Chefs

What do Jeunes restaurateurs d’europe and shrimps have in common?

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Crangon crangon they used to call them in Latin 🙂  We now  know them as North Sea Shrimps (aka brown/grey shrimps. Now they probably sound more familiar.

Aaah, nothing better than being on the beach with a bag of fresh North sea shrimps and a glass of Rodenbach on a sunny day , just lovely (if the seagulls aren’t bothering you)! Local, season and fresh products, that’s what it is all about. I really like to eat local things on the moment you should eat them … One of those local products that I really like eating are North sea shrimps. They mainly get fished in northwest Europe (Belgium, Netherlands, UK). They are so small, but sooooooo full of flavor and really worth the effort of peeling 🙂

I know, I’m also a very lazy person from time to time (almost never 😉 )… so buying them peeled is very tempting. But nothing beats the taste of freshly peeled shrimps! As lots of products, shrimps also have seasons  when they are at their best  (not many people know this).  Maybe if I explain you how in 4 simple steps:

Step 1:

take the shrimp’s tail in your left hand with the shrimp’s back towards you

Step2:

 Push the nail of your right thumb in the middle between the slabs and bend the spine until you hear it

snap.

Step 3:

 Pull with a pinching movement the tail section, from back to front.

Step 4:

Grab hand the shrimp with your left in the middle and pull  the head off with your right hand.

The best periods for  eating shrimps would be April-May and in the Autumn  months. Nowadays this gets done with boast … but there used to be a time when the fishermen used to do it on the back of horses… The only city they are still doing this in the old fashion way is Oostduinkerke. So if you are ever in that region during the season, it is really worth seeing

Something nice to know is that there are no catch limits and this means that it they are not threatened  species.  Another thing that I really didn’t know was that most shrimps are born as a male and become female after 2 years … (inartificial).

Anyhow, I’m  wandering off… back to my initial question, what do ‘Jeunes restaurateurs d’ Europe’ and shrimps have in common?  Well, very simple the “JRE” love working with great fresh and local products 🙂 Did you guys read my post about JRE?? No, shame on you 🙂

You k now what’s we’ll do? This weekend we (you guys and me) will buy some fresh shrimps (unpeeled)

Let’s say about 300g? Then on Monday and Tuesday we’ll make the following dishes from ‘JRE’ together?? Is this a deal?

Breaded shrimp on a bed of nettles, watercress and feta by Laurent Van De Vijver (Restaurant Du four à la Table)

And maybe a recipe from Seppe Nobels? (you might remember him from ‘Jong Keukengeweld’ A  Sea bass tartar with hand peeled shrimp, thyme sorbet and crumble crackers

Or maybe … well, I’ll see when I get to the open air market.

Can’t wait…

My view on Bruges Kookeet event

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Last Saturday I went to Bruges for the “Kookeet” event. You can’t believe how excited I was 🙂 This is like Disneyland for me… Although one thing we shouldn’t forget about when going to an event like this, is that it still is a mass event . Basically the quality you’ll get at the boots, is not comparable with the quality you’ll get in the restaurants itselves. Nevertheless I’ve had a very nice evening with my friends and even met a few other very friendly people :-).

And let’s be honest, having an event in a mediaeval town like Bruges is really unique. I might even have to admit that I liked this one better than the one in Antwerp (damn how can I say this, betraying my city).

For all of you who don’t know the concept,”Kookeet” is an event In Bruges where all the best restaurants, caterers and chocolatiers from Bruges serve you a gastronomical teaser . For these teasers, you’d pay 3, 6 or 9 euro. Overall I have to say that everything tasted well. I tried following dishes:

  • Carpaccio of coquilles St Jacques with ginger (by Olivier from Chez Olivier)
    • My impression: very fresh dish, nice to start the evening

  • Pate of pheasant, compote of ‘Brugse zot (beer) and turnips, liquorice vinaigrette (by Timothy Goffin from Goffin)
    • My impression:  Not bad, but not mind breaking

  • Sole à la meuniere, quail egg,  potatoe and truffle soup and crispy bread (by Paul Hendrickx from Aneth)
    • My impression: one of the better dishes of the evening

  • braised veal in ‘Brugse zot’( double) needle with root vegetables and pommes Anna (like pommes dauphin) (by Stefaan Timmerman from Assiette Blanche)
    • my impression: Very good meat! Not really sure about the combination with the cold root vegetables, but it wasn’t disturbing

  • Tuna burger new style with béarnaise from lambs ear (vegetable) (by Tim Geers from Traiteur Geers)
    • My impression: really nice combination, but I would use something else then tuna, as the herbs and sauces take away the gentile and tender taste of the tuna. Shame for the expensive fish.

