Semifreddo Vlaanderen

(Photo@TheFoodTraveller.com - Nikon D200)

I have done it again. This semifreddo recipe is now stuck in my head and as mentioned in a comment on the previous post ... here I am with a new version. I call this one Semifreddo Vlaanderen (Flanders), because this is a typical Flemish taste with chocolate and the spicy speculoos (or speculaas) cookies. Elke really adores this version more ... I really like both! Now, what will we do with so much of it left when friday we are gone to Italy for a couple of days??? Should we eat it all tonight ?!?!

Serves: 10
FlexiPoints: 3.5

Suggested wine: absolutely nothing. Get a coffee!
Special equipment: none.

Ingredients:
2 (separated) eggs
30g sugar
220g single cream (35%)
100g Callebaut dark chocolate (70%)
100g Speculoos cookies
1 vanilla pod
2 tbsp Rum


Ingredient note: As the name says, this recipe has been done purely with Belgian ingredients (well, I call them flemish). So use real Speculoos (check Wikipedia) and Callebaut chocolate. If you can’t ... use your favorite chocolate and try to get some dry brown cookies that have been seasoned with cardamom, pepper, cinnamon, cloves and ginger. Or at least cinnamon!

How-to:
1. Split the vanilla pod. Scrape the seeds out and mix them with the cream. Add the pods to it, stir and let it rest for at least 30’ in the fridge.
2. Make a meringue batter with the sugar and the eggs white by whipping the whites to soft peaks and adding the sugar when they start foaming up. Discard the vanilla pod halves and whip the cream until a light and airy (yogurt-like) consistency is obtained. Whip the egg yolks until light and foamy.
3. Chop the chocolate in medium pieces and crumble the cookies. Gently mix the cream with the yolks and the rum. Fold in, then, the meringue batter. Add gently the chocolate and cookies.
4. Fill a baking tin with the mix and put in a freezer for at least 10 hours.
5. When serving, remove from the tin and slice it quickly. Serve immediately to avoid it to melt.

Torrone semifreddo

(Photo@TheFoodTraveller.com - Nikon D200)

Everybody seems to love ice cream. But to make it, a machine is needed in order to work and refrigerate at the same time. Yes, they are cheap ... but they take space and are not often used! So, here is a fantastic and really tasty alternative: the semifreddo! This is nothing else that what would happen to ice cream ... without continuing stirring ... more or less. This version we got from a local favorite restaurant of ours. Lovely the combination of the melting chocolate and the chewy nougat. And really really easy!

Serves: 10
FlexiPoints: 3.5

Suggested wine: if you really insist ... a nice Tokaij 5-puttonyos would be perfect or at least was for us!
Special equipment: a standard food processor

Ingredients:
2 eggs
50g sugar
200g single cream
100g dark chocolate (70%)
100g nougat
10ml Rum

Ingredient note: This recipe works better with the traditional italian nougat (or Torrone).

How-to:
1. Whip the egg whites with the sugar to soft peaks. Whip the cream until a light and airy (yogurt-like) consistency is obtained. Whip the egg yolks until light and foamy.
2. Chop the chocolate and the nougat. Whiz them shortly in a food processor. they will come out chopped by kind of sticked to each other.
3. Gently mix the cream with the yolks and the rum. Fold in, then, the whipped egg whites. Add gently the chocolate and nougat mix.
4. Fill a baking tin with the mix and put in a freezer for at least 10 hours.
5. When serving, remove from the tin and slice it quickly. Serve immediately to avoid it to melt.

Sole and Parm rolls

(Photo@TheFoodTraveller.com - Nikon D200)

What a week. Entirely spent in England, thus no posting. Anyway, I am now back and I realize that there are a lot of recipes we have tried that are still waiting to be posted. So here we are ... starting from this one, which is quite simple and tasty. The secret .... fresh fish and (if you can find it) purple basil. I know I do not speak about it int he recipe, but if you can use it. It gives a bit more sharpness to the entire dish. Now ... for you the recipe, for us ... we go and play with our new toy: the KitchenAid.

