Pasta with Salmon and Creamed White Wine Sauce

Lately, my significant other A. has discovered (not that I hadn´t told him before) that fish is actually quite a smart nutrition choice. And of course, I am taking advantage of this turn in history, and do as much fish as possible at the moment.

Last night, I was able to get some really nice, wild, pacific salmon fillets, rod-caught. I try to buy as much rod-caught as possible, since overfishing is a huge topic these days.
Since it is freezing outside, I wanted to prep some really nice soul-food, and decided to go for fresh pasta, fettucine, to be exact. Fettucine are flat, long noodles, broader than spaghetti, but more slender than pappardelle.


I decided to go for a creamed white wine sauce, which is smooth in texture, and because of the wine rich in flavour. I just love that combination. Give it a shot yourself, and you will know what I mean. From start to finish (using fresh pasta), this dish takes only about 20 minutes, so no excuses on the "I´m in a hurry"-department.

The pros will make their pasta themselves - this time, I used store-bought fresh pasta, and I don´t think that´s a crime either.

Recipe for Pasta with Salmon and Creamed White Whine Sauce

Ingredients

500g fresh fettucine
salt and pepper
250g salmon filet, preferrably wild pacific
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 shallot
1 tablespoon butter
dash of white whine
150ml veggie broth
100g cream


Preparation

1. Heat pan. Cut salmon into square pieces, drizzle with lemon juice.
2. Melt butter in pan. Add salmon and sear until tender, about 5 minutes.
3. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from pan.
4. Meanwhile, bring water to a boil. Add fresh fettucine and cook until done, about 2 minutes. Drain and set aside.
5. Add a bit of butter to the salmon pan, dice shallot and sear. Quench with white wine, broth and cream. Let cook for about 4-5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
6. Add salmon pieces and fettucine, mix well.
   
7. Serve with a sprig of dill, if you like.

Guten Appetit! Enjoy your meal! Bon Appétit!

Lunch @ Dim Sum Gourmet, Dusseldorf

My special treat this week (besides the bean-to-cup Coffee Machine) was a lunch @ Dim Sum Gourmet here in Dusseldorf.


I had heard so much about this tiny place, so I felt it was definitely time to visit and see for myself. A dear colleague spared the time and went with me. Thanks, Mark!
The place is somewhat hidden, and hardly noticable from the outside. But once you´ve entered, you feel like you are in Shanghai: small, dark, cozy, and hardly any europeans inside. Always a good sign, if you ask me ;)

So we sat down and looked at the menu: somewhat unusual for Europe, they offer steamed chicken feet and cooked paunch, just to name a few of the fancy things. The cool thing about Dim Sum is this: you get to order lots of different things, and share them. This way, you get the best of everything. We ordered:

yeast poaches with meat filling
pasta squares with chicken, shrimp and coriander
braised ribs with black beans
scallops with ginger glass noodles
sticky rice with coconut-creme filling

Everything was really tasty: the sweet yeast dough with the hearty meat filling. Fresh shrimp (whole) inside the pasta squares. Ribs tender, with an interesting contrast in the black bean sauce. Scallops wonderful with the fresh ginger. And the sticky rice topped our meal off.

Actually, we had to try hard to finish the sticky rice, because we were about full, but we both felt that there was just no way to waste any of this wonderful, authentic food. And the best thing: the prices are really good. For our food, plus a tea and a coke, we paid a total of 23 Euro. Not bad, eh? I´ll definitely go again - and I will order the chicken feet, promise.



Dim Sum Gourmet
Brunnenstraße 13
40223 Düsseldorf
phone: +49 211 1795199
www.dimsumbistro.de

Newest Addition to the Family: EQ7 bean-to-cup coffee machine

Isn´t it beautiful? Even just to look at? *sigh*
May I introduce: the newest addition to our family: a SIEMENS EQ7 bean-to-cup coffee machine. We haven´t agreed on a name yet, though. But go figure.

The decision-making process for this one actually took us quite a while: "Do we really need a machine like that?" was just one of the questions in the early stage. "Do we need an additional "my coffee" function so everyone can set their own special coffee settings?" was one of the more annoying ones in the later stage. But we finally made it (I threatened to not ever buy the god-damned-thing if we didn´t decide within the next 2 minutes).

