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I came across a can of green peppercorn in my cup board and the first thing that came to mind was, of course, a classic green peppercorn sauce, flamed with cognac. But then I did not really feel it to go with my flank steak today, so instead, I made these very tasty potatoes to go with my steak. Great taste and texture, I am sure I will do some future dishes in that direction 🙂
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I took this to my friend’s house last night for our turkey dinner. He thought it was great. Thinking about it today, if you replace the salt with sugar and add a bit of vanilla, this would make a great bread pudding, served with a fruit coulis or vanilla sauce.
Enjoy, either way ! 🙂
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Day old bread, diced
Chicken stock, (for sweet version, substitute milk)
Eggs, whole
Dried cranberries,
Walnuts, coarsely crumbled
Kosher salt, (for sweet version, substitute sugar)
Cayenne pepper, (even for sweet version)
Chives, sliced (for sweet version, substitute vanilla)
Method :
Pour hot stock (milk) over bread and seasoning, let cool.
Add eggs, nuts , cranberries and chives (vanilla) and mix
without breaking up bread to much. Put into buttered
baking dish and cook at 400 F until set.
Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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I love fish and chips. Unfortunately, it’s relatively hard to come by around here. For a while I thought I found the perfect place, “the Pub” in Pembroke Pines. Maria and I had fish & chips there a few times in a row and it was very good each time, juicy fish, not too much batter, very crispy on the outside. Then we took a bunch of friend’s there for dinner, recommending of course the fish & chips. Imagine my embarrassment when they served us soggy, tasteless doughy crap which we did not eat. A few weeks later Maria and I went again, ordering other food, which was good. We also ordered one portion of fish & chips, just to make sure. Same crap again. Time to look for another place.
So, there you have it, I am a big fan of fish & chips.
Last night all I had in the fridge was tilapia, not usually a choice to make fish & chips. However, I also had rice papper sheets in the cup board, so here is what I came up with. Although it is not even close to the traditional version of fish & chips, it was nevertheless a great version . VERY light and crispy on the outside, the fish steamed perfectly on the inside, juicy and flaky. Served with mushy peas and baked chips.
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Ingredient’s :
Tilapia, cut into wide strips
Rice paper sheets, soaked
Lime, juiced
Kosher salt,
Sriracha,
Potatoes, cut into fries shape, blanched in water
Kosher salt,
Green peas, frozen
Green bell pepper, diced
Roasted garlic paste,
Butter,
Kosher salt,
Sriracha,
Peanut oil, to fry fish & chips
Method :
Bake potatoes in oven at 425 F until crispy and golden.
Sprinkle with salt.
Saute Peppers in butter, add peas, garlic and seasoning,
heat through. Blend with stick blender until coarsely pureed.
Season fish, roll tightly in rice paper and fry until golden and
crisp, about two minutes. Serve with lime and soy for the fish,
mayonnaise for the chips.
P.S.
In case you ever wonder, yes,
I do eat those peppers and chilis I garnish my plates with 🙂
All about FISH & CHIPS
Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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This recipe work’s as well with other seafood, such as shrimp, mussels, lobster, cuttlefish, octopus, etc. Even chicken, beef, pork, or all vegetables for a vegetarian version, you name it. But here, squid it is. The secret to a successful squid dish is to not overcook the squid. Sauteing a few seconds in a very hot pan, then removing them and adding back to the dish at the very end of the dishes cooking process, making sure they don’t simmer or boil anymore, will do the trick.
Enjoy 🙂
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Squid, cleaned, cut into squares
Potatoes, peeled, cut into thick slices, cooked
Corn on the cob, sliced, cooked
Cauliflower, rosettes, blanched
Tomatoes, diced
Onions, diced
Garlic, paste
Cilantro, coarsely chopped
Kosher salt,
Hoisin sauce,
Scotch bonnet hot sauce,
Soy sauce,
Ketchup,
Peanut oil, to saute,
Method :
Saute squid on high heat until opaque, 3-4 seconds, remove, reserve.
Saute garlic and onions until fragrant, add all other ingredients
and saute until heated through. Remove from heat, mix with squid.
To serve, sprinkle with fair amount of cilantro.
Bon Appetit ! Live is Good !
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” Curry Sausage With French Fries ”
A post worth writing / reading you ask ? Well, if you ever had a good curry wurst, you start salivating just by reading the title. If you never had one, you might shake your head in disbelieve. What could be so special about a sausage drowned in curry-ketchup ? What the heck is curry ketchup ? Like many things in life, a mere description can never do justice to the actual experience of eating the real thing. I for one love my caviar, foie gras, lobster and so forth. But as you must have realized by now, I just as much appreciate the simpler thing’s in live. “Curry wurst mit fritten” certainly is one of them. Now, there are many different sausages suitable for this dish, but since I live in the states, it is more difficult in certain areas to source good quality sausages. However, I have access to very good mild Italian sausages which fit perfectly. As for the curry sauce, many elaborate sauces have been concocted over time, some more, most less successful. What works best for me is a quality ketchup mixed with roasted garlic puree, good quality curry powder and a bit of salt. That’s it ! Please don’t knock it before you tried it. I have surprised many a chef over the years with this simple sauce (condiment), most of whom were eager to get the “secret recipe”. Important also is to sprinkle a fair amount of the curry powder over the sauced sausage just before serving. I can think of no other dish in the world were I would suggest that, but here it works just beautifully. Also very important are first class, crispy french fries, sprinkled generously with sea salt and dipped into mayonnaise. Yep, the comercial kind of mayo works best here. Save the good home made stuff for something else 🙂
Guten Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Many years ago, when I went to Istanbul for the first time, one day my friend’s and I went to a port side restaurant which had the day’s menu displayed as actual food on a table outside.
