The Farmer's Market on the Terrace in Dubai

When I was about to move from Italy to Dubai one year ago, one of the (many) things I started wondering about was what kind of food I would have eaten daily. I was not much concerned about the availability of food, or the possibility to find products I was used to; on the contrary I thought I would have found a much wider variety of foodstuffs, thanks to the multicultural city that Dubai is. My thoughts were more related to the quality and origin of what I was going to buy, cook and eat. Given local weather conditions and characteristics, my idea was that not much could be grown locally with the consequence that most of supplies had to fly from all over the world to local supermarkets. My ideal of food shopping is a bit different though: I prefer to buy products, especially the fresh ones, with a supply chain as short as possible; if it where possible I would buy everything directly from growers and producers (have a look at my profile to know what I think, and have always thought, about the food I want to eat). This habit of mine takes origin mainly from my family's costumes: when I was a child part of the fruits and vegetables we consumed at home where grown by my grandparents in their farm, together with olives for making oil and grape for wine; and so eggs, chicken and other foodstuffs. What they didn't produce came mainly from other local, small, family-run farms. Many years later my mom still buys the food for the family as much as possible in the same way, and living very close to the countryside the task is quite easy for her. I moved from there long time ago and lived for many years in some of the biggest cities in Italy, Milan for a long time than Turin for a while before coming to Dubai. But the way I used to buy food didn't change much: fruits and vegetables from farmers (in Turin I was so lucky! I had a daily farmer market at five minutes walking from where I lived), olive oil directly from producers (in each Italian region it's possible to find different types of olive oils), and the same grains, wine, pasta, cheese, and actually most of the food we had. It was also a good excuse to travel and go out of the city during weekends. I love seeing first hand where and how food is grown and produced, talking with producers, knowing the people behind what we eat and also tasting new products and knowing different ways to use products.
So when moving to Dubai, I thought I had to give up this way of shopping and convert to supermarket; also I thought that some products would have been available but absolutely overpriced.
My main concern was related to vegetables since, even if we are not a vegetarian family, we make a really huge consumption of vegetables, of all varieties. And eating stuff coming from hundreds miles away, plus pricey, was not an attractive idea to me...
But luckily I was completely wrong! Because Dubai has a unique, real, farmers market, and finally the new season has just started: last Friday, November 28th, The Farmer Market On The Terrace officially returned and will be held every Friday till the end on May in a beautiful location, an avenue shaded by palm trees in the Ballroom Gardens at Jumeirah Emirates Towers.

Marinated eggplants with tahini and oregano

There is a book that is giving me great inspirations lately: "Ottolenghi The Cookbook" (not so original tough). Even if in my wishlist for a long time, this book is a relatively recent addition to my cookbook shelf. And since I bought it I'm trying one recipe after another.
When I get a new cookbook, I use to go through it in quite deep detail and place a sticker on the pages with the recipes I wish to try, so as to find them easily in future. Whit this book, after reading the first fifteen pages of recipes, I realized that I was placing a sticker on nearly all pages: the style of cooking, the ingredients used, the presentation, everything is so close to my taste that I really would like to make almost everything, from vegetables to meat and fish, to baked goods. And so I changed my approach and decided to give a sort of priority to the most inspiring recipes: I placed stickers just on those I want to make first, but even so the book is full of colored post-it jutting out from the pages. I have already prepared several dishes taken from the "to-do list" and I have to say that all of them came out very good, and sometimes even outstanding.

Yogurt cocoa muffins

These muffins had originally to be a cake, a yogurt cake. In fact, with a sort of childhood nostalgia, my initial intention was to prepare the cake which probably represents my very first approach to baking. Actually this yogurt cake is very popular in Italy (and in France also), probably all moms make it and let their children help, as it is super easy. The peculiarity, if you will, is that all ingredients (to be precise most of all) are measured using the yogurt cup, in particular the "Italian" yogurt cup which is 125 ml (actually now things are a bit different than when I was a child and it is possible to find also other sizes but most yogurts still come in a 125 ml cup). To be honest this way of measuring ingredients is not much different than the US cup-based method...Anyway, even if not so precise (especially if children do the measuring) it is very very easy: no scale needed, no grams, ml or other units of measure; even younger kids can do it. And it's funny too.

Basic focaccia (Locatelli's foolproof focaccia)

Focaccia is one of the most popular baked goods in Italy, very simple and versatile: it can be stuffed inside or left plain, topped with sea salt and olive oil, rosemary or other herbs and sometimes with finely sliced olives or onions or cherry tomatoes. Like many other types of food, each Italian region has its own type of focaccia, with different preparation methods (and often even different ingredients) as well as diverse toppings or fillings; some types are even considered cake.

