Happy new year!!!

Welcome to the year 2010!!!!

We had a very relaxing and easy going evening yesterday. But let’s skip sraight to business. As I was mentioning 2 days ago, I had a sea-creature based dinner in mind, and that’s what happened. Fantastic t’was. Tried a new receipe with a creature I had never cooked before. I decided to get some oysters first, and to folow them with an octopus dish. Oysters are always easy to prepare and very tasty with some horseradish (white wasabi) and 1 or 2 drops of Tabasco. Great!

Now, let’s move to the stew. I bought an octopus that was about 1 kg. Was already cleaned up, so that make life easier. I did check about 30 different receipes, as I ahd not much of an idea on how to cook the beast. I finally started over salivating when I read this guy in an Italian website. Here’s a translation and some easy instructions for you non-italian speacking friends:

Earthware Octopus Stew

You’ll need an octopus, rinsed and cut into bit-sized chunks. Beofre chopping it, I quickly brought it to a boil for about 1-2 minutes, let it cool down and tried to remove as much skin as plossible.

After that procedure, chop a red onion (on the big side), toss it into a pot (preferably clay), together with 3 table spoons of olive oil, 3 crushed garlic cloves and a bit of red hot chilli peppers (as much as you like). Let it golden on the fire for about 4-5 minutes.

Now, add the octopuss together with 4-5 diced tomatoes (Pachino preferably), about 60-100 g pitted black olives, and a glass of white wine. Bring the whole thing to the boil, then put on a lid, turn the ehat to low and cook for about 45′ (or until the beast is soft when pierced witha  fork).

Once it is ready, get four slices of home-style bread, toast it until nicely crips and golden and rub a garlic clove onto it (like if you were making a bruschetta – that’s brusketta, for whoever did not read my previous post), and put it at the bottom of a bowl. Now, overlay your stew on top of it and enjoy it!

I washed it down with a Chardonnay, again from the Chateau St. Jean cellar (california). I prefered their Cabernet Sauvignon.

Happy New Year to everyone!!!!

tshcuessi

Fred

PS: total cost if the dinner ~ 15 US$ :D

  • Share/Bookmark
1 Star2 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading ... Loading ...
Tagged with:
 

New Year’s menu

Hi again,

quick post today. Just happy about my shopping for tomorrow, that I just wan to share it with you few people reading this. Here’s what I plan for dinner on new year’s eve:

- Oysters

- Pasta with fresh tomato, shrimp and octopusses (maybe risotto, still undecided)

- octopi and veggies “stew”

- wine and bubbly stuff

Let’s see how it goes

  • Share/Bookmark
1 Star2 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading ... Loading ...
Tagged with:
 

Christmas eve @ the franco-greeks

Wee update. I forgot to tell about our Christmas eve at Manolis and Benedicte’s place in Cambridge.

Very pleaseant evening. Good food, good drinks, our share of emotions and excellent company.

We had a set of starters composed of salmon and cheese tartines, champagne with a great secret ingredient (I’ll tell you later), raw veggies with a great hot anchovie sauce (excellent if you like them hairy fishes), prawns and, finally, oysters with panic. All followed by a nice chicken dish with some tasty red wine.

Now, two notes:

- Oysters with panic:  NEVER EVER EVER open oysters with the wrong tools. A filet knife is not the best idea. Unless you want to carve yourself a pair of stigmatae. Wasn’t that painful Manolis? Additionally, do not try to open them from the “wide” part of the shell. Form the back, that were the “entry point” is.

- The champagne’s secret additive: this was brought from France by Benedicte and is littrally translated as “truffle aperitif“. It’s indeed a truffle liqueur that you add in your champagne. Fantrufflestastic!!!! Even on its own. I hope to find a bottle of this somewhere soon.

Anyway, that’s all for now.

See ya!

  • Share/Bookmark
1 Star2 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading ... Loading ...
Tagged with:
 

Infant menu

Good morning and Merry Christmass everyone.

