Qualche volta mi ricordo che prima di essere un appassionato di cucina (molto dilettante) sono un fotografo. Sono quei momenti quando ho in mente una foto che voglio fare e, cascasse il mondo, ci devo riuscire. La foto di oggi è proprio una di quelle. Avevo questi bellissimi fichi "fioroni", cioè i primi fichi che giungono a maturazione, e volevo proprio fotografarli in un ambiente rustico e con un certo tipo di luce. Purtroppo erano già le sette di sera e il mio studio è tutto tranne che rustico, quindi dovevo portare a termine la "commissione" che mi ero assegnato con quello che avevo a disposizione: qualche "prop" (cioè "oggetto di scena"), le mie luci artificiali e una buona dose di immaginazione. Il risultato non sarà proprio uguale a quello che avrei potuto fare se avessi avuto a disposizione un cottage nella campagna inglese ma a mio parere è abbastanza credibile, che ne dite? Potrete leggere la parte culinaria nei prossimi giorni...
Sometimes I remember that, before being a cooking fan (a very amateur one), I am a photographer. Those moments happen when I have clear in my mind a photo I want to shoot, and no matter what, I must succeed. The picture of today is one of those: I bought these beautiful "fioroni" figs, ie the first figs that come to maturity, and wanted to photograph them in a rustic setting and a with certain kind of light. Unfortunately it was already 7 PM and my studio is anything but rustic, so I had to complete my auto assigned "commission" with what I had available: some props, my artificial lights and a good dose of imagination. The result will not be precisely equal to what I could do if I had at disposal a cottage in the English countryside but in my opinion is quite credible, what's your opinion about it? You could read the cooking part in the next days...
E per concludere la "settimana delle ciliege" tiriamo fuori lo champagne per festeggiare con un tocco di classe.
Ingredienti per un drink: 75 ml. cherry brandy, 75 ml. champagne, mezza fetta d'arancio (opzionale).
Preparazione: versate lo cherry ghiacciato in un flute freddo. Riempitelo fino in cima di champagne, anch'esso freddo, e mescolate gentilmente. Se volete guarnite il bicchiere con mezza fetta d'arancio.
To conclude the "cherries week" let's take out some champagne to celebrate with a touch of class.
Ingredients for 1 serving: 2 and 1/2 oz. cherry brandy, 2 and 1/2 oz. champagne, half orange slice (optional).
Preparation: pour the chilled cherry brandy in a chilled flute. Top with champagne, chilled too, and stir gently. If you like you can garnish the flute with half orange slice.
Ingredienti per circa 12 mou: 200 gr. di zucchero di canna, 200 ml. di panna da cucina, 25 gr. di burro, 1 cucchiaio e mezzo di miele, alcune gocce di estratto di vaniglia, sale.
Today we all return children, even though in reality I have never ceased to be one because when I find some of these milky sweets of good quality I pillage them without restraints and concerns about diet. I cannot resist! At this point I thought "but why not try to cook them?" and I tried to find the recipe from my various cookbooks and over the network. I found many, with a lot of differences between them, the following is what gave me the best results and that has the taste that I remember from my childhood.
Ingredients for approximately 12 toffees: 1 and 1/3 cups of cane sugar, 4/5 cup of single cream, 2 tbsp of butter, 1 and 1/2 tbsp of honey, some drops of vanilla extract, salt.
Preparation: put in a pan with a thick bottom the cream and butter with a few drops of vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Cook it until the liquid has begun to warm and then add sugar and continue to cook on low heat for about 20 minutes while stirring the mixture with a wooden spoon, until it reaches a soft and creamy texture and does not slide down from the spoon. If you want harder toffees just increase the cooking time. Pour the mixture into a baking tin greased with butter, or in a container for ice cubes made of metal, and let it cool for two hours in the refrigerator. When it will be soft but substantial cut the toffess to a squared shape with a knife greased with some butter.
Borlengo: il Re della Montagna - Borlengo: the King of the Mountain
Pochi cibi sono così tradizionali e collegati al proprio territorio come il borlengo. Questo semplice impasto di acqua e farina, la "colla", condito con un po' di lardo e parmigiano, la "cunza", è infatti tipico di solo pochi paesi dell'Appenino fra Bologna e Modena, nonostante le sue origini si perdano nel medioevo: risale infatti al 1266 il primo documento che attesta l'esistenza di questo piatto.
