Forza Italiaaa !!!!

Unbelievable, we are in the semifinals of the world cup ... scoring 3 goals!!! Great!

So, with all this happiness here I go to Hong Kong. Still no time for cooking due to travelling, but if I can I will try to log some of my (next) week in Hong Kong and China ... where I will watch Italy-Germany with some fellow germans and italian at 3am Hong Kong time before getting on to China.

Caen (France) diary

I am here in Normandy without camera and little time to blog. Therefore, I will use this single post to highlight some impressions ... about food of course.

Monday 26/06 - I have eaten in the restaurant in my mercure hotel (restaurant Le Normand) after flying in a very small plane (smaller than a Piper) from Eindhoven to Caen (and missing the soccer match). Even now, I crave to eat more of those oysters I had yesterday. They were of good quality (some simple Isigny N.2) ... but so tasty even if not in the best season. On the other hand, I got some very salty tarbot ... very very salty. The wine was a decent Chablis 2004. And bread ... good french bread I miss so much in Belgium!

Tuesday 27/06 - Can french food look like german food? It can! In the lunch break I visited my company local cantine and I got something like a Rosti with a slice of ham and cheese on top. The rosti ... was so soaked in oil I did not touch it. The rest ... well, it is well processed in me as I feel very starving. Great thing was we visited a semiconductor fab, where we needed to dress up like in movies with even plastic gloves! Cool to see even for a person in the field like me and here is a photo of us!!!



We had dinner at La Cremaillere (FR) on the coast. It was extremely busy despite not having a television and France playing in the world cup against soccer. A typical nice restaurant on the coast with traditional french food and quite some fish and shellfish. It is Normandy ... so I went again for oysters (local ones): twelve moments of joy for my tastebuds. They keep saying here it is not the season, but these ones were still fantastic, large (N.2), sweet and salty, not fatty at all! After that I took a boiled spidercrab. It was a long time since I enjoyed such a tasty crab. And even longer since last time I had a spidercarb. Maybe nest week in Hong Kong .... Very nice dinner. Unpretentious, fresh and tasty ... and France won!

Wednesday 28/06 - Busy day of work and recovery from the nice dinner from the evening before. We did try to get a decent dinner and took the tram after work to the harbour in Caen. After some guessing we ended up in a busy place ... but that was not a great choice. Dishes were pretty misterious and I ended up with some sort of kebab and what was sold as duck breast (it tasted like overcooked beef) with some pre-made pepper sauce on top and super greasy potatoes (which I left on the plate). The wine we had was ok. Pretty strong, but ... hey ... it was a St. Emilion of 2002 ... so typical rought taste of the vintage.

And now back home ... few days before leaving for Hong Kong.

About the comments .... Sorry everybody!

I just realized that comment moderation was on and this stopped all comments from being posted! Sorry about that ... sorry for not replying to any comment!
Enjoy the foam recipe below ... we just had also nice courgette flan, whose recipe I will post later in the week, since I will be in Caen most of next week (maybe eating in a decent restaurant!).

Ciao!

Carrots and ginger foam

Well I have done it again ... to take a recipe, read it, change something and make it. I seem not able to read a recipe without making it as it is. This time I had a good excuse! The idea for this foam cames from a cold soup recipe I read on the cavolettodibrussels.it blog. Given the diet we are following, I can not afford the mascarpone. Therefore, changing the recipe to make a foam instead of a soup seemed worth a try. This foam has very sharp taste, which can be used to complement other dishes or on its own for a taste shock! I quite like it ... my fiancee not really. She finds it too sharp. So beware ....

Serves: 10 as an amuse
FlexiPoints: 0*

Suggested wine: none! Too sharp on its own for wine ... maybe a young Chablis. Not sure.

