Tag: cook

How to cook the chicory: 10 delicious recipes – Italian Cuisine

Tips for cleaning and cooking chicory, chicory sprouts, a typical dish of Roman cuisine

Puntarelle are the buds of a type of chicory called catalonia. A little-used vegetable in the north, it is very widespread in central and southern Italy, especially in Lazio, where it is considered a typical dish. In appearance the puntarelle appear as a head of leaves with many florets, from the green color, lighter towards the base, more intense towards the tips of the leaves. With a slightly bitter taste, they are often served in salads and accompanied by an emulsion of oil and anchovies. Easy to prepare, they only require a little time for cleaning.

How to clean them

To clean them, it is necessary to cut the head off at the base, free each top from the leaves and remove the harder part of the stem. At this point the puntarelle should be cut in half lengthwise and then gradually into thinner strips. The leaves should not be thrown away because they can be eaten cooked, as a side dish or as a filling for a savory pie.

A puntarella a day …

Puntarelle are a food with countless beneficial faculties. They are rich in vitamin A, phosphorus and calcium. They have a purifying and diuretic effect and are indicated for a detoxifying diet. Like many vegetables, if eaten raw they maintain all their nutritional properties unaltered. Their bitter taste helps digestion and helps stimulate blood circulation.

How they are preserved

The puntarelle are kept in the fridge, cut and cleaned, for two or three days. The ideal would be to consume them immediately after the purchase in order not to make them lose the crunchiness typical of this vegetable. Once seasoned it is better not to keep them: they soften and take on all the seasoning oil.

10 recipes with chicory

How to cook beans – Italian Cuisine

Raw, cooked, fried: these are the beans, a legume rich in proteins and mineral salts that is also good for the skin

The beans they are one of the oldest legumes: they have found traces of it even in the excavations of Troy and Crete, but their use apparently still predates this period. The Romans used it extensively, so that one of the most important families in the history of Rome, the Fabi, took their name from the broad bean, called "faba". Over time it passed from food of wealthy classes to survival food for the poorer classes. In the mid-sixteenth century, when the bean spread from America, the broad bean was abandoned almost completely.

How to consume them

The beans are consumed fresh, both cooked and raw, or dried and then cooked. The fresh ones are always sold with their green pod, while the dry ones are shelled and without the peel. Like all legumes, if you use dried beans you must first soak them. In the case in which the beans have a peel, the soak should be 18 hours, otherwise only 8. If you taste fresh, you must choose the spring ones, young and very tender: they are excellent accompanied with local salamis or with pecorino, as you usa do in Tuscany. Little present on the tables of northern Italy, the beans are instead used in the kitchens of Campania, Calabria, Puglia and Sardinia.

In the kitchens of other countries

Also in foreign kitchens, broad beans are a widely used food: in some Arab countries they are used to prepare a typical dish for breakfast, the ful medamla, made with broad beans cooked in copper containers and then seasoned with oil, onions, garlic and lemon juice. In Latin America they are added to vegetable soups or eaten as a snack in combination with spicy sauces.

Beneficial (but not for all)

Low in calories, the beans are highly nutritious thanks to the vitamins, proteins and mineral salts they contain. Rich in fiber, they have a beneficial effect on heart health because they reduce the rate of bad cholesterol in the blood. The high level of vitamin C present allows a rapid assimilation of the iron contained in the legume itself.

For some people, however, the consumption of broad beans can be very dangerous: we are talking about subjects who, due to a hereditary pathology, do not have an essential enzyme to neutralize the harmful effects of some substances present in this legume. The disease is called favism and in more serious situations can cause a cardiovascular collapse. The only remedy remains to avoid consuming them.

Here are some recipes with beans

How to cook the sliced beef – Italian Cuisine

There cut it's a second meat dish simple and tasty that is obtained by quickly cooking a rib of beef and then serving it in thick and oblique slices. Want to know what the secrets are for to cook a cut soft and tasty? Let's find out together with Sale & Pepe.

What is meant by cut and with which meat is cooked

There cut is usually obtained from beef rib with bone but, given the final result to be obtained, one can also buy the same piece of meat without the bone: in this case the cut takes the name of entrecote. The can also be used Florentine, part of the very particular rib where the tenderloin is found, the most tender part of the beef body, not subjected to physical efforts. Which meat cutting is it better to use? Surely with a cut of Florentine you'll look great.

