Cena indiana - ovvero terza cena italiano/spagnola

Our last Spanish-Italian dinner had an Indian theme at it was hosted at Luisa's and Jorge's house. There was a lot of food, and I have a sample of everything on my plate:
From the top: spicy shrimp, samosas, aromatic rice, rice with lentils, fish kofta, naan bread and pakora (in the center).
The shrimp and the rice with lentils were made by Luisa, the samosas by Crissy, the pakora by Mariana, and the aromatic rice, the fish and the bread by me. The food was very good. There were also desserts.. I can give real Indian names and recipes of the dishes that I made below. Btw, I took all the recipes from this wonderful cook book that my Aunt Carla gave me some time ago. It's called 'Cooking glass Indian', from the 'Women's weekly cookbooks', and it's really nice. Any recipe I tried from that book turned out wonderful! Grazie mille, zia :)

Fish kofta
Boil some water, add salt and throw pieces of white fish fillets in it (1 1/3 lb=700 g), until cooked. Strain fish and reserve 2 cups of broth. Blend fish with 1 onion (cut into pieces), 2 spicy peppers (red in the recipe, I used green ones), and 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves (I used ginger instead). Shape the mixture into elongated cilinders:
Heat 1/2 tbsp butter (ghee in the original recipe) in a non-sticking pan, and grill the fish kofta until browned on each side.
Heat 1/2 tbsp butter (ghee) in a pan, add one minced onion, 2 cloves of garlic, minced, 2 tsps ground coriander, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp ground turmeric, 2 sticks of cinnamon and sautee for a few minutes. Add 3 tomatoes (I used a big can of diced tomatoes), cook until tomatoes are soft, add the fish liquid, and simmer uncovered until sauce thickens. Add fish kofta gently and let them adsorb the liquid for about 5 min. Serve sprinkling with fresh coriander leaves.
It's really really good. It's a bit laborious to prepare, though, I must say: it's hard to grill the kofta without breaking them.

Parsee rice
This is the aromatic rice I made. It's extremely easy to make and the taste is wonderful, really indian. So, to make it, heat 1 tbsp butter (ghee) in a pan, stir in 2 small onions (minced), 3 cloves of garlic (crushed), 3 tsp cumin seeds, 2 tsps black mustard seeds, 4 cardamom pods, 2 bay leaves (I didn't have these so I didn't add them), 1/2 cup (75 g) shelled pistachios. Cook for about 5 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups (300 g) basmati rice, previously washed and drained. Stir for a few minutes and add 2 3/4 cups (680 ml) chicken stock. Simmer covered for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, fluff with fork and stand for 10 minutes covered before serving.

Naan
Naan is one of the best Indian bread. It's originally from the north of India, and it's cooked in a Tandoor oven. In its absence, a grill or a heavy-base pan on a very hot stove can do.
Add 1 tsp dry yeast and 1 tsp sugar to 2/3 cup of warm water. Mix and let stand for 10 min in a warm place. Mix 2 cups (300 g) plain flour and 1 tsp salt in a bowl. Add yeast mixture, 2 tbsps melted butter (ghee), 2 tbsp yogurt. Mix until you have a soft dough. In my case I thought I needed some more flour, so be aware of this. Kneed on a floured surface for at least 5 minutes, until the dough is elastic. Let stand in warm place, in a lightly greased container for 1 1/2 hour or at least dough doubled its volume (1 hour for me). Then, knead dough for another 5 minutes and divide into 6 balls. Flatten with a rolling pin until you obtain round 20 cm (~8 inch) Naan.
The best way to cook this would be to have a small grill that you can place directly on your stoves, so it gets really hot. I looked for it but couldn't find it. So, I lightly buttered a non-sticking pan and placed it on High heat on the stove. Once the pan is very hot, place one round disk, grill for about 2 min each side or until puffed and browned. Sprinkle with onion seed (I didn't do this) and grill for further 30 sec.Rebutter the pan in between each Naan. Keep Naan warm before serving it. It's really delicious (and Crissy just told me that Naan bought at the grocery store costs $9 for 2 disks!!!!).

As I mentioned earlier, we also had desserts! (Yes, we had a lot of food :) )
Luisa made this delicious Mango mousse:
And I made a semolina pudding.

Rava Kesari
Combine 1/2 cup sugar (1 cup in the original recipe! But to our taste, this sweetness was perfect), 1 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup milk, 1 tsp ground cardamom in a pan and heat stirring until sugar is dissolved. Heat 4 tbsps butter in a pan and add 1 cup (160 g) semolina. Stir for about 1 min until all semolina is covered with butter. Add water mixture and cook stirring until the mixture thickens and detaches from the borders of the pan. Add 2 tbsps raisins and 2 tbsps slivered almonds. Spread mixture in pre-greased rectangular 19 cm x 29 cm pan, and add whole almonds on top, dividing the dough into diamond shapes. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. After this time, the dessert should be firm enough to be cut and divided. Mine wasn't :( - the taste was still good, but it was more like a real pudding. I think I didn't evaporate enough of the water/milk mixture.

During the dinner, we spoke a lot of English!! Shame on us :) - but actually after the dinner Luisa and I spent a long time speaking in Spanish about pretty serious issues. :)
I forgot to take pictures of ourselves at this dinner! I'll do better next time.

