As a filling for my first attempt at making macarons (about which I will post tomorrow) I decided to make an orange curd. You see, I wanted to serve the macarons with a really nice dessert wine from Pantelleria, a small island between Sicily and Tunisia. This wine, called Passito di Pantelleria, is made from zibibbo grapes (a variety of muscat that is only found on that island) and pairs very well with orange. I had never made citrus curd before either, so I used a recipe from Joy of Baking. I turned out so great I could easily finish the curd just by itself. Here’s how to make it. Continue reading
Lamb Shank Sous-Vide
19 May
The amount of flavor in meat is determined to a large extent upon the amount of work that muscle had to do, and so shanks are very flavorful. Unfortunately muscles that do a lot of work also become tough, so there is often a choice between tender meat with a light flavor (such as tenderloin) or tough with meat lots of flavor (such as shanks). With traditional preparation, tough meat is often braised or stewed which makes it tender and flaky. The drawback of braising is that braised meat is often a bit dry. With sous-vide, you can have the best of both worlds: tough cuts can be cooked at a temperature that is just high enough to break down the toughness, but also low enough to allow the meat to stay succulent. The meat will be fork tender, succulent, and very flavorful.
The only drawback of the low temperature is that it takes a long time, between 24 and 72 hours. It is not a big problem because sous-vide cooking does not require any attention at all while it’s going on. So you can start up the cooking process on Sunday afternoon and serve outstanding meat on Tuesday night.
Spring is the time for lamb and the toughest cut of lamb that is packed with flavor is the lamb shank. Braised lamb shanks are good, lamb shanks cooked sous-vide for 48 hours at 62C/144F are simply amazing. Lamb shanks are not a prized cut, so please don’t buy sous-vide equipment so it will stay that way 
Continue reading
Orecchiette con le Cime di Rapa
18 May
The typical pasta dish from the South-Italian region of Puglia is orecchiette with cime di rapa. Cime di rapa is a vegetable that is also known as broccoletti or rapini. It is not the same as broccoli, although the green buds in the center certainly resemble small heads of broccoli. If you can’t find cime di rapa, you can make orecchietti with broccoli instead using the same recipe. It’s not the same dish, but good all the same. This time I used dry orecchiette, but this is even better if you use home-made orecchiette instead. Orecchiette with Cime di rapa is another example of a very simple but delicious regional Italian dish. Continue reading
Fennel Sous-Vide Fondant
17 May
After the success of parsnip sous-vide fondant, I decided to prepare more vegetables this way. My next experiment was with fennel, and it turned out great. The recipe is very simple and very tasty. The nice thing about parcooking the fennel sous-vide is that the fennel becomes tender but stays firm at the same time, which gives it a pleasant bite. You can make a vegetarian version by using vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. If you don’t have a sous-vide water bath but you do have a vacuum sealer, you could probably still make this by cooking the sealed fennel in a pot of simmering water. I haven’t tried this myself, but I’m pretty sure it will work if you can keep the temperature of the water in the pot between 85C/185F and 95C/200F. Continue reading
Veal Scaloppine al Marsala
16 May
Some dishes are so simple you don’t really need a recipe to make them. But that doesn’t mean they’re not delicious. Italian cuisine is full of such recipes. This one takes less than five minutes to prepare and is a classic recipe that you can find in restaurants all over Italy (and in fact, in Italian restaurants all over the world). Continue reading
Test – Scheduled Post
14 MayDear readers,
Recently I have noticed a decreased number of visits, likes, and comments on my blog. I have also noticed that some of my posts (and some of others) do not show up in the WordPress.com reader. My theory is that these two phenomena are connected.
Could you please like this post or leave a comment when you see it in the WordPress.com reader?
As a test, I will publish a post “live” and I will schedule one to see if that makes any difference. This is the scheduled post.
Thanks for your co-operation!
Stefan
Test – Unscheduled post
14 MayDear readers,
Recently I have noticed a decreased number of visits, likes, and comments on my blog. I have also noticed that some of my posts (and some of others) do not show up in the WordPress.com reader. My theory is that these two phenomena are connected.
Could you please like this post or leave a comment when you see it in the WordPress.com reader?
As a test, I will publish a post “live” and I will schedule one to see if that makes any difference.
Thanks for your co-operation!
Stefan
Burgundy is all about Terroir
14 May
Burgundy (Bourgogne) is a region in France that is famous for its wine and its food. Three years ago we went there for a few days to discover the wine region and purchased some nice wines. Most Burgundian wines are at their best between 5 and 10 years from the harvest, and since the wines we purchased were mostly from the vintages 2007 and 2008 it is time to start drinking them. And that’s all the excuse I needed to organize some Burgundian evenings to share the wines with our friends and enjoy them with some good Burgundian food. Continue reading
Jambon Persillé (Ham Hock Terrine)
12 May
Burgundy (Bourgogne) is a region in France that is famous for its wine and its food. Three years ago we went there for a few days to discover the wine region and purchased some nice wines. When tasting white wines, often a appetizer called jambon persillé was served with it and I remember it was a good pairing. And so it was not hard to decide what kind of appetizer from Burgundy I was going to make for the Burgundian evenings I organised. Continue reading
Duck Leg a l’Orange Sous-Vide
11 May
Sous-vide confit of duck leg is great, but I thought it should also be possible to do a more juicy less flaky texture. Some experimenting with times and temperatures showed me right: 24 hours at 64.5C/148F yielded tender juicy duck legs. Duck with orange is a classic combination from French cuisine, known as Canard à l’Orange. And so a very simple but very stylish and tasty dish was born. Ingredients? Duck legs, an orange, salt and pepper, and a teaspoon of honey. That’s it! The duck is cooked in its own fat. Perfect simplicity or simple perfection? Continue reading
