Arte Culinaria

 

 

After the radio, my second hobby is cookery.

 

Some theory:

 

It is normally believed that cookery = recipes. Magazines ant TV programs just give recipes maybe with some photo.

 

From my point of view there are three aspects to be considered. Of these the recipe is the last one and the more flexible: in fact I like to test variations to normal recipes or to adapt them  to available ingredients. From time to time I get good results.

 

So the main points are:

 

        Hardware of the kitchen

        Quality of ingredients

        Recipe

 

 What is not flexible at all is the hardware used and the good quality of ingredients.

 

About the quality of ingredients I can’t say much as it requires a personal research on the market:  to select, for instance, the right brand of pasta or rice requires some time and the research never ends.

 

I can give some hints about pans and other stuff. 

 

The best material for pans is stainless steel.

Aluminium do not resist to some acid food like tomato sauce. It becomes porous and difficult to clean.

Teflon inside pans is good but does not resist too much: it is very easy to scratch it with metallic spoons or knives.

 

The bottom of the pan must be very thick: this is important for the uniform distribution of heat. I must have also an high thermal capacity, i.e. must store heat for long time.

 

Steam cooking is excellent for green vegetables, potatoes, manioc, eggs etc. I use it a lot.

 

Since many years I own the “Ferrari” of pans, but I do not want advertise here the brand has I do not have any business with that.

 

From my research and experiments I will put here some recipe: I hope to be useful to somebody and “Buon Appetito!”

 

 

Risotto with Avocado: a Lombardo-tropical recipe !

For two persons you need one very ripe avocado (the skin is almost black),  an onion, a cup of rice, 2 cups of broth and half cup cream

The pan must be massive and with a good lid.

All as the normal Risotto: frit sliced onions, add the rice and let it frit a couple of minutes; add the broth and cover the pan. When steam flows out of the pan switch the fire of and do not touch for 20 minutes.

Open the pan and add the smashed avocado and the cream and mix with a wood spoon until  you get an homogeneous  light green colour.

 

 

 

Monte Bianco for tropical countries

Just replace chestnuts with batatas (sweet-potatoes): the best have a red skin.

Of course a lot of Rum or Caña inside.