Kitchen Voyage Trips

Dorsoduro, Venice

Soon will be back with all the news from our trip from Venice and our experiences in Harry´s Bar and Avogaria Restaurant.

Mix grill fish from Avogaria Restaurant

And as well with a mini guide for the best of madrid including great restaurants and tapas bars.

See you soon ◦

Kitchen Voyage Trips

Chicory the perfect companion

Chicory or Endive are originally from  Europe and now are  in season, just when we start to thinking in the summer ahead chicory is in the right moment for start to make the changes that we need in our diet,  from stew to salads. I think one of the reason why chicory still popular in the supermarket chain is because the compressed shape of his leaves and are available in two colors, the dream of any supermarket manager. So I decided bring to you a bunch of salad recipes that include Jaime Oliver and Gordon Ramsay; a more French style salad because the endive are very close related with the French cuisine and to end another salad with cheeses that usually my aunt make in the winter family reunions like a canapé also present in her nutritional book.  In fact the little bitterness of those leaves go very well with rich cheeses like blue ones.  Chicory as well has been used like a substitute of the coffee, so why not try start the day with this very awakening juice.

Chicory salad with Mimolette cheese.

Serves 6. Timing  15 min. Kcal 170

Mimolette cheese by pinprick's

Salad

Vinaigrette

1 lettuce (lamb or frisée)                              1 tbsp cider vinegar

3 read chicory heads (leaves separate)         1 tsp Dijon mustard

100g mimolette cheese (in stripes)               1 tsp caster sugar

50g walnuts (finely crushed)                        Salt and pepper

                                                                  3 tbsp walnut oil

                                                                  4 tbsp Groundnut oil

1.       Place the leaves of chicory and lettuce in a bowl and add the mimolette and the crushed walnut.

2.       In a little bowl mix the vinegar, mustard and sugar and pinch of salt and pepper, then add the oils and whisk  very well. Taste your seasoning.

3.       Pour the vinaigrette over the salad bowl and serve!

Roast Quail with Endives by Gordon Ramsay.

Serves4. Timing 35 min.  Really nice salad but watch out 530kcl!

Salad

Vinaigrette

2 oven ready quails.                                         2 tbsp white wine vinegar

6 thyme sprigs                                                  ½ tsp Dijon mustard

20g hot melted butter                                       5 tbsp Walnut oil

2 chicory (white and red leaves separates)        2 tbsp olive oil

14 small basil leaves

50g walnuts.

Oven 200ºC

1. We need start cooking the quails, first filling the quails cavities with the thyme.
2. In a hot frying pan with a 2 tbsp olive oil brown the quail breast side down for 3 minutes pressing down onto the pan to get the best color possible. Now turn over and cook for another 2 minutes and basting a few of the hot butter over the bird.
3. Transfer the pan to the oven and roast for 5 to 8 minutes. Remove and let to cool.
4. Put the chicory (big leaves cut into quarters) walnut and basil in a big bowl.
5. For the dressing mix all the ingredients in a little bowl and whisk together very well, add some salt and pepper for seasoning. Pour over the bowl with the chicory.
6. Remove the breast from the birds and then slices them.
7. Serve the salad in the plates with the quail slices on top. 

 Quick Chicory salad with a really tasty dressing by Jaime Oliver.

Serves 4. Timing 20min. 

Salad

Vinaigrette

4 chicory (white and red leaves separates)   8 big basil leaves  

8 little basil leaves                                        1 garlic clove (peeled)

2 tbsp capers (drained)                                3 tbsp olive oil

                                                           ½ tin of anchovies in olive oil

                                                                   1 tsp Dijon mustard

                                                                   2 tbsp natural yoghurt

                                                                   3 tbsp red wine vinegar

                                                                        

1. Arrange the chicory and basil leaves in a big salad bowl or already in a big salad dish.
2. In a liquidizer mix all the vinaigrette ingredients and whiz them. Take a taste, season with a few salt and pepper and add a splash of water, whiz again.
3. Put a tbsp. of olive oil in a hot pan, add the capers for 2 min.
4. Sprinkle the capers over the chicory leaves and drizzle with your salad dressing. Ready to enjoy.  

Cheese chicory canapés.

Endives by coses de pac's

50g blue cheese. 200g cream cheese. 100g brie cheese.
1 tbsp of diced salad onion (very finely)
10 green olives5 black olives (diced very finely)
4 white chicory (leaves separated)
50g walnut.
1 tbsp vinegar

1.    In a big bowl with half of cold water add the vinegar and chicory leaves. Left them rest for 5 minutes. 
2.    Rinse the leaves in rinse water and drain in a colander.
3.    In another bowl mix all the cheeses very well, using a whisker or a fork
4.    Add the diced black olives and salad onion to the cheese mix and season with pepper
5.    In a serving dish arrange the chicory leaves and fill with the cheese mix and top ones with the green olives and another with a piece of walnuts.
6.    Before serving refridgerate them for at least half an hour.

