“El Bulli” and “Linguiceira”

Last week, during a trip to the most wonderful island in this world, the Isl. of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil were the city of Florianópolis is located, I had the privilege of receiving two fantastic gifts from my two brothers-in-law, Rodolfo and Reynaldo (they’re not so bad after all).

1. Rodolfo has a daughter, Julia, who happens to live in France and to be a very close friend of the acclaimed Chef Mauro Colagreco.  Mauro Colagreco is the chef de cuisine of Mirazur, a modern restaurant set in  Menton, on the Côte d’Azur right at the Italian border. He earned his first Michelin star in 2007. In the same year Gault Millau, the French restaurant guide, named Mirazur newcomer of the year (Révélation Gault Millau de l’Année).  Chef Colagreco was born in the La Plata province, Argentina, and after travelling throughout Latin America arrived in Paris to cook with the finest chefs, like Bernard Loiseau at La Côte d’Or, Alain Passard at L’Arpège and Alain Ducasse at Plaza Athénee.

Well, Chef Colagreco and my niece Julia went to Spain for a visit to the 3-Michelin star Chef Ferran Adriá and his world-famous “El Bulli“.  There, they received, from the hands of Chef Adriá himself (and I like to imagine him asking Chef Colagreco to give it to me as a personal sign of his appreciation for this most amazing blog) a copy of “Un dia en El Bulli” (A Day at El Bulli).  Guess I don’t need to add anything else, except maybe for a special thanks to Mauro and Julia.

A Day at El Bulli (The Veuve Clicquot Ponsirdin was a most welcomed extra)

2. Reynaldo was in Itajaí, a city colonized by Portuguese from Madeira and Azores Islands, were he was introduced to a “linguiceira”, or “chouriceira” as it’s called in Portugal.  “Linguiceira” is a clay pot specially designed to prepare “linguiças” (sausages).  He thought of me and immediately brought one home, which now happens to be at my kitchen.

The “linguiceira” is a plain round clay pot with a kind of clay grill at the bottom.  You have to place some alcohol (ethanol)  in it (bellow the grill of course), place your sausage on top (I prefer a smoked sausage similar to the German “Mettwurst“), and last but not least, light the fire. As the alcohol burns it heats up the sausage, which releases some of its fat which then feeds the flames (they are blue at the beginning, turning red as fat starts to burn). After a few minutes you are ready to have a wonderful snack (we had it with some Pita bread and Veuve Clicquot while talking about El Bulli and Chefs Colagreco and Adriá).  The sausage, produced in Pomerode (the most German city in Brazil), was rather similar to the “Holsteiner” variety, typical of northern Germany.  You can have an idea of the whole process observing the pictures bellow:

Starting of the process - burning alcohol placed at the bottom

Stage 2 - Fat released from the sausage starts to burn

Time to turn it around

Enjoy it!

German sausage, prepared in a Portuguese way by Brazilian cooks, and eaten with Middle Eastern bread and French champagne while enjoying a Spanish book . Can anything else be more Borderless?????

Linguiceira

A face lift

If you’ve been around before you must have noticed that I’ve applied a new theme to my blog.  This is also to mark the fact that I’m no longer taking pictures with my cell phone, but have recently acquired a small 10.0 Mpixel Nikon.  Even though some of the old low quality pics may still appear in the near future, I hope to get much better shots from now on (the last post – This is why you’re fat – already features a picture of the new series).

Of course I’m assuming that the bad pictures are a direct result of camera quality, having nothing to do with the photographer skills…;-)

This is why you’re fat

Have you visited the website “This is why you’re fat“?  Well, they sure do have some wonderful ideas on how to turn dreams into heart attacks.

Although my heart has already shown some signs of complaint, after seeing some of the wonderful pictures they have on the site I’ve decided to take my shot on the subject.

