Priceless Paintings from W7

If he can do it, I can, and set out to making my own caviar. I made two types, Cointreau (clear) and White Port wine (golden), but I guess you can make it from just about anything that sets in the cold: fish stock, Madeira and onion gravy, fruit juice, ale, be my guest.

It’s actually pretty straight-forward to make, although I will admit its a bit of a palaver. But, you’d only do it once in a while, and you won’t make more than a teaspoon for each of your diners. Just like with real caviar.

Step 1:

Find a flat bottom bowl or dish that can take two fingers deep of vegetable oil. For once, use the dullest, least aromatic oil you can find – I used what I buy for maintenance of woks and non-stick pans and pots. So, pour two fingers deep of said oil, cling film it, and deep freeze it for 3 hours.

Step 2:

Check how your oil is doing. It must still be fluid, but more like thick honey.

Step 3:

Make the caviar mix. You might want to reduce the port wine, or clarify the stock. Make sure it is cold, then add just enough gelatine to set it. For my first Cointreau and port wine caviar experiment, I did nothing, just added gelatine.

Step 4:

Remove oil from freezer, and slowly drip drop after drop of the caviar mix into the vey cold oil.

Step 5:

Let sit for a couple of seconds, in which time the oil chills down each caviar pearl, and sets it. Then take the pearls out (using slotted spoons, forks, whatever), clean with kitchen paper and greaseproof paper.

Serve as fancy decoration. Or, mentally put it onto the list for The Alice Project, for those of you who know what The Alice Project is. It’s still alive!

Food and Drink cooking, food, recipe

This week, or rather since the previous reporting, our home cooking menu included these nice dishes:

Seared rack of lamb, served with rose potato dauphinoise and green beans, followed by mini strawberry cheesecakes,

One-egg omelettes with smoked salmon, served with a mixed garden salad and courgettes. A favourite quick-fix.

A Spanish meal (reported earlier), consisting of Gazpacho, Sea Bream with risotto, and Crème Catalan. This will see a repeat performance shortly.

Tomato soup, followed by Greek-Roman Freestyle: rosemary rump steaks with Greek salad and Tzatziki. Always one of the best ways to stabilize a marriage.

Food and Drink cooking, food, recipe

Watching Celebrity Masterchef 2010, a friend new to Masterchef asked about Gregg Wallace what is he doing there?

Hmm. Interesting question. He co-presents, in the wake and in the shadow of John Torode, so what’s Gregg’s role? He’s Dr Watson, that’s what he is.

I believe it really was Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle who invested the classic duo: the genius lead figure, and the friend or assistant who asks all the questions on our behalf, and sometimes translates for us poor simpletons, when the detective head presenter goes into cryptic mode.

Amazing that most mystery novels or TV productions follow the same scheme. I hadn’t yet realized that the scheme goes far beyond the mystery novel. Think Breakfast TV, presented by a couple (where the woman adopts the role of the stupid blonde for unclear reasons), Masterchef, Nature Watch, Jamie Oliver’s Kitchen programme, …

Fascinating. A toast to Sir Arthur!

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Thoughts Books, cooking, human, tv

… the best that I could find on my dining table:

Tomato soup in fresh bread bowls (coz’ its so nice, and tomatoes are fairly cheap and flavoursome around this time of year), followed by extra lean grilled Venison fillet, served with not so lean Sauce Béarnaise and roasted potatoes. Pudim flan. A fantastic treat, every single course.

Salmon, steamed in rice vinegar, served with a Chinese-esque vegetable stir fry and cinnamon fragrant rice. Always nice to refresh the pallet with some Asian fusion wannabe food.

Lemon and thyme roasted venison sausages, served with Ratatouille and saffron rice. Good and heart-warming. Nigel could have done that.

Thai Green Curry with fragrant rice. Fairly simple and rewarding.

(A lot of rice this week, but you’ve got to note that the past week’s menu isn’t always 100% chronologically correct or complete. Also, since the acquisition of a Tefal rice cooker some months ago, our rice consumption definitely has gone up.)

Food and Drink cooking, food, recipe

For the missus’ birthday supper, I was foolish enough to offer that she should choose a country.

Hmm, she says, how about… how about… Uzbekistan?

I shouldn’t have asked. Uzbekistan. Yoghurt, root beet, herring, sour cream. Spinach, mushrooms, beechnuts and wind-dried beef or venison. Hmm, interesting. Actually, maybe we can make this work, but it seemed wiser to put this first suggestion away as a joke.

OK. Choose another one, I said, and she replied with Spain.

