I enjoy cooking, but it is also a great pleasure if someone cooks for me for a change. I appreciate it all the more because it can be nerve-wracking or at least intimidating to cook for a more experienced cook. … Continue reading Duck Breast and Sunchokes Sous-Vide With Mushrooms and Five Spice
Sous vide is a very precise cooking technique when it comes to temperature control. This is especially useful for cooking meat and fish, because proteins react strongly to a difference in temperature. A difference of 2 degrees Celcius or 5 … Continue reading Chicken Breast Sous Vide Time Experiment
In Italian cooking, an important distinction in pasta sauces is between ‘red’ (with tomato) and ‘white’ (without tomato). Many recipes come in white and red versions. I often have both versions on my blog, such as wild boar ragù (red … Continue reading Fresh Pappardelle with Mushroom and Walnut Ragù
Lobster Thermidor is a classic French dish that I had not prepared before. Now I regret that, because it is really delicious and I will definitely make it again. As I am somewhat of an ‘adopted Italian’, I don’t tend … Continue reading Lobster Thermidor
In Facebook groups I see many people using a sous vide stick in a pot or in a container without a cover or insulation. This made me wonder how much difference it actually makes for your electricity bill and your … Continue reading Why You Should Cover and Insulate Your Sous Vide Container
This elegant appetizer was inspired by a dish we enjoyed at Roeland Klein’s Avenida in Portugal. A grilled sardine fillet is served on tomato concassé, surrounded by a tomato dashi. The combination of flavors is very nice. The tomatoes and … Continue reading Grilled Sardine with Tomato Dashi and Tomato Concassé
This decadent appetizer was inspired by the signature appetizer of Martín Berasategui, three Michelin star chef from San Sebastian (Spain), “Mille-feuille of smoked eel, foie-gras, spring onions and green apple”. The combination of foie gras with smoked eel and green … Continue reading Sous-Vide version of Layered Foie Gras, Smoked Eel, and Green Apple
As we were traveling along the coast of Portugal, arroz de marisco was on the menu of almost every restaurant. It is much more wet than Spanish paella or Italian risotto, more like a seafood soup with rice in it. … Continue reading Arroz de Marisco (Portuguese Seafood Rice)
I really liked the combination of dark chocolate and passion fruit at Casa Velha in Portugal, so back home I developed a recipe based upon that idea without trying to copy the dish at Casa Velha. The end result was … Continue reading Dark Chocolate and Passion Fruit Tartlet
This recipe is posted exactly 9 years after I posted for the first time on this blog. Over 3 million views and 1,400 blog posts later, of which more than 1,200 recipes, I am still blogging regularly (although not as … Continue reading Mu Shu Pork Sous-Vide
Kimchi stew has great depth of flavor because it is spicy, savory, sweet, and sour. I’ve adapted Maangchi’s recipe for sous-vide, which ensures that the pork will be tender and succulent. This is wonderful comfort food for this time of … Continue reading Kimchi Stew Sous-Vide (Kimchi-jjigae)
In a restaurant in Évora in Alentejo, Portugal, I had a simple local dessert that consisted of sweet pumpkin puree with pine nuts, almonds, and cinnamon. It was quite nice and prepared something similar back home; less sweet and using … Continue reading Pumpkin Puree with Almonds, Pine Nuts, Honey and Cinnamon (Doce de Abóbora)
Thai food is so much better if you make your own fresh curry paste from scratch. Fresh curry paste is not just spicy hot, but also very fragrant and complex. The secret to juicy tender fish in your curry rather … Continue reading Thai Red Fish Curry with Squash
We had Meia desfeita de Bacalhau as a petisco (tapa) at the Tasting Room in Cascais, on the coast near Lisbon. A wine and petiscos (tapas) bar that I can strongly recommend, by the way, for their excellent selection of … Continue reading Meia desfeita de Bacalhau (Salad of Salted Cod and Chickpeas)
A dessert that we had at Alma in Lisbon that we really liked, was more or less the combination of three desserts that are already on my blog: Almond ice cream (leave out the cherries and crumbled amaretti)… …almond madeleines… … Continue reading Almond Ice Cream, Almond Madeleine, and Orange Curd
