Secondi di Pesce (fish dishes)11 Comments

Sea Bass poached in fresh Tomatoes (Branzino al Pomodoro Fresco)

StefanGourmet

I have tomato envy. I read all those posts of fellow food bloggers who are buying heirloom tomatoes at farmers markets, or even harvesting perfectly ripe tasty tomatoes from their own backyard. And given the local climate here, I have to make do with tomatoes that come from a greenhouse and are just not the same. If you do have access to good tomatoes (as well as fresh sea bass), do yourself a favor and make this recipe. I promise it will be an outstanding way of tasting what summer is supposed to taste like! This is one of the … Continue reading Sea Bass poached in fresh Tomatoes (Branzino al Pomodoro Fresco)

Secondi di Carne (meat dishes)5 Comments

Pork Ribs Sous-vide

StefanGourmet

When Conor wrote about pork ribs, I knew I had to try pre-cooking them sous-vide rather than boiling. Sous-vide cooking allows us to get ribs that are both tender and succulent. Since I had never made pork ribs before, I wanted to experiment a little before serving them to my friends at a BBQ. For this trial run I seared the ribs in a hot frying pan rather than firing up a BBQ, since it was only the two of us on a week night. I tried two flavors: Conor’s paprika – honey – soy marinade and Italian style sage … Continue reading Pork Ribs Sous-vide

2. Primi (pasta, risotto)18 Comments

Pasta with Carrot sauce (Fusilli alle Carote)

StefanGourmet

Before I started blogging, I used carrots mostly as supporting ingredients in stocks and stews, one of the few exceptions being hutspot sometimes in winter. Fellow bloggers have inspired me to give carrots a leading role as well. This is another primo piatto using carrots inspired by 35aweek.com with some adaptations. This one’s even easier to make than the carrot risotto. And if you prepare the carrots the night before like I did, it only takes as long to prepare this dish as it takes to boil the pasta. Fusilli (similar to the rotelle used by K. on $35 a week) are a good pasta … Continue reading Pasta with Carrot sauce (Fusilli alle Carote)

Cooking15 Comments

Pizza ai Funghi (Pizza with Mushrooms)

StefanGourmet

Now that I’ve got the hang of making great pizza at home using cold-fermented dough and baking it tender but crispy in 3 minutes on an aluminum plate, it is time to make pizzas with different toppings. Mushrooms are always a favorite, and the most important thing to get it right is to always sauté the mushrooms before putting them on a pizza. When you bake the mushrooms raw, they will release a lot of liquid that will make your pizza soggy. For additional flavor I like to sauté the mushrooms trifolati, with garlic and parsley. Ingredients For 1 pizza cold-fermented … Continue reading Pizza ai Funghi (Pizza with Mushrooms)

Secondi di Carne (meat dishes)28 Comments

Wagyu Flank Steak, Pan-seared versus Sous-vide

StefanGourmet

On nice days I often walk from the train station to work, rather than taking a tram or subway. On my way to work I will then walk by the fanciest butcher shop that I know of in Amsterdam (and probably in the whole country): Slagerij De Leeuw. This is not a place to get your daily meat, but for special occasions they have great stuff like organic foie gras, Rubia beef from Spain, and wagyu beef (imported from the US). Wagyu is usually outrageously expensive, but the flank steak (referred to as “bavette”) looked great and almost reasonably priced. … Continue reading Wagyu Flank Steak, Pan-seared versus Sous-vide

2. Primi (pasta, risotto)5 Comments

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

StefanGourmet

If you ask an Italian which food is the best in the world, he will say that of course that is Italian food. If you then ask further, he will tell you that the food from his own region is best. If again you ask further, it’s only food from his own city or even quarter that is superior. And in the end, it’s the food of his mamma or nonna that is really the best. I like the name of this pasta dish. “Puttana” means whore, so this is “whore’s spaghetti”. There are various theories why it’s called this … Continue reading Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

