Sometimes I get the inspiration for a new dish from something I’ve enjoyed in a restaurant. Very seldomly I try to copy a dish exactly, but I do use the combinations of ingredients or preparations. At two Michelin star restaurant … Continue reading Grouper Sous Vide with Vanilla and Lemon Zest
Years ago I performed an experiment to find out whether I liked dry curing or wet curing pork tenderloin before cooking it sous vide. The conclusion was that for meat I preferred to just season with salt right before cooking … Continue reading Briefly Curing Fish Before Cooking
If you like having a great red wine with the Christmas dinner main course, but you would also like to have fish, this is the perfect solution for you! I used yellowtail, which is a great tasting fish that is … Continue reading Yellowtail with Truffle, Mushrooms, and Red Wine Sauce
After preparing shrimp-crusted grouper with spinach and butter beans, which was inspired by a crab-crusted grouper I’d had in Miami Beach, I decided to try a crab-crusted version as well. You can prepare this with any type of white fish that doesn’t … Continue reading Crab-Crusted Halibut with Asparagus and Madeira Sauce
I had some left-over remoulade sauce in my fridge, along with some parsnips that needed to be used. And so I decided to buy some fish fillet and make these fish and parsnip balls. The reasoning behind it was that … Continue reading Fish and Parsnip Balls with Tarragon
Cold smoking is a technique that preserves food (and gives it a wonderful smoky flavor and aroma) just by smoke, without heat. To get a really nice smoky aroma, it is best to cold smoke for 24 hours. This means … Continue reading Cold Smoked Halibut
Although I’m usually more into authentic traditional dishes, lately I’ve been doing a lot of fusion. Sometimes it works surprisingly well, like this hot-smoked halibut with guacamole. The flavors and textures are a very good combination. Hot smoking is so … Continue reading Hot-Smoked Halibut with Guacamole
The following I dish I prepared for the Sicilian dinner was very loosely based upon one of the appetizers at La Madia, the best restaurant in Sicily with two Michelin stars.
This is what I wrote about this dish in my review of our dinner at La Madia: “We were thoroughly fooled by this pizza, because we were wondering how we were going to survive 8 courses if they were all going to be this big. It turned out to be very light actually. What looks like melted mozzarella is actually potato mousse. The crust was only a very crispy very thin round of dough, and underneath the ‘cheese’ there was lovely cod smoked on pine wood and some semi-dried tomato. Great flavors and wonderful presentation. 10/10”
The dish I prepared is by no means an attempt at recreating chef Pino Cuttaia’s dish, but it has been heavily inspired by it. My ‘pizza’ was made with hot-smoked halibut, potato mousse, and semi-dried tomatoes. It was more substantial than at La Madia and I served it as a main course. Continue reading “Smoked Halibut ‘Pizza’”
Halibut is not a fish that is easily available around here, and therefore I had not tried to prepare it sous-vide yet. So when I saw some at the market in Amsterdam I picked up a nice slice to try and cook sous-vide. Halibut is a flat fish like flounder, sole, and turbot, but it is a hell of a lot bigger so in most cases you don’t buy the whole fish but just a slice. I decided to serve it with a sauce made from white wine, fish stock, and cream. Served with potatoes and roasted vegetables it was a simple but nice meal, and it was no surprise that the halibut sous-vide was cooked to perfection: very succulent and tender.
Continue reading “Halibut Sous-vide with a Creamy Sauce”
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