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Chicory the perfect companion

CHICKEN WITH ORANGES OR LEMONS IS THE QUESTION

Photo by silviaN's

Lemons and oranges have very similar history, their origin is not exact but most probably the y came from china or South East Asia, both even they are an ancient fruits they are really hybrids, lemon  is a genetic combination of sour orange and citron and the oranges is another hybrid from grapefruit and mandarin. Early the lemon was attributed with curative properties and the Chinese consider that have an orange trees bring you luck. Step by step these two citrus starts to be more popular in Europe, first introduced for the roman troops, then for Arabs in the Mediterranean (Seville orange) and finely in the middle ages for sailors to Genova and Portuguese to iberic peninsula. And then lemon and oranges went to conquest the Americas where actually are concentrated the bigger production countries.

Well now will have the opportunity to rejoin the 2 citrus with another famous South East Asia source of food. Lemon Chicken or Chicken with oranges is the question. (Click in the links for see the recipes)

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CHICKEN WITH ORANGES OR LEMONS IS THE QUESTION

ALIVE, WATCHING AND COOKING.

Lately the Good Food Channel (SkyHD Ch 249) has been showing the Australian series Alive and Cooking with the Bristol Chef James Reeson best known for The Occasional Cook and James can Cook. The show is quite interesting doesn’t bring anything new to the cooking program but the energetic style of James with a few interesting comments, nice tips and the opportunity to approach the explosion of fusion of the Australian cuisine encouraged me to try his recipes. For example the Hot Cake and Fruit Breakfast, is  great way to start the day o surprise your couple. More... ◦

ALIVE, WATCHING AND COOKING.

THE BATTLE OF THE PRAWNS

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 A large bunch of terms exist to describe all the different types of these crustaceans  (shrimp, langoustine, gambas, kings, tiger, etc.) most of the names also are linked with the bay from the fisherman catch. One things is sure is without matter if they are from, moroccan waters, Dublin way of the catalonia gulf they are very tasty but unfortunately  the food industries transform them in a high content source of calories and fat.  I did my research in Waitrose and I found

Product Name                  kcal       fat
Prawn Cocktail                 198        15g
King prawn chilli mayo    412        40g
Prawns in brine                 51          0,7

Another popular option is a prawn mayo sandwich, I checked in M&S and I found 290 kcal with 10.4g in a 164g packet. Ten grams of fat is about of a 15% of your daily fat recommendation.

So for this reason I will show 2 simple recipes when you can taste all the flavor of the prawns without overpowering additive or dip and where you only will intake around 130 kcal and only 2g of fat by 100g and another more asian prawn recipe created for Bill Granger in his special for Waitrose Kitchen magazine.

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THE BATTLE OF THE PRAWNS

Little Susan Cookies. Carrot Cookies

Little Susan Cookies 

Probably no body outside my family know these carrots cookies with this name. They were very popular after playing with my cousin Steve in our muddy backyard in our winter holidays. The carrots are in season in winter and I remember very well when my mother baked them. Even I remember one rainy afternoon when my older sister tries to emulate my mother and do for us, but the cookies were hard like stones. Lucky enough my sister becomes a strong independent woman without kids to bake cookies, and lucky to us my mother arrived earlier with enough time to make a new dough.  So when a couple days ago was reading the cook book of my aunt was a great surprise to find the Little Susan Cookies, unfortunately was a miss tipping in the ingredients list that I am not notice and my first dough was too sweet and the cookies with similar hard texture than almost 20 years ago. So I´ll call my mother to rescue the Little Susan cookies again and she give me a more accurate recipe that I will show in gram instead of cups because like a beginner I fine hard to measure by cups.  Going to the recipie

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Little Susan Cookies. Carrot Cookies

A summer Day in Brighton

I hadn’t intended to post this recipe today, but yesterday when awake Brighton was bright and warm like a perfect spring day, after years of disappointment I really do not trust so much  the British weather, but the weather man said that will be a really nice day, so I decided I will have a nice lunch on the balcony so forgotten since I believe July past year. I rush to the fish market for see the catch of the day,   because I think for this kind of days is nothing better than a good fish meal with a nice bottle of wine. So I prepared a nice pasta dish for lunch at the balcony and for today a starter of mussels and a main of mackerel.

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A summer Day in Brighton