Risotto ai Funghi Porcini

The brilliant thing about risotto is the fact that it absorbs all the flavours you throw in the pan. If you use nice ingredients your risotto will taste very nice, if you use superior ingredients: your risotto will be a taste of heaven... This classic italian dish is on of the finest risotto's i know of.

The dried porcini mushrooms 'Funghi Porcini' and the stock tablets can be bought in italian deli shops. In Italy they can be bought for a fraction of the prices you pay in the deli's, when you're planning a trip: stock up!

Technique

On making risotto: As with poaching, the secret is in controlling the temperature. We want the rice to boil and fry the rice. Cooking to make it soft and fry it to slightly caramelize the ingredients to get a perfect harmony of flavours. First fry the rice (high temperature) then add water in a small quantity (the temperature drops, we are cooking now), let the rice suck it up and you're back to frying the rice again. Repeat this process until the risotto is ready. You should use your own judgement as to when it is ready: some like it almost as a soup (venetian risotto) and other like it fairly dry.

To make a good risotto you need to put time and effort in it, but the result will be well worth it !


Ingredients
50 gr dried porcini mushrooms
1 porcini stock tablet (if you can't find any use chicken or vegetable ones)
150 gr. risotto rice (i prefer Arborio)
2 echalots
1 clove of garlic
1 glass of italian white wine (i only had some rosé today)
75 ml cream
parmesan cheese
a handful of fresh parsley

Preparation

Let the mushrooms soak for at least half an hour, in a pan with about 500 ml of water. Move them around carefully to wash off the dirt. Remove the mushrooms and if necessary slice up the mushrooms a bit. Filter the water with a pointy strainer, to remove the dirt

Put a pan with the water from the mushrooms + another 500 ml on the stove, bring it almost the boil and add the stock tablet.

Chop up the echalots finely
Crush & squeeze the garlic


Melt a bit of butter in a large pan. Ideally you make this risotto in a wok type pan with teflon coating, or you can use a regular, thick pan

 
Fry the onions and rice in the melted butter


Add the garlic, keep strirring (don't burn it)

 
Throw in the glass of wine and keep stirring


When the wine is gone,

 
add the porcini mushrooms and some of the broth.

 
Wait until it's gone, stir it up and add some more broth.


Repeat until the risotto is ready (see techniques)

 
Add the cream and the chopper parsley, stir again.


Remove from the stove and add the parmesan cheese while strirring.


Serve immediately with a small piece of parsley on top.
Buono apetito!

Lego Millenium Falcon Stop Motion

...

Inspirational quote of the day

The most successful people are those who are good at Plan B.
James Yorke

Sunday Strawberry Smoothie

Ingredients
500 gr. strawberrys
3-4 oranges
vanilla flavoured sugar
regular sugar
one cup of yoghurt



Preparation
Remove the green 'crowns' of the strawberries
Squeeze the oranges
Put strawberries and orange juice in the blender
Add yoghurt and (vanilla flavoured) sugar to taste
Switch blender on and serve in a big glass.

Not so healty version
Use cream instead of yoghurt, add this to the blender first, let the blender whip it up a but, then add the strawberries, sugar and the OJ.

Enjoy !

Cheers

Have a Nice Weekend...

Terminator Parody

Inspirational quote of the day

You can see the stars and still not see the light
Eagles, already gone

Strip

Poaching II: Perfect Salmon

Follow up of yesterday's poaching story, this recipe will serve 2. I guess it is the opposite of microwave cooking: very slowly but terribly good !

Ingredients
yesterday's court-bouillon
500 gram of salmon fillet (room temperature)
a mound of fresh dill (roughly 10 branches 20 centimeters each)

Preparation
Wash the dill
Put the fillet and dill in an ovendish and add the cold court bouillon
Ideally everything is submerged, if not you have to flip the fillet over halfway
Put the ovendish in a cold oven, and set to 70 °C
Wait one hour
Check now and then how you fish is going, the should gradually change color
Now set the oven to 80 - 90 °C, flip the fillet over if necessary, and wait until it is ready (about half an hour)

Serve with one of the dille branches op top, and prepare for the best tasting salmon you ever had !

Star Wars Gangsta Rap

On Cooking Fish (Poaching)

100 !
This is the 100th post on elgeffe so i'll make it a special one explaing the superb technique of poaching fish. It is rather time consuming, but i gets the very best result, wonderful soft fish with maximal flavour! The secret is: you don't use high temperatures so no tender meat breaks down.

The protein in the fish will harden @ 67 °C, you want to accomplish that but you don't want to raise the temperature much further. How is this done ? We create a 'court-bouillon' (short, easy stock) cool it down, put the fish in it, put it in the oven and slowy let the temperature rise. Ideally you don't get over 70 °C, but practically you would go to about 80 °C.

