Christmas menu with Davide Oldani, Carlo Cracco, Massimo Bottura and Niko Romito: Christmas pancake
Christmas menu with Davide Oldani, Carlo Cracco, Massimo Bottura and Niko Romito: Christmas pancake

Video: Christmas menu with Davide Oldani, Carlo Cracco, Massimo Bottura and Niko Romito: Christmas pancake

Video: Christmas menu with Davide Oldani, Carlo Cracco, Massimo Bottura and Niko Romito: Christmas pancake
Video: A pranzo al ristorante di CARLO CRACCO, una stella Michelin ⭐ 2024, March
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“For the readers of Dissapore I thought of a traditional Christmas dessert. So there are fried food, fruit, the smell of mandarin peel and also raisins … being born in a pastry shop, I love raisins, it's a memory for me. Who speaks to me is Niko Romito, chef and owner of the beautiful Reale Casadonna in Castel di Sangro (AQ), ready to dictate the fourth recipe, that of the dessert, which will close the most designer, original and amazing Christmas menu of the year, conceived and explained step by step for us readers of Dissapor by Niko together with Davide Oldani, Carlo Cracco and Massimo Bottura. Okay, that sounds like a great start to a dessert, what's it called?

"I haven't decided on the name yet, I tried the recipe this morning …"

Ah! So are you telling me that you designed it just for us?

"Yes, it's an out of the box, I thought of something Christmas but easily reproducible, a convivial dish, suitable for a family lunch, that could be prepared even the day before and easy to manage even if you have many guests."

Okay, you intrigued me, the name is not that important, let's start with the ingredients!

Ingredients for 4/6 people: 200 g of milk, 100 g of butter, 140 g of flour (0 or 00 zero is indifferent), 50 g of sugar, 3 whole eggs, 30 g of raisins soaked for just one minute in water (just to rehydrate) and dried, 8 g of ground roasted barley.

Let's go with the procedure.

In a saucepan, heat the milk with the butter and sugar, then add the raisins, barley and flour little by little. Continue cooking for 1-2 minutes until the flour has blended well with the mixture and this will easily detach from the sides of the saucepan (in practice as for polenta). At that point, remove from the heat and add the eggs, mix well and leave to rest in the refrigerator until completely cold.

I follow you, how should I expect this dough? "It will have a slightly brownish color …"

What do we do while it cools down?

“Let's make tangerine syrup! Separately, in a steel saucepan prepare a dry caramel with 150 grams of sugar. When the sugar is well dissolved, add 800 grams of tangerine juice."

Stop. Rewind. Mandarin juice? How do you do it?

"I squeeze 1 kg and a half / two kilos of mandarins (to obtain 800 g of juice), I pass the juice through a sieve and I obtain a juice with practically zero density."

Ok, it seems easy to me.

"After adding the tangerine juice, add the grated rind of 6 tangerines to the caramel." Niko, feeling perplexed (but only because I'm writing while he is talking!) Wants to clarify: "it is better that you grate them before squeezing them, the mandarins." But let's go back to the caramel which seems to be the most delicate phase of the recipe, Niko reassures me "when you pour the tangerine juice, the sugar stops cooking and makes lumps, don't be frightened because after 3-4 minutes you keep turning the lumps finally they melt. " Okay, but do I look scared to you?

Continue cooking the juice until it reduces by 50% and has the density of a syrup (to understand this, put some in a saucer and check its density!). Let it cool down. In the meantime, while the mixture and the syrup are cooling down, I ask Niko a few personal questions. How do you spend Christmas?

"Working"

What the heck question, effectively!

I celebrate it on the 24th with my family, for more than 10 years we have all been together on Christmas Eve. It is the only day of the year I don't cook: that evening my mother and my three sisters divide up the tasks and cook a Christmas menu that hasn't changed for 10 years. We meet on the eve at 20 and I, for ten years, have always managed to arrive late and my sister Debora calls me every time to find out where I am…!

Moved by this unprecedented family side of the chefs (Bottura had already charmed me talking about his mother), I pretend indifference and pressure: let's go back to our Christmas cake, which at the moment does not have a name yet.

Take the dough and form puffs or quenelles with a piping bag or a spoon; fry them in peanut oil at 160 °. It will take 5/6 minutes to cook, after which dry them well and serve them cold or warm in the center of the table in a bowl. The pancakes obtained are eaten with your hands and dipped in tangerine syrup. It is a convivial gesture, which immediately makes home, family.

Okay, I seem to have all the information. Indeed no, the name is missing. What do we call this dessert?

We could call it … Christmas Pancake.

I would say it is perfect!

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