Not Your Regular Deep Fried Mars Bar

WILD BASS WITH OLIVES, TOMATOES & CAPERS

2006-09-24T17:53:00.000+01:00

Here we are with another succulent and rich recipe!
The story goes that this cooking thing is getting all my friends in Oxford. So yesterday i was with a couple of guys from University and we were around the fish stand at the Cover Market and we saw these beautiful wild sea bass and we couldn't resist...so there you go!

What we did was very simple: we placed the sea bass on a foil and marinated with a sauce composed of parsley, garlic, white wine and lemon juice.
Meanwhile we cut some tomatoes, olives and mix everything with capers adding oil olive and salt. Place then the mix around and inside the fish.

Now you close the foil paying attention at closing it tight (add some extra foil if it is not wide enough). Then place the fish in a preheated oven for 1/2 hr at 200 C.

Thats it my friends! This is the result. Enjoy another tasteful recipe from your favourite blog!

PS: A thanks goes to my friend Andy who was the main director of what you have seen! Thank you Andy from the Blog.

RISOTTO WITH PORCINI!

2006-09-24T16:46:00.000+01:00

Hello bloggers!

WE ARE BACK!!

Sorry it took so long but as you know summer has just passed and starting again with university is always a pain so the cooking was put on hold...but here we are now! today I introduce you to a beautiful, rich and tasteful Risotto with porcini!

That's how you do it...first get the risotto right: check for Carnaroli wich is the best type of risotto. Then do as follow: get some dried porcini (they are very expensive here in UK but you will taste the difference!) and place them in a cup with some very hot water and leave it for 20 mins or so. At the same time put some salty water in a pan and bring it to boil, you will need it later on.

In a large pan place some olive oil, diced onion and fry gently until onions become soft. At this point you need to add mushrooms (you can either put them as they are or cut them slightly) without the water BUT carefull, DO NOT THROUGH THE MUSHROOM WATER AWAY!!!you will need it later. Let the whole thing now cook for few minutes very gently mixing often.

Now add the rice (500g for 4 persons is more than enough)and mix the whole thing. Cooking risotto is a phase thing: start adding the mushroom water with a big spoon and let the rice absorbing the water gradually by mixing it. When the mushroom water is finished start adding the boiling water you previously prepared. BE CAREFUL NOT TO BURN THE RICE AT THE BOTTOM when adding water and mixing.

This is the result!

This is how we do it (when you're hungover)

2006-07-29T14:01:00.000+01:00

Let me introduce you to the best way to start your saturday at...13h50...
German rye bread with smoked bacon, eggs and off course some beans w/ sausages.

ITALY WORLD CUP CHAMPION 2006

2006-07-17T14:55:00.000+01:00

I could not miss this opportunity guys...next would be in about 26 years if we keep this track... So italy won the world cup, it is difficult to dexcribe the emotions when the last penalty went in.

IT WAS SUCH A PLEASURE TO SEE THE FRENCH CRYING THIS TIME!!
It was italy's turn to win and we did it in the best possible way!

BRAVI RAGAZZI!!!

REAL ITALIAN FLAVOUR

2006-05-17T19:37:00.000+01:00

Hello bloggers,
just few words regarding a place where I have been and I will be going for a long time...At least until the pizzaiolo will be the same.

the pizzeria is called Mario, it is in Cowley road, Oxford, and with no doubt I can tell you it's the place to taste real Italian pizza! Believe me, if a picky Italian says so you can believe it!

Go and check it yourself!

P.S: just in case you wonder... No, they are not my relatives!

The art of tossing

2006-05-16T15:46:00.000+01:00

Tossing in food is a bit like juggling in football...You don't HAVE to know how to do it but, hey, everyone wants to be cool no?
The question is does it make you a tosser...?

ANOTHER WRAP NIGHT!

2006-04-22T17:14:00.000+01:00

Hello hungry people!
Today I'm presenting you a dish which i have to say was pretty delicious. It took longer than expected, and anything i have done before, but in the end was absolutely worth it! Here it is what i have done: take thin cut steaks, fill them with goat cheese, sliced garlic, parsley, salt and pepper and wrap them up using either toohthpicks or a piece of string.

Take a big non sitcky pan, place some sliced garlic, onions and olive oil (a good one please...please...please!!). When you start hearing the beautiful sound of oil sizzling (one of my favourite sounds and smells!) then you know its time to place the wraps in the pan and let them getting a browinish colour.

