Food writer and broadcaster Marlena Spieler
- 28.6.08 Yummy Zucchini Pasta from Positano
- that yummy pasta con zucchini! this fed two of us I used tagliatelle (fettucine) instead of spaghetti, which worked out really well as it held the sauce nicely. 2 big zucchini, or about 6 small ones, sliced thinly, crosswise teeny bit of extra virgin olive oil, maybe a teaspoon sea salt to taste 1/2-1 cup water 1/4-1/2 cup heavy cream About 3 ounces provolone or other lovely firm white flavorful cheese (i have also used cave aged gruyere, and in the original in positano, it was smoked provolone) About 2 ounces freshly grated parmesan (about 1/2 cup) a small handful fresh basil leaves 150g egg tagliatelle, dried Saute the zucchini in the olive oil in a nonstick pan, over pretty high heat, tossing every so often, til golden and softish. Season to taste. Remove half the sauteed zucchini to a separate plate or pan. Add the water to the remaining sauteed zucchini in the pan, cook and cook over high heat a few minutes, until it reduces to less than half, forming a sauce, then pour in the cream and cook together a minute or two, til lightly thickened. Mash with a potato masher or coursely puree in food processor etc, and set aside while you cook the pasta. Cook the pasta in rapidly boiling salted water until just al dente; drain and reserve about 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. Toss the cooked pasta with the sauce, in the frying pan, over medium heat, add the provolone or whichever cheese you have chosen, and as much of the cooking liquid as needed to loosen the sauce and emulsify it all together.... When it comes together in a minute or so, season to taste, then sprinkle with the parmesan and top with the basil leaves. Serve when you come out of the sea, from swimming. > > >
- 24.6.08 we'll eat very delicious pasta!
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- 24.6.08 we'll seek/find nirvana!
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- 24.6.08 come along with me!
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- 17.6.08 Flavour-ama in the Catalonian Hills
- Not long ago The New York Times wrote about a little berry, called Miracle Fruit (though it had another more scientific name), whose unique quality is to alter the taste of whatever one eats immediately following. It does this by binding the taste receptors with proteins. Lemons taste as sweet as sugar, hot sauce as delicate as nectar, you get the picture. It lasts a shortish time--an hour or so-- depending upon the individual. Some enjoy the sensation, others don't--the story focused on people popping the little berry then tasting a wide variety of foods in this altered state of taste. It reminded me a little of artichokes: whatever food follows the eating of the choke is changed in taste, for better or not--it may ruin a good wine, yet artichokes make chicken taste very chickeny. Italians have an alcoholic aperitivo, Cynar, based on artichoke essence--bitter and sweet, it enhances the savory quality of whatever the rest of the meal brings, though occasionally it can make something taste weirdly sweet. All part of the adventure, Anyhow, this explorative nature of tasting and our perceptions of taste is a way of introducing Chef's Council 2008. Organized by Givaudan (www.givaudan.com)-- the worlds largest maker of flavors and scents--it provided an opportunity for "flavorists" and taste/aroma scientists to sample culinary explorations of cutting edge chefs. A sort of pow-wow of taste exploration, 2008 was numero dos, the first having taken place two years ago in Napa California. Much giddy conversation revolved around the possible and as of yet unknown destination of the third. Gilles Andrier, Chief Executive Officer of Givaudan describes Givaudan's mission "to lead sensory innovation in the flavor and fragrance industries". Chef's Council was a concrete form of this exploration, a sharing of knowledge and concept ideas, latest trends and reinvigorated tradition, as well a flavor combinations and fine-dining and preferences worldwide. This heady taste-a-thon took place in the Catalonia hills, outside Barcelona, at a research center named Alicia (www.alicia.cat). Dedicated to encouraging good eating habits as well as technological innovation in cooking, exploration of agricultural excellence in food growing, the centre was designed by Ferran Adria who has his laboratory there and also acts as their culinary advisor. I was enchanted with the exhibits about healthy eating for children, the gardens, and especially the kitchen scaled to tiny people, with small chairs, a low kitchen sink, shelving, countertops etc. This year's collection of globe-spanning chefs were: double Michellin starred Roca Brothers, owners of El Celler de Can Roca who offered traditional Catalan taste interpreted through 21st Century sensibilities; Alex Stupak from New York's visionary WD-50; Thomas