A Farm Wife's Fresh Pear Tart

This was a cracker. I didn't expect much of it, but it was delicious, and so simple. I used the cloves - best if you can pick them out before eating them. But came up a treat, and was devoured by everyone.

I'll be making this again.

Orange cake

I'm with Giulano when he says people are either cooks or bakers. He says he is a cook. I like to cook but not bake. It's pretty clear Marcella thinks in much the same way.

None the less, I'm fond of her orange cake from Marcella Cucina. I love the writing in this book. Marcella, to me, seems to be at the top of her game here, completely confident in her assertions, and expressing herself (perhaps with some assistance from Victor) so beautifully. This is especially the case in the introductions, where she implores us to make music.

Last time we tried to make music with this recipe, we blew out the blender (it was a double batch). So I bought a new blender, very expensive mind you, that and swore never to put a double batch through it again.

Today, Christmas Day, I'm just doing a single batch, for my family. Everything was going well until smoke started coming out the blender. My expensive, really expensive, heavy duty, blender.

Marcella 0, Blenders 2.

That made me a little annoyed, although I tried not to be on Christmas Day. I swapped to a food processor, which is in fact what we are instructed to use. Part of the lid fell off as part of this and caused a plate to be smashed on the kitchen floor.

All the time the new kitten meowed.

Ah well, I am pretty good with just getting on with it. So I did that, and put my timer on for 45 minutes as instructed. 45 minutes later the cake came out, and was burned.

That's the problem with automatic cooking in the oven. You can't check things to see if they are cooking ok. At least not easily.

It was only partially burned. I put sweetened orange juice all over. I had to use a screwdriver to poke holes in it as I was fresh out of chopsticks.

How will it taste? I will have to wait and see. Hopefully, I have made some form of music, although, not being a baker, I'm a little worried it will be more heavy metal than classical.

In the meantime, looks like I need to stump up for a new blender.

UPDATE: People enjoyed it.

Sicilian Orange Tart

I had my parents over for dinner tonight. The meal I cooked was:

- risotto with butter and parmesan, after last week's triumph;

- lamb stew with beans from Essentials; and

- sicilian orange tart from Giuliano Hazan's Every Night Italian.

The risotto was wonderful. I used the rarer rice. I don't think it was any better than the arborio from last week. Everyone lapped it up. I used about a cup and a half. I think 2 would have been better.

I half lost my mind when cooking it. I put the rice in with the butter. I had a laugh about how Marcella would not be happy with me making that mistake, started again, and then put the rice in the butter again.

Not even moderately alert (Marcella's precondition for recipe success in her 1973 Classic which caused me much merriment).

Third time was the charm and I remembered the onion.

I cooked the meat broth for it yesterday. I got about 17 cups of broth out of the batch, and used 6 in the risotto. I use the Marcella Says recipe. It is worth it just for the broth instructions.

The stew, with vinegar from Essentials, was different in that I used proper lamb shoulder, chopped on the bone, as required by the recipe. Interestingly the Classic version says to use boned lamb and keep the lid on. Anyway, it took much longer to cook - at least an hour or more. You definitely have to read the description of when it is done when cooking Marcella recipes, they are very important. Marcella admits that timing bores her and in any event it is impossible to give one time as each bit of meat is different.

It was tasty, and all eaten by the 4 of us, with the sauce mopped up with bread. The meat was fattier than the cuts I used the first two times, and some bits was better than others, and so my search for excellent lamb shoulder on the bone continues.

But on to the tart. I think it was Jamie Oliver who said he loved a flexible tart, and who am I to argue? I have never cooked one before. I used my new food processor to prepare the dough, as instructed. I was skeptical about the amount of water to be used. One tablespoon was not enough, but I did as I was told and added an extra teaspoon. That caused it to bind quite dramatically.

I think I made a mistake by adding an extra egg, both to the bottom and the filling. I did this because Giuliano said to use extra large eggs, which I did not have. I think this made the tart too eggy.

I also made a mistake by putting in the juice before I mixed the filling.

I may have also made a third mistake by not rolling the bottom thinly enough. I didn't have a false bottom or anything so I had to roll it and then put it in. I wasn't sure exactly what I was doing, but I think the bottom was too thick - in some parts thicker than the filling. Should it be, I wonder?

The forth mistake may have been to have an oven that was too hot. I took the tart out about 10 minutes early because it looked done.

Anyway, we enjoyed it. We ate it with a bit of cream which improved things. I am going to make it again as I am fond of the orange flavour. It also looked appealing. It was a little eggy.

Again, it is hard for me to say it was a good tart or not as I've not really eaten tart before. I think it has potential and I want to give it another crack without mistakes.

It would be nice with a little ice cream.

I sent the left over tart home with my 65 year old dad, who was quite pleased about that. He fixed my cupboard and had a left over screw, which when combined with the tart sent them off laughing as well as being satisfied which can only be a good thing.

Orange Cake

ok, so I've jumped forward a few books, but I just cooked the Orange Cake from Marcella Cucina. It all went well, and was so easy. Well, apart from the fact a certain someone burnt out the blender blending up her mix!!! I did warn her, although she says the blender 'got tired' when blending my mix, and just happened to give up the ghost in hers. The fact she was doing a double mix had nothing to do with it apparently...

Anyway, all worked out a treat. I was making it for Christmas but I've already taken a couple of slices. We'll see if it lasts!

David

Walnut Cake

I don't normally make cakes, or bake anything really. I tend to follow Marcella's advice and have fruit for dessert. I didn't expect to get to this chapter for, well, years. But I was asked to help bake. Just before my helper disappeared. So I was stuck with the task.

First thing I needed was the ingredients. I didn't have any baking powder. But I had some self raising flower. I didn't have a full 2/3 of a cup of white sugar, but I had a little brown to make up the difference. And I had some walnuts and a lemon, and the rest. You can see the brown sugar peeking out of the white.



And into the oven for the walnuts.



I didn't have a food processor, but I tried my best with a blender. It worked with the nuts, but not with the rest. So I just threw it in a bowl and had a crack myself.



In go the nuts.



And it's all together.



Not looking too flash at this stage.



There we go. I think perhaps I left it in the oven a bit too long.



Of course, in classic Marcella fashion, she tells me at the bottom of the page to wait 24 hours before I can eat it, to "let the flavors fully develop"!!! So I did that. It was very tasty with a nice lemon tang. Even two days later. And I have no doubt it would last even longer.