Schiacciata con l'uva - Tuscan grape bread

Well there were still grapes in the fridge and so what to do. Many years ago I recall watching a cooking program that I was sure was The de Medici Kitchen and there was a description of a flat-bread being made at harvest time stuffed and topped with grapes. OK, a sweet foccacia !!

So I looked through my books by Lorenza de Medici and could not find the recipe. So, then looked through other Italian books and finally found it in Claudia Roden's book "The Food of Italy" on page 137. Although my older edition has a different cover.

There is a link to search the book here and Judith Sweet (this week's theme !) wrote up the recipe in the Hobart Mercury here.

It is a very simple dish and a good way to use up grapes while making bread. You can just use all grapes or for a boozy taste use the dessert wine- soaked raisins. You can just use your favourite bread dough or pizza dough as the base with some sugar added.

It is a rustic dish and designed to be eaten by the grape pickers.

Florentine flat bread with grapes
(Schiacciata con l’uva)

Ingredients:

2 tbsp fresh yeast or 1 tbsp dried yeast
150ml milk, lukewarm
300g bakers' flour
130g sugar
pinch salt
500g black grapes, pitted, skin on
200g raisins soaked in Vin Santo or other
sweet dessert wine.

Method:

If using fresh yeast, place it in the TM bowl with the milk and mix for 10 seconds at 37°C on speed 4. Add flour, 100g of sugar and the salt and mix for 15 seconds at 37°C on speed 4.

If using dried yeast, add it to the flour, 100g of sugar and the salt and mix for 10 seconds at 37°C on speed 4. Then add the milk and mix for 15 seconds at 37°C on speed 4.

Place the Thermomix into the Closed Lid position and set to use the Interval button to Knead for 3 minutes then leave in the TM bowl to double in size.

Once doubled, punch the dough done and set the machine to knead for another 1 minute 30 seconds.

Remove dough and shape into two rounds about 22cm across.

Place one on a floured baking tray and cover it with half the grapes and half the raisins, drained.

Place the remaining dough on top, press down quite firmly and cover with the rest of
the grapes and drained raisins.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Cover the dough and leave until doubled in size.

Sprinkle with the remaining 30g sugar and bake for about 45 minutes, until golden on top.

Thermomix Mango Custards in the Varoma

Well sweet was the theme and as I love making custards in the Thermomix Varoma (steaming attachment) and mangoes are very plentiful at present, steamed mango custards it was for me.

The book that inspired me was “Belle Cuisine, The international encyclopedia of New Cuisine” by Hilary Walden ( and Jean-Louis Pollet) 1986, Quatro Publishing. It is interesting to look back at what was in vogue 25 years ago. Many of the dishes would still basically be acceptable with flavour combinations and techniques, but maybe not the presentations.



However, any book that has pictures of M. Bocuse and acknowledges his contribution to cuisine is bound to attract my attention.

There are many recipes for free-standing mousses, custards and bavarois, so I decided to try a mango custard, using just mango, sugar and eggs. The custards were cooked in the Varoma and when first cooked and unmoulded they wanted to collapse (as in the picture with the glazed mango cheek), but as they cooled, and especially after refrigerating, they became firm, yet silky smooth.





Mango Custards in the Varoma

Ingredients:

50 g sugar
2 large ripe mangoes, approx 400g flesh in chunks
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Place sugar in TM bowl and grind for 30 seconds on speed 9.

Add the mango flesh and blend for 20 seconds on speed 5.

Add the eggs and vanilla and mix through for 15 seconds on speed 3.

Pour the mixture into 6 greased dariole moulds and place into the Varoma tray.

Place 700 g water into the TM bowl and position lid and Varoma tray.

Cook the custards for 30 minutes at Varoma temperature on speed 1. Check after 25 minutes to see if the custards have set. They may need a little less or more time.

Leave for 5 minutes before gently unmoulding, or cool and place in fridge for a few hours to serve cold.

Thermomix Tiramisù Ice Cream

This sweet little number comes from Allan Campion and Michele Curtis’ book “In The Kitchen”. This cookbook has a wealth of (over 1000) very tasty recipes presented in easy to understand format, using readily available ingredients.

I have made many other recipes from their book, but this one caught Mrs T’s eye and, as we had all the ingredients (except sweetened condensed milk), I decided to make some dulce and then use some of the thickened mixture to substitute for the canned milk.



Also, simply because the triangular mould was there, I decided to vary the recipe.

The original recipe only has coffee drizzled over the last layer of sponge fingers, however, I would use more coffee and liqueur next time and drizzle over more of the biscuits. You don’t want to soak them, but some extra flavour and moisture would be good.

