Brodetto

Brodetto is a flavourfull and easy to make fish stew, the Italian answer to Bouillabaise. All you need is some good quality fish so go check out what your fishmonger is offering or scout the weekly/daily market for some yummy seafood. The ingredients that I used are not binding, just choose a firm white fish, some crustacean and some types of clams. See that you have a nice variation to prepare this dish!

Estimated preparing time: about 60-90 minutes, fishstock included

Ingredients:

• 3Dl. of fishstock  -  you'll need the following to make about 1-1,5lt. of it
• 1,5Lt. tabwater
• +/-500Gr. of fish ( a cheaper but firm fish, for instance Red Gurnard)
• some fish bones +/- 500Gr.
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 leek, only the white part, chopped
• 3 tomatoes, chopped
•  some flat parsley leaves, a little handfull
• 2 fresh squid
• 300Gr. of mussels
• 300Gr. of vongole
• 4 gamba
• 300Gr. of cod cheeks
• 1 chillie, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• a big drop of dry white wine
• a handfull of flat parsley
• Cayenne
• Pepper and salt
• Olive oil

Start by making the fish stock. Bring up 1,5lt. of water to a boil, add the vegetables, parsley, fishbones and fish. Season with pepper and salt and let it simmer for 20mins. 

Let all the ingredients cool down. Take out the chunks of fish and pass the liquid trough a sieve. Keep 3dl. of the stock aside for this recipe, after you're done with it  you can save it for later by putting it in the freezer. 

Clean the fresh squid. 

Take out the intestins and the 'bone' and cut in rings.  Heat up some olive oil and fry the squids shortly. 

Add the chillie, garlic and gamba and fry untill the shell of the gamba starts turning red.

Add the mussels, vongole and chopped parsley and pour in the white wine. Start adding the fishstock and make sure all is submerged, add some more stock if necessary. Throw in a pinch of cayenne and bring to a light boil for 10 minutes. Put in the cod cheeks and the rests of the Red Gurnard that you used for the stock and let these cook for 5 more minutes.

Divide the fish, clams and seafood into deep dishes and pour some sauce over it. Serve hot,  just like this or with a simple boiled potato or rice! The remaining sauce/stock can be recuperated for later!

Enjoy,

Kev

Pumpkin & goat cheese soup

This soup is a lovely dish to warm yourself up now that the temps are dropping and fall is getting closer :(
Buy a big pumpkin and cut out the flesh, you'll need about 2kg, or buy them in halves. Make a scary halloween face with the emptied pumpkin, the kids will love it and so do I.

Ingredients:

• about 2 kg. of pumpkin flesh (you can buy halves at your local supermarket)
• 3 onions
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 bouquet garni (2 bay leaves and a couple of sprigs of thyme, tied together)
• 2 carrots
• 3 celery stalks
• 3 cardamon pods( only the seeds not the outer shell)
• About 1,5lt. of chicken stock
• Worcestershire sauce
•  about 100gr. of goat cheese, Sainte Maure or similar
• 2 big potatoes, diced
• 2-3 slices of bread(some old slices), cut in small cubes
• garlic powder
• smoked/cured meat, I used speck but anything else will do....

Cut the pumpkin flesh(peeled of course) in cubes. Chop the onions, carrots, celery and garlic finely.

Heat up some olive oil with a knob of butter and fruit the onions, carrots, celery and garlic in it. Add the cubed pumpkin and fruit for a couple of minutes.

Add the chicken stock, make sure all of the pumkin is submerged in the stock. Throw in a big pinch of salt and black pepper ,a couple of grates of nutmeg and the bouquet garni. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for about 30-45 minutes.

Then add the diced potatoes and let them cook for about 10 minutes.

Remove the peel/skin of the goat cheese and dice the cheese. Add it to the hot soup,take out the bouquet garni and mix with your stick mixer till you get a silky soup. Check the seasoning and add some salt and/or pepper if needed.

Add some drops of worcestershire sauce and done!

Croutons:

Heat up some olive oil in a frying pan and add a big pinch of garlic powder to the hot oil. Then,on high heat, fry the cubes of bread untill golden brown and crispy.

Slice up the smoked/cured meat.

Pour the hot soup in a bowl, add the croutons and sliced meat.

Now you'll have a sweet,silky pumpkin soup with a nice goat cheese taste that contradicts nicely with the sweetness.

Enjoy,

Kev

Cheese cake

One of my favourite pies and  desserts. I like this very lemony, citrus-flavoured!

Ingredients:

• 500gr. of lean fresh cheese
• 250ml. of light cream
• 120gr. non salted butter, melted
• 6 tbsp. of sugar
• 2 bags of vanilla sugar
• 250gr. of speculoos bisquits
• 12gr. of gelatine sheets
• Juice of 1½ lemons and ½ green lime
• 4 apples

Preheat your oven on 180°C.

Break up the speculoos bisquits and put them in the mixer and mix untill you have a fine crumble.







Mix this crumble with the melted butter and stir well. Put a baking sheet in the springform and divide this mixture on the bottom, make sure to press firmly on the edges. put in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

Cut the apples into parts and bake them in a pan with a small knob of butter and a tbsp. of sugar untill brown caramelized. Cover the baked speculoos bottom with these appleparts.

Whip the cream with the sugar and vanilla sugar firmy untill you get peaks and mix under the fresh cheese. Heat up the lemon/lime juice and dissolve the gelatine(that you have put in cold water for +/- 10 minutes before) in it. Pour this in the cheese mixture and mix.

Now pour all of this into the baking form and let it stiffen for about 8 hours in the fridge.

You can dress this with some fruit or top with some more speculoos crumble or whipped cream.

