Life in the Food Lane

Beef Masterclass at Gaucho

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Thu, 16 May 2013 05:45:00 +0000

"Can you bring me a cow?"

We're in the kitchen of Gaucho Dubai, in the heart of Dubai's International Financial Center, or DIFC. It's an area rich in contemporary restaurants, art galleries and urban architecture. In Gaucho's kitchen, preparations for the popular business lunch are in full swing, but one station has been set up for a beef masterclass.

The volunteering chef bends over with a grin on his face, as London-based executive chef Michael Reid - in Dubai for a week - places his hands on the guy's back, about to explain the location of various beef cuts, from ribeye to rump. The meat masterclass is in progress.

Seven Cuts of Steak
All beef served at Gaucho comes from Angus, Hereford, or Shorthorn cattle raised on the grasslands of Argentina: the pampas, where cattle not only finds a varied grass diet, but also plenty exercise. Seven cuts of beef are used in the Gaucho kitchens: Lomo (fillet), Chorizo (sirloin), Ancho (ribeye), and Cuadril (rumpsteak). In addition, Gaucho uses Entrana (thin skirt), Vacio (flank steak) and Picanha (top rump). We get to unwrap, clean and divide the lomo and the ancho. I'll take you through it.

Lomo
The Lomo is the fillet or the tenderloin. The tenderloin is not a weight-bearing muscle: it does very little work, which makes it a very tender piece of meat. Quite the opposite, all fat and sinew (connective tissue) around the tenderloin are hard and tough, and will not cook away.

lomo ready to be unwrapped, trimmed and cut. The onion, red pepper, parsley and condiments are for the chimichurri, a tangy Argentinian sauce great with grilled meat

The lomo we unwrap is already trimmed of most of its hard fat, sinew and its "chain"*. It just needs a final trim. A cleaned, deep red meaty tenderloin ready on the cutting board, Chef Mike shows us how to cut the lomo into different steaks:

From the fillet "head", chef cuts the lomo churrasco. The churrasco is a spiral cut which will be marinated for up to 48 hours, grilled and sliced to serve 1 or 2 (depending on the carnivorous appetite). From thickest to smallest part, the lomo is next divided into:

chateaubriand (averaging 400 gr, a chateaubriand is grilled whole, rested and sliced to serve two)
Bife de Lomo (fillet steak or tournedos)
Medallions (if cut as one steak, this would be the filet mignon)

tenderloin tail folded to form a steak

As for the tail end of the tenderloin, the tip that is so uneven in thickness: the chef scores it in three places, just deep enough to fold and form one full-sized steak. Now, you can cook this uneven piece of meat evenly!

One thing the chef stresses throughout the masterclass: handle the meat gently. Don't turn it over and over, touch it as little as you can. Every touch and turn means you're bruising the meat.

*the chain is the meaty "string" of connective tissue. Usually, your tenderloin is already trimmed of it. When it isn't, don't throw it away. It may be a lot of work to clean the beef chain of all sinew and hard fat, but it's tasty meat and makes for great fajita steak, for instance!

notice how the chef holds the knife blade between thumb and index finger, balancing the handle with remaining three fingers? It allows him better control over the blade as it cuts through the meat

Ancho
The Ancho is the ribeye. Nestled in the upper rib cage, the ribeye is marbled with good fat. It's called the "meat lovers' steak": a juicy steak with lots of flavor.

From the ancho, chef cuts a thick-cut ribeye steak. He then proceeds (he is showing us some great knife work) to cut a tira de ancho, or a "belt" of ribeye steak. It is grilled slowly and brushed with chimichurri towards the end. Same style but smaller is the tapa de ancho: the top of the ribeye.

the Gaucho grill with V-bars at a slight angle, so meat doesn't steam or stew in its own juices

And now, it is time to light the grill! Grilling a good steak is all about timing: when to season your steak, when to turn it, when to take it off, and how long to rest it.

In general terms, a marbled steak will need slow grilling. Fat takes long to cook, and undercooked fat is NOT pleasant. Tenderloin, on the other hand, wants its natural velvety tenderness preserved: the longer a tenderloin cooks, the grainier (drier) it becomes. All grilled meat needs proper resting before serving.

no fingers poking in food in
chef Mike's kitchen:
tasting spoon ready
(he has one in his back pocket too)!

Here is how Gaucho grills its ancho cuts:

the steak is placed unseasoned on the grill, presentation side down.
a generous amount (I'm talking heaps) of coarse salt is sprinkled all over, and left to cook on the meat
the meat is turned only when it comes away from the grill bars without tearing.
also note: the meat is turned only once, cooking time divided roughly into 70% first, 30% after turning
when it is turned over, most salt will fall off, having seasoned the beef as it slowly cooked on the grill
experience will tell if the meat is done to your liking. Otherwise, use a meat thermometer. Chef doesn't like fingers poking in food to check for doneness but it is a good indicator: doneness ranges from much resistance (well-done) to little resistance (rare).

a knockout side: twice cooked sweet potato steak fries. Drizzled with honey, lemon confit and capers

Black quinoa tamales: the black quinoa is prepared like a risotto and bursting with flavor.

Back to the roots
Gauchos Grill Restaurant originated in the Netherlands in 1976. The first restaurant was called Los Gauchos Argentinian Grill Restaurant and was opened in Amsterdam. The concept proved a success and soon after more Gauchos Grill Restaurants opened throughout the Netherlands, before making the jump to the UK. To finance the expansion, Gauchos was listed on the London Stock Exchange for a brief period of time. Soon after, Gauchos split into the Dutch Gauchos Grill and UK Gaucho.

The menu
The Gaucho menu offers flavors of South America. Group Executive Chef Michael Reid was telling us that Gaucho UK now is adopting a seasonal menu, and the Dubai restaurant will follow suit. Question then, which season will that be for Gaucho Dubai? Europe or South America? Gaucho Menu here

Final remark: cooking, or in this case eating without waste

A grilled steak is gorgeous (to a meat lover, of course). However, portions in many a steakhouse are often absurdly huge. I've said it in previous posts, and I will say it again: abundance is only great if nothing is wasted. One way to be (meat) prudent: don't order or buy more than you can chew! By the way, at Gaucho beef scraps -perfectly good meat that is cut away when meat is trimmed of sinew and hard fat - are used to make burgers. As Chef Mike put it: "this is expensive meat, and you do not want to waste a scrap of it."

ps. I was invited for this meat masterclass, courtesy of Gaucho Dubai. For more information on Gaucho Dubai's (Beef) Masterclass (as well as an interesting range of wine masterclasses): here

How do YOU like your steak?

G is for.... GOURMET!

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Sun, 12 May 2013 08:47:00 +0000

What do heirloom beets, Balqees honey and artisan goat cheese have in common? They found their way into my shopping basket at Lafayette Gourmet. My favorite gourmet shop in Dubai* ran a 5-day food festival, with tastings galore. In this post, I focus on some of the things I got to cook a fine dinner at home.

Heirloom beets
I think my eyes dropped out of their sockets when I saw the selection of beets alone. Beautiful heirloom beets including the tapered Crapaudine beets and "marbled red" Bassano beets. And oh, there were golden beets. The section actually held a lot more fine food surprises: edible flowers, fresh horseradish root, watermelon radish, fresh laurel leaves on the branch, smoked garlic, and that gorgeous tuber with a texture of water chestnut and a taste of artichoke: jerusalem artichokes (also called sunchoke, sunroot, earth apple or topinambour).

The section is supplied by Lootah Premium Foods who import directly from Rungis, the world's largest wholesale market located close to Paris. Rungis is actually more like a town than a market, with exits to "viande" (meat), "poisson" (fish), "legumes" (vegetables), "fruits" (fruits), well, you get the idea. I visited years ago and my mind still boggles over the staggering supply of foods and produce from all over France and far beyond, not to mention the dizzying whirlwind of activity at this ginormous "market".

From the Premium Foods section I got some beets, including yellow beetroot, a bunch of fresh laurel leaves, and a bag of jerusalem artichokes.

Balquees Honey
There is a row of ten or so big round glass bowls filled with the viscous nectar of flowers and herbs growing in remote regions of Yemen. Dark to light hues of amber, these beautiful bowls contain Yemeni raw honey, brought to the UAE by Balqees. Their "liquid gold" ranges from the priced and unique Sidr honey to infusions with saffron, nigella seeds, or cinnamon and sesame seeds.

I am taken on a tasting by the very "honey man" himself: Riath Hamed is founder and owner of Balqees. Yemeni raw honey is thick and lush like caramel. It is a honey to savour on your palate before allowing it to slide down slowly. The taste is simply stunning, its texture almost chewy like a delicate toffee, and each and every Balqees honey is rich with layers of flavor. It comes at a price, for sure, but a price well worth it.

Loving them all, I ultimately decided on a jar of wildflower honey. Even if the saffron infused honey was tempting my tastebuds to take it home and spoon it over a grilled lobster tail. I might do that soon, in fact.

Al Fumo, a traditional and artisan smokehouse located in Dubai sells its smoked Atlantic salmon at Lafayette Gourmet.

The entire floor of Lafayette Gourmet is dedicated to fine food. There are cooking stations and deli counters, including a tapas bar, and seating areas for coffee, lunch or dinner. All in addition to the various fresh food sections for cheese, meat, fish, produce, pastries, breads, and more.

Unifrutti the Green League has a stand packed with organic fruits and vegetables from across the world. I took home some apples, kiwi, and banana for a fruit salad (which I spiked with a dash of my homemade limoncello).

The butcher has free-range grass fed beef from Alberta, as well as milk fed veal from Quebec. No piles of pre-cut and pre-packed meats here. There is only a small selection on display with a butcher present to help you get your order. From this butcher, I got two beautiful pale pink veal chops.

The cheese section has over 240 different cheeses available, from either cow, goat, or ewe milk. Dictated by the wildflower honey, I was after a single cheese this time, a creamy goat cheese. The choice fell on Clacbitou, a cylindrical raw milk artisan goat cheese from Burgundy. It is a soft and creamy handmade cheese with a natural rind and noble (= edible) mould.

With ingredients like this, cooking a gourmet dinner has never been easier. I use the combination of Clacbitou and Balqees twice, and I tell you: I could have had it for every course!

My Menu

salad of roasted beets, crumbled clacbitou and balqees wildflower honey

grilled veal chops, laurel-infused cream sauce, topinambour mash and sauteed organic spinach**

clacbitou goat cheese, raw yemeni wildflower honey, walnut & raisin toast

unifrutti fruit salad (spiked with limoncello)

Beetroot, Goat Cheese, and Honey Salad

the beets are roasted whole and unpeeled for about 45 minutes in a hot oven (200C)
leave to cool completely before peeling, then slice thin (use a mandolin or slicer)
toss the sliced beet with a little good quality olive oil and a squirt of fresh lemon juice (if you are using different colored beets, do not mix until on the plate: the colors will run)
arrange on a plate, add a gentle sprinkling of salt flakes, crumble the goat cheese all over, and finish with a drizzle of the honey. Now, raw honey has a much thicker consistency. Drizzling may not be so easy, but be patient. Alternatively, scoop it on a spoon and hold the spoon over the steam of boiling water. It heats up the honey gently (without destroying the precious enzymes) and makes it easier to drizzle.

Fresh Laurel

Fresh laurel has a refreshing herbal zing and is gentler, milder than dried laurel (bay) leaf. Here are some of the things I did or will do with the fresh laurel I got on a bunch:

laurel-infused cream sauce: simmer a fresh laurel leaf briefly in 250 ml cream (as it reduces, the cream thickens and takes up the laurel flavor. Add the roasting juices of the veal after resting, season to taste, and your sauce is done!
fresh laurel and lemon polenta: it is great with grilled lamb chops
add a tiny fresh laurel leave to organic carrots as they caramelized in a little butter and Balqees wildflower honey
skewer pieces of chicken and halloumi with fresh laurel to make kebabs for the BBQ.
the fresh leaves came attached to woody twigs. I am drying those at the moment to see what I can do with them. The wood smells fragrant: maybe we can chip it once dried and use it as smoke chips. Any ideas anybody?

Le Topinambour

I do know that more commonly in English this root vegetable is called sunchoke or Jerusalem artichoke, but I like topinambour. It reminds me of the very first time I had them in a tiny bistro in Paris, years and years ago. Surprised at the taste of artichoke in the creamy mash, I found out later it was a root vegetable called topinambour (in French). Topinambour has a nutty taste hinting of artichoke. It is also great raw: it has a delicious crunchy texture similar to water chestnut.

Piemontese topinambur at the Salone del Gusto: sliced raw to dip in Bagna Cauda. Life is good in the food lane.

Peel this root vegetable as you would potatoes. Wash them, cover with slightly salted water and bring to a boil. Yes very similar to cooking potatoes: drain them when soft, add a little lump of butter and a splash of cream, mash as fine or coarse as you like, season to taste, et voila: topinambour mash. I add very little other than salt, as I adore the pure taste of the topinambour.

The veal chops I pan-grilled and reserved the juices (that come out after you properly rest meat before serving). Added to the thickened cream infused with fresh laurel, it is the easiest cream sauce to make. I love spinach sauteed quickly with a little crushed garlic and salt flakes.

cheese dessert: soft and creamy artisan goat cheese from Burgundy with raw wildflower honey from Yemen and walnut and raisin toast

Visit Balqees website for detailed information on their honey, including nutritional value of raw honey

Lafayette Gourmet Catering offers some stunning food, see a previous post here

*Markets & Platters in the Dubai Marina area is another favorite gourmet shop, particularly for fresh seafood including a wide variety of shellfish such as oysters, periwinkles, and clams

** if you wonder why the organic spinach was not on the "shopping list": I already had it (it was in my Greenheart UAE local veggie box, website here). The carrots mentioned under "fresh laurel" also came from this box, but I did spot some fine looking carrots at Unifrutti as well as beautiful long, thin yellow carrots at the Lootah Premium Foods stand.

The Nordic Food Lab

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:53:00 +0000

Last October, I attended a taste workshop by the Nordic Food Lab at Slow Food's Salone del Gusto. The Nordic Food Lab is the research lab associated with Copenhagen's top-ranked Noma restaurant. Noma was the number one on the list of the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants but this year had to make way for El Celler de Can Roca. The new number one restaurant resides just a little further south from where El Bulli held that number one position for years on end.

Have you seen the documentary El Bulli Cooking in Progress? It is a documentary about Ferran Adria and his dedication to gastronomic research: the film starts as the restaurant prepares to close for the season. All kitchen stuff is packed up and moved to the lab in Barcelona, where they spend the next six months doing research. This is how El Bulli operated for years until it closed its doors for good, two years ago in July. Ferran Adria since focused to establish the El Bulli Foundation: a six-million euro project to preserve and built on the legacy of El Bulli. A center for culinary creativity dedicated to the innovation of gastronomy, it is set to open in 2014.
North to the lands of long dark winters and midnight summer sun, the Nordic Food Lab has its focus on the Nordic region.

Established in 2008 by Noma's head chef Rene Redzepi and gastronomic entrepeneur Claus Meyer, the Nordic Food Lab was set up to explore "the building blocks of Nordic cuisine". In pursuit of new flavors and textures, Redzepi calls it the science of deliciousness. In a nutshell, all things brewing at the Nordic Food Lab are aimed to innovate Nordic cuisine while building on what their regional nature has to offer. The lab operates from a houseboat in the Copenhagen harbor.