One of the things that caught our eyes where wonderful pastries, rolled up like cigarettes and obviously stuffed with ??? We could not find out from the waiter what it was stuffed with (nobody at the place spoke english ), but because they looked so appetizing we ordered a bunch. When they were served, much to my disappointment the first bite almost made me gag, because they were filled with feta cheese amongst other goodies. My friend’s loved the “cigarettes”, but sadly, I could not eat them. Although I am a fanatic cheese lover, one of the few cheeses I can not eat is feta cheese. But over the years, these pastries vividly stayed in my memories of my first visit to Turkey and I have since then created many different versions. ( None of them containing goat cheese ) but using fillings made of lamb, shrimps, lobster, vegetables, fish, as well as a number of sweet fillings, chocolate, strawberries, bananas, etc. They are great as party food, snack, appetizer or, as here, a main course .
Here is a version of Turkish Sigara Boregi I concocted earlier today. Because they served as dinner, I made them much thicker then the usual Sigara Boregi, so instead of cigarettes I call them Cigars 🙂
I just loved this dish, Bella and I pigged out and eat the whole tray for dinner, all eight of them.
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Pork, ground
Vegetable stock,
Onions, diced
Peppers, diced
chilies, diced
( I like my filling VERY spicy. If you don’t,
you might want to hold off on the scotch bonnet’s )
Tomato, chopped
Garlic, paste
Kosher salt,
Smoked paprika,
Parmigiano reggiano, finely grated
Butter, for phyllo
Olive oil, to saute
Red wine, to deglaze
Method :
Saute the meat in the olive oil until it start’s to brown.
Add the vegetables, continue sauteing until the onions
are translucent. Deglaze with red wine, add stock and
seasoning. Let simmer until meat is done and liquid
has mostly evaporated.
Brush each phyllo sheet with butter before topping with
the next sheet. In this recipe I have used three layers of
phyllo. Put some of the pork on one end of the phyllo sheets,
sprinkle cheese on top, roll up into cigar shape, cut to desired length.
A variation would be to sprinkle the pork loosely over the
entire surface and the roll them into cigarette sized rolls.
As dipping sauces I had sweet Thai chili sauce and dill-yogurt.
Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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This goes to John and Elli Vicente in Texas,
who have requested this a couple of month’s ago.
Hope you guy’s find it like it was imprinted in Ellis’
memory back in Germany 🙂
Guten Appetit ! Das Leben Ist Schoen !
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Rouladen –
Ingredient’s
Beef, round, cut into long slices, pounded very thin
Smoked bacon, sliced
Onions, julienned
Dijon mustard,
Carrots, quartered lengthwise
Kosher pickles,
Mirepoix,
Tomato, chopped
Bay leaves,
Kosher salt,
Black pepper, freshly ground
Flour, to dust rouladen
Stock, preferably beef, substitute chicken, pork, vegetable
Oil, to saute
Kitchen twine,
Method :
Season both sides of beef with salt and pepper. Spread out on work surface, then top with ingredients as shown in photos. Roll up tightly and tie with kitchen twine. Saute in oil until nicely browned on all sides, remove and reserve. Saute mirepoix until caramelized, add tomatoes. Deglaze with a good amount of red wine, add stock, bay leaves and seasoning (Easy at this point, the sauce will reduce) Return the beef to the sauce and very slowly simmer until the meat is tender but not falling apart when handling. When meat is tender, carefully remove from sauce and cut off the twine. Remove bay leaves from sauce and with a stick blender puree the vegetables until sauce is nice and smooth. Adjust thickness by adding a bit more stock, or, if too thin, reduce until the desired texture is achieved. Adjust seasoning if required. Return rouladen to the sauce and keep warm until ready to serve.
