Category Archives: Desserts

Kumquat and Cherry Upside Down Cake

28 Saturday Jun 2014

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kumquat and cherry upside down cake-002A friend recently asked if I was ever going to put up another recipe, and I realized that it has been quite some time since I’ve done that. For once this is something that I whipped up, not one of Speedy’s incredible dishes.  This year I have become the Queen of the Upside Down Cake, mostly by default because it is such an easy thing to make and people just love it. Especially here in Italy it is a treat because it is not a normal sort of Italian dessert.

kumquat treeThat shrubby thing in the middle of the photo is our kumquat ‘tree.’ Why it is becoming a bush instead of a tree I’m not sure, but no matter. The important thing is that it has given us zillions of little kumquats this year (you can see them hiding in the leaves). For those of you unfamiliar with this fruit, it is a wee orange in reverse; that is, the skin is sweet and the inside is very, very tart. Kumquats are good to eat right from the tree if you enjoy a tart treat, which we do; it’s not to everyone’s taste.

But kumquat upside-down cake IS to everyone’s taste. Even a friend who usually declines dessert took a very thin sliver just to be polite, and then came back for a full serving (which I found enormously satisfying). I have made three of these so far this year, and each one has disappeared with gratifying speed. In the iteration pictured above I added our sour cherry crop. The great thing about an upside-down cake is you can use pretty much any fruit you have on hand – I have made plain kumquat, kumquat with cherry, the ubiquitous pineapple (from fresh pineapple please, otherwise it is too cloyingly sweet), and nectarine. All have been completely successful.

The next time you’re entertaining and want to have a dessert you can depend on that won’t take you all day to make, try an upside-down cake. You can find the recipe I used for the cake above here. It was shamelessly adapted from one found at Love and Duck Fat, a very beautifully presented web site about food (I recommend you visit them). Have some fun with your fruit and your design, there are no rules.

Nonna Salamone’s Christmas Cookies

29 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by in American recipes, Desserts, Food, Uncategorized

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christmas cookies

Bowing to the clamor from at least three faithful blog readers, I herewith present you with the recipe for Speedy’s mother’s Christmas cookies.  Too late for this year, I know, but tuck it away for early next December.

Speedy’s father came to the U.S. from Sicily, and his mother was born here shortly after her parents arrived from the same island.  Somehow through all the years that I’ve been scarfing down these yummy cookies I figured that they were adapted from an old Sicilian Christmas recipe.  Not at all.

In fact, if I were to be completely honest, this recipe should be called Mrs. Stockwell’s Christmas cookies.  I asked Speedy what the history of his Mom’s cookies was and he said, “I don’t know.  They were just always there.  Ask my sister.”  So I did.

Back when Speedy wasn’t even a twinkle in his father’s eye his parents lived across the street from Mrs. Stockwell; her divorced daughter, Darlene Johnson; and her little boy Jerry Johnson. Little Jerry and Speedy’s sister Fran were best friends when they were very young, and frequently played together.  On the days when they were not allowed to play together each would sit on his own curb and they would converse across the then-sleepy Wisconsin Avenue.

They went to kindergarten together, Fran and Jerry, and Fran remembers that Jerry was quite a talker.  In fact, she well remembers the day the kindergarten teacher ran out of patience with Jerry’s continual chatter, put tape across his mouth and deposited him in the cloak room.  Somehow I can’t see that happening nowadays.

And the cookies?  Well, they were Mrs. Stockwell’s recipe, and she shared it with Mrs. Johnson’s friend Nonna Salamone who turned them into her own Christmas tradition.  I got wondering about the Crisco – was that even around in the mid-1930’s when all this recipe exchanging and mouth-taping was going on?  Yes, it turns out that Crisco was introduced in 1911 and packaged sour cream was introduced a year later.  So there had been plenty of time for this great recipe to be invented. I like to imagine that maybe Mrs. Stockwell and Mrs. Johnson invited Frances over to bake cookies with Jimmy – can’t you just picture it?

