It is always a treat when friends cooks for me. This simple but tasty dish is based on an appetizer that our friends Merel and Barthold served at a dinner party at their house. As usual with simple recipes, it … Continue reading Sea Bass Ceviche with Avocado
Scaloppine are a popular secondo in Italy because they are delicious and quick to prepare. Thin slices of meat are pounded even thinner and then served with all kinds of sauces, like balsamic, Marsala, with eggplant, mozzarella and tomato, or … Continue reading Veal Escalope with Mushrooms and Marsala (Scaloppine ai Funghi e Marsala)
“Bravo” is a Spanish word that can mean brave (as in courageous), but also wild, rough, or spirited, as in the name of the rough coastline near Barcelona (Costa Brava). And so Patatas Bravas could literally be translated as potatoes with spirit. … Continue reading Patatas Bravas
In Spain we visited the city of Logroño, which is in the Rioja wine region but also famous for its tapas scene. One of my favorite tapas I tried there was smoked sardines (served on toast with roasted bell pepper). It … Continue reading Smoked Sardines (Sardinas Ahumadas)
During our trip to Spain last fall we gorged ourselves on researched many different types of tapas. One very popular kind of tapas that you see everywhere is croquettes with various fillings. They are crispy on the outside and creamy … Continue reading Croquetas de Setas (Mushroom Croquettes)
A frikandel is one of the most popular Dutch fast food items. They are usually produced from “mechanically separated meat”, which means any meat that can be obtained through mechanical means from a carcass after ‘regular’ butchering has finished. To … Continue reading Frikandellen (Dutch Deep Fried Hot Dog)
This is what I had for dinner tonight (followed by a secondo of chicken breast). Spiralized Zucchini (also known as zoodles) is so well known as substitute for real pasta, that we’d almost forget that it is also really good … Continue reading Spaghetti with Spiralized Zucchini
Next to paella, tortilla española or tortilla de patatas is one of the most famous national dishes of Spain. It can be found on restaurant menus, but it is also served as tapas. Patatas means potatoes, and that about sums it … Continue reading Tortilla de Patatas o Tortilla Española (Spanish Potato Omelette)
Rillettes are usually made from meat, cooked slowly in fat until tender enough to be easily shredded, and then mixed with the fat. When my friend Robert mentioned he’d been gifted some skate and asked me to prepare it, skate rillettes … Continue reading Skate and Beurre Noisette Rillettes with Roasted Peppers
Beurre noisette, literally hazelnut butter, is often used in French cooking and baking, and it is therefore good to know how to make it. The hazelnut doesn’t only refer to the color, but also to the nutty smell and taste … Continue reading How To Make Beurre Noisette (Brown Butter)
Yaprak Sarma is a Turkish dish of meat wrapped in grape leaves. Sarmak is Turkish for to roll or to wrap, and yaprak means leaf. Sarma are sometimes also called dolma (from dolmak, to fill or to stuff), but strictly speaking … Continue reading Çiğdem’s Yaprak Sarma (Meat Wrapped in Grape Leaves)
Erbazzone is a savory pie from the town of Reggio Emilia in Northern Italy that is filled with chard (and sometimes also other greens, including spinach). I was reminded of it when Stefano posted his version of it. As usual … Continue reading Erbazzone (Chard Pie)
A couple of months ago, completely out of the blue, I received a message from Premshree of polkadotsocks.net. He mentioned he would be visiting Amsterdam, and wondered if I’d be interested in sharing a meal together. It’s always fun to … Continue reading Food Blogging International: Premshree’s Coconut Red Lentil Curry
Sachertorte is a famous cake from Vienna that I had never made before. Thanks to CampariGirl’s post I was reminded of it. A Sachertorte is a chocolate cake with two layers, separated by a layer of apricot jam and finished with a … Continue reading Sachertorte
The nice thing about buying shrimp with heads and shells is that you can make a very flavorful shrimp stock using those heads and shells. Together with zucchini and tomatoes, this makes for a very nice risotto. To have a … Continue reading Risotto with Shrimp, Zucchini, and Tomato
