(teans.com.au)

So here is what it takes:

Coconut milk/cream can, okra (đậu bắp), spring onion, coriander, (hành ngò, gò gai), beef ball instead (instruction call for fish balls), fried tofu, and that yellow noodle freshly made unavailable at 7:30pm night market? Replace with spaghetti actually ok too, 2 hard boiled eggs, beansprouts (giá)

When buying ingredients at the street market near Như Lan, Hàm Nghi Chợ Cũ (Old Market) like beef balls, tofu ensure to blanch it through to ensure hygiene, beansprouts. This would include the đậu bắp, just maintain the colour for now.

Lay out 2 bowls, bottom layer is the beansprouts, then some herbs on top.

Put in the noodles on after boiling it, a bit more longer than the usual al dente of the Italian style. Basically ensemble the dish as instructed by the package, ingredients can be adjusted according to taste.

All photos credit go to: Christian Berg Photography

]]> http://annha.com/food/instant-laksa-for-2-n%e1%ba%a5u-laksa-t%e1%bb%91c-d%e1%bb%99/feed 2 http://annha.com/food/b%e1%ba%bfp-gia-dinh-everyday-cook http://annha.com/food/b%e1%ba%bfp-gia-dinh-everyday-cook#comments Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:48:17 +0000 Ann Ha http://annha.com/?p=1152

Ingredients:

1. Baby green chillies, not the spicy ones

2. Baby green and yellow squash

3. Baby zucchini yellow and green

4. Baby tomatoes

5. Mixed pasta cheese

Spaghetti, onions, garlic, Tabasco, the normal basic tomatoes canned sauce the Italian kind. And some love

Create texture for the dish, I made 2 layers in the sauce so quickly slice the squash first then fry quickly on high heat with diced onion and garlic. Set aside.

Boil the pastas enough for 2, maybe 3, I was hungry. Al dente of course.

Remaining onion and garlic with oil fry with chillies, then add tomatoes make it soft. Then add in the sauce, simmer, add in water one by one, touch of tabasco and seasoning. Let it to simmer while the pasta is cook.

Lay the dish in the following orders: Pasta, veg sauce, then add the crunchy squash, cheese and yum yum

Remember to have the crunchy texture remain.

Here is the full meal: German bread on goat cheese and raw baby tomatoes before the pasta….a lot of dough but I was again craving for it.

Here are some of the cool stuff I tried.

The best fresh sardine sandwich along the Galata Bridge. Visit the first diner, all the others are not very good. This one is fairy reasonable, nice staff they cook the sardine fresh just outside of the resto, open seating. There’s a lot of locals come here so it’s a good sign.

If bread is not your thing, just have the grill fish instead. The salad is bad so just eat the fish, dont forget to squeeze the lemon juice they have on nearby.

Along the Istiklal area, all the resto are really only cater to tourist, this one Konak was the most ok serving quite decend kebab, the real thing, rather different to the durum we’re familiar with. The bread is however quite a lot and thick. Always with a very spicy grilled green chilly, this dish is actually quite yummy with the kebab well marinated to Turkish taste. The ice cream here is awful so dont bother.

(Bread entree)

The bread goes with this dippping: tomatoes compte/puree with olives and oil. Perfecto.

More food from this organic quirky restaurant, very difficult to find and we went there for lunch but they asked to come back around dinner. We really want to try so we came back. The staff is uber friendly and nice, menu is small but big enough to have a good organic Istanbul typical dishes: a lot of seafood.

This is great to share, a plate with different fishes: the sardines are sublime, all servied with capers, onion, dill and of course with white wine. Totally worth it.

Some more dishes we ordered:

Above: trip, and my friend had lamb meat. I noticed all Turkish food always have the fresh chargrill green chilly. For my main course I had seafood stew with tomatoes. Basically all of the dishes here are mezze, just the modern kind. Restaurant address: Ece Aksoy no 9 Otelier Sokak in Tepebasi area. They have a website too.

Inside the Istanbul Modern is the trendy chic cafe by the river with great view. It might be crowded as this is also the regular affluent locals hang out, and everyone is trying to take the good view tables….worth a visit though esp after viewing the collection down below.

And when we’re too tired for going out, staying at the W hotel, their menu is super small but rather decend enough. Modern cuisine with a touch of Turkisk flavour. This salad below is quite a standard with shaved Parmersan but taste refreshing.

