Ricciarelli

Well Christmas is over for another year and I received the most gorgeous Christmas presents from Hubby, a pile of cookery books! I can’t wait to get cooking and blogging. I know I keep promising to blog more and I was going to cook the complete Jamie Oliver 30 Minute Meals Book, but the recipes were lovely but all a bit the same, so really loving my new books and the huge variety of recipes.

Tomorrow we have been invited over to one of the neighbours for Christmas drinks, a good chance to get to meet everyone and I have decided to take a gift of Ricciarelli.

Ricciarelli are a traditional Italian biscuit which originates from Siena in Tuscany and date back to the 14^th century. Legend holds that they were introduced by Ricciardetto della Gherardesca in his castle near Volterra upon his return from the Crusades.

These small, soft cakes are found in every shop in Siena along with the traditional panforte at Christmas time. Served with coffee, a glass of Vin Santo or with a dessert they will always impress.

Buon appetito

Makes about 20 biscuits

300g almond flour (or very finely ground almonds)

280g caster sugar

150g icing sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

grated zest of 1 orange

2 egg whites

1 sheet of rice paper to line the baking tray, don't worry if you can't get hold of any, just bake them on some parchment

Line a flat baking tray with baking paper or rice paper if using.

Mix the ground almonds with the caster sugar, 100g of the icing sugar, the baking powder and the orange zest in the bowl.

Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks and combine with the almond mix, using a wooden spoon. Mash the mixture together to make a sticky, wet mass.

Mould oval shapes to 6cm long x 4cm wide x 2cm thick onto a spoon. Slide the ovals off the spoon carefully with your thumb, and reshape any indentations. Put them onto the baking tray, allowing room for them to spread.

Sprinkle the tops with 25g, or half of the remaining icing sugar. Leave the biscuits on the tray for 2-3 hours at room temperature to dry them a little before baking. The Italians will often make these the night before baking and leave them over night to dry.

Preheat the oven to 140c, 275f, Gas 1. Bake for about 30 minutes or until they are lightly golden and a little firm on the outside. The insides will still be soft. Remove from the oven. Cool slightly before sprinkling with the remaining 25g of icing sugar. Cut the rice paper around the bottom of the cakes.

They will keep for about a week stored in an airtight container.

Spanish Rice with Chicken & Chorizo for Peter

I know what you must be thinking, there are a lot of dishes very similar to this one on my blog, but I so totally adore this kind of dish and I believe that you can never ever have to many recipes that have chorizo in them, its just so gorgeous, but please bare with me as I do have a truly legitimate reason for adding yet another chorizo dish to the list.

I'll explain! A couple of weeks ago I announced on Facebook that I was making this dish for dinner and my gorgeous Mother-in-Law Juliet commented that my Father-in-Law Peter would love it. I duly promised to make it for him one day, but as they live in Tuscany and we don't get to see them very often, I thought that I would add it to the blog so that Peter could make it anytime he wants.

Well I hope you enjoy it Peter and if you never get round to it, I'll just have to make it for you next time you come back to Blighty.

(Above photo taken of Peter, Juliet and Olly, Easter 2010, in Tuscany)

Buon appetito

Serves 6

Olive oil (I know you must have plenty of this from your gorgeous olives Peter)

12 chicken thighs, on the bone with skin on

2 red peppers, sliced

100g chorizo, cut into small chunks

1 large onion , roughly chopped

4 garlic cloves, crushed

3tsp smoked paprika

1tsp dried chilli flakes

1.3 litres of chicken stock

375g of paella rice or calasparra

2tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped

1 lemon, juiced

I must add here, that even though the original recipe doesn't state this, I always add prawns to this dish, they go so amazingly well with the other ingredients and take on the oils that ooze from the chorizo so well. You can add or leave out what you heart desires, I'm pretty sure that it would work just as well with other seafood to make the dish more like a traditional paella. Experiment & enjoy. As always, a recipe is only ever a guide, adding your own flair and taste is always far more exciting.

