Posts tagged saffron
Cauliflower adventures – Cauliflower and saffron cappuccino with clams
Sep 12th
Les aventures d’un chou fleur – Cappuccino de chou fleur au saffran et praires
Sorry about two cauliflower recipes in a row, I was convinced I used the nine of them I had in my case, then I found this one, that needed to be consumed or would go bad. Since I never throw away food (or at least I try), my father would always tell me when I was growing up, “You cannot throw away food, there are too many people starving in the world”, so now I do feel guilty to throw away anything. When you think about it, in our Western world, people die because they eat too much, in some other parts of the world, people die because they have nothing to eat. How unfair and absurd is that?
I think cauliflower is an amazing vegetable, and its use is so versatile…I was trying to find a way to combine it with seafood, and this cappuccino perfectly achieved what I had in mind, associating two complementing and opposite textures, the creaminess of the cauliflower with chewiness of the clams. That was a lovely combination, especially with the delicate touch of saffron (which I adore with seafood).
Now you might wonder why this is called cappuccino, since there is no coffee in it, and certainly cannot have this for breakfast. The cauliflower being cooked in milk and the foam used to top off the soup, the whole thing served in a cappuccino cup, it definitely resembles a savory version of the traditional and very famous coffee drink.
It’s a nice festive and delicious soup, so when you have no inspiration for cauliflower, try this soup, it’s such a treat.
Ingredients for 4-5
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 large potato, peeled and cut
- 1/2 leek, white part
- 1 cauliflower
- 1/2 cup vegetable broth
- milk (enough to cover the vegetables)
- 1 dose of saffron
- 16-20 clams
- salt and pepper
Preparation
In a large pot, heat olive oil add leek, potatoes and cauliflower and cook vegetables stirring for about 10 minutes. Add broth, milk and saffron, salt and pepper. Cover with a lid and cook at medium heat until the vegetables are tender. Remove from heat and keep about 1/2 cup of the milk aside. Let it cool.
In another pot, heat olive oil and clams. Adjust with salt and pepper, and let the clams open. When the clams are open, remove from heat and keep warm.
Using a hand blender blend vegetables into a thin puree. Pass through a sieve to obtain a creamy and smooth texture. If the consistency is too thick, add a little broth.
To make foam, place cooled milk (set aside) in a small pot and heat it up without boiling it. Whisk gradually milk to make it foam. When obtained desired and thick foam. Pour soup on cappuccino cups, add 2 tbs foam on each cup and place 4 clams on top. Decorate with saffron threads and chives. Serve hot.
Another risotto story – Saffron risotto with dandelions, spinach and shiitake
May 4th
Un’altra storia di risotto – Risotto allo zafferano, tarassaco, spinaci e funghi shiitake
Other names for dandelion or dente di leone, or even tarassaco, piscialetto (pee in bed) in Italian, pissenlit, dent de lion in French – that wonderful bitter green that grows into a beautiful yellow flower. As much as I love risotto, I rarely make it, probably because I never really developed a great relationship with rice. My mom would make seafood risotto or beans and rice once in a while but pasta was the most common dish. “Risotti” are Northern Italian dishes therefore not that popular in Central Italy, even though nowadays its popularity spread out beyond the Northern limits.
I am someone who eats about everything, thinking about it, I don’t think there is an ingredient I don’t eat…maybe one, yes one…sea cucumbers I ordered at a Chinese restaurant. I had no idea what it was exactly, I thought it was that long mollusk I have seen on some TV show (the guy who eats weird food) and that I thought I would eventually like. Well I was wrong, sea cucumber is something in between pork skin and jelly with a fish flavor, so I had to leave it on the table.
The world of risotto is so vast, and this is one version among others, you can explore it to the infinite, I will definitely play with it more often. I like mine colorful, creamy and velvety, one bite should slide in your palate like a caress. You can serve it on the runny side or on the thicker side (I kept mine a little thicker than usual because of the greens), but it cannot lose its creaminess which is the trickiest part for a great risotto.