I have no idea who that other little boy is – must be another of Jerry’s friends invited over for the fun. Isn’t Fran adorable?  Hard to imagine we just celebrated her 83rd birthday!

These are the simple cookies of long ago.  They’re fun and easy to make with children, and tasty to eat.  While Crisco has had a lot of bad press over the years, and still suffers a dubious reputation, the Smucker Company has done much to improve it in recent years – you can read its rather interesting history here (I am always amazed at what we can learn from Wikipedia).  It’s probably just fine to use it on those infrequent occasions when you make Nonna Salamone’s Christmas cookies and ‘Mbriolata.  The cookie recipe is here.  I hope you enjoy making (and eating) these cookies as much as Speedy and I do.

The Strangest Dinner

12 Tuesday Apr 2011

Posted by in Desserts, English food, Food, Uncategorized

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It’s Sniven’s fault. It was he who encouraged us to come to Gold Canyon, and he who put the Captain back in touch with Captain Harris after many years.  Sniven makes an almost-annual visit to the Southwest, and being a democratic fellow he divides his time; one year he stays in what he amusingly calls ‘The Harris Hovel,’ and the next he stays with us.  Once he took a year off and it completely confused all of us to the point that we didn’t know where he should stay.  During his visits the five of us are very likely to gather for the evening meal and a catch-up of the day’s activities.  Also, perhaps, some gin. Not the game.

This year one of the evening conversations turned to the Aubrey-Maturin series of nautical tales set during the Napoleonic Wars, written by Patrick O’Brian.  The three gentlemen around our table had all enjoyed reading the books enormously, and began to reminisce about various elements.  “What on earth,” asked Sniven, “is Soused Hog’s Face?” referring to a dish that appears in Master and Commander. Research ensued, and the assembled group decided that nothing would do but that we would try it.

Unfortunately an actual hog’s face, while readily available, was nothing either of the principal cooks wished to tackle (what to do with the teeth?).  But the Captain found an acceptable recipe which called for ‘pork,’ and he took on the job.  It turns out there is more onion than anything else in this gelled dish.  It also turns out it is absolutely delicious, and is perfect for a hot summer meal.

(An interesting post-script: we served leftover Face to Italian friends a couple of days later.  Marguerita said, “But we make exactly this dish in Bari, but without the onions.”)


The discussion then turned to amusing English dessert nomenclature, specifically Boiled Baby and Spotted Dick.  Both, it turns out, are puddings, and neither difficult to make.  We opted for Spotted Dick on the theory that it was somehow funnier, and I volunteered to make it.  It is served under a ‘lashing’ of custard, not shown here, but happily consumed at our meal.


Sniven wasn’t done with us, though.  Years ago his adored Granny from Nova Scotia used to make him some kind of milky, custardy dried cod dish.  (She served it with dulse, which the kindly Sniven inflicted on us (I mean ‘brought to us’) several years ago; we went without this year.)  Mrs. Harris, of whom I’ve spoken in other posts, is an amazing cook and has an encyclopedic knowledge of food, food history and food preparations.  She took on the chef-detective task of replicating a food memory from long ago.  I’m not a great fan of  baccala, the Italian name for dried salted cod;  in fact I hate it, so I was pretty sure I wouldn’t enjoy Granny’s dish.  I could not have been more wrong, which simply proves the theory that the addition of cream and butter makes anything divine.


So that was our Very Strange Dinner:  first course: Cod in the style of Granny; second course: Soused Hog’s Face à la Maturin and Aubrey, served with a nondescript salad; dessert: Spotted Dick.

Somehow it all worked.  It brought to mind those enormous menus we read about from the 17th century and 18th centuries, where the meal would begin with fish, travel through foul to meat, and end with some extraordinarily complex dessert, all washed down by barrels of ale (if you want some fine examples, dip into the Diary of Samuel Pepys).

It was, to be sure, about the strangest dinner any of has eaten, at least in its joining of disparate components.  The pity is that Sniven has taken himself back to the shores of Maryland where he resides with beautiful Judith, and we are unlikely to be doing much more experimenting with odd menus in the next little while.