Ingredients:
- 700g carrots
- 1 shallot
- 1 lemon
- 20g ginger
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 sheets of gelatin (about 2.5g)
- Water and salt as needed
- One 1/2 L foaming canister

How-to:
1. Peel and chop the carrot, the ginger and the shallot. Put them in a small casserole with the oil and juice of the lemon.
2. Let it cook on low heat for a few minutes until the shallot gets soft.
3. Top up with cold water. You will probably need 300/400 ml. Let it simmer until the carrot is very soft (about 20’ or 30’).
4. Whiz everything in a kitchen robot adding some more cold water if the final cream looks dry.
5. Pass the cream through a sieve twice. Rince the gelatin sheets in warm water and add it to the cream. Stir well until the gelatin has been fully absorbed by the cream.
6. Fill the foaming canister up to 2/3 (discard or eat what is left) and use one cream charger. Shake well and let it refrigerate for at least 6 hours before serving.

Karso restaurant in St. Idesbald

Well, it is late at night but I can't sleep. Must be the adrenaline in my body from the exam I took tonite or the excitement of the italian match of yesterday or the diet ... no clue. Anyway I am here up with some time and I felt it was about time I would write some comments on this restaurant we visited last week friday at the beginning of our short retreat for my studies.

Karso is a place I have been before but long ago. The interior is very like a composition of fishing and sailing objects with wine corks everywhere. Renovation is about to start they told us.

We did not really feel like a full fledged menu, but just a dish and maybe a dessert. They were very gentle, maybe since we were only three tables. Orders took ... here it comes an amuse. Pleasantly surprised! It was a simple tomato soup and a nice fish foam with smoked eel. Tasty like the bread.

The main dishes we got were a sole for me and shrimp curry for my fiancee. My dish was basically tasting only of butter served with a boring salad and potatoes. The curry smelled nice ... wrong choice I guess. We decided for a dessert. Wrong choice again for me! I took a tart tartin with vanilla ice-cream ... I got an apple-tart with the ice-cream but lots of calvados on it. Again it tasted only of one thing, this time calvados. Disappointed again.

Would I go back? Probably not. It is a restaurant at the seaside serving simple but basically poor dishes. Friendly people, but poor food ... especially for the price.

Fava with witlof

It was a long time we had fava beans, something very unusual in Belgium ... even if they grow them! I love to eat them with bitter vegetables like the in the italian classic "fave e cicorie" dish. The best approximation is the belgian endive or witlof. So, here we are eating fava beans cream and roasted witlof!

Serves: 2 as a main course & 4 as a starter
FlexiPoints: 6.5 or 3

Suggested wine: we did not have a wine this time. I would expect an old chablis could work. Definitively not a young one.

Ingredients:
- 150g dried fava beans
- 4 witlofs
- 1 potato
- 2 tbsp virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper as needed

How to:
1. Rinse the beans overnight in cold water.
2. Let them simmer with the peeled potato and covered with fresh new cold water until they start breaking apart. Use a serving spoon to mash them into a cream and let it reduce to the desired consistency.
3. Season with the oil, some salt and pepper. Pass it through a sieve and let it cool to room temperature.
4. Cut the witlof in half. Season with salt and pepper. Roast on both sides till soften on a nonstick pan.
5. Serve immediately placing the witlof on top of the fava cream.

Orecchiette with broccoli

Posting again after few days spent on study books! But today, even if we did not have much, I felt to use the kitchen again. Something fast and fillig was needed (as we would have gone and been back somehow late). So, we tried orecchiette with broccoli, which is the international version of a much tastier and seasonal dish from Puglia. Wonderful place where I grew up. The original version uses turnip flower (or “fiori di rape”) and it has a sharper flavor as well as a slightly different texture. The broccoli version is lighter and more subtle, but yet tasty. For sure it is much easier to find the ingredients for this version than the original one.

Serves: 2 as a main course
FlexiPoints: 9

Suggested wines: something refreshing capable not to overshadow the broccoli but placate the chili. A german riesling maybe. We had water only.