  • Mascarpone crème with coulis of red fruits and forest fruit tea, pâté Breton and chocolate decoration (by Servaas Van Mullem from Patisserie Servaas van Mullem)
    • My impression: Really good, not more to add

  • Last but  not least, Magic chocolate mushrooms (by Dominique Persoone from The chocolate line)
    • My impression: Very strange tastes together, a chocolate mushroom that tasted like a real mushroom and also like chocolat. Dominique also added a salty part to the dish. I’m sure this will not be everybody’s favorite, but for sure the most experimental on this event! (but that’s how we know Dominique)

The restaurants that convinced me to visit them are Aneth and Assiette Blanche. The chocolate line didn’t need my convincing anymore, they  already did that way back when trying my first chocolate line mellow cakes 🙂

For my friends the absolute n°1 was the “rabbit shoulder with foie gras “ by Geert van Hecke from the 1 and only Karmeliet ***. This didn’t come as a surprise 🙂 as this is one of the best Belgian restaurants.  I would add it to my list, but spending 300-400EUR per person isn’t really for me at the moment.

My girlfriend’s favorite (Karmeliet was n°2) was “ Tuna mi-cuit (half cooked), salmonmousse, Coquilles St Jacques with green herbs” by Jo Nelissen from Manuscript Kempinski. I think this was from all the dishes I saw passing at my table (which were a lot as we were with 6 people) this was the best value for your money. And the ginger ice-cream was really nice and fresh (if you like ginger ofcourse). I’m adding this restaurant to the list (to keep my girlfriend happy 😉 )

For all you people who would still want to have a drink after the event,  only a few steps from the event you’ll find a small beer house (home brewery) Garre, really nice tasty beer (thank you Katrien and Reinout)

I really had a really  nice evening. Couldn’t be better, nice food and great company!

Cook Book Discovery – Part 3

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Yesterday it was Piet Huysentruyt time. For all you people who don’t know him, Piet Huysentruyt is without any doubt one of the most famous tv chefs in Belgium.  He used to own a Michelin star awarded restaurant and he still owns a restaurant in the South of France. The idea of Piet is that cooking doesn’t have to be complicated. He always tries to explain the art of cooking in the simplest way. He does this in a TV show called ‘SOS Piet’  where he  goes to people’s homes to fix their cooking problems. Besides that, he also shares his knowledge through his books.  The fact that he has sold more than 1 million copies of them says enough! (knowing that Belgium is not a huge country).

So yesterday I decided to prepare a dish with “Brussels Sprouts” from Piet’s  “Leven & Koken als Piet in Frankrijk” (living and cooking like Piet in France) cookbook. This cookbook is divided in 4 parts, the four seasons to be more precise. In every part/season he gives some great recipes that would fit perfectly in that specific season. I made the “Grilled quail with mashed sprouts” and gave it a little Spinelli twist. The original recipe would be a quail  covered with bacon and a gravy sauce. Here I used chicken instead of quail and instead of rolling the bacon around, I used bacon cubes. For the sauce after baking the chicken and bacon in same pan, I added some Porto and squeezed Orange juice and a little bit of butter to bind the sauce (reason, I still had an orange in my fridge). The mashed sprouts is exactly as in the book (p107). Basically cook 500g of sprouts with 2 or 3 potatoes (depending on size) and some garlic. When cooked mash them, add salt, pepper and some nutmeg and in case you like it some cream or milk.

I’m pretty satisfied with the result.

If you like the Piet Huysentruyt recipes, you can either buy one of his books, look at the Belgian tv channel VTM just before the news or you can look on the zesta website.

What was your last dish you made out of a cookbook? Let me know!!

My second week of Cooking with Cookbooks

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I just had a great weekend! When I opened my eyes Saturday morning, the first thing I saw was sunshine and I really could not stay in bed (even when it is 7o’clock in the morning)… On top of that I also had the urge to go to the Open-air market in the centre of Antwerp (Vogeltjes markt)  aka ‘Vogeltjesmarkt’.   I like to go there because I have my usual market stalls where I buy my ingredients. This week I decided to buy the promotion of the week at the vegetable stall.  For 5 euro I got: 1kg Red paprika, 1kg Brussels sprouts, 1kg of tomatoes, 1 cabbage, 1 kg of Belgian chicory  and 1kg of spinach. Not bad for only 5 EUR? So I had to build my week menu around these vegetables… and got my inspiration in some great cookbooks.

I also would like to mention Véronique and Tom, dear friends of my girlfriend an me. They invited us for a dinner party on Saturday night. Véronique made us a pasta with pine nuts, fresh tomatoes, rucola, basil, Italian ham and some gooooood olive oil!