The saffron adds a very nice pungent and refined flavor, and color too. The golden yellow color was so intense in the plate, contrasting beautifully with the greens…the more color, the better, but not any color…just the matching ones. I do believe in the aesthetic beauty of a dish, after all you devours it with the eyes first.
Ingredients for 2-3
- 7 oz (or 200 g) arborio rice
- 1 shallot
- 1 tbs butter (or olive oil)
- I dose saffron, infused in hot broth
- 1 cup white wine
- 2.5 cups or more vegetable broth
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1/2 bunch dandelions, washed and cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 cup baby spinach
- 8 medium size shiitake mushrooms, cut in small pieces
- 2 tbs parmigiano reggiano, freshly grated
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Heat olive oil or melt butter in a pot, add shallot and brown it. Add rice, stir a few minutes to coat it with the oil. Add wine and increase heat to make the wine evaporate faster. Reduce heat, then add broth gradually.
In the meantime, in a pan, heat 1 tsp olive oil, add garlic and saute dandelions and spinach, saute until tender, adjust with salt and pepper. Remove from pan. Using the same pan, saute shiitake mushrooms in a little olive oil and garlic, salt and pepper. Keep hot.
When the rice is cooked, add parmesan cheese, and fold in the vegetables. Serve hot.
A far away cousin of vegetable paella – Saffron brown rice with mixed vegetables
Mar 19th
Un cousin éloigné de la paella végétarienne – Riz brun au saffran et méli mélo de petits légumes
It’s time for some rice…rice and potatoes are two ingredients I rarely use, French people eat a LOT of potatoes, at my parents my mom rarely made them, Italians are more pasta eaters than potato eaters. A while ago, I started buying all the different kinds of rices I ran into, from black rice, to bamboo rice, any shape and color rice I saw. It seems like the excitement faded away, but I don’t want to leave rice aside, because I love it. It’s nutritious, healthy and can make wonderful side dishes.
The world of food has so many items to explore than sometimes, you get caught trying out new ingredients, and leaving aside the ones you know too well.
This rice has a rich and deep yellow color you get with combining saffron and paprika or pimenton as they say in Spain but I found Spanish pimenton to have a more smokey flavor.
Basically the rice is steamed in a vegetable broth with saffron and paprika, so it comes out almost orange. Such a vibrant color to have in ones plate.
Plain white rice is great with spicy dishes, it enables to decrease the powerful and strong flavors of the spices and balances everything perfectly. Sometimes I enjoy some more intricate rice dishes like this one, you can just eat it as a main dish and as is, because it’s a whole meal in itself and full of fragrant flavors. I certainly don’t want to call this vegetarian paella, which would be so wrong, but it has some similarities in some of the spices and cooking method, even though I did not use a paella tray, nor used Spanish rice.
Ingredients for 2-3
- 5.29 0z (or 150 g) brown rice
- one dose saffron
- 1/4 tsp Spanish pimenton
- vegetable broth (rice x 2)
- 1 shallot
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tbs mixed oregano, very finely chopped
- 1/2 red bell pepper, cut in very small cubes (1/4 inch)
- 1 cup fresh peas (or frozen)
- 1/2 bunch asparagus, cut in small chunks (1/2 inch)
- 1 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
In a rice cooker or regular pot, mix broth, rice, saffron, pimenton and salt. Let it sit for a few minutes until the saffron has dissolved. For broth quantities, I use about twice the amount of rice, in this case, since it’s brown rice, which takes harder to cook, I use about 3 times its quantity. If using rice cooker, broth needs to be at 2 cm above the level of the rice.
Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallots and let them soften. Add all the mixed vegetables and stir well. Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked but still firm, add garlic and oregano and cook for a few additional minutes to get the flavors out.
Mix in the rice, stir well until all the vegetables are well incorporated into the rice.
