Whitebait Fritters

While in New Zealand I got this amazing fresh Whitebait. Whitebait are tiny little fish, no really white, but see through and when they are cooked they turn white. They are best bought in season, but are available all year round, but only frozen. I tried out different Whitebait, from New Zealand and from China and have to say that there is nothing better than fresh one.

I like to prepare them as Fritters, even so Fritters are actually more little omelets. The taste is absolutely beautiful and here the locals serve it as Whitebait sandwich, which is simply the Whitebait omelet put between two freshly baked white bread slices. So simple and so delicious.

I like to serve the omelet with a fresh summer salad, loads of herbs to give it some extra color. It is then good as well for a Gluten free diet, which is especially nice

Here is the Recipe good enough for 8 friends as a light snack or starter

150 g (5 oz) Whitebait
5 ea Eggs
Salt
Pepper

Assorted Lettuce Leaves
Edible Flowers
16 ea slices of white bread

Balsamic
Honey
Sherry Vinegar

Beat the eggs, season and add the white bait, let it stand for a little while
Heat the oil and fry small omelets, the size of pan cakes, golden brown on each side
Dress the salad leaves nicely on a plate, and then with two slices of bread make a sandwich with the hot whitebait omelet.

Menudo, a fantastic Filipino Pork Dish

Another lovely recipe from the Philippines...and yes another favorite of mine. I cooked it a couple of days ago for our Filipino crew and I found total approval. So my day was good being a non Filipino cooking some of their favorite dishes. We all sat together and after I was finished cooking I got a lot of good advise which I have straight incorporated here in the Blog, so I know, the recipe will work!

Now, there are of course hundreds of different preparations and ingredients, I have 9 chefs in the galley and got 9 versions of how to make the perfect Menudo, but they all agreed on each others recipes, it was a great discussion we had, it bonds the chef's together and of course while discussing the different recipes from the different regions we were happily eating the Menudo I cooked. It depends from which region the chef's were, each region has special ingredients.

As for the meat, I take pork neck. The neck has basically no sinews, but still a good amount of fat. It is fairly tender, so the cooking process doesn't take too long and it is really flavorful. Of course one can take any other part of the pork, many people enjoy the pork belly or take from the leg. The belly is s little too fat for me to make a stew, the leg is perfect too, but will take longer to cook

There are some items some of the chef's insisted that they should be in, but out of personal preference I left some of them out

Ingredients
1 kilo pork (cut into small chunks)
1/2 kilo pork liver (cut into small cubes)

6 potatoes (peeled, cut in small cubes)
3 red bell pepper (diced)
3 Carrot (diced)

3 tomatoes (diced)
1 small head of garlic (minced)
1 medium size onion (diced)
1 small knob ginger

1 cup Soy Sauce
2 teaspoons of patis (fish sauce)

3 tablespoons oil
1 cup pork or chicken stock
2 cups tomato sauce

Method
Marinate the pork with the soy sauce and fish sauce for 2 to 3 hours
Saute the onions and garlic without color in the oil
Add the marinated pork and fry for 5 minutes, without giving color to the meat. The meat juices will come out and the braising process starts
Add the stock, now braise the meat till it is nearly soft (about half an hour)
Add the Liver and braise for another 5 minutes
Add the cut vegetables and potatoes
Simmer till the vegetables are soft
To finish the dish off add the tomato sauce and simmer for another 5 minutes
Thicken if required

Optional Items
5 pieces chorizo Bilbao (also cut in small pieces)
1 cup chickpeas
1/4 cup raisins

A new Challenge in my Life

Hello all

I know it has been a bit quiet in the last week, but that all has a very good reason. I have just changed jobs and on top of that live now in a different country. I moved from the ships to a land based job and from Philippines to Ghana. Yes you are right, that is quite a change, but changes are good.

So the last week I spent in Philippines I enjoyed my time tremendously with my Fiancee and we have had a great time trying some more food and cooking together. Especially the street food we tried and I will soon have some blogs about it.

Then the long journey started, flying from Manila to Dubai and then from Dubai to Accra, to flights of over 8 hours each, with a nice break in Dubai. Still, my bum was not happy towards the end of my travel.

Dubai airport is great, as usual. I went to Paul's Pastry shop had a cup of Latte and a delicious rhubarb tart. I love popping in this pastry shop as the pastry is fantastic, fresh and so European. I just had a good time, sipping my coffee and reading my new book, Cooking Dirty by Jason Weehan. OK, it is not my type of book as he is a very different type of chef than me, but it is entertaining reading.