You can find the recipe for the Cod here, the Soused Hog’s Face here, and the Spotted Dick here.

Adriana’s Amazing Pineapple Dessert

09 Sunday May 2010

Posted by in Desserts, Italian recipes, Uncategorized

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Wait!   Before you say, “I don’t much care for pineapple,” (and I’d have to agree with you), take a look at this:

Ha! Did you think it was a big plate of prosciutto? That’s what we thought when our friend Adriana presented it at the end of a lavish luncheon last week. Imagine our surprise when we learned it was pineapple. I approached it with some caution, but it was so delicious I went back for seconds twice (I’m on a diet; there are no thirds).

The recipe is so simple you don’t have to go to a separate recipe page; I’m just going to tell you how to do it right now.  Note: you’ll want to either have candied orange peel on hand or make it ahead of time.

First, squeeze a bunch of blood oranges (2, 3…) and reserve a few skins to make candied peel (below).

Second, peel and cut a pineapple into impossibly thin slices (Adriana used a meat slicer; I think a mandolin would work well, or any tool for shaving food).

Third, pour the blood orange juice over the pineapple and garnish with the candied orange peel.

I really don’t see how it could be any easier. Or tastier. The bitterness of the candied peel cuts the cloying pineapple sweetness, and the juice gives just the right amount of acidity.

Here’s how to candy the peel.  Use a vegetable peeler to peel strips of the orange part of the skin (or yellow, if you’re doing lemon). Cut the peel into very thin slices.  Briefly boil in three changes of water to take out the bitter oils.  Then make a heavy sugar syrup – I used about 1/4 cup sugar in about 3/4 cup water.  Toss in the peels and boil them til the water has evaporated.  Remove the somewhat sticky peels and roll them around in granulated sugar.  Set out on waxed paper to dry.  It keeps very well for quite a while, better in the refrigerator.

The Best Thing We Ate Last Week – Baked Stuffed Peaches

15 Thursday Oct 2009

Posted by in Desserts, Food, Italian men, Italian recipes, Piemonte

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pesche ripiene - stuffed peaches

Our friend Leo made Pesche Ripiene (stuffed peaches) for dessert when we visited in Piemonte last week.  They are amongst the best things I’ve eaten, ever, in my whole life.  And they are easy to make.  In fact, they are so easy I will give you the recipe here rather than send you off to another page for it.

Here’s what you’ll need:  peaches, amaretto (or amaretti) cookies (about 3 per peach half, depending on size of cookies and size of peaches), marsalla, sugar, butter

Cut firm but ripe free-stone yellow peaches in half – Leo recommends Elberta. (They are widely available here but nowadays are not as common in the U.S. as they once were).  Chop up the cookies, add some sugar (+/-  1/2 tsp per peach half), and add enough marsala wine to make the cookie stuffing hold its shape.  Overfill each peach half with the cookie mixture and top with a dab of butter.  Put in a preheated (350) oven and bake until done.  The peaches are delicious with this stuffing, and somehow there is a by-product of excellent caramel sauce that can be drizzled over the top (Leo says it comes from the moisture the peaches throw off mixing with the sugar).

Next time you need an easy dessert and peaches are in season, try making stuffed peaches, and then when everyone tells you how fantastic they are, send a silent thank-you to Leo.

leo

Sgabei

25 Monday May 2009

Posted by in Desserts, Food, Italian habits and customs, Italian holidays, Italian recipes, Liguria, Uncategorized

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What do “Sgabei!  Gesundheit!!”  and “Who doesn’t love a party?” have in common?  This weekend it was San Maurizio di Monti.

Sgabei (it’s an odd word, pronounced pretty much the way it’s spelled) is a typically Ligurian treat that originated in the Val de Magra on the eastern end of Liguria, on the border with Tuscany. While it is not often found on menus, it is not an unusual offering at a Sagra, a local festival which often involves food and some other kind of entertainment or a sporting event.  Sagras are very popular – it’s a rare weekend when you can’t find a sagra somewhere nearby with its attendant food specialty.

