Text 7149, 153 rader
Skriven 2008-05-16 08:12:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av BURTON FORD
Ärende: things 318
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 ml-> How does that ditty go, the highland sheep are sweeter, 
 BF> THE MOUNTAIN sheep are sweeter, 
 BF> But the valley sheep are fatter; 
 BF> We therefore deem’d it meeter 
 BF> To carry off the latter. 

Ah. If I had consistent access to broadband, I too would have
a brain.

 BF> His head was borne before us; 
 BF> His wine and beasts supplied our feasts, 
 BF> And his overthrow, our chorus.

Hum, very charming indeed.

=

 DS> Not sure why it is there since Passover has come and gone.
 ml-> They'll keep the stock around until it sells out, which it will.
 ml-> After all, it's a superior product.
 BF> And you consider that to be a selling point?    

[chuckle] You're sharp today.

Speaking of which, last night we spent $34 plus tax and tip for a
bottle of Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling, pleasantly appley and
peary, a little too off-dry for my taste, and worth approximately
half of the $8.99 you can get it for at the supermarket. Of course,
we'd just been comped to $160 worth of Herb Alpert tickets, so
the expense wasn't out of line. Afterward, we had drinks and a bull
session with Mike the drummer (henceforth to be referred to as Tom,
for reasons that will come clear in a future post), Hussain the
guitarist, and Bill Cantos (NEC graduate) the piano player. Herb
and his vocalist-wife Lani Hall were too busy signing autographs.
Just as well - Remy Martin was $14 for a very modest shot, and some
no-name Pinot Grigio was 40 a bottle or 9 a glass, and there's just
so much overpriced booze one's wallet can take.

The reason I brought this up was that we'd been discussing the
distinctiveness of the Herb Alpert sound (which I can identify a
mile away, and which I kind of like), and my friend Ellen pointed
out that part of it is that he plays a bit sharp - that coupled
with the velvety sound makes him unique, as most players who play
sharp have a more strident tone.

Italian Buckwheat Torta
cat: dessert, rustic, Italian, German
yield: 1

200 g / 7 oz buckwheat flour
6 eggs
250 g / 0.5lb sugar
250 g / 0.5lb almond powder
250 g / 0.5lb butter
Vanilla extract, or 1 vanilla pod grated
- or a bag vanilla sugar
500 g / 1 lb blueberry jam
Confectioner's sugar to sprinkle over the cake
Salt

Italian buckwheat cake

A unique Alpine recipe from those mountains where Italians
speak German. For hardcore buckwheat lovers only!

Some recipes include cocoa or hazelnut powder and grated apples.

Italy stretches over 2000 kilometers, from the heel of the
Italian boot where you can almost see the Tunisian coasts,
to the confines of Austria, where Italians speak German.
What goes on in their kitchens is a world apart. We all are
familiar with pasta and pizza and risotto and sometimes even
polenta. But the specialties of Trentino Alto Adige, Italy's
northernmost province, shares more with its Tyrolian cousins
than with the rest of Italy. Until 1919 this province belonged
to Austria Hungary and it is still called Sudtyrol.

Trentino Alto Adige is a land of mountain farmers who edge a
living on a hard soil. People from the Italian plains saw their
life change with the arrival of corn, which they named granoturco
the 'Turkish grain' but corn does not grow up there on the Alps.
When buckwheat arrived, the Italians called grano saraceno, the
Saracens' grain, and it changed the lives of people in the Alps
like it changed those of Russians or the Bretons. Nowhere in
Europe have I seen such profligate use of buckwheat in all
areas of cooking than in Trentino Alto Adige. Man, there is
nothing they won't do with buckwheat flour. From a grayish
polenta you could choke a whale with, the fearsome polenta
nera that nearly cost me my life when I tried to swallow it,
to delicious buckwheat pasta, fried raviolis and many sweets.
Today I will show you a simple and much loved buckwheat torta.

The cake is built on the usual holy trinity of butter, flour,
sugar and powdered almonds in equal quantities. Start by working
the butter into a cream with a paddle, then combine the sugars
until you have a smooth mixture.

6 eggs, no more, no less. This is a rich cake fit for a buckwheat
farmer's high tea.

Separate the yolks from the egg whites and add the yolks to the mix.
Whisk them in.

Let her majesty the buckwheat flour, star of the day, join the show.
Then our supporting actor, the almond powder.

Mix everything until you have a smooth cake batter/dough.

You will have to deserve those calories. Beat the egg whites stiff,
then fold them in delicately.

Grease a circular cake pan with a piece of butter. I know a pastry
chef who puts the cake pan in the frige after that, then, when the
butter has set, he greases it a second time, and finally sprinkles
flour on top to ensure a smoothless unmolding.

Fill your pan with the dough, trying not to make a mess around the
edges. Smooth the surface and remove any bits on the sides - these
would burn.

Bake 45 min at 180C/350F. Unmold with care and leave it to cool
for a couple minutes. With a long serrated blade, love and care,
delicately slice through the cake to obtain two discs of equal
thickness. 

Time for the jam. Spread the jam on the bottom half until you run
out of jam or of surface, whichever comes first! Cover with the
top half. Try not to make a mess, you don't want jam splurting
across the kitchen as you press on the top.

Now we'll decorate the cake with some very fine confectioner's
sugar and a fancy device designed to create sweet snow on cakes.

Proceed to cover the entire surface.

There we are - time for the reward. Use a serrated blade and
sharp movements to cut the cake without making the top half
slide on its bed of jam.

Remove with caution.

Enjoy this filling but very authentic and characterful cake!

This recipe comes from:
Osteria Nerina
Via De Gasperi, 31
38010 Malgolo di Romeno (Trento)
Phone +39 0 463 - 510111
courtesy fxcuisine.com

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