Tagliolini with Green Asparagus and Black Truffle

We do have a daily special in our Italian Restaurant, Terrazzo and we do serve it as well in our second restaurant, Sea-Fire-Salt. It makes sense as both restaurants are actually served out of the same kitchen, so the special is easy to be prepared for 2 restaurants

 

We like to make some nice homemade pasta dishes, they are usually so tasty and one can immediately spot the difference between bought and homemade.

 

For me to make pasta is totally relaxing, it is fun and I love to see how the dish comes together. Yes it is a bit more work than just buying pasta, but at the same time it is much more rewarding to eat it as well. If you don't have the time or the patience to make your homemade pasta, then go and buy some high quality chilled pasta which is available in good supermarkets

 

This is id a bit on the rich side, with the creamy sauce, but it is really simple to make

 

The recipe is for 4 friends as a main course or for 6 friends as a starter

Pasta
500 g (1 lb) Flour
5 Eggs
25 ml (1 oz) EV Olive Oil
5 g Salt

Sauce
500 g (1 lb) Green Asparagus
200 ml (5 oz) cooking liquid of the Asparagus
50 g (2 oz) Onions
100 ml (3 oz) Cream
15 g (0.5 oz) Corn starch
30 g (1 oz)Black truffle
Salt
Pepper
70 g (3 oz) Parmesan shavings

For the pasta dough mix all the ingredients together to a firm dough
Knead well
Let it rest for at least 2 hours before rolling out

For the sauce

Clean the green asparagus
Cut the heads off and then cut the stems in small pieces, keep some asparagus to cut into slivers
Blanch the Asparagus in a small amount of water which can then be used for the base of the sauce
Fry the onions in the melted butter without color
Add the asparagus and then the cooking liquid and cream
Bring to the boil
Thicken with corn starch which has been mixed with some cold left over cooking liquid
Season to taste

Toss the pasta in the sauce

Drizzle the pasta with truffle oil and generously slice fresh black truffle and Parmesan shavings on it





 

Spaetzle, the German Dumpling

Yes we cook something German.....no not just German, we do it of course in Switzerland too and it can as well be found in Austria, but the name Spaetzle is from Germany, southern Germany.

The big difference between the German and the Swiss variety is mainly the shape. Everything else is the same. The main ingredients are Flour, Eggs, Milk, Nutmeg and a bit Salt and Pepper. OK, the batter of the German variety is slightly thinner as it has to be "scratched of a board into the boiling Salt Water whereas the Swiss version is a little thicker and more round. That is why we call it in Switzerland "Chnoepfli".

How to pronounce that funny word? Very simple, the Ch stands for clearing your throat, yes you heard right, the ch sounds like you are clearing your throat, the oe or ö is a bit pronounced like the u in burp..... so let me not go further into the pronunciation of this funny dumpling.....which actually mean "little button" in good old English because it is round like a button

The preparation is actually very simple, just mix all ingredients quickly together, don't add all the milk from the beginning as you don't want the batter too thin and then you have to beat it. Yes you heard right again, you have to beat the batter till your arms are sore and the batter has big bubbles. Sounds strange I know but you will see what I mean when you do it......if your arms are not too sore before the bubbles come.

It looks like this is quite a violent blog, burping, clearing throats, beating batter....but trust me it is all worth it. The Dumplings are delicious and you can make them in all sorts of variations. The recipe I give you today is actually one with Rocket in it. It gives a lovely flavor and looks really sexy.