Serves: 2 as main course or 4 as starter
FlexiPoints: 4 or 2

Suggested wine: get a nice light Pinot Grigio. That should easily work!
Special equipment: cooking wire or 8 cocktail sticks

Ingredients:
2 medium/small soles
4 slices of Parma ham
12 medium sized leaves of basil
Pepper and olive oil to taste

Ingredient note: none

How-to:
1. Filet the soles of ask you fishmonger to do so. You should obtain 4 nice filets from each sole. Season each sole with very little salt and pepper.
2. Half the Parma ham. Lay down each half. Place one filet on each half slice. Add 3 basil leaves and roll everything. Use cooking wire (or cocktail sticks) to fix the rolls.
3. Warm up a non-stick pan. Grease it with little olive oil and bake the rolls in it for 6’-8’ on medium high heat turning them occasionally. Season with some ground pepper halfway.
4. Remove the cooking wire and serve immediately yon lukewarm dishes.

Sformato affumicato

(Photo@TheFoodTraveller.com - Nikon D200)

Well, this is a very nice and simple recipe. It takes sometime to prepare it, but it is still simple. Basically, it has a strong smoky taste due to both the bacon and the cheese. Still not too strong, because of the cheese I have used ... which probably is going to be difficult to find outside Belgium (check the recipe for suggestions on how to replace it). Why the name? In Italy we like to call sformato (di pasta) every kind of dish where pasta is baked with a sauce to make something solid. At least it has been always so in my family ...

Serves: 4 as main course or 8 as starter
FlexiPoints: 9.5 or 4.5

Suggested wine: A nero d’Avola or (if you can find it) a medium body white wine called Pecorino.
Special equipment: none

Ingredients:
300g spaghetti
1 can of plum tomatoes (400g)
200g smoked Maredsous cheese in one piece
50g smoked bacon
20g grated Parmesan cheese
1 shallot
12 basil leaves
30g pine nuts
10 sundried tomatoes marinated in oil
Oil, bread-crumbs and salt as needed

Ingredient note: The Maredsous cheese is a typical Belgian Abbey cheese done following the tradition of the monks, just like their beer! It is a semi-hard cheese with a nice melting bite. You can replace with another smoked cheese as long as it is smoky, slightly fruity and sweet in flavor.

How-to:
1. Chop the shallot and cube the bacon. Place them in a sauce pan with the plum tomato, the basil, 2 tbsp of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Mash everything with a potato masher and let is simmer covered for 20’ or until very dense. Stir occasionally. Whiz the sauce in a kitchen robot and let cool.
2. Slice the sundried tomatoes and cube the cheese in small pieces. Toast the pine-nuts in a hot non-stick pan until they take color. Put all aside.
3. Boil the pasta in salted water for 2’ less than indicated in the package, but taking care it is soft enough to be folded. Mix it with the sauce and the Parmesan cheese.
4. Take a rectangular cake tin. Grease it with oil and dust it with bread-crumbs. Alternate layers of pasta, pine-nuts, cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. Bake in an hot oven at 180C for 20’.
5. Remove from the tin and serve in slices.

Another photo from the wedding

(Photo courtesy of I. van Akere)

Well, this is the event of a lifetime and photos starts to flow-in from friends and relatives. This one came from a cousin of Elke ... I processed and got this black&white of which we fell in love. So we share it! And believe me when I say ... there was LOT of rice!

Risotto with radicchio and fagioli (beans) Calonega

(Photo@TheFoodTraveller.com - Nikon D200)

Well, to be honest we have done this dish long time ago, but I seemed to never end up posting it. The ideas came from one of the many magazines and I now do not recall any longer which ones. You might wander why these beans? Well, they were given to me by my parents to try. They got them during their skiing trip last Christmas (yes long time ago) and found them very tasty. They actually have a nice rich and aromatic taste, which goes extremely well in this dish but could also go in a simple salad.