Orzotto, almost like a risotto – Saffron barley with calamari
Feb 26th
Orzotto, quasi come un risotto – Orzo allo zafferano e calamari
It looks like I am on some seafood addiction lately, I understand it can get boring for people not fond of seafood. I bought extra calamari when I made the stew to be able to use in some other dish.
That wonderful little cereal used here, barley is one of my favorites. What I love about barely is that it always remains firm, so you always get that crunchy and a very pleasant little chewy bite. I used pearl barley whose bran layer has been removed (vs. bran barley) its size doubles volume when cooked due to its high content in fibers. It contains a lot of minerals and vitamins therefore makes it a perfect nutritious and healthy grain with low glycemic index. Orzo in Italian means barely and not “orzo pasta”.
The consumption of barley goes back to Greek and Roman civilizations due to its nutritious properties, the easiness of its transportation and long preservation, it’s supposed to be one of the most ancient grain that can be retraced back to the Egyptians.
In Italy, Orzo is also used in making a drink mixture called “caffè d’orzo“, basically it’s a powder like coffee (you can either dissolve it in hot water like instant coffee or preapre it in a moka maker) and used like coffee with milk to be served for breakfast. Its consumption as a drink started in the XVIII e century among peasants and continued throughout the years. It was mostly a drink consumed by elderly and kids for its healing properties, it’s nowadays served “al bar” (coffee shop) like espresso and is even more expensive. I love my bowl of caffè d’orzo, sometimes that’s my dinner!
I love saffron barley as much as I love saffron risotto, sometimes I just like something that has a less creamy texture than risotto, more chewy and fluffy, so barley or farro are my first choices. You can make this dish with farro too, it has equally lots of great nutrients. This barley dish has tons of character with the presence of saffron and gives it a distinct Mediterranean flair. A simple and flavorful dish very easy to prepare, un ottimo primo piatto molto gustoso ma veloce da preparare!
Ingredients for 2
- 6.34 oz (or 180 g) barley
- 1/2 shallot, finely chopped
- 1 dose saffron
- vegetable broth
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/3 tsp paprika
- 5.20 oz (or 150 g) calamari, (either already cleaned or not)
- 2 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Start preparing the barley like a risotto. In a pot, heat 1 tbs olive oil, then add shallot and brown. Infuse saffron in lukewarm broth. Add barley, coat with olive oil and progressively add broth, adjust with salt and pepper (I did not use white wine like in a traditional risotto nor parmesan) and proceed until barley is cooked. You want the barley to have absorbed all the liquid unlike in a risotto, the barley needs to be somehow “dry”.
In a pan, heat 1 tbs olive oil, add garlic and stir. Add calamari, paprika, salt and pepper and sauté at high heat until calamari are cooked but not rubbery and still tender. Reduce a little of the liquid, but keep some.
When barley is cooked, add to the calamari pan, and mix well until the juice has been absorbed by barley. Sprinkle with parsley and serve hot.
Let's squish the cauliflower – Wholewheat fettuccine with cauliflower, saffron and pecorino
Dec 9th
Abbiamo schiacciato il cavolfiore – Fettuccine integrali con cavolfiore, zafferano e pecorino
Something funny happened to me today that has nothing to do with food. I am looking to buy a new car, but not really new more like second hand since I gave my Golf away. So the guy I went to meet who was selling his car, was not the one I thought I was supposed to meet. The car I thought I was going to see was a white Nissan with 9000 miles and the one I ended up meeting had a black Toyota with 28,000 miles. Basically I mixed up sellers. I have been acting strange lately, maybe I need some rest.
Besides the confusion, I have had cravings for pasta, of all kinds and shapes. I have had a strange love story with pasta, somehow during my teenager years, I just refused to eat it, since my mom was making pasta al sugo at least once a week, with leftovers that lasted for a week. There were three of us, since I am an only child, and like a good Italian mamma, my mom made food for about an army, and my dad was complaining of eating leftovers. So after I rebelled against pasta like most teenagers do, they always rebel about something, I just went by phases, either I eat pasta seven days a week or just don’t eat any for months.
