Chef's hat: My signature spaghetti dish !

Today I thought I'd share probably my favourite recipe! Happy to say that this one came straight from my head too! When anyone asked me to cook for them, this is always the dish I use a main course, with a very light soup to start, or something crisp, like a bruschetta, anyway! That is unless they say they don't like cheese, or Parma ham, or tomatoes, in which case I tell them to go very far away from me. Everyone who has tasted this dish, has been amazed! So;

Spaghetti with roasted tomatoes, fresh rucola, prosciutto and emmental sauce.

A New Emerging Scientific Discipline

Hello all!,
I started today with a very nice find, a publication, Molecular Gastronomy: A New Emerging Scientific Discipline, made together with professionals from accross the globe. Looking forward to reading it, lets hope it actually somehow improves my understanding of flavour piaring, cooking and so on. I would lnk it, but then maybe you'd stop reading :)

Simple supper: Steak, mushrooms, bread.

I know, another post today, but actually this blog is being ported over from elsewhere. So these actually took much more time to make ! But now, a simple dinner. Steak, stuffed mushrooms and garlic bread. Fast and easy. I used springbok steak here, which is amazingly flavorful. Depending on where you live, you may be able to find it too. Here in NL, we can find it at Albert Heijn now and then.

Lets talk about meat a little first. The ideal temperature when meat is done should be 51.5°C for rare, 54.5°C for medium-rare and 60°C for medium ( Note no 'well-done' ) in the center. A normal cooking surface is about 120 - 160 degrees, you need to be careful to get a steak cooked just right, which many many people I know overlook or never even think about. Luckily beef and game can be eaten fairly raw. However, i've read many pro chefs saying that a steak has to be medium-rare to be right, allowing the marbling fat to melt. Which is hard to take for a rare lover like myself. Now some tips;

1. Take the meat out of the fridge about an hour before cooking. So its room temperature. This helps it cook.
2. You don't need to fry the steak at ridiculously high heat to 'seal' it at all. This really can only work if your meat has been cooked "sous-vide" style, ( which ill talk about later )
3. Resting meat in between frying will help heat diffuse through to the center, and cool the exterior. Frying it constantly until the center is done will result in a burnt/over cooked exterior.

Recipe after the jump !!

Chef's Hat: Coming up with ideas and Puff Pastry !

So my first Chef's hat post. Whenever you see this, it means its going to be something a little more complex and playful than my simple dishes! This will usually be in a story-like way, so you can follow me and see how I get the ideas and so on !

With flavour pairing on my mind, I want to create a starter with puff pastry. Sometimes for me the hardest thing about cooking, isn't the preparation or the cooking time or any of that, but merely how to get ideas, thats why we have millions of cook books, websites etc just for that. I'm trying to slowly create a system for easily finding great ideas. Till then, im going to use a flavour pairing chart to see what goes with puff pastry, lets have a look; 

I like the idea of doing something with cheese, so I'll make it with blue cheese inside, pair it with a glass of Gewürztraminer. So I know now we'll have the pastries texture, the soft cheese inside, so something is missing, some colour on the plate, maybe some sort of reduction, so i'll check what goes well with blue cheese! 

So, as we can see now, both go well with Strawberry, and both go well with peanuts. Or I could go Asian with the Kecap manis sauce, but, the plate still needs colour ! So ill choose for a strawberry reduction to serve the puff on, drizzled with balsamic vinegar. And why not coat the pastries with peanut oil to cook. 

This should turn out really well ! Will post when I make it,

And there we go a great idea ( I think ) thought up as I write :)

Vino: Sauvignon Blanc Pairing

My favourite white wine has to be Sauvignon Blanc, mainly because of its fruity, crisp flavour. I recently visited a few farms, one that made many different types of Sav blanc. Was amazing to taste so much difference in one cultivar. Wine and food pairing is a pretty big thing, actually something I havn't experimented with very much. So lets look at all the different flavour components of Sav Blanc, so we can create dishes to suit it's favourites !

Simple supper: Pizza

So, from now on in, when a post starts with Simple Supper - It means its a nice, really easy to do, even 'shortcut' recipe. Not saying they are any less awesome!

Chicken - Mushroom and Avocado Pizza

This one isn't even a recipe, more like an idea and a quick guide on how-to. Pizza is great, almost everyone loves pizza! But, even a person like me who can happily spend an hour cooking sometimes wants to hurry things up ! So you'll need;

Store-bought pizza base ( no tomato )
A can of diced italian tomatos ( I dont like the actual 'pizza' pr 'pasta' sauces, but you can try em out ! )
A 150g ball of Mozzarella per pizza.
One avocado, ripe.
Mushrooms and chicken breasts and some basil.

And ofcourse, olive oil.

Cut the chicken breasts into little strips. Pan fry till done with salt and pepper. Slice up the mushrooms as thinly as you can and slice your ball of mozzarella about, 5mm slices will do. Shred some basil. Cut open, peel and thinly slice the avo. Don't know how ? Comment and ill blog it !

Whip open your pizza base. Pour olive oil over the base, rub it in alll over it, taking a moment to take like you actually made it :)  Open the can of tomatos. Simply spoon some one the base and spread with the back of the spoon, till you got as much as you like. If you think tomatoes are sour, sprinkle some sugar, yes sugar!

Now spread some mushrooms, place the chicken where ever you like it and sprinkle with the fresh basil. Place the slices of mozzarella evenly around the pizza and drizzle with olive oil. Into a pre-heated oven at about 180'C until it looks done, take it out and layer the avocado. ( Cooking it makes it bitter ! )

Really, how simple is that. Cutting alot of corners, but simple !

Now to make it gourmet;  make the pizza base yourself, make the tomato sauce yourself - both of which I will be blogging about soon!  I'll also give an update of topping ideas soon !

Enjoy

So I finally got around to it !

Hello all !

For some reason, I don't like making the 'first post' post, but here it is, the first post on my new blog. Why this blog ? A mix of an interest to share, requests from friends and a slight touch of hope of Internet fame for my amazing cooking skill. Yes, I'm often sarcastic !  But really, I'm a business student who comes from a family of great cooks and naturally started cooking myself. I have a certain knack for creating great dishes in a very simple and easy-to-do way, which my friends tell me !

But, I'm also interested in gourmet cooking, specifically molecular cooking and finding new random creative ways to present flavor and texture. So, there will also be many blog posts on flavour pairing, presentation, strange experiments and hopefully some wonderful creations !

and last, we'll talk alot about wine my second favourite "past-time", second only to my love for food ! How to taste, why, who, what.. and so on !

I'm definitely no big time chef, or have any knowledge of food or wine really, but i can still have fun with it, and share that, something I want to share with people reading this ! So if your slightly interested in food and wine, I hope you enjoy my blog !