Noma (from the book): a New Nordic Cuisine

"Salt, fat and sweet. Those are the tastes ingrained on the Nordic food palate. From birth! We try to innovate on that, add to the traditional flavor spectrum towards a new Nordic cuisine." Speaking is Michael Bom Frøst. He is the director of the Nordic Food Lab. Together with Ben Reade, head of culinary research, he has come to Slow Food's Salone del Gusto to present the Nordic Food Lab in a taste workshop.

at the Nordic Salone del Gusto 2012 stands: herring in brine, and stockfish (salted, dried cod)

What are some of those "building blocks of Nordic cuisine"? A classic to preserve fish is to bury it in the sand above the high tide level; gutted, covered and weighed down with stones and rocks, time and pressure drain the fluids from the fish as it rots in the sand. Gravlax (literally grave salmon: buried salmon) used to be made like this, but the modern version is cured under salt and herbs. There is Rakfisk (Norwegian dish of fermented trout or char), Surströmming (a Swedish dish of fermented Baltic herring), Hákarl (Greenland's putrefied shark). And Lutefisk: salted, dried whitefish that is soaked in cold water and lye (to which it owes its name: lye fish). Meats are traditionally cured, smoked, or preserved in fermented whey. Sounds good? How about brunost? It is a brown, fatty cheese made from boiled, caramelized goat's milk whey. Earlier this year, a truck-load of brunost exploded in a tunnel, causing a fire that raged for 5 days: the fat content in the cheese is that high!

Nordic cuisine at first glance is not for the weak, it seems. Strong, pungent flavors and smells, brought on by fermenting, brining, smoking and even rotting... am I ready to taste the results of lab investigations based on these "building blocks of Nordic cuisine"?

At the workshop we find plates with all sorts of bags, pipettes, and vials. The sage-green powder is samphire. It tastes grassy, almost like a salty green tea. The sachet with dried leaves that smells vaguely of vanilla is mellilotis, or sweet clover. It contains high levels of coumarin, a fragrant, but toxic chemical compound. If not dried properly before use, it can cause internal hemorrhaging. Otherwise, a lovely aromatic herb! There is a slice of hefty solid sourdough whole grain rye bread with artisan butter that is creamy and acidic as sour cream. The pipette holds a quince vinegar. It is richly refreshing with a fruity acidity.

The dried, fermented and incredibly potent kelp crisps in the little plastic cup are almost like salt flakes. A result of the lab's "algal cuisine", the kelp crisps are part of the search for Nordic umami.
Fermented pulses come in various forms. There is a bowl of caramel-brown, soft and tender barley. Through a fermentation process, the barley developed a flavor heading towards dried raisins with a definite saltiness to them.

And then there is peaso. Savory and appetizing, peaso is miso made of peas, and is another "new Nordic source of umami".
It brings me to a discussion I remember from watching an interview with Rene Redzepi by HardTalk's Stephen Sackur. Redzepi hands Sackur "a grain mould inoculation that has been fermenting to create a liquid". The grains used are dried, local yellow peas. It tastes just like Japanese soy sauce, and Sackur remarks: "a cynic would say: why not just go to the supermarket and buy a bottle of Japanese soy sauce?" The answer, in short, is: because it is a new product, and it is made with what was found in their own region.

In fact, building a "database" of wild plants and herbs, roots and barks, mushrooms, seaweeds, and other materials found in Nordic nature is part of the "gastronomic mission" of the Nordic Food Lab. Ben Reade (head of culinary research) gets even more enthusiastic as he paints a picture of himself bearing wind or rain, in search of new "raw materials". On one of these "hunts", clouds gather for a big thunderstorm. He hides under the trees and sees how lightening strikes in a spruce tree close to him, and the resin is oozing out. He collects it straight away, and calls it "struck-by-lightening spruce resin". We taste it in combination with an iced sheep's yogurt. When asked about the culinary impact of lightening on the resin, he admits it is poetic only.

At the workshop, they save the best for last (a matter of opinion, as it turns out). It is a vial with a liquid that is salty and pungent like an Asian fish sauce. Only, it isn't fish.

The vial is filled with a "fish sauce" made of.... grasshopper.

It is part of yet another direction taken by the Nordic Food Lab: to explore the edibility of what is seemingly inedible. Such as insects.

In the hands of Rene Redzepi in Noma's restaurant kitchen, the final products developed in the food lab are transformed into stunning pieces of culinary art, bringing out their ultimate deliciousness. New Nordic cuisine comes full circle.

Noma (from the book): Nordic nature explored to create deliciousness

Some links:

Musings on Molecular Gastronomy: http://www.lifeinthefoodlane.com/2012/06/musings-on-molecular-gastronomy.html

The Nordic Food Lab Research Blog: http://nordicfoodlab.org/research/

Salone del Gusto/Terra Madre 2012: http://salonedelgustoterramadre.slowfood.com/

The Slow Lobster

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 05:03:00 +0000

In the winter of 1953, spring tide and a storm surge caused by winds of hurricane force 10 swept the North Sea water high and powerful all across the low-lying lands of coastal Netherlands. It was a horrific flooding disaster claiming the lives of 1836 people. Over 100,000 people lost their homes and possessions, and a staggering number of livestock was lost. Once the water receded, fear remained: how can we prevent it from happening again.

The Netherlands are lowlands. The correct percentage varies, but anywhere between 20-55% of the country is below sea level. Only marginally protected by natural dunes and man-made dikes, the country has always been vulnerable to flooding. As tragic as the 1953 disaster was, a positive thing came from it: in the fight against water, a plan was designed that became known as The Delta Works. The Delta Works is a complex coastal engineering project of strategically placed dams, sluices, dikes, flood gates, and storm surge barriers.

Storm Surge Barrier and National Park
The Eastern Scheldt (Oosterschelde) is an estuary in the south-west province of Zeeland. In 1953, it was one of the areas most badly affected. Closing off the estuary by way of a dam or barrier would protect the land from the sea. Rich in marine life, the Eastern Scheldt is also home to the country's main mussel and oyster beds. A closed dam or barrier would have devastating consequences for marine life.

It took years of protest and discussion, but finally the decision was a storm surge barrier that remains open to allow for tidal flow, yet can be closed off in the event of a storm surge. The Oosterscheldekering or Eastern Scheldt Storm Surge Barrier was opened in 1986. Two dams built earlier nearer the mouth of the river Scheldt considerably reduced the freshwater influx, and the estuary is now predominantly seawater. The Eastern Scheldt today has abundant sea life, including seals and porpoises. Its mud flats and salt marshes offer a wealth of edible sea plants and shell fish, including oysters, cockles, periwinkles and razor clams. Large parts of the coastal plains were "returned to nature" and birds abound.

The Eastern Scheldt was declared a National Park in 2002.

Eastern Scheldt Lobster: A Slow Food Presidium
One marine creature that flourished since the completion of the Delta Works in its region, is the Eastern Scheldt Lobster.

The Eastern Scheldt lobster belongs to the homarus gammarus, the common or European lobster. It is a blackish-blue clawed lobster that turns bright red when cooked. First spotted some 130 years ago on a mudflat in the Eastern Scheldt, it had to fight all odds to survive. High influx of freshwater coming in from the Scheldt river, dramatic overfishing, and harsh winters nearly killed off the lobster in the Eastern Scheldt. The survivors developed a slightly different DNA, and the Eastern Scheldt lobster evolved into a unique species.

Slow to reproduce, the lobster is protected by low impact fishing regulations. Only lobsters of at least 24 centimeters (indicating a reproductive age) are allowed to be caught. Smaller lobsters and females with eggs must be released back into the water. Another protective measure is the very short lobster season. It runs strictly from the 28th of March to the 15th of July. And only professional fishermen with a permit are allowed to catch the lobster. With its unique features and the sustainable fishing regulations, the Eastern Scheldt lobster is a Slow Food Presidium.

Sustainable Seafood Restaurant
I visited the Eastern Scheldt early April, mere days after the official start of the Eastern Scheldt lobster season. Alas, winter had decided to show its freezing face just one more time, and the lobster refused to come out of hibernation in the estuary's deep, sheltered rocky holes. Nature rules, and tasting would have to wait. I will try again before the season closes mid July.

One of the restaurants I booked had drawn my attention for more than "just" its lobster menu. It was a restaurant dedicated to sustainable food, with a focus on local and organic. A side story: their seafood supplier is a fisherman who made headlines last year catching a 45-year-old lobster, entering it for charity auction. The 4.9 kg heavy lobster raised over 15,000 euros, fisherman Jumelet himself being the highest bidder. He released the lobster back into the waters where he found it, named and tagged so it would be left alone.

Restaurant De Vluchthaven was named after the little inlet it looks out on. A vluchthaven is a safe haven, an inlet or port to take shelter. The sun is out (but not the lobster: it really is winter cold) and the water is clear and calm. Everything here breathes fresh seafood, from the fishing vessels in the harbor to the hanging culture mussels in the little inlet.

view from restaurant De Vluchthaven

The Food Verdict
In restaurant De Vluchthaven, organic and sustainable translate into excellent food. It is honest, delicious, well-prepared beautiful food. It is a bright restaurant with a great seaside ambiance, weathered wood, large windows and an open terrace. The menu is kept small to allow for daily specials. The restaurant is open only six months of the year (end of March to end of October).

The chef's signature dish is a combination of various clams, each cooked in a special way. Cockles with chermoula, clams with tomatoes and basil, and razor clams lightly barbecued and served with a refreshing red shallot vinaigrette. Cleaned and prepared to perfection, that dish alone is worth coming back for. It is part of their Eastern Scheldt Lobster menu!

At our table also a beautiful bouillabaisse, rich with local fish and seafood. The rouille was homemade and tasting so authentic, that closing my eyes I believed I was in Marseille. A platter of oysters - including the prized local flat oyster - and the special of the day( (a big and beautiful local brill) completed something that was perfect from the start.

The Eastern Scheldt Storm Surge Barrier is the largest of all 13 Delta Works. It stretches for 9 kilometers, crossing the former construction base and man-made island Neeltje Jans mid-way. Functioning also as a long bridge across the water, the barrier has huge sluice-gate doors that remain open to allow for tidal flow. In the event of a storm surge, the huge steel doors close to seal off the estuary from the open sea. Neeltje Jans now also houses the interactive Delta Works center, including an opportunity to enter the storm surge barrier for an up close and very personal experience: www.neeltjejans.nl/index.php/en/home
Slow Food is a food organisation involved in safeguarding a sustainable food future. It has projects on many levels, both national (Italy) and international. Slow Food Presidia is aimed to defend (agro) biodiversity: it is a growing list (or catalogue if you will) of products around the globe that for a multitude of reasons need protecting. A previous post highlighting a Slow Food Presidium is Sarawak's Indigenous Food Treasures. Or check out my Slow Food page (here)
During the short Eastern Scheldt lobster season, a selection of associated restaurants offer a unique prix fix lobster menu set at 59,50 EUR (map here/in Dutch)
De Vluchthaven (http://devluchthaven.nl/, website in Dutch only) is located in the small town of Bruinisse (map). A stone's throw away (relatively speaking) is Zeeland's unique winery De Kleine Schorre (translated: the little salt marsh). Grape varietals include pinot gris and pinot blanc.
De Eastern Scheldt National Park is a beautiful holiday destination, with ample biking and hiking trails, beaches, nature walks and excursions, and numerous water sports, including sailing and diving. Make sure to visit its many historic towns and cities.

		Schiphol, The Netherlands
		1 hour 33 mins

Oosterschelde

135.3 km

The Fjords of Musandam

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 06:18:00 +0000

Pristine. The word echoes in my head the entire weekend. Wherever I look, I see pristine beauty. The rugged, rocky coastline. The sea and its shimmering shades of blue and green. Hidden bays and inlets, coves and overhanging rocks. Remote villages beneath sheer cliffs, the intense blue sky.

The drive from Dubai to Khasab takes about three hours, more depending on border formalities. Once you've passed the Omani border, the road becomes increasingly scenic as it serpents past soaring high cliffs of barren rock set against the bluest of seas. We pass through a traditional village. It is early Friday morning, and everything is quiet. A buffalo is taking all the time in the world to cross the road. I see a donkey by a tree, a goat on top of the garbage bin. A couple of kids are playing in the street, a group of men sit together just outside a tiny kebab place.

The road continues and we pass a cliff so steep that it dizzies me as I look up through the sun roof. On a beach in the curve of the road, fishermen are pulling in their nets by long ropes, bare feet dug deep in the sand, backs bent as they give it all of their strength. When we pass the village of Mukhi, the phone rings. It's the dhow company, hoping we are near as the midday hour approaches. Soon after, we arrive in the harbor of Khasab.

We climb aboard a bright blue dhow, in excited anticipation. We sit down on the cushions along the railing. Trays of bananas and apples, hot sweet tea, cardamom scented coffee, and a box of beautiful sticky dates come around as the dhow leaves the harbor. The dates in particular are popular. They are from the owner's own date palm grove, and have a sweet sticky chewiness as good as toffee made with caramel and butter.

We get to meet the owner later that evening around the campfire, and enjoy his stories of how he started his company years and years ago. "I am a fisherman, and I started with my fishing boat, taking people around the fjords." Combining forces with likeminded local individuals, it grew into the successful sea adventures and tours company it is today (website below). We talk about his date palm grove, and he explains how he makes date syrup: ripe dates are gathered in cloth bags and suspended over earthenware pots. The weight of the dates presses the syrup out. "You must come to my house and taste our homemade date honey," he invites us.

The captain with his weathered face looks completely in his element, as he steers his dhow through the waters of Musandam. We are relaxed in the cushions, looking out over the water to the rocks and cliffs. Suddenly, the captain points into the water and starts to whistle. We rush to the side. A humpback dolphin caught up with our boat and playfully swims along. Its large grey shape is easily spotted just below the surface. Every now and then it comes up for a dive, seems to smile at us and then disappears under the boat to come up again on the other side. It happens again and again, and we never tire of these beautiful creatures.

We anchor in a small inlet for lunch and a swim. We are not alone: shoals of colorful fish swim around us. The refreshing dip whets our appetite for lunch on board. It is a healthy lunch. Spiced rice with a vegetable curry, grilled chicken, mixed Arabic salad, hummus, and pita bread. Kept warm in double-walled pots, it tastes magnificent on deck of this dhow gently bobbing in the quiet bay under the rocks.

When we sail into a secluded bay, we spot a camp set up with tents, and a long table and chairs, right underneath a steep cliff. It is ours for the night, and excited we jump ship. Literally: I land feet first in the water as it laps at the sandy beach. Dinner is grilled freshly-caught fish and squid on the BBQ, as well as some mighty juicy marinated chicken legs. We sit by the camp fire for a long time. The clear dark night sky is sprinkled with stars, the moon shines in the calm bay water. What a beauty!

The silence of the clear morning is breathtaking. The sun is still behind the cliffs, and there is a crisp chill in the air. The sea is perfectly calm and pale blue in the early morning sunlight. A couple of brave ones in our group decide to go for an early morning dip, claiming the water is "not at all cold", but their clenched teeth suggest otherwise. And then the first rays of sun drop over the cliff. We leave the campsite after a basic breakfast of fruits, bread, boiled eggs, jams, and cream cheese, and climb back aboard the Dhow for a full day sailing along the coast to pass by the remote village of Kumzar. Located on the Strait of Hormuz, this most northerly inhabited village in Oman has been there for over 500 years, accessible only by boat.

When we anchor for lunch, we spot a fishing boat a little further down the bay. Pearl divers. One of them remains in the boat, the other one goes down with snorkel and mask. He does bring up a couple of large shells, but we cannot see any pearls from our distance. We simply enjoy this bonus bit of couleur locale from the comforts of our cushions.

Back in the harbor, the owner is waiting for us. He hasn't forgotten his promise, and asks us to follow him to his date palm grove first, and his home after. It is an absolute privilege, and an extremely pleasant one at that. His wife has made us cakes and legaimat, served with homemade date syrup. The ladies in our group are invited to meet her in the kitchen, where she shows us how to fry the delicious legaimat : you "pinch" thumb and first two fingers together, dip into the dough to pick up a dollop, and drop it in the hot oil to fry. Back in the house majlis we sit on the cushions around the carpets, enjoy hot karwa (Omani coffee spiced with cardamom and cloves), and exchange stories with our host. It is the most wonderful conclusion of an unforgettable weekend.