So, here I am now, working in the Moevenpick Accra as Executive Chef, and believe me, there will be plenty of great recipes coming your way, I can't wait to show you what we do here.....I am busy with putting a Lobster specialty week together, so stay tuned

Roast Marinated Quails with Couscous Salad

I just felt like it, I just felt like cooking some quail. It is not an everyday dish, that is for sure. Not because it is a very difficult dish to cook, but more because that quails are not the cheapest bird we can get. But what can I do, I just had this urge of cooking quails.

Quails are game birds, the smallest ones and they are not too gamey, which makes them even nicer. I do like the game taste, but then again, not everybody does. Other game birds are pigeon, partridge and pheasant. And then there is the grouse....not that is really a bird with a strong game taste, but back to the quail.

Mostly quails are sold frozen and already deboned which makes everything so much easier. If you have to debone your quails you are in for a lot of work, but if you get deboned quails, you are ready to cook.

I decided to marinate them in Middle Eastern spices , so I took Ras el Hanout, a Moroccan spice mix and a couple of other spices and marinated the quails for a couple of hours, the fried them in a pan, finished them off in the oven and made a nice couscous salad with it, it was the perfect summer lunch

Just a quick explanation about Ras el Hanout. It is a mix of ground spices consisting of Cinnamon, Cardamom, Cloves, Chili Peppers, Coriander, Cumin, Nutmec and Tumeric. It is available in most specialty shops

So here is the recipe good for 6 friends

Ingredients
6 ea Quails, deboned
Ras el Hanout
Olive oil

100 g (3 oz) Couscous
60 g (2 0z) Dried Dates
1 ea red Chili
1 ea Oranges
18 tips Dill
18 leaves Mint
30 g (1 oz) Pistachio
45 ml (1.5 oz) Olive oil
15 ml (0.5 oz) Champagne Vinegar
1 ea Yellow Peppers
1 ea Red Onions
1 cup Radicchio
1 cup Rocket

Method

Marinate the quails with the Ras el Hanout and Olive Oil for several hours, then fry in a little olive oil till golden brown. Finish the quails off in the oven at 160 C for another 5 minutes, set aside and keep warm.

Cook the Couscous as directed on the box you bought the couscous.

Cut the dates in fine strips

Cut the pepper in julienne

Toast the Pistachio quickly in a dry pan

Cut the Orange in wedges

Slice the red chili

Mix the salad ingredients carefully together and add olive oil and vinegar, season to taste

For serving place the salad on a plate on the radicchio and rocket and garnish with the herbs. Serve the quail right next to the salad and enjoy the meal with your friends

Double Baked Gruyere Souffle

Now we go with a really nice Vegetarian starter, but something that is not really Vegetarian because everybody likes it. The Souffle can be made in advance and then just baked again in the oven, even so I like it just after the first baking. I like to serve it on mushroom sauce, just go give it even more richness, but you can as well use some nice tomato and basil sauce or simply serve it with a fresh garden salad, the possibilities are endless

300 ml (10 oz) Milk
40 g (1.5 oz) Butter
40 g (1.5 oz) Flour
3 ea Egg Yolk
120 g (4 oz) Gruyere Cheese
5 ea Egg White

Pre-heat the oven to 210 C
Warm the milk and reserve

Melt butter in a heavy bottom pan, add the flour and mix, fry on low heat for 2 to 3 minutes to make a white Roux

Add gradually the warm milk, mixing well after each addition to ensure the mixture reminds smooth

Add the egg yolk, mix well and return to the heat, bring the mix to a boil and cook for one minute

Add the cheese and season to your taste, mix till the cheese is melted

Beat the egg white till soft peak, then fold one third of the egg white carefully under the cheese mix until well combine and fluffy, then add the rest and fold in carefully.

Butter ramekin mold and then fill them with the cheese mix to nearly the top

Bake for about 20 minutes or till firm

Either serve the souffle directly, or cool down and then bake again when needed. Sprinkle with cheese just before serving.

The mushroom sauce on the photo is optional

Rhubarb Jam

I am cooking jam, I have done it a couple of times before and love it. I know you might say that a professional chef is not cooking jam, that sound more like what house wives do. But I love cooking jam and I love having a really nice jam on my bread. Like this the morning already starts good. A nice cup of coffee and some fresh bread with loads of butter and jam......healthy? No, good? YES!!!!