Serves: 8 as main course
FlexiPoints: 4

Suggested wine: A refreshing Coda di Volpe or mineral Trocken (dry) German Riesling
Special equipment: none

Ingredients:
140g dried Calonega Lamon beans
1 red onion
2 red radicchio’s (400g)
320g Carnaroli rice
10g butter
1/2 glass white wine
2 L vegetable stock
30g Parmesan cheese
2 dried leaves of Laurier
6 leaves of fresh sage
Salt and pepper to taste

Ingredient note: The Calonega Lamon beans are a particular version typical of the Dolomites of the Borlotti beans which looks dark red when cooked. Use normal Borlotti, if you really cannot find them.

How-to:
1. Leave the dried beans in water overnight. Let them simmer in a closed pot in them in fresh water with the Laurier leaves for 40’ or until fully cooked. Drain the beans and discard the laurier.
2. Slice the radicchio in stripes. Finely chop the onion and sauté it with the butter until soft. Add the radicchio and keep cooking for 1’ more. Add the beans, the sage leaves and the rice. Cook on high heat for 1’ or until the rice has taken color.
3. Add the wine and keep cooking until fully absorbed. Add some stock and reduce the heat to simmer. Let the rice cook until fully cook (about 15’) adding the stock in small batches when the previous one has been absorbed. You might need less stock than indicated.
4. Remove from the heat. Season with salt and pepper. Stir and let cool down for few minutes. Serve slightly warm.

Restaurant Visit: La Capannina (IT)

So, here I am ... this time I would like to share our impression of another restaurant we visited in our wedding break. This time after the wedding in our (rainy) short honeymoon preview in Capri (since the real one will be in July touring South Africa). Our first restaurant stop was in "La Capannina". A restaurant famous because of all VIP visiting it in peak season as witnessed by the photos on the wall.

The short review
After a disappointing meal in a starred place, this taverna-like restaurant was a good surprise. I would not say it was great food, but surely honest and enough tasty ... a tad pricey (like everything in Capri).

The long review.
The place really looks like a taverna with walls full of photos of celebrities. I have to say that the decor is a bit old-fashion but ok ... a but turistic, but ok. Better if you can get to the 'veranda'. Service is ok. An honest place (let's forget the price here ... it is Capri).

Food was not too bad. The starters were a carpaccio or octopus and green asparagus with rucola & Parmesan shaves. Nothing fancy but all tasted as it should. Presentation was not great, but again the taste was as it should.
As main course, I took squids filled with ricottina (a kind of firmer ricotta cheese) and Elke a lasagna with provola (semi-soft cheese) and aubergine. I really liked mine. A good combination my parents got once served in a starred restaurant. Elke seemed to enjoy hers as well ... it did looks tasty. Again two dishes without surprises. Tasted good and were simply presented.

All was with a Greco di Tufo of Feudi di San Gregorio. Nice.

No dessert (it was the day after the wedding .... ).

All in all, it was expensive. But ... we have paid the same amount everywhere in Capri. So when we consider we paid a standard price, we got a good meal. If in Capri I might go back there when I feel like I need a decent meal with no surprises (excluding celebrities of course).

Help our damigella get her photo on a fanta can !!!

I know this does not fit with food but .... hey, disgression is allowed, isn't it? Our Damigella who had the job to carry the rings in the church all time is a little cute cousin of my wife. She is trying to get a photo with two other cousins (one who played the guitar at the wedding) winning a contest at Fanta for getting published on the cans (or something like this).

So, here is my plea ... please help her!!!

1. Click on this link: http://www.fantafoto.be/NL/gallery.php?j=2007-05-05

2. Select saturday 5 (or zaterdag 5 if in dutch) if not there already.
3. Identify the photo you see on top of this post

4. Vote by clicking on the button next to stem!

Thanks for helping !

