I know some expatriate American men who are going to be very happy once they see how easy Mary has made it to eat real barbecue in Italy. Autumn picnics, tailgates, football — it sounds another world from here!
Go see this lip-smacking recipe at Flavors of Abruzzo, where flavors have just become just that much more varied. Thanks, Mary, from the bottom of my heart, for bringing back delicious memories.
Add comment October 10th, 2008
Photos for this post will be added as soon as possible.
photo robbed temporarily from eternallycool.net
This is what chicken and dumplings looks like when it is cooked but not yet arranged on a serving dish.
This version of chicken and dumplings is a dish that derives from very early times in the American colonial period. I learned it from my mother and she from hers. I remember my mother telling me that my grandmother had herbs at her kitchen door that went into this and other dishes and lilacs that perfumed the kitchen and were a place to dry the kitchen towels. That was an image so firmly in my mind that when I looked for a home I looked for herbs and a lilac by the kitchen door.
I don’t have a kitchen door now, but I grow the herbs my grandmother, whom I never knew, grew in Maine and some she could never have grown there. I can see the lilacs from the kitchen door, but they are too tall in this warm country for drying towels.
When she was a little girl, this was eg’s favorite dish and when she was asked on her birthday what she wanted to eat, it was chicken and dumplings. She feels differently now. I might convince her to love it again if I had a pot with a glass lid so she could see the dumplings plump up… what do you think?
Through the years that I have tasted foods from other American ethnic groups, many if not most of them included a version of chicken and dumplings. They often had a different name, but this is what they were. I liked them all. That is my tragedy…. I like almost all of the homey dishes that are made in kitchens next to the family kitchen garden.
If you look at these recipes you’ll see that the typical farm or small town home could provide most of the ingredients, even in winter. Except for the baking powder and flour, everything else might grow right outside the door. That’s really homemade! It’s also a stretchable meal. If you only have 3 pounds of chicken and someone wants to bring a friend or two over for supper, this works. Cut the chicken pieces in half or even smaller. You can just add more vegetables in the same proportions, more salt, of course, and lots more dumplings. Split the stew into two pots so the dumplings will have room to expand. You might even make two versions of them, one plain, one with cheese or herbs, or one with and one without eggs. Both the dumpling recipes are straight out of a 1960 edition of Betty Crocker Cookbook. Remember her?
This dish takes about an hour to make. It might take a lifetime to forget.
La ricetta in italiano segue la salta.
Chicken and dumplings
NB all metric measurements are in the Italian recipe version
Serves 6 to 8
Chicken in pieces — enough to feed your family. I skin mine.
1 large onion in chunks
1 or 2 carrots in chunks, depending on size
2 legs of celery in chunks
optional a splash of Sherry or Marsala
1 quart of water
salt—about 1 teaspoon per 1 pound or .5 kilo of meat and vegetables, start with 1.5 teaspoons
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 teaspoons dried tarragon or a different herb if you like
1 pound of potatoes peeled and cut into chunks
In a large pot, like a Dutch oven, with a good lid, heat some oil, or like me you can fry a bit of the fat removed from the chicken to render some fat. Brown the chicken pieces in the fat you are using. When the pieces are all browned on both sides, toss in the wine if you are using it, then add the onion, carrot and celery chunks. Scatter the herbs over all, then pour in the water. Add about 1-1/2 teaspoons of salt. Bring this to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Taste for salt and correct.
Add the potato chunks, cover again and simmer 10 minutes. While the potatoes are parboiling, start making the dumpling batter:
And this is how it looks when you have just scraped the dough onto the stew. All that sparkle in the middle is the quickly boiling gravy bubbling up.
Dumplings 1
1-1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons oil
¾ cup milk
optional 3 heaped tablespoons of grated dry cheese like grana, Parmigiano or any well-aged hard cheese OR 2 teaspoons of dried herbs.
Put the dry ingredients into a bowl and stir together. Put the liquid ingredients in a measuring cup and stir. Add the wet to the dry and stir with a fork until it makes a lumpy batter. Uncover the chicken stew. Using a big spoon, scoop up some batter and scrape it off onto the chunks of vegetables and meat—not into the liquid. Use all the batter. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, cover the whole thing and cook 10 more minutes without peeking. DO NOT PEEK! When you remove the cover it’s there.