Now its tomatoe sauce time! Add a good tomatoes sauce, red wine and cook by mixing every now and then, for an hour. I know it is a lot of time, but believe me the resulting sauce is absolutely gorgeous...likely we had a couple of french baguette to do the so called "scarpetta"! Believe me, the sauce was a pleasure for all five senses!!

BACON BRIE WRAP WITH A TOUCH OF FRESH TOMATOES

2006-04-08T19:27:00.000+01:00

Hello blogger friends,
for Friday's dinner I was in charge of the starter and what I'm presenting today is a wrap (I've started loving wraps!) of fresh bacon filled with few slices of nice Brie.
It is well known that bacon and cheese go well together so to try something new I added a touch of fresh tomato...Why? Well if you think about it bacon and Brie are quite tastefully and very salty so to balance these flavors I added a bit of watery ingredient, namely tomatoes.

The sauce is very easy to produce: take four tomatoes, boil them to get rid of the skin then still hot, cut them in small cubes and place the whole thing in a bowl, add sliced garlic, olive oil (a good one please!) parsley salt and pepper. Then mix everything together and leave for 10 minutes so the flavors mix together.

After this place the bacon-Brie wraps into the oven (200C) and leave them until the Brie starts melting. Place the tomato sauce onto the serving plate and the wraps on top.

Done! Enjoy

2006-02-28T23:36:00.000Z

PANCAKE'S DAY!
Hello ladies and gentleman, today's is pancake's day and we could not leave you without a pic. Eggs, flour, water and butter that's all you need...then add your favourite ingredients. I would suggest Nutella forever but this is what we had, honey and vanilla icecream!

it isn't so much what you eat but with who you share the moment!

Ciao

PS: my flat mate jack is the author of the pancake shown.well done jack!

2006-02-20T21:27:00.000Z

Lamb Casserole
hello bloggers! here we are with another succulent dish we had last friday. it was my first casserole and i think it came quite good.

what you do is simple, get a good, tender piece of lamb, chop it and let it cook it in a terracotta casserole with some onions and garlic until it gets brownish, then add patotoes, cherry tomatoes (remember to do a cross cut on them) and about 1/4 letre of water and you place everything in the oven at 180 C for a good hour. spicy it up with a couple of chillies.

mix the whole thing every now and then. when the patatoeas are cooked you can say it is time to eat! Buon appetito!

Marco

ingredients (4 people): 1kg of lamb, 6 medium size patatoes, 200g cherry tomatoes, 2 chillies, 2 onions, garlic, water, parsley and origano.

Chocolate Soufflé

2006-02-17T21:44:00.000Z

This time I was in charge for the dessert. Selecting a dessert is not an easy task! I think for us it is the toughest! I am quite fascinated by the soufflé, so I decided this time to cook a chocolate soufflé.

I selected some intense chocolate to add in the recipe, and therefore I have melted the chocolate in the pan.

Before to put all the chocolate in the pan, I have kept a small amount of chocolate and crushed it in small pieces.

I was a bit disappointed with the result. The small pieces of chocolate have melted into the soufflé; sadly the crunchy effect disappeared during the cooking. Next time I will put bigger piece of chocolate into the soufflé!

The meanest crispiest chicken in the world!

2006-02-11T13:38:00.000Z

Ok it sounds a bit optimist but it is!
It all starts the day before.
You take your chicken tights, the best piece I think, and mix it with whole garlic cloves, peppercorns and a bunch of fresh thyme.
You then lay the mix on a roasting tray and cover with salt. Take the big rock salt, you want the salt to absorb all the humidity of the chicken skin. If you use regular sea salt, it's going to melt and the chicken will be terribly salty... And that's not what you want.

Put the chicken with salt in the fridge overnight and take of the salt before putting in the oven.
The oven should be at 160 deg and you want to leave the chicken for about 1 hour or until crispy.
Just put some olive oil and some smoked spanish paprika on top before the oven, it makes it even better.

Serve that with aioli, green salad or crisps and you're in heaven.

