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Puffball Mushrooms
We are so privileged that Puffball Mushrooms are growing in our friend’s garden across the road, and even more privileged that they are prepared to to share it with us for a MUSHROOM FEAST every year. So it was with great excitement that they called and announced that the puffballs are up. We went to take photographs today and will harvest them tomorrow for the feast in the evening. We shall report on recipes and results the day after tomorrow!!! How good can life be?
Peperoni Ripieni (Stuffed Red Capsicum)
Today, while I was building a Rooster Box to shut up Alvin (literally as well), Mrs BYF really delivered!! Peperoni Ripieni di Riso e Peperoni Ripieni Melanzane.
We found some perfect, ripe, small capsicums, just right for a great antipasto. Half of them were stuffed with risotto made with onion, a bit of home made pancetta and one mushroom that had escaped yesterday’s lunch. The rest were stuffed with eggplant, and here is the recipe with a hearty Salute! to the great Marcella Hazan.
Pepperoni Ripieni (with eggplant)
4 small peppers, if you are using large ones adjust the recipe to suit
1/2 cup fresh unflavoured breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon anchovies chopped
1 big pinch of oregano
1 tablespoon capers chopped
2 cloves of garlic (adjust to taste) chopped
1 ripe, fresh tomato, chopped. It should really be peeled but I could not be bothered
1/2 cup of fried eggplant chopped
2 tablespoons of fresh flat leaf parseley chopped
olive oil for sprinkling at the end. The fried eggplant will have enough oil so you do not have to add to the mix
pinch of salt
black pepper
retain 3 tablespoon of crumbs to sprinkle at the end
Place the whole peppers under the grill and roast on all sides until the skin is charred all over. Let cool and when you can handle them, remove the skin and seeds carefully. retain the ‘pocket’ shape of the pepper. The roasting makes the flesh of the pepper dense and luscious and imparts a smokey flavour. I always have fried eggplant in the fridge under oil but it is very easy to fry the eggplant in a bit of oil until soft. Slice the eggplant in slices about 1cm thick, sprinkle with salt and leave for 20 minutes at least. Rinse off the salt and dry well with a paper towel. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan and and fry the pieces of eggplant without overlapping or overcrowding.
Mix and chop all the ingredients together, adjust the salt to taste. Stuff the peppers tightly with the mixture. Pack them in an ovenproof dish big enough to contain all of them and keep them from falling over. Sprinkle with the left over crumbs, add a tiny drizzle of olive oil, and bake for 20 minutes in an oven pre heated to 200 degrees
Remove from oven and leave to cool for about 10 minutes or bring to room temperature before serving. Do not refrigerate before eating.
All of this enjoyed with some perfect red home made wine and afterwards I would be excused extending my siesta to 90 minutes in stead of the normal 60. ENJOY!!
Fridge Pickings and a Gift of Beans makes Lunch
The kids went away on holiday and we were told to remove all the perishables from their fridge. We found spring onions, mushrooms, small tomatoes and lemons. Great! That sounds like lunch already, but when we got home the neighbour had left us some freshly harvested beans. I augmented everything with fresh chili and a tiny garlic bulb from the garden, picked some parsley, and this was the lunch made by the Never Trow Out Anything maniac in the kitchen. A bit of lemon went into a gin and tonic for Mrs BYF, and the rest was squeezed over the peeled apples (from the tree at the back door) for the apple crumble which is now in the oven ! The rustic bread and salami was made by me. Wash it all down with a glass of great red home brew and ENJOY!!
HARD TIMES !!
Lunch today
Dairy prices are down, venison keeps falling, electricity is up and the courier companies are screwing us left, right and center, so here at Back Yard Farmer we are not wasting anything. We have worked out using almost everything from the garden and are now working on using every part of the back yard chickens, starting with what we always discarded, the feet. I have often eaten chicken feet, mostly in some Asian restaurant, and the very best I had was on a recent business trip to Qingdao, China (along with an assortment of scorpions, tasty bugs and larvae like things – the food of the future). Strange how Chinese food does not taste as good in restaurants outside China. The same goes for Italian food, I suppose, unless one cooks oneself, so, here is Mrs BYF’s version of chicken feet – delicious although the cook was a bit squeamish to start off with.
Zampe di Gallina
Chicken Feet Arrabiata (Arrabiata means angry – so this is quite hot)
4 chicken wings or any other part of the chicken that is not dry white meat, skin on
6 to 8 chicken feet, nails removed (I had to do that myself, Mrs BYF baulked)
1 piece of fresh ginger just bigger than a thumb finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 large red chilli or as much as you can take, finely chopped
1 litre of chicken stock
small handful of parsley and sage finely chopped
4 table spoons of olive oil
1 cup of wine, red or white
Pre heat the oven to 200 deg
Use a cast iron pot with a close fitting lid, big enough to take all the chicken. Heat a tablespoon of oil in the pot and brown the chicken pieces well on all sides. Remove and add the feet, cook on medium high for a few minutes. Remove the feet. Add the rest of the olive oil to the pot and add the chilli and garlic. Cook until the garlic is soft but not coloured. deglase the pot with the wine, cook until the wine bubbles. Add the chicken, feet and all to the pot, and cover the chicken with the stock. Bring to the boil on the stove, cover the pot with the lid and place the pot in the oven. Cook for 3 hours, twenty minutes before serving, add the parsley and sage. Eat with polenta.
Do not forget to enjoy this dish with lots of red wine! ENJOY!
Back Yard Farmer 