salt and coffee? blue cheese and chocolate?

Do you find some foods too bitter? Add salt. Try it: get a strong coffee, add just a bit of salt to it - not enough to taste of salt, a half a pinch. Taste it before and after. Add some more salt and try it again. You'll be surprised, this actually works. Try it with tonic water as well and you'll see that the bitterness reduces. Apparently, this can't be explained scientifically.

Also, since I had some leftover gorgonzola from my pasta I decided to make a quick dessert out of one of my favourite flavour combinations. Dark chocolate + gorgonzola. You won't believe it until you try it. Apparently, about two thirds of the compounds that make up the flavours of both ingredients are common, so what you end up with is a beautiful chocolate taste with the floral aromas but not the sharpness of blue cheese. If you don't like blue cheese then you probably won't like this, but if you do, then give it a shot. You won't be disappointed.

spaghetti gorgonzola

So I had some leftover pasta from a couple of days ago, when I made the spaghetti with tomato sauce. As long as you immediately rinse the pasta after cooking to stop the cooking process and store it in the fridge in an air-tight container, then it should be fine within a couple of days.

Today's variation was a gorgonzola cream sauce. Melt some butter in a pan, add cheeses (I melted the gorgonzola first before adding some parmesan) and slowly heat. Once the cheese has just melted, add salt, pepper and some grated nutmeg. And of course, add the cream. Allow the ingredients to mingle until properly mixed and then reduce until nice and thick. Then add the pasta and allow it to heat through. Done. So simple, so good. 

vietnamese spring rolls

Lots of different kinds of spring rolls in the world. Some fried, some baked, some steamed, and others raw. I remember the first time I tried these, I was slightly hesitant. But after one bite I understood what the vietnamese spring roll meant. Encased in water-soaked rice paper, filled with rice noodles, a salad of tasty greens, bean sprouts and carrots, offset by the crunchiness of deep-fried tofu, these rolls are a winner. Variations include the addition of some protein, either chicken, shrimp, a combination, or anything else. This is a versatile dish that can be accommodated to your tastes.

The sauce is one that I put together with various influences and happens to be my favourite for these spring rolls. The peanut, mustard, honey, tamarind and chilies work hand in hand to create an aroma that complements the filling of the rolls. It's always good to keep your own portion of the dipping sauce as you really wouldn't want to share. It's that good.

spaghetti pomodoro

Sometimes all I want is a simple plate of spaghetti and tomato sauce for lunch. Usually a few hours before I play tennis, i go for a portion of these delicious carbs to give me a boost of energy. With a side of simple salad with either a balsamic or lemon juice vinaigrette, this is the quintessential efficient lunch.

I make sure that I use spaghetti of a good brand, usually from Dean and Deluca, that is pressed through brass mould, as opposed to being pressed through a plastic mould. This allows the texture of the pasta to be slightly rough in order to grab onto the sauce, leaving nothing on the plate at the end.

The sauce is made with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, tomato puree and a couple of shakes of dried basil. I also put in a small piece each of carrot and celery that I take out after cooking - they add a nice aroma to the sauce.

Topped with some freshly grated parmesan cheese and it's ready. 

shanks and chips

Dinner tonight was lamb shanks and chips, one of my favourite interpretations of meat and potatoes. I let the lamb shanks marinade overnight and the result was a flavourful, melt-in-your-mouth experience. The marinade included mock-wine (grape juice and red wine vinegar), thyme, bay leaves, two heads of garlic and peppercorns. Before braising in the oven, I browned the shanks after lightly dusting them with flour. I then roughly chopped 4 big onions and let them caramelize in the juices of the browned meat over very low fire. Replaced the shanks, poured over the remainder of the marinade, covered with foil then into a moderate/low oven for a couple of hours.

