Your Dreams Coming True In The Kitchen

W ikipedia says, and I quote: " The  piccata  was an Italian dish consisting of thin slices of veal sauteed and served with a base of lemon sauce,  capers  and butter.  The meat is  tender, seasoned, rolled in flour and sautéed in olive oil until a golden crust on each side.  The sauce is obtained by  icing  the bottom of the pan with white wine before adding the lemon juice, capers and butter.  The sauce is then served on the meat, sprinkled with parsley and possibly decorated with lemon slices".

A homely everyday healthy meal would be vegetables. In this case we had cauliflower which we felt like eating in a different way than the usual plain steamed with olive oil and lemon. So I decided to cook it in a tomato sauce and dry powdered coriander giving the cauliflower a very tasty twist. Fresh coriander was add on top just before serving giving the whole dish a wonderful aroma. It was delicious. It was served on cardamom rice. I apologize for the above picture. I always forget to take a photo once the dish is ready.

Blanquette means that the meat and the butter are not sauted. The meat is just boiled and the butter is used for a roux. So Blanquette de Veau is nothing but boiled boneless chunks of bonesless veal (best taken from the shoulder),and  vegetables. The juice produced is used to make the white sauce served with the meat and vegetables. A white roux is made to thicken the egg / lemon sauce which is then added to the rest of the meat juice.

Happened to fall on a couple of chicken breasts which appealed to my eye.This is what I did with them.

S ometimes you have left over rice and don't know what to with it. Asians usually use it for fried rice. I used it to make a nice mix which we enjoyed very much.

Boy I tell you this is one heck of a buffet or starter recipe. Get yourself one kg of pork belly with a lot of the surface fat taken off,  cut in 2 inch cubes ,  Sear and caramelize with strawberry flavoured balsamic cream vinegar on your stove top. Then roast in 180 degree Celsius oven for 20 minutes. Separately cook cubed green apples and ginger in fresh butter till very soft. Roughly pure the apple sauce. Serve pork bits with a dollop of this mash. Simply gorgeous !!

Ok folks I've been away for a long time. This was firstly due to health reasons and secondly I had nothing to write about. I always want to write something new and exciting. And that is exactly what I shall be writing about today. Maria is the chef this time. She did everything I stuck to the washing.

You will need for one batch of 250 ml. of Sauce Béarnaise:

Pie not yet cooked. H ere is a very nice savory pie you can make when invited to some friends house (such as a New Year's Eve dinner party) and you would like to take something made by you. It is very presentable and light. I have taken this recipe from my friend Paola Collengui, of Zenzero e Limone a blogger with www.giallozafferano.it. She takes all the credit. Nothing wrong in copying another person's recipe as long as you mention his name and give him credit for it. Only in this case there will be a change in the styling of the pie because it is not the season for zucchini flowers. So this pie will decorated with something different....we shall see when the time comes.....

The following article has been copied verbatum from “Academia Barilla” on the Internet. This Nduja was brought to me by a good Italian friend Aldo who happens to live with his wife next door to our building in Athens.  If anybody can get a hold of this type of Hot Hot sausage, will be lucky because it can be used in a variety of ways in food. NDUJA Nduja is a Calabrian sausage traditionally made from pork trimmings. Its name most likely comes from the French word andouille. HISTORY Nduja is a Calabrian sausage traditionally made from pork trimmings. Its name most likely comes from the French word  andouille , which is a type of sausage made with innards, tripe, lung, and liver, boiled with vegetables and spices. The meat is stuffed into a casing of small intestine and consumed within a couple of days. The French may have brought this type of sausage to southern Italy when they were defending the land against the invading Spanish....

T oday is Sunday, a day for a special lunch. We have on hand a beautiful piece of pork tenderloin and needs to be specially handled......

I wish to thank my readers from the United States of America who are the most loyal to me ever since I began food blogging. I therefore would appreciate it to receive from them recipe suggestions they would love to have my e mail is smamatis@gmail.com. Thank you  Stelio

T he other day I found some cheap cherry tomatoes and went ahead and bought them knowing that I could find something to do with them. As I had nothing to do that afternoon, thought of making an all purpose sauce and freeze it . It could be of use some day I would be cooking chicken, beef, seafood or pasta....

T his is absolutely a delicious meal for Sunday!! Grill the whole fillet and stuff it with a mixture of cream and Gorgonzola cheese....

Served With  A Mixture Of  Mashed Carrots And Potatoes. Served As Cold Cuts With Just Salad B asically veal is not healthy eating although it is supposed to be tender . The older the animal the healthier. But every once in a while when a piece like this one is found, it is worth while cooking with a special wine sauce and caramelised onions. Pasta, or mashed potatoes can be used on the side....

W e always need to eat something sweet after any meal how ever light it may be. So join me for some cookies.....

Maybe a bit too rare for your taste (4 mutes each side)  U nfortunately lately I have gone wild on cheese. Not any cheese. Just cheese which melts into strings as you pull it from  your mouth....too many TV commercials!!!!

C hards are delicious, green leafed and excellent for the health....

