Beef Tenderloin Recipe by Igor Macchia

As promised, here the first recipe in a long time. As we are talking about Igor Macchia, I have taken the liberty to share his recipe with you. It is a bit labor intensive than many others, but then, you want to cook one Michelin Star cuisine...then you have to work for it....Stars don't come just for a simple steak on the BBQ, no there needs to be more to it than that

It was so much fun working with Igor, he is totally down to earth and happy to coach the team, something they loved as the guest chefs are really changing the everyday routine, mine included. Often these chefs need specialized ingredients like the cassis and spinach powder for this recipe. Of course you can do it without it, but for us here, we want to be as close as possible to the original. So I contacted Igor and he happily shared where I can get all the special ingredients from, it took of course still a lot of mails with suppliers to get it finally delivered to us,..... but that is the fun part, the part where we have to source the best ingredients and then bit by bit actually have a web of suppliers where we can fall back with all the fancy foods....I just love that part

So here is the recipe: Enjoy!

Ingredient for cherry marinated with ginger:

  400 gr. fresh cherry

  140 gr. brown sugar

    50 gr. fresh ginger

Method for cherry marinated with ginger:

season quartered cherry with sugar and ginger. Vacuum pack and cook in steamed oven at 80°C for 3 hours. Chilled and blend. Keep the sauce for presentation of the plate.

Ingredient for mashed potatoes:

1500 gr. potatoes

                Sea salt

  150 gr. diced butter

  150 gr. mascarpone cheese

               Salt

               Pepper

Method for mashed potatoes:

wash potatoes and pierce with a fork. Cook with sea  salt in oven at 200°C for 1 hour.

Mashed potato and add mascarpone cheese and butter. Season with salt and pepper and keep for presentation of the plate.

Ingredient for watercress sauce:

250 gr. fresh watercress

             Xantana

             Salt

             Pepper

Method for watercress sauce:

Cook watercress in salted water. Chilled and blend.

Add xantana and season with salt and pepper. Keep for presentation of the plate.

Ingredient for presentation of the plate:

480 gr. wagyu beef tenderloin

120 gr. foie gras

   30 gr. cherry pure’ from boiron or capfruit

   20 gr. beef juice

   10 gr. watercress sauce

     2 gr. cassis powder

     2 gr. spinach powder

   60 gr. mashed potatoes

   40 gr. cooked cherry

   40 gr. saute fresh spinach

               Extra virgin olive oil

               Maldon salt

               Sea salt

               Pepper

               Fresh sprout

Method for presentation of the plate:

Season beef with salt and pepper and cook in a hot pan with olive oil. Finish to cook in oven at 200°C for 5 minutes.

Garnish the top of cooked beef with all ingredient and plate in a hot plate garnished with cherry and watercress sauce.

Use cassis and spinach powder for garnish the plate.

Cured Wagyu Beef Salad

As promised I am busy again with new dishes and recipes and am happy to share some of the new dishes. I know it took a little longer than expected, but finally I have some time to share the recipes. I am trying to get back into the routine of writing 4 to 5 blogs a month, so that there is a steady flow of recipes and stories

Live here is amazing, the 7 restaurants and 2 bars are keeping me busy, but working with the 60 chefs here is an absolute pleasure. I like when the chefs are creative, I push them to be creative because to be quite honest, to put out daily specials and more for all the outlets, then menu changes, new buffets and more, that is something one single chef can't do, but with a team like I have here, it works really well.

