Double E!

Today morning a great surprise was waiting for me: 2 Excellent Awards! I would like to thank Medena from Café Chocolada and PheMOM from Art You Eat. Thank you girls! So it seems that now I am supposed to award 20 food blogs which actually would not be a big task, as so many fantastic blogs are out there! However I think I am going to award only 10. I am not going to write about the blogs, because I am sure that everyone finds something else in them which makes them stock, let it be great photos, intersting stories or fantastic recepies. So I would like to pass the award to ten following blogs:

Garrett from Vanilla Garlic, who publishes about restaurant and cookbook reviews, food histories, essays, original cupcake recipes and many more!

Dhanggit from Dhanggit's Kitchen, who says that the belly rules the mind! How true...;)

Jo from Joanna in the kitchen, who has discovered that cooking is not at all so difficult and can be very adventorous.

Amy from Eggs on sunday, who loves about food and cooking is that there’s always something new to learn.

Zabaione from Cook with love bake with heart, who is a true pastry artist!

I Cook4Fun from My kitchen snippets, whos berry tarts that I discovered lately made me fall in love with them!

Holly from Phemomenon, who is 1 part guts, 1 part compassion, 1 part humor, 1 part spice.

Maggie from Dog Hill Kitchen, who is on her journy building her dream kitchen.

Amy from L'Esistenza Bellissima, to encourage her on her food blogging way!

Thip from Bonbini, who originally comes from the world's longest place name by Guinness Book of Records.

Bison Incident

Some days ago I have discovered on a board in front of a butcher`s shop that they have bison meat for sale. I have heared that bison is supposed to taste really good. I was curious so today morning I went to buy some. Unfortunatly it was sold out, so instead I bought two pieces of Entrecôte from the beef. This was the very first time that I prepared this type of meat at home and yeah it was à point, just as I like it. Served with potato gratin and marsala champignon.

Ingredients:
2 beef entrecôte
salt, pepper
oil
2 parsley roots
2 carrots
100 ml beef stock
fresh parsley
3 big potatoes
200 ml heavy cream
nutmeg, salt, pepper
ementaler cheese
1 tablespoon butter
200 g champignon
100 ml Marsala
200 ml beef stock
2 twig thyme
3 leaves sage
1 twig rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 shallot
salt, pepper

First prepare potato gratin. Peel potato and with a help of a mandoline slice. Butter a muffin form of six. Preheat oven to 200°C. In each form put a layer potato, add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Pour some heavy cream over and add some cheese. Countine doing it as long as it is full. Bake for 25 minutes.


Slice mushroom and fry in butter, put aside.
Pour Marsala, stock in a pot, add herbs and shallot. Reduce and add fried mushroom.
Chop veggies in small cubes and roast in butter. Add stock and cook until it is steamed. Before serving stir in some fresh chopped parsley.
Heat oil and fry entrecôte while turning often: 3/4-1 minute if you want it rare, 1 1/2 for medium rare, 2 1/2 medium and for 4 minutes if you want it well done. This applies for an entrecôte that is about 150 g. When fried season with salt and pepper.

Nine Inch Nail

On the last weekend I was eagerly searching for a nail, of course I have not found a nine inch nail, but it was certinaly long enough.

So I grabbed the shiny, but not tiny nail and a hammer. My mission was clear: open the coconut. I already imagined what I am gonna do out of its white and sparking flesh. A part I wanted to grate, from the rest with the juice I planned to make some ice cream or rather some cookies. Loaded with plans I was creeping to the coconut and with a sudden move it was in my hands. Luckily I have had a helping hand who took the hammer and cracked three holes into the coconut so that its juice could flow into a glass. It was quite a lot which opened a new horizont for my plans. I was even happier when we managed to open it. It was almost a perfect round, like the coconut would have lost its hat. I saw those yummy cold coconut ice cream balls posing in there for my photos.

So next step to remove the rest of the hard parts. While I was collecting the flying coconut rinds and the white treasure from inside I have realised that something is wrong with it.

After I have tasted a bit I was sure it is mold! My plans crashed! The whole thing landed in the compost. What a pity. All that work for nothing, almost nothing. I was happy because at least I made a lot of photos. While selecting them for the blog I have realised that on one of them the mold was visible. If you click on it you can see some white parts. I did not see this in the shop.

Either I need glasses or I have to take my camera with me for the next coconut adventure!

The Sabayon Factor

While browsing yesterday I have found a porcini sabayon recepie on Zorra`s website: the Kochtopf. It looked so tempting that I could not resist and had to prepare it today for lunch. I have made a few changes, such as left garlic out as I had no garlic at home. The sabayon was worth every single whisk! Some time ago I have set sabayon as a culinary milestone for myself. I had respect for the sabayon and I can tell you it is a great feeling to know that I have managed to prepare it and it tasted fabulous! One more step which takes me forward on my own culinary way. I served it with pork tenderloin wrapped in Serrano ham with sage, some broccoli, rosemary potatoes and salad. For the very first time it was the perfect harmony served by me on a plate, at least that is what I was told. I am not a big broccoli fan but this time I loved it, because it tasted really like broccoli and were a decent accompanist for the rest. Pork was nice and tender. If you are a porcini fan, do not waste time and let yourself sink in porcini heaven!
Ingredients:
30 g dried porcini
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt, pepper
1 shallot
100 ml white wine
1 twig thyme
1 bouillon cube (if you have home made)
4 egg yolks

Soak porcini for 30 minutes in 150 ml water. After press out, keep the porcini water and fry porcini in oil, add balsamic vinegar and when it is evaporated put aside.
In a pot bring porcini water, wine with the onion to boil. Add bouillon cube, thyme and reduce so that you have about 100 ml at the end. In my case I have had 150 ml it worked out well. Salt, pepper.
In another pot bring water to simmer while you whisk egg yolks frothy add porcini-wine liquid and keep on whisking. Whisk over steam for 10-15 minutes.
Before serving add fried porcini.