But the ‘moment supreme’ was definitely the dessert!! This was based on a Princess Misia Recipe (one of my favorite food/recipe bloggers, check her website and you’ll know why!!). Veronique made the  Speculoos Cheesecake In A Jar and they were really really good if you ask me. See pic below for the result:

And as if that was not enough, they introduced me to the wonderful world of Fattoria La Vialla. But I’ll be coming back on this Factoria in another blogpost. One thing is for sure, the things they sell are mighty good!! (word going to Italy and visiting them).

Now it is time to get back to my original topic, cooking with cookbooks. Yesterday night I cooked the “Terrine of red pepper and spinach” from the book “My Italian diet” of Gino D’Acampo. This recipe was surprisingly easy 🙂 .

The only difference between what I made and the original recipe, is that I added some basil and used fresh spinach. If this recipe is too vegetarian for you, just add some ham. (that would work to my opinion.

You just simmer some spinach in olive oil for about 10 minutes and let it leak until almost all water is gone. Peel (best in the oven or over the stove, because this also ‘cooks’ the paprika a little bit)  and cut the paprika, add some chili flakes. Once the spinach has almost no more water in it, you put it in a bowl, with  fresh cheese, 3 eggs, fresh grated parmesan cheese and some salt and pepper. Mix it all. Take a  terrine form or if you don’t have this, you can just take the form you use to make a cake (rectangular). Put half of the spinach mix on the bottom of the form, on top of this you put the paprika and finish with the remaining spinach mix. Put for 30 minutes in a pre-heated hot air oven on 160°C (320°F) and voila 🙂

I was pretty happy with my result, hopefully Mr. D’Acampo would agree? 🙂

The Gino d’Acampo cookbook is nice  if you want to be on a ‘diet’ but still want to enjoy the Italian taste (and feel less on a diet).  I also cooked the Frittata di spaghetti con rucola (a few months ago). Although choosing a recipe out of this book is not easy as they all look good.

Tomorrow it is Piet Huysentruyt time!

Cooking with Cookbooks

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I really have so many cookbooks and honestly I barely use them (or most of them). So since last week I decided that every week, I at least have to make 1 recipe from a cookbook (every week a different one).

This week I actually did 2  🙂 . This week I made the Vol-au-vent  the Peter Goossens Way (Hof van Cleve ***) from his book “Meesterlijke Klassiekers” in English this would be “Masterly classics”. I must say that in this book they really explain everything really well! The only thing that I changed was that instead of using chicken, I used pheasant (also for the stock) as I still had some left in my freezer from last Christmas. I also left out the calf thymus (kalfszwezerik).

You can find the recipe on the following link  or buy the book 🙂 and cook like a 3 Michelin Star chef

This was MY result 🙂 . Probably not as good as the one from Mr. Goossens, but it sure tasted really well!

The other dish, was one from Jeroen Meus out  out of his “Dagelijkse kost” cookbook.  When you see him cooking it is like your best friend explaining something… I really should get to Leuven one day to eat at his restaurant “Luzine“, but finding an open spot is the tricky part 🙂 Anyhow, I choose the Meatloaf with onionsauce, boiled potatoes and lettuce. Man man, really fantastic, if you don’t like unions, I think this dish might even make you change your mind! And on top of that very easy to make!!  Basically mix minced meat with some herbs (fresh rosemary, thyme and parsley finely chopped), eggs , breadcrumbs, pepper and salt. Bake it for a second in butter on each side. Put it in a pre-heated oven from around  170°C (338°F) for about 30-40minutes (with enough fresh, real butter). When you take the meat out of the oven,  take the meat out of the pan. Use the pan from the meat to  bake the sliced onions, add (if needed some butter) Thyme, red wine, a bay leaf, salt and pepper. Let the red wine reduce its volume and voila 🙂 For more details I would advise to buy the book 🙂 or look on the following link

The result (you are lucky I took a quick picture, because the meatloaf has a short existence). As Jeroen would say “Nen Topper”

Not sure yet which cookbooks I’ll be choosing next week. But I’ll keep you posted.

The sky is the limit

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Peter Goossens, Sergio Herman, Heston Blumenthal , Massimo Bottura, Anne-Sophie Pic’s … all chefs of the 15 best restaurants in the world (from the list of 50 best restaurants). When seeing these people create a dish, it  is like watching Michelangelo  paint the Sistine chapel ceiling. They really  create pieces of art … and a whole different level of cooking.  I hope one day to be able to try these restaurants (another reason to play the lottery), for the moment my limit is 2 Michelin Stars.

Talking about 2 Michelin stars, a young talent that I admire is Thierry Theys (from restaurant  Nuance), he is 26 and already has 2 Michelin stars and I’m sure the 3rd will follow very soon. I’m really excited that I’ll be going there in October as everybody who has been there agrees with the magnificent food price/quantity/quality. 