Today we do a nice cured Wagyu beef. Something that sounds so expensive but if you take the right cut, it is actually not that expensive. For a marble grade 8/9 Fillet one can easily pay 120 to 220 $ per kg.....for proper Kobe it can be even more. But to be quite honest, you don't need the most expensive cut of meat. A nice Wagyu rump will do the same, just make sure it is nicely marbled. Then you will be able to get the meat for around 20 to 25$

 

To make cured beef is actually vey simple and similar to Gravad Lax, the main ingredients are salt and sugar and spices. I usually marinate it over night or just a little longer, like this it is nicely flavored but still not too strong in flavor

So here is the recipe for the dish. This is enough for 10 friends

Cured Wagyu
800 g Wagyu Topside
75 g Sugar
100 g Salt
25 g Pepper Black, coarse
10 g Juniper Berries, crushed
2 ea Lemon Rind

Salad
250 g Green Asparagus
250 g Artichokes (from a pack of Antipasti Artichokes, so they are already marinated)
100 g Parmesan shavings
100 g Grapes
150 ml Balsamic Vinegar
25 ml Honey
75 ml EVOO
Micro Greens

For the beef just mix all ingredients and rub evenly of the meat.
Wrap the meat in cling film and keep refrigerated for 12 to 18 hours.
From time to time turn the meat around to ensure it is evenly marinated

The cut it as fine as possible and plate like a Carpaccio

Cook  half the green asparagus al dente
Cut the artichokes in halves or quarters
Cut the Parmesan in fine slices with a truffle cutter
Do the same with the uncooked asparagus
Reduce the Balsamic with the hone to half

Plate and enjoy

Homemade Pork Sausage

Over 6 month ago I wanted to start making our own sausages here at Soneva Fushi and finally, the day has arrived that we have made our first batch. The sausage machine arrived about 2 weeks ago, we got finally the sausage skins, so there is no stopping anymore.

Have I made sausages before? Yes, once about 20 years ago, so I can't say that I am a master sausage makes, but what I can say is that I love sausages and that is enough.

Of course I read up a little on how sausages are made, we are going very simple here with no preservatives, my pork sausages must look like sausages and not like pink, ugly things. So off we go

First I had to clean the machine nicely, it just came out of the box and there was still a lot of wrapping on it, but then that was one. We don't have always the right pork cuts, so I just took some of the pork necks we had and put them through the mincer, that was easy. But of course I wanted a special sausage, not just a simple pork sausage, so I started to chop some onions and garlic and cut a whole load of Granny Smith apples in cubes. I took some very good EV Olive oil and sauteed the onions and garlic till glassy, but no color, than added the apples. Simmer till al dente and voila, that was it. I let the mix cool down completely.

Then I thought that in a meat loaf one always puts some bread and eggs in it. I did not want to add the eggs, but I know that old bread binds the meat nicely, so I just soaked it in some milk.

So far everything was very easy, I mixed all the ingredients together and added the seasoning, honey, salt and pepper. Of course as any good chef, I had to taste my mix, but no, I really don't want to eat raw pork......so I made a small patty and fried it, yummie, yes it was good, just a little more salt and it is perfect.

Still everything is very easy......but then cam the tricky part. I had to put the sausage skin on the machine which was a lot more difficult than expected. The skin tears quite easily and I had to be patient with my work. But at the end it was done, I had the filling in the machine and started turning.......ohhhhh I made a little knot in front to avoid the sausage mix to just come out, that did not work because now my sausage filled with air instead of meat.....Caramba.....so I cut the tip off and it worked well.

To fill the sausage is OK, one just has to be patient, not to turn the machine too fast and at the same time to make sure the skin is sliding off the nozzle easily. The result: An acceptable sexy sausage that just needed to be turned and fried.

When turning the sausage (like making the individual sausages) one sees immediately if the right amount of meat is in the sausage, if it is too much it will burst, if it is too little, then it is just not so pretty, but OK.

Finally, after more than 6 Month of waiting, I had the first homemade Pork and Apple Sausage in the pan, wow was I excited and the smell started to come up, the sausages started to take color, I turned them around a couple of times and........yes they were absolutely fantastic. I was so happy, my day was made, nothing could go wrong anymore.....

