friends I had the pleasure to meet, when she and her husband came to Rome for a visit last year.

She is a fantastic cook and a very energetic one too, you can see her last creature here.

When I saw her last cooking group idea she got me a little worried because it's a question of NOT following a precise recipe but to create a version of a given one if not a brand new recipe; being very unsecure I always worry to make something wrong but what the heck ... I tried !

Our children love a restaurant near our place called Hosteria Pistoia they make wonderful meals very creatives and more important exquisite ! When we go there Carlo eats everything as if he had never eaten before : it's a real pleasure to see.

One of the things Carlo loves are the polpettine di calamari so I tried to make something similar.

Recipe

500 gr calamari rinsed and cleaned

Stale bread

Parsley

Orange Zest

(this is supposed to be a Lenten recipe so no eggs and cheese but I'm sure you could add some pecorino cheese and a couple of eggs)

Pulse the calamari in your mixer, add some water to the bread and when soft add to the calamari with parsley, orange zest salt and pepper.

Shape in small balls and roll in breadcrumbs before frying or cooking in your oven.

I Heart Cooking Clubs : Salmon with Green Beans Cherry Tomatoes and Olives

This is our first week with Jamie Oliver and I chose a recipe that could work for my diet !

The recipe is very easy : maybe my salmon was too thin so I cooked the vegetables longer.

RECIPE

400 gr green beans
200 gr cherry tomatoes
1 to 2 handfuls black olives, destoned & sliced
2 T olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 handful fresh basil, picked

2 x 200 gram salmon fillet steak
1/2 lemon
12 anchovy fillets

Preheat the oven and a roasting tray at the highest temperature.

Tail the green beans, blanch them until tender (6 minutes) in salted, boiling water, and drain. Put in a bowl with the cherry tomatoes and the destoned olives. Toss in the olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Add the basil.

Give the salmon fillets a quick wash under the tap and pat dry with kitchen paper towels. Squeeze the juice of 1/2 a lemon over the fillets, on both sides, then season both sides with salt and pepper and drizzle a little olive oil over the top.

Take the hot roasting tray from the oven. Put the salmon at 1 end of the roasting tray. Add the green beans mixture next to the salmon in the tray

Lay the anchovies over the green beans! (Don’t forget)

Roast in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Recipes to Rival: Whole fish Baked in a Salt Crust

I'm horribly late but this recipe was wonderful and I had to share it with you !!

The only change I made to the recipe was adding some finely chopped parsley to the salt mixture .

I've used a 650 gr. Bass and as you can see there wasn't any left for photos ....

Whole Fish Baked in a Salt Crust
Seafood alla Siciliana, by Toni Lydecker

Lemon slices
Several sprigs of flat leaf parsley
1 sea bass or other suitable whole fish, about 1.5 pounds, cleaned and scaled
4 cups sea salt or kosher salt
3 egg whites
Extra virgin olive oil
Lemon wedges

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Tuck the lemon slices and parsley sprigs into the cavity of the fish.

Combine the salt, egg whites, and 1/4 cup water in a bowl, mixing well until the salt has the consistency of damp sand. (If the mixture feels too wet, add more salt; if too dry, stir in a bit more water).

Line a large rimmed baking sheet (or any other baking dish) with foil or parchment paper. Using half of the damp salt, form a bed for the fish. Place the fish on top, and pack the remaining salt over it to form a covering.

Bake the fish to an internal temperature of 135 - 140 degrees, about 25 minutes. (You can just poke an instant read thermometer right through the salt, into the fish). Remove from the oven and let stand for 10 minutes.

With the back of a wooden spoon, crack and remove the hard, pale brown crust of salt. Remove the skin and fillet the fish. Serve with your best olive oil and lemon wedges.

Daring Cook's Challenge : Salmon en Croute

The 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Simone of Junglefrog Cooking. Simone chose Salmon en Croute (or alternative recipes for Beef Wellington or Vegetable en Croute) from Good Food Online.

This month's challenge was a very nice recipe even for an evening when you want something more than the usual dinner (I made the crust but skipping that part the rest is quite easy) or could be a nice idea for the holidays.

I didn't try the beef recipe even if I intented to but my day are shorter or I'm getting old or I don't know, so here we are on the 14th again !

Please visit Simone to see her wonders and visit the Daring Cooks blogroll !!

RECIPE

Salmon en croute:
Ingredients
Mascarpone or creamcheese 5.2 ounces/150 gr
Watercress, rocket (arugula) and spinach - 0.6 cup/4.2 ounces/120 gr
Shortcrust pastry - 17.6 ounces, 500 gr. Use a butterversion such as Jus-rol which is frozen or dorset pastry. or... make your own!
Salmon fillet (skinless)- 17.6 ounce/500 gr
egg - 1 medium sized

Directions:
1.Heat the oven to 200°C/390 F. Put the mascarpone or cream cheese in a food processor with the watercress, spinach and rocket and whizz the lot until you have a creamy green puree. Season well.
2. Roll the pastry out so you can wrap the salmon in it completely (approx. 2-3 mm thick) and lay it on a buttered or oiled baking sheet (it will hang over the edges). Put the salmon in the middle. If it has a thinner tail end, tuck it under. Spoon half of the watercress mixture onto the salmon. Now fold the pastry over into a neat parcel (the join will be at the top, so trim the edge neatly), making sure you don’t have any thick lumps of pastry as these won’t cook through properly. Trim off any excess as you need to. Make 3 neat cuts in the pastry to allow steam to escape and make some decorations with the off-cuts to disguise the join if you like. Brush with the egg glaze.
3. Bake for 30 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and browned. To test wether the salmon is cooked, push a sharp knife through one of the cuts into the flesh, wait for 3 seconds then test it against the inside of your wrist; if it is hot, the salmon is cooked. Serve with the rest of the watercress puree as a sauce.

