Pickled cheese, who would have thought.

Hi folks, me again. My friends and I decided that we are going drinking. But cheap bastards that we are we don't go out until we use this typically American concept of pre gaming. So we all head out to this guys place, a Hungarian Erasmus student. For the love of me I still can't pronounce his name and here I was thinking it’s the alcohol, it wasn't, lol.
Anyway this guy introduced me to pickled cheese, when I think about it is really silly. After all it’s not the first time that I’ve eaten marinated feta cheese a goat's cheese, it is the same concept after all. I think what I was more surprised is that he told us in his country its typical drinking food, like nuts, or pickled eggs (not that I would ever eat a pickled egg).
Anyway I found this to be very interesting and quite good tasting. I immediately thought this would be perfect in a salad, which I did and will share the recipe with you.

Pickled camembert, mix green salad, berry dressing

Dressing:
1tbsp raspberry vinegar
2,5tbsp extra virgin oil cold press
Salt
Pepper
1 strawberry

Pickled cheese:
Camembert
Olive oil
Onion
Garlic
Smoked paprika
Jalapeño peppers

Salad:
Corn salad
Oak leaf lettuce

For the pickled cheese if you have noticed I have not indicated any quantities. You can make as little or as much as you want, adjust your quantities to the strength you want to give in taste.
It is quite easy to make chop garlic; onions and jalapeño peppers add to olive oil and warm very gently as to get the oiled infused. Sprinkle smoked paprika over camembert then pour warm oil just to cover the cheese. Put in a jar. Wait for a week mini.
for the dressing add a pinch of salt and pepper to raspberry vinegar, mix until all the salt has dissolved then add oil and mix till you have a homogenise mixture. Dice strawberry very small and add to dressing
Wash your salads and separate the leaves to your liking. put one or two pieces of cheese on a plate, try to drain as much oil as possible, dress your salad very lightly and put on the side of salad, and voila very simple and great tasting little dish.
For those of you counting your calories you may wanna be careful, lol. Also remember you don't have to stick to my recipe you can add other aromatic to your cheese, after all cooking is a question of love and passion.

I would like to say welcome and thank you to my first three followers. Please tell your friends about my blog it’s only gonna get better with time.

carrots, friends and dumplings

It's Sunday, I am surrounded by two François, a very old friend who is like a brother to me, and the other I have only just met, but feels like I’ve known him for ages. The table is covered with carrots and other stuff and I am cooking for what’s going to be a dinner party of fourteen people including myself. Only instruction is cook vegetarian and only fish for the main corse. It took me a few minutes to decide what I was going to do and this is what I came up with:

Starter
Carrot & coconut soup, served with herb dumplings

Main corse
Sea bass on garlic cream, served with stuff roast tomatoes

Dessert

Roasted pineapple, served with leffe caramel

But I won`t be boring you with all the recipes, just the first one for now. Carrot and coconut soup.
What you need:

500g carrots
250ml coconut cream
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
500ml fish stock
ginger diced

For the herb dumpling

250g of plain flour
2tbsp baking powder
1 baking potato
1 garlic clove
Chives and parsley

This dish is really simple to make, but it is also very tasty. I think it’s best to start by cooking your potato for your herb dumpling.

Mix together plain flour, baking powder with salt pepper and some water as to make a smooth round ball, add crushed potato, fresh herbs, and crushed garlic. You should end up with a well mixed flour ball; all that’s left to do is to roll out the dumplings in any shape or size you want. I made small balls as it’s to be served with a soup. Drop them in a pan of boiling water (I prefer use a vegetable stock or some other type of stock for taste) for five minutes. When they float on the surface of the water they are ready.

The carrot soup is even easier to make. Pour a spoon of olive oil into a pan, through in the garlic, onions, carrots, ginger,  and sautéed for two minutes pour fish stock and bring to a boil. When the carrots are all cooked, mix the whole till you get a smooth soup. Put back on the fire for a slow boil, add coconut cream and salt and pepper to taste.

When serving put a few herb dumplings into a soup bowl, cover with carrot soup, and top off with some fresh coriander and voila.

I have to say this starter was well received by my friends, and set the tone for the rest of the dinner party. After that it was François playing the guitar and singing, the girls being the seductive creatures that they are, a game of communist hold'em poker that’s going to last till seven am in the morning. All in all it was a great time.

If you guys want any of the other recipes in the menu please email me. You can follow me on twitter to find out when I am posting next or what the FRACK I am up too. I am going to see kung fu panda 2 and see what that inspirers me to come up with so until next time.

Mix it, cook it, eat it, and love it.