Heat the oven to 180c/fan 160c/Gas4.

Heat 4tbsp oil in a paellla pan or a broad, shallow pan, season the chicken thighs and brown them in batches on all sides (you want to colour the chicken well, but don't need to cook it through). Remove, then add the peppers and chorizo to the same pan and cook over a medium heat until the peppers soften.

Throw in the onions and garlic and cook gently until the onion is soft. Stir in the paprika and chilli and cook for a minute, stirring, then add the chicken stock. If you are adding prawns, I normally do this about now with the paprika and chilli, just so that they warm through with the spices but don't become to over cooked and rubbery, then add the stock. put the chicken pieces back in the pan, bring the stock to a simmer, and cook, covered, over a gentle heat for 15 minutes. If you don't have a lid for your paella pan, just cover with foil.

Pour the rice all round the chicken and season. Put in the oven and cook for 20 minutes, until all the stock has been absorbed and the top is golden. You don't need to stir the rice or do anything with the dish as it cooks.

When cooked, remove from the oven and cover the dish with foil and leave to sit for 5 minutes. Scatter with parsley and a squeeze of lemon juice over the top before serving.

Vassilopitta - New Year Wish Cake

Well finally I'm back and so much has happened since my last blog, we have finally moved, waited nearly four weeks for broadband, had snow and been snowed in and I fell over on the ice and have been bed bound. So pretty manic as usual, not much time for cooking but I do have a few new dishes that I need to get typed up and on here as soon as I can.

I am very disappointed as I really wanted to do a Christmas theme of recipes, maybe a 12 days of Christmas kind of thing, or a recipe advent count down, but as its now the 10th December its a little to late and so I have gone to the other extreme, totally missed Christmas out (not a bad idea as I haven't brought any presents, written any cards or even put up any decoration yet) and jumped a head to New Year.

I thought that as we have a NEW house, the book that the recipe comes from is my NEW Tessa Kiros one, which I have been dying to cook from, this is the first recipe that I have cooked from it and it will be NEW Year in only a few weeks. All makes complete sense to return to my Blog with this recipe.

Anyway a little history about the Vassilopitta. The Vassilopitta is a cake in which a gold coin has been baked. The cake is served in a sequence, the first piece is set aside for St. Basil, a founder member of the Greek Church, the second for the home, and the remaining is distributed amongst the family members, from oldest to youngest. Who ever finds the coin in their serving of cake will have a lucky year.

I don't know about you, but I love traditions like this.

Ευτυχισμένο το Νέο Έτος (Happy New Year)

Makes 1 large cake

1 coin (Euro/Dollar/Pound)

450g plain flour

3 heaped teaspoons baking powder

200g unsalted butter at room temperature

300g sugar (I used golden caster sugar)

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

4 tablespoons brandy (I used Marsala)

185ml milk

50g blanched almonds, finely chopped

Icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180c/350f/gas 4

Butter & flour a 28cm spring-form cake tin.

Rinse the coin, dry it well and wrap it tightly in foil.

Sift the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt together into a bowl.

Whip the butter and sugar together with electric beaters in a large bowl until creamy.

Add the eggs one at a time, whisking each one in well. Beat in the vanilla and the orange and lemon zests.

Fold in the dry ingredients alternately with the brandy and the milk, then fold in the almonds. Scrape into a tin. Drop the coin in now, trying to keep it upright, not flat.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for 5 minutes or so before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Put a doily (if you don't have one just take a circle of paper, fold like you did when you were at school and cut a snowflake patter) on top of the cake and dust with the icing sugar, removing it to reveal a lacy patter. You can also cut a stencil of the numbers of the year you are in and dust that. Cut a piece for everybody and serve, enjoy and see you will have a lucky year a head.

I must just say that another amazing Tessa recipe, I can highly recommend her books and her recipes always come out perfectly every time. As you can tell I am a HUGE fan.