Focaccia Barese

polentaebaccala's avatarPolenta & Baccalá

focaccia_barese2a

New blog post about another of the countless traditional focaccia made in Italy 🙂

This time we are in Puglia, a beautiful southern Italian region. And focaccia barese it’s so good that it’s famous almost through the whole country.

As the name say, it is typical of Bari, which is the capital city of the region. Its particularity is the fact that also potatoes are being used inside the dough.

This is a recipe that in its place of origin can be found through the whole day, it is perfect as an aperitive or for a merenda 🙂 obviously the best season to make it is summer, when the local delicious tomatoes are well ripe.

Traditionally it is made in large round shaped oven pans, and its thickness it’s not more than 1,5 cm but of course each location make it different, so in some villages far from Bari…

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Skillet Eggs with Heirloom Tomatoes and Late Harvest Peppers

surreyfarms.net's avatarSurreyfarms. A serene haven in the foothills of Northern California

At this time of year there are so many varieties of peppers and heirloom tomatoes available at the grocery stores and farmer’s markets that it’s hard to resist the temptation to go nuts buying way too many for us to consume.  In lovely shades of greens, reds and oranges these flavorful peppers and tomatoes can turn any dish into a scrumptious dish.

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Butter Sautéed Tomato and Onions on Toast

surreyfarms.net's avatarSurreyfarms. A serene haven in the foothills of Northern California

I was nostalgic recently to have this tomato and onion dish my Mom and my Aunty Jaya used to make when I was much younger and growing up in India. Us kids would have this saucy tomato dish with buttered bread and it tasted like heaven to us back then. When we were living in India in the late 70s bread wasn’t widely available where we lived, and when we could buy some it was more of a luxury than a norm, which meant that when we ate bread it was a treat. One of the ways we had bread was with this tomato and onion sautéd in butter.

IMG_1236.jpg Mom & Jaya Aunty in Paris, France in 1970 holding a street performer’s monkeys. Mom and my Dad were stationed in London while Jaya Aunty and Chary Uncle were stationed in Paris for a few years as expats.

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Artichoke Pesto Sandwich

surreyfarms.net's avatarSurreyfarms. A serene haven in the foothills of Northern California

I was assigned to make sandwiches for a picnic I was going on with a few friends and I just couldn’t find my favorite artichoke and jalapeño spread at the grocery store that I usually use for my sandwiches.  Out of a need to make something similar to my favorite spread with the same delicious results I came up with this artichoke pesto sandwich.

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Eggplant & Zucchini

myfoodswings's avatar@myfoodswings

It’s time for a vegetarian curry! I have been getting requests for more vegetarian dishes and this curry is a really tasty and healthy option. Many people aren’t big fans of eggplants but I think they are delicious and so versatile. Back in Kuwait, we have this ‘Falafel Mushakal’ sandwich and you always get this piece of fried eggplant, sometimes 2 if lucky and it’s probably my favorite bite in that iconic sandwich. For this curry, I microwave the baby eggplants for few minutes in the microwave which helps in easier cooking and greater taste. The process is similar to salting the eggplants before cooking to absorb the moisture. They can also be roasted over the fire and then the skin removed which just gives you amazing soft jelly like flesh inside. The zucchini gives you the bit of crunch you need in an otherwise really soft curry and pairs…

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How Make Clemenza Mob War Sauce

Daniel Bellino's avatarCooking Italian

LEARN HOW TO MAKE SUNDAY SAUCE
alla CLEMENZA
ITALIAN GRAVY
CLICK HERE !
1. GET A COPY of SUNDAY SAUCE
WHEN ITALIAN AMERICANS COOK
by DANIEL BELLINO ZWICKE
CLEMENZA’S SUNDAY SAUCE RECIPE
Is In THERE .. IT’S AVAILABLE
on AMAZON.com .. Juts CLICK LINK ABOVE ..
“THAT’S STEP 1 .. FINITO !!!”
2. GO To YOUR LOCAL PORK STORE and or GROCERY STORE
For SAUSAGES, Ground Beef, Veal, Pork, etc., BRACIOLE,
OLIVE OIL, TOMATOES, PASTA, etc..
.
CLICK HERE !
3. ASSEMBLE INGREDIENTS, POTS and EVERYTHING
YOU NEED To MAKE The “SAUCE”
.
4.  SAUTE GARLIC & MINCED ONIONS in OLIVE In 
A LARGE POT.  ADD TOMATOES.
.
5.  BROWN BRACIOLE, THEN ADD To POT With TOMATOES ..
6.  IF USING PORK RIBS or PORK NECK, BROWN COMPLETELY
THEN ADD TO POT With TOMATOES .. If NOT, SKIP THIS STEP.
7.  LET SAUCE With THE MEATS (Except MEATBALLS)
SIMMER At…

