Just to torture some of my readers (you know who you are!). Here's a teaser of what to look out for in about 2.5 months during my trip:
Asador Etxebarri - Mecca of grilling perfection. My entire schedule was planned around this lunch. Read more at Yaokui.
Chez l'Ami Jean - Recommended by Gastroville as well. How can I go wrong? Read more at Hungry in Bangkok.
Pizzeria Sorbillo - We only have time for one (or two if we rush) pizza in Naples. I hope this is a right choice. Read more at Scattidigusto. Use Google Translate!
La Cuchera de San Telmo - Best Pintxos on Earth? Read more at Dudes on Food.
and many many more!
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Dusting Away the Cobwebs
Ah I’ve been too busy to work on this blog on mine. Taking 3 Physics and 1 French module was a bad idea. Especially the French! Still, it’s not completely due to tedious academic work that I’ve been neglecting my virtual presence – I’m also hammering out my vacation details this summer. Yes, I am Europe bound!
Anyway, it doesn’t mean that when my blogging stop, my cooking halts too. I always say I am a foodie first, then trailing far behind, a photographer and then a blogger. Here’s a duo of my effort in the past months. In case you are wondering why deep-fried themes seem to cluster together, it’s called oil recycling.
I made a second attempt at fish and chips with some appreciable improvements. Instead of depending on an oil thermometer, I winged the oil temperature and did not too badly. I got the blanching of the fries spot on but I think my deep frying temperature was a tad too high. Still, I suspect that it’s not completely because of the temperature that my fries turned out more brunette than blond. I think that the residual sugar in the potato is browning prematurely. Perhaps they needed a more thorough rinsing. For the fish, I used the same batter but this time I employed the Japanese tempura trick of sprinkling more batter on the fish after dropping it in the oil.
The next preparation is unabashedly lifted from the menu of the Parisian 3-star restaurant Ledoyen. I read about it on Gastroville and Food Snob and even though it’s simple prawn ball, I am strangely attracted to it. And boy, when I tried to replicate it, I found that there’s nothing simple about it at all. First, I tried substituting the pastry with shredded wanton skins. Fail. Next, I used spring roll sheets. It was passable, but only just. I finally gave in and used phyllo pastry and shredded it filament thin. Success! The filling was a whole tiger prawn as well as some minced prawns to give it shape.
Though impressive looking, I found these prawns inferior in taste and texture to smaller deep sea prawns. It is ‘garnished’ with a grilled half of another prawn. The saucing component was what perplexed me. I thought it was some sort of foam that’s not accessible to a home kitchen until I chanced across La Recette du Jour with its recipe for a Lemon and Olive Oil Mousse dessert. Obviously I couldn’t replicate exactly the recipe but only draw inspiration to come up with a savoury version of it. With all 3 elements in hand, the constellations aligned and there you have it, a 3-star dish.
Anyway, it doesn’t mean that when my blogging stop, my cooking halts too. I always say I am a foodie first, then trailing far behind, a photographer and then a blogger. Here’s a duo of my effort in the past months. In case you are wondering why deep-fried themes seem to cluster together, it’s called oil recycling.
I made a second attempt at fish and chips with some appreciable improvements. Instead of depending on an oil thermometer, I winged the oil temperature and did not too badly. I got the blanching of the fries spot on but I think my deep frying temperature was a tad too high. Still, I suspect that it’s not completely because of the temperature that my fries turned out more brunette than blond. I think that the residual sugar in the potato is browning prematurely. Perhaps they needed a more thorough rinsing. For the fish, I used the same batter but this time I employed the Japanese tempura trick of sprinkling more batter on the fish after dropping it in the oil.
The next preparation is unabashedly lifted from the menu of the Parisian 3-star restaurant Ledoyen. I read about it on Gastroville and Food Snob and even though it’s simple prawn ball, I am strangely attracted to it. And boy, when I tried to replicate it, I found that there’s nothing simple about it at all. First, I tried substituting the pastry with shredded wanton skins. Fail. Next, I used spring roll sheets. It was passable, but only just. I finally gave in and used phyllo pastry and shredded it filament thin. Success! The filling was a whole tiger prawn as well as some minced prawns to give it shape.
Though impressive looking, I found these prawns inferior in taste and texture to smaller deep sea prawns. It is ‘garnished’ with a grilled half of another prawn. The saucing component was what perplexed me. I thought it was some sort of foam that’s not accessible to a home kitchen until I chanced across La Recette du Jour with its recipe for a Lemon and Olive Oil Mousse dessert. Obviously I couldn’t replicate exactly the recipe but only draw inspiration to come up with a savoury version of it. With all 3 elements in hand, the constellations aligned and there you have it, a 3-star dish.
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