Ingredienti per circa 20 borlenghi: 500 gr. farina tipo 0, 2 litri d'acqua, 1 uovo, mezzo cucchiaio di sale, 150 gr. di lardo, 2 spicchi d'aglio, 1 rametto di rosmarino, 250 gr. di parmigiano reggiano grattuggiato, 1 pezzo di cotica di maiale.
Few foods are so traditional and linked to their own territory as the borlenghi. This simple mixture of water and flour, the "colla" (glue), seasoned with a little of lard and Parmesan cheese, the "cunza" (untranslatable), is typical of only a few towns in the Appenini mountains between Bologna and Modena, despite its origins are lose in the Middle Ages: the first document attesting the existence of this dish dates back to 1266.
Ingredients for approximately 20 servings: 3 and 3/5 cups of all purpose flour, 8 and 1/2 cups of water, 1 egg, half tablespoon of salt, 5 and 3/10 ozs. of lard, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 rosemary sprig, 9 ozs. of gounded Parmesan cheese, one piece of raw pork rind.
Preparation: mince together the lard, garlic and rosemary, warming it up a little in order to mix things up properly. Prepare then the dough for the "colla" by breaking the egg in half the water, slowly adding the flour with a sieve, stirring so to not form lumps. Then add the remaining water and salt while continuing to stir. Take a low, wide pan (the traditional "sole" on which "borlenghi" are cooked are about 40-50 cm wide, choose accordingly), grease its surfece with pork rind and put it over the heat. When it is hot pour a ladle of dough enough to cover it all, but shaking the pan so to make it very thin. Cook both sides until they will detach without efforts from the pan. Then take the "borlengo", season it in the middle with the "cunza" made with lard and sprinkle it generously with Parmesan cheese. Fold it in four as it were a handkerchief and serve hot.
Tacchino in Agrodolce con Ciliege - Sweet and Sour Turkey with Cherries
Continuo la settimana delle ciliege ma però stavolta con un secondo di carne che sfrutta la capacità di questo frutto di accompagnare magnificamente le ricette in agrodolce.
Ingredienti per circa 4 persone: 4 fette di fesa o petto di tacchino, 200 gr. di ciliege snocciolate, 30 gr. di burro, 4 cucchiai di marmellata di ciliege, 3 cucchiai di aceto balsamico, 1 cucchiaino di timo, 3 scalogni, sale, pepe.
I'm continuing the cherries week but this time with a meat recipe that take advantages of the ability of these fruits to go magnificently well with sweet and sour recipes.
Ingredients for approximately 4 persons: 4 turkey steaks (rump or breast), 7 oz. unpitted cherries, 2 tablespoons of butter, 4 tablespoons of cherry jam, 3 tablespoons of aromatic vinegar, one teaspoon of thyme, 3 shallots, salt, pepper.
Preparation: sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper and brown it with the butter in a pan for about two minutes for side. Take it away and keep it at warm. In a saucepan put the juice produced by the meat and the vinegar and then brown into the shallots, finely chopped, and the thyme, adding some water enough so not to burn them. When the sauce will be a bit reduced add the jam and the cherries and cook until it will be enough curdled. Add salt and pepper and put into the meat and let season it for a few minutes on a very low heat.
Piccoli Clafoutis alle Ciliege - Small Cherry Clafoutis
Anche se ieri non ho postato nessuna ricetta non mi sono dimenticato degli impegni presi. Semplicemente domenica, invece di stare a cucinare e fotografare, sono andato su per l'appenino modenese, a Zocca e dintorni, per recuperare la materia prima: dei magnifici duroni di montagna. Per chi già conosce quelli di Vignola sappia che sono ancora meglio e poi i posti sono magnifici, la cucina anche e ci sono delle ricette che vengono fatte solo da quelle parti: infatti ho una sorpresa in serbo per un prossimo post. Ma torniamo alla ricetta di oggi che si basa sul dolce francese della zona del Limousin chiamato clafoutis (sembra dal dialettale "clafir", cioè guarnire, riempire). E' un dolce preparato con diversi tipi di frutta fresca, a seconda della stagione, ma la sua origine sembra proprio legata alla ciliegia e quindi...
Ingredienti per circa 4 persone: 400 gr. di ciliege, 60 gr. farina, 130 ml. di latte, 2 uova, 80 gr. di zucchero, 1 cucchiaio e mezzo di cherry brandy, mezza stecca di vaniglia, cannella in polvere, sale.
