Breakfast Sweets Series / Recipes — 4 comments
1
Jul 10
Lately I have been missing my friends and reminiscing about the many mornings we spent at Le Pain Quotidien, our favorite hangout in Jumeirah Beach Residence. Those were times when we just wanted to take it easy, wash down our worries with gigantic bowls of cafe au lait while looking nonchalantly fabulous under the Arabian sun. Truly, undeniably veritable belles du jour.
Snapping myself back to the present, I thought I’d recreate those LPQ moments by spending a good amount of time in the kitchen and baking myself a Belgian treat. I’m leaning towards something sugary these days so I scoured the web and bumped into craquelin. It is basically a brioche that caters to your sweet tooth.
Happy with my choice of bakery, I hastily got down to business. That was last night. This morning, with the dough rising inside the oven, butter softening in the kitchen counter, coffee brewing in the French press… I grabbed a few minutes to put on a sundress and slap on some lippy. I haven’t forgotten to look fab for my petit dejeuner!
xxx
Karima
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Arctic Flavors / Recipes — 2 comments
27
Jun 10
If you come from a tropical country, you probably like mangoes. Unless you have a severe allergy to it…
Unripe and still green, it teams up well with chopped tomatoes and onions to make a refreshing accompaniment to grilled pork chops. It even makes a great pickle when marinated in a solution of beer, salt, shallots and sugar.
Ripe and fully perfumed, it serves as the star to many many desserts like the ever popular Mango Float, a Tiramisu-like layered dessert of graham crackers, cream and slices of succulent mango.
This is our take on the Mango-Sago dessert which, in its simplest form, is a chilled sago pudding served with mango slices, coconut milk and syrup. Our version features a rich homemade vanilla ice cream, loaded with chunks of ripe mango, swirled with mango syrup and topped with sago ‘caviar.’ Here’s hoping no one has allergies to any of that!
xx
Karima
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Messages / Recipes — No comments
24
Jun 10
I never liked chayote. The mere mention of it conjures up memories of overcooked green chunks of blandness drowning in tinola broth or trying very hard to make its presence felt amidst a scattering of sauteed ground pork. When visiting a friend’s place and I happen to be served with anything that has chayote in it, I usually (politely) decline. And then you get grilled as to why you don’t want to have some. I’d love to have invented an allergy to this vegetable but at the risk of embarrassing myself, I’d oblige, carefully get a couple of pieces and literally swallow the thing, praying I wouldn’t choke on its mushy texture and obvious lack of flavor!
Well, that was before I discovered it can be eaten raw.
I have never seen it served uncooked. So I kind of assumed it is only consumed after subjecting it to heat! While researching for a menu that I had been asked to prepare for a friend who was going on a diet, I found a salad recipe that called for raw chayote. At first I was flabbergasted. Then I remembered: do we not cook jicama, radishes, cucumbers and eat them raw as well?
So I gave the recipe a shot. And I fell in love.
I’ll think twice before I say never again.
xx
Karima
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Messages / Recipes — No comments
21
Jun 10
Hankered for some steak but not the 300-gm slab of meat that I usually drown in peppercorn sauce. Not today. I wanted a steak with a bit of finesse, flavorful but not intimidating on my plate. And no, I don’t want a filet mignon either!
Then it hit me. I remembered a recipe from one of my Valli Little cookbooks. It did call for eye-fillet steak, which is filet mignon in Australia, marinated in soy, ginger and Szechuan pepper, chargrilled to medium rare, and cut up into cubes before being drizzled with a chili-cilantro dressing. My version, I decided, will feature my favorite beef cut: sirloin.
So I raided my brother’s spice cupboard, ground up some authentic Szechuan peppercorns, marinated the meat and prepared the dressing. I erred on the side of caution and made a bowl of cool cumin-scented cucumber raita, just in case my kid couldn’t handle the heat. In any case, I could always offer him a cup of mango ice cream I had whipped up a few hours earlier but I’m digressing.