Eating7 Comments

Dining in Amsterdam: Bussia

StefanGourmet

Bussia is one of my favorite restaurants in Amsterdam. It is a true Italian ristorante where you eat antipasto, primo, secondo, dolce instead of pizza. Everything is made from scratch from fresh ingredients and they have a nice selection of Italian wines. The service is as professional as it is friendly. Last night we took a friend there for her birthday, since I knew she would enjoy this. And she did, as did we! Although you can also eat à la carte, the main attraction of Bussia is the six-course daily menu (antipasto, pasta, risotto, fish, meat, dolce) that you can … Continue reading Dining in Amsterdam: Bussia

2. Primi (pasta, risotto)6 Comments

Carrot Risotto (Risotto alle Carote)

StefanGourmet

I’ve enjoyed cooking for a long time, but since I started blogging about it I’ve been experimenting and trying new things much more often than before. One of the big drivers of this is that other bloggers inspire me. One of the blogs that I get a lot of inspiration from is 35aweek.com. She posts a lot of things that sound and look delicious that I’ve never cooked before. One of those dishes was Roasted carrot & thyme risotto. Carrots are one of those vegetables that are healthy, cheap, and readily available, but can be a bit boring. So I … Continue reading Carrot Risotto (Risotto alle Carote)

Eating6 Comments

Dining in Sweden: Pio Country Club

StefanGourmet

Despite the cheesy name, Pio Country Club, in south Sweden along the road between Halmstad and Simlångsdalen, is a very good restaurant. Two years ago we had a very nice mid-summer’s dinner there with typical Swedish mid-summer’s dishes in haute cuisine fashion with paired wines. This year we discovered that the guy who runs it is a fan of Argentina, has visited the country and serves great Argentinian food.  They have a garden where they grow their own vegetables and everything is freshly made from good quality ingredients. Reservations are required; since it is a bit out of the way … Continue reading Dining in Sweden: Pio Country Club

Contorni (side dishes)10 Comments

Esther’s Tomato Salad

StefanGourmet

This is my version of the tomato salad that my friend Esther always used to make. Unfortunately she passed away much too young. Today would have been her 14th wedding anniversary, so I thought it an appropriate day to tell you about this recipe in her memory. Esther loved to cook and unfortunately we haven’t cooked much together because we lived too far apart and only saw each other about twice a year. Although her birthday was in February, she liked to celebrate this in summer with a BBQ and she usually made a tomato salad with basil, red onion, … Continue reading Esther’s Tomato Salad

2. Primi (pasta, risotto)6 Comments

Pasta with Peas and Pesto (Mafaldine Piselli e Pesto)

StefanGourmet

This veggie pasta dish may seem very similar to last week’s pasta with peas and tomato, but the flavor is much ‘greener’. I’ve used the same type of curly tagliatelle called mafaldine, but feel free to use regular tagliatelle if you can’t find those. Peas and pesto work together very well. I wanted to freshen up the dish by adding some celery, and it worked like a charm. I made the pesto à la minute, but I’d recommend to make it the day before instead and keep it in the fridge so the flavors can develop. Ingredients For 2 servings … Continue reading Pasta with Peas and Pesto (Mafaldine Piselli e Pesto)

1. Antipasti (appetizers)21 Comments

Hot-smoked Salmon

StefanGourmet

A stovetop smoker is a great tool to have. It allows you to turn a piece of salmon fillet into wonderful hot-smoked salmon in only 20 minutes without any effort or skill. This is one of the course I served during the recent dinner on our boat. The recipe is as simple as it is delicious. You can do the same for other types of fish such as halibut. Using an instant-read thermometer ensures that the fish will always be perfectly cooked and never too dry (if you don’t use frozen fish). Hot-smoked salmon is very different from cold-smoked salmon, … Continue reading Hot-smoked Salmon

Asian cuisine14 Comments

Easy Chicken Yakitori from the BBQ

StefanGourmet

One of the first Japanese foods I fell in love with was teriyaki and yakitori. Yakitori actually just means grilled chicken in Japanese (yaki = broil or grill, tori = chicken), whereas Teriyaki means grilled & glazed (teri = gloss or luster, yaki = broil or grill). Teriyaki can be used for different types of meat or seafood, where yakitori is obviously always chicken. The sauces used to make them are very similar, with Japanese soy sauce, mirin (sweet sake), sake, and sugar as the main ingredients. The main difference between chicken teriyaki and yakitori is that yakitori is grilled … Continue reading Easy Chicken Yakitori from the BBQ

