Exploring St. Maarten

Back in St. Maarten, but this time we rented a quad bike and started exploring the island. What a nice island, yes Philipsburg and Marigot are full of tourists and the traffic is really bad, especially between the two towns, but as soon as one drives out a little bit there are not too many cars and one can find the most amazing beaches, beautiful, clear water and very secluded.

It takes about one and a half hours to drive around the whole island, this means non stop driving. We didn’t do the whole island, but did the main part, driving up to the French side, past the airport to a town called Grand Case. We drove past Oyster Pond, then further to Orient Bay, where there is a beautiful beach and then over to Grand Case.

Grand Case is just what one needs for a relaxed vacation, not too many tourists, a lovely beach and some really nice restaurants. There are about 5 restaurants directly at the beach and there were maybe another 50 people sunbathing……..when we arrived in Phillipsburg there were in total 5 cruise ships with over 13’000 passengers and 7000 crew, so being here in Grand Case is like being in heaven.

The menu was simple and quite classical, but the presentation and taste was lovely. We had a deep fried Camembert to start, the Camembert was nice and matured so it was an extremely tasty dish.

Then we went for the “Rainbow” Burger which was served between 2 slices of sour dough bread, with loads of mozzarella cheese and tomatoes.

Then we had as well the Moules Mariniere, the Mussels steamed in white wine, cooked to perfection, fresh and steaming, just the right amount of garlic and onions, really nice!!!!

So, as a little recipe today I like to make the Deep fried Camembert, it is such a simple dish to prepare and one does not need a deep fryer to do this dish, one can easily shallow fry the Camembert and then finish off in the oven.

For 2 People you would need

1 Camembert

1 whole egg

1 Tbl. Spoon Flour

1 cup Bread Crumbs

1 cup oil

1 cup butter

1. Roll the Camembert in the flour then the egg will stick better to it.

2. Beat the egg, then roll the Camembert in the eggs

3. Roll the Camembert in the bread crumbs

4. Go back to the eggs and roll the crumbed Camembert again in the eggs, very carefully this time

5. Roll once more in the Bread Crumbs, like this you will have a nice and thick crust, preventing the Camembert to leak out

6. Heat Oil and Butter and shallow fry the camembert till golden brown

7. Finish in the oven at 160 º C or 300 º F

Serve with Cranberry Sauce or as shown in the picture, enjoy with friends and a good glass of Sauvignon Blanc