Come on doesn't it look awsome?

healthy breakfast

2006-02-05T21:33:00.000Z

Hello bloggers, what's up?
today i propose you a healthy breakfast i have been having lately. kiwi and banana slices with krisprolls topped with strawberry jam. caffe'latte is a must next to it.
enjoy
ciao

Duck, roast potatoes & green beans

2006-02-04T11:57:00.000Z

Hi guys...it is a long time since i have posted a comment on this blog! Nevermind...last friday i was looking for somenthing good, easy and straight forward! In order to reunite all these conditions.
I visited Feller the butcher in the cover market in Oxford. I didn't wanted to spend a long time near the hob trying to create some sauce and complicate dish. That's why I selected the duck. It not an usual dish not the most healthy but tasty!

The best way to prepare it is to cook on the fat side. And don't forget to notsh the fat side. It is a wintery dish so i decide to roast some potatoes in...the fat of the duck (YUMMY!)...ok...quite fat but...this is not a healthy meal...whatever !

Green beans balance this dish whith something more neutral and healthy!

couscous merguez @ Oxford

2006-01-25T23:21:00.000Z

Today I decided to cook a north African dish...the "couscous merguez". I choosed to cook this dish due to a good supplier! The shop is located in cowley road really near where I live. This guy is doing the best merguez!! So I decided to to cook the merguez with a couscous. I did with the most simplistic way. First cook the merguez on the pan, secondly add water in the pan. When the water boils add the semoula. You got a nice easy dish, cooked in a fast way!

Hitting the 1000 mark!

2006-01-21T13:06:00.000Z

Thanks for coming to this page to check out what we do!
We'll keep posting good stuff and we'll get to 2 000 even faster!

In the meantime, you can now subscripe to our blog and get the latest post in your inbox.
Have a look at the right of the page for signing up.

Orange Souffle

2006-01-18T18:46:00.000Z

Finally I cooked the dessert! I broke a golden rule...I cooked a dish for a second time! But this time I changed the ingredient and improve the recipe. I really wanted to have a better understanding of the "souffle science".

I decided to use more fresh ingredient for the dessert, that's why I chose orange zest. That was the first time that I used orange zest. I was worry about the result...the peel of an orange would give a terrific taste???

This time I was more carefull about the size and the proportion. I was lucky to have found some ramekin...it was the exact size for one person portion. This time I haven't add any egg yolk...only white eggs!

I was impressed by the result...Next time it will be better,
I promise!

That's what I call a tartiflette

2006-01-16T14:02:00.001Z

After seeing ads in Paris of the yankee assault on my beloved tartiflette (see ad), I thought it was necessary to set the record straight and show you what's the real thing.

The tartiflette comes from the Savoy region where they have the delicious Reblochon cheese.
The dish is very simple and is really about the cheese.
The recipe I used is from Marc Veyrat who is a 3 michelin stars chef based in Annecy.
At his restaurant, he charges 99 Euros ($120) for this, which I think is a bit ambitious...

Anyway, you can do it for much less if you can get the reblochon.
I could speak in lenghts about what makes a great reblochon but the most important is to have it made with unpasteurised milk (au lait cru).

Before getting into the recipe, I have to admit that this dish is not an old dish that people used to eat on cold wintry nights in the Alps... It was actually created in the 80s by the reblochon association to increase its sales... I guess it worked.

So what's the trick to achieve this modern ;) recipe?
That's what you need to start

For 4 persons (or 3 hungry ones)

800gr of waxy boiling potatoes (rates in french)
1 small onion
1 reblochon
150gr of smoked diced bacon
4 tbsp of single cream
5cl of white wine
5gr of butter
salt and pepper

First, preheat the oven to 210C and open the white wine bottle to have a quick taste ;)
Put the potatoes in cold water and cook for 20 mins when it starts to boil.
In the meantime, cook in separate pans your onion and bacon.

Remember that the recipe has few ingredients so get them right!
The onion has to be finnely chopped and cooked at very low heat until it becomes translucent.
The bacon should be cooked until golden but not crispy.

When your onion is ready, add the wine and let it reduce until about 2tbsp remain.
Then mix in the onions.

Peal your potatoes and cut them in 1.5cm cubes. Put them in the onions/bacon mix and add the cream.

Now put everything in a baking tray. This is now the time to play with the reblochon.
First scrape lighty the crust of the cheese and cut it in 2 lenghtwise.
Now you only have to put the 2 circles over the potatoes mix and put it in the oven for 15mins with an aluminium foil on it.
After 15 mins, take the foil off, stir and maybe add some salt and pepper.
Put back in the oven for 5 mins and you're done!

