Tomato Tart
I own one of those recipe books that you buy with empty pages, and you are supposed to fill by writing in all your favourite recipes. I wish I had dated mine when I bought it because I really can’t remember how old it is. …
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Stuffed & Fried Zucchini Flowers
There is a saying in Italy that even an old leather sole from a shoe tastes good if it’s fried well! I have to agree with the Italians on this one, as there is nothing worse than eating something fried with a heavy, stodgy and …
Caramel Chicken
It’s not always Italian food that comes out of my kitchen and there are times when I really crave some different flavours. This sticky chicken recipe definitely hits the spot and it’s also super easy to prepare. I am sure you can substitute the chicken for other meats, and I was thinking today that it would work well with ribs. It reminds me a little of a sticky BBQ pork rib recipe my mother would make for us from her Chinese cooking repertoire.
I will include the full recipe, but I usually do not add the garlic. Alberto isn’t a garlic fan, so it’s just easier to omit it. If I were to add garlic though, I wouldn’t add the 8 cloves the recipe calls for but add maybe 2 at the most. This cooks best in a heavy based pot and luckily I have my Le Creuset pot which works perfectly. (Nothing would stop you finishing off this recipe in the oven actually).
Caramel Chicken
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1.2kg Chicken pieces. Skin On, (preferably bone-in legs & thighs)
- 8 garlic cloves, peeled
- 70g (1/3 Cup) brown sugar (I use dark muscovado)
- 60mls rice vinegar
- 3cm fresh ginger peeled and sliced thinly. (I freeze my ginger and this makes slicing it very thin really easy if you do it while it’s still frozen.)
- 250ml chicken broth
- 60mls soy sauce
- fresh basil & fresh chilli to garnish
- Heat oil in large heavy based pot over medium high heat.
- Work in batches if necessary, and add chicken pieces skin side down. Cook until skin is golden brown and crisp, then transfer chicken to a plate.
- Add garlic to pot, and cook stirring often until golden. Remove from pot, and put aside with chicken. Pour off fat from pot.
- Return pot to heat, and add 125ml water, and using a wooden spoon, scrape away any brown bits.
- Add brown sugar and stir until sugar has dissolved. Continue cooking and stirring until mixture thickens.
- Add vinegar carefully. If sugar crystallizes, continue stirring until sugar dissolves again.
- Add ginger, broth, and soy sauce. Add chicken pieces back into pot, skin side up. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and allow to cook on simmer for about 30min.
- Remove chicken pieces from pot, and bring liquid back to a boil. Cook for about 10 minutes, allowing the liquid to reduce and thicken. Return chicken to pot, and coat with sweet thickened sauce.
- Serve with white rice, and sprinkle freshly torn basil on top. Serve with some fresh chilli peppers if you like a little heat.
**This recipe would work well with pork, but the flavours of the sauce would also be delicious with salmon steaks. Obviously the cooking time with salmon would be different. I would prepare the sauce, reducing it down, and add the salmon steaks at the end, so as to cook them through gently & quickly, avoiding that they overcook.
Peach & Apricot Summer Pudding
It’s so hot again this week in Rome, and while I look at many stunning photos from my dear friends who are enjoying some of Italy’s finest beaches, I have been passing the time at home, baking, cleaning… oh and ironing. I did make a …
Lionel Richie – Terme di Caracalla
Take Lionel Richie, and add him to one of the most incredible locations for a concert and you are in for a very special evening! The above photo was taken from my second row seat… (And in front of me was a little standing area). Last night’s concert was part of Lionel Richie’s ALL THE HITS World Tour, and although I would have liked him to sing for another hour, he certainly included many of his greatest hits going back decades, from his time with the Commodores to the present day. Penny Lover, Say You Say Me, Hello, All Night Long, Endless Love and also We Are The World, the famine relief song he co-wrote in 1985 with Michael Jackson, to name a few. I surprised myself remembering all the words and sang along with Lionel (and the rest of the audience) from the beginning of the concert to his very quick farewell and exit from stage at the end of the concert.
The Terme di Caracalla were the second largest Roman public baths built between AD 212 and 217. The baths were free and open to the public, and remained in use until the 6th century. The Caracalla baths, within a series of buildings was more a leisure centre than just a series of baths. The baths consisted of a central frigidarium (cold room) a double pool tepidarium (medium), and a caldarium (hot room). There were also two gyms where wrestling and boxing were practiced. One end of the bath building contained a swimming pool which was roofless with bronze mirrors overhead, intended to direct sunlight into the pool area. There were also two libraries located on the east and west sides of the bath complex.
