tasty

Coconut Soup With Silkened Chicken & Snow Peas

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While a genuine Thai, Indonesian, Indian or any other “genuine” coconut soup can be wonderful if properly prepared, sometimes it is impractical to go to the full length of dozens of ingredients just to have a quick, flavorful and economic soup. If you find yourself in such a situation, you might want to try this simple preparation, which can be enjoyed after no more than fifteen minutes from start to finish. Of course, I am all for authentic recipes and I believe we must make an effort to make sure that under normal circumstances and whenever practical, we don’t make unnecessary short cuts because we are lazy. But sometimes, if you want something tasty and can’t do the big production for whatever reason ………., well, I am sure you’ve got the point 🙂

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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Coconut Soup With Silkened Chicken & Snow Peas

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Coconut Soup With Silkened Chicken & Snow Peas

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Preparation :
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marinade diced chicken breast in soy sauce, lime juice, kosher salt, five spice powder, grated ginger and garlic paste, add corn starch, mix well

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cook pasta of your choice, drain, blanch snow peas, shock in ice water, drain, heat chicken stock seasoned with kosher salt, cayenne, garlic paste, grated ginger

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add coconut milk, simmer for three minutes

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after simmering snpw peas one minute, schock in ice water

after simmering snow peas one minute, shock in ice water

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add fresh shiitake mushrooms and chicken to simmering stock, simmer for three more minutes

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add drained pasta and snow peas to serving bowl

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ladle soup with chicken and shiitake on top of pasta and snow peas

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sprinkle with chili flakes and chopped cilantro

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Coconut Soup With Silkened Chicken & Snow Peas

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Coconut Soup With Silkened Chicken & Snow Peas

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Coconut Soup With Silkened Chicken & Snow Peas

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Breakfast Of Champions # 38 – Croissant, Ham, Spicy Chorizo & Soft Boiled Egg

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Got up late today, so a substantial breakfast and no lunch will be the order of the day 🙂
Later an early dinner and to bed early, 3.30am the new work week starts 😦
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Click here for more Breakfast Of Champions
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Breakfast Of Champions # 38 – Croissant, Ham, Spicy Chorizo & Soft Boiled Egg

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Breakfast Of Champions # 38 – Croissant, Ham, Spicy Chorizo & Soft Boiled Egg

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Preparation :
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fresh croissant

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cut croissants in half

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saute ham in garlic oil, top two croissant halves with ham

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top with sliced spicy chorizo

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top remaining two croissant halves with sweet chili sauce

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grate asiago cheese on top of chorizo

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top with two soft-boiled eggs each

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top with arugula in french dressing

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Breakfast Of Champions # 38 – Croissant, Ham, Spicy Chorizo & Soft Boiled Egg

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Breakfast Of Champions # 38 – Croissant, Ham, Spicy Chorizo & Soft Boiled Egg

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Breakfast Of Champions # 38 – Croissant, Ham, Spicy Chorizo & Soft Boiled Egg

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Polpi In Umido – Italian Style Octopus Stewed In Wine And Tomatoes

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Octopus is one of my favorite seafood. Unfortunately, fresh octopus is not usually available around here. I sometimes order it online, but for the spur of the moment, I usually fall back to canned octopus. I have tried many different brands over the years and my favorite is the Vigo brand in garlic/olive oil. I usually prepare a salad by mixing it with peppers, herbs, potatoes and vinaigrette. Once in a while I mix it in a mixed seafood stew. However, for the dish at hand it was the perfect taste and texture. I even added the garlic oil from the can since it has a strong taste of the sea. A quick, easy and very affordable seafood recipe. If you are not a fan of octopus, replace it with shrimp, just simmer the shrimp and sauce for less time in order to keep the shrimp succulent and moist.