Nuova 'feature' di 'An Italian in the US'

I had been thinking about adding the 'read more' feature to my blog, but it took me a while, also because Ramani from Hackosphere said that it was complicated, so I was a bit scared. Still, it seems to work wonderfully! Now only a short start of the post will show on the main page of the blog. If you think it's interesting, you can click on 'read more'...

And have the rest of the post appear! I modified my last posts so that this feature works for them. If you want to apply the same feature to your blog, go here.
Please let me know if you like it in my blog! I think it's nice, because people will have a general view of many posts, instead of having to scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Visita dei genitori di Lucas

Last Sunday, Lucas's parents and sister came to visit us, as a late happy birthday to Lucas. So we had the pleasure to have them at our place for lunch.
I made a mixed Japanese-Italian lunch. I wanted them to try the Sushi, since I was almost sure they would never try it in a restaurant by themselves. :) I was very pleased by the fact that they liked it! Except for the fact that I remembered late that Lucas's mom is allergic to crab.. but anyway, most of the sushi I made was gone :) I also prepared the pesto-shrimp pasta that I already wrote about in a previous post, since I knew they liked both shrimp and pesto.. and in the end, a really good cake that I will show here.

Torta di papaya e cocco (Papaya-coconut cake)
This cake was inspired by the cake described by Fiordizucca here (NB it's in Italian). I modified the type of exotic fruit to use (instead of maracuja, papaya), and I modified a bit the doses of the rest of the ingredients, so here is my final version:
90 g grated dry coconut (~ 3/4 cup)
150 g sugar (3/4 cup)
75 g flour (2/3 cup)
4 eggs
300 ml milk (1 and 1/4 cup)
125 g butter (1 stick)
500 g papaya (1 pound)
1/2 lime juice
2 cubes baker's chocolate (70 gr) and a bit of milk to melt it + 2 tbsps sugar.
Mix the flour and the sugar and the coconut, then add slightly beaten eggs, melted butter, blended papaya, milk, lime juice. This is what I did, although I believe that even with these doses it was still too liquid. Next time I make it I will reduce the amount of milk. Pour the mixture in a baking pan and cook at 400F for one hour and 15 minutes, more or less (apparently in the original recipe it was said 45 minutes, but it was really too liquid..). To decorate and add a twist to the taste, I prepared a chocolate sauce with just melted chocolate and milk and sugar, and added on top, and served right away. It was very good. The taste of the coconut, the lime and the chocolate were very nice together, and it was moist and soft. The papaya gave a really nice color to the cake.

After lunch, we brought Lucas's parents to Raleigh farmers' market, to buy a large amount of apples that Lucas's mom wants to use to make some sauce (I believe). It was a very nice day (if we don't consider my boss's phone call at home on a Sunday afternoon!!!). I was so happy that all of them could come, and I really enjoyed their company. I'm looking forward to seeing them again.

Cena giapponese - ovvero seconda cena italiano/spagnola

I've been again struggling with work issues and did not have time to write about all the nice things that I took part to during these last few weeks.
So, starting from the oldest event, here is the second Italian/Spanish learning dinner!
This time, we decided that the theme would have been Japanese cuisine, according to what Mariana suggested, and also inspired by the fact that Trino bought some Sake that we didn't drink yet :)
Lucas and I prepared some salmon-cream cheese and some crab meat-veggies sushi. I like this picture of myself at work making Wasabi sauce :)


And here is our sushi:
Are you curious to know how we made it? It's actually really easy. You have to buy the Nori (the black algae that rolls up the sushi) and it's better if you also buy a bambu-mattress that helps the rolling operation. Then you have to prepare sushi rice: wash the rice until the water runs clear, then leave the rice soaking in water for half an hour. Add rice and water in the rice cooker, or in the steamer, or in a pot. The proportion depends on how you're cooking it. I used a steamer and used the usual proportion that I use for any other type of rice. When it's cooked, add a few drops of rice vinegar to it and stir through.
Cut the veggies that you want to use (e.g: carrots, cucumbers, avocados) in thin stripes. Cut the fish meat in stripes.
For the assembly: place a Seran wrap foil on the sushi rolling mattress, then place the nori on it with the shiny side up. Moist your finger tips with rice vinegar. Spread a thin layer of rice on top of the nori, leaving about 1/2 inch uncovered on one of the horizontal ends. Put some pieces of the veggies on top of the other end of the nori, in one long stripe across, in the horizontal direction, together with some of the fish (and of cream cheese if you like). Then, roll tightly the nori on itself helping yourself with the mattress. Stick the end of the nori that wasn't covered with rice to the rest of the nori, to seal.
Once you make a few rolls, cut them altogether in 6/8 pieces each. Serve with Soy sauce and wasabi sauce and ginger.
Maybe next time I make it I'll take pictures of the various phases of the assembly, so it's easier to understand.