For the pork tenderloin add salt, pepper and dijon mustard. Fry it in some butter, add some sherry and after wrap in Serrano ham and sage leaves. Preheat oven to 200°C. Put pork in a heat proof bowl, pour some olive oil and sherry on the bottom and bake for 30 minutes covered and another 30 uncovered.

Onions, onions...onions!

In my previous post I have mentioned, that I am an onion freak, despite the fact that I hate cooked onions. I always grate them when I need it in a dish. However I am also obsessed with onions. I love uncooked onions. I wanted to post about onion so here I go! Yeah I know I wrote already much too often the word O N I O N, but I can not get enough of onions. I always have at least 5 kinds of onions in my pantry. In this post I would like to write about onion and about my favourite kind of onion: the Roscoff onion - Rosé de Roscoff. I have read somewhere that if you want to make the real french onion soup you should use this type. Well I have never eaten and cooked onion soup, but one day I will, despite that I do not like them cooked. So anyway Roscoff onions come from Roscoff, a commune in the arrondissement of Morlaix in the Finistère département, in France's Bretagne région. Because of that only the onions that come from there may be called Roscoff. For me Rosé the Roscoff is the Prosciutto di Parma in the family of the onions. This onion even has its own feast in August. This is something I definitely want to visit one day. On the photo below next to the red onion you can see the Roscoff onion. It tastes fresh and sweet. I love it! It is never bitter or hot. Roscoff is the perfect onion.
In my pantry you gonna find white, red, shallot, yellow, leek and spring onions and of course Roscoff. While browsing I discovered brown onions which I have not seen yet, hope to meet them one day. So now some historical stuff from wikipedia: In Caananite Bronze Age settlements, traces of onion remains were found dating back to 5000 BC. However, it is not clear if these were cultivated onions. Archaeological and literary evidence such as the Book of Numbers 11:5 suggests cultivation probably took place around two thousand years later in ancient Egypt, at the same time that leeks and garlic were cultivated. The Ancient Egyptians worshipped it, believing that its spherical shape and concentric rings symbolized eternal life. Onions were even used in Egyptian burials as evidenced by onion traces being found in the eye sockets of Ramesses IV. They believed that if buried with the dead, the strong scent of onions would bring breath back to the dead. In ancient Greece, athletes ate large quantities of onion because it was believed that it would lighten the balance of blood. Roman gladiators were rubbed down with onion to firm up their muscles. In the Middle Ages onions were such an important food that people would pay for their rent with onions and even give them as gifts. The onion was introduced to North America by Christopher Columbus on his 1492 expedition to Haiti.If you wanna know more about...well about onions, click here.

Ratatouille with Tahini Fish in Oat flakes

I was always afraid of Ratatouille, no, of course not of that sweet rat from the movie but the dish. There are many cooked vegetables that I would have never even tried as a child and some I do not even eat now. For example if a dish needs onion, oh and how many does, I always grate it otherwise I can not eat it. It is enough if I see a piece of onion, it is finished for me. So even if you read in my recepies: chop onion, I never chop unless I use it uncooked. I love onions uncooked. In fact I am an onion freak, I am gonna post about that later. So back to ratatouille. I think it is time to try everything, almost everything. The movie was inspiring because I do not like the idea of all those veggies cut and cooked. I am sure if it is cooked long it tastes good, and even better warmped up next day. However I thought to slice veggies thin and make my first wanna be ratatouille that way. Maybe one day I am gonna prepare the real stuff. I had no idea what to serve with, actually with a real ratatouille I would say one does not need anything than a slice of a fresh baguette. In my case, as it is friday, I improvised some tahini fish. It might be a strange combination, but it was good, indeed it was.


Ingredients:
1 zucchini
1 eggplant
2 tomatoes
1 red bell pepper
1 onion
salt, pepper
thyme
rosemary
olive oil
3 pollock filets (or any other white fish)
2 tablespoon tahini
juice of 1 lime
salt, pepper
oat flakes
peanut oil

For the ratatouille slice with a help of a mandoline the veggies. Add olive oil in a heat proof glass form. Preheat oven to 200°C. Place onion on the bottom of the form, salt, pepper. Put sliced veggies in the way you want, add salt, pepper , thyme and rosemary. Bake for 35-40 minutes.
Cut fish in pieces, salt, pepper. Mix tahini, lime juice and water together. Do not make it too thick. Place fish pieces in it and after in the oat flakes. Fry in peanut oil.

King Prawn - Mission 1.01

Tropical shrimps, both farmed and wild caught.



Coldwater shrimps.


Since I write a food blog I have not prepared prawns. I am not a sea food fan but I would love to become one. I already had a lobster in my kitchen, however it was not my cup of tea. On the other hand I ate once a crayfish and it was absolutely fantastic! So today evening I thought to improvise some prawns. I remember first time I fried them they were very stringy. This time I enjoyed them very much: spicy and tender. I am gonna keep on working on my prawn project.


Ingredients:
handful of prawns
juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon fish sauce (thai)
salt, Sichuan pepper
oil

I had frozen prawns, which I cooked for about 2 minutes in some boiling water. After I prepared a marinade out of lime juice, honey, soy sauce, fish sauce, salt and sichuan pepper and left the prawns for 20 minutes to swim in it. Heat oil and fry prawns for some seconds on each side.