The Sunny Kitchen - An Italian cook in Amsterdam

Not Exactly Italian: fusion fresh spring rolls

 

I totally love fresh spring rolls, both the Thai and the Vietnamese versions. I'm completely addicted to the pleasant chewiness of the rice paper and the crunchiness of the raw vegetables and I can eat them for at least a couple of days in a row. I just vary the filling and never get tired of them.

Last weekend I had an oriental cooking evening with a bunch of friends at my cooking school and we made both fried spring rolls and fresh ones. For the fried version we used wheat wrappers and we filled both types with the same ingredients, including sautéed shrimps. Both very yummy, and yet my BIG preference goes to the fresh, rice ones.
I made them again the day after and again yesterday (I told you I'm addicted...). This is a bit of a fusion recipe since I've never seen original oriental spring rolls made with shredded beets but the fact that I've never seen them doesn't mean they do not exist.

They're super easy to make, the only work needed is transforming the veggies into a nice julienne. If you have a food processor that does it for you then that's easily done. I did it by hand using a special julienne peeler because I like the thinness of the veggies - carrot and red beet - once they've been shredded like this. 
Spring onions, avocado and mint were the other fresh ingredients, and instead of shrimp this time I used grilled organic chicken marinated in sesame oil and a bit of salt. A sprinkle of white sesame seeds for the extra crunch was the finishing touch.
I dipped them in soy sauce first and immediately after in hot sriracha sauce. Total yumminess.

I've also made a vegetarian version filled with rucola, avocado, carrot, Parmesan cheese flakes and roughly chopped Brazil nuts. You can also use cashews, previously soaked in cold water for a few hours. Very nice variation!

TIP:
There's a beautiful tutorial on how to make Vietnamese spring rolls by Whiteonricecouple and you can find it here.

Hope you'll enjoy this version as much as I did.

Fusion spring rolls

Serves 2 (about 10 rolls)

1 medium-sized chicken breast
sesame oil
salt
3 spring onions
1 medium-sized carrot
1 small red beet, raw and peeled
1 small ripe avocado
white sesame seeds
a few sprigs of fresh mint
Vietnamese rice paper sheets (about 22 cm)
soy sauce
sriracha

Massage the chicken breast with sesame oil and a pinch of salt and leave to rest for about 15 minutes.
Grill the chicken until well done and nicely striped, let it cool and cut into thin strips.

Shred the beet and the halved carrot (julienne) and slice the spring onions into thin strips of about the same length of the julienned vegetables.
Dip a rice paper sheet into a bowl of cold water for a few seconds until it's soft and pliable and lay it on the working surface (you can put it on a wet towel but I noticed that the ones I used - see photo - didn't stick to the chopping board I was using as a working surface anyway).
Fill each rice paper sheet - only the lower part, the one closer to you - with a bit of vegetables, a couple of strips of grilled chicken, some thin slices of avocado, a few mint leaves and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. Leave the sides free.
Start rolling and tuck the filling while you roll.
Fold the sides of the rice paper sheet to make sure the filling stays inside and roll until completely sealed.
Repeat with the rest of the ingredients and dip your spring rolls soy sauce and sriracha for some extra zing.

Italian sushi workshops

Italian sushi?
I can already hear you think: WHAT'S THAT???

For those who did not know yet: Italy is the largest European producer of rice.

We grow many kinds of rice and even fantastic sushi rice.

 

During this workshop we use this beautiful Italian product together with other surprising ingredients that provide distinct flavour combinations. Pure, tasty and very original.

 

Come and discover the secrets of a perfect sushi prepared the Italian way!

 

Only during this summer offer (book between June 22 and July 30th) this workshop includes a goodie bag to make Italian sushi at home.

To book please send me an e-mail.

This workshop is being held in Amsterdam, at my Italian cooking school La Cucina del Sole.

Date: Saturday 1 August 2015, Saturday 29 August 2015 
Price: € 79,00 p.p. 
Time: 10.30 - 14.30 hrs

Salad with watermelon, tomato and rucola-almond dressing

It's soooo hot in Amsterdam, these days. That's why I often only feel like having "just" a salad for lunch. I say "just" a salad because I love rich salads, with intriguing, colourful ingredients. A salad like the one I made today, inspired by the classic combination of watermelon and feta and dedicated to a beautiful country that's having a difficult time, Greece.
For my homage to Greece I'm using Greek sheep/goat feta cheese (these days I support the Greek economy buying Greek products) because I'm slightly intolerant to cow's milk and because I totally love sheep and goat cheeses.

It's a very European salad: the coeur de boeuf tomatoes come from France, the feta cheese from Greece, the watermelon from Spain, the Spring onions from Holland, my own import organic olive oil from Puglia (check it out here, tab "Organic olive oil from Puglia") and the rucola is Italian too. Long live a united, sunny, healthy Europe!
 
The colours are bright and inviting, the taste exciting and refreshing. The sweetness of watermelon and balsamic vinegar is compensated by the perfect saltiness of the feta cheese and the slight acidity of the vinegar.
Try this salad this very weekend and make lots of it. Present it in a big serving dish (visually it's the best option) or otherwise use one-person's dishes, quite big if you can. It's a bit more work but the result is great too.

