Food Wine Sleep

Perhaps passé and old (and sometimes forgotten) tradition, but, if not only for nostalgia sake, Sulze (German), 'en gelee' (French) or aspics are still great appetizers. Certainly, for a dedicated Garde Manger Chef, the preparation of aspics is a close seconds to the art of preparing Terrines, Galantines and the most famously, the Pate. Using too much gelatin and it becomes a bouncy jelly, not enough of it and the aspic will fall apart. The trick of the whole matter is that the stock, meat or fish needs to be really tasty and flavorful in order to produce the aspic. If not, it becomes a dull and uninteresting jelly and a far cry of what our culinary forefathers created...

Ox cheek, I can see you scrunching up your nose in disgust as you read that, but trust me once you've tried it you'll be wondering why you haven't been eating it all along and why you can't get it everywhere. Or maybe you are already familiar with ox cheeks and are here to get another recipe for this fabulous ingredient. This recipe, as most great classic dishes, was probably created out of sheer economic necessity. Necessity of peasants who could not afford to be wasteful with any part of the animal and had to ensure that everything went to some sort of use. With these humble beginnings, I find it rather interesting to note that dishes like this are now only found on...

My grandfather has always raised rabbits, for sale and own use, on his farm. Growing up, I was introduced to rabbit as an alternative meat to chicken or pork. A few years ago then, at the height of the BSE scandal in Europe and the outbreak of Foot & Mouth disease in some farms, rabbit meat was actively marketed and gained popularity again. Rabbit has a wonderful tasty, delicate white meat. Depending on the tenderness of the legs they are suitable for pan-frying and roasting, but in general they are best braised to tenderness. The delicate loins are excellent grilled or roasted and in salads. The shoulder have little meat and are mostly boned and the meat used for...

Caesar salad is perhaps the most popular and wide spread salad anywhere. I don't think I have worked in an establishment where Caesar salad wasn't served in one form or another. Invented by the Italian Caesar Cardini, in a restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico. The story is, that on a holiday weekend in 1924 supplies were running short and in a last minute improvisation Caesar said to one of his staff: "Take all of these ingredients to the table and make a real ceremony out of preparing that salad. I want the guest to feel that they are getting the house speciality prepared for them". So it happened and perhaps the most famous of salads today was born, "prepared a...

Recipes for Chermoula come in all kind of different variations and flavours. This particular recipe, is well suited for seafood, fish or poultry and the use of fresh and dried coriander gives it such a great fragrant 'kick'. It is also great for basting onto your BBQ meat, as an dip for grilled poultry and fish and for 'en papilotte' type of prepeartions.

This is a dish that I serve even to my friends that don't like liver. I threaten them with no main course if they don't at least try it. They usually reply, "But I don't like liver!" I tell them "Try it and if you don't like it, no problem." Nine times out of ten, to their surprise they enjoy it and clean their plate. You see, most people have a memory of liver served to us as children, it was usually overcooked and usually served with nothing more than some spuds and veg. Liver is like butter, it's very complimentary but not a dish on its own. In this dish you'll see that I have: tender liver, slightly bitter radicchio, juicy eschalots and sweet b...

If you want to truly wow you guests with an impressive dish while at the same time amazing yourself with a recipes simplicity, then look no further than this great little recipe. It is a dish that is truly perfect for a summer dinner party and a perfect example of the less you mess with food the better it can be. The fresh crab meat is delicate and slightly decadent, the ginger a zesty but subtle complement, the in season avocado a light yet substantial foundation and the freshly cut baby herbs the perfectly simple and understated bit of sophistication. As with most good recipes, the key to this dish is the sum of its parts and you will be rewarded if you take the time to...

This is a great little recipe to pull out as a simple yet impressive canape next time you want to make an impression. All the ingredients are pretty easy to find although the trip to your local fish market for the fresh cooked crab meat is the key. Do not use crab that has ever been frozen, or canned. At a stretch, the pasteurised stuff in the refrigerated section of your local supermarket or deli can be used, but really the only choice for me is fresh cooked.

This recipe has been with me for a while and I am using it in small cakes for cocktail parties or as an appetizers. It actually was given to me by my colleague Liana Doyle with whom I had the pleasure to work with a few years ago. The tender texture and the sweetness of the crabmeat combined with the mild spicyness of the Cajun spice and the tabasco is what I like on it. Feel free to add more Tabasco and chilli sauce as you like, it is really up to everyonce individual taste. The quality of the crabmeat is very important for the final product to come out right. I like to use pasteurized lump crabmeat, for the crab cakes. These crabcakes are best served with either a salsa...

