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originálna talianska kuchárka

Zbierka originálnych talianskych receptov, postupov a informácií z talianskej kuchyne.

French Breakfast on its way !

A sandwich for all: Scanwiches, the guide for choosing wisely!

Reading 37signals' blog "Signal vs. Noise", which I recommend everybody, even if you don't work in the software industry, I've stumbled upon a wonderfully simply but nice and useful blog called Scanwiches.

The idea is as simple as appealing: A photo list with the sandwiches someone is cooking and/or eating and their ingredients, updated as time goes by. The photos are great, the style of the blog is simple and stylish, and the sandwiches are... well, having a look at them and start craving is all one!

New entries in The manámaná map for hungry travellers

Dear Auntie Cris has reported new places around the world where eating and buying food is something delicious:

· Belgium/Gent/ - Restaurant Le Mystic & Neuhaus Chocolatier
· Belgium/Brugge/ - Restaurant 't Eetablissement (their mussels and fries are simply great)
· Italy/Rome/ - Restaurant Il Brillo Parlante (excellent and cheap)
· Germany/Berlin/ - Restaurant Las Malvinas (excellent and cheao)
· Argentina/Buenos Aires/ - Restaurant El Establo

And I've added my latest discoveries in Donostia-San Sebastián:

· Spain/Euskadi/Donostia/ - Bar Bergara (some of the best pintxos!)
· Spain/Euskadi/Donostia/ - Ice-Creams La Veneciana (super-creamy ice-creams, lemon specially recommended)

View manamana guide for hungry travellers in a larger map

A coffee perfect for each one: Malaga City's serving and measurement system

There's a wise saying in Spain that goes: Not two persons drink coffee the same way. It's not just that some people like it large and with just a little trace of milk while others like it exactly reverse, but also that our appetite for caffeine may vary as our day goes by. Coffee lovers try to avoid those coffee houses and cafeterias where, independently from how you ask for it, they serve coffee in their own standardized way, usually including awful coffee machines and blends. That's why I love cafeterias that are old and tiny, where usually the demography of old people is a good sign about the quality of the coffee served or, at the very other end of the table, places like Starbucks, where I can enjoy huge cups of Blue Mountain with soya milk or smoothies.

But let's center in the main subject: there are many people out there, including me, who are really demanding when asking for a coffee; and probably Malaga (Spain) is one of the world's capital in the matter, because they have invented a wonderful system to measure the coffee served in order you get exactly the amount you want. Expresso or With Milk? In Malaga that's for amateurs!

The system is as scientific as simple: the cup or glass is formally divided in 9 equal sections and the name of the coffee is different for each number of sections filled with coffee instead of milk. Some coffee houses and cafeterias have this system displayed in their walls to help newbies and, as I think this is something worth to be supported, I've designed and now publish here a little guide with the system in Spanish and English (English translation mine, if you find errors or a better name for one of the coffee types please tell me!). I recommend printing it and stick it in the fridge's door, it's specially useful at breakfast or when serving coffees in a dinner with guests. Usually, I choose a Half Short (Entre Corto)... and you? ;)

Social junk food? No, thanks!

A very interesting article arrived to me by RSS past morning, and for once it wasn't about work. Well, it Was about work, for I work in an ISV and everything with the prefix e- interests is my business some way or another; but that article is also about new marketing trends on food, and that's where this blog comes handy.

The title is crystal clear, "Social media will not get me to eat your gross pizza", and talks about brands promoting their junk food through social media channels such as Twitter or Facebook.

I love the idea those marketing folks behind the food companies came with but, alas, I hate it with the very same enthusiasm: I'm a chix0r and a generic humanoid carbon unit very concerned about health and feeding, ergo I'd love to hear about Starbucks promos in networks such as Foodbuzz (ahhh... caffeine with soya milk...), but also about things such as nutritional recommendations for runners in the website of Adidas (no, I'm not being paid for mentioning them, it's just that I'm their customer/user!).

As anyone reading me for some time knows, I'm very careful with food because when you've already lost your health once you don't want to experience it again. Fortunately, I've lost my taste for junk food, and not just because I have to eat healthy, but also because I've discovered the delicious, joyful and first quality calories a homemade pizza or a pizza in a good restaurant can give.

Social networks and media has become a very important source of information to make your life and the life of those around you far better... if you use it wisely. Do we really want to fatten up our e-lifes with all the old bad habits some companies are trying to sell us with brand new tools?

Make yourself a favor: learn to cook pizza and you'll never dream of buying greasy-grossy pizzas ever again!

Let me tempt you with some recipes ;)

Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food: Learn or improve your cooking in 24 hours!