Remove the meat, vegetables and dumplings to a serving bowl or platter and check the gravy for salt. You can thicken the gravy quickly if you like, but work fast so your dumplings will be light and fluffy when they get to the table. Just the cooking of the dumplings in it will thicken it a bit.
Grind some fresh pepper over the dish and serve really hot. I like to eat it in a soup bowl because I don’t thicken the gravy and that allows the dumpling to get lots of savory sauce.
Dumplings 2
1 cup flour
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons oil
1 egg
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons minced parsley
Make them exactly as you made the previous dumplings. I like these even more, but I didn’t make them, because I made half a recipe and I didn’t want to waste half an egg.
So how was it? I have just finished eating chicken and dumplings for breakfast, because early morning is when I usually work on food. It gives me the chance to clean up and wash the floor if I’ve been messy. While I wouldn’t recommend this for breakfast, it was excellent.
I had not made dumplings in decades, so I wasn’t sure the first effort would be publishable, but they are so simple to make that they came out perfectly. The only rule is do not open the lid of the pot for that last 10 minutes so they can rise and become dry and fluffy inside their moist skins. I even liked the carrots with their hint of chicken and herbs.
Chicken and dumplings could easily be made ahead a few days without the dumplings, and then when you want them make the dumplings and cook them on the reheated stew. That would make it a really hearty winter or autumn dish that could be ready 30 minutes after you and the family walk in from work, sports, errands. I don’t know for sure, but I think you might be able to reheat dumplings in the microwave. Someone please try it and tell me?
What NOT to do: Do not make this from skinless chicken breasts. You will never get a broth worth basing a whole meal on from them. Do not leave out any of the three first vegetables, because they are there as much to develop the broth as to eat. You don’t have to eat them, but use them. Don’t be afraid to change to herbs you prefer. There are some strong ones I probably wouldn’t like much, but if your family does, use them.
Questi sono gnocchi tipo americano. Li fanno le mamme americane come piatto unico con una stufata di solito di carne o pollo, ma anche con una stufata vegeteriana.
E’ un piatto più apprezzato nel autunno o inverno. A noi ha un carattere che fa caldo, ma anche è fatto delle verdure del inverno più rigido che quello italiano. Le patate, cipolla e carote, il sedano sono le verdure che conservano bene in fondo e una volta facevano quasi tutto di che cosa c’era d’inverno.
Anche se è fatto con manzo o agnello, il pollo è la carne più comune ed è la carne ho cucinato io. Quando è stata una bambina, quest’era il piatto preferito della figliola. L’ho cucinato innumerevole volte per lei. Lo cucinerà ancora ogni volta lei mi chiede.
Pollo in umido coi gnocchi americani
6-8 persone
Pollo a pezzi, quanto basta per la tua famiglia—il mio faccio senza pelle
Una cipolla grande a pezzi grandi
1 o 2 caroti, depende la taglia, a pezzi grandi
2 gambe di sedano, a pezzi grandi
un pò di Marsala
1 litro acqua
sale qb
2 cucchiaini timo
2 cucchiaini drogoncello o un altro profumo preferito
500 g patate, perlate e tagliate a pezzi grandi
In una casseruola grande con una coperchio stretto, riscalda un pò d’olio con un pò del grasso che hai tagliato del pollo. Arrosolare il pollo a tutti lati, e poi aggiungi il vino. Aggiungi la cipolla, la carota e il sedano. Aggiungi I profumi sopra, poi l’acqua. Aggiungi il sale circa 1.5 cucchiaini. Porti a bollizione, e poi coptilo, riduci la fiamma a sobollire and lascia cucinare fino a è cotto il pollo. Con un pollo giovane, ci vuole circa 30 minuti. Assagi e coreggi il sale.
Aggiungi le patate e ricoprilo per 10 minuti. Mentre cuocono le patate, fai la pasta dei gnocchi.