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Meatballs with lemon and fennel

mattmangia's avatarMangiaMangia

FullSizeRender

Meatballs are another of those things I came late too (it’s a long list, I was a fussy child).  Their tinned version created a strong and stubborn aversion.  I assumed that they all came with that vaguely gristly sensation and slightly odd (perhaps offaly?) taste.  I also could never get my head around the pairing with spaghetti.  It seemed, indeed was, so impractical.   Guaranteed to make as the maximum amount of mess, use as much cutlery and be in no possible way as romantic as they made out in Lady and the Tramp.

So of course, when I first tried the real thing, made at home, with good meat, herbs and cheese; bound together by breadcrumbs and egg rather than a patented scientific process and browned before being coated in rich velveteen tomato sauce, my prejudices and aversions were overturned.  Not least because, actually…

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Quick & Easy Summer Dinner Ideas – Genius Kitchen

So I guess I could throw in a fish to today’s extravagant show of my ability as a cook. (A little shabby, not too, but sort of frightening, when you think of maybe telling everyone how to like me.)

Besides heated from frozen fish filets, no one has ever eaten anything fish from my kitchen (when and if I ever have one that’s running), than me. So I have few sentiments to relate about it. I like trout, catfish, pike, whitefish, bass, snapper — all of some of the best fish around. For that matter, I haven’t trusted myself alone in the kitchen with anything else than catfish, trout, whitefish and once, a snapper; the pike and bass, never found their way home alone with me from the grocery store.

Choosing your fish is something I can’t even tell you how to do. Look for whatever taste in whole, but otherwise headless fish that you like in the store and try to choose something you think you can work with. How to tell that, I don’t know. Generally, a fish that is fatty and will pop with any cooking pressure, probably isn’t the best; which makes catfish rather ironic doesn’t it? (I have no experience with tilapia, but I have forgotten that filet of sole, especially from frozen stock, preferred to fresh for beginners, works well.)

For this post, I will suggest trout, since it’s the most basic fish you can bake without too much hassle for sophistication. snapper and pike are fatty, whitefish is dry and besides all this, I haven’t a clue how to use wine without instruction in a recipe, especially a white wine fish — though, if you can find some instruction, you might want to add it at any time to this here and use a snapper or bass or whitefish instead of trout.

I prefer plain trout without any wine. (Wine is not too great with trout besides, the trout tends to like to drink alone.)

Once again, prepare a small prep bowl with some seasons — like for instance, salt, pepper, parsley, onion and garlic powders. This is a basic cover for your fish. Some people prefer, actually, to have nothing on their fish — you can do that too.

Add some oleo margarine to the outside of the skin of the trout. First, of course, rinse the trout under ordinary temp sink water, pat it dry with paper towels on a plate, cut off the head with a butcher knife if it still has the head. Leave the tail on to make life simpler, or else, cut it off right at the base so you hear the bones go crunch and some are left tag on at the end to be a bigger problem with eating than just pulling off the tail at the end. You can set your oven to about 375 for this animal and let it cook for about a half hour in this warm temperature. Line a cookie sheet with foil. Don’t let a lot of margarine cover the top or bottom of the skin — this is just to keep it from burning. Then sprinkle your seasonings over the top and bottom of the fish. To get the flavor into the fish and not just on the skin, put a small knife incision under the skin to either side, while you work it side to side on the tin foil, using your hands and a metal fork to help turn it. Under the skin, you can add a little bit of the oleo margarine resin and try to spread on some of your seasons, not a lot so that it doesn’t dry out. (I have a great deal of problems trying to get those few seasons to pass out of the skin and onto the fish and still, I prefer not to remove the skin, which is only taking a sturdy paring knife and pulling it off with one hand while you gently cut.)