Today, the central part of the bath complex is the summer home of the Rome Opera Company and is also a concert venue. This was the first time I had visited the Caracalla Baths but I will definitely return during the day and do the full touristy tour.
![IMG_4619 [491339]](https://tonibrancatisanocom.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/img_4619-491339.jpg?w=225&resize=225%2C300)
I sang and danced and couldn’t believe it when the concert came to an end… surely there was more? Mr. Richie did come back for one encore singing All Night Long then quickly said goodbye and ran off the stage so quickly that many of us believed it was just another brief goodbye before he’d come back and sing some more. The entrance on stage of the roadies made it clear the concert was indeed over, as everything was quickly being dismantled in precision speed ready to be loaded up for the next concert which is tomorrow night (July 16th) in Germany!
Thank You Lionel for the fabulous evening, but mostly THANK YOU Alberto for being so wonderful as to buy the tickets as soon as they were advertised and for spoiling me! (yet again)!
The Vatican Museums & The Sistine Chapel
I have lived in Italy for 18 years, 15 of those in Tuscany and the last 3 here in Rome. I remember (vaguely) doing the Vatican Museum tour with my sister Lisa the first time we came to Italy over twenty years ago. I have …
Raspberry Soufflè
There is something very decadent about a soufflè. I’m not sure if that’s to do with the delicacy of it’s texture, the risk of imminent failure we feel as we prepare it, or just because it has a beautiful French name! I haven’t made many soufflè’s …
Matcha Tea Cupcakes
These cupcakes are delicious! (If I do say so myself)! This recipe is more sweet than the Matcha Roll Cake recipe, especially with the buttercream on top and it’s more of a normal cake consistency. I loved the buttercream with matcha added, the flavour was definitely better than regular sickly sweet buttercream.
Like the cake roll, I added the adzuki beans to stay faithful to Japanese dessert traditions, hiding it inside the cupcake! I only gave one of these away to a girlfriend…. which means….. well we all know who ate the rest! OOPS!!!
Matcha Cupcakes
- 240g unsalted butter
- 300g caster sugar
- 2 tablespoons Matcha Tea powder
- 1/4 cup (85g) honey
- 4 large eggs
- 400g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 250ml milk
- 1 can azuki beans (found in international food stores, the azuki or adzuki beans are commonly sweetened before eating by boiling with sugar, and can also result in a red bean paste)
- Preheat oven to 180°C. Place cupcake liners into cupcake baking tray.
- In an electric mixer cream butter and sugar until pale and then add sifted matcha tea powder. Mix until matcha tea is completely incorporated into butter/sugar mixture.
- Add honey and while mixer continues to mix on medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Sift together flour, salt and baking powder and add to mixer in two batches. Alternate flour with milk. Continue until combined, and when finished use a spatula to ensure all ingredients from bottom of bowl are completely incorporated into the finished cake batter.
- Spoon into a piping bag and pipe the cake batter into cupcake liners. Place in oven and bake until cupcakes are slightly golden and an inserted wooden skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before icing.
- Using a round piping nozzle tip, remove a cylinder of cake from the centre of each cupcake, and using two teaspoons, carefully spoon the azuki beans into the hole. Smooth top.
Matcha Buttercream
- 230g unsalted butter (room temp)
- 390g icing sugar
- 2 tablespoons matcha tea powder
- pinch salt
- 1 tablespoon milk
(Add extra milk if the buttercream is too thick. Add extra icing sugar if the buttercream is too thin. I piped mine onto each cupcake so it was necessary for it to hold & maintain it’s structure).
Beat butter with an electric mixer until soft and smooth. Sift matcha tea powder and icing sugar together and add slowly to butter mixture. Add with a tablespoon, and mix well after each addition. Add salt & milk. Have mixer on high to get a fluffy and well incorporated buttercream. Using a large star nozzle tip, piped a generous swirl on top of each cupcake. Keep in refrigerator and remove, bringing to room temperature about 30min prior to serving. 
Matcha Tea Cake Roll
I have long been intrigued by desserts made using the delicate and beautifully green Matcha Tea powder. I tasted a matcha cake when I was in Australia earlier this year, and I loved how the tea flavour was infused into the cake, kind of like …