Although yesterday I did not post any recipe I didn't forgot my promise. Sundays, instead of cooking and taking pictures, I went to the Appenino Mountains near Modena, Zocca and surroundings, to recover some raw material: magnificent mountain cherries. For those who already know the ones from Vignola, these others are better still and then also the places there are beautiful, the food marvelous and there are also recipes made only in those zones, so I have some surprises in store for a future post. But back to today's recipe: it is based on a cake from the French region of Limousin called clafoutis (it should derive from the dialect "clafir" ie to dress, to fill). It's a cake prepared with different types of fresh fruit, depending on the season, but its origin appears to be related to the wild cherries and then ...
Ingredients for about 4 servings: 9/10 oz. of cherries, 2/5 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of milk, 2 eggs, 2/5 cup of sugar, 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of cherry brandy, half vanilla pod, ground cinnamon, salt.
Preparation: butter four molds of about 4/5 cup of capacity and place at their bottom the cherries without stems but with the pits. Whisk in a bowl the eggs together with 5 and 1/2 tbsp. of sugar until they'll double in volume, add the flour and, continuing to whisk, the warm milk, in whose you have previously cooked half vanilla pod, cherry brandy and a pinch of salt. Pour the mixture over the cherries and bake for 15 minutes at 350 F. When on top of the cakes a small crust will be formed, remove the molds from the oven, sprinkle them with the remaining sugar and the cinnamon and put them back in the oven for another half hour until the clafoutis will look soft and golden and sugar will be caramelized. Serve them still warm.
Ingredienti per un drink: 75 ml. Gin, 20 ml. Vermouth Dry, 3 gocce di angostura, 10 ml. Cherry Brandy, 1 ciliegia maraschino.
Preparazione: mettete nello shaker gli ingredienti assieme a un cubetto di ghiaccio e agitate per bene. Versate in un bicchiere da cocktail guarnito, anche se in realtà è essenziale per il gusto, con una ciliegia maraschino.
As Sunday post here it is another "traditional" recipe, always based on cherries as I promised for this week, but I'm not talking about food but about drinks: the Cherry Martini. This cocktail is one of the infinite variations on the classic Martini theme and I found more than ten different recipes to prepare it. The following one is the more balanced in my opinion because it keeps the taste of Martini adding just the flavor of cherries.
Ingredients for 1 serving: 2 1/2 oz. Gin, 3/5 oz. Dry Vermouth, 3/10 oz. Cherry Brandy, 3 dashes of Angostura Bitters, 1 maraschino cherry.
Preparation: pour all the ingredients together with an ice cube in the shaker. Shake energetically and strain over a Martini glass garnished, but it's essential to the taste, with a red stemmed maraschino cherry.
Ingredienti per circa 4 persone: 500 gr. di ciliege, 500 ml. di panna acida, 1 bacello di vaniglia, 8 gr. (3 fogli) di colla di pesce, 175 gr. di zucchero, vino rosso, un pezzo di cannella, una striscia di scorza d'arancio.
To force you to forgive me for the partial absence of the last few days (why work always concentrates all at the same time?) I propose today another recipe for a dessert using seasonal fruit: cherries. These bright red fruits are a real treat for the eyes as well as for the palate, not to mention that I have just to move from Bologna to Modena and every 100 meters there is a shack where farmers sell them. It's impossible to resist, and in fact I can not resist! Get ready then for a cherries week... but here's to you the first taste!
Ingredients for about 4 servings: 1.1 lb. cherries, 2 and 1/10 cups of crème fraîche, 1 vanilla pod, 3 envelopes of gelatine, 9/10 cup of sugar, 1 glass of red wine, 1 cinnamon quill, a small stripe of orange zest.
Preparation: we start preparing the pudding. Soften the gelatine in cold water for about ten minutes, while you put the crème fraîche together with the vanilla pod and 1/2 cup of sugar to cook at moderate heat until sugar will completely melt. Remove from heat, add the gelatine, after squeezing it well, and pour it all inside some molds that you'll put to rest in refrigerator for several hours. Now the cherries. Pour in a pan a glass of water, a glass of red wine, 2/5 cup of sugar, the cinnamon stick and the orange peel. Put the pan on fire at moderate heat until sugar will melt. Pour into the cherries then and let them cook at very low heat for about an hour. Drain the cherries and, if necessary, stir the liquid on the fire until it becomes syrup. Pour the cherries and their syrup still warm over the puddings, which have to be still cold from the fridge.