It has been a great success though and thanks go to Allan & Michele, and Rosemary di Benedetto who supplied them with the idea.

Tiramisù Ice-Cream

Ingredients:

125 ml strong black coffee (or more as desired)
2 Tbsp coffee liqueur
395 g can sweetened condensed milk
600 ml cream
60 ml milk
12 sponge fingers

Method:

Carefully line a medium (21cm x 9cm x 6cm) loaf tin with cling film.

Mix the coffee and liqueur together and allow to cool.

Position the butterfly over the blades in the TM bowl. Place the condensed milk, cream and milk into the TM bowl and whip for 3 minutes on speed 4, or until thick. Add half of the coffee mixture and beat for 10 seconds on speed 3.

Lay 6 sponge finger biscuits in the base of the tray (I would then spoon over some coffee mixture) and cover with the milk and cream mix. Top with the remaining sponge fingers and spoon over the remaining coffee mixture.

Freeze overnight.

Remove from the tin and cut into 1 cm slices and then cut these diagonally. Serve with a butterscotch sauce.

I Love You Alice B Toklas - Divine Dulce

“The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook” would probably not be well known to most blog readers, however, much can be found online about Alice B. Toklas, her life and times with Gertrude Stein and others, and her cookbook.

On page 259 is the infamous recipe for Haschich Fudge (which anyone could whip up on a rainy day), that inspired the title for the film starring Peter Sellers “I Love You, Alice B. Toklas”. The instructions point out that “obtaining the canibus may present certain difficulties.....”, but that “two pieces (of the fudge) are quite sufficient.”

It also has 2 versions of Dulce. Neither recipe really gives the most wonderful explanation for how to prepare dulce de leche. You can find the recipes from the book with instructions for the dulce by searching in the Amazon link.

Despite not being thorough in the explanations and testing, there are many interesting recipes and anecdotes including the time she prepared sea bass for Pablo Picasso.

It has loads of great ideas and thinking about the life of Alice B. Toklas makes you sit back and dream of yesteryear.

There are many recipes now for dulce de leche made with cans of sweetened condensed milk heated either on the stove or in the oven. The Thermomix makes light work of making the dulce from milk, cream, sugar and bicarb soda – and it odes the stirring that Alice said needed to be continuous.

There have been problems with the mixture bubbling over like Mt Vesuvius, but if the speed is kept at Speed 5, then the foam will not form. I made a little video to show that when the speed drops from 5 to 3, the mixture starts to bubble through the opening in the lid. But turning the speed back up to 5 eliminates the foam and allows the dulce to happily develop over 45 minutes.

Unfortunately there were problems embedding the video, so if you click on the thumbnail you can see that video (if you need to)




After about 15 minutes of mixing the liquid resembles sweetened condensed milk and I took some out to make a tiramisù ice cream.

Once it was finished the mixture was thick and caramelly and deliciously sweet.

The recipe below is based on one from Amanda in Spain.

Thermomix Dulce de Leche

Ingredients:

1 litre milk
220g sugar
100g cream
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

Method:

Place ingredients into TM bowl and cook for 45 minutes on Varoma temperature at Speed 5. Place basket on lid with an open-weave cloth to allow it to evaporate without spraying mxiture all over the room.

When finished, quickly pour into jar and leave it to cool. When it cools it will be nice and thick. Keep in the fridge

Thermomix Sea Urchin Custards

With soft as the theme for the week I just had to put in a custard. This was inspired by my meal at Ristorante Cracco earlier in the year. Carlo Cracco uses sea urchins (ricci di mare) in many of his dishes, including this beef kidneys with sea urchin roe.



He also made a creamed risotto with sea urchins and coffee in the Thermomix in Heston Blumenthal's episode on risotto.

The chapter "Harbour Picnic" in Stephanie Alexander's "A Shared Table" contains a recipe for a sea urchin custard. You can find a snippet with Janni Kyritsis and Stephanie talking about sea urchins and the sea urchin custard here at ABC downloads.

Many people will be put off by the appearance of the sea urchin and fortunately you can now buy them already cleaned. There are Australian and imported roe for sale from good fishmongers. They have a very delicate flavour and despite their appearance are easy to clean and obtain the roe.

I know this is not going to be a big hit, but we loved it and MrsT was very sceptical when she saw me preparing the dish. However, once she had tried it she was hooked on the flavour and texture.

Sea urchin custards in the Thermomix Varoma

Ingredients:

4 large sea urchins
2 Tbsp chervil leaves
1 golden shallot
600 ml cream
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
Salt and pepper
6 greased small ceramic dishes

Method:

Cut open the sea urchins, pointy nosed pliers inserted into the mouth and then opened is the easiest way. Reserve the orange tongues of roe (there should be 5 per urchin). Place on paper towel and cover with plastic wrap.

