Back to school

This is Christmas time in Oxford...Nice atmosphére and good bargain (already). I have been visiting some bookshop and I discovered the Gordon Ramsay book. I took a look inside and I found the tiger Prawn recipe. This great chef add some lemongrass and ginger within the recipe. I believe these two ingredients will bring a good freshness to the dish! Gordon Ramsay advise to marinate the dish for two or three hours, that's exactly what I recommended in the previous post..A killer (he got a three stars Michelin that's help!).
Globally the book is quite interesting...I advice to buy it!

Tiger Prawn

This time I was in charge of the starter. I wanted something different and experience something new. For a couple of day I had sea food in my mind. I wanted to cook something unusual. My first idea was to do a "bisque d'homard" (Lobster soup), I needed different ingredients and especially cognac (which is capital for this dish). So I did some research on the BBC food website and I founded a tiger prawn starter.







Tiger prawn needed to be marinated for ten minute in a mixture of olive oil, chili, garlic and lemon. I would advice to marinated the tiger prawn longer, 30 minutes instead of 10 minutes. After a stay in the fridge, the tiger prawn are grilled for two minutes each sides...easy and speedy! I must admit the quality of the prawn play an important role in the final taste!

MERRY XMAS !!

hello bloggers!
xmas is only few days away and since im going home, italy, i'll be taking pictures of the food my grandmother and mum will cook for me (yes!finally!!) and see if i can do the same...maybe better?!?!... once i get back.

so be prepared because 2006 can only start in a positive way...claro, with your NOT YOUR REGULAR DEEP FRIED MARS BAR blog!!

see you...sort of...in 2006!!

Ciao ciao, Marco

CHEAT'S DESSERT

Here I'm again...Today I feel inspired, also I have to catch up with all the others...Here I will be posting my first dessert. What you need is ginger biscuits, vanilla ice cream, clementines and oranges. We are also gonna make some caramel with some caster sugar and water (55g of caster sugar with 6 tablespoons of water, just to give you an idea of the proportion). The most difficult part is the caramel: it burns very quickly if you don't take it out of the heat soon enough, basically as soon as it starts having a brownish color.

now you almost got it: smash the ginger biscuits to get a crumble, place a vanilla ice cream ball on top with a slice of clementine (it's got to be a good one!!Sorry, but no time is given to cheap/crap ingredients!). When u have done all the proportion, then you can start making the caramel...Remember to have the heat low and stir it all the time. When the water starts boiling squeeze in half orange and then place the caramel with a spoon on top of the ice cream!

enjoy!

PS: remember that the main secret to good food are good ingredients!

Roast Pork

Finally, here I'm posting my dishes. I'm sorry not to be able to do it before. Right, where shall I start? Of course, the delicious roast pork with crackling skin!!mmm...You ve got to try! It is very simple, first you marinate the pork with extra virgin olive oil, black peppers, a bit of crushed chilly rosmarine, and if you are not gone kiss anybody that day, a bit of garlic!
you leave all this in a plastic bag for a good hour so that the pork absorbs all the flavors...More you leave it and better it will taste! (don't leave it for days though!)
Then, here comes the trick part: the oven must be very hot, say 230C and you place the pork in it for 1/2 hour then turn the heat down to 190C and leave it for an extra 2hours. After that, rest the pork in a warm place for further 15 minutes (turn the oven off and opend the door). I know, I know, it is a long process and you may want to do something else, but believe me, look at the picture below and you may get the point!

that's it! Enjoy...oh this dish doesn't go well with a cheap wine! Ps: I even did an apple sauce with it, but I didn't like it so next time it'll come better I'll post it!Ciao

the wintry dish !

Last Friday, the pheasant won against the wild boar. Both of these meat are delicious, but the preparation of the wild boar require more time ( 24h marinade!!!) So I decided to cook the pheasant. As we said previously Oxford possess an excellent cover market with the best quality food. Shopping there is a pleasure and especially to the butcher (Feller is great!)






I cooked the pheasant on the pan with a delicious creamy sauce.
I selected only breast, It was maybe to easy.
It is more challenging to buy an entire pheasant!
As a side dish I prepared a "pomme neserode"
an apple with cranberries cooked in the oven.



I prepared a wintry mashed potatoes, with créme fraiche and "gratiné" (crusty) in the oven. The result was delicious! Not really healthy but it is the season!