The the chefs had a try, we laughed a lot, of course some jokes were made, some really pretty and some really ugly sausages were produced, but the main reason is, we have now our homemade sausages. We will start making different sausages, beef, chicken, lamb, fish and more. We all learned a lot this morning and had a great time with our new toy, the sausage machine

So here is the recipe if you want to try at home, trust me it is a lot of fun and works

4 Kg Pork neck
500 G Onions
100 G Garlic
1 Kg Apples
500 G Bread
250 Ml Milk
30 G Honey
60 G Salt
10 G Pepper coarse

Sausage skins

Mince the pork neck in a medium to fine mincer, not too fine as otherwise there is not artisanal look

Chop onions and garlic finely
Cut apples in 5 mm cubes
Use Granny Smith or any other sour variety

Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil without color
Add the apple cubes when the onions are soft
Cook for another good 5 minutes till apples are cooked al dente

Cool down the apple mix

Add milk to dry bread and keep everything in the fridge overnight

Mix all ingredients well together, put in sausage machine
Make little breakfast sausages

The Chefs are trying out sausage making

Not as easy as it looks, but a job well done

Swiss National day

I am currently in Switzerland.....and having a great time as the weather is absolutely beautiful. The sun is shining and the temperatures are high, always around 32 C which is hot for Switzerland. Summer is always great here, the public pool is great, especially in the morning and then of course the is the Swiss National Day.

I have to admit that I did not go to the festivities for at least 20 years, not because I didn't want, but because I was never in Switzerland at that time, so being here now it is simply a must to go and it was exactly as I expected it.

Usually there is a place at a forest with loads of benches where one meets, there is usually one of the clubs running the restaurant so one just sits down where ever there is space and then gets what one needs. The most important part the sausage. You take either grilled Brat Wurst" or a "Servelat"with a piece of bread, best with a local beer. I will write another blog about some really interesting and nice beers I tasted.

In Switzerland to eat a Cervelat with bread is like a national dish, it gets eaten every where, especially if one goes to sports events. We have it down to a fine art to have in one hand the hot sausage and the bread and in the other hand the drink, the challenge is not to burn the hand on the freshly grilled sausage.....yes we Swiss are strange sometimes!

Let me tell you a bit more about the cervelat. According to Wikipedia it is described as following: 

For the first time in 1552 this spelling appears in Rabelais . She goes back to the Milanese dialect word zervelada and the resulting Italian cervelato. In Switzerland 160 million annually cervelats be produced, so the average Swiss eats 21 cervelats per year.

The sausage mixture consists of approximately equal parts beef , pork , back fat / ground rind and ice and spices and pickling salt. There are no more offal are processed for cervelat. The ingredients are in boats crushed into natural casings filled (imported, mostly Brazilian), smoked for about one hour at 65 to 70 ° C first and then scalded at 75 ° C in a water bath or in the cooking cabinet.

Anyway, back to the festivities. During the evening the local music club is playing, then of course there are speeches, usually by politicians but this time it was a bit different, actually very nice as it was not always the same political bladibla one hears all the times, then of course we all got up to sing the national anthem....hehehe, it was printed everywhere because the majority of Swiss can't remember the words, yes me included. Then we all got a slice of cake for the 750 year birthday of Seuzach, our home town and then finally, the fire works, the thing we were all waiting for and waited for long as it only started around 1030 PM as it needs to be dark, makes sense I guess....just after the first big bout of fireworks everything stopped for a long time....guess there were some problems in the back

But overall it was a great evening, nice to be back here for this special event, it was worth coming here and having a good time

Veal on Asparagus

Now this is about as classical as it can get. We have a veal steak, asparagus, parsley potatoes, Hollandaise sauce and a bit gravy. Every single restaurant has it on the asparagus menu in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. It is a must have. If it is not on the menu, then the guests will either ask for it or complain that it is not on......strange but true.

