Still on top of their game!

/ dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

A few friends and I decided a while ago to have something we call “The Gastronomical Odyssey”. Basically, in this odyssey we go and explore all good restaurants or you could also say that I am just working off my Go To List . Yesterday we (Carlos and me) had another one of those Odyssey moments and decided to go to the renowned restaurant “Sir Anthony van Dijck”. Why, simply before being able to understand all the modern dishes and cuisine, you have to know how the perfect classical kitchen tastes like. Sir Anthony van Dijck is actually one of the most famous Antwerp restaurants. The restaurant had 2 Michelin stars for more than 20 years.  This until 1992, when chef and owner Marc Paesbrugghe (one of my big examples) decided as one of the first European chefs to give his Michelin stars back. The reason for this was that he didn’t feel living up to the demands of Michelin anymore and he just wanted to keep doing his thing.  Now that I’ve been there I can say, they might have given away there stars, their food is still heavenly! On top of this refined cuisine, you also get one of the most unique locations in Antwerp. The restaurant is located in one of the oldest streets of Antwerp, the ‘Vlaeykensgang’. This street is a must see for everybody visiting Antwerp.

I must say that from the moment you walk in the restaurant, you can feel the touch of class and immediately feel comfortable. While following the waiter to your table you can enjoy the beautiful interior of the restaurant. The interior makes you feel like being somewhere in the south of France, where everything is balanced… The advantage that the weather is getting colder in Belgium is that they had put on the fireplace, which made the atmosphere even better (The restaurant is bigger than you would say from the outside). Carlos started the evening with a glass of  Jameson Whiskey  and I went for a glass of champagne as starting with whiskey seemed a bit strong J.  For the food, we decided to go for the gastronomical menu (but I must say a lot of dishes on the à la carte menu also looked tempting) as for me this is always the best way (in this kind of restaurant) to discover new tastes.

The first course of the night was a  wood pigeon mousse, consommé of  pheasant and foie gras. The Consommé was just wow, the first sip of it told me enough that the evening would only get better (if possible).  The foie gras wasn’t my thing as I don’t like eating it, the mousse on the other hand was also very exquisite

The following courses were

Greenland turbot with endive, lime and Hoegaarden beer, roasted fawn fillet (hertekalf) with celeriac puree and juniper. We finished with Poached pear with chocolate ice cream and a cold amaretto sabayon.

The only thing I can say about all the dishes that, one by one they were simply fantastic. You can really taste the chef’s experience and the know how he has!!  Our wine for the evening was a ‘Brolo di Campofiorin’ from Masi. It is just a coincidence that it is Italian, the waiter also agreed that this was a perfect fitting wine for our meal.

Result of this whole meal, 2 happy campers that enjoyed a top class restaurant on an historic location for a price you would pay at the average restaurant!  (you don’t have too many of those)

Up to the next one on the list

Restaurant Sir Anthony Van Dijck

Website: http://www.siranthonyvandijck.be/

Address:

Oude Koornmarkt 16,
2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n° +32 (0) 3 231 61 70

My Cups n’ cakes workshop experience

/ dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

A few weeks ago I received an invitation to follow a workshop to make cupcakes at my company’s head office. Obviously I immediately excepted the invitation as it doesn’t happen every day as usually it are work-related workshops 🙂 .  Our Sensei for the evening was the lovely Karolien from cups ‘n cakes, who is a real pro, if you look at her website you see that she creates the funniest creatures.

Making cupcakes might seem easy at first, but I must admit that it really takes more patience en craftsmanship than one would think 🙂 . The theme  of yesterday’s workshop was ‘Sinterklaas’  as you can see on the above picture.  Step by step we got guided into the world of cupcake making and learned how to make a worthy  replica of the original cupcakes. (and i learned that I needed patience)

Making cupcakes or better, decorating them was a first for me, it really fell like being back in kinder garden playing with Play Doh 🙂 … Funny stuff :-)!  My actual result well, I wouldn’t call it a real replica, my creatures seemed to be under the influence of some kind of drug  (especially my Sinterklaas, he looks like a creature in Spongebob squarpanths)… You be the judge .

On the picture below you can see on the right the original and at the left the one I made, but I think you’d already guessed that 🙂

My best cupcake of the evening was without any doubt the one with the roses! At first I really thought that I did a great job, this until I looked around and saw what wonderful things my colleagues had made!! I think some of them are really gifted (or just have a lot of patience). Really, I saw one person making a mermaid, little ducks, hearts, etc…  At some point it started looking like Santa clause’ north pole workshop 🙂

I really had an amazing night with lots of laughs! I can really recommend it to everybody who wants to have a fun team event or learn to make workshops to do so and contact cups ‘n cakes!!