Gnocchi 1
200 g farina 00
2 cuchiaini rasi lievita in polvere
¾ cucchiaino sale
2 cuchiai olio di semi
165 ml latte
se vuoi, anche 3 cucchiai colmi di grana gratugiatta o 2 cucchiaini erbe profumate secchi
Mette gli ingredienti secchi in una ciottola e mescolargli. Mette gli ingredienti fluidi in un fiasco di misura e mescolargli.. Aggiungi gli ingredienti del fiasco sugli ingredienti nella ciottola e mescolargli con una forchetta solamente fino a sono inumidati. NON mescolargli troppo! Ci rimangono chicchi. Va bene così, ti giuro. Scopri la stufata e usando due cucchiai, prendi qualche pasta e togli e fai cadere sulle verdure e la carne, non nella’acqua. Usi tutto la pasta. Cucini scoperta per 10 minuti, e poi coprila e cucini un’altra 10 minuti—rigorosamente senze do scoprila! Se toglie il coperchio troppo presto saranno falliti I gnocchi.
Servi la stufata nei piatti fondi caldo fumante.
Gnocchi 2
130 g farina 00
1.5 cuchiaini rasi di lievita in polvere
.5 cuchiaino sale
2 cucchiai olio di semi
1 uovo
90 ml latte
2 cucchiai prezzemolo tritato
Procedi precisamente come i gnocchi 1. Mi piacciono anche più i gnocchi 2, ma perchè volevo fare la metà di la ricetta e la metà d’un uovo fa fatica, ho fatto gnocchi 1. Ma I gnocchi 2 sono più ricchi.
Come era? Buonissima! Davvero un piatto per I giorni che fa freddo, che tira il vento, che piove a fa buio permanente. E’ anche un piatto che piace ai bambini. Per I giorni impegnati, fai la stufata un’altro giorno, e poi riscaldila e fai I gnocchi proprio prima del pasto. E’ anche un piatto elastico, che se venga qualcuno in più si può taglieare I pezzi di pollo più piccoli e fare più dei gnocchi. In America quella qualità è stata importante, perchè a casa nostra sono venuti gli ospiti inaspettati.
Cosa non fare: Non fare questo piatto dei petti do pollo senza pelle. Non raggiunge mai un brodo saporito così. Non omettere niente dei profumi, anche se non vuoi mangairli, fanno il brodo. Non hai paura di cambiare l’erbe profume secondo gusto tuo.
6 comments October 3rd, 2008
Not my mom’s, but Michelle’s mom’s. Just think, it is only six months until beach picnics begin. I’m ready.
Anyway, potato salad is good any time there is a ham, or hotdogs or, or, or…
2 comments September 26th, 2008
Don’t worry about the photo, I’ve got a bunch of them and one is bound to be focused better.
This is not aji de gallina as my favorite Peruvian used to make it for us. This is not even as genuine an effort as I could make in the United States. This is aji de gallina the way a person can make it in Italy if she is fortunate enough to have Texan friends who carry chilli peppers to her in their luggage. Someone who lives in Torino, Milano, Roma, and maybe other big, international cities of Italy may be able to buy chillis of all types– perhaps even the gorgeous yellow aji amarillo pepper. People who live in charming backwaters cannot.
The real thing is pink and feminine and complex and delicious with a fire that warms the tongue and never burns it. My Italian version is different every time I make it depending on which peppers I use and the color is not the pastel the aji pepper gives, but a robust autumny and coppery red.
I like a change once in a while. I adore cooking, writing about and eating Italian food, but inside lurks that American girl who always asked “Where is Chinatown in this city?” whenever she went to a new place. For a summer garden lunch in July, I indulged that lurker and Barb Skinner, who came to lunch, must have felt the same, because she asked me to post this recipe. It has taken all this time to have the occasion to make it again so I could photograph it. And here it is.
Aji de Gallina
Serves about 6
1 4-pound chicken, an old hen if you can buy one
4 slices of plain white bread without crusts
1/2 cup of oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 teaspoons minced garlic
3-6 dried chili peppers soaked in boiling chicken broth to soften them, the amount depending on how hot they are and how spicy you want your aji to be
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 pound (200 g) chopped walnuts or other nutmeats
4 ounces (100 g) grated Parmesan cheese
about ½ liter of milk
6 yellow potatoes, cooked and halved
Black olives and hardboiled eggs, for garnish
Boiled rice
Cook the chicken by simmering in a tall pot with a carrot, an onion, a leg of celery, salt and water to cover it all. If it is a young chicken it won’t take very long, but if it is a hen you should leave it to cook by itself for 2 –4 hours, or until it is tender. Remove the chicken from the pot keeping the broth. Remove the meat from the bone and skin and cut into pieces.
