Old Shoes - New Trip

Mild breeze. Outdoor cafe. Good pizza. Pleasant conversation with the restaurant's owner. Just another evening in Sorrento.

Except, when we ordered our after dinner espresso, the owner brought us the gift of two small ice cold glasses of a homemade liqueur he called limoncello.

It was our third trip to Italy, but our first to venture south of Rome. That is my excuse for never having heard of or tasted the stuff.

Here I sit -- more than 10 years later. And I'm a full fledged bootlegger.

I came home that summer and immediately began researching ways I might produce this liquid sunshine for myself. I found the web site of a liqueur maker who was to become my guru! Gunther Anderson -- http://www.guntheranderson.com

I read and experimented with his recipes. Then sent him my version of Limoncello. He was gracious enough to add it to his collection!

So far, I've made over 40 types of liqueur. My favorites:

Limoncello - of course
Pistachio (fabulous!)
Lime (just like limoncello only made with limes)
Rose (made with Sadaf rose syrup)
Jasmine & Green Tea (made with organic jasmine scented green tea)
Tokyo Rose (made with crystalized ginger and just the slightest dash of rose syrup to give it that pickled ginger color)
Witches' Brew (my version of Strega)
And, believe it or not, SASSAFRAS. (I use glycerin to thicken so that I can cut back on the sugar syrup. Otherwise it would be way too sweet)

Can you guys take one more post about Slow Bowl food from the February Blogging Group?

I took a series of pictures of David's process as he prepared his awesome entry in the Mac & Cheese Smack Down. So rather than making comments...besides Yummmm that is....I'll just post the pics.

Our favorite little local Italian deli/market is one of those places where you place an order at the cash register and then wait for them to yell your number from the pickup window.
You take you food to a bare table, picking up your drinks and utensils along the way.
When you're finished eating you bus your own table.

But, one night a year the doors are closed to the general public. Red table cloths are put on the tables and accented by a single white taper.

A chosen few "regulars" who are in on the secret have a reservation for dinner.
Dinner is a choice of two entree's and the wine of your choice from the racks.

Dessert is homemade raspberry cheesecake with chocolate crumb crust.

Entertainment is provided by the owners of the place and their families. People with a high quality karaoke set up and some amazing voices. The voices aren't a surprise when you know the pedigree. Mama was a well known singer with a national band in her youth. But, Papa said, it's either the bright lights or me. Mama chose Papa. Here are the two lovebirds, 50 years later.

What the lucky insiders to this love-fest got to enjoy was some amazing music running the gambit from big band to old Vegas to 60s rock to blues.

And of course, we all got to dance with our sweethearts between the aisles of Italian specialities.

Those who know us, won't be surprised that the table reserved for Dan and I was placed between the sweets and the wine.

I had quite a few 'votes' for the Lime Liqueur at SlowBowl, so I decided I needed to get a new batch started.

Since it is beyond easy, I thought I'd post the one and only picture you you need to see in order to make your own.

Here it is.

This picture was take after only one day. See the difference in the color of the limes?

Scrub and dry 12 dark skinned limes.
Put 6 in a sealable jar.
Pour in one bottle Everclear.
Let sit for one week while Everclear sucks the color out of the limes.
Remove the bleached out limes and put the other 6 in the Everclear.
Let it suck the color out of those for about a week.
Make simple syrup in equal quantity to the Everclear (750 ml)
After the simple syrup cools pour it into the infusion.
Bottle and put in a cool dark place (the back of your freezer works great) until you can't resist any longer.
Best served icy cold in a frozen liqueur glass.

Last week I bought a bag of Southern Greens Blend at Trader Joes. It contained Mustard, Turnip, Collards & Spinach. There was a recipe on the back that involved Andouille. With some fresh hot cornbread, I thought it would be nice to have a old fashioned Southern meal.

When I got home, I discovered that we had used the Andouille I thought I had in the freezer, and I didn't have any cornmeal either. So I stuck the bag in the fridge and fixed Pasta Puttanesca for dinner instead.

This morning I realized that the greens were going to go bad if I didn't use them, so I began to improvise.

I substituted mild Italian sausage (heavy on the fennel) for the Andouille. And I sliced up some polenta instead of making cornbread. The recipe called for chicken broth, but I had an open box of vegetable stock in the fridge I wanted to use up. Plus, to brighten the flavor of the greens I thought a little lemon would be a good addition.

I didn't have a single fresh lemon, so I used some limoncello. What the heck, the alcohol would cook off anyway, right?

