Your Dreams Coming True In The Kitchen

Courtesy Of Wikipedia  Courtesy Of Wikipedia H ad the clever idea of making a Beef Wellington for Epiphany which did not turn out the way I expected it because basically it was the first time I made it. All I knew about it was that you take a piece of beef and wrap it in puff pastry, seal it and stick it in the oven till the the pastry turns out a dark golden color. As I was looking through recipes in the Internet, I came across Mr. Gordon Ramsey's version of it which looked very good and Christmasy. Mr. Ramsay had the whole recipe on You tube. I followed step by step but unfortunately it did not come out as I expected. Everybody else confirmed that it is excellent. I had two things going against me: One was that I had to have other things in the oven with it, and second and most important was that I had to make two pieces. One piece for guests who like their meat well done, and others who like their meat rare like I do. Ingredients: - 2 rectangular pieces of...

If you have some fresh mushrooms (any mushrooms) in your fridge, lemon or lime, and any short pasta in your pantry you can make yourself one heck of a quick pasta meal. Ingredients: -  500 gr. of farfalle or any short pasta (neither linguini nor spaghetti). -  500 gr. any kind of mushrooms (except pleurotus) washed and thinly sliced. -  Rind of one lemon or lime. -  Juice of the same lemon or lime. -  Thyme. -  Extra virgin olive oil. -  1 finely grated garlic. -  Parmesan cheese. Method: -  Add thinly sliced mushrooms to a large deep plate or pan. -  Grate lemon or lime and mix. -  Juice lemon or lime and mix. -  Add grated garlic. -  Add thyme to taste. -  Salt and pepper to taste. -  Meanwhile: boil the pasta to the desired doneness. -  Strain and add while hot over the mushroom mix. -  Pour desired quantity of oil over the whole. -  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese....

O h yes pasta!! My favorite dish. I can have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. There were some guests on Epiphany Lunch who do not eat Escargot (Snai ls) so I had to think of something they like. I had a freshly opened package of giant shells and used 12 of them to make two oven proof plates for their appetizers.....

I cannot say I love this vegetable but when properly prepared and eaten very rarely it will go down! This time Maria chose to saute them with bacon, and  Greek sage smoked pork called Σύγκλινο Μανής (Siglino Manis) After doing the necessary washing, getting rid of the first yellow ugly leaves, cutting a cross on their base Maria blanched them for 4 minutes dipped them in cold water with ice in order to maintain their vivid green color and most importantly to stop the cooking....

L ive and learn they say. I will say it even if it sounds morose: "If someone is bound to die he or she should do so late in the evening because he or she would have had the chance to learn something that day!!" Well I just learned that there are blue/black potatoes. They are imported from France. Yes I work sitting down!! I was told that you can either boil and puree them, or make crisps (chips) out of them. So I thought of thickly grating them and making them into cakes, fry them crisply on both sides et voila. But I found out I could not because they don't hold together in the pan: they fall apart. So I lost my patience and mixed them all up as the picture below:   I know I could have put flour etc. but I prefer natural stuff.  So kept sauteing over a very slow fire until they became so beautifully crunchy that I kept on eating from them while cooking and there weren't much left for the guests!! Used good fresh butter mixed with some olive oil, ...

Carrots are very good for you. Bugs Bunny eats them and you see how clever he is!!....

T here are many types of pannacotta. This is one of them which suits the season. Chestnuts are usually consumed during the Christmas Holidays.....

Sorry for the lousy picture I forgot to take one when they were ready to serve. D oughnut puffs are classical 50's and 60's sweets which are not very much eaten now-a-days because they are very sweet but they are delicious. A soft and sticky dough containing lots of fresh yeast is deep fried by the teaspoonful to form puffed up crispy hollow golden yellow balls and by adding honey, wall nuts and cinnamon, explode in your mouth  Very high in calories! But deeeeelicous...eaten in very special occasions once or maximum twice a year....

E piphany 2013 lunch turned out to be one heck of a meal and..... quite a job to prepare!! The perfect cooperation between Maria and myself. Maria prepared the veggies, roasted potatoes, the sweets, and the Vassilopita while I prepared the Escargot (Snails) Bourguignon, Stuffed Pasta and the Beef Wellington. The menu was as follows.......