My main was lamb with pistachio nut crushed coated, a very Turkish thing, cucumbern yogurt side salad.

and of course the traditional Turkish breakfast: along the French street

Check out website của Gordon: www.gordonramsay.com

Tiểu sử ngắn ngọn http://www.gordonramsay.com/corporate/theman/biography/

Ngoài ra để tìm hiểu thêm về tiểu sử, mua sách bio của Gordon. Sách nấu ăn hiện nay tôi đang tham khảo là quyển Gordon Ramsay’s Fast Food và Healthy Appetite.

Là người thẳng tính và toàn cầu, Gordon thể hiện quan điểm của mình về ẩm thực và kinh doanh nhà hàng/ăn uống rất rõ ràng và sẽ không bao giờ chấp nhận việc nửa vời, hay là làm không tới, hoặc không kính trọng công việc đầu bếp của mình. Anh thẳng tay đuổi việc các cậu học bếp có thái độ sai lệch. Thậm chí còn chửi rủa thậm tệ đối với những loại người có tính cách như thế.

Có một tiểu sử khá là lâm li bi đát, Gordon đã trải qua nhiều thử thách trong cuộc sống gia đình (cha mẹ không hòa hợp, cha mẹ ẩu đã nhau, em trai nghiện ngập….) và hiện giờ Gordon không chỉ đơn thuần là một đầu bếp giỏi mà anh còn xuất hiện như là một celeb đầu bếp trên các chương trình ẩm thực tại Vương Quốc Anh, chương trình Hell’s Kitchen & Kitchen Nightmare nước Mỹ, và có các nhà hàng ở một số châu lục khác. Một số chương trình TV show khác của anh bao gồm seríe ‘The F Word’, cái này có 2 nghĩa, vì anh hay chửi thề nhưng chữ F cũng có nghĩa là Food. Lên xem một số TV show trên youtube hoặc channel 4 UK TV.

Hiện nay show anh đang làm ở Mỹ có tên gọi: Cookalong. TV Show này anh nấu món ăn trong studio và có sự tham gia của celebs và người dân Mỹ

Tôi luôn mong ước có một ngày nào đó được gặp Gordon mặc dù gương mặt của anh hơi bị xấu xí. hì hì. Anh có cô vợ tên Tania, cũng có xuất bản sách nấu ăn cho những người nội trợ và anh đã có tới 4-5 đứa con, đẻ chi cho lắm.

Gordon Ramsay – chừng nào anh đến Việt Nam?

Original content: http://www.bepgiadinh.com/cam-nhan-chia-se/kham-pha/cac-dau-bep-toi-yeu-va-kham-phuc-gordon-ramsay#comments

House warming parties can be as simple or as extravagant as one wish. But when beers are on the menu and  the heat is soaring on a summer night, tapas are the preferred choice, it does not take much effort to do and just as tasty.

Menu include:

1. Canned olives, choose the stone one, Spanish brand pick any

2. Canned gerkins

3. For the artichokes, try to get the fresh version versus the canned one. Throw in some herrings… they’re great with bread.

I picked 2 types of bread, one darker with more rye and bite to it, the other has black toasted sesame seed.  What’s else are the basic is a good selection of white cheese: feta, mozzarella, and garlic french cheese (can get from Lotteria), and some brie or Camembert.

Here are some of the more dark core ones.

Bunch of cherry tomatoes, slice in half and mixed with finely diced curl parsley, sliced  scallions and mix well with a healthy dose swirl of olive oil. Using cherry tomatoes, quickly fry with chopped green jalapenos, remember to take our the hot seeds until the tomatoes soften. The key to all of these tiny small cute dishes are lots of garlic and scallions, and good old olive oil.

Take some chilled tuna canned, and do the same thing, quickly heated it up with fried garlic and scallions. It will taste addictive even when it’s cold.

Depending on what’s good in the fresh fish section of the supermarket, choose enough fresh babe squid for your guests, clean it well, marinated with garlic, scallions, chopped flat leave parsley, sprinkle generously with paprika.

4 carrots, slice them round, blanch quickly but still have the crunchy fry them with the same basic ingredients and set aside for cooling. Same with the mushroom, select a few different types but stick to the meaty type, we called it ‘nấm đùi gà’, slice and fry them. If possible, dash a bit of white wine and stock if not, well season will just do just fine.

And for something very Spanish, get good quality chorizo, cut them into rings then dice into cubed. Quickly fry with garlic and red onion, dont put too much oil as the chorizo will release a lot of fat, just get them tight and neat with a bit of colouring.

