You might now know it but there is a debate raging on the backstory of Chicken Cacciatore!
Commonly received wisdom will have you believing that Chicken Cacciatore or Hunter’s Chicken originated in Renaissance Italy.
The big problem with this theory is that there were no tomatoes in Renaissance Italy – they only came to Italy post the discovery of the New World!
Ah, but the…let’s call them the Old Worlders will tell you, “It was made without tomatoes back in the day”.
Possible. But tomatoes seem to be fairly integral to the idea of Chicken Cacciatore. Even this old recipe for it which doesn’t contain mushrooms or olives or any of the additions we see in modern Cacciatore contains tomatoes. Two types!
By the way, how adorable is this recipe? The whole book is like this! And where else have you read a recipe that mentions “wretched” little chicken wing or tells you to stir something with enthusiasm!
But, I’ve only told you one side of the debate. The second theory of Chicken Cacciatore comes from Nikki Sengit from her amazing book, The Flavour Thesaurus. Her contention is that Chicken Cacciatore is about as Italian as Chicken Tikka Masala is Indian!
“Hunter’s Stew – which is not, sadly, the invention of pockmarked Sicilian peasants, returning home with a brace of feral chickens slung over their waistcoats, but an English recipe from the 1950’s taught to nice girls by their mothers in the hope they’d bag the sort of chap who’d neither be too unadventurous nor too suspiciously cosmopolitan to object to a lightly herbed slop of chicken in tomato sauce”
Oh Nikki, so harsh!
Chicken Cacciatore is delicious!!! At least this recipe, which is the one I used is! I only took one photo so here it is again!
So, tell me which side of the debate do you land on? Renaissance or 1950’s. Either way, buon appetito and have a great week!!!!
Today we are celebrating with an Italian treat called a Torta Mimosa. In Italy, men give the women they love a sprig of mimosa on International Women’s Day (March 8th). In Australia, it is autumn and we will not have mimosa (what we call wattle) for another six or so months so swapped in some gorgeous lilies instead.
The Torta Mimosa is also traditionally served on International Women’s Day in Italy. Or as the Italians would say, Festa Della Donna – it sounds so much more glamorous when you say it like that doesn’t it?
The Torta Mimosa, as the name suggests is meant to look like a sprig of mimosa. I’m not entirely sure that it does but damn it tastes good!
It’s a sponge cake, filled with creme pâtissière (and I added some lemon curd), then covered with small squares of sponge to create the mimosa look.
It’s light, fresh and a lovely way to celebrate all the wonderful,amazing women in your life!
I am so very lucky to have a many inspirational women in my life – from family, friends, work mates, the tasty reads crew, friends from the gym, to the people who I have met through doing this blog. I feel privileged to know such a number of smart, witty, sassy, strong women, each of whom help to make my life, and the lives of all around them better and brighter.
Oh boy…this recipe is not hard to make but there are lots of parts.
I made Margaret Fulton’s sponge cake from The Great Australian Cookbook. Twice.
I used the creme pâtissière from The Joy Of Cooking
And I also used some bought lemon curd in the layers to add some tanginess.
Here is a link to a very similar recipe on Epicurious:
Did you miss me? I’ve been on holidays – three weeks out of the grey Melbourne cold and into the warmth of sunny Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia. The holiday was amazing and I will fill you in on the details over the next few weeks, most particularly about the amazing food.
Here is (literally) a taster….
You know how in most supermarkets you get tasting plates? For example, earlier today in my local supermarket I got to sample 3 kinds of dumplings (prawn, scallop and mushroom), 5 flavours of kombucha tea and some chia pudding…(yeah, my local supermarket is awesome!) Well, in Cambodia, the taster plates consist of Bamboo Worms…and only $2 a kilo!
Bamboo Worms
And these are deep fried crickets….an even better bargain at half the price of the worms…
Crickets
This is me about to taste one of the bamboo worms:
Cambodia Taste Testing
But before we go there, I wanted to talk to you about meatballs. As much as we love Asian food, after three weeks of it we were craving something that wasn’t. Funnily enough, we both had cravings for pretty much the same thing.
