Special emphasis on Sicilian recipes within Italian regional cuisine in an Australian context
I never have any doubts about the success of the olives I pickle. They always seem to work and they taste different from year to year. This is a photo of the jars of olives in my pantry. There are last year’s olives (2020) and they are ready to eat having spent one year in … Continue reading VARIOUS WAYS TO PICKLE OLIVES
In my fridge you are likely to always find green and black olives, anchovies, capers and nuts, especially almonds, pine nuts, pistachio, hazelnuts and walnuts. I consider these as staples and frequently add these ingredients, common in Italian cooking, to much of my cuisine. In my freezer you will always find jars of stock and … Continue reading Staples in my fridge – olives, capers, anchovies and nuts
Albacore tuna is sustainable, cheap in price and much under rated in Australia. It is not sashimi grade so the Asian export market does not want it and therefore in Australia we also tend to undervalue it. It is denser in texture but still excellent for cooking (lightly or cooked for longer). As in Australia, … Continue reading TUNNU `A STIMPIRATA – TONNO ALLA STEMPERATA (Tuna with onions, vinegar, capers and green olives)
Anchovies are often added to fish in Sicilian cuisine – they are either stuffed in the slashes made on the sides of the fish or gently melted with a little oil and added to the fish whilst it is cooking. Trout has flaky, delicate flesh and slashing it is not a good idea so I chose … Continue reading TROTA CON OLIVE VERDI, LIMONE E ACCIUGHE – Pan fried trout with green olives, lemon slices and anchovies
Ducks are not standard fare on Sicilian dinner tables. Ducks in Sicily are few and far between. I am glad that living in Australia where ducks are pretty easy to find and more so in the last few years. In Giuseppe Coria,’s book – Profumi Di Sicilia, I found one duck recipe It is for … Continue reading Sicilian Duck with green olives and anchovies – Anatra a Papparedda cu l’ulivi
This year’s olives…… hardly worth it. Larger than last year’s crop, but probably just as few. I think that my tree is refusing to produce many olives because it is objecting to being in a pot. It gets root bound and every year we pull it out of the pot and trim the roots – … Continue reading The last of my pickled olives
Any time you see Italian dishes described as alla contadina, alla paesana, alla campagnola………do we really know what is meant by these terms? These all translate as of the peasantry – peasant style – and as those who live on the land would cook these dishes. They imply to be dishes that are healthy, nourishing, … Continue reading POLLO OR GALLINA ALLA CONTADINA, ALLA PAESANA. Braised Chicken with Olives, Sicilian style.
Red cabbage, sautéed or braised with apple, red wine vinegar, juniper berries, caraway seeds and cloves is the most common way I cook it in my kitchen. Sometimes I add walnuts and at other times some raw bacon – all delicious, but same old, same as. Shredded red cabbage is also good uncooked in a … Continue reading RED CABBAGE- CAVOLO ROSSO- with black olives, garlic, red vinegar and anchovies
I always know when it is picking olive season by the number of people looking at the posts on my blog about pickling olives. Yesterday there were 162 people looking at How To Pickle Olives, the day before there were 188; I can only assume that these readers are living in the southern parts of … Continue reading VARIOUS WAYS TO PICKLE OLIVES
Some of the most popular posts on my blog are about pickling olives or how to dress them once they are pickled. And I have also had many conversations with people about how to pickle olives so it is time to reveal another pickling method that has worked for my olives for the last couple … Continue reading PICKLING OLIVES- More About