Now that was an interesting choice. At first, I thought Spain. Easy-peasy, but coming to think of something original, tasty, Spanish yet not the much beloved Paella…? Exciting. This is the resulting menu:

• A bowl of fresh Gazpacho, topped with hot croutons and quail eggs
• Sea bream a la Murcia, cooked in its own juices, and served with Spanish rice (the rice is a risotto made with the fish stock)
• Crème Catalan

Uzbekistan is next up on the list of countries to try.

Food and Drink cooking, food, Spain;

This week, I’ve been eating a mixed bag of nice home-cooked food, a quickie on the run, and various things at various invitations. But, my food diary since my last public culinary navel gazing goes a few weeks back, so let me teleport you to the second week of July. That week, I was mostly eating…

Pork loin medallions with fresh garden courgettes and rice a casa,

Tomato soup in fresh bread bowls, crispy roast chicken on roasted cherry tomatoes, served with sage tagliatelle, followed by Tarte Tatin and (commercial) vanilla ice cream,

Pizza and beer (with home-grown basil and chard, but the own mushroom production isn’t catching on due to a lack of horse manure, unfortunately),

One egg omelette (personally laid by Barbara and Margot, the neighbour’s chickens), with Salade Du Jardin and prime organic Scottish Angus rump steak,

Thyme and lime roasted venison sausages, served with steamed new potatoes and a Madeira onion gravy.

Life is hard.

Food and Drink cooking, food, recipe

Actually, this is two or three weeks back. Looking over this list, I feel like I could just want to cook it, and eat it, all over again:

Roasted lamb shanks with roasted summer vegetables and saffron rice, followed by small strawberry cheesecakes.

Tarte Flambe, Choucroute Du Mer. Finished with a fresh and nice Tarte Tatin.

Creme of Avocado Soup, BBQed lamb chops, served with grilled peppers, tzatziki and saffron rice.

Beef salad with minted new potatoes (own produce).

Pork and sage sausages au lentiles.

Ahh. Life ain’t bad.

Food and Drink cooking, food, recipe

Judging by this site’s statistics, Google seems to think that www.gauweiler.net holds a recipe for Pissaladiere, or Tarte Provencale. I give in:

In short, a Pissaladiere is nothing but a savoury yeast dough base (also known as Pizza dough), with a thin layer topping of onion marmalade, olives and anchovy.

The Base:

For a round baking tray, you’ll need 200..250g of dough. A full-size square one takes about 350g. Per 100g of strong white wheat flour, use 5g of yeast, a pinch of salt, a tablespoon of olive oil, and 65ml of lukewarm water. Knead well, then cover and let rise in a warm place. Allow for a little over one hour.

The Marmalade:

I normally use very large vegetable onions (which have a bit less bite), and a few red onions (because it looks interesting), but any onion will do. The onions will lose a lot of volume, so prepare a very generous amount. Three very large vegetable onions for a round tray might be just enough. Peel, then slice thinly. You could use an electric chopper for this, provided it slices rather than grinding the onions to a pulp. I slice manually – and tearfully!

Add finely chopped garlic to taste. Red hot chilly peppers also work well, if you like it hot.

Heat a good swig of olive oil or clarified butter. Toss the onions and garlic in the oil, then cover and let steam gently for 15 to 20 minutes. Uncover, season with salt and thyme, and allow to cook uncovered at low heat for 30 minutes at least, stirring occasionally. Be patient. Very patient. When done, season to taste with salt, thyme, pepper, a pinch of nutmeg. A spoon of soured cream is optional.

The Finish:

Oil your baking tray. Roll out the dough, transfer to tray. Let the dough recover and rise again (allow for 20 minutes). Then, thinly spread out the onion marmalade. Top with olives and anchovy, and bake at 200C until golden.

Now this site holds a recipe for Pissaladiere, or Tarte Provencale.

(Now I need to make one myself, because I just realize that I don’t have a photo. The picture here shows a Quiche Lorraine. Also French, also lovely.)

Food and Drink cooking, food, France, recipe

We’ve have eaten worse:

Tarte Flambee, followed by Lapin Mutarde, served with Sage Tagliatelle, and Crème Brullee.

A nice Greek Spinach Tarte – delicious to eat both warm and cold. Another great meal to support everyone on a Saturday of ins and outs.

A lovely Scottish Angus rosemary sirloin steak, served with roasted potatoes, garlic butter, and home-grown endive salad. The time was ripe for a steak.

Boeuf Bourguignon, served with green beans and roasted potatoes.

One-egg omelette, filled with smoked salmon, grilled artichoke and avocado filling, and a side order of roasted green asparagus.