If you don't have the coeur de boeuf (literally "ox heart", cuore di bue in Italian) variety you can of course use any type of heirloom tomatoes, their taste and shape is just fantastic.
And instead of slivered raw almonds for the pesto you can use raw pine nuts.
VEGAN VERSION: use deep black Taggia olives instead of beautiful white feta cheese to add some deep, lovely saltiness to the salad.

The beautiful little bowl and spoon for the dressing are by Annemieke Boots Ceramics.


Insalata con anguria, pomodori cuore di bue e pesto di rucola e mandorle

Serves 2

2 handfuls of rucola (arugula) plus 2 handfuls for the dressing
1 big coeur de boeuf (or heirloom) tomato, thinly sliced
1 1/2 big slices of watermelon, in wedges
1/3 cucumber, with its skin, in chunks
120 gr. (1/2 cup) of Greek sheep/goat feta cheese
1-2 yellow tomatoes, in chunks
handful of pecans
1-2 Spring onions, quartered
1/2 handful of slivered raw almonds
2 spoons of balsamic vinegar
e.v. olive oil
salt
black pepper

Make the dressing mixing in the robot 2 handfuls of rucola, almonds, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and enough olive oil to make it quite liquid.

Spread 2 handfuls of rucola on a big plate, then cover with 4-5 thin slices of coeur de boef or heirloom tomato.

Spread the rest of the ingredients over the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with the dressing.

Enjoy listening to Italy's sexiest voice, Mario Biondi.
 

Not exactly Italian: Oliver's paella (with video)

A classic traditional Spanish dish, paella is originally from Valencia, a city on the East coast of the country. The original version called paella valenciana involves the use of flat green beans, meat (mainly chicken and rabbit), white beans and snails, but there are many variations that include only fish, crustaceans and molluscs (paella marinera) or meat and fish together (paella mixta).
The wide, shallow pan used to prepare this recipe is the paella, also called paellera. Spaniards are quite divided about the right name for this beautiful cooking instrument: some prefer paella and some others argue that the correct name is paellera. The Real Academia Española, the official institution that takes care of setting the rules for the Spanish language, accepts both. For clarity in the recipe we use the term paella for the dish and paellera for the pan.
When looking for one to buy, select it possibly with a thick enough bottom to promote uniform cooking of the rice without burning it. This has to happen in such an way that the rice is no longer stirred after a first, initial stir so as to form that delicious crust on the bottom of the pan that, together with the perfect cooking of all the ingredients, characterizes a really well done paella.
This version by Oliver, a friend from the Spanish Canary Islands, is a paella mixta, with meat and fish together. The chorizo ​​used here is the classic Spanish pork sausage characterized by a uniform red colour even in the fat parts since the meat and fat mixture has been flavoured and “coloured” with pimentón, red smoked pepper powder, or more or less spicy paprika.

Oliver :)

The use of fish, crustaceans and molluscs makes the preparation a little more delicate than a paella with just meat as it is necessary to avoid overcooking the prawns that would otherwise become unpleasantly flaky. Add them when the rice is almost cooked calculating about three more minutes on the stove. Also for cod and squid it is preferable to avoid too long a cooking time (4 to 5 minutes maximum). Oliver cooks the mussels long enough to ensure that the rice absorbs their juices and flavour even better.
The video has Italian subtitles only but you’ll get what we mean by looking at the images and following the written recipe you find here.

 

Oliver’s paella

Serves 4-6:

250 g rice for paella or risotto
20 raw mussels in their shells
250 gr. fresh clean prawns (without head, shell and intestines)
3-4 large cleaned squid
150 gr. cod fillet
100 gr. bacon or pancetta
100 gr. chorizo ​​(Spanish sausage)
150 gr. fresh shelled peas
4 medium tomatoes
2 red peppers
1 green pepper
2 red onions
4-5 cloves of garlic
extra virgin olive oil
salt
2 pinches of saffron stigmas or powder
1 pinch of Cayenne pepper
2,5 dl. dry white wine
2,5 l. chicken stock
two lemons and flat-leaf parsley for garnishing

Heat plenty of oil in the paellera and fry the chopped onions in it. Add the diced peppers and the finely chopped garlic and fry for a few more minutes.
Add the chorizo, the bacon or pancetta and the blanched, peeled and diced tomatoes together with the Cayenne pepper. Stir and cook for about 5-10 minutes on a medium heat.
Add the rice, raise the heat a little and stir well.
Pour the white wine, stir and allow the alcohol to evaporate.
Season with saffron, stirring well to give the rice a beautiful, uniform yellow colour.
Place the mussels on top of the rice and stir gently.
Add the peas and, immediately after, 4-5 ladles of hot stock which will have to cover the rice completely.
Cook the rice on a medium / high flame until almost cooked, adding stock from time to time if it gets too dry.
Add the squid cut into rings and the fish fillet into large pieces and push them gently into the rice without moving it too much. Add more stock if necessary.
Add the prawns to the paella about three minutes before the rice is ready. Lay them on the rice and turn them so that they evenly cook on both sides. If you don’t want to risk overcooking you can also briefly sauté them in a pan with a little olive oil and then add them to the paella once you take it from the fire. Season with a little salt if necessary.
Turn off the heat and let the paella rest for 5 minutes.
Serve garnished with chopped parsley and lemon slices.