		Dubai - United Arab Emirates
		2 hours 30 mins

Khasab, Oman

183.4 km

Khasab is a harbor town in the northernmost province of Oman. It is the jumping point for boat tours of the Musandam fjords (Dibba al Fujairah is another). Khasab is reached by direct road from Dubai in 2.5 hrs, barring traffic and border formalities. It takes you through three more Emirates: Sharjah, Umm al Quwain, and Ras al Khaima, before you reach the border with Oman. If you drive your own car, make sure you carry your car license with you! The border is an adventure in itself: you park the car, get inside, and wait in line to get your passport stamped. This is to exit the UAE. You drive through the border control, show the stamp, and then park again to repeat the process, this time to enter Oman. It is the same procedure on the way back. (map taken from Google Maps)
Musandam Sea Adventures Travel & Tourism (www.msaoman.com) is a Musandam based companies specialized in tours of the Musandam fjords. They are outfitted with several dhows with onboard equipment for snorkeling, diving, fishing (depending on what tour you book), their private campsite is very well setup and complete with tents, bedding, toilet tent, seating (dining, campfire & majlis). Ours was a private overnight camping trip with our own group.
Legaimat are crunchy fried little dough balls, served with a sweet dipping sauce often flavored with spice, saffron, and lemon. It is an Arab dessert popular throughout the Gulf countries. Legaimat comes in different spellings (I have also seen gaimat and lgemat, for instance), as well as different pronunciations. Our host pronounced it "lokamah", and served them with homemade date syrup.
The majlis is an Arabic term for "sitting area", and in the private home is a room (usually separate for male and female) where you entertain your guests.

I appreciate your feedback. Leave a comment, or drop me an email: franfoodlane@gmail.com

Poetry On A Plate: Desert Stanzas

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 13:04:00 +0000

I saw you fondling the frying pan

I distinctly saw you fondling the frying pan

My frying pan.

Finally, at mid dawn

In the half light,

While waiting in the cool shadows beneath the sink

I saw you making love with the gas cooker

I distinctly saw you making love with the gas cooker

My gas cooker.

My mistake was to leap upon you crying,

Monica, spare the saucers.

For now I am alone,

You having left me for someone with a bigger kitchen."

('Liverpool's Poet Laureate' Roger McGough reciting under the stars in the desert. A food blogger cannot resist opening with this quote)

marhaba: welcome to the desert

A mere distance from Dubai's city lights is Al Awir, a traditional village at the edge of the desert. Just past the shops into the sands is Gulf Venture's Bedouin desert camp. Scattered on cushions and carpets, we have come to hear poets recite on this moonless night in the desert.

"Barefoot poetry. Did you notice how Ben Okri was tapping his right foot to the rhythm of his verse?"asks host Paul Blezard, author, poet, and currently director of the Firebird Poetry Prizes. I share his emotions. Magical it is, this night.

We listen to Emirati writer and poet Adel Khozam, his voice resounding natural and beautiful in the desert night.

Adel Khozam in the heart of the desert camp

When poet, librettist and writer Sjon shows us his native Iceland through words of poetry, he celebrates his frequent collaboration with singer Bjork with us: right there under the Arabian sky, a mezzo-soprano performs one of Bjork's songs. Just how more magical can this night get?

Roger McGough whisks us away to his Summer with Monica. Kerala-born poet Jeet Thayil keeps a beat on urban India. Opening with a nursery melody that went on a while as the poet simply stood in that circle of carpets under the stars, Yorkshire poet and writer Simon Armitage has us all laughing as he recites "Aviators". In a dry, understated voice, he brings to life an airport scene that is frighteningly familiar to many a traveler.

Ben Okri, oh Ben Okri. His warm voice and rolling "r". The rich imagery and emotional depth in his verse. In "My mother is Sleeping" he remembers his mother (who sadly passed away) in his childhood years.

"The remembrance rouses in me dreams of strength, and dreams of fear. I watch over her as she gently sleeps. The soft dreams flutter her eyelids. Her quiet breathing and blessedness of kindly eyes that are shut tight, and the parted lips, soothe my anxious soul."

"My Mother is Sleeping" moved me deeply. For its words, its meaning, the images and thoughts it evokes. Yet this evening it is also because I am there, feeling the warm sand under my bare feet, listening to the beauty of the poetic words sounded out into the balmy desert night air.

These feelings are to linger as one of Emirati foremost poets today takes the stage. With her beautiful clear and calm voice, Nujoom Al Ghanem recites her captivating, emotive poetry. She ends with a poem that was inspire by fears of war in the region:

"We only recognised that sea laden
with our mothers’ fear after it raised
its head high and ate the feet of our homelands . . .
It crashed near our homes,
cast onto us
its waves heavy with black tar
and took our fish . . .
They said the war was coming.
It did not come with its soldiers
but sent us its ammunition.
We knew the battle could have killed us
without coming to our land.
The grandmothers prayed that the oil would vanish
and the world prayed to God that He wouldn’t answer their prayers."

(all Arabic poetry was translated and the English version performed by a lady whose name I didn't catch, but her voice rang crystal clear in the desert night).

I feel proud also watching my son listening to the Arabic, his face lighting up when he recognizes a word, or even a phrase or two. It is one of these enriching benefits of living in the UAE: Arabic in school. He's had four (I kid you not) shawarma sandwiches, and is flat out on the floor cushions listening intently to Nujoom Al Ghanem.

the lovely fine tunes of an oud filled the Arabian night air

As we listen to the last stanzas of the night, smells from the Arabic buffet start to permeate the desert air. Grilled kebabs, shawarma, baba ganoush, hummus, tabouleh, fattoush, chicken makhbous and breads.

The camp fire is lit, and the camels are getting restless. During the poetry readings, they had been remarkably calm as if, like us, they were under the spell of poetry. Or as Icelandic poet Sjon describes it a few days later on Dubai Eye Radio: "there were camels lying (or sitting) behind us. You could hear their snorts and sighs and yawns as if to show their appreciation whenever poetry was read."

Adel Khozam and Nujoom al Ghanem on the website of Banipal (UK) Magazine for Modern Arab Literature (click names)

Other relevant websites:

Roger McGough (www.uktouring.org.uk/rogermcgough)

Simon Armitage (www.simonarmitage.co.uk)

Jeet Thayil on Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeet_Thayil)

The Ben Okri Biography (www.l3.ulg.ac.be/okri/index.html)

A well-crafted, creative dish can be poetry on a plate. When a chef cooks with poetic cadence, a diner can be lost for words upon tasting a ballade of bites with a beat. And then there is the food factor in poetry and prose alike At the Emirates Literary Festival 2013, food shines in many sessions, from literary lunches to foodie debates. This post is the second one in "Poetry On A Plate".

You may also like Poetry on a Plate: Reflets Literary Lunch

The Emirates Festival of Literature continues over the weekend. For a full program, click link here.

I appreciate your feedback. Leave me a comment, or drop me an email: franfoodlane@gmail.com

Poetry on a Plate: Reflets Literary Lunch

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 08:22:00 +0000

A well-crafted, creative dish can be poetry on a plate. When a chef cooks with poetic cadence, a diner can be lost for words upon tasting a ballade of bites with a beat. At the Emirates Literary Festival 2013, food shines in many sessions, from literary lunches to culinary debates.

In Dubai, and in my personal opinion, no cuisine reflects a poetic cadence in cooking like Pierre Gagnaire's Reflets does.

It is also based on his LitFest cooking demo two years ago, at the 2011 Festival of Literature. The white-haired charming chef had everyone spell-bound, confused, and intrigued as he created and composed. (Here for a personal review of the 2011 LitFest cooking demo by Pierre Gagnaire).

Dubai's LitFest 2013 (officially Emirates Airline Festival of Literature) kicked off for me with a literary lunch in the presence of Pierre Gagnaire. After a short introduction, the chef suggests to his (largely female) audience: "let's eat first, then we can talk."

The lunch is at his Dubai restaurant Reflets, located in the Intercontinental in Festival City. It has a wide open terrace, boasting expansive views across the creek to the Burj Khalifa in the distance. The restaurant has been redecorated for the occasion with cocktail tables and stools. Lunch is canape-style, and it takes me a while to realise these are not the amuses bouches, but in fact lunch itself.

Variety is great, each morsel prepared with perfection. Fluffy hot gougères (cheese puffs made with choux paste), miniature foie gras croquettes (absolutely divine when the foie gras is hot and melted), crevettes crus (taking the liberty) in a bisque sauce, more foie gras on a slice of crispy thin toast), grilled wakame seaweed bread with smoked eel, a similar grilled "sandwich" canape of roasted capsicum. All of it beautifully presented. Well, except perhaps for the foie gras croquettes: they rest in a nest of oil-soaked, ripped-off kitchen paper.

part of the dessert spread: coconut marshmallows

Outside on the terrace, stalls have been set up. One is for a grilled cheese, ham and artichoke terrine. Another for miniature steak haché, or (Australian beef) burgers. They come with a creamy mustard sauce, and rather bland diced turnips. The last "station" is for Asian-style money bag dumplings, which in this string of flavors so far are the odd one out.

And then there is the tiny bowl with blanquette de veau. A classic in French cuisine, this very tender veal comes with truffle and crisp gnocchi, and is part of the current Truffle Menu at Reflets.

Classic flavors at Reflets. The creative chef who experimented in the kitchen with Hervé This (see my "musings on molecular gastronomy"), who is world-renowned for his innovative cuisine, now has a classic blanquette de veau on the menu, and serves gougères to whet your appetite.

Two years ago, after his demo at the LitFest 2011, I ran into a lady who had been to his lunch (following the demo; I could not make that at the time). She described the food as "outlandish" and "didn't know what half the ingredients were."

This year's literary lunch is cheese puffs, grilled canape sandwiches, terrine, dumplings, and burgers. All well-made, and gorgeously presented, but overall simple, classic flavors. In line with this seeming new trend of moving away from "innovative" is his new book 175 Home Recipes With A Twist. It is a completely different book from his French Cuisine Reinvented, which is a stunning showcase of his cuisine as it evolved over decades, from the early sixties to the mid 2000s.

Is Pierre Gagnaire reinventing his reinvented cuisine? From innovative to embracing home-grown and classic? I guess that is the prerogative of a chef who's been at the forefront of French cuisine for over four decades now.

When asked about modern gastronomy and ever-evolving cooking techniques, his answer came down to: without fire, you cannot cook. A surprisingly simple answer for a chef who must have explored the widest variety of cooking techniques, including ones that require no heating at all...

One thing remains: the food Pierre Gagnaire brought out for this literary lunch was beautiful. It just didn't "boggle the mind" much.

Dubai's Foodiva did an interview with Pierre Gagnaire. Click for the link here.

You may also enjoy: Musings on Molecular Gastronomy

I appreciate your feedback. Leave me a comment, or drop me an email: franfoodlane@gmail.com

Dubai Food Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 04:29:00 +0000

Have you ever popped a pani puri? Munched on Nepali momos, flame roasted Iraqi masgouf with a potent pickled mango, Yemeni mandi chicken, and piping hot Egyptian feteer meshalet, all in the course of one night?

The Dubai food scene scrumptiously expanded with the arrival of food tour company Frying Pan Adventures. It is the brain child and now fully operational company of food blogger Arva Ahmed. After years of "sizzling up hole-in-the-wall eateries", she mapped a series of culinary treasure trails in Dubai's oldest parts on either side of the Creek. With her unremitting adventurous palate, witty sense of humor, and gastronomic knowledge of ethnic foods in Old Dubai, these tours make for an unparalleled food experience in Dubai.

She currently offers three food trails: Arabian Foodie Pilgrimage, Little India on a Plate, and North African Food Safari. Or you can "cook up your own tour", a tour I found myself on one night to celebrate my friend Sally's birthday, the tour's cooker and author of renowned food blog My Custard Pie.

What a way to celebrate a birthday!

pani puri

Criss-crossing buzzy streets lined with colorful shops, tailors, and eateries, we stopped for our first bite of the evening: Indian Pani Puri. Pani Puri are crispy fried, hollow spheres (puri) that are cracked open at the top, and filled with a savory mixture of potatoes, pulses and spice, topped up with a tamarind and green chili "water" (pani) of increasing degrees of hot. You pop the entire thing in your mouth, break the crisp puri and rapidly feel your mouth fill up with the liquid and flavors of the pani. It is quite literally a mouthful of (mild) spicy deliciousness.

Before the giddy bunch got off the bus, we'd been given percentage warnings: with an extensive food trail set, the plan was to fill up gradually: 10 percent full after the pani puri, another 10% momos, building up to 50% after "the fish", 85% after "the chicken", to leave room for a 15% dessert.

Tiny hole-in-the-wall Highland for Nepali Momos

Still savoring a lingering taste of tamarind and green chilli, we hit the lively streets again to stop at Highlands, a tiny Nepali restaurant. Momo time!

Similar to Japanese Gyoza or Chinese jiaozi, Momos are water-and flour based potstickers filled with either meat, vegetable or cheese. Momos are steamed and usually (pan)fried next. Served piping hot, these dumplings come with a momo achar, an enigmatic sauce of tomatoes and spice. We tasted two varieties: round chicken momos and crescent-shaped vegetable momos. It's hard to stick to the 10% stomach space assigned to this delectable dumpling, with their pleasant chew, hearty filling and zippy dipping sauce.

Back on the bus, we crossed the creek into Deira. Food adventure aside, roaming around Old Dubai like this is an eye-opening tour in itself! It is such a lively area, with its shops, eateries, and above all: street life. On one of these larger, busy streets is Al Bayt Al Bagdadi, serving Iraqi food and a fish that is named Iraq's national dish: Masgouf.

Masgouf - fire roasted butterflied carp

Masgouf is fire roasted carp, a traditional Iraqi preparation of this big fish from the river Tigris. The carp are cleaned, gutted, and butterflied (split open). With a sharp knife, two holes are pierced on one side, and the weighty fish is hung on iron stakes placed around a flaming hot wood fire to roast. It takes about 45 minutes. Describing how dozens of restaurants on the banks of the river Tigris traditionally catch, weigh (an average carp is at least 2kg), grill, and serve this fish to be shared in a group, Arva highlights the cultural importance of masgouf. She shares a newspaper article headed "masgoof back on Iraqi menus" which describes the return of the giant fire roasted carp in restaurants around Baghdad, after years of war and conflict. As it says in the article: "This fish is part of Baghdad's heritage".

Al Bayt Al Baghdadi is a pleasant restaurant with an outdoor terrace. It is here that we enjoy the tender flame roasted flesh of this huge carp. Its skin is crisp, fatty, and irresistible, its flesh tender with a bit of a char. It comes with freshly baked Iraqi thin flatbread, a spiced tomato salsa, lemon, and a pickled mango that truly packs a punch.

Yemeni Mandi Chicken

Next on the tour menu is Yemeni Chicken Mandi. This chicken is cooked in a taboon (traditionally a hole dug in the ground, in restaurants a special kind of oven or tandoor). The meat (chicken or small lamb) is hung over hot coals and cooked until succulent, tender, and falling off the bone. It is served over fragrant rice, and with a zesty tomato sauce and fresh greens. It is a traditional restaurant. Seating areas are divided into male and (more secluded) family rooms. We are seated on cushions on the floor surrounding a plastic covered carpet, set with little plates and rocket and radish leaves, green pepper, and cucumber. Before the food arrives, Arva explains the etiquette: don't throw the bones back, don't stare anyone down over the food (prompting a couple of stern stares), eat with your right hand only, and stick to your "side of the plate". The food arrives on big, round plates. The way to eat is to pluck some of the chicken, pick up some of the rice, shape it into a little ball, and flick it into your mouth. There are plates and cutlery if you prefer. The chicken? It is simply gorgeous: full of flavor and super tender.

slapping, stretching, twirling the dough for Egyptian Feteer Meshalet

There is little room left for dessert, but appetite peaks once more at the hole-in-the-wall Egyptian Feteer Meshaltet shop. Why don't I link you to a description of this flaky, layered pastry by Arva herself, as she wrote it in her column Food Obsession for The National (link). It will also demonstrate what I mean when I say: this girl knows her food and shares it in a witty, descriptive, inviting, and above all: mouthwatering way.

