No Anchovies Please

A hat tip to anyone who knows where that lyric comes from without googling it.
I started out the week with commercial baking.  Big quantities, the big hobart mixer and repetition, repetition, repetition.  When we started vollying for the recipes I stuck my hand up for the scones. I'm married to a Brit, how could I not?  Besides I have never made them and I would like to know with certainty that if called upon to make a high tea, I would be ready.

I decided to split the dough into two flavours, the ever traditional currant and another made with candied ginger and I glazed it with a mixture of confectioner's sugar and milk that I had steeped stem ginger in.  It's a ll so quick and so basic I really don't know why I never made them before.  No rolling, no muss, no fuss.  Here they are.

It was a nice easy end to baking class and I finally relaxed and enjoyed it.

On to *shudder* Tuesday and day one with madre della cucina, Roberta.
We silently shuffled in and took our seats, none of the usual bantering and teasing that we normally do.  Everyone was on time and in uniform and ready to go. The lecture was long and interesting.  Of course coming from an Italian family I already knew much of the history of why we Americans, especially New England Americans think the North End

is Italian food.
The Southern Italians left Italy because the land was basically arid and unworkable, jobs and food scarce.  When they came here and started to eeck out a living and working for a guinea a day (hence calling Italians Guinea's) in factories they started to cook the food from home.  Pasta.  Health and social workers were appalled at how much pasta these new immigrants were eating.  NO meat!? Why they will all become anaemic and die of horrid diseases, we must force them to eat more meat, hence, spaghetti and meatballs.

My Grandmother was from Parma in the lush northern Emilia Romagna region and my Grandfather was from Naples in the hard scrabble south.  Being from the era she was, much of her cooking was to please my Grandfather so we didn't get many of the things from her region.  Her sauce added sugar.  And if you stop to think about it, logically it makes sense.  People from the south couldn't grow good tomatoes, the land wasn't as good for growing crops and the tomatoes were not as sweet as those from the North so they added sugar to compensate.  But I digress. 

We started, as Brian mentioned, in Piedmont and Valle D'Aosta.
One of the other teachers recommended that a new recipe be added that was authentic to the region, Bagna Cauda.
Bagna Cauda is pretty much a warm anchovy dip served with crudit�s. 
Groans went up across the room.  Even Roberta admitted not liking anchovy.  So for my first day in class with the new teacher I chose the recipe she was sure not to like.  SMAHT huh?
I knew it would be good though, and would not taste purely like anchovy so I dove in.  It takes surprisingly a lot longer to make then one would think.
First you remove the germ in the center, slice your garlic tissue paper thin and soak it in water to make it less bitter.
Once you decide on your vegetables and accompaniments to dip in the bagna cauda you should work on these and get them ready.

I chose:
Roasted Beets
Jerusalem Artichokes (or sunchokes)
Fennel (finocchio)
Carrots
Snow peas
Red peppers
Yellow Peppers

Then I spent an inordinate amount of time preparing the salted anchovies.  For this you MUST use salted anchovy, not the tiny ones in oil.  It makes an enormous difference to the taste.  First I rinsed the salt and scales off the anchovies.  Split them open and then removed the frame (bones), organs and tail and as many of the pin bones as I could with my paring knife and then mincing them finely.

Into a good heavy bottomed pan went 12 TBS unsalted butter, about half of the total olive oil (you will use 1 cup in total) and the soaked garlic that had now been patted dry.
Cook this over a low flame stirring until the garlic gets very soft and almost starts to dissolve and look creamy.  Once it is at this stage, add the anchovies and the rest of the oil.  Cook this until the anchovies fall apart and almost dissolve in with the oil.

Roberta mentioned that I could add some cream to it in order to make it more stable so I whisked in some cream as well. But it still separated. I plated it like this and we talked about it and she suggested throwing it in the blender with a bit more cream so it would be more of an emulsion That is when it got really good.  I would highly recommend doing it that way in the future.
Keep in mind that you want your bagna cauda to be warm though; it should be served, if possible, like a fondue.
Here it is plated, and another hat tip if anyone knows from whom I stole the plating idea.

My proudest moment is that even the anchovy haters tasted it and had seconds.  *sigh* It's enough to make a girl teary eyed.

My second dish is so not worth repeating.  A brief repetition of the ingredients, Onions, blanched and turned into cups, fruits soaked in a mustard syrup that smells hot but is really sickly sweet, amaretti biscuits, butternut squash, egg, nutmeg, butter and breadcrumbs.  Mmmmmm, Mmmmmm, Mmmmmm.
Here is a visual, be thankful there is not taste-o-vision.

Comments

[Tony]

Hah! The J. Geils Band - from 'Love Stinks' I think.

[jo]

Kaching! Tony get's the hat tip. J.Geil's is correct.

Noooooo Anchooovies Please (in deep baritone)

[Brian]

"That's no bowling ball, that's my wife!"

[Ben Hyde]

We often had salty canned anchovies in our salad when i was a child. I hated them. Now I yearn for them. I can tell in an instant when the dressing has a bit of anchovie in it. So, I'm coming around on the whole anchovie thing.

[Grace]

I love both anchovies and scones. Except who knew they were pronounced 'skuns'? I ordered one at a airport Starbucks in Canada and heard some guys behind me chuckling over my pronounciation. Oh, and thanks for linking.

[Air Jordan]

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things. Do you agree?

[glass]

My weakness. Bread or any flour based food is a weakness of mine.

[cialis online]

This post is such a torture to me on the right moment that I am feeling so hungry... gosh, I think I will starve if I do not eat something. Thank you for torturing me LOL!

[4rx]

Looks so delicious, and yes please mine with anchovies.