So here is the Recipe

Recipe
500 g (1.1 lbs) Flour
40 g (2 oz) Butter
4 Each Eggs
200 ml (0.2 qrt) Milk
1 Punnet or 125 g (5 oz) Rocket fresh
5 g Salt
2 g Nutmeg

Method
Blend the eggs with the Rocket till the Rocket is nice and fine
Sieve the flour
Mix all ingredients except the butter with the flour
Beat the dough with your hand until the dough has blisters
The dough must be smooth and slightly runny
Scrape the batter off a cutting board in boiling salt water
As soon the the dumplings come to the top, skim them off and put in iced water
Strain the water off
Heat the butter till slightly noisette, add the Spaetzle
Fry without color and season to taste

Goes perfectly well with Goulash

 One can add Rocket, Spinach, Wild Mushroom flour or Tomato Paste to flavor the Spätzle

This recipe makes enough for 10 friends

Pancit Palabok

Today we will cook something really special, something we usually eat when we go to Market Market as one of the food stalls is preparing it very nicely. The dish is called Pancit Palabok, one of the many types of Pancit. Again, there are many, many recipes and I will not say that this one is the real one, but you have to know that this Pancit Palabok was extremely tasty.

The cooked rice noodles

The origin of Pancit is Chinese and it is called Palabok because of the orange colored, shrimp flavored sauce that is poured over the noodles. If you look in Chinese cuisine you won't find Palabok, that is truly Filipino

The Annatto Seeds in the water

I think for this recipe it is of utmost importance to really use good quality products, especially the smoked fish that goes in, only buy the best. (No, it is not the wild Norwegian salmon that goes in, but local sardines…….and they taste great just plain on their own) Then use the freshest prawns you can find, it is worth it and make sure the chicheron is really fresh, if you don’t make it yourself. That would be a lot of work, but I just want to emphasize how important the freshness of the ingredients is for this dish.

Ground Chicheron

The color of the sauce we get from Annatto Seeds, this makes the sauce look like it is a lobster sauce which sort of makes sense because there is the smoked fish and the shrimp with it, even so there is often as well beef or chicken stock in it, so the flavor is really intense

Smoked Fish

The chopped Garlic

The chopped onions

The boiled eggs

The cooked Prawns

Recipe

1 Packet Rice noodles (Pancit or Palabok Noodles)

Walter as per recipe given on packet

Sauce

Quarter cup Annatto seeds

Quarter cup Water

50 ml (2 oz) Oil

50 g (2 oz) Garlic

100 g (3.5 oz) Onions

150 g (5 oz) Ground Pork

200 ml (7 oz) Shrimp Juice (cube)

200 ml (7 oz) Pork stock

30 g (1 oz) Flour

Salt and pepper to taste

Topping

Cooked eggs

Cooked Shrimp (Prawns)

Tofu

Boiled Pork

Smoked Fish

Chicharon

Fried Garlic

Kalamansi (small limes from Philippines)

Method

Soak the rice noodles in water for about 15 minutes.
Drain and set aside.
Cook the sauce by heating a saucepan.
Pour-in the cooking oil.
When the oil is hot enough, put-in the ground pork, garlic and onions and cook for about 10 minutes
Dilute the annato seeds in pork broth then starin and pour the mixture in the saucepan.
Bring to a boil
Add the shrimp cube and stir and simmer for 3 minutes
Add the flour gradually while stirring.
Add the fish sauce and ground black pepper then simmer until sauce becomes thick.
Set aside.
Meanwhile, boil enough water in a pot.
Place the soaked noodles in a strainer (use metal or bamboo strainer) then submerge the strainer in the boiling water for about a minute or until the noodles are cooked. (make sure that the noodles are still firm) Remove the strainer from the pot and drain the liquid from the noodles.
Place the noodles in the serving plate.
Pour the sauce on top of the noodles then arrange the toppings over the sauce.
Serve with a slice of lemon or calamansi. Share and enjoy!

Penne with Lobster

Now, after I showed you all the fun time we had with the fishing, I thought I will share the recipe for the Penne with Lobster. This is really a typical Italian dish, totally simple, but the flavors are just exploding on your palate.

