September Schedule
Tag: cooking
Fig & Walnut Jam
INGREDIENTS:
1lb peeled black figs
3 tbsps granulated sugar
3 tbsps fresh lemon juice
Lemon peel
1/2 tsp grated ginger
4 tbsps walnuts, broken in pieces.
TOOLS:
1 knife and 1 bowl
Juicer
1 deep stainless steel saucepan
1 serving spoon to stir
2 sterilized glass jars with their lid
Clean towels to let the jar sit overnight
STEPS:
. Mix all the ingredients, except the walnuts, in a bowl and let them sit the fridģe for a couple of hours.
. Put them in a deep stainless steel saucepan.
. Turn on the burner on low.
. Let it simmer for 40 minutes, stirring once in a while.
. Take out the lemon peel, add the walnuts, stir and turn off.
. Pour immediately the hot jam in the 2 glass jars, close very well the cap and put the jars upside down among pieces of fabric to keep it warm and safe.
. After 24hrs, the jars are vacuumed and ready to be stored in a dark cabinet, for no longer than 2 months.
When you open a jar, keep it refrigerated and eat the jam within 10 days.
Enjoy it with buttered toasted bread or with soft cheese. It’s perfect for baking. .
Scallops au gratin
Recipe:
. Take out the scallops from the shell ( or you can buy them frozen without the shell);
. Bread in a mix made with fine breadcrumbs (use cornmeal instead if you are GF), finely chopped garlic, a dash salt, very finally chopped parsley, a dash of white pepper and Extra Virgin Olive Oil;
. Put back 5 scallops per shell, drizzle some EVOO and bake at 200°C for 5 minutes.
Eat right away, otherwise they will become chewy. Do not reheat.
That was easy!
Spring Fruits & Vegetables Are On The Menu For April & May Classes!
Welcome Spring!
It’s warm outside and the sun is shining longer! Spring is flourishing and we are excited to spend some time outside, even if just in our yard or balcony.
While we are waiting patiently for better times, here is my NEWS:
- Spring Break Children Classes were a success! Thanks to all the children who had fun cooking with me from Italy and from Germany.
- April 6th is World Carbonara Day, so I have scheduled 2 “Spaghetti alla Carbonara” Classes for you to sign up for.
- April 11th is National Asparagus Day! I have scheduled an entire Asparagus Week!
- May 19th National Strawberry Day! Find out what sweet surprises I have in store! Maybe a Strawberry Tiramisu? Email me to find out!
- New Prices: My prices have never risen since I began this adventure, however due to covid and higher operating costs I have had to slightly increase prices to continue offering my services. I promise you the value and quality has not faltered!
- Vouchers and gift cards can be bought all year long.
- Private classes no longer have the same price of weekly scheduled cooking classes. New rates include: BASIC fee for a private cooking class is 50€, (discounted to 40€ for military ID holders), and then is 35€ each participant joining, (military ID holder discount applies as well, which is 25€ per participant).
- Method of payment for private cooking classes: when we set the class, I will send you an email with the link to pay via Credit Card.
- All scheduled classes will have the same price, unless it’s specified. It is 30€ per participant (discounted to 25€ for military ID holders).
- Method of payment of cooking classes in the calendar: You will find the button to click and pay with PayPal on my website, in the notes you can notate your class choice or send me an email on which class you are attending. I will email you the ingredients list and the Zoom link to the desired class. If you prefer direct credit card payment, email me the name of the cooking class, and the method of payment for the cooking classes. I will send you the link for paying with your credit card.
- I need your feedback and input: Would you be interested in subscribing to recorded cooking classes that you’d be able to directly access at your convenience? You would have access to 8 cooking classes a month for 3 months paying a discount of 35% off, saving money and giving you the ability to download the cooking classes for availability on your computer or device! Please send me a quick email (teresacolors.chef@gmail.com) to let me know your thoughts on this.