He wanted spaghetti bolognese. I wanted spaghetti and meatballs. I was doing the cooking so spaghetti and meatballs it was! As I was cooking these, I realised why this is such awesome comfort food (it’s not like either of us has Italian heritage). My meatballs are crammed full of umami flavours – parmesan, mushrooms, tomatoes, red wine….Hmmm…is red wine umami? Well it’s pretty damn good even if it isn’t. Also, the original recipe for this called for an anchovy fillet. I didn’t happen to have any so I added saltiness with a dash of fish sauce…guess what? More umami!
Spaghetti and Meatballs (and the joys of a plate on your knee in front of the telly…it really is good to be back)
The spaghetti and meatballs were delicious and everything I wanted – something to warm our bones in the winter cold, something that was quick and easy to cook after a day of travelling and something familiar – comfort food at it’s best!!!
They also require very little in terms of fresh ingredients so you can keep shopping to a minimum. And, if you were super organised, you could make a batch and pop them in the freezer before you left. (Massive sigh). I would love to be that organised!!!!
So, it was spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and then, (this mixture makes a lot of meatballs) I made a molten meatball mountain (i.e, a meatball sandwich ) for my lunch the next day. The meatballs were great with the spaghetti but for my mind, even better in the sandwich the next day. And Oscar was on hand for any leftovers.
Of which there were none!
Molten Meatball Sandwich
Remember these?
They tasted like this:
I wouldn’t say this was the worst thing I have ever eaten…but it sure wasn’t good. The outside was kind of crunchy and not so bad. It was the inside that was gross. It didn’t taste so much of anything, it just had an unpleasant texture – mushy and slightly gritty. Not to mention the thought that was impossible to dispel. “That thing in your mouth? That’s worm guts…you’re eating worm guts…that thing you just bit into, that was probably work heart….”
Not good.
Thank goodness I found much better things to eat in Phnom Pehn. Which I will tell you about next time…
Have a fabulous week!
PS – Is anyone doing the kombucha thing? I kind of want to grow my own….if you are please let me know!
Ever made food where just looking at it made you feel happy?
Spinach and Cheese Arancini
That’s how I felt with the December Daring Kitchen Challenge. Just looking at these golden balls of goodness made me smile.
Yes, I did just say golden balls of goodness, and yes, I did have a little smirk as I did.
Sigh.
I so have the mind of a 12-year-old boy. And you know what? This whole post is full of stuff like that.
So, you know, take a moment….watch this clip from a British tv show called, I kid you not, Golden Balls, which appears to be a game show version of the Prisoner’s dilemma. (Yay, I knew that Philosophy major would come in handy one day! Stay tuned, next week…Baking with Nietzsche…)
Anyway, marvel at the British nuttiness of it all and come back ready to talk about arancini….
January’s Daring Cooks’ challenge was a ball! The lovely Manu from Manu’s Menu brought our taste buds to the streets of Sicily and taught us her family tradition of making arancine – filled and fried balls of risotto. Delizioso!
These were super delizioso but believe me, you’re not making them in any sort of hurry. These babies need some time and devotion to the cause.
First you’ve got to make:
The Risotto
Arancini Ingredients
I’ll put the full recipe at the end. but this is actually a great risotto recipe.
What you end up with is this. How gorgeous is this bright yellow?
This lovely sunshiney yellow is well on its way to becoming my favourite colour. And mmmmm…butter….
Saffron Risotto
Then you lay it into a tray to cool and then you make…
Golden Balls o’ Sunshine…
Saffron Risotto Balls
And you know what? You could stop right here and crumb these babies and they would be all kinds of delicious. But in the daring kitchen, we’re turning that flavour experience up to 11. Yeah. EL-EV-EN.
Starting With:
The Bechamel
Wow. has there ever been a bigger moment of cognitive dissonance?
Did you all just fist pump the air Eye of the Tiger style and then do a double take?
Bechamel? WTF? BlecHHHHHamel more like. Isn’t that the creepy white sauce that tastes like glue?
Bear with me..this one’s good.
You need to make it quite thick.
Bechamel Sauce
And finally:
The Filling
I chose to do a spinach and mozzarella filling. The recipe has a meat ragu version and a cheese version.
I didn’t get a photo of the sauteed spinach.