The base is a really good tomato sauce, chunky, not a fine one, a sauce where you are generous with everything, garlic, onions, basil and the ripest plum tomatoes you can find on the market

Then the lobster, it has to be fresh, really fresh. We just boiled it quickly to kill it, then took the tail out, cut it in pieces and added it at the end to the tomato sauce. Like this you got all the lovely lobster flavor, but it won't be overpowering

Then you cook the Penne, OK, again, don't go for your cheap brand on the shelve of the super market, but spend this extra couple of cents and buy a really good brands like De Cecco, you will see it is worth it.

Make sure you cook the pasta really al dente, you want to finish the cooking process in the sauce, that the pasta soaks up all the flavours of the lobster and the sauce, again, you top quality pasta will do that

There are many top restaurants that actually cook the pasta in the sauce, like this you will have the ultimate flavor, I tried it and yes, it really works

OK, now here is the recipe

100 g (3 oz) Onions
50 G (1.5 oz) Garlic
100 ml (3 oz) Olive oil
500 G (1 lb) Tomatoes
50 g (1.5 oz) Basil

2 kg (4 lb) Lobster

1 kg Penne Pasta

Cook the penne pasta al dente and keep on the side

Cut the onions and garlic in fine cubes
Saute in the olive oil without color
Add the quartered tomatoes
Add salt, pepper and basil
Simmer for about half an hour

In the mean time blanch lobster, get the tail meat out and cut in cubes
Add to the tomato soup and simmer for another 5 minuts, season to taste

Add the penne and heat them up in the sauce, serve immediately

The dish tastes best with a generous helping of freshly grated Parmesan

Salmon Ravioli

I am coming back to make home made pasta, yes still a favorite of mine. This time we make salmon ravioli, not with smoked salmon, but with fresh salmon. The idea is that the pasta dough really has to be super thin, then the ravioli has to be frozen before cooking. Like this the inside will be warm, but not well done. It need a couple of tries to get this right, it is for sure not the easy cooking, it needs experience, patience and knowledge......but then, the ravioli is really nice too if the Salmon is well cooked, so don't worry too much about it

I try to make this dish really light, even so there is some butter in the sauce, I have omitted the cream completely. I take the leeks and onions, they get sauteed a bit in butter, then I add one cup of fish stock, I boil it up, make sure the leeks is soft. Then I add the ravioli, cook them quickly, add the tomatoes and some more butter and finish. The for the garnish I used some frisee lettuce and flat leaf parsley.

But here is the recipe

500 G All purpose flour

100 G Semolina flour

240 G Egg yolk

2 Ea Eggs whole

50 Ml Olive oil

Water

Salt

900 G Salmon fillet

100 Ml Olive oil

50 G Dill

70 G Onions, fried

200 G Leeks

200 G Tomatoes

100 G Onions

10 G Flat leaf Parsley

10 G Dill

Method for the Dough

Mix all the ingredients well

Maybe you might have to add some water

Let the dough rest overnight

Method for the filling

Cut the salmon in small cubes

Mix with olive oil, fried onions, dill, salt and pepper

Roll the dough out paper thin and cut out round ravioli

Put a bit of the salmon mix inside, close it and blanch it very quickly

Put the ravioli in ice water to stop the cooking process

Cut the leeks and onions in small pieces

Fry with a little butter

Add fish stock

Boil up and simmer till vegetables are soft

Add the ravioli, boil up quickly

Add tomato concasse, parsley, dill and and butter

Serve immediately

Gnocchi Piemontese

Let's do something vegetarian, something Italian, something with Potatoes.....Gnocchi. I will not say that I love Gnocchi because I say that with every food but.....yes I do love Gnocchi, hehehe!