With this, I would strongly suggest a refreshing green salad, otherwise it might be a bit to heavy!
This is the first time for a looong time that I was actually really pleased with the dish.

You should definitly give it a try, it's pretty pretty pretty good!

waouw!

2006-01-14T00:06:00.000Z

I am just back from the Friday night meal...And I am feeling good ! What a nice feeling to be back in Oxford and meet friend with good food! I spent an excellent Christmas and I have put on weight!!!
I will post later the dessert I cooked tonight (orange souffle!)
see you soon !

Happy New Year from Paris!!!

2006-01-11T20:31:00.000Z

This is what you find everywhere in the parisian underground...
A tartiflette pizza!!!

Stay tuned the next few weeks as I am going to cook the real thing!

Stuffed aubergine Turkish style

2005-12-23T12:29:00.000Z

Hey folks! Yesterday I tried some stuffed aubergine. I tasted some few months ago and it seemed pretty straight forward to do.
I had a look on websites to find out a bit more and I tried it.

First you cut your aubergine in two and fry it on each side for 4-5 mins until it starts browning.
Don't deep fry it! Just put 3-4 cm of vegetable oil in a pan and try to cover it if you want to keep your skin.

When it's ready, the flesh should be very tender and you can "open" the aubergine to allow some space for some lamb.

Now you can start to work on your stuffing.
You need minced lamb, garlic, spring onions, tomato puree and spices (chili powder and sumac)

So start cooking the meat with the spices and when it's almost done, add your garlic, spring onions and puree. The puree really adds something good, I never did it before and it was quite tasty!
I also noticed that people tend to cook the lamb until it's almost crispy in Turkey. It's not a bad idea as it adds another texture to the dish.

Ok, the meat is ready, just spoon it on the aubergine.

To finish it, you will need to cook the aubergine in the oven for 15 mins on 180deg C.

Another trick is to add some boiled water mixed to some tomato puree on the bottom of the dish to create some steam and ease the cooking.
It will also give you a nice sauce at the end.

Last trick is to put slices of red and green peppers over the lamb to prevent it of burning... Some sort of safety!

You eat that with rice and you ENJOY! Fast and easy!

Back to school

2005-12-20T18:33:00.000Z

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!

Not your regular Christmas party

2005-12-19T12:38:00.000Z

After having discovered the joys of English Xmas parties last year, I was up for a change this year with the party being organized in Brussels.
We went to a restaurant a bit outside of Brussels called le moulin du bloquia.
I think it is an old mill or farm renovated in a modern style.

But enough with the location, what did I eat? This food was superb and the wine delicious.
I'll try to explain you how it went.

This is the menu (in French) I went for.

La rillette de truite saumonée, confit de poireaux aux tomates marinées, lit de roquette, vinaigrette à la graine de Meaux

This was some sort of salmon tartare with a grainy mustard vinaigrette.
It was a fresh start to get your tastebuds going!

***
Les ravioles de pintade fermière façon Val d'Or

This was a guinea fowl ravioli with bacon on a rich red sauce. I must admit that I started talking about this blog at that point and didn't really pay attention to the dish. It tasted superb at first and when I got back to the dish after the discussion, well, I realised I ate it all!
But hey I'm not a pro!

***
La noisette de biche Grand Veneur, duo de purées et garnitures automnales

Ahhh Bambi! This was totally awesome ! I really think it's the best piece of meat I ever ate! The sauce veneur is a classic sauce made with cream and red wine.
You just HAVE to try this.

***

La tartelette fine au chocolat, tranche d'orange confite, sirop à l'Amaretto

Chocolate after all that?? Really? I couldn't finish it! It was good but I guess too much for me...

Trust me on this, it was divine. Especially bambi as the main course... It was the first time I ate this and I was very surprised. I was used to other game dishes being a bit dry and needing lots of creamy sauce but not for bambi...
The meat was very tender and pinkish. I need to try that again.

With the meat, we drank a Givry, le pied du Clou, Domaine Francois Lumpp from 2003. This is a fantastic wine with plenty of flavors which I obviousely couldn't describe!

If you end up in Brussels on a cold cold night, you should check this restaurant. It is definitely worth getting lost on the way there!