Fra la frutta estiva ce ne è una che mi attrae sempre con quel bellissimo colore viola intenso: la prugna. E allora potevo resistere a questa ricetta che ho trovato su Gourmet Traveller? Dopo avere litigato col forno nuovo al secondo tentativo ecco qua questi deliziosi pasticcini fatti dentro delle formine da circa 160 ml. (meglio abbondare con le dimensioni, crescono molto in forno!), buoni sia a colazione che a merenda. E poi sono dietetici, c'è la frutta no? ;)
Ingredienti per circa 12 pasticcini: 350 gr, ricotta di capra, 225 gr. zucchero, 100 gr. farina tipo 0, 90 gr. burro, 100 gr. nocciole, 50 ml. latte, 3 uova, 6 prugne, un cucchiaino di lievito in polvere, la scorza di mezzo arancio.
Preparazione: sbattete 160 gr. di zucchero, 80 gr. di burro e il latte fino a creare una crema omogenea. Aggiungete quindi due uova, una alla volta, sbattendo bene nel mentre. Mescolate dentro la farina setacciandola per bene, quindi aggiungete 80 gr, di nocciole tritate finemente e il lievito. Riempite con l'impasto le formine fino a metà . A questo punto mischiate la ricotta con 40 gr. di zucchero e un rosso d'uovo e versate il tutto in cima alle formine, cospargetele quindi con le restanti nocciole, triturate grossolanamente, e zucchero e in cima per ciascuna metà prugna tagliata finemente a fette. Fate cuocere per circa 20-30 minuti in un forno preriscaldato a 180 gradi e lasciatele raffreddare per circa 5 minuti nelle formine prima di toglierle.
P.S.: vorrei esser bravo come Tartelette a fare i pasticcini... i miei sono bruttissimi da vedere :(
Amidst the summery fruits there is one that really attracts me with its beautiful deep purple color: the plum. Could I resist then to this recipe that I found on Gourmet Traveller? After a short fight with my new oven, at the second try I managed to successfully cook these delicious cakes, made into molds of about 3/4 cup capacity (it's better to abound with the capacity because they grow a lot in the oven), good to be tasted at breakfast or as an afternoon snack. And they are also dietetic, there is fruit inside, isn't it? ;)
Ingredients for about 12 cakes: 1 and 2/5 cup of goat ricotta, 1 cup and 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2/3 cup of plain flour, 3 and 1/5 oz. of butter, 3 and 1/2 oz. hazelnut, 3 and 1/3 tablespoons of milk, 3 eggs, 6 plums, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, finely grated rind of half orange.
Preparation: Beat 4/5 cup of sugar, 2.8 oz. of butter and the milk until you have a homogeneous cream. Add then 2 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one. Stir into the flour, sieving it in the while, then 2.8 oz. of hazelnut finely minced and the baking powder. Spoon the dough into the molds filling them till about half their size. At this point mix ricotta, 1/5 cup of sugar and 1 egg yolk and spoon the mixture on top of the molds, sprinkle them with the remaining hazelnuts, coarsely chopped, and sugar and upon each mold half a plum thinly sliced. Let them cook in an oven, preheated at 350F, for about 20-30 minutes and then let them cool in their molds for about 5 minutes before removing them.
P.S.: I wish to be as good as Tartelette in cooking cakes... mines are awful to see :(
Ingredienti per un drink: 20 ml. Gin, 20 ml. Apricot Brandy, 20 ml. Calvados.
Preparazione: mettete nello shaker gli ingredienti assieme a un cubetto di ghiaccio e agitate per bene. Versate in un bicchiere da coktail che, se volete, potete guarnire con una ciliegia maraschino.
It is told that this cocktail has been invented in Paris during the First World War, but I think that it could be almost as successful in less tragic moments because it is really tasty as well as beautiful with its golden color. Adding to it that it is renowned as one of the best after-dinner cocktail, I think you really have to learn how to prepare it, so you can easily digest the forthcoming recipes of this blog. And then people says that I don't care of my readers... tsk ;)
Ingredients for 1 serving: 3/4 oz. Gin, 3/4 oz. Apricot Brandy, 3/4 oz. Calvados.
Preparation: pour all the ingredients together with an ice cube in the shaker. Shake energetically and strain over a Martini glass. Optionally you can garnish the cocktail with a red stemmed maraschino cherry.