Ingredients:
- 200g orecchiette pasta
- 10 anchovies in oil
- 500g fresh broccoli
- 1 garlic clove
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 2 dried small chili
- Salt as needed

How to:
1. Rinse the broccoli quickly and cut out the flowers. Discard the remaining part of the broccoli.
2. Boil the pasta with the broccoli until ready in salted water.
3. In the meantime, chop the anchovies and stir fry them with the oil, the garlic in one piece and the broken chili.
4. Once ready add the past to the stir fry for 1’ more. Serve immediately.

Oven-baked paccheri with mozzarella

The paccheri are a large tubular pasta shape, which kind of resembles small cannelloni. It is one of my favorite pasta as they work perfectly with many sauces and have a great bite. Originally I would use it only for this dish, which is a sort of simplified cannelloni recipe. I have been remembering this recipe for as long as I can, which can only imply this is a classics either of italian cuisine or my family cuisine ... and now a classic in my kitchen too!

Serves: 2 as main course
FlexiPoints: 11

Suggested wine: most red would work as long as they are not too heavy and a a bit fruity. I tend to prefer a chianti classico or a salice salentino with this dish.

Ingredients:
- 150g paccheri pasta
- 250g mozzarella cheese
- 400g tomato passata
- 1 onion
- 20g fresh basil leaves
- 1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
- EVOO and salt as needed.

How-to:

1. Make a simple tomato sauce by simmering the passata with 1 tsp of EVOO, half glass of water and the onion (cleaned but in one piece) for 10’. Add the basil, season with salt and let it simmer for 5’ more.
2. Boil the paccheri in salted water for about 2/3 of their cooking time. rinse immediately in cold water to stop them from further cooking. the must feel elastic but yet not fully cooked.
3. Slice the mozzarella in stripes so that to fill all the paccheri. There should be about 16 of them.
4. Grease two oven tins (possibly terracotta’s) with some tomato sauce. Distribute the pasta on it. the size of the pot should be such to be filled by the pasta in volume in one layer.
7. Distribute the remaining sauce and the Parmesan cheese. Bake in a hot oven at 180C for 25’.

Quiche with vegetables and goat cheese

I wanted to post it yesterday, but ... well, for once Italy did not deluded and won in the world cup. Event we celebrated with some champagne! Forza Italiaaaa!!!
Anyway, this recipe comes from the belgian magazine "Flair". We tried it a few times and it is quite tasty. Perfect for this season as most of the flavour comes form the vegetables with some hint of the goat cheese. If it were not for the puff pastry, it would be also quite light!

Serves: 4 as a main course or 10 as starter
FlexiPoints: 8 or 3

Suggested wine: A fresh greco di tufo would be my favourite. A young Chablis would also go.

Ingredients:
- 1 puff pastry sheet (230g)
- 1 red pepper
- 1 courgette
- 1/2 aubergine
- 250ml UHT milk
- 3 large eggs
- 60g goat cheese
- Salt, black pepper and oil as needed

How-to:

1. Chop the vegetables in medium/small cubes. Sautee them for 5’ in a wok with 1 tbsp of oil until soft. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Roll the pastry on a quiche tin. Pour in the vegetables.
3. Whisk the eggs and add them to the quiche. Crumble the goat cheese on top.
4. Bake for 30-40’ at 200C. Serve at room temperature.

Forza Italiaaaaaa !!!

I want to post a nice quiche recipe tonite, but later or tomorrow. I need to get geared up for the football match between Italy and Ghana.

Forza Italiaaaa!!!!

First (partial) disappointment at the Houtsnip

This is diet time, which does not imply we avoid restaurants. We plan them in our weekly eating in order to reduce their impact as well as we are more cautious on what we take. Anyway, the Houtsnip has been something of a place we always liked to go. Reasonably priced and very good food. Before today a safe 13th in our ranking. So, today we were surprised.

The lunch started rather well. Despite it was unusually busy, we got our menu's pretty fast accompanied by the amuse. Amuse was simple but tasty: a little carpaccio and an asparagus foam with a little of smoked eel. The starter was also pretty nice. A salad with half a lobster tail, lobster claw tempura and tuna. I found it very tasty, but the oil flavor was a bit too strong. After the starter, we got surprised.

