New blogger after 1 week : Photos, Eggs and cheese…

Well, a week has almost passed since my 1st post..It’s been a busy week..productive..etc.. Summer here on the island is starting to show its true colours. This week I was truly captured by the flowers and fruit..I know it sounds so simple but you’d have to live here to truly understand.

Sea Grapes

Actually for years I’m sad to say I passed many of these beautiful trees and paid no attention to its real beauty. A bitter fruit that you squeeze out of its shell straight into your mouth. Almost like the wine grapes i grew up with eating from my Nonno Mikes backyard. Apparently wine can also be made of this fruit. hmm…rethinking this fruit entirely 🙂

The 2nd would be the “Spider Lily” which I am allergic to but is actually very pretty. I made a point of observing the plant & not just walking away so abruptly just because I water & sneeze when I see it!

Spider Lily

Truly I did not do much in the kitchen this week. I made the odd quick pasta dish with new Cow Mein noodles I found..wow!  A Guyanese friend of mine here introduced me to them. Love them, texture etc..

Mess of Chow Mein noodles

I took left over Cod/Baccala/Salt fish (whatever you want to call it) & veggies, stir fried them up & tossed them together with pepper(when I say pepper here it’s a fresh small season pepper that looks like a habenero) , herbs & seasoning. So simple & so good! ok, & i chopped a hot pepper into it because i needed a hit of spice!

Funny that after this week, the recipe I want to share most is a comforting meat less recipe I learnt from one of my Nonnas, on the farm. Now this is something she would make back in Italy during the war having no meat. As a child of course I didn’t appreciate something so simple. Really you are going to use stale bread & feed me with it? gross..Now as an adult I try to make that dish over & over with a twist of course! 😉 So following is my version of something my Nonna would mix up on a saturday night using stale bread!

I tried to measure my ingredients as I could with what I used here. Please allow for your own personal touch!

Polpette Cacio e Uova  (Cheese & Egg “meatless” balls)

1 whole stale Baguette (broken in pieces)

2 whole garlic cloves (crushed)

1 carrot (grated)

1 spring onion (white & green) chopped

1 Egg

Cheese, grated – I used Scamorza, Pecorino, Emmental – basically 2 cups of grated cheese of your choice

salt,pepper for taste

1/4 cup fresh parsley  — coarsely chopped

1/4 cup fresh basil — coarsely chopped

breadcrumbs (if mixture seems wet)

 

Soak the torn baguette in water. Just long enough to rehydrate it.  Place the bread and the remaining ingredients into a large bowl. Combine until thoroughly mixed. Taste for flavour & add further fresh herbs & spices.

Form into croquette or 1 1/2 inch balls. If mixture seems to wet to form, add breadcrumbs to adjust and form a proper shape.

Cacio e Uova

Refrigerate the croquette for an hour. Set a frying pan to heat w/oil & fry gently on either side.

Frying time

Drop the croquette in the hot tomato sauce, boil lightly. Serve w/Pasta of your choice or alone!

Personally I enjoy eating them alone as a snack when I need something quick.

Basic Tomato Sauce

500 ML crushed tomatoes – fresh or canned

3 fresh garlic cloves (crushed)

1/2 onion chopped

1 carrot chopped

salt, pepper to taste

fresh basil & parsley whole

Combine all of the above in a sauce pan. Cook for 1/2 hour. I like to puree with my hand blender as i do not like chunks. Adjust seasoning according to your taste

Polpette Cacio e Uova

Buon Appetito! 😉

Tagged: caribbean, cheese, italian, meatless, tomato sauce, vegetarian