When the trout is prepared, put it in the oven of course and let it cook. You will be able to tell when it’s done and if it needs more time: there is a definite difference between raw looking which looks like it belongs back in the package somehow and done, when it looks like it’s on its way to something that’s been baked.

Remove it and let it cool on top of the stove; then take a serving knife or utensil and remove it (you might want to also help with your hands), onto a serving ceramic plate. (Remember that the plates and utensils that you use are those you’re going to get stuck cleaning and some materials wash more easily in animal and even vegetable grease and sugars, than others.)

You can of course, cover the plate and let it cool off in the refrigerator. Few people love baked trout enough to refrigerate it and then re-microwave it in order to suit some daily schedule, but if you have to, I wouldn’t worry — microwave time is short and it only tastes a little more dry, no worries.

I would like to remind everyone, there is nothing in my past which indicates I am a chef or even an accomplished cook and everyone once in a while, I just feel like I have to prove it.

I wish it could be more.

 

Summer Squash Pasta

Quick & Easy Summer Dinner Ideas – Genius Kitchen

Easy Side Dishes for Summer | Food & Wine

So, fish and potato salad, is probably something I wouldn’t put together…if I were going to cook it myself. I rarely find the will to cook at all — but this is lifelong exercise — and so it’s unlikely I ever will put together a full meal from the kitchen and if I do, everything but one thing will be pre-prepared and thaw-able or microwaveable.

For this exercise of fish and potato salad, I prefer to opt in on the potato salad. My usual explanation is rather long, so I will try to execute the short version. Using a 5 pound bag of Idaho Yukon Yellow Large Potatoes, take a handful enough to fill an 8 quart spaghetti boiling pot. Fill the pot up with 2/3 water and let it come to a short, rolling boil. After washing up the potatoes in tepid sink water, drop them into the pot — this may ruin your spaghetti pot, of course, I’m rather savage about my cooking habits, so use a large stock pot you can spare — and let the potatoes boil on a slow rolling boil until you can put a fork through them and not have raw potato anywhere. Don’t worry too much about fork marks, but don’t let the fork marks ruin all your potato meat.

Remove the potatoes from your pot by putting a colander over the sink, maybe with a plate underneath or however you do it and throwing the very hot and steamy, dangerous pot water over into the very large colander. Drop the hot pot in your hand, putting it aside on a free burner to cool. And quickly salvage the sink colander from being invaded by more boiling waters in the sink. Remove the colander onto a prepared space on a counter and let the potatoes cool until you can handle them.

When they are luke warm enough to even touch, begin to peel them. This is an unpleasant task — I have no suggestions, besides being very careful and patient using a regular paring knife and holding the potato down on a plate, turning it around with one hand while peeling with another. Be careful not to burn yourself — it’s a stinking hot, thankless, dangerous job. Don’t let your pets or children near the work.

When your potatoes are peeled, use the pairing knife to cut them up into cubes. (You could try to peel and cube the potatoes first and boil them, of course, that would make some better sense, however, they often fall apart that way. Nevertheless, should your talent find you lucky, do it that way — saves both time and mess! Another option to stove top boiling is a large steamer; but in this case, you still want to exercise caution in removing the potatoes from the steamer and carefully cleaning up the starchy mess when all the appliances and utensils have cooled, removing your potatoes onto a plate when they have become even slightly cool from the steam. Do not put your hands in the steam! It could be a fatal burn…. this is why I do not like to give recipe advice!)

Place the cubes into the bowl where you are going to add your condiment mix. And then make sure to clean up all the mess you just left behind, being careful about your drain, knowing that, often, potato peels and potato chunks are hostile to some drains. Throw out the debris onto paper towels and in the garbage and throw out all the waters remaining if any and put all your boiling tools in your cleaning sink.

Now prepare your condiment mix. I am very bad in suggesting measurements, so I will give you the ingredients first. In another ceramic bowl, because other kinds of bowls will be too sticky to work with, combine ordinary mayonnaise with chopped hard-boiled eggs, chopped white onions, a blinking amount of paprika and (if you prefer garlic, add also, garlic powder and/or also onion powder, if you relish the garlic and onion potato salad flavor, or else, forget those two additions). Don’t add salt. The mild taste of the onion and paprika will be explosively salty. You CAN if you’re daring and like mustard, add a very small amount of yellow mustard into the mayonnaise — it gives the overall mix some more zing.