Teresa
Tunafish balls with Green Olive Pate and Ricotta Cheese
I experimented a new recipe and I madeTunafish balls with Green Olives Pate courtesy of Frantoio Bonamini
Tuna fish balls with Green olive pate
RECIPE
Ingredients: 4 tbsps canned tunafish in EVO, 4 tbsps Ricotta Cheese, 2 tbsps Green Olive Pate, 1 egg, 2 or 3 tbsps breadcrumbs in the mix, more breadcrumbs to roll the tubafish balls, Extra Virgin Olive Oil to spray on the balls before baking.
Mix very well all the ingredients with a spoon and then make balls as big as a wallnut.
Preheat at 200°C the oven and bake for about 30 minutes.
Enjoy!
Vegetable Broth
Here is the recipe of the basic vegetable broth I often cook for making brodino con pastina – broth with little shape pasta –
Ingredients:
Wash, peel, cut the vegetable in quarters or big pieced and put them in a pot
Add about 4 liters – 1 gallon of water.
Add 1 teaspoon of salt – I use seasalt.
Put the pot on the stove, cover with a lid and turn on the burner on, setting it on high.
When it starts boiling, turn the burner on very low. The broth needs still to simmer. You cook it for about 1 hour.
It’s ready after about 1 hour when al the vegetables are soft.
You separate the liquid part from the vegetables. The liquid part is the broth. It’s ready to be used.
The vegetables can be eaten in pieces
or you can blend them with an immersion blender and eat them as a soup.
Enjoy the soup!
Risotto alla Parmigiana
Risotto alla Parmigiana
This the basic Risotto, the first one I was taught at Culinary School.
The secrets?
Carnaroli Rice is the best for cooking Risotto.
Toast the rice.
Use home made meat stock, it’s very simple to make.
Never stop stirring.
Don’t overcook it!
Strawberry Jam
Sometimes we forget how easy are to make some recipes.
When I got married, my husband and I went to live in a little village called Polcenigo. It’s an old rural little town with two beautiful springs, with a lot of old buildings and with very fascinating views.
I’ve never made a jam before I moved to live in Friuli Venezia Giulia region. Yes, my grandma Teresa used to make her own jam when she had a lot of fruit, but I’ve never been interested in it and I really never helped her in the process.
One day one of my new neighbors gifted me some plums. Well, she gifted me tons of plums, so I decided to make jam for the first time. It was about 30 years ago.
The first thing I did was calling my grandma for asking her the ingredients. Her replies was very easy: for 1 kilo of fruit without seeds, you need 1/2 kilo of white sugar. Let it cook for a couple of hours, stirring once in while. That’s it.
Well, from that first experience, few things have changed.
Asking around and checking the ingredients written on the jars in the grocery stores, I found out that many people add artificial pectine to make their jam thicker in a shorter time. But I really don’t like to use chemicals, so, after researching on the web, I realized that adding the juice of one lemon or one peeled apple cut in pieces to the fruit I’m making the jam with, they both develop natural pectine.
Another thing I learned, after trying multiple times, is that we can reduce the amount of sugar up to 30% and that we can also use the brown sugar instead of the white one.
I still don’t make it very often, but my favorites are Raspberry Jam and Strawberry Jam. Here is the recipe:
STRAWBERRY JAM
Ingredients : 1 kilogram fresh red strawberries, cut in pieces; 300 grams sugar, one lemon juice.
Method: Put everything in a tall pot, possibly a stainless steel one, put on the stove at low heat until the sugar starts melting, then the heat can be at medium-high. Let everything boil for about 15 minutes, stirring once in while. Take the pot out of the burner and blend the fruit with an immersion blender. Put the pot back on the stove and let the jam boil for other 15 minutes. Pour the jam in a glass jar, close the lead and let it cool down. When it’s cold, put in the fridge. If you like a thick jam, mix all the ingredients in the pot, and let it sit in the fridge for 12 hours, then start cooking the mix.
Cook in Italy with Teresa 