Italy Puglia cooking vacations and wine tours

Cooking delicious dishes for our friends and family is one of the things that I and Marika love doing during the Christmas holidays.

We though of starting the New Year with a recipe that has been very successful: mandarin marmalade, with ginger, cinnamon and Veuve Cliquot champagne.

The beauty of this recipe is that we used the Veuve Cliquot champagne leftover from Christmas Eve. To tell you the truth, there was not much left over, but it was enough to make this marmalade fantastic!

INGREDIENTS

2 lb organic mandarins
1 lemon juice
1lb brown sugar
18 fl oz water
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
2tbsp Veuve Cliquot Champagne

PREPARATION
Wash the mandarins and peel them. Cut half of the peels in small strips.
Cut the mandarin inside in small pieces (you are free to remove the seeds. We don’t do that because seeds are full of pectin and we don’t mind finding them in our marmalade).
Boil the water with sugar, until the sugar is completely melted. Add the peel strips, mandarins and lemon juice and cook over medium heat for about two hours, stirring so that the marmalde does not stick.

Add the grated ginger, cinnamon and the Veuve champagne and keep cooking at low flame for other 15 minutes.

This marmalade is perfect to be eaten by itself on top of bread, or with cheese.

What is your favorite dish you make with leftovers?

We can certainly say Puglia is an artichoke lovers’ paradise!

If you come to Puglia at this time of the year you’ll see artichokes everywhere: at the markets and at every street corner the farmers sell their fresh artichokes. All the locals buy to eat them fresh or to preserve in extra virgin olive oil, mint and cloves (delicious!!)…to be eaten in the summer on top of our fantastic bread.

The artichokes have many important nutritional benefits. In addition to being full of fiber and iron, they contribute to lower the blood cholesterol. In fact, by promoting bile secretion in the liver, they help reducing the LDL cholesterol.

In the 1970′s, European scientists discovered that the bitter taste of the artichoke is due to a plant chemical called cynarin, which has the ability to reduce cholesterol.

In Puglia we prepare the artichokes in so many different ways and I and Marika have them at least 6 times per week at this time of the year. One of Marika’s favorite ways to prepare them is with carrots, rice and parmigiano….a sort of risotto but more Mediterranean because we make it with extra virgin olive oil instead of butter.

INGREDIENTS
3 artichokes 
1/2 lb rice
2 carrots
1/2 onion
vegetable broth (as necessary)
1/4 glass white wine
3 1/2 oz very good Parmigiano
2 tbsp very good extra virgin olive oil
sea salt to taste
black pepper

RECIPE
Clean the artichokes and the carrots and chop them in small pieces. Put them in a non-sticking pan at low flame adding a few tbsp of vegetable broth. Stir and add the onion, cut very fine.
Add the rice and stir very gently and not very frequently. Add the wine and after a few minute other broth, little by little when necessary.
Add sea salt and black pepper to taste.
When the rice is cooked “al dente“, add the parmigiano. Serve and add the extra virgin olive oil.

The only issue we have with artichokes is pairing them with the right wine. What wine do you like having with artichokes?