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Click here for more about Octopus
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Polpi In Umido – Italian Style Octopus Stewed In Wine And Tomatoes

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Polpi In Umido – Italian Style Octopus Stewed In Wine And Tomatoes

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Preparation :
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saute finely diced onions and garlic paste in olive oil

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when onions are translucent add tomato paste, saute another minute

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deglaze with red wine, add octopus with it's canned oil, kosher salt and cayenne pepper, simmer fr three minutes, check/adjust seasoning

deglaze with red wine, add octopus with its canned oil, finely chopped tomatoes, kosher salt and cayenne pepper, simmer for three more minutes, check/adjust seasoning

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meanwhile, cook bucatini al dente, strain, mix with olive oil

meanwhile, cook bucatini al dente, strain, add some olive oil

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plate bucatoni, top with octopus ragout, sprinkle with italian parsley and basil leaves

plate bucatini, top with octopus ragout, sprinkle with italian parsley and basil leaves

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Polpi In Umido – Italian Style Octopus Stewed In Wine And Tomatoes

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Polpi In Umido – Italian Style Octopus Stewed In Wine And Tomatoes

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Milanesa Mexicana

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Playing with food 🙂
Green, white and red –
very easy to come up with a real Mexican dish using the mexican flag colors.

¡ Buen Provecho ! ¡ Viva México!
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Click here for Guacamole recipe
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Click here for Salsa Mexicana recipe
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Milanesa Mexicana

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Milanesa Mexicana

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Preparation :
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mise en place

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season veal cutlet with kosher salt and cayenne pepper, bread with flour, egg and breadcrumbs, saute in olive oil and butter until golden and cooked medium well, remove to absorbent paper

season thinly pounded veal cutlet with mustard, kosher salt and cayenne pepper, bread with flour, egg and breadcrumbs, saute in olive oil and butter until golden and cooked medium well, remove to absorbent paper

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place onto serving platter, drizzle with lime juice, top with guacamole, sour cream and salsa mexicana, sprinkle with chives or cilantro (however, there is already plenty cilantro in the guacamole)

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Milanesa Mexicana

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Milanesa Mexicana

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Let’s Face It – Once In A While, This Is All We Want And Need :-)

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Every chef knows this feeling, even if it only hit’s once a year – you get home after a crappy day at work and you don’t want to hear or see about cooking for the rest of the day but still want something fine for dinner. Exactly what happened to me today. So, here is what went down at my house today:

Bubbly aperitif by the lake at sunset, then a dinner of strawberry ice cream (store-bought), fresh pineapple and ice-cold milk in front of the TV. Success ! Already feeling a whole lot better.
( I wonder if that’s the ice cream or the bubbly?) 🙂

Bon Appetit ! Don’t let it get to you !
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Thank you Dana and Lara for the nice wine and champagne.
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Sunset Apéritif & TV Dinner

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Sunset Apéritif & TV Dinner

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Sunset Apéritif & TV Dinner

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Sunset Apéritif & TV Dinner

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EASY DOES IT # 16 – Two Quick, Simple Salad’s

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A lot of folk’s shy back from constructed salads because they find them difficult to make and the recipes too complicated.
I can asure you that nothing is further from the truth. First, choose two main components, such as pasta and cold cuts, rice and seafood, potato and vegetables, vegetables and cheese, any grain such as amaranth, barley, quinoa, or rye, add herbs or whatever else tickles your fancy. Add whatever else you want to add that you think will enhance your salad, dress with whatever dressing you fancy. Combine any ingredients you feel will go well together and experiment.
However, if the salad is to be served at a later point in time or outside at a party, I don’t recommend homemade mayo for obvious reasons, use the store-bought version which is safer. Also, for pasta, rice and potato salads, I recommend to cook the starch a bit longer than if you use them in a hot dish. The texture will be more pleasant.
Following find two simple salads which I made yesterday. The whole prep and assembly took about thirty minutes total. If you don’t have much practice, both salads might take you an hour, not bad for two different dishes that serve about 20 each. Just remember, It’s your salad – do with it whatever you like as long as YOU think it’s the way it should be: omit, add, deduct any ingredient You feel makes your dish a better one 🙂

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“Shrimp, Pasta And Egg Salad”

Penne rigata, shrimp, fennel leaves, eggs, peas, cherry tomatoes, mayo (easy on the mayo), olive oil, garlic paste, white balsamic vinegar, kosher salt, cayenne pepper, greek yogurt, maggi. Use whatever ratio of ingredients you prefer. If it tastes good and looks good, you’ve done it right 🙂
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“Farfalle Salad With Salame, Pepperjack And Cornichons”