Chai with his elegant cuisine reflecting his home of Malaysia and Singapore as well as Alex Atala from Brazil and Flavio Solorzano from Peru, along with his mother, food historian and restauranteur, Isabel Alvarez. Each chef brought with him and her not only helping staff of their own nationalities, but also very special ingredients that one might not otherwise have a chance to taste. Brazil's Alex Atala brought the hump from a special hump-backed Amazonian cow; slow-cooked in sous vide it was meltingly tender and incredibly savory. He also broke from the conformation of the day of beef by presenting a dish so incredibly beefy in that umami way of deliciousness, yet his dish included NO BEEF WHATSOEVER. It was a dish of grilled okra, in a much reduced broth of vegetables that had been cooked, covered, to render their juices without the addition of any water, accompanied by a thin wafer of okra paper (pureed okra baked on a silicone baking sheet until paperlike). It was a dish of great luxury, prepared from a vegetable that is one of Brazil's most humble. Thomas Chai's star dish, ie my personal favourite, was a creme brulee topped with a dollop of tropical fruit and covered with a thin layer of brittle caramel, yet his sweet crisp topping had salt added. It was a salt-caramel topping and by then, as sated and jaded as we tasters were, there was a pretty well unanamous call for seconds. We were licking our little tasting plates, Alex Stupak make a steak tartare of sousvide beef with Thai chile paste, replendant with lime juice to offset the richness and spice; he also made a dish of amber malt powder added to a meat jus, and guiness cooked shortribs with star anise, on a bed of parsnip puree. In some inexplicable way, the flavours and richness conjured up my grandmother's coffee ice cream at least as I experienced it as a child. The Roca brothers prepared dishes of great finesse yet based on tradition, such as Samfaina, a ratatouille-like Catalan stew, in which the ingredients were cut into the finest of textures then deconstructed, tiny flavour bombs of vegetable-ness. Flavoio Solorzano and Isabel Alvarez prepared Hautia, a long simmered dish--traditionall prepared in a ceramic pot-- of ancient Peruvian tradition: meat cooked long and slow with a palette of spices and bunches upon bunches of fresh herbs. The juices become clear and strong in flavor, the meat meltingly tender. I loved forking up the fresh mint in vegetable rather than seasoning quantities, all infused with the meaty essence. After each careful and thoughtful tasting we had a group discussion, listing characteristics and qualities of each dish. What were its outstanding qualities, what did it need, what was unusual, unexpected; it reminded me of my art school days when we critiqued the works after our viewings. Chefs worked in teams, focusing on topics such as Taste Essentials, ie ingredient challenges (one day beef, another day butter, cream, and coffee), FlavourVision presentations in which a variety of different ingredients were prepared in thought-provoding ways, as well as menu challenges in which a variety of flavours were put together in an effort to discover the best way of progressing through a menu. This year the ingredient challenges were beef (day 1) and another day devoted to coffee, cream and butter. We watched each team of chefs' presentations, then sampled tiny plate-lets of the finished dish, a spoonful of this a splodge of that, we ate and ate and ate some more, the teeniest morsel-ettes; followed by a discussion of its flavour components, ways to enhance its beefiness or ways in which its beefiness shines brightly. I loved the enthusiasm of the flavourists, whose passion matched my own: little wisp of a Chinese woman whose appetite was adorable and whose serious food considerations were inspiring; another taster was from Mexico, one from Britain, France, and so on; how much of our preferences were based on culinary cultural tradition? We tasted, we explored, we discovered. There was much nostalgic talk about the previous Council's exploration of chicken, spoken with the happy reverie usually reserved for speaking of old lovers, a beautiful sunset, happy days gone by. They were remembering the delicious chicken dishes they sampled; at this point I realized that these flavourists were my kind of people.
- 6.6.08 World Gourmand Awards, London 2008: on behalf of Yummy Potatoes and Peru/The Year of the Potato!
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I wish I could figure out how to make the photo up and down instead of side to side!
- 5.6.08 Roving Feast: Mozzarella and Marlena! Napoli in Chicago!
- Tomatoes, olive oil, pasta and mozzarella, it was just like being in Napoli, right on down to the twenty five or so Neapolitans I was hanging out with....but we were in Chicago! It might have snowed (it did) but we had our mozzarella and red sauce to keep us warm......
