tasty

TODAY AT “CHEZ BELLA” – Sauteed Seabass & Potato Salat

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Ma´ Girl……….

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Today, I satisfied my craving for fresh fish by sharing 2 lbs of fillet with Bella.
Normally, this amount of fish fillet would easily serve four, but since we only had a small amount of potato salad with it, and we both only have one meal per day, the portion was not really that excessive…….. and of course, Bella agreed 🙂
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Bon Appétit !   Life is Good !
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Why “Chez Bella”  ???  Because……….     click here.
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Remove skin and bones from 2,5 lbs sea bass.
That should leave you with 2 lbs of clean fillet, wich serves four generous portions.
Season the fillets with kosher salt, sriracha, lemon juice and garlic paste to taste.
Dredge in a a/p flour and bread crumb mixture of 50/50 %, shake off excess flour.
Saute in 2 tblsp olive oil until golden on both sides, discard oil, add 2 oz of butter, saute another minute.
To serve, plate the fish, sprinkle with chopped cilantro, drizzle with the hot butter.
Serve with potato salad or side dish of your choice.
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TODAY AT “CHEZ BELLA” – Boiled Beef With Dill-Potatoes & Horseradish-Sauce – (Gekochtes Rindfleisch Mit Meerrettich Sauce & Dillkartoffeln)

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The reason why I love  Traditional German Food  are dishes like the one featured today, which is nearly impossible to find on a menu of any restaurant, anywhere 😦
So, as usual, when the craving scratches, switch-on the stove 🙂
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Bon Appétit !   Life is Good !
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Click here for  Beef With Horseradish Sauce Recipe  on  ChefsOpinion
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Boiled Beef With Dill-Potatoes & Horseradish-Sauce

Boiled Beef With Dill-Potatoes & Horseradish-Sauce

Boiled Beef With Dill-Potatoes & Horseradish-Sauce

Boiled Beef With Dill-Potatoes & Horseradish-Sauce

Boiled Beef With Dill-Potatoes & Horseradish-Sauce

Boiled Beef With Dill-Potatoes & Horseradish-Sauce

Boiled Beef With Dill-Potatoes & Horseradish-Sauce

Boiled Beef With Dill-Potatoes & Horseradish-Sauce

Boiled Beef With Dill-Potatoes & Horseradish-Sauce

Boiled Beef With Dill-Potatoes & Horseradish-Sauce

Boiled Beef With Dill-Potatoes & Horseradish-Sauce

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TODAY AT “CHEZ BELLA” – Bucatini With No-Cook Tomato Sauce

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This is probably one of my most-loved simple dishes of all time.
Not only does it taste wonderful if you use the best ingredients (good quality EVO (or Butter), pasta, chopped fresh tomatoes or bottled passata,  and cheese, (if possible Grana Padano),
It is also done in a flash and, best of all, it tastes incredibly FRESH, as if your old Italian grandma had produced it with lots of love and livelong experience on her wood-fired oven, just for you. 🙂
But please!, resist the temptation to use crappy, pre-packed, grated “mystery cheese” ! Grate your own favorite cheese and be rewarded with the best pasta dish you´ve had in a long time. 🙂
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Bon Appétit !   Life is Good !
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Why “Chez Bella”  ???  Because……….click here.
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Add 3 tblsp EVO to 2 cup passata, 1 tsp garlic paste, kosher salt, sriracha to taste and a dash of Maggie Seasoning (optional), mix well.
Remove the pasta straight from the cooking water to the seasoned oil, grate 3 tblsp fresh grated cheese of your choice on top (if possible, use Grana Padano) , mix well, check/ adjust the seasoning.
Serve with some more grated cheese and chopped herbs of your choice (optional)
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Bucatini With No-Cook Tomato Sauce

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Bucatini With No-Cook Tomato Sauce

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Bucatini With No-Cook Tomato Sauce

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Bucatini With No-Cook Tomato Sauce

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Bucatini With No-Cook Tomato Sauce

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Bucatini With No-Cook Tomato Sauce