I don't have it every day, it is more like a treat, but to have a good jam on the bread is something really nice, something one has to savor. So I am doing jams that are a bit different to what one buys in the shops. So this rhubarb jam is not just rhubarb and sugar, no there is vanilla in it and some star anise, just to give it more flavor.

What is important is that the rhubarb gets cleaned properly. Young rhubarb is OK, but when it gets older and the stems thicker, they have veins running just under the skin and they are pretty tough so we don't want them. Easiest is to take a paring knife and just pull them out from both sides, top and bottom of the rhubarb. This is easily don, insert a little cut just about half a millimeter under the skin on the bottom of the rhubarb, press your thumb against the knife so that the strings are pressed between thumb and knife, and then pull them down, similar of like you would clean a bean or sugar snap

So here we go

Recipe

1 Kg Rhubarb

1 Kg Sugar

1 Ea Vanilla pod

2 Ea Star anise

Method

De-vein the rhubarb (take out the hard strings with a knife). Cut the rhubarb in slices. Mix all incredients in a heavy based pot. Bring quickly to the boil Boil till the jam thickens a bit. Make a taste in the fridge to see that the jam stes nicely. Pour in sterilized jam jars. Keep closed for a week to 10 days to allow the flavors to develop

New Zealand, Napier

Port of Napier

We are sailing along the Coast of New Zealand and have stopped in Napier, a beautiful and quiet town on the North Island. Napier is special because after a devastating earthquake in 1931 nearly the entire town was rebuilt, so now one can find one of the best collections of buildings of the Art Deco era. There are only two places on earth with such substance that is Miami South Beach and then here in Napier.

We were lucky that at this time of the year there are many cars exhibited from the same time, so it really gives a good feel, walking through the main road and seeing these vintage cars driving around and people dressed up in the clothes of that time.

Napier and the Art Deco Houses

We went to s little coffee shop for a nice bite to eat. It was vibrant and light, the food was very reasonably priced and very good.We had two sandwiches, a toasted chicken and cheese....ham was out and a pizza sandwich with mozzarella, tomato and basil. There are so many places one can eat, just lovely.

We loved walking along the beach and just explore this little town a bit, it has so much to offer, but mainly all these buildings are amazing, it is a bit like time stood still.

Tourism is big here in Napier, I have seen a lot of back packing and a lot of mini buses picking up and dropping off Backpackers. It is the ideal place to stay if you want to explore the wine region of Hawkes Bay a bit. The wines are absolutely amazing, not just the Sauvignon Blanc, for which New Zealand is so famous, but many more. I love the Pinot Noir here, a stunner, typical New World, but because the temperatures are so moderate, it is the perfect weather for these grapes

Two oldies, but both still looking very crisp!

Butternut Soup with Cinnamon

Let's say, it is winter....which in many parts of the world it is, and a very cold one on top of it ( I am in mid Summer in New Zealand at the moment and the temperatures are very nice. So now in this cold winter, I like to make a heart warming soup and Butternut or Butternut Squash is a perfect vegetable to make a lovely winter soup.

Of course one can take just Pumpkin, but I prefer the taste of the Butternut, not that it really matters as a soup, but when using it as a vegetable I think Butternut is just a bit finer, more subtle. It is easier to peel as well, the Pumpkin has a very thick skin, the Butternut a bit less, so it does go easier with the peeling

But now comes the first little twist of all the readers who are in hot areas like me, this soup is delicious when served cold, so it is not really just a winter soup. When I serve the Butternut Soup cold, I like to add a little bit of freshly pressed orange juice and zests, just to give it a bit more of a tang.

Then I like to combine a bit sweetness to it, I always caramelize the Butternut (or Pumpkin) with a little sugar, then add some orange and cinnamon, it really gives a warm feeling when the soup is finished.

Recipe
1 Each Butternut
1 Each Onion
50 G Butter
 40 G Sugar
5 G Salt
2 G Pepper
5 G Cinnamon
500 Ml Water

350 Ml Cream

Method

Peel and de-pip the butternut and cut in 1 cm cubes Peel the onion and cut in julienne Saute the butternut and onions with butter and sugar in a pot without color. Add salt, pepper and cinnamon and sautée futher until the water gets drawn out of the butternut. Simmer for 10 min Add the cream and simmer for further 15 min Blend, strain and season to taste. Makes about 1 Liter of soup