Fig. Pear and Witlof Salad with sustainable Foie Gras

It is Valentines again and we are cooking away a storm. Valentines here on our romantic island is something special. The couples are going first to the sandbank for a glass of Rose Champagne and some Canapes before going to Turtle beach, our most romantic beach on the island.. There they are served a 3 course menu which we cook straight at the beach. A short stroll later they are at Cinema Paradiso, our outdoor cinema for a romantic movie and a chocolate themed dessert buffet. Could it get more romantic than watching a movie under the stars? No, I don't think so, but then again, I live here on the island and love the island every moment of the day

So what are we cooking tonight? I will of course share all the recipes, but want to start with the one starter, a combination of organic lettuces, fruit and meat. We got some sustainable foie gras and made a terrine out of it, then we rolled the terrine and coated it in pistachios. We have received some amazing cured ham from Bayonne in France, it is so subtle in taste, just gorgeous. Of course we take some local lettuces and then some fresh figs, the fruit of love.

The Bayonne ham is a lovely and subtle ham from the French Atlantic coast, very close to Spain. The pigs have to be from the region, the spices, the salt, all is from the region. It has a very mild flavor which I love, it is not so overpowering and salty and combines very well with the other ingredients

Everything gets carefully arranged on a glass plate, it has to be a work of art. We made a balsamic and honey reduction and took some really amazing extra virgin olive oil, we tossed the leaves in it, ah, the combination of the freshness with the richness of the foie gras and the slight saltiness of the ham are just going so well when combined and enjoyed

We take great care of getting certified sustainable foie gras....no, again I am not going into the discussion about foie gras, but trust me, we go through great length to make sure we get the best product which is as friendly to teh geese as possible. I am not giving you the recipe for the foie gras terrine again as it is already in my blog.

The bread is more there to give the dish some extra texture, it is a thinly cut toast bread which is baked in the oven till dry, crisp and golden in color

The recipe is enough for 4 friends

Recipe
100 g (3oz) Bayonne Ham
4 each Figs
2 each Pears
60 g (2 oz) Assorted lettuces
100 g (3 oz) Foie gras terrine
30 g (1 oz) Pistachios
50 ml (2 oz) Olive oil
60 ml (2 oz) Balsamic Vinegar
10 g (0.5 oz) Honey

Method
Firstly reduce the Balsamic till only one third left, add the honey then cool down
Cut the ham is thin slices
Mush the terrine up a bit, then roll in a plastic wrap to a long sausage, cool in the fridge
Chop the pistachios, then roll the terrine in them, after that cut the rolled terrine in 1 cm thick slices
Arrange the ham on the bottom of the plate, then top with the pears
Mix the lettuce with a bit balsamic and olive oil, dress nicely on top of the pears
Garnish with the figs and top with a bread wafer

Salmon with Olive Crust

Today I have another way to prepare salmon, a little bit more Mediterranean. I use lovely Kalamata Olives, just de-pip them and chop them roughly. Then I add some Italian flat leaf parsley, a couple of bread crumbs and then some sliced chili to give it a bit spice.

Then the salmon gets fried skin down in a bit olive oil, I put the crust on and then it goes in the oven or the salamander and then when it is still pink inside I serve it....yummy

There are endless possibilities of cooking salmon, it is a real pleasure. Unfortunately there was often some bad news accompanying this fish, especially since the salmon farming started. There is a lot of controversy about the salmon farming (same like the Tilapia farming) as it is not really sustainable, not good for the fish quality and often they add additives in order to keep the fish healthy in this tight space.

Never less, salmon is an extremely healthy fish with loads of Omega oils which help lowering the cholesterol, so there is a lot of benefit in eating salmon ever so often. Not as often as good hundred years ago in Sweden where by law one was not allowed to feed the staff more than once a day salmon... in Switzerland it was a lot better, it was only 5 times a week. At that time the salmon still went up river Rhine all the way past Basel.....it is long too dirty and no salmon is coming up the river anymore....a real pity

Recipe
1700 G Salmon fillet
250 G Black Olives
50 G Onions
20 G Parsley
20 Ml Olive oil
50 G Bread Crumbs
10 G Chili

1200 G Potatoes
100 Ml Cream
150 Ml Milk
100 G Butter
30 G Basil

400 G Tomatoes
120 Ml Olive oil
10 G Salt
1 G Pepper 20
G Parsley

Cut the onions in cubes, shallow fry in olive oil
Add olives, bread crumbs, chili and parsley
Shallow fry for a couple of minutes
Blend quickly, not too fine
Season to taste

