ddelima

Great dishers everyone! Same as FrogPrincesse, some backlog but here we go: Afogado... which is basically a typical Brazilian dish learned from my grandma. Beef ribs cooked with water, seasonings and potatoes in the pressure cooker. Served with rice, hot pepper and corn flour. Bacon & Egg Ice Cream served with maple syrup. Margherita Pizza. Tuna Pizza, my favorite. Bacalhau (Salt Cod) Risoto. Duck Breast Sous Vide with Cointreau Sauce and Lemon Risoto. Pinot Noir Infused Pear, cooked sous vide at 80C for one hour.

As of yesterday I am the new owner of a plow disc or "disco de arado" as they say in Brazil. My first meal using the disc was rice with panceta, chicken breast and zucchini. Everything cooked with lard. The next meal will be an authentic Brazilian/Gaucho dish called "Arroz Torrecilha" made with pork belly. Here are some pics from yesterday: Cheers!

Hello e-gullet friends. Greetings from Brazil. I've been away for a few weeks in process of relocating from US to Brazil as part of a new work assignment. I will be sharing my culinary findings in Brazil from now on as my wife and I settle down here. My cooking gadgets are somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean being shipped to my new home in Brazil but I've already managed to started cooking down here starting this past weekend during a trip to the coast with friends. Let's go to what matters: Sole Ceviche / Ceviche de Linguado Salted Shrimp / Camarão à Paulista Seafood Gumbo / Caldeirada * Edited for a typo.

Hi Kim, Wings are my addition! Yours look great. The fried polenta was one of the best I've ever had. Can't really go wrong with good Italian polenta, heavy cream, butter and chicken broth. Crispy on the outside and almost melting on the inside. If I have one advice on this is get a good polenta. I used Moretti. The chicken was good but a little too salty to my taste. Since it was my first time using this recipe I used the exact recommended quantities and brine time. While the outside crust was great and well seasoned, the meat (specially the white meat) was more salty that I liked. The lemon and salt quantity on the brine could be reduced by half in my opinion. Definitely worth it, I hope to make it again soon.

dcarch... you food and plating ideas are just amazing. Prima Dona Gratin Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Crispy Polenta – both from Thomas Ad Hoc at Home book

Lots of seafood and grilled meats... can't beat warm weather and the great food that comes along with it. To maintain my family tradition of eating gnocchi every 29th of the month today we had Gnocchi with Pancetta & Peas Cream Sauce. Many believe the tale of the gnocchi of fortune is the hope and the opportunity to share a meal with friends and family and bring good fortune. The ritual is that you put a bill of any value under the dish with gnocchi. Then stand up and and eat seven pieces of gnocchi. For each gnocchi, make a different wish. Then sit back and enjoy the rest of the dish, preferably with a good Italian wine and good company. Does anyone else shares the same tradition?

Bruce – great idea with the ricotta, tomato sauce and a dash of chile sauce. RRO – Avocado and octopus topped with lime juice must have been a nice treat. Kayb – Wow, the color on that egg is so intense! I found fresh morels yesterday at the Detroit Eastern Market and couldn’t resist the temptation. Today I made Omelet with Morels in Cream Sauce.

French Toast (for her) and Chorizo French Toast (for me). For the chorizo toast I used the new recipe just published by the Modernst Cuisine. While I liked the flavor of the chorizo/milk infusion I didn't care much for the amount of liquid the toast retained in the middle. I am certain that a vacuum chamber would resolve this problem. Nevertheless if you are looking for something different you should try it.

Franci, thanks for sharing a little bit of your day-to-day with us. Great pictures, looking forward to what is yet to come. I have on my wish list to visit Monaco and watch a F1 GP there.

Nice salad, along with the same theme last night we made a salad, my favorite by the way. It brings me so many good memories of my childhood in Brazil. It was a tradition and still is to have this salad at a Italian restaurant named La Bolognesa in my home town near my parents home. No special dressing, just a good olive oil, salt and pepper. I lost count how many times I've had this salad growing up and still today every time I am visiting my family I try to stop by and have this salad accompanied by manzo alla parmigiana which steak served with tomato sauce and melted mozzarella cheese.

Hey Phil, welcome to egullet! My kind of comfort food as well. For 2 servings I used 1/2 cup of arborio, 1 tsp of smoked paprika, 1 1/2 cup of water, chicken or vegetable broth, 1/2 can of tomato sauce (approx. 200 grams), 1 link of Spanish chorizo cut in small pieces (approx. 100 grams), 6 diced sweet piquanté peppers, chopped onion, garlic and s&p to your taste. Sweat onions and garlic with olive oil or butter. Add chorizo and cook on medium heat for a few minutes. Add paprika, rice, tomato sauce, water or broth. Bring to a boil and then cook low heat uncovered for about 30 minutes. I chose not to stir the rice every couple of minutes like I do for risotto since on this method all the water was added at once. Once you've reached rice doneness to your liking, add the peppers and serve. It was my first time using piquanté peppers. They will give a sweet and mild heat taste, perfect combination for chorizo. Let me know how it goes! *edited for larger font size.

Arroz con Chorizo y Pimentos. I coud eat chorizo everyday....

Kim Shook: your croque madame looks great, how was it taste wise? Pork and pineapple go so well together! menuinprogress: beautiful salad, what dressing did you use? mm84321 & David Ross: I'm starving for some morel because of you ;-)

Cod with Vanilla Butter, Roasted Potato Stacks and Sauteed Broccolini

Braised Short Ribs with Carrot Puree and Shiitake. Recipe inspired by Stephane with zencancook.com. Ribs were marinated in red wine reduced with vegetables and cooked SV at 60C for 72hs. Tender, moist and perfectly pink inside.

Marinated Cod with Brussel Sprouts and Mashed Potatoes Cod was marinated in basil, garlic, olive oil and then pan fried. Brussel sprouts were tossed in balsamic vinegar, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Baked in a 375F oven for 20 minutes. I now need to provide my mashed potatoes skills...

I just read this article at The Washing Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trace-chemicals-in-everyday-food-packaging-cause-worry-over-cumulative-threat/2012/04/16/gIQAUILvMT_story.html I wonder what the effects of plastic are for sous vide type of cooking... Not super concerned but definitely something I would like to know more about. Does anyone share the same concers or know more about the subject?

Hi Kim, guess what, no SV this time. My machine is busy cooking some short ribs I cooked the egg using a small 6" fry pan with 1/2 tablespoon of melted butter. I usually crack the egg into a ramekin as it helps preserving the yolk intact and it is easier to transfer to the pan. Add the egg and cook for for about 2 minutes. Add 1/2 tablespoon of water, cover the pan and cook for 2-3 more minutes. The vapor from the water will solidify the white and cook the yolk. Voilà you got yourself a runny yolk egg. To finish I used a muffin tin to cut the excess white and have a round egg. I hope you try this technique and let me know if it works.

Great meals everyone and that ocean view, OMG! Croissant Croque Madame

Hi NancyH, I did not notice the presence of rings around their necks but they could very well be there. I was so astonished to see that and thinking "this must be the smartest guy in the world!" that I didn't see anything else :-) It would be great if would have could that on video...

Warm Arugula Salad with Liquid Center Egg and Sous Vide Chicken Breast. Chicken breast was seasoned with salt and pepper, rolled in a plastic wrap and cooked SV for 64.5C/35 min. Then finished until crispy on the outside on a pan with duck fat, butter, one glove of garlic and thyme. The eggs were cooked SV for 62C/30 min following the Modernist Cuisine - volume 5 recipe. After SV the eggs were soaked for 12hs in a beet juice and red port wine. Taste wise it turned out just the way I wanted but the eggs did not keep the nice color from the reed beet juice and port wine although the taste stayed. My mistake is that I tried to reheat the peeled eggs on a SV bath before serving, and that discolored them. Oh well, next time I know they need to be reheated with the peel still on. Here is the eggs right after peeling, before reheating:

Ni hao! I recently came back from a business trip to China. Here are some pictures of the food I had, some places I visited and the description of each meal to the best of my habilities. I was lucky that the folks that were traveling with me like to eat too, some were native Chinese and as you can tell from the pictures adventurous eaters as well. I landed in Shanghai and headed to Ningbo where I spent three days, from Ningbo I went to Hangzhou for a day and from there back to Shanghai for four days. The last stop of the trip was Shengzhen which is located two hours North of Hong Kong. First dinner was at the rooftop of the Nanyuan Hotel in Ningbo. This is the view from the rooftop. Chicken soup to start the meal. Very light and balanced, seasoned with ginger and other spices and cooked for a long time. The intent is that you drink the broth while eating the chicken is optional. Chicken and vegetable rolls. Not much meat at all but lots of delicious crispy skin. Sea cucumber, rice cake and vegetables. I learned that I'm not a big fan of sea cucumber, just couldn't get passed that gummy texture. Crab soup with tofu. Our next stop for dinner was a new 5 star resort named Park Hyatt Ningbo Resort that opened in January 2010 in Ningbo by Dong Qian Lake. Very impressive infra-structure and lots of visitors on business and pleasure. The service and dinner setting was exceptional as well as the food. Lake view across the hotel lobby. I couldn't resist and had to visit the kitchen before dinner started. The chef was really proud of his work and despite our communication barriers he showed me around his work stations and some of the food he would be preparing that night. Wok action as its best! Steamed fish, very tender and delicate, catch of the day at the lake nearing the hotel. More fish, in a rich nutty sauce. Very good and served towards the end of the meal. My favorite, braised pork belly, served with bok choy and steamed buns. "Light lunch" in a downtown Hangzhou restaurant. Before the food, a quick look at the fresh ingredients :-) Starting wit duck tongue. Very common and found almost everywhere in China from highway rest stops to fine dinning restaurants. Goes really well with beer as a snack. Lotus root filled with rice and cooked with a sweet sauce. Jelly fish, also a very common dish, usually served cold. Smoked bean sprouts. Fish soup, one of many versions. Very good. Crispy fried pork with almond, asparagus and bean sauce. More slow cooked pork belly goodness. Served with white rice. One thing very interesting is that it does not matter how many courses are served (20+ not uncommon) the meal does not end until you are served white or fried rice or a noodle soup followed by fresh fruits. Still in Hangzhou had dinner at a restaurant facing the West Lake, surrounded by mountains and threes. Crab soup to start. Served in a orange and seasoned with curry and cilantro. This cold dish is an assortment of duck cuts. From what I can remember it included egg, duck legs, duck wings and smoked tofu. Goose liver. Very very rich in taste. This was an eccentric one to say the least... and tasted quite different than what I expected it to. It's the ovaries of some kind of special lake frog, stuffed inside of a warm papaya. It was lightly sweet, more like a dessert. Deep fried shrimp cake Back to Shanghai had lunch at a restaurant in a shopping mall attached to my hotel. I was warned it was going to be spicy food and indeed it was. Sweet papaya cooked on its own milk. This was a great dish to have in between courses in order to help balance all the spices. Rice noodles with spices and ground peanuts. Pork feet with peppers. Very spicy. Frog and bamboo soup. Pork with sticky rice Spicy shrimp skewers Scallop with noodles an garlic. My favorite course during lunch. Celery and turnip or bamboo (not sure which...) Me with picking up peanuts with the giant chopsticks. Sticky rice soup to end the meal. Dinner was in downtown Shanghai, traditional Shanghai cuisine. Some of my favorite courses were the fried fish and duck soup. Duck soup with bamboo. Very good. And this is my favorite character from the Chinese alfabet :-) Walking around the streets of Shanghai and came across this fried food paradise. The owner was picture shy but allowed me to take a picture of her. Another dinner in Shanghai. This time a coworker and I, zero Chinese speaking skills. We managed to order dinner at a Korean barbecue joint and it was fairly decent. Beef ribs, pork belly, chicken heart and smoked duck breast. The smoked duck breast goes really well on the gril eaten with some powder spices seasoning and wrapped with a lettuce leave. The next day we were off work duties and traveled to Nanxum District in the province of Zhejiang to do some sightseeing. After one hour of fighting heavy traffic out of Shanghai and one more hour in the highway we got there. Zhejiang is a town stablished in the 13th century and preserved from modern civilization. Most of the buildings, gardens and houses remain intact since. Plenty of street food offerings. Chicken feet and pork knuckles. Fried "stinky" tofu. Noodle shop. A butcher. Vegetables market. A rice wine producer and shop. After I took this picture I could not believe what was about to happen. The fisherman came on board his little boat, grabbed each bird by the neck and threw them in the water. After that using a bamboo stick he started splashing the water near the birds. That was the signal for the birds to go deep dive fishing. A few seconds later the birds submerged one at a time with the mouth full of fish. The fisherman then grabbed each bird by the neck from the water to the boat and with a shaking movement the fish regurgitated the fish to his fish basket. I could not believe my eyes!!! I later googled it and found many sources on the Internet talking about these Chinese fisherman. I also learned these birds are called Cormorant. Our last meal while in Shanghai was at an ordinary Hong Kong style restaurant. Crispy pork belly with spicy mustard and sugar. Bean sprouts with soy sauce. Fried rice with chicken to end the meal. After I left Shanghai the last stop was Shengzhen. While there visiting a company we do business with I came to find out that they are as well in the food business and are a manufacturer of small appliances. Amongst their product line were small countertop ovens. This picture of baked cookies tested for doneness was taken inside of one of their labs. That day were also testing appliances for popcorn, pizza and liquid nacho cheese... Glad I did not have to eat any of that :-) Last stop of the trip was in Hong Kong to catch my flight back home. Lots of seafood and pork as well. One outstanding dish, that deserved a picture was this sesame ice cream. Very delicious and a first for me. And this pretty much summarizes my last two weeks (from a food standpoint). Cheers!

Thanks LindaK. I used the two spoons method to form them on this shape. I thought it was more interesting than a ball shaped fritter. Very simple and I hope you can try it next time you make cod fritters.

Cod Fritters or Bolinho de Bacalhau like we say at home. Pretty straight forward recipe, using one mashed potato and one lb of shredded cod to ensure it can be formed in to any shape you want. Added some nutmeg, two egg yolks, two whipped egg whites, parsley and fresh ground pepper.

Butternut Squash Tortellini with Cranberry and Walnuts Brown Butter Sauce Raw Kibbeh