Gnocchi di Zucca

/ dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

“Gnocchi di Zucca” aka pumpkin gnocchi. This is a specialty from the Friuli-Venezia Guilia region in Italy. This region is  located next to Veneto and next to the Slovenian border. This is also the region where my sweet zia Livia lives. The idea of making this recipe actually came from her.

What is good about this recipe, it is very easy to make with a smashing result J The best would be to already cook the pumpkin the night before.

 

Ingredients: (for 4-5 people)

 

  • 1kg pumpkin (doesn’t really matter which kind)
  • 200g pecorino cheese or ricotta affumicato  (not easy to find outside of Italy), but you can also do it with Parmesan cheese (depending the cheese you use, the flavor will be stonger)
  • 250-300g flour
  • Salt, pepper, nutmeg
  • 1 egg

To serve:

  • 200g farm butter
  • Sage leaves
  • Parmesan cheese if wanted

Get Started:

  • Peel the pumpkin and put in a pot with cold salted water.
  • Once you see that it start boiling, you drain it and let it leak for a whole night (or at least 4 hours). To continue you must be sure that most of the water that is in the pumpkin is gone
  • When most of the water is out of the pumpkin you flatten/puree the pumpkin with your hands and put it pumpkin in a bowl
  • Add the cheese, flour, egg, salt pepper and nutmeg.
  • Mix all. Now we had the gnocchi mix
  • We will serve the gnocchi with Burro salvia (butter and sage) . So put the butter in a put and let is melt on low heat. Add the sage and set aside.
  • For cooking the gnocchi Put a big pot of water of the heat and let I boil.
  • Once it start boiling, you take an table spoon, fill it with some of the pumpkin mix. And put it in the boiling water. And continue until the bottom of the pot is full.
  • When the gnocchi are floating on top  of the water, this means they are ready.
  • You then take them out with a skimmer , in this way you can still use the water to make more gnocchi.

  • When you cooked all of the gnocchi you serve them and put some of the melted sage butter on top (and parmesan cheese if wanted)

Buon appetito

A great dinner at my friends’ house

/ dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

Friday I was at a dinner party of some friends of mine, who had decided that they would cook for a change. Which came as a very nice surprise as for some reason people always feel nervous when they are cooking for me?? I really don’t know why as I’m really not a difficult person….

Anyhow it was really great to not having to cook for a change and just sit back and relax. I must say they have really outdone themselves , they have prepared a royal feast with a lot of love and care. Knowing they don’t have a real cooking experience, made it even more special. They started with a duck salad with pieces of apple, walnut & bacon with a coulis of Gorgonzola cheese… I know some people might be afraid of the strong taste of the Gorgonzola, but I must admit that it gave a nice harmony in this dish.

So a great start was already set! Now up to the main course…  Here they choose to make a  Chicken stew prepared with Old Geuze beer and Peperkoek (this is a kind of breakfast cake spiced with cloves, cinnamon, ginger, succade and nutmeg). Again a really nice preparation! Funny enough that this was a dish that I wanted to prepare this week for me and my girlfriend 🙂 but they beat me to it 😉 It was a sweeter dish, this because of the ‘3 fonteinen old Geuze’ beer and the ‘peperkoek’. This they made a day before (which is best for a dish like this, then it can rest over night .

But the real top of the evening was the dessert, a kiwi tartlet . This was made with a crust of petit beurre cookies  with pastry cream and on top of that slices of kiwi (can also be replaced by passion fruit or raspberries…). Really yummy, just thinking of it makes me want one (ok two) again.

They served a red Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon wine. TWO THUMBS up for Laurent and Stijn!! Thanks guys you really did a great job. Now next time I’ll have to cook for you guys I will be nervous :-).

Stijn and Laurent got their inspiration in following books.

For the Duck Salad: La cuisine à quatre mains

The main course : Dagelijkse kost 2 by Jeroen Meus

For the Dessert: De Desserts by Kookschool

The best way to build and form your kitchen.

/ dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

I think everybody agrees when I say that buying a new kitchen is a big investment. So it is very normal that you want that your kitchen is (besides very beautiful) very functional and user friendly.  Easier said than done you might say… Which is indeed true. Because where do I put the sink in function of the stove, etc..  Recently I discovered a Company called Blum (thanks to a friend of mine), they are specialized in hinges (scharnieren). So what does this have to do with kitchen you might say, well they have actually done studies to make your kitchen a Dynamic, ergonomic and functional space with 5 kitchen zones: For Consumables, non-consumables, cleaning, preparation and cooking. I really have to say that I found it a really interesting study they did and no they didn’t ask me to write this 🙂 . I just found this interesting and important information that I had to share with the world.  I would really advice everybody who is planning to change their kitchen or buy a new kitchen to check the Dynamic space website (which comes in looooooots of languages) or contact Blum…

The missing ingredient

/ dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

I don’t know about you guys, but I honestly find it very difficult to find cooking inspiration when coming home after a hard day of work …

The best source of inspiration and creativity is of course using cookbooks or magazines…  But everything has to go quick since you are hungry and just want one thing, quick food 🙂 But lots of times you encounter another problem when you finally found a recipe… You don’t have all the ingredients that are required to make it L I know I’ve encountered this already lots of times in the past …

What happens then, is I start using my imagination of what things I could replace with ingredients I do have at home and hunger is the best sauce to make you cook faster 🙂 These usually give me the best tasting dishes.

Let me give you an example, a few days ago I had bought a celeriac (knolselder) and needed to find a recipe, as I didn’t want to make a puree or a soup with it… So I found this really nice recipe in Weekend Knack special (Belgian Magazine) “cod with celeriac chips and choron sauce”. But problem n°1, I didn’t have the cod, but I did have was Pangasius… so I figured I’ll just use that.  In the original recipe for the Choron (Béarnaise with tomato), it said that I had to use fresh tomatoes… same story, so I replaced it by tomato purée  (which worked just fine).

So the Knack Weekend recipe à la Spinelli looked like this 🙂

Not bad for some made in max 30 minutes…

For the celeriac chips, you just cut the celeriac (after peeling it) like you would cut fries… put it in a mixing bowl, add some curry powder, salt, pepper and some olive oil. Heat a regular pan or you can also use a chip pan 🙂 throw them in and bake them as you would with French fries.

For the fish, you take any fish you want (sole, salmon, cod, etc…) it really doesn’t matter as this dish can go with everything. You can bake it in a pan, poach it or which way you would prefer for preparing the fish.

For the Sauce. Take 3 eggs (always 1 for the pot + 1 per person, so in this case it was for 2 persons) fill one of the broken eggshells and fill it with white wine (do this 3 times as you used 3 eggs) . Melt 250g of butter… I know it is a lot, normally  you won’t use it all. This depends of how thick you want your sauce to be (as the butter will thicken it). Put the stove on medium heat. Start whisking the eggs by forming an 8 (more or less) . You will see that the sauce starts binding, you know when it is ready, because than you will see that the whisk shape will stay longer in the pot…. Take of the heat and gently add the melted butter (not all at once, little bits at a time). You will see that the sauce will start thicken. When you think it is good enough for you, you add tarragon, salt, pepper, tomato purée and if you want some paprika powder… And voila your dish is ready.

Moral of this story, try to be creative in the kitchen… Don’t worry if there is an ingredient missing, I’m sure you will have something in your fridge or  closets you can use…. And no recipe police will arrest you 🙂

Lavazza knows more than only making good coffee

/ dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

The Lavazzers, that’s how the famous Italian coffeebrand calls its 20th jubilee calendar. To yearly tradition Lavazza made a calendar, but for  the 20th edition  they really wanted to do something special…

They called in the help of some of greatest photographers on the planet, people like Erwin Olaf, Thierry Le Gouès, Miles Aldridge, Marino Parisotto, Eugenio Recuenco, Elliott Erwitt, Finlay MacKay, Mark Seliger, Annie Leibovitz, Albert Watson, David LaChapelle and last but not least Ellen von Unwerth .

The fact that all of those people are working together on the calendar is already remarkable, but for Lavazza this calendar even needed something more and different than the normal. This resulted in a world in reverse J As this time the photographers made a self-portrait showing their own interpretation. So basically they will be in front of the camera for a change J J or photographer meets modeling world ….

You can really trust me that is sometimes funny trying to find out what the photographer was thinking when he came up with the idea for the picture…  Let me give you a few examples 🙂 that might be better

David LaChapelle for instance. The title of his work is “A regular morning changes into Paradise” (I think some woman will want to buy this calendar immediately or at least meet David 🙂

David’s idea behind this picture is showing how Coffee can be used a tool to instantly put your mind in an higher gear of activity.

Another example, euhm ok maybe Erwin Olaf, his picture got the title “My thoughts fly away…

In this picture Erwin wants to show when he drinks a cup of Lavazza coffee he thinks of the human body in a natural way.