Restaurant visit: Il San Pietro (Positano - IT)

Here I am back the keyboard trying to blog all about the food which we tasted and cooked in the past weeks, which were heavily disrupted (blogging speaking, of course) by the wedding and work. How could we come to Italy and not pay visits to some restaurant? Well, of course we did. So I want to start with the only Michelin starred restaurant we visited: Il San Pietro * ... placed in the San Pietro hotel a couple of kilometers out of Positano.
Why did we choose it? It has a very nice description in the Michelin guide, located very near our hotel, Belgian chef (so intrigued by it) and a menu seeming to scream about fresh products.

The short review
What a waste of time, calories and money this has been! And we even brought my parents along to try and offer them a great meal.

The long review
The restaurant is on a fantastic spot, but the view is wasted. Most tables are inside and the view on the terrace is basically nothing special and mostly dominated by the large pizza oven ... and the pizza is not on the menu! The decor is 'grand' ... in Las Vegas style. Kind of like the Caesar Palace ... statues, fake bronze, etc. etc. Not my taste ... but hey that's personal.

The service ... lot of people. Talking as the place is heaven, but clearly not having a clue about the food itself. Very very fast ... a bit over an hour for a complete meal! Tables not well made ... I mean we were four and I was destined to have a dish completely not fitting with the rest. I know that the famous Vietri China is always different .... but there is always a theme. Service here messed it up.

Ah, and the food ??? Let's go a course a time.

Amuse. A slice of pizza for each of us. Probably the best pizza I have eaten in a long time. But does it fit with a glass of champagne (the aperitif we were suggested)? Not to mention they tend to push people to get a Dom Perignon with it. Besides, a bit too little for a starred place.

First courses. My father and I took paccheri (a large pasta shape) with vongole, patelle and squid. The sound of it is delicious ... the taste ... well, I could barely taste the fish. There was very little in portion as well (was it 5 paccheri?!). Elke and my mum took "Ravioli filled with escarole and scampi on a tomato comfit". No taste of the scampi and the comfit taste killed everything else (it was more like a concentrated tomato juice). Very disappointing.

Second courses. Here it even got worse! My mum and I took red mullet with a squid sauce and fried gnocchi. The sauce was ... well almost absent, but fantastic. The mullet was tasteless and definitively stale and old. The gnocchi disgusting! Must have been some supermarket stuff. My father had rosemary-scented baccala' on polenta and vegetables. The fish tasted ok, the poleta was water (I mean really yellow water like!) and the veggies ... I could not see them. Elke took Seabass with asparagus ... Elke is Belgian and the chef too. They both must know out of years of eating them that white asparagus should be well cooked. Well they were served somewhat raw and crunchy. The fish nothing special. This course is a shame for any Michelin chef.

Dessert. We looked at it, but after two disappointing dishes and seeing some guests not enjoying it, we passed on. Not for us. We told ourself: let's go to Amalfi and get a decent dessert there.

Coffee. No coffee, but we got some little sweets anyway. A chiacchiera (fried pastry) which was horribly oily. Decent chocolate truffle and marshmellow. An horrible lemon whatever.

The positives of this restaurant are its price (not less or more than other restaurants in Positano or Capri) and the wine list (nicely priced and really with interesting wines).

Avoid this place if you can .... their vallet even scratched my dad's car at the guarded parking!! I only once had a similar experience in a starred place (Maison Vandamme) and they lost the star the year after. I wish that "Il San Pietro" either improves or looses it for the sake of everybody visiting such a marvelous spot like Positano.

No words needed

(Photo courtesy of M. Heijligers)

We thought we could have kept a diary of our wedding days, but we were extremely busy (wedding preparation, families and ... yes unfortunately ... quite some work for Francesco) and we did not manage.
The wedding went fine as well as our mini-honeymoon in Capri despite the bad weather and Francesco feeling sick since the second day in Capri (thing that caused a delay in the return home). We are now home, btu we still look as happy as on the wedding day. Pity it all went so fast, I wish we could go back in time to saturday ... to when I was looking at Elke walking down the aisle of the Church. The best moment in my (Francesco) first (and only) 34 years of life.