Archive for January, 2010

Jerusalem Artichokes, here they come!

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Jerusalem artichokesTA-DAAA!

It’s the season of this little tubers, and yes I am happy! They are not easy to find but worth trying, also they seem to be terribly easy to grow, so if you have some space in your garden think about Jerusalem artichokes.

They come in different shapes, they are smallish (bigger ones could be tangerine-sized), the ones in the photo I got from a supermarket and they are ready washed, their texture when raw is crunchy, more frozen apple than potato.

Their taste is very good, they do remind artichoke hearts, hence the name, but creamier if possible.

What to do with them is really up to you, they fit in every recipe, from risotto to stir-fry and are very good in soups.

Lots of recipes calls for roasting them with skins on, which you can eat, but I really didn’t like the skins.

The only drawback of these beauties is that they will very likely give you wind…well, let’s drink a fennel tea and keep the windows open then!

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Posted in Things big and small |

Comfort food, cheese and bread

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

The weather is soggy and chilly, and we all need some comfort.

This is more of a snack than it is a dish, but you could always put some salad next to it to make it healthy!

You only need a few ingredients to make it, but do try to find the best mozzarella (buffalo is the best) and a very good bread, the one in the photo is granary wholemeal, but I think it might work better with italian breads, olive or tomatoes or just a sliced ciabatta. Don’t forget the olive oil has to be very good strong flavoured extra virgin.

This recipe is basically an Italian version of cheese on toast (or Welsh rarebit)

mozzarella on toast

1 thick slice of bread per person

mozzarella (sliced) at room temperature

Extra virgin olive oil

salt, pepper, fresh lemon juice

Toast the bread and drizzle with a little olive oil, put the mozzarella, more olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and a few drops of lemon juice, don’t skip this because it give a right kick to the toast!

Put under a hot grill until the mozzarella starts to melt.

Eat straight away!

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Posted in Recipes |

Home, film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

I recently saw this amazing film called “Home”. It is a documentary by the french photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, a man specialized in aerial photos, his book “Earth from above” is a wonderful collection of 365 pictures of all sorts of places on Earth.

This film is an ecological documentary in which the story is told mainly by the beautiful images, and it’s about how humans are exploiting planet Earth, using up all the non-renewable energy without thinking of the consequences.

It is a very good film to show to young people as well, it is very simple and straighforward.

However hard “normal” people try to be as green as they can, the governments are so tied up by the interest of big companies that are extremely slow in doing anything, and quite often the steps they take are just silly or ineffective.

But the laziness of the governments should not stop each one of us to try and do our best, even if we are doing it with a huge feeling of frustration.

Whatever happen next, we’ll all be paying the price of what we have done.

The author gave up his rights and you can watch it online, I recommend it strongly.

Writing about this film made me a bit gloomy, oh dear!

Outside is all covered in snow.

Good night

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Posted in Life |