Soak the chilis in the chicken broth. Soak the bread in milk to cover.
Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the onion, garlic and softened chili peppers until golden. Use a stick blender or a food processor to make this into a smooth paste. Add the milk-soaked bread. Add enough of the chili-broth to make a cream. Cook over low heat, stirring, for 10 minutes and then add the chopped nuts, grated cheese and cut chicken. Simmer, stirring, adding more milk as necessary to make the sauce the consistency of heavy cream. Taste and correct for salt.
Using bread to thicken a sauce means that it can become very thick and sticky, so watch and stir carefully toward the end of the cooking.
Arrange chunks of cooked potato on a platter, then pile rice over that. Pour the aji over the rice and garnish with olives and wedges of boiled egg.
Now I know you are thinking you don’t really need to use both potatoes and rice under this aji. You’re wrong. It was my first occasion eating this that broke through what I thought I knew about food and made me want to learn and go to culinary school. Until I ate this, I thought rice and potatoes didn’t have much flavor. Eaten together they reveal what there is of the other and you discover that they in truth have strong flavors. It was that watershed experience that helped me understand that most good ingredients are perfect within themselves and properly respected can create art in the mouth without smothering sauces and piling on multiple flavors. It was not much of a leap to the day when eg made fun of me for saying a cucumber is sugary. To me it is, but she’ll still laugh her head off if you say it.
8 comments September 22nd, 2008
Mary of The Flavors of Abruzzo has made us her version of potato salad. With temperatures scratching the 90s, it’s a timely choice and a very interesting recipe, too.
It may look like the page isn’t going to load, but give it a few seconds and it does show up. There is a file problem on her blog that hasn’t been solved yet, but after a couple of color changes, the article showed up for me.
Thank you, Mary, for taking time from your new boy to cook for us.
We’re very sorry if the link to Mary didn’t work for you. Her server has unresolved issues, but I have changed the link now to one that works.
Add comment September 12th, 2008
This is for expatriates who, like me, are confused about cuts of beef. It’s surprising how differently butchers from one part of the world can see meat as compared to those from another part of the world. Although this post is in Italian, it’s easy Italian and may help you the next time you need to pay way too much money for beef. At least it won’t be mystery meat.
It’s another useful post at Ginger & Tomato! Those folks really know how to do it.
2 comments August 15th, 2008
Well, it turns out that eg is not nearly as normal as I thought. She sometimes does photograph her food. She sent a picture of her peppers.
She did not send the recipe.
She also sent this one of zucchine frying, a photo in which you can admire her unusual choice in kitchen color. Yay, eg!
I appreciate boldness. I especially appreciate boldness in relatives.
Anybody else have photos of their food that they are proud of?
Today is the first day that I help Alex a bit with Food and Wine Friday at Blog from Italy. We are hoping to have something different to say from the usual about Italian food and wine, who eats it, what they think of it and where to get it. Today he is all over gelato. Go slobber on your monitor!
2 comments August 1st, 2008
You can get lucky and buy hotdog and hamburger buns as good as anything you are used to. Or you can buy an innocent looking package of buns and they will be as sweet as Italian breakfast brioche. That really bothered me. So I wandered around the internet and found a recipe to make them at home, then of course had to alter the recipe to be made with Italian ingredients.
I made these miniature. I had just found packets of tiny hotdogs that were 25 grams each, four to a 100 gram package. I thought they were really cute, so making the buns for them was even more apt. This recipe made twelve each of tiny buns. If you made them normal sized, I think you could make sixteen of them. Naturally, most people will want to make all one kind, not both kinds.
These are a bit firmer and breadier than buns I bought in USA supermarkets. I would not hesitate to use them for any sandwich for which a soft bun is all right. That would include lobster rolls (oh sigh) or crab or shrimp rolls (which we can do here depending on if crab meat is available. It’s real bread, just a soft bread without a crunch crust.
I have always preferred the style of hotdog buns with smooth top and bottom and rough sides. Before making these I had no idea I had any sentiments about hotdog buns, but I apparently do. Anyway, I put them close together so they would come out that way.
