Happy New Year

As a first blog post in 2010, there's nothing that special on the menu: a plate of "Mixed fish" at storehouse V&D today. It consisted of a piece of salmon, a piece of tuna, a shrimp, some "sauce of the day" (herbs? garlic?), some large-leaf spinach or chard and a nice piece of well-flavoured potato-gratin, which seemed to be made of grated potato. The fish was a little too dry, but all in all the meal was doable for the ten bucks it cost.

Since my Blackberry takes meager pictures not worthy of publishing, I tried taking a picture with N's iPhone; alas, lighting conditions were that low, that it didn't turn out too well either. Anyhow, nothing that a little Photoshopping can't fix.

Snow

26,5 cm of snow. That equals 10.4 inches of snow. It's been snowing ever since last thursday, and today it was apparently causing so much troubles, our national weather forecasting institute issued a Weather Alarm. Oooh, spooky!

Inspired by the whiteness of the snow, today we ate some white food: A poached egg and fried cod on a bed of crushed creamed cauliflower. Granted, the potato parts on the side were more yellow than white. Anyhow, it tasted well.

Vegan Canape's

One week from today, I will throw my graduation / new job party. It will be held in the cafe that belongs to restaurant 't Koetshuys I blogged about earlier. As it happens, I'll be making my own canapes / snacks / bites. To cater for people who are following a somewhat vegan diet, I decided to practice today making vegan canapes. Because it was a rather impulsive idea, I just took some things from the cupboard.

I first cooked polenta for 40 minutes (with vegetable stock), then spread it out on an oven tray and let it bake for 30 minutes in the oven. It was still wet after 30 minutes, so I put it under the grill for an additional 7 minutes.

Next, I cooked some frozen shelled broad beans, and after they were cooked, I shelled them a second time. I mashed them with garlic, pepper and salt. I divided the polenta into three pieces and spread the bean paste on two pieces. Next, I stacked the three layers onto each other and cut them into square pieces, small enough to fit the paper cups.

To finish, I put a little dot of chili sauce on top, and presto, there you have it: vegan canapes!

I always thought vegan couldn't possibly be tasting good. So, I let N taste them, and, as she so kindly put it: "You've cooked better tasting things in the past!". It's true. Sorry to all you vegan people out there, but I just can't help it: to make things really appetizing, I think you will need some animal produce in the end. So, until next week, I'll try coming up with better tasting vegan recipes.

Sunday Dinner

Sunday dinners usually allow me to spend a little more time on preparing the meal. This sunday, I made the dish above (or below, but it doesn't really matter of course, because they're different photos from the same dish).

I preheated the oven to 50^oC (122^oF) and put a steak in, and let it there for about half an hour. Meat apparently tends to cook at 50-60^oC (122-140^oF), but cooking at too high a temperature supposedly makes the collagen contract and thus squeezes out all the meat's juices, giving you a tough piece of meat. Therefore, cooking at a low temperature maintains the tenderness. However, it will take longer for the heat to reach the core of the meat, so you'll need to cook your meat longer. After cooking in the oven I fried the meat for exactly one minute on each side and let it rest five minutes, wrapped in tin foil.

I cut the meat to 2 mm slices and served them on top of a pile of fried mushrooms, which were put on top of a heap of napa cabbage (raw), mixed with some tinned corn kernels and a dressing of chili sauce and pickle juice (the acidity of the pickle juice cut nicely through the sugary richness of the chili sauce, and the heat of the chili saus gave it all an extra zest).

I drizzled two tablespoons of chimichurri on top, which I had made two hours in advance, using parsley, cilantro, two garlic cloves, balsamic vinegar and oregano perfumed olive oil. On top of that a nice hand of alfalfa.

Alongside it I scooped some leftover couscous salad, which was previously made with stock welded couscous, fried bacon rinds, garlic and herb olives, parsley, cilantro, deseeded, skinned and diced tomatoes and diced cucumber.

I must say, it was a nice experiment which turned out pretty okay. N. loved it and it looked quite good. Surprisingly, the flavours mixed quite well. The acidity and heat of the cabbage/corn contrasted the hearty flavour of the beef and mushrooms, which in turn were complemented by the freshness of the chimichurri and the alfalfa. A lot of raw vegetables made sure it was a healthy meal, together with the fact that we shared just one steak amongst the two of us - something which I never thought would do for a meatlover like myself :)