For more information on the food tours: www.fryingpanadventures.com

Dreaming of Cheese

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 18:06:00 +0000

nutty with a hint of sweet and a pleasant touch of sour, aged goat's cheese from Holland

At a friend's house in Amsterdam last December, a cheese board of various white-mould cheeses, a pleasantly sharp blue-veined cheese, and a crumbly aged goat became the center of attention: "These are all Dutch cheeses," my friend said, and my jaw dropped. None of them imported, they came from the hands of local affineur and cheese specialist Erik Heinen.

Erik is the owner of Eriks Delicatessen, a fine foods gourmet shop in Amsterdam. Specializing in cheese, Erik is also building a reputation as affineur (someone who controls the ripening process of a cheese), and is increasingly involved with Dutch cheese makers to develop new Dutch cheeses using traditional (French) methods of affinage.

Affinage is what gives a young cheese character. It is the process of ripening and maturing a cheese, a crucial step in its ultimate taste and texture. Depending on the kind of cheese you're after, this step may involve moulds and bacteria, rind-washing and/or brushing, submersion in a liquid (a brine, for instance), turning and patting, controlling temperature and moisture, etc. until the desired maturity has been achieved.

creamy white-mould cow's cheese, made with milk from Montbeliarde cows, a sharp goat's cheese,
and rich blue veined cheese, these are all Dutch cheeses

"Erik has a dream. In his dream, our cheeses aren't imported from further afield, but are made locally. Cows are milked by farmers we know, we have cheeses made, and ripen them ourselves. White mould from Weesp and Blue Beemster, and maybe even a Stavoren Stinker! And all of it organic, and affordable. Why not, it is a dream, a beautiful dream." (translated from Erik's Dutch statement; Weesp is a town near Amsterdam, Beemster a polder north of Amsterdam, and Stavoren a town in the northern province of Friesland).

How lucky am I to find a selection of Erik's "new Dutch cheeses", vacuum packed in my kitchen in Dubai. They were "flown in" by the same friend who introduced me to them, back in December in Amsterdam. Still at an experimental stage, the cheeses are not yet named. Instead, the labels merely indicate region, cow or goat. I taste an aged goat's cheese. Smelling it, there is a hint of sweet milk and grass. Nutty on the nose, it is also the first thing I pick up tasting the cheese. That, and a high acidity, balancing against the sweet notes. This cheese was ripened at a slightly higher temperature, and treated twice a week with a special alpine cheese bacteria. It gives the cheese its rich flavor.

still in a stage of development, these cheeses are yet to be named

I try a white-mould ripened cheese. Creamier nearer to the crust, it has a full flavor. The cheese is made with milk from Montbeliarde cows, a red and white pied heritage breed cow from the Franche-Comte region in France. The cheese labeled hooikaas (hay milk cheese) is a hard cheese with floral grassy notes and a savory finish. The Remeker raw milk cheese is made with the milk of Jersey cows. It is a naturally yellow cheese, mild and with a creamy texture. The cheese is made on a farm that has been in the same family since the 1700s. Their cows graze on the farm's rich meadows ringed with oak trees, to which the cheese owes its name (the "reem" is the meadow", the "eker" the row of oaks).

The blue-veined cheese had reached its peak by the time I tried it, and is quite pungent, to the point where it is hinting at ammonia. Beneath it all though, I can taste a blue cheese that is sharp with mild overtones, and a texture that is smooth in the finish. And then there are some I haven't even tried yet, like the Tomme from Twente (a mid-eastern Dutch region), or the raw milk Stolwijker (from the "green heart" of Holland, between Leyden, The Hague, and Utrecht). It is a cheese traditionally made in wooden barrels, from the milk of Holstein-Friesian cows grazing in the meadows surrounding the farm, close to a meandering little river.

The cheeses I taste all have focus and character. My favorite so far? The nutty, aged goat's cheese with its hints of sweet and appetizing acidity (photo at the top of this post). I enjoyed it with a glass of 2007 Château-Fuissé Pouilly-Fuissé Vieilles Vignes, a wonderful pairing.

To Erik I say: live the dream, make it happen! It is a dream that voices a passion for artisanal cheese, for farmstead-made and organic. It shows an awareness for good quality - not only of ingredients, but of land and animal. In this day and age where processed and ready-made are too much norm, a dream like that helps to build towards a good food future.*

You may also like a post on Abruzzo Shepherd Cheese Makers and the Slow Food Cheese Resistance here.

Slow Food's Salone del Gusto: Abruzzo Shepherds & The Cheese Resistance

*the "good food future" reference is in support of Slow Food/Terra Madre. Slow Food envisions "a world in which all people can access food that is good for them, good for those who grow it, and good for the planet."

Eriks Delicatessen is located in East Amsterdam, website (in Dutch only) here.

I appreciate your feedback. Leave me a comment, or drop me an email: franfoodlane@gmail.com

Singapore Food Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 11:57:00 +0000

Earlier in January, Singapore's celebrity chef Violet Oon visited Dubai ahead of the Singapore Food Festival. Taking place February 20 through to March 2, it is a promotional festival held in LuLu's supermarkets throughout the UAE. Foods from Singapore will be available, and there will be a full program of cooking demonstrations, tastings, and other events.

In the years that I lived in Miri (Sarawak, Malaysia), Singapore was a popular long-weekend destination. We would fly directly to Johor Bahru and then across the border and bridge into Singapore. Admittedly, living in Miri with its own abundance of street food and local Chinese, Malay, and Indian cuisine, Singapore for me at the time was all about trendy gourmet and top end cuisine. Even so, I could never resist a Singapore curry laksa, nor its famous Chilli Crab.

Singapore Chilli Crab (photo courtesy of IE Singapore)

Singapore's food is a stupendous fusion of flavors and tastes, a melting pot of cuisines indeed. A culinary hotspot on many levels. With four restaurants ranked high in the 100 Best Restaurants of the World, Singapore has a wealth of fine dining. Equally popular, or maybe even more so, are Singapore's fabulous hawker centers and local cuisines: Chinese, Malay, and Indian, not to mention Singapore's seafood restaurants.

And then there is Singapore's own heritage cuisine. Peranakan cuisine reflects the cultural diversity Singapore embraces. Also called Nonya cuisine, it is a fusion of Chinese and Malay, with Indian and even European influences. Nonya (often also spelled Nyonya) is a Malay word, a term of affectionate respect for a lady of prominent social standing. Baba is the same for the man, and you often see the two words in conjunction: Baba & Nonya.

Peranakans (the word refers to "born here") are the descendants of early Chinese immigrants, who settled in what was then the "British Straits" (including Penang, Malacca, and Singapore) and intermarried with local Malay. The emerging cuisine combined culinary traditions from both Chinese and Malay cooking, influenced also by Indian and other cuisines. It included healing and medicinal traditions from the various cultures. "We have Yin and Yang from China, Ayurveda from India, and Jamu from Indonesia," says Violet Oon during her cooking demonstration. At 63, she is one dynamic lady, as she squats on the floor to show us how to pound a paste. "Simply lean into it, and you can do this all morning," she explains, rhythmically pounding the pestle down into the mortar.

At the basis of many Peranakan recipes is a rempah, a blend of spices pounded into a paste. Key ingredients are shrimp paste (belacan), coconut milk, and chillies. She talks of tumis. It means "stir-fry" but watching Violet Oon tumis her paste, looking for a change in texture, fragrance, color, thickness, waiting for the oil to separate, stir fry gets a whole new level of meaning.

Tumis (photo courtesy of IE Singapore)

She cooks Singapore Chilli Crab, that finger-licking (literally - this is messy eating), utterly delicious blend of flavors of seafood, spice and tomato chilli sauce. Singapore Chilli Crab is said to have originated in East Coast Singapore in the 1950s. It is traditionally eaten with English white bread, to mop up every last drop of that gorgeous sauce.

Violet Oon is proud of her Peranakan heritage, and loves to talk about its foods and culinary traditions. In addition to Singapore Chilli Crab, she also prepares succulent marinated satay of chicken and lamb, and another hawker favorite: Hainanese Chicken Rice. Popular throughout the region, this dish of Chinese (Hainan) origin is chicken poached in a fragrant stock and served with flavorful, rich rice.

We talk about laksa, a Peranakan food found throughout the region and varying in flavor and ingredients. It is one of my all time favorite foods. Laksa is essentially noodles in a spicy broth and topped with a variety of condiments, from seafood to bean sprouts and boiled egg. Singapore Laksa is a coconut-based curry laksa. "Every different culture in Singapore and Malaysia has its own laksa," Violet Oon explains. "Laksa is a sentimental dish, because it transcends every culture. It is neither Chinese, nor Malay, nor Indian. It is a comfort food that connects cultures." Laksa paste is one of the products that will be available at the Singapore Food Festival.

making "teh tarik" or pulled tea: a popular hot milk tea drink

Violet Oon will be at the Singapore Food Festival held in LuLu's Al Barsha location to demonstrate some of these Singaporean favorites: Chilli Crab, Laksa, Chicken Rice, and Satay. And don't worry, if you have time nor the inclination to "go from scratch", many of the pastes used to make these dishes will be available readymade.

Singapore Food Festival, February 20-March 2 at various LuLu outlets throughout the UAE. Make sure to catch a cooking demo by Chef Violet Oon at Lulu's Al Barsha location (March 1-2, noon-3-6pm), or at the Mushriff Mall in Abu Dhabi (20-23 Feb). You will love her food, style, and stories.

2012 Food Lane Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 12:16:00 +0000

It was a gastronomic year in the food lane. I ate well around Dubai's diverse food scene, from top end to street food. It was a good year cooking in Dubai, loving the increasing availability of locally grown produce. In 2012 and for the second year I tremendously enjoyed being part of Fooderati, (a dynamic and ever-growing group of UAE based food bloggers) and the likeminded foodies I meet. The comradery and bonding over clicking cameras, tasting, talking and comparing notes make Fooderati events always a highlight.

Highlights In The Food Lane In 2012

The year 2012 started brilliantly in the Empty Quarter. Rub' al Khali, the largest sand desert in the world stretches across Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen and the UAE. On its Abu Dhabi edge sits Qasr al Sarab, an Arabian resort blending into the red sand around it. It was here that I had my first Emirati Makbous, a chicken and rice dish cooked with fragrant spices, garnished with hashou (fried onions and dried lime powder) and served with dakkous (a spicy tomato sauce) (here). I had Makbous again in November 2012, this time in an unassuming little restaurant in the backstreets of Al Ain. The man behind the desk at the national museum had pointed me there, after I in turn had pointed to one of the museum's brochures showing Emirati food: "where can I eat this?"

Spring 2012 was Taste of Dubai and the delightful highlight of watching Giorgio Locatelli prepare stuffed swordfish as he talks about the importance of breadcrumbs in Sicily. "If you drop them, you will spent your eternity picking them up. With your eye lashes!" The story to date lives in our household, and my son in particular loves to recount it.

Spring 2012 also took me to Northern Thailand to nibble on crispy fried chicken feet at a local market, trek through the jungle, and sit on an elephant that suddenly jumped and roared for fear of a tiny little piglet. I learned to make a traditional curry at the Karen Hill Tribe Lodge. Someone else in the kitchen was pounding fried fish with red hot chillies, shallots and garlic into a paste for dinner later. How I loved being in that rustic kitchen, watching the pounding and wok-ing, preparing a curry looking out over the rice fields from the open window (here).

In 2012, two cooking demos in Dubai stand out for me, for different reasons. The first one brought the world of molecular gastronomy a little closer to the home pantry: a molecular cooking session held in Marta's Kitchen. It was a "how-to" demonstration using additives (SOSA brand) like xantan gum, maltodextrose, soy lecithin, to make spheres, foams, powders, and rapid-sponge (here). By contrast, it was the pure, ingredient-driven, strictly vegetarian approach focused on wellness that captivated me in the other cooking event: a cooking class by wellbeing chef Gabi Kurz. Pure and healthy, in her "cooking with herbs" class she put some amazing gourmet food on the table (here).

Summer 2012 was cooking and eating in Quebec. The farmer's market in our village, where I bought a box of the freshest zucchini flowers to stuff and fry. Black kale for ribolitta (Tuscan vegetable soup), big bunches of golden beetroot. Wild mushrooms, including blue-staining boletes. I loved the meat from our local butcher: veal sweetbreads, free range beef shanks, succulent bison steaks. The summer fruits: tiny wild blueberries, raspberries from our own (near vertical) garden, sweet juicy peaches.

An absolute culinary highlight of 2012 came in a menu specially created for Montreal's First Peoples Festival. A menu based on indigenous cuisine to celebrate aboriginal culture from across the Americas. Food that took us from pre-Colombian herbs, spices and preparations to ingredients from the Boreal forest and Inuit culinary traditions. Never before did I taste so many new things within one meal (here).

Before returning to Dubai in Summer 2012, we "stopped off" in Scotland to visit friends. We drank ouzo in the garage as their traditional Greek lamb was on the spit slowly roasting over charcoal while outside the rain came down in buckets. We had venison burgers at a Highland Games, a good haggis near Loch Nes, and freshly shucked oysters looking out over the loch they were harvested from: Loch Fyne.

Back in Dubai, where end of September temperatures still soared well over 40C, I found myself part of an interesting project: guess the wine behind the label. Three bottles, three clues: The Label Project. Proud to say I had them all correct. It prompted my husband to sign me up for the WSET Level 2 wine course... the exam is next week.

Autumn 2012 is Piedmont, or rather: the Langhe all the way. After the Salone del Gusto (below) we toured the region and watched Barolo must being raked out of the fermentation tanks, smelled fresh hazelnuts roasting, had a traditional Piemontese meal of at least 4 antipasti, 2 primi, 2 secundi, and dolci. We walked around the vineyards clad in fall-colors, climbed the stairs of medieval castles. On a crystal clear day we could see all the way across the Langhe to the snowy peaks of the Alps. On All Saints Day, we saw crowds gather at cemeteries, dressed in their best and carrying flowers to pay respect to their dead. It seemed like a festive gathering. Restaurants that day were fully booked everywhere.

Autumn 2012 was White Truffle. We visited the famous white truffle market in Alba, a picturesque city dating back to Roman times (here). Toured the Crinzane Cavour Castle, and stood in the hall where every year the most prized truffle is auctioned off for charity. Highlight of highlights, we went truffle hunting with a local truffle hunter and his dog (here).

Winter 2012 started with a Christmas celebration hosted by Lafayette Gourmet. A festive tasting event of creative canapes, roast turkey, Beef Wellington, all the trimmings, and desserts. A "one before the holidays" fun evening with fellow Fooderati food bloggers (photos).

Our final week of 2012 was spent in a winter-wonderland in the Austrian Alps, where we enjoyed authentic Tiroler cuisine: knoedel, spaetzle, topfennockerl, "heisse oma" (hot granny: warm eggnog and whipped cream), Glühwein... a post is in the making.

The ultimate and overall highlight of 2012

The ultimate and overall highlight of 2012 was to visit Slow Food's biannual food fair Salone del Gusto, in a joined event with Terra Madre (Slow Food's global food community). The food fair dates matched the mid term school holiday, and en passant the White Truffle Market in Alba. All tickets were booked as early as April 2012.

And so three trade center halls packed with stalls representing artisanal and authentic foods from all over Italy, another hall dedicated to Terra Madre's "market place", plus a full-on program of taste workshops and culinary events became my number one gastronomic highlight of 2012 (here for a link to relevant posts).

In 2013 I intend to stay on the "slow food" path: appreciation for authentic, artisan, local, regional food, for food produced with respect for land and animal. I still have a few "Salone del Gusto" posts coming up: on the Nordic Food Lab, Wines, and Artisan Acidity...

For 2013 again I hope for the widest variety of gastronomic events and opportunities to come into my food lane.

I wish you a healthy and happy 2013!