Ministry of Food is another great initiative of Jamie Oliver, my favorite chef. As I explained previously Jamie is not only a really good chef, but a businessman and a person engaged in multiple social activities to make this world a little better.

Well, Ministry of Food is many things at one. For instance, a concept from World War II, a Jamie Oliver book (you can buy it from Amazon clicking "bookshop" at this blog), a website but, most important, an idea: That people can learn to cook or improve their cooking greatly learning from one another. The mechanism is quite simple, you take the pledge of learning a handful of recipes that you find appealing from the book, the website or even other person who already learnt them, and to pass them on to people you know. It's food-buzzing, and it's really satisfying!

A month ago I bought the book at Amazon and I've enjoyed so much that sometimes I take it to bed at night for some minutes of joyful reading. The book's motto is "Anyone can learn to cook in 24 hours", but it's not only a book for turning you into a home-made chef for your everyday life even if you don`t know how to fry an egg (the book teachs you that one too!), it's also great to learn a couple of things that, if you already know about cooking, will improve your meals incredibly, or to learn the nice and maneagable way to recipes that you though you would never be prepared to try.

Of course, I've taken the pledge (soon the recipes at this blog!) and now that I've started cooking the recipes I would say tons of paragraphs more about Ministry of Food, but I think it's better if I point you the key links for you to explore and learn:

Ministry of Food Homepage
Kitchen basics (equipment, cupboard, hygiene and seasona fruit & veg)
A PDF for cooking learners: The basics about kitchen equipment
The Pass It On Movement
Podcast with cooking lessons by Jamie from iTunes
Rotherham Food Centre for cooking classes, Health Trainers advice and cookery demonstrations
News about Ministry of Food's universe
About Jamie: a tiny biog

The Friday Five - Christmas Dinner

The folks at Fuelmyblog run a funny activity called Friday Five, where they ask us questions to be answered from our blog or at comments section in the related Friday Five post at Fuelmyblog's Blog. I encourage everybody to join and answer them!

1. Turkey or Goose?
2. Do you wear the hat in the Christmas Cracker…during the meal only or all day?
3. Funniest joke in a Christmas Cracker?
4. Mulled wine or Champagne?
5. Christmas Pud or Christmas Pie? Mince Pie? (No idea what Christmas Pie is..!)

1. Depends on the family house of celebration. At mine is Cat. No! Not a real cat! (In fact, a siamese female cat owns me and all my family since 1992 ;). Cat is the nickname we use to define a weird recipe (but delicious to eat) involving meat, a sock (obviously Really Clean XD) and a pressure cooker. In case of my in-laws it's the best recipe of cannelloni you can imagine (we always argue about how many are at each tupperware after the dinner). I don't know yet on which I will be posting this Christmas! Well, I think now you get the idea of why all my friends say that I'm from another planet.

2. In Spain there's no such kind of crackers, but we are very fond of wearing the hat at night, preferably after desserts, when the round of high spirited alcohol drinks starts.

3. As I told in point n.2, there are no Christmas Crackers in Spain. However, we cover the joking section singing Christmas carols in the worst way possible. Usually with improvised percussion.

4. In my family's it's Cider, and in my in-laws it's Cava (similar to Champagne but more digestive).

5. None of them. We have a very extense variety of traditional Christmas desserts and sweets, such as turrones, polvorones, marzipan, mantecados, alfajores, etc. Polvorones and mantecados are specially useful also in the joking section due to their stickiness in mouth. It's like trying to swallow a concrete cake! As I love cooking, I also add to the list as many chocolate desserts as I can cook in time...^^

Ceviche - a Sigalon favorite

Wikipedia   Ceviche Recipes

Chilean Ceviche

INGREDIENTS:
1 pound halibut or sea bass fillet
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
6 tablespoons freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
1 whole grapefruit
1/2 teaspoon very finely minced garlic
2 tablespoons very finely minced red chiles
1 tablespoon very finely minced green chiles
1 packed tablespoon chiffonade of fresh mint
2 packed tablespoons chiffonade of cilantro
Garnish: Hot sauce, extra virgin olive oil

PREPARATION:
1. Cut the fish into strips 1 1/2 inches long by 1/4 inch wide. Soak the strips in lightly salted water for 1 hour to tenderize. Drain well.
2. Put the fish in a bowl and fold in the lime juice carefully. Add the salt, garlic, and aji and refrigerate for 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Just before serving, mix in the parsley, cilantro, and onion.

Couscous - Aux Fruits et Saharien

Recipes and Videos.

Have a good time! - Why not look at all the recipes.