After a few forkfuls of spicy, hot, cool and lemony things that happily played with my taste buds, I sat back feeling my lips break into a grin, sated. Oh, did I mention I ate two plates of rice with those little buggers? Talk about finesse!
xxx
Karima
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Messages — 1 comment
13
Nov 09
It was my first time to experience a private dinner. At first I thought we would be the only customers in the restaurant because it is “private”. I was dead wrong. But nonetheless, it still was a small group – only 18 of us.
We arrived early around 6:45pm and Chef Bruce was already in the kitchen doing prep work. Dinner usually starts at 7:00pm. The kitchen of the restaurant is the the actual place where they shoot his TV shows like Tablescapes. He greeted us and asked us about how we heard about the place. He was, by the way, trained by Mr. Kitchen Bad Boy himself – Gordon Ramsey. Ramsey actually kicked Chef Bruce’s butt (literally). Poor guy.
So blah blah blah, we were so hungry, harassed and couldn’t wait to taste his cooking. We were in it for a set meal of 6 courses and had the best seats in town – just a few inches away from Chef Bruce’s work area.
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Recipes — 1 comment
22
Sep 09
I first saw this recipe in my friend’s cellphone. It was a 3gp video clip of a cooking show. I modified his recipe because I was looking for a different taste. But the overall process is pretty much the same. My oven is broken at this time so I used an oven toaster as a substitute.
Remember, since we’re using an oven toaster we can’t use a large pizza crust. It wont fit for sure. Let’s get down to business.
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Recipes — No comments
22
Sep 09
Great with grilled pork chops or sticky baked ribs. Mmmmmm….
Ingredients:
- 2 mangoes
- 1 medium tomato
- 1 medium white onion
- 5 sprigs cilantro
- 1 celery stalk
- zest of 1/2 lemon
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- cayenne pepper
- salt and pepper to taste
Mise en Place:
- Wash and sanitize all ingredients
- Slice mangoes and tomato into cubes
- Chop onions finely
- Chop cilantro coarsely
- Chop celery
Method:
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl except the lemon zest and cilantro.
- Season to taste. Adjust to your liking. Add sugar if it’s too sour.
- Garnish with cilantro and top with a generous amount of lemon zest.
- Serve cold.
Jon
Bacon Wrap Series — 1 comment
22
Sep 09
The first time I had heard of rumaki, I thought it was a Japanese dish. To my surprise, it is actually a Hawaiian appetizer, alternatively called Bacon-Wrapped Livers. But then again, Hawaii has a lot of Japanese influence, even in food. This appetizer is very easy to make but tasty and has an interesting contrast of the crunchy sweet bacon and the almost buttery feel of the liver.
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Libations — No comments
22
Sep 09
Lemongrass is an aromatic herb that has become a staple ingredient in Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. It is widely used in fish soups and curries as its citrus flavor blends well with garlic, cilantro and chilies. Because of its fresh, clean fragrance, it is often incorporated in soaps and various aromatherapy products.
In the Philippines, iced tea is very common in restaurants and fast food joints. It usually comes flavored with lemon. In Thailand, it too is flavored but with lemongrass.
This recipe is adapted from the Blue Elephant Cooking School in Bangkok. To elevate this humble drink a notch, serve it with fruit or herb ice cubes such as lemon zest or mint.
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Kids in the Kitchen — 3 comments
9
May 08
Kids are sometimes hesitant to try new food, especially when you say it’s good for them. Either they would think that it’s not tasty or perhaps there’s vegetable hiding in there somewhere. But demystifying a new dish can be easy, so long as you involve children in its creation – from doing the grocery list to purchasing the ingredients to helping with the cooking. Kids love to play pretend so allow this to be the opportunity for them to be chefs. Take them to an outdoor market to be familiar with the different local produce that many of them might not know, especially if they grew up in the city. Alternatively, bring them to the grocery store and have them pick one new item to try.
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