Focaccia originated from the Northern shores of Mediterranean (most historians believes it was introduced either by the Etruscans of North Central Italy prior to the Roman Empire or in Ancient Greece), and slowly spread into the cultures of Greece and Rome where it was very widely used.  The name ‘Focaccia’ is derived from the Roman words “panis focacius”, where "panis" simply means bread while "focacius" is the Latin word for center of fireplace, that is where this popular food was cooked (focus means fire in Latin). And given this origin it is not hard to believe that this flat bread, initially simply topped with spices, olive oil and other products, gradually morphed into one of the most famous Italian meals – pizza.

Focaccia's basic ingredients are very simple and actually remained unchanged from its origin until now: flour, water, salt, a small quantity of yeast and, one of the most important elements, olive oil, which was added to the top of the dough as a mean to preserve its moisture after baking. Through the centuries, most of the Italian regions have managed to modify original focaccia recipe and adapt to their regional and local tastes and ingredients; as a consequence the focaccia recipe has fragmented into countless variations, with some bearing little resemblance to its original form.

Banana and chocolate chips scones

I've finally had to accept the idea that not all the bananas I buy will be eaten as a fruit; for some reasons, one or more become overripe so fast that their destiny. if they are not too bad to be necessarily wasted, is to be used as an ingredient of a baking recipe. Since I made this banana cake with chocolate chips, that really made me change my mind on any kind of baked goods containing banana as a main ingredient, I started experimenting with this fruit: since banana gives a pleasant, particular moistness to baked stuff, it is possible to make very nice things without adding much fat (butter or oil or any other kind of shortening); it is also possible to reduce the quantity of sugar, taking advantage of the natural sweetness of the fruit, and even avoiding to use eggs since bananas have a natural thickening action.
These banana and chocolate chips scones are absolutely worth trying; soft, moist and - trust me - with a really light texture! They are perfect for an healthy, energetic breakfast, as well as for the afternoon tea-time but also give them to your children for breakfast or as a snack (especially if they don't like to eat fruit).

Chicken nuggets (my way)

Chicken nuggets, besides being one of the "signature" items on the menu of the most popular fast food chain (no need to name it), are also present in most of the kids menus all over the world. Because almost all children (and often also parents) love them; except my son and maybe few other kids in the world (excluding vegetarians of course). In particular he doesn't like those nuggets made using bite sized pieces of chicken, where the taste and texture of the meat is fully recognizable even if they are covered in breadcrumbs, usually very salty and deep-fried. But my son actually dislikes almost all kinds of meat and fish and also cheese: I would say he is unconsciously vegetarian, and he would have pasta, then pasta and more pasta, both for lunch and dinner (he is really Italian!).

But when I made these chicken nuggets, beyond any expectations, he liked them, so I want to share the recipe for those moms looking for different ways of presenting meat to their children, especially if like my son are not meat and chicken lovers.

Tender chocolate cake (Torta tenerella )

Now that we are officially in Autumn and that even in Dubai the weather is getting chillier (so nice actually), it is finally time for the chocolate season to start again. To be honest for me it never stops, as I enjoy having chocolate at any time of the year, including the hot summer - and I am not talking about chocolate ice cream or semifreddo!. And to start (or continue) the new chocolate season, I want to share the recipe for my "passe-partout" chocolate cake. Passe-partout because this cake is good for many different occasions, simply adapting the way it is presented and served. In Italy it is called torta tenerina or tenerella (that means tender, soft), and it's similar to the cake that French call fondant; it is basically a nearly flour-less chocolate cake, characterized by an extremely moist, tender and almost melting center. The result is based in part on the ingredients that are always the same, even if in different quantity and proportion depending on the recipe: chocolate, butter, eggs (whose whites must be whipped into a meringue), sugar, very little or no flour (sometimes replaced by corn starch), in some cases cocoa powder and optional flavors (like coffee or liquor); but what gives the fondant center is the baking time, that has to be short. The longer the cake is baked, the firmer the heart becomes; and here the level of internal tenderness preferred depends much on personal taste: some people like a really melting center, others prefer a firmer one. It's just a matter of trying and adjusting the baking time to personal preferences (and oven too, since each one is different, in particular when it comes to bake sweet goods requiring much precision). I like the center soft but not really melting and, in general, I tend to bake the cake a little longer if I know that children are going to eat it. I also have to say that a cake with a softer center is more suitable to be served at the end of a meal than a firmer one, which is more similar to other chocolate cakes good for breakfast or tea-time (and this is why I bake it longer for kids).