chop A Culinary Playground

Summer Vacation - Cooking Through Europe - Italy

We are cooking our way through Europe right here at home in Hawaii.  Our second stop was to Italy.  We spent a few days there and made some great dishes.  The one thing about this stop is that it wasn't very different from my every day cooking since I cook Italian food a lot, its kid friendly and always good.

Our first meal was grilled sausage and peppers.

We also made a chicken grilled under a brick

 
 

We made some fresh ricotta.  I used a new recipe from Lynn Rossetto Kasper's The Splendid Tables.  It was much easier from my previous recipe.  It was so easy in fact I was able to tweet it in 140.  I made a simple pasta of extra virgin olive oil, ricotta, beautiful tomatoes, garlic and basil.

With the left over ricotta I also made Ricotta Gnudi - a gnocchi made out of ricotta or a naked ravioli.  This was a big hit!

 
 

Here is the ricotta recipe from Splendid Table by Lynn Rossetto Kasper.  I highly recommend this book for recipes and history of Italian cuisine.

makes 1 pound

2 1/2 quarts whole milk

1/4 cup, less 1 tablespoon heavy cream

5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

Stir together ingredients except salt in non reactive pot.  set pan over medium low heat cut for 40 minutes or until milk reaches 170F. 
 Keep heat medium low.  Stir just a few times.  When reaches 170F bring temp to medium and bring up to 205 or 208F Turn of heat and let sit for 10 minutes.  Drain in a colander with double layers of cheese cloth.  Refrigerate.

Shoyu Chicken

 
Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution has opened many people's eyes to the horrendous problems that we have in the school lunch programs in America.  It made me think back to the school lunches of my youth. No, they were not perfect (ugh tuna casserole) but, they were scratch made.  Hopefully we will go back to the days when school cafeterias made their own food instead of opening boxes and reheating.  Shoyu chicken was a favorite at my school (as I recall the cafeteria cook even bottled the recipe). I went to the same school as President Obama, Punahou, I wonder if he like shoyu chicken?  Shoyu is the Japanese word for soy sauce.

Serves 6 - 8

5 Pounds chicken thighs

1 Quart water

1  Quart premium soy sauce

1 6 inch piece ginger, peeled and sliced

1 Cup green onion, sliced

Optional:

1/2  Onion sliced

Place all ingredients in sauce pan.  Bring to a simmer, cook for one hour.  Top with green onion. Serve with rice.

Curried Turkey Salad

Curried Chicken Salad was a popular lunch time salad at our restaurant. It is typical country or beach club fare here in Hawaii served in a half of a papaya. 

I substituted turkey and it is just as delicious and a great late summer lunch or dinner.

Curried Turkey Salad

serves 4

1 Pound cooked turkey or chicken, cut in

   to bit size cubes

1/4  Maui onion, minced

2 Green onion, sliced, green and white

   parts

2 Stalks celery, sliced

1/4  Cup red bell pepper, diced

1/4  Cup golden raisins

1/4  Cup macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped

1 Tablespoon Italian parsley, chopped

1/2  Cup mayonnaise

2 Tablespoons curry powder

       Salt and Pepper

Combine the ingredients let sit in refrigerator for one hour.  Serve in a seeded half of a papaya or avocado.