Shortcrust pastry
While this is not mandatory to do, I highly recommend making your own shortcrust pastry as it is very simple to do! As mentioned in the notes; please make sure to not add too much water as that is the key to having a successful shortcrust pastry. Watch this video to check the correct consistency of the dough Making shortcrust pastry

Ingredients:
450 gr (15.8 ounces or 3.2 cups ) of plain all purpose flour
200 gr ( 7 ounce) cold butter
pinch of salt

Sift the flour into a large bowl, add the butter and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. If you have a food processor you can use that as shown in the above video.
Stir in the salt, then add 2-3 tbsp of water and mix to a firm dough. Knead the dough briefly and gently on a floured surface. Wrap in cling film and chill while preparing the filling.

For best results make sure the butter is very cold.

Instructions for Beef Wellington (serves 4)
Button mushrooms - 17.6 ounces/500gr (stalks removed and finely chopped)
Olive oil - 2-3 tbsp
thyme - 1 sprig
Beef fillet, center cut piece - 21.16 ounce/600 gr
English mustard - 1 tbsp
puff pastry (all butter pastry pack) - 17.6 ounce/500 gr
parma ham (prosciutto) - 3 slices
egg yolk - 1 pcs, beaten

For the herb crepes:
plain (all purpose) flour - 0.3 cup/1.76 ounce/50 gr
milk - 0.5 cup/125 ml
mixed herbs - 1 tbsp (chopped, use herbs such as cervil, chives and tarragon
butter - 0.5 tbsp

Instructions:
1. To make the crepes, whizz the flour, egg and milk with a pinch of salt in a blender or processor until smooth. Pour into a jug and stir in the herbs and some seasoning. Leave to rest.
2. Fry the mushrooms in a little oil until they give up all their moisture and it has evaporated, leaving you with a thick paste. Add the thyme leaves and some seasoning and keep cooking for a few minutes. Cool.
3. Stir the melted butter into the crepe batter, heat a 15 cm crepe pan and oil it lightly. Pour in enough batter to make a thin layer on the base of the pan, cook until the top surface sets and then turn over and cook briefly. Remove and repeat with the rest of the batter. This will make a couple more than you need so choose the thinnest ones for the recipe.
4. Sear the beef all over in a little oil in a very hot pan. Brush with the mustard, season and allow to cool.
5. Lay a large sheet of cling-film on a kitchen surface and put two crepes down on it, overlapping a little. Lay over the parmaham (prosciutto). Spread the mushroom mixture over the ham and put the beef in the centre. Roll the cling-film up, taking the crepe with it, to wrap the beef completely into a nice neat log. Chill for 1 hour.
6. Heat the oven to 200°C/390F. Roll out the pastry, remove the clingfilm and wrap the beef in the pastry like a parcel, with the ends tucked under. Trim to keep it nice and neat. Brush with egg, score with shallow lines across the top and chill for 20 minutes.
7. Cook for 20 minutes. The best way to test if the meat is done to your liking is to neatly and carefully stick a skewer into the beef, count to three and then test it against your inner wrist. If it is cold, the beef will be raw, if it is warm then the beef will be rare and if it’s hot, it’ll be cooked through. Leave to rest for 20 minutes before carving.

Some video tutorials to watch:
Rolling out pastry
Making shortcrust pastry
Making salmon en croute

Daring Cook's Challenge : Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes

This new Challenge was chosen by Olga from Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes, she has chosen a delicious Spanish recipe, Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes by José Andrés, one of the most important Spanish Chefs at the moment.

The making of this dish was in three steps: Sofregit, Aioli and the actual Rice.

I used little musky octopuses (moscardini) instead of cuttlefish and left them whole.

I really enjoied the Sofregit and the Aioli but I thought that the rice was a bit mild in flavour, it actually became much better with some Aioli.

TFF Tyler's Ultimate Fish Tacos

Each month on Tyler Florence Fridays Megan choses a special recipe and this month was this wonderful tacos.
I didn't use Mahi Mahi (I don't think I even knew it existed !) but plain cod's filets and I couldn't find the adobo sauce anywhere but , still, these tacos were really great ! The children loved them too so what could have been better ?
Tyler Florence is teaching me a lot on how to fry fish. I had never tried Panko but they are wonderful, much better than the usual 'crumbs' !!!!
Please check the blog tomorrow to see the round up !

TFF Fish and Chips with Home made Tartare Sauce

This week we tried fish with Tyler and , as always, we weren't disappointed !!
The recipe was Fish and Chips with Homemade Tartare Sauce .
It is easy to make, the batter for the fried fish is really fantastic, I'll keep it for the future and I'll try it for vegetables too.
Please visit Tyler Florence Fridays for more wonderful recipes.