Farfalle pasta, salame, pepper jack cheese, cornichons, scallions, mayo (easy on the mayo), olive oil, dijon mustard, garlic paste, white balsamic vinegar, cornichon liquid, kosher salt, cayenne pepper, maggi. Same here again, use whatever ratio of ingredients you prefer. If it tastes good and looks good, you’ve done it right 🙂
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Happy Cooking and Bon Appetit !
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Click here for more “Easy Does It”

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Shrimp, Pasta And Egg Salad

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Shrimp, Pasta And Egg Salad

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Shrimp, Pasta And Egg Salad

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Shrimp, Pasta And Egg Salad

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Farfalle Salad With Salame, Pepperjack And Cornichons

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Farfalle Salad With Salame, Pepperjack And Cornichons

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Farfalle Salad With Salame, Pepperjack And Cornichons

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Farfalle Salad With Salame, Pepperjack And Cornichons

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Dear Friend’s, to help support this blog,
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Breakfast Of Champions # 37 – Raspberry Pancake

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What a difference it makes to make pancake batter from scratch, compared to the packaged crap. You can control exactly how sweet you want it, make a sweet or savory version (bacon pancake anybody?), add vanilla or not and best of all, the texture and taste is so much better when made from scratch. The only thing you want to be careful with is to make sure that the bowl and wire whisk (to whisk the egg whites) is absolutely fat-free so you can achieve stiff-peaked egg whites which are the key to a feather light pancake.

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Click here to watch a video of how to make an epic Bacon Pancake With Gorgonzola And Cicharones
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Raspberry Pancake

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Preparation :
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mix 1 cup of selfrising flour, 4 eggyolks, 2 tbl spoon sugar, 1 pinch salt and 1 dash of vanilla extract

mix 1 cup of self-raising flour, 4 egg yolks, 2 tbl spoon sugar, 1 pinch salt and 1 dash of vanilla extract

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mix all ingredients until smooth

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whisk 4 eggwhites until stiff peaks form

whisk 4 egg whites to stiff peaks

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lightly fold egg whites into batter

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pour into medium hot pan

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sprinkle with raspberries

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bake at 380 until pancake has set, flip pancake to brown on other side and to caramelize the raspberries. (to avoid flipping the pancake, you can also turn of the oven when the pancake has set and switch on the broiler), but I personally like the first method better because of the way the raspberries spread out and turn into a caramelized puree 🙂

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to serve, sprinkle with powdered chocolate and sugar, top with raspberry yogurt and more fresh raspberries

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Raspberry Pancake

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Raspberry Pancake

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Raspberry Pancake

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Gravlax Dinner

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Tonight I finally got to eat the gravlax I prepared last week. What a great tasting piece of fish. Of course, what makes it perfect is the accompanying dill/mustard sauce, without which a gravlax is not complete. Many restaurants nowadays serve gravlax with all kind of fancy sauces and condiments, which might seem right if you never been to Scandinavia and had the real deal. But please believe me, making the dill / mustard sauce will take you less then five minutes and only “it” will make the dish perfect.
The ingredients for dill / mustard sauce are few and in everybody’s cup board:
Good quality mustard, white wine vinegar, kosher salt, neutral tasting oil (I used grape seed oil), sugar, fresh dill leaves only, pepper(optional), I used cayenne pepper and replaced the sugar with weisswurst senf (sweet, brown, Bavarian mustard)

Smaklig måltid! Livet är bra !
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Click here for Gravlax recipe
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Gravlax, Sour Dough Bread, Dill / Mustard Sauce

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Gravlax, Sour Dough Bread, Dill / Mustard Sauce

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Preparation :
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dijon mustard, sweet mustard, dill leaves

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mix mustards, dill, kosher salt and cayenne pepper

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slowly drizzle grapeseed oil into mustard and dill mixture until a emulsion has formed, check / adjust taste

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dill / mustard sauce

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toast bread until golden

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toasted sour dough bread

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smear bread with garlic / herb butter

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top with thinly sliced gravlax, serve with dill/ mustard sauce, lemon slices and chilled white wine

top with thinly sliced gravlax, serve with dill/ mustard sauce, lemon wedges and chilled white wine

