Hello fellow eaters,
I was getting bored at home today and after a bit of thinking, I decided to prepare some fresh pesto. You see, I have this pot of basil in the kitchen which is getting quite big. I bought it 3 months ago at the local supermarket and never thought it would last too long (these guys usually don’t last more than a couple of weeks). Anyway, since these “branches” were getting hard and old, I thought that I could take the older ones and try to make some pesto with them leaves. Better than letting them die.
So, I picked up all the leaves (about two handfulls) and washed them carefully in cold water and dried them in a clean cloth. 
While the leaves are getting a rest, I peeled 3 cloves of garlic and blended them together with a pinch of coarse salt. I then added the basil leaves, a bit at a time, and kept blending in short pulses (to avoid too much heating up of the mix). Continued adding a handful of walnuts (should be pine nuts, but walnuts are accepted by the purists) and a half handful of parmigiano reggiano.
Finally, and ONLY at this stage, I added my olive oil. I kept pouring until the whole thing became nicely wet and creamy. This is really important: adding the oil while blending will modify the taste, as the heat generated by the machine will somehow “ruin” it. Trust me, I git this tip from people having lived in Genova for all their lives. And I guess that in Genova, they know their pesto 
Ok, since I had the pesto, I cooked some pasta (try adding a diced potato in the water, you’ll see) and ate the whole thing. Tasty it was. Need more!!!
(grazie Giamaica)
Yallo! been a while since I wrote something here. You know, moving across continents, starting a new job and setting up a new house makes things a bit “crazy”. Anyway, we are now all nicely setup and we are starting to cook “real things” again and, after having thought about this for a long time, we finally decided to use those huge nettles we have in the garden.
I was thinking, for a long time, to make nettles risotto, but we finally decided to make ravioli instead. Itchilicious. This is how we did them:
- we “harvested” the top tender leaves from as many nettles as possible from the garden
- washed them in a lot of cold water, trying to remove as many stems as possible
- boiled them until they became just like boiled spinach (or kale)
- drain all the water and leave them to cool down
In the meantime, prepare the dough:
- using our fantastic Kitchenaid Pro600, I mixed ~ 700 grams of flour with 4 eggs and slowly add water enough for the dough to become homogeneous and not too wet
- take the dough-ball aside and cover with a dry cloth for about half an hour
Now, for the nettle stuffing:
- we mixed the boiled nettles with ~ 500 grams of ricotta, 4 cloves of garlic, one egg and enough bread crumbs (~ 250 grams) to make it compact and dryish. You can add a bit of nutmeg if you like.
- mix and mix and mix untill nice and firm
Finally, take out “the machine” and start working small pieces of dough into pasta strips of about 10/15 cm of width, not too thin or else they will break (I did use the #5 setting, ie one before “thinnest”). Place the stuffing onto the strips as little balls, not too big, not too small (you’ll find out how big you need them to be while assembling the ravioli) and fold the dough onto itself. Press the space between stuffings with your fingers and make sure that the pasta is properly sealed all along its length. Finally, cut them raviolis with your favorite cutter device (I like this guy) and place the ravioli on a well floured tray. Once all cut, you can decide whether to cooke them all, dry them or freeze them.
We had them with a wonderful tomato and porcini sauce:
- soak the dried porcini in a mix of water and red wine for ~ 30 minutes
- in a pan, golden a chopped onion in a bit of olive oil
- add your mushrooms with some of the water/wine mix
- allow for the liquid to evaporate and throw in one/cans of tomato
- cook, at low temperature, for as much as you can before starving (or burning the sauce)
- mix with them ravioli
Well, there it is. A bit rusty in the writing part, so it wasn’t maybe the best description ever. And I lack photos. At least, I got started again. I’ll try to keep this a bit more active from now on.
Cheerius!
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$ 
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
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!
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
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
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 plain
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
As I tend to write at night, I tend to stick to the simple dishes. I will soon get into more complex things. Anyway, this sauce is one of my favourites and I have to thank the “master” Alan for it. for being a Brit, his puttanesca would make any mamma proud
So here’s how I make it. Might not be exactly how he does it, but pretty close.
- I golden 2-3 garlic thingies in a spash of olive oil, add a can of Pastene anchovies and 2-3 teaspoons of capers. Can add a bit of chilly, if you like that.
- When the anchovies have melted, I add a handfull of chopped black olives and give it ~ 3-5′ to all nicely blend and cook together, constantly making sure not to burn anything ie: stirring every once in a while
- I then add a big can of tomatoes and let simmer at medium, medium low for as long as possible. I usually try to get this cooking for at least an hour. You ideally want the water in the tomatoes to go away and just keep the tasty stuff.
- When you feel ready to eat, cook your pasta, drain it one minute before perfection, toss it into the sauce and finish cooking it while stirring it at good heat.
- Pop open a bottle of the good stuff.
- Eat
Very simple, very tasty, very leker.
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?
Compliments to the Chef