Peel the potatoes and cook till soft
Press the potatoes through a sieve
Heat up cream butter and milk
Mix gently with the potatoe puree
Add Basil and season to taste

Blanch and peel the tomatoes
Cut the tomatoes in cubes, discharge the pips
Add olive oil, julienne parsley and season

Baked Alaska

Baked Alaska, what an old fashioned Dessert....and? You cannot believe how often this Classic is still served all over the world, not just in the cruise industry. There we still have the Baked Alaska Parade with everybody coming in the Dining Room and 1000 guests are applauding....and then the same again for the second seating, no even in hotels, restaurants, the Baked Alaska is a Classic, but it is by far not dead! Long live the Baked Alaska!

I want to show you how to make this dessert quick and easy at home and let the tradition live on! I prefer to make individual Baked Alaska as it is not just beautifully to present on the plate, but it is easier to store in the freezer. The big ones are just so bulky!

As for the blow torch you will need, there are two options, get one in a kitchen specialty shop, they have the little fancy ones, or take your husband for a stroll and go to his "toy shop" to get a proper blow torch, I am sure he will like that you come with him to this dreaded store and will gladly buy you a proper model.

All you need is 4 items, Ice Cream, Sponge, Egg White and Sugar

Baked Alaska

1 small Tub Chocolate Swirl Ice Cream

1 ea Sponge Cake

5 ea Egg White

150 g Caster Sugar

Method

Cut the sponge cake in round sponge circles about 1 cm thick and 5 cm diameter. Place one ball of ice cream on it, you can use any ice cream you like. Place it back in the freezer and freeze completely

In the mean time beat the egg white with one third of the sugar till soft peak in an electric beater, then add the rest of the sugar slowly always while beating the egg white. Beat the "Meringue" till it is very firm.

Put the Meringue in a piping bag, take the ice cream out the freezer and garnish it till completely covered with the Meringue, then place back in the freezer.

Just before serving the Baked Alaska, take a blow torch and "burn" the meringue, serve immediately

Prawns on Avocado Tartar

Here is something really simple, you can make it quick and even on short notice, have some cooked prawns in the freezer and an avocado in the fridge and basically you have everything you need to do this little but very effective and delicious starter. I am a strong believer of having always something as a back up that when friends pop over it is easy and fast prepared, the title sounds grand, but basically all it is Guacamole with Prawns, shushed up a little bit, but here the recipe

Just some useless information about the prawns, or shrimp in certain countries. When you buy them they are either called by a name like Giant, King, Queen which means the size, or you get number, like 21/25, 15/20, 9/15. This shows you the size as well, the number means how many prawns are in each Kilo (2.2 lbs) so the smaller the number, the bigger the prawn. For general cooking 21/25 are perfect, if I BBQ and have them butterfly I try to go for bigger Prawns. In Asia you get the huge ones 2/3!!!! they are nearly the size of a lobster and taste delicious!

2 ea Avocados
0.5 ea Onions
1 ea Red Chili
Lime Juice
Salt
Pepper

16 ea Prawns (21/25) cooked
20 ml Olive oil
10 ml Lemon juice
Sea Salt
Pepper

For the avocados, cut the onions in very fine cubes, then de-seed the chili and chop. Peel the avocados and cut in cubes. Mix all ingredients and season to taste.

Marinate the prawns in olive oil, Lime juice, salt and pepper, leave for a couple of hours

To plate put the avocado in a round form and then dress the prawns on top of the avocado.

Garnish with some micro herbs

Valentines Main Course

OK, now after we have a great soup, we do something nice for main course. I am not sure which dish to choose as there is such a variety one could do to impress the loved one. So I thought lets go save and do a surf and turf....boring? OK, then we go for a veal tenderloin on root vegetables. Something not too difficult and nice. But for all the non meat eaters, next blog will be a fish dish which goes well on Valentine.

But before the recipe a little update of what happened in the past couple of days. Yes we have been busy, what else do you expect with 2000 guest on board, but I was able to hop off the ship for a short while in St. John and will go off again tomorrow in Barbados. The weather is great and it is nice and warm. I have to say so that St. John is very touristy, at least were all the cruise lines anchor, but otherwise beautiful. Even with all the work we have there is time to explore a little bit, usually an hour or two in the afternoon. Today we were in Castries, St. Lucia, I had no time to go out as we were busy with photographing food, but I remembered that an old friend of mine is living here, so I sent him an email and hopefully in 2 weeks, when we are back here I can meet up with him and have a drink.