So there is just no choice but giving you the recipe for this lovely dish, you will see the flavors are just perfect together, the harmony is tantalizing.....try it out

You might find 200 g of meat per person a little too much, but you will see after cooking the steaks are just perfect. When cooking the steaks please don't forget, veal is nothing else than a young beef that has not eaten grass yet, that is why the meat is still so light. Of course you can substitute the veal with young beef, it is not the same but will do just fine. Make sure you buy a good quality veal, organic farm grown is the best. The meat will be delicate and tender

 

The asparagus promotion went well, it is nearly finished and the dishes were really popular, especially the soup we had on the menu, so simple and so good, white asparagus with a rose of smoked salmon, just yummy, but as well the fish went well and of course the polenta. I will do it again next year, with some recipe changes, some new dishes, just having fun

You will see that the recipe for hollandaise gives you a lot of sauce, be generous, give your guests the Hollandaise because it is simply delicious and decadent. No, it is not for someone who is on weight watchers, that is for sure but this sauce will make everybody dream and wanting more and to run out of Hollandaise is the last thing you want to do

Recipe
2 Kg (4.5 lb) Veal loin
25 G (1 oz) Salt
5 G Pepper
1 Kg (2 lb) Asparagus green
1 Kg (2 lb) Asparagus white

1.5 Kg (3 lb) Potatoes
100 G ( 3 oz) Butter
50 G (2 oz) Parsley

Hollandaise Sauce
50 G (2 oz) Shallots
10 Each Peppercorns
1 Each Bayleave
100 Ml (3 oz) Whitewine
6 Each Egg Yolks
600 G (1.3 lb) Butter
1 Each Lemon
1 Pinch Cayenne
5 G Salt

Method
Cut the veal loin in 200 g (7.5 oz) steaks
Season and fry in a bit olive oil
Cook the white asparagus and blanch the green
Turn the potatoes and boil till soft
Melt the butter, toss potatoes and chopped parsley
Season to taste

Method for Hollandaise Sauce
Clarify the butter
Peel and chop the shallot
Reduce white wine together with shallots, peppercorns and bay leave
Cool the reduction down
Mix the reduction with the egg yolks
Whisk the mixture in a bain marie until poached
Take the mix off and cool down slightly while whisking all the times
Whisk in the warm clarified butter
Season to taste
Makes enough sauce for 10 friends

Hamburger Galore, the spicy Accra Burger

There I am again, this time with a spicy version of our hamburgers. I call it the spicy Accra Burger as a little homage of the town I live in at the moment.

Here food is spicy, sometimes very spicy so I thought it would be good to have a spicy hamburger on the menu. The response I got so far from our guests is great, the hamburger is flying out, nearly as popular as the Ambassador Burger (which by the way is named after out hotel here)

I am trying to use local produce, and as there is usually plenty of Mango (except they are out of season for a couple of month every year) I made a spicy mango chutney. The the grilled pineapple slice, the bacon and often I pour a little chili dressing on it as well

So one has this sweet and spicy sensation which goes very well with the meat. The meat as mentioned before is always a mix of meats. I like to have flavor, so what we do is a blend of local beef which is very tasty, but often a bit tough and Karan Beef from South Africa which gives the patty a lovely richness

2 Kg Local Beef

100 G Lettuce

150 G Tomato

75 Ml BBQ Sauce

50 Ml Oil

1 Kg Pineapple

150 G Bacon

350 G Mangoes

10 G Chili

50 G Sugar

75 Ml Vinegar

Grind the beef and form 200 g patties
Season and grill to the desired cooking temperature
Cut the mangoes in cubes and simmer with chili, sugar and vinegar till thickened
Cut the pineapple in slices and grill, finish off with a bit brown sugar under the grill
Cut the burger bun in half, butter it and toast golden brown
Layer the lettuce and tomatoes on it
Generously pour BBQ sauce on the tomatoes
Place the patty on top
Then top with Pine apple, bacon and chutney
Put the bun top leaning on the hamburger

Serve with French fries and side salad

Exploring Ghana: Makola Market

We had a really interesting outing, we went to Makola. Makola is a part of Accra one cannot miss because it is basically the city centre and it is one huge market. It is so big one easily can loose direction, especially when going into the small alleys.

We went on the busiest day of the week, Saturday, and the roads were packed. There are people everywhere and goods are so far into the road that it is difficult for cars to pass. Sometimes everything comes to a complete stand and nothing is moving. Then one hears people shouting at each other....of course I have no idea what they say, but for sure it is not just positive encouragement.....and then it starts moving again.