Enjoy,

Kev

Battered & fried plaice

Another easy dish prepared in little time. My kids managed to make this dish dissapear faster than I could prepare it!

Ingredients:

• 2 plaice fillets, cleaned
• 2 eggs
• flower
• breadcrumbs
• pepper & salt

Cut up the plaice in bitesize chunks.
Prepare 3 deep dishes, 1 with flower(mix in some pepper & salt) in it, 1 with the breadcrumbs and 1 with the eggs(beaten). Make sure you've got enough in them.

Cover the plaice first with flower and beat off the excess flower, then with the eggs and finally with the crumbs.

Put in the fryer (Max or 190°) and fry untill golden brown, takes about 1-2 minutes.

Serve with tartare sauce, mayo or aïoli.

Enjoy,

Kev

Brown sugar panna cotta and red fruit

Easy peasy dessert recipe! If I can make it everyone can!

Ingredients:

• 200ml cream
• 200ml milk
• 70gr. brown sugar
• juice of  a lime
• 2 sheets of gelatine
• 50gr. of cristal sugar
• one vanilla pod
• some handfulls of fruit: strawberry, wraspberry, blackberry,....

Cut the vanilla pod lengthwise in half and scrape out the seeds. Add the stalks together with the seeds to the milk.
Soak the sheets of gelatine in some cold water.

Heat up the cream together with the milk, brown sugar,vanilla and lime juice in a pan for about 5 mins. Keep it just under the boiling point. Stirr regulary cause this can burn quite fast!

After the +/- 5mins pas the mixture trough a siff and add the sheets of gelatine and let them dissolve in the cream.

Pour into 4 nice cups and set away in the fridge for about 2 hours.

You can serve this with some red fruit or make a coulis to nap over the panna cotta.

For the coulis:  Heat up some water in a pan and dissolve the cristal sugar in it. Don't use too much water you just want to make the sugar liquid. 

Add fruit till the pan is just full and let this turn into a nice compote in about 2 minutes on a high heat. Nap over the panna cotta, place some berries on top and serve.

Enjoy,

kev

Sugo al ragu is one of these Italian dishes/sauces I need to have once a month, in fact it might even be my favourite sauce. The Italians have many different versions and I like them all but the base is allmost every time the same: a good sofrito...a mixture of chopped carrots and celery fried in olive oil, meat, tomatoes (not too much normally, usually more meat than tomatoes).

My version is with minced meat.

Ingredients:

• +/- 800gr. of minced, seasoned meat. Half pork/half veal. This is quite a lot but I like my sauce meaty
• 750ml of good passata
• one onion, 2 garlic cloves, one red chillie. All chopped finely
• Some finely chopped carrots and celery. About 2 carrots for 1 celery. This is the sofrito
• a glass of red wine. Don't use that Chateau Petrus from your wine cellar but don't pour in vinegar neither! A good cheap wine will do
• Some chopped smoked bacon +/- 50gr.
• 2 bayleaves, about 4 leaves of sage, couple sprigs of thyme and rosemary. Chop up the sage and rosemary
• a tbsp.of tomato paste
• 1 tbsp of dried oregano
• 4-5 drops of worcestershire sauce
• some chicken stock

Heat up a drop of olive oil in a large pan and brown the bacon. Don't use too much oil cause the bacon will release some fat also. Let it fry until it starts to get brown and crispy and then add  the sofrito -carrots and celery -. Add a drop of EEVO if too dry and let this fry for about 10mins but don't let it burn. Throw in the sage, rosemary and thyme and let it release it's aroma's. Your kitchen will be smelling heavenly by now. 

  Pour in a couple of drops of red wine; just enough to deglace the pan and cook out the wine.

Throw in the onions, chillie and garlic and fruit these for a minute.

Now add the minced meat, turn up the fire and use a fork to squash the meat. Avoid any big lumps of meat. 

When all the meat is browned you can add the passata, worcestershire sauce and 2 bay leaves. Mix well and pour in the rest of the red wine.

Put on a low fire, the lowest you got and let this simmer for a bout 1½-2 hours. Stir regulary and add some chicken stock if it gets too dry. After an hour or 2 you'll get a nice dry but still moist sauce. You can let this rest over night, it will only get better!

Serve with the pasta of your choice and enjoy!

Kev

Spicy Thai mussels

You like mussels? You like Thai food? Then try this exotic version of our traditional 'Mussels a la marinière'. Quick and easy with a delicious result!!

Ingredients for 2 (or 4 as appetizer):

• 2 kg. of mussels
• 2 red chilli peppers
• 2 stalks of lemongrass
• +/ 1 tbsp. of grated peel of green lime 
• 2 tbsp. of fishsauce
• 2 tbsp. of green curry paste
• 250ml coconut milk
• handfull of chopped cilantro
• handfull of basil (thai or normal)
• 2 small roughly chopped shallots

Wash the mussels under streaming water untill clean. Let them rest in the water and change the water one time to clear out the remaining sand.

Chop the red chillies finely, cut each stalk of lemongrass in 3 or 4 pieces and crush them.

 Heat up some peanut or sunflower oil in a large pan and add the chillies, lemongrass and challots and let them feel the heat for a few minutes.

Then add the cleaned mussels and shake these around. Let them bake for a minute or so, add the coconut milk, grated lemon peel, curry paste and fish sauce. 

Bring to a boil and cover with a lid. Leave it under the lid for about 5 minutes or untill all mussels are open. Stirr wel and add the chopped cilantro and basil just before serving (tear the leaves apart by hand when you add them).

Serve hot and eat!!!

You'll have a tasty dish and a spicy broth. Just drink the broth or use it to mix with some cooked rice.

Enjoy!

Kev