Tiger Prawn

2005-12-16T00:10:00.000Z

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!

2005-12-15T11:54:00.000Z

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

2005-12-12T18:36:00.000Z

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!

2005-12-12T18:13:00.000Z

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

A belgian cooking brussels sprouts...

2005-12-11T15:46:00.000Z

Ok this week was a bit hectic and I was in charge of the main...
This is our last dinner before mid-January so we had to do something good.
I must say I underperformed this week. I hadn't made enough research beforehand and went for a simple dish from Brussels.
They usually serve that dish in cafes and it is always a popular dish.
Don't get me wrong, the dish was good (come on I made it!) but nothing special.
Marco and Gian did really well so the pressure is on for next year.
I'll be in Paris over the festive period so I'll get some inspiration over there!

So the dish is brussels sprouts with garlic, bacon and onions with pork chops.
The pork chops were really good and produced locally in the oxfordshire.
I find pork chops quite hard to cook as you want them to look crispy and almost burnt on the outside while keeping them tender and not dry.
I think about 15mins is usually was it takes to achieve that on high heat.

For the brussels sprout, there is only one thing to know. If you want to avoid problems related to sprouts (you know what I mean) you should boil them for 3 minutes and discard the water. Then you cook them as usual for 25 minutes.
By discarding the water the first time you are getting rid of the chemical compound which causes problems. I've tried to find out the name of the compound but couldn't find.
If somebody has an idea...

For my recipe, I fry garlic, bacon and the onion in the pan and then add up the sprouts. Very simple and delicious.

That's just too much man!

2005-12-04T23:19:00.000Z

3 pieces dinner on Friday night.
Indian for lunch on Saterday, big pasta dish on the evening and doner kebab much later.
Roast pork for Sunday lunch and chinese takeaway for dinner.

This has to stop!
If December is the month for tentations, then I've just started with a big bang!
I'm off to Harrogate for the week, see you later punks!

the wintry dish !

2005-12-02T12:45:00.000Z

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!

La Dame blanche

2005-12-02T03:26:00.000Z

The white lady to finish off the dinner (and to finish us off as well...)
This is a belgian classic and is really simple to make...
Vanilla ice cream, chantilly and hot chocolate.

I think the only part that could cause problem is the chocolate melting.
I just melt it "au bain marie", meaning putting your chocolate in bowl and putting the bowl in hot but not boiling water. You want it to melt slowly...

When it's done, you just pour that over the ice cream...

Friday is coming !

2005-11-30T22:55:00.000Z

2 days before “the” Friday…and still in hesitation. I am accountable for the main course!
That’s a huge responsibility! I have got an idea about the type of meat to cook: wild boar or pheasant. Quite an usual meat but it is the best period of the year to eat it! I hope this night will help…

Hasta Siempre le Rioja!

2005-11-30T17:26:00.000Z

When haven't talked about wines yet but I think I should mention the wine we drank during the last 2 dinners.
It is a Gran Reserva Rioja from 1996 from Bodegas Muriel. I found this wine at a very good price at the Coop (£5.50 instead of £10)

The name gran reserva sounded a bit pompous so I made some researches to find out more.

It appears that the name Gran Reserva is given to a Rioja which has been aged at least two years in oak and three years in bottle.
There are actually 3 types of Rioja depending on how long they were kept in oak and in bottle.
You have the Rioja, Rioja Reserva and Rioja Gran Reserva.

I am not as good on wines as I'd like to be but I thought this wine tasted really good. I think the taste of oak really brings a nice taste to this wine. I am sure an expert could detect dozens of flavors but what I can say is that IT'S GOOD!

The rioja is a really good wine and one of the best Spanish wines.
It was actually the first wine to receive the "Denominacion de Origen" status in 1925 due to its consistent quality.
For more information on Rioja and wine in general, have a look at this link on wikipedia.

Knowing my love for the tempranillo grape, I am now on a hunt for similar wines from different grapes.
Any ideas?

Meatballs

2005-11-28T20:36:00.000Z

I guess I'm on a mission to get fat this week.
I can't stop cooking!
I got some good pork sausages from Sainsbury's this week end and I decided to try some meatballs.
It's always a bit tricky to make your own meatballs, you have to mix your meat with bread, eggs and spices and hope it's going to stick together in the pan.
Well it usually does if you put the meatballs in the fridge for an hour but it's just a pain.