Being a chef my eyes are always open to see new foods....not necessarily that I would try them as I am not hosting some fancy TV show eating all sorts of strange foods, but I love to make photos and then ask how everything is eaten.

The guy with his Kebab stand was not impressed that I photographed him, but did not buy a kebab....the whole stand just did not invite me to eat and I just had a lovely breakfast. Later talking to the staff in the hotel they all know the guy as the kebab man.....he seems to have his stand there since ages.

Then something really strange came. A lady carrying cow feet on her head. These were huge cow feet and of course I had to find out what is done with them. They are actually dried and then are used to make soups or stews......lovely, kids tonight mommy cooked your favorite, cow feet soup.....just imagine. But Stephen, my friend at the hotel, his eyes lit up when he talked about cow feet, he loves them.

Then there was a lady selling pies, not cooked the traditional way in the oven, no, just simply deep fried. Heavy food, so here as well I gave it a skip.

The normal transportation mode is carrying everything on the head. Sometimes this must get very heavy, but there is no other way to be able to transport so many nappies all at once. It is amazing to see the ladies here in Ghana how everything is carried on the head. When one stops at a red light there are many sellers going from car to car and everything is carried on the head. Try doing that for a full day!

We must have spent close to 2 hours on the market, there is everything for sale, from tooth paste to shoes, perfume, food, sweets.....and of course cow feet. The prices are a lot cheaper than in the normal shops, the tooth paste we bought was a third of the normal price, so was about everything else.

Is it safe?

Generally I think so, but of course it is like everywhere else, one has to be careful and don't flash your money and jewellery. I made the photos with my phone so I don't have to carry my big camera. Sometimes when one goes into the small alley it can get a bit scary, but after all the time we spent there, I had absolutely no hassles. Of course everybody calls you and tries to get you to their shop, being a white man I heard Obruni all the time, the word for us pale faces here in Ghana. The people do this Gssssss, Gssssss! This is only to draw your attention. It is done everywhere, even in restaurants if you need something, so don't be offended by it.

It was a great outing and surely not the last time that we go to Makola. It is a hustling and bustling place, just simply amazing to see.

Exploring Ghana; Visiting an organic pig farm

In my quest of buying local and if possible organic I got approached by a supplier of pork. After talking to him a bit I got really interested as he offered to bring me out to the farm to see how everything works. After having some samples of the meat I happily agreed to come and visit the farm.

Now firstly something one has to understand, here in Ghana time works different than in other parts of the world. Even so it was agreed that we will be fetched at 7 am..... which turned out to be 9 AM. Generally no problem, but it would have been nice to just sleep in a bit as I took my only day off in this week to see the farm.

It was a good 2 hour drive to the farm which is in the Swedru Region. Everything is lush and green and we saw many palm, coconut and pineapple farms, the region has good soil. The drive was relaxing, even so we had to be careful with all the pot holes in the road and believe me, there are many and sometimes when we were too late to swirf around and hit the pot hole with full force.....that was not so relaxing anymore.

The pig farm itself is very impressive, the pigs are clean, their stall were clean, they are fed good food, a good combination of corn, wheat bran and soy, they looking healthy and nothing is used to make them grow faster. They actually looked happy. We were there around feeding time and all the pigs were standing up in their dens to see where the food is.

Next stop was the butchery, something really important to me as I have seen many butcheries and I honestly do not want to describe them.......yes, that is how bad they are, no cooling, open doors you name it, it is there.

Now this butchery is different. Even so it is straight out at the farm, it is clean. There is a pre- room to avoid flies and mosquitoes to come in, then one has to soak the shoes in a disinfectant solution, then the hairnet, the lot......OK, because nothing was happening we left the hairnet away. The butchers were all very clean and after talking to the head butcher, I knew immediately that he knew what he is talking about.

We checked out the entire facilities, everything is air conditioned and really clean. They took pigs out of the fridge and we discussed exactly which cut I prefer, a major service for me as now the butcher knows what I want.

