The first time I had Ribollita was in Florence at Il Latino - a MUST if you go to Florence, and not only because of their Ribollita! :-) I was expecting a soup and was surprised about its thick and stewy consistency (there's a picture on their website). This is because a large portion of the cooked vegetable and beans are pureed, and also at the end the bread is left to dissolve inside the soup. Needless to say, it was absolutely delicious and we actually had it on two occasions during our short stay. It is so hearty and tasty, and the slight bitterness of the black kale = 'cavolo nero' is just exquisite. Ribollita, like many superb dishes, is originally a peasant dish and was traditionally made on Fridays to use up the week's left-overs. Because of this, there are endless variations. But as long as they contain beans, two kinds of cabbage or kale and bread they can be called Ribollita. Also, 'ri-bollita' means 're-heated', as the soup is first prepared and then reheated on the next,
Scotland meets Japan: Shortbread biscuits with a spicy, powdery green tea look and flavour. Like all things Matcha, these biscuits are a real treat. They are made with a considerably large amount of Matcha tea powder, but it is really worth it as you end up with lots of tasty biscuits. One thing I wanted to try, in addition to the original recipe and remembering what a difference it made to the GREEN MATCHA TEA ICE CREAM, but then unfortunately I forgot in the end, was to add a pinch of salt to the dough, bringing out even more the Matcha flavour.
My biscuits were not as green once they were baked as the ones in the original recipe. I read afterwards that this might have had to do with the fact that they browned a bit too much. It says to bake them until they slightly brown at the edges, but I think it might have taken a bit of the colour and taste away. This can apparently be avoided by putting them on a double baking tray, but in this case I am not sure if the actual baking time will need to be increased. In any case, they were delicious and no wonder that Amai won a prize for 'Best Bakery Recipe'. I saw several bloggers mention these biscuits in their blogs
Naturally, being Austrian I am no expert in Indian cuisine - well no expert in any cuisine for that matter... :-) But with Indian food I feel a lot more insecure, as I don't know how all the spices work and come together, or more precisely, if it does not taste right, which spice is missing or too much.
Needless to say, I was intrigued and tried a couple of Tikka Masalas before, but they just didn't taste at all like I wanted them to taste, and I ended up with a lot of spices I had no further use for. So after these couple of attempts it was very clear that Indian restaurants and take-aways were the only real satisfactory answer for me. Until I received this recipe! It was a dinner invitation and my hosts, judging by the beautiful and delicious dinner we had, were a lot more knowledgeable in cooking Indian food. I got to watch in the kitchen
At home in Austria when we make rice for WIENER SCHNITZEL we add half an onion to the rice during cooking, peeled but uncut, and spiked with several whole cloves. The rice is then simmered very slowly until all water has been absorbed, by which time the rice is done and the aroma of the added onion and cloves have deeply penetrated into the rice with their warm and sweet flavour. This rice is similar in the way it is prepared and flavoured, but of course the type of rice is different and also the spices: the spicy warmth of cinnamon, the sweet cloves, the herbal flavour of bay leave, the citrussy cardamom,
