The best TARTE TATIN

Tarte Tatin is one of best the desserts made with apples and it is also very easy to prepare. In addition if it is well made it looks very nice.

We can use the same method with other fruit and even with some vegetables and make a Tatin with pears or tomatoes, fennel , etc. . but the original is with apples and ... the best of all.
 
In this post, I’ve used pastry ready-to-use that you can buy in all supermarkets. 
But you can prepare it at home, like I did  quit often. 
The same applies to the Pate Brisé, the native dough of this French recipe .

For 6 people: 4 or 5 apples (about 1 kg) sweets end not chalky, ½ lemon, 25gr butter , 4 or 5 tablespoons (about 150gr) of sugar, pate brisé or pasta frolla ( ready to use ). 

Peel apples, remove the core, cut into quarters and each quarter again into 3 or 4 regular slices and thin enough.
From each medium sized apple, at least 12 slices.
Melt the butter in a large pan and pour the apples to brown gently for a few minutes.
You can also sprinkle with a little caster sugar.
Do everything quickly, this is only a preliminary step .

Now take a baking tin with low sides and large about 30 cm , pour inside the sugar and 2 tablespoons of water and make with it a light caramel by placing the pan on the fire and stirring with a wooden spoon for 5 minutes.

The sugar should melt but not darken to much. The caramel should to become of a clear honey color. Switch off.

It’s also possible to caramelize more apples and make them more colorful than what I did today , in the recipe in photography.
Place apples in baking dish and distribute over the entire bottom of the pan .
Now take the dough you have decided to use.
Gently take it out of its packet and lay it on the baking dish, placing the edges inside of the pan to completely enclose apples.
Bake at 180° C for about 25-30 minutes.
Be careful not to brown too much the dough .

Let cool and then turn it into a flat service dish wide enough, in the case apples and have still retained caramel syrup.
Serve preferably warm, accompanied by a small pot of cream or whipped cream or vanilla ice cream .
It’s a gorgeous dessert to lick your fingers.

 

Viennese Cabbage

Ingredients: 1 large savory cabbage, salt, caraway seeds and pepper, 30g lard or bacon, 30g flour, 1 finely chopped onion,  1 clove of garlic (optional), 4 potatoes.

in this recepe, lard or bacon is used as cooking fat. Be free to substitude it with oil or butter, as I do for a more delicate teste

Cut  the cabbage, removing all stalks and coarse ribs. Put it into a boiling salted water together with popatoes cut into big  pieces and the caraway seeds. Cook until tender. Gently fry onions, garlic with a little four to thicken. Add some water or stock and then drained cabbage and potatoes. Cook for a short time.

Cabbage cook in this way has a soft and very pleassant taste and is tipillay Viennese.

It is a great side dish for roast or boiled beef and for hot sausages, but it is very good  also with a plate of mixed cheeses.

Borsch with Smetana and Pirozhki

Of Ukrainian origin , this is the most popular and widespread soup in Eastern Europe but also in North America where it was introduced by the Jews Azkenaziti .The name means " red soup " or maybe just " soup " given that there is also a green Borsh. Not knowing Russian, however , I can not be sure.The traditional recipe includes as ingredient even meat, not only in the preparation of the broth but also in the soup itself, along with chopped vegetables but, however, a popular Polish version traditionally served on the Christmas Eve diner  is made only by vegetables as taught me a Polish friend.The essential ingredients are beetroot and cabbage (any kinds of cabbage except the red one) but the key feature of his taste is a mild acidity that you get especially with vinegar or lemon juice and that was formerly obtained by a process of fermentation .Like all these complex soups, it is better eaten the next day after resting a night.Ingredients for Borsch: Meat broth q.b. , 700g  of meat (beef, pork or chicken as you prefer or available) , 300g raw beetroot (now it is easy to find, often also organic), 400g of green cabbage , 1 onion, 2 carrots, 2 potatoes , parsley , some tomato ( if you have , a clove of garlic (if you like ) , butter or oil, vinegar or lemon. Sour cream or greek yogurt for garnish.

