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.
Figs
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
Figs ready to be cooked
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. .
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!
CANOLA OIL is a vegetable oil derived from a variety of rapeseed that is low in erucic acid, as opposed to colza oil.
There are both edible and industrial forms produced. Canola oil is also used as a source of biodiesel.
Rapeseed flower and oil
Canola was originally a trademark name of the Rapeseed Association of Canada, and the name was a condensation of “Can” from Canada and “OLA ” meaning “Oil, low acid”, but it is now a generic term for edible varieties of rapeseed oil in North America and Australasia.
About 23 kg (51 lb) of canola seed makes 10 L (2.64 US gal) of canola oil. Canola oil is a key ingredient in many foods. Its reputation as a healthy oil has created high demand in markets around the world, and overall it is the third-most widely consumed vegetable oil, after soybean oil and palm oil. Canola oil is considered safe for human consumption.
In 2006, canola oil was given a qualified health claim by the United States Food and Drug Administration for lowering the risk of coronary heart disease, resulting from its significant content of unsaturated fats; the allowed claim for food labels states A 2014 review of health effects from consuming plant oils rich in alpha-linolenic acid, including canola, stated that there was moderate benefit for lower risk of cardiovascular diseases, bone fractures, and type-2 diabetes.
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 