Amalfi inspired

Following a recent visit to Conca Dei Marini on the Amalfi coast, I created a Limoncello inspired recipe. The holiday was a real treat of sun and relaxation at an apartment called Villa Donna Antonia . The apartment had a very serviceable kitchen so I was looking forward to some cooking. We arrived lat on a Saturday night and were greeted by one of the hosts, Francesco, who gave us a good overview of everything we needed to know about the area from restaurants to transport links and places to visit. I learned that the local supermarket would be open on Sunday morning. In the meantime, we satisfied our appetite with a plate of local ham and hay smoked mozzarella but more about the cheese in a later post.

Sunday morning was beautifully warm and sunny and we strolled up to the supermarket to stock up the kitchen. This was when we began our adventures. I could not find lemons and on enquiring, I was told lemons should be in on Wednesday and onions on Monday. Over the next two weeks, we learned when things were in stock along with finding a great butcher who was open until at least 10pm along with a vegetable seller with a little truck who appeared in one or two locations during the week. During some of these shopping excursions, I purchased an Amalfi lemon about the size of a grapefruit. This was the inspiration for the recipe.

On one of our final days, the extra-large lemon still very present by the fridge, I decided to create a pasta dish. I carefully peeled 2/3 of the lemon rind away and finly chopped it. I then took the remaining 1/3 and finly julienned it. I then peeled the lemon and broke up most of the fruit into small pearls of lemon.

I prepared some fresh pasta with oregano put some water on to boil. I created a small amount of sugar syrup with equal parts of water and sugar. Once it was clear I added the julienned lemon rind and some green peppercorns and let them simmer.  I cooked off some prawns (sufficient for two people) with half a bulb of garlic finely minced, some fresh zucchini and small chili from the garden. I cooked the pasta with the finely chopped lemon rind and reduced the syrup until it was almost sticky. I drained the pasta, added it to the prawns and added the lemon pearls just before plating up. I then poured a small glass of vodka into the lemon sugar syrup and added a little salt. I then placed the candied rind on top of the dish and poured the Limoncello inspired sauce over the plate. The result was a dish now affectionately known as Limoncello gamberi  Villa Donna Antonia con pasta limone.  The presentation is not all it could be but I worked with what I had.

Citrus, Strawberry and Sunshine

Finally we got some typical British summer today. Hot sunshine tempered with cloud now and again to give a little shade. Doors flung open at both ends of the house to give it an airing it felt like it was time to get the kitchen sorted out. Having spent the morning clearing out and cleaning the cupboards and then sharpening all my knives it felt like time to play.

First on the menu today was an attempt to make some cocktail pearls. Basically, reverse spherified lemon pearls that I can store in sweetened lemon juice and use some time soon in a liquigel G&T. I am still a novice at the spherification techniques so, although there were a few pearls, there were a number of Nik Naks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nik_Naks) inspired shapes too. The result was good though. Small tart perls that burst in the mouth to give a zing of citrus. I have stored those away in the fridge ready for the bank holiday weekend. 0.5 % sodium alganate to de-ionized water in the water bath. 1% Calcium Lactate and 0.5% Xanthan Gum in to the lemon juice with some simple syrup to sweeten it to taste.

Next it was the drunk strawberries  turn. I made up a daquiri jelly using 200g of water into which I dissolved 70 grams of sugar, 5.5g of Agar Agar and 1g of Carrageenan Iota. Once everything was dissolved (with the help of an immersion blender a.k.a. the Bammix) then I added 400g of pineapple juice and 100g of Triple Sec. I had already cut up the drunken strawberries I pickled the other week so that a good chunk was placed into the silicon moulds ready for the jelly to be poured in. This made 36 2cm cubes that are currently setting in the fridge. Do not boil the jelly liquid after the alcohol is added or you will lose the vital spirit.

I now had the rind from the 3 lemons I had used earlier and a remaining 3 lemons which I took the rind from and juiced. These were huge lemons giving about twice the juice of a normal lemon. The rind is currently sitting in the souse vide at 70 C in a bag of vodka ready to make another. batch of limoncello (I'will add simple syrup to this later to taste). The juice was matched in weight with sugar and boiled until the sugar was completely dissolved. This has two great uses. Instant lemonade when sparkling water and ice are added or just drizzle it over a lemon sponge.

The last act of the day was to pass the strawberry flavoured rum through a coffee filter paper into a waiting bottle. I'm sure I can find a good use for that soon either in a cocktail, spherified or just poured over a good vanilla icecream.