The chips are cooked in the Heston Blumenthal triple-cooked method. The result is a chip that is fluffy on the inside and glassy on the outside. Yes, glassy. Heston explains that the state of any material when it reaches this state, extremely crunchy and can shatter into small pieces. To me it is the only way to cook chips. It's worth the wait and isn't really as cumbersome as many of his other techniques. First you run them under cold water for about ten minutes, then boil until just cooked all the way through. Placed on a wire rack over a tray, the chips should be allowed to dry out until cooled. After a while, heat oil in a pan until you reach 130 degrees celsius. Fry the potatoes until they look dehydrated, a light skin will develop and they will turn slightly yellow. Repeat the drying process, this time in the fridge. Let them cool down and then take them out to get back to room temperature before finally frying once again at 190 degrees. Each of the frying processes must be carefully controlled because if the oil gets hotter than the temperatures stated above, the chips may burn.

quality or quantity?

I tend to think of the unique creation, the singular portion, whether for one or a table. But hardly more than that. It's easy to wing it, figure things out on the fly.

I was on a short-haul kuwait airways flight leaving kuwait at around 11 am and was handed a tray containing a muffin, a chicken sandwich, 100 ml each of water and orange juice. I wondered what the manpower and costing of the tray of generic food was. Especially at the bulk rates for such huge quantities. Consistency was guaranteed - pretty consistently pathetic if you really care about it. It's small details that count. And if the details are well done, at the singular scale then theoretically it should be replicated with a higher quality.

I guess, though, that the food was of three(out of five) star quality. Cafeteria quality, generic. The chicken sandwich was actually the most disappointing. The bread was a kind of baguette. Slightly plasticy-waxy on the outside, somewhat soft on the inside, good to soak up a good sauce. The chicken filling was a rather weak interpretation of a coronation chicken. So what would have been a better filling? Considering the same costing... there are many options out there. simple, interesting and unique spices to cater to the markets.

what should an institution that provides you food, of which you have little option, promote in their food? what opportunities are there? could there be something that improves the image of the institution (airline)? Should there be a character, or is cafeteria/generic what people expect and want?

It is this essence that i believe can be looked at in any system. Reevaluation. Determine the balance between quality and quantity. Or between several different qualities. Apply this to airline food or urban planning or music or anything. At least those are the realms i tend to exist in.

curry comfort

What is comfort food? Something I want to eat again and again. It doesn't matter if I had it yesterday, I could go for it again today. That to me is comfort food. It should have a taste that I never get tired of, it should put me in a mindset that's relaxed, content, satisfied.

Curry is one of my comfort foods. It's really not that hard to make. Just a couple of times to figure out how to get your blender to work the way you want it. Above are most of the ingredients that go into my interpretation of a thai red curry paste. On the plate in front are garlic, ginger (when I can't find galangal), lemongrass and cut up kafir lime leaves. Fresh green chillies, onion, in the mortar coriander and cumin seeds freshly roasted in a pan. Then I add paprika, soy sauce, some lime juice and some crushed dried chillies. I then put a bit of olive oil just to help it bind in the blender.

The resulting paste is the base of flavour in your curry. You should experiment with quantities and perhaps other ingredients until you get the flavour that works for you. I have an intuitive sense for these things and, more importantly, I taste as i go along... or smell in this case, because the paste is quite pungent.

This paste goes well with everything. Today's selection was a purely vegan affair. Zucchini, carrots, sweet peppers, diced potatoes...

As with any kind of curry you're making, the paste goes in the pan until it dehydrates a bit and the aromas are released. Then the vegetables go in and are mixed with the paste for a few minutes before pouring in coconut milk. As it cooks, taste and adjust. I usually put in a tablespoon or so of brown sugar. It works really well in contributing to the sense of harmony in the dish: salty, hot, spicy, aromatic, slightly sweet... Sometimes you need to add a couple of stalks of lemongrass to add more of that flavour - just break up the stalks without tearing them apart and let them seep in the stock while cooking. When the vegetables - or whatever else you're cooking - are done, then the curry is done. Serve with or over rice and enjoy.

This one's about the flavour!