Can you make fish cut?

To cook this second dish you can also choose not to use the meat: because yes, you can make the cut also with the fish. For example, the tuna lends itself to being cooked and served as a cut. In this case choose the tuna red, with dark red meats and a very intense taste. You can get excellent cut also with salmon is swordfish.

Secrets for a tender cut of beef

To get one cut tender, first of all you have to remove the meat from the fridge at least 60 minutes before cooking it: the leaps of temperature they make it harden. But the most important thing is the cooking, which must be at high heat so that a beautiful external crust is formed and the inside remains well under the blood, triggering Maillard's reaction.

For flavor it more you can then choose to marinate the rib for an entire night in aromatic herbs, red wine and extra virgin olive oil, but it will be essential that you remember to still take the meat out of the fridge an hour before cooking, so that it goes on hot plate or frying pan at room temperature.

Another important step to get the result "soft inside, crunchy on the outside" is to dry the meat on both sides. Last tip not to be underestimated: remember also never to use cheap pots, plates or pans, the important thing is that they are made in cast iron or have a important fund.

How to adjust with cooking

During cooking, resist the temptation to prick the meat with a fork, otherwise the liquids could leak out: always turn the rib with a spatula. For a piece of beef 4 cm high it will take 5 minutes of cooking for each side, which is another minute if you do not want to eat a cut in the blood. Be careful in any case not to overdo it: the interior must remain pink.

Once finished cooking, put the entrecôte or rib eye in a dish, wrap it in aluminum foil and wait a couple of minutes. In this way the drier parts will be able to hydrate again and at the time of the cut there will be no leakage of liquids. Furthermore, aluminum foil will not lower the temperature too much.

Recipes and basic techniques

How to make sliced beef in a pan or grilled

We find out how to make the cut in a pan. After drying the meat, start heating the pan, which must be non-stick, preferably in cast iron. The temperature of the metal must reach 140 ° C, a level which is reached after about 3 minutes on a live flame.

Then place the piece of meat in the center and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, without turning it before the end of time, on each side. Avoid adding oil or butter during cooking. The pan is the right tool to prepare the recipe for sliced beef with juniper.

For prepare the cut on the plate you will have to follow the same procedure used for the pan, thus heating the metal surface. If you use soapstone, heat it on a low heat or with a cast iron spreader. When it is hot, lay the meat on top, cooking it off 3 to 5 minutes per side.

The plate is the right tool to prepare a tasty one cut to aromas, the sliced beef with smoked flavor, the cut with citrus fruit butter and the sliced beef with chive zabaglione.

How to make the cut on the grill

If instead you want to use the live fire of the embers, place the steaks on grid and let them cook those 3-5 minutes per side depending on the thickness. Always using a spatula, turn the slices and at the end of cooking let them rest in a plate covered with aluminum foil.

How to make the baked cut

Let's find out later how to make the baked cut. In a bowl it arranges the aromas and the extra virgin olive oil. Marinate the meat for an hour. Then place it in a baking dish together with its marinade, bake it all at 180 ° C and cook for 20 minutes (medium cooking). At the end of the time, remove it from the oven and let it rest for about 5-7 minutes. In this way the juices will remain in the meat, without coming out during the cut.

How to make the cut in foil

Following the preliminary instructions for prepare the cut in the oven, you can embellish the recipe with the use of cartouche. Put an aluminum foil in the baking dish, place the meat with the marinating liquid and then close the foil: cook for 20 minutes at 200 ° C. In this way you will enclose the cooking juices for a soft and tasty result.

How to cut the salt

Another tasty preparation technique is the cut into salt. Sprinkle the grill pan, salt pan or soapstone to cover it all. Light the fire and heat the plate well. After reaching the temperature, spread the fresh rosemary on the grill pan. Put the meat on the plate and cook for 5 minutes on each side. At the end of cooking, cut into slices and serve.

With what to combine the sliced beef

The sliced beef goes perfectly with rocket salad or fresh herbs, but it is also perfect with the Duchess potatoes and the sauces for bourguignonne.

How to recycle an advanced cut

If, unfortunately, you will have guests on the table who are able to abandon a few pieces of sliced beef, do not let them worry you. Take the pieces and fray them in a salad or in a sandwich. You can also prepare some meatballs or even use the already cooked meat to prepare broth. You can even invent one soup, create an original pate or use the slices of cut to fill rustic cakes.