Ingredienti per circa 4 persone: 2 kg. di cipolle dorate (possibilmente le "gialle" di Medicina), 5 cucchiai di passata di pomodoro, 8 cucchiai di olio, sale, acqua, aceto balsamico.
Although most of the visit to my blog happen during the working week, I think that many people like me love to read in the Sunday morning, and sometimes they also try to find some new idea for the forthcoming lunch. I'll try then, starting this week, to present "Sunday recipes", simple but full of tradition and taste, and as the first one a recipe that is what more "bolognese" you can find, even more than tortellini, that were copied by the cuisines of both Modena and Romagna (with its cappelletti), the "friggione". It's a poor and rural dish, a recipe apparently simple that needs care and some little tricks to be successful and that could be used both as a side dish or a starter, served with toasted bread.
Ingredients for approximately 4 persons: 4 2/5 oz. golden onions, 5 tablespoons of Passata (tomato puree), 8 tablespoons of olive oil, salt, water, aromatic vinegar.
Preparation: slice the onions along their longest side and put them in a large pan together with the oil and a little water. Sear the onions at very very very (did I say very?) low heat for at least two hours, adding some water every now and then because they shouldn't overcook. This is a trick that is usually missing from most recipes but in my experience I never found onions watery enough that didn't need some water added, unless you cook them on a cigarette lighter of course! When onions will become of an uniform pinkish color add salt as you like and the tomato puree, raise then the heat so to condense the food. Serve friggione as a side dish or with toasted croutones adding in this case some dashes of aromatic vinegar.
"Il Quadrilatero" a Bologna è la zona del vecchio mercato mercato medievale che si estende nelle stradine a lato di Piazza Maggiore i cui nomi ancora riflettono le arti e mestieri che vi si svolgevano un tempo (via Drapperie, vie Pescherie Vecchie, via degli Orefici, eccetera). Alcune di queste botteghe risalgano addirittura a quell'epoca e se ne possono vedere la raffigurazione in alcune miniature che corredano gli statuti dell'allora Comune di Bologna.
E' il mio luogo di spesa preferito, qui si può trovare di tutto, fresco, di buona qualità e a tutti i prezzi e, come tutti i punti di ritrovo che hanno una tradizione millenaria, anche oggi è il crocevia di chiunque si trovi a Bologna: vecchie signore emiliane e giovani immigrate, turisti in visita e impiegati in pausa pranzo. Chiunque voglia capire cosa è questa città oggi dovrebbe recarsi qui.
"Il Quadrilatero" in Bologna is the zone of the old medieval market that spreads in the little streets beside the central Piazza Maggiore, and whose present names mirror the arts and crafts that were practised here once: via Drapperie (clothes), vie Pescherie Vecchie (old fishmongers' shops), via degli Orefici (jewellers), etc.
Some of the shops date back to those times and their images could be found in illuminations that illustrate the statutes of the ancient Bologna municipality. It's my preferred shopping place, here you can find anything edible, fresh, of good quality and at all the prices and, just like all the places that have a thousand years long tradition, it's still today the crossroad of anyone who is in Bologna: old ladies and young immigrate girls, visiting tourists and clerks enjoying their lunchbreak. Anyone who wants to understand what is this city today should go there.
Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f/2 alu M42 Lens Review
Little brother of legendary Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 75mm f/1.5. Pretty sharp well usable lens for close-up photography even reverse back on other lens.
Vendor name
Type name
Product year
Carl Zeiss Jena
Biotar
1946-1960
Focal min (mm)
Focal max (mm)
Focus min(cm)
58
58
50
Aperture max
Aperture min
Lens size (mm)
2
16
60x40
Elements
Diaphragm ACTION
Weight (g)
6 in 4 groups
pre-set,manual,auto
210
Filter size (mm)
aNGULAR FIELD
Body mount
49
41
M42
I like old lenses as well, this lens looks old with aluminum finish, but image quality is not looks old at all. Not really macro
lens so not expect same result than real one, but good first step to
macro photography and very good performer as reverse back lens on
others. It has two variations with "B Aus Jena" title, Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm title, I saw pre-set version and pre-set version with auto mechanism.All kind of lens great performer on DSLR cameras, so don't worry about that just pickup one , this lens relatively cheap. Biotar 58mm copied by Russians too, their variation called Hellios-44.
