Italian Food

"Italian food is all about finding good, healthy ingredients and then not screwing them up"

- Anthony Bourdain in Tuscany

Muy Sabroso

This was easily the most complex cooking endeavour I ever embarked upon. Sure AI Team Dinners in Rotterdam became a handful at times with 15 people signing up but then our objective was not to please but to fill stomachs and there were 4 of us sharing the burden. Of course my team had the incredibly talented Ms. Schroeder so cooking actually involved following directions :)

But I digress. Coming back to this Saturday past...either I allowed my excitement to get the better of me or I just didn't plan the evening to the extent that such an evening demands. However despite a few hiccups, the food came out OK. I think we had a total of 20 people who came and went through the evening when I'd planned for about 12. That resulted in not everyone being able to partake in everything I made but at least no one went away hungry!

Coming to the point, the evening was meant to feature a range of tapas style finger foods and one entree. The menu read as follows:

• Caramelized onion & cheddar cheese served on toasted bread

• Fried Ham Croquettes
  
• Mince chicken canapes (I couldn't find real canapes so made do with some basket shaped potato chips which I fried - end result was pretty good)
  
• Spicy stir fried chili prawns
  
• Nacho Chips and Salsa Sauce ( I just picked these up off the shelf)
  
• Classic Spanish Omelets (stuffed with potato and some cheese)

• Entree - Chicken Fajitas (a wheat & corn flour based dough for the tortillas which were then stuffed with marinated chicken, salsa sauce and cream, served hot)

Helen baked 2 great chocolate cakes which were wiped out in 10 minutes flat! :-)


All told, everything came out the way I had envisioned before. The next time around a little more preparation would make it even better but I think I have all the above now commited to memory. That's the exciting part :-) and most importantly I think everyone had a blast.

No. 1

Oftentimes in my Bangalore-Joseph's circles we refer to something that is really good as "No. 1 man!" So for example: "That Knopfler song is No. 1" or "the round Woods played was No. 1"

This is pretty original one would think but it just goes to show it is easy for one to be wrong. In 1823, a noble gent (may he be blessed whereever he is) by the name of James Pimm put together a combination of gin, orange, vermouth and some spices. He called it Pimms No. 1. And ever since, it has been refreshing people's minds, bodies and souls.

Pimms No. 1 is best enjoyed with cold lemonade and ice mixed in a pitcher. I believe it is now being positioned as a "younger" drink by its now owner Diageo, trying to move away from its original promise of being a slightly aristocratic English summer drink. To me it ranks amongst my top 5 choices of beverage any time of the year.

The joy of fresh herbs

The fresh basil resulted in the fairly decent basil pesto seen above





A tomato - feta salad seasoned with some olive oil and fresh oregano





Accompanied with bread generously layered with home made garlic - oregano butter




A sweet treat to finish off...Nigella Lawson's easy & handy mars bar crispy choco cake

Ocimum basilicum

It is a tender low-growing herb that is grown as a perennial in warm, tropical climates. It is originally native to India and other tropical regions of Asia having been cultivated there for more than 5,000 years. It is prominently featured in varied cuisines throughout the world including Italian, Thai, Vietnamese and Laotian

So imagine my delight when I stopped by Namdhari's (chic, organic vegetable & fruit store) today on my way to work just on the off chance that they may have some interesting & fresh herbs and to my absolute delight, I found neatly stacked and fresh little bundles of Italian basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme, sage and oregano! I spent ten minutes just sniffing and admiring all the herbs, thus drawing dubious looks from the man at the counter. I left with 2 bundles of fresh Italian basil.

Pesto alla genovese in its classic basic form has Genoese basil, salt, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and Pecorino Sardo cheese. Many variants have been elaborated within the genoese cuisine by adding extra ingredients like pine nuts, walnuts and curd or ricotta cheese. Parmesan cheese or Pecorino Romano cheese can be used instead of the pecorino sardo cheese.

Ah joy!

Chocolate Caramel Crispy Cakes

Easily my favourite television channel, Discovery Travel & Living goes to the places I want to go to & shows me the kind of food I want to eat & cook. One among the many great shows on the channel is Nigella Feasts. The absolutely gorgeous Nigella Lawson cooks up some great food and has me eating out of the palm of her hand. One such little sweet delight I tried last evening is an anytime-of-day chocolate snack. Simple and easy to make, these things are delicious.

