Jamies Italian restaurant in Glasgow

As you can see, I did a bit of a roundtrip in Scotland recently and tried wonderful places.
So, I came across Jamie Oliver's Glasgow restaurant and gave it a try.
It was incredibly busy which is not suprising as everyone wants a piece of Jamie, or at least his cuisine.
The waiters were friendly, the restaurant was beautifully decorated. I ordered squid as a starter with a garlic mayonnaise and the tagliatelle with truffels.
WHen the squid arrived, about half of them were over-fried and dark brown and very, very crisp. Some might like that but for me, the reason why I order seafood is to enjoy the delicate flavor and not the burned oil on it.
The mayonnaise was quite tasty.

My main was ok, the tagliatelle were cooked al dente and there were truffels on the dish, but I had to order parmesan twice, which to my surprise I was not allowed to hold on to but only was served with it. I felt the dish had no base, a vine cream sauce would have been a good foundation for this simple dish which would have been spicked up by truffel oil and some truffels on top. Unfortunately, there was neither truffel oil nor while wine to taste, the dish simply had no sauce holding it together. The parmesan did that for me in the end.

As a dessert, I ordered a brownie with raspberry and vanilly ice scream which was delicious. Dark chocolate and raspberries gave it a wonderful fresh twist.

Overall, not a Jamie-worthy experience but a nice restaurant to go to without too many expectations. But after all, Jamie can't cook everywhere.

Nico Restaurant in Inverness - Scotland

My family has brought forth many great cooks, so I believe I am quite spoilt when it comes to taste, especially with dishes that were signatures to my family cooks.
I recently went to Inverness in Scotland, a beautiful little town with bouncy bridges, tattoos walking through the streets and a river with a standing wave, and while being there went to Nico's.
It is a small enough restaurant that also functions at the hotel's restaurant where it is located. As we had not reserved, we were asked to wait in the bar next door which was decorated with old couches and kettles and horse riding equipment on the walls. We had the menu brought over by the waiter to use the time to select a starter and a main dish which was served as soon as we got the table.

The starter, scallops on a bed of risotto with black pudding and crispy bacon was well arranged and a good size for a starter. The scallops literally melted in my mouth like butter and gave a great contrast to the peppery black pudding (which might have been a bit too peppery for some).

The main was a venisson with celeriac puree and a caramelized apple and also black pudding which seems to be a Scottish must have with every dinner. It was devine. The venisson was cooked perfectly to leave a pink center and melted on the tongue, paired with the caramelized apple and the puree it formed a wonderful combination in my mouth that almost convinced me that I had room enough in my stomach for ordering this superb dish once more.

Nico's restaurant is a must-go in Inverness, the only disappointing thing was that I was too full to enjoy their desserts.

When there is no parmesan in your fridge...

Recently, I made a little pasta dish with lots of garlic and diced ham, oil and rosemary and wanted to top it off with parmesan but found none in my fridge.
An easy thing to do it do use toast, pulsed in a food processor and drizzled over the dish like parmesan.
It will soak up the flavors and give the dish a crunch.
Enjoy.

Fleur du Sel

I believe that you should always go for the best in life, even in the small things.
I came across fleur du sel and the difference to normal salt is amazing. Fleur du sel is hand-picked at the Salines, the salt mines in France and other countries, it is only the best, clearest, biggest salt crystals on top of the salt mountains and it tastes delicious.
The taste of fleur du sel is much more mineral, less acidy and beautiful to eat by itself.

Try French versions of the goldest of the old gold of the world.

Berry Crumble

Today I made a delicious and very easy berry crumble which will make you day and only takes 30 min all together.

Incredients:
3 cups of berries such as blueberries, rasperries, strawberries, anything you like
1/2 cup flour
2/3 cups each sugar and oats
1/3 cup butter
lemon juice
salt
cinnemon

Mix the berries with 6 tsp flour and 3 tsp sugar and a splash of lemon juice and put into baking form.
Mix rest of flour, sugar, oats together with the butter, tsp of cinnemon and salt and kneed it until it becomes crumbly.