A restaurant that I have enjoyed several times was Wouter Keersmaekers’  “Schone van Boskoop”

When I hear chefs  like Wouter Keersmeakers, Peter Goossens, Peter Coucquyt etc…. talk or see them cook, I feel the same experience as I had when seeing the Foodpairing workshop.It is really fascinates me how they can match science and cooking in a harmonious way and always try to find new things. (these chefs sometimes try to create new things together with Foodpairing)

An example why they are the best of the best:

Peter Goossens wrote a new cookbook (related to a program he had), where he makes a dish in the classical way and afterwards he makes a dish with the same main ingredients, but in a gastronomical (3 Michelin Star) way.

Steak with french Fries

These chefs prove that if you want to be and give the best, that passion is the best way to achieve it.

The classical highway of cooking….

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In one of my previous posts, I talked about my examples of Italian cuisine. I also want to share with you some of my other examples outside the Italian cuisine. Some of you might know that I did chef-school and learned a lot about the classical French kitchen with Auguste Escoffier ‘s cooking methods as a guideline. I’ve never regretted having done chef-school, as it has given me a great basic knowledge of cooking to build on.

Having the classical French cuisine as base, I really admire great chefs that try to continue Escoffier’s work. A great example of someone a person like th is is Paul Bocuse who has always been seen as Escoffier’s successor continuing his life work.

Chefs  that also can be seen (according to me) as successors are people like  Johan Segers (from  restaurant ‘t Fornuis in Antwerp). Seeing him cook gives me the feeling of a child in a candyshop. The same goes for Marc Paesbrugghe, a chef who actually gave back the 2 Michelin stars awarded to his restaurant “Sir Anthony Van Dijck” as he wanted to change his concept and not be part of the French guides anymore…. But you can still see the classical French cuisine in his dishes. One of my favorite Johan Segers dishes would be the caramelized ham with carrot puree (link is in Dutch, but if you want the translation, let me know and I’ll provide it to you)

Rick Stein  is also somebody who fits the profile. With the only difference that for him it is not necessarily the classic French cuisine, but more every country’s landmark/classical dishes. Like a Good shepherd’s pie, fish & chips and traditional English dishes. But he also always tries to find new tastes and the origin of some tastes during odyssey through Asia or Southern Europe . You should try the “Escalopes of Salmon Troisgros” recipe. I’m sure you’ll like it! Let me know…

1 thing they (and me) have all in common, is having respect for your products and keeping it “simple”.

Obviously there are a lot of other great chefs who base their cooking on classical methods, but I would be too difficult to list them all.

Who would your examples or great classical chefs be?

The greatest of Italian Cooking (to me)

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I love Belgium, France, Thailand etc… as well as their gastronomy. But Italian cooking and basically everything (or most) things Italy has to offer, is closer to my heart (big surprise) and will always stay my nr 1 (mmm, maybe to chauvinistic?)

 When it comes to Italian cooking I have 2 big examples (ok, 3 if you count my dad). My biggest example is without any doubt my “Zia Livia” (my Italian aunt), who I will introduce in one of my next posts , as I will be cooking with her in Italy very soon.

The other big example and/or person I learned from a lot is Antonio Carluccio…. (But I presume he’s an example for  a lot of people). Since I was a young child, I always used to watch Mr. Carluccio on BBC. Even though back then my English wasn’t that great, I could still follow as lucky for me he also spoke Italian in his shows + the look in his eyes and the food spoke for itself J.  You can just see that he enjoys the cooking so much. The only time I think even Mr. Carluccio was 100% convinced eating, was when he had got to try the Sardinian cheese “Casu Marzu”. He now recently was on tv with his longtime friend  Gennaro Contaldo, who’s also a great chef. When watching them I immediately think of the Italian version of Statler and Waldorf (muppet show), judge for yourself in this footage from the two greedy Italians . Watching a show from Mr. Carluccio is like being in Italy, sitting next to him and enjoying the trip together.

Three recipes that I want to share with you, that for me are absolute Master dishes are “Fiori di Zucchini Ripieni” or the “Linguine alla Mollica” or the ‘Trofie al pesto’, you will find the recipies on Mr. Carluccio’s website. The simplicity of this dish shows what italian cooking is all about (but if I should really give all his recipes I love, the list would be endless). Try the 3 recipes I shared and I’m sure you’ll agree and get Carluccionized J.

Not that I don’t like other Italian cooks, but he’s just Antonio Carluccio! The only thing I regret is that I won’t be able to enjoy their cooking, as I believe neither Antonio nor Gennaro have a restaurant anymore (if I’m not mistaking)

Thank you!