Food and Drink cooking, food, recipe

A good friend keeps going on and on about an avocado soup that I improvised several years ago. I didn’t find it a big hit, back then, but my friend liked it a lot, so she tells me whenever she makes one for herself.

I couldn’t remember how I did it all those years ago, but happened to have a ripe avocado in the house, so here is how I’d make one today, per 2 people for a starter-sized portion:

Sweat half a finely diced shallot in a tablespoon of butter, then bind with a teaspoon of flour and 250ml of chicken stock. Let simmer for 90s. Meanwhile, spoon the flesh out of a ripe avocado, and chuck it into the blender. Add the stock and juice from half a lime, then blitz vigorously.

To serve, add a generous blob of sour cream. Sprinkle with red, fresh, mild chillies. Drizzle with olive oil, lime juice, and Crema Di Balsamic Blanco.

It’s actually quite nice. Preparation time 30s, cooking time 4 minutes.

Food and Drink cooking, food, recipe

Here’s an interesting little project: Tarte Flambee (or Flammkuche), a waiver-thin crisp base, topped with a thin layer of sour cream, bacon and onions.

In the olden days, we had to travel into the Alsace to get it. Nowadays, it is being served almost anywhere back around our home town, so I assume there must now be deep-frozen kits available. Not only are those kits unavailable where I am, it also spoils the fun. So, off we go to making our own!

First step is to open my trusted and much loved Larousse Gastronomique. I checked two different editions under any keyword that came to mind without success. Can you believe that? Something as typical as Tarte Flambee? If you find under which name they file it, let me know.

So, with the Larousse Gastronomique failing, I am on my own. Google also failed, by providing a list of recipes and suggestion that simply weren’t acceptable.

Let’s see. The base is a very poor bread dough from flour and water, maybe with a splash of milk. Very little yeast, if any. Pinch of salt. No fat. But, I hear you ask, how will you roll this out, 2mm thin, and handle it without tearing?

Ah, I am really glad you asked. That’s the real challenge. Bread dough is gluey, so the shortbread crust trick (roll out between sheets of cling film) won’t work. I am working on the bases that I shall not to roll it out. To do that, I make a dough as dry as possible while still being runny, then spread it on a flat baking tray rather than rolling it out.

The exact mix depends on your flour, the ambient temperature and the phase of the moon. You could start with 65ml water and 25ml milk on 100g of strong white wheat flour (bread making flour, or ‘long flour’ as my Grandmother called it). This makes one regular sized tarte, which will feed one person. Mix water, milk and flour with a pinch of salt. Mix it well, then let sit for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to enormous heat. 270 Celsius sounds about right, preferably in top-and-bottom heat.

Prepare 100g soured cream with one egg yolk, a pinch of nutmeg and some black pepper. No salt (this will come from the bacon).

Once the dough is spread out and the oven is ready, very gently top it with the sour cream mix. Spoon it on gently, don’t pour it – pouring will let the cream penetrate the soft dough, and you end with one big soggy mess.  Sprinkle very thin onion rings and bacon lardons on top, and into the oven with it!

Bake until the edges of the dough turn very dark, then continue baking until the edges actually turn black, then continue baking for as long as you dare. The problem is that you still have to get a lot of moisture out of the base, which is now covered with a layer of sour cream.

Once you can’t stand it any longer, get it out, transfer it onto a board, cut into six or eight large pieces, and enjoy immediately.

Food and Drink baking, cooking, food, France, recipe

…food that I love. I must have been so excited about this post (and yesterday’s meal) that I actually forgot to post yesterday, can you believe that? It’s proof of freshness though; no regular automatic posting of pre-produced articles here. This blog really is a daily battle. So anyway, here’s last week’s menu:

A lovely smoked salmon, grilled artichoke and grilled peppers quiche. Always a popular choice for a Saturday when we’re in and out all day and evening, as it allows anyone to just grab a piece when necessary, and still have a gourmet meal.

Tarte Maman, Lemon Drizzle Cake, Chocolate Muffins. Mushroom and Artichoke Pizza. Pissaladiere. The result of calling the neighbours over, with kids, and with an unknown headcount. Always nice to catch-up and re-bond with the neighbours.

Minestrone, featuring own produce: potatoes, cabbage, celery, Swiss chard, spring onions, Mange Toute peas.

Cod Faja Grande, with Avocado and Salade Du Jardin.

Imam Bayildi with Greek Salad and Tzatziki – in the interest of bringing lasting piece to Greece and Turkey. I am pretty sure my own Imam Bayildi have now evolved so far away from anything ever prepared in Turkey that it is time we should go to a Turkish restaurant. But, I also love my version.

