HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Wishing every one a Happy Halloween!


I have posted many pumpkin soup recipes but in this one I added more veggies friends.
Of course the main ingredient  is pumpkin but the rest were one: onion, leak, potato, carrot and apple. I seasoned with herbes de provence and served with a dollop of crème fraîche, and a leaf of beet.


On the side I made a mini steamed arepa with precooked corn meal, beet pure, oatmeal, toasted and ground almond and sesame seed on a corn leaf.


After my son Esteban told me that my living room had a pastiche style, I just realized I also have a gastronomic pastiche point of view, if I may use that term with food. I don't see why not. This will be the beginning of understanding myself and the way I am connected with food. 




Ready for trick or treat?

Le petit jardin

I got inspired by this idea after reading a salad recipe by Christine Manfield, an Australian chef.  Making this was like doing a mini garden more precise like a pot and soil recipe for planting, the result was an adorable tiny salad. I think this recipe is just an idea to be developed with ingredients that you prefer, more like a tip to later continue in your own way. In this case I know there are many steps to follow to make these little treasures, but that is what makes it special: all the details and care inside.

For the sweet and sour dressing start by making a syrup adding chili, garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil.

Each mini garden will have "planted" tiny sticks of apple, celery, spring onion, oranges, little leaves of cilantro, kaffir, alfalfa sprouts and sunflower sprouts.

At the bottom I added smoked shredded trout with green mango ginger relish.

I carried them to the table on a tray served in small plates so that each person could add the dressing themselves and then place them on their plates. 

Ingredients (serves four)

 4oz  slices smoke salmon  (I use wild Alaskan)

1 smoke trout 

1 small apple 

2 celery  stalks

2 spring onion

2 spoons of salmon roe

alfalfa sprouts

sunflower sprouts

For the relish

1 green mango ( peeled and cut into matchsticks)

1 shallot ( thinly sliced)

1 red chili ( finely chopped)

1 green chili ( finely chopped)

1 tbs ginger ( grated)

1 tbs rice vinegar

1 tbs brown sugar

1 tbs cilantro( finely chopped)

pinch of salt

For the dressing

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/3 cup water

1 red chili

1 garlic clove

1 tbs sesame oil

11/2 soy sauce

2 tbs cider vinegar

1 tbs mirrim

For the dressing

In a saucepan I placed the water and sugar to medium heat, stirred to dissolve until reduced to a syrup  and added the rest of ingredients, bringing them to a boil and simmering over low heat for about 10 minutes until reduced. Strain into a sieve and chill until used.

For the relish 

In a saucepan add the sugar and heat until it is dissolved. Add the shallot and chilies and continue to stir. Add the water, vinegar, ginger, mangoes, cilantro and salt. Mix well. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Uncover and continue to cook for about 5 more minutes until the mangos are soft.

Thinly shred the apples, celery, spring onion, cilantro, kaffir leaves and cut the orange into segments. Assemble the slices of salmon into little pots, add inside a little of the smoked shredded trout followed by the green mango ginger relish and stack some shredded apple, celery, spring onion, cilantro, kaffir leaves, little segments of oranges, alfalfa sprouts, the sunflower sprouts and the salmon roe.

When serving drizzle with the sweet and sour dressing.

Little gardens are ready to eat. 

Raspberry tart

Mascarpone and raspberry tart, extremely easy to make and a beauty to be served. I found this recipe while going through my old notebooks where I keep, all about food: recipes, notes, ideas and drawings. This one was based on Laura Zavan's recipe Crostata al mascarpone e lamponi. I like it because it is not a very sweet dessert and also the freshness of the raspberries combined with the cheeses is mmm..... and for those who like it sweeter you could drizzle with caster sugar on the top. Any way will be lovely with the snowy sugar on top

I used the ceramic pie weights over the baking paper to bake the crust, it keeps the dough from shrinking and bubbling during baking. Any beans will do the job well.

I mixed all the ingredients by hand, in a glass bowl. If you decide not  to make the dough and buy the frozen one already rolled, It"ll be easier to make.

I like to serve the raspberry coulis so that everyone can add it according to their own taste.