Looks like, I am back with my daily consumption of carbs. I remember my mom making a soup with cauliflower and tomatoes that was delicious. This dish is inspired by a Sicilian pasta dish that I twisted around a little, and I loved it. If you have a cauliflower that has been sitting in your refrigerator and not sure what to do with it, you might want to try this pasta. You’ll be surprised to see how delicious the cauliflower sauce tastes, very light, not too strong, a real delight. In my case, I had a green cauliflower, that resulted in a beautiful greenish fettuccine dish.
Ingredients for 3
- 1/2 lb (or 250 g) wholewheat fettucine
- 1 large green cauliflower
- 1 shallot, minced
- 1 saffron dose
- 1 bouillon cube dissolved in water
- 4 tbs pecorino, grated
- 4 tbs heavy cream
- 2 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Cut cauliflower florets and cook them in salted boiling water. Cook until still a little crunchy. Drain cauliflower and keep the cooking water to cook pasta.
With a potato masher or a fork, crush the floret roughly.
In a cup, mix about 1/3 cup or more hot cauliflower water with saffron threads and let it infuse for about 10 minutes. Dissolve a bouillon cube in it. (You might have to add some additional water if the sauce is too thick).
In a pan, heat olive oil and brown shallots. Add cauliflower and mix well. Add bouillon mixture, and stir well and cook for a few minutes at high heat until some of the saffron and bouillon get absorbed by cauliflower and infused in the sauce. If the sauce is too thick add extra water. Adjust with salt and pepper. Add cream. At this point, you need to have a little creamy sauce (not too liquid) with cauliflower but not too much.
Cook fettuccine in the cauliflower water until al dente. Drain and add to the cauliflower. Mix well, let the fettuccine absorbe the sauce, add pecorino and serve hot.
Fregola is acting like a risotto – Saffron fregola with grilled zucchini and mushrooms
Oct 14th
La Fregola è gelosa del risotto – Fregola allo zafferano con zucchine e funghi
I adore Fregola’s texture…those little round balls that are similar to couscous but are really not…It’s a pasta specialty from Sardinia and when cooked they remain somehow chewy and al dente at the same time.
This fregola has been prepared like risotto with a saffron broth then enhanced at the end with grilled vegetables and parmesan. I think you can find Fregola at any Italian grocery store or specialty store. We have a Sardinian restaurant in San Francisco called La Ciccia, they serve traditional Sardinian cuisine, which is really good (you can find fregola dishes, octopus in umido, pane carasau, etc… lots of traditional Sardinian products) and not really the typical Italian-American you see very often in many Italian restaurants, which I think is a mixture of different cuisines and influences. It might have been traditional 150 years ago, then with time, it became a modified cuisine mixed with local influences and ingredients.
Fregola is an authentic Sardinian pasta product and I have never seen it served in any other Italian restaurant other than at La Ciccia. As a matter of fact, I have never seen it in other parts of Italy either because it is a very regional product mainly consumed in Sardinia. So if you can find it, try it out.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying Italian-American is not good food, I’m just saying it’s just not real traditional Italian cuisine. For example Cioppino, that tomato seafood stew you can find in many restaurants in San Francisco, even though it sounds Italian, it is not. It’s something that was created in San Francisco. Isn’t that funny? A well-made cioppino is excellent, but it’s not really Italian even though you can find some similar dishes in Italy, I have never seen Cioppino.
I would be very curious to see the cuisine in Australia, if it went through the same trends and if it evolved like cuisine in the US did. Australia being also a new country, it might have had a similar phenomenon. A friend of mine gave me an Australian cook book she bought over there, and I have to say that the cuisine is very interesting with lots of influences too but put together differently.
Anyway, going back to Fregola, which is somehow the topic of this post, it can be cooked like risotto, or like pasta, or used in soups, or like couscous. It is a very versatile little ball and really delicious.
