Food Wine Sleep

I know it's not overly creative of me, but hey can I help it if throwing mascarpone at any fresh fruit makes a wonderful dessert all on its own. Thank god for the Italians; they've created perfection in so many simple ingredients that lazy Chefs like me can impress with very little effort. With that said, I did stew the fruit and toast the almonds.

If you love Chocolate (yeah right who doesn't?) and Creme Brulee, then you'll love this recipe. The option is yours as to whether you want to caramelise sugar on top of the finished product as it is equally delicious without it. Keep in mind however that then it would technically not be a creme brulee, as the words literally translated mean cream burnt. Anyhow enough useless facts, on with the recipe.

You will feel guilty after eating some of this chocolate cake. 'Chocoholics' and chocolate fanatics love the rich, smooth and creamy texture and the full flavor of bitter sweet chocolate. I prefer to use Valrhona chocolate for this recipe, but if it's not available use a good quality high cocoa butter content dark chocolate.

Crème brulé is perhaps one of the most popular desserts anywhere. There are some recipes of it already on Chef's pencil, but I still wanted to share mine as well. This recipe for crème brulé has an Asian twist as that the cream is infused with ginger. I feel that ginger, although in general mostly used for hot savoury dishes, adapts very well to custards and cream and adds that little bit of spice in life I am sometimes looking for. If you can get Muscovado sugar please try this with it. It really does have a different taste to it and balances great with the ginger.

Kilawin or kinilaw is a traditional Filipino dish of marinated/cured fish or seafood in vinegar and a souring agent such as the juice of calamansi or Kamias. Calamansi is a small citrus fruits, which grows throughout South East Asia and the juice of it suits this dish much better than lime, as it is still fairly acid but has a distinctively fruity flavor. I personally like Kilawin of tuna the best, simply because the quality of the tuna available in the Philippines is second to none.

The Philippines pride themselves to have the best Mangoes. In parts I must agree, a Philippine "Carabao" mango, just at the peak of it's ripeness is both sweet with the right amount of acidity and very juicy. At that time the Philippine mango certainly is one of the best in the world. This salsa recipe is great with barbecued fish, seafood or chicken. I often use it as an accompaniment with Cajun spiced seared tuna or chili dusted prawns, and it also makes a great condiment with deep-fried oysters.

I love this salad for summer time, warm weather, picnic's and when friends come over for a swim by the pool. It is very simple, quickly done, and refreshing. It is a meal in itself, perfect for busy people wanting to do something quick and light and for those of us who want to watch the calorie intake. I'll do several variations of it, with Cajun-fried shrimps, grilled salmon, stir-fried squid or a combination of it; whatever I have handy or feel like eating. Medium roasted warm sirloin of beef is also a nice option, although a Balsamic or a red wine vinegar dressing would then suit better than the lemon-olive oil emulsion required in this recipe.

I created this dish some time back while browsing the fridge, (to be honest I was giving the fridge the weekly clean and got hungry in the mean time). I looked in the crisper drawer and found a couple heads of radicchio lettuce, 'what can I do with these' I thought. I moved to the cheese drawer and found a little piece of neglected blue cheese, it had been over looked for the last few cheese platters due to its small size, but this neglect had also meant it had aged nicely. 'Blue cheese and radicchio, bitey and bitter' I thought. 'Better get something a little sweet to balance it a touch.' I went to the pantry and pulled out a few handfuls of walnuts tossed them in a pan...

As it goes sometimes in the kitchen, a cocktail party had a bit of an over flow on guests and we needed to prepare some extra items. In the hurry, and with the guests waiting, I used anything I could get my hands on. Mostly items that were ingredients for the one or the other a la carte dish currently on our menu. The guests were so happy with these little dishes, that they actually are now featured on our cocktail menu offering.

I think most people have very fond memories of the Sunday roast dinner at a loved ones. Remember those vegetables; just thinking of them makes me wish I was there right now. Well with this recipe you can bring those memories directly to your taste buds on a regular basis without having to worry about all those relatives and all the trimmings. I have added a few extra varieties of vegetables for colour and texture. Probably slightly different from how your grandmother did it, but equally tasty and also a slightly healthier way to have them.