Drizzle over the berries and bake at 180 degrees until it is golden and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

Cheddar Fries Dallas style

I went to the US last week and had a wonderful time there, the food and service industry is amazing over there. Here in Germany, where I live, you have to beg a waiter or a shop assistance for attention.
While I was in Dallas, my friend Michelle introduced me to one of the 'will give you a heart attack but oh so delicious' local dishes, cheddar fries.

If your heart feels healthy enough, you can make them as follows:

Cut your potatos with skin on in regular fries shapes
Deep fry them at 350 for about 4 minutes
Layer them in a casserole dish with lots of shredded cheddar cheese in between and drizzle bacon and jalapenos on top
Bake for 3 minutes at 350 and serve hot with Ranch sauce

Low-fat Tiramisu

Whenever I feel a bit down and in need for a healthy-as-possible option for a chocolaty treat, Tiramisu is my favorite.
Tiramisu is Italian for 'pick me up' and I found a great low-fat version on the www.channel4.com website. My personal add-on tip, try fresh fruit such as blueberries or strawberries.

courtesy of www.channel4.com

Serves 4
Takes 15 minutes to make, plus chilling

* 8 trifle sponges, about 180g
* 1 tbsp instant espresso coffee powder
* 2 tbsp Tia Maria
* 2 x 250g tubs quark (virtually fat-free soft cheese)
* 2 tbsp golden caster sugar
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 2 tsp good-quality cocoa powder
* 18 mixed chocolate-covered coffee beans, chopped to serve

Nutritional Information
Per serving
416 kcals
7.6g fat (4.3g saturated)
22.8g protein
61.8g carbs
49.8g sugar
0.3g salt

Off to the US

I will pause my blog for a short period as I will be travelling to Boston and Dallas in the next week.
I will report back soon with food I found in the States.

What do you need meat for? Awesome bolognese sauce with tuna

Today was one of those days where I opened the fridge door and, at first glimpse, could not see anything much I could cook with.
I was hungry and not about to give up, so I started with the basics and I discovered a great bolognese sauce with capers and tuna.
Served hot with spaghetti, it tasted amazing, was done in 10 min and all from scratch.

For 2 people you will need:

3 cloves of garlic, sliced and diced
olive oil
1 can of tuna
onions, optional
soy sauce
capers
half a can of sliced tomatos, or 4tbs tomato ketchup
salt, pepper

Heat up a pan. Add garlic in to sizzle a little. Be careful to put in the other ingredients soon as to not roast the garlic too much.
add 1 tbs of capers and the tuna and saute for 1 min.
Add 4tbs each soy sauce and sliced tomatos or tomato ketchup.
Put cooked spaghetti on a plate, sauce on top and drizzle parmesan cheese.
Done. And it tastes delicious.

For your own delight, stay away from 'light'

Yes, I confess. I am one of those women who wants to loose weight, wants to loose weight, but of course is way too lazy to just go to the gym and work my butt off. So, what else to do?
Why not try to eat less instead and use those great light priducts on the market? They say that they have low fat or no fat, isn't that great?
No, it is not. Why?
Because what those light products try to hide behind the 'low fat' face is that, while they decrease the fat content, they put much more sugar into the product and most of the time, they don't have to mention that. This is why your low-fat jam could contain a bag of sugar extra, and on top of that even salt. Salt in a jam? Well, if you put so much sugar into something to make it low-fat, then it comes out so sweet that you need to balance it off with salt. In the end, you will consume less fat but more sugar, which turns into fat on your hips or stomach if you don't work out. And the extra sodium consumed is not only unhealthy for your heart but also for that ugly cellulite on your thights.
Bootom line: try to eat less but healthy foods and stay away from those light products.

So you think there is duck in your duck liver paté?

I just got back from one of the very upscale food markets in Munich where you can shop fantastic and high-quality foods, Galeria Kaufhof at Marienplatz.