Dumplings –
Ingredient’s
Dense bread, such as sourdough or focaccia, day old, diced
Onions, diced,
Bacon, diced
Eggs, whole
Milk, whole
Chives, finely sliced
Kosher salt,
Cayenne pepper,
Nutmeg,
Method :
Heat milk to a simmer, drizzle over bread until damp. Render bacon until crisp, add onions and further saute until translucent. To the bread add eggs, bacon & onion mixture, chives and seasoning and carefully mix all ingredients without mashing them. ( Stick your hands with fingers spread open along the wall of the bowl and lift the ingredients up, allowing them to fall back down without being mashed ). Repeat until evenly mixed. I suggest that at this point you should make a small sample to see how the texture of the cooked dumpling will be. Shape a small ball and cook it in simmering water for a few minutes. Remove from water and check. If the texture is too soft, you can add a bit of bread crumbs. If it is too dense, add another egg or two. Make another sample if necessary. If you are happy with the sample, shape into tennis ball sized spheres. Immerse in boiling salted water, bring back to a boil. Turn down heat to a very low simmer and let the dumplings cook for about 40 minutes. To make sure the dumplings are cooked through, remove one and cut in half. After they are done, serve at once.
Note : Leftover dumplings cannot successfully be re-heated in dumpling form, they will get very dense. I will post a recipe for a great dish ( Geroestete Semmelknoedel mit Ei) made with leftover bread dumplings within the next few days 🙂
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Cheers
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Breakfast time is slowly but surely becoming the best part of my off day’s.
It is always something I can eat with gusto, usually while watching a good movie.
That’s the way all day’s should start 🙂
Then, on to some form of exercise, in my case an hour long walk with Bella
(sometimes two hours), then do the day’s home chores.
Life is Good !
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Ingredients :
Top round, cut into scallop and pounded evenly 1/4 inch thin
Bread crumbs,
Egg, whole, whisked
Flour,
Kosher salt,
Black pepper, fresh ground
Sour orange juice,
Olive oil, to saute
Butter, to saute
Eggs, whole, to fry
Method :
Season the beef and let marinade over night.
Next morning, bread the beef by dipping in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs.
Saute in oil until golden on both sides. When almost done, discard oil,
add butter and eggs and cook until bistec and eggs are done to your liking.
To serve, top bistec with fried eggs and sprinkle with chili flakes and cilantro or chives
¡ disfrute !
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Rarely, if ever, have I had the audacity to pronounce any dish I created “perfect”
Great – yes; superb – yes; my absolute favorite – yes; outstanding – yes;
But to say one can not improve upon a dish usually indicates stupidity,
arrogance, ignorance or all of the above.
However, the ribs I cooked last night – absolutely perfect !
In my own, personal, humble opinion, these were the ultimate, best,
top of the line beef ribs. Perfect texture, perfect taste, perfect presentation.
If you don’t agree after you have recreated them, you can call me stupid if you want,
but I will always know that these are the perfect beef ribs 🙂
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Beef ribs,
Teriyaki sauce,
(I sometimes make my own, here is a good recipe) : Teriyaki Sauce
Oyster sauce,
Soy sauce,
Chili oil,
Chili pepper,
Sweet chili sauce,
Wasabi,
Kosher salt,
Method :
Simmer ribs in water for two to three hours,
until very tender, but not ” falling of the bones”
(That would be over cooked 🙂 )
Season the water with slices of ginger and garlic, onion, kosher salt, soy sauce and chili pepper. When tender, remove ribs, pad dry and brush with basting liquid made with teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, wasabi, chili oil, sweet chili sauce and salt. Place on baking rack and bake in oven at 375 F for 45 minutes. While baking, baste again every ten minutes. When done, remove from oven, sprinkle with sesame seeds and scallion. Let rest for fifteen minutes before cutting into individual ribs.
Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Food memories ……..
Caldo Verde.
For me this recalls the time we were living in Madeira, Portugal. We were living and working in Porto Moniz, in a wonderful apartment overlooking the ocean, close to the center of Funchal, near the rock pool and a great restaurant which was in a rock cave just below our house and specialized in grilled sardines. During many evenings during the cooler months of the year, Maria and I went across the street to a simple restaurant/kiosk which was located right on the stony beach, just opposite the cave restaurant. While I forgot the name of the places, I remember clearly what we consumed most times: A bottle of ” Gatao Vinho Verde ” for me, a diet coke for Maria and two bowls of ” Caldo Verde ” for the both of us if we had dinner on the beach. Same beverages, accompanied by four orders of grilled sardines (one for Maria, three for me ) when we dined in the Cave. These simple dinners alway’s made a perfect ending to a busy day. Memories……. 🙂
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Kale, thoroughly washed, stems removed
Potatoes, medium diced
Chorizo, finely sliced
Stock, chicken, beef, pork, or vegetables
( I used leftover smoked pork stock I had in my freezer
from last weeks “Collard Greens” preparation )
Garlic, paste
Onions, diced
Black pepper, fresh ground
Kosher salt,
Maggi seasoning
Olive oil, to saute
Method :
Saute chorizo in oil until starting to brown.
Remove chorizo, reserve. Saute onions and garlic
until translucent, add potatoes and stock, simmer
until potatoes are soft. Mash potatoes or blend with a
stick blender. Add kale and most of the chorizo. Simmer
until kale is soft. Season soup with salt, pepper and maggi to taste.
To serve, sprinkle the rest of the chorizo on top for color.
Bom apetite ! A vida é boa !
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ChefsOpinion 