To tell you the whole story I have to confess that the final inspiration came from a show by Bobby Flay I happen to have watched on the net a few weeks ago, as he is not presenting his skills on Brazilian television.  That was the first, as well as the one and only show by Bobby Flay I have ever watched (please, don’t ask me for the season and episode number, as I don’t have the slightest idea).  On that show, Mr. Flay and a female guest (famous???????, not on this side of the world) each prepared his/her own version of an American classic:  hamburgers.  Here is my version (clearly inspired on theirs):

1.  A homemade bun. I used a classical and rustic bread recipe – take a look at “Our Daily Bread“. They didn’t mention, but I bet the production bought theirs on a supermarket just around the corner – not as good though;

2.  Butter fried onions to which I added my secret BBQ sauce recipe.  I say “secret” because it seems every American man (and I bet quite a few women too) seems to have his own secret recipe.  Mine is simple: catchup, some water, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, chilli sauce and some Kentucky Bourbon (after all it’s an American sauce);

3.  Pork and beef hamburgers (1:1) seasoned with some salt and chopped spring onions;

4. Slices of cheddar cheese;

5.  Fried slices of bacon;

6. Lettuce;

7. Tomatoes;

8. Homemade onion rings (flour, salt, pepper, baking powder, 1 well beaten egg with some milk)

8. Freshly prepared mayonese (2 egg yolks – one raw and one boiled – Dijon mustard to taste, few drops of lemon, pinch of salt, whisk oil into the mixture a few drops at a time – keep it smooth).

This is why you're fat - My version of an American classic

Man, let me tell you…that was good, specially considering it was eaten with some cold Mexican beer with a slice of lime.

Hamburgers

Alla carbonara

Today, and for the next 3 days, my youngest daughter (Joana) is going through several examinations, along with 32,000 other candidates, for a spot in one of the largest Brazilian Universities, the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, in Porto Alegre, the capital of our state, as she plans to study Computer Engineering.  Today she had exams on Brazilian Literature, English and Physics, from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m., and the temperature was reaching 95oF.  No need to say she left the exams pretty exhausted; and has to go through additional ones for the next 3 days, as I’ve already mentioned.  We ate something fast for lunch, but I figured she would need something more substantial in terms of energy for dinner.  Something like a pasta (full of carbohydrates, fast energy for the brain) with some fat (some lipids for slow burning metabolic processes).

Made a search on Foodista and decide to go for the Spaghetti Alla Carbonara.  The result you can see below.

Penne rigatti alla carbonara

You sure have noticed I used penni rigatti instead of spaghetti (I didn’t have any).

I have to say that, although I didn’t have an Italian pancetta, the result was rather similar to the dish we had in Italy last summer.  We stopped at a roadside trucker joint between Assisi and Rome, and  they served the best spaghetti alla carbonara I’ve ever had.  I believe the secret was the pancetta, fantastically flavorful.

Spaghetti alla carbonara - The real thing

New Year’s rainbow

According to the Wikipedia, the Irish leprechaun’s secret hiding place for his pot of gold is usually said to be at the end of the rainbow. Although this place is impossible to reach, because the rainbow is an optical effect which depends on the location of the viewer, what is a perfectly prepared meal if not a pot of gold?  Thus, to make sure I’d reach this pot of gold on this new year I decided (after the suggestion of my brother-in-law Reynaldo, who in fact furnished all the ingredients) to prepare a rainbow trout with almonds.

Rainbow trouts (Oncorhynchus mykiss) are salmonids native of the Pacific Ocean, in Asia as well as in North America.  They were introduced in southern Brazil in the 70’s, in the central mountains of the state of Santa Catarina.  One of the pioneers in this process was Prof. Hélio Antunes de Souza.  In 1977, while college mates (we received our Biology degree together in 1978), Hélio decided to start some experiments with this species, and thus released some individuals in ponds he constructed in his father property at the margins of the Pelotas river.  Such experiments demonstrated the potential of these trouts to grow in those crystalline waters, and evolved to turn Prof. Hélio into the largest commercial producer of this species in southern Brazil.

The recipe of my trout with almonds is rather simple.  Take some fish filets, season with salt, sprinkle with paprika, and bake them in the oven for a few minutes (10-15 min will do).  Meanwhile heat 2-3 tablespoons of butter (for 2 filets) on a skillet and add some sliced almonds (about 3/4 cup).  When the butter starts to turn brown add a shot of Frangelico (an Italian hazelnut and herb-flavored liqueur).  Let it simmer for a while.  Remove from the fire, add 2-3 tablespoons of heavy cream and pour over the fillets.  That’s it.  I’m sure you have a pot of gold in your mouth as you chew through this rainbow.  A wonderful way to start 2010.

Rainbow trouth with Frangelico, butter and almonds