We spent most of our trip to Portugal on the coast and so had lots of fish and seafood. When we did have meat, stewed pork cheeks were often on the menu. They were often iberico pork, referred to as … Continue reading Portuguese Style Pork Cheeks Sous Vide (Queixadas de porco)
Bacalhau, salted cod, is an ingredient that is used a lot in Portuguese cooking. It is so popular in Portugal that the supermarket had a special department with just bacalhau. Bacalhau is not produced in Portugal itself, but imported from places … Continue reading Bacalhau à Brás (Portuguese Salted Cod with Potatoes, Onions, and Egg)
Chicken Piri Piri is a popular dish from the Algarve in Portugal. The name “piri piri” refers to the type of chilli pepper used in de marinade or sauce. If you can’t find this particular type of chilli pepper, you … Continue reading Chicken Piri Piri (Frango Piri Piri)
This vegetable appetizer was inspired by a dish we enjoyed at Casa Velha in Portugal a few weeks ago, though it is certainly not a Portuguese dish. I liked the idea of using thinly sliced celeriac (celery root) instead of … Continue reading Celeriac ‘Ravioli’ with Parsnip and Mushrooms
Amêijoas à Bulhão Pato is a very common dish in Portugal that many if not most restaurants have on their menu, also as tapas (called petiscos in Portuguese). Amêijoas is Portuguese for clams, and the dish has been named after the … Continue reading Amêijoas à Bulhão Pato (Clams in Portuguese Style)
Ripe fresh figs, directly from the tree, are one of my favorite fruits. They are so sweet, fragrant, and delicate. Unfortunately the local climate is too cold for that, and so we can only get imported figs that do not … Continue reading Fresh Figs Poached in Red Wine or Port
We love eggplant and we love Thai food, so it was no surprise that we loved this when our friend Melvin prepared this for us according to Pailin’s recipe. Although you could also make it with regular eggplant, it is … Continue reading Thai Eggplant Salad (ยำมะเขือยาว)
Chef Roeland Klein of Avenida suggested we go eat at Florian in Quinta do Lago, which also has a Dutch chef and according to him serves top quality ingredients. When we arrived at Florian, the host and wife of the chef let us know that a tasting menu of different dishes on the menu with wine pairing had been arranged for us by the chef. Would that be okay with us? Yes of course. Usually the restaurant works à la carte with starters around 15 euros, mains around 30 euros and desserts around 10 euros. We started off with pata … Continue reading Dining in Portugal: Florian
Casa Velha is located in the middle of the Quinta do Lago resort with manicured landscaping and golf courses. Not a place we’d usually go for our vacation, but we went there for the restaurant. Due to the pandemic the … Continue reading Dining in Portugal: Casa Velha
On Malta I really enjoyed the potatoes cooked liked a risotto with shrimp under the name of nosotto at Noni. And so back home I decided to create something similar. It is basically diced potatoes cooked in a fish and … Continue reading Nosotto (Potato-Risotto with Shrimp)
The name of the restaurant A Ver Tavira literally means “to see Tavira”, which makes sense, because the restaurant offers a view on the town of Tavira in the eastern Algarve. There are three tasting menus starting at 50 euros. … Continue reading Dining in Portugal: A Ver Tavira I
It was an unexpected pleasure to dine at Avenida in Lagos, a beach town in the Algarve, the southern coast of Portugal. Most restaurants in Lagos are aimed at tourists and we did not expect to find a restaurant here … Continue reading Dining in Portugal: Avenida
Alma is the restaurant of chef Henrique Sá Pessoa in Lisbon with two Michelin stars. The restaurant offers two tasting menus with the same number of courses (6) and the same price (120 euros): Alma with chef’s classics, and Costa … Continue reading Dining in Portugal: Alma**
With two Michelin stars and number 42 on the list of the World’s 50 best restaurants, Belcanto has the reputation to be one of the best, or even the best, restaurant in Portugal. Chef José Avillez started in 2012 and … Continue reading Dining in Portugal: Belcanto**
The name of the restaurant Sommelier in Lisbon makes it easy to understand that this restaurant specializes in wine. Once inside, this message is reinforced by the arrangement of wine displayed on the back wall off the dining room. It … Continue reading Dining in Portugal: Sommelier
