Today I ventured back into the kitchen. I long for a larger kitchen, an easier-to-work-in kitchen. But my kitchen is not enough to make me stop. So today I ventured back to make some Caponata.
Chop aubergine - a couple of them - organic ones are great because they are less spongy and water-filled than the others. Fry pieces in oil until golden - I do this in small batches so that the oil remains hot.
Finely chop onion and celery. Cook briefly in boiling salted water. Add to fried aubergines with the following:
tomato paste
salt and pepper
capers (I buy the salted ones, and then soak them for 30 minutes to get rid of the salt)
chopped green olives
white wine vinegar
sugar
For about 2 aubergines, I use 4 sticks of celery, a large onion, about 20 olives, 1 tablespoon each of tomato paste, sugar, vinegar and capers.
Cook this wonderful mixture for about 15 minutes and get ready to eat it. But don't eat it all now. It tastes even better over the next few days as it ages, and the vinegar preserves it. Lovely at room temperature with toast or on a spoon.
Thursday 30 June 2011
Saturday 25 June 2011
Things that Delight Me - Part 1
Part 1 because there is so much more. But I don't know when part 2 will arrive...
• Wrapping myself in a soft fluffy bathsheet after a warm bath or shower
• Tracing lines with my fingers across a beautiful back in bed
• The smell, and taste, of freshly brewed coffee and freshly baked bread
• Frangipani blossoms
• The wonderful feeling when you wake up and know that the day is yours to do with as you wish
• The feel, taste, sensation, aroma of dark dark chocolate dissolving on my tongue
• The excitement of arriving in and discovering a new place
• Amazing and outlandish architecture
• Just about any sentence ever written by Alain de Botton (I can't claim to have read them all ... but those I have read, I love)
• The wonderful feeling of knowing that you have one whole white truffle that you can use however you like – and you don't have to share
• Reading about my friends’ lives on Facebook – and finding out how amazing they are
• The excitement of thinking about making massive changes in one’s life
• Truffled honey
• Smelly, strong cheeses
• A perfectly poached egg smothered with buttery, lemony hollandaise sauce
• Meeting up with friends just for the hell of it ...
• Wrapping myself in a soft fluffy bathsheet after a warm bath or shower
• Tracing lines with my fingers across a beautiful back in bed
• The smell, and taste, of freshly brewed coffee and freshly baked bread
• Frangipani blossoms
• The wonderful feeling when you wake up and know that the day is yours to do with as you wish
• The feel, taste, sensation, aroma of dark dark chocolate dissolving on my tongue
• The excitement of arriving in and discovering a new place
• Amazing and outlandish architecture
• Just about any sentence ever written by Alain de Botton (I can't claim to have read them all ... but those I have read, I love)
• The wonderful feeling of knowing that you have one whole white truffle that you can use however you like – and you don't have to share
• Reading about my friends’ lives on Facebook – and finding out how amazing they are
• The excitement of thinking about making massive changes in one’s life
• Truffled honey
• Smelly, strong cheeses
• A perfectly poached egg smothered with buttery, lemony hollandaise sauce
• Meeting up with friends just for the hell of it ...
Friday 17 June 2011
"Raw"
On Saturday I went to a cooking class. Nothing surprising there for those of you who know me. You know I love my ‘food porn’ – whether it’s magazines, TV shows, movies or live sessions. I saw the class at vegetarian fine dining restaurant Magnolia advertised on the web and decided straight away to sign up. After this class there was only one more before the restaurant closed for a couple of months. I emailed chef Gabriele Kurz, and got an email in response confirming my place.
At the appointed time I walked through the heat and arrived at Magnolia. I was greeted with some herb water, one of the restaurant’s specialities, and a moist cloth to wipe away the stains of Dubai’s heat. Chef Gaby came across to greet me, and dropped the biggest surprise of the day on me. I had thought we were going to be cooking. “Well, not so much cooking’ she said. “Today’s food is raw.”
Raw. As in uncooked. As in raw vegetarian. As in salad ... and fanatics. I know people who eat ‘raw’ food. They are seriously obsessed by what they eat.
So I looked at the menu list:
• Avocado Basil Emulsion (difficult to ruin those flavours)
• Iced almond milk (can’t comment on this one)
• Watermelon tomato salad (another one it would be tough to ruin)
• Raw Vegetable Lasagne (hmm. How is it a lasagne without pasta and cheese? Not sure about this)
• Herb Water (tasted these before and they’re great)
So there was nothing that sounded too bad and a few things that sounded very good indeed.