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Gravlax, Sour Dough Bread, Dill / Mustard Sauce

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Gravlax, Sour Dough Bread, Dill / Mustard Sauce

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Gravlax, Sour Dough Bread, Dill / Mustard Sauce

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Dear Friend’s, to help support this blog,
please be so kind and click on the video on the bottom of this page. Thank you 🙂
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Pig’s Tail Souse

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How many folks have actually tried pig’s tails? Not many in this part of the world I assume. In my opinion, pigs tails are one of the best parts of the pig, but sadly underutilized in the “civilized world”, were we tend to discard secondary cuts or feed them to the animals (lucky dogs 🙂 ).
Thankfully, lately some of these special cuts have found new fans and pigs tails are now widely available again at your favorite butcher and even in supermarkets.
Buy them fresh, smoked or salted (dry or in brine) for a variety of wonderful dishes. For the following dish I used pigs tails in brine.

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Pig’s Tail Souse

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Preparation :
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remove tails from brine, rinse under running water for 15 minutes, cover with cold water, season with cider vinegar, garlic paste and hot sauce, simmer until tender but not falling apart, about two hours

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cooked, tender pigs tails

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for the dresing, slice onions, cucumbers and radishes into fine julienne, add kosher salt, cayenne pepper, garlic paste, cider vinegarand a few drops of olive oil

for the dressing, slice onions, cucumbers and radishes into fine julienne, add finely sliced chives, kosher salt, cayenne pepper, garlic paste, cider vinegar and a few drops of olive oil

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pour over tails, let stand at room temperature for about one hour, serve with rustic bread

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Pig’s Tail Souse

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Pig’s Tail Souse

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Pig’s Tail Souse

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this weeks herb bush : Chives

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Links to more pig’s tails on ChefsOpinion:

PIG’S TAIL AND POTATO CURRY, NAAN AND CUCUMBER RAITA

CONGEE WITH SMOKED PIG’S TAILS & VEGETABLES

SMOKED PIG’S TAIL, BOW TIES & VEGETABLE STEW

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Kare Kare

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So, everybody and their mother have the one, the only, the very best Kare Kare recipe. Of course, having lived in the Philippines for almost five years, I have my very own “best” recipe.
As for the protein, the most common is ox tail, but of course you can substitute it with any protein you like, even omit it completely and make a vegetarian version. The most important part of Kare Kare is the peanut sauce, of which a million of fine variations exist 🙂 (and maybe some not so fine)
Here now is my humble version of this wonderful dish:

Saute beef neck bones, seasoned with kosher salt and black pepper, in peanut oil until browned. Remove bones, reserve. Saute chopped carrots, onions and celery until caramelized, return neck bones to the pot, cover with water. Add lots of garlic paste, a handful of rice, a good amount of turmeric, a few annatto seeds, salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Cook slowly for about two to three hours or until meat is tender. Add a large amount of peanut butter and simmer until sauce has thickened. Add Patis and calamansi juice, check /adjust seasoning. While the meat simmers, blanch zucchini batons, eggplant batons, whole chilies and baby bok choy, shock in ice water, drain. When the stew is done, add the vegetables to it and simmer until vegetables have heated through. Serve with white rice.

Mabuting Gana ! Buhay Ay Mabuti !
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Kare Kare

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Kare Kare

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Kare Kare

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Preparation :
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saute beef neck bones, seasoned with kosher salt and black pepper, in peanut oil until browned

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remove bones, reserve

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saute chopped carrots, onions and celery until caramelized

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return neck bones to the pot

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cover with water

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add lots of garlic paste, a handful of rice, a good amount of turmeric, a few anatto seeds, salt and pepper and bring to a simmer

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ook slowly for about two to three hours or until meat is tender, add a large amount of peanut butter and simmer until sauce has thickened, add patis and calamansi juice, check /adjust seasoning

cook slowly for about two to three hours or until meat is tender, add a large amount of peanut butter and simmer until sauce has thickened, add patis and calamansi juice, check /adjust seasoning

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while the meat simmers, blanch zucchini batons, eggplant batons, whole chilies and baby bok choy, schock in ice water, drain. When the stew is done, add the vegetables to it and simmer until vegetables have heated through. Serve with white rice

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