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Bucatini With No-Cook Tomato Sauce

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Bucatini With No-Cook Tomato Sauce

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Bucatini With No-Cook Tomato Sauce

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Today´s Lunch at “Chez Bella” – “Seafood Soup With Mee Noodles”

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(Five Minutes Preparation, Five Hundred Minutes Satisfaction) 🙂
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Some leftover chicken stock with a bottle of clam juice (50/50 ratio), seasoned to taste with oyster sauce, toasted sesame oil, chili oil, ginger/garlic paste, sliced scallions and chilies, then added a pack of frozen seafood and a couple packs of Mee noodles, some Shaoxing wine, and pronto! – a great lunch in a few short minutes, enjoyed greatly by both Bella and myself.
Just good food, without the drama 🙂  Life is Good !
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Bon Appetit ! Stay healthy ! 🙂 
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Why “Chez Bella”  ???  Because……….click here.
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Escargot Catalan

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While “Escargots à la Bourguignonne” (Snails in Garlic–Herb Butter) is my favorite snail-dish, “Escargot Catalan” is a close second. (As long as there is enough garlic, herbs and a proper red wine in the sauce).
This dish not only serves as a perfect appetizer or snack, but it can also stand on its own feet as a main course, accompanied by sauteed potatoes, rice, or hearty, crusty bread to mop up the wonderful sauce. 🙂
It also serves perfectly as a family/friends meal, in a large bowl in the center of the table, from where everybody can help themselves to seconds (or thirds), the wonderful meal enriched with good wine and lively conversation. 🙂
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Bon Appétit !   Life is Good !
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Escargot Catalan

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Escargot Catalan

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Escargot Catalan

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Escargot Catalan

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Preparation :
To read instructions, hover over pictures
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Bombay Carrot, Coconut & Ginger Soup With Salted Cucumbers

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If you think that the salted cucumber addition for this soup are just a fru-fru gimmick to add some green color to the picture, think again 🙂
These pickled cucumbers truly add an surprising element of sophistication to an otherwise simple, everyday soup.
BTW, I also like to eat pickled cucumbers as a snack, either plain-salted, as shown here, or prepared a bit more elaborate,
such as in my “Chinese pickled cucumbers recipe”   (涼拌黃瓜   liáng bàn huáng guā recipe)

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Bon Appétit !   Life is Good !
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Bombay Carrot, Coconut & Ginger Soup With Salted Cucumbers

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Bombay Carrot, Coconut & Ginger Soup With Salted Cucumbers

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Bombay Carrot, Coconut & Ginger Soup With Salted Cucumbers

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Preparation :
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Easy Does it # 39 – “Tuna Salad”

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Pls don´t miss the link at the bottom of this page for a truly “different” cooking tutorial ……
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Easy Does it # 39 – “Tuna Salad”

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This salad is probably ? the first “Main Course Salad” that ever hit a restaurant table, way back then.
In the meantime, it has been re-invented/improved a million times, with the ingredients changing from year to year, season to season, cook to cook, household to household, country to country, and restaurant to restaurant.
Probably, the only constant were always salad greens, onions, and tuna, otherwise, the imagination for tuna salad knows no bounds 🙂 Other typical ingredients are (among a million others), anchovies, potatoes, eggs, artichokes, herbs, asparagus, etc, etc.
While I have to admit that my desire to create a “new” version of tuna salad has occasionally got the better of me, my favorite version is still this simple one featured here on this page. 🙂
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Bon Appétit !   Life is Good !
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Easy Does it # 39 – “Tuna Salad”

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Easy Does it # 39 – “Tuna Salad”

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mix everything with 1/3 cup herb vinaigrette

