Fall jams, falafel and other stories… Update on my new Italian life! :)

A few months have passed since I made a proper post, but it had to be this way. Had so much to do during summer, it flew by almost without a notice. So I left London and moved to Italy where I worked really hard during summer, 10 to 12 hours a day without days off, so that meant no summer for me 😦 but it’s ok, no hard feelings… After that my other half and I had to go back to London by car (with a stop in Switzerland where he has family) to ring back all our things, specially mine as I was living in there for 8 years, so imagine the amount of crap I accumulated 😉 It was very tiring the trip, but really wonderful to see all my friends and sister ❤

Anyway, it took me a long time to get internet in our house, but now it’s all working good, so I can update my blog more often. I did update Instagram and facebook as it requires less bandwidth..

A note on Italy so far, I love the country, it’s wonderful full of colours and flavors and nice people AND bad bureaucracy….omg…it takes ages to do anything and it’s very frustrating but if we keep calm and be patient at some point things happen, which is the most important thing..

Regarding my food , lately we have been eating even less meat and fish than before, for our health and for our wallet too. Choosing high quality over quantity. And nowadays, more than ever before, I make everything from scratch as I have the time and we are given so much produce by my new family 🙂  And I do have a small allotment with fruit trees, and I want to start planting a few things too, if anyone knows any tips for beginners I would appreciate!

Onto some food now :

Figs, walnut and seeds jam Very easy recipe just cut in 4 500gr of fresh figs. In a pan add a heaped teaspoon of cinnamon, the figs, 2 tablespoons of pure maple syrup or honey( I used maple), a dash of water, 4 dates cut in 4 ( or maybe another tablespoon of sweetener of choice) and let it cook in low heat for 20m. Check for liquid content if its too dry add a bit of water ( I needed extra and I had organic apple juice at home so I used that, but water is just fine). Mix 2 tablespoons of mixed seeds like flax, sesame, poppy and let it cook for a further 5m. Chop 10 walnuts and add to it at the end ( when it’s not cooking anymore). Let it cool and put it in some jars. I leave 1 out and freeze the rest. As it doesn’t have any chemicals it last around 1 week in the fridge. It’s so lush!! Sweet and amazing. Over bread, yogurt, pancakes, oatmeal…so many options..

Here is a link for a bread recipe of mine :

Adventures!

And one for pancakes :

Yes, pancakes 🙂

Persimmon, apple and chia jam :

6 ripe gooey persimmons

2 apples

2 TBS of organic brown sugar

1 TBS mixed spice like cinnamon,cloves, nutmeg, cardamon, but more cinnamon!

1TBS of chia seeds

3 TBS of apple puree, not really necessary but I had some open

add a bit of water if needed

Cook for 40 to 60m until very soft and blend, if it’s not thick enough just add a bit of tapioca or potato starch (1 teaspoon is enough) just to thicken it a bit 🙂

From my garden.. we have figs, rosemary, persimmons or khaki, tomatoes and onions 😀

Presents from the south of Italy, what more can I say??

For the Falafel : soak dry chickpeas for at least 6 hours. On a food processor mix the drained chickpeas with raw garlic, onion, parsley, cumin, chilli powder, turmeric, salt , black pepper and a bit of olive oil. Don’t over process. Fry or bake I have been on a spice kick, like to try new things. What is your favourite spicy dish ?

The rice is a normal plain rice cooked with garlic and olive oil. The cabbage was kind of steamed with chili flakes and garlic, chinese inspired 🙂