What you need:

• 8 to 10 Mars bars
  
• Half cup cooking butter (unsalted)
  
• 1 half bag of plain Kellogs cornflakes
  
• 1 bag of plain, unsalted cashews (diced) or unsalted peanuts

The How:

• Heat a large pot for a couple of minutes and add in the unsalted butter
• As the butter begins to melt, begin to break your Mars bars into smaller than bite size bits and toss them into the pot, stirring the chocolate into the butter (make sure you're not tossing the chocolate in straight from the refrigerator because you'll be stirring all day waiting for it to melt)
• Continue this process of stirring in the chocolate while ensuring it melts with the pot on fairly low flame
• Once all your chocolate is in and is turning into a nice, gooey mix increase the flame slightly and keep stirring to make the mix as smooth as possible
• The chocolate should now be a nice, thick batter. Allow it to cool for a few minutes and add the half bag of cornflakes and nuts of your choice into the mix
• Stir well and ensure the cornflakes & nuts are mixed into all parts of the chocolate
  
• Divide the now thicker mix into small roundish portions into little paper cup cake holders or if you don't have those, shape them into rough roundish shapes with your hand and place them individually on a tray of cooking foil
  
• Allow these to cool in your freezer for around 3 hours or so and you have a delicious, gooey, crunchy tray of chocolate caramel crispy cakes! Ummm!
  

Fettucine Carbonara

Fettucine Carbonara is a classic pasta preparation, as simple in preparation as it is elegant to behold; as much fun to make as it is delicious to tuck into.

A good carbonara should be made in 3 parts: getting the pasta just right, the right consistency & flavour in the sauce and ensuring the bacon, shallots & onions are stir fried just so. Its essential that all 3 parts are cooked separately and put together just before being served to your delighted guests. Almost anyone who can find their way around a basic kitchen can cook this dish - whether its a fancy, candlelit dinner for that someone special, a good old binge with many hungry stomachs or a stress free, success-guaranteed dinner for a night of the big game.

The key, as with cooking most things that border along what people would call "something fancy'', is the ingredients & getting them right. For a good Fettucine Carbonara we need the following:

• Fettucine (in case you didn't know that already) Oh and please don't try to compromise on this by using tagliatelle because it looks similar or penne because that's the first thing you saw
  
• 4 Shallots chopped fine (ok in case you're unable to find shallots make do with white onions. Shallots are prefered because they give your pasta just the right flavouring without making it too pungent and killing the sauce)
  
• One small onion chopped fine
• 4 garlic cloves chopped fine
• Olive Oil (don't ask me how much...olive oil is one of the world's greatest discoveries...one can never have enough at home)
  
• Capers (that's right...capers. You'll have to hunt for them but it won't taste the same without 'em)
  
• 500 gms Bacon strips cut into bite size pieces
• 4 egg yolks, 1 big bowl of Parmesan cheese grated fine & 1 cup fresh cream all beaten together to form a nice, thick sauce. Throw in some garlic & a hint of basil & capers for flavour. Some olive oil & salt to taste

Ok so now three easy steps toward a great pasta:

• Put the fettucine to boil in pre heated water that's been combined with a generous amount of olive oil & salt - that should take about 15 mins max. to cook
  
• Put a skillet on high flame, throw in a generous amount of olive oil and when you see the smoke rising from your pan, throw in the shallots, onions & garlic along with some chilli flakes, salt & oregano. Keep stirring till the shallots begin to turn golden
• Now throw in some more oil & the bacon strips. Make sure there is enough oil for the bacon to sizzle nicely. Cook the bacon till its nice & crispy. Be patient here. There's plenty of moisture in the bacon so you have to stand guard over the pan for a bit
• Once the bacon, shallots & onions are nice & crispy, switch off the heat
• Gently heat the sauce you have already made...stirring to remove any lumps only till its warm. Don't overheat...remember you have fresh cream in there!
  

To Serve:

• I like doing this fancy...so separate servings for each person who wants some of this delicious fettucine
• Dole out a (what is by your standards) normal serving of pasta in a bowl
• Combine with the fried bacon & shallots and mix well
• Add the sauce generously and mix well - garnish with capers, some basil & chilli flakes if you like it spicey
• If you want a bit of panache thrown in, serve some steamed runner beans, brussel sprouts or asparagus with the pasta
• A little bread with garlic butter never hurt anyone right so have a portion of that waiting on the table
• A nice white wine would obviously add to the experience but that's your call

That's it. Simple, quick & elegant - Fettucine Carbonara as the World Café would do it!