But the picture that is really burned on my  pupils is the back cover from Ellen von Unwerth (I hope Valerie comes together with the calendar)

I’m gonna be honest, I’m not really the art “connaisseur” and if I would be told what the idea behind it is

I wouldn’t always know… But never the less these are some very very nice pictures… (I can ensure you that the ones I didn’t show are as nice as these ones)

This really  is not your average birthday calendar on the wall, but a true piece of art! (and collector’s item)…I wouldn’t mind receiving a copy!

Seppe Nobels’ shrimp impression

/ dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

Hi Guys,

Here you find the first recipe 🙂 , this is one from Seppe Nobels. Let me know how it worked out?

It is not an extremely difficult recipe… only the Sorbet might be tricky.

I hope you guys weren’t lazy and bought some fresh unpeeled North sea shrimps? I know I have bought them…

Btw when you peel them, you just put all the peels and heads in a pot, add some water and let it boil for a while … This way you are making a light shrimp stock

What do you need for 4 persons:
– 1 sea bass 1 kg = 500g fillet (more or less) (make sure it is VERY fresh)
– 100 ml extra virgin Olive oil
– 500 ml lemon juice
– 500 ml lime juice
– salt and pepper
– 50 g dried kroepoek
– 400 g unpeeled grey north sea shrimps
– 3 branches of thyme
– 125 g glucose
– 150 g sugar
– pinch of wasabi powder
– 750 ml water
– 2 eggs
– 2 egg yolks
– 1 T.B. mustard (don’t take a to strong mustard)
– 1 T.B. ginger puree
– 1 T.B. soya
– 300 ml peanut oil
– 30 g red vein sorrel (rodenerfzuring )
– 30 g spring onion
– 30 g enoki mushrooms (champignons) (I have to admit, they were not easy to find, but I found them)
– ½ lime

* T.B.= table spoon

Get started:

–          Cut the sea bass in fillets , remove the skin and cut the fillets into equal cubes .

–          Add olive oil, lemon juice (not all of the juice, as you still need some later in this preparation), salt & pepper

–          Fry the dried kroepoek for about 20 seconds at 165°C (329°F) Drain it afterwards on kitchen paper and mix it in a blenders until it becomes like crumble. Peel the shrimps (if you haven’t done it yet)

–          Now the more difficult part. To make the Sorbet, boil the water together with the glucose, sugar and wasabi powder. Add the remaining lemon juice, lime juice and chopped thyme. Leave it on the heat until it starts boiling. When it does, you take it off the heat and put it in the fridge. And use a sorbetière  to make the sorbet. In case you don’t have a sorbetière, just let it cool down and put it in the freezer when it is cool… it will now be as perfect as with the sorbetière, but it will do just fine. If this worked, everything else will be daaaaamn easy J

–          To make the vinaigrette, you beat the eggs and egg yolks together with the mustard, ginger and soy. It is kind a like making a mayonnaise … and you finish my add the peanut oil (like you would do for making mayo). Add salt, peper and lime juice (from the ½ lime).

–          Chop the spring onions and the Enoki mushrooms, add salt, pepper and juice
And now we are almost at the end of the preparation:
–  Dress the plate as follows: use a form (found, squared, as you prefer)  for the tartar of sea bass .

–          On top of this you put the grey shrimps and arrange the salad (mushroom salad) around the sea bass form J

–          Finish off with the kroepoek crumble and thyme sorbet.

It should look like this:

Trust me, it is worth the work!

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

/ dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

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…

Eating for a good cause

/ dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

I know it might seem like yet another excuse to go to a restaurant, but I really do find this initiative from ‘Jeunes Restaurateurs d’Europe’ (aka JRE) wonderful.  JRE is an association initially founded to support young chefs and also to raise a certain solidarity amongst them. Initially they were  only active in France (around 1974), but they quickly expanded to other European countries.  12 countries are member of the JREl, but only 11 are European countries.… N°12 was the first non-European country that joined, the country I’m talking about is Australia. Since 2007 they are like an EU embassy outside of Europe. Personally I’m really happy that so many things are being done to support young chefs to succeed in their life dream…

Lately JRE  Belgium decided to collaborate with ‘Make a Wish’. Did you ever hear about this initiative? Make a wish is an association of volunteers  which wants to realize the dreams of children that are fighting against a life-threatening disease.  They do this thanks to the generosity of gifts from donors and fundraising activities (not only monetary gifts… ).

So now, JRE will donate 2EUR from the price you pay for a menu at the participating restaurants to the Make a Wish fund. You can find the restaurants that are participating in the following mini guide

And you can really trust me that there are some real beauties in this guide!! I am going to support this initiative, hopefully you guys will follow! Pass this on to your friends!