Mariana is an expert Japanese cook. She prepared these wonderful dishes:
Tamago - the rice is put on top of a sort of 'omelette', which is a bit sweet, and is folded many times. It's really delicious.
She did not remember the name of this :) It was a sort of sushi sandwich, with cream cheese and some veggies inside :)

Luisa made this wonderful tempura. It was amazing.
And Jorge prepared this really wonderful salmon Teriaki! On a bed of Bok-choi, which was delicious:
I was really surprised about how good this Japanese food was, even though prepared by Mexicans and Italians!
And I feel like I'm really improving my Spanish, now I can almost understand full speed and I'm learning a lot of words. I'm really really happy. And this is just a last picture as a memory of the dinner.. unfortunately Mariana and Jorge are not in the picture, but I'll try to catch them at the next dinner!
From left to right: Ross, me, Lucas, Luisa and Trino. Ross recently came back from Italy to go to work in Duke! and she was very happy to be again at Trino's and Mariana's. :)

Cena de tapas - ovvero prima cena italo-messicana

Mariana and I started to teach Spanish and Italian to each other a few weeks ago. We met a few times, and I'm actually learning a lot! Soy muy contenta!
Recently, our meetings have been open to more people: together with us, there have been Lucas and Trino, also Luisa and Jorge, Crissy and Ross. Also, we started from just informal coffees together and now we organized some real Italo-Spanish speaking dinners.
The first dinner was at our place, and I suggested that everyone brought a tapas and we would all share food and language :)
It's been a great idea. We really spoke about half of the dinner in Spanish and half in English, and only a few words were in Italian. But Mariana and Luisa have started to learn Italian only recently, so we need to go a bit slow, although, they seem to be doing great. It was a bit confusing for Lucas and Crissy, from time to time, because it was hard for them to distinguish sometime if we were speaking Italian or Spanish. Poor them! Anyway, for their sake (and also in order to talk faster about some 'involving' issues), we ended up speaking for the second half of the night in English, as I said.
You will find below some pictures and recipes.

Blue tortilla chips con salsa y rollos de tortilla
This was brought by Crissy. The tortilla rolls were filled with cream cheese, and peppers. They were very good!
Per gli Italiani: forse penserete che le tortilla chips blu siano colorate artificialmente.. ebbene, vi sbagliate! Io non ci credevo, ma esiste davvero un tipo di mais che ha i chicchi blu!! Guardate qui e questo se non mi credete:

Tortilla de papas
This was made by Luisa and it's a typical Mexican/Spanish dish, similar to an Italian frittata but thicker. It's usually filled with potatoes (like in this case), but it can be filled with anything.

Bocadillos
These wonderful bocadillos with avocado, cheese and ajillo (garlic sauce), or olives, were brought by Mariana and Trino.

Fagottini al formaggio con miele e noci
I made these 'fagottini'. They were made with a piece of fillo dough, and filled with pieces of cheese (cacio di Roma) and a little tiny piece of butter. I tied them with cilantro. I cooked them for about 5 minutes in the oven and then sprinkled honey on them, and nuts around them. Honey and cheese is a typical italian combination. The idea for this appetizer was given to me by Fiordizucca. They are really delicious and easy and fun to make.
I also prepared some shrimps with honey and sesame, but I already posted both the picture and the recipe of this in the past.

Pan de aceitunas
This was also brought by Luisa. It was really particular and delicious. It was a sweet-savory bread with olives, it had the same consistency of a cake, and some sugar was in it, which contrasted wonderfully with the saltiness of olives. She said it's a traditional Mexican bread.
Luisa also brought some absolutely delicious pork with prunes, but my pictures of that did not come out well.

Torta di banane, noccioline e cioccolato con crema di uva ConcordThe recipe for this cake that I prepared as dessert was inspired to me by Fiordizucca again. Still, I modified it quite a bit. If you want to make it, you need to mix together 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1 tsp yeast, 1/2 tsp cinnamom powder, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1 cup ground peanuts, 2 eggs, 1/2 to 1 cup sugar to taste, 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa. Then, blend 2 bananas with 1 cup milk and add 1/2 cup vegetable oil to it, and 1 tbsp vanilla extract. Add this mixture to the rest and cook for ~45 minutes at 350 F.
My sauce was prepared with Concord grapes, which are in season and locally grown. To make it, I blended ~ 2 cups grapes with ~ 1 1/2 cups yogurt and ~ 1/2 cup sugar. You should check the taste and the consistency while you make it.
Serve the cake warm, with the cream cold on a side (unfortunately I found out it was better to serve the cake warm only the day after the dinner, when I took the cake out of the fridge and heated it up for me and Lucas to eat). The warm cake was like eating one of those chocolates that have nuts and good spices in them, and the cream that went with it was really good. So I was happy of it.

And this is just one of the happy moments/cultural exchanges of the dinner: Lucas reciting the 'bumble bee' song :)

Due tipi di carne cotti con il vino

And now some meat recipes. They have in common the fact that I cooked them with wine.
The first one will be chicken and the second one pork.

Pollo ubriaco (Drunk chicken)


These chicken drums were bought in the farmer's market, so I was sure they would be good. I removed the skin, then sauteed them together with small pieces of garlic in olive oil, until they were starting to get brown on the outside. Then I added salt, ~1 cup red wine (it was a good wine, but we had the bottle open too long so it wasn't as good to drink, but that's when it's perfect to cook) and some of the rosemary that I grow on our balcony. The house was smelling so good, with the wine/rosemary smell diffusing everywhere. Let cook covered, until the wine is almost all consumed (about 40 min). Lift the lid, taste and adjust the salt, and add a bit of cornstarch to thicken the sauce. The chicken becomes all purple! And it's so tender, juicy and tasty :).
I served this chicken with some mashed potatoes (everyone knows how to make them, right? I add a very small amount of butter to it, and then milk and pepper). I love it. :)