Ingredients for 3-4
- 1 cup fregola
- 2 zucchini, sliced crosswise
- 10 medium size mushrooms
- 1 shallot
- 1 saffron dose
- 2 cups or more vegetable broth
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- Fresh parmigiano reggiano, grated
- 1 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Infuse broth with saffron for about 20 minutes.
In a medium pot, heat olive oil, add shallots and brown them. Add fregola and coat it with olive oil as you would do for risotto. Add saffron broth and wine gradually. Adjust with salt and pepper.
Grill zucchini in a grill pan and cut in smaller pieces. Set aside. Saute mushrooms in 1 tsp olive oil, and cook until the water evaporates. Mix with zucchini.
When fregola is cooked. Add vegetables, and stir well. Add parmiggiano and serve hot.
Salmon swim – Salmon "en nage" with saffron, with fava beans and potatoes
Sep 22nd
La nage du saumon – Pavé de saumon en nage safranée aux fèves et pommes de terre
That might not be that original but it is so good that I had to put it up. I don’t know why but I am a little tired of seeing fish served with potato purée, not sure either why almost all restaurants do that, but it is certainly a big déja vu and I am wondering why they could not use other vegetables, such as turnips, parsnips, fennel, etc…It’s not so much the potato that bothers me, but the purée.
As much as I want to become a vegetarian, and stop consuming animal base products, including fish, I am unable to do it, well I am probably weak in that respect. Another weakness on the list (among many)…A friend of mine, big meat consumer, refuses to eat fish because he considers fish to be close to humans and he said it’s like eating our own specie, isn’t that strange? I never had a fish as a pet, maybe if I had one, I wouldn’t be able to eat them either. Since I have Pepito, the parakeet, I am wondering how can people eat birds…he is such a little friend. Most of the time, people eat what they eat, without thinking about what it actually is. At some point in my life, I even tasted porcupine…something I would not be able to do today.
I love fava bean so much that I would put them everywhere, salads, soups, fish, pesto, side dish…fava bean rule! I think I have been on a low carb diet lately because I have been thinking about potatoes a lot, and usually it’s a clear sign that my body wants some. I am not a big potato eater, but once in a while, I enjoy them.
Nage in French means swim, and it’s a way we use when talk about a dish that has been prepared with a court-bouillon, a brothy type of stew, or simply broth. Here the salmon swims in the broth, and it’s a very healthy recipe. The thing is when fish is cooked en nage, you need to make sure your broth has lots of flavors or it tends to be insipid. I had white cod cooked this way in a top notch restaurant in San Francisco and it was so bland, the poor fish was barely swimming in some dirty tasteless water.
The broth has a gorgeous yellowish color due to saffron and the potatoes are cooked in it, so they absorbed that color as well.
Ingredients for 4
For the nage
- 3 cups water
- 1 onion, cut in quarter
- 1 carrot
- 1 celeri stick
- vegetable bouillon
- 1/2 tsp anise seeds
- 2 bay leaves
- bouquet garni (oregano, thyme, marjoram, etc…)
- 3 cloves
- 1 saffron dose
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 6 whole black pepper corns
- salt
For the salmon
- 4 salmon fillets
- 4 medium size potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly about 5mm thick
- 1 lbs fava beans
- chives for decoration
Preparation
Heat olive oil and add onion quarters. Cook for a few minutes, add water, vegetable broth, and all the other ingredients. Cover and cook for at least 30 minutes. The liquid needs to reduce and become a little thicker with all flavors infused. Adjust with salt.
In another pot, add 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. Add fava beans and cook for about 3 minutes. Drain and peel. Set aside.
When the broth is almost ready, add potatoes. Cook for about 10 min or until cooked, do not over cook or they will get mushy, the slices need to remain full.
Add salmon fillets, cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes or until salmon is cooked to your taste. Add fava beans and remove from the stove.
Remove salmon fillets and potatoes, and set aside. Drain the broth.
Place salmon in a deep dish, add vegetables around and pour some court-bouillon around. Sprinkle with chives, anise seeds and a few saffron threads.