Ingredients:

250g raspberries

400g shortcrust pastry

200g mascarpone

200g ricotta

1tsp vanilla extract

50g  caster sugar

1 lemon grated zest

2 tbsp Marsala (could be kirsch, Framboises or any other sweet liquor or wine)

For the raspberry coulis:

300g raspberries

1 tbsp caster sugar

Use a rectangular tart pan, roll out the pastry and line it with parchment paper. Fill it with the baking beans and cook for about 10 minutes, remove the paper and the beans and put it back in the oven for about 10 more minutes until crisp and golden.

Leave it cool completely before filling.

In a bowl, whisk together the mascarpone and ricotta. Add the vanilla, sugar, lemon grated zest, and wine until combined well. 

Pour filling into the crust  and spread evenly, arrange the raspberries on the top. Chill until firm.

For the coulis: In a food processor puree the raspberries with the sugar, strain through a sieve. Have it ready to drizzle in a little jar just before serving. 

Spoons and tart slicer

http://shop.lolalobato.com/products.php?product=Old-Fashion-Style-Teaspoon

http://shop.lolalobato.com/products/New-Toile-Tart-Slicer.html

Recap

It's been two weeks since I had last written.. a long week of home cooking, family reunions and getting together. So intense that I couldn't even tweet or post. Nevertheless there are many pictures to share coming soon.

Sebastian came from NY for a few days, we cooked, talked and ate comfort food.

My mushrooms are growing I think they are ready to eat. I am planing to make a pasta with them thanks to my blogger friend Lisa. Bryan brought me spices from Vietnam and Cambodia which I loved and I finally bought the dragon fruit after looking for it for months in the grocery store. I had been going almost  3 times a day without exaggerating just to get every detail of every ingredient planned for all the preparations.

On Saturday we had friends over the house, to be more precise we cooked for fifty people with the glorious help of my friend Bessy and Vera the best photographer ever .

The menu always ambitious long enough to not be able to finishe all. I placed the Holy menu on the kitchen wall to check and mark down the dishes that were ready. Friends arrived at 8.30 pm and I was still in the kitchen running hiding to rush for a shower and get dressed in minutes. 

The kitchen was a paradise hell filled with the most amazing spices and herbs. At 10 pm it was a totally chaos, overwhelming even with fabulous helpers we couldn't do it as organized as I wanted it to be. Ingrid was making tons of chicken skewers to serve over a plantain leaf with coconut peanut sauce and my other helper Gloria made hundreds of hand made tortillas while Teresa filled the sink with used plates and empty glasses. I was running from the kitchen to the food table giving the last touches to each plate and trying to make the missing sauces.

Thirty-something plates with a theme of "bite and small bites" substantial, fresh, colorful, vibrant, cultural, sensible and without pretentiousness. Thai flavors with Latin visits, some touches from Spain, Mexico, Italy and Japan. Kind of like a United Nations hug all together at the table starting with mini taquitos, Chinese lettuce filled with spicy meat, rice paper rolls with fresh vegetables, crab cakes, fig with feta bruschetta, mini salmon packets, little boxes of cod fish, corn cakes with a sweet chicken stew and  we cant forget the mini tortillas de patatas...

First time I cooked the forbidden rice a beautiful completely black rice from China placed next to the jasmine rice cooked with coconut milk, lemon grass and ginger, sublime and noble dish sprinkle with toasted coconut curls.

I realized that in the same way I am at home with objects and clothes I am with food: always mixing and matching colors, textures and flavors. Balance is the key a little of this a little of that, the crunch, the soft, the sweet, the salted, as simple as using the five tastes. My partner he is kosher and I am organic, so there were many details to follow during these days.

I always am extremely exaggerated when cooking for guests I think I have to make infinity of dishes so every one finds what they like and be pleased to eat as much as they want. I kind of try to spoil everyone, that is always my main concern. We left Nicolas at a pet resort during the big dinner and he came back hoarse with a sore throat because of all the crying during a night away from home. The resort has a food menu to choose from like beef with yam and oatmeal, to fresh fish with organic herbs and eggs drizzled with cod oil. They even treat them with ice creams but that doesn't help him at all. He hates it anyway.

My retro Mad Men bar, whisky sales have boomed because to the TV show, even on the party most of the people drank Scotch on the rocks rather than wine. 

My breakfast the day after the party, that was when I was enjoying  the pleasure of eating leftovers in the quiet of my home.




Now I finish my day thinking how sorry I am with the lost of the most precious and valuable Apple, Steve he will be with us. Thanks to you I am able to do what I do and have the world open to my eyes from wherever I am. Bravo!!! and thank you.