Arrosto di maiale al vino bianco e spezie (Pork roast with white wine and spices)
I bought already two other pork pieces from my friend at the Farmer's market (the goat cheese guy). His pork is just delicious. He has only humongous pieces, but it's ok, I make a roast and then freeze part of it so I have to cook only once and we can eat 4-6 meals over the course of two-three weeks, and we don't get bored of it.
First, I remove most of the fat that's on the outside of the meat (this was the shoulder but it was as fatty as the butt that I bought last time). I don't like too much fat but a little bit is ok. Then, I heat a little bit of olive oil and garlic pieces, add the meat, and with high heat I roll it in the pan until it's browned on all sides. Only after that I add the salt: if you add it before, it makes the meat juices come out and it's not good. So, I add some coarse salt on the meat. Then, in this case, I added 1 cup of white wine (again, some good white wine that had been open for too long) and lowered the heat. Then I added a lot of different spices: my goal was to spice up the meat surface and the wine. So I added some spices directly on the meat and some in the wine that was in the pan. I added a few cloves, thyme, a bit of mint, and oregano. Then I covered the pan and let cook for more than one hour, turning it from time to time to cook it evenly.
The result was amazingly good. I am happy to be learning how to make good roasts. I didn't like to cook big pieces of meat until I tried this meat from the farmer's market :). I always serve it with some veggies. In this case I made some zucchini sauteed with garlic and oregano, to match the spices.

Pasta di riso - e se avanza...?

I'm going to put some posts about recipes of food that I prepared for Lucas and I in the past two weeks.

Spaghetti di riso piccanti con zucchine, kale e noci - giorno n.1 (Spicy rice noodles with zucchini, kale and walnuts- day 1)
Saute half a big Vidalia onion in olive oil. Add 4-5 zucchini and yellow squash mixture, sliced. Sautee a little. Add 1/2 lb to 1 lb kale leaves, cut, depends on how much you like them. Add salt to taste, garlic powder, spicy red peppers cut in small pieces. Let cook, covered, for 15 minutes, mixing and tasting from time to time. Add 1/2 cup yogurt and 1/2 cup walnuts in pieces. Keep cooking uncovered for ~5-10 minutes until the yogurt dissolves and the veggies are almost done. Add 1/2 pound rice noodles. You should be using a large pan so that the noodles are not too stacked. Add hot water to cover the noodles, cook with open lid for about 5 minutes until rice noodles are done and all the water is evaporated. If you put too much water turn the heat on high to evaporate it fast so you don't overcook the veggies. At the end, add 1 tbsp cornstarch to thicken the sauce and mix quickly until it's all dissolved. If you like, serve it with slices of a cheese that can melt on top of the hot pasta (I used Asiago).

This pasta was really good the first day but not so good when I reheated it - maybe I added too much water to reheat it in the pan, and also I decided to add some lime juice the second day... not a good idea at all.
So, I transformed that leftover pasta into...

Fiore saporito (Tasty flower)
Mix the leftover pasta (about half of the recipe above) with 1 egg, salt, garlic powder, ~ 1/2 cup small pieces of meltable cheese (e.g. Asiago is good, or I guess you could use mozzarella or similar), ~2-3 tbsps bread or tortilla crumbs (I had the tortilla crumbs, which are good because they add some nice corn taste) - you need to add enough crumbs to get the pasta mixture of a consistency that reminds you of that of meatballs before you cook them. Shape into flat ovals. Roll these shapes in more bread/tortilla crumbs (I tried not to do this on half on my pastaballs, but they were not as good as the others. In the picture you can see them, they are the darkest ones). Fry in olive oil (don't deep fry! Just roll the pastaballs in a bit of oil on the bottom of the pan). Serve with a salsa made with just thin cut tomatoes, thin cut garlic, oregano and salt. Eat them while they're hot and the cheese inside is all melt and makes these wonderful 'ropes' when you try to lift a piece with your fork :) They are really good! You can serve them as appetizers or entrees depending on how much of them you make.

Festa "a sorpresa" per Lucas

I know, I haven't posted in a long time.. too long! I really had too many things to do -mostly too much work, yesterday I was home at 8 pm!!! I don't like this at all, but it's going to go back to normal soon, hopefully.

Anyway, back to more fun memories.. The first thing I want to talk about is the "surprise" birthday party that I threw for Lucas. Actually, it would have been almost a real surprise, if it wasn't for the fact that Saturday morning, the day of the party, he woke up with a really large and bad-looking rash all over his torso, and it was going up his neck and face... so I decided it would be better to let him know that so many people were coming that evening, just in case he decided that taking Benadril every six hours was not compatible with being at a party.. I had to spoil the best surprise, which was that his brother and his brother's wife, Jason and Kelley, decided to come from Washington!! So, ok, the party was transformed into a 'surprise the guest party', because the guests arrived thinking to find the house empty, and prepare for the surprise, and instead, they saw Lucas there, with his neck all dotty and red :) :)

But, surprise or not, it was a very nice party, a lot of people came, and it was really nice of Jason and Kelley to come all the way down here.
People brought some really good food, and I made some focaccia and two cakes. I really liked the cakes, so I'm going to give the recipes to my affectionate readers. I must say in advance that both cakes were made with a home-made Pan di Spagna (lit: bread of Spain). This is a very fluffy dough that is used for layered cakes in Italy. Usually you buy it in the grocery stores, but recently I succesfully made it a few times.. So, first of all, you need to know how to make Pan di Spagna.