First I softened some chopped red onion and garlic in olive oil. Then added chunks of Italian sausage to brown.

Then I added the full bag of greens, Two cups vegetable broth, and 1/8 cup limoncello.

I let it cook down enough to be able to toss it without throwing greens all over the stove. After tossing the ingredients, I continued to let it simmer on low for another 30 minutes or so.

While the greens were cooking, I sliced the polenta, fried it in a little butter and olive oil with a touch of salt and pepper. Then drained the polenta slices on paper towels and transfered them to a parchment lined cookie sheet. I stuck them under the broiler until they were slightly brown, turned them and sprinkled with finely grated pecorino romano cheese before broiling again.

We enjoyed the combination of bitter southern greens, sweet Italian sausage and polenta with a glass of A Mano. A very satisfying and unusual fusion of flavors from the deep south of my two favorite countries!

Sarah came into the store last week with a birthday present for Mary. It was a sample pack of different teas. She had ordered it online from a place in Colorado called English TEALEAVES.

I was planning to run over to Global Foods and get some jasmine scented green tea for a new batch of liqueur. So I asked her if she thought this place had a good jasmine/green. She handed me the English TEALEAVES business card and told me that they were lovely people and I should just call and ask for their suggestion. I called and visited with a very nice chap. His suggestion was that I try the Jasmine Yin Hao. So I did.

In the course of the conversation, he told me that it was a coincidence that I had called. He was going to be going to The World Tea Expo in a few months. One of the breakout sessions there is going to be a discussion of tea based cocktails.

The next day, Sarah (again, Sarah) comes into my office and shows me the current issue of SAVEUR. There on page 18 is a story called "Rum by the Numbers" about, and a recipe for, The 44 Cordial. Sarah says, have you ever tried this?

No, I stick to grain alcohol for my liqueurs - mostly. When I do stray, it is to infuse some exotic flavor into brandy. I'm not even a fan of rum. Once, in my college days, I got very sick on Rum & Coke. But, the article was cute and the recipe interesting.

So I called Dan and ask him to go to the store and get me a large navel orange and a premium bottle of white rum. He just groaned and humored me.

That night I put 44 slits in the orange; stuffed 44 coffee beans in those slits; put the orange in a jar; added the bottle of rum along with 44 teaspoons of sugar; sealed it; shook it; and now it sits on my counter for 44 days, getting a shake every day.

The jar in the middle is my new batch of lime liqueur. It needs to be bottled and stored in the basement. The jar on the right is the jasmine/green. I can't believe how fast it colored up and how jasmine-y it smells already. I will probably strain it tomorrow because I don't want it to get bitter.

At this rate, I should have a pretty good stash of hooch by October of 2009.

Yesterday, the weather report began calling for sleet throughout the night and snow accumulating at 6 - 10 inches today. It is winter's last big show of the year in St. Louis.
Since all of my schools were bound to be closed today, I decided to take the day off.

Once I did I began to think about spending time in my kitchen.

I went to the market and bought a ton of veggies to roast. And some King Arthur flour and fresh yeast to bake the bread that has been on the ST food thread for so long.

I got home about 4:30 and immediately began preparing veggies for roasting. I love to roast and I love to use roasted veggies in recipes that call for cooked veggies. So when I roast, I usually go crazy with it.

Yesterday was: Eight huge fennel bulbs; a couple of dozen shallots; 2 boxes of baby portobellos; 40 brussel sprouts; 6 sweet potatoes; 2 dozen new potatoes; a dozen each baby zucchini & baby yellow squash; and one huge butternut squash.

I used Herbes de Provence and olive oil to toss all of the veggies except the butternut squash before roasting. I use just olive oil and Penzey's Tsardust on the butternut squash.

Today, I'm going to make a big bowl of roasted veggie risotto for dinner. I think I'll use some of the shallots, portobellos & fennel in it.

We'll enjoy it with my very first attempt at 5 minute bread.

We've got a new challenge going on the Food Forum at http://slowtalk.com/groupee/forums. Sunday Slow Bakers. Each week, we take turns choosing a recipe all of us will bake. Then we either post our results on the Food Forum thread, or we blog about it, or both.

Last week, Krista chose the yummy Italian Crumbly Cake from Gina DePalma's new cookbook, Dolce Italiano. It was delicious.

This week was my turn and I picked a recipe from Gina's book as well.

I chose Sicilian Pistachio Cookies

The picture above is what my kitchen looked like after I finished this morning. But, the clean up was worth it, don't you think?