If you can get a good sausage with good seasoning why not make it a meatball?
You just open the sausage and take of the meat. The meat is so sticky it's dead easy to make balls out of them.

Then I heat up some olive oil in the pan and throw the onions and meat until golden.
When golden I add up a glass of wine to bring out all the flavours! So good.
Some tomatoes and herbs and you just let it cook for some time.

That's how it looks like....

A Sunday roast de puta madre!

2005-11-27T17:28:00.000Z

That's what I'm talking about! A perfectly cooked piece of lamb, on the bone of course!
Sunday roast? I give you the ultimate roast cooked on the barbie!
With olive oil, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, paprika and spiked with garlic cloves this was amazing! I cooked it for about 1h30 on indirect heat and ended up with this pink lamb.

To go with the lamb, I treated my guests with a belgian specialty, a patate ardenaise. It is a big potatoe which I cooked in the oven and then removed the inside.
I then mixed the inside with creme fraiche, gruyere cheese and cubes of pancetta (you can use bacon as well). You put it back in the oven for 15 minutes and that's it!

With a good salad to finish, I think you can't go wrong.
Just happy faces and lotsa washing up! (Thanks Aglae!)

Always start with a brunch

2005-11-26T11:14:00.000Z

First post so I had to make something big!
On Saterday mornings, I always take the time to make myself a good brunch usually with bacon, eggs and all the rest.

This morning I tried something new as I had a large potatoe left.
I decided to go for the paillasson de pomme de terre which is fried grated potatoes.

Basically, you grate your potatoes and you mix some chopped onions, gruyere cheese, an egg and salt and pepper. Then you just put it in the hot pan with olive oil!

Then it was the usual bacon cured in maple syrup and eggs and toasts.

Have a look at the pictures... Awsome!

Bon appetit! Clement.

Friday's dinner - Starter

2005-11-25T20:00:00.000Z

Alright! It's Friday, let's find a good starter to do.
That's the question I asked myself 2 hours before having to do it for 2 others food aficionados!

I must admit I went the easy way and took Jamie Oliver's book out of the shelf. Easy but hey why should I make things harder for me?

The starter was a mozzarella salad with chili, olive oil, lemon juice and basil.
Very simple.
The only tricky part is too burn the chilies before and scrape the burnt part off.
This way, you take the heat out of them and it makes them a bit sweeter.

It may be a bit sweeter but I still recommend high amounts of bread to survive the dish!!!
We actually robbed Marco's baguette to bring our taste buds back to life! Thanks Marco, hope you had enough for the mozzarella hot dog!

I think the dish was a success and one of my first step to superstardom.
You know, you start with a salad and few years after you sit on a multi million dollar empire!

So make a salad!

Friday's night- Dessert

2005-11-25T19:59:00.000Z

Ok...I am in charge for the last part of the supper. Last week Marco did an exellent dessert compose of vanilla ice cream, ginger cookies crushed and mandarin. It was good...so I need to innovate, I was looking for something different than the usual dessert shown and done by the majority of young man!

I wanted something D I F F E R E N T! I had an exellent souvenir of a three stars restaurant in Brussels (la villa lorraine). It was good challenge. Usually majority of people are quite reluctant for this dessert. But I think that's a good challenge.

To find this recipe, I have been visiting the BBC food website. It is amazing the amount of recipe listed on this website. I have found different recipe for different flavour. My choice was a Banana souffle. I choosed this one, due to a good explanation on the website.

The recipe is quite simple. The secret, on how to succeed this dished, is in the white egg. I was totaly unlucky! I was not in possession of a food processor or a machine that can help me to create white egg. Just a simple whisk!!!

Raising 6 white eggs require time and a lot of E N E R G Y! Hopefully my mates helped me, otherwise...no souffle !!!
Clement and Marco cooked a delicious pork on the oven...i took the benefit to keep the oven warm for the souffle. The recipe require eight to nine minutes to cook the souffle.

Once the white eggs were raised I add the mixture into the ramekin and direclty I have put them in the oven.
The result was quite satisfying for the first try. I would advise to be carefull on the cooking time, because inside the souffle should be wet.
I like banana but other fruit as peach or peer could bring more fresheness at the end of this delicious meal.
I was satisfied for this first try, but I think I can do better the next time !