Friday 23 January 2015

Italian Cuisine: Osso Buco

Osso Buco:
 Osso Buco is probably one of my favourite dishes and translates to "bone with a hole".It comprises of veal shank but the sauce is debatable,variations can include or exclude Gremolata.Osso Buco can be found all over the world,but originates from Milan,although the best Osso Buco that I've had was in a small family run Italian in Melbourne,Australia.
 Authentic Osso Buco uses the meat from the middle part of the hind shank,which has tender flesh around the bone,unlike the fore shank.
 I prefer Osso Buco with spaghetti but it can be served with rice,mashed potato.
                                                                                                                                                                        

Links to good Osso Buco recipes:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/ossobucomilanesestyl_65553
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/14109/osso+bucco

Italian cuisine: Cannoli

  Cannoli:
Cannoli is a Sicilian cream and pastry dessert. The singular of cannoli is cannolo,which means "little tube",cannoli stems from the Latin word "canna" which translates to reed.


Cannoli consists of tubed shaped fried pastry dough,which is then filled with a sweet creamy filling,the filling usually consists of ricotta cheese and chopped succade(candied citrus peel).

     Shell Ingredients:  
  4 cups sifted plain flour.
    2 tablespoons of sugar.
    one quarter teaspoon of salt.
    3 tablespoons of butter,softened.
    2 egg yolks.
    6 ounces of white wine.

  Filling ingredients:
  32 ounces of ricotta cheese.
    12 ounces of icing sugar.
    1 tablespoon of vanilla extract.

   Directions:

   Mix the sugar,plain flour and salt together in a bowl.Then add the softened butter (in pieces). add egg yolks and the stir.Add wine into the mixture while stirring at the same time. Form the dough into a ball and let it rest for half an hour. Roll dough on a floured surface till it is almost paper thin. cut circles out of the pastry using a pastry cutter and the form into an oval,then wrap the pastry around a cannoli tube(metal tube),fry one or two at a time at about 180 degrees celsius for about one minute or golden brown. drain off oil and leave the cannoli till it is cool,then slide it off the metal tube. drain the ricotta cheese if it's watery then mix it in with the powdered sugar and vanilla extract. chill the mixture and then pipe it into the shells(also cooled). Cannoli can be garnished with crushed pistachios,chocolate shavings etc. keep it in the fridge till serving time.