First they served us some sort of salmon piece on top of pesto pasta with fried onions on top. Taste? Onion and oil. Nothing else in it. Very disappointing. The following course was worse ... a little piece of cod on top of a tomato sauce, which tasted as a pre-made supermarket mushroom and tomato sauce and some ham on top of the fish it. And they called it cod in a ham jacket with comfit of tomato. Horrible! First time I get something so bad in Belgium.

Luckily, the dessert was tasty. A very nice strawberry and chocolate parfeit followed by a chocolate mousse on caramel biscuit base ... and a nice coffee.
To make things more disappointing, the service was not very friendly and professional (wine served too late and dishes taken away once even if we were not finished). All in all, this place let us down for the first time.

Would I go back? Not immediately.

Rolls of scallops and Parma ham

I did make this dish a few days ago, but I was so busy I forgot to post it. Rolling scallops in ham is a very simple and (I believe) traditional way of preparing this wonderful seafood. I wouldn't know if I did read of it or just ate it somewhere. Yet, I am sure it is a classic combo. There is a personal little touch here that improves the taste: the chopped chives. Believe me, it makes a huge difference with and without.

Serves: 4 as main course or 8 as starter
FlexiPoints: 3.6 or 1.3

Suggested wine: I love to serve this with champagne. Something with low dosage like Boulard or Tarlant.

Ingredients:
- 16 large scallops (white muscle only)
- 16 small slices of Parma ham
- 4 tbsp chopped chives
- 4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper as needed

How-to:

1. Season the scallops with some salt and little pepper.
2. Wrap each scallop in one ham slice leaving the top and bottom of the scallop visible. Fix with some cooking wire.
3. Roast on an hot (non-stick) pan for 3’ per side. Briefly roast also on the side to slightly colour the ham. I would suggest to remove the wire right after the rolls are turned for a perfect juicy bite.
4. Distribute the chive and the rolls on top among four hot serving dishes. Add 1 tbsp of oil on top and serve immediately.

A quick and short disgression ...

... Up up England!!! Up up Italy !!!
Finally the world cup has started !!! Let's hope we win today!

Little rice timballo's

When I was living in London (UK) and sharing an flat with friends from Japan and Malaysia, there were few italian dishes, they never heard of, they really liked. For example, stir-fried meatballs stuffed with cheese, flat parsley and garlic ... which they would rather eat with soy sauce than the nice cooking juices. Among all these dishes, there was one they would eat as I would serve it and which was loved: the "timballo di riso" or rice timballo. Well, it takes some time to prepare it. Thus, I did not feel like doing it often. Yesterday night we had a simplified version of it, which is perfect for a starter or a nice main course. It is lighter and less fatty than the traditional as it uses more rice, less cheese, more sauce and no meat. Nevertheless, it is (or in case of our dinner “was”) very tasty.

Serves: 10 as a main course or 20 as a starter
FlexiPoints: 7 or 3.5

Suggested wine: an Aglianico del Vulture like La Firma or a old Chateau Montus went perfectly with it. We took the 2000 vintage for the former and the 1998 vintage for the latter. Just few glasses ...

Ingredients:
- 500g rice
- 10g butter
- 1.5 Kg tomato passata
- 12 leaves of basil
- 1 red onion
- 20g grated Parmesan cheese
- 10g grated Pecorino cheese
- 250g green peas
- 3 large eggs
- 300g mozzarella cheese
- Bread-crumbs and olive oil as needed

How-to:

1. Make a tomato sauce by simmering for 15’ the tomato passata, with some oil, the basil and the peeled onion. Season with salt and stir occasionally. Discard the onion.
2. Boil the rice in abundant salted water. Drain. Mix with 2/3 of the tomato sauce and let it cool down.
3. Boil the peas in some water and add them to the rice mix.
4. Once the rice mix is at room temperature, add the eggs and grated cheese. Work well to obtain a uniform mix,
5. Cube the mozzarella cheese.
6. Take 20 ramekins or muffin forms. Grease them with some butter and dust well with the bread-crumbs. Distribute half of the rice. Distribute the mozzarella and top with the remaining rice.
7. Shave the 10g of butter on top of each ramekin and bake at 180C for 20’-25’. Let it cool down for 10’ in the ramekins themselves. It is important to wait to be sure that each timballo comes out easily from the ramekin.
8. Warm up the remaining tomato sauce. Serve each timballo accompanied by some sauce and basil leaves.

FlexiPoints

I guess I need to add a short post on what are the FlexiPoints as they are indicated in all recipes. FlexiPoints is the WeightWatchers system for loosing weight. You are given a certain number of flexipoints per day/week depending on height and how much you want to loose of it per week. The great thing is that you can eat what you want as long as the number of FlexiPoint per day is not exceeded.

It is simple and definitively simpler than starting calculating the calories, saturated fats and trans-fat eaten per day.

Tagliatelle with green asparagus pesto

The asparagus season is ending and I feel we have not really exploited it as much as we should have. Especially in our conditions, that is of under a fierce diet, it is important to use a lovely fat-free ingredient in every dish. So here I am making a pasta dish, which is based on a kind of pesto preparation once suggested by my mum and never tried out. The dish is very delicate and fresh, still full of the asparagus flavour with a good garlic scent. Lovely! I would suggest not to use any sort of cheese. As for people on diet ... it is perfect, since the taste is really better when low-fat cream is used!


Serves: 2 as a main course or 5 as starer
FlexiPoints : 5.5 or 2.2

Suggested wine: an aged Barbaresco, as of today a good 1997 would be perfect

Ingredients:
- 200g egg tagliatelle
- 500g green asparagus
- 1 garlic clove
- 40ml single cream (<10% style="font-weight: bold;">How-to:

1. Trim away the base of the asparagus and cook them in boiling water for 5’. Keep the cooking water. Remove the tips and put them aside.
2. Put the stalks, 10g of ham, the garlic, 4 tbsp of the asparagus water and the cream in a kitchen robot. Whiz it until a uniform cream is obtained. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Cut the remaining ham in stripes. Boils the pasta and mix it with the asparagus tips and the ham. Serve immediately.

Learning while failing: asparagus foam

I have again tried to play around with the iSi gourmet whip. After seeing the miracles done with some orange juice and gelatin I became adventurous ... so, here I am reducing some asparagus cooking water, adding gelatin and pour it in the canister. When warm the foam had some scent of asparagus, but after cooling it down in the fridge, it was basically a water foam.

What did I learnt, well ... when making foams without cream, I need very strongly flavored stock. The cooking water of the asparagus wasn't enough. Furthermore, some water and some gelatin do indeed create a nice foamy cream that can be used with dished removing the need for cream. Great for reducing calories with no compromises on taste. Next time I will make a fish or lobster bouillon, and try the same. I am sure it will be fantastic.

As a guide, try always to use 280ml bouillon and with two gelative sheets (about 2.5g). This should give a good result in a 0.5L iSi gourmet whip.