And today, the post delivered it - and I am already sure we made the right choice. The system does it all: tea, milk, coffee, with own buttons for Latte Macchiato and Cappucino. You can adjust the water and the coffee temperature, and the freeness of the coffee beans that are ground freshly for every cup of coffee. I´ll keep you informed about all the other features as soon as I´ve tried them all out - might take a while.

Now the exiting "experiment phase" starts: which coffee beans are best? Let me know which ones you favor in the comments!

Cookie Monster Muffins

Remember the Baking Club @ Work that I´ve told you about? Well, it was my turn once again, and I wanted to do something out-of-the-line because by now, the expectations have grown - actually, I wouldn´t dare to bring just your ordinary sponge cake, to be honest ; )

So I decided to go for these fancy, cute little buggers:


Yes, you´re right, it´s the Cookie Monster! They are almost too cute to be eaten. Actually, three of my co-workers couldn´t thrust themselves to eating them, and took them home for their significant others (who apperantly didn´t have that much of a conscience, and send thank you´s for the taste).

The dough is really simple, just like any other muffin dough. The work starts with the decoration. Not that it is complicated, it just takes more time than I would have imagined. The marzipan eyes are easy. Dying the coconut flakes for the "fur" is easy, too - just take a stainless steel bowl, put on some gloves and knead in the food coloring. It will turn out a mess for sure, but hey... I found blue coconut flakes days later in my kitchen. No idea how that could have happened.

Then you make a frosting from confectioner´s sugar by slowly adding water until you reach the consistency you desire. Should be relatively firm so it doesn´t drool down your muffin tops.
Coat the muffins, dunk into blue coconut flakes, and be patient for it to set. Glue on the eyes with the frosting. And then comes the tricky part: you have to cut in a slot for the "mouth" you want to stick the halved cookie into. Don´t cut too close to the rim of the muffin, because else the muffin edge will crumble off. Either cut way up, or cut right in between the top and the base of the muffin - depends on the muffin shape you´ve made. But you´ll figure it out quite fast, I am sure.


Those little monsters are a safe bet for lots of compliments. And they are great to do with kids, too - but be sure your kitchen will look like hell when you´re done. But it´s totally worth it.

Recipe for Cookie Monster Muffins (appr. 15)

Ingredients

200g butter
200g sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
3 eggs
350g flour
3 tablespoons baking powder
milk as needed
200g coconut flakes
200g marzipan
confectioner´s sugar
chocolate chips
water
lots of blue food colouring
15 American Cookies, homemade or storebought

Preparation

1. Mix butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time.
2. Combine flour and baking powder in a bowl. Sift. Add to the butter-sugar-mix, alternating with milk, until you get a firm, not too thin dough.
3. Preheat oven to 190°C. Line muffin sheet with paper cups, fill with dough and bake for 15-20 minutes.
   
4. Remove from the oven, let cool for 5 minutes. Take out of the baking sheet, place on a cooling rack and let cool completely.
5. Mix marzipan with enough confectioner´s sugar to make it formable. Form balls.
6. Push in chocolate chips as eyes. Remember, the Cookie Monster doesn´t look straight.
7. Dye coconut flakes with blue food coloring. USE GLOVES. Unless you like it messy.
8. Make a frosting from confectioner´s sugar, water and blue food coloring.
9. Dip muffins - top first - into the frosting. Cover with blue coconut flakes, shaking of the excess. Let dry.
10. Use the rest of the frosting to glue the prepped marzipan eyes to the muffins.
11. Cut or break cookies into half, cut a slot into the muffins and push in a halved cookie.

Guten Appetit! Enjoy your meal! Bon Appétit!

Cooking Class @ SITCA, Koh Samui

I think there are two basic kind of vacationers: the ones that are only interested in the pool, and the ones that are interested in everything BUT the pool. We are kinda "in-between" - I don´t mind a couple of days of leisure, but then my fingers start itching for something to do and discover. Good thing we met a nice couple from Frankfurt on our first day at the pool, and they told me about SITCA: the Samui Institute of Thai Culinary Arts.

At SITCA, they even train the cooks from Hilton and other big hotel chains on Thai cuisine. And they offer cooking classes for interested amateur chefs. No question I had to go there. So I hooked myself up for an afternoon class. Because you don´t only cook, you get to invite a person of your choice and eat all the stuff you´ve prepped. Love the concept.