Place the shallot into the TM bowl and mince for 10 seconds on speed 5. Add the chervil, 14 of the sea urchin roe and the cream and cook for 10 minutes at 80°C on speed 1. Leave in TM bowl for 1 hour to infuse.

After 1 hour blend for 30 seconds on speed 10. Add the eggs and egg yolks and blend for 20 seconds on speed 6. Add salt and pepper to taste and pass the mixture through a muslin cloth (note that I was too lazy to do this and so there are specks on the custards :) ).

Pour the mixture into the ceramic dishes and arrange in the Varoma tray and dish. Put 700g water into the TM bowl, position the lid and Varoma and cook for 20 minutes at Varoma temperature on speed 1.

Leave the custards to settle for 5 minutes before garnishing with two sea urchin tongues per bowl.

Thermomix Otak Otak

Well soft being the theme for the week, I immediately thought of otak otak. A dish that I have had a few times in various forms, but then ones that I particularly prefer are the soft, squishy ones that remind you of the texture of brains. After all, otak apparently means brains in Malay.

The best otak otak that I recall eating was prepared by Annie Lee at a cooking school in Penang. It had such a delicate, soft texture and melted in the mouth.

Usually the otak otak is cooked in a banana leaf or pandan leaf deftly folded before grilling or steaming. The fish mixture is flavoured with a spice mix that usually has turmeric and chilli, but other ingredients seem to vary.

One simple method of cooking for larger groups is to place the otak otak mixture into greased dariole moulds and cook in a bain-marie in the oven or steamer.

The Thermomix is great for making the spice mix, for chopping the fish and blending the custard mixture and then steaming the little custards.

The cookbook that I used to prepare a simple otak otak was Charmaine Solomon's Encyclopedia of Asian Food . It has an easy recipe that does not require unusual or difficult to source ingredients.

Rather than embarrass myself with poor banana leaf folding technique, I opted to cook the custards in dariole moulds.

It is a simple dish with great flavour and, as long as they are not overcooked, soft texture.

Otak Otak

Ingredients:

Spice mix:
3 dried red chillies, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes (or 1 tsp chilli powder)
1 lemongrass, white part only cut into 2 cm pieces
1 clove garlic
2 candlenuts (or macadamias)
1 medium onion
1 kaffir lime leaf, thick stem removed and thinly sliced
6 Vietnamese mint leaves
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp belacan, toasted (optional – even 2 tsp fish sauce)

500g firm white fish, in 2 cm pieces
200ml coconut milk
2 eggs
1 Tbsp rice flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

8 greased dariole moulds

Method:

Place spice mix ingredients into the TM bowl and blend for 40 seconds at speed 7. Scrape the bowl down after 20 seconds.

Add fish and blend for 10 seconds on speed 5. Then add remaining ingredients and mix for 10 seconds on speed 3.

Place mixture into the moulds and put into the Varoma tray. Roughly clean out the TM bowl and add 700g water. Place lid on and position the Varoma and steam the custards for 20 minutes at Varoma temp on speed 1.

Serve warm with a suitable sauce.

Christmas pizza - pizza di Natale

OK. This is not strictly a Thermomix recipe, but thought that I would share the concept.

This is another recipe from Armando Percuoco and David Dale's new cookbook called "Buon Ricordo, How to make your home a great restaurant." The recipe is also in their previous cookbook, La Cucina Italiana.

It is another way to use up that panettone that you got for Christmas and don't want to make into a pudding

It is simple, but looks great and tastes delicious. I used peaches instead of kiwifruit, but a mix of berries and other summer fruits will work just fine.

Grazie mille Armando e buon appetito a tutti.

Pizza di Natale

Ingredients:

2 peaches, stoned and sliced
200g strawberries, hulled and sliced
200g blueberries
400g raspberries
2 Tbsp Maraschino liqueur (or cassis,kirsch,or similar liqueur - or orange juice)
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp water
1 panettone (or sponge), about 10 - 13 cm diameter
12 mint leaves, finely chopped
ice cream or cream to serve

Method:

Place the peaches, strawbeeries, blueberries and half of the raspberries into a bowl and drizzle over the liqueur nnd 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Mix togethere and leave for an hour to macerate.

Slice off four discs of the panettone about 2 cm thick and place a disc in the middle of 4 plates.

Place a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the centre and spoon the fruit over the panettone.

Place the remaining raspberries into the Thermomix with the other tablespoon of sugar and the water. Puree for 30 seconds on speed 9 and drizzle the coulis over the fruita dn ice cream. Sprinkle the mint over the top.