Thursday night there was quite an event here in Salzburg: the charity launch of a new cookbook (Christmas present alert!) by Evelyn Rillé and Johannes Ifkovits, entitled "Die Oper Kocht". It is a who's who of opera folk sharing their best recipes with brilliant, playful photos, all by Johannes himself, as well as handwritten recipes in each of the singer's native language.
It's a great idea, and I have to say they have executed it perfectly! Nearly every opera star you could hope for is featured, and recipes vary from Wasabi Risotto (Ferruccio Furlanetto) to Borschtsch (Anna Netrebko) to Fajitas (Kurt Streit) to "Zimtschnecken" of your's truly. Translation = Cinnamon Rolls!!
I had a BLAST preparing these for Johannes and Evelyn for the photo shoot, but my history with this family recipe goes back decades now. It was always a full-on ceremony to prepare them on Saturday afternoon for a big Sunday Brunch with the Flaherty Family, and usually it was the job of my older sister, Amy, to get to work kneading the dough and slathering it with butter and cinnamon. I remember that my eyes barely fit over the counter-top so I would pull up a stool and marvel as she turned and twisted the dough, sifted the flour over it, and wielded that rolling pin with grand expertise!
As the years went on, the dough-duty filtered down through my sisters to me, and to this day preparing a batch brings me back to such wonderful memories: the 9 Flaherty Family members all patiently waiting for them to be reheated, doused in icing, and devoured ceremoniously until we could eat no more. (They really are amazing.)
You'll have to purchase the book for the recipe, and an English version is set to be released in time for Christmas! I'll be sure and alert you when it's available. I think a Japanese version is also on its way!
In the meantime, I share some of the fun photos from the session we had. And this has inspired me - we should do a "Yankeediva Reader Recipe Share!" Feel free to leave your favorite recipes in the comments section. (I'll have to come up with another recipe that isn't published to share here!!)
Punching down the dough (my favorite step!) after the first rising:
More cinnamon, please:
With Cinnamon Rolls, really, you can never have enough butter, so I spread just a TOUCH more on the top:
My work here is finished:
At the event on Thursday night, my dish was paired with an Apple Tart from Piotr Beczala and Plum cake of Alexandra Kurzak, as well as a delicious sweet wine:
CHEERS!
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13 comments:
Oooh. I will have to share a good one with you...I'll mull it over for today and post something tonight.
Many years ago my mother got me the Met Opera Cookbook for Christmas. it is fun only because it has all these awesome old (!) stars and their favorite dishes...the best it the hangover cure, though. I will find it and post it as well!
I'll leave you the tombet's recipe, a typical dish from the Balearic Islands... I've found a video that explains all the steps, enjoy...
Some people top the tombet with fried eggs, other people top it with fried fish...
PS: Ms. Obama has had this for lunch today during her visit to the Kings of Spain in Majorca...
Here's something a little salty to balance all those sweet things.
JANSSON'S TEMPTATION
A Swedish classic. It is served both as a dish used in a smorgasbord and as a supé with a salad.
Preparation time: 1 1/4 hour
Oven temp: 200° C
Ingredients for 4 portions:
* 8 raw potatoes
* 2 yellow onions
* margarine or butter
* 1 can anchovies, ~125 g
* 3 dl whipping cream
* Bread crumbs
1. Peel potatoes and cut in thin strips.
2. Peel and slice onions.
3. Brown the onions in oil or butter.
4. Layer potatoes, onion & anchovies in a buttered oven-proof form. Potatoes on top.
5. Pour half of the cream combined with a little anchovie sauce over the mixture.
6. Sprinkle bread crumbs and a little margarine or butter over.
7. Bake in the oven at 200° C appr. 40 minutes.
8. Pour the rest of the cream over & bake an additional 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft, the cream cooked in and the dish has browned sufficiently.
Serving suggestions:
Good with bread and butter and a glass of beer.
Tips: If anything is left over it can be frozen and reheated later.
Ok, so it was not hangover, but laryngitis...but still fascinating:
Aage Haugland's "The Ho-Jo-To-Ho cure"
(or "how to kill a cold on a rock the night before")
1 bottle strong Danish export beer (of course!)\5 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 egg yolk
1 small (but not too small) glass Danish export schnapps (of course!)
5 chlorophyll tablets
heat beer almost to boiling point and add garlic, egg yolk and schnapps. Mix, then drink as hot as possible together with chlorophyll tablets, preferably in bed (alone?). Serves 1
I will add that all the asides are Mr. Haugland's and not mine- but if you are ever experiencing a sore throat before an opening night, he swears by this!
Joyce!
I have to say I love how you have been updating your blog so regularly. It usually makes my day, and its been making my day a lot lately:)
I HAVE to get a copy of this recipe book for Christmas. I love to cook. And singers have to eat!
Thanks so much for sharing this!
-Emma
@ Joyce
Please do NOT try pesce42's recipe before tomorrow's concert is finished! Promise? (I'm afraid it rather sounds like a recipe for "How-to-become-sick-before-an-opening-night-if-you-dislike-the-production-or-your-coartists-or-whatever" ;-)))
What beautiful rolls! I'm in love. I'm going to buy a copy fo the cookbook to give as a prize. I'm having a countdown on my opera blog this week and select winners from commenters for prizes. I think this cookbook may inspire some more folks to leave comments. Thanks for a great post.
Ah, unfortunately I can't cook, so no contribution from this commentator :'-(
But I can think of a few possible recipients for the Xmas Opera Cookbook :-)
yum yum!!! i'll be trying those :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMRXSQzSHOs
Joyce is right, Zimtschneckle need LOADS of butter!! Yummy!
Here's my favorite way to take in sugar and chocolate, very easy to remember. It's called "ant cake"
300 g flour
300 g sugar
300 g butter
300 g advocaat (this is very important! but no worries, everything vaporized in the oven, so safe for performing nights)
150 g chocolate, those small little pieces you use for baking that have the size of an ant
4 eggs
2 packages of vanilla sugar (well, these small packages we got in Germany..)
3 small spoons of backing powder
Mix it all together, put it in a cake pan and bake at 225°C until it's finished (eh.. yeah, sorry, depends on the cake pan :-) ). When it's cooled down, put chocolate coating around, I love it in white.
Have fun!
enecabe thanks for that link, it's so cute.
Raspberry syrup from my grandma'
for 1 bottle of red wine, one (cereal) bowl of raspberry
crush (but not too much) the raspberry in the wine. Let the potion 48 hours in the fridge with a dish towel on it.
After that time, with a colander, get the juice.
for one litter of juice, add 800g of sugar. (to adapt depending on the juice quality)
bring to a boil and let it slimmer 2/3 minutes (time for the alcohol to evaporate).
Put in bottles and close them quickly in order to sterilize it. To keep in a black cupboard or in the fridge when the bottle is open.
You can adapt it for any red fruit (strawberry, particularly delicious with blackberry, blackcurrant ...).
Or with white fruits with white wine (peaches ...)
So quick to cook, so good to drink. Also suits to children as there is no more alcohol !!
Should be perfect with the Zimtschnecken on Sunday afternoon.
All the best,
Pepita !
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