Pan di Spagna

Versione italiana
(ricetta presa dal fantastico sito cooker.net sotto il nome 'fragolosa' e modificata da me)
# 80g fecola
# 80g farina
# 120g zucchero a velo
# 3 uova intere + 2 albumi
# 3 cucchiai d'acqua
# 1 bustina vanillina
# 1 cucchiaino raso di lievito in polvere

Preparazione
Montare a neve gli albumi con l'acqua.
Aggiungere lo zucchero a poco a poco continuando a montare con le fruste.
Unire i tuorli.
Unire lievito, farina e fecola setacciati insieme.
Mescolare bene.
Versare in una tortiera a cerniera imburrata e infarinata.
Cuocere a 160 gradi per 35 minuti.
Lasciar raffreddare e poi dividere in tre dischi.

English version
You need three egg yolks and five egg whites. Beat the egg whites with 3 tbsp water, until they become really hard. Add 1 and 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, while beating. Then add the three yolks. Mix together 1 teaspoon yeast, 2/3 cup flour and 2/3 cup cornstarch. Add to the mixture of eggs and sugar and mix. Cook at 350 F for 35 min. Slice into three disks.

You can put any kind of filling in these layers. I used it to make an ice cream cake, once, which turned out very good, with some chocolate ice cream (home made!!) as one layer and a mixture of ricotta, whipped cream and orange blossom water in the other layer. That was a very good cake too. But here are the two birthday cake recipes.

Torta Malaga nera (Black Malaga cake)
Prepare Pan di Spagna as above. But, instead of 3/4 cups of flour, use only 1/4 or 1/2 and add the same amount of cocoa powder (I used a mixture of sweetened and unsweetened to have a black color but not too bitter). You can choose how much cocoa you want to add depending on how dark you want the bread to be.
For the filling I thought I would make a cream that resembled the Malaga flavor in the ice cream. Basically I made a sort of custard with less eggs. I used two eggs, and approximatively two tbsp flour, about 1 & 1/2 cup of milk, 1/2 cup sugar or as much as you like: mix everything in a pan (add the milk slowly not to make clumps) and heat on the stove, mixing continously expecially when it starts boiling, until it thickens. Then add 3 tbsps rum (or again as much as you like), and 3 tbsps raisin (that you will have preemptively soaked in warm water for ~10-15 minutes). Stir everything in and turn off the stove when it's thick enough. You don't want it to be too thick otherwise it will not moist the bread. If it's too thick add milk, if it's too thin add flour (carefully not to make clumps). Spread this cream generously between the three disks. Then, for the top, make this cream which is called 'ganache' (no clue why): take three cubes of baker's chocolate and add a little bit of milk, put it on the stove and make the chocolate melt. Add 2-3 tbsps sugar or as much as you want to have the sweetness you like. Then, add 1/2 cup heavy cream to it, and beat this mixture until it gets a little bit fluffy. Spread it abundantly on the top.
My white writing was done with one of those decorative creams that you can buy.

Torta bianca al cocco (White coconut cake)

Versione italiana
Sempre da cooker.net, modificata da me (se volete vedere la versione originale, cercate 'cuore di cocco' su cooker.net. C'e' del cioccolato bianco nella copertura che io non ho messo perche' non mi piace).
- per il dolce:
# pan di spagna (vedi sopra)
# 2 cucchiai colmi di cocco essiccato in polvere
# 2 cucchiai di zucchero a velo vanigliato
# 150 -200 gr. di ricotta
# 1 vasetto di yogurt intero al cocco
# 2 fogli di colla di pesce
# poco latte

- per la copertura:
# 100 g yogurt bianco
# 100 g ricotta
# 100 ml. di panna da montare
# 2 cucchiai di cocco essiccato in polvere

Preparazione
Mettete ad ammollare in una vaschetta colma d'acqua i due fogli di colla di pesce e nel frattempo prepariamo la crema.
In una ciotola uniamo lo yogurt, la ricotta, lo zucchero a velo e per ultimo il cocco in polvere; mescoliamo bene con l'aiuto di un frullino elettrico a bassa velocità.
Il composto non monterà naturalmente, (come potrebbe?) ma incorporerà un poco d'aria che regalerà maggiore sofficità.
Non preoccupatevi se a causa dello yogurt la crema vi sembrerà un po' liquida.
Fate scaldare un poco di latte in un pentolino, unitevi i fogli di colla di pesce strizzati e mescolate perché si sciolgano bene.
Quindi uniteli con cura alla crema.
Cominciamo ad assemblare il dolce su un bel piatto di portata.
Con delicatezza trasferiamo, con l'aiuto di due coltelli a lama larga, il disco di pan di spagna sul piatto facendo attenzione a non romperlo (avrete notato che spesso sono un po' attaccati tra loro), versiamo metà della crema con l'aiuto della spatola, quindi secondo disco a cuore, secondo ed ultimo strato di crema.
Adesso riponete il dolce in frigo a rassodare mentre prepariamo la copertura.
Mescolare tutti gli ingredienti (montare la panna in precedenza). Fatto :) Mettere sulla torta. :) Per la scritta decorativa ho usato la crema di cioccolato della ricetta precedente.

English version
Mix 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt with 1 cup ricotta cheese, 2 tbsps powdered sugar and 5 tbsps grated coconut. To thicken the cream I used this italian thing that is similar to gelatine. So substitute it with the mixture that you use to prepare gelatin (take an unflavored one, and uncolored) and add a little bit of it to the cream (no idea of how much exactly because I never used, so try.. :) ). It'll work even without it, since American yogurt is a lot thicker and more 'gelatine-like' than the Italian one. Add this mixture between the layers. For the cover, mix 1 cup yogurt with 1 cup ricotta and 5 tbsps coconut powder. Beat 1/2 cup heavy cream until it gets fluffy and hard and add to the mixture. Spread on top of the cake. For the writing, I used the 'ganache' chocolate cream used for the cake above.

