I use two rules for distinguishing a good Italian restaurant from a tourist trap. The rule in Italy is that the menu should have local dishes from the region (e.g. spaghetti alla carbonara is a good sign in Rome but … Continue reading Dining in Amsterdam: Eatmosfera
Once again food blogging has introduced me to something new. In this case Algerian Ramadan cuisine, which I had read about on La Petite Panière. Although the Ramadan is already finished for this year, this dish sounded so intriguing that … Continue reading Lham Lahlou (Algerian Sweet Lamb) Sous-Vide
Panang is a Thai curry made with meat and red curry paste enriched with peanuts, cumin, and coriander. It does not contain vegetables, except that it is garnished with chiffonaded kaffir lime leaves and thinly sliced red chilli peppers. I’ve … Continue reading Thai Panang Curry Pork Belly Sous-Vide
Breadcrumbs are often used in Sicilian cuisine to provide texture to antipasti such as sarde beccafico, primi piatti such as pasta with anchovies and broccoli, and secondi such as cotoletta alla palermitana. The latter dish inspired me to prepare swordfish … Continue reading Swordfish Palermitana (Pesce Spada alla Palermitana)
Doesn’t this cherry ricotta tartlet look great? It is not only as delicious as it looks, it is also very easy to make and does not require any baking (or any baking skills for that matter). So you don’t have … Continue reading No-Bake Cherry Ricotta Amaretti Tartlets
Homemade ravioli can be considered to be my signature dish. These delicate parcels of deliciousness are not that hard to make once you get the hang of them, and the possibilities are endless. Since I haven’t posted a new recipe … Continue reading Ravioli al Prosciutto
As dessert in our High Heel Gourmet-inspired menu, we prepared Thai coconut rice custard. This turned out very nice, with a nice contrast between the sweet palm sugar-flavored bottom and the salty creamy coconut top. This is an original dessert that … Continue reading Thai Coconut Rice Custard (Kanom Tuay)
Italian cooking is about the art of “less is more”. When I thought of this pasta dish, I thought the flavors of roasted cauliflower, boiled ham, and cumin would work well together. And they did! And I resisted the urge … Continue reading Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower, Ham, and Cumin
The next dish in our High Heel Gourmet-inspired Thai feast was this simple but oh so tasty stir-fried chicken and eggplant with red curry paste. This was actually one of the tastiest Thai dishes I have prepared so far. The … Continue reading Thai Chicken and Eggplant Stir-Fried with Red Curry (Pad Phed Gai)
My mission statement for this blog is that “I strive to share every single interesting experience with respect to food and wine.” This also includes my failures in the kitchen, so that we can all benefit from them. I love making … Continue reading The Bitter Truth About Kaffir Limecello
The second course of our High Heel Gourmet-inspired Thai feast was Thai fish mousse (Hor Mok Pla). The flavors are quite similar to Thai fish cakes (Tod Mun Pla), as it is fish with Thai red curry paste. But the … Continue reading Thai Fish Mousse (Hor Mok Pla)
Before we continue with another dish from our Thai feast, I’d like to share this very simple pasta dish from Rome with you that is perfect for the hot summer weather we are having. Spaghetti alla Checca is cold (or … Continue reading Spaghetti alla Checca
Miranti’s blog The High Heel Gourmet is an excellent source for learning how to prepare authentic Thai food. Every recipe I’ve tried from her has been a success, and without ever having set foot in Thailand I somehow feel comfortable … Continue reading Thai Shrimp Cake (Tod Mun Goong)
After the fava bean pods there were more leftovers to use up: the meat still attached to the bones from making chicken stock from what was left of the chicken whose legs we had with the fava beans. Although most … Continue reading Zucchini Stuffed with Leftover Chicken
I did the fava beans thing a bit backwards this time around, as I got the fava beans to experiment with the pods, and then I ended up with the leftover beans! I decided to double shell them and serve … Continue reading Chicken Leg with Fava Beans