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check/adjust seasoning

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Preparation :
To read instructions, hover over pictures
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And now, one for the road, not to be missed :
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Paris Hilton cooks Lasagna at her own “Cooking Show”
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I am torn between being sad, amused, disgusted and/or outraged about the fact that some folks (many ? !!!) find this to be an actual tutorial to learn cooking.
It is without a doubt a tutorial for various bad traits – but cooking is definitely not one of them 🙂 😦
This episode is one of the worst examples of how bad “cooking shows” have actually become. Most are shameful, ridiculous, bad, stupid and, flat-out, pure garbage.
My only hope is that this particular one is supposed to be satire and not to be taken seriously, but, judging from the ladies behavior and the general state of mind of the kind of people who watch crap like this, chances are that it is meant to be taken seriously:-(
God help us all !
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Capon Tacos

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Capon Tacos

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I believe, nowadays most everybody is familiar with chicken tacos.
These here beauties are essentially the same, except that the chicken has been replaced with the much more succulent and tasty capon.
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What Is a Capon ?
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Excerpt of an article by Danilo Alfaro on “thespruceEats”
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“A capon is a special type of chicken created to make the meat more tender and less gamy. It is a rooster that has been castrated before reaching sexual maturity, which improves the quality of the meat; after that, it is fed a rich diet of milk or porridge. The lack of testosterone makes for a more tender, flavorful meat that is a delight compared to regular chicken. Unfortunately, in the United States today, it may be rare to see capon on a dinner menu or in the grocery store.

This poultry was once considered a luxury and during the early part of the twentieth century, the capon was the chosen bird for Christmas feasts, especially for the wealthy. Working-class families saw capon as a rare treat because it was quite expensive. Compared to rooster meat, which can be quite gamy, capon meat is tender and flavorful. It is also relatively fatty and has a high proportion of white meat. The absence of sex hormones causes the difference in taste and texture between capon meat and rooster meat. The lack of the hormone also allows more fat to form on the bird’s muscles making them tender and buttery. Due to the nature of sex hormones, the rooster must be castrated before it reaches the age of maturity, otherwise, the changes in muscle density will have already occurred.
Castration makes the male chickens less aggressive too, which means less fighting among the birds. While roosters typically need to be separated, capons can usually be penned together without fear of feathers flying. They are also less energetic than other poultry, which helps their meat stay tender. While the lack of testosterone does mean that capons are smaller than the average rooster, a capon is still larger than an average chicken.

You can prepare capon like any other poultry dish. Typically, capons are roasted and the procedure for doing so is similar to roasting a chicken; due to its larger size, however, the cooking time will be longer.
Traditionally, roosters are braised. For instance, the classic French dish coq au vin involves braising a rooster in red wine. That is because their meat is tougher than chicken meat and they are usually slaughtered at an older age, which toughens the meat as well. As such, braising is also a good cooking technique for preparing capon.
A capon is more flavorful than a chicken as well as a turkey, with tender and juicy meat that is is void of any gamey taste. It is full-breasted and has a high-fat content, keeping what could become dry white meat nice and moist as it cools.
If you do manage to find capon meat in your local grocery store, you can follow a braised chicken recipe to prepare it. A whole, cut-up capon combines with bacon, leeks, onion, garlic, rosemary, tomato paste, chicken stock, and white wine and cooks slowly until bubbling and cooked through.

A roasted capon is a perfect centerpiece for a dinner party or holiday table. Keep it somewhat simple or try something a little more exotic.
Depending on where you live and how specialized your local supermarket is, you may be able to find a capon in the poultry section. Since capon is not an item that is bought often and therefore restocked regularly, it is important to look at the “sell-by” date, as well as the quality of the meat and make sure it’s fresh.
If you don’t see a capon in the poultry case, it is worth asking the butcher if he can get one for you. Otherwise, specialty groceries and online meat purveyors are your best bet.
If you don’t plan to cook the capon immediately, you can store it in the refrigerator for two to three days. To be sure that no liquids escape into your fridge, place the packaged capon in a plastic bag first. For longer storage, you can freeze the capon for three to four months, although it will begin to lose its flavor after two months. If the capon came with giblets, remove them before freezing and store separately.
In a 4-ounce serving of roasted capon (including the skin), there are 259 calories and 13.2 grams of fat, as well as 97 milligrams of cholesterol (which is 32 percent of the daily recommended value). Capon also has 32.7 grams of protein, making it a good source of this nutrient.”
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End of excerpt
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Bon Appétit !   Life is Good !
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Read here all about   Capon
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Capon Tacos

