WHEN A SHIRE IS NOT A SHIRE

Many of you will know that I am a great fan of MasterChef Italia, which has recently made a welcome return for its sixth season on Italian TV.  I am also an admirer of Joe Bastianich, whose biography I reviewed here and I did laugh at the pronunciation lesson that Joe gave an unfortunate contestant last night. You can see the video clip here.

However, it has to be said that Joe is not teaching British English! For those of you who are confused, the term shire means county and is usually used as a suffix, as in Gloucestershire or Yorkshire. In this case, the i is pronounced like the er in her in British English. It is pronounced in the "Joe" way in the term the shires, meaning counties. Having to deal with the eccentricities of Modican Englishitis every day, I do empathise with both Joe and the poor contestant!

Worcestershire Sauce, by the way, is a British ingredient which is readily available in Italy and I was glad to see an Italian being adventurous enough to use it.

BRIT-SICILIAN-INDIAN SHEPHERD'S PIE

Long ago, I used to make the great Madhur Jaffrey's "A Kind of Shepherd's Pie" from her 1994 Madhur Jaffrey's Cookbook - Food for Family and Friends. However, due to the difficulty of obtaining minced lamb here and despite having tried the recipe a couple of times with minced beef, in the end I stopped making it. 

But in colder weather comfort food calls so a few weeks ago I decided to revive the recipe using the ingredients I can easily get here, so it's become a bit British, a bit Sicilian and a bit Indian.  I've kept Madhur's idea of a grilled aubergine base and I think this makes it quite Sicilian too. You can use frozen grilled aubergines, reconstituted as directed on the pack, or just slice an aubergine lengthwise and cook the slices on a tray lined with baking parchment in the oven for 10 minutes. The latter is a tip I picked up from Antonella Clerici and I find that the cooked slices freeze well. The other Sicilian touches are the use of sweet Sicilian carrots, green [French] beans and passata. The Indian part is, of course, the use of spices, though there's another nod to Sicily with the use of cinnamon.

Here's the recipe:

Brit-Sicilian-Indian Shepherd's Pie

1 aubergine, sliced and cooked as above [or use frozen grilled aubergine slices]
100 gr green beans, cooked in boiling water until tender, then drained and cut into small pieces
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
300 gr mushrooms, sliced
1 white onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
500 gr mixed minced meat [a mixture of beef and pork if you are in Italy but you can use all beef or lamb]
2 goodly-sized knobs ginger, peeled and finely chopped
cinnamon
1 kg potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
c. 125 gr butter, softened plus a little extra
200 gr passata, made up to 300 gr with water
4 tablesp olive oil
1 tablesp flour
Handful fresh sage leaves, chopped

Arrange the aubergine slices in a large, fairly deep Pyrex or ceramic roasting dish.

Cook the onion and garlic in the oil until softened, then add the carrot slices and soften these too. Add the meat and cook, stirring, until browned.

Add the beans, mushrooms, half the ginger, a little cinnamon and most of the chopped sage and stir for a couple of minutes.

Add the passata mixture and flour, season and stir well.

Turn the heat down and let the mixture simmer for 20 mins.

Meanwhile, cook the potatoes in boiling water till soft but not disintegrating.

Mix the butter with the rest of the sage leaves, a little more cinnamon and the rest of the ginger. Use this to mash the potatoes.

Now pour the mixture in the pan on top of the aubergines and spoon the mash over. Smooth the top with a palette knife. Add a few small knobs of butter and a final sprinkling of cinnamon.

Cook in the oven at 180° C for 15 mins.

Garnish with some whole sage leaves if you wish.

Buon appetito.

A TASTE OF THE EAST

As my friend Katia Amore of loveSicily says, Sicilian cookery owes much to the flavours of the Middle East and North Africa so it is right for today's Sicilian cooks to explore the fusion possibilities open to them by looking further afield.  Therefore I was delighted to be invited by Katia to participate in a La Prova del Cuoco cookery lesson entitled I Profumi dell'Oriente at the loveSicily cookery school on Saturday evening.

La Prova del Cuoco is a lunchtime TV programme which takes its format from the BBC's Ready Steady Cook and it is immensely popular in Italy.  Our lesson was conducted by the director of the La Prova del Cuoco Schools, Palma D'Onofrio.

First, participants got to know each other whilst chatting and taking refreshments on Katia's balcony, which affords stunning views of Baroque Modica:

Then, to get us in the mood, we were offered breaded prawns flavoured with lime and served with a sweet soya sauce:

Next, Katia [left] and Palma got down to business:

Palma cooked:

beef fillet with peppers and lemongrass

fried chicken with ginger, pink grapefruit and Marsala

stir-fried vegetables using the best of Sicily's beans 

and flavoured with a Balsamic vinegar sauce

and Cantonese rice with eggs, ham and peas.

After the lesson, we all repaired to the balcony again to enjoy more tastes and a feast prepared by Katia

whilst basking in the Modican twilight:

I've even got a La Prova del Cuoco certificate!

Grazie per la lezione e la bella serata, Palma e Katia.

PUTTIN' ON THE RITZ

Last night I had supper in the company of an 86-year-old man: He entered the garden where we were seated and, in a move worthy of Fred Astaire, threw his walking stick onto the bamboo, sat down and proceeded to regale us with tales of old Modica. This gentleman has more energy than I do!

And how about this for an incongruous, yet delicious combination? Peach granita served with melt-in-the-mouth, crumbly Scottish shortbread [and served on a traditional pasta-making tray]. Viva fusion cooking!

ANGLO-INDIAN-SICILIAN SHEPHERD'S PIE!

A comment of Liz's a while back made me want that ultimate comfort food beloved of the British, Shepherd's Pie. For a long time, I have used Madhur Jaffrey's Anglo - Indian version [from Madhur Jaffrey's Cook Book, a general collection rather than a specifically Indian one] but when I make it here I have to modify it further: I can't get minced lamb, so I use beef and, as this makes the dish "heavier" I use half the quantity of meat given in the recipe. Then I "cheat" by using the ready-grilled aubergines in oil which are sold here rather than grilling them myself. [You can get these in some delicatessens in Britain and you used to be able to buy them at one stall in Cardiff Market, but I have not found the quality good by the time the packs arrive in Britain.] MJ does not tell you to peel the tomatoes and I don't, but I rather think Sicilians would. She does, however, tell you to peel the potatoes but that is something I rarely do, so I don't for this dish. [Serving unpeeled potatoes to the Sicilians results in their spending the whole meal trying to get the cooked skin off, though, so I do sometimes concede when entertaining.] I used red chilli peppers instead of green ones and this time, I didn't have any thyme to sprinkle on so I used oregano. Above you see the layers of aubergine and tomatoes, the potatoes laid on top of these and the meat [which has been fried with the spices] ready to go in the oven and the finished dish - true fusion-comfort-food!