2. Primi (pasta, risotto)7 Comments

Pasta with Peas and Tomato (Mafaldine Piselli e Pomodoro)

StefanGourmet

This is a very simple light pasta dish with vegetables, and the nice thing is that you don’t have to go shopping for it if you sieved tomatoes and pasta in your pantry, peas in your freezer, parmigiano in your fridge, and parsley in your garden. In other words, all ingredients keep very well. If you can get good fresh tomatoes where you are, by all means use them instead! But with the ridiculously cold summer we’ve been having here, fresh tomatoes just aren’t good enough. The white wine is optional, it adds freshness and complexity to the dish. I … Continue reading Pasta with Peas and Tomato (Mafaldine Piselli e Pomodoro)

1. Antipasti (appetizers)17 Comments

Lobster Carpaccio with Gorgonzola Sauce

StefanGourmet

A few months ago we had a wonderful dinner at Combal.Zero** near Turin (Italy). My favorite dish of the evening was lobster carpaccio with gorgonzola sauce. It was such a surprising combination that I wanted to try to make something similar myself. The result was pretty good, although it was not as good at Combal. I know that Davide Scabin does a lot of experimenting to get a dish just right, so it was to be expected that my first try would not be as good. Unlike Davide, I served the claws with the dish and they were cooked. I … Continue reading Lobster Carpaccio with Gorgonzola Sauce

2. Primi (pasta, risotto)13 Comments

Home-made Orecchiette with Tomato and Basil

StefanGourmet

This post is dedicated to Natasha from Come Due Maiali. She was one of the first followers of my blog and is one of those fellow bloggers who has made this journey such a great experience. When I posted about orecchiette with mussels and broccoli almost six months ago, she commented that she’s a huge orecchiette fan and would love to get her hands on wholemeal orecchiette. I then responded that she could always make her own, even though I had never yet made orecchiette by hand. I decided to give it a try myself, and now was the time … Continue reading Home-made Orecchiette with Tomato and Basil

Asian cuisine18 Comments

Japanese Fried Chicken, Drenched Daikon and Noodles in Broth

StefanGourmet

I’ve been trying more recipes from Shizuo Tsuji’s great “Japanese Cooking:  A Simple Art”. Since I had some left-over dashi, I decided to make two dishes that require dashi. I am not sure if this would be served together in Japan, but it did taste well together and I was well pleased with the result. I pre-cooked the chicken sous-vide for an easier way to get chicken that is cooked through (and pasteurized) as well as juicy, but the original recipe doesn’t require that so you can also make this without sous-vide equipment. The recipes make use of light Japanese … Continue reading Japanese Fried Chicken, Drenched Daikon and Noodles in Broth

Asian cuisine6 Comments

Dengaku

StefanGourmet

Dengaku is Japanese grilled food coated with a miso topping. Basic dengaku is grilled tofu with dengaku, but since I don’t care for tofu (and Kees even hates it) I decided to make eggplant and scallop dengaku. The flavor of the miso topping is quite strong, so don’t use too much of the topping and realise that a small serving goes a long way. It is probably a good idea to serve this with rice, and next time I will serve either eggplant or scallops with dengaku miso, not both at the same time. The recipe is again from “Japanese cooking, … Continue reading Dengaku

4. Dolci (dessert)3 Comments

‘Tiramisù alla Pugliese’

StefanGourmet

In the small village of Montegrosso in Puglia, southern Italia, is the wonderful Osteria Antichi Sapori. We had the pleasure of dining there some years ago, and I can still remember it very well. The food was delicious and there was enough of it, we already completely stuffed after just having the antipasti (which just kept coming and coming). Many of those antipasti are hard to give a recipe for: they were just slices of a wonderful dried sausage, or some heavenly fresh ricotta. For dessert we got ricotta with crushed amaretti soaked in espresso, which they called the Puglia-version … Continue reading ‘Tiramisù alla Pugliese’

