Food

A very simple, but delicious Duck

I am getting a duck specialist. "L'anatra" al mirto has become part of my repertoir. Last week I tried a "steamed duck" derived from a Chinese recipe. I still have to finish the write up, what shows that it was complex :-)

Two Chili Sauces

Between home made sauces and bought one, there is a difference. Unfortunately it is a lot of work preparing them and the home made also deteriorate quicker. The moulds prefer stuff without preservatives :-).

This is one oily, cooked and one fresh sauce, but both delicious. The base are the long red chilies as they are grown in Italy. They are not very hot after being deseeded. To get the sauce hot I add little pieces of Thai Chili, which burns you already at sight.

Cervello al lemon grass e burro di bufala

I like brain, preferable lamb brain, and it is possible to get it again after the "mad cow disease panic ebbed away . Normally I avoid any severe treatment, some butter, some grappa, that's it. At the moment I am on the Asean/Italian fusion cooking trail. So I marinated the brain in Shaoxing. This is a Chinese Rice Sherry.

Octopus steamed with Lemon

For this dish you are free to take the cheap "polipi non veraci" which do have only one "fila di ventose". They are less tender than the polipi veraci, but with this cooking method, it makes no difference.
You may cut them into pieces. put them into a pot and add slices of non treated lemon, also some green celery is good, you can carots too, anything what you imagine good with lemon flavor, obviously no patatoes, but I could try cassava next time.
Close the pot thoroughly to avoid that vapour comes out during the cooking process.

....from duck fat

My daughter always complains that I insist too much on "Resteverwertung" (I was sure that "leo" did not know this, it means re-use of stuff). I always try to re-use the duck fat that I took away from the main duck dish.

In this case I got no criticism. I used the duck fat to deep fry sliced Zucchini. When they were nicely brown and cross, I added simply a handful of cashew nuts - Ready to serve.

Quails, quails, quails!

This is Vincent's (my nephew) favorite, but also Matilde likes it a lot.
Get quails from the supermarket, They are not wild, but from intensive breedings, but they are still much more tasty than the rubber chicken you get as an alternative.

Savoy Cabbage with Pancetta and Wild Fenel Seeds

A good winter dish, when you get savoy cabbage everywhere for little money. Invest into the pancetta. I use the panceta from the producer Fanelli from Riofreddo in the north of Lazium.

Anatra al mirto

This is a recipe from Sardegna!
Get a good meaty duck, not too fat. The cheap ducks (5 €/kg) from Piazza Vittorio are normally excellent for the recipe.

A steak

Now I am for two days in Malaysia. Yesterday I had dinner at the Buffet Restaurant of my palace of the "Golden Horses", Brr. Nothing had any distinguishable taste. After nearly 10 days of China my taste buds had become sophisticated.
A the end of the week I asked myself: Is there anything in the Chinese cooking that was lacking to my nutrition habits and my taste desires?

The 4th dinner

I get lazier and lazier. This time I did not record any dishes, but I can remember a memorable composition of fish puree, which is shown in one of the two photos. Another favourite of mine were shrimps cooked on a bed of onions, ginger and mushrooms,

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