Lightly stuffed aubergines

Finally back in the kitchen or better posting some recipes! Stuffed aubergine are my love and I have been always used a very southern way of stuffing based on tomato and cheese. However, I was recently looking at an old InTaVola (April 1999), where they proposed to stuff it very simply with meat and bake the aubergine twice. Well ... here we go! We tried it. It's nice, light and delicate. Something to be eaten at room temperature. Next time I will add a teaspoon of curry in the filling ... surely it will make this dish even better!

Serves: 4 as main course or 8 as a starter
FlexiPoints: 7 or 3.5

Suggested wine: I would dare to suggest a Rose' or a 100% Negroamaro for this dish.

Ingredients:
- 4 large aubergine
- 200g minced beef
- 100g minced pork
- 3 egg whites
- 1 shallot
- 20g butter
- 2 tbsp (white) breadcrumbs
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp mild curry (optional)
- Salt and pepper as needed

How-to:
1. Rinse the aubergines under cold water and pat them dry with some kitchen paper. Bake them in an hot oven at 180C for 15’.
2. In the meantime, finely chop the shallot. Saute it in the melted butter until soften. Add the minced meat and stir fry gently for 10’. Season with salt and pepper (and curry if used).
3. Half the aubergines lengthways. Use a spoon to empty them of most of their pulp without breaking the skin.
4. Chop the aubergine pulp in small pieces and mix it with the cooked mince and the eggs whites.
5. Fill the aubergine halves. Distribute on top the breadcrumbs and the oil. Bake at 180C for 15’ and finish under the grill for no more than 5’.
6. Serve at room temperature.

Den Gouden Harynck*

Sometimes curiosity killed the cat ... in this case, curiosity led to a disappointing dinner. It was quite some time we wanted to go to Brugge (Belgium) and try either the Karmeliet*** or the Den Gouden Harynck* (read * as michelin star) normally described like the tradition of vlanderen and the modern view on flemish cuisine. Highly praised. As we managed to book another triple star (that is an 8 months waiting list!!!) we decided to opt for the modern praised Den Gouden Harynck*.
This is how it went ... yesterday evening.

Good start. Very friendly and nice atmosphere even if it felt that the tables were crammed as much as possible to get as many people in as possible. We get promptly the menu and our glasses of champagne .... we wait quite a lot to order. Well, we though they do not want to be oppressive. Our choice was the season menu with the wine arrangement (4 courses) ... with the idea to also get the optional cheese tray.

Amuses arrive right after we ordered. The first was some sort of solidified broth cut in tagliatelle style with some gray shrimps. Now ... nice effect but my fiancee comment (after 2 weeks of good fish in Italy) was something like: "Does it have any sea taste?". The second amuse was a strip of haring with a drop of roasted pepper cream. Tasty ... but small.

Dishes go .... first starter arrives ... ops! Are they gonna rush us into eating here?? We'll see. This was nice. The smell was fabulously of lobster and it was indded half lobster tail in a lobster bisque with cardamon and turmeric (kind of curry-like) with a rhubarb compote. Nice combination, sauce of great taste. Lobster taste ... only in the smell. Overall a good dish. Served with a very young german riesling. Good choice.

We waited one hour for the second starter ... and I noticed the reason was that they synchronized us to a recently filled table. This was the best dish of the evening. A little stripe of sole slightly fried in oil with soy sauce with some soy sprouts, tomato compote and a parmesan foam. Great stuff .... next to it some useless mini stuffed pasta they dared to call cannelloni. Well, this kind of pasta I would not tolerate in any restaurant, but given the beautiful sole ... I was very happy. Even more impressive was the wine, a Pecorino Terre di Chieti I now want to seek and buy. A fantastic white wine. We were really thrilled to get the main dish.

Now ... after more than an hour we got a sort of main dish. Again a delay due to the synchronization to yet another late coming table. Unacceptable in a michelin starred restoraunt! This was no main course ... two mini pieces of lamb fillet with a spoon of peas. Peas tasted frozen and full of lemon. The lamb ... was it lamb? It tasted only of pre-made curry. It was a 3-bite main course of poor taste and execution. Wine was just ok. I went berserk with this dish ... the cheese trolley, no way! It seemed poor and I even saw a supermarket cheese!

The dessert arrived 10 minutes after the main course. A red fruit compote with a prosecco granita. I hate red fruit and I left the dish untouched (so no comment). The dish was taken away with no comment whatsoever on the fact that it was untouched. This is an unacceptable behavior in such a place. The service treated us like just a number. Maybe we were too young to be there ... bah! We did order like most other people, though.

We paid the nice sum of 210 euros for this. Way above its real value and quantity. I would have been ok with 120 or 130 "at most"! I wanted to stop and buy fries on the way home. The level of service and care of the customer is really low. It is simply a show-off place ... you go there to say I was there. The food had one great moment and too many poor ones.

Will I go back? Only if I do not pay and drive (wine is good). Not worth it otherwise.

The Italian Summer 2006

As every summer for the last ... for every year so far actually ... we have been traveling to Puglia, a remote area in Italy mostly known for hosting the ports where everybody gets a boat for Greece. This time we went there by car and stopped on the way in Emilia to visit a friend of ours, who introduced us to the beauty of the part of Italy.

The first stop of our trip was Carpi, a small city near Modena. I did not know much of it and I expected it to be a typical "borgo" in Emilia. It revealed to be really a nice little town with a huge square and perfectly maintained historical buildings. I know understand why my odl friend really loves his town.

While there, we have been lucky enough to spend some time in Modena, sligthly larger (for italian standards) than Carpi. Modena impressed me mostly for the nice streets and bars, a great little "crescenteria" where they prepare crescentine (something like piadine) and a fantastic main square with a beautifully kept cathedral .... and it pends like the famous Pisa tower!!!!



From Modena we spent an afternoon visiting the Acetaia San Giacomo, where they produce the world famous Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Reggio. We were perfectly hosted in making a tasting to know this local produce. Something amazing, totally difference from the Aceto Balsamico, much more complex and probably difficult to use in some of its variants. I was tempted to buy one of all types ... but my fiancee pointed out that we do not know how to use it yet and we started with a couple of varieties. Our host was really fabulous as it spent ont only time, but added a great bottle of lambrusco on the way. It definitively changed my perception about this wine. Since we were in the area, we were also brought to a typical caseificio where they make Parmesan cheese and we were fascinated by the amazing smell when we were brought in the chamber for the maturation. Something unforgettable!!



After Emilia we drove straight to Puglia. I feel that this is a very unknown and underrated part of Italy. Unfortunately, turists might easily get ripped off here ... but with a good local guide (actually friend) Puglia might reveal a great place to visit and not just pass by on the way to Greece. I do not want to spend many words about it since we did spend quite some time on the road (and on the beaches). Just look at the photos to have a glimpse of the area were I grew up and that it never fails to amaze me when I visit it ... pity that it always feels like it never changes.





On the way back, we stopped in Como. If you can ... really try and go there for a couple of days. It was too late to make a shot of the lake with my old canon camera. Pity, it is beautiful. A little and old town, full of small streets and well preserved buildings. Great view from the lake ... just go there. Despite what they say in Italy, it is still not an expensive place to be ... and you never know, you might meet George Clooney or somebody else from the Ocean Twelve movie ...



And lots of food!!! We have been cookng a bit and I will try to post the recipes in the coming days!!!

Summer Pause ....

It's holidays period .... of course I will enjoy lot of food, some cooking and restaurants, photo shooting, but no internet until the 23rd of August.

Therefore, I big Ciao until then!!!