This is how i create 'court-bouillon' for fish in general.

Ingredients
one carrot
one onion
one pascal celery stalk
one glass of white wine
one clove of garlic (crushed lightly with the flat side of the cooking knife)
500 ml water
bouquet garni: one bay leaf, a branch of thyme, some parsley.
black peppercorns
clove

Preparation
Carve the carrot and celery lengthwise.
Peel the onion, stick the clove in
Add all the ingredients in a pan, bring to the boil
Let it cook slowly for about an hour with the lid on then let it cool down in the pan
When cooled down pass it through a, pointy strainer and put it in the refrigerator

Wait until cooled down and read elgeffe tomorrow to for a the perfect salmon recipe !

Pasta Carbonara

Serves 4, the dinner of champions !

Ingredients
500 gr spaghetti
200 gr bacon
3/4 eggs
3 eschalots
125 ml cream
one clove garlic
parmesan

Preparation
Boil the pasta 'al dente' in the meantime:
Chop up the eschalots, the bacon and slowly fry this.
Add the crushed garlic just before the end.
Whisk the eggs, the cream and about half of the Parmesan
Add the fried bacon, onion + garlic to the egg mixture
Remove pasta from the pan, dispoas water, and add the egg mixture.
Mix well with the pasta and serve immediately with the rest of the parmesan on the side.

We Support Our Troops !

After american example actions to support our troops are emerging in the netherlands as well. On this website you can order stickers to show that you support our troops.

ElGeffe Supports Our Troops !

Bloxorz

Normally i don't like online mini games but this one is very cool.

Inspirational quote of the day

Keep hungry, keep foolish.
Steve jobs, in a briljant speech

The Perfect Girl

What a romantic...

He just wants to play...

Dice Stacking

Cheese Sauce

Yesterday i made this sauce just like my dad used to make it, and we had it with collyflower. Although this sauce is very simple to make it is a nice to spice up dull vegetables especially in autumn and winter.

Ingredients
25 gr butter
25 gr flour
300-400 ml of milk (use your intuition)
150-250 grams of cheese (depending on how cheesy you want it)
a pinch nutmeg
1 bay leaf

Preparation
Make a basic bechamel sauce:
Let the butter melt, add the flour and fry it slowly.
Watch the color change from white to golden.
Add the milk, bay leaf, some more heat, and whisk with a guard.
Keep whisking now and then and watch the magic happen: your mixture and transforms into a thick sauce !
Now add the grated cheese and a pinch of nutmeg.
Keep whisking until you get a nice smooth cheese sauce
Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pizza "Scampi Rosso"

Ingredients
about 15 Shrimps (There are countless types, i use the ones the picture because they are nice and not expensive around here)
100 grams of smoked salmon slivers
Young gouda cheese or mozzarella
Tomato sauce
Oregano or Thyme
Pizza Dough

Preparation
Clean the Shrimps: remove the shells and the intestines: that's the brown/black thing running across it's back
Fold out the pizza dough sprinkle with some olive oil
Apply a layer of tomato sauce
If you are using mozzarella, put it on the pizza now
Decorate with salmon slivers and shrimps
Sprinkle cheese (when you're not using mozzarella)
Sprinkle some oregano or thyme to taste
Place in a very hot oven for 10 to 12 minutes

Inspirational quote of the day

Take it to the limit
One more time
Eagles

Sony Bravia Commercial

Let's Play Doh !

Inspirational quote of the day

Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.
John Lennon

Busyness vs. Bursty

Thanks Aad for pointing me to this very interesting article on how productivity is percieved these days of 'web 2.0': Busyness v.s. Bursty

The busyness economy works on face time, incremental improvement, strategic long-term planning, return on investment, and hierarchical control. The burst economy, enabled by the Web, works on innovation, flat knowledge networks, and discontinuous productivity:

PS Don't you hate the term Web 2.0 too ?

Ferrari Shell

Best... Commercial... Ever...

Pizza Spinach, Bacon & Goat cheese

Ingredients
Goat cheese, fairly young
Bacon
Spinach
Garlic
Tomatosauce
Grated gouda cheese (or some other local young cheese)
Pizza dough

Preparation
Boil the spinach for a short while. Crush half a clove of garlic and add it to the boiled spinach
Fry the bacon
Form the pizza dough into shape
Add a thin layer of tomatosauce
Cover with spinach
Crumble the goat cheese and sprinkle the bacon on top
Top with the grated gouda cheese
Place in a preheated oven, preferably on a pizza stone, of about 220 degrees.

Inspirational quote of the day

It was involuntary. They sank my boat.
John F. Kennedy, when asked how he became a Navy hero