We paid her visits at Christman and in Summer, and by the time we arrived, she already had a big bowl of "Russian Salad" ready. It was my father's favourite dish and she knew it.
Dad told me once, that since he tasted grandma's hand-made mayonnaise, he has never been able to eat the purchased one.
Grandmothher's Russian Salad
Ingredients:
Carrots
Peas
Cauliflower
Potatoes
Boil vegetables in salty water. Strain them and once dry, cut them into small pieces. When cold, mix vegetables to the mayonnaise. Make up everything in a ceramics bowl and keep cold for at least one day.
Hand-made mayonnaise
Ingredients:
1 egg yolk
corn oil
some drops of lemon
salt
Shell the egg yolk in a cold bowl standing on a wet sponge. By means of a wooden spoon mix the yolk adding corn oil one drop at the time.
The bowl will stay fresh and won't move if you put a square sponge under it.
Warnings: these advice are essential for the mayonnaise not to separate
1. Yolk must be with completely no traces of white
2. Oil must be added in the slowliest way possible, drop after drop
3. Mix the mayonnaise by turning only the one way. Any changes will make it separate
4. Add just a few drops of lemon only when your mayonnaise is creamy. Taste to correct acidity and add some more if necessary.
5. Salt is the very last ingredient to be added.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Welcome
Welcome my friends, wherever you are!
I don't want this blog to be a sort of Italian cooking book but rather a personal homage to all the women of my life: aunts, grandmothers, friends and my mom of course. All of them have instilled the taste of classic food into me.
Can you gues what am I talking about?
Yes, that kind of cookery that for once just doesn't care about calories!
It's a cooking tradition that smells like wood burning into cast-iron stoves, fireplaces and bbqs and the synonym of which is holiday.
Things are different today: being a housewife is not a fixed choice anymore so we all prefer canned, pre-washed or pre-cooked food to microwave. It's easier and convenient for those women triing to match family and career.
I wrote "we" because I do it myself but in the meantime I strive to keep my tradition, to feel again the smell and taste that belong to my childhood memories.
And when a breath of steam raises from pots and pans, and different fragrances fill all the air around, then my mind flies back and back...
Olfactory memory is positevely the most powerful!
Ps, please be sensible towards my grammar...I'm Italian mother-tongue!
I don't want this blog to be a sort of Italian cooking book but rather a personal homage to all the women of my life: aunts, grandmothers, friends and my mom of course. All of them have instilled the taste of classic food into me.
Can you gues what am I talking about?
Yes, that kind of cookery that for once just doesn't care about calories!
It's a cooking tradition that smells like wood burning into cast-iron stoves, fireplaces and bbqs and the synonym of which is holiday.
Things are different today: being a housewife is not a fixed choice anymore so we all prefer canned, pre-washed or pre-cooked food to microwave. It's easier and convenient for those women triing to match family and career.
I wrote "we" because I do it myself but in the meantime I strive to keep my tradition, to feel again the smell and taste that belong to my childhood memories.
And when a breath of steam raises from pots and pans, and different fragrances fill all the air around, then my mind flies back and back...
Olfactory memory is positevely the most powerful!
Ps, please be sensible towards my grammar...I'm Italian mother-tongue!
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