But it looked like sauteed spinach.
Trust me.
Filling the Arancini 1
You make a hole in the Risotto ball and add the filling ingredients – sauce, cheese, spinach.
And close.
Word to the wise. Do the sauce first. I’ll show you what happens in a moment if you try to do the sauce last…
Filling the Arancini 2
One of these things does not quite belong…guess which one of these was the one where I put the sauce in last?
Filled Arancini
See what I mean about this being a labour of love?
It’s not all over yet folks, now you gotta egg them, crumb them and fry them up.
Bet you’re thinking you can sit down and have a quiet bottle of vino and some valium now aren’t you?
Not so fast, Speedy. These are fabulous and you could quite easily eat them as is. Look at that oozy goodness….
Yep, oozy goodness from my golden balls…don’t roll your eyes…you were warned.
Spinach and Cheese Arancini 3
But remember when i said we were taking this up to eleven?
For eleven you need my spicy tomato relish (recipe below)
The arancini have a delightful crunch, then the aromatic risotto and the creamy cheesey garlicy goodness of the filling. The relish brings some heat and some tanginess. And that my friends is the five food groups covered.
I was recently strolling around my local purveyor of fine alcoholic beverages (or as we like to call it, our second home) when a retro looking bottle caught my eye. A very glamorous Elke Sommer looking woman is being draped in a fur coat by a man who looks like a 1970’s tennis player or a porn star (possibly both). The label promised “an experience of elegance and lingering pleasure” which only further reinforced the boom chicka wah wah soundtrack that was going through my head. The name: Kellermeister Sable. According to the back of the bottle, Sable is a
“base of ruby tawny into which we have steeped dark German Chocolate, special spices and three year old brandy”
You know those moments when Homer Simpson goes into the donut fugue state? I think I lapsed into something very similar. Standing there mumbling to myself “Ruby Tawny…dark chocolate….special spices….brandy…ruby tawny…..” Ruby Tawny may well become the name of my first-born child. I hope it’s a girl.
The bottle, in all it’s gorgeous retroness did give me pause though. I honestly wasn’t sure if it was meant to be retro chic. Or it just came from South Australia. If anyone from South Australia wants to dispute the implication of this statement I suggest they first go and count the people with mullets walking down Rundle Mall. They can lodge their complaints when they have a number less than ten.
Ok, we may have lost South Australia forever so the rest of us might as well get on with it. Sable is meant to be retro chic and forms part of the Kellermeister Retro Range which includes this and two Moscatos which I am very keen to try. One is called Pink Minx. This may become the name of my second born child. Again, a girl would be good.
The Sable is great on it’s own as a little tipple – rich, silky, porty, chocolatey loveliness in a glass. If I was prone to swooning I would. However, as I do not live in a Jane Austen novel I will remain upright and advise that this is utterly delicious and is likely to become a staple on my drinks trolley for some time to come! This will be my go to product for those days when you just want a little something sweet and lovely after dinner! Or mid afternoon….or…you know…whenever….
The loveliness of the Sable does not stop with drinking though. It is equally good in food.
I’ve now made three recipes with it and they were all gorgeous (even if I do say so myself). If you cannot get Sable, your liqueur of choice can be substituted in all of these.
First up was a Raspberry Meringue Roulade which I adapted from a Bill Granger recipe.
Rolling, Rolling, Rolling
Raspberry Roulade and a glass of Sable – a lovely afternoon tea tipple
I then made a Strawberry and Mango Zagablione where I used the Sable instead of marsala. This tasted divine! The zabaglione was also lovely swirled into some plain yoghurt the following day.
Finally, I used some Sable in my version of the Australian Gourmet Traveller Chocolate and Caramel Tart. I adapted the original recipe as I am not that good with pastry and I used a bought caramel. This is a truly decadent recipe and tastes like heaven! My only word of caution is give yourself plenty of time to make this. I started mid afternoon. I added the final layer at midnight. This takes a LONG time to make as you have to let each layer chill before adding the next one. It is worth it though as this is absolutely delicious!
By the way, how adorable is this recipe? The whole book is like this! And where else have you read a recipe that mentions “wretched” little chicken wing or tells you to stir something with enthusiasm!