Memories of Chile Through Foodie Eyes

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 18:57:00 +0000

Chile is a country of stunning scenery and spectacular contrast. From the forbidding Atacama desert in the north to the Patagonian ice field in the south, its central regions are green and fertile, with volcanos, lakes, rivers, farmland and wine country. Chile stretches over 4000 kilometers along the Pacific coast. Yet, bordered inland for an equal distance by the Andes, the world's second highest mountain range, the country averages a mere 150 kilometers in width.

not quite a foodie's kind of a boiling hot pot...

Memories of travel to this beautiful country came flooding back with the Pisco Sour whizzed up behind the bar of ToroToro in Grosvenor House (Dubai). Organised by ProChile, it was an evening of Chilean food and wine tasting. Pisco Sour (cocktail), Lapostolle Casa (Sauvignon Blanc 2011, and Cabernet Sauvignon 2010), and a mouthwatering array of Chilean seafood. Gorgeous (and ample) small plates of cured salmon rolls, salmon ceviche, beautiful Patagonian king crab salad on potato, mussels on the half shell topped with zesty fresh tomato salsa, deep-red smoked salmon crostini, langoustine gratin, baked Chilean Sea Bass (*see below), and to my absolute delight: machas - a petal-shaped clam with a firm texture that is ever so tender to eat.

fishermen along Chilean's 4000 kilometer long Pacific coast

Pisco Sour & Machas a la Parmesana
We traveled the "length" of Chile years ago, back in 1995. We went south to Chilean Patagonia, central to the lush green Lake District, north to the arid coastal desert, and back to Santiago via verdant valleys that are home to many of Chile's wineries. Arriving in Santiago, we had our first Machas a la Parmesana, a Chilean classic of small clams baked in the oven with parmesan, on the half shell or in an earthenware dish. And our first Pisco Sour (here for a recipe), made with a Chilean clear brandy, lemon juice and sugar, often with egg white "foamed" in. Both became favorites throughout our trip through Chile.

Chupe de Centolla
Puntarenas, a colorful town on the Strait of Magellan, is the starting point for the ferry to Tierra del Fuego, the Humboldt Penguin Reserve, trips to Puerto Natales and its breathtaking glacier-lined fjord, Seno Ultima Esperanza (Sound of Last Hope). And for Torres del Paine, a strikingly beautiful national park of jagged mountains, wide open plains, ice blue glaciers and lakes, and incredible vistas.

a land of contrasts: from arid desert to glacier lakes

Torres del Paine is ideal for multi-day hiking adventures, and we actually set out on one. Heavy backpack donned, I braved the long and steep trails, the "basic camping," saw a huge Chilean condor soar high above me, and felt humbled by the beauty of nature. I watched till frozen as chunks of ice from Glacier Grey crashed into the lake of the same name. I even saw the humor when the wind had blown away our tent while we were away hiking, with a pair of nandus curiously pecking at our belongings. The thing that did me in, was our "backpackers' food": I don't do well on freeze dried camping meals.

So after only two nights, the thought of another "rehydrated stew" made me pack it in and retrace my steps to the bus back to Puntarenas, where I erased the freeze dried food memories with a sumptuous bowl of thick, creamy chupe de centolla. It translates as (Patagonian) king crab "chowder", but it is more like a gratin of lush crab meat, cooked with white wine and cream, and topped with cheese and breadcrumbs.

unassuming local kitchen preparing delicious, fresh seafood (near Puerto Montt)

Curanto en Olla
The Chilean Lake District is a lush region of cobalt-blue lakes, rivers, waterfalls and thermal hot springs. And of snow-covered, active volcanos. One is the Villaricca. You can hike up its steep slopes for a peak down its pot of boiling lava. Naturally, my geologist husband did. Equally naturally, I did not and instead spent a lazy day strolling around Pucon and relaxing by the lake shore.
Puerto Montt is a port city on an inlet at the northern end of the fjords and islands of Chilean Patagonia. In nearby Angelmo we had curanto, a stew loaded with shellfish, meat, sausage, vegetables and potato. Traditionally, this dish is cooked in a hole in the ground, over red-hot rocks that have been heated up in wood fire (curanto means "hot rocks" in a local dialect). We had "curanto en olla", or cooked in a pot. On top sat a gray-whitish rather large mollusk that I remember looking at with culinary curiosity: it was a native sea snail known as Chilean abalone.

Pisco
Back in Santiago, we rented a small car and followed the Pan-American highway (invariably offering sweeping views of ocean and Andes) for a thousand kilometers to get to National Park Pan de Azucar. Driving north the landscape became, literally, stone dry. But of a captivating aridness: it is like a painting of pastel-colored layers of rock.

stone-dry North: road up into the Andes (Aqua Negra Pass)

We spent a couple of days in Valle de Elqui, where Chilean Pisco is made. Pisco is a (muscat) grape-based clear brandy, and the basis for the popular cocktail Pisco Sour. Valle de Elqui is a verdant valley, rich with fruit orchards and vineyards in the arid Andean foothills. Pisco and wine tasting aside, the valley's clear night sky is perfect for star gazing and astronomical observations. It also has a reputation for strong earth energy, and it makes the Elqui valley a haven for alternative healing therapies. I remember the guest house where we stayed was big on crystal pyramids and healing gemstones. They had a lovely garden with hammocks, perfect for a little late night star gazing. Pisco Sour never tasted better, amidst the very Pisco vines!

amidst the arid Andean foothills: the verdant Elqui valley

*Chilean Sea Bass is not a bass at all. Dissostichus Eliginoidus by its scientific classification is a cold water fish from the deep known as Patagonian Toothfish. A fierce looking, black-skinned fish, its meat is snow white when raw, and remains snow white when cooked. It has a thick flaky texture and a buttery, almost sweet taste. The name Chilean Sea Bass was "invented" by (American) marketers as a commercially more attractive alternative to its English name: Patagonian Toothfish. It is a slow-reproducing species and highly vulnerable to over-fishing. The Patagonian Toothfish is now under strict measures for sustainable fishing. There are a couple of MSC (Marine Steward Ship) certified sustainable fisheries for Patagonian Tooth Fish (website here). According to ProChile, the Baked Chilean Sea Bass we enjoyed at their event at ToroToro (Dubai) was certified sustainable.

If you live in Dubai...
Pisco is as yet not available at Dubai Duty Free, but is said to be available at Barracuda, and is rumored to appear soon on the shelves of African & Eastern. Machas and Centolla (king crab), and other Chilean seafood is exported canned by the brand Geomar. Organic Foods and Cafe in Dubai carried it, but is currently out of stock.

ToroToro brought out some fabulous tastings of Chilean seafood. For a review of Toro Toro shortly after it opened in Dubai, please find the one by FooDiva here.

Pictures & Memories
The images in this post were all taken on film, and had to be scanned first. It is true that a picture speaks a thousand words: they helped me jog my memory. I focused on a couple of highlights here, and could easily have written volumes. More adventures, other meals. The Pastel de Choclo (a hearty sweet-savory corn pie with layers of beef, raisins, olives, boiled egg, and topped with corn mash, baked in the oven),. The "butterflied fish", covered with slices of tomato, onion, (melting) cheese, herbs and spices, and baked in the oven. The grilled meat "Churrasco sandwich"....

And now for a Pisco Sour!

Riesling and Dumplings

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 04:39:00 +0000

mottled and plump: ripe Riesling grapes on the vine

"Black Machine How Gee," our dining-neighbor reports. The app on his phone recognised the song playing. We're well into the main course of a four-course wine dinner at Hakkasan Dubai, and I am having an absolutely fabulous evening. The food is delicious, the generously poured wines are wonderful, the setting is stylish, and the atmosphere convivial.

The evening is a joined effort between Hakkasan and MMI Dubai (licensed importer and distributor of alcoholic beverages). Hakkasan's tasting menu of contemporary Chinese cuisine is paired with Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer (spelled without umlaut in French) of Domaine Zind-Humbrecht from the wine region of Alsace, France.

Riquewihr, a wine village in the Alsace

Alsace is a fertile region wedged between two natural borders: the river Rhine (here also the border with Germany) and the Vosges mountains. Turckheim is in the heart of Alsace's wine region. It is where you will find Domaine Zind-Humbrecht, since 1959 a collaboration between two long-standing wine families, with generations of winemakers dating back to the mid 1600s. Alsace has many regional specialties that are a perfect match for its fruity whites.
Flammekueche (literally: flaming cake, it is an ultra-thin, crisp bread-dough "pie" topped with thin sliced onions, bacon, and white cheese, and "baked in the flames" (wood-fired oven); Alsace is one of France's foie gras "capitals", and whole foie gras poached in Gewurztraminer is a famous product from the city of Strasbourg (it is actually poached in the glass jar, so a jelly is formed after it cools). Choucroute a l'Alsacienne is a rich and rustic dish of mild sauerkraut loaded with various sausages and different cuts of fresh meats, and potatoes. The French word choucroute is derived from the Alsatian word surkrut, or sauerkraut. The fermented cabbage is cooked with white wine and spices (juniper berries, peppercorns, bay leaf) with the meats, sausages and potatoes piled on top. Traditionally, the casserole with sauerkraut and meats was placed in a moderately hot part of the (wood-fired) oven, and left for hours to slowly cook. Similarly, baeckeoffe (literally: baker's oven) is a stew of different kinds of meats, potatoes and vegetables.

taken on a late morning walk around the vineyards in Alsace

Flavors that reflect the seasonal climate of Alsace, and translate to its terroir, are not the only perfect matches for Alsatian wines. In various flavor combinations and tastes, Riesling, Pinot Gris, and Gewurztraminer have built a reputation for pairing well with Asian food. These wines love to mingle with aromas of ginger and lemongrass, fragrant tastes of tender seafood, addictive spiciness of dried chili sauce, tantalising combinations of crispy roasted duck and creamy-sweet mango.

Rather than sit us down straight away, the sommelier kindly invites us to an Aperatif and meet winemakers Olivier and Margaret Humbrecht. We start with a Riesling Calcaire 2009, an appetizing wine with lovely citrus and tropical fruit, and mouth-watering acidity. Literally.

Hakka Steamed Dim Sum Platter
Riesling Clos Windsbuhl 2008
Hakkasan's signature Steamed Dim Sum Platter arrives in a bamboo basket. Brightly colored, bold flavored, beautiful "bonbons" of shrimp, scallop, and duck. Scallop Shumai, Har Gau, Prawn & Chinese Chive, and Black Pepper Duck and Mushroom match pleasantly well with the hints of tropical fruit, yellow apple and medium acidity in the second Riesling.

Grilled Shanghai Dumplings and Roasted Mango Duck
Gewurztraminer 2011
The Shanghai Dumplings are gently charred and subtly chewy, with an enticing mince of ginger, scallions, chicken and shrimp. The duck is grilled crisp with five spice, and arranged in a mosaic with mango, butter-soft and sweet. The Gewurztraminer is floral and its tropical fruit notes pair naturally well with the mango on the plate, both swirling well with the savory taste of roast duck.

Spicy Prawn Curry, Stir-Fry Lotus Root and Vegetables & Sanpei Chicken Claypot
Pinot Gris Clos Windsbuhl 2008
Gewurztraminer Herrenweg Turckheim 2007
The main course brings flavors that range from refreshing to warming. From lemongrass to dried chili, fragrant prawn to succulent spiced chicken, crunchy lotus root to smooth curry sauce. The prawn curry is rich with coconut, lime leaf, red chili, and turmeric, and has a pleasant crunchiness of almonds and lily bulb. The lotus root and green asparagus get a fragrant kick from mild spiced black pepper sauce, and the claypot chicken is rich with dried chili, sweet basil, scallion, and ginger. The wines bring their own range of aromas and tastes: from hints of citrus, green apple, and sharp acidity in the Pinot Gris to nutmeg, cinnamon, and honey in the Gewurztraminer. You should have seen us swirling, sniffing, sipping, tasting, and (cross) matching: with the prawns, the claypot, the stir-fry, a steady "oohh aahh" on repeat.

Lemon Tart with Roasted Sesame Meringue
Gewurztraminer Clos Windsbuhl 2008
Dessert is an elegant ensemble of lemon mousse topped with meringue and served with lemon yogurt sorbet. It is paired with a Gewurztraminer rich with spice, candied fruit, honey. By this time, however, we seat-danced to Black Machine, laughed and chatted with our dining neighbors, and are leaning back in contentment. The only downside: we are seated in what turns out to be the smokers' lounge, with the annoying result of smoke occasionally added to the bouquet. As for the relatively loud (club) music: ambivalent at first, I must say it makes for an entertaining change from the generally hushed atmosphere of fine dining.

My Barolo Raymond published wine notes on the evening here.

Hakkasan Dubai is hidden in the Emirates Towers. Hakkasan has an extensive wine list and a good choice of wines by the glass. This wine dinner was 450 dhs all inclusive. Hakkasan has another wine dinner planned for December 18. Inform here with Hakkasan directly. Lime and Tonic (exclusive social events) has a wine dinner event at Hakkasan for 8 on offer.

Gobble Gobble Giblets!

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 12:29:00 +0000

Cooking Without Waste: the story of the Fifth Quarter continues....

Nduja from Calabria: a spicy, spreadable sausage made with a "nose to tail" approach

Do you roast a turkey for Thanksgiving or Christmas? Do you use its "other bits"? Its neck, gizzards, heart, liver? Do you use them to make a gravy? Maybe you use ground heart and liver to make a stuffing? Or to make little meatballs, packed with flavor?

When I was growing up, offal was a very regular meat in our household. Chicken innards, trotters, cheek, tongue, liver, brain even. Not always is the food you had (to eat) as a child, the food you love as an adult. Quite the opposite, often. But for me, to this day I still enjoy offal.

I am a huge fan of sweetbreads (see here). Liver is a delicious piece of meat with an appetizing hearty taste and a gorgeous grainy soft texture. Cheek you will actually see on many a menu of fine dining restaurants. Slow-braised, it is a rich, succulent, super tender meat. Tongue is simply delicious, slowly simmered in a fragrant broth (I have a recipe here). Blood is widely used to make blood sausage, from creamy soft boudin noir to chunky panfried blackpudding. And even if I dread its visual of folds and creases, I won't say 'no' to morsels of brain coated in a nice spiced breading and deep-fried. Crunchy on the outside, the meat inside is meltingly tender. The list goes on. In the hands of a skillful chef any offal can be turned into a delicious dish. Thrown into the bargain: organ meats are an excellent, concentrated source of nutrients, amino acids, vitamins and minerals.

Offal Tip: if you find the taste too strong, soak offal in milk overnight. It draws out the blood and bitterness, making the taste much milder.

I love to cook with veal sweetbreads, here with wild mushrooms (recipe here)

The Fifth Quarter is the common word for offal in Italy. Introduced as "cock's comb, wattles, liver, heart, stomach, immature eggs and other giblets", it was also the subject of a Master of Food Class at Slow Food's recent Salone del Gusto in a series "Cooking Without Waste". The above is the start of a list of ingredients for a classic Piemontese dish called Finanziera. I could not make the class, and was ever so excited to spot Finanziera on the menu of B&B Restaurant Il Vigneto di Roddi , where we stayed. It is a charming country house on a hill overlooking the Langhe.

Finanziera: can you spot the cockscomb?

Finanziera is an offal dish pur sang (pardon the pun). From cock's combs to veal sweetbreads, my Finanziera was a plate full of nothing-wasted, well-cooked offal. Larger pieces were cut small, textures varied from firm to gelatinous, down to the custardy softness of brain. The taste was gentle. Refreshing the dish were silver onions, fine slices of gherkin, and garden peas. It was the only strictly traditional dish on a menu that otherwise showed a chef who loves a contemporary play on classics. At Il Vigneto di Roddi, they are committed to keeping the Finanziera on their menu. It is disappearing, and it should not. It is one of these dishes that capture the essence of cooking without waste.

Turkey Giblets 'Finanziera'
This Festive Season, if you're making turkey: why not make Turkey Giblets 'Finanziera' for the next day? You can add "leftover" turkey meat as well! Just imagine you had the turkey wattle to add...

