Wednesday 19 May 2010

Busy times

After a long while, im back here to post a little bit of what im currently doing with my life.
At this very moment im at Lasarte Oria ( Spain ) working in the Martin Berasategui's restaurant. It's considered one of the 50 best restaurants in the world, and has 3 Michellin Stars.
I've been here for around a month and have learnt alot about cooking. Unfortunately, due to personal problems, i cant stay here any longer, but it was a great experience a huge step on my career.
Hopefully i will use the new techniques I've learnt here to you guys.
Thanks for visiting my blog, hope you enjoyy.

Wednesday 10 March 2010

Paella Valenciana

Hello everybody out there.
Last weekend I bought rabbit and was wondering what to do with it.
Well, too many options came in to my head, but none were as interesting as the Paella.
It is quite a simple recipe, very traditional, but i really like the taste.


(sorry image is not that good)

Ingredients you will need:
750g of chicken legs
1 medium-sized rabbit
5 grated tomatoes ( yes you can grate tomatoes leaving the skin behind)
20g of chopped garlic
500g of Spanish rice ( i don't know how you guys call it out there so i'm sorry )
165 grs. wide green bean
1 level teaspoon of saffron
1 level teaspoon of sweet red paprika
And enough water to cook the rice ( i'm not sure exactely, but should be 2 times the rice, abit more maybe)
Olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan.
Salt and pepper

Method:
Heat and paella ( or anything kinda alike ) pan with olive oil. Add all the chicken and the rabbit. Keep moving the pieces of chicken and rabbit around untill they are nearly fully cooked. Make a gap in the middle of the pan. Add the garlic, then paprika. Cook for about 20 seconds, then add the beans, then the tomatoes.
Add all the water, the saffron and leave it cooking for about 20 minutes.
To finish, add all the rice and cook untill its soft.
Turn off the heat and leave it resting for 10 minutes.
Then serve.
Thats it, it shouldn't take more than 1h 30 min to 2 hours.
Hope you guys liked, and try this at home :)

Friday 26 February 2010

Updating.

Well, after leaving the blog alone for a couple of weeks, I'm here today to tell more about a culinary course I've done 2 weeks ago in argentina.
The course was focused, basically, on Sous Vide ( Vacuum ) cooking and Modern Cuisine.
Both were very usefull to me, teaching me techniques I haven't got much in contact before.
In a professional kitchen, where food has to be done in large scale, equipments such as Roners and a Vacuum chamber ( or machine ) are really helpfull. In my opinion, fish and vegetables get cooked to perfection without much trouble using them. But, everything has a bad side, in my opinion, beef, duck and other stuff don't get as good as they do when you old style cook them.

This is the roner, it basically keep the water in a exact temperature, without great cahnges, perfect for stuff that needs to be cooked for a long time, or requires an certain temperature.


This is the chamber to remove the air, you basically put the food in special bags and this chamber will remove all the air, maximizing the taste and the smell of the food.


Well, to avoid gigantic posts, later on I will post more about the so called modern cuisine.
Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed.

Monday 25 January 2010

Orange Risotto and shrimp sautée

Been quite busy lately, so i have less time to cook and post.
But hopefully i will be back on here fully in a couple of weeks.

Well, this recipe came out better than i thought and the orange risotto is quite good, specially because I did it for the first time ever, so i didnt have time to adjust and modify it to make even better.



Well, here we go to the recipe then.

100g of arborio rice.
Juice of 2 oranges.
Zest of those 2 oranges.
50g of onions.
50 ml of olive oil.
Around 600 ml of vegetable stock (homemade preferably)
Salt and pepper as you like

Well, this Orange Risotto is basically the same as every risotto, but instead of using wine, we use the orange juice. So first of all, with around 20ml of olive oil, sautee the onions, and then the rice. Leave for about 5 minutes. Add all the orange juice and keep mixing untill it gets dry. Add the salt and pepper.
Add the stock every once in a while and keep mixing.
When its cooked to your taste, add the rest of the olive oil and mix, so it gets more creamy and tastes better.
For the shrimps, just sautee it as you like.

Saturday 9 January 2010

Salt Cod a la portugese style.

Well, this dish is a really traditional dish in portugal ( of course i had to chance some bits ) and I've learnt how to do it with my grandma, she is portuguese but moved to Brazil like 50 years ago.
Once again, this dish is pretty simple and it tastes absolutely nice.
I used Salt Cod, but if you want, you can do it with fresh cod. The result will be very simmilar.
If you using Salt Cod, you will have to put it in a bowl with water 24 hours before cooking it, to get rid of the excessive salt. Don't forget to change the water every 3 or 4 hours.
Now lets move in to the recipe.



What you need: ( to serve 5 )
1kg of salt cod
200g of chalots
300g of potatoes
200g of cherry tomatoes cut in half.
150g of aspargus
75ml of olive oil
50g of sugar

Method:
well, the salt cod gets cooked in 5 minutes, so that will be last.
First of all, cook the potatoes till they are nearly done ( i like to keep its skin, tastes nicer in my opinion). Then for the chalots, you have to boil water with sugar. Once the water is boiling add the chalots and leave there to cook for around 5 - 10 minutes. This will make them feel less acid and taste smoothier. Then, cook the aspargus in boiling water for around 5 min ( depends how big they are ). Once everything is cooked, put everything in a oven pan, with the potatoes on the bottom, then the cod, then the challots, then cherry tomatoes and aspargus on top. Put the olive oil on top of the apargus, in order to it fall everywhere, specially on the cod . Pre-heat the oven at around 160 degrees. Put the oven pan in for around 15 minutes, or till the cod is done.
There you go. Portuguese cod easy and simple.

Friday 8 January 2010

Cherry Tomato Risotto

Well, i must admit. Risotto is what i like to cook the most. And this Tomato cherry risotto i mentioned in my first post, the Lamb Carre.
Risotto is a traditional italian food, therefore there are many steps that you have to follow in order to have a decent quality risotto.



First thing is the 'brodo', that means stock. It demands a homemade stock. My standard stock is 2L of water. 1 onion choped in 2 pieces. 2 carrots in pieces and any herbs you like.
Boil the water with those ingredients for 30 min and there is a good quality stock.

What you need for the risotto: ( serves 4 )

300g of risotto rice (arborio)
1/2 onion chopped into small pieces
100g of butter
50g of parmesan cheese
1L of stock
100g of cherry tomatoes cut in half.
50ml of white wine

Method:
Melt half of the butter. Add the onions and the rice. Saute it for about 5 minutes.
Add all the wine at once, and mix well. Keep mixing untill the wine evaporate completely. Now keep adding the stock every once in a while. It should take around 15 minutes to the rice gets cooked, but it still should remain a little bit hard inside. Turn off the heat. Add the cherry tomatos and mix well. Add the rest of the butter and mix it well. Add the parmesan cheese and mix it well.
There you go.

Truffled Spaghetti and Shrimp.

Well, after a long while I'm back on posting.
This recipe is very quick and simple, and has a wonderful taste.
It takes 20 minutes the most, and the final result is delicious.



To serve 4:

to the pasta
300g of spaghetti
10g of truffle paste
50g of butter

Cook the pasta as you like. Melt the butter and leave to cool down.
Add the truffle paste and mix well. Mix the pasta + the truffles with butter.

I recommend 2 big size shrimp/person. You basically have to remove it's skin? or crust, i dont know the name, but its the hard bit outside.
Then sautee it. Salt and pepper as you like.

Thats it, you should take max 20 min to cook this recipe.