Food and Drink cooking, food, recipe

…a lot of fresh stuff, so much in fact that I have now ordered a second compost bin from the council. Nice to see how productive our little garden has become. Here goes:

Slices of roasted duck breast, with plum sauce and vegetable jelly cubes. Salade Du Jardin, with fresh bread, followed by seared loin of lamb, served with Pommes Dauphinoise. Tarte Saveur (a ginger carrot cake) and Port wine.

Super-lazy and ultra-crisp chicken on a bed of roasted cherry tomatoes, served with saffron rice, followed by Panna cotta with fresh strawberries.

Lamb and pineapple kebabs, with a roasted pepper Greek salad, Tzatziki and saffron rice.

Roti with Mange Tout Curry (Du Jardin), Beef Rendang and Basmati Rice.

Hmmm. Yummie that Rendang. My palate still dreams of that taste.

Food and Drink cooking, food, recipe

You may have noticed that Tarte Tatin makes an increasingly frequent appearance on our menu. How come, I hear you ask. I’m glad you asked. It’s simply because I figured out how to make a Tarte Tatin which I consider to be as good as it gets, and not in need for any further improvements. To top it all, it is also very quick and easy to make. So, here goes:

Fundamentals:

Tarte Tatin is an upside-down cake, with a topping of caramelized apples on a shortcrust base (but made upside down, crust on top). You need a fire-proof frying pan for it, one with a metal handle (or take off the plastic handle), as it needs to go into the oven.

Shortcrust Base:

Mix 200g white flour with 100g soft butter. Add a pinch of salt, and mix thoroughly until you have fine crumbles. You can do this in the blender or using a hand mixer and a tall bowl. Now add one whole free range egg, and a tablespoon or two of cold water. Mix until it forms a homogenous glue.

Place a layer of cling film on your worktop, big enough to cover the frying pan. If necessary, have two strips of cling film overlap. Place the dough in the middle and flatten it out by hand as much as you can, then cover with the same sized cling film arrangement. 

With the dough between the cling film sheets, roll it to an even 3mm.

Put flat into the fridge to rest – I never have space in my fridge for this, so I simply put it flat down onto a cold tiled floor.

Topping:

Peel five firm and aromatic apples. Braeburn or Pink Lady are my favourites. Cut into quarters, remove cores. Set aside.

Pre-heat your oven to 190 Celsius.

Pre-heat your frying pan on fairly high heat on your gas or electric cooker. Mix 100g white cane sugar (= 5 table spoons) with the seeds from one vanilla pod (keep the remaining pod for later). Heat this vanilla sugar mix, just to the point where the first sugar crystals start dissolving. Add 100ml of Armagnac, Calvados or Brandy and stir to dissolve the sugar. Take care nothing catches fire (I’m serious! There’ll be a cloud of combustible alcohol vapour, so do take care).

Add the left-over vanilla pod, then distribute the apples into the mix. This should now be bubbling away merrily. Allow to bubble for a minute or two, then add 6 to 8 walnut-sized pieces of soft butter, evenly distributed across the pan. Allow the butter to melt, the apples to get coated, and the caramel to form.

Because this uses much less butter than your standard-prescription caramel, you’ll only need to give it a few minutes, or until it turns golden.

Remove pan from heat.

Baking:

Take dough out of cling film, and cover the apples with it. Tuck it in around the edges so that it makes an upside-down cake. Don’t worry if the bottom (the part facing you) isn’t flat – it’ll be uneven because it rests on the apples.

Put into the oven at 190 Celsius for approximately 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and immediately turn upside down onto a suitable cake serving plate. Don’t wait for the pan to cool – turn over immediately!

Service with or without vanilla ice cream (with optional plum and calvados mix-ins).

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Food and Drink baking, cooking, food, recipe

…fairly simple but pretty nice food. I mean it:

Steak Tartare with spicy roasted potatoe wedges and Greek Salade (featuring herbs from the garden),

One-egg omelettes, filled with roasted artichokes, mushrooms, courgettes, spinach, Swiss chard and bacon (all greenery from the garden),

Roast of pork, steamed over a bed of spiced apples. Served with sage Tagliatelle (with home-grown sage),

Thai-esque Chicken Noodle Soup (with home-grown cabbage, Spinach and Swiss chard),

Terrine of Pork, with green leaf Salade Du Jardin, followed by a Tarte Tatin.

Life’s hard.

Food and Drink cooking, food, recipe