Toss the giblets in a little flour, melt butter in a pan, and add the giblets to brown
deglaze with white wine (optional), and add aromatics (onion, celery, carrot)
add enough water to simmer, plus a bay leaf, fresh thyme and rosemary.
simmer gently for 1-2 hours
take out all the giblets
Pluck the neck meat, chop the rest of the giblets.
Reduce the sauce until well-thickened. Season to taste.
Add small diced carrots, garden peas, silver onions, and sliced gherkins, and simmer for about 5 minutes to infuse all flavors
Cut all the meat in smaller bites, pluck the meat from the neck. Add diced leftover turkey meat as well.
Put the meat back in the sauce, and serve with mashed potatoes, or over crispy fried polenta squares.

delicious crispy fried chicken feet at a market in Northern Thailand

A fabulous, comprehensive A-Z article on offal worldwide was written by Anissa Helou and published in The Guardian (here). It is an extract from her book Offal: The Fifth Quarter, which is now first and top on my Christmas wish list (hint to husband).

I would LOVE to hear about your favorite offal dish. Feel free to leave a comment below.

You may also like "Cooking Without Waste: Abruzzo Lamb From Nose To Tail"

(ps. if you like this post, or even this blog, you can still vote for me in the Expat Blog Awards here)

From Nose To Tail: Cooking Without Waste

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 17:08:00 +0000

This is a story of the Fifth Quarter. It begins with delicious lamb. And not just any lamb: a heritage breed lamb from Abruzzo, raised on the wild pastures of Gran Sasso National Park. It is a story that highlights the beauty of its Fifth Quarter (as offal is called in Italy). And it starts in a taste workshop at the recent Salone del Gusto: Abruzzo Lamb From Nose to Tail.

torcinello with frigitelli

If Abruzzo is the kingdom of sheep farming, the fortress town of Castel del Monte is its capital. In the old days, twice a year the men would take the sheep to warmer regions. An endless long trek over rocky mountain passes. The men away for months, it was the women who stayed behind to mind the daily runnings in the village and on the farm. As the story goes, the result of this transumanza, this seasonal migration, was that the men's dialect developed to be different from that of the women.

The traditional transumanza may be long gone, even today sheepherding in Abruzzo is not just a livelihood. It is a way of living. It is traditions, culture and heritage all rolled into one. This is how it is for shepherd Giulio Petronio, telling us his tale at the Salone del Gusto. Sheepherding is his past, present, and future. Even if his son decided to start and breed cows. "In the capital of sheep farming," he laughs, and there is a proud smile on his face. The son breeds his cows in the same way the father breeds sheep: with love for the land and responsibility to the wellbeing of the animal.

Castel del Monte is in the heart of Gran Sasso National Park, with its wild, diverse and abundant nature. At almost 3000 meter, Gran Sasso is the highest peak in the Apennines. It is a mountainous region, harsh in winter yet lush in summer, when meadows are rich with grasses and wildflowers. His audience listens captivated to the shepherd. His sheep are Gentile di Puglia: the "gentle one from Puglia", known for its fine, soft wool. These sheep are raised on the natural pastures of the Apennines. From the milk, he makes his famous Pecorino Canestrato di Castel del Monte. I tasted it earlier that week in the Slow Shepherd Cheese Taste Workshop (here).

When he starts to talk about slaughter, there is a change of emotion in his voice. A hint of frustration, maybe even anger. It becomes clear why. He is upset with the fact that so much meat is often wasted. This man - this Abruzzo shepherd - raises his sheep from birth. He is also the one who will slaughter them. He can't bare the thought of having to do this, and see it go to waste. Traditionally, all of a slaughtered animal would be used, down to its teeth, horns, hooves. Everything had a purpose. He can't understand why you would not use all of the animals' meat. Which is why [he tells the audience] he refuses to sell cuts of meat. Butcher or restaurant, "if you want my lamb, you must take the whole animal."

Enter chef Niko Romito.

chef Niko Romito talks about one of the star dishes on his restaurant menu: torcinello

Chef Niko Romito has two Michelin stars to his name. His restaurant Reale is housed in a 6th century monastery in Castel del Sangro in the heart of the Abruzzo Apennines. He has joined the workshop to honor the lamb by cooking a dish in Abruzzi tradition: one that celebrates all of the animal. He starts us off with a crostini on which pure, simply panfried lamb liver. He wants us to experience the naturally beautiful taste of the liver. Lamb liver in my experience has a very strong, pungent taste. Not this one. Chef Romito explains: an animal is what it eats. This lamb had a good, natural diet from wild, green pastures. You can taste it.

simply tossed in a hot pan, this lamb liver was hearty yet sweet, velvety soft and delicious.
The drop of flower honey provided a beautiful flavor balance

Torcinello di Agnello Arrosto is a popular main course on the menu of chef Romito's restaurant in the heart of Gran Sasso National Park. Torcinello is a traditional dish of lamb liver rolled in caulfat and roasted or grilled. Chef Niko Romito's version uses a variety of thinly sliced lamb organs - liver, heart, sweetbread. Rolled up and roasted, he serves it with frigitelli: small, thin and mild South Italian green peppers, which come as a silk-smooth puree and roasted whole. The frigitelli's refreshing almost grassy taste is a beautiful counterbalance for the hearty torcinello with its bold flavors.

To conclude, the chef brings out small plates with gently panfried tender morsels of lamb loin. It is beautiful, sweet-scented meat, rich with nuances. I have to say though, it was the robust Torcinello that was the absolute winner for me. What a dish!

During the workshop, a reference was made to the Nose To Tail Fortnight, held earlier this year in London. This "fortnight" was aimed to focus attention to offal, and intended as a "celebration of unloved cuts of meat". Over 30 restaurants in London participated (read more in this article here).

how beautiful is that meat!

Slow Food sets out to approach agriculture, food production and gastronomy from three interconnected criteria:

Good - seasonal, regional, local
Clean - produced without harm to the environment, animal welfare, our health
Fair - accessible prices for consumers, fair conditions and pay for small-scale producers

In my next post, the story of the Fifth Quarter continues in "Cooking Without Waste: Finanziera"

The Truffle Hunter and his Dog

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 11:16:00 +0000

Castello di Grinzane Cavour, photo taken ten days before the World Alba Truffle Auction takes place here.
It is a charity auction which last year raised over 230,000 Euros

"Bastardo!" The truffle hunter mutters it ever so softly, but I still hear it. I am practically perched on his shoulder as he sits hunched over the hole his dog Luna just dug. "What's the matter?" I ask, nose on a par with his, close to the ground. "I break it," he looks a little upset. I peer in the dirt that is the hole. I see roots, some of which have been scratched and broken by Luna. I peer some more, as Beppe points with his dirt-gray finger. And there, I see it. The brownish marbled inside of a truffle, its top scratched off. It is a black truffle. Getting the truffle out is a painstaking job. First you have to find out how big it is by gently brushing away the dirt with your finger, and then you carefully free it from the thick clay and jumble of roots hiding it. Once you've cleared the truffle as much you can with your hands, you can start to lift it from the clay with a small pickaxe. Fortunately, the truffle isn't gonna go anywhere, and you can take your time unearthing it. When it's dark, however, you also need to keep an eye out for wild boar that roam these woods at night.

the walk back to the car,
Grinzane Cavour Castle right in the distance

We are in the woods with Beppe the Truffle Hunter and his dog Luna, not far from Grinzane Cavour Castle on a gloriously beautiful Autumn day. We can see the castle across the fields in the distance. Luna is a Lagotto dog, an Italian breed of gun dogs often used for truffle hunting. As Luna crisscrosses the wood with her nose close to the ground, Beppe keeps calling out to her, never losing contact. We try to keep up with the energetic dog as best we can, avoiding the low-hanging branches and twigs, and slipping on the leaf-covered, muddy underground.

"Hurry, hurry, Luna found something." We rush to the digging dog. There is a strong truffle smell emanating from the dirt that Luna kicks up. "White truffle," Beppe says, looking happy. It is the scent of the earth that gives it away. The scent of white truffle is so much more intense than that of black truffle. He hands me a piece of dirt. I sniff it, and even lick it. The dirt smells good enough to eat (but, spitting the dirt from my mouth, really it isn't). Beppe tries to pry Luna away from the hole with a treat. "It is her hole, so it is very important not to take it from her." The treats do the trick. She leaves the hole, Beppe carefully digs with his fingers, Luna comes back, sits on the hole, dog and hunter cuddle. It is a ritual that is repeated many times over before the truffle is unearthed. The truffle found is about 20 grams. Luna is rewarded with some more treats and endless loving hugs. Beppe covers the hole well. Chances are a new truffle will grow here this season, and he doesn't want anybody else to find it.

the black truffle (r) and white truffle (l) we found

Truffle dogs are trained from 3 months old. They get started on little bits of truffle to learn the taste and smell. Next, they practice finding little truffles buried in the garden, until they're ready for the real hunt. "Our" truffle hunter learned the trade from his father, and raised Luna from puppy.

Many attempts have been made to describe the scent of truffle. It is an enigmatic and complex aroma, with "notes of wet earth, hay, fermented honey, funghi, garlic, spices, and even ammonia", as described by those that live and breathe the Alba White Truffle. Hovering so close to the forest floor, with its autumn smells of dried berries, crushed acorn, tree bark, and fallen leaves, and wet dog stirring up dark chalky clay enriched with an incredible fungal aroma, I was thinking: all this yes, and then some. Nothing compares to the intoxicatingly unique scent of the tuber magnatum pico.

the truffle hunter has to allow his dog to "protect" its find.
You can see the truffle hunter's finger prodding around the truffle as the dog hovers over it.

truffle hunting: a labour of love between dog and hunter

Alba's White Truffle Market

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:33:00 +0000

It is a crisp, sunny autumn day as we drive through the colorful fall landscape on our way to Alba. Alba is the capital of the Langhe, a hilly region in the Italian Piedmont dotted with old villages, Nebbiolo vineyards and orchards of hazelnut and peach. It is also the region where the rich, dark earth forms the breeding ground for Alba's famous, delicate, buff-colored gemstone of a fungus: the white truffle. Harvest is in the fall, starting early October. It is when the narrow streets of Alba are perfumed with the unparalleled scent of truffle.

tuber magnatum pico

Alba was built on the remaining foundations of the Roman Alba Pompeia. You can visit the ancient underground Roman site as part of a tour. Today, however, the only underground element I am interested in, lies exposed on kitchen towels in a huge tent on the town's church square. Every weekend from early October to mid-November, traders and trifolau (truffle hunters) bring their treasures to the truffle market. Varying in size from nugget to fist-sized, the white truffle sells for an average price of 500EUR per 100 grams.

I notice a young man in a hat eagle-eyeing the big white truffle he holds in his hand. He brushes it gently, sniffs it. He seems unsure. I wonder why. And then I see him stride determinedly to the raised podium in the center of the tent. He hands over the truffle to the three men behind the table. Each one sniffs it, it is scrutinized, measured, weighed. A nod, and happily the young man walks back to his stall with a definite bounce in his step. The foodie romantic in me thinks maybe he handed in a beauty to participate in the international white truffle auction; it takes place the second Sunday in November in the historic ambiance of the Grinzane Cavour castle. But more likely, the truffle has to be assessed for Langhe provenance and quality.

Truffles are hunted, as they hide underneath damp, dark chalky clay soil, preferably among the roots of trees. Truffle likes oak, poplar, willow, hazelnut. It takes a trained dog's sharp nose to find one. The relationship between dog and trifolau is a special one. If the dog doesn't listen, it may scratch or even eat the truffle when he finds it. On the other hand, the trifolau has to award the dog for its efforts by allowing him the occasional truffle find. How amazingly down to earth it all is. Literally! Yet, white truffle sells for the price of a gemstone, more even. And not in a fancy boutique either. It is sold in the rustic atmosphere of a tented farmers market, its sellers hands often still bearing the remnants of digging it up from the dirt. What an unbelievable treat to be here.

During the white truffle season throughout the Langhe, restaurants offer the option of white truffle shavings over dishes that will match well with its dominant fragrance. I enjoy white truffle over creamy risotto, with tajarin (fresh egg pasta), with carne crudo (raw beef tartare), in fonduta (fontina cheese, milk, eggs and truffle), and even shaven over fried eggs. The waiter either shaves it over your dish waiting for you to stop him, or the truffle with shaver is on the table to "help yourself". In either case, the truffle is weighed before it comes to your table, and whatever weight is left, is deducted. The rest, you pay, and at 6 euro a gram, you quickly learn to curb your enthusiasm with the shaver!

the ritual: admiring, sniffing, weighing, buying

left to right: menu at Eataly, tajarin, eggs, and risotto, all with generous (but never enough) shavings of white truffle

Alba's White Truffle Market is part of the Fiera del Tartufo. It is a monthlong celebration around truffle including exhibitions (from cinema to woodcraft), symposiums, tastings & pairings, traditions, and so much more. It kicks of the first Sunday of October with the historic Palio - when the nine districts of Alba compete in a donkey race for the painted silk cloth: the Palio.

On the second Sunday of November, the XIV World Alba Truffle Auction held in Grinzane Cavour Castle (I've been in the very room during a tour of the castle). The weekend after is the last weekend of Alba's Truffle Fair.

From Dubai, Emirates has direct flights to Malpensa (Milan), from where a 1h45 drive takes you to Alba. We stayed about ten minutes outside of Alba in the delightful B&B with restaurant: Il Vigneto di Roddi (www.ilvignetodiroddi.com).

You may also like Slow Shepherds and The Cheese Resistance

Slow Shepherds and The Cheese Resistance

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 08:30:00 +0000

Have you ever walked in the mountains and came across livestock grazing? There is a smell, one that is both fresh, grassy, floral, and herbal even, but you can also smell the animals as they are standing there, droppings caked in their coat, chewed grass on their breath, staring at you same as you are looking at them. That is the smell I was getting, sniffing the shepherd-made artisanal cheeses featured in this post.

It takes more than hard work and dedication in this day and crisis age, to be a small, independent shepherd cheesemaker. It takes persistence, maybe even against better judgement. And it takes the support of a group who believes in (agro) biodiversity. Slow Food has such a support group in the Resistenza Casearia (literally the Dairy Resistance). Globally, this Slow Food support group fights for the artisanal cheesemaker against the mainstream (mass) production. In Italy, the Dairy Resistance is also a fair trade buying group.

Five herders from Sardinia to Abruzzo to Sicily sit before us in this Slow Shepherd Taste Workshop at Slow Food's Salone del Gusto 2012. These are herders who take their animals up into the mountains and meadows to graze. The milk of their animals is rich with the grasses, herbs and flowers they're raised on. Their milk reveals seasonal nuances, of cold and rainy versus hot and dry days.

We taste Gregoriano cheese from Abruzzo. Round as a disk with a hard rind, the cheese is soft and runny inside. It has green grass aromas, and something a little floral. You can smell the rich milk. Its maker says: "land is what makes our cheese", stressing the importance of unspoiled natural surroundings. It shows in this beautiful cheese, rich with that smell I described earlier: the smell of mountain meadow and animal.

Shepherd-cheesemaker Nunzio Marcelli (president of the Abruzzo Shepherd Association) explains to his audience: his Ricotta Cheese is made from the milk of Sopravvissana sheep (a heritage breed), who graze on the high, mountain pastures in Abruzzo. The whey is heated up to 80° C so the proteins will coagulate and separate from the liquid. After that, milk is added and all is put in the "fuscelle" (the traditional containers with small holes that allow the liquid to get out). Salted mildly, the ricotta is dried and then gently smoked over juniper wood. It is a gorgeous ricotta, ivory white and pleasantly aromatic: a combination of the light juniper smoke, a little caramel (the result of the milk being heated), and a rustic hint of animal.

