For the Love of Pickle once again

This time I will spare few of you the description of my love to any form of cucumber.

Just want to quickly share my excitement as June has arrived and with that month my fav- field cucumber. That is the beginning of the love affair which can bare fruits, erhmmm, I mean cucumbers, such as cornichon, gerkin, cucumer in brine or my all times favourite low-salt cucumber known as well as freshly salted.

Let me introduce this lovely fellow to you

As you might know, from my previous post, I like to add a kick to my pickles. So here you go- what you need to get to try that one for yourself:

1-1.5 kg field cucumbers (wash and cut ends)

horseradish root and/ or leaves

garlic cloves

few chilies

fennel flowers

bay leaves, pepper, allspice

for about 2L of water 2-3 table spoons of salt

The recipe is really easy- squeeze all ingredients in a terracotta or ceramic dish (the tall ones are the best). Boil water, add salt, pour in the dish. Cover with horseradish leaf, press with something heavy and leave it for 2-3 days.

Et voila!

The Food Effect. Introducing Lusophone.

Now, have you ever heard of Lusophone or Lusophere? I haven’t before. As my friend says: every day is a school day.

One of the definitions explains:

” The idea of a Lusosphere is free of ethnic connotations, in that a Lusophone may not have any Portuguese ancestry at all. The Lusophone world is mainly a legacy of the Portuguese Empire, although Brazilian and Portuguese diasporacommunities have also played a role in spreading the Portuguese language. Even after the collapse of the empire, the corresponding countries continue to exhibit both cultural and political affinities, expressed in the existence of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, created in 1996.”

What comes to your mind when you think portuguese or brazilian? I think chicken and cachaça. That is of course if I am asked to narrow it down to food and drink. Otherwise there will be the whole carnival of music, colours and passions, beautiful beaches and football. so, let’s keep it simple this time.

chicken chorizo slow cooking

risotto

cachaça

strawberry apple drink

marble cake

falafel

The Food Effect. Italiano come con la mamma!

What comes to your mind when you think Italian cuisine? I can put money on a table for about 80 percent of you it would be pizza or pasta. Am I right?The truth is neither of these dishes are truly Italian but Italian people mastered them so I am happy to give them the trophy to keep for ever.

And of course there should be Tiramisu (which means cheer-me-up!) with generous amount of espresso and some kind of alcohol.

If you asked me about my favourite italian things I think there will be lots of variations of espresso liqueurs, limoncello, all spectrum of Puglia’s wines and orecchiette.

Chiacchiere

Fruit shake

Risotto con Funghi

Linguine al Pesto

Risotto con Funghi

tomatoes, chilies and olives

pizza Margerita

If you asked me about my favourite italian things I think there will be lots of variations of espresso liqueurs, limoncello, all spectrum of Puglia’s wines and orecchiette.

For the love of Pickle!

I love pickles. to the point that when still a little girl I used to drink pickled water from the jar. my father used to say I won’t grow tall if I keep doing this. well, he might have been right… but I love pickles ( have I mentioned that before?) too much to blame on them.

I love pickles. I like fermented veg in vinegar and mustard seeds. I make pickles so they can be the way I like to eat them.

I believe everybody knows pickled gherkins but have you ever tried pickled cucumbers? They’re yummy! And what is great about them as well you don’t have to sit and wait for the season to change. Only one week. And last for about a month. Well, not in my fridge…

Quick and simple in only few steps:

* Wash the cucumber and cut it into not too fine slices. I like to add few onion slices and chilli or garlic, also sliced, but it depends on your personal taste

* Throw it to a bowl with a generous pinch of salt and leave for an hour or so to draw the juice from vegetables

* in a meantime mix half a liter of a white wine vinegar with ca 100 g caster sugar (I personally add less than that) in a pan and warm it up the mixture so the sugar can dissolve. pour it in your jars – make sure there is the space left to fit vegetables in

* Drain juice from the dish and put the rest into the jar adding some fresh dill, mustard seeds, garlic, crashed black pepper or slised horseradish root and top up with the vinegar

You can get few little jars from 2 cucumbers, one onion, few cloves of garlic and some chillies to add the kick. If you wish to keep them for longer you need to pasteurize  them. if not then just keep them sealed in the fridge

Bon Appetite!

The Food Effect. We’re going Lebanese.

The Food Effect is the name of the series of the West End Community Trust events taking a place over few weeks at St Anne’s Church Hall in London. In association with the ONEWestminster Charity and a support of the City of Westminster.

I had a pleasure to make my own contribution to the community by taking pictures of the wonderful food (prepared  by the members and the residents) for their ‘The Food Effect’ publication.