Archive for December, 2009

Easy winter lunch

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

Otherwise called “messy rice”! This recipe has few ingredients, it is very straightforward to make and I think it has the “comfort food” feel. If you are a cheese eater, you can add crumbled goat’s cheese or some feta cheese at the very end.

Messy rice

Ingredients for 1 (multiply as needed!)

4 tablespoons of brown basmaty rice

1 small sweet potato (red flesh)

1 small red onion

2 tablespoons of cashew nuts

soy sauce (about 1-2 tablespoons, depending on how you like it)

2 tablespoons of groundnut oil (or other similar seed oil)

Wash the rice and put in boiling salted water, let it cook until the grains start to “open” (this will take some time, depending on the quantity of rice, for 1 portion it takes about 20 minutes).

While the rice is cooking, peel the onion, cut in half and slice thinly.

Skin the potato and cut in small chunks.

Heat the oil in a pan and put the potato, let it cook gently turning them every now and then, add the onions.

When the potatoes are nearly cooked put the cashews (no need to roast them, they taste just as lovely), cook a few more minutes and take off the heat.

When the rice is ready, strain it through a sieve, put it back in the pan and cover with a lid, let it fluff up for 2 minutes.

Transfer the potatoes on a dish, put a little bit more oil (one tablespoon is enough), heat the pan and throw the rice in.

Add the soy sauce and stir well.

What you are doing now is making the rice crunchy, it must form a golden crust, so turn it with a spoon so you can have as much crunch as you possibly can, that’s without burning the rice!

When the rice is almost done, put the potatoes back in the pan and mix everything together to heat it up.

Put on a plate and eat!

If you want, you can add crumbled cheese but if you do you might want to skip the soy sauce or it will be too salty.

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Hot apple juice

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

The weather outside is frightful…

It’s gone really cold here in little-north-of-London town, and this has got to be the greatest warm drink you could have: it’s sweet, it’s spicy, the kichten will smell lovely and you can have it at night because it’s caffeine-free.

Then, if you have some left, cause this is the season to give, you can share it with any child around you.

Basically, it’s a children alchool free version of mulled wine.

What I really love about this drink is the contrast between the sweetness of the agave nectar (or sugar) and that certain tangy kick of the apple juice.

Hot Apple Juice (more…)

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Ponyo! Ponyo!

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Ponyo's dvd

On the weekend I went to see the latest Miyazaki’s film, called “Ponyo on the cliff by the sea”.

We have bought all the dvds from the Studio Ghibli collection, and we adore everything Miyazaki ever did.

Italy has a strong connection with Studio Ghibli and with Miyazaky himself, who showed his love for medieval Italian towns in his films, also he had some good Italian friends who worked in tv (he even named the main carachter after Marco Pagot in “Porco Rosso”), that’s one of the reasons why all Italians of my age know Hayao Miyazaki, we all have seen the serie “Heidi” on tv when we were kids, and I still think it is extremely good.

Studio Ghibli also produced a serie of cartoons based on Sherlock Holmes stories, but in which all carachters are dogs, and while it has been shown in Italy many times, it’s unknown in Japan!

But, coming back to Ponyo, it was really lovely, it is a rather long film, but it has no “dead” moments, it’s the story of a magical fish which get stranded on a beach and gets saved by a boy who wants to take care of it. The fish’s father is a sort of king of the sea, who once was a human and wants his child back, but the fish wants to be a human and live with the boy.

It is told in a lovely way, and of course the drawings are amazing, altough there is a lot of computer graphics involved.

If you have never seen a film by Miyazaki, it’s better late than never! Many of his films have a very strong enviromental story, even in Ponyo there’s lots of rubbish underwater.

My favourite Studio Ghibli films are “My neighbour Totoro” (if you have a child, it is a must), “Princess Mononoke” (one for the grown-ups, enviromental story set in medieval Japan, with the most amazing music) and “Spirited away”…actually, I love all of them!

PS

the photo shows the Italian DVD (in Italy the film came out one year ago!!!)

And let me show off my gorgeous soft toys!!!

ghibli_collection

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