Impressions from Kasteel Sanderling

We were a bit nervous to visit Kasteel Sanderling as it looked quite beautiful on the internet and we were hoping to see something nice where to host our wedding reception. We had little knowledge of the place upfront and we knew from internet that everything changed there due to new ownership.
When we arrived there (after about an hour drive), we calmed down already. The exterior, while not being a Castle in traditional terms, was quite beautiful. A tall house, kind of Psyco style, with quite some vegetation and candles nicely placed to mark the entrance. Light from the various windows gave it a overal nice look. The interior must have definitively seen major re-decoration. It is simple, modern and well organized. Table decoration is nice, atmosphere was nice. The people were very nice. Appearance ... well, we felt good about it.
And what about the food? Of course, we were there with idea of possible reception and, therefore, we knew we could not really related the reception food to one we were served ... even if we were told a few dishes we ate to be also available for receptions. Anyway, the food was quite a surprise. Good ingredients with little manipulation. Exactly all I like. Some combos need little re-working, but this is really being critic. My favourites were a nice prawn tempura with a mexical chilli dip, a really tasty starter of lobster on fennel puree with lemongrass sauce and a superb ananas parfeit. Not bad at all!!
The price ... a menu with two starters, one main dish, one dessert, coffee, champagne, wine plus an amuse and an additional dessert ... 60 euro per person. Well, this is definitily a good catch for what we got!

Final verdict: we will go back ...

Gratin of scallops in lemon sauce

We have a lemon tree ... yes a lemon tree and we live in Belgium. So far nothing suprising. However, this tree is producing fruits! For me to see a lemon tree with fruits in Belgium, which is not known for its friendly climate, was a shock ... a positive one, of course. I have been thinking how to use these "made-in-Belgium" lemons and I ended up thinking of this scallops gratin. Something light, fresh, summery (even if it feel yet like winter here) and, most importantly, delicious!
Before we dive in the recipe, what is my comment on the lemon fruit? Great, tangy, wonderful scent and aroma ... let's hope it will live long!!

Serves: 4 as main course or 8 as a starter
FlexiPoints: 6.5 or 3.2

Suggested wine: Falanghina

Ingredients:
- 16 large scallops (meat only)
- 50g flour
- 50g butter
- 500ml full-fat milk
- 1 large lemon
- Salt as needed

How-to:

1. Melt the butter in a pan with a thick base. Avoid it to burn. Stir in the milk. Once the mixture is hot (but not boiling), reduce the heat. Stir in the flour through a sieve one spoon at a time. Continue stirring until a smooth white sauce is obtained.
2. Grate the zest from the lemon and add it to the white sauce. Stir well and let cool down.
3. Roughly chop the scallops in big pieces and season with salt.
4. Once the lemon sauce has cooled to room temperature, add the scallops and mix gently. Distribute among four flat oven-proof dishes.
5. Finish under the grill until the sauce is bubbling and has taken a brown colour. Serve immediately.

El Bulli's blood orange foam

The iSi gourmet whip ... the simbol of El Bulli, what experts consider the best restaurant on the planet and where booking is difficult, almost imposible. It was a while I was planning to get hold on one of these strange kitchen accessories and try something out.
I admit this wasn't the first foam recipe from El Bulli (1998-2002 book) I tried, but the one by which I was surprised the most. It is perfect for a diet as it has no added sugar. Nevertheless, foaming blood orange juice gave it some sense of sweetness. Incredible. The taste is explosive and the texture ... well in between a cream and a jelly. For sure I will use the iSi more and maybe get a second one to start mixing foams.
Note that the quantities are not exactly the same as the original recipe as was looking for a slightly more consistent texture.

Serves: 10
FlexiPoints: 0*

Suggested wine: -

Ingredients:
- 280ml blood orange pressed juice
- 2 gelatine sheets (2.5g)

How-To:

1. Rinse the gelatin sheets in cold water.
2. Warm up 100ml of juice and melt the gelatin in it. Remove from the heat and add the remaining juice.
3. Pour the liquid in a 0.5 liters foaming canister through a sieve and use one cream charge. Shake well and refrigerate for at least 4 hours on the lower part of the fridge.
4. Serve as soon as the foam is produced out of the canister.

Finally open!!!

I feel satisfied with the current look of the blog and the web-pages in general. Finally, I managed to set-up a decent blog from where I can share my experiments and contempt for food. I will try to put recipes as soon as I tried them ... including failures. Success stories will be added to the web archive, which is :-( still under construction. I yet have to figure out a good way of doing it ... where good means easy for me.

Well ... enough. Till next time ... and possibly with a recipe or a review !!

Ciao!