Lately I’ve been creating recipes to make snacks that keep well at room temperature, are nutritious, tasty, and easy to transport. These savory muffins made with chickpea flour (garbanzo bean flour) certainly fit the bill. Chickpea flour is very high in … Continue reading Chickpea Muffins with Sundried Tomatoes or Peas
If you’ve been following my blog for some time, you may have noticed I really like the pairing of smoked eel with celeriac. And here is yet another dish based upon that combination, with the addition of toasted hazelnuts. The celeriac … Continue reading Smoked Eel and Caramelized Celeriac Mousse with Hazelnuts
In Italy many recipes have a “rosso” version (with tomatoes) and a “bianco” version (without tomatoes). For instance, a “pizza bianca” means a pizza without tomatoes. This also goes for pasta sauces, amatriciana is usually rossa, but amatriciana bianca also … Continue reading Pasta with ‘White’ Wild Boar Ragù (Pappardelle al Ragù Bianco di Cinghiale)
Duivekater is a traditional festive bread that originates in Amsterdam and surroundings and is now still popular in the Zaanstreek where I grew up (and still live), just north of Amsterdam. There are sources as far back as the 16th … Continue reading Duivekater
Stefano of Italian Home Cooking has done it again: he posted a delicious traditional Italian recipe that I had not heard of before. I love Ragù alla Napoletano, which is a large piece of beef braised in tomato sauce. The … Continue reading La Genovese alla Napoletana Sous-Vide (Ziti and Beef with Onion Sauce)
I don’t prepare enough classic French dishes, but luckily Nadia of Maison Travers keeps posting recipes to inspire me to cook more of them. In this case monkfish with Américaine sauce. This sauce, originally named Armoricaine, doesn’t have anything to … Continue reading Monkfish à l’Américaine (Lotte à l’Armoricaine)
This dish requires only seven ingredients: lamb shank, salt, pepper, thyme, flour, egg, and pecorino cheese. The lamb shank is cooked sous-vide, then shredded, and fresh homemade pasta is tossed with the shredded meat and the juices from the sous-vide … Continue reading Fresh Tagliolini with Sous-Vide Lamb Shank
Ladyredspecs aka Sandra has a great blog Please Pass The Recipe, which I have been following for years. Although geographically speaking India is about halfway between us, in terms of climate or familiarity with the cuisine, she is a lot … Continue reading Spinach Kofta in Tomato Gravy
Boeuf Bourguignon is a famous beef stew from the French region of Burgundy. The beef is stewed with red wine and served with mushrooms and pearl onions in a rich beefy sauce. I’ve posted before how to make it on the stovetop … Continue reading Boeuf Bourguignon Sous-Vide
Carnitas is a Mexican recipe to prepare pork: slow cooked in lots of lard. This will make the pork tender and juicy on the inside, with some crisp edges on the outside. With sous-vide and a broiler you can get … Continue reading Carnitas Sous-Vide, Then Broiled
Slow roasting is my favorite way to prepare cauliflower, and this time of the year I prepare it often (using this recipe or something similar). Slow roasting means it will take longer (90 minutes to 2 hours), but the cauliflower … Continue reading Slow-Roasted Cauliflower Ravioli
Spring is really arriving here in the Netherlands, but on some days it is still a bit chilly and perfect for a hearty pasta dish with the last of the season’s savoy cabbage. This humble pasta dish with cabbage and sausage … Continue reading Pasta with Savoy Cabbage and Sausage (Pasta Verza e Salsiccia)
There are so many food blogs out there that it is hard to find the really good ones. But once in a while I discover a new food blog that I really like, and one of those is Stefano’s Italian Home … Continue reading Duck ‘in Salsa’ with Radicchio (Anatra in Salsa con Radicchio di Treviso)
Suzanne of apuginthekitchen recently posted about a coconut cauliflower soup that looked great, and so I wanted to try making it as well. With roasted cauliflower, coconut milk, and Thai red curry paste it promised great depth of flavor. As … Continue reading Cauliflower Coconut Soup with Ginger and Turmeric
When cooking sous-vide, you have perfect control over how done the meat is going to be. But it does require you to know what temperature corresponds with how you like your steak done. And so I prepared the above chart … Continue reading Steak Temperature Chart for Sous-Vide
