Tag: version

We prepare the Bento box, the schiscetta in the Japanese version – Italian Cuisine

Is called Bento and it is the Japanese version of the Milanese schiscetta: for those not accustomed to the Milanese dialect it is the food prepared at home and stored in a special container for the lunch break. In Japan it is a tradition that goes back more than 400 years ago, when the peasants used to take their Bento boxes to the fields while they cultivated the land. Even today it is easy to see groups of boys or men in suits and ties consuming their Bento in the city meadows in the shade of cherry trees in bloom.

Balance and aesthetics

In Japan, preparing the bento box is art, as is composing a bouquet of flowers (ikebana) or offering a cup of tea. The goodness of food cannot be disconnected from the aesthetics of the composition, so every Bento box is an explosion of creativity and refinement. In addition to balance in the association of foods. And among these, you can't miss rice, in the form of onigiri, sushi or inari sushi.

And now we prepare our Bento Box based on onigiri, fried chicken, omelette and boiled rocket

Ingredients for 2 onigiri

80 ml rice, 80 ml water, nori seaweed, 180 g salmon, 1 teaspoon kastuobuoshi (dried tuna), 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce

Method

Let the rice soak for an hour before cooking it. Then pour it into a pot with cold water and bring to a boil. Cook for 10 minutes and then turn off, cover with a lid and let stand 10 minutes more. Once the rice has cooled down, make balls of it, there will be 4. In the meantime, let the salmon soak for half an hour in water with a pinch of salt. Then remove the salmon and spread it on a sheet of foil, spread a pinch of salt on both sides and then wrap it in cling film and let it rest for 30 minutes. Oil a pan and brown the salmon on both sides. Put the dried tuna in a bowl and add a teaspoon of soy sauce. Now make a hole in the center of each rice ball and put a little salmon in it and in the other two a bit of dried tuna mixed with soy. Close up and with your hands formed triangles, which you will wrap with a sheet of nori seaweed. Leave your onigiri aside and dedicate yourself to chicken.

Ingredients for fried chicken

600 g chicken, 1/2 grated apple, 1 teaspoon of grated ginger, 2 tablespoons of sake, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of salt, 3 tablespoons of potato starch, 3 tablespoons of flour, olive oil for frying

Method

cut the chicken into pieces and leave it in a bowl with the grated apple and ginger, sake, soy and salt. Mix well, cover with a foil and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Put the flour and potato starch in a bag and then the chicken pieces. Shake well so that the chicken pieces are covered with flour. Pour the oil in a saucepan, let it heat until it reaches 180 ° and then pour the chicken bites, a few at a time, so that they brown well. Once ready, drain them on a sheet of absorbent paper.

Ingredients for rocket

200 g rocket, 4 tablespoons of toasted white sesame seeds, 2 tablespoons of mirin, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce.

Method

Boil the rocket in hot water and then drain it in a bowl with ice. In a mortar, mince the sesame seeds and then add the mirin, sugar and soy and mix. Meanwhile drain the rocket, squeeze it and cut it into a banner. Then add the rocket with sesame seeds and stir.

Ingredients for the omelette

2 eggs, a tablespoon of mirin, 1/2 spoon sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of soy sauce, oil for frying.

Method

in a bowl beat the eggs, then add the sugar, the mirin, the soy sauce and mix well. Oil a rectangular pan, separate the eggs into three parts and cook one at a time, rolling it up on itself each time, using a spatula. Then put the rolled omelette on the makisu (stuoietta), roll it well and let it rest. Then gently open the makisu and cut the omelette into 8 pieces, which you will slice through two on wooden sticks.

Ingredients for wustel

2 wustel, 2 teaspoons of ketchup, sesame seeds, olive oil.

Method

Cut the wustel in half and then with a sharp knife cut it vertically to form the 8 tentacles of the octopus. Oil a pan and then crush the wustel from above so that the tentacles divide and cook well. Then add the ketchup and stir. Attach two black sesame seeds as eyes to each wustel to create the eyes of the octopus.

At this point all the ingredients are placed in the Bento Box: the onigiri, the skewers of omelette, the pieces of chicken and the rocket with the baby octopus. Your Bento Box is ready to be enjoyed, even with your eyes!

How to make the pissaladière of Nice (and its Ligurian version) – Italian Cuisine

A French anchovy focaccia that has all the flavors of the Mediterranean. Excellent hot for the aperitif, but also as cold as a schiscetta to take to the office

This recipe was born in Nice and is famous throughout the south of France. The origin of the name comes from pissalat that is salted fish because in its original version there was one salted fish based cream.
Today the pissaladière is the focaccia prepared with one salted anchovy filling cooked with onions and aromatic herbs. The extra touch is given by the black olives which are used as a final decoration.
The best ones are typically French, but you can also use good Italian Taggiasca olives.