 

La paella di Oliver from Nicoletta Tavella on Vimeo.

 

 

Not exactly Italian: "basic" Chinese noodle soup (Qing Tang Mian)

I love Chinese food, the REAL one, the one you can eat even here in Amsterdam at places that do not make concessions to the locals’ taste such as the fantastic Nam Kee restaurant on the Geldersekade.
It’s a vast cuisine with an infinite variety of preparations – a bit like the Italian one – because every region of China is characterized by own dishes and ingredients, exactly like in my own country. Just think of the enormous differences between the spicy Sichuan cuisine and the Cantonese one, more “cosmopolitan” and widespread, and you’ll have an idea.

My favorite type of Chinese food is represented by that simple, plain cuisine which uses just a few ingredients and, by doing that, exploits their flavours and textures to the max. I very much prefer this type of Chinese food to the more complicated and sophisticated cuisine of some classy restaurants.

Recently, at the Paris Cookbook Fair I bought the beautiful Chinese home cooking book titled “Every grain of rice (simple Chinese home cooking)”. The talented writer Fuchsia Dunlop, who has lived in China and was the first Westerner to study at the Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine, describes the dishes, traditions and ingredients of the everyday Chinese food so well and yet with so much simplicity that you really want to prepare some.

My first dish inspired by this book is really easy and fast to make, and leaves you a lot of freedom as it allows you to add the vegetables you prefer. It is a noodle soup prepared with good broth, preferably homemade (I made a simple chicken and onion stock) and enriched by vegetables and noodles of your own choice. I used egg ones, those that cook really fast just like Italian egg pasta.
My vegetables of choice were pak choy, also know as bok choy or Chinese chard, and chestnut mushrooms. If you do not find pak choy you can also use the more common Swiss chard, slightly sweeter and with less fleshy stems.
The other “exotic” ingredients you will need are sesame oil and basic soy sauce, easy to find in any oriental food store.

 

Basic Noodle Soup (Qing Tang Mian) according to Fuchsia Dunlop

Serves 2:

300 gr of boneless chicken thighs, preferably organic, cut in fairly big chunks
1 medium-sized onion, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons of soy-bean oil
2 l. water (it will partly evaporate while cooking the broth)
200 g Chinese egg noodles
2 handfuls of pak choy cut into rather large pieces, whole leaves
100 grams of fresh chestnut mushrooms
2-3 spring onions
sesame oil
basic soy sauce

Prepare the broth by gently frying the onion in soy-bean oil and then browning the chicken in it. Add the water, possibly already boiling, and simmer for a while with the lid on the pan, at least until the chicken is thoroughly cooked (which means that the meat should flake easily when pressed with the chopsticks or with a wooden spoon). Also make sure that the broth is nicely concentrated for extra flavour. Add a little salt or soy sauce at the end.
Add the white, fleshy parts of the pak choy and the quartered mushrooms to the stock and cook for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, cook the noodles adding them to boiling water (slightly salted, if you like) which you then immediately remove from the flame leaving them to rest for about 4 minutes (the actual time will depend on the type of noodles you use).
Drain and divide into two bowls. Chop the spring onions in rings, making sure you use also most of the green leaves.
Throw the green parts of the pak choy in the broth and remove the pan from the flame. The pak choy leaves only need to be blanched.
Add a couple of ladles of broth, chicken and vegetables to the noodles in every bowl and garnish  with the spring onion rings.
Season with a teaspoon of sesame oil and a little soy sauce and enjoy.

 

New cooking show on Italian TV: my own :)

Since May 2 I have my very own cooking show on Gambero Rosso Channel, Italy's first and biggest food channel.
It's called "La Cucina degli Altri" (other people's cuisines) and it's about world cooking, one of my culinary passions.
Up to now we've recorded 40 episodes on the Mexican, Chinese, Turkish, Japanese and Persan cuisine and I enjoy myself immensely every time I'm in Rome to work in the Gambero Rosso studios.

It's a marvellous experience that gives me the chance to learn even more about my beloved "World Cuisine" and to meet great chefs from all over the planet.
For example Diana Beltrán of Mexican restaurant "La Cucaracha" in Rome, chef Kam Kwan Fong (Rita Fong) of Chinese restaurant "Lon Fon" in Milan and chef Hossein of Iranian's restaurant "Kabab" in Rome (here you can see me working with them on the set).

La Cucina degli Altri can be seen all over the world (it's in Italian, though).
If you have a satellite antenna tune in on Sky, channel 411.
The show is on-air 3 times a day, from Monday to Friday, at 10.30, 14.30 and 23.00 CET, and you can watch the promo below.

You can also follow me on Facebook.

See you on Gambero Rosso Channel! :)