I must say, they were both _really_ good. I loved the cream with rum and raisin in the black cake, and the white cake was delicious, I love coconut and it was refreshing and fluffy..

Un incontro sul lago

One week ago I was walking around Lake Johnson as usual. I was talking in Italian with Lucas, and with Stefan (my adviser, who's learning Italian, and that we met by chance). A person came by and approached us.. He was Italian! It's interesting how coming from the same country suddenly makes you feel close, even though obviously you don't know anything about the other person. This is the reason of the Italian dinners, and of other friendships that I started over here. Anyway, this person had a very professional-looking camera, so I asked him if he had his pictures online somewhere.. and he has them! He's not a professional, but in my opinion his pictures are really wonderful.
So, you can look on his website and see pictures both from Raleigh and the Triangle and from Italy and Europe. So I believe my readers will be interested in giving a look at it..

Oggi e' il complanno di Lucas

Well, try to translate the title of this post - then you'll know why this day is important!
Anyway, Lucas and I went to a really nice restaurant to celebrate: Tasca Brava, in North Raleigh. It's a Tapas Restaurant. Lucas and I love tapas and last time we had good tapas was more than one year ago for my birthday in Chicago. In case you never heard this word, 'tapas' are small dishes - the size of an appetizer, so to say. So, basically, you try as many as you feel like. They can be cold or hot, meat, fish, veggies, and so. They come from Spain, but undoubtely, you could make Tapas from any type of cuisine. Still, if you go to a Tapas restaurant, usually you expect Spanish cuisine.

The owners of this place, husband and wife, are Colombian (although his parents are Spanish), and they know what they are doing! We spoke a lot to the husband (who's also the waiter, whereas she's the chef). He's a really nice guy and loves the food and the wine and the coffee he serves. Btw, about coffee: they roast their own and we had a pretty lively discussion about caffeine and roasting of coffee. :) He's really good at making you want to try his stuff :) - so in the end I decided to try the coffee, even though I was afraid I wouldn't sleep tonight.. but he may be right: I'm already sleepy now and I think I will probably sleep, coffee or not. :)
To speak about the food: we had the soup of the day (with coriander and cheese), then a sort of roll with Chicken and Ham, slightly spicy, then a really interesting croquette dish, coming from Columbia, with peanuts and a spicy sauce, then green beans battered and fried to dip in some interesting sauces, and some wonderful cod served in a pastry with a sauce that reminded me tremendously of 'merluzzo alla livornese' :). Everything was very good and well taken care, also in the presentation.
So, just to make you feel like eating this food, here is a picture of the cod:
In the end, I really liked this place, and both the owners, and I loved to talk to the guy. It's expensive compared to our standards (but I must say, we didn't really pay attention to the prices of what we ordered: so, together with what I already mentioned, we had two glasses of really good wine, and a rum and raisin dessert, plus, obviously, the coffee - total: $68 taxes included). But really, for a nice occasion, it's very much worth it. And the atmosphere and the music is very nice. They have live shows on Saturday, he told us.
Allora, ancora tanti auguri amore!

Bugfest

Every year in Raleigh there is the 'Bugfest' around this time. I never went there before and I thought this may be my last (sigh) occasion to visit it. So, Luisa, Jorge and I went. It was held at the Natural Science Museum and surrounding square and roads. I really really enjoyed it and I recommend anyone (children and adults) to go visit it next year! There were many bugs, alive and not, from all over the world, and very nice and competent people explaining about their habits and life. You could also touch some of them..
and eat some others!!! Yeah, you wouldn't believe, but this is what I actually ATE:


Bean and worm salad, bean and cricket dip, ant-chillada, quiche with larvae and ants in amber... It was quite hard to start, then I decided that it wouldn't kill me if the other people were eating them.. I couldn't really taste the larvae and crickets, but the ants gave a sort of acidic addition to the chicken/cheese dish, and the worms had a very distinguished smokey flavor. The worms were the most difficult to eat - not for the consistency (they weren't soggy or too crunchy) , but just because it was a flavor that I never tasted before, and I didn't feel very well thinking that it came from the worm. :)
For the rest, I found out that the Natural Museum of Science is absolutely wonderful and I would like to go back there soon. They have a wonderful collection of plants, animals, dinosaurs, fossils... This guy is the most complete Acrocanthosaurus ever found:
When we went there, there was also a Seashell exposition, so I will finish this post with some more beautiful pictures than the ones of the bugs :)
You could buy those shells and many others.
Whereas this won the first prize for a seashell artistic composition.