Satisfied with what I saw we went on for a lovely lunch consisting of......yes you guessed it right, pork chops, rice and vegetables. Everything was prepared with love by the chef and it was a pleasure to be there

Then late afternoon we went off again, through the pot holes back into the evening traffic of Accra.....don't we all love it being stuck in traffic after a lovely day in the country side?

So what is happening next? We just have to do a whole lot of paper work and then we will place the first small trial order to see if everything works the way we want and hopefully within a month time I can proudly sell organic pork from Swedru, healthy, local and in line with our policy of buying as much as possible from reputable local sources.

Salmon Tataki and the truth about Kobe Beef

Today we are going Asian again, with a lovely dish called Salmon Tataki. Tataki is from Japan and is basically a Sashimi that has been marinated and quickly fried in a very hot pan, just to sear the outside, but leaving the inside raw. Then one slices the piece of fish the same way like a Sashimi, serves it with pickled ginger and Wasabi

One can do Tataki as well from meat, specifically the Kobe Beef. As the name says it already, Kobe Beef is from the Japanese Prefecture of Kobe, and only if it has grown up in this Prefecture it can be called Kobe Beef. The type of beef is actually called Wagyu, so anywhere else in the world where they grow this beef it has to be called Wagyu. There are farms on all continents (ecxept Antarctica, hehehehe) and the qualities are very different as well, depending on farmer, feed and surrounding.

When I visited Kobe I was invited to see a Kobe Beef Farm to see the real deal of the Kobe Beef. I had just bought a couple of pieces for a function and had to fork out 280 $ per kg.....never mind that we had to cut off at least 10% of the thick fat around. It brought tears to my eyes seeing the Japanese Master Chef trimming the beef and yes we took the fat later, melted it and used it for cooking and flavoring. Anyway, back to the farm. There are many myth around the Kobe Beef, that each farmer can have only 2 cows, that they get massaged every day with beer and Sake.....

Let me tell you what is true and what is not true

The truth is that each piece of meat comes with a certificate of origin stating who is the mother and who is the Father of the cow. Then there is a nose stamp on the certificate, yes true! This is like a finger print as every cow has a different nose print. And then there is a photo, the name and address of the farmer, so all is there to guarantee the quality of the meat.

It is true as well that all the meat gets sold by auction and that the best quality can fetch amazing prices which are around 125'000 $ per cow and more. Of course the bringing up the Kobe Cows is expensive as well. Kobe Beef does not walk much and eats nearly the whole day a mix of corn and other good foods to get them nice and fat, so the end result is a huge "Kobe Beef Goose Liver", sort of at least. There is sometimes more fat in the muscles and actual muscles itself

It is not true that each farmer has 2 cows only, the farm we visited had over 100 cows

It is not true that the cows get massaged every day with sake and beer. But yes, the farmers add beer to the water the cows drink in summer for the single reason that beer makes them hungry and they eat more as during the hot summer month, the cows eat less.

The cows getting massaged, but only the cows that go to competitions, they get washed and then massaged with sake and beer as it makes the fur shiny. For the Japanese, if the outer side is beautiful and perfect, then the inside will be of a good quality....pushing the price up when it comes to the auction

So there is the bit of information I have about the Kobe beef. The one thing I forgot to say is that ....the meat is absolutely delicious. It is rich, very rich, but so tasty, so tender like I never had anything like that before.

But back to the salmon tataki, here is the recipe

700 G Salmon Fillet
100 Ml Soy sauce
20 Ml Sesame oil
50 G Honey
20 G Ginger
20 G Garlic
50 Ml Oil
50 G Black sesame seeds
50 G White sesame seeds

100 G Bean Sprout
100 G Black Fungus
100 G Shiitake mushrooms
50 G Frisee
50 G Green Oak
50 G Endive

Cut the salmon in square shaped long strips, the size to cut later a sashimi
Marinate in the soy, sesame, honey, ginger and garlic for a couple of hours
Fry in hot oil till seared and dark all round
Roll in the 2 colours sesame seeds
Cool it down a bit
Cut like a thick Sashimi

With all the salad ingredients make a salad
Season with vinaigrette

Cut the Tataki and plate next to the salad

Exploring Accra, Restaurant Review

Yesterday was my first day off in a long time and we decided to do our shopping, combined with a nice lunch and a movie. Of course first was sleep in time which means by 7 AM we were awake but still just lying in bed and relaxing.

