“Cuochi d’artificio”: Turmeric Bread Casket and it’s jewels / “Cuochi d’artificio”: Scrigno di pane alla curcuma e i suoi gioielli

“All that glitters is not gold” has been the theme of the last episode of “Cuochi d’artificio” I took part to. My main inspiration came from Iran, a place I’ve never visited but whose cuisine I know enough to declare my love for. I imagined a chests, made of breadand filled with “precious jewels”. What about these precious jewels?

Cardamom and Turmeric Pancakes / Pancakes al cardamomo e curcuma

Sunday morning, 6 o’ clock, Chiasso. I must be crazy but I have a mission, a very complicated recipe I have been wanting to bake for many years. Breathe in, breathe out. I reach to the bag of special flour I purchased a few months ago fr the purpose…only to find out it is full of flour bugs! I have no alternative but a change of plans and must decide what to bake quickly. Luckily I had refreshed some liquid starter just the night before, but what could I come up with in order no to waste too much time and be able to take pictures while the sun was still out?

Brown rice curry with chickpeas and oat milk / Riso al curry con ceci e latte di avena

Recently I realized that concentrating efforts on my macrobiotic diet, recipes for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook  and MTChallenge participations a this blog features almost exclusively bread recipes. Of course it makes total sense, considering the name of the blog itself is quite exhaustive about my main passion in the kitchen, but still I do believe it would be a good thing just to post some recipes not related to bread every now and then. So I thought about going back to one of my old loves, curry. I will never grow tired of saying curry it is not a powder that one can buy in the supermarket, but a blend of spices that you can easily do at home by varying amounts and types of ingredients. Seen the limitations the macrobiotic diet imposes I came up with a recipe which does not employ coconut milk, but uses oat milk instead. The result is great. If you make oat milk yourself (here you can find the recipe you will see how the sauce thickens with no addition of ingredients such as corn starch. Great, right? This creamy curry is very tasty and not spicy at all and gets even better if allowed to stand twenty four hours. Are you ready to bring some Indian flavour in your kitchen?

Living on my own: Brown rice, lentils and red cabbage / Living on my own: Riso integrale, lenticchie e cavolo rosso

From this month onwards, slowly and not in too categorical way, my blog will adapt to a new lifestyle I find myself forced to adopt due to health reasons. Many things will be banned from my kitchen, some of which are not such a big deal (such as red meat, that I already eat very rarely), and others that will be very difficult to accept and implement (cheese and dairy products, and most shockingly baked goods). Despite the general ban on leavened and baked goods I will continue to post recipes for bread and the like, which will be put to the scrutiny of my faithful guinea pigs. Stopping my kneading routine? No sir! I will not deny that right now, as I am typing on the keyboard my mood is anything but positive. While recognizing that a change is necessary acceptance is still very far from my landscape. Funnily enough this recipe, which I had cooked a little before knowing about this major change, aligns itself very well to the diet I will have follow probably for the rest of my life (even thought some occasional transgression will surely occur). Sure a change of diet doesn’t mean I won’t be having good food and this recipe is proof. But let us read more about the beneficial properties of the ingredients employed in this recipe.

Maria’s Spiced Cauliflower Flan / Lo sformato al cavolfiore e spezie di Maria

Since the 4th of December, when I started working part time at a goldsmith shop, my weeks have been quite hectic. Recipes and blog post scheduling, the weekly appointment with Wing Chun training, trying to be present on my usual social networks and fitting in multiple appointments hasn’t been easy. Let’s add my Panettone Obsession and the picture is quite clear. But chaos is my element, stress has always been my cup of tea (or loaf of bread) and even though feeling a bit tired I wouldn’t change a single thing.