One thing I don’t like about fava beans is all the waste. The actual beans are only about 20-25% of the gross weight, and that is even before double-shelling them (i.e. remove the light-colored bitter membrane around the green tender … Continue reading Pasta with Fava Bean Pods (Pasta con Baccelli di Fave)
Each region of Italy has its own pasta shapes. One of the typical shapes of Sardinia (Sardegna) is fregula or fregola, made from durum wheat flour and water, and similar to cous cous. The store-bought variety is a bit like … Continue reading Fregula with Clams (Fregola con Cocciua Niedda)
A great way to cook a whole leg of lamb is to roast it in the oven with anchovies, garlic and rosemary. I wanted to cook the lamb sous-vide instead so it would be more tender and juicy, and just … Continue reading Leg of Lamb Sous-Vide with Anchovies, Garlic, and Rosemary
On the Italian foodie blogs I follow, everyone is turning over to cold food because of the hot weather. When we have hot weather here we still eat hot food — we just prepare it outside on the grill (which … Continue reading Grilled Marinated Jumbo Shrimp
Restaurant Aqua of chef Sven Elverfeld is the 3 Michelin star restaurant located in the Ritz-Carlton in Autostadt, the Volkswagen theme park in Wolfsburg, in the middle of Germany near Hannover. It is listed as #33 on the World’s 50 … Continue reading Dining in Germany: Aqua***
Scampi (langoustines) are caught locally here, but most of them get exported. Luckily I work very close to the Albert Cuyp market, which has an excellent selection of fresh seafood. Silva Rigobello has been posting a number of scampi recipes … Continue reading Scampi with Orange, Cream, and Fennel
Mackerel is a cheap and tasty fish that is healthy as well because it is full of the omega 3 fatty acids. In this recipe the fat mackerel is paired with a tart marinade and sweet onions. This preparation is … Continue reading Marinated Mackerel
My friend Antonella took a sabbatical to be trained as a professional pastry chef in Italy. Upon her return, she baked acetani for us, wonderful almond-orange cookies that are crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and have lovely aromas … Continue reading Acetani (Italian Almond-Orange Cookies)
Two years ago I made jambon persillé for the first time, for a Burgundy-themed wine dinner. Jambon persillé is a terrine of ham hock (pork shank) with parsley. Back then I wrote that it was “quite a bit of work … Continue reading Ham Hock Terrine Sous-Vide (Jambon Persillé)
In the Netherlands, pea soup is a hearty winter soup made from dried peas and ham hock. Silva Rigobello reminded me that you can also make a lighter pea soup from fresh peas, perfect for spring. In this case, I … Continue reading Pea Velouté with Mint and Crispy Speck
Because of our, euphemistically put, shared history, kroepoek (Indonesian shrimp crackers, the Indonesian spelling is kerupuk or krupuk) is very common and very popular in the Netherlands. You can buy it at every supermarket and ‘Chinese/Indonesian’ restaurants sell large rectangular sheets of … Continue reading Kerupuk, Krupuk, Kroepoek (Shrimp Crackers)
Lamb shank sous-vide is one of my favorite cuts of lamb. I tend to avoid serving meat or fish with bones when preparing dinner for company, unless I know they are comfortable with it. And so in order to serve … Continue reading Deboned Lamb Shank Sous-Vide with Peas and Mint
Every time I browse the many cookbooks by Biba Caggiano I own, a recipe catches my eye that I haven’t tried before. In this case it was bucatini alle cipolle, a very simple pasta dish that makes the onions shine … Continue reading Bucatini alle Cipolle (Pasta with Onions)
Naan bread from India differs from ‘regular’ leavened bread for two reasons: it is made with yogurt and/or milk instead of water, and it is cooked quickly in a very hot oven (tandoor). If you don’t have a tandoor, you … Continue reading Naan Bread
Kees is working on the boat and I contribute by luring friends to help out by providing dinner. After a day of hard work, a baked pasta dish seemed like a good idea. This was also very practical, as I … Continue reading Baked Pasta with Ham and Peas (Pasta al Forno con Cotto e Piselli)