Cooking23 Comments

Cold-fermented Pizza Dough

StefanGourmet

Although baking pizza on an aluminum plate under the broiler was a major improvement, I was not completely satisfied as it was very hard to stretch the dough. It kept retracting. I had also read in many sources that real pizza dough should have no sugar or olive oil, which I did include to let it brown more easily. So I did some more research and found an interesting article on Serious Eats about letting dough cold fermet for several days rather than letting it rise in a few hours. I gave it a try, and the results were amazing! … Continue reading Cold-fermented Pizza Dough

2. Primi (pasta, risotto)14 Comments

Tagliatelle Mortadella e Indivia (Pasta with Mortadella and Endive)

StefanGourmet

My parents took us out to dinner at Da Marcello, an Italian restaurant within easy biking distance (in Krommenie) that’s been there for almost 7 years but that we had never eaten at. Since Krommenie isn’t exactly a big city, I wasn’t expecting much but I was wrong: the food at Marcello’s is very good. And so is the service, as well as the matching wines.Marcello is from a small town in Puglia, and has lived in the Netherlands for 30 years. He used to own a pizzeria in the same town, but in 2005 upgraded to a ristorante (his … Continue reading Tagliatelle Mortadella e Indivia (Pasta with Mortadella and Endive)

1. Antipasti (appetizers)7 Comments

Hot Smoked Duck Breast with Plum Chutney

StefanGourmet

The combination of duck and fruit is well known, with canard à l’orange as the most famous rendition. I got the idea to combine duck with a spiced plum chutney from Jamie Oliver and have been making this for years, ever since I’ve had a stove top smoker (that I use with separate burners since I have an induction hob and since it’s easier to use outside anyway). I love hot smoking since it’s so easy, very tasty, and always gives a lot of oohs and aahs when I serve something straight from the smoker to my friends. Some slices of … Continue reading Hot Smoked Duck Breast with Plum Chutney

Secondi di Carne (meat dishes)28 Comments

My First Home-made ‘Slow Food’ Hamburger

StefanGourmet

I do not eat a lot of fast food. I don’t care so much about the calories or fat (that just means eating a bit less of it), but I do care about the taste. If something isn’t necessarily the healthiest food in the world, then it should taste real good! And most fast food just tastes generic and often even bland. Just like most people, I love pizza, and I love hamburgers. But for me it has to be good pizza, or in this case a good hamburger! I came across an article on Serious Eats about finding the … Continue reading My First Home-made ‘Slow Food’ Hamburger

Asian cuisine2 Comments

Tempura

StefanGourmet

Tempura is one of my favorite Japanese dishes, that was actually introduced into Japan by the Portuguese in the 16th century. Seafood and vegetables are battered and deep-fried and served with a dashi-based dipping sauce. Just like with sushi you are probably not able to obtain the quality of professionally made tempura, but if you follow the recipe it should still be delicious! Making good tempura requires both some skill (to get a light and crunchy crust) and fresh high-quality ingredients. Tempura should be eaten as quickly as possible, so it’s best to make it in an informal setting where … Continue reading Tempura

Basics6 Comments

Dashi sous-vide

StefanGourmet

Dashi, a stock from kombu seaweed and bonito flakes, is as essential to Japanese cooking. It is used as a basic ingredient in so many dishes that it has a big influence on the taste of a Japanese meal. It is used in many soups or sauces, including miso soup and tempura sauce. Kikunoi is a famous restaurant from Kyoto with three Michelin stars that has been named after the well from which it draws the water for its dashi. We ate at the Tokyo branch, where they use dashi made from water from the original Kyoto well. That’s how … Continue reading Dashi sous-vide

Basics34 Comments

Home-made Ricotta

StefanGourmet

  I had never made my own ricotta before. It turns out to be surprisingly easy and surprisingly tasty. It is even cheaper than buying ready-made ricotta. I found this recipe with Google, tried it and loved it! Since I wanted to use it for dessert, I decided to add some additional cream. Ingredients For approximately 1 cup (250 ml) ricotta 1 liter (4 cups) whole milk 2 Tbsp white vinegar (I used white wine vinegar since that is what I had) pinch of salt optional: 100 ml (3/8 cups) whipping cream Preparation   Put the milk (and the cream, … Continue reading Home-made Ricotta