Staying in Abruzzo, we move on to pecorino from Castel del Monte (literally Castle of the Mountain), a medieval hilltown in northern Abruzzo, and the "capital of herding". Castel del Monte Canestrato is a cheese made from the milk of sheep that graze at high altitude. The taste is pure, grassy, with hints of wood and mushroom. It is rich with "animal", leathery almost. The cheese has a darker yellow color, which comes from aging. It is a raw milk cheese, appetizingly salty (salting is a step of preserving the raw milk cheese), and a delicious grainy texture.

The milk of Valle del Belice sheep in the region of Salemi, Sicily, is the raw ingredient of the pecorino we are tasting next: a mature, raw milk pecorino that is sharp, deliciously salty with a hint of spiciness, grainy yet soft texture. The young shepherd present stresses that small shepherds and cheese makers are having a hard time surviving against the large producers and cooperations. He presents his DOP Pecorino with pride. It is made with the milk of his own sheep, grazing outdoors on the meadows and pastures of this corner of Sicily where plains and mountains meet the sea. "Except in winter," the young shepherd adds. In winter times, the sheep stay in the barn and feed on grains and cereal, which were also cultivated on their own land. His pecorino is light in color, deep and rich in flavors with sweet, spicy, and animal overtones.

Last but not least Fiore Sardo from Sardinia. It is a pecorino made according to ancient traditions. Made with raw milk, the cheese is soaked in a brine, before it is dried and smoked. After that, it rests in a cellar for at least 3 months. The resulting pecorino is grainy in texture, with a hard outside crust, and a rustic, clean smell of farmstead. It is fragrant with herbs, and has a definite smoky character.

All cheese came paired with a wine, notes of which will feature in a next post. This is the first in a series of blog posts on Salone del Gusto/Terra Madre 2012. Keep an eye out for Salone del Gusto posts!

from top clockwise:
Gregoriano, Juniper Smoked Ricotta, Castel del Monte Canestrato, DOP Sicilian Pecorino, Sardinian Fiore Sardo

Resistenza Casearia (literally “cheese resistance”) is a campaign promoted by Slow Food together with producers, researchers and experts who are fighting against the mainstream to protect quality, artisanal cheese. Cheese Resistance is also a fair-trade buying group organized by Slow Food at an Italian level. Every four months it offers a selection of cheeses from cheesemakers who represent a “good, clean and fair” production model and who deserve special attention. (from www.cheese.slowfood.com

You may also like Alba's White Truffle Market or The Truffle Hunter and his Dog

Sarawak's Indigenous Food Treasures

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 12:35:00 +0000

"indigenous people are the custodians of biodiversity" (UN International Day) (photo Raymond Franssen)

This post was written for Blog Action Day. A world-wide action to "bundle forces of writing" and focus on one topic on one day. This year it is The Power of WE!

This is a post about the indigenous food treasures of Sarawak. Rice that is the epitome of sustainable farming, black peppercorns cultivated with care and love for the environment. Yet, the indigenous people of Sarawak struggle to continue their traditional lifestyle in a rapidly developing world around them. Forests disappear, hunting grounds grow thin, and the quality of land, water and air deteriorates.

The Power of WE is about people working together to make a positive difference in the world. This month of October Slow Food will hold its biannual international food fair to celebrate authentic, regional, indigenous, small-farm, and otherwise foods that were farmed, fished, or produced with care for people, animal, and environment. The very essence of Slow Food is to work together to protect and improve the quality of food around the world, for now and for our future. This year the main focus of Slow Food's Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre is "Foods That Change The World". It is a plea for increased sustainability and responsible food production (www.slowfood.com).

Sarawak holds a special place in my heart, having lived in Miri for several years. From the "Land of the Hornbills" comes the fragrant Sarawak black pepper and a tantalising variety of rice: from nutty red rice, glutenous black rice, to the prized Bario rice.

Bario Rice

Bario rice is cultivated in the Kelabit Highlands, where the air is pure, the earth rich, and the climate cool at an elevation of 1200 meters above sea level. The rice is planted and harvested entirely by hand, using age-old traditional methods. Rice fields are watered through an intricate network of irrigation canals fed by the numerous mountain streams in the highlands. There are no pesticides, no chemicals. The epitome of organic rice, Bario Rice is a Slow Food Presidium (see also box below).

The Kelabit are among the indigenous Orang Ulu, a collective name for people (Orang) from the remote (Ulu) interior of Sarawak. Throughout Sarawak, indigenous communities are trying to eke out a traditional existence in a region that is under constant developmental pressure from palm oil plantations and the logging industry.

Orang Ulu are renowned sword-smiths. This Penan man here is making a traditional parang (photo Raymond Franssen)

Sarawak Longhouse

A longhouse quite literally is a long, stretched dwelling usually built of wood and on poles. It is home to individual families living a communal lifestyle under one roof. Each family unit has its own "door" in the longhouse (the largest longhouse is said to count up to even a 100 doors). The main open-air porch or hall is used for all gatherings, from informal to ceremonial. Traditionally, longhouse communities are self-sufficient, but this is a lifestyle that depends on the immediate environment: land to grow rice and vegetables, clear mountain water, a clean river to fish, a healthy jungle forest to gather fruits and other produce such as jungle ferns, nuts, mushrooms, and (medicinal) herbs and spices. The jungle forest also provides a main source of protein in its wildlife. When it comes to hunting, these traditional hunter gatherers hunt by the principle "take only what you need". Meat is usually prepared and eaten immediately. A practice to preserve meat, is to smoke it over open fire and dry it. It makes for an almost black, strong-flavored meat with a definite smokiness to it. To eat, the dried meat is pounded into shreds and mixed with fresh herbs, spices, coconut.

A Little Couleur Locale

From the coastal town of Miri, an overland trip to one such longhouse in the Upper Baram is long and arduous. It takes you hours in a 4WD inland on bumpy, potholed dirt roads. In parts you follow logging tracks, with a risk of running into a heavy-loaded logging truck thundering down towards the coast. When the road or track ends, the journey continues on the river in a longboat until you reach the longhouse. Set among impenetrable jungle-clad mountains, this is the remote interior of Sarawak where it borders Indonesian Kalimantan. Even for the short time you are staying in the longhouse, you become a member of the community. In the evenings, you join in the dancing, listen to the sape (similar to a lute), and drink Tuak (fermented rice wine). Hospitality here knows no bounds.

arriving per longboat (photo Raymond Franssen)

Terra Madre

Terra Madre is Slow Food's network of over 2000 international food communities committed to fishing, farming, and producing quality food in a responsible and sustainable way. Some 400 of these food communities have their own stand in this year's Terra Madre Market Place, one of which is the Sarawak Food Community. For the visitor it means a unique opportunity to taste, see, and experience first hand some of the world's most authentic, traditional, indigenous, or otherwise small-scale and sustainably produced foods.

Sarawak Black Pepper

Sarawak Black Pepper is celebrated for its gentle aromatic spiciness. The peppercorns are picked when still green, and dried on bamboo mats out in the open until they're wrinkled and dark brown to black. The Sarawak Black Pepper grown by Iban (Sarawak's largest indigenous group) in the Rimbas Forest Reserve has been established as a Slow Food Presidium (see box).

You can find a Life In The Food Lane Recipe for Sarawak Black Pepper Sauce here.

From the Slow Food Foundation for International Presidia:

The Presidia sustain quality production at risk of extinction, protect unique regions and ecosystems, recover traditional processing methods, safeguard native breeds and local plant varieties. Presidia are local development projects supported by the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity in order to defend small-scale quality products at risk of disappearing. The Presidia directly involve the producers to promote local areas, revive traditional skills and processing techniques, and save native breeds and ancient varieties of cereals, fruit and vegetables from extinction.

Bario can be reached by small-craft airplane from Miri (itself a direct 2.5 hour flight away from Kuala Lumpur). Proud of their indigenous heritage, Bario celebrates its Kelabit Highlands food and cultural heritage every year with their own Nukeken Festival (here).

"indigenous people reflect our cultural diversity" (UN International Day) (Photo Raymond Franssen)

traditional crafts: spear making (Photo Raymond Franssen)

Living in the Land of the Hornbills: some bold and beautiful visitors in my garden.

Sadly, the area where we lived is now designated for urban development

This post is largely based on personal travel experience around Sarawak when I was living in Miri (including that of my husband, who went into the Upper Baram several times). Additional information was gathered from the various websites linked to in this post, as well as good old Wikipedia.

Montreal First Peoples Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 03:03:00 +0000

Quebec is not a French word. The name Quebec comes from the aboriginal Algonguin word Kebec: where the river narrows. It refers to the majestic Saint Lawrence, the river that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Great Lakes, narrowing near Quebec City. A little further south it flows past Montreal, where every summer the Montreal First Peoples Festival celebrates aboriginal culture from across the Americas through visual arts, cinema and video, literature, music, and: gastronomy!

We catch the performance of Inuk singer Beatrice Deer. She comes from "a tiny town of only 350 inhabitants" in Nunavik, the northernmost part of Quebec. As she nears the end of her concert, she switches to throat singing. Building up her guttural chanting, Innu singer/songwriter Florent Vollant joins her on stage. She continues her throat singing as he begins to play. It is intense and utterly enchanting, and I can feel my heart beating faster.

tipis of steel and ribbons outside McCord Museum

Earlier that day, we visited McCord History Museum to see Inuit Modern, a stunning exhibition of some 175 works by 75 artists, including many sculptures, paintings and drawings. Using all natural materials - from whalebone to soapstone - the sculptures without exception are fascinating interpretations of Inuit legends, life and land. From delicate to bold, the exhibition breathes life in the arctic, its wildlife, and its legends born from long winters and skies that come alive with the dancing colors of the Northern Lights.

One of the multidisciplinary elements making up the Montreal First Peoples Festival, is gastronomy. For the occasion, Bistro Le Contemporain (housed in the Contemporary Arts Museum) dedicated its menu to First Peoples culinary traditions, for which it sought the collaboration of (pre-Colombian cuisine) Mexican chef Javier Olivo, and Innu "cuisine des racines" (cuisine of roots) chef Manuel Kak'wa Kurtness. The latter is also the author of the First Nations' cookbook Pachamama, a cookbook that celebrates traditional cooking, nature, wildlife and culinary creativity (it is only available in French).

red deer tartare with young duck egg, crisp fried Innuit bannock and a sea herbs similar to samphire

The menu is mind-blowing, with its many elements "from the wild", ancient preparations and traditions, yet contemporary and innovative at the same time.

From the Inuit village of Kujjuak, we have arctic char three ways: raw, frozen, and smoked, served with a stone bowl of hot oil and crushed raspberries to dip the morsels of fish in. We have duck breast with blanched cattails (the waterside plant, not the animal's), garnished with jelly, ash, and foam of fir. Red deer tartare with tempered young duck egg (basically raw), sea herbs similar to samphire, and drizzled with Labrador tea oil. It is not a dish for the faint-hearted: the raw deer meat is potently gamy, the egg oozing raw and intense. The dish is garnished with thinly sliced deep-fried crispy Inuit bannock (also known as frybread). We also go for the Algonguin bison steak in herb crust and wild mushrooms.

It doesn't stop there. We are equally lured by the pre-Colombian dishes on the menu. A delicately soft halibut cheek that comes with stuffed poblano spiced with a strong-flavored Mexican herb that dates back to Aztec times: epazote. Zucchini flower stuffed with rabbit, amaranth (an ancient grain, domesticated thousands of years ago by the Aztecs), and a deeply rich Oaxaqueno mole made with chocolate, nuts, passillia, and guajillo (the latter two are chili peppers).

We finish with desserts that feature forest berries, warm cornbread, and wild tea from the Boreal forest (or Taiga). And enjoy it with a glass of Quebec's artisanal Ice Cider.

The food had me spellbound for the longest time. Never before did I enjoy such an amazing array of new things, whether it was a new food, a new culinary tradition, preparation/combination, or simply the fact that each and every item on the menu was so incredibly intriguing. We briefly met chef-owner Antonin Mousseau-Rivard on our way out. Listening to his enthusiasm as he talked about the food, his eyes lighting up when the menu was referred to as "out-of-bounds", it added to the gastronomic magic of the evening. We will be back to taste the chef's "regular" menu, if there is such a thing as "regular" about Le Contemporain.

arctic char three ways: frozen, raw, and smoked, served with a stone bowl of hot oil and crushed raspberries

Montreal First Peoples Festival 2012 was the 22nd edition of this annual cultural festival that turns the city into "a stage for a peaceful, joyous cultural event, drumming to the earth's heartbeat. With the words of ancient languages, millennial cultures live in the present time as Montreal once again becomes the New World's cultural metropolis." (from the website).

Le Contemporain (here) is located on the first flour of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Montreal.

Inuit Modern is the world's most comprehensive collection of Inuit Art. The exhibition is accompanied by a 272 page color catalogue, co-published by the Art Gallery of Ontaria. Click here to go to the website of the Art Gallery of Ontaria. McCord Museum is close to McGill University in Montreal.

Another great museum to visit is the Museum of Civilization (here) in Ottawa, about 2 hours drive from Montreal. Its First Peoples Hall alone covers 2000 square meters of various aspects of First Nations, Inuit, and Metis life and culture, from earliest origin to present day.

The Label Project

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 05:55:00 +0000

I live with a wine connoisseur. That is a good thing, yes. Always a well-stocked wine fridge, cork screws everywhere, decanters, aerators, and wine reference books aplenty. Not that I use any of that when he's not around. Well, except for the well-stocked fridge and the occasional cork screw. There is a downside too. When I am looking for an easy plonk, there is none. Or the unspoken disappointment when I've downed one of his better wines in his absence, and don't remember much about it. "See, that's why I want the easy plonk in your wine fridge as well", is what I tell him. And then, always the "tasting first". He'll open a bottle, pours us a glass, and when I lift it for a nice big sip, I find him bent over his glass sniffing it, swirling it. Looking up only to ask me what I smell, what I taste, how would I describe its color. Mind you, his attention span for color, nose and palate is relative to the quality of the wine. Still, I'm not always in the mood for this. So, very childish, I know, but sometimes I just walk away with my glass, simply wanting to enjoy my wine.

And therein lies the key word: enjoy your wine.

Taking the time to smell a wine's aromas, letting your palate pick up on its flavor notes before it glides "down the hatch". It really does make you appreciate a wine more. So much more so, in fact. I may take only a fraction of the time he does, but I do appreciate the value of tasting when it comes to enjoying my wine.

And last week, that attitude helped me out big time when I found myself invited to partake in The Label Project. A blind-tasting global wine project. Three times last week my door bell rang to announce the arrival of a "package". My wine man away on business, three times I found myself staring at clues and a bottle of wine on my own. Three times I went through the "see, swirl, sniff, and sip" steps of tasting a wine. At the end of the project, each participant had to indicate grape varietal and region of origin for each wine. And in addition give a short explanation for choice of varietal and/or region.

I noticed crisp acidity in the first wine, hints of green apple, and maybe white peach. I let the wine linger on my palate, and appreciated its subtle creaminess in the finish. A couple of days later, wine # 2 arrives. Along with a box of chocolates. Mine had melted in the Dubai heat, so I quickly lapped them up. As you do. The clues hinted at chocolate and berries, spice aroma of rich fruit cake and velvety texture. Appreciative, I did pick that up. Candied fruit, peppery. Dark chocolate as a hint in the background of ripe blackberries. Smooth and velvety.

Wine #3 was a giveaway. The "polaroids" of red dirt and an old railway crossing sent my google search straight to the Coonawarra, and in fact to the winery's website. But then, I guess, that was intentional. The Label Project after all is a promotion-driven project. Fun as it was - and great fun at that - the Label Project aims to make you not just aware of grape varietals and regions of origin: it seeks appreciation for their wineries, their varietals, and their terroir. And appreciate I did.

All has been revealed on www.thelabelproject.co:

It was Jacob's Creek, from the Reserve Series, and the wines were:

1. Chardonnay from Adelaide Hills
2. Shiraz from Barossa Valley
3. Cabernet Sauvignon from Coonawarra.

I am delighted that I got all the answers correct, even if I did not win. That honor goes to fellow Dubai food blogger and sommelier The Hedonista!