Today i’ll start a esries of posts describing my Christmas lunch menu. We’l have some frineds for lunch on the 25th and I’ll have the chance to play cook again.

Firt dish, Joans menu:

- Boil some water in a pot or kettle.

- pour 4 ounces in a baby feeding tool (also known as bottle)

- add 2 scoops of formula

- screw nipple assembly on top of bottle

- shake vigorously

- serve warm

Catch you later for some more!

Tschuess

Fred

  • Share/Bookmark
1 Star2 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading ... Loading ...
Tagged with:
 

Simple stew

Hi everybody,

just wanted to share yet another boring and simple dish which I cooked yesterday and was lecker und geil. Was a veeery simple beef stew yet, as we know, simple dishes are sometimes the baest ones. That’s why I think that french cuisisne is overrated. Too complicated, too many sauces and ectopic flavors that really mask the true taste of the raw ingredients. But what can you expect from a nation that invented perfumes and wigs :)

Anyway, here’s my wee stew:

- chop an onion (or two) and a few carrots  and golden them in a pot with some oil, cloves and some bay leaves.

- when nicely soft and colored, but not fried and burnt, throw in your stew meat (I like cubed beef, about half a kilo for a decently sized stew) and let it simmer for a few minutes and add half a glass of red wine, salt and pepper.

- let it cook at low heat for about 15 minutes, add a glass of water and cook for another 30′.

- Now, you should have a nicely colored meat cooking in its own juices and it smells very good. I like to now add some cubed potatoes and cook the whole thing for another 45′. Remember that the longer you cook it, the softer the meat.

- Finally, ten minutes before the whole thing is ready, I add some fesh spinach leaves.

serve as is or with polenta, grits or dark rice on the side.

Enjoy!

Y749JSKSM5T4
  • Share/Bookmark
1 Star2 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading ... Loading ...
Tagged with:
 

My wee Indian corner – Part deux: beans and lentils

Hi all yall,

I’m back for part deux. This time I’ll talk about my “beans and lentils” collection. Again, until recently, i only thought about these guys as plainbeans_and_lentils an boring colored things to boil. Slowly started experimenting wuth few “unconventional” varieties, ie ones that we don’t really use in our western cuisine, and that was a good thing to do. Explosion of different flavors and aromas. Taste. Not boring. Colorful. Beautiful for both the eyes and the taste buds. Mmmmmhhhhh :)

So, here we go:

From top left to bottom rigth: Moong Dal, Urad Dal,  Moong Split Peas, Urad Chilka, Masoor Dal and Red Chori.

The beauty of these guys is that they do not really need to soak overnight, as other beans do. I just wash them 4-5 times and put them in thepot “as is”.

I usually tend to make combinations of these guys, when preparing dishes. I like to overdo it with Masoor Dal (usually 1 cup) and then 0.5 cups of any other bean. I also use chickpeas a lot, but those are nothing “special” and you can find tem anywhere.

Well, these are my beans and lentils. Soon for some nice ways on how to use them :)

Have a nice week-end und

Tschuess

  • Share/Bookmark
1 Star2 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading ... Loading ...
Tagged with:
 

A few things about italian words in the food industry

Here’s the setup. I am happily watching “Ramsay’s kitchen nightmares” on the telly, when Gordon Ramsey start declining italian dishes. Felt like fingernails on a blackboard: Brushetta, Ghnokee, Taghliatelleee, Fettucceeneee.

Oy! Gordon! Noo! ohnoohnohno! You have almost 10 Michelin stars for your fine restaurants all over the world. Learn the jargon, Jimmee!

So, here’s a wee lesson. Let’s start with the basics:

- “Ch” in Italian is pronounced like a “k”. It’s brusketta and not brushetta. Mocha is moka.