Now many people like to add celery, red peppers, tomatoes, radishes — all chopped, and also cilantro, dill, oregano, parsley to this very basic dish (maybe not all at once) — I would not prefer to change it from what it is, because I have never had success with adding more or taking out for less, except for removing the chopped onions and definitely mixing paprika, garlic and onion powders and a skosh of yellow mustard. For a very great zing addition, to all this, add some chili powder. You can also top with parsley, but it’s not necessary.

Mix all the condiments together and then when the potato cubes are cooled to room temperature, take a large un-slatted spaghetti serving spoon and begin to gently mix it over and into the ceramic potato bowl, making sure that every potato is coated. Cover the bowl with saran wrap and put it in the fridge for however long it takes to congeal to a regular salad quality, or leave it in until you’re ready to eat it. (It doesn’t do too well warm.)

Grilled Baby Potato Salad

Easy Side Dishes for Summer | Food & Wine

Best Breakfast Recipes With Eggs – Genius Kitchen

I do remember this. The trick, sometimes, to making very edible eggs benedict of any persuasive kind, like this one is persuasively ham, or otherwise, you could pair the eggs with of course, oven baked bacon — is to keep the cook time to the timber, of done. Now, if you use this rule, you will be forced to check the egg turn over time constantly to done. If it is too soft, you will pay attention and if it gets too hard, you will know you left it to cook too long. This is a no fail method: timber, as in tamber — a musical term — meaning the definition of the notes played.

I have no suggestions and no cookbook in me.

But someone asks, how I would make an egg. This I know how to do a little bit. I have shared some of my egg cooking knowledge before on my Facebook page. I particularly like my fluffy scrambled eggs. This is the plain recipe; but it’s a little boring, because everyone has already heard it twice on Facebook.

Using anywhere from two to six eggs and no less, for definition of the calcium — use enough oil to line a 9″ pan — whisk the whole eggs (cracked) in a glass pyrex or anchor, durable bowl — add about as much 2% milk as there are 2 eggs at a time to meet with 2 eggs being 2-4 tablespoons, depending on how week you want the eggs to be and no more than 1/2 cup of 2% milk for 6 eggs. Continue to stir or whisk, whichever is your preference. If you love plain calcium eggs, stir in no seasons or herbs. If you prefer herbs or seasons on your eggs, put some over the top of the bowl and continue to mix. It shouldn’t boil with bubbles, but it will be a little frothy with all this mixing. Some recommendations are the usual, dill, oregano, garlic, paprika, cumin, chili powder, sage and thyme, rosemary and basil, onion powder, parsley. You need to know what your own preferences are. For a most basic kind, that really isn’t the most favorite, I would simply add, garlic and onion powder, parsley and some oregano and a pinch of salt. If you are serving black pepper lovers, add a pinch of that too.

You might want to consider making an extravagant omelet with the basic calcium egg fluff and chopping up fresh vegetables or thawing out your favorite frozen vegetables at this point: anything from peas to sliced zucchini to chopped up bits of carrots. The point about adding vegetables is having them ready to cook the slight amount of time that you need to get the eggs done. Raw vegetables, like potatoes, chopped peppers, chopped asparagus and broccoli and other fresh hard vegetables, are going to taste very indigestibly raw in the time given for the eggs to cook, which, depending on the number, won’t exceed 10 minutes and on the average won’t exceed 5 minutes. So make sure to have your chopped vegetables prepared to the definition of “cooked” or “ready” to the end of cooking no more than another 5-10 minutes with the eggs.

There are also cheeses to consider and don’t forget your favorite cheese flavors if you want them. Or your favorite cooked pork additions. (You might even want to use some well-diced cooked chicken, or turkey, or steak.) Add about 1/2 cup of shredded cheese per 6 eggs, one or two blends, no more, or else crumbled cheese like feta or ricotta, loosely into the top of the eggs in the bowl before you cook. Whip the cheese in so that it doesn’t completely dissolve, but so that it establishes its connection to the egg blend.

Now your ready to cook. Hopefully I haven’t given you so many things to do that your oil isn’t burning your pan!  (Vegetable oil of any kind will do; but remember the greater the taste in the oil, the more you will taste your oil in these eggs, so a mild oil, like plain vegetable oil, is probably best.)

Pour out the bowl into your pan. If you’re working on a very big omelet scramble, then you want to maybe consider a 13″ pan or even a jumbo cooker. Try to choose a non-stick pan. Begin to scramble with your best big metal fork — I use a spaghetti server fork to help me out with a regular spaghetti fork, works well. When you see whiteness stiffen, your almost set. You can also let the eggs set like an omelet for any amount of time and then break up the flat omelet mold of the eggs with your fork after it has come to a good cook point. When your eggs begin to look rather golden, they are beyond the point of fluffy and qualify for “fried”. They are still edible this way and people who like very well-cooked food, will enjoy them golden; however, you want to make sure they are white/yellow and fluffy to have the scramble to be authentic.

Remove the pan from the heat. If you have a large pasta serving porcelain plate of appropriate size, empty out the pan onto the porcelain. Return the pan to an unlit, cool burner to cool, and let the eggs cool a bit.

You can serve these eggs with all sorts of interesting bread and salad and have a good time with getting on to the afternoon burgers or whatever else might be.

Quick Ham and Eggs Benedict

Best Breakfast Recipes With Eggs – Genius Kitchen

75 Top-Rated Recipes Of All Time – Genius Kitchen

I really thought that Bacon in the Oven was going to be something both funny and delicious and so a little wonderfully perplexing, like, Bacon in the Oven … baked adjacent or in the vicinity of pork riblets smothered in Bourbon BBQ sauce, smoked paprika seasons, applewood smoked BBQ Bourbon chicken strips and paprika garlic potato wedges, to serve beside a bib lettuce and tomato, radish salad. But it was not.

It doesn’t really seem a legitimate dish. But the rest of them are legitimate. This is food for thought for me, because people in the past have been so curious, on my behalf, why, for all the food love I do truly exhibit, I have no motivation to be an original creator. I try and try to explain this. But if this is the case, I could write a cookbook now — sorry; and so they hope that someday I will get off my lazy trip, as they claim, and write a cookbook, however it would seem to be — so I could write a cookbook now, about the inspiring work of peeling potatoes and boiling eggs.

I doubt of its success being true; it couldn’t really be and actually, I have tried to explain that there is no cookbook for me to write. When I begin with broth, it begins, “instant bouillion and water,” and I can’t get any further the writer’s block is stigmatizing. Besides that, I just find it a waste of time and embarrassing to write things like, “add prepared sauces from the store to your favorite frozen foods once they have thawed and cook, to your own personal tastes,” and call it the section on meat, fish and shellfish.

But now, I’m starting to wonder if I might actually HAVE an original idea!

Bacon in the Oven

75 Top-Rated Recipes Of All Time – Genius Kitchen

Worldwide Favorites: Featuring Our International Menu | McDonald’s

I do think this is a neat feature they are going to run — to find a foreign McDonald’s favorite in a nearby McDonald’s. I haven’t looked yet, but I’m hoping that Giallo Zafferano’s Fried Chicken Burger (is it? forget exactly it’s name) is available and also maybe, doubt highly doubtful, Lamb Burger or even Lamb Gyros (probably no longer) from Athens!

Tomato Mozzarella Grilled Chicken Sandwich from Canada

Worldwide Favorites: Featuring Our International Menu | McDonald’s

Chocolate Lover’s Pizza Recipe | Taste of Home

I found chocolate, before it found me! How’s that?

Well, I know what most people will think — shortage on Dove dark chocolate. I’m thinking, this is just Taste of Home’s suggestion. For which purpose, I have added another article on the bottom, showing that, other chocolate companies have dark chocolate candy that you can probably use just as well.

 

Chocolate Lover’s Pizza Recipe | Taste of Home

This is just to prove other dark chocolate candy besides Dove. There are still others. I would guess ANY bona fide stated commercial OTC dark chocolate candy would suit this recipe for chocolate pizza.

11 Best Dark Chocolate Candy Bars