Le Cordon Bleu Revisited

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 16:06:00 +0000

Some years back I went to Le Cordon Bleu (LCB) in Paris to get a kitchen diploma. I did the intensive program, and no pastry. The Intensive is a compressed version of 5-6 weeks full-on for each part, Basic, Intermediate, and Superior. LCB Paris I believe no longer offers intensive programs, but I did notice an Intensive Basic (both Cuisine and Pastry) on the LCB Ottawa website (here). Whether the regular or intensive program, at LCB you learn professional cooking techniques as you work your way through classic French cuisine, from boeuf bourguignon to pedicured pigeon legs. I reeked of food every night, there was the occasional cut or burn, and my feet and back were screaming for a break. But I loved every step of the way. Well, in a romanticised sort of way.

For the last and final part of my kitchen diploma (Superior) I debated to go to the LCB in Ottawa. With a restaurant on site, and opportunity to gain experience both in the kitchen and front of house, the school appealed to me. However, at the time LCB Paris again worked out better in timing and distance to home. I've always wondered though what LCB Ottawa would be like. So when we spent a long weekend in Ottawa this summer, I set up an appointment to visit the school, and booked a table at Signatures, their onsite restaurant (here)

The school is a delight. It is housed in a charming villa in a residential part of Ottawa across from a large, green park. I was most impressed by the practice rooms: airy, clean, and oh so well-equipped. I noticed the shiny copper pots, and remembered the pans that our Paris chef teachers would call "samba" pans as they wobbled on the hob. Going up and down the stairs, looking into the demo rooms, the downstairs prep kitchen and pantries, seeing students in their familiar LCB uniform, it all brought back treasured memories. And on top of that I met up with the chef that taught me Superior back in Paris: Chef Didier Chantefort (read his LCB bio here).

Signatures, LCB Ottawa's restaurant, has a large dining room downstairs in the style of the villa. There is also an outdoor terrace, where we dined on our warm summer evening.

One of the LCB students on site that evening was an older gentleman, proving that age nor time in your life should stop you from going for your dream. The man in question was retired (he told us) and now he was getting his culinary degree, something he'd always wanted to do. He was a few weeks away from finals, and obviously not just very excited but also (and rightfully so) very proud. The two younger students on staff that evening, were visibly ill at ease around the diners and scooted off the moment they'd put down the plates (at random, I should add).

The sommelier was worth his weight in gold. After he opened and poured us the wine my husband had selected, he waited for the approval. My husband looked at me, did not say anything, but I knew the look: it was off, and he was looking for a polite way to address the issue. Ever so kindly he invited the sommelier to take the bottle back and try it himself. "Tell me what you think," he added. The sommelier came back, shaking his head and carrying 2 new wines (our first selection was a one bottle only in the cellar). Embarrassment mounting, the second choice didn't make the cut either. What are the odds, but this one too was oxidised. The sommelier agreed without discussion.

We ended up having a beautiful Chablis Grand Cru 2002 (tasting notes here), and saved the sommelier a glass. At the end of our dinner, he offered us a cognac and invited us into the wine cellar. I was not keen - I know my husband will be hard-pressed to leave when he finds himself in a wine cellar. Must admit, even I found it hard to leave that beautiful, chilled space with its gorgeous selection of wines.

The food was in a word delicious. It was clean, creative and beautifully presented. Every single ingredient on the plate had been prepared with care. I did notice tiny fine brunoise (the smallest of small dice)., but scanning the plates I did not see turned vegetables, not a single one. Could it be? No more turning vegetables? I remember spending forever flicking thumb and index-finger around holding a vegetable in one hand, and a pairing knife in the other at a weird angle, going up and down, round and round until it was shaped evenly and rounded. Cocotte or vapeur, tournage des legumes is the most time-consuming technique you learn in culinary school, and one you never really use ever again. And apparently, neither does the restaurant of a culinary school.

Dessert - by contrast - left us less impressed. While delicious in taste, it was also straightforward, uninspired even.

Heirloom tomato salad with burrata, watermelon radish, crispy pancetta, and Meyer lemon vinaigrette. Refreshingly tasty.

Sauteed escargots on silky celery root puree, crispy grilled black rye bread and provencale sauce flavored with pastis. A beautiful, hearty combination of flavors.

The chef told me later this was a new dish on the menu. I had been a very happy guinea pig for this incredible rabbit leg confit with fresh herbs, ricotta and artichoke gnocchi, fried sage, baby vegetables and a deeply rich braising jus.

Cod filet, skillfully crusted with a pistacchio crust and served with clams, white beans, and a rouille emulsion. A beautiful dish.

the chocolate mousse was creamy, light and fluffy, but the chocolate "leaf" that came with it was pure extracted chocolate and so bitter-dry it made my face twitch. Our other dessert - maple and blueberry crème brûlée - was soft and silky, yet otherwise pretty straightforward.

Visit the LCB Ottawa website for more information on schedules, classes and courses here

The Poetic Power of Golden Beetroot

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 17:25:00 +0000

Golden goodness in a glass. Deliciously sweet in a savory way. Naturally creamy and bursting with beet. This is a recipe that thrives on the pureness of ingredients. Nothing much is added to the boiled golden beetroot other than a light vegetable stock. It is served here with crispy baked kale chips: the bitter-green crunch provides a perfect counterbalance to the sweet beet. read more

A Date with Duck and Tamarind

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 17:49:00 +0000

... and how in my "from scratch" kitchen, duck and date got to mingle with a WorldFoods jar full of ready-to-use Sweet Tamarind Marinade.

Before I left this summer to escape the worst of Dubai's scorching heat, I had the dates - growing on the palm trees in my garden - wrapped in netting. Still green and hard in June, without netting they would soon be caramelizing all over my stone paved terrace, if not eaten by birds.

When I came back at the end of August, the dates - protected still in their netting - were soft, sweet, and PLENTY! Aside from the occasional lamb tagine with dates, stuffed dates, date smoothies and date bars. a steady supply of sticky date puddings was filling up the freezer.... until the arrival of the WorldFoods hamper with a colorful array of Asian sauces added yet another date concoction to the repertoire: the easiest ever tamarind date chutney.

Why did I happen to receive a hamper full of Asian products? A little background on life as a food blogger in Dubai: there is this growing and increasingly large and varied community of food bloggers known as Fooderati Arabia. It is through this community that great foodie events happen and get shared. It is how a request went around to try out products of WorldFoods Fusion of Flavours. My "yes" to that request got me a hamper full of flavors.

WorldFoods Fusion of Flavours is a Malaysia-based food company producing over 50 ready-to-use Asian sauces, marinades, curries and more. Based on local Asian recipes, all are using 100% natural ingredients.

Over the next weeks, I will post 1 or 2 more recipes using WorldFoods products from the hamper. They will be posted on the recipe link to this blog: www.foodlanerecipes.blogspot.com.

But first, Duck and Date get mixed up with a jar of Sweet Tamarind Marinade:

the lime adds a fragrant acidity to the sweet date and tamarind chutney

Tamarind Glazed Duck Breast Kebabs with Sweet Tamarind Date Chutney

(recipe for 4 main course)

For the Tamarind Date Chutney

1 cup stoned dates

1 cup World Foods Sweet Tamarind Marinade

1 tsp fresh lime juice

knife point freshly grated lime peel

Chop the dates and put in a pan with the Sweet Tamarind Marinade. Bring to a boil and then slowly simmer over low heat until thickening. Stir frequently. The chutney is ready after about 20-30 minutes when it has a thick and sticky consistency. Add a splash of freshly squeezed lime juice and grated lime peel towards the end, and simmer for another 2-3 minutes infuse the flavors.

For the Glazed Duck Kebabs

1 cup WorldFoods Sweet Tamarind Marinade

600 gr duck breast

+ 1 cup reduced to a thick glaze (optional)

salt to taste

Cut the duck breast in large cubes, leave on the fatty skin. Season with salt, and then toss in the ready-to-use tamarind marinade. Leave to marinate for up to 30 minutes. Skewer on metal skewers so that the fatty skin is wedged in between the duck meat (the fat will keep the duck meat moist while grilling, you can cut it off later if desired).

duck marinating in WorldFoods' Sweet Tamarind

Grill the duck kebabs on a hot bbq grill, turning regularly, until browned all over. It takes about 7-8 minutes. Towards the end, brush the duck with a little glaze (reduced Sweet Tamarind Marinade - reducing it is optional, but it does make the sauce a little thicker and stickier).

It is important to rest the kebabs well after grilling: it is to make sure the meat can "relax" and redistribute its juices. This will help its tenderness!

I served the kebabs and the tamarind date chutney with (black) beluga lentils and steamed mangetouts.

Check www.foodlanerecipes.blogspot.com for my latest recipes for veal sweetbreads, or stuffed zucchini flowers!

A Recipe For Fun with Molecular Cooking

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Spiering) — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 04:31:00 +0000

Oh The Things You Can Cook: Photos From A Demo On Molecular Cooking

A slow-braised lamb shank in a fragrant sauce, hot on the plate before your hungry eyes, can - literally - be mouthwatering. Now imagine recreations of sea creatures on a bed of sand, sprayed with a white foam, all the while listening to the sound of crashing waves on the IPod that came with the dish. Which word comes up? Is it mouthwatering? Or is "mind-boggling" more like it? The latter dish is Heston Blumenthal's famous Sounds of the Sea. I've never had it, but just thinking about it the dish baffles me. Molecular cooking aims to surprise the senses.

Based on a cooking demo using Sosa products, this post is like a practical follow-up on my previous post Musings on Molecular Gastronomy (how did it develop and why the controversy on the term). The demo took place in Marta's Kitchen Culinary Forum. In an atmosphere of buzzing kitchen creativity, the culinary forum aims to share, learn and interact, with a focus on a specific food-related subject. In the last culinary forum before the summer, chefs Soufiane Raji and Rajesh Balan from Emirates Snack Foods demonstrated "all the fun things you can do in molecular cooking". The recipes in this post are theirs.

The Molecular Pantry

So what do you need in your Molecular Pantry if you want to make spheres, foams, pearls, do a little reverse spherification, make a chocolate sand or bacon powder? Here are some of the food additives used in molecular cooking:
Gelatins

Agar-agar is widely available, and is an algae extracted, heat resistant gelatin. Carrageen is another seaweed based gelling agent. It sets very quickly. The gelatin used in the Culinary Forum was Veg Gel. A vegetable gelatin, Veg Gel is a derivate of carrageenan and carob bean gum. This Veg Gel provides a transparent jelly that is elastic and very flexible.

Sodium Alginate

Sodium Alginate is a an algae-extracted gelling agent used in combination with calcium (salt) to form a thin membrane on the outside, while still liquid inside (see spherification below).

Xantan Gum

Xantan gum is a natural thickener derived from fermentation of glucose or sucrose by a bacterium, the Xanthomonas campestris.

Soy Lecithin

Soy lecithin is an emulsifier extracted from soy beans. It is used in molecular cooking to turn a liquid into an airy foam. You will also need xantan gum, or the foam will collapse. Among the Sosa products used in the Culinary Forum demonstration, is Proespuma (hot/cold). It consists of carrageen (to set the foam), lecithin (emulsifier), maltodextrin (for lightness).

Maltodextrin

Maltodextrin is an unsweet sugar obtained from corn, wheat, potato, or tapioca starch. It can absorb large quantities of fat without dissolving. It is used in molecular cooking among other things to create a "sand" or a powder. The great thing is, you don't need exact measurements. All you need is your fatty liquid (say, an amount of melted chocolate). You add maltodextrin and work it in until you are happy with the texture. It weighs absolutely nothing, and once you taste your "chocolate sand" in your mouth, it literally melts on your tongue, leaving only the taste of chocolate (in this example of chocolate sand).

Golden Mango Spheres

mango spheres

Mango Puree 500g, Water 400g, Simple Syrup 100g, vegetable Gelatin Powder 30g, Gold powder q.s. 
Method: Freeze the mango puree in semi sphere (silicon) moulds. Mix water, syrup, vegetable gelatin powder and gold powder and heat to a boil. Remove from the heat and leave to cool until 85°C. Take a thin needle to pick up the frozen mango rounds and dip them in the gelatin mix. When you eat a golden mango sphere (once the mango is defrosted), the thin outer coating bursts and the liquid mango puree streams into your mouth.

Spherification is the controlled gelification of a liquid. There is the method as described above, which spherifies from frozen (or solid) by dipping in the gelling liquid. And then there is basic spherification and reverse spherification. Basic spherification adds sodium alginate to a liquid or puree, after which it goes into a calcium bath to form a thin membrane. Rinsed in water, spheres constructed this way are liquid inside only briefly, before they become solid. A basic spherification phenomena is faux caviar. Here is the recipe for coffee caviar as demonstrated in the Culinary Forum:

Coffee Caviar

Ingredients: water 450gr, syrup 50gr, coffee paste 25gr, Gelespessa (xanthan gum), 2.5 gr alginate

Method: blend ingredients together until you get a smooth liquid sauce (like a coulis). Prepare a calcium bath by mixing 10gr calcium salt in 1 liter water. Drip the coffee mixture drop by drop into the calcium bath, take the caviar out and rinse in water. As explained, once the caviar is out of the calcium bath, rinsed and on a plate, the caviar firms up quickly. Still tasting of coffee, these become solid coffee jellies rather than coffee syrup coated in a thin membrane.

(Actually, you could push the same liquid through a thin tube into the calcium bath to create spaghetti strands).

making coffee caviar by hand (upper right) or using a "caviar-maker" (lower left)

Reverse spherification works for liquids that have calcium content. Literally the process is reversed: instead of adding the alginate to the liquid, it is mixed with water to make an alginate bath. The calcium-containing liquid (juice, puree, mousse) is dropped into the alginate bath to form a thin gel membrane coating the liquid. In reverse spherification, the sphere created stays liquid inside.

pea spheres in their alginate bath (in the lower left corner, the tiny white drop is spherified yogurt)

Reconstructed Tomatoes

reconstructed tomato: gelatin coating mozzarella mousse

Ingredients: Fresh Mozzarella 200g, Milk 200g, Mozzarella Powder 40g, SOSA Tomato Powder 35g, Gelatin Leaves 6 units, Soft Whipped Cream 600g.  Salt & Pepper to taste.

Hydrate the gelatin leaves with cold water and melt with a little milk. Mix the milk with mozzarella powder, tomato powder, salt and pepper with a hand mixer. When well mixed, add in fresh mozzarella and blend again. Strain the mix. Add whipped cream. Put in semi-sphere molds and leave to cool.

Prepare a tomato gelatin: heat 400gr water and add 30gr Veg Gel. Stir to dissolve, and add red food coloring for effect. Dip the mousse-spheres quickly in the red gelatin and leave to set. Decorate with a fresh tomato crown.

Passion Fruit Meringue

passion fruit meringue topped crispy cones

150gr passion fruit juice

100gr water

250gr sugar

25 gr Albumina powder

Albumina is an egg-white substitute. It is obtained from egg whites through a process of freeze-drying until all liquid is removed and the pure protein remains. Unlike egg whites, it handles acidity well, and as a result you can use it to make a fruit-based meringue with it.

Whip all the ingredients in a mixer until it reaches the consistency of meringue.

chef Soufiane's caprese with reconstructed mozzarella mousse tomato and 30 sec tomato sponge

Chefs Soufiane and Rajesh gave an insightful demonstration, explaining it all well: the process, the methods, the interaction between products. And also showed explicitly that tasty food has to be at the basis. It is something to keep in mind when trying out molecular cooking techniques: put in good flavors from the beginning, and the taste left in your mouth when the sphere bursts or the sand melts, will also be good. Of course you say? I've had "tomato pearls" in a restaurant once. I cannot tell you how disappointing it was to find my curiosity rewarded by a lasting taste of plain tomato ketchup.

See also the blog posts by fellow fooderaties at the culinary forum: naked plate and epicurUAEn (contact the EpicurUAEan for information on where to get Sosa products).

Contact Marta's Kitchen for more information on the Culinary Forum!