This elegant and delicious appetizer is ridiculously simple. It requires only two ingredients (if you don’t count water, salt and pepper, and the parsley that I used for garnish) and not much skill to prepare. Due to some relatively warm weather we’ve … Continue reading White Asparagus and Goat Cheese Soup
Pollo alla Cacciatora is an Italian classic. It means chicken prepared in the style of the hunter’s wife (traditional recipes usually do not assume that the wife would hunt herself), which is chicken stewed in tomatoes with herbs, wine, and … Continue reading Pollo alla Cacciatora (Chicken in Tomato Sauce)
I love recipes that use all parts of an ingredient. When I saw the recipe for deconstructed duck fried rice on Simon’s blog Stranded on the Island, which uses the duck breast, skin, and fat from the skin, I decided straight … Continue reading Duck Fried Rice
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
Wolffish is one of my favorite types of white fish, as it has a better flavor and texture than cod and its relatives. For this recipe you could also use another white fish that doesn’t flake easily (as flaky fish … Continue reading Breaded Wolffish with Anchovy-Braised Peppers
Crème Brûlée is one of the best known and most delicious of French desserts. I used to make it often about a decade ago, long before I started blogging. Back then I made it so often that I got tired … Continue reading Crème Brûlée
This French-style apple tart is special because of the almond paste filling. If almond paste is not available, you can substitute with ground almonds and sugar. It is best to use tart apples for this tart, for a nice contrast … Continue reading Apple Almond Paste Tart
This is an original dish I created because I had some leftover trimmings from the salmon that I smoked. The sauce was inspired by Sandra’s recipe for speedy smoked salmon mousse. The earthy flavor of the celeriac works well with … Continue reading Celeriac Gnocchi with Smoked Salmon (Gnocchi di Sedano Rapa con Salmone Affumicato)
It has been a while since I had last cooked a recipe from Biba Caggiano, my favorite cookbook author. Rabbit in piquant sauce is something I had prepared before more than a decade ago, and I remember the rabbit turned … Continue reading Rabbit in Piquant Sauce, Stovetop Braised or Sous-Vide (Coniglio in Salsa Piccante)
Enchiladas is Spanish for something like ‘covered in chilli’, and refers to tortillas dipped in chilli sauce. In this version corn tortillas are dipped in chilli con carne, stuffed with cheese, and baked with more chilli con carne and cheese. I saw … Continue reading Cheese Enchiladas with Chilli con Carne
This dish is simple and decadent at the same time. Delicate fresh pasta is stuffed with pungent gorgonzola, and served with a creamy sauce of foie gras. The combination is delicious. Since we love foie gras and we love blue … Continue reading Ravioli with Gorgonzola in Foie Gras Sauce
Sometimes I fall in love with a recipe at first sight. This is what happened when I saw Pork and Almonds on Dave Chrichton’s blog Fine Dining at Home. Dave wanted to create a Spain-inspired dish, and served oven-roasted pork … Continue reading Pork with Almonds and Paprika
The recipe for this cake with pears and dates is from Tuttacronaca, an Italian blogger who has unfortunately stopped blogging. It has some similarities to the sticky date pudding I posted recently, as it also has dates, caramel, and cognac. … Continue reading Date and Pear Cake
If you haven’t decided yet what your appetizer will be for Christmas dinner, this just may be it. You still have time to cure and smoke the salmon. Or you could cheat and buy the smoked salmon, but make sure … Continue reading Whiskey Cold Smoked Salmon with Salsify
I’ve posted a recipe for lobster risotto before, a very elegant dish with a mild lobster flavor in the risotto itself. That version requires 1 lobster (of about 650 grams or 1.5 lbs) for every two servings. If you like … Continue reading Lobster Bisque Risotto
This dish is a play on the classic pappardelle al ragù di cinghiale. Since I had made a big batch of the sous-vide version of wild boar ragù, I thought it would be fun to stuff ravioli with the solid part … Continue reading Ravioli al Ragù di Cinghiale (Wild Boar Ravioli)
How about insalata caprese for dessert? Most of us love the famous combination of tomato, buffalo mozzarella, and basil as a savory dish. But it is also delicious as a dessert with the basil transformed into ice cream. The technique for … Continue reading Basil Ice Cream with Tomato Confit, Mozzarella and Balsamic Syrup
Sometimes I use ‘transitivity’ to come up with new dishes. A relationship between two objects is transitive if whenever an object A is related to an object B, and B is in turn related to an object C, then A is also related to … Continue reading Tuna and Carrots with Cumin
There are different ways of cooking the potatoes to make gnocchi. You can cook the potatoes sous-vide, or roast the potatoes in the oven. In this post I show that you can also simply boil the potatoes. I should probably do a … Continue reading Potato Gnocchi with Venison and Chanterelles (Gnocchi di Patate al Ragù di Cervo e Finferli)
Today marks the 4th anniversary of this blog. This is the 859th post. There have been over 870,000 views in those four years, and the number of followers and daily views is still slowly but steadily increasing. It’s been a … Continue reading Sticky Date Pudding
As I’ve described in my previous post about the history of the wine pairing dinners that I host, I’ve been organizing wine pairing dinners for 5 years now and I have hosted 25 of them with 11 different themes. To … Continue reading Organizing a Wine Pairing Dinner
I’ve been hosting wine pairing dinners for years now. At home, for family and friends. This tradition started before I started blogging, and I have written about it before, but as I have a lot on my plate on an … Continue reading History of Wine Pairing Dinners
Doesn’t this salmon look amazing? Believe me, it tastes as tender and juicy as it looks! That is because it has been cooked sous-vide at 43C/109F. What makes this dish even more mouth-watering, is that the salmon has been cooked … Continue reading Salmon Sous-Vide with Thai Green Curry Paste and Bok Choy
Fresh figs have to be imported and because they are quite perishable they are not often of a great quality, but sometimes some nice figs are available in the Netherlands. A nice way to use them is to make ice … Continue reading Fresh Fig Ice Cream (Gelato di Fichi)
It was my lucky day at the market. Because not only did I find the nice box of wild mushrooms for a bargain, the turbot was on sale as well. The turbot was on the small side (which for turbot … Continue reading Turbot with Morels, Wild Mushrooms, and Celeriac Puree
There are two posts about fresh pasta with mushrooms on this blog already: pappardelle with fresh porcini and pappardelle with dried porcini and fresh mushrooms. There are two reasons for yet another post. The first one is that during our … Continue reading Tagliolini ai Funghi di Bosco (Fresh Pasta with Wild Mushrooms)
I’m in trouble. Or at least I may be. I am thrilled and honored that Ireland’s #1 blogger and his famous ‘Wife’ are coming over for a visit. Yes, no one less than the one and only Conor Bofin. But, to … Continue reading Quail with Mushrooms Sous-Vide
Anatoli wrote an interesting article about clam chowder on his great wine blog Talk-A-Vino. He explains that chowder is “a rich soup typically containing fish, clams, or corn with potatoes and onions” and that there are four types of clam … Continue reading New England Clam Chowder
Before I talk about today’s recipe, I would like to say a few words to honor Silva Rigobello, who has suddenly passed away this weekend. You can imagine this came as quite a shock after the recent passing of Richard. Even … Continue reading Greens-Ricotta Dumplings with Venison Ragù (Gnocchetti alle Erbe con Ragù di Cervo)
I’ve adapted this parsnip and walnut cake from a recipe I liked on Simona’s blog Grembiule da Cucina. The combination of parnip and walnut works very well, and to brighten up the woody flavors I added some ground aniseed. To make … Continue reading Parsnip Walnut Cake (Torta di Pastinaca e Noci)
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