Of purslane and Co.

Since a few weeks we have joined, as it is called in Belgium, the voedselteams. A movement to buy products like vegetables, fruit, milk (and similar) and meat directly from local producers. After few weeks of test we are rather positive and, since this is done in many countries with different names, I would suggest everybody to support the local community and get fresh produce in season instead of supermarket crappy stuff.

Now, apart from this little manifesto ... one of the things we can order is the vegetable box. Of which we know nothing until delivery except the price and that is has vegetables. We discovered this is a great way to get in contact with new vegetables sometimes referred to as lost.

Purslane is an example. I have never heard of it, but once I received it I fell in love with its taste and consistency. Some googling reveals it is also as good a source of omega3 as fish. I wanted to use it for some ravioli but in the end we simply made a little salad out of it. To be honest I could eat it like chips even.

But purslane is not the only veggie I discovered. Another is red chard (used it for a nice pasta dish) or beetroot (used for gnocchi) or the leaves of the beetroot (used for pasta). Such a box stimulates fantasy and taste is great. I will shortly share all these recipes, especially now that I am stuck home with a stomach flu ... sigh sigh.

How I killed the lobsters .....

CONTENT WARNING: the linked video contains material that might disturb somebody

Since a few asked ... the killing of (at least) one lobster was filmed by my dad with its digital camera. If you feel you are curious click on the photo and you will be re-directed (pop-up window) to a gallery where the video is.
Just a few notes .... the video is not great of quality (no light and from a photocamera). Pardon the talking from me (gosh I sound so nasal thanks to a cold), my mum and (very little) my wife. Above all ... it is not disgusting, but you are a WWF fanatic or cannot sustain seeing how an animal is killed do not watch. If you watch it, you might feel from my voice I did not like killing it .... but knowing the taste it has I did it anyhow.

PS: This video was taken a bit before the photo depicting the old wine in the previous post.

The pasta of Benedetto Cavalieri

The next recipe I will post (probably tomorrow) is a really nice pasta risottata (or pastotto) based on a simple boar (cinghiale for the Italians) sauce ... but what made it special was not only the way we made it (you will see) but it was the pasta itself.

In Italy there is a lot of talking about various types of slowly dried pasta from high quality italian wheat (e.g. from Gragnano or Senatore Capelli). But I think to have discovered one which is absolutely amazingly better than anyone else. Yes, I have to overdo it a bit since it is worth it! And to be honest I did not discover it but it was given to us to try by a friend (thanks Minouche!!!) who imports it for Belgium (see here if you are curious).

So which pasta is it? It is the pasta from Benedetto Cavalieri made in the Otranto, Puglia (the south east of Italy where I happened to grew up). World-wide available (for US check amazon.com), we tried a few shapes, but it was the penne which simply amazed us! Tasty ... really tasty. Perfect in keeping a good bite despite cooking them too long. Fantastic sauce retention property ... it was a very long time since I had a pasta like this.
If you can find it somewhere ... it is worth definitively a try!

PS: The photo is mine .... and I have no affiliation with this pasta maker.

UPDATE: It seems that while penne were great, the spaghetti and fettuccine are rather disappointing. They overcook to quickly. I therefore need to specify ... this post raves only about the penne shape!

Ricotta forte ... a forgotten ingredient

There are days when we really do not feel like or cannot spend time cooking. Yesterday was one of those days ... we wanted something simple but tasty. Normally for us, this means pasta with tomato sauce and ricotta forte. Ricotta forte ??? Well, this is a gem of ingredient which is really little known outside its original area (Puglia) ... and I mean not known even in Italy. We bring it along in good quantities every time we are back from my parents' place and got quite few friends to try and like it ... but what is it??
Well, it is a semi-hard creamy cheese based on the sheep ricotta paste ... but concentrated. It is made with the left over of the ricotta cheese, which are salted and stored until it does acidify. At that point, the acid cheese is worked with a special sieve in order to make it smooth and remove any possible hard granule. then, it is stored again for quite some time. The result is something that smells really strongly of sheep and, if eaten on its own, it extremely piquant ... much more than any pecorino. Too strong actually.
But here is the magic ... normally a tea spoon (or more) is used in things like tomato sauces or pulse soups (like a nice lentil soup) and ... wow ... the taste it gives is of delicate sheep cheese, slightly piquant and sweet ... and very creamy. We have tried a few ... from various industrial to a few artisan ones ... and (I have no affiliation with this company) the one produced by Marte is so far the best! Nice balance in taste and creaminess.
If you can find it, simply try it by adding one tea spoon (per portion) into a tomato sauce (the simple one). Do not add any additional cheese ... your pasta will taste as never before!!!

Golden (figuratively) Belgium grapes!

Just a couple of lines on the grapes we bought yesterday at the market near home in Turnhout ... or better I pushed Elke to buy. It is the Presidential by Jan Charlier and grown in Belgium. We did not know much about them apart that everybody seemed to buy them and that the price is a whopping 24 euro per kilo !!!! Basically, a cluster was more than the entire shopping at the market. Almost like gold!
Anyway, it is indeed very nice. Thin skin and big in size. Very few seeds (important for me as I have seeds). Texture is firm and juicy. Quite tasty and not too sweet. Basically an excellent grape ... still amazingly expensive!!! I guess the price is because not much grape is produced in Belgium. Well, sure we do not want to spoil even a bit (it is almost 1 euro per grape!)

Grijze Garnalen or Gray (Dutch) Shrimps

If there is something I go crazy for in Belgium and the Netherlands, it is surely the Grijze Garnalen ... or, vulgarly called, gray Dutch shrimps. I love them in every possible way, but it is quite some work to use them as ingredients as they are small and peeling is way too much work. Yes, I could buy them peeled ... but I would loose the taste.
Anyway, they are gray ... but not so gray (see the photo). Last Saturday we spent the day walking on the beach and we watched fishermen catching them. The method is simple: get a net attached to a solid frame and pull the net in deep water by hand or with an horse. Get back ashore, remove everything which is not a shrimps and boil them immediately to preserve the taste. It was quite interesting to see the entire action ... if you are curious simply check my photo gallery (link) where the photos will give you a flavor of what we saw.
It was a nice sunny day (30C+ degrees ... yes in Belgium). Quite crowded and lots of shrimps in the nets. Overall, we enjoyed ... it was only a pity we could not find where the tasting was taking place before going home. So we saw them alive, but not cooked ...
Ah! In case you look at the photos ... the typical dress code for a shrimp fisherman is in yellow ... not black or red, yellow!! Elke was kind of very (often) specific on this point !!