Il decalogo

Lucas and I just finished to watch all the episodes of 'The Decalogue', by the Polish director Krystof Kyewloswki. I was really touched by it, and in particular by a few of the movies.
It was originally a TV series: ten movies as the ten commandments. The movies, according to the director, don't have a direct relationship with the commandments, although they do vaguely follow the order that they are expressed in the Catholic version. Still, most of them actually have many more than one theme. They are all provocative, and poetic at the same time. The theme that binds all of them is that they depict the lives of people who live in different apartments built in a few of those huge buildings omnipresent in the big town suburbs. In one of the movies it's explicitely said that it's amazing how many interesting stories develop in those buildings. So, in the end, it's a series about humans, their feelings, the relation between humans and God, the fundamental questions that we all face, issues that we all could have to deal with, if we were put in some contexts. I don't want to spoil the vision of the movies by writing exactly what they are about here, but if someone wants to know more or has already seen the movies and wants to read about some symbols and so, there are some very interesting descriptions on Wikipedia, both in English and in Italian (the latter much longer than the former). If you want to choose only a few movies to watch in order to decide if you'd like to see the whole series or not, I'd suggest watch 2, 4, 5 and/or 6.

Baby shower

Since I don't think my Italian readers know what a baby shower is, I'm going to explain it for them here.
Un 'baby shower' (lett. doccia del bambino) non ha in realta' niente a che vedere con acqua e lavaggi di bambini :). C'e' un tipo di festa in inglese che si definisce 'shower', e che in realta' si riferisce al fatto che il festeggiato viene coperto da una 'doccia' di regali. Un 'baby shower' e' una festa di questo tipo che viene offerta in onore di una donna che sta per partorire un bambino.. gli invitati portano dei regali per il bambino nascituro. Questo e' cio' che io sapevo prima di andare ad una reale baby shower..
Ok, so, I guess every American knows what a baby shower is. Still, what I had understood of a baby shower was not exactly what I saw. First of all, I didn't know that a baby shower was only for girls. Instead, it is. Also, I didn't know it was a tradition to have games.. and apparently, this is a fundamental part of the party!
Well, anyway, a few weeks ago we had this baby shower that I still didn't speak about for my dear friend Yan Li. She's actually going to give birth any time soon, now. It was a nice party, and she was indeed showered with gifts.
I had some problems during the games.. I really didn't know all the words related to the baby world in English, so.. but I actually managed to guess close enough how big the waste of Yan Li was, making a belt of toelet paper for her... ehm....such is life. :)

Un blog con foto e pensieri interessanti

I recently visited this 'blog of note': strangers among us.
I also do 'people watching' (NB per gli Italiani: non sono una guardona!! In inglese c'e' un termine per tutto.. people watching e' osservare le persone - suona simile a bird watching.. ma c'e' un interesse diverso nell'immaginare le vite delle persone rispetto a quelle degli uccelli, per quanto interessanti anche queste ultime possano essere :) ). I try to capture some pictures of interesting people here and there, but I never did it so systematically. I think it's a nice idea to share on a blog.

Hackosphere

I just found this wonderful blog, which will be very useful to all bloggers. He has really neat options to use if you want to improve your blog features.
I just put the peek-a-boo option for the labels. Try to click on my labels and you'll see it at work. I'm now going to label all my recipes. I hope sometime we can have a 'sublabel' option, so I can categorize them. :)

Due libri provenienti dall'Oriente

I really believe that knowledge brings to understanding, and that this should be sought in every aspect of our life. I was saddened when I read the words that the newspapers reported today about the Pope's mention of the bizantine emperor and Mohamad.. I am Catholic, and I feel unconfortable when I see something like that. I cannot understand very well, considering that so many efforts of the Church are spent towards improving the dialogue between countries and religions. Wasn't the dream of John-Paul II to have a meeting in Jerusalem with a Jewish Rabbi and a Muslim religious authority? Anyway, I hope that we will continue to promote dialogue and understanding, especially in this moment where so much hate is present in the world.

Anyway, long introduction to say that I just finished to read two very interesting books written by Oriental authors.
The first is called 'The White Castle: a novel', by Orham Pamuk (I actually read it in Italian. The Italian title is 'Il castello bianco').
This was one of my mom's gifts for my birthday. It's a very interesting novel, sometimes a bit hard to read, because the style of the author is very descriptive.. but probably very appropriate for the story. The novel is set in the XVII century. An Italian guy is made prisoner by the Turkish and is able to escape death by showing his knowledge in medicine (sometimes less real than what he pretends to have). He is taken as slave by a sort of scholar, acquainted with the sultan, who's fascinated by the books that he was bringing with himself, and by what he knows, not only as scientific knowledge, but also personally, as he lived in such a different country. They have a very strange relation, where it's not always clear who's the 'slave' and who's the 'master'. The 'master' decides that they have to find out the truth about men and themselves by writing together about everything that they did. This becomes an extremely defatiguating task, in the end, for both of them. At the same time, the sultan requires new ideas and books from the master, and he actually has the 'slave' write them for him. The two people, moreover, also look very much alike physically. So, one of the main themes is also the sense of identity/identification, and there is a very special ending that I'm not going to give away. In the end, I think the book had some extremely interesting ideas, and is worth reading it especially in this moment where the dialogue between Western/Eastern cultures (and Christian/Muslim in particular) seems to be so hard.