To ensure this is not too crazily meaty, plate salad leave with chopped cherry tomatoes and generous portion of grated Parmesan cheese.

Now all you need is people to dig in, lovely stuff coz they dont need to be hot for serving. But the beers must be cold, freezing cold.

The good way about cooking this type is that you ultilise all the ingredients in different dishes. Ah yes and dont forget some quail eggs.

Thanks TJ.

I dont have time to cook the kind of comfort food that takes hours to stew…plus not all of Vietnamese home have proper oven…I’m staying over so on the way home, I made a stop to get:

1. 1 piece of sirloin steak

2. Goat cheese: the kind that is hard outside and soft inside

3. Bag of mixed salad

4. Optional: Fennel

Plus the basic:  Onion, garlic, seasoning. You might want to grab a steak seasoning for marinate purposes. Take the beef and add the seasoning on top, a few pinch, then crack some fresh black pepper, dried herb could be parsley, a touch of oil and leave for marinate.

Quickly chop onion and garlic and slide the fennel. Fry them off lightly with oil or butter, keep the colour.

Put the steak on high heat and seared both sides so that it’s medium rare, about 3min each side, ensure the meat is brown thoroughly. Let the steak rest before slicing.

Take a big round plate, layer salad mix on bottom, pour over the fried onion/fennel mix. Slice the steak rather thinly and put on top of the salad bed. Also slice the cheese and arrange around the plate.

Season well.

Some tomatoes would have been great.

Toast some brown Germany bread, red wine, and again….a company. Meal is ready in less than 30min.

Pork cutlets needed some tendering, so place the back of the knife and mash it through the meat. The trick: marinate:

1. Sugar

2. Shredded ginger

3. Sesame oil

4. Chopped fresh chillies

5. Vietnamese soy sauce

All put together in the cutlet and marinate for 30min while putting on the rice and thinly slide carrot and wash/clean the bok choy. Quickly fry the vegetables and ginger roots with a touch of butter, season well with salt and pepper, a splash of olive oil, set aside.

Take the pork out fry quickly on both side until golden brown over hot pan with sesame oil. Save the marinate until the pork is just cook. Dont over cook the pork….most Vietnamese do, the meat is dry and tasteless which is something I hate. Just turn them over right away when they’re done pour over the marinate and remaining gingers and spring onion.

Dish up the rice, vegies on the side and serve HOT.

The chef sipping the wine…feelt great.

and here is one of my guests.

The place was empty. I was surprised but could not careless. Hungry and thirsty for wine, 4 of us quickly made our way to the menu. For 35USD ++, the selection of 4 course meal and 2 hours of free flow of wine really appealing. There was a couple in the next table but they ate in such a hasty speed and quickly ran out. The girl I noticed only had a salad and a glass of wine.

Optimistic, I choose my selection: Fancy starters, a humble meat dish and chocolate cheese cake and white wine…I think it was Chardonnay. Of all the dishes, the soup was probably the highlight of the night, the best of all. ‘Consomme of perigord black truffles w stuffed cabbage and goose liver’ is a dish that has the perfect blend of texture and taste, very intricate, light, a perfect starter. The clear tasty broth acts as a superb foundation for the mince pork wrapped with cabbage, a soft but crunchy texture, then balanced off by the soft, delicate goose liver. To top it all is a slice of black truffle, resting comfortably.

‘Secondi’ was champagne risotto with sweetbreads, interesting combination but the portion was way too big. For a second dish there was way too much risotto. And the rice was not cooked in the correct Italian way…almost tasteless. I was a bit disappointed. While a friend of  mine order chicken tart and my other friend decided to enjoy the ‘free served salad’ as she did not fancy anything else…again I think they need to control the portion here, if diners are going to have a 4 course menu!

The most awaited dish turned out to be rather ordinary. Duck breast with ginger and orange sauce saute with vegie. The duck was rather dried but it did retain some sweetness after- taste.  My friend made a joke about how my last duck breast home-cook was even better. Disappointed I must admit. Although the sauce is very light and over all it was refreshing and the mash potatoes was good….I found myself stunned. A boring dish.

We ended the night with the average desert….as if it was not satisfied enough, I ordered 2 scoops of coconut ice-cream to go with the cheese cake. We did however had great conversation and a relaxing year end dinner…but I could not stop thinking why there were 5 waitress staring at our table, trying to look after us. That is more than a hand full of waiting staff.

I wonder what my next visit will be like.

(Images: courtesy of C.B.)