CANNOLI, The Daring Baker's Challenge November 2009

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

Bubbles, the more bubble the more I like them. Although, I must admit that they look pretty ugly (the bubbles), but cute ugly like PUG, if you know what I mean. Pug is so ugly, but so is also adorably CUTE!

Now, my cannoli shells only look good on the picture, but they were actually losing their crunchiness after sitting for a just about hour ( to cooling down) on my counter top. The Cannoli I had in Italy were crunchy and had lots of bubbles. So, I suppose they should be crunchy and bubbly.

Regardless, this was a very sweet challenge, we enjoyed eating them, and will sure to make it again. And, I am hoping I'll be able to make the shells crunchy. Thank you to Lisa for choosing this delicious challenge. And, I also want to thank Lisa and Ivonne who created the wonderful Daring Baker's Challenge.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Wishing you all for a wonderful Thanksgiving!

The Tastiest MARINATE For Flank Steak, Short Ribs, Or Tri Tip

We had dinner a month ago at our neighbor across the street, they served the most delicious grilled tri tip on earth. As usual, I manage to convince them to share the secret. According to her, the original recipe is for "Korean-Style Short Ribs" but she has only used the marinate recipe for tri-tip and flank steak. For this post I used flank steak. So here is her recipe, hope you like it as much as we do.

This recipe should be enough to marinate about 4 to 5 pounds of meat.

Ingredients:

1 cup soy sauce (she likes to use the "less sodium" one, I used tamari)
1/2 cup sesame oil
1/4 cup chopped green onions (about 2 or three, depending on size, both the white and green part)
1/4 cup sugar
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp sesame seeds
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp ground pepper

1/2 tsp white vinegar

Marinate the meat overnight with about three and a quarter of the marinate, reserve the rest in a separate container. When you are ready to serve the steak, boil the reserve marinate, and pour over the finished cooked meat.

One (too) Short Afternoon in Venice With Cindy Star

Imagine my excitement after a few e-mails back and forth, tried to decide between Florence and Venice, we finally met in Venice. It was wonderful meeting Cindy, she is very warm, gorgeous and a wonderful lady. We spent our short afternoon chatting about food, kids, and place where she live with her husband and children. I felt like I've known her for longtime. It was very good feeling. We will meet again for sure.

On other note, I felt very sorry that I missed Natalia in Rome. I did not know she live there until, I visited her blog, and realized that she is living in Rome. By then it was too late since I was already in Israel visiting my family. Urghhh!

This is not the first time she showered me with gifts. The first gift she sent was in June, a huge package full of good items, but that for another post. I can not believe how generous she is, and very thoughtful, she also give my husband a gift. A wonderful gift that bring smile to his face. Now, I can expect him to help me in the kitchen, washing all those pots and pans with your pretty monogram apron.

Thank you so much, you have no idea how much Jonathan and I appreciate your effort of meeting us, travel for miles with the train, tried to leave earlier so that we could spend more time, which did not happen because we missed your e-mail, and somehow all of our iphone including yours didn't work, baking those delicious cookies at night, bought an Italian cooking book for me, not to mention your beautiful hand embroidery aprons for my husband and I. You are truly truly thoughtful and really wonderful person. You steal our hearts Ci. We really like you very much, and would love to visit your town one day, so you don't have to travel to us.

Can you imagine, she made this for us the night before we met? Must have been a lot of work. She probably spent the whole night to bake them. Oh ..... how much I really appreciate this. This was the most delightful cookies my husband and I enjoyed that night in our hotel room, (she actually suggested that we ate them on the plane) we finished nearly half on them, we couldn't resist and wait. The rest was vanished the following day where we headed our 9 hours journey back home to California. I am hoping that Cindy will post the recipe one day, so all of you can also enjoy this sweet, buttery, and melt in your mouth morsels.

Ensaimada de Majorca

I have been meaning to make this delicious specialty from majorca for ages, I still couldn't find the authentic recipe. I believe they are two type of ensaimada, one filled with spaghetti squash jam, and one plain without any filling in it. I also had no luck in finding the recipe for spaghetti quash jam, so I made my own by roasting the squash, then add it to sugar syrup and cook until the sugar and the squash caramelized. Since this is just a trial, I will still seek for the authentic recipe that will be easy to replicate at home. For those of you who has the recipe, I'd be so glad if you could share it with me. Thank you.

Yes, the texture was really somewhat flaky and I was not disappointed with taste. But, I still feel it was not perfect. It was not really like the bread I was hope for. The one I made tasted just like an ordinary bread with filling in it, I was expecting more then that. So please, please, please ... share your authentic recipe with me.

Poached Pear Wrapped In Pastry

Something very simple to make can look so elegant on the dining table that your guest think you'd spend endless time slaving yourself in the kitchen. Well, let them think that way, it'll make them feel special. Or, you can assure them that this is super easy to make, and that they can easily make them at home as well you do, and perhaps you should add that you bet they can make it better then you. Especially if you know that your friend is already know how to cook.

For the poached pear:

2 cups dessert wine*

4 Bosch pears, peeled but, leave whole with the steam intact

1 vanilla bean, split in half - scrape the beans

2 cups water

• Put the wine, water, and the vanilla , stir, add the pears. Poach on low heat for 45 minutes to an hour, until the pears are tender but not too soft. Turn them from time to time. Transfer to a plate, and leave to cool completely.

* you can use any white wine for this recipe, but add about ¼ cup of sugar to the poaching liquid.

To assemble:

1 recipe for sweet pastry, or 1 sheet of homemade or store bought puff pastry

egg wash (1 egg yolk + 2 tsp milk = mix together)

apricot syrup for glazing, optional

• Preheat oven to 375⁰F.
• Roll out the pastry into a little bit less then ¼ inch thick, thiner then that if using puff pastry. Divide the pastry into 4, and wrap each pear with pastry. Use any leftover pastry for decoration leaves decoration. Transfer them onto baking sheets, then brush each pastry with egg wash. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until the pastry is golden brown. Glaze with apricot syrup before serving if desire. Delicious serve warm or cold.

Note: If you are planning to make this for a large gathering, this recipe can be easily double, or triple. Make it a day a head by poaching the pears first, when the pears are completely cooled, assemble each of them with pastry, keep in the refrigerator up to 2 days in advance. When you are ready to bake, take them out from the refrigerator, and brush each pastry with egg wash just before putting them into the oven.

p.s

Dear all,

I apologize if I seem a bit slow to return your visit, I am currently still on vacation in Italy and Israel for couple of weeks. As soon as I have a change to open my laptop, I'll try to visit each one of you. Cheers, elra.