First up Chef Gaby prepared the tomatoes for tomato puree and tomato water. The tomato water would be used to flavour the avocado emulsion (this was sounding better and better) and the puree would be formed into a quenelle and place on the emulsion to serve. The interesting point was pureeing the tomatoes so finely to make the tomato water (I’d only ever chopped them roughly before) and adding some white balsamic vinegar for flavour. The tomato puree can be frozen and added to tomato water for a refreshing drink. Could be interesting to add a touch of vodka for a pale bloody mary.
Next up were ‘pralines’ – home made marzipan which was used to stuff dates and dried apricots. Then decorated with coconut and pistachios. The marzipan was sweetened with agave syrup and flavoured with ginger and lemon. I personally would omit the ginger in future, but that’s a personal taste. The ‘pralines’ were delicious. A bit fiddley but they looked impressive. Great for a dinner party finale.
The tomato and watermelon salad opened my eyes, taste buds and other senses to some new ideas. It hadn’t ever occurred to me before to chop up snow peas into tiny pieces. The joy of this approach was that my brain didn’t know what it was getting spoonfuls of before it tasted the food. There’s something interesting in mixed mouthfuls of tomatoes and watermelon.
When it came to the ‘lasagne’ it looked lovely, the tapenade that joined the layers was delicious but, for me, in the end it was a plate of raw vegetables sliced up thinly and layered. Sorry. I need the cheese, and the pasta. But if you’re being exceptionally healthy, want to add a variety of veggies to your diet, and have loads of time, this is a lovely main course.
This was my first consciously completely ‘raw’ meal and I did enjoy it. Do I want to eat ‘raw’ all the time? No. But a ‘raw’ day each week is a great idea, especially if you are wanting to raise the amount and variety of vegetables that you eat. It wasn’t quite the cooking class I expected, but it challenged me in ways that other classes have not.
At the appointed time I walked through the heat and arrived at Magnolia. I was greeted with some herb water, one of the restaurant’s specialities, and a moist cloth to wipe away the stains of Dubai’s heat. Chef Gaby came across to greet me, and dropped the biggest surprise of the day on me. I had thought we were going to be cooking. “Well, not so much cooking’ she said. “Today’s food is raw.”
Raw. As in uncooked. As in raw vegetarian. As in salad ... and fanatics. I know people who eat ‘raw’ food. They are seriously obsessed by what they eat.
So I looked at the menu list:
• Avocado Basil Emulsion (difficult to ruin those flavours)
• Iced almond milk (can’t comment on this one)
• Watermelon tomato salad (another one it would be tough to ruin)
• Raw Vegetable Lasagne (hmm. How is it a lasagne without pasta and cheese? Not sure about this)
• Herb Water (tasted these before and they’re great)
So there was nothing that sounded too bad and a few things that sounded very good indeed.
First up Chef Gaby prepared the tomatoes for tomato puree and tomato water. The tomato water would be used to flavour the avocado emulsion (this was sounding better and better) and the puree would be formed into a quenelle and place on the emulsion to serve. The interesting point was pureeing the tomatoes so finely to make the tomato water (I’d only ever chopped them roughly before) and adding some white balsamic vinegar for flavour. The tomato puree can be frozen and added to tomato water for a refreshing drink. Could be interesting to add a touch of vodka for a pale bloody mary.
Next up were ‘pralines’ – home made marzipan which was used to stuff dates and dried apricots. Then decorated with coconut and pistachios. The marzipan was sweetened with agave syrup and flavoured with ginger and lemon. I personally would omit the ginger in future, but that’s a personal taste. The ‘pralines’ were delicious. A bit fiddley but they looked impressive. Great for a dinner party finale.
The tomato and watermelon salad opened my eyes, taste buds and other senses to some new ideas. It hadn’t ever occurred to me before to chop up snow peas into tiny pieces. The joy of this approach was that my brain didn’t know what it was getting spoonfuls of before it tasted the food. There’s something interesting in mixed mouthfuls of tomatoes and watermelon.
When it came to the ‘lasagne’ it looked lovely, the tapenade that joined the layers was delicious but, for me, in the end it was a plate of raw vegetables sliced up thinly and layered. Sorry. I need the cheese, and the pasta. But if you’re being exceptionally healthy, want to add a variety of veggies to your diet, and have loads of time, this is a lovely main course.
This was my first consciously completely ‘raw’ meal and I did enjoy it. Do I want to eat ‘raw’ all the time? No. But a ‘raw’ day each week is a great idea, especially if you are wanting to raise the amount and variety of vegetables that you eat. It wasn’t quite the cooking class I expected, but it challenged me in ways that other classes have not.
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