Accra Mall is the biggest mall in the country which means not much, it is still tiny compared to other malls, but at least one can get everything needed. There is a Game which is a store with house hold goods and some food and then there is Shoprite with plenty of food, most of it imported from South Africa.....which makes it very expensive and often the goods are not available as the container hasn't arrived yet. Both of the major shops are South African shops, so one can find everything, even so one pays for it.

There is a movie house as well, not huge, but nice and clean. We watched battleship, really nice movie, even so it is basically the same like all the other movies...Aliens invade the world in the one or the other way, then we have some heroes and bingo, we win.....anyway, we really enjoyd the movie, it is just different to watch a movie on the big sceen. The cost: 16 GHC per adult on the weekend, which is about 8 USD

And then of course we had lunch. We were already quite often at the mall but never ate there except a take away pizza which was horrible, but now we tried Rhapsody's. It always looks nice when one walks by, the tables nicely laid. There is a big bar with TV, the smoking area which was full, mainly expats drinking, eating, smoking and watching sport

We had a Beef skewer which was 300 g of nice and tender meat with herbs and a bit gravy. It was very nicely done, could have a bit more gravy and lss dried herbs, but was very delicious. Then we had a snack basket....huge with 2 mini burgers, fried chicken strips, sping rolls, buffalo wing and french fries. With a large water, a pineapple juice and a Mango juice it came to 87 GHC, so just under 50 USD. There are a lot more expensive restaurants here, so the re is good value for money, except when you start drinking wine, then the bill will go up.

I have to say, it was a really nice restaurant, even so that what we most wanted, the calamari where not available. I can recommend going to Rhapsody's, the service was good and friendly, the food came quickly and it had a nice athmosphere, all needed to have a good time in a restaurant

So it was a great and relaxing day, the lunch, the movies and of course we stocked up the kitchen again, ready for more culinary adventures at home

Beef Curry

Let's continue with doing some very easy Indian food, something that is maybe not the real thing but comes pretty close. Not all of us live in urban areas where one can find all the ingredients needed to do a proper curry or anything the traditional way, so sometimes one has no choice than to take a short cut and do something the fast way.

Still it is a lot better than just buying something frozen from the shopping center in the frozen section.....that is actually no comparison. Anyway, we did this beef curry and it came out really beautiful, it has been cooked for many hours, just nice and slow and all the spices had time to develop and give some flavor. I like to take a "lesser" cut for my curry, the main reason for it being flavor.

With the meat it is really very simple, the tougher the cut the more flavorful it is. Toughness comes from how much it has been used by the animal, so for example the beef cheeks and the Oxtail is extremely tough and has to be cooked for hours so the flavor is absolutely amazing whereas the fillet has basically never been used, so it is super tender but looses out in flavor. Not to say that a good beef fillet has no flavor, no not at all, but it is just a lot more subtle.

But now to the recipe

2 Kg Beef Topside, Cubes
50 G Tumeric
1 Kg Onions
50 G Garlic Paste
50 G Ginger Paste
50 G Green Chili
100 G Coriander
100 G Cashew Nuts, chopped
50 G Tomato Paste
2 Ea Bay Leaf
Cardamom whole
Cardamom powder
Coriander Powder
100 Ml Cream
50 Ml Oil Salt

Pre boil Beef cubes with whole spices
Strain and keep the stock
Slice onions and cook them gently with oil till they are soft and pasty, add in powdered spices
Saute beef cubes with garlic, ginger, tomato paste and chili.
Add some beef stock and finely chopped cashew nuts
Add the onion paste
Simmer till the meat is tender and the sauce has a thick consistency
Garnish with toasted almonds, chili and chopped coriander

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