Leave aside the cabbage and tomatoes and wash the other vegetables including beets. Peel and cut them into small slices. Fry them in a pan over medium heat with a little butter or oil. Add meat cut into chunks, season, add the tomatoes cut into small pieces too and then the cabbage coarsely chopped into strips. At this point, stir occasionally to prevent ingredients from sticking wasting the soup . Add broth and simmer gently at least 2 hours and even more, refilling evaporated liquid.
At the beginning, Borsch has a dark red color tending to orange but as the soup cooks his color becomes more similar to the color of wine or of a dark plum juice and even the parfume will become more harmonious, well structured, moving away from beetroot original smell, which at first seemed to be quite strong, integrates very nicely with the scent of other ingredients: the beet's sugar caramelizes, due to the heat.
Halfway through cooking, add vinegar or lemon juice, tasting in order to decide the amount. Salt at the end.
Serve piping hot with, apart, a bowl of  Smetana sauce or sour cream (which can be replaced by good greek yoghurt) to garnish and  with Pirozhkis, the traditional rolls stuffed with meat or vegetables.

I  don't use almost never vinegar but lemon as a learned from one of my Polish friend and, to tell the truth, I  like my vegetarian Borsch most than others. 
This is not only is a very nutritious soup and a confort food, but it's really healthy.

In winter it warms like nothing else. But in some Eastern European countries, it ts also consumed cold in the middle of summer, well mixed with sour cream. 

Borsch activates metabolism, improves blood circulation and balance fluids that affect blood pressure.

Traditionally it is eaten with Smetana and also Pirozhki and sometimes it is accompanied even from toasted strips of bacon or lard that Ukrainians  like so much.

Francobolli Ucraini dedicati al Borsch

Images of this post present Ukrainian tamps dedicated to Borsch and some Pirozhki ( image taken from Google images)

 

Pirozhki with 2 filling (meat and cabbage)

Traditionally Borsch is eaten with Smetana and Pirozhki (пирожок , пирожки ) or Pampushki as they call these stuffed rolls in Ukraine. In the most usual forms, these are small dough cakes stuffed of meat or whatever else. Different places and families have different recipes. It is said that in Ukraine, Russia and Poland, Borsch is the same on all tables, those of the rich and the poor, and what makes the difference are pirozhki, Cakes with savory filling on the rich tables, a bread crust for the poor . Pirozhki can be whatever you want, stuffed with cheese or just herbs, game or a mix of everything else
In Armenia, where Borsch becomes popular during the Russian domination, piroshki are usually stuffed with meat and potatoes and are similar to Turkey boreke and Greek pitas.
They depends on the cook and are ideal turnovers in a fusion cuisine. You can substitute them also with focaccette from Puglia.

Here is a possible recipe for these special Russians and Ukrainians turnovers

L'immagine dei Pirozhki è presa da Google images

Ingredients: 500g of flour , 2-3 eggs ( depending on size ), 65g butter, melted 100ml of warm water, 75ml milk , 25g of fresh yeast (or 1 sachet 7g ), ½ tsp salt, 2 +1 Tsp sugar Ingredients for a cabbage filling: 500g cabbage or sauerkraut, 2 boiled eggs, 2 Tsp butte, salt. Ingredients for meat filling: 400g of ground (pork, beef), 1 onion, 1 egg, 2 Tsp milk, salt and pepper.
Dissolve yeast in the lukewarm water and 1 tsp sugar, let it sit for about 10 minutes until it foams. Put the flour in a bowl, add milk, lightly beaten eggs, butter, salt, sugar and baking powder dissolved.

Knead dough for a long time because it is very similar to a brioche dough and must be well-crafted to rise well. Put it in a bowl, cover with a cloth or with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until it doubles. Knead again the dough at least once more letting it to rise again before preparing pirozhki .

Prepare fillings.
For the cabbage filling: thinly sliced ​​cabbage and simmer it in a pan for 10 minutes with butter, stirring often. Salt. Boile Hard-boile eggs, let them cool, peel and chop them before mixing with cabbage.

For the meat filling: finely chop onion and mix with the ground beef, salt and pepper and if you want brown it in apan. Then add the eggs and milk and stir for few minutes.

Prepare now Pirozhki: With the dough make a sheet, 4-5 mm thick and cut portions not too large, more or less like those for a small panzerotto, any shape you want, round or rectangular. Put on it the filling and roll them up or close them very well by sealing edges.
Arrange Pirozhki on a baking dish covered with parchment paper or well greased, brush them with egg

Pirozhki can be large or small and are a perfect finger food.
They're always great, both hot and cold.

