Dear Regular Newsletter Readers,
I hope this edition of our weekly newsletter finds you all somewhat refreshed after your summer vacations; what with all the Covid restrictions in force going on vacation is not quite the same as it was pre Covid-19, but whether you managed to sun yourself on a sandy beach somewhere in the world or you just decided to spend time at home like I did, I hope you were able to spend some quality time with your family members.
About 50% of people living in Japan have now had their first Covid jab with about 40% having had their second jab, so let’s all remain vigilant and patient as we ride this thing out until the whole population has been jabbed twice. I’ve noticed as I’ve been walking around various parts of Tokyo and Kanagawa that not too much in the way of vigilance is being paid to wearing masks and social distancing in Japanese restaurants and Izakaya type establishments which concerns me a lot; however, the rates of infection and deaths caused by Covid continue to be far less in Japan than in other parts of the world.
Ever since the world came down with the Corona virus, which is now a good 18 months ago, Japan has been reporting fluctuating figures of between only 200~300 infection cases per day in Tokyo and about 1,000 or so throughout the whole of Japan with next to no fatalities. Then of course the Olympics came and went and although the infection rates have dramatically increased Covid related fatalities are few and far between.
Japan has just entered in to a so-called lockdown, but not as most of the rest of the world knows it; in Europe and other parts of the world there are generally consequences if lockdown rules are violated, but in Japan there are no consequences which explains why people can freely frequent Izakaya establishments whip off their masks and converse in close quarters whilst eating, drinking and watching TV.
Now on to something completely different, have you ever eaten Cannoli? Well, up until last week I hadn’t and now I’ve made and tried them I will definitely be making and eating more of them. If you don’t know what Cannoli are, they are tube shaped fried Sicilian pastries filled with a mixture of ricotta cheese, sugar and chocolate chips (optional). Sometimes pieces of candied fruit are added into the end of the cannoli or (like in the picture attached of the Cannoli I made) the ends are rolled in chopped pistachio nuts. It is common to dust the cannoli with icing sugar before the Cannoli are served and eaten.
The history of Cannoli stems back all the way to 800-1100 ad. During the Arabic rule of the island of Sicilia, the king had quite a few concubines that would regularly make him amazing foods and desserts to try to satisfy his very sweet tooth and gain favour with him. One of those desserts was a cylinder-shaped pastry filled with ricotta, almonds, and honey which we know today as Cannoli. Until next week, continue to keep safe and if you have the time why not try to make some cannoli, they are not too difficult to make and they taste absolutely delicious. The recipe and procedural notes I followed when I made my Cannoli are as below:
For the Filling:
• 500 g ricotta cheese
• 100 g of sugar (confectioner’s/icing sugar is finer and creates a better result)
• 150g of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest and a 1 teaspoon of lemon juice (optional)
Procedure:
1. Put the ricotta cheese in to a mixing bowl with the sugar and mix together by hand (you can use an electric mixer if you want).
2. Mix together until the cheese is smooth and then fold in the chocolate chips until they are completely mixed in.
* If you decide to use lemon zest and lemon juice add it into the bowl at this stage and after mixing it in refrigerate until ready for use.
For the Cannoli shells:
• 250 g (00 Italian) flour
• 20 g sugar
• 3 g salt
• 1 tsp cocoa powder (4.5~5g)
• 25 g lard (can substitute lard for butter)
• 45 g eggs = 1 egg, whisked
• 1 more egg whisked together (you will use this to sealing the cannoli after they have been wrapped around the metal formers)
• 50 g marsala wine
• 8 g white wine vinegar
Procedure:
1. Sift together the flour, sugar, salt and cocoa powder into a large bowl.
2. Add in the lard, egg, wine, and vinegar and mix by hand until combined, about 2 minutes.
3. Transfer to a clean surface dusted with flour and knead the dough for 10-15 minutes (use the same kneading technique as you would use when making fresh pasta)
4. Wrap the dough in plastic and let it rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
5. Remove the dough and place on a clean surface dusted with flour and roll it out until it is about a ¼” to 1/3” thick.
6. Using a 1 ½” diameter circle round cutter, cut as many rounds as possible out of the dough as possible, which will make about 20-25.
7. Roll each round out until they are about 5” to 6” in diameter, be sure to dust with flour were needed to avoid any sticking.
8. Whisk 1 egg together in a bowl and set aside.
9. Wrap each rolled out dough round around a metal cannoli cylinder (former) and rub a little whisked egg onto the end of the cannoli dough and wrap the other end over top and gently press to secure. Repeat until all of the cannoli shells are prepared.
10. Fry in sunflower oil at 180 degrees centigrade for 1 to 2 minutes or until browned. Set aside to drain on paper towels or a rack on a sheet tray.
11. Once the cannoli are cool, remove them from the metal cannoli cylinders (formers).
12. Take the filling out of the refrigerator and add it to a piping back with no tip.
13. Once the filling is in there use scissors to cut off the end of the piping bag, which is about a ½” up from the tip of the bag.
14. Generously stuff each cannoli shell using the filling in the piping bag. You will have to pipe on one side then turn it to pipe in the other side.
15. Generously sprinkle on powdered sugar and serve!
Additional notes:
Make-Ahead: While best served and eaten within a few hours of making them, you can make these up to 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Make sure to not form the dough around the cannoli metal formers so that it is hanging over the edges or else it will cook over and will ruin when trying to release them from the metal formers. You should get fried air pockets in the cannoli shells when frying them. When kneading the dough think of pasta, it’s the exact same technique and takes the same amount of time. Finally, I bought metal formers to make my Cannoli off the internet (not too expensive), but if you don’t want to buy formers you can use rolled up tin foil or you can buy a couple of lengths of wooden dowels from a DIY center (wooden dowels are quite cheap to buy) and cut them to the required size and use them.