Anyway, lets go back to the recipe:

Valentines Surf and Turf
360 g (15 oz) Potatoes
80 ml (3oz) Milk
80 ml (3 oz) Cream
4 g (0.2 oz) salt
5 g (0.2 oz) Garlic
25 g (1 oz) Parmesan
25 g (1 oz) Gruyere
15 g (0.5 oz) Butter
Nutmeg

1) Put potatoes in heavy based pot
2) Add milk, cream, garlic and seasoning
3) Bring slowly to the boil, stirring all the times
4) Transfer into gratin form and bake in oven 365 F for 30 min
5) Top with Parmesan and bake another 30 min at 365 F
6) Cool in blast chiller
7) Cut rounds of 1.5 inch, re heat in the oven as required

100 g (3 oz) Baby green beans
50 g (1.5 oz) Bacon, streaky
Oil
100 g (3 oz) Carrots
30 g (1 oz) Onions
30 g (1 oz) Butter
10 g (0.3 oz)Sugar
30 ml (1 oz) Vegetable stock
Salt, pepper

1) Wrap the beans in bacon, trim on both sides
2) Cut carrots slightly diagonal in 0.1 inch slices
3) Melt butter in a pan, add onions and fry till translucent
4) Add carrots and sugar, glace for 5 minutes
5) Add vegetable stock, boil up and cook till carrots are soft
The cooking liquid should be nearly evaporated and creamy
6) Season to taste

1) Saute vegetables in butter without getting any color
2) Add white wine, reduce to half
3) Add fish stock, clam juice and cream
4) Simmer for 20 minutes
5) Mix corn starch with a little water, thicken the sauce.
6) Season to taste
7) Strain through Chinoise strainer
8) Fry shallots in a little oil without butter
9) Add red wine and reduce to half
10) Add demi glace, boil up and season to taste
11) Strain through Chinoise strainer and thicken if needed
with corn starch

Beef fillet
Oil, cooking
Salt, pepper

Jumbo Shrimp
Olive oil
Salt, pepper

1) Sear the fillet on all sides
2) Season to taste
3) Finish the cooking in the oven as required by guest

4) Peel the tail, leaving the head and tail end
5) Fry in olive oil and season to taste

Plate the gratin slightly off centre on hot plate
Next to it place the two vegetables
Then plate the meat and the prawn
Add the two sauces for both meat and prawn

Garnish the beef with thyme, the prawn with dill and enjoy!!!!

Valentines cooking

Yes I am back cooking and having fun. With all the other work, the training, the checking the walking through the ship and making sure all the food is looking good, we still have time to cook.

At the moment we are concentrating on Valentines, as it is just around the corner and I will give you a couple of examples. Now imagine we always make the recipe for 100 people, and usually make easy up to 600 of one portion, but no worry, I have changed the recipes that one can cook them for 2, especially for Valentines.

By the way, we are at the moment in Barbados, so far I had only time to pop out quick in St. John, Antigua as we are a bit busy at the moment with the photos and I need to get settled into the job, but there will be soon photos from the different ports.

Baked Potato and Lobster Soup

150 g (5 oz) Potatoes
60 g (2 oz) Leeks
60 g (2 oz) Onions
10 g (0.5 oz) Olive oil
400 ml (13 oz) Vegetable stock
120 ml (4 oz) Cream
Salt, pepper

1 ea Lobster tail

Puff pastry sheet

Peel and cut the potatoes in dices, wash the leeks and cut the same, peel the onions and cut in dices.

Heat the butter and fry the vegetables on low heat till onions become translucent.

Add vegetable stock, season lightly

Simmer till potatoes are very soft, add the cream and bring to the boil

Blend the soup and strain.

Poach lobster tail and cut in small dices

Pour the warm soup in soup cups, top with lobster pieces.

Cut the puff pastry in discs big enough to cover the soup cup.

Paint with egg wash and bake in the pre-heated oven at 180 C (350 F) till puff pastry is golden brown and crispy.

Enjoy the soup with your loved one and a glass of Rose Champagne, a good start for a great Valentines!

Next entry will be concentrating on main course, something special is waiting!