Cooking now a days is based on imagination. So the other day my wife made crepes and filled them with a mixture of tahini, honey and cocoa. They were delicious...

T his recipe was taken off a TV program in Athens called " The Happy Cook " . Maybe you guys out there may not have seen this episode but I have added my own " Food Styling".....

O rzo can be treated as rice. Some Mediterranean ways of cooking orzo or rice is by frying in olive oil or butter first till all the grains are coated  before adding the right amount of water, covering the pot, lowering the temperature to minimum and letting it cook for 20 minutes.....

B urgers and sausages are my favorite kinds of meat. They are the best kind for quickie parties with close friends. Good quality bread, burger patties, cheese slices, country sausages, a nice big salad, beer and wine and you've made it. I have written about burger patties many times in the past. I believe this time I came up with the best recipe......

I tell you guys, Maria and I just love whole roasted turkey. We get to eat it once per year during the Christmas holiday and that's it! So...if you get it right all fine and dandy but if you don't then you have to wait for another year to eat whole roasted turkey hoping you will get it right.....

I don't believe anyone has ever shown you guys a picture such as the above. Well sometimes I'm nuts! The darn dish was so good, that we ate it all in a hurry before I could take a picture of it. At least you can see what colour it was!....

O ven roasted chicken with orzo is a typical Greek home dish. Nothing fancy just chicken and orzo. But the secret is how is this done....

We love seafood and pasta. Got my hands on a bunch of cheap frozen mussels the other day, so I decided to divide them into two. We creamed the first half  (previous post )and decided to have the second half with peas, basil and a spicy tomato sauce. Now you'll say where did I get fresh basis during this time of year...

S affron and Turmeric are two fantastic anti-oxidants that not only give a delicious refined taste but also a beautiful color to the cream and the whole dish in general. The finely chopped dill, the zest of one lemon and a splash of Samos sweet wine makes this starter even better....

Casseroles are usually very welcome during cold days of winter. When you have some left overs in your fridge such as small quantities of certain vegetables, grated cheese, or cut pasta (not spaghetti) in your pantry, they could be used to make up a casserole......

Fried Pappadums A s a rule I always like to use freshly made broth from fresh chicken, meat, or vegetables....

This Christmas Pudding my friends was bought ready. All I had to do is steam it for an hour and pour Whiskey Butter over it (I had no brandy). Whiskey used was Chivas Regal 12 year old. It takes a whole month to prepare! Wish you all a Happy New Year 2015. Stelio

A most straight forward cake, called pound cake in the olden days because a pound of this and a pound of that were added to make it when you want to have some cake with your morning coffee or in the afternoon.

O ne day I woke up in the morning and as I was walking in front of the fire place I saw a beautiful turkey sitting in it. It was plucked and nearly ready to roast in the oven. I also saw a nice size Christmas Pudding sitting by the turkey. And I said " Oh my God did Santa make a second run just for me?? So I thanked him, counted my blessing and continued on. I told my wife and daughter who were very happy and decided we would have it for Epiphany Day on January 6th just the three of us.  It is not very often that you have a whole turkey just for yourself. Usually it is for many guests such as relatives and friends and you end up eating a bite or two, or too tired to eat after all the cooking...

M aybe I am being a bit old fashioned as to the Gratin. Yes, I know all about the modern Nouvelle Cuisine and the various videos but I am following my heart and am still cooking dishes I used to eat when I was much younger in various cosmopolitan cities such as Monte Carlo, Beirut, Lausanne. These dishes are now prepared with a twist by adding some bacon or a touch of Porcini mushrooms....

Heavy Cream Before Blending It Into The Pumpkin Soup E verybody says Pumpkin Soup is delicious and easy to make. I had about 2,5 kg of pumpkin left over from the holidays so I decided to use it all to make this famous Pumpkin Soup everybody is talking about....

I t was cured for about 6 days, after which it was taken out of the cure, washed well with water, dried, and smoked for 6 hours on an electric smoker at 150 degrees Celsius. Total weight of the piece was 3,7 kg.

S.P.G. = Salt, Pepper, Garlic. Nice and short!! Happy New Year everybody. I would like to share this easy recipe with you guys because it is delicious and festive. All it takes is a lot of baby potatoes, well washed, skins on, cut in half, placed in a nice baking dish cut side down and roasted for 1 hour at 190 degrees Celsius static, half dipped in very good extra virgin olive oil with salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste Just delicious!!! Enjoy, Stelio

O k fellas I was brave enough to cook our Christmas Turkey on the BBQ. Read many of my favourite chefs' suggestions and mixed them all up to make up in my way. The legs and wings came out slightly tough but the breast came out juicy and deliciously well cooked. Exactly the reverse of what usually happens..... I think it needed another half hour on the grill....

T hought I'd include this as my last posting for 2014 but was busy fixing some electrical stuff around the house so... We had this for Boxing Day lunch and people loved it! This is an old recipe made with cauliflower instead of broccoli so I said " what the heck " and used Broccoli instead and amazingly enough it came out much better ....