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Capon Tacos

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Capon Tacos

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Capon Tacos

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Capon Tacos

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Preparation :
To read instructions, hover over pictures
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Easy Does It # 38 – Slow Roast Crispy Duck, Creamed Spinach, Pommes Croquettes & Red Wine Jus

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Easy Does It # 38 – Slow Roast Crispy Duck, Creamed Spinach, Pommes Croquettes & Red Wine Jus

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When you read the title of this post and then see the final dish, you might wonder – whats easy about this ? 🙂
Let me assure you, everything is ! 🙂
The total preparation time is only about 20 minutes, although the total cooking time is more like 4.5 hours, give or take a few minutes.
How can this be, you ask ?
Well, I prepared this meal on Christmas day just for Bella and myself, so I took some shortcuts which I usually might not have taken, namely using frozen creamed spinach, which I enhanced with some additional heavy cream and a pinch of nutmeg. The result was VERY yummy.
I also used frozen pommes croquettes, which turned out surprisingly delicious, especially when paired with the wonderful duck sauce. (I always have demi glace of pork, poultry and veal in my freezer, so it is easy to produce excellent sauce in a relatively short time. 🙂
Actual prep time was approximately :
10 Minutes – unpacking, washing, drying, salting the duck, and, at the end, portioning the duck.
5 Minutes – unpacking the spinach, adding to a small sauteuse, adding cream and nutmeg.
3 Minutes – unpacking the croquettes, placing on the grill in the oven.
The most difficult thing was to wait for all these hours until we could finally dig-in, while the aroma coming from the kitchen made us hungrier by the minute. Of course, I started the duck for dinner right after lunch, so it was bearable for me, while Bella experienced four hours of nearly going nuts in front of the oven 🙂
I, on the other hand, had things to do, so, for me,  the time went by fast.
At the end, this was a superb meal with very little effort. Bella and I loved all of it. I am sure that if we would have had visitors, they would have been impressed by all the skills and effort and hard work I have spend for them with this dish.  🙂 🙂 🙂
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Bon Appétit !   Life is Good !
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Easy Does It # 38 – Slow Roast Crispy Duck, Creamed Spinach, Pommes Croquettes & Red Wine Jus

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Serving Suggestion #1 – Slow Roast Crispy Duck, Creamed Spinach, Pommes Croquettes & Red Wine Jus

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Serving Suggestion #2 – Slow Roast Crispy Duck, Creamed Spinach, Pommes Croquettes & Red Wine Jus

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Easy Does It # 38 – Slow Roast Crispy Duck, Creamed Spinach, Pommes Croquettes & Red Wine Jus

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Preparation :
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To enlarge pictures and read instructions, click on pictures

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Beef Goulash & Bread Dumplings

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Beef Goulash & Bread Dumplings

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A stew is one of these typical, beloved, easy to prepare dishes that have almost disappeared from fine restaurant menus and, sadly, from most household dining tables (or kitchen tables).
Many home cooks shy away from it because of the extended cooking time. But, once you realize that the actual prep time is usually short and easy, things look a lot more simple. After all, as long as you are at home, you can do whatever you want/need to do around the house as long as you check on your stew once in a while. The reward is a meal chock-full of flavor and debt, hardly achieved with any other cooking method (this one being “Braising.” )
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While this one looks like a typical goulash, the seasoning changes it into a very different animal.
In my own opinion, not better or worse, just different. I eat stews and goulash regularly, so I love to change the ingredients/seasoning often, to avoid monotony in my nutrition.
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Bon Appétit !   Life is Good !
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Beef Goulash & Bread Dumplings

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Beef Goulash & Bread Dumplings

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Beef Goulash & Bread Dumplings

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Beef Goulash & Bread Dumplings

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Beef Goulash & Bread Dumplings

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Beef Goulash & Bread Dumplings

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Preparation :
To read instructions, hover over pictures
To enlarge pictures and read instructions, click on pictures

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