The pissaladière recipe

First prepare the base, which is a classic bread dough.
work 320 g of 00 flour with 2 g of dry brewer's yeast, 180 ml of water at room temperature e 15 g of extra virgin olive oil. Also add a teaspoon of malt or honey and work the dough well.
Only at the end add a pinch of salt and let it rise for a couple of hours.
Meanwhile, wash well 400 g of anchovies in salt eliminating the head and the central bone.
In a pan, cook with extra virgin olive oil and a dash of water a kilo of onions finely chop, keeping the medium-low heat.
Add half-cooked desalted capers and a mixture of thyme and bay leaves and, after having made the onions flavor well, add also 50 g of pureed anchovies or chopped with a knife (a part of those previously washed).
Be careful, the onions must not take too much color, but only soften and blend with the other ingredients.
Once the dough has risen, roll it out with your hands inside a well-oiled baking pan.
Season with the cream of onions and then decorate the pissaladière with the remaining anchovies, creating a reticulate similar to that of a classic tart. You can also arrange the anchovies in a different way, the important thing is that they are one beautiful decoration for the focaccia. Also add some desiccated caper and the black olives and bake in 200 ° for about 25 minutes.

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Puff pastry, yes or no?

If you do not want to prepare the base of the pissaladière you can use puff pastry or brisé ready, but let's be honest, the result will not be the same.
The particularity of this focaccia is also the consistency which must be more or less than a pizza.
Pizza dough already ready? Yes, but only if you really don't have time.

The Ligurian version: the sardenaira

There is an all-Italian version of the pissaladière.
It is typical of Liguria, precisely of Sanremo And his name is sardenaira.
To prepare it, you must first add more yeast in the dough which will be high and soft just like that of the Ligurian fugassa.
For 500 g of flour, 12 g of yeast, 250 g of water, 60 g of extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt are required.
Once the base is prepared and left to rise for a few hours, roll it out and season it with tomato pulp, capers, desalted olives, anchovies in very clean salt, abundant oregano and cloves of garlic in shirt. And this is precisely the peculiarity of this recipe. Not one or two segments, but at least a dozen scattered over the entire surface.
Then cook the focaccia after seasoning it with extra virgin olive oil at 230 ° for about 25 minutes.

Baked aubergines: the light version for the summer – Italian Cuisine

If you are looking for a light side dish to include in your diet, you have found it. Here the tips to prepare light and very tasty aubergines

A raw eggplant of about 400 g makes little less than 100 calories, contains 25 g of carbohydrates and 4 of protein. So let's say that we could include it among the light foods, if it weren't for the fact that once cooked, we entrust them with the burden of seasonings. 100 g of fried aubergines can touch 400 calories, while they stop at 150 if gratinated. But let's take a step back and try to think of a new road, or the possibility of cooking a large 400 g eggplant (which will suffice for two people) using only two teaspoons of oil (80 calories).

The critical points

Eggplants absorb seasonings as if they were real sponges, so we must reduce their ability to absorb water by drying them a little with coarse salt after cutting them. Once removed, we can proceed with the dressing that can be optimized with the classic brine technique. We then mix oil, water and other ingredients such as lemon juice to help us create an easily dilutable emulsion.

The extra trick

We already knew that baking paper was precious to save time and effort. And we also know that it is useful to prevent foods from burning after sticking to the pan. From a light point of view however, perhaps we had not considered the fact that it is a real resource to avoid having to grease our foods that bake in the oven. Baking paper = less than half of the seasonings, to simplify.

The useful tool

To distribute the emulsion as best as possible, use a special brush. Preparing the sauce in a bowl, you can easily season the food to be cooked, making small quantities of oil sufficient.

The recipe for light eggplant

Ingredients: An aubergine, oregano, chilli pepper, garlic, lemon juice, a few leaves of fresh mint, extra virgin olive oil, salt

Procedure: Reduce the aubergine in small cubes, prepare an emulsion with two teaspoons of oil, a tablespoon of water and half a teaspoon of lemon juice. Add garlic, chilli and mix. Coat a plate with baking paper, spread the eggplant and brush it with the emulsion. At this point, salt and bake in a preheated oven at 150 degrees for about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven, decorate to taste with fresh mint leaves and serve warm.