Class started at 4 pm. We were 13, gathered all around one big table, everyone with his/her own chopping block and knife. The ingredients for the four dishes we were supposed to cook were pre-assembled on plates. Schedule: teacher explains the ingredients, you cut them up like you were told to, repeat for the other three dishes, and then go into the kitchen and cook.


Have a look at what I turned out (and these are actually really MY plates, I swear):

Yum Pla Tod (Deep Fried Fish Salad)

Pad Thai (Fried noodles with shrimps and tofu)

Green Curry with Tofu and Vegetables

Without picture, but on the later pictures, is the Coconut Chicken Soup. Actually, that was my favourite of the day, closely followed by the Pad Thai. Which you can clearly see on the next picture - my significant other caught me on that one, I guess.

The prepping of the ingredients actually took most of the time. For cooking, the prepped dishes were transferred to the kitchen. And for the cooking, you had to be quick like a chipmunk: no dish took longer than 4 minutes from start to finish. Amazing. I think I want a gas stove. NOW.

When we had cooked everything, we went upstairs into the dining room. Equipped with way more food than two people could ever handle. Next to us sat a nice couple - both had taken the class, and were stuck with food for at least 6 people. We tried really hard, but we couldn´t finish. Thankfully, the leftovers go straight to the crew of helpers, so we didn´t have to have a bad conscience after all.

Tom Ka Ghai (Coconut Chicken Soup)

Dining room upstairs

Conclusion: great night, great food, lots of laughs and four authentic recipes. Definitely a profitable investment : )

Koh Samui in pictures

Airport of Koh Samui

Welcome-Flower

Towel Art

Pool during the day

Big Buddha

Beautiful waterfalls

Beach at night

Dinner @ Vertigo, Bangkok

On our second night in Bangkok, we had a very special point on our agenda: a visit to the Vertigo Rooftop Restaurant. Some 61 floors above the streets of Bangkok, this open-air rooftop lounge gives true meaning to the word 'vertigo'. The view is just amazing. And you are literally sitting on top of the world, right beneath the stars. Gotta love that.


The dress-code is business casual, so don´t show up in your shorts and sneakers. I will never understand how people can even think about that in the first place - it is just so unrespectful. We were dressed neatly (will show you later), and the staff was very polite. We were even handed flashlights for the menus, because - logically - if there´s no ceiling, you can´t put up any lights above the table. Awesome.

We decided to go for the 4-course set menu with the corresponding wine selection. Just let the pictures sink in, it was absolutely wonderful.

Starter:
fresh tuna tartare with avocado, sour cream, tomatoes and caviar

Second:
Pumpkin velouté with pumpkin-filled tortellono

Entrée:
Medium-grilled tenderloin with peppercorn sauce,
asparagus and braised cherry tomatoes

Dessert, Option 1:
Brownie with Tahiti Vanilla Macaron
and Homemade Ice Cream

Dessert, Option 2:
Cheesecake with Mango Coulis

Have I promised too much? The food was excellent, and the wines were, too. Actually, we even got a sherry to go with the dessert. And some complimentary fireworks from a hotel nearby.
To put it in a nutshell, it was a wonderful evening with great food, great wine, lots of laughs and a kind service. Couldn´t wish for anything better. And the view is just incredible.


Promised we were dressed nicely - but you judge for yourself. But I am sure this is one of the rare pictured falling into the category "Hey, we both do look kinda decent on this one!"


In case you stop over in Bangkok, you shouldn´t miss out on this one, even if it is just for a cocktail. Or two. Or three. But be sure to make a dinner reservation - the place is very well booked. They actually had to send away people without reservations while we were sitting there on a Wednesday night...


Vertigo
21/100 South Sathorn Road
Bangkok, 10120, Thailand
02-6791200

Bangkok in Pictures

Dragon Statue

Xmas-Stars, planted throughout the city

Just the usual traffic chaos with a felt 2 bizillion scooters

Stunning view at Wat Phra Kheo

Big Guardian

Smaller Guardian

Amazing artwork on the doors of the Grand Palace

Wat Phra Kheo

Grand Palace

All Gold, all studded with embroidering.

Waterfall inside Wat Po

Bell on top of a temple

Big Lying Buddha in Wat Po

Flowers for Good Luck Ceremony

Lumpini Park at night

Shrine next to Lumpini Park

Great Cocktails at Attica Lounge, 23rd floor, Eastin Makkasan

Bangkok at night from atop