Hollandaise sauce and all its merits

I remember having a lively discussion with my aunt about all the different ways to enjoy Hollandaise Sauce; on steamed asparagus, with roast beef (granted, this would more likely be its cousin the Sauce Bearnaise), over poached eggs for breakfast or cold with hard boiled eggs at Easter Brunch. (It's a family tradition, don't ask.)

She added as an afterthought, that a friend of hers had confessed to have the habit of eating leftovers of it as pasta sauce.... We both tried picturing this and were not at all enamored of the idea. I should have made a picture of the disgusted faces.

Well, I am here to repent and recant. I had made a lemon foam sauce to go with pork chops the night before. It was simply a mixture of vegetable stock, two eggs and the juice and zest of half a lime whisked and heated over a double boiler. When this was quite firm a small amount of cold butter (50 gr.) was cut into pieces and stirred into the mixture.
This is a light version of a Hollandaise Sauce.

At lunch the next day I cooked my favorite pasta (linguine, for the record) and added a good handful of grated parmesan and some more lemon juice to the cup of leftover lime sauce.


I drained the pasta, but not too dry. The residual heat of the pasta ensures the sauce, the cheese and the pasta water come together beautifully. This is a silky, rich indulgence. I will surely make this again one day.

Pretty, cheap things

I am well aware that this post has nothing to do with either cooking nor reading. Can I just declare it to be part of the general "living" side of things?

I have another obsession which did not make it into the title of this blog. (If I packed everything of interest to me in there, it would be constantly changing and much too long.)
Growing this has fascinated me since childhood. It did happen upon an occasional damper during the teen years when I let an African violet or two die miserably. But those days have passed.

I give you the easiest and most impressive indoor plant known:
The Orchid
The only thing it needs is light and a weekly bath. Even the tiniest apartment will be able to provide those.
Don't water orchids. They don't like to stand in the wet and therefore the quantities and timing can be tricky. A friend gave me this trick years ago and I have been using it ever since: Once a week fill up the pot completely with lukewarm water. Leave it to stand for at least 20 minutes but no longer than two hours. Then let the plant drain off completely. I have forgotten them in their bath for a few hours a couple of times (no biggie).


I might feed them about three times a year. That's it.
They bloom for months on end. Imagine buying cut flowers during all of this time. If you keep them, practice a little patience and give them a little TLC they'll come again and again.

They always remind me of flying to Thailand... Thai Airways always distributed orchid corsages on the flight.
A single blooming plant can make a big impression. Give them a try and tell me what you think!

Awful Offal?

Spring is just around the corner. It must be!
At least that's what I tell myself to keep from going crazy. I might be a little bit over-optimistic, but I already cut back all of the woody herbs and my indoor chili plant...
And then I found this little beauty underneath everything else. This will have to tide me over until warmer days arrive.


Later the same day I cooked something with the same herb. And let this be a fair warning to anyone who isn't similarly inclined. I cooked myself some lovely Fegato alla Veneziana, or in plain English Chicken Livers with Sage, Marsala and Onions...
Thank you, please come back and visit soon. (This will not be a recurring topic. I promise)




I will presume that the only people still reading are those who can also handle corresponding pictures.
First of all: I am unsure if this is the original composition of the Venetian Chicken Livers. My father dubbed this dish and the name has stuck.

Ingredients:
Fat for frying
Chicken livers
Marsala
Fresh Sage leaves
One small onion, red or white
Salt and Pepper

First of all you want to marinate the cleaned livers in a generous lashing of Marsala and add a couple of (can be roughly chopped) fresh sage leaves. Leave this standing at room temperature for 20 minutes or half an hour. In the last couple of minutes take a small onion and slice it not too finely.


Heat a frying pan to high heat and fry the livers only in a little clarified butter or oil of choice. Turn them over after a couple of minutes and cook them until they are just done. Put them aside.
In a bit more clarified butter or oil fry off the sage leaves until crispy. (These could be put aside and sprinkled over the finished dish.) In the sage infused fat, fry the sliced onions to taste. I like them to still retain a bit of crunchy texture. Add all of the Marsala used to marinate and let it reduce and cook of the alcohol. Add back the livers and cook them in the sauce for one or two minutes. Adjust the seasoning.
Serve with a couple of slices of crusty bread to soak up the sauce with.


E Guete!

Perfect endings...

Last Saturday was supposed to be THE night. All my girls got together for dinner and the idea was to go out afterwards. But as those plans go....
We had something to nibble before some homemade cannelloni were dished up. The recipe was one of Jamie Oliver's that I have also used myself. They were so delicious. Over wine we got to talking and time seemed to fly.
For desert I had made the Pioneer Woman's Lemon Olive Oil& Thyme cakes and they were so nice.

The simple lemon, butter and powder sugar frosting gave the otherwise fluffy cakes the perfect amount of texture. Although I did make about a third less than in the recipe, it was the perfect amount. I probably under baked these beauties a little. But I have no regrets as there is nothing I like less than a too dry cake... These were perfect.

I will certainly make them again, but am thinking of something to substitute the thyme. I personally liked them but some (like my mother) would prefer something less "edgy"...

PS: Of course not one of us set foot into a club that night... In the end we were all just yearning to go home. Are we getting old? :-)

Improvised asian pork chops

These pork chops were a spur of the moment thing. We used what we had on hand and they turned out very delectable.



The marinade was;
lots of soy sauce
a couple of cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
a dash of ginger powder (because we didn't have any fresh)
a generous table spoon of homemade orange marmalade, very finely chopped (because the sister doesn't like it) *devilish*

In hindsight a little chopped chili would have been nice too.

We prepared the chops with a generous sprinkling of Dayong powder* on both sides and let them sit in the marinade for half an hour.
The chops were cooked about four minutes on both sides and left to rest under aluminum foil whilst the leftover marinade was used to make a sauce. I just let the marinade and a splash of white wine reduce in the pan that was used to cook the chops. Then I stirred in cold butter and adjusted the seasoning.

Served in slices with a few waxy potato and salad. Sorry, no pictures. We were sooo hungry.

*This is my fathers secret ingredient for cooking meats of all kind. It's an Asian (I think Chinese) spice mixture that gives the dish a more rounded flavor with a hint of exotic. But it doesn't really dominate the taste of the dish.

The unintentional hiatus is over

I am so sorry for sliding straight into February without another post.
The last week was spent in these surroundings:


A week spent with my sister and her boyfriend is time well spent. Although I didn't get much reading done I was "forced" to watch more tennis than ever before and did learn a thing or two about it.

We did cook one or two meals worthy of a post (maybe later), but since the substantial part of our nutrition was lunches in cosy slope-side cabin restaurants, our homecooked dinners were mostly a simple, quick affair eaten in front of the television. ( Oh, shock subside.)I loved this still life on three different interpretations of a hot dog...


Good times. The train ride home was like a trans-Siberian express journey. I am glad January is over and we are getting closer to spring with each day.