They are pretty easy to make, one just needs a little patience and good products. The potatoes of course are paramount as if the potatoes are not good, then the Gnocchi won't turn out right. I always use potatoes that cook "floury" so they are usually grown towards the end of the season and are rather big. So the starch in them is perfect. If they are too young then the starch turns out like glue after mashing the potatoes

Then of course there is the big discussion of the mixing the other ingredients with the potatoes. Some chefs swear by the hot method, everything is mixed as hot as possible and some others cool the potatoes down. In this recipe we cool the potatoes down before pressing them through the masher, it is a safer method but usually uses a bit more flour, so taste a little more "industrial" If one does the hot method one can use less flour, but needs to be more experienced in cooking as the mix easily turns soft (this is a disaster for me, hehehe)

So, let's have a look at the recipe, I am sure you will love it as the outcome is great

Recipe

1500 g Potatoes

550 g Flour

4 ea Eggs Salt and pepper

Method

Boil the potatoes a day ahead in the skin

Peel the potatoes and make sure you have 1 kg left

Press the potatoes through a sieve

Rub the potatoes together with the flour

Season and add the eggs at the end

Mix quickly together to have a dry dough
Form the Gnocchi with rolling a long sausage, then cut it with the knife in small pieces.
Roll the pieces over a fork or a Gnocchi board into boiling salt water
As soon as they swim on top they have to be taken out and put in ice water

Sauce

500 g Tomatoes

100 g Onions

25 g Garlic

Basil

Salt, Pepper

Blanch the tomatoes and put in ice water, peel the skin then chop in cubes

Saute the chopped onion in a little olive oil without color till glossy, then add the garlic, fry some more

Add the tomatoes, season and add the basil

Simmer for 25 minutes, season to taste

Toss the Gnocchi in the tomato and basil sauce, then serve immediately

Generously add Parmesan on top

Panzotti Pasta

There are so many different shapes and colors of pasta, it is absolutely incredible, and I know that one could write a big book about it, the recipes, the flavors, the shapes and the origins.

I love pasta, always have and always will. I like to make my own homemade pasta and often I just cook it plain and then serve it with a little fresh butter and grated Parmesan, a dream for me. I like good quality pasta, if I don't make it myself, then I only buy the best available.

Today, we made another pasta that is not that well known, it is called Panzotti. Panzotti are actually nothing else than big, triangular Ravioli. We fill them with spinach and ricotta and serve them on a mirror of tomato sauce, then a little more spinach on top (just to make sure they look pretty and then of course Parmesan.

Filled pasta can be made in advance and then frozen. It makes sense as it is a lot of labor going into homemade pasta and it is worth to just make a bit more and freeze them, so next time you can just take them out the freezer and cook. If you freeze pasta, make sure that you put them in lots of boiling water while still frozen, do not defrost your pasta as otherwise the condensation makes the dough all soft and sticky.

But now to the recipe

PASTA

1kg plain flour

10 eggs

10gm salt

80ml olive oil

METHOD

Combine flour and salt. On a bench make well with flour. In a bowl add eggs and oil. Slowly incorporate the egg mixture with your hands until you form a dough. Knead the dough for about 10mins till a homogenous consistency. Wrap and place in fridge.

FILLING

500 g Ricotta

500 g Spinach

100 g Onions

30 g Garlic

Salt, Pepper

METHOD

Cut the onions and garlic in very fine cubes, saute in butter till glassy.

Add spinach and ricotta. Season to taste. Cool down completely

Roll the pasta dough into thin sheets. Cut squares if the size 10 x 10 cm (3 x 3 Inches). Put a spoonful of the filling in the middle.

Put egg wash around the edges of the dough and fold it triangular like a ravioli. Press the edges gently together.

Cook till al dente.


SMOOTH TOMATO SAUCE

½ box ripe roma tomatoes

¼ head of celery finely chopped

2 large onions finely chopped

5 cloves garlic finely chopped

½ large leek finely chopped

1 bouquet garni

250ml vermouth

500ml nage

METHOD

Peel the roasted tomatoes, sweat the mirepoix, Add tomatoes and deglaze with vermouth. Add nage simmer the sauce until mirepoix is cooked then puree the sauce pass through fine chinois return to the stove heat till right consistency season

and cool.