I recently watched Gordon Ramsay's 'the f word' where they featured the force-feeding of geese in order to produce fois gras which is shocking! However, there is a Spanish, organic producer of fois gras and I wanted to see whether Kaufhof had it, or any other prganic, non-force fed version of it in stock.

They did not have any fois gras per se but I found tiny little boxes with different patés. As an aware buyer, I picked the 'poultry paté' from the shelf to check its ingredients and I was shocked: the very first item on the 'poultry paté' was PORK. That's not all, it was not only in there but also the main ingredients with whopping 30%, followed by bacon (in case you are getting as confused now as I was, I'm still talking about the poultry paté!), lots of stabilizers and taste enhancers (possibly to cover up the smell of pork in the poutlry paté) and then 17% chicken.
Wow. Let that sit a little. I grab a box from a shelf that shows a chicken on the cover and that is labelled as poultry paté which in the end has more pork and bacon in it than chicken?

But hold your breath, it gets worse.
Then I checked th other patés, such as duck, vanisson and veal.
The lucky winner amongst them with the same basic ingredients as mentioned for the poultry paté and with 17% of the meat it proclaimed to be was vanisson.
Both, the duck and the veal each had only 3% of duck or veal in it, besides tons of pork, bacon and taste enhancers.

How can this be? How can you label something as poultry ad then put more than 30% of pork meat and bacon in it?

Surprisingly enough, there was no pork paté to find anywhere on the shelf, but how would they be able to produce it anyways if all the pork and the bacon already go in other patés?

Bottom line: Read the list of ingredients, even, or maybe even more so, in posh supermarkets.

Featuring: Ina Garten

I would like to do a little feature about Mrs. Ina Garten, former owner of a specialty food store in the Hamptons, cook book writer, youtube'r' and center of attention in her own food network series 'Barefoot Contessa - back to basics'.
As I was wandering the internet for recipes about butternut squash, I came across Ina's website and her youtube.com making of a fabulous salad with roasted butternut squash, apples and cranberry vinegrette (which you can fin under http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP6kICNByqg).
Having built a little food empire over twenty years before selling her store in the Hamptons to her employees, she knows a lot about food, in a non-ponzy, down to earth way which appeals to me as much as to many 'private kitchen' cooks and cookettes.
If you want to read more about herself, recipes, her TV show, cookbooks and more, go to her website: http://www.barefootcontessa.com/
A truly remarkable all-round talent in the kitchen and in business.
Cook on, Contessa!

Butternut squash

Squash, the ultimate fall/winter incredient for a healthy dinner at home.
Needless to say that I have never cooked it before. But as I am not working at the moment, I will use my time to discover more about the butternut squash, it's food values and benefits and try some delicious recipes.
First, I want to know about the butternut squash, where does it come from, what is in it and what can you cook with it?
I was surprised to hear that butternut squash originated in Mexico, somehow I always imagined it to grow in more rustic, mid-western areas. More surprising, it grows on a vine and not on the ground. Also, would you believe it, it is a fruit and not a vegetable. Being a winter fruit full of fantastic sources of fibre, Vitamin C and A, magnesium and potassium, makes it a so-called superfood and the fact that you can store it in a dark, dry place for up to six months is fantastic. And as Gordon Ramsay learnt in French restaurant kitchens: Don't waste anything! So, roast the seeds in a pan and used the in salads or pasta dishes or as a little afternoon power snack.
After all this, why did I never cook squash before? I have no idea!

So, what can you do with butternut squash?
Besides delicious risotto and a multitude of different soups, combining it with ginger, chilli and honey, walnuts or pears, how about a salad?
Actually, I found an amazing recipe showcase on youtube for a salad with roasred butternut squash with apple and cranberry vinegrette by Ina Garten. And because I love to evolve from one topic to another and was impressed by her cooking, I went out and investigated a bit about Ina and will feature her in my next post.

It is all in the seaweed

When visiting friends in Ireland, I came across a brand new cookbook by an Irish GP, Dr. Prannie Rhatigan, which reintroduces a vegetable that has been almost forgotten: seaweed.
Now, you might know maki sushi, the tasty little Japanese sushi rolls with nori seaweed around them and say, 'sure, that tastes alright, but seaweed in my rice or spaghetti, I don't know'. Well, I didn't know either, so I went and investigated.
Apparently, seaweed was used daily in many UK and Irish households during most of the last century but then became more and more ignored as other food options from the continent, America or the New World arose.
Which is a shame as many health institutions and magazines point out.
The Guardian website pointed out these seven reasons for including seaweed into our daily diet (link to the article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2006/apr/15/healthandwellbeing.features)

1. Seaweed helps you digest (they even propose that seaweed should be used in white bread to help digest and to enrich the other-wise taste and nutritionally bland bread)

2. It is nutritious and low in calories. But that's not all! According to www.nutritiondata.com, Seaweed is high on Vitamin A and C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium and Vitamin K and E and is low on cholesterol. They also recommend using seaweed instead of salt to spice our food. However, be aware that seaweed is rich in Sodium, so use it as a substitute for salt.

3. May improve heart health. Animal testing gave first indications that Wakame can prevent high blood pressure and that brown seaweed even reduced a possible risk of a stroke. There was also a study on the most long-lived population of humans, the Okinawans, which showed that seaweed was among the 7 of 10 portions of vegetables they consume on a daily basis.

4. Great for detoxing. Yes, 'detox' is a marketing generated word which does not mean anything as your body can get rid of all the toxins itself, otherwise how would we survive?! But it sure is good to help the body doing that and seaweed seems to be a great little soldier in that battle. It gets rid of cadmium and lead, which you inhale with each cigarette (or with the one your neighbor smokes in your presents).

5. It might help you to regulate hormone, the chemical oestrogens that is. Chemical oestrogens can predispose people to breast cancer, for example. Kelp is suspected to help block these chemical hormones as it, like all seaweed, is high in lignans which transform into phytoestrogens in your body.

6. Helps you over that cold. Especially kelp has shown great healing power in reducing phlegm and in softening hardness. Furthermore, it supports urination and helps reducing those swollen patches under your eyes. You might want to try a seaweed shake as a little tonic against hangover.

7. It mixes well with other veggies. Given, it has a distinguished taste but it can be prepared in many ways and make a great match with other greens, in stews and salads or of course with sushi.
And another reason for the ladies: Seaweed is murmured to give wonderful, shining hair and glowing skin.

So, now we know that seaweed is good for you which leaves me with two questions before I embark on a seaweed explorer expedition:

1. Where do I get quality seaweed and does it have to be fresh or is dried just as good?
Experts say that dried seaweed contains as much of its nutritious values as the fresh one does, which is good news for me as I do not live close to the sea.
Please try to get a certified supplier of seaweed in order to ensure good quality.

My favorites:

Seaveg in Ireland
http://www.seaveg.co.uk/


Ironbound Island Seaweed in Maine, US
http://www.ironboundisland.com

Clearspring, award winning for their organic and traditional foods
http://www.clearspring.co.uk/


Super Sea Veg
http://www.newseaveg.com/

2. What can I cook with seaweed?
Here is a recipe feature on Dr. Rattigan’s website (http://www.prannie.com/seaweed%20kitchen%20home.html):
Sea spaghetti and cheese straws
For this recipe, use sea spaghetti and nori or bladder wrack
Serves 6
20g dried sea spaghetti
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
To make the pastry
75g  butter
75g  plain flour
75g  mature cheddar, grated
3/4 of a teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 of a teaspoon nori flakes or ground
bladder wrack
To prepare the sea spaghetti
1 Soak sea spaghetti in cold water for 30 minutes to
rehydrate, drain and place in bowl. Add lemon
juice and stir to coat.
2 Allow to marinate for 30 – 60 minutes.
3 Place in a steamer and steam until soft and similar
to al dente spaghetti. Depending on the thickness
of the seaweed this takes between 5 – 12 minutes.
4 Remove from the steamer. Pat dry with kitchen
paper.

TO PREPARE THE PASTRY
Place the butter, flour, cheese, mustard and nori
flakes in a food processor and pulse until the
ingredients form a ball. Wrap the dough in cling film
and refrigerate for 1 – 2 hours.
This recipe really maximizes the delicate flavor
of sea spaghetti and my advice is to make more
than you need; children love them and never
once have I had leftovers. Use bladder wrack if
available instead of nori for an additional subtle
nutty flavor. Prepare and cook as for nori.
sea spaghetti and cheese straws

COOK’S TIP
The straws are perfect for entertaining as they can be
prepared in advance and stored uncooked, either in
the fridge for 24 hours, or in the freezer until needed,
before popping them into the oven for ten minutes or
slightly longer if straight from the freezer.
WHEN READY TO BAKE STRAWS
1 Grease two baking trays.
2 Press and roll out the dough as thinly as possible
to a rectangle measuring about 15 x 30cm (6" x
12”).
3 Lay one strand of sea spaghetti out on the edge of
the dough and press it gently into the dough. Roll
the pressed sea spaghetti over just once, to barely
encase (see photograph above).
4 Cut into 7.5cm (3 inch) pieces and place on
baking tray. Repeat process with strands of sea
spaghetti until all the dough is used.
5 Chill in the freezer or fridge for 20 – 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5.
6 Bake for 10 minutes in the centre of the oven until
golden brown.
7 Remove and leave on baking tray for 2 minutes to
settle.
8 Carefully transfer to wire rack. Eat warm or cold.
For more great recipes and to order the beautifully illustrated cookbook by Dr. Rhatigan, please visit her website at http://www.prannie.com/seaweed%20kitchen%20home.html
or book a cooking class with her in Ireland under http://www.theorganiccentre.ie/node/1267
Seaweed, here I come!

Fantastic ideas for breakfast

Let's start with two all time favorites when it comes to breakfast, dishes which are made quickly and allow you to use up left overs.

Pain Perdu
It is an easy and delicious way of using one-day old white bread and you can make it either sweet or savory.
The base:
Mix one egg, milk and a pintch of salt in a small bowl.

For the sweet pain perdu, slice the bread into 1 inch slices and soak in the mix for 10 seconds.
Put into a hot pan and fry from both sides.
Mix jam of your choice with a bit of lemon juice and powder sugar.
Place bread on a plate and garnish with jam.

For the savory pain perdu, slice red onions in a pan with sugar until caramelized and golden brown. Add sliced mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and finely chopped chilli.
Pile mushrooms and onions on top of the bread and sprinkle with chives.

Another great savory starter is toast with chorizo sausage.
Dice chorizo sausage and fry in a pan, without any oil, until crisp. Add beans, canned or soaked in water over night. Wash and half cherry tomatoes and squash them before adding to the pan. This will release the flavor of the cherries into the pan-fry. Stir, add a pintch of sugar and season with rosemary, reduced balsamic vinegrette, salt and pepper.
In another pan, put some butter and a glove of garlic and roast the sliced bread until crisp.
Pile up the pan-fry onto the bread and top with basil.

Eggies in a basket
This classic recipie will garantee you a great breakfast for you and your favorite hot guy.
Buy medium sized, free-range eggs and large, sliced white bread.
Place the bread on a wooden board and cut out a square from the middle, removing about half of the bread's volume.
Heat pan and put in butter. Bread into the pan and roast on one side for a moment, then break one egg into each square of your bread slices. Wait until you can see through the egg that the side on the pan is turning white. Carefully use a stainless steel turner to gently slide under the bread and in one smooth and fast motion, flip the bread with the egg. Cook for another minute, touch the egg yolk slightly to insure that it stays soft and runny inside. Sprinkle salt pepper and chillis or cayenne pepper on top and serve immediately with freshly pressed oranje juice.

Kick-off

Petite Bouchee, small bites of food, is what I want this blog to be.
I want to write about great food I discovered in local restaurants, perfect evening-reads of wonderful food magazines, mouth-watering DVDs you must watch to delight your family with new recipies and all the other small bites in between.
I hope you will enjoy reading this blog as much as I will enjoy writing it.