Cuisine is not just cooking. Cuisine is love
for the food you buy, attention for the shops you go, pleasure of enjoying it
with those people who are able to appreciate it. This does not mean that a dish
cannot be shared with everyone but it only implies that each dish has a story
and the explanation of the story makes it understandable. So to make an
example, my grandmother, who is an excellent chef of Sicilian regional
preparations, was sceptical toward Porcini mushroom risotto. I asked her to
watch me doing it and she suddenly find a closeness between risotto and the
preliminary process that brings to arancine (the balls of rice, stuffed with meat and cheese), which start becoming very
popular even out from Sicily:
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| A Spartan army at Thermopile, 300 arancine. |
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| French style picnic |
Michelle and I made them for the 2nd
of June, the Italian national day, during with we celebrate the newborn Republic and the end of the Fascist regime. It is better to say a giant national excuse to have a
picnic. In early June, Nature is actually in her best shape: still parks are exceptionally
emerald-like and the drought of August is far from the mind. The most difficult
achievement to accomplish is to find the right spot, which is to say a place
with enough shadow, but also the sun, for those who wish to gain a little
colour, it should be comfortable and also wild, perhaps with fruit trees and a
plain area where to lie down your woollen covers. We are desperately exigent!
Here there are four ideas to make you picnic even more alluring:
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| My picnic set, a true marvel. |
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| Nanny McPhee (2005) final scene: although this wedding was meant to be is very elegant, but share all the features of a picnic...it is loud! Written and played by Emma Thompson in the rule of the nanny, and with murder-she-wrote Angela Lansbury. I chose this pic, cause the scullery made, Evangeline, played by Kelly Macdonald an exemplary and radiant sample of Scottish beauty, she is from Glasgow. She also was the voice of Merida, in Diseny-Pixar Brave:
Kelly Macdonald & Merida: the film was entertaining,
but could have exploited better the founding myths of Scotland.
My most secret wish, in terms of picnics,
is that of recreating the perfect location in your own room, a sort of June
hidden in the winder, so it cannot be improvised. You need three elements to
recreate the magic: a greenhouse with some plants, pillows and the proper food.
Despite you are close to your kitchen you have to pretend to ignore it: even
tab water has to be banished, solely the restroom is allowed... The new mindset
is that recreated by the atmosphere…so you have to close your eyes and by hook
or by crook “act” as if you were in an open space. It might help calling the
occasion “piquenique sans l’herbe” (grassless picnic), with that touch of
French adorability that no other population has. So, which is the best suiting
plant for this occasion? I would say citrus
trees and bonsai:
The early stage of my lemon tree, from a seed!
The medium stage: growing in a bigger vase
Here it was reasonably tall: "I wonder how,
I wonder why" sang a Fool's Garden song Lemon Tree...
...I was less than a teeager 
Just to have an idea of how the bonsai might appear,
but they are not just cute and ornamental, they are plants
and I am not entirely convinced this small habitat does not make
them suffer. To know something more:
Of course, a bonsai is not only fun: you have to follow it and cut it when necessary, which means often, regularly and with a certain degree of expertise. But where to buy a cute - yet not enormous - greenhouse? IKEA Socker is a truly valid option: |
Socker, a portable greenhouse I could not
resist presenting to Michelle: her
birthday had just passed by and I came across this idea. Two dear mutual
friends, Isabel and John, where thinking of a blueberry plant. I thought it
would have been marvellous, to combine both the leaving plant and the symbol of
winter care. This greenhouse is manageable and simple…the true protagonists
will be the plants you are going to choose. It is perfect either on a desk, on
a window large fence, or on a balcony table: it is white so the neutrality of
the paint makes it exceptionally versatile. It will keep your cactuses warm and
make you grow basil so it will be able to look the snow from its warm cage. If
you think is bad to rely on a major company and you are a handy person, why
don’t challenge your ability building a personalised greenhouse?
Portable greenhouse with seasoning herbs
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Greenhouse bag: an hilarious alternative
to conventional bags
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So, what actually remains is the nourishment. What’s
more proper for Fall-wintery picnic? I can say sandwiches, cold pasta, some
kind of meatballs or veggie balls, but this time my effort will be devoted to arancine (tiny oranges), globes of rice
from the Sicilian tradition, conceptually close to Japanese onigiri, but widely tastier:
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First wash the rice, put it into cold water and let it boil at low gas for approximately 10 mins. Let it cool down and make onigiri. |
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| This is just the end of the procedure before frying: only to give an idea of how you can make arancine from scratch. |
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| Banoffe-cake |
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