One thing I did that I regret, was to try to make a double batch. I should have taken the time to just make two consecutive batches. I was trying to save time. The result was too much ingredient for the bowls -- a major part of the reason I made such a mess.

Then, I was so frustrated with myself that I said, what the heck, I'll just bake the double batch in one pan. That actually turned out to be a happy mistake.

What I ended up with were cookie bars that were thicker than normal and a bit softer in texture. Almost brownie-like. We ADORE them. This picture gives you an idea of the thickness.

I took half the cookies to the store today. Our booksellers all seemed to agree that they were stellar. At least, if you can judge by the speed in which they disappeared!

Since I messed up Gina's fabulous recipe by baking a double batch in a single batch pan, I decided to go ahead and roll with it.

Here is how I'm using the "brownies".

The brownie is only about 1 inch square.
I used plain vanilla ice cream because it is all I had on hand.
If I planned on making this as a dessert, I would use lemon sorbet instead.
I poured about 1/2 ounce of my homemade pistachio liqueur on top.

This was an easy and fun recipe. Since I prefer it to Parmigiano, I used the Grana Padano.

I was able to get 12 bread sticks out of each of the four balls of divided dough.

So, I baked three dozen following the recipe. By the fourth pan, I couldn't resist the urge to play. I twisted them into pretzels and sprinkled them with the Grana Padano instead of salt.

Here's my results. I love them, but Dan says he would have liked them better with herbs instead of cayenne. Next time I think I'll make them with thyme.

I'm also wondering what would happen if I used cocoa powder in the dough along with the cayenne. Hmmm....

This week Palma selected pan di spagna con grappa. Page 80 in Gina's Dolce Italiano.

It looked delicious. But, I don't like grappa. Oh, yeah, and I don't own mini-bundt cake pans.

So, here is my less than perfect rendition.

I used a regular bundt pan. And since I knew I wasn't using grappa, but hadn't yet decided what I was using for the glaze, I decide the most universal thing I could put in the batter to replace the tablespoon of grappa was limoncello. Lemon flavor will compliment almost anything, right?

I thought I would use vin santo, but then I noticed an old bottle of homemade strawberry liqueur. I made the syrup using the 1/2 cup instead of the 3 tablespoons and I left the 1/4 cup water out completely.

I think my syrup may be a little bit thinner that the recipe intended, but it soaked in really well and I had enough left over to drizzle on the whipped cream.

Our grandsons are spending the weekend with us. Their parents will be here tomorrow for Mother's Day BBQ. So, I needed to do my Sunday Slow Baking project today.

My oldest grandson, Sage, has always loved to help in the kitchen, and cookies are the perfect project for him to help with.

This week, Jerry picked Biscotti di Limone e Semolino - page 50 in Gina's Dolce Italiano.

Assembling all of the ingredients:

I like to measure all the ingredients in advance.

He waited and waited and waited - then after mixing, and chilling, It was finally time for Sage to help. We cut the chilled dough into even squares to make it easier for him.

It didn't take long for him to get the hang of gently rolling the dough into small balls and then rolling the balls in the sugar.

Setting the timer was fun, but waiting for the cookies to bake was a little bit boring.

My oven is much slower than most, so we actually baked the cookies for about 20 minutes in order to get them to brown. The final product was beautiful.

Sage had to wait until I took some final pictures of the plate. It was torture. But he finally got to taste the fruit of his labor.

While I was waiting for my cookie dough to chill, I decided to bottle my rose liqueur and get a batch of kiwi started. The jars in the background are (left to right)
Kiwi: made with crystalized kiwi slices and just started today. I've never tried to make kiwi before, so I don't know yet how long to soak or if it will be worth drinking or not.
Toyko Rose: About my 4th or 5th batch. I use crystalized ginger, then a tiny dash of rose syrup added before bottling to give it that pale pinkish pickled ginger color.
Pistachio: These nuts were really dark green and the infusion is much darker than any of my other batches. It's been soaking for about 7 days and when I open the lid the pistachio smell is heavenly. I'll probably filter and bottle it soon. Which also means I'll get to make some pistachio bark with the left over nuts. I dry them in the oven and put them between a layer of butterscotch and semisweet chocolate that has been spiced up with a bit of cayenne.

I had just a shot glass full of rose left over and didn't want it to go to waste, so I stuck in in the freezer.

After the cookies had cooled, I decided to try one with the liqueur.

Yummy. I know some people don't like florals for their liqueurs, but I love them. The combination of roses and lemons made me feel like I was sitting in some exotic little cafe in a country like Greece, or India, or Turkey.