Hotdog or hamburger buns
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup (250 ml) milk
1/4 cup (125 ml) water or you may need a bit more
1/4 cup (50 g) butter
2-1/4 cups (300 g) 00 flour, farina di grano tenero
1-1/2 cups (200 g) bread flour, farina di grano duro, or farina di Manitoba
1 (.25 ounce) package instant yeast which is also, handily, 7 g just as you find it in Italy
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoons salt
1 egg
1 egg for egg washing
DIRECTIONS:
In a small saucepan, heat milk, water and butter until very warm, 120 degrees F (50 degrees C).
In a large bowl, mix together 1 3/4 cup (230 g) flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Mix milk mixture into flour mixture, and then mix in egg. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. You might need a bit more water if the weather is dry or the flour is. I use the dough hooks on my Braun multi-mixer. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes, or you can do most of it with dough hooks and just do the last bit by hand.
Divide dough into 16 equal pieces. Shape into smooth balls, and place on an oven paper covered baking sheet. Flatten slightly. Cover, and let rise for 30 to 45 minutes. It may be the difference between all purpose US flour and the mix of two Italian flours, but mine definitely needed more rising time that that predicted by the recipe.
Make an egg wash of an egg and a bit of cold water, then brush it over the surfaces before putting them into the oven. That’s how you get that shiny, golden crust.
Bake at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) for 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown.
For Hot Dog Buns: Shape each piece into a 6×4 inch (10 X 15 cm) rectangle. Starting with the longer side, roll up tightly, and pinch edges and ends to seal. Let rise about 30 to 45 minutes. Bake as above. You could also make Philly steak sub rolls, but I think it would make about 6 and take from 12-15 minutes to bake. Try and tell me what you get—- I am on a DIET and cannot do it.
It takes less than 1.5 hours, and for most of that you are doing nothing. This is a worthy project! At my market prices, it costs about one euro, too. Stick them into a plastic sack and tie it tightly with a twistie and in the freezer they’ll stay fresh at least a month.
Gnam gnam!
In Italiano:
Questi sono i panini per hamburger e wurstel come sono dalla vera cucina americana. Non somigliano tanto quelli venduti nel supermercato. Provateli!
Panini per hotdog e hamburger
ingredienti:
250 ml latte
125 ml acqua (o possibilmente di più)
50 g burro
300 g farina 00 di grano tenero
200 g farina di grano duro
una bustina (7 g) lievita di birra in polvere
2 cucchiai di zucchero
1 cucchiaino di sale
1 uovo
1 uovo per la glassa
Preperazione: circa 15 minute e poi 40 lievitazione e poi 12 minute di cottura. Meno di 1.5 ore per un pane buono, morbido e sano!
Riscalda in una piccola padella il latte, l’acqua e il burro fino a 50 gradi.
In una ciottola grande, mette 230 g di farina e aggiunge il liquido, battendo fortamente. Aggiunge l’uovo and mescolare bene. Man mano, aggiunge il resto della farina, battendo ogni volta di incorporarla bene. Poi, su una superficie spargata di farina, lavorate la pasta fino a è lisce e elastica.
Per panini di hamburger, dividete la pasta in 16 pezzi, facendo palle. Distribuiscete i panini sulla carta da forno su una placca. Copriteli e lasciateli a lievitare 30-45 minuti.
Quando sono pronti, riscalda il forno a 200° C.
Mescolate l’uovo che rimane con un po’ di acqua con una forchetta per fare una glassa e poi con un pennelino aplicatela su i panini. Infornateli per 10-12 minute, fino al sono dorati.
Per fare i panini do hotdog, dividete la pasta in 16 pezzi, e fa un rettangolo di 10X15 cm. Iniziando da lato più lungo, rottolarli stretti e poi sigillarli bene gli estremità sotto il panino. Finite e infornateli come di sopra.
Sono ottimi per il congelatore, metteteli in un sacco di plastica, siggilatela con i twistie, e i panini rimangono freschi per almeno un mese. La ricetta costa circa un euro qui in Umbria.
17 comments June 27th, 2008
Mary of Abruzzo Flavors was to have published our Made in America recipe this Friday, but she went off and delivered a little boy instead. That would be Luigi and I know he is a very welcome new little Italian, and also a very welcome new little American!
So Friday, the Made in America recipe will be right here. It’s perfect timing, because it is something you can use for the 4th of July.
1 comment June 25th, 2008
My Italian friends don’t see the point to it, but Barb has delighted her friends just a few miles south with this recipe for cole slaw. Mangiate!
Add comment June 20th, 2008