San Maurizio, our little town, just held its third annual Sagra degli Sgabei.  Why Sgabei?  Well, it is a typical food, but also most of the other regional specialties had already been taken by other nearby towns – Santa has fritters, Camoglie has a huge fish fry (fish are cooked in the World’s Largest Fry Pan), and there are several Trofie al Pesto shindigs.  So, for whatever reason, the Comitato Amici di San Maurizio, the volunteers who work hundreds of hours to make it all happen, decided to make Sgabei the main draw of their Sagra.  In addition to the food there were two dance bands, one on Saturday evening, the other on Sunday.

There are always treats other than the signature dish at a Sagra, frequently porchetta, assado and usually some kind of pasta.  Our choices included Trofie al Pesto (also a Ligurian specialty) or Ragu, porchetta, assado, sausages, beer or wine, and of course the highly touted Sgabei themselves.

Assado has its origins in Argentina, where the cowboys would find themselves hungry and far from any source of food… other than their cows.  So they would slaughter a cow and eat it.  Assado is the part of the animal around the stomach – that is, not the guts themselves, but the flesh and muscle that holds them in.  It is marinated, cooked on a big rack near an open fire for about six hours, then sliced off.

sgabei assado marinade

Each Assado chef has his own secret marinade recipe, but it will usually contain at least thyme, salt, pepper, hyssop (which grows wild in the woods here).  My sources tell me that most chefs put something alcoholic in the marinade as well: grappa, wine, or…

sgabei assado

After all those hours cooking the meat is tender (sort of) and ready to be eaten.  A chef with a big knife takes slices from the side away from the flames, and voila – your Assado is ready to serve:

sgabei assado-1

They say that a lot of the tastiness of food has to do with the spirit and energy that the chef puts into the preparation.  That could explain why the Assado at the San Maurizio Sagra was so darned good:

sgabei assado cooks

They told me they are the best, and I believe them.

So, what about the famous Sgabei?  A secret: I don’t much care for them.  I’ve never been a great donut lover, and to me Sgabei is simply a torpedo shaped donut that’s been sliced lengthwise and filled with something – in the case of this weekend’s sagra either strachinno (a very runny cheese), cherry jam or Nutello.  No thanks, I’ll pass, though I will take some of that cherry jam.

For the same reason that the assado is so good, I’m sure the sgabei are the best this side of Genova:

sgabei cooking

Here’s what they look like before they’ve been stuffed:

sgabei

As Fred McGourty used to say, Highly regarded by people who like that sort of thing.

If you’re interested in reading more about other Sagras, hop over to Rowena’s blog and read her section called 100 Ways to Celebrate Italy (there’s a link about halfway down the front page on the left).  She’s up to 35, which is way more than we’ve been to.

I’d love to know more about the Sagra – what do they do with the money, for instance?  We assume it’s a fund-raiser, but for what?  And most of all, how can I get one of these great Staff tee-shirts??

sgabei kitchen

A Pretty Good Thing We Ate This Week – Lemon Meringue Pie

22 Wednesday Apr 2009

Posted by in American recipes, Desserts, Food, Uncategorized

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img_9909

In all honesty the Best Thing We Ate This Week was Louis’s osso buco, served with risotto; I hope to put that recipe up soon.  Meanwhile, we served a lemon meringue pie for dessert to Italian guests, and they seemed to like it (asked for the recipe in fact).  So, though it’s not the Best of the week, it’s one-of-the-better of the week.  If it has any downside it is that it’s very sweet.  But then, that’s what dessert is for, no?

Betty Crocker taught me how to make this pie and I still follow her recipe almost to the letter.  You can find the recipe here.  I like to make my own crusts, but there’s no reason not to buy one if you’re short of time.  It won’t be as good, but it certainly won’t be bad.  Likewise, freshly squeezed lemon juice and freshly grated lemon peel are best, though you can buy bottled juice and dried zest.

By the way, if you haven’t yet made aquaintance with the new breed of microplaners, do so.  They are fantastic tools for grating cheese, zest – whatever you need grated.  We use ours almost daily.  They come in several sizes for different jobs.