Lat this New Year’s table we want it to be crackling, cheerful, colorful like poke bowls, or rather… explosive. Raffia flowers light it up like fireworks. The hope is that 2023 will enter with a light step, at least as much as the chiffon cake.
ON THE TABLE “Kita” fabric (1974), KEN SCOTT FOUNDATION Historical Archive, WFTB salad bowls, MV% CERAMIC DESIGN bowls and saucers, BORMIOLI ROCCO glasses, SAMBONET cutlery, Ken Scott book (Rizzoli). Champagne “Ice Jacket Rosé” VEUVE CLICQUOT.
Poke bowl with prawns or salmon
INGREDIENTS FOR 4/6 PEOPLE:
300 g rice (basmati, brown or carnaroli)
600 g prawns
400 g salmon, blast chilled, cut into small pieces
2 Hass avocados
2 carrots
1 ripe mango
150 g edamame, already boiled
6 radishes
lumpfish roe
1 lemon
1 tablespoon of sesame seeds
2 tablespoons of chopped hazelnuts
2 tablespoons of white rice vinegar
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
Method
Cut the salmon into cubes, season it with a drizzle of oil, salt and pepper and keep it in the fridge. Boil the prawns for a few seconds in boiling water, drain them, shell them, then season them with salt and a drizzle of oil and keep them at room temperature.
Wash the rice several times under running water cold to make it lose as much starch as possible, then boil it in salted boiling water and drain it al dente: season it with an emulsion of rice vinegar and soy sauce and mix it with the tines of a fork to keep it shelly.
Cut the avocados, peel them, slice them and sprinkle them with lemon juice to keep them from blackening. Peel the carrots and cut them into julienne strips, then slice the radishes into rounds. Peel the mango and dice it. In a pan, toast the sesame seeds.
Compose your bowls: put the rice, which must be the protagonist, on the bottom and sprinkle the hazelnuts on top. Then, arrange all the ingredients on the surface, harmoniously, and complete with a sprinkling of sesame seeds.
You can garnish with the herb of your choice. Chives, coriander or mint are ideal.
Chiffon cake with orange and vanilla
INGREDIENTS FOR 6:
200g 00 flour
4 large eggs at room temperature
180 g sugar
90 g seed oil
120 g warm water
10 g baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 vanilla pod (seeds) or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 organic orange (grated zest)
1 pinch of salt icing sugar
Method
Turn on the oven at 160° in static mode. Break the eggs and separate the yolks from the whites. Whip the egg whites until stiff: as soon as they have doubled their volume, add the cream of tartar (it is used to stabilize them during cooking), then continue beating them until they become compact and soft (not too hard, like for meringue).
Apart from, beat the yolks with the sugar, until they are puffy and fluffy. Stirring constantly, add the water, oil, vanilla, orange zest and salt. Then add the sifted flour and baking powder and lastly incorporate the egg whites by spoonfuls, gently and from the bottom up.
Pour the mixture into the chiffon cake mould which must not be buttered or floured, and cook in the oven for an hour (do the test with a toothpick to check the cooking, if necessary continue for another 10 minutes).
Remove from the oven, turn the mold upside down on the special feet and let it cool overnight. Take the chiffon cake out of the oven with the help of a small knife slid along the edges. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve with whipped cream and, if desired, a citrus coulis.
It takes a flower. You do it
By now the garlands imported from the Anglo-Saxon world (as a Christmas tradition) are easily found in the markets. However do you want to put a composition handmade by the landlady? It doesn’t take much, tutorials abound, but illustrated books remain the great masters of floral décor, even for the table.
“Paper Flowers” by Tiffanie Turner (ed. Il Castello).
Not just garlands: bouquets, centerpieces, place cards… A manual that is already a classic Paper flowers (ed. Il Castello) by San Francisco-based architect-artist Tiffanie Turner, acclaimed by the New York Times. Life-size or giant peonies. English roses that are tempting to smell, sinuous orchids like in a greenhouse. Realism and detailed instructions.
“Japanese Paper Flowers” by Emiko Yamamoto (Nuinui).
Rather “unnatural” are the poetic ones Japanese paper flowers (Nuinui) by Emiko Yamamoto, made with the kirigami technique, from kiru (“to cut”) and kami (“paper”), which combines scissors, cutters and glue with the classic Jap folding. There are 43 models to copy and carve. All delicately beautiful, not all easy to make.
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