- an “e” is always pronounced like in the spanish word “que”. Not “eeee”. It’s fettuccinay, not fettuccinee. Same for linguine.

- “gn” is like the spanish “ñ”. It is ñocchi and not ghnocchi.

- Get a reality check: you’ll never learn to say parmiggiano properly. Just call it Parmesan cheese. not parmejian, or however you pronounce that.

- Few words that english speaking people tend to use in a way that we find quite funny are “prosciutto”, “gelato” and “biscotti”. It’s like going to a buthcer and ask for “meat”. Yeah, right, but what kind/animal/cut? Prosciutto means ham, gelato means ice-cream and biscotti means cookies. Quite general and broad items, right?

What really craks me up is to go to the local starbucks (I know, sometimes it’s the only place to get coffe in longwood) and see how marketing works. Why is it that a “small coffee” is called “grande”? Grande means big. wtf? moccaccino, frappuccino, whatthefrackkino is all that crap?

Anyway, it’s late… I am talking crap, as usual. Need to feed the young one as his 23:00 bottle is approaching. Talk to yous later for some more rambling about coffee and maybe another receipe.

Tschuess

BRUSKETTA!!!! not brushetta… ‘cazozza, ma e’ cosi difficile da capire?

  • Share/Bookmark
1 Star2 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading ... Loading ...
Tagged with:
 

First favorite dish: Tiramisu’

OK, let’s start with some “cooking”. I put the quotes, as there’s nothing to cook in this one. Very simple one. And very leker :) Good’ole tiramisu’. Who doesn’t like it? Creamy, chocolaty, coffeey, cheesey and delicousy.

I like to make this dessert whenever I am asked “bring a dessert”, as it really takes 5 minutes to make and even a caveman could do it (hope I won’t get sued for this one). Anyway, here we.

Ingredients:

- 4 eggs

- 500g mascarpone (for you americans, that’s 2 pots of the standard one you find in Shaws)

- Ladyfingers (as many as you can use)

- Coffee (as much as you need)

- 100g sugar (that should be close to 3 ounces?)

- cognac (or any other booze, as much as you like)

- bitter chocolate powder

Start by separating the eggs into classical reds and whites. Mix the reds with the sugar and whisk it to a nice cream. Add the booze and keep mixing (I usually put a lid-full of cognac). Then add the mascarpone and keep mixing. When the whole thing is nicely mixed and creamy, take the egg whites and beat them until nice and fluffy and snowy and whatever you call that when you make a foam with the whites :) Gently mix them withe the mascarpone cream and let to rest for a wee while.

Now, make your coffee. I usually make two stovetop 3-cuppers and let them cool down to room temperature, or your ladyfingers will turn into baby food in a matter of nanoseconds. Now, coffee seleccion is also important. The coffee will give yoru tiramisu a specific taste and if you use crap quality material, your tiramisu’ will suffer. I usually tend to go for the “standard” Bustelo which is cheap, fair trade (I’ll talk about this in another post) and decent quality. If I really want to splunge and feel happy, I’ll use my stash of Oragnic Black Silk form Equal Exchange.

Anyway, too much rambling about coffee here. So, we now have our cream and our coffee. THe ladyfinger are there on the side. Let’s start then. Take a tray, or whatever container in which you want to assmeble your tiramisu and start making the first layer of ladyfingers. Take a cookie, quickly dip it in the coffee (just roll it once in the black juice) and cover the tray with them. Now, take the creamy cream and cover the fingers with it. Add a second layer of ladyfingers, cover them with the cream and so on. At the end, you’ll have a final layer of cream, which you will cover with the chocolate powder. for this, I usually use a small sieve and a tea spoon.

Your tiramisu is ready. Cover the whole film with plastic wrap or a cloth and store it in the fridge overnight.

Call in some frineds, or eat it on your own and enjoy :)

(PS: fotos to come)

  • Share/Bookmark
1 Star2 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading ... Loading ...
Tagged with:
 
Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes