Beet "zuppetta" with vanilla & basil gelato, balsamic and black pepper

I was going through folder of older pictures and found this dessert that I totally forgot about.
I love it..it's a little "out there", but be open and give it a try.

At the restaurant we made our own gelato, but what you can do, in a pinch, is to blend a handful of basil leaves with a couple spoonfuls of vanilla ice cream ( the richer and the fatter the better ), mix it in the rest of the pint and put it back in the freezer, till the end of the dinner.

The other prep you'll have to do ahead is to reduce the vinegar by placing 2 cups of balsamic into a skillet and reduce it to at least 50% over low heat.

Now, for the beet zuppetta, just peel your beet (s), diced them somewhat small and blend them with a bit of lemon juice and sugar adding a tiny bit of water if the blender screams for it.

That's it...just pour the beet in a glass, cup or bowl, scoop some gelato on it, drizzle with the reduction and add a basil leaf, touch of freshly ground black pepper and very few sea salt crystals.

Enjoy.

Lavender pork fillet

Spring is here and so is fresh, tender arugula...a great pairing to many proteins.

To me, when it comes to mea, nothing scream "SPRIIING" like this little pork number...

Sorry...this time I couldn't wait....

Very easy: Place equal amounts of lavender seeds and sea salt in a mortar and grind.
Use the "lavender salt" to rub your room temperature pork fillet ( I like to use the points, or tips, called solomillo in Spanish ).
Heat a skillet, preferibly cast iron, and drizzle with just a few drops of vegetable oil.
When it's HOT, sear the meat on every side and finish in the oven till pale pink ( 145° ) if you " dare" or 165° if you like to "play it safe".
Even faster: sliice the pork in one inch thick medallions and skip the oven part...
As the meat is ready, slice it in medallions and place it over a bed of tender spring arugula and drizzle with the very best olive oil you can put your hands on..  ; )
Same more sea salt and perhaps a tiny squeeze of lemon and I¿you'll thank me.
Another great side for this would be a pretty clean and simple cauliflower puree ( you'll find it somewhere in the blog, looking for the label...).
The wine...I'd say a lighter, crispier red or white like a good Traminer would cut it really really well....
Cheers!

Just a little note on the temp: Trichinosis is today pretty much absent from US and Canada pork.
More info here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichinosis

In defense of "pastasciutta"

Here's a little piece on artisanal pasta from my other blog  www.iCookCabo.blogspot.com :

The kneading of flour and water was perhaps one of man's first actions if you look back through his history. The first bread was simply dough made from flour and water without yeast: even today, among some primitive populations, the use of yeast is completely unknown. However, all cultures have known the art of kneading, even if they have not all used the same ingredients, which are usually chosen according to what is available locally: the flour of various cereals either mixed with water alone or enriched with eggs and perhaps oil, and so on.Pasta casalinga ( home made pasta ), or so called fresh pasta, now generally means egg pasta; it contains one egg for every 2 1/2 ounces of American all-purpose white flour and is extremely nutritious. Why not indulge in it every now and then in order to rediscover forgotten aromas and flavours especially since you can acquire readily through purveyors like us?Some have objected that home-made pasta is a food that is hardly suitable for the sedentary life of modern man because it contains too many calories: in fact a normal plate of pastasciutta contains about 360 calories, most of which are derived from carbohydrates, with only a few coming from protein.The most up to date nutritional science has now accertained that pasta is not fattening if it's properly seasoned and and included in a correct and well balanced diet. Indeed, it is advisable to introduce pasta into the daily diet because wheat flour, especially "natural" wheat flour that has not been treated chemically during refining and that has been cultivated using natural fertilizers, contains minerals salts and many important vitamines including some from B and E groups. Moreover, pasta made with one egg ( or more ) every2 1/2 ounces of flour has considerable nutritional value. If soft -grain wheat flour is less rich in proteins than the hard-grain durum wheat flour used in making industrial pastas, the deficiency is largely compensated by the nutritious substances contained in the eggs: albumin, other proteins of animal origin, and fatty substances.After the above considerations, it is easy to realize how important this food is in our diet. If one also considers that fresh pasta is mainly seasoned with foods that are also very nourishing - cheeses and other such ingredients- or that it may be stuffed with succulent meat, fish and vegetable fillings, one can definitively conclude that it has great chances of becoming a dish with unmatchable flavour, within everyone's means and ready to satisfy even the fussiest and most refined palates.

Ban Mi meatballs; the bread is inside... DOH! : )

Just wrap them up in lettuce, paint them red with Sriracha and eat eat eat eat eat....

Calling all pork lovers with a foot fetish...

What did you think? Dirty minds you...
Just messing around with some pig trotters the other day and came up with this...purely experimental for now, but I think it's worth sharing!

Pig's trotter and fava beans terrine

I started by boiling dry fava beans till "al dente" .
While this was going on, I was slowly boiling a pig trotter in lightly salted water, covered, along with a good splash of cider vinegar and onion, some garlic cloves, a couple ribs of celery, couple carrots ,all roughly chopped.

After a couple hours, I drained the meat and the vegs and added the drained fava beans to the pig stock and cookes a little longer until done.

In the while I picked and chopped the meat, rind and cartilage.

Drained the favas, again, and added the bones of the trotters to the stock and let reduce by more than half, slowly and uncovered.

Time to get it all together:
In a skillet I warmed up equal parts of vinegar and stock, a couple cloves, a few berrie of allspice, a sliced jalapeño pepper, salt and sugar.

When all this started boiling I poured it over the meat and vegs, along with some fresh cilantro and thinly sliced red onion.

I let it pickle for a while, waiting for it to cool down.

Once cold, the fava beans and the reduce fatty, sticky stock went in too and I transferred everything to a mold

which I wrapped with film and set to chill overnight in the cooler.

The next day, yesterday, I just took it out, carefully scored the edges with a knife and inverted it onto a plate.  GOOD!

We'll have it today at lunch, sided by a fresh garden salad to fight back the guilt trip....

Try it and let me know....

Excited! The dawn of a new project

After a little tooling around with the idea of a return  to clean, proper Italian food, my friend and now partner Giulio and I came up with iCook ( Twitter handle @iCook_Cabo).

This logo, thet I consider brilliant, is the brainchild of my virtual friend Phil Googins, and avid angler as well...
thank you.
I hope to meet him soon and put him on some nice roosterfish...fly only, of course  :  )

The successful CookAndTheFly private dinners and catering operation couldn't reach the local middle class and most of the year round residents so, in order to do just that, we came up with this simple idea: let's get back to basis and cook beautifully simple, clean and honest, authentic Italian food and make it affordable to all.
Good food doen´t have to be expensive..it has to be prepared with love and passion and with great local, seasonal and hence fresh ingredients. We live in Southern Baja and the bounties of the sea and of the fertile valleys just North of Cabo are a source of igredients that is hard to beat.

What follows is the link to a sample menu, something to give you guys an idea of what we do:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/373508989346413/doc/373574629339849/

As things evolve I will post recipes and pictures of some of these dishes as well.

As some of you know already I am always ready to take on a new challenge...I think it's in my nature and I believe that's also the reason why I chosed to chase large open water fish with a fly rod instead of just chucking a piece of bait out there and wait.

I hope I'll have the pleasure to cook for some of you if/when you´ll come down to Los Cabos.

Till then: "Petri Heil!"

Orange pudding

Really good and aromatic pudding/flan.... and super easy to make.

Start with making caramel in a pan...1 cup of sugar + a tiny splash of water...let cook till golden, over med/low heat and pour the caramel into 4 individual molds or into a 6" round one.

Beat 5 eggs with 374 cups of sugar till frothy and pale.
Now, carefully, incorporate  the juice of 3 oranges, a generous teaspoonful of grated orange zest and   a good splash Grand Marnier.

Place the mold (s) in a baking sheet filled with lukewarm water up to 2/3 of the mold and bake for 45 to 60 minutes in a 150°C oven.
 To check if it's ready, stick ( can't come up with a better word...) a toothpick in it ; if it comes out CLEAN it's ready.

Let cool and serve ...

 Note : The onein the pic has been cut out of a rectangular mold with a ring mold and flipped upside down onto the plate.

Cook at home: cooking from the heart