If you do not prepare Borsch, you can eat them with any soup and also with a cup of tea or a glass of wine. 
Fill them with anything you can imagine of even jams, fruit, mushrooms, fish, cottage cheese and so on.

Picio Pacio

If I am right, this is an ancient recipe from the Milan area that probably  noone remembers anymore today. Me too, I cannot  find the old book where I found it, times ago.  

So please, trust to my memories.  

It is extremely simple. 

I cannot say that it is a poor-cooking recipe because there is meat in it, but certainly it is not rich, though it is nice and tasty. 

Let's begin  from the name, Picio Pacio, in Milanese popular dialect describes the texture of what remains on the ground when, in winter after a heavy snowfall, people walk over it and, at the same time, the temperature becomes less rigid and a light rain begins to fall. 
By extension, then we talk about Picio Pacio to indicate any mixture of the same texture.  

To prepare Picio Pacio we need: some Beef, Carrots, Potatoes, Celery, Onion and Garlic possibl , a teaspoon of Canned Tomato, little water, salt.

Slice onions and cut into small pieces the other vegetables and even meat. 
Place everything in a pan, add salt with a  half glass of water and cover with a lid.
Put at medium heat and when it begins to boil, add a teaspoon of tomato paste. 

Reduce heat to low and let simmer slowly until meat is tender under the fork and vegetables, especially potatoes, become easily mushy.
Season to taste and add some liquid to obtain the texture you like. 
Serve hot. 

Yes, you are right,  in this recipe there is no fat added. 
The only fat is that contained in meat itself.  
Instead of beef you can use pork or chicken or a mixture of the three meats.

Cauliflower Gratin

Cauliflower au gratin is a delicious dish

This recipe should certainly be a main dish because it is rich of eggs, cheese and bacon.

Not least: it is a quick recipe cause it takes about 15 minutes plus the cooking time.

Ingredients for 4 people : 1 small cauliflower, 50g. toma mountain, 50g bacon, 150gr milk, 150gr cream, 4 eggs, 20gr of butter, 40gr of white flour, salt and pepper.

Wash the cauliflower and divide it into florets. Brown them quickly in boiling salted water. 

In a bowl, beat together flour with eggs, salt and pepper and warm milk. 

Add to this mixture the cream, the cheese cut into small cubes and the bacon into thin strips. Grease a terracotta bowl or a gratin dish.

Spread on the bottom the cauliflower florets and cover with the egg mixture.Put in the oven at 220°C for about 20 minutes. In cooking, make attention not to burn the gratin surface that has to be colorful and crisp, but not dark brown . Let stand at least 5 minutes before serving, otherwise it could be too hot in your mouth.

It's Halloween, let's make a Pumpkin Pie!

Ingredients:

for the pie crust: 200gr flour, 100gr butter, 1 egg yolk, 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar, salt.
for the filling: 700gr pumpkin, 4 eggs, 80gr of sugar, 20gr of starch, 2 teaspoons honey, 2dl of cream, 20gr of sliced ​​almonds, 20gr of raw cane sugar for garnish.

Prepare the crust by working quickly together flour, salt, sugar, egg yolk, softened butter and 1dl ofwater. Stop kneading as soon as the flour is all absorbed. Make a ball and let rest in a cool place for 2 hours, wrapped in a sheet of kitchen cellophane. Prepare a pastry sheet to cover bottom and sides of a well greased cake pan, 22 cm large. Cook it in the oven at 200°C for about 10 minutes without any stuffing, just covered with parchment paper and filled with beans or those of porcelain beads just made to keep dough flat while baking in the oven.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling Whip together eggs, sugar, starch and cream to obtain a homogeneous mixture without lumps. Peel the pumpkin, cut first into slices about 3 cm thick and after in pieces of 3 mm. In a saucepan heat honey and then add the pumpkin slices and cook them until golden. Remove the pie crust from the oven and take off the parchment paper that covers it and beats.

Pour inside the cooked pumpkin and cover it with the mixture of cream and eggs.
Garnish over all with almonds, brown sugar and place back in the oven again for 10 or 15 minutes. Let cool before serving.