The second book that I just finished was a gift by my sister for my birthday. It was called 'The kite runner' by Khaled Osseini (Italian title: 'Il cacciatore di aquiloni' - and again I read it in Italian).
This book is absolutely amazing, and I would recommend it to everyone. It's not difficult to read at all, and it's actually hard to stop reading it. Although, it has some very rough scenes that can be disturbing. It's the story of a boy (Amir) that grows up in Kabul, Afghanistan. He is born in a well-off family, but his mother dyes giving birth to him. He loves and admires his father, but it's very difficult for him to gain his attention and esteem. He grows up with another boy (Hassan), who's an 'hazara', considered as an inferior race, and who's the son of the housekeeper. They are very close, but in his head, our protagonist is not completely sure he can call him 'friend', since he's from a lower class/race. On the contrary, his father treats him as a son, and is a very strong believer in people's equality, and he's a corageous man, never submitted to anyone, including the religious people who are slowly taking power in Afghanistan. The book goes throughout the history of Afghanistan, from the king to the occupation by Russians to the took of power by the Talebans. When the Talebans arrive and impose awfully strict and inhumane rules, the family escapes. But before this, some terrible thing occurs in the life of Amir and Hassan, that separates them abruptly, and burdens Amir with a huge sense of guilt. When the family escapes from Afghanistan, they go to California (close to San Francisco), and have to start a life from the beginning. The memory of Afghanistan tends to fade.
Amir grows up, gets married, and has almost forgotten Hassan until a phone call reaches him.. and he has to go back to Afghanistan. Read the book if you want to see how it ends. It's wonderful because it really makes you have a feeling for what the poor Afghan people have gone through in the last century of their history.. and also because it's a great description of human soul. We are forced to understand the reasons behind the characters' actions, and we don't know if we would have behaved differently in that context. And still, there are enough different characters to let you understand that actions are not simply driven by the cultural context. It's also a story of human growth, and it deals with the relation between man and God, and men and religion. I've been really touched by this book, and I really hope that at least someone who reads this post is going to read it.

Good bye to Marthalicia and Mariano

Before leaving to California, we met with Marthalicia and Mariano to say goodbye to them. We had a few nice evenings with them. One was at Fat Daddy's, where Trino was playing!
He and his band are really good! And we also had a good time playing pool. Here are the two sisters!

Then, we invited them at our place for some dessert. I made panna cotta and cannoli, and since they were very good, I'll share the recipe here.

Panna cotta ('cooked cream')
Italian version:
1/2 l di latte
1/2 di panna (da cucina va bene lo stesso)
1 bustina di vaniglia
1 bicchierino di rhum
100 g di zucchero
fogli di colla di pesce per 750 g liquido

Far caramellare 3 cucchiai di zucchero nel contenitore
Unire tutti gli ingredienti (tranne il rhum)
(la colla di pesce la devi fare ammollare un po’ prima, poi scolarla e rimetterla dentro)
Far bollire a fuoco lento sempre mescolando per 5 minuti. Aggiungere il rhum nell’ultimo minuto.
Versare sul caramello.
Variante al caffè: versare all’ultimo minuto ½ bicchierino di brandy, 1 tazzina di caffè (istantaneo anche) forte e un cucchiaino di caffè vero macinato fine.

English version:
Mix together 4 cups milk, 4 cups heavy cream (you can change the milk/cream ratio if you want it a bit less fat), 1 tsp vanilla syrup, 1/2 cup sugar, gelatine mix (I used an Italian version, so you should look on the American boxes how much you need for this amount of liquid). Bring to boil slowly and let cook for 5 min. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup rum to taste. In the meanwhile, caramelize some sugar on the bottom of a pan, and then pour the mixture on it. Let stand in the fridge overnight.
If you want to make a coffee version, add 2 shots of espresso together with the brandy.

Cannoli
I bought the shells. The stuffing is made by mixing with an electrical mixer ricotta, powdered sugar and some drops of orange blossom water. Ricotta/sugar ratio can vary according to taste. Then add some chocolate chips in it. And if you had some candied fruits, that'd be perfect.

Trip to California

I haven't posted in while, because we were out of town. I had some interviews in Berkeley, hopefully to get a post-doc there. I still don't know if I will get the position or not, but the trip has been really wonderful.
We had two free days, and on one of them we went to San Francisco. I loved it! It's one of the few towns that I've been in the US where I found some fascinating details in every place I walked... and we walked for many hours!
It's an amazing town, with so many different parts. I'll show a few pictures here, but please visit my picture website to see more.
Following our own visit.. here is the Market Square, and in particular, some strange Asian vegetables that I don't know the name of.
A lot of the stands sold Asian vegetables. In fact, in San Francisco there is the biggest China town outside China. Here is its entrance.
There is also a very large Italian community, so it's actually possible to drink a good caffe' or cappuccino.. But the nicest thing is the bay. And this is a view of North Hill (one of the many, many hills that San Francisco lays on).
We had a good lunch at a Chinese restaurant where they served 'Dim Sum', which I never had before: they pass around with carts full of steamed or fried little things, and you just choose what you want. It's quite nice :)... and our dinner was also wonderful.. if you want a really good Sushi, go to Sushi-Man (731 Bush Street). It was the best Sushi we ever had.
I really liked Berkeley too, and I think it would be nice to live there for a while. It's much smaller than San Francisco, obviously, but it has many nice residential areas, and a very nice downtown part. It's walkable everywhere, you can choose if you want to walk in smaller streets surrounded by small houses, with small gardens filled with amazing flowers, or on more busy streets closer to campus and downtown.. there are plenty of cafes and here and there you see people that seem like they just came out of the 70s. I loved it. I think I will fit there well. :)
This is just an example of one of the nice garden-houses:
And this is inside one of the cafes..
lost of really studious people!
Also the campus is very nice, there are lots of very old trees, such as in this eucaliptus grove:
There are also some quite impressive buildings:
So, let's keep our fingers crossed, and hope that the prof that I applied to finds some funding to hire me.. :)