Most likely originally developed to use up stale bread, this salad is a hearty alternative to most other and unfortunately all too often unsatisfying salads. Serve it with a nice grilled fish, or marinated chicken and you have a complete and also very healthy meal.

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.

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.

These individual chocolate marbled cheesecakes are easy to do, simple to assemble and very versatile.

As I've said before, "I love spring!" A time when menus virtually write themselves. How can one not incorporate strawberries, raspberries, boysenberries and blueberries into at least one course of a dinner menu. In this dish I've steeped more than stewed; blueberries, raspberries and boysenberries in a light sugar syrup to accompany the delicate panna cotta. Even if I'm only cooking for four I still tend to make this recipe for six, a little snack for the cook pre dinner...ssshhhh.

Gnocchi were originally served as an extra course or pasta/warm appetizer course during a traditional Italian meal. These days they are often used as an starch / side dish to main courses. Gnocchi are fairly easy to prepare, can be done ahead of time. They are very versatile in the sense that they can be flavored with anything from Spinach to smoked salmon and because they are fairly bland in it's original taste they suit any sauce that they may be served with.

A correct flaky, buttery and light puff pastry or 'Pate feuilletee' is the most important ingredient to so many dessert and savory dishes. Preparing and baking the puff pastry takes some practice, is fairly time consuming and tedious process, but the final product will be so much more rewarding, whether you are making a vol-en-vent, mille-feuille or the famous Napoleon.

A Chef I used to work with once said, 'A jus prepared correctly and served with a crusty bread roll is a 5 star meal to me.' In fact I've seen many a Chef call that dinner. Usually when the head Chef wasn't looking of course. Jus's are like liquid gold in restaurant kitchens. Most kitchens have one stove and sometimes even entire kitchens designated to the slow process of making these decadent sauces. First the veal bones are roasted golden brown in high temperature ovens, then the vegetables are chopped, herbs are selected and then it's all put in a pot and covered with water and simmered for days on end. The resulting stock is then, strained numerous times, red wine is...

I still am blown away by how many people keep salt and pepper on their dining or kitchen table. Personally I keep my salt and pepper in one place, right next to the stove where it belongs! If the Chef does his or her job properly, that is the only place it should need to be as the seasoning should already be in the meal. Wherever you stand on the salt and pepper issue, I think we can all agree that in this dish, the more the better!

The inspiration for this dish comes from an old booklet I bought when I was just starting my apprenticeship as a chef. Good cookbooks were very expensive and I could not always afford them so I bought myself this little paperback booklet dedicated to 'Western Cooking' meaning the fare of the cowboys, the Midwest and Indians. Just recently while cleaning up some of my old stuff, in stored in boxes, I came across this little booklet and found a coffee rub for steaks in it. Although the recipe in the booklet was much simpler, I liked the taste and the general idea of it and so, this is how, an amended version of it I now use with pork chops for BBQ's or as a rub when roastin...

A real summer specialty. The idea was to recreate the Italian favourite of aged Balsamico vinegar as an accompaniment to marinated strawberries as an mocktail. The thickened, reduced balsamic vinegar can also be replaced by a side order of pure Balsamico, where a guest can flavor their own strawberry honey juice to their liking. Please ensure that you use very ripe and full flavoured strawberries and a good quality honey. If you want to make this an alcoholic drink, replace the water with sparkling alcoholic cider.

The light texture of the homemade tart shell and the natural sweetness of the strawberries, make this tart a great choice for a lovely Morning Tea or High Tea. It can even be a delicious Dessert after a dinner of heavy meats and rich sauces. If however you are enjoying it for Morning Tea, High Tea or following a not so rich meal it can be made a little more indulgent by adding some whipped or double cream on the side. This recipe uses an incredible amount of strawberries and as such I wouldn't recommend making it outside of berry season as it can get expensive.

This dish was taught to me by a good friend and Swedish chef. Ever since then, around Christmas time, when attending quite a number of pre-Christmas parties that are 'potluck', meaning they require all participants to bring a dish along, I make this Swedish lax pudding. It is so simple, needs little to none care except reheating and is always well liked. As often the case with